I do like to be beside the seaside....

Last September - returning from a public holiday spent in Kompong Som (AKA Sihanoukville) I developed Dengue fever & it took me 6 weeks to fully recover. My work colleague's (R) wife - S - was a complete star & looked after me every day for the first febrile fortnight of the illness. 

She has no english but we seem to have enough in common to understand each other perfectly. One day when I was still house bound we were discussing the beach & sea - which she revealed she had never visited although her husband had on a CPP organised trip that she of course was not invited on. In a moment of delirium I offered to take her when I had recovered. 

A promise is a promise.

So 8 months later I found myself in a minivan with 12 people from S & R's village. This included S & R's 2 daughters, R's brother's son & daughter, S's sisters daughter & two sons, S's youngest sister & two boys from the village who threatened r never to help him or run errands (i.e. go on strike) if they weren't included. There is no such thing as a nuclear family in Cambodia. & one generally does mean all.  J came along for moral support. My first months salary's destination was secured.

The day started for S at 4 am cooking grilled beef & fish cakes & an icebox full of boiled rice for 14 people. Even though this trip was due to her kindness & friendship of course she was expected to continue all her female duties - this reached a head when she was told to watch the bags & clothes whilst the rest of the village people went for their first swim in the sea. This didn't help my feminist rage much.

We all were collected in the hired van by 7 am & on the road to Kampong Som. There was a air of excited hysteria in the vehicle. The little boy who had emotional blackmailed R into taking him who suffers from car sickness began to vomit. This continued for the next 9 hours of travel. Neck Ka-ork - vomiting person as the village people affectionally referred to him for the rest of the trip had even gone on a trip with his father the week before in the front of his delivery truck to "train" for the trip to the sea. He had vomited all that time then also.

It was a long journey punctuated with a picnic lunch stop - apparently I was told by R that this is what Cambodians do. I didn't have the heart to inform him that picnic lunches on road trip are a universally phenomena - x-ref Cambodian exceptionalism.

Excited hysteria - Cambodians are a reserved nation

R's daughter - beside herself for the whole journey

R's daughter & niece watching the in flight entertainment. Hiring a private minibus apparently did not mean I would be relieved of Khmer Karaoke & ultra violent Chinese martial arts movies - there was however some Tom & Jerry thrown in for the kids 

No trip to Kompong Som  is complete without stopping to give a Buddhist offering at a 'mountain' on the way & a photo opportunity.

Me & the mini-village people

We eventually arrived at the sea & the whole bus including Neck Ka-ork run into the sea. S, J & I stood to watch the valuables! Later we sat by the sea & ate plenty of fresh sea food - although this whole trip was a purely/non-tourist Cambodian holiday J & I enforced our barangness to insist that the driver joined our meal.

S with a large concrete dragon - why not?

The following morning the village people went for a 3 hour khmer breakfast & market visit whilst J & I went to the beach to have beauty treatments & get ripped off by Cambodians. In a later text R said "They told to their parents that they were very lucky to go for this lovely holiday because the beach and hotel are very nice. If no you they definitely won't be able to go there because they must pay a lot for accommodation, travelling and especially food. They noted for their parents that at least the breakfasts were spent more than 25$ for the village." This demonstrates it is not just R but the whole of Cambodian who are obsessed with money & food.

The lovely P

The whole village people on the rocks

We met up after breakfast & got ripped off some more, this time with sun lounger rental. I can appreciate Khmers ripping off tourists but treating your own with the same contempt really explains a lot about this place. But the kids enjoyed playing in the sea & then back in the hotel pool. By the afternoon they were all a bit "so we've seen the sea, swam in it, been to the market, swam in the hotel pool, eaten fresh sea food & watched TV in the room - can we go home now" - this I had to remind myself was the Cambodian way & not a sign of their ingratitude or ungratefulness, not that I was looking for gratitude or gratefulness.
S & I went for a swim - her first in the sea ever. We had a good chat. I bought her a scarf she liked. We all had an ice-cream. I do like to be beside the seaside...

P & L enjoying the traditional Cambodian inner tube experience but in a non-traditionally adorned way - rather than wearing swimming costumes they should be fully clothed

The village boys - Neck Ka-ork (foreground) fully recovered from the nauseating journey

There were varying degrees of swimming proficiency which wasn't stressful at all

A - AKA Pam

The 'nice' hotel - korean style

The village people enjoyed the hotel experience, although neck ka-ork couldn't work the shower so washed himself with the bum gum. There were 4 in a room & 2 to a bed - a normal Cambodian living arrangement but poor ill fated neck ka-ork fell out of bed!

The lovely R & S - brother & sister

J & S ready for the beach

The hotel thought we were from an orphanage!

No trip is complete without a family photo with the concrete statue on the roundabout...

The journey home was a lot more subdued with frequent unscheduled stops - it is a universal truth that the whole world is the Cambodian man's urinal!

All in all I hope that S enjoyed some part of the 3 day sojourn to the sea as she was after all the reason for the trip. However  I'm pretty sure the children will remember it for a while - I hope I have repaid my debt for all their kindness to me. And the best bit was that on the trip back neck ka-ork didn't vomit once he walked with an extra spring in his step when he returned to the village. One Cambodian child cured of their travel sickness. My work here is done.....