December 2004 in Cambodia

December here in Cambodia has been a busy month with lots of local events as well as the traditional Western ones, plus the usual assortment of random Cambodia moments.


December 2004 in Cambodia


Crab Night
Back at the beginning of the month a friend of mine – who owns and runs a couple of Cambodia websites [ http://www.khmer440.com/ ] spent a week down at Kampot and Kep beach – allegedly doing research for his new, soon to be launched, travel website – hotel bookings, reviews of; restaurant, bars, temples, places of interest, et cetera..

On his last day there he bought a couple of dozen marine crabs – violet vinegar crabs I believe the species is.

As he was sat in the back of the taxi with them all trying to make a bid for freedom, he was phoning round a few of us to meet up, have a few drinks and to eat crab.

Now, I like crab, but have always been of the opinion that they are a lot like hard work to eat, all that dismembering, cracking, disembowelling, more cracking, but what the hell I thought, sounds like it would be a fun evening if nothing else.

So we all met up at the Peace Café, had a couple of aperitif’s – a few glasses of chilled Tio Pepe; as fine a fino sherry as one can get out here - and headed back to his place to start boiling crabs to death.

Now, Pete was the first one through the door and when those of us following him heard him exclaim ‘oh shit!’ at rather a loud volume we wondered what was up.

Entering into his flat we could see that a box on his dining table was over turned and that 2 dozen crabs were scuttling around the table, the work surface, the floor. One made a twitchy advance for the door, quick little buggers that they were, they were not quick enough. The great crab round up began, as we crawled around the floor, poked behind fridges, bookcases, work units, et cetera.

Having spent half an hour rounding up stray crustaceans we felt much less squeamish about boiling them to death, ripping them apart and scoffing them down with a few jugs of Pimm’s - the latter a relatively recent arrival in Cambodia and one that seems to be popular with us English ex-pats.

To accompany the crab I threw together a simple green salad and made a tangy citrus lime and roasted garlic dressing.

Having eaten our fill, and then some, we headed back to the Peace Café for a digestif and nightcap.
Ah, for a smoky 18 year old Scotch. Alas, Cambodia is not yet equipped with such things, so we made do with Jameson’s Irish instead.

Senses fully satiated we all went our separate ways around 2AM



Long weekend in Kompong Cham province.
Guest of the Dom~Ray family… Sort of…

At 07:00 on Friday morning there was a pounding on my door. It was Heng, Strai’A and Dom~Ray. The car was waiting outside and we were all off on a jolly holiday weekend to the provinces.

National Highway 7 is the road from Phnom Penh to K. Cham. If you say that [write that] fast enough it gives the impression of it being a motorway, or any other sort of main road…

The best road in the country is National Highway 4, which goes from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville [the main beach resort] that road is the equivalent to an English ‘B Road’ [normally at this point I might translate a few such items for my Transatlantic readers, but you idiots voted Bush back in for a second term so my sympathy for things American is at a new all time low]

Anyhow, back to National Highway 7. Once upon a time NH7 might have had a surface of tarmac, free of potholes, but oh no, not any more. Three hours of bouncing, jolting, banging and sweating

Well, we arrived at K. Cham in just about enough time to go and have something to eat.

We dine in what can only be described as a bamboo garden shed with no walls, sitting on the [raised] floor on rush mats and eating a selection of the local delicacy’s – boiled fish, fried fish, fish soup…


After which Dom~Ray’s brother is to play as tour guide for us for the rest of the afternoon. We drive for an hour and half through what can only be described as a ploughed field to the reservoir, so that I can look at the water and see some fishermen pottering about on boats – guess that they thought I may not have seen such a sight before working for the Ministry of Fish…

The whole of the way there the in-car TV/DVD Player had Khmer karaoke on at the usual ear-bleeding volume, over which everyone shouted at each other to be heard

After which we head of to a pagoda so that the Khmers can pray and I can stare at a 30 foot high golden statue of Buddha – was annoyed with myself at this point for forgetting my camera, it was a fairly spectacular sight.

Also in the grounds were; a huge ancient library of Buddhist scroll and teaching, a smaller temple and an area where they were building a new shrine, what the gang described to me as ‘a lady shrine’. I guess being a female in Cambodia is tough enough to justify you needing your own place to pray.

