First off, long-time-no-see! I just got back from my vacation in Vietnam, but I know I am well overdue with a couple of posts from this last month! For now, posting one for when my mom came to visit me in Cambodia (before I went to Vietnam). I will post some more later once I see Caroline (I am headed to Battambang today to spend time with her and her mom!)
Wrapping up the school year has been the most rewarding, tiring, busy, and also relaxing part of this year so far. It is hard to find a place to start because while I was in the process of wrapping up the school year, I was also relaxing more, reading, and also putting off some of the work needed to be done because it could wait until the next school year to start. On top of all of that, my mom came to Cambodia on the last day of school for me, and so instead of being at the school for the last day, I got special permission from the Peace Corps to go get her (at the expense of a vacation day). My school director and co-teacher both encouraged me to go pick her up because she doesn’t speak Khmer or know Cambodia, and so they said that I need to take care of my mom. I took the bus down on Friday to Phnom Penh in anticipation to meet my mom. At the same time I was in Phnom Penh, the cohort before me actually had their close-out ceremony, and so a lot of them were in Phnom Penh for that. My relaxed night to prepare for my mom turned into seeing people I had not seen in forever and hanging out at a bar until I had to go get my mom at the airport at 10 o’clock at night. Separately, if you know me well, you know I am a heavy rule follower. Peace Corps has a no travel after dark policy, and the airport is 10km away from where I was in Phnom Penh (as well as me reporting I would be in Phnom Penh to get her). I texted the Safety and Security manager (I know a bit of overkill to ask for permission to pick her up but I was on edge, because what if a Peace Corps staff member was on my mom’s flight for some reason!) he said it was all good, which put me at ease, especially because I ran into the PC Cambodia country director at the airport (she was picking up a friend). I’m just saying, that that was fate but also so glad I asked to make sure I could go to the airport to get my mom. Also I was supposed to surprise my mom at the airport, but that didn’t really work out because she went through customs way too fast and I was running late.
We woke up early to catch the bus back to the north. Usually the buses are slightly empty, but because we were headed into a major holiday (which I will talk about later) the bus was jammed packed, all the buses were sold out, and the company added extra seats! So we were crammed into the back for our 5 hour journey. I even ran into two people I knew at the bus stop (a teacher from my town and a volunteer for a French NGO). Our first stop on the trip was Battambang. I would say Battambang is a lesser known stop in Cambodia. Still a tourist stop, but if you are doing Cambodia quick, you may skip it (but I suggest not!) For the afternoon, we just walked around Battambang, and also said hello to one of the aunties who lives in Battambang (the sister of my host grandmother). Saying hello to the aunties, turned into them inviting us back for dinner. We bought them a nice fruit basket as a thank you, and then we had dinner with them. Neither of them speak English and so I was the rough translator between them and my mom. It was for sure difficult for me to try to find things to talk about while also trying to translate for both parties, but I have found the Battambang accent a lot easier to understand than the Banteay Meanchey accent (which is my province). We had to leave early because we had tickets to go see the Phare Ponleu Circus show. There is an art center in Battambang (which is so cool!) and they have shows there and in Siem Reap. The students' flips and tricks were incredible, while also telling a very deep story.
Because we had to leave the aunties’ house quickly, they invited us back to have dinner the next night as well (they also invited us for breakfast and lunch and also offered for us to stay at their house instead of a hotel). Because we scheduled an all day tour the next day, we could only accept their offer for dinner (as well as one of the aunties writing down my phone number to call me later on her flip phone to ensure we will be back in time for dinner). The whole day tour was actually so nice (booked on Viator) because it was the nicest man driving us around on his tuk tuk to see all of the sites in Battambang. We saw many pagodas, the Bamboo Train, the Killing Caves, and Bat Cave/ Phnom Sampeau. He also took us to see how rice paper is made, banana chips are made, a sticky rice snack (it’s hard to describe but I love them), and also how rice noodles are made. For the rice noodles, we just pulled into a neighborhood and he lead us to the back of the house (maybe before Peace Corps I would freak out, but now I’m just like yeah that’s normal) and we saw the long drawn out process of making rice noodles! We asked how he knew that this family made them and he said “this is my home town, I know them” (at this point we were outside of the city). Again, I now have become unphased to this because truly it is just a matter of knowing people in Cambodia in order to find things.
I got to see Anyar (another PC volunteer), who graciously bike to the mountain to see me for just a brief amount of time (and I am so grateful she came to see me). We tuk tuk’ed back to the city to have dinner with the aunties, which was a LOT of food (also all my favorites). My mom said she was really full and so I was eating platefuls upon platefuls of food to ensure that the food wouldn’t go to waste.
