Kampong Thom

August 21, 2009

Our day in Kampong Thom was full of visits to families. We started the day, however, with our first American food (surprised me to find an American restaurant in this small town). A man from New York City and his Cambodian wife opened the "American Restaurant"--so, for breakfast, Daniel ate a hamburger made from Australian beef, I had French toast (right, American food from Australia and France!), and we all four shared two banana splits made from homemade chocolate, strawberry, and coconut ice cream served with those small, sweet local bananas that we love so much. Yum!

Don scoped out a local market half a block away while we were waiting for service and orders, and he came back rubbing his head. "Ow, I bumped my head," he complained. Ben laughed, "I've done that so many times!" The awnings over some of the stands are not made for tall Americans.












The homes we were invited into were spacious and we always sat on the floor on mats. We sweat "beaucoup." At one home, I was offered a pink and yellow woven fan to keep cool. Ben's white shirt got a brown heart-shaped stain on the back from his leaning against a wooden wall with his sweaty back. In one home, we were offered mugs of hot water to drink--tasted good, actually. One family showed us the garden area Ben had helped them with; they have peppers, beans, eggplant, and other vegetables. They also have papaya and banana trees as well as a tree with sour, round, yellow fruit that made us pucker when ate some.

We drove by Pol Pot's brother's home and found him asleep in his hammock under his house, but be didn't disturb him. Ben expressed that he didn't want to bother him.

The hammocks--I love the hammocks! They're under the houses stretched from pole to pole, in the houses, at the store fronts on the street, in the villages. We see lots of people napping and children playing in hammocks. Makes me think of Erik and JoAnn.

Our trip to tour the 6th Century temples was enriched by the swarm of 17 children and two tour guides. The children all had colorful scarves for sale in bags or draped across their arms. The temple ruins and twisted roots of the trees encasing and sprawling around them were in three sections. The original 217 temples are now reduced to 43, many of which had been bombed by the U.S. when the Viet Kong were in the area. We saw huge craters in the ground and damage to the brick and sandstone walls as evidence of the history.

The multitude of large hotels we saw upon arrival in Siem Reap was surprising to me, as were the wider streets, the curbs, the more orderly traffic, and the lights. We settled on an our decision to eat at an Italian restaurant (owner from Sicily) for dinner, and Don said, "This could be Chicago." Indeed, the buzz of the nightlife and city life is very big-city anywhere-like. Lots of tourist trade in Siem Reap.

The market we roamed after dinner was Cambodian, but different from other ones. One difference is the gravel pathways. Ben found a hammock for his Provo apartment and Don indulged in a fish foot massage. He sat at the edge of a square pool that will seat about four customers on each side. He laughed and laughed and laughed as the tiny fish nipped at the skin on his feet. "That tickles--ooh, that tickles--I can hardly stand it!" he laughed.