The Eiffel Tower. Big Ben. The Sydney Opera House. And Tyrannosaurus Rex. One of these things doesn’t belong here. But the cool thing is, they’re all where they really don’t belong: in Phnom Penh, where you can find realistic replicas of all of the above and more.

The structures mentioned are replicated at Europark, an upscale shopping and dining center in an upscale neighborhood that is quite unlike most of the city. The famous architectural landmarks are considerably less than full scale, but so well detailed that when viewed at the right perspective, they could pass for the real thing. Photos taken in Europark could possibly be passed off as photos taken in Europe. Or, in the case of the anomalous Sydney Opera House, in Australia.

While strolling through this condensed version of Europe/ Australia, we at one point heard songs being played through speakers — apparently attached to a restaurant. And one of the pieces played was a hip-hop number that incorporated a sample of “Mr. Lonely”, the 1964 hit song by Bobby Vinton. This was a revelation for us, having heard a fourth grade student singing the latter song. We thought it odd that he would be familiar with a tune from the pre-Beatles pop era, but this explains why.

Apparently it’s rather common for hip-hop artists to quote popular songs in this manner — we previously heard a similar use of: “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from the musical Annie. The good thing about this is that exposes listeners to tunes they might not have heard otherwise, and — potentially, at least — could get them interested in learning more about it. The bad thing is that the latter rarely happens; most of the people hearing the music have no knowledge of, or interest in, its original source. When Dennis played Vinton’s song for his fourth grade — he often uses songs as tools for learning English — they clearly had not heard the real thing before.

Borrowing and imitation are fine until they become bastardization. Although Europark looks really cool, it should not be considered a substitute for Europe itself. (Don’t laugh — we’ve heard of people who say they prefer the mock-ups of foreign scenes at Disney World to the real thing1)

Speaking of imitations that are well done, the dinosaurs also were well worth seeing. These were at an installation called Dinosaurs Alive, which a couple of our students told us about (though they pronounced it “Dinosaurs A-leave”). It’s in a park also containing an ice skating rink and a number of thrill rides, including a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and a flume — which we were tempted to indulge in. Admission to the park is free, but you pay for each attraction.

Except for the dinosaurs. They’re all over the place, about 40 of them, and you can see them without charge just by entering the park. They’re life-sized and detailed quite accurately (at least so far as scientists can determine). And some of them move courtesy of animatronics. There’s also a photo-op exhibit of characters from The Flintstones. (Which is also unintentional cultural bastardization — such whimsical pop entertainments have given some people, even adults, the impression that dinosaurs coexisted with humans). We wondered if Cambodian kids were even familiar with The Flintstones, considering how old it is. Heck, we’d even wonder if American kids were familiar with it.

Dinosaurs Alive and the amusement park surrounding it seemed like a fun spot to bring the family. Accordingly, we were surprised to see how sparsely attended it was. Was it really such a well-kept secret? One of the people we did see, however, was Kimberly’s second grade student Thireach (tee-REE-ak) with his mom and aunt. He’s a precocious lad that she had a lot of fun teaching — and his sister, also a very bright student, was in Dennis’s sixth grade. (This would not be the last time we’d run into him unexpectedly — in fact, the next time would be in a location much more unexpected.)

After these two visits to local points of interest we had not seen before, we decided to eat out at a new (to us) restaurant in our neighborhood. It was called Pumpkin, and as the name suggests, it does feature some imaginative dishes with pumpkin. It was excellent food, and quite reasonable (like most of the other restaurants we’ve been to, you can get a good dinner for about 4 bucks). And the rice was served in an entirely too cute little cone made of banana leaves.

After living in Phnom Penh for a whole year — and preparing to leave it — we’re still discovering new delights, sometimes in our own back yard.

08/18/2024