Kampong Cham and Mondulkiri

 We last left off with Vilde and I getting ready to depart for Mondulkiri province and the town of Sen Monorom. After staying the night in Kampong Cham at a guesthouse on the banks of the Mekong, we were up early to set off on the long journey east. The road was in really good condition considering that the road from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham was pretty terrible. The trip there was luckily uneventful. We made the 250 or so kilometer (155 miles) trip in just about six hours, which is really good considering we were expecting more trouble and more time on the road.

We arrived in Sen Monorom and took the advice of one of Vilde's friends and stayed at a place called the Nature Lodge. It was pretty awesome. Everyone had their own private bungalow complete with small balcony and an outdoor bathroom with hot water. And a benefit here, they are even working on being 100% sustainable. Since the place was located far out of town, we decided to take it easy after the long trip. That consisted of taking naps until dinnertime. Since the lodge is about 1 kilometer out of town, we ate most of the time at their restaurant, which was pretty good food so the bit of extra money was worth the convenience and the taste of the food. The next day we decided we would go looking for waterfalls and sleep in since we had traveled so far the day before.

We quickly learned that a self-sufficient lodge with farm animals do not care about sleeping in, so we were both up around 7 or 7:30. We ate breakfast and headed to the closest of the falls, Monorom falls, only 1.5 kilometers out of the town center. A quick side note about the town itself. It reminded me a lot of home. It was small, but just big enough to solve any problems you needed with no excess. We made our way out of town on the red dusty dirt roads. When we arrived I was surprised to find that there was no one there except for a family that hoped to sell snacks to visitors. We started walking around and taking pictures and all the usual stuff. It was getting hot and we wanted to go for a swim, but the water looked a little too dirty for comfort, so we decided to wait for later at a bigger waterfall. We climbed around for awhile, and of course my camera ran out of battery so I got angry, and we changed our plan a little bit. We headed back to the lodge for some lunch and a chance to charge my camera.

After lunch the sky started to get a bit darker, but we decided to head out of town anyway to see Bou Sraa waterfall, which is known around the country for its beauty and double drop falls. The road there was even worse than any we had come accross. Parts of it were paved, not well, but paved nonetheless. The rest of the road was part red clay, some gravel, and the rest a combination of all three. We got about 23 out of 33 kilometers there, and the sky started to look much darker and angrier. We probably egged each other on subconsciously but we decided to continue on anyway. As we got to the falls and paid the dollar entry fee, the rain started to fall. We went down to the falls since we were already there, and thought we might be able to wait out the rain a little bit. After taking some photos of the falls and trying to stay as dry as possible, we decided the rain wasn't going to let up anytime soon, so we turned the bikes back on and started the long and arduous journey back to the lodge. We hoped. The whole time I couldn't help but hear the echo of Erin's warning, "Do NOT ride in the rain." Going at a regular pace, the trip should have taken us no more than 45 minutes. It took nearly 2 hours. The rain continued to pour, and the roads got worse. The only thing we could do was ride along the puddles that had formed in the tire treads of the cars already gone by. The worst part, we got to the bridge to cross to the final road to the lodge, only a half kilometer from safety. I went on the bridge fine, but I saw mud on the other side, and for whatever reason, my brain panicked and I knew I had no choice but to bail. I sustained no injuries aside from that of my ego, but the bike had the blinkers on the left hand side ripped off, and the front disk brake got a bit skewed (which is getting fixed at this very moment). After a terrible two hours on the road, we got back to the lodge, and had no hope of warming up after cruising through the cold rain, even with hot showers. Thankful that we had not succumbed to hypothermia, we ate some dinner and went to bed knowing that tomorrow would be better. We had booked a day trek on the back of an elephant.

