Kompong Chhnang
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 warm welcome all around. They happened to be a group of friends who travel annually and had decided to spend over a week here for the first time. Several of them speak English, but we didn’t say anything besides bonjour for the first few hours because I didn’t say anything in English during that time. And after an hour of hearing Sopheap speak French on the bus, I plugged my ears with my mp3 player.
We left Phnom Penh at 1:30pm and arrived in Kompong Chhnang a couple of hours later. We seemed to be lost after entering the city as the bus started going up these small dirt roads that got narrower and narrower. We ended up in the middle of nowhere and Sopheap told us to get off. It was all part of Sopheap’s plan to get us to see the real people and country.
We walked to the first house and Sopheap asked for permission to come into the yard and observe what the older woman was doing. She was making pottery in the backyard. Also in the backyard was a spotted pig tied up to a line. It looked to be a pet, but probably only till it got big enough for dinner. Here Sopeap spoke to me in English and I replied in English.
The crew then asked me if I spoke English and then onto to further questions of where I was from and what I was doing. They were very interested in my living in Alaska and in my volunteer work at Children’s Surgical Center. Four of them are physicians and all appear retired.
We then walked into the next yard where three young women were making small pots on foot operated spin wheels. The yard after that had two women making larger pots. There was a party going on in the next yard and the French crew started dancing for awhile to much laughter and fun. The last yard we went to had a young woman making vases on a wheel. Sopheap asked me if I knew how to do such and I said I had done so in school as part of my occupational therapy education. He then asked the gal if she would hire me for room and board. She said no sale.
Back on the bus we went back to the center of town to our hotel. Turning into the yard I heard the words “fantastic” and “palace” from the crew. It was actually a very nice hotel featuring three buildings. It was nicer than the hotel I had stayed at initially in Phnom Penh. This place even has hot water (which I quickly turned off) and air conditioning.
I talked with Hong, our driver, after we arrived and everyone went to their rooms. I think he said he was thirty-four like myself, but he looks much older. He has two children ages seven and fourteen and complained about his poor wages. He says he makes only $80 a month, less than three dollars a day for twelve or more hours of work a day.
After a brief respite to shower we all boarded the bus again to go to dinner. Here I sat with the men who asked me many questions, mostly about Alaska. We had a fine meal for approximately twenty people at a cost of seventeen dollars. Tomorrow we are off to Battambang, my birthplace, the end of a journey, the beginning of another.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
That’s awesome you’re going to your birthplace. Do you have any memories of life there as a kid?