As I mentioned earlier, I have the opportunity to go to not one, but two Cambodian weddings. The second one was out in a smaller Cambodian town, Purset.
We set out early Saturday morning, Davit driving eight of us in the Land Cruiser, the rest roaring along in a Camry share taxi. We headed up towards the Thai border, circling around the end of Tonle Sap lake, back through the town of Battembang, then on to Purset. We arrived at midday, and I was surprised we did not check into our hotel.
Instead, we headed to the heart of the Central Market, where the wedding tents were set up. Seems it is traditional to feed the out of town guests lunch when they arrive. So, we sat down at the tables, and dishes of food started to arrive. As seems to be the case here, we ate and ate and ate. As we enjoyed, a huge tropical thunderstorm arrived, turning the area under the tents into a lake. Fortunately, this did not happen for the ceremony, or either of the two feasts.
We checked into our hotel rooms, and the gay boys set up shop, doing all the ladies hair and makeup for the wedding. Their room was hilarious, fullfilling every gay stereotype. But, the hair and makeup were great!
As seems to be the custom, we did not go to the actual ceremony, which is for the family. We hung around town, and created a bit of a stir - 15 gay guys hit small town Cambodia.
We headed back to the market area for that night's dinner. It would be a feast fit for a king, except I had been to a Cambodian wedding before, and knew that the real feast would be the next night. We had a really fun time, eating, drinking, laughing and joking alot. Funny how after a few drinks, it does not matter if you speak Khmer, you get the context of the jokes and conversation, and feel a part of the laughter.
We woke up early the next morning, slightly hungover, and Davit insisted we head over to the wedding tents early, something about fruit. I protested, but went along to be a good sport. Good thing, it was one of the highlights of the wedding, if not my trip.
This was a very traditional part of the wedding. At 7:00 in the morning, all the guests gather in the tents, each on given a shrink wrapped bowl of fruit or other goodies. Davit's friend, Soka (sp?) managed to find (or create) a shrink wrapped bowl of Tiger beer.
All of us stood up, and paraded out of the market area, and onto the streets of Purset. Everyone was checking us out, and it was very cool. Oh yes, I should mention that not only was I the only Westerner at the wedding, I was the only Westerner in the whole town. There are absolutely no tourists in this part of Cambodia!
So, we stopped at the side of one of the main streets, and lined up two across from each other with our offerings. The groom made his way to the head of the line, dressed in a traditional Cambodian orange silk outfit, flanked by his best men holding traditional umbrellas - he looked splendid. He passed through the line with a big bouquet of flowers thanking us all.
We then proceeded back through the streets to the wedding tent. As we walked in, we were all given a small gift and a handful of flower petals.
The bride came out to join the groom, and they walked down the tent, all of us showering them with petals, so pretty.
Then, of course.......... it was time to eat again!!! Breakfast was served, and we all chowed down. Then, most of us headed back for naps at the hotel. Again, as the big party was that night, the hair and makeup room was going full tilt.
That night's dinner was at a big restaurant/hall, with huge roof and open sides. There were probably about 400 people there, and it was a bigger version of the first wedding. The food was absolutely amazing, tray after tray kept arriving at our table, and the beer and Johnny Walker Scotch were flowing freely. It was so much fun, meeting new people who didn't speak a word of English, but again, I felt so welcome. The dancing started, and the party continued until about 10:00.
The boys decided they had to go out dancing, but we were in small town Cambodia. Off we went into the night, heading to Battembang, the nearest town with a disco. Not to worry, Davit drank very little, and was dancing most of the evening, so he was just fine to drive.
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Battembang, Davit was also too tired to go out, so we just checked into a hotel, and sent the boys off. We heard they got back at 3:00, but we were dead to the world.
Next morning, we were up early and headed back to Siem Reap. It was quite odd returning, in that it was so apparent that Siem Reap is not a typical Cambodian town. That is likely why I am so comfortable here, it is very Westernized, with so many tourists and amenities suited to them.
We are here for a few days, then off to Phnom Penh, and after that, the beaches of Sihanoukville. More from there.
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