Us with Phearon and his wife |
So today is our last day in Cambodia, we fly out early
tomorrow morning, first to KL for a three hour stopover then on to
Kuching. I should probably start the day
with last night though, when we decided to head out and have a bit of fun and
relaxation. It has been so frustrating
to have been sick so much during this trip, especially in Cambodia, where
cocktails are expensive if they go over $3 and beer is usually $.50 or maybe
$1.50 for some premium stuff! So as we were both feeling a lot better we headed
into town for some dinner and liquid refreshment, ending up at a place called
the Triangle Bar. We had a great time
here, it was absolutely hilarious, they had a Korean band consisting of three
beautiful girls in short black dresses who sang (and danced) and a guy mashing
away on the keyboard behind them. You
really haven’t travelled until you’ve seen a Korean band sing “Hotel
California” in Cambodia. What an
experience! So as we sat and enjoyed the
beer and the band, I decided now would be a great time to try out one of the
cigars I had picked up on our way through KL.
I have never been a smoker, and can’t recall ever trying a cigar, but I
figured it would be kind of fun to try it out, if for no other reason than to
look cool for a little while ;)
Lunch Time! |
So after watching several youtube video tutorials, and a few
handles of beer for some dutch courage, I decided I was ready to embark on my
epic cigar journey in public. I have no
doubt these were probably not the world’s best cigars, at around $10 for 5, but
they did say vanilla flavoured, which sounds delish to me but would probably
make any real cigar fan cringe. Anyway
as always the staff at this bar were all very lovely, however one young guy was
particularly excited about my cigar antics.
Attempting to show confidence and ability I certainly didn’t feel
inside, I puffed away on my smoke stick as if I did this all the time (usually
before I jump in to fly my fighter jet or kill several armed soldiers with my
bare hands). He commented several times
on it during the night, and while I didn’t mind it too much, it certainly
didn’t blow me away so I decided to give him one of the cigars as well, since I
doubted I would be getting through all 5 any time soon.
He was so excited and grateful, it was really touching and throughout
the rest of the night as we relaxed to the soft soothing sounds our Korean fans
covering everything from “Smooth Operator” to “They Long to be Close to You”
(you know that stupid bottle shop ad song) we would spend time chatting with our
new friend. As we were getting ready to leave, he invited us to his home to
have lunch the next day and to meet his wife, it was such a kind gesture so we
exchanged phone numbers and arranged a rough time to catch up the following
day.
The next day we were planning to take it pretty easy, with
plenty of pool time and chilling out scheduled before trying to get some last
minute shopping done at the night markets.
We heard from Phearon at around 1.30pm who gave our hotel man directions
to give to the tuk-tuk driver so we could get to his house. He met our tuk-tuk on a street corner and we
followed him on his bicycle through some twisting dirt roads (even in the city
unsealed roads are common as soon as you are off the main routes) to his
home. He lives with his wife in a small
flat, which is a
round 4m2 with a single room housing their bed, a
sink, and a small computer set up on a bookshelf. He was so excited to have us there, and
welcomed us in apologising for the lack of space. As we sat on the floor he brought out some
ice cold cans of beer he had sitting in a small bucket with some ice (no
fridge). His wife was out at the Market,
so we started on the beers and chatted away, he is a really lovely guy and his
English is excellent so it wasn’t hard to make conversation.
Phearon and his wife |
He was telling us that he learned English in the Orphanage
he grew up in, as they had volunteers come to help the kids learn. He went to the Orphanage when he was nine,
and that was also where he met his wife.
His wife had already cooked for us before she went out, so Phearon
served up some lunch for us. He said
they weren’t sure what we like to eat, so his wife just cooked his favourite
dish, which is a fish cooked up in a soy sauce and ginger seasoning, as well as
some “Morning Glory” which is a type of green vegetable, similar to baby bock
choy. While we had been extremely wary
of seafood, especially considering the issues we had been having, there was no
way I could turn down his hospitality, and as well it looked bloody good! So I dived in, and the food was absolutely
delicious! I’m not normally a fish fan, but this was a river fish they called a
“Bird Fish” (though it doesn’t fly they told me) and it was so tasty, quite
fatty but this kept it nice and moist, and went really well with the ginger, I
was a big fan and can see why it’s his favourite dish.
