Indelible Roots

One of the ceremonies is a very old tradition called hand tying where close relatives offer sums of money to the couple by placing it in their hands together and then tie red yarn onto each of their hands. This was followed by a break and a move to a restaurant for the evening dinner and festivities. This turned out to be a much bigger operation than the one at the multi-building home. They had rented out an entire restaurant with eighty tables seating eight to ten people a piece. The wedding party and close relatives lined the front and welcomed and thanked everyone who came. At the front is a gift box where people leave envelops of money.

At around 9pm everyone has eaten and many have already left. The dancing then starts up with those still left and I am dragged in by some relatives. It appears that Khmer club dancing consists of three different dances, one of which is a line dance. All incorporate the apsara type of hand movements with its slow wrist circumduction and fingers extension. It was actually a lot of fun with people going up and singing karaoke throughout.

At about 10:30 I meet an uncle of Sopheap who works at the FBI, Future Bright Institute, an English school. The table is made up of the director and teachers who are all drunk. The director, Mr. Ren thanks me for coming back to Cambodia and asks me if I could stop by the school just so the students have a chance at listening to my American accent. He tells me that all the teachers there have learned “street English” instead of going abroad and then returning. They all speak it fairly well though their pronunciations are only about eighty to ninety percent accurate.

I tell him I would love to if I have time, knowing that it was a very slim chance that I could do so this time around. We are then asked by the staff to pack up and leave as it is getting near 11pm. Looking around the place is deserted except for one other table with Samrith and some of his friends. So we all pack up and drunk drive out motor scooters away into the chilly night.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Khmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.