After which we set of back towards the town [with in-car karaoke system still playing at full volume]

Passing through the town and out the other side I am told that they are going to show me an Angkorian temple that is older than Angkor Wat. On arrival we are greeted with the requisite crowd of Khmer beggars – old women, mothers with babes in arms, dirty children with big toothy grins, amputees, et cetera.

The temple itself was in a fairly bad state of repair, with a few rooms that had collapsed in on themselves and some fairly bad weather erosion n the bas-reliefs.
Still, at over 900 years old, look as good I will not.

Well, after all that we then set about trying to find a guest house, unfortunately as well as it being a holiday weekend there was also some huge conference going on in the town, we eventually found a guest house with one room free, so the five of us ended up sharing one twin room for the night?!?

Now, I was not best pleased with this arrangement, but there was very little that we could do, still I ended up paying the US$4 for the entire room for everyone and only sulked a little about it.

Next of course was the getting ready to go out for the evening meal, which with five us rotating through one bathroom took quite a bit of time.

Eventually we were all ready and we piled into the car, heading East over the long suspension bridge over the river we passed several atypical Khmer restaurants, my host asked me which one I would like to go to, not having a clue I asked him which one had the best food – the response was so typically Khmer - ‘’that one there is the cheapest’’

That simple Question and Response sums up a major cultural difference between Khmers and Barangs [foreigners] …

After a little more questioning from myself – in a subtle roundabout way – we settle on a medium price restaurant, called ‘The Heng Heng Restaurant’

Once inside Dom~Ray’s brother [have real trouble remembering Khmer names] started ordering large amounts of food and then to my surprise a lot of litre bottle of San Miguel started appearing…

He was, of course, drunk after finishing one bottle, but that did not stop him attempting a second, or third, bottle. By which point he had his arm around my shoulder and was slurring something in my ear in K’mai.

After an hour or so of this, along with some fairly bland food, he was just about asleep on the table.

I was just finishing off the best dish on the table – pickled green cabbage with peanuts – when he sat bolt upright, stared around the place and yelled for the bill.

It seems that he was late for work!?!?

When the bill came (US$12) he insisted on paying it and then we strolled back to the guest house while he headed off to his job, driving a car around the city delivering cases of San Miguel to all the bars and restaurants in town…


Waking early the following morning, before the rest of the unruly mob, I decide to slip out for a quiet breakfast with just Heng.

About 10 yards around the corner we find a Khmer pavement restaurant serving the traditional Khmer breakfast fare.
Having finished my bowl of beef, bone and intestine soup I am relaxing with an iced coffee with sweet milk, when in strolls the rest of the gang.
How did they find me? It was easy; they just asked the people outside the guest house ‘Which way did the large white man go?’

After everyone had finished eating, and I had finished my 4th coffee of the morning, we decided to take a stroll up to the local market, to have a look around and see what Kompong Cham had to offer the discerning traveller. The market carried the usual array of goods found in Khmer markets; fruit, rice, clothes, posters of Khmer pop stars, little gold Buddha statues, et cetera…

After about an hour of meandering around the market Strai’A’s phone rang, it was Dom~Ray’s brother, he had finished work and was looking for us, so we headed off back to the guest house.
Piling into the car we headed off down the road, after 10 minutes we pulled over outside a petrol station and everyone got out, when I asked what was going on I was told that this was where we caught the minibus back to Phnom Penh. It seems that Dom~Ray’s brother was not heading back to Phnom Penh. So we hung around the petrol station for half an hour until the minibus turned up. Fortunately it was relatively empty, on half a dozen of us on it – which is remarkable for a Khmer minibus which would normally have 18 people in a 12 seater; along with bags, boxes, animals, et cetera

Head off home in a minibus, bounce, bounce, bounce…

Three hours later, home, showered and laying on the sofa wondering if the back ache from the minibus ride would ever give up…



Nung’s Birthday party
Nung is the Head Barmaid at the Green Vespa bar

I frequent this particular establishment, from time to time, and it seems that Nung was inviting as many people as she could to her birthday bash

