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.

The New Year

Well, I didn't realize that it's been two weeks, or half a month since I've written a post, so I guess it is time for an update. I guess I'll start by rewinding back to New Years. I have to admit, there is very little besides short calls to home that I remember. Except one thing, that Vilde and I met our new Khmer friends Heng and Lin (more on that later). But then the new year rolled on, and we had full weeks of class with again, a long weekend. Some of the girls went down to Otres beach near Sihanoukville, some went to Koh Kong, and about 5 of us stayed in Phnom Penh.

The reason we stayed: Liza's student was having an engagement party, which is unusual for Khmer because they only have wedding ceremonies, but she is getting married to a Westerner so they were combing traditions from both. It was more or less a Khmer wedding without the ceremony. It had the same pink and yellow "tent" set up in the street, all the fancy dresses, and of course the food. At the party was me, Liza, Jake and Molly. We sat at a table with six Khmer women, one of which was getting quite close to Jake especially considering that she spoke absolutely no English. I can't begin to talk about how much food there was on the table. I don't even remember what there was, shrimp in every sauce you can imagine, salads, cashews, lobster, duck, chicken, pork, noodles, white rice, fried rice, and a number of desserts. We showed up at 11 am, and we found that there were a lot of students from CWF at the party, including one of mine. My student told me that the festivities began at 7 in the morning, and that she had woken up at 3:30 am to start preparing for the day... I was tired enough from going to bed at 11 and waking up at 9, I couldn't imagine the day she had. Anyway, that was the most of what happened between new years and now, only one weekend and two weeks filled with classes.

As far as class goes, I have slowly warmed up to my level 5s. At first I hated them the most because they had the least reaction to the material, but then I realized it was because they were bored with the material which they had already learned. Now my level 7s are bored with the material, and my level 4s are pretty stagnant. The 4s just stare at me, pretend they know whats happening, nod and move on. Then when I try to test their knowledge later, they just stare at me with no response. Aside from the one girl who apparently wants a much older western husband (ie. me). All I can do is look away and ignore what they're saying because there isn't much of another way to deal with it. Other than that, classes have been pretty normal. I don't mind it as much as I did. Now that I'm able to read their moods and pick up on the material they like and things of that nature, teaching becomes easier. I could even see doing another semester in the future (more on that later as well).

As for this weekend, it was packed with things to do. On Saturday we went to a buffet restaurant where we celebrated Vathana Mao's farewell. As a quick side note, Khmer people cannot prnounce the sound of a V, so you pronounce it was a W, a very difficult topic in class. Anyway, Vathana was our Khmer teacher for the orientation period and he's always around the school and such. He is off to the United States to live with his parents and sister in LA while some other family members stay in Cambodia. It was a really nice lunch, I got to work on my Khmer in the restaurant, which was needless to say an utter failure. Anytime I speak Khmer people just start laughing at me, in a good way, since it is quite funny. To finish the day, Vilde, Liza and I went down to the central market where I bought some new headphones, Vilde a tiny speaker with a ton of power and Liza some pairs of pants. Mostly it was a way to get out of the house. The Central market is pretty interesting. It's one of the tourist hot spots because it's just like the Russian market, just less crowded, quieter and in a colonial French building that was constructed sometime in the 30's. Most people were off to bed quickly because we were going on a trip to a zoo the next day.

On Sunday (this morning) we hopped into a private minibus that held seven of the volunteers and seven staff. I got into the back with all the Khmer speakers, which was fun and confusing all at once. I have only learned words that pertain to the price of things in the market and ordering at a restaurant, so unless they talked about that I had no idea what was going on. Seanglay made fun of me for most of the time because I was looking out the window at the rice fields and the random shit on the back of motos, which she kept say "is a normal sight for Khmer." From then on, every car ride consisted of them teaching me and some others ways to address women and men in Khmer. Once I had the pronunciation down, I would say it to another unsuspecting Khmer speaker and they would either break out in laughter or stare at me in horror. So the major lesson of the day was: do not trust anything that the staff teaches me in Khmer.

