Remembering Cambodia, Part 2

Cambodia! As I said in my previous blog, every one of my senses was working overtime to absorb every detail of this world so different from mine. Cambodia completely overwhelmed my senses. Here I was, a middle-aged, midwestern mom dropped into a tropical “kingdom of wonder” (Cambodia’s tagline). Now, I don’t mean to say that being overwhelmed was a bad thing. It absolutely was not. It is just the best term I can come up with to describe how it felt to take in something new every time I breathed or opened my eyes or listened to the world around me. It was ALL so different, and I was doing my best to learn how to interact with my surroundings. I will try to drop you into Cambodia of ten years ago, through my memories and through the lens of my camera (that was, of course, always by my side).

Me, in Cambodia, sweaty but learning things every single moment.

Let’s start with the new sights and sounds I was experiencing. The traffic was the first item of note that impressed both my eyes and my ears (and truly terrified me, at least at first). Take this short video clip and play it on a loop, because that is pretty much what traffic was like everywhere in Phnom Penh. Bikes mixed with motos mixed with tuk-tuks (carts pulled by motos) mixed with trucks and cars mixed with PEDESTRIANS – all with someplace to be, all somehow avoiding each other (though not by much). Accidents definitely happen in Cambodia, and it is not great when they do, but I learned that because you ALWAYS had to be on the lookout for others, it wasn’t as enormously frightening as I had at first believed it to be.

Of course, traffic wasn’t all that I was seeing. I saw new-to-me flowers, plants, lizards, birds, and insects everywhere. My camera and I loved that! The people – especially the children – caught my eyes (and my heart). The opulence of the royal palace and grounds versus the obvious poverty of the average household jumped out at me. Many people, especially children, begged for money. I wasn’t used to seeing that. On my second day in Cambodia, our group of teachers for English Camp rode a bus to a local market to do some shopping. Cambodian markets do not have an equivalent here. This market encompassed a city block, with hundreds of shops piled one on top of another. In the aisles between the shops were the beggars, mostly men who had lost limbs to land mines. Some sold postcards, some just asked for money. They would aim their missing limb at us and position themselves between us and the shops. But there was one person who was different. A young woman sat in the middle of an “intersection” in the market. She held a baby in her arms, a child suffering from hydrocephaly. The child barely moved; we wondered if he were even alive. There was a cup in front of them, for any money that might come their way, but the woman didn’t cry out as the other beggars did. She simply sat there, as if that took all the energy she had. Her eyes, and the sight of that baby, are forever etched in my mind.

A building at the Royal Palace

There are so many sounds I remember. I still smile at the thought of the voices of the people selling their wares at the market, calling out to me: “Madam! Madam! I have a deal for you!” I also loved listening to the laughter of children at play, or to the cadence of the voices of our English camp girls as they talked to each other. The music of Cambodia is especially beautiful and so different from our music. When I replay any song, it takes me right back there. I enjoyed hearing instruments that were new to me blending with the vocals on the songs. In the video clip below we North Americans were treated to a traditional Cambodian song and dance. 

Smell and taste go together like sight and sound do. Water never tasted so good as it did in Cambodia, maybe largely because I had never been as thirsty as I was there. I sampled new foods every single day. I often didn’t know what I was eating nor could I identify the ingredients, but I still tasted and enjoyed those meals. At English Camp, we had some amazing people cooking for us, and I enjoyed the aroma of our meals being prepared. The idea of using sweetened condensed milk as a dip for bread just blew me away. It made bread into dessert, and it was so good! I sampled fresh fruits that I had never heard of, and they were delicious. The open-air market featured delicious fruits right around the corner from cuts of raw meat just hanging there. The smells were abundant at the market - some that I liked, and others not so much!

My skin definitely worked overtime in Cambodia as well. One thing I remember clearly is the cool feeling of the church floor on my bare feet. There were many new, rich textures to touch in all the fabrics and finishes around me, but the overwhelming thing my skin felt was the heat. The temperature had me dripping with sweat much of the time. I was glad I hadn’t bothered to bring a hair dryer, as my hair just would have been wet again a few minutes after drying it anyway! If I wasn’t wet with sweat, I was drenched from the rain. Back home I would have considered that a bad thing, but when I was in Cambodia, getting caught in a rainstorm was a real treat. One of my most memorable moments in Cambodia came during a rainstorm. The rain was coming down hard and there was no sign of it letting up. We were a 20-minute walk (on a good day) from our hotel in Siem Reap, but the only thing to do was to start walking. With no protection from the rain, a group of eight of us set off. We skirted mud puddles as it was possible. We enjoyed the laughter of people who watched us from their dry spots. We made it over halfway back when we came to what looked like many other little streams we had crossed. The person in the lead was just saying to be careful, because it was deeper than it looked. I was slightly too close behind him to fully heed those words before I stepped out. It wasn’t exactly deeper than I expected, but it WAS slipperier. Down I went, face first into the squishy, muddy, yucky (let’s not think about what the yuck is) water. I did most things right, except for the part where I was lying down in the street. I kept my mouth shut. I kept my backpack and camera out of the standing water. My Timex took a licking and kept on ticking. Friends helped me up. We made it the rest of the way back the hotel without incident, and once there, I took one of the most necessary showers of my life. I am giggling now, reliving this experience. It definitely made a great story!

My bare feet, as I waited in the church building at Siem Reap

Me, loving the cooling rain during a field trip with our English campers

Our team, walking on the road that later I fell on

After the fall in the muck (with my daughter, Laura)

Of all the new things I experienced in Cambodia, tuk-tuk rides were among my favorites. Riding on a tuk-tuk was a sensory treasure trove. Because it was an open-air vehicle, I was immersed in Cambodian sights, sounds, and smells while at the same time I felt a breeze cooling me down from the oppressive heat. This is definitely and experience I would love to repeat!

I loved all the reflections here, in the tuk-tuk driver's helmet and mirrors!

Marti and I were getting ready for my first-ever tuk-tuk ride.

The longer I stayed in Cambodia, the more my senses adjusted. I only partially realized that in real time. Cambodia and all its differences were working their way into my heart. Joy overcame unease as my own stories replaced the things I had heard about Cambodia before the trip. I am so glad that I had this opportunity to learn and to change and to grow. 

There are more stories to come! Stay tuned!