Arriving at 9pm it seems that I had missed the happy hour – or more importantly, everyone else had not missed it and had taken full advantage of it !
Nung it seems had been enjoying herself with the vast majority of customers buying her drinks and giving her presents [oops, I knew that I had forgotten something]

While ordering myself a beer I started talking to Alan the owner – who was sat at the bar just as drunk as everyone else – it turned out that everyone had been celebrating since lunchtime.
It was a very strange scene in the bar, a dozen very drunk guys all trying to chat to [and flirt with] Nung and her trying to split her time evenly with everyone who had bought her a present and had bought her drinks. I just perched myself at the end of the bar and people watched the theatre that was going on :-)

I chatted to Alan for a while – he was relatively sober – asking him how business was going, et cetera. then I called it a night, managing to slip out of the debris that was the party.
I often wonder if any psychologist has ever done a study on ex-pat life and alcoholism. Virtually every ex-pat I know spends a significant number of evenings in bars and restaurants.



Somony’s Wedding
Cambodiana Hotel. 5 Star Luxury, and then some !

Ceremony starts at 07:00 the reception in the evening starts at 17:00. So I decided to skip the ceremony and go straight to the party !

Arriving at the hotels long tree lined driveway, I felt relived that I had decided to dress up for the evening [suit and a tie!] as we were all ushered through the hotel to the rear patio we were bowed to by hotel staff positioned at every doorway [about 10 doors] whose only job it seemed was to stand at doorways and bow to guests ?!?!

Reaching the rear of the hotel we start walking down the red carpet to the reception line, shake hands with my friend Mony and he introduces me to his new bride, who then gives me a little silver box as a present for attending their wedding [now that is the way to do wedding presents!]

Down to the rear patio and gardens, tables for 600 guests set up all around with a commanding view of the confluence of the city’s 3 rivers.

Live band, alternating singers – 3 or 4 plus songs in K’mai, English, French and Spanish !?!

We were seated at table by one of Mony’s cousins that I had met a couple of months ago at the funnel party for Mony’s mother, he recognised me and promptly sat down to eat with us, his ushering duties seeming forgotten !

After a couple of glasses of wine and everyone at the table doing the usual introductions and ‘How do you know the bridge/groom’ things the food started to arrive, around 8 courses of it…

- Assorted starters
- Wild mushroom and egg soup
- Lemon Chicken
- King Prawns in batter
- Whole Roast suckling pig
- Tom Yam soup
- Boiled rice and fried rice
- Assorted fresh fruits


All served with lashings and lashing of wine.

The bride and grooms’ procession – lotus leaves thrown as confetti, camera flashing like strobe lights and the video cameraman walking backwards in front of them for the whole 100 yards.
Up on to the dais and speeches from the father of the groom and the mother of the bride.

About this time my phone rings and it is the boys from the office, they have spotted us sat on the other side of party - it is a big party, 700 odd guests - and want us to go over and join them – so we did.
As the food and crockery was being cleared away, fresh glasses were brought out, the wine was replaced with several bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label Whiskey on each table…

Red wine, whiskey, more red wine, more whiskey – all of a sudden it is hazy and it is 23:00 and everyone is heading off

Giving my Khmer colleagues the slip – they were all heading off to a karaoke bar – I dropped into the Peace Café for some peace and quiet, and in the hope that my head might stop spinning for a bit.

As it turned out eh Peace café was very peaceful, but I was far too tired to stay long, heading home I collapsed into bed and slept the sleep of the just – or the damned, depending on ones point of view.

It was a major struggle the following morning to get into the office for 07:00…



Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas ~ and all that jazz
As Christmas was on a Saturday this year I decided to take off the Friday, Monday and Tuesday.


Christmas Eve
‘twas the night before Christmas,
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse’

Thought that it might be nice to go out for lunch to somewhere nice for a change – give the rice and fish a miss for a bit...
But as it turned out I could not be bothered, so Heng cooked rice…

The evening was spent relaxing in front of the TV until about 10 o’clock when I thought it was time to pop out for a quick beer and to say hello to everyone.

Heading down to the Peace Café I was surprised to see how busy it was, I guess quite a few people had decided to have a small Christmas eve celebration, we managed to while away about 4 hours without even noticing, suddenly it was 2AM and I was feeling very tired, time to call it a night.