We got up early, had our usual egg, fruit and bread breakfast and waited for our transport to the elephants and the trails. We hopped in the back of a truck with some French families, and were on our way. Much to my dismay, we were back on the terrible road we had to traverse on the motos just the day before. Luckily we only went part of the way. We got out of the truck and saw an elephant having its breakfast outside of a house. It was smaller than what I expected, but it was still huge. I started laughing when I saw the elephants head because I did not think they actually had a tuft of hair. Ever since seeing the Jungle Book I thought that they exaggerated the hair on their heads, but no, they have a pretty full head of hair. We quickly learned that we would be one elephant short for the day. Why? During the night, one of the elephants had uprooted its chain and run off into the jungle. That meant one less for the French families. Suddenly two elephants came charging out of the jungle with an 8 year old perched on top of each one.  One of the guys told us that yesterday was a wedding, and since there was a union of two families, they now had to wed the elephants before they could leave. The little kids took them off to the other end of the street where they went through a quick ceremony, and apparently drank some alcohol...

After some time, they put some baskets on the elephants backs and we climbed up a rickety ladder to get on top. After cramming ourselves into the little basket, we headed down the road for a trail. And who was our driver? One of the little kids, who most of the time got board and was singing most of the time as well as trying to find the most comfortable position to ride on the elephants neck. We spent about one and a half to two hours on the elephants hiking through the jungle. Ours seemed to be the most stubborn. She would often stop to find something to eat, then run to catch up to the rest of the group. If she managed to get into the middle of the pack, and one fell back she would stop and wait to make sure the last elephant wasn't lost or too far behind. She would make her own paths instead of taking the already made ones. She would stop in rivers and cool off by spraying herself and us with water. Every time she did something she wasn't supposed to, the little boy would try to grunt with a deep voice but it didn't really work since he was so young.

After we couldn't take the pain of the wooden seat any longer, we stopped for lunch and a swimming break. We ended up staying at this stream and small waterfall for about three or four hours. All we really did was hang out, swim, play in the water and before we left we helped bathe the elephants. The walked into the water just about up to their eyes. When they were done, I swam to where I could stand up and then the elephant started walking out of the water, and it just kept getting taller and taller, it didn't seem possible that an animal that huge could hide its body under that small amount of water. We hopped back on the elephants and made our way back through the jungle to go back to the lodge. We finally got back and again we were exhausted and ate dinner, had a drink and went to bed. Before all the 5 year old French kids.

We decided to stay one more day in Sen Monorom so I could try to find someone to fix my blinker as well as the welding of the seat-back on my bike. That was the easy part. I had the same thing fixed in Phnom Penh which cost 4 dollars, and the guy did a crappy job. In Sen Monorom, the guy did a much better job and even reinforced it with more pieces of metal (that he found on the floor of the shop) and it only cost two dollars. Now the hard part, finding replacement blinkers. I went to every mechanic I could find in town, but none of them had the part I was looking for. I'm not surprised because the bike is more common in Vietnam and parts in Cambodia are hard to come across. I made the decision to not get them fixed, but it was ok since the side they broke off was my free hand so I could signal to turn with that hand. And since it was mostly highway driving, I wasn't planning on making right hand turns anyway. We spent the rest of the day at the lodge relaxing, reading and enjoying the peace and quiet.

The next day we loaded the bikes back up and parked them outside the lodge since they were outside our bungalow the whole time. We ate our breakfast and prepared to leave. Of course though, my bike didn't start. The worst part about it, the only mechanic was about 1 kilometer away, but luckily we were on top of a hill. I had to do something I had never done, and still didn't really understand the concept of:  try to start the bike by pushing it and popping it into gear. It had never been really described to me, but I held in the clutch and someone lent a helping hand to push me down the hill. After what I thought was more than enough energy to start the sleepy engine, I put it in first and let go of the clutch. To my great surprise, it worked! I was also going too fast for first, so once the engine started and I realized what was happening, I lurched forward, but barely got it into second gear.