Wandering the riverside |
After a little while his wife arrived home, and while her
English is not quite as strong as his, she was still lovely to chat with, and
had an enormous smile. It was just a
really amazing experience, taking us way out of the world we know, and getting
to share a meal with two really lovely people who we could just as easily have
never met. Phearon told us that his
dream was to one day work on a cruise ship, so he could make better money and
travel around a bit, maybe even come and visit us he said! Unfortunately it is
very difficult and expensive even for Cambodians to just get a passport, but hopefully
one day he will be able to do it. We
continued to sit and chat, and enjoy a couple more beers in their home. It was almost surprising how easily the
conversation flowed, considering the language and culture barriers, and we
snapped a few photos with them as well.
It was really interesting that every time we toasted before drinking
(Chung Moy in Cambodia) Phearon would support his arm with his other hand while
we touched drinks. I asked him about it,
and apparently it is a sign of respect in Cambodia, because he is 22 and I was
nearly 30 so he was respecting his “elder”.
Not sure how I feel being seen as an elder, but it was very touching.
Dinner on Pub Street |
So after around an hour and a half we decided it was time to
head off, Phearon and his wife had a wedding celebration to go to later that
night (which they also invited us to but we had to decline). After we left their home we decided to just
wander along the river and enjoy the sights, we ended up finding some really
nice parts of Siem Reap that we hadn’t seen before, it really is quite a lovely
city, much nicer than Phnom Penh in my opinion, and I think we were both still
buzzing a bit from the lunch we had just had.
It was just such an awesome thing to be able to do, and all by chance as
we could just as easily have not met them, but it was also a bit emotional as
well, seeing people be so happy and giving when they had so little. So I think it is probably pretty obvious this
left a bit of an impression on me, and was one of the real highlights of the
whole trip. We ended up in town for a
quick dinner and a couple more beers before heading back to the hotel to pack
our bags ready to head to Kuching the next day.
I’m feeling quite sad about leaving Siem Reap, at times I
have wanted to leave just because it was such a hard place to visit, in that
you are really exposed to people who struggle to earn enough to get by, and yet
I ended up realising that if they could be so kind and happy then it was not my
place to feel down and sorry for them, but rather to enjoy the hospitality they
could provide. One of the real
frustrations here however is how avoidable many of these situations are. Corruption is a massive problem here, and is
a constant theme no matter who you talk to.
The horror of the Khmer Rouge period is something that could not have easily
been dealt with, but this corruption which is so obviously holding the country
back, and continues to expand the massive gap between the wealthy and the poor does
have a solution. Cambodia relies heavily
on many Western countries including Australia ($90 million per year) and that
gives us a large amount of pressure which could be brought to bear on the
Cambodian government. However instead of
using this position of wealth and power to try and bring about positive change,
I see now instead they are proposing that we send our refugees to Cambodia.
The idea of this would be laughable to anyone who has actually travelled here, where over 40% of children are chronically malnourished, and while the 25% of people living under the poverty line has seen improvement over the past few years, the cut off for being above the poverty line means having access to just under $1/day for food. While food is certainly cheaper in Cambodia, it is obvious that amount is still a long way from giving the people anything close to a comfortable lifestyle. The idea that this is a country who could not only welcome Australia’s unwanted, but also guarantee them the protections we are obligated to give (racism is also a significant issue in Cambodia, with a large amount of anti-Vietnamese sentiment present due to past and current issues with the Vietnamese government) just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me.
The idea of this would be laughable to anyone who has actually travelled here, where over 40% of children are chronically malnourished, and while the 25% of people living under the poverty line has seen improvement over the past few years, the cut off for being above the poverty line means having access to just under $1/day for food. While food is certainly cheaper in Cambodia, it is obvious that amount is still a long way from giving the people anything close to a comfortable lifestyle. The idea that this is a country who could not only welcome Australia’s unwanted, but also guarantee them the protections we are obligated to give (racism is also a significant issue in Cambodia, with a large amount of anti-Vietnamese sentiment present due to past and current issues with the Vietnamese government) just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me.
Cambodia is certainly a Country of great beauty and
wonderful people, but there is a lot of sadness here too, not just in the past,
but in the present as well.