The Children of Cambodia are Wonderful

Day Fourteen: 2/25 – RV Tonle Pandaw Day #3
Title: The children of Cambodia are wonderful

On the first excursion this morning we went to see a temple/monastery. One of the buildings predated those of Angkor Wat. I believe it was built in 700 AD. That is a pretty darn old building. Probably the oldest I have ever seen in person. The newer temples built on the property were very similar to all of the other temples we have seen… crazy bright colors and ornate designs in honor of a multitude of gods. The complex is on top of a “mountain” (we would call it a hill). To get there you could take the “easy” route (a long winding path), “hard” route (291 stairs), or the deaths doors path (ride in a van). I chose deaths door. Just kidding. I walked up the stairs with about six other people. Dad went up the stairs too. He is in decent shape for a guy who turns 65 in two days. He also has really nice calves and manicured feet for his demographic. That might seem like a strange thing for a daughter to write, but if you could see the nastiness below the knees on this boat, you would better appreciate where I’m coming from.

During our two-hour walkabout I made another friend. Her name is Raksmei. She is 13 years old and lives about two kilometers from the monastery. Every Monday and Thursday morning she rides her bike to the ships landing place so that she can practice her English with the foreigners. Her initial attraction to me, besides my gorgeous looks and charming personality, was once again my braces. The braces really are a big hit in Cambodia because of their novelty. She was there with two friends and they were all pointing and whispering. When I saw this I knew they were talking about my teeth. I walked over to them, asked if they spoke English, and then proceeded to draw my now perfect dirt drawing of braces and what they do. Raksmei caught on WAY faster than Dané and her friends yesterday. She explained what I was saying to her friends and seemed delighted.

As we were looking at the 700 AD building one of the boat guys, Voata, was talking with Raksmei. It was clear by the way he was looking at me that she wanted to chat more. I invited her over. I told her that she was welcome to wander around the monastery with me. She seemed thrilled and proceeded to walk with me for the next two hours. We had a very nice time. I taught her the following words; braces, carbonation, chat, ally, prime minister, dialogue and battery, among other things. She was truly like a sponge. She wanted to learn anything and everything. It is crazy how much responsibility Raksmei has for a 13 year old. Evidently she is already teaching English to those in her village who can’t afford to attend classes. She also spends a lot of time taking care of her siblings who are all younger than she. Both of her parents work on a farm, so she often has to care for the little ones. She said after our boat left she was going to go home and make her two little brothers and sisters rice and soup for lunch. My favorite thing about Raksmei is that she never asked me for anything. She didn’t want money and she didn’t want to sell me anything. Raksmei just wanted to talk to me. I am pretty excited. I am going to try and find an English dictionary (neither she nor her teacher has one) in Phnom Penh. The guide told me that he would give it to her next week if I can find one. Let’s hope I can.

Dad and I ate lunch today with a couple from Battle, England. I love them. Their accents are so dang fun. The woman’s name is Jane and the man’s name is Colin. These are easy for me to remember because I just think of Jane Austin and Colin Firth. She has a great sense of humor and Colin seems to be a typical well-to-do English chap. I hope to get to know them better over the next week. I would guess she is in her fifties and that Colin is in his sixties. When speaking with them everything is “brilliant” or “lovely”. Jane dropped so many good lines. I wish I could remember a few. I’ll try to come up with some for a future blog. Another fun fact I learned from Colin was that a “lorry” is a semi-truck.

After lunch we stopped at Kampong Cham, the third biggest city in Cambodia. It didn’t feel all that big to me. Our itinerary included a trip through a local village (Cheungkok), a stop at a mountain top temple and a visit to a local orphanage.

The village stop was interesting. In this part of Cambodia the soil is only suitable for one harvest per year. This means that six-months out of the year the people have nothing to do and no income. Some non-government organization (NGO) has come into the town and taught them handicrafts so that they can sell their wares and make some money out of harvest season.

The village was packed with little ones. They loved having their picture taken and then seeing themselves on the camera. I think the Pandaw brings people through almost weekly, so whities aren’t rare, but they still seemed to really enjoy our visit. It was funny watching the little kids compete with each other for our attention. At times the competition got to the point that pushing and shoving ensued. Speaking of fighting it is time for the Doctor P. fun fact of the day.

