food in our tummies and a roof over our heads
by a surprised traveller
Phnom Penh to Kampot, Cambodia
Expecting to be picked up just before nine, we were cutting into our breakfast watermelon at a quarter to eight when the guesthouse staff apologetically announced at our open doorway that the bus would be coming at 7:30. Surprised at this mistake from such a competent English speaker, we soon discovered there was no error. The nine o’clock bus had been cancelled (by no means the first time we have experienced this, but a novel concept for the Hs!) and we were now booked on the 7:20. An urgent honking from the street prompted us to ferry our almost-packed bags down the two flights of stairs as fast as we could to the waiting almost-full-by-western-standards bus. Ordered to sit wherever there was a spot, J14-who-likes-things-done-properly wanted to insist we get the right seats, the allocated-on-our-tickets seats. Rob assured her this was just a pick-up bus taking us to the bus depot where we would transfer to the long haul vehicle. hahaha. Our twelve tickets might have started at number 27, but this bus only went up to 30, and there was to be no transferring to anything!!
Every trip is unique!
And this one will go down as THE bounciest adventure by far. Although the road is mostly straight, it is in no way flat and on the especially hillocky sections our bottoms lose contact with our back-of-the-bus seats. Cheers erupt, reminiscent of those you hear at amusement parks.
But the day does not amuse. Three of the children and their daddy are all feeling grotty. When will this non-specific Cambodian virus leave us alone? The bus takes over an hour longer than we had been told, meaning we arrive after lunchtime with rumbling tummies. The guesthouse we had booked into had not returned emails giving an address and so we need to find somewhere to stay. It is easy to settle on the second place we look at! Non-flushing toilets and cold showers, but cheap and clean with neighbourhood children to play with and a swing for the littlies.
Finding food is not so easy. Where are all the carts with BBQed pork or bread sticks or fruit? Where is the market? Where are the tables outside houses with items for sale? All we can find are packets of instant noodles and chewing gum! E…v…e…n…t…u…a…l…l…y we find a bakery – a dark room with wood-fired ovens and big wooden trays stacked up against the wall – for some reason we cannot understand we are unable to purchase the baguettes on a tray (we figure they’re for someone else), but we can buy fifty teeny tiny round buns. Success of sorts. And that is lunch.
It seems prudent to take a wander while little ones nap in the hopes of discovering a dinner destination. Over three hours later we return. Unsuccessful. Not even the market, which we did manage to find on this excursion, had any food that could be peeled and eaten…..but it did have open drains and a stench to remove our appetite.
“This is the longest I’ve ever had to walk to not find food,” Mr H observes. To be fair, it’s not that there’s NO food; it’s just that it’s either too expensive or too Cambodian.
“There are two options,” we announce back at the guesthouse, “Hamburgers for $1.50 or dried fish and I’m-sure-she’d-have-rice-but-I-didn’t-see-any for 2,000” (2,000 riel not dollars! That would be 50 cents) For once the budget isn’t the winner; the funny tummies cannot face fish and the prospect of no rice.
Hoping Kgirl9 (whose eyes have been going blurry again in the afternoon) and Jgirl14 (who now has a rash and has slept most of the day away) will manage the walk, we head for “Hamburger Heaven” (not its real name if you happen to be in Kampot looking for food!), where it will turn out they have no hamburgers left, no pizza slices, no baguettes with cheese, and no something-I-can’t-remember on rice. So we settle for fried rice. But there are only three portions left. AAAAGGGGGHHHHHH! There are, however, French fries. Sincere thanks to the frogs, who conquered this part of the world a century and a half ago. Great legacy. Better than the squashed one we stepped over on the way home!
We eat and Kampot is redeemed.
The three dead rats on the dirt road outside our guesthouse in the morning will not be a problem. The tuktuk drivers who will take us the wrong place for too many dollars will not put us off the place. And the LIVE rat downstairs will be classified as entertainment.
The world looks different with a full tummy. Actually, it was a full tummy and an inspirational chat…..but you’ll have to wait for the conversation.
Tags: children, food, health, housing, money, postcard: Cambodia, price, toilet, transport
rayres
[…] pick up some food to take with us for tomorrow?” Ever since spending the good part of a day looking for food in Kampot, we have usually taken an emergency one meal supply with us when we go somewhere new – not that we […]