November in Cambodia
(Slouching towards Bethlehem)
Coronation of the new King; King Sihamoni of Cambodia
The old King decided that he had had enough of it all and resigned, not the first time that he has done this, but this time a successor was named and crowned, which kind of makes it official!
The new king is Sihamoni, a 55 year old bachelor, former ballet dancer and ambassador to the UN in Paris, where he lived alone with 2 cats (yes, yes, we all think it sounds rather gay as well)
The partying seemed to last about a week, the coronation ceremony was over 3 days. A national holiday was declared so we had, another, 5 day weekend. Flags and banners were strung from every street lamp or pillar. Every billboard in town had the Official photo of the new King put on it. Every Khmer who owned a chicken and a box of matches set up a pavement barbeque. Thousands of extra people poured into Phnom Penh. The chaos was unbelievable, gridlock on every road in the city all day and night. A 10 minute journey up to the riverfront took me 45 minutes at the height of it
The smoke coming from the hundreds of pavement barbeques was obscuring the vision of all the motorists and pedestrians – how more people were not run over is a miracle.
Some of my colleagues from the Ministry had official invites to be inside the palace grounds for the ceremony – not inside the palace, as the throne room is not that big, but the grounds are enough to hold a thousand-plus people. I did drop some hints about me going with them, but when I found out that they had to be in their seats by 5AM I figured I would shut up and watch the highlights on television !
Each of the three official nights of the coronation ceremony saw fireworks displays across the skies above the city, plus people partying in the streets.
Your average Khmer did not fully understand what was going on ‘’how do we have new King, old one not dead?’’ - but give them an extra few days off work and some fireworks and they just did not care! They were happy. They now just refer to the 2 kings as ‘the old king’ and ‘the new king’ - basically as far as they are concerned they are the luckiest people alive, they have 2 kings….
The new king seems to be off to a good start, he is touring the provinces, meeting his subjects, saying nice things to the International aid agencies, et cetera.
His father for the last few years was not too dynamic, 80 odd years old, poor health, spent a lot of time out of the country – the highlight of irony was him complaining about the poor democratic process in Cambodia’s last set of elections from his holiday palace in North Korea…
Paul and Glens’ visit
2 weeks each, overlapping for a week in the middle, in short, about 3 weeks of partying and not enough sleep J
A lot of visits to bars and restaurants and more bars, some shopping and, of course, a few days up in Siem Reap to visit the Temple’s of Angkor.
Although this was my fourth visit to some of the temples, there are always new things to see, and new temples to explore.
Of course the most famous is Angkor Wat, but the stone heads on the Bayon temple are a familiar sight to anyone who has ever visited Cambodia – or film fans that paid close attention to ‘Tomb Raider’…
The jungle temple is impressive still, but I seem to remember it being bigger???
New to me this visit was a trip up BaKheng Pagoda to watch sunset. From the top of the hill, you can see the Tonle Sap great lake as well as the Western Baray. With the sun setting behind these 2 large expanses of water.
The climb up to the top was very steep, loose rocks and tree roots as well. We decided that we would start the climb back down before the sun had full finished setting; unfortunately several hundred other people had the same idea. Due to some unorthodox [and slightly life threatening] short cuts, we made it to the foot of the hill just as darkness was fully descending.
Was great to have some male visitors here for a change!
They both took to Cambodian life well, especially on a night out with my Khmer colleagues which involved much drinking, eating, drinking and singing of karaoke - Paul does a very good Brittney Spears ….
Sarik’s Wedding
November also saw my attendance at my first Khmer wedding. Sarik, one of the guys I work with was very eager that I attend, so eager that when I was 5 minutes late for the start of the reception [out in the middle of nowhere] he phoned me every ten minutes until I was there !
The only white people – barang – invited were myself and a Canadian VSO who works with me called Daniel.
As we entered the large marquee set up in the middle of the road – just block off all that traffic – we were being filmed. We were shown to a table near the entrance so that everyone who entered the party could see that Sarik was important enough to have 2 barang at his wedding – it is all about status here….
As you enter a Khmer wedding you shake hand all the relevant parties – bride, groom, parents, et cetera - then you are given a gift, a small token to thank you for attending, then you are escorted to the wedding accountant, where you hand over a small white envelope with some cash in it – the amount of cash you give is sort of up to you, it sort of depends on a combination of things; how well you know the person who invited you, how long you have known them, how important they are, how important you are and of course, whether or not you are a foreigner…
While we were sat there, we were joined by Sarik’s brother, the bride’s father and some local bigwig who spoke the most fluent and lilting French I have heard since being here.
Strangely enough, also seated at our table were the only 3 single Khmer girls at the party…
The food then started to come out course by course; half a dozen mixed starters, a whole suckling pig, whole catfish in ginger and soybean sauce, beef and peppers stir-fry, wonton’s, fried rice, boiled rice, et cetera
All served with lashings and lashings of Tiger Beer…
Well, we arrived there at 4 and it all closed down about 10, by which time we had consumed a Herculean amount of food and drink
The Water Festival, omm bon tuck
Over three days around 600 teams of 30 raced in pairs from the Japanese Friendship Bridge to the end of the city.
The teams wearing brightly coloured silk costumes and being cheered on by crowds of 100,000’s
The crowds in the city were amazing, it was even busier than the coronation, it took ten times as longer to walk anywhere than normal, roads were closed to traffic.
I wandered around the streets and the festivals accompanied by 7 Khmer friends eager to show me around, explain things to me and generally entertain me. As dusk approached we headed down to the park where a free concert of Khmer pop music was taking place, loud does not even begin to cover it.
After which it was time for yet more fireworks and of course, more beer…
December’s first few days
So here we are in the bleak midwinter of Cambodia. Temperatures have dropped to the 25C to 30C range, making it almost bearable most of the time.
The locals are complaining about how cold it is ?!?!
I am glad for the temporary respite from the heat, but then again I have always hated hot weather (My first choice of VSO assignment was Mongolia, minus 40 in the winter...)
Still, I seem to be adapting to it all, with the aid of only 4 or 5 cold showers and changes of clothes a day…
Upcoming Events
This coming weekend is another bank holiday weekend, but it is the only one in December. Very early on Friday morning I will be departing Phnom Penh for Kompong Cham province for the weekend. I will be travelling up with a few of my Khmer friends and staying with one of their families for a couple of nights right out in the sticks.
I have suggested that I could stay in a guest house near by so as not to be any trouble to the family, but I do not think that they will let me off that lightly …
The weekend following will see my attendance at another Khmer wedding, this time it is my boss from the Ministry who is tying on the ball and chain, it will be a much, much, more lavish affair, with the reception being held at one of the most upmarket hotels in Phnom Penh, with hundreds of guests in attendance, so the pressure on us barang should be less as there will be several dozen of us milling around.
Then, of course, in less than 3 weeks we have Christmas, I have still not decided what to do exactly, but top of the list today is my laying on Serendipity beach at Sihanoukvile with a cold Tiger Beer in one hand and a barbequed squid in the other – ah, living in a winter wonderland …
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