If there's one bus ride I can't stand any more it's the 7 hour, 300km, drive to Battambang. If I can have a ride in a car I'll take it any time. Thornin said he was going back home to Battambang so I said I'd go with him. This means being flexible; it started off being the 17th, then the 19th and finally the 20th. He said we'd leave at 9am, which can also mean anything. This time three of us went off for an ordinary coffee, which means in a regular Khmer restaurant. I can't stand an early morning coffee so I had iced lemon tea. We finally got on the road at 11am.
During the war years we had a coffee called "Camp Coffee". It was in a bottle, like a sauce bottle. I don't know why, but the label on the bottle had a very elegant Indian soldier complete with fancy turban. In fact it looked a lot like a brown sauce as it was a liquid coffee. Later on we discovered it was made of chicory and other things but for us it was coffee. We only had it at night time made with milk and it was lovely. I know coffee aficionados will poo-poo such a coffee but, for those of us who didn't know any better, it was lovely.
When I moved around with Action for Life the rule for me was, "You carry your own suitcase". Because I was generally the senior member of the group, I was showered with gifts when we visited colleges, schools etc. I didn't want anything so the young members would hang around waiting for me to give things away. It was especially true of the young African ladies who wanted anything they could give away as gifts back home. Their suitcases already weighed a ton and they got heavier as the months went by. I flatly refused to help them.
Nowadays, I use the same rule for myself. So when I'm on the road in Cambodia I just have a small backpack. I live on the 3rd floor, 38 steps up from the street, so that's also an incentive to pack light. My first suitcase experience was in 1953 when I went on a school trip. We didn't possess a suitcase so I borrowed one from Jock Kane, our next door neighbour. He was a leading light in the UK Communist Party and had been to China. The suitcase he loaned me came from China and was made from leather that was almost a centimetre thick. It weight a tonne but it was a suitcase and different to anyone else's. I felt quite please with myself.
Dad was also a Communist and I often listened in to over the wall discussions. I remember Jock saying, "People are worried about China attacking other countries with their army. They don't have to; they'll take over the world economically." That was in 1953. Jock was a wise man.
We stopped for lunch on the way but I had little energy for food. I said I'd just have a bowl of soup. He asked and I was told, "They don't have soup." I ended up with fried noodles which I didn't really want. Later Thornin's food arrived, including a bit bowl of soup. I said, "Why couldn't I have soup?" "This is not breakfast soup," he said. "Who said anything about wanting breakfast soup," was my response. Sometimes I wonder what language to communicate in.
I was glad we were driving on a Thursday because it meant there were no wedding marquees taking over half the road. It's strange how the couples asked a fortune teller for an auspicious day for a wedding and he always manages to pick a Friday and a Saturday. In Vietnam the parents often go to a fortune teller to make sure the marriage is a good idea; to make sure it is, the couple try to get to the fortune teller (with a gift) before the parents do. Funerals tend to be more spread out through the week and we did see a few on the way. I've warned my friends here that I don't want the big dragon carriage with everyone wearing black and white.
Thornin got me some Panadol tablets for my fever. I said he might as well get me a box of them. He came with an enormous box with 120 in it; I said I'd be dead before I was able to use them all. They've been helping but I still don't have much energy. I actually enjoy having an excuse to flop on my bed so I have to watch I don't do it for too long.
I met three nice young ladies from Denmark who are living at Thornin's family home. They are here as volunteers to work at an orphanage for three months. Three or four groups a year come so it's extra income for the family.
