It was just another day in Cambodia. We got up at our hotel in Siem Reap, and had a quick breakfast of beef noodle soup, liberally laced with chilli sauce. We dropped the SUV off at Davit's place, as there was definitely no room for it at the local market.
So off we zip on the motorcycle, well protected in t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops and no helmets. It was pretty slow, as the dirt roads have lots of pits and potholes. We arrive at a true local market, just teeming with people. We grab some fresh vegetables, then pass the fresh meat out on tables in the 35 degree heat. We pass some meat parts I have never seen before, but I do recognize the bowl full of live bugs crawling around.
A slithering table of live catfish awaits us, and Davit picks out a nice fat one. He jumps out of the tray while being weighed, and flops about violently. Equally violent is his demise minutes later by a meat cleaver. Truly a vegitarians' nightmare (Sorry Laurie).
Lunch ingredients in hand, we switch back to the SUV for our drive out to the countryside. Davit's parents have a small farm, with a nice modern house not far outside Siem Reap. They are expecting us for lunch, but unfortunately Davit's father is working at his job (they no longer farm). Davit's mother welcomes me warmly, and I check out the place, including 3 dogs, a puppy, 2 cats, 2 newborn kittens (so cute), chickens, chicks, a cow and a calf.
We pick fresh papaya and mangos off the trees, and Davit helps his mother prepare lunch. I watch as he washes the lettuce and cucumbers in the rural Cambodian well water, and wonder if my stomach is as travel hardened as I hope it is.
Davit's sister and cousin come home from school for lunch, and a nice spread is set out on a platform we sit on under an awning. We have rice and lettuce wraps with fish, dipped in a delicious sweet chilli sauce. I tell Davit I really don't like to eat fish skin, and he nicely dispenses only the best parts of the fish to me. I pretend not to notice as his mother picks up the fish head, savouring the best parts - crunch, crunch!
They chat, I listen, we play with the puppy and kittens, it is a peaceful afternoon in the country. I crave and enjoy the simplest things these days.
It is a couple of hours later, and I am at an internet cafe in Siem Reap, and the tummy seems just fine so far. Guess I have that cast iron stomach now.
Cousin, Mom (a nun), sister and Davit
1 comment:
Now this is the kind of experience that you can't buy. Even on a GAP tour! :o)
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