Christmas Day
Having weighed several options, I decided to stay in Phnom Penh for Christmas and to have Christmas lunch in the Peace Café with Dave, his family and several friends.

Going to the beach was my number one choice for most of the time, but the more people I spoke to, the more said that they were going down to the beach, or their friends were. So it just seemed like most of Phnom Penh’s expat community was heading down to Sihanoukville, which is not that big a town in the first place !

I was awoken at about 07:00 on Christmas Day morning by a phone call from a friend in China wanting to wish me a Merry Christmas, I think I managed to gurgle out a few ‘ug’ ‘ug’ ‘mmm’ err Marry Christmas ug ug ‘’ and that kind of thing, my brain was not too clear at that point!

10:00
Feeling much better and much more awake now, I settle down with a large coffee and a small individual Christmas cake [thanks mum] for breakfast
After breakfast I make another pot of coffee and settle down to read the papers – The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post - which I get delivered.

Now the two English language newspapers here are not great, the Daily comes out 6 times a week (Saturday sees a ‘weekend edition) and the PPP comes out every other Friday.
Both are rags usually less than a dozen pages of inane gossip, week old news and token international articles usually stolen from the New York Times or the Washington post – the owner is American.
The PPP usually has the edge, not to mention much better print quality, but it is still only one step up from ‘The Ealing Times’

Having finished the papers [maybe 10:10] I settle down to watch some TV and an old movie or two

03:00
Roast turkey, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, sweet corn, peas, carrots, stuffing, sausages wrapped in bacon, gravy – all washed down with a few glasses of Bordeaux
Afterwards we all nibbled at the cheese board for an hour or so and chatted about the usual nonsense that we all do, as well as wondering if we could get the Queens Speech on the BBC world service radio

After which I then shared my Harrods’s Christmas pudding [thanks Amanda] with a few of the Khmers who were there, as they had never seen one; have to say, I do not think that they were very impressed with it :-)

After we were all feeling stuffed and replete Dave had a screening of the original version of the ‘Italian Job’ as a ‘traditional Christmas movie’…

After that we watched ’24 Hour Party People

Somehow or another the time just flew by and before any of us knew what was going on it was 02:00 !?!?
Slowly winding my way the 100 yards home I slipped into bed feeling quite done in.



Boxing Day
‘Help, we have gone on holiday by mistake!’ [Withnail and I]

Woke up feeling a little restless, thought that it would be a nice change of pace to get out of the city for a bit.

So I threw the [sketchy] Cambodia road atlas I have into a rucksack, along with my camera and things, and headed out of Phnom Penh on National Highway number 1.
Now the reason that I chose National Highway [NH] number one was deeply considered and well thought out. The two main reasons being [i] it is nearest to my house [ii] I know where it is…

Crossing the Tonle Sap river by way of the Monivong bridge you come to a small Khmer market just on the otherside. While it maybe small it is certainly not quiet or sleepy, hundreds of people were entering, shopping and leaving; cars and moto’s parked everywhere – absolute road chaos, Khmer style!

Having weaved my way through the assorted road traps here; animals, small children and in-road market stalls, et cetera I get to the main part of NH 1. From here on out I only have potholes, roadwork’s and stray farm animals to wiry about ?!?

After a couple of hours I decide that I need to stop for a coffee. Pulling over at a random Khmer restaurant I order an iced coffee with sweet milk and relax for 20 minutes.

Having left the restaurant and now feeling much more refreshed I am pleased to discover that this next section of the road is in good condition and is fairly clear of traffic. Feeling more relaxed I can take in some of the scenery, dropping away from the road about 12 feet below us are rice paddy’s stretching as far as the eye can see. Interspersed between the sections of paddy are tall coconut trees in pairs – male and female trees – water buffalo wander randomly about eating whatever it is that water buffalo eat.
Occasionally there are small ponds in which people are washing themselves, or they have people fishing on them. At one point there is a fairly large section of either flooded forest or pond, which had a couple of small wooden fishing boats drifting lazily along on it, the fishermen not seeming to be doing much, other than just ambling along in the fierce heat of the Cambodian midday sun.