The worst thing Doctor P. ever did to his sister was throw a flowerpot at her head. Dad says it was a little red clay pot. He was four or five years old and Barbara made him mad. He doesn’t remember what she did but does remember that they were playing in the sandbox. He got angry, picked it up, and chucked it at her head. Thankfully he missed his mark and the pot shattered against the house. Baba… do you remember what you did to tick him off?

The temples of Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei were more of the same. The grounds of the temples had a decent sized monkey population. I mostly played with them while the others on our tour heard the details of what the god of so and so did. I am really starting to get “templed out”. You can really only see so many before they are all the same.

Our final stop in Kampong Cham was an orphanage. I was expecting this to be almost unbearably sad. Surprisingly the kids in the orphanage seemed pretty darn content. They appeared to be well fed, clothed and had nicer accommodations than many of the other kids we have met thus far on our journey. Additionally all of the kids in the orphanage are receiving an education. That too is more than can be said for many Cambodian children. When we returned to the boat Jane and Colin asked me how many kids I adopted from the orphanage. I am gaining quite the reputation as the child enchanter. In all honesty I don’t know why everyone on the boat isn’t making friends with the people we are meeting along the way. I find my interaction with the kids is quickly becoming the highlight of my trip.

The coolest part of the orphanage, with the exception of the basketball court, was the painting room. Many of the young men and women are learning to paint both watercolor and oil based paintings. These kids were amazingly talented. I few of their works looked like photographs from Angkor Wat. I was really impressed. Dad actually ended up buying two paintings that he plans to use to decorate his new office. Both pictures contain palm trees, so I considered them to be great choices.

When dad and I returned from the afternoon excursion, we immediately went back to our room. On the way we noticed that a bunch of the patio furniture located outside of our rooms was being moved to a small long boat that had pulled up along side our ship. Our cruise purser was on the long boat, so we assumed that they had either swapped out some old furniture or were completing some kind of cleaning process. We continued to our room, left off our stuff and headed for the sundeck.

The ship departed our mooring and set sail for Phnom Phen. After about 30 minutes of sailing a few of us on the deck noticed that we were heading directly towards a sand island in the distance. The river bent the opposite direction. We figured it must have something to do with the channel or preplanned river traffic. As we got closer, it began to look like there were chairs out on the island. The boat continued to move closer and we realized they were OUR deck chairs on the island!

The crew decided to surprise the whole boat by throwing us a sand island cocktail party. The joy that ensued was “brilliant”. All of the passengers were really excited. The backdrop to the set up was a “lovely” Cambodian sunset. The crew created the scene with absolute efficiency. We had music, dancing, homemade tiki torches (pieces of bamboo split at the top with Sterno cans placed in them), a full bar, appetizers, tables, chairs and a bonfire. The second we walked the gangplank off of the boat we were handed a tropical beverage of some sort. Within very few minutes the entire boat was well lubricated. This includes my father who was very happy.

The craziest thing about the cocktail party was that this the first time in the history of the Pandaw that they had ever attempted a sand bank cocktail party. You would have never known it. My favorite element of the evening was seeing the pure joy that it seemed to bring the crew. Many of them are shy and reserved on the boat, so seeing them let loose, enjoy each other and the passengers was really nice. One service guy, who is considered one of the shyest on the boat, serenaded us with a few songs on his guitar. The party concluded with the kitchen staff letting off roughly 100 bottle rockets. Kudos to the staff on the Pandaw, I never knew I could have so much fun with a bunch of old people ;~>

Upon reentering the boat we were served our usual four-course meal. I will never know how they managed to throw a party and still prepare and serve a delicious meal. Everyone was pretty tired after dinner. I blogged a little on the sundeck, talked with one of the Frenchman and then called it a night. Tomorrow we will be in a Phnom Pen for the day. They have scheduled some free time for us. My first priority is finding a dictionary for Raksmei. My second priority is sending this to you!

I hope all of you are well and I will talk to you soon,
Katy