After an hour of being laughed at in the back of the minibus we arrived at the zoo, or the Phnom Tamao Wildlife and Animal Rescue center of Cambodia. There were three major highlights from the zoo. One was that most animals looked comfortable in the larger than normal cages, compared to the other places I've see so I didn't focus much on the well being of the animals (until we got to the birds). But it started with some bears that apparently exist from the Himalayas all the way into China and over here in the SE peninsula. The funniest thing about the bears was they they all looked a little slow in the head, but they were pretty cute. Then we moved on to the monkeys. There were all sorts. Especially aggressive ones. We stopped at once cage that had two monkeys in it. As we walked up, one was starting a call that you could only hear in a jungle that quickened as it got louder. As he did that, he banged on a barrel and jumped up and down on it... Then we stayed for a few minutes to watch again. I was egging them on trying to get them to make the noise again (not jump around like a maniac again). A few more minutes went by and it started yelling and banging again so I took a few photos and started to move on. As I passed by the corner of the cage, the other monkey who was on the other side of the 25' x 25' managed to leap across the whole thing in two leaps and bounds, and before I knew it he had smacked me on the shoulder. In pure terror I screamed "OH SHIT" turned to get away and ran into a tree... The second highlight of the trip pertains again to the monkeys but it was simply that I learned what their name was in Khmer and that I could almost perfectly mimic their call, which provided huge laughs for the Khmer speakers on the bus later on.

The third highlight of the zoo was that we got to see some elephants. They had more than enough space to live so they were not confined, and the were nice and happy (the lengthy happiness description was mostly to appease any worries a certain friend from home might have had). If you paid 200 riel (50 cents) you could feed them a stick of bamboo or sugar cane, I don't remember which. But then I saw a baby in the distance, also in the back of my mind I though I needed a photo of a baby elephant for the aforementioned friend. When I got closer I was told that the baby had either stepped on a land mine or had birth defects. Either way it had a prosthetic leg, which it seemed to be able to use quite well. Of course we fed the baby as well since he looked quite hungry and he was just too cute anyway.

After that we went to a place that was full of tables with hammocks above them and no chairs to eat lunch. There were the usual children who would hang around and wait for us to finish our drinks so they could collect the cans or bottles for the money return. We hung around the table for a pretty long time, just relaxing and getting out of the sun. When we were finished with the food, we decided to give it to the kids, who quickly pulled small plastic bags out of their pockets and packed the food up for later. Then the game with the kids started. We heard the ice cream man go by and I started to whistle along with the all too familiar tune. A few minutes later I noticed one of the more quite and less pushy kids was whistling as well, weather to mock or mimic I'm not sure. Then we started going back and forth making any sort of whistling noise we could make. The one quiet kid showed me how to cup my hands together and create the noise that reminds me of some Native American instruments, very airy and almost mysterious. I showed him how to place a piece of grass or leaf between his thumbs and make that terrible squealing noise. He showed me how to whistle with a snail shell placed between two of my fingers. That continued going on until the two of us had exhausted all of our knowledge regarding whistles. There was another kid who sat there and just started giggling at me every time anything remotely funny happened. Luckily, Vilde forced me to get into a photo with them so I won't later regret not having pictures of them. I imagine that I played with the kids for about a half an hour at least, and I had so much fun with them. The most amazing part is that we never spoke a single word to each other, but there was still a lot to our conversation (super cheesy I know).

Now on a separate note, everything that has been going on in my life separate from travels and school, but still a continuation of the day.

On the way back to Phnom Penh I checked my phone and saw that I had a text message from Heng, who Vilde and I met on New Years Eve, and who we'd been trying to meet up with since then. We settled on getting together at seven for dinner. We ended up getting to the meeting place a little late and Heng had to go somewhere. So again, Vilde and I were disappointed but we stayed up in the northern part of the city and had some dinner of our own. As we were on the moto back home, Heng called me and asked if we wanted to go for a walk, so we went back to our original meeting place and waited for Heng and Lin. We finally met them and realized that Lin had to go to the hospital for some reason, but she was doing well enough to hang out.

We quickly realized that "going for a walk" does not exist for Khmer people. We were told that they never walk anywhere and drive everywhere. What an understatement. We followed them on their moto, and they eventually led us to a bridge that went across river, where we had only gone by to another town. They asked if we had ever been over there and we replied no, to which they got really excited and told us to follow them. When we arrived, we realized we were at a carnival. And since Khmer don't walk, we drove right up to the front of the game that we wanted to play. It was the game where you throw darts at balloons and win prizes. We ended up with two Angry Birds mugs, which is fitting considering how big of a thing Angry Birds merchandise is over here... Then Heng and Lin told us that, since we played we got free tickets to a ride. We hopped back on the motos and rode about 50 yards to the ride. When we got up there we realized we were at the wrong one so we turned around. Behind us? Bumper cars. We all agreed that those would be the most fun, and waited to get into cars the next round. Vilde and I soon realized that everyone else thought it would be hilarious to gang up on the one car that had white people in it. After 10 or so minutes of driving around dodging others and being tossed around, the ride came to an end. Heng and Lin asked if we wanted to do more, but we could tell they were tired, so we all decided tonight was fun enough and we'd all head home. Much to our surprise, Heng and Lin paid for everything, and they said that we could pay next time, which Vilde and I are both looking forward to. We both could not be happier that we both have Khmer friends outside of school, even if we can barely communicate in the same language.

