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Published: August 7th 2012
A Humbling Day in Cambodia
I was up bright and early ready to head off to visit Tekea and his family for lunch when Danni phoned me to say she wouldnt be joining me as she wanted to spend the day with her new friend. Somewhat disappointed, I quickly got over it excited at the day ahead!
Tekea turned up at the hotel with a spare helmet for his bike. I jumped on and off we went. It's funny how you don't even think of the danger of jumping on the back of a virtual strangers bike in a foreign country... something you would never do back at home.. but off I went without a care in the world!
After about 5 minutes on the back of the bike, we hit a dirt road.. well you couldnt really call it dirt.. I am sure it was dirt at some point during the year, but right now it was just a big red muddy mess, full of potholes, water and rocks everywhere.. It was bumpy as hell and I don't know how I managed to stay on the back.. I think a few times we almost tipped with Tekea
obviously not used to having a big fat Western woman on the back! lol... I was killing myself laughing and getting quite a few stares from passerbys... After quite some time and a few challenging moments where I thought the bike was just not going to take it any longer, we turned off the main road down a small side track.
This track was no better and even smaller and at times I had to get off and walk a tightrope of grass on the side while Tekea pushed his bike through large puddles of mud... Once we had arrived at his house, I was greeted by his wife, her sister, his 2 year old daughter and "Grandma". Grandma was a really old, grumpy looking Cambodian lady who has probably seen it all in her lifetime and wasn't so impressed by the wide eyed muddy Westerner in her house! LOL... I think I eventually won her over though!
It was heartwarming that Tekea has invited me into his home and family, and I was feeling quite overwhelmed. They were living in a 2 roomed wooden 'house' on stilts with open windows and no doors. The first room was
a lounge/kitchen/anything else and the second room was where everyone slept.
Out the back was a cement toilet room containing the usual squat toilet and a large cement tub of water.. and they obviously just washed (showered) from a big vat of water next to the door of the toilet. WOW. Brings life into perspective.. These people are so happy with so little. Tekea's wife spoke excellent English having worked in the hospitality industry. Grandmother spoke no English and by the end of the day would speak at me in Cambodian and expected me to understand... it was very heartwarming to see her smile at me!
Tekea showed me around and pointed to a small area of grass out the back.. He said it was his dream to build a classroom there and teach all the locals English. We were really out in the local area and very few know English or ever have a reason to encounter Westerners. I would love to one day help him live that dream.
Grandma and his wife started cooking lunch and I was asked if I would like to help out... Of course I would love to! Tekea's wife grabbed
a large bowl of water and asked me to slice the tomatos and onion and wash them in the water as well as some lettuce. I started to feel 'slightly' nervous at where the water had come from, knowing that they had a vat of water downstairs, but felt okay that there was a container of what looked like drinking water sitting in the kitchen area! I did ask Tekea's wife if the water was okay for 'Western tummy' and she assured me yes! Okay well I am just going to have to go with it!
We prepared lunch and sat to eat.. it was REALLY good, it was pork pieces stirfried which you wrapped in the lettuce with the tomato and onion served with plain rice. I tried to avoid the salad and stick to pork on rice, but they were insistent how good the pork was wrapped in the lettuce so I had one done that way! What beautiful people they were bringing me into their home!
After lunch we sat around talking and they showed me their wedding album. It was very elaborate with many wedding dresses and as per a Thai wedding, an event
that lasts all day! Very sweet photos and very sweet people. Eventually it was time to go and I said a sad goodbye to Tekea's wife (I feel awful that I have now after all this time forgotten her name - hence why I like to do blogs as they happen and not 10 months later!).
They asked if I would like to come back the following day and bring Danni, and I said I would love to. I had no other plans and felt it would be wrong of me to turn down the invitation. Not that I wanted to anyway! I got a lift with Tekea back home. His bike was sounding awful and I asked him what was wrong with it. He said it had something wrong with the chain. When we got back to town, we stopped at the markets as I had been telling Tekea about some wooden wall hangings that I was keen to buy. He said he would go with me and negotiate a good price.
After obtaining my wall hangings (which still arent on the walls) I slipped him a $20 note and insisted he take it to repair his
bike. It was the least I could do after they had fed me on what little income Tekea was bringing in to the household.
Exhausted I walked home from the markets, but not before stopping at an amazing little bakery called Blue Pumpkin where I bought an amazing looking lemon cheesecake to have later on. Once I had rested I decided to head out for some dinner. I was starting to feel a little 'funny' in the tummy but thought nothing of it. I was going to get a takeaway pizza to eat back at the room, but at the last minute saw some duck on the menu so decided to sit in and eat... By the end of the meal I was dying to get back to the room due to an ill tummy. After spending a little time on the toilet I managed to polish off my yummy cheesecake and had an early night.