I got to the mechanic who I saw yesterday with the hopes that he could help. It being so far away from the usual tourist track, he didn't speak a word of English. I had to mimic the motion of charging the battery, since there wasn't a single noise when I tried to start the engine and the spark plug was brand new, and it started once I went down the hill. I knew it had to be the battery. I showed him and he started to tinker. I saw that he had ripped out a wire, so I got nervous and walked under a tree since the heat of 8 o'clock in the morning coupled with the stress was too much to bear. After about ten minutes, he started it up just fine. He pulled up a part of the batter that I recognized, but I still don't know what its called. He managed to convey to me that it was bad, and that I owed him a whole four dollars for the part. With everything ready to go, and the bikes in seemingly good condition for a ride, we were back on the road west to Kampong Cham.

And that's where we are now. We realized that we are way ahead of our tentative schedule and that we were still in pain from sitting on top of the elephant, along with the six hour ride back to Kampong Cham, so we are here for an extra day. Tomorrow we are back on the road and this time we are going to be in Siem Reap. The combination party town with the temples of Angkor Wat just outside the city. That should take us just about as long as Mondulkiri, so the next post will probably be about the temples and Siem Reap, all given that the bikes work properly and they let us get there. 

Sunrise in Kampong Cham

 The top of Monorom Falls

 Bou Sraa Falls

Our Tiny Driver

Bath time

Farewell CWF

It's officially over. Everyone spent the last week of school in a whirlwind of class, meeting people outside of class, seeing a few touristy things, getting some souvenirs, and checking things off of the house check list. The last day of class consisted of continuous parties and a full day of activities. Six of my students took me out to bumper cars after we had lunch as a class. It was of course, hilarious. Then I was scrambling to get the few drinks that I promised my nighttime classes. Everything was what you would expect in terms of farewells. The students who didn't really like the class left without much fanfare, while some would say goodbye with sad eyes, and one even said goodbye and ran back to give me a hug.

Then came the last party, with my favorite group of students. I liked all my classes, but my last class of the day was the easiest to teach and the best at keeping their own conversations going. Not many of them showed up, but those who did brought a feast. I had already eaten pizza the class before so I was on my way to getting full, but I felt obligated to eat everything they brought and put on my plate. One of my students even brought me an avocado smoothy type thing, and a batch of fresh noodles. Of course there was way too much food, but I sampled what I could. There was everything from noodles, to beef, bread, noodle salad, and what is possible the strangest of Khmer foods that I have eaten so far. As a recap, the strange things I have consumed as of yet are crickets, spider, frog (of multiple varieties), and snake among other things. One of my students was talking for months now about how he loved to eat pong tea khon, or what is translated in English to "baby duck egg." This is essentially a half fertilized duck egg, so the inside is a combination of duck body and yoke... I kept telling my students I would try it, but it seemed too much of a mental hurdle to try it, so I never did. But Tra was insistent and said he would bring some in and I told him that yes, I would try it. Luckily he was nice and gave me a fried baby duck egg, so it wasn't so runny. Everything was going fine until the last bite. I was beyond full so it was hard enough to shove more food down my throat. But as I was taking the last bite, the fried bread-y type bit came off and as I looked down to put the bite back together, I saw a duck face looking me in the face. All I could think was the cliche "when in Rome," and down went the egg, much to the chagrin of my stomach.

Then came the weekend. The worst, most terrible, most sad, most fun weekend. After classes were over, we all had to sit and digest the massive amount of food we consumed through the day. Then we decided to slowly make our way to the beer garden that is down the street. Being full, and lazy I decided to take my moto for the entire 15 second trip. Mostly because Molly had been looking for a ride on my moto and it had not happened yet. We spent most of the night there, until once again they forced us out because they were closing. Unsure what to do, I decided to put my moto back in the house, and meet up with everyone when they decided to do. They all said they were going to the petrol station on the other side of our block, so I started walking there. We all claimed that the petrol station would be our place to go for cheap beer and comedy since most people would park their motos have a couple beers, fill up their tank with gas and be on their way. Somehow we only managed to make it there a handful of times. I realized that people were only buying beer to bring back to the house, and so our second to last night ended with an "early" night in. Well most of us at least. The usual suspects were out until the sunrise once again.