And possibly the most important piece of news: the motos. I'm not sure what I've told people, what's been on Facebook, and what I've written here, so I'll do a quick summary, since it's late and this post is pretty long as is.

Basically, I got the idea that I would buy a moto, and ride around SE Asia until my flight in April. Well 2012 turned out to be a pretty impulsive year because January first rolled around and by the end of the day I had bought a Suzuki moto from an old volunteer. By the next day, Vilde (who asked to come along beforehand) bought the other moto owned by the old volunteers. Now, mine won't start and I have less and less time to practice on mine, which rides completely differently from Vilde's. But tomorrow holds promise for fixing it up, and getting some good rides around the city in. The most important part, I can't be seen any longer riding around Phnom Penh on the back of a moto with a girl driving. I'm not trying to be sexist, but the amount of looks and laughs I get are too much to bear. The problem shouldn't be too hard to fix, its just a matter of finding a good mechanic that is close enough to walk my massive moto to. That is the gist of the moto situation, and of couse I ride around here and I have buyers remorse when I see other motos that might be better, but I'm sure that's only because mine is not starting properly.


Ah, I almost forgot, the most important piece of information about life in Phnom Penh. I've decided it's not over here. If all goes to plan, I'll be home for one more summer to make some money and spend time with family and friends. Come sometime fall of 2012, I'll be on my way back to Phnom Penh with no return flight.

Central Market (Psar Thmey)

Me, Heng and Lin (courtesy of Vilde)

The Kids from Phnom Tamao

The Years End

Well, this year has suddenly come to its last day. For me, it's been one of the biggest and most eventful years of my life. With college graduation and moving to Cambodia I'd probably guess it's the most eventful and impactful to date. It seems almost impossible to think that a year ago, I was preparing to move back to Ithaca for the last time. Never mind preparing for the last semester of college but only seven months ago I was standing near the 40 yard line at Butterfield Stadium. Then there was a quick couple of months at home to work for the summer, a random decision, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of a class of Cambodians who can speak some English and I had become the authority figure of the room. Ahead of me lies many big and very important decisions. When I get home I have to ultimately make the decision of what I want to start as a job/career, or if I even want to. And the most important, which will have the biggest impact on my immediate life is where to move. But that decision lies off in the horizon, although I should learn that decision time will come faster than I can imagine, judging how quickly I found myself in Cambodia...

Anyway, Christmas was quite the adventure. We got up for our bus and were out the door by 7 am. Sihanoukville was only 4 hours away, and we were all more than willing to pay the extra two dollars per person to not have to put up with karaoke on the bus. We arrived around noon and we decided to change and head down to the beach right away. After a tuk tuk driver (who turned out to be our personal driver/stalker for the trip) got us down to the beach, the party began... for most people. We sat down for some lunch on one of the dozens of beachside huts, where some ate Khmer food while others indulged in western foods. The whole time we were eating we were being heckled to no end by kids who trolled the beach for people who would buy their junk, or get so annoyed with their unrelenting sales pitch they would throw their money at them just so they would leave. Some of the group bought bracelets, while others got pampered at the table with manicures and pedicures for a whopping three or four dollars. After we finished eating and had a couple of beers, we migrated out from under the hut to the beach and into the chairs laid out on the beach. Me being me, I immediately went swimming. The water was shockingly warm, and I was most surprised at how salty the water was. Other places in the world I've noticed the water was a bit saltier than home, but this was almost overwhelming. I've read about the Dead Sea and how you can float so easily because of the amount of salt in the water. This was similar, I was able to stay afloat without any effort. At home you may bob up and down depending on the amount of air in your body, but here you could take the biggest breath possible and not move an inch. After a good amount of time in the water I went back up to the beach and again, me being me, fell asleep on my towel while everyone else sat in the sun and kept the party going. Although I think one of my major reasons for falling asleep with my t-shirt over my face was so children (especially Pin with his ironic hipster glasses without lenses) would stop yelling in my face and calling me "bad man" for not buying their bracelets.

