Battambang, my first home in Cambodia

I've been coming to Battambang every year since 2002.  In the beginning I rented a very basic wooden home for $25 a month and students came to live with me.  I got so used to the sight of rats they stopped bothering me.  I pushed the toilet door one day and it fell apart; the termites had destroyed it.  We slept in a windowless room that was reached by a rickety ladder.   We had a great time together as the young students were busy with projects, trying to help the poor children in the community.  Once a month Chamnan and friends cooked a meal for about a hundred young children.  We had English classes and taught computers using old donated ones. At one point Chamnan organised English classes for the children living in the slum around the abandoned railway station.  At that time there was only one "institute" teaching basic college courses so my friends decided to move to Phnom Penh where they could study at a university.  That's when I also decided to move there.  I bought a house, which would become my base until 2017 and would be home for students from the provinces.  Actually, I didn't buy it; I gave local friends money to buy it because foreigners aren't allowed to own the ground.

I enjoy coming to Battambang.  It's the second city in Cambodia but much smaller than Phnom Penh.  I doubt if there's any more than half a million people here.  It's quieter, life is slower, and it's far less stressful than being in the capital.  My home nowadays is with Thornin and Serey who have a restaurant and share their lives with Serey's parents and other family members and friends.  In earlier days Serey's father used to take in young boys he'd find roaming the streets.  His family would care for them and send them to school.  He would also teach them the traditional Cambodian ornate wood carving so they would have a trade when they left school.  Nowadays a Canadian friend and I give some money so that six older teenagers can study English.  They promise to come to this home every evening, Monday to Friday, to teach English to up to a hundred younger children.  This place is a going concern.

Thornin and Serey work from the early hours of the morning until after 9.30pm when the restaurant closes.  Today I said I'd take them for a pizza meal.  Their daughter and son joined us.  They are one year and 4 years old and super lively.  To make matters worse, the restaurant gave them balloons on long sticks and a number of times we nearly had our eyes poked out.  Lee An, the son, loves pizza but for him 'pizza' means the little sausages that are embedded in the pastry around the edge of the pizza.  He seeks out the sausage and ignores the pastry.  After that, he picks out things he likes on the pizza and leaves the rest for the adults.

Later in the evening, two car loads of friends arrived from Phnom Penh.  Because it's the national holiday for the boat races, many people use it as a chance to do some travelling.  The restaurant serves a traditional soup which means a large pot of broth and into it you put vegetables, egg, meat, noodles etc.  Afterwards we decided to go for a fruit shake.  These are hugely popular in Cambodia.  They are made with a mixture of fruit, carrot, avocado etc., along with shaved ice, sugar, condensed milk and a raw egg.  My innards shudder at the thought of all that sugar and egg so mine are very basic.  I ordered avocado but it wasn't available so I ended up with strawberry - a daft choice in a country where strawberries aren't grown.  Don't ask me where the 'strawberry' came from but it definitely was a far cry from what I know as a strawberry.  

I don't think I'd survive in the restaurant industry.  The hours would drive me to insanity and the noise would do my head in.  I enjoy the food though.  The children's play area is a great success with the children, and also with adults who need a break.

My drive from Phnom Penh to Battambang with Thornin.

This is a picture of my local ice delivery man.  We can have it in a large block, which is about the size of a railroad tie or he will saw it into sections.  Many people don’t have fridges but they have ice boxes instead.  The machine at the end of his trailer is an ice crusher and so, if you want it that way he’ll do it on the spot.  Everything is available and within easy reach.  It reminded me of a time I had with a friend in India.  He’d invited guests from overseas for dinner and he asked them what they’d like for dessert.  They said they’d like ice cream so he phoned a number and within minutes there was a knock on the door and a man arrived with ice cream.  The lady said she was disappointed she hadn’t had a salwar kameez made, the blouse and pants outfit that Indian women like to wear.  Our host picked up the phone and within minutes a tailor arrived to measure the lady and she would have the outfit the next day.

I got up at 6.30am as Thornin said he’d arrive at 9am and we’d have breakfast together.  At 9am he phoned to say he was having breakfast alone and I should do the same.  At 10am he said he was stuck in traffic and wouldn’t arrive for another 30 minutes.  Welcome to Cambodia.  It wasn’t his fault as the traffic was bad but it complicates life as I kept having to open and close the doors and turn the fan on.

We finally left for Battambang and it took ages to get out of the city because so many people were coming to the river side to watch the practising of the dragon boats.  The provincial races have all been held and the winners are now in Phnom Penh for the championships.  The boats range in size from small ones, holding around 20 people, to big ones that hold around 75 people.  They are all carved out of single trees and are very narrow.  I’m told if a paddler falls off then it’s his problem as the boat doesn’t stop to pick him up.  There are a lot of single day holidays in Cambodia but the boat race is a big 3 day holiday and is a huge attraction for the ordinary folk as it costs nothing to watch the races.  I’ve seen them before and I always get depressed with the amount of rubbish lying around.  It all gets picked up but I don’t like to see it in the first place.