We took a taxi, scheduled with help from a teacher from my school, back to my town. We got to my town just in time for the big days for the second most important holiday in Cambodia (although this one is more religious). When we pulled up to my house, all of the brothers and sisters (plus some in-laws) of my older host sister were there, and so I started laughing a little because my house was truly filled with at least 20 people (they had lunch and then left). On Monday, we took my mom to get her hair washed, took her around the market, and around my town. The big thing we did that whole afternoon was to make ansom cek - banana wrapped in rice, wrapped in banana leaves and nom gom (I think I spelled. thisone wrong)-a peanut and coconut mixture wrapped in rice dough, wrapped in banana leaves for Pchum Ben holiday (we didn’t make ansom cruek- aka the pork one, because I don’t like it). This process took hours, but these are the classic foods that you make for the Pchum Ben season (and someone explained to me perfectly it is like turkey on Thanksgiving, you could eat it all the time, but usually you save it for Thanksgiving time). It was also special that my host sister taught us and showed us how to make them because she said she hasn’t made them from scratch since she was a seller of them to help pay for her education.
Pchum Ben, the holiday I have mentioned, was why my bus was filled with people driving from the city back to their hometown. This is a 15 day holiday where people go to the pagoda to pray to ancestors and also give food, etc. to the “ghosts” (I quote ghosts because it is more like a spirit) that needs food and are hungry (these are also spirits who weren’t too good in their life so they are in this limbo stage and need food). Here is more to read about it: https://www.instagram.com/p/DAmxusmInPS/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==.
People pray for 15 days, but it is a national holiday for 3 days at the end of it. My mom got an outfit to wear to the pagoda from the market, and we went to pray at the pagoda. We went to the pagoda in a tuk tuk to pray, then we came back to my house, changed clothes, and rested a little; I went into town to get my mom’s laundry and also some more perfume she wanted (from my coteacher's wife who is a seller at the market) and then came back and got my mom some snacks and then ordered everyone at the house tea from my tea/coffee lady, Rin Da (also telling her to not be alarmed that I wont be here for two weeks because last time when I was gone for so long she thought I went back to America without saying goodbye). Then we hung out with family and ate and then had beers with my neighbor and chatted with each other. On the day we were supposed to leave for Siem Reap we stayed a little longer in the morning in order to go to the pagoda again and do the most important day of prayer where we scooped cooked rice into the bowls of all the monks and gave them money. (note that the pagoda we go to is actually in another town because we go to the "hometown" pagoda, so it is about a 20 minute tuk tuk ride there, instead of going to the pagoda in my town). After that, we had a huge cook out with the family where we did cook-your-own-beef, and it kind of felt like when you have lunch on Sunday after church because my whole host family ate together, which we never do.
My mom and I had to pack up because with her limited time, we had to go to Siem Real to continue our tourism journey. We took a taxi from my house to the hotel with a driver who also works at my host sister’s school (I tell you it feels like I “gotta guy for everything” like that Post Malone and Luke Combs song). Through him we booked a taxi and also driving service and guide for the temples and he is so great, this will be in my guide listed later. Separately, the hotel we stayed at (which will also go in the guide) had the nicest staff and let me speak Khmer to them the whole time. The money for the hotel went to a good cause, the hotel was trying its best to employ its own tuk tuk drivers and also massage people to ensure they have jobs. There was something about the hotel that just was so awesome (People by the Community- name of it). My experience in Siem Reap was the usual, aka filled with super nice people, beautiful temples and nice views, and many places to eat and drink! We also got to go see part of a Kuon Khmer boxing match (the beer companies in Cambodia sponsor events so it was free to go to). I kind of grazed over this section because we did the usual tourism there, which was a temple tour!
From Siem Reap, we headed back to Phnom Penh for the last leg of my mom’s trip. Which was also me trying to crank out 3 museums in 1 day and hit my favorite food spots. My mom isn’t really a museum person but we tried our best to go to the National Museum, the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, and also the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Each of these museums really exemplifies the history of Cambodia and so I think it is important to go to all of them and go to them with intention to see and learn about Cambodian history. Unfortunately with the lack of time we didn’t see all we could, but I recommend it all. We also got to go to some of the food spots I like and also went to Mawsim Gin Bar, which I was wanting to go to for awhile! You have to text to make a reservation, and at first we were the only people there but some people with no reservation showed up and because there was availability, they stayed so it was nice to chat with them at the bar.
I know this kind of grazed over a lot of things from my mom’s one week trip, but it is so difficult to put into words everything that she got to experience, and also how special it was that she got to see a major holiday and go to the pagoda with her time in Cambodia. Depending on the season, you can always find a major Cambodian tradition to attend to (Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben, Water Festival, a wedding, a funeral...). I encourage everyone to still come to Cambodia to see the beauty of it. Secondly, I think that her experience also exemplified how friendly everyone is in Cambodia. I think that is always the first thing I think about and the hospitality of everyone is unmatched. I mean c'mon, the aunties in Battambang offered for us to eat breakfast even on the day we had to leave! I will be posting my guide that I made soon and also will be posting about my travels to Vietnam which was my continued vacation after my mom left (I get all of October off).
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