As the sun started to set, we all decided to head back to the Kangaroo Kitchen to change and get ready to go out for the night. After showers and dinner at the restaurant downstairs (our saving grace all weekend) we headed back down to the beach where all the bars were competing of your business and we found the one with a beirut table (aka "beer pong" to the commoners) and beers that cost us a mere 25 cents. The subsequent four to six hours is a blend of dubstep, more drinks, sweat, foreigners, more drinks, and of course some night swimming. Where one person had the ingenious idea to swim out to a boat and jump on... definitely NOT me... Anyway we all made it back to the hostel at a "reasonable" hour and safely got to bed.

The next day was basically more of the same. Some went to the beach to get some sun and drinks while  Rich, Liza and I had more of a quiet day and headed to the central market. It was pretty similar to the Russian market but much less crowded and spread over a larger space. After some time walking around we headed back to the hostel, which to our surprise had changed names to the Wolf's Den bar and guesthouse.... We slowly came to learn that our guesthouse had changed owners only four days before our arrival and that the current owner had moved to Sihanoukville from Thailand because Cambodia has no extradition laws. So we had been told by him that "we didn't see him there." So for the rest of the trip we tread lightly around him. The rest of the day was filled with a nap and hanging out until the rest of the group got home. As the night began we decided that the next morning we would take a boat trip around to some islands that left at 8am, so we had to watch ourselves. The previous night we were told about a party on a private beach that is owned by the prime minister (which I still doubt) that a bar had rented out and they were having a huge Christmas party. You just had to pay 10 dollars for the boat ride and you'd get drinks for the same price. At first we all planned on going but as the time got closer to get to the boat, only three people ended up going to the beach. The rest of us went back to the bar from the previous night and much to our surprise, we had quarter beers and then from 11pm to 2am was free drinks to show their appreciation for our patronage. Again the night was filled with the same: dubstep, drinks, sweat and foreigners. Somewhere squashed in the middle of the night was a phone call to my brother that lasted only a few minutes, the contents of which I could not be asked to recall. But, before I knew it, I was waking up to an alarm at 7:15am for our boat trip. We came to realize that at least three people had eating a salad with raw crab the night before and had been up all night paying the price. And in a very comedic moment, I walked out of my room and saw one of our members walking up the stairs who had just left the private beach party in order to make it back for the boat trip... And to my surprise after looking in the mirror I noticed that I had a cut on my nose and on my forehead, which appeared without my knowledge. Needless to say, we all went back to bed with some people staying in bed for the rest of the day in the fetal position.

The rest of the trip was more or less the same. Some people went out the last night, while some stayed in to give their livers a bit of a rest. The next day I decided to wake up and take one final swim since it will be my last for quite sometime. Luckily I made a last minute decision to go to a different beach, where there were very few tourists and no huts or hecklers on the beach. Then it was back to the hotel to shower and get back on the bus. By noon we were back on the road, and we eventually got home by 4. Everyone looked and felt like zombies and no one did much of anything, except dread the next day when we would return to class. The rest of the week has been filled with sickness passing from person to person, most likely due to shattered immune systems.

This whole part of the story that makes up life in Cambodia is the most bizarre to me. In class our students see us as these upstanding people who are spending our time volunteering in a country that most could not find on a map. Then on the weekends we devolve into gluttons of liver punishment. The students however have no idea. I almost feel like I'm living a double life at times. And the whole time I think about this, I can't help but think of teachers in middle and high school who must have had the same existence?

Well that basically sums up the Sihanoukville experience: alcohol, loud music, foreigners, and even more alcohol.

Now I need to write a quick note about my last few weeks in Cambodia that I've made my decision on. The semester end on February 19th, and I dont' fly home until April 3rd. As of a week or so ago, I've heard about people buying a moto and riding around Southeast Asia. Thus I have found my totally irrational and exciting six weeks after semester ends. Right now I'm either going to buy a Honda Win in Saigon, or a previous volunteer from CWF might sell me her moto, so that remains to be seen. But the strangest part of this... I've never driven a moto. But I figure I've got a few months to work it out, and I've been riding a bike around here so I am a little used to the rules of the road, it's just that a moto is faster paced. It's all going to be an adjustment. What I found most surprising is how my mom reacted. Not a single word of objection, well not spoken at least. It's going to be a process to get everything sorted out, but I've already started the process. As of yesterday I got my temporary Cambodian drivers license, which is all in Khmer and the only thing that is in English on it is my name. In a months time, I'll have my real Cambodian license, which is more of a precaution if I get pulled over in another country instead of just having my Massachusetts state license. The process to get it was beyond easy, I went to a place that sold motos and gave them a copy of my passport and visa, three passport sized photos, my license, and 32 dollars.

