This is yours truly with Ratha at his mother's home. He provided me with a kid's chair and desk to do this report. My sister Pauline says that all old men should keep their clothes on. I can see it if they are in chilly England but I am not going to apologise to those who object to bare skin; it's a coping skill I've learned since coming to Cambodia. The man downstairs looks worse than I do!
Today's the day to join Ratha on his trip to Poipet to join family members for the 3rd anniversary of their father's death. Buddhism has some interesting thoughts on death. In Cambodia people die but they don't know they are dead for seven days and so a second ceremony is held at that time. I don't know if it's to celebrate the fact that the deceased has come to his or her senses or some other spiritual aspect of dying. I got up at 5.45am and Ratha told me to wait for him on the street at 6.30am; he finally arrived at 7.50am. A truck, loaded with vegetables, was parked in front of his gate so he couldn't get his car out, and he couldn't find the drivers. I could have gone home but I would have had to cart my suitcases with me and climb the four flights of stairs to the apartment.
We had breakfast in Phnom Penh at Brown's Coffee, which is a local company owned by four young Cambodian men. I had Eggs Benedict and it was delicious. Ratha and his brother, Savon, thought I should have somewhere to put my tea while I was sitting in the back of the car. He turned around to check but there was nowhere to put it. We continued along for a few minutes and then a policeman jumped into the road and waved us over. Ratha opened the window and then a five minute shouting match ensured between my two friends and the policeman. Savon kept pointing to me in the back; I had no clue what the problem was. Ratha presented his license and insurance and the ranting went on. Finally, we were allowed to continue. It turned out that a policeman up the road had noticed Savon turning around and had decided he wasn't wearing his seatbelt - which he actually was wearing. The police are very crafty; they spread themselves out along the road and call to another man ahead, using a walkie talkie, to stop cars and hopefully to get a bribe from them.
We left the restaurant at 9am and arrived in Battambang at 1.30pm where we had noodle soup and then we paid a visit to Ratha's father in law's clinic where Ratha's daughter was staying with family members. The clinic has six simple beds and four of them were occupied by small children who were all on saline drips. The BBC once wrote that Cambodia is the place where the people love the needle because the drip comes with it. Medical care for the poor is so basic and often the drip, or simple medication, is the only option. Generally, the children are just suffering from a fever but the parents are terrified of losing the child so they rush to a clinic. I've seen people taking their baby home on the back of a motorbike with mother holding the saline bottle up in the air.
The road to Poipet, on the Thai border, is being widened to four lane and I feel sorry for the people living along it. Often it's being widened right up to the house door. Dust is everywhere and the deep trenches have filled with water because of the daily rains. If I lived there I'd go on holiday until the road was finished. On the way, Ratha pointed out where his dad was killed. He's been on the front seat of a public vehicle, travelling in the night; the driver went straight into the back of a parked truck that had no lights on it. We were greeted at Ratha's mother's home by lots of relatives and I was shooed upstairs to relax on a thin mat covered with a quilt that was a little bit thicker - that's where I'll be sleeping tonight. I thought I was returning tomorrow but now I've learned that I'm staying two nights.
We sat on mats, on the floor, and enjoyed a meal of various kinds of fish and duck. Often the duck is tough but this was tender and delicious with the plum sauce. The daily temperature is around 35C so it was nice to go for a walk after dinner. I'll be sharing the mat with others so I hope nobody snores as I forgot to bring my earplugs.
