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Published: August 8th 2007
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Our family's home...
...and our home for the night. The journey from Kampong Cham to Takeo Again, we were pleasantly surprised by the condition of the public buses - they were good, we even had aircon. However, there would be little chance of any sleep on this journey from Kampong Cham (Blog:
Kampong Cham).
I don't think the driver ever gave his horn a rest for any longer than 30 seconds. It was quite a violent, loud beep at that too - a very rude reawakening if you did manage to drift off. We'd had another early start, so really weren't in the mood for his incessant beeping. All of us were very close to committing murder. Half the time we really couldn't understand what he was beeping at, the other half seemed to be several beeps to warn people we were going to overtake them, then several more as we passed them - which they blatantly took no notice of anyhow. On top of that, it was the usual driving on the pedals south east Asia reactive style of driving, where they don't read the road conditions ahead at all.
We had a brief stop on route where fried spiders were being sold! After eating beetles, this was
Hanging around
Our homestay family a natural progression for Sam and Simon. Somewhat reluctantly, they took on the challenge of eating the little beasties, finding the crunch more than a mouthful. Apparently they tasted of charcoal!
We were relieved to arrive in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Here we did have to fight our way through the Tuk Tuk drivers that were, not so much toutng for business, but insistant on it.
A brief introduction to Phnom Penh We escaped the onslaught to arrive in another one. We went for a long overdue lunch (it had been an early start, remember, and spiders aside, our guide advised us against buying anything from the roadside stalls on the way unless we wanted upset stomachs) at a restaurant that supports homeless children, a not for profit eatery where much of the takings go towards Cambodia children. We were surrounded by kids highly trained in persuasion and selling techniques; there were boot leg (read: photocopied) Lonely Planet guides aplenty for a few dollars.
I had to dig deep into my patience here, as I slowly wasted away waiting for my food. By the time mine arrived, everyone else had eaten there's and was ready
Fried spiders
On the road from Kampong Cham to Phnom Pehn. to go! This is fairly typical of the service in Cambodia, where meals can arrive in any order in the chef's own good time. It is almost always worth the wait though, unless you foolishly go western and expect a pizza or pasta to be as good as back home! A few of our travelling companions got cheese over dose on their pizzas. Perhaps a break from the local cuisine isn't such a good idea afterall, but we were all getting overdosed on rice.
Homestay bound We soon escaped Phnom Penh for the countryside, where we headed for our overnight stay in a traditional Cambodian home with the family. Not before making a local's day as 12 westerners turn up at his off license in need of drinking supplies for a nights entertainment. We had a few beer monsters in our party, so the off license made record sales for the year in one day.
As we got close there was an air of apprehension. We all wondered just how basic the homestay would be. Would we all be in one room with the family in a mud hut? A wooden house on stilts? Some even dared to
question whether in this heat, accepting we wouldn't have aircon, would we have a fan? Not likely. Indeed, it was a wooden house on stilts. The only running water, a Well served by a pump. The only toilet, of the squat variety - actually a step up from the stench filled hole in the ground I expected. Cooking was done outside on a fire. The only rooms inside were for sleeping. As is fairly typical of Cambodian families, this was one with more children than you could count - given the neighbours also came and went, but I understood they were relations also. The population of Cambodia is a very young one, something you can't fail to notice as you travel round, seeing all the inquisitive children smiling at you.
As we played football, card games, musical chairs and chess with the kids, the obvious dawned on me : these kids were just as intelligent and entitled to a good life as anyone else, it's just they've been born into poverty. This family was fortunate to have a Well and the income from Intrepid, but their living is very simple compared to us. They live largely off the land,
Playing musical chairs with the kids
A chance to see Simon's legendary dancing. with this and many families having a couple of Ox and some land to grow some crops on.
We enjoyed a simple but very tasty meal. The kind of meal that most Cambodian families would only be able to afford to make a couple of times a year, say for special occasions. As for our sleeping, 6 of us slept in one room, whilst the others were scattered in the smaller wooden out buildings. We had beds though - and Mosi nets. Being so used to being able to escape to aircon, it was very difficult to get to sleep in the very still humidity. Even worse was not being able to have a shower - the best we'd get is throwing water over us from the pump at the front of the house.
Sadly, the man of the household was in hospital, badly ill. Given the Khmer Rouge's attempts to wipe out medicine in Cambodia, the country is short on quality medical professionals. Money is a prequisite for treatment. No money, no treatment. Yong told us moving stories of people that had died in hospital simply because they could not afford medical treatment. The family's father was
not in safe hands by any means. Yet, the family was so welcoming you would have no idea of their hardships.
It had been an experience that we all got plenty out of. Above all, it gave us a greater understanding of how Cambodians live and reinforced the view that we had already, that these are incredibly resilient and welcoming people.
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