In Phnom Penh there are three rivers - Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac - “Tonle” means ‘river’. During the rainy season there is a huge amount of water coming down the Mekong and so the water from the Tonle Sap lake cannot get into the Mekong to flow south to Vietnam.  Instead, the flow of the water reverses and the lake triples in size.  The boat races signify the time when the water decides to flow south again.

Thornin likes to listen to music on the trip so I loaned him my headphones and I switched off and nodded off.  It’s a six hour drive so there’s a lot of time to nod off.  I’d never drive over here as the roads are narrow and wind all over the place.  There are lots of slow moving trucks, motorbikes and farm equipment on the road so I’d be a nervous wreck at the end of the drive.

We stopped for lunch and had a fish soup and a dish with coriander, beef and pineapple - it was good too.

We arrived at Thornin’s home at 5pm and I settled into my room; I have the same room all the time so I suppose it’s ‘my;’ room.  It’s next to a big hall and tomorrow a monk will give a course on leadershiop to a number of youth.

I was sitting on my own, doing some typing, when a group of men asked me to join them.  One of them owns a bus and we use him each year to move the Canadian dentists from one location to another.  They had a large pot of soup with vegetables.  I asked what it was and was told it was beef.  They gave me a bowl but I have to say it was a different kind of cow to what I’m used to.  I don’t think I saw a single piece of meat as it was mostly intestines.  I sometimes think I’m a walking garbage can as I subject my innards to all kinds of food.  I chewed away, with no clue what I was eating, but it was enjoyable and the company was fun.  There’s something special about being with people you can’t talk to; you just depend on body language and a few smiles.

They’ve left and it’s close to bedtime.  I hope this is going to be OK.  After a while my iPad screen starts to flash on and off every time I type a letter.  It’s hard to read and impossible to check.  I’m told that blogger is a Google creation and I’m using an iPad.  They don’t get along together and so nothing is done to fix the hiccups I keep having.  So wish me luck as I publish this.

A relaxing day at home in Phnom Penh

I hope you can read the text.  I keep trying to convert to large size but my computer won’t obey my commands.  I thought you’d like to see the green oranges that are just across the road from where I live; it’s the first thing I see when I leave the back alley.  A few weeks ago I saw a resort called “Green Orange” and it made no sense to me until I realise what it signified.  These oranges have to be peeled with a knife and they are full of seeds and also delicious juice.


On Sunday evening I offered to take Vuth’s boys to watch him play football.  Only Ponleu wanted to go - the other two wanted to play games - video games.  We were supposed to be there in time to start but there was another game going on and it had only just started.  About 20 years ago I watched a boys’ game in the UK and I’ve never watched a game since.  This time I had to watch almost all of this game, plus Vuth’s game.  After his game ended the team had a farewell party as it was the last game of the season.  While that was going on, there was another football game in progress and so, on one evening, I managed to see one entire game and parts of two games.  If it’s 20 years since I last saw a game, I’m hoping I won’t have to repeat the process.

I always make notes of things that are of interest to me, to include them in the blog.  Recently, I’ve had so much to write about I’ve put off writing about other things.  As I said, they are important to me, as memories of my daily life, and so you have to put up with the next few minutes as I reminisce.

On Friday I had Phearak and Srun over for their English class. Instead of going down four flights of stairs I decided to have a basket and rope system.  It worked well.  I sent my keys down and the lads let themselves in.  We had our customary hour together and then they left, taking the keys with them. They stood in the alley and I let the basket down.  They waved to take it up, which I did, thinking the keys were in it.  Then they waved for me to take the basket down as they still had the keys.  Down it went and then they waved for it to go up again.  This kept going on, with the basket going up and down, without the keys.  I then found out that the basket was landing on the balcony below mine so they were waving for it to go up and over the balcony.  It reminded me of that radio vignette about a bucket going up and down and getting nowhere; I think it was Victor Borge or another of those famous American comedians, in the days when comedians made us laugh.

Here’s a joke from Ponleu (9).  Why isn’t it wise to play cards in the jungle?  Because there are a lot of cheetahs.

Do people ever make comments about how you look or dress?  Here in Cambodia it happens to me all the time from the young folk.  I’ve been told my arms are a bit wobby, like gelatine.  Samnang asked if I’d like some hair gel as mine looked a mess.  He plays a lot of football and prides himself on his physical anatomy.  “Feel my calf”, he said.  “Yours is soft and mine is solid.”  Ponleu said, “What are those things growing out of your eyes.  I realised he was talking about eyelashes.  “Yours make you look like a girl”, he said.  I kind of think that’s a compliment.

At the engagement I asked a friend if she had had an engagement party.  She laughed and said he was so poor he could only bring 2 bags of oranges and they we in a plastic bag and not on a plate.

Oudom (12) said there are only two things he likes about Cambodia - the people and the fact that he doesn’t have to go into the army.  I’d been frustrated because I’d bought plastic suction hooks to go on my tiled wall but they kept falling off.  He said, “Put them in boiled water and it revitalises them.” I did and it worked!  I’ve no idea why he searches out these things at his young age.

Meakara and Sokunthea's engagement ceremony

Meakara and Sokunthea announced their engagement on Friday. I was invited. The happy couple are being blessed by family members who tie red string around their wrists and put some money into their hands.  

