Phnon Penh - Cambodge the land of weddings

Kampong Cham was a nice town to relax in for a day. Not too many westerners and it's always good to be by the Mekong. We ate a delicious Steam Boat/Hot Pot Khmer style and my dad will be happy that I also decided it was time to lose some hair. My haircut cost $1!
After a day relaxing I fare welled Imke and Martin and got on a bus to Phnon Penn.

Wow - what a city.. It's nice to be back somewhere I've been before but it also pretty different compared to 7 years ago. The country is developing fast! It has a great feel this city and I had another day or so to relax and soak it up before meeting Adam. I spent some time at the markets and wandering around and ate some yummy food and also visited one tourist site I hadn't been too before called Wat Phnon which was nice but I was reminded of the amount of children and amputees (Land mines) begging at tourist sites. You shouldn't give begging kids money so I made up for it by visiting a great restaurant called Friends, it is an organisation that is setup to help street children and the restaurant is staffed by young people from the street. There are pictures all around the restaurant of ex-staff in their new jobs in the better restaurants around town.

I met up with Adam who used to live in Phnon Penh for 3 years. He was back for a visit and a couple of weddings. Its funny - it must be wedding season in Cambodia because I have seen at least one, usually more, every day I have been here.
On Tuesday we met up with Monica (Canadian) who just got married (to a local Khmer) and some of her friends and we went on a boat cruise up the Mekong to "the silk island" - an island in the Mekong - where we saw some women working silk looms and had a bit of a look around. That night we went to a North Korean restaurant which was pretty cheesy! During our meal the young waitresses got up and sang and danced and played North Korean instruments - mostly really cheesy romantic songs. They actually were very good at what they did!

The following morning Adam and I hit the road to head down to a local village in the provinces, we hired small motorbikes (100cc) and drove for about 1.5 hrs. Unfortunately my bike was pretty bad and broke down but a mechanic had it fixed in no time for the fee of 50 cents!

We made it to the village we were headed and to the house of Peat - an old friend of Adams. Peat has been 51 for the last 8 years that Adam has known him and he used to ride a cyclo in Phnon Penh when they met. Adam had a new house built for Peat in his village 5 years ago and now Adam is treated like a prince by Peat and all his family and many of the people in the village. I was lucky enough to be asked by Adam to go with him to the wedding of one of Peat's nephews - Raksmey.




After meeting a Peat and his wife we then jumped back on the moto's for another 2 hours to the village where the wedding was - near the Vietnamese border.
We were treated like VIP guests and sat on the table with the grooms family. Apparently the grooms father is now famous because he had foreigners at his son's wedding! We ate delicious food and had a couple of drinks before we got back on the motos for the trip back to Peats village. The party apparently went all night but we left quite early as riding a moto after dark on the roads in Cambodia is pretty tiring ánd we tried unsuccessfully to make it before dark.

The following day we headed to a local pre-Ankorian temple with a Peats daughter and a few of her cousins from the village. We went to Phnomn Chisor which was pretty nice and visited all the many temples on top of this mountain. Peat told me later that Pol Pot used to live around this mountain during his time as leader, and apparently both the Americans and South Vietnamese had tried unsuccessfully to bomb the temple.






We drive back to the village were we were treated to a delicious lunch by Peats brother Pai and his lovely wife. The Khmers would not eat with us foreigners - Adam has asked them many, many times but they always wait until after we had finished. It is a bit strange to be watched by a group of people when you eat!
We decided to spend another night with Peat and his lovely family (his brother and sister both have houses next to Peat) and their children.. Most of their children (and grandchildren) were in the village as they had come from all around to go to the wedding. After another early night we jumped back on the moto's to go back to Phnon Penh for more of Monica's wedding festivities.