The next day we only had the staff party to attend. I spent the morning doing a few odds and ends to get ready for the road trip. Then I was around the house to hang out with staff and help set up for the party. Mostly it was Phea and Pheareak asking me to come help with something, then they would beat me up. It made me feel a little bit like a little kid again, but I seem to have escaped unscathed. The party started at four, with the musical stylings of the one and only Brent, who seemed less flirtatious than normal. About half way through the party, Sambo, Erin and the Director of CRDT gave a speech thanking us, and showing us how much money we helped to contributed to the CRDT program (about $30,000 for the year of 2011). Then we got our certificates thanking us and recognizing our contribution to the program, as well as a letter of reference for future work. The most amazing part of the night? When Rich, Vicky and Liam performed a song written by a number of people and set to the tune of Save Tonight by Eagle-Eye Cherry. I can't even begin to describe how hilarious it was. The chorus is still ringing in my ears, especially riding down the road today. I could post the lyrics, but it would be a ton of inside jokes, so for those reading, not very funny. For those who know me, the two jokes about me were "crossword king" because I did a crossword in the newspaper everyday. The second being that I am unable to fix my moto without the help of Soso. There was a third joke, but it only makes sense if you traveled to Sihanoukville.

The party continued until 8 with a massive feast of Khmer food, and grilled veggies and meat and so so so much more. We all decided that we needed to go out, and someone made the suggestion that we go to KYC, and everyone else agreed. KYC is the karaoke bar that is right next to the petrol station at the end of our street, and will play karaoke as long as there are people who want to sing, so it usually goes past one in the morning every day of the week. We had to see what it was all about. Much to our surprise, some of the staff decided to come out with us. We got there and sat at a huge table, and had a pretty normal experience. I ate a massive amount of bean sprouts (more on that later), and everyone had a bit of beer until some went to TB (Top Banana), and some of us stayed for one more beer at the karaoke bar. What seemed very sudden, Kate was wondering if she could just go up on stage and dance with the group of hostesses that accompanied a karaoke singer. To egg her on, I said I'd give her ten dollars to go do it. And she did. Kate if you read this, I'll give you the money when I see you in Chicago. Before I knew it, Soso and Vilde were betting me that I wouldn't go up and join her. For only three dollars bet, I was running up to the stage, and dancing with Kate, about 10 hostesses and the singer. We're still unclear as to what it looked like having us up there, but it was funny.

Then we headed to the area of Phnom Penh where the dance clubs are, and especially Carnival bar. That was the place we stumbled upon on New years when the dance club wanted to charge us 6 dollars to enter, and I thought that was too much and found the bar next door. It's some sports bar, but at the time it reminded me of a carnival game because there was a bar to sit around the whole space that had seating on the interior. Needless to say, I dubbed it carnival bar, and has cheap beer and its in a decent location so we ended up there pretty often. We stayed there until about 1 in the morning, while some people went to the clubs afterwards, and some went to another bar. The next morning, we intended on leaving Phnom Penh in the direction of Mondulkiri around 10 in the morning, so we needed to get to sleep.

The bean sprouts from KYC... I woke up with the worst pain in my stomach and was afraid to stray too far from the bathroom, and I made the almost immediate decision that I couldn't leave that day. I was unable to do much more for the whole day than lie on the floor of the TV room and fall asleep, and barely made it outside to get to a shop to fix some of the welding on my moto. The day was full of mixed but mostly sad emotions. Jake left in the morning sometime, even though he missed his first bus. Abbie was the next to go around 11. David left at some point. And Vicky left around 4. She tried to avoid giving hugs so she could speed away in the tuk tuk without anyone seeing her cry, but we couldn't allow it. Then we all went back inside and binge ate our way through the sadness. Somehow an order of french fries stayed in my stomach, and I knew I'd be ok for the next days journey. After a meal, and a little time at the house, Vincent left the house to go to his second home of Top Banana, and once again the tears started to flow. We all went to bed and prepared to get up early in the morning for the final departure.

