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The three day trek through the jungle of northern Cambodia will have to wait. For now I am getting ready to board a flight to Bangkok to get some Muay Thai gear straight off the press for my brother. I will shortly be back in Alaska, home to cold, but no snow, white mountains, burgers and steaks, and a lot of people I haven’t seen in too long of a time. And I guess I should do my taxes too.
It’s been an eventful and tiring week with a wedding that stretched over two days, being asked to take pictures of everyone at every site and event, being drawn from one thing to another by relatives who want to see and for me to see the numerous historical sites in and around Siem Reap, buses breaking down, roads being blocked, and policemen being bribed. Overall I took about seven hundred pictures over this week. Luckily I brought my laptop with me, so I was able to download my nearly full memory card when it neared six hundred pictures, maximum storage.
On the afternoon of the 20th before I met up with Sopheap again I asked uncle Kea (I finally found out his name later at the wedding) where my family’s house was in town, hoping that he would take me there. He tells me my family didn’t live in the city of Battambang itself, but in a town some forty kilometers away called Mong. I was a little disappointed, but I’m scheduled to go there next weekend to visit some more relatives. It will be my last trip more or less unwilling trip with the family. I’ll be traveling at my own pace, seeing the sites myself without the constant interruptions and personal interpretations from then on out.
Uncle Kea and I split ways and I depart Battambang with Sopheap for the rough ride to Siem Reap. I ask him why the road is unpaved, rough, and with some really bad sections for a major artery to the country’s most sacred and most visited sites. I was only kidding, but he in turn tells me the government and the airlines have a contract to keep the road unpaved until 2008. This encourages tourists to fly at a few hundred dollars as opposed to drive it for ten to twenty dollars from Phnom Penh. Again I was sorry I asked.
We arrive in Siem Reap four hours later and Sopheap immediately runs errands. He picks up some clothing he had made, goes to get his teeth cleaned, and gets a haircut. I decide to stay at his family’s home where the cousins from Phnom Penh are also staying in order to meet the new family. This was to my regret as I quickly got fed up with the line uncle Chheang immediately tells everyone he meets when introducing me. That is, I don’t speak Khmer because I left at so and so age, blah blah blah. I in turn decide not to speak since everyone speaks around me instead of to me at this point.
I eat dinner with them and get fairly angry when they keep pushing food at me. When one of them asks uncle Chheang why I wasn’t eating more I replied angrily that I had already eaten two bowls of rice and am full. This set the tone for our relationship for the rest of the weekend and we avoid each other altogether.
As night wears on I still don’t know where I am sleeping. Sopheap is still not back from his many errands and finally Samrith arrives at around 10pm. He then takes me to his hotel room as he is actually here on business for the day. Great I think as we leave. Upon my arrival to the hotel room, I quickly change my mind as to which was the better fate. In the small room are two full size beds with one occupied by two sleeping men, one fully clothed. They are the drivers for the truck that Samrith goes around in selling Karabau energy drinks and other items. The room smells like smoke and a minute later Samrith lights up. I go to the bathroom to wash up and find a broken toilet seat and dirty fixtures.
A fitful night of little sleep was ended by Samrith waking me up at 4:30am. He tells me he is leaving with the crew and that uncle Chheang was on his way to pick me up. I wave him away and go back to sleep thinking he must be mistaken. Twenty minutes later uncle Chheang knocks on my door and I throw the TV remote onto the table across the room, the battery shooting out as it ricocheted to the floor. I go to the bathroom and shower and dress leisurely before walking downstairs to find the grown men waiting for me in the small bus.
We then drive a few minutes to a breakfast place and have some noodles and rice. Everyone lights up to my disgust and I spend the next forty-five minutes outside watching traffic go by. After two hours or so at this restaurant, we finally get on our way and head back to the house where we sit around before the ceremony starts at about 9 or 10am.
At the house music is blaring through Peavy loudspeakers from 6am till 10pm. And I mean loud! Each little ceremony lasts an hour or two followed by several hours of doing nothing, but with no schedule posted and with no one the wiser as to when the next event is, it was hard to go do something enjoyable.
I decide to go find a hotel room at the next opportunity and was told that the next ceremony would be at 2pm. At 3pm it started and lasted an hour and a half. I sneak away to the popular old market with its many shops and guest houses. I rent a room and go buy some dress socks and a tie for the next day. When buying them I bluffed my way as a local or at least native. One of the gals asked me if I spoke Khmer and I said yes yes. She apologized saying that with my backpack it looked like I was a foreigner. She also said some more things that I didn’t understand, but just nodded and said yes to. It was probably “would you like the foreigner price?”
I find a moto taxi to get back to the house at around 5:30pm, but I don’t know what the area is called and it’s a bit out of the main area of town. I tell the driver to go to the alligator farm and then just point my way along. By this time it was getting dark and we finally make it to my big landmark, the wooden covered bridge and I get off. As soon as I walked it I realized it was the wrong bridge. I was sure I hadn’t gone far enough as this driver charged me half the price of the one that took me to the market. But I cross the bridge and walk the dirt road back as there was loud music coming from that direction. It was a bit scary with my foreigner backpack on walking this mostly deserted dirt road.
I make it to the music to find that it is coming from the Wat, a Buddhist monastery. So I cross that bridge to get back on the road and walk the other direction, trying to hail a taxi in the waning light without success. After about another twenty minutes I come across the correct bridge with the sound of Khmer music blaring in the distance and make my way back to the house.
After another ceremony and more eating I tell Sopheap I had rented a place and would go there for the night. He tells me that he told me earlier that I could stay here which I have no recollection of. So Samrith takes me to the guesthouse and Sopheap tells me I can come back to a drinking and dancing party that would last till midnight if I wanted to. I wanted to, but decide to get some rest instead. Back at the smelly, dirty guest house I actually sleep restfully for the night, building up some needed strength for the days to come.
The next day there is a ceremony in the morning followed by more food. We all then pack into the small bus to visit Angkor with great anticipation by me. A short drive later through peaceful woods led to the famous edifice. Tickets to get in are $20 per person if you’re a foreigner, but again I get the native hookup and bluff my way in for free no problem. Here again I am constantly interrupted by requests to take pictures of everyone in varying combinations at every location.
Even with this interruption I found the experience lifting. This stone structure built so long ago is intricately etched on almost every surface. It is marred by attempts to restore it, with green tarps blemishing pictures of its spectacular edifice and rusted iron bands holding columns together. Many pieces are still as tightly pressed together as the day they were assembled. I walk much of it in bare feet, savoring the tactile sensations and found every opportunity to break away from the family for short periods of self contemplation. I left with renewed energy to face the ongoing wedding hysteria.
11/19/2007
This morning we headed to the dock and boarded a couple of boats to take us across the Tonle Sap. The trip down current was smooth and calm on the gentle olive drab waters. I didn’t ask how ... [Continue reading this entry]
11/18/2007
Sopheap is leading a tour group from France for the next few days and invited me to come along. This afternoon he picked me up in the small tour bus full of tourists. I walked in to a ... [Continue reading this entry]
Last night we I sat down with some aunts who wanted to know why I was here. Kong was there to translate for me fortunately. They had a hard time understanding why I was working for free. Why was ... [Continue reading this entry]