One of the first things to be done is to show respect to the family’s ancestors by placing food and lighted candles on the small shrine up on the wall.  All the fruit on the floor is a gift to the ancestors and spirits that take care of the family.  When the guests start to go home the fruit is divided amongst them.

The rings are in the red boxes.  Meakara and Sokunthea announced their engagement on Friday and a family member then went to a jeweller’s shop to have the rings made and the stones set; they were ready by Sunday morning.

Feeding time.  Chicken and veg soup, pickles, beef, a dish I never did identify and delicious bbq’d fish.

The oldest patriarch in the family conducts all the ceremony.  This is where he is blessing the couple and sprinkling holy water on their joined hands.

Getting ready to have the red thread tied around their wrists.  This was a small family affair with around 40 people present.  The families know each other well and are old friends so it was very casual.  Some families invite over a thousand people and it’s held in enormous wedding halls.

Cambodian wedding are very casual.  People chatter away, even during the religious part of the ceremony.  Luckily I didn’t have to sit on the floor as I can’t sit the way the locals do.  They have to turn their feet, usually to the right, so that the soles of their feet are pointed away from people.  It’s hilarious watching them shuffle along, on their bums, when people suggest changes.

Pre-wedding photos are a must.  A friend fromTaiwan is marrying a Thai lady so this is one of a set of photographs they had taken.  It’ll be a very elegant wedding but I won’t be there.

We are now at the end of the ceremony and it’s eating time.  Because I’m elderly I am allowed to sit at the table.  The man sitting down is 82 and recently he had a leg amputated because of diabetes.  He had to be carried from the car into the house.

If you are young, you end up sitting on the floor to eat.  I can sit cross legged for this event but then I’m too far away from the food.  Luckily the younger folk take pity on me and spoon food onto my plate so all I have to do is eat.

Babysitting.

Ponleu wanted the usual cheese on bread for breakfast.  He wants it sliced super thinly because he says it's salty.  I love cheese so I'm quite happy to give him what he wants as it leaves more for me.  He sat on the balcony and declared it was absolutely stupendous.

I took him to the riverside to use up the bag of corn seeds he'd been saving for over a week.  He got a bit fed up with a little lad who kept running through the flocks of pigeons and chasing them away.  A lady, with a tiny child, asked him for some seeds for her child.  They were wasted as the lad was so small he couldn't throw them far.  Thousands of these greedy creatures are based along the riverside and in front of the royal palace.  I presume they are breeding like crazy too.

One of the things that fascinate me, as I walk down the streets here, is the sight of the electrical wires.  They are worse than a jigsaw puzzles.  I've watched electricians come to do something and they unerringly choose the right wire; how they do it I've no idea.  

It's the famous dragon boat races next week.  It takes place at the time from the flow of the water in the Tonle Sap River starts to flow south; during the rainy season it flows north into the Tonle Sap Lake.  The lake triples in size and the depth increases from around 3 metres to over 12.  The biggest boats hold around 75 paddlers so it's an amazing sight.  Look it up on YouTube.  

From there we walked to the French bakery and bought some fresh bread.  If the bread's fresh I can live on it as long as it's got a reasonable layer of butter on it.

The news today was that two senior members of the Khmer Rouge have been sentenced to life imprisonment.  They've already been in prison for life sentences on different issues so nobody's too excited.  They are 87 and 92 years old so life sentences are a bit irrelevant.  The tribunal has been going on since 2006, at a cost of $300 million so people are saying it's a waste of time.  So many lower ranking Khmer Rouge are living an ordinary life and the Prime Minister is saying there should be no more trials.  He's a former Khmer Rouge so it's no wonder he doesn't want any more trials.  One witness said he lives across the street from a former soldier whom he knows cracked children's heads open on tree trunks.  Only 3 people have ever been convicted during the 12 years of the tribunal so many people are saying the country needs to move on.  On the positive side, there are now thousands of pages of testimonial from witnesses about the five years of terror.

Ponleu was quite pleased with himself as he managed to pull out one of his teeth while he was eating lunch.  The other two were removed by the dentist who charged $15.  This is the place to come if you want cheaper dental work.

I listen to Jaron Lanier last night.  He's a pioneer of the internet.  He said that nobody should have anything to do with social media - he doesn't.  He gave lots of valid reasons why we should break away from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc and his arguments sounded very compelling.  It's really quite scary what these people know about us and how they do very little to stop negatively minded people from posting their messages.  

Last night I had two of the brothers staying with me.  It's the last time too!  Oudom is only 3 years older than Ponleu yet he constantly lays the law down to him.  They wanted to watch a movie based on the video game called Minecraft.  Throughout the 1 1/2 hours of the movie I had no clue what was happening.  Oudom offered to explain but I said he didn't have to bother.  He said, "I'm not going to tell you about the move, just the concept behind it."  The language of this 12 year old always blows my mind.  The two lads understood everything that was happening but I felt like a Neanderthal.  

It was a rough night; Oudom slept on top of the covers so I couldn't pull them over me; Ponleu decided to migrate to the foot of the bed.

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