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| Emily, Dany, Vitou, and Vitou's nephew |
The day after the Oudong Mountain excursion, we did a day trip to the village that Vitou, Saory and Samrach come from; David and I on one moto, and Vitou, Dany, and Emily (an Aussie workmate of Dany's) crammed on another, for the 60km ride out to Kampong Speu Province.
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| Vitou's house |
The day started off a bit drizzly and cloudy, but halfway out the clouds began to disperse and the sun put in an appearance. It was an awesome drive, first passing Phnom Penh airport, then continuing west out into the countryside, (which actually isn't flooded here, so has brilliant green fields full of young rice), sugar palms dotting the landscape, and cows, either wandering aimlessly over the road or tethered at the roadside. Along the way we passed numberous wats (pagodas), where normally one would only encounter monks, but because the day was a Buddhist holiday everyone was there, dressed in their Tuesday(?) best, and the wats were all decorated with brightly coloured flags.
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Saory's folks
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After a dusty ride we wound up at Kampong Speu, a rambling country town. 5km down a side road past rice fields and ponds, we turned into a muddy driveway and slipped (literally) in the gate to Vitou's family home, to be met by Vitou's younger brother Puthsa (who now lives at the dorm), older brother, and two cute little nephews, together with any other neighbourhood kids who decided to come and peer at the foreigners. Saory and Samrach soon popped in to see us too.
Vitou and Dany and Puthsa prepared a lovely lunch for us to eat: chicken boiled in coconut juice, salad, and rice - the salad containing a number of green tomatoes as no Khmer ever seems to be patient enough to wait for fruit to ripen!
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| the offending fruit |
After lunch we had a look round the village and went to meet Samrach's and Saory's families. While with Saory's family we were offered some fruit which in Khmer is pronounced something like
kwot. Not only was this fruit unripe, and hence sour, but it also had a most remarkable ability (which I'm told it retains even after ripening), to dry up every speck of saliva from the mouth of the eater, such that one can barely swallow. My mouth felt all thick, and any saliva that I had remaining beat a hasty retreat and began to dribble! Okay, not a pretty look ... so I attempted eating it as the locals do, liberally sprinkled with salt and chilli, but, despite the new taste, it was still a most awful experience. Give me unripe tamarind, make me eat green mango, maybe even durian, but please, please, please, not
kwot! What was most scary was just how prolific they seemed to be - every tree in sight seemed to be loaded with the things.
It was just fascinating to see what life in the villages is like in Cambodia, and the background of some of the dormers. The village lifestyle is so simple yet it was really relaxing actually.
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| Peanuts! Oh, you're my friend! |
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Bananas? Huh!
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After this we went to a hill, which was crowned with yet another wat, armed with a bagful of bananas to feed the monkeys. Unfortunately the monkeys there were so well fed that they would accept only peanuts; bananas weren't even graced with a second glance, let alone a taste. So after our vain attempts to attract the monkeys' interest fell on deaf ears (or over-satisfied palates, as the case may have been), some kindly fellow-visitor gave us a handful of nuts, which the monkeys came and gently plucked, one by one, from our hands.
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I'm smiling for the photo,
but this is really scary!
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Dany wanted to cross the antique suspension bridge before we left. So us girls were to walk across and Vitou and David were to ride around and meet us... Well as we walked across the very shabby, very rickety, very wobbly bridge, the rain commenced. We got to the other side and waited in the rain for 15 minutes before David and Vitou finally arrived. They had had to travel about 6km over dirt roads and unfinshed bridges, just to reach the other bank of the river. So, wet and poncho-clad, we departed and followed Vitou out to the main road.
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| Bullfrog |
From here we planned to return to Phnom Penh, while they would stay in the village for the night. However ... the rain was pelting down, the road seemed to be impersonating a canal, and visibility was, to be generous, about 100m. With glasses that had fogged up, and helmet visors in desperate need of windscreen wipers, it wasn't looking promising. By pushing our glasses down below the line of sight, and the viser up a little as an awning, we were able to create a narrow slot through which one may be able to see a bit! So we decided it'd be more sensible to stay on at Vitou's village for the night. Despite the the dampness we had a great time and had another wonderful meal turned on by Vitou and Dany. While there I got to hold a big bull frog, as well as a gecko. We also saw a baby tokay, and in our room we had some fireflies and a bat to keep us company.
We had such an awesome time!
Anna
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