Smoke and Sparks

August 18, 2009 (continued). Surprise! I turned my journal page this morning to begin adding a new day to this blog, et voila, 2.25 more pages from August 18 await (that was a long drive to Sihanoukville, so lots of writing time, I guess).

What a wonderful lunch at a restaurant back in Phnom Penh. It was across the street from a fancy bank and all the employees seemed to be having lunch when we arrived, all dressed in crisp, white shirts and wearing navy slacks of skirts. The food was perfect: Loklak for Daniel, which is beef in a sauce/french fries/tomatoes/lettuce served with rice and a sauce of lime juice, pepper, and sugar; mine was somlor mchukreuang, which consists of morning glory shoots in a delicious lemony-green sauce containing spinach and chicken, all served with rice. Yum! All three other dishes were equally as beautifully prepared and presented--quite the dining experience--and all five meals, three Fantas, and two bottles of water for $15 (we even had peanuts as appetizers and very sweet, fresh pineapple for dessert).

Our two history stops were the Killing Fields and Toulslalong, both very sobering with 3 to 5 million killed. So much to take in and so hard to comprehend. And to think that I was a freshman in college at the time, totally oblivious to the atrocities occurring in Cambodia.

Our final visit of the day was quite a long tuk-tuk ride away to a sister's home and what appeared to be a roadside restaurant. We were seated at a table for the five of us and served jackfruit, a prickly sweet potato-looking fruit what had a sweet/sour flesh inside (a personal favorite), and the red prickly fruit (oh, how to name and describe these delicacies). Then even though Ben had asked for no special treatment, oh my! We were served a meal of six different main dishes and rice. Daniel's lunchtime beef dish--two beautiful plates of it--appeared first, which made him smile to see a familiar favorite. Then, two different soups, one with fish; also, a rice/shrimp dish; plus, two plates of decoratively sliced cucumbers and carrots, plenty of bottled water, and cups with ice for Coke and two other canned drinks (mine was greet and tasted like cream soda [bubblegum, according to Daniel]). Six beautiful ladies who had all worked to prepare the meal joined us for dinner, with lots of giggles and smiles and happy conversation. The member's sister had a painting on the wall, which Don admired and bought. The sister wants to give Ben another painting of a Cambodia scene and will meet us in town in two days to deliver it to him.

The drive home was "smoke and sparks"--we had a small electrical fire in the tuk-tuk, so we pulled over to the side of the road and bailed out until the driver was able to get things into working order again (which he did amazingly quickly with his handy toolbox). Adventure!