Pineapple and Politics

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I relaxed away the week on board "The Kandika"--Muoy and Kinh's elegant catamaran. The boat sails prominently on the Tonle Sap river, with banks that are milling with foreigners and locals alike. Muoy, Krishna, and I took a tuk-tuk to the Royal Pavilion where Goran picked us up with a dingy and apologized in English to some visibly angry fishermen.
Muoy and Kinh are working to make the boat a business where groups of people can rent it out to take sunset sails. Puthy, a trusted friend and young entrepreneur is helping with the marketing. The boat will be unlike the other boats that cling to the shore with their loud bars. "The Kandika"--meaning ''opening flower?"--will sail away from the shore to observe the bustling life of Sisowath Quay from a quieter perspective.
Muoy, Goran, Krishna, and I sipped pineapple shakes on the top deck of the boat. We also devoured two very delicious Khmer desserts--one of them the equivalent to ''creme caramel'' in the US. The food complimented the conversation amazingly well. It was the most compassionate conversation about world politics that I have ever entered into and--quite frankly--indescribable. When we were circling ourselves with ideas and 'solutions' to the world's problems, Goran interjected--"Look! The sunset! Isn't it beautiful?" And then--we were reminded of another reason why we boarded the boat. The sunset over the shore was shrinking beneath the buildings and bars of Sisowath Quay. The outlines of families sitting on the wall at the Royal Pavilion, looking at the river, could faintly be seen. Muoy pointed out the building that she lived in growing up. "Never, in my life,"she said, "could I have imagined that I would right now be sailing in a boat that faces the flat where I grew up." When Muoy reminisces, she does so with humor, and laughed at herself for this choice of coincidence.

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