Anecdotes from trip to PP
I am 600 km from
Ø I wanted to go to PP for personal things and my boss and I combined my trip with work stuff. I had choice of flights but decided to do the car trip one way and then fly home the next week
Ø On a Friday afternoon I went in a car driven by a Khmer consultant who had been training our staff on “ core values”
Ø We arrived
Ø I also remain haunted by how we came onto a moto rider who had crashed, clearly seriously hurt and the consultant continued driving. It is the way here to not offer assistance. Shocked? It comes from lots and lots of complicated reasons such as their own war trauma haunting them at sight of blood, the theft that happens at accidents, the blame apportioned to anyone around who has more money than the victim (we had 2 strikes against us so I was told, cos consultant in new car and my being white), death not odd as in the west and last but not least there being no medical services anyway. This last impossible to reconcile cos all I’d needed to do was at least stem the blood flow and phone into the nearest town cos they actually do have a concept of ambulances.
ØWhat else can I say about such an incident, other than that please don’t quickly judge the decision to drive past – the results from living through civil war, Khmer rouge and then the Vietnamese invasion are as complicated and as deep as we can even guess at
Ø Cheerier anecdotes?
At Katie I met the most amazing female moto driving. She is pretty, sassy and introduces herself with a bold handshake and says “hi, I am the only woman moto driver in Kratie”. Wow.
Ø I spent the day in Kratie being a tourist, which was always planned and the consultant continued on back to his home. I had a ball at a Buddhist nunnery, joking with women carrying building materials up the huge hill, where a new temple being built, got to see heaps of the rare freshwater dolphins that makes Kratie so renowned and even met some local expats. Ended up finding out that the guesthouse we’d checked in at 10pm was run by gay Khmer men and the expats I were with were gay. Thus I am now convinced that Kratie is the gay capital of
Ø Next day traveled into PP on a bus and one of the guys from the day before was traveling before me. Lots of reminders of the eccentric characters I’d meet in the
ØTreated as royalty at a guesthouse that Andrew always stays at – its not what ya know, but who you know! Andrew lived in tiny Cambodian towns so loved my stories of Ratanakiri, he returned to Australia that week for quick visit and now in touch so have contacts in the lovely town of Kratie
Ø First evening in PP, bought a beer in a lovely restaurant by the river, bought a newspaper from the street kids and settled into a place of no dust or mud. Was good treat.
Ø Kids come by with books to sell to tourists. Spoke in Khmer saying no thanks and explained I’ll be about all week and not to hassle me.
Ø Except …… then remembered that there was a touristy type of book I wanted so began to look in the next kid’s basket. Not find. In good English the lad says what am I looking for? Asks me to write it down, so I do, on the corner of the newspaper I had already bought. With a mumbled word and “be right back” he has taken the scrap of paper and left his basket of books at my feet. 45 minutes later he arrives with the book I wanted. Awesome service hey? (had found the book at a bookstore somewhere but then more expensive than the money he had on him, so had to return to nearby and borrow the money and then go get the book and then back to me – such trust that I’d buy the book. Of course I never hesitated to buy it. And it was as good as I had been told. Its about Angkor Wat temples written in the 1300s by a Chinese envoy)
Ø Knew that moment my time in PP was going to be full of good people, good moments and good cheer
Ø Saw some AVI vols, went to work meetings and did lots of shopping
Ø So many shopping stories! Best two are:
- Wanted to buy a small bench top oven and knew what to expect to pay. Was wondering through central markets and saw lovely baking dishes. Lovely but didn’t know size of oven to know if baking dish too large. So in my broken Khmer explain I will come back once I get oven. They nod and smile and then say, “sit, sit, we do” and sure enough the older man goes off to get oven. I answer all the usual questions about how old I am, married, kids, how long lived in their country etc. I not like first arrival from the man, actually just a grill. Off he scurries again. Only moments he is back with exactly what I want. We pull it out and yes my baking dish fits. They parcel it all up as I have explained it all travels up to Ratanakiri. $51 for my one stop shop. Just another good moment.
- Last afternoon of shopping, I have all that was on my long shopping list; essentials like hair conditioner, cheese, medical stuff and 2nd hand books. So I am “window shopping” for wine glasses, in the markets. I see wine glasses and they are all plain glass. I speak to a few market women pointing to their printed tumbler type of glasses asking if have really beautiful wine glasses with some colour. So unusual but one woman points to next stall and sure enough way up at the back (think of the photos you have seen of the stalls full of jumbled stuff all piled up high) there is a box of a jug and matching 6 glasses. There was assistance given to the stall holder for her to scramble to get the box down. We pull it open and I love the print. Blue base, clear stems and a pretty floral print on the glasses. Wow! The matching jug is real glass. Crowd of about 6 stall holders all “ohhhhh and ahhhhing” around me. Tentatively I ask for price expecting them to try to fleece me for about $30. Try $8.
And of course it was then all wrapped up carefully as by now they also knew my life story and knew it all had to travel long way up north.
Ø After each of my shopping excursions I’d get back to the guesthouse and in Khmer all the Khmer staff would crowd around. More inspections and laughs at how I was buying western food. But the wine glasses were so admired. And they too loved the price I got them for. Lots of jokes about them coming to visit and having wine with me while I baked for them. The backpackers at the guesthouse just ignored the crazy woman speaking a mix of Khmer and english with people acting like they were friends from years ago
Don’t expect to need to go visit again for many months. Probably will head north into
