Son of a w(b)itch….
Battambang, is the second largest city in Cambodia and many of the backpackers make this journey as its pretty awesome scenery along the Mekong. One thing that makes me sad so far is that people here seem to hide some of the finer details of traveling. I was told the journey would tae about 4 hrs…max 5. Sorry it was nearly 9 hours before we reached “home”. My fellow backpackers and I paid $12 for a leaky boat and smoky ride.
I had my first experience of the famous Cambodian touts…wow they are amazing and they can break your resolve. I still don’t know what to make of them. Their command of the English language is not that great sometimes and in the translation they can offend some. I was not in the best of spirits being rain soaked and all. But all turned out fine in the end.
I met Gabriel from French Canada and Mari from San Diego and for couple of days we three musketeers painted the town red. This was Mari’s second visit to Battambang and seeing that I was having a tough time with the town she took me under her wing (am eternally grateful for that) and arranged for us to see some of the sites around the city. She found her driver from 3 years ago Panya and his two buddies Free and Chin. Together we charted and course and made our way into the country side.
Gabo Mari and Me View image
I was very happy to see that there is a positive side the human race here. Many NGO are working in the area to help orphaned kids, displaced families and mine victims. We visited one such village which houses homeless families. Since it was sunday we could not see any of the handicraft shops in the complex. The kids around were so cute and seemed so happy. One little boy caught my eye and till now I have never felt that I could actually take one of these babies home. It’s Mari and all her talk about Cambodian adoption laws. She is serious; she was actually looking for real estate in the area! The kids had some home made windmills put together out of bamboo mats and were running around giggling. It reminded me how we made the same toys when we went to our grandparent’s village for the summer. They even play Gulli Danda here!!
Happy and feeling positive about the human race we made our way to yet another organization which trained kids in arts, dance, music and acrobatics. After trying to speak to some of the kids, in French, English and sign language we found out a few facts about the place from a French teacher about the place. We were invited to a performance that night from the acrobatic team and I have to say I was very impressed and very touched. These kids were not only talented, but found a smile in the all the pain they had endured. On top of it all they had some great manners! They are great ambassadors of their country which is trying to get back on its feet after decades of civil war and turmoil.
While on our way around the country side we had to stop and get off the motorbikes as the ground was slippery and there was a film crew shooting around. Panaya was telling us about the film and we all did a double take when he told us the name of the movie was “Son of a Bitch”. Mari nearly had a heart attack; we were all a bit disappointed at the title and were expressing our concern on such a translation. We went into the semantics of the language and kept asking Panaya what the title of the movie was…he kept repeating Son of a Bitch and we kept shaking our head. Finally we told him that the title was a bit offensive in English and told him the details. He was aghast at the suggestion and told us no no..its Son of a Witch!! Panaya shook his head and we were glad that near to perfect day was not spoilt by a silly movie title.
We continued on…after a few deep fried ANTS and shots of Palm Whisky we made our way back into town.
Eating bugs ..sorry not me View image
A makeshift railway boggie. Locals use for transportation as the train only passes by once in two days!View image
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Is She Your Bird…….
Next day after a lot of commotion and changed plans we headed off to see the Killing fields in the area. It was a grueling ride and we paid for it! As we came to the area close to the fields our driver dropped us off and suggested we hire “Bona” as our guide. The smart aleck turns to Gabriel and asks pointing towards me ” Is she your bird”. I was speechless and Gabriel who had seem how I reacted to the irritating touts when we landed, and gently told the boy no! no! she is a friend. I was more amused than angry and thought I should give young Bona a chance. We negotiated the price and at the end of a very sad viewing of the evidence of the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge we asked Bona maybe we should be paying us for giving him so many pointers about the English language. The boy was living in a monastery and studying in the school as the one in his village did not teach English. We talked about many things, Gabriel and myself asked him about his opinions about the war, the present government and what he thought about the missionaries in the area who gave money to converts! He was ever the diplomat and pretty much told us that the Buddhist way is you can choose what every religion you like. Its your choice. We of course told him what we thought but he did not stray from his opinion. It was okay with what the missionaries were doing.
After a promise to send him some books on religion that he could read about we exchanged emails. I will keep my promise but have my doubts about the Cambodian postal system…maybe I could DHL it. We shall see.
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The Khmer Queens…..
Mari and I had a brilliant thought and so we thought. We wanted to dress up in traditional Khmer clothes and take a few pictures. We did. Boy are they great.I will try and muster some courage to scan them so that you all can take some shots at me. It was a very interesting experience being dressed by “ladyboys” who had some great laughs and some interesting pictures with us. Mari looked great..I have a feeling instead of wearing white to her wedding we might just see her in a flaming pink traditional Khmer outfit.
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After a pretty easy bus ride I have landed in Phnom Penh.
More later…..Cheers
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Madhu