Today we all woke up between 6:30 and 7 to part ways, after hanging on to the very last second of being able to live in the house. The girls were the first to leave on their way to Siem Reap and Angkor. And much to no ones surprise, the tears started to roll again. They all left quickly so as not to prolong the pain, aside from the fact that they were running a little late for the bus. The staff started to show up and we knew that was our cue to hit to road. Rich was the next one to go, who is on his bike. His final destination... Australia. On a bike. God speed Richard. Then it was me and Vilde, originally the second two to leave the house, we were now second to last. Liam was the last to go, who is now somewhere in Singapore, or on his way to Melbourne. Vilde and I were ok leaving Erin, Soso and the staff since we knew we would see then in about a month anyway. We stopped and filled up on a full egg, toast, bacon and bean breakfast.

We made the long journey up Monivong boulevard and made our right turn over the Japanese friendship bridge. Erin advised me to not do what all the other motos were doing. They drive on the foot path because it is faster and no one in Cambodia walks anywhere. I made a split second decision and went on the foot path. Since I knew I was going against his advice, I pictured a disaster, no such thing happened. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We would drive for about an hour, then our butts would be numb, so we'd pull over for a drink. We decided to only go to Kompong Cham because we didn't want to push ourselves too much on the first day. After only about four hours on the road, we are safe and sound in Kampong cham. As for the road here, I think it needs some description. For those reading from Nantucket, picture the road in the boulevard after Victor just did a half-assed pot hold patch job. Then add on two lanes of dirt on the side for ox carts and bikes. Today you added a hearty wind that would throw you around every so often. And the final icing on the road cake, the cars that would pop up out of nowhere, speed by and and not care if they had completely cleared past you before turning back to their side of the road. For those reading this that do not know the road I'm talking about, I'm sure you might have a little bit of an idea. Even with all the stress, we made it here without incident, aside from a few unavoidable potholes.

With an afternoons rest, it's off to the few sites of Kampong Cham. Tomorrow, its up early again and on the road with the long journey to Mondulkiri, the land of waterfalls, cold nights, and elephant rides. If the day goes as smoothly as it did today, I will be a happy person.

More time in Phnom Penh and a Traditional Wedding

Even thinking ahead of time, I tried to prepare myself but it didn't help. I was good about blog posts, and then of course I fell behind and it's again been two or so weeks since my last post. Although I think I should give myself a little credit. Since the last post, nothing much has really happened until recently. Well now that I think about it, and look at the calendar, a lot has happened, so this could end up being a lengthy post, so be prepared...

After Phnom Tamao we all realized that we had one of the worst bits of news since the beginning of the semester. We had a FULL week of class without a long weekend or a vacation. We had five full days of teaching. After managing our way through the whole week of teaching getting in the way of our Cambodian vacation we realized it was Chinese New Year and we had 5 whole days off.

For the vacation time a group of people went to Siem Reap to see the temples, some went to Kep and Kampot to relax on the beach and some others went by themselves to smaller towns. As Liza was walking down the stairs to catch their midnight bus to Siem Reap, she tripped and rolled her ankle, making her unable to do all the walking that is accompanied by the temples. That brought the number of people in the house to three for the Chinese New Year. Vilde and I decided to stick around Phnom Penh so we could see some more things, since we're moto-ing around Cambodia and we'll have to pass through most places anyway. Nothing much happened. We created a check list of things to do that included everything from Liza walking, fixing motos, watching the Jungle Book, visit the Killing Fields and National Museum and make some Mexican food and one of the more important things: finish the puzzle. There were a lot more but they were quite varied. That was essentially what happened over the five day vacation, we tried to complete the check list and I think we got around 75%. Through the course of the time off we also gained Rich and Leanne in the house bringing the total to five out of 13.

As for the rest of the group, they got through their vacations seeing temples, as well as seeing more beaches. Oh and Liam got into his second moto accident causing many scrapes, bruises and a stitch in the foot.

After the New Year we had two days of classes, but since it was only two days most of our students did not show up for class so they consisted of most teachers playing games, or just hanging around talking. I spent most of my time learning about different aspects of Khmer culture and getting to know some of my students better. After the short week of only two classes, we again had a full week of classes (the third and final full week we taught over the ten week course). That week went on uninterrupted by anything except for the fact that we were all invited to a Khmer wedding. The groom of the wedding is the brother of our receptionist and one of our administrators.

