Life in Cambodia

Home

I woke up feeling soggy; sort of like after a long walk in the summer time, when the air hasn’t moved at all, it’s sort of heavy and you’re just starting to sweat; clothes a little damp, face somewhat greasy. Yeah. That’s how I felt. I’ve been sleeping with my A/C off because I think the filter is about 10 years old or something…I end up feeling like I have a serious respiratory infection when I wake up in the morning after having slept with it on all night. It also gives me this false sense of being cold—but then I walk out of my bedroom and start melting again, so what’s the point really? In the end I’m going to be hot, let’s just get used to it and move along. Except at work, of course. I will not give back the A/C rights there—I’ve become 150% more productive since it was installed 2 weeks ago.

ANYWAY, not only did I wake up with that soggy, sluggish, sloppy feeling, but I was stressed, never a good way to start the day. What better way to get over that feeling than procrastinate. Right. So, after a nice cold bucket bath, I hopped on my bike to make my way to the one internet phone in town, and then straight to the office, yes, indeed. But as usual, the power was out and they didn’t have a generator, so no luck to talk to my man today. Humf. I called him anyway on my cell phone (like $10/minute) but you know when you’ve built up the excitement for something and just don’t want to let it go? Yeah, it’s the little things like that that make my days here, so I called him anyway and woke him up (sorry). Just enough though to make me smile for the day and considerably lift my mood. Although my mood was improving already as I had been flagged down by a colleague who was sitting at the favorite coffee shop in town, on my way to the internet phone; I couldn’t refuse since I hadn’t had my coffee yet and so I was happy to stop. Plus, I really love just sitting in the open-air coffee place shootin’ the shit with the guys from the office (I’m one of 4 women in the whole place). We all order the typical: Iced Vietnamese coffee (extra dark) with sweetened condensed milk. It’s really quite good and my favorite way to have it here. We chatted for a good 2 hours about a variety of topic that interest the guys I work with/know here: whether or not I think my boyfriend has another girlfriend on the side since we’ve been apart for 2 months already and he isn’t coming here until July (‘you know, it’s like that sometimes in Cambodia…’), what the agriculture outputs are for different states in America, if Alaskans speak a different language, drinking beer vs. drinking wine, the Chinatown phenomena, Cambodian lack of interest in latrines, the boxing (read: kick-boxing, take-no-prisoners-style, ouch) tournament that’s been in town for the last week and American football vs. rugby vs. soccer…really good stuff. Made me also feel like all was good and right in the world. More procrastination.

We’re planning a big workshop in a few weeks and some folks from Phnom Penh are coming to town, so I went to check out my friend’s parents guest house—Apsara Guest House in Svay Rieng town, definitely a good place if you ever find yourself in town and I’m not around. $10 for an A/C room, $5 for a fan…clean, super friendly with a lovely little terrace. Anyway, this is the same friend of the wedding report a few weeks earlier and the picture albums and DVDs (yes, several of each) were in and I realized quickly how little of the whole sha-bang I participated in. For two days straight this poor woman and her fiancé were covered in silk, gold and sweat. Yes, they looked like they were having fun for a little while, but most of the time the looks on their faces were strained and seemingly screaming “let us out! We want jeans, t-shirts and cake in our room! No more pictures and no more bowing at our parents’ feet! (this happens a lot during the DVD…)”. But we looked through the albums, watched the DVDs and it was good. Then her mom invited me for lunch—which I must say was fantastic because my friend’s husband made it! Apparently he cooks for her and her family a few times a week…this is not the norm. No, not at all, but props to this man; clearly the ladies do love him. He made a solid chicken soup, with lotus flower stems, other greens, pineapples (it worked!) and tomatoes. Rice of course, and a sort of grilled, candied pork skin meat, sliced thin. Fresh mangos for dessert, nice and sweet.

Thoroughly full, I thought why spoil this nice day by going to the office (plus the electricity is probably still out…). So, naturally, as a true daughter of Judy, I decided to go shopping. Although not clothes shopping, but house shopping. With Matt coming soon, my sister planning her trip here and others promising visits (I hope) I figured it was time to get the house a little more comfortable and feeling like home. This considerably lifted my spirits and has indeed made me feel more at home, but of course I never made it to the office.

Anyway, long story short is that sheets are damn expensive here. It reminded me of my US-sheet-buying-experience: I really almost fell over in the US when I finally stopped stealing old sheets from my parents and decided to buy my own (ok, this was only last year, but hey)—I thought Ikea, Target and the like would give me nice cheap sheets in the $15 range for the set. Oh, no, not even at these discount places—upwards of $30 and more?! I never realized that bedding could be so expensive. It’s just cotton, right? I settled for the cheapest variety at Ikea that did feel a little like sandpaper, but I got the set for $20. So, I was not as surprised as I should have been when I went to buy sheets in the market here in Svay Rieng and the woman started at $36 for two sets?! OMG!? What is this, I’m in CAMBODIA! How can sheets still be so expensive? I will fully admit it; I’m a cheapskate when it comes to stuff like this. I bargained and bargained (and all you who lived with me in Cameroon know I’m a fast talker and hard bargainer) and this woman barely budged. In Cambodia this is when the price is actually the going price, as opposed to Cameroon where you have to walk away, come back, make a lot of hissing noises and teeth sucking, play angry, etc. and then the price starts to go down (this can take close to an hour). Anyway, Cambodia is considerably easier; they’re very honest people in the market, no poker faces. Ok, back to the sheets—I really must have looked peeved because she turned to her friend who also said, ‘yeah lady, this is it, the real price; you want the cotton ones, you gotta’ pay for it’. And I did want the cotton ones. The friendly business woman offered me an alternative: if I didn’t want to pay the high-roller price, I could buy, no joke, hot pink nylon-polyester blend, $5 for a set. Hmmm, that didn’t take long. I’ll take the cotton high-grade variety please. I walked away feeling a little lame, but I got cotton sheets at least. Come to visit and you’ll see the lovely designs (think white doves and deep red hearts) and interesting narrative that covers them (‘love forever’). Well, at least I also made off with a good deal on a free-standing Vietnamese hammock I bargained in there! Sweet, this thing is the best—I didn’t want to get out of it once I set it up. I stayed in it for a few hours on the porch after it rained, it was almost cool.

But that wasn’t the end of my shopping spree. Nope. I of course needed cat food (read: sardines in fancy tomato sauce, yeah it’s spoiled) and came upon the jewelry row. Dangerous. Especially since the Cambodians don’t mess around with jewelry. It’s gold. Beautiful handmade gold. Hmmm. Not too expensive. Yeah, so I bought a pair of small hoops with a filigree ball delicately hanging from the middle. Time to head home. Except I have to pass the 4 furniture makers in town to get home. I just wanted to check out how much a desk and a wardrobe might be. The first place was giving serious mark-up for the barang…so I moved on to the next spot. Here I found just what I wanted (and wasn’t looking for, of course)—a Cambodian raised, lounge table. One that all Cambodian families have—coffee table height, double bed size, beautifully carved around the base and good for lounging, sleeping, eating, relaxing…it raises you off the floor but doesn’t feel hot and sticky like your bed. Perfect. It was even stained the same color as my living room furniture. They started at a hefty price. I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap as I had done some homework on this piece. But I got ‘em down $10 and then picked up a half-sized wardrobe for the bedroom. And, it only cost $1 to have it all delivered and moved in! But for real, it was time to stop. I will say though, after having it all in place now, I feel like I’m home. Never made it in to the office because I was too busy finally getting settled in. Come visit!

posted by Life in Cambodia @ 12:29 PM