Round 2 of Local Life
The following morning, Danni appeared in the land of the living and we set off to the local markets. We wanted to take out some presents for Tekea's family. We finally decided on taking
out some little bits and pieces for Tekea's daughter including a stuffed teddy that Danni had bought over from Australia, some shoes, a kids pillow with a Disney motif on it and some small cute hair clips. We headed back to the hotel and waited for Tekea to arrive. Not long after he arrived with another friend on two motorbikes.. I tried to warn Danni about the muddy trip she was about to encounter, but I don't think anything could prepare you for the reality!
After a long bumpy muddy ride we arrived at Tekea's house to be greeted by his wife and Grandma (who managed to smile at me now!). Tekea proudly got out his wedding album for Danni to look at and you could see how it was one of his prized possessions.
Grandma cooked us lunch this time and before long we had steamed rice, with a coconut based soup and a small dish of chicken pieces. It tasted amazing but I was slightly worried about the chicken. It was clearly offcuts and there was some redness to the bones.. but not one to shy away from risk and adventure I ate it all... At
one stage while eating my rice, I noticed a large piece that looked different to the rest... it was about 3 times the size and slightly resembled a maggot.... I moved it to the side, put it out of my mind and continued eating! What can you do in this circumstance? While noone was looking I grabbed my grub and moved it to my camera bag, wanting to show Danni for a giggle later that day... It wasnt moving so I assumed it was dead, but later that day when I went to show Danni it was gone! Perhaps it wiggled away after all! LOL
After lunch Tekea asked if we would like to go explore the local area... Of course!!! Off we set on the back of the boys bikes, laughing and having an amazing time... Who doesn't want to explore off the beaten path where few tourists venture?! We headed off down the road passing through small villages and past kids playing in the mud.. every single one of them waving excitedly at us as we went past and a few 'Hellos' thrown in for good measure!
We stopped at a local temple where we explored
the complex. We got to interact with the locals from the little boys trying to catch fish in the pond, to the young Monks hiding behind the temple smoking ciggarettes to the old men praying in the temple wanting us to take their photo! What an amazing opportunity! Afterwards we set off and eventually wound up back in Siem Reap. We gave the boys some money to cover their petrol and they dropped us at the local markets. We then headed to Blue Pumpkin for afternoon dessert... Downstairs is a bakery but head upstairs and its a white futuristic looking cafe with lounges everywhere, free wifi, airconditioning and a great menu of desserts and other stuff!
It was here I finally managed to tell Danni about the grub I found in my rice and we were in stitches when I went to show it to her and it was gone! Haha god knows where it went (or wiggled to). After some relaxing, we headed off to do last minute shopping at the Night Markets..
The plan for tomorrow had worked in our favour, after having been in contact with Tara at Cambodian Childrens Trust, we had worked out
that they were having an excursion to Angkor Wat the following day. Our plan was to meet them at Angkor and spend the day helping them with the excursion. They were doing Angkor Wat in the morning then after lunch were taking the kids horseriding! I was excited as it meant I got to spend the day with Kai! We were then getting a lift to Battambang with them on the excursion bus!
After a couple of hours of shopping at the night market, I knew something was about to go seriously wrong with my health! I started getting the hot/cold sweats and the grumbles in the tummy that say "there is something not right in here" which for anyone who has had 'bali belly' 'thai belly' 'dehli belly', is a completely different grumble to "I need food". I ended up having to cut the shopping short as I was not getting any better despite a couple of trips to the local toilet which resulted in nothing but more tummy cramps!
We headed back to the hotel for an early night as we knew it was going to be a big day tomorrow.... I was about to add
Cambodia to the list of my Countries I have had 'bad bugs in my belly'!
Reet x
*When I tell this story about maggots in my food, possible dirty water, uncooked chicken and food poisoning, I must stress I am not trying to be disrespectful to these beautiful people. I am eternally grateful for the hospitality they showed me. If I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I wouldnt do it any differently.. I wouldn't change a thing, but at the end of the day, its part of the story - good and bad!
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kristina
non-member comment
nice job
hey reet, wow...nice job of remembering from 10 months ago. ha...i can barely remember what i had for lunch yesterday! i love reading your blogs. and the pictures are fantastic, too. was danni the girl you were traveling with when i saw you in thailand? i am so so so feeling the travel itch (scratching arm as we speak...ha)!