We went through the week with the knowledge that we would be getting out of town for a truly Khmer experience, and we were all ecstatic. Most people stayed in on Friday (except one person's regular trip to Top Banana, one of the popular backpacker bars in town). We left at 8 am on Saturday for Kampong Thom province, a little to the North of Phnom Penh. The beginning of the bus ride was most everyone sleeping, and me playing Khmer card games with our weekend cook Ali, and one of the receptionists Seanglay. It took me a little while to catch on to the idea of the game with some explanations from the two of them. I also quickly realized that the winner got to hit the losers on the knee or wrist, depending on how many red cards they had at the end of their turn. It didn't take long for my knee to start hurting. Before long I was talking to Rithy, who speaks very little english, but it was still hilarious. We talked about how he is stronger than me (kleng) and I was weaker (kasouy). He later laughed at me, pointed to my arm and said soan (soo aan), and I remembered learning that at the zoo and realized that he was calling me a monkey. I was confused and asked him what he meant. He said "you are monkey" and proceeded to pull some of my arm hair and then showed me that he had none. When I finally realized what he was saying, I was rubbing my arm in pain and he was cackling with laughter.

We were in the bus for quite awhile when we finally stopped for a bathroom break and a chance to pick up snacks. After fifteen minutes or so we got back on the bus and shared the snacks with the rest of the bus. I looked in horror as i say Sorya with a cooked spider in a bag. I decided to get over it and eat some. I asked for a leg because that is the smallest part, but she decided she would give me part of the rear because it had more meat to it. Before I had the chance to think, I threw it in my mouth and chewed as fast as I could. And of course to my surprise, it was delicious. It was a smoky flavored meat with a small bit of spice. Needless to say, I wasn't begging for more, the look was just too much. So for the checklist of things I've eaten that are "strange" to westerners: fried frog, stuffed frog, snake, crickets, spider.

After that we got back on the bus for a bit longer, stopped for a proper lunch and hit the road to get to our final destination. We got to a fork in the road where we would head for the wedding, and we dropped off some of the people because they were joining parts of the wedding we were not going to be a part of or needed to see. Then we continued on to the Sombo Preykuk temples a few kilometers down the road. The worst part was the half hour ride off the main road on the lightly traveled dirt road that should have only taken 5 minutes. The bumps slowed us down to a very slow and uncomfortable crawl. We spent some time around the temples (dating to around 500 AD), learning some of the traditions and stories from past Khmer culture. Then after that it was back on the road to get to the wedding.

We were on the bus for about 9 hours total (even though we were expecting about 4). We got to the wedding house, which because of tradition belonged to the Bride's parents. We met the bride and groom, some showered and got into the appropriate clothing for the nights party. Jake and I decided to skip the shower and get to the party. The first person we met was a man who told us to call him Phillip who spent most of his life in San Jose, California and said he had just moved back to Cambodia because he said he missed his homeland. The rest of the night consisted of a large dinner and beers in ice (since they could not be kept cold anywhere). After dinner was a quick ceremony where the couple gets a blessing and the have a ceremonial wedding "cake," which was a huge pile of fruit. After blowing out the candles, everyone's favorite part began: the dancing. There was only Khmer music, most of it more modern than you would expect, but the dancing was still traditional. It's a blend of complicated foot steps along with impossible to learn hand movements. Some of us were able to get the foot moves down but the hand movements in conjunction with the foot steps was way too much to handle. We ended up dancing through the night until around 11 (which is VERY late for Khmer people). Then it was off to bed at a home stay just down the village road. All the guys (plus three girls) were staying in a stilt house with floors similar to the bamboo ones in Koh Pdao. The difference between then and now was that we now had more of a sturdy floor with thicker wooden planks, but still with the inch space between each board. This time we also didn't have a foam mattress to sleep on so we were on the floor with nothing but a sheet and whatever we could find for a pillow (I used my backpack). I was also one of the only ones to sleep well.

