Every now and again you get a job perk and for me this week it was getting to celebrate 2022 Malaysia Day in Phnom Penh at the embassy. And yes that meant free food, drinks and entreatment.
What is Malaysia Day?
Not to be confused with Hari Merdeka (Independence Day), it usually falls in September 16th, although the embassy event occurred on September 8th. It celebrates when the colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya to create the Malaysian Federation.
Alas Singapore were not all that into the whole Malaysia thing, so left two years later. Initially just a holiday in Sabah it has since 2010 been a national holiday and thus a big event for the embassy to showcase just how great the country is.
What did Malaysia Day in Phnom Penh entail?
AS is fairly standard there were numerous dance displays from different parts of the country, a pseudo beauty contest, as well as food lots and lots of food. I’ll go out on a limb and say that the chicken skewers in peanut sauce and Malay noodles were probably the best bits on offer.
Alas there was no booze, but hey you can’t have everything, particularly with a Muslim majority country. Overall though Malaysian food in the opinion of the Street Food Guy at least is right up with the best in Asia, although below Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia in my reckoning.
To read about street food Papua New Guinea click here.
Hanging out with the VIP’s
And of course one of the best things about hanging out at embassies is getting to meet all of the high-brow individuals that attend. This included lots of government ministers, delegates from mN missions, as well as even the US and Russian ambassadors attending, although I did not view them talking to each other…..
I also got to meet the East Timor ambassador, the man responsible for getting me to interview the President of Timor-Leste.
To read my interview with the Timor-Leste President click here.
Of course I was required to write a little story about it, meaning there really is no such thing as a free lunch, but this was at least as close it gets.