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Cambodia/Kâmpóng Saôm Round the world trip 2007
1-1-08
Happy New Year 2008! Last year, 2007, we celebrated in Auckland, New Zealand. This year in Kampong Thom, Cambodia with a good dinner next door, then read and watched Mission Impossible II before going to bed at 10pm.
We are taking the day off to let Art’s butt, replete with saddle sores, heal a little and do errands: get shaving cream, face masks for the dusty roads and to mail our postcards and package. Alas! The post office is closed for the holiday so we’ll come by in the morning on our way out of town.
The Hair Cut. Getting a hair cut in the third world, especially in out of the way places makes my hair stand on end. I approach cautiously, look the situation over. Are they blood letting or setting leaches? The hygienic conditions: has it been swept in the last few months? How clean are the tools, powered or hand clippers? OK, this shop will do. I get into the chair; am draped in some clean towels; show the barber the mole on the back of my head and he commences to clip using the power clippers and a comb. As time passes I start to relax, eventually closing my eyes and turning my trust over to the barber. As I come out of my stupor and notice the man next to me is having the ear wax removed from his ears. Long needle-like spike and tweezers do the job. The barber looks like he is digging for god! My barber finishes up, messages my shoulders and upper arms, grabs my ear lobes like he is going to pull them off and leaves me with a bloody lope cut by his fingernail! One of my worst scenarios is getting HIV from dirty clippers or razor – now a dirty nail!
Nuances of eating in Cambodia on the road. While fishing in our morning noodle and pork soup, we come across bones and knuckles which we pick out with our chop sticks and deftly drop on the floor next to our table so the numerous roving dogs can scarf them up. Utensils are a fork (held in the left hand as a pusher and a spoon for the right – no knives), sometimes chop sticks with the fork and spoon. When eating noodle soup the chop sticks glom onto a bunch of noodles and pull them free and place them in the spoon held in the left hand, then into the mouth. Paper napkins, which here is a roll of toilet paper in a plastic holder, is used then deposited on the floor under the table or in the waste basket, if here happens to be one.
At breakfast yesterday we discovered a new taste: coffee with cream ( we usually drink our coffee black). The drink is hot and thick and sweet—at the bottom of the cup sits 1” of condensed milk. It tastes like a souped-up Ovaltine and packs a definite punch, so we had two! Our guest house the night before had a large room sort of clean; foam beds; two fans; dirty but useable shower; all attached to a party center. The room over-looked the food prep area which was very active: slicing meat, chopping salad mixings, getting ready for a huge birthday party that started at 4pm and ended at 8:30pm. The music could be heard blocks down the street. We ate at a lift-a-lid restaurant where the food is kept out front in shiny silver aluminum pots and you lift each lid and point to that which you want. We had both lunch and dinner with the same family.
January 03 Cambodia/Kampong Cham Weltreise 2007 >
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December 30 Cambodia/Kampong Kdey Weltreise 2007
Happy New Year 2008! Last year, 2007, we celebrated in Auckland, New Zealand. This year in Kampong Thom, Cambodia with a good dinner next door, then read and watched Mission Impossible II before going to bed at 10pm.
We are taking the day off to let Art’s butt, replete with saddle sores, heal a little and do errands: get shaving cream, face masks for the dusty roads and to mail our postcards and package. Alas! The post office is closed for the holiday so we’ll come by in the morning on our way out of town.
The Hair Cut. Getting a hair cut in the third world, especially in out of the way places makes my hair stand on end. I approach cautiously, look the situation over. Are they blood letting or setting leaches? The hygienic conditions: has it been swept in the last few months? How clean are the tools, powered or hand clippers? OK, this shop will do. I get into the chair; am draped in some clean towels; show the barber the mole on the back of my head and he commences to clip using the power clippers and a comb. As time passes I start to relax, eventually closing my eyes and turning my trust over to the barber. As I come out of my stupor and notice the man next to me is having the ear wax removed from his ears. Long needle-like spike and tweezers do the job. The barber looks like he is digging for god! My barber finishes up, messages my shoulders and upper arms, grabs my ear lobes like he is going to pull them off and leaves me with a bloody lope cut by his fingernail! One of my worst scenarios is getting HIV from dirty clippers or razor – now a dirty nail!
Nuances of eating in Cambodia on the road. While fishing in our morning noodle and pork soup, we come across bones and knuckles which we pick out with our chop sticks and deftly drop on the floor next to our table so the numerous roving dogs can scarf them up. Utensils are a fork (held in the left hand as a pusher and a spoon for the right – no knives), sometimes chop sticks with the fork and spoon. When eating noodle soup the chop sticks glom onto a bunch of noodles and pull them free and place them in the spoon held in the left hand, then into the mouth. Paper napkins, which here is a roll of toilet paper in a plastic holder, is used then deposited on the floor under the table or in the waste basket, if here happens to be one.
At breakfast yesterday we discovered a new taste: coffee with cream ( we usually drink our coffee black). The drink is hot and thick and sweet—at the bottom of the cup sits 1” of condensed milk. It tastes like a souped-up Ovaltine and packs a definite punch, so we had two! Our guest house the night before had a large room sort of clean; foam beds; two fans; dirty but useable shower; all attached to a party center. The room over-looked the food prep area which was very active: slicing meat, chopping salad mixings, getting ready for a huge birthday party that started at 4pm and ended at 8:30pm. The music could be heard blocks down the street. We ate at a lift-a-lid restaurant where the food is kept out front in shiny silver aluminum pots and you lift each lid and point to that which you want. We had both lunch and dinner with the same family.