Around 4 or 4:30 am came the next part of the wedding where they played music very loudly, over the speakers that were brought in on a cart by a mini-tractor (which is basically a tractor engine with long handles that you use to control it with). We were fortunately told that we did not need to get up right away because it is not considered rude if you miss some of the ceremonies since a lot of it is done in traditional Khmer that even our staff has trouble understanding some of. Once the sun came up and the rooster below me started his morning song, I decided to get up. I was thrown into the procession of the morning which consisted of everyone carrying a bowl of fruit as an offering to the Bride and Groom. I held two because I expected more people to show up, but they decided to stay in bed a bit longer. After standing for a bit everyone started giggling at me, and Sambo told me why. I had two bowls of fruit which in Khmer culture means that I wanted two wives. They were also laughing because you are supposed to stand next to someone who has a bowl of fruit with the same things you have. I kept having to change bowls with other people and being moved everywhere in line until I once again ended up with Sambo.

We walked in and sat down for breakfast which was a ton of sticky rice and fruit, as well as a porridge. Then came the most nerve racking point of the day. We walk into the house and give the bride and groom a contribution for being allowed to go to their wedding, and to help pay for us being there. In the countryside this amounts to 10 dollars, where in Phnom Penh you would be expected to pay around 20 dollars. What you do is, with a partner you give the money to the bride and groom and then tie a string around their wrist, with everyone watching. The symbolism is that they are accepting the money together and they are now responsible as a couple for everything that comes to them, and the symbolism of the string is that they are being tied to each other in every way. I got really nervous and had a lot of trouble tying the string, and after what felt like an hour of trying to tie the string I managed to get it done, which was followed by a few giggles from the audience and a photo with the bride and groom. And to top off the anxiety about the process, Vicky and I were the first ones to go, so we had no frame of reference on how to do it.

After getting out of the house, which was incredibly hot because of the number of people in the house, we sat down and hung out until it was lunch time, our final step of the wedding process. It was very similar to the lunch we had at the engagement party. It consisted of 8 courses which were in Khmer and we had translated for us. Number one: "8 types of happy" which turned out to be 8 appatizers like fresh cashews, a crab cake type thing, and a jelly thing. After that was a salad with squid, mint, greens, and other noodles. Number three was fried chicken. Four was vegetables with more squid, and other seafood. Five was steamed fish (some of the best I've ever had), and which Vincent ate the eyeball of. Number six was fried rice. Seven was a shrimp porridge. And the final course was dessert.

With incredibly full stomachs, we took final pictures with the bride and groom, changed into our traveling clothes and were back on the bus for our journey home. This time, to our extreme joy, the ride was only six hours long. We stopped at the same place for snacks, but I skipped the spider. Jack did not however. He decided to bring a live spider back on the bus to take home. It was in a small plastic bag the whole time, and many people wanted to throw it out the window (myself included). We made it back to Phnom Penh safe and sound, with one casualty. Jake had inadvertently brought the spider to the brink of death. He let it go outside of our house, and there is no doubt that it is now dead. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

On Monday we started new student testing, which consists of a stranger sitting in front of you, and you asking questions to judge their level of English. The hardest part is that some people ruin it by passing on what questions you get asked, so you have to get creative to see if they are telling the truth or they had answers preprepared. Yesterday was yet another holiday, Meak Bochea, which celebrates something to do with Buddha. All the staff and my students either gave me different answers and didn't know themselves, so I'm not too sure what its about. All I know is that a lot of older Khmer people go to the pagoda to pray and give offerings to Buddha. Vilde and I spent the day picking up our motos and seeing how well they work now compared to before.

Somehow I think this will be the last post until Vilde and I are on the road around Cambodia. The next post will also probably be very lengthy because it will be the end of the semester and I will eventually get sentimental about leaving the house, friends, students and the city. So until then, I'll be finishing up teaching and working on my Khmer driving skills.