After an hour or so of this I suddenly, almost without warning, arrive at the ferry port. The town of Neak Loeung is split into two parts, 25% on this side of the river, the rest over the river.
Paying the 500 riel fee I crossed on this dangerous looking roll-on roll-off ferry, along with a few hundred other people, motos and cars.
The banks of the river down to and up from the river are at about 45degree angles and a few of the motos carrying 500 weight of rice were struggling, my bike, the beast, made it up without a problem.

Once over into the main town I stopped at a restaurant I had eaten in during my last visit here. It is just a small Khmer hole-in-the-wall type restaurant, but the food is fresh and tasty. Also, outside they have large tin bowls full of live lobsters, crabs and fish that they sell - or cook.

After eating a dish of stir-fried chicken in ginger and soybean sauce I head over to the best hotel in town, oops, I mean the only hotel in town, and check in for the night.

Having showered and changed I decide to take a small wander around the local market, something that I did not have time to do the last time that I was here.

It turned out to be a typical small town Khmer market, after half an hour I had seen it all, bought myself a couple of tees-shirts and was wondering out the back of it when I spotted a small stall just outside. Stopping at the stall I ordered an ice-coffee and sat for a while watching the world go by – while simultaneously the [Khmer] world was watching me not go by.
After a couple of coffees the women running the stall kept trying to press some food on me, the other couple of customers there were eating small bowls of papaya salad – which is a popular snack over here

I figure, what the hell and say yes to a small bowl

Papaya salad – long thin strips of papaya, flacked smoked fish, bean sprouts, lime, random looking green leaves and slices of small hot powerful red chillies.

It was very good, but I needed a couple more ice coffees to deal with the chillies!

Finishing my coffees and snack I thank the old ladies and head back to the hotel. Still having a few hours of sunlight I feel like getting out of town for just a little longer. There not being much to see in Neak Lueon town itself so I head out of town for an hour on NH1 towards the Vietnamese border.

Stopping after half an hour or so I pull up at a random roadside stall for an ice coffee [hey, it is hot out here!] within ten minutes of me being there I have a crowd of about 12 Khmers around me looking at me and chatting to me, pigeon English, pigeon Khmer, hand gestures, it is a fun 20 minutes when I realise that the sun is getting very low in the sky.

Reluctantly I leave my new friends and start the ride back to the hotel.
The sun is setting on the left, tree lined horizon, rice paddy’s and flooded field filling the fore view – the Cambodia heartland, a much needed change of view and pace after Phnom Penh


Back to hotel, shower, change and ask a random motodop for the best restaurant in town ?!?
After a 20 minute moto ride out into the middle of nowhere with no street lights and almost no houses we turn off down a dirt road towards some trees. This is it I thought, I am going to be mugged in the middle of nowhere by this guys friends and there is nothing I can do about it !

Turning a corner on the dirt road we are suddenly face to face with a large, brightly lit restaurant full of people.

How relieved am I !!!

The food at the restaurant appears to be somewhat limited in choice, but it turns out to be very, very, tasty.

Restaurant in the middle of nowhere
- ground pork, onion and bean sprout omelettes with salad and herbs
- beef stew; onion, carrots, bok choy, morning glory, noodles, soya
- a few Tiger Beers…



27th – Heading Back to PP

The following morning I have a bit of a late start, laying in bed until midmorning, after which I checkout and stroll around the corner for the traditional Khmer breakfast – rice and bacon, sweet chilli sauce, pickled veg and fish broth…

After which, all that is left is for me to start retracing my steps, first of all to the hotel, then to the ferry and then to Phnom Penh.

The journey home is pretty much the same as the journey out here, with me even stopping at the same restaurant as on the way out for a midway coffee break.

The only change in routine was a stop for petrol, way, way cheaper than in PP due to it being smuggled into Cambodia from Vietnam in this part of the country! As well as a stop at a local market to buy sheets of dried mango, green mango, sweet mango and corn on the cob [1,000 riel (12p) for 10 cooked corn on the cob, bargain!]

Until after two and a half hours I am back home at last !!!

*********


New Years Eve will be covered in January’s update, as will January field trips to Battambang province and Kompong Chhnang...