Well it appears that 2012 is creeping up on us with only a few hours to go before 2011 is in the past. Like 2011, the new year seems to bring some life changing events upon my return home, but at the same time looking forward to tonight seems to be the same gluttonous punishment done to my liver as in the past, so who knows how much things really change in a year.




Anyway, Happy New Year!

Christmas in Cambodia!

It's that time of year, and it snuck up on all of us, mainly because we're teaching just three days before Christmas. And anther main reason... there is not a bit of bad weather in sight. For the last 23 years I've either been covered in rain or snow for the months surrounding Christmas. This time around, there is nothing but sunshine in our future, and beach. I'm not complaining, but it is quite strange being in the sun for Christmas. Vilde and I have been longing to see snow, so we bought a jigsaw puzzle that has a cabin in about six feet of snow. And after seeing friends post pictures of snow where they are, it's making me more confused.

Today is our last day of classes before the vacation and four days in Sihanoukville, down on the coast. We just had a Christmas party with the whole CWF staff and all the volunteers. We all decided to try out a form of Secret Santa, but we came to the conclusion to do a Yankee swap (white elephant). It could not have gone better. I've done them in the past with family with up to 20 people, but this time we had 38 or 39 people, and just about half of those where Khmer. For those who don't know the process of the game, you start with every person bringing one wrapped present, and everyone draws a number. So for us there were 39 people and 39 presents with everyone having one number. The person with number one chooses one gift and opens it, and shows it to the group. Then number two picks their present and opens it and shows the group. If number two decides they do not like their present they can steal the first one. Then number three goes and they have the option to keep theirs or steal, and so on and so forth. Then you go through all the numbers and then it goes back to number one. Since they did not have the option to steal a present, they can take a pick from every opened gift. It's a lot of fun with only 20 people, so having that many people was absolutely hilarious. Everyone in the group was hollering with laughter the whole time. There were every kind of gift you could imagine, trinkets, a single beer, stuffed animals, candy, and of course, the one bottle of whiskey that everyone wanted. It wouldn't be a proper yankee swap without the alcohol that everyone wants. And of course our receptionist Lakhina had number one and ended up with the whiskey.

Any sort of notion or fleeting idea that I missed being home for Christmas floated away this afternoon. Everyone here acts as if you are a part of their family. I know it sounds corny as hell, but you could not tell that we only met the staff of CWF only four weeks ago. The day we leave will truly suck. But for right now, it couldn't be better.

As for Christmas day, I'll be on the beach. And yes, I know I'll catch some ill words from those in the snow, but I wouldn't totally mind being in the snow. Come Sunday, I probably won't care so much about snow. Well that's enough rambling about not being home for Christmas time. For now I have to finish up two more lessons, then I'll be on my vacation. But the main part of this post was about being part of this group. That's what is most enjoyable and surprising right now. Cheesy I know, but very true.

Side Notes

I never thought that at age 23 I would feel dated. Today in my level 7 class we were talking about utilities in houses and the word dial tone was one they were expected to learn, and because of that I added land line. I started talking about a dial tone and said that they only exist on a land line, and not a single person had a clue what I was talking about. I asked if they had ever used a land line or heard a dial tone, and not a single one had. They weren't all kids either, my oldest student in that class is around 40 years old, and even he had not used one. I was shocked. I had no idea how to respond to them. I decided that I would give them the definitions, but they would not need to know them. I was just so amazed that my students had no idea what either was.

As bizarre as it is, it's somewhat indicative of Cambodian development. They did not have the development stage of telephone land lines because of a century filled with war, as well as a country based on agriculture. Now that they are in the process of developing and becoming a more industrialized country, they are all getting cellphones instead of land lines because it is cheaper, faster and they are simple.

Well, I just had to write that down because I was at a loss for words while in class. And I spoke of the Russian market earlier, and I really cannot do it justice by writing about it, so I'll attempt some photos later this week and post them so you can truly see how cramped and chaotic it is.