Last Wedding
1-26-2008
This morning I was told to come to uncle Chheang’s so that we can all go to the province together to prepare for my cousin Samrith’s marriage to La. Samrith wanted me to spend the night, but I adamantly declined as usual, seeing absolutely no benefit to the idea and knowing full well that the likelihood of us leaving on time was zilch. Told to be there by 7:30am, I leisurely left my guesthouse at 7:30 for the seven blocks walk over, stopping by USA Donuts on the way.
I had never been to USA Donuts, but had wanted to check it out for some time now. I found a small selection of nice looking pastries inside to include what appeared to be a turnover of some kind. I asked what if anything was inside and the gentleman went to the fridge and stated “custard” and two other things curiously enough. I asked for one with custard and he picks one up with a tong and not his bare hands amazingly. Putting it onto a plate he then slices it in half and spoons the custard in. Not exactly what I expected, but it turned out very nicely no less.
Leaving USA Donuts with my backpack on my back, my helmet in my right hand, and my sack of pastries in the left I was immediately approached by a man in his forties or fifties. He yelled excitedly and grabbed at my left arm several times. I kept telling him no and elbowed him away, on the verge of bashing his head in with my helmet. Only then did his words sink in. He was asking for food. This jackass was completely clean and nicely dressed, not some street child. I wanted to go back and kick his ass, but let it go instead.
As expected we didn’t leave uncle Chheang’s place until 9am. Then it was to go to a breakfast place and eat, where I just sat and reminded people that they told me we would leave at 8. Then we had to go to the market so that Sopheap could buy some sunglasses for the moto ride out to La’s parents’ place out in the sticks. After that we stopped for gas. So really we didn’t hit the road until about 10:30 as I had expected.
It was almost an hour ride on motos to the dock where we caught a ferry across the Mekong. It was another thirty minutes on unpaved roads to the house. Here we sat, played cards, ate, and slept. I reminded people that we were supposed to be there to assist in the wedding preparations and everyone just laughed.
After dinner I borrowed Samrith’s moto to ride back to Phnom Penh as I needed to pick Meggie up to bring her to the wedding. Leaving at around 5:30pm, it was getting dusk much more rapidly than I expected. Uncle Chheang wanted me to stay until after dinner, but then the local family said I shouldn’t go as it was getting dark and I might get robbed. I left anyways.
Halfway to the dock I started to get peppered in the face and eyes by small insects. Putting my tinted shield down made it very dark on the unlit streets so I constantly went from not being able to see because of the dark shield and not being able to see because there were bug guts on my eye ball. Getting to the darkened dock I saw that there was no one selling tickets at the desk and asked a girl on a bicycle about it. She said the ferry stops at 6pm and won’t start up again until 4am. Now I had specifically asked Sopheap when the ferry stops and he had told me it ran 24/7.
Fortunately the girl told me there was another dock about one half kilometers down the road and that there would be a sign for it. The ferry here supposedly runs all night. Thanking her profusely I got on my way down the dark, rutted road and made a right at about ½ kilometers at the first sign I came to with an arrow. Of course I don’t read or write Khmer so I had no idea what the sign actually said.
This road took me into some houses and banana trees. I asked a couple of people where the dock as and was directed farther down the river. Alone in the dark with only fair language skills I was a bit nervous and made a mental note to what turns I was taking so that I could retrace my steps and at least make it back to La’s parents’ house. Fortunately the narrow road opened up onto the docking area soon after. I had apparently taken the turn too soon and had not made it to the actual road to this place.
The area was lit only by the car battery operated florescent lamps of food vendors on the sides. The road led right to the river and I waited there with a half dozen other motos, keeping quiet. A wooden boat arrived and we boarded first, followed by about six cars. It didn’t look overloaded, but the many news casts I’ve seen over the years about overloaded transports sinking in lesser developed nations kept surfacing.
As it were we made it safely across and I paid my five hundred riel, about thirteen cents to the attendant. I then took the dirt road away from the river, following other traffic until it came to a paved surface. Here I took it left, hoping that it was the correct road to Phnom Penh. It wasn’t until about thirty minutes later that I recognized the area outside of Phnom Penh and was relieved.
Overall it was a grand adventure and well worth it for the memories.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
riding solo in cambodia at night - you are the man!