Au Revoir Cambodge!

Today is our final day in Cambodia, we will hopefully catch a bus back to Bangkok tomorrow and then hopefully an overnight train/bus down to the southern islands of Thialand in time for the full moon. Let me just recap how we have spent our final day here. We woke up and went to a school/restaurant to attend a morning class. Mary K and I learned to cook three traditional Khmer dishes. We were first taken to the market to pick out the fresh ingredients for our dishes. That was an event for us in and of itself. Watching men knock living frogs out by hitting them on the heads with mallets and then skinning them whole. Women scaling, deboning and cleaning fish as if it were second nature, and constantly having to dodge live fish jumping out of their boxes and onto the ground at our feet trying to escape for freedom, just to have an old woman reach down and grab it bare-handedly to throw it back in with its mates all awaiting their same fate. After that little treat we headed back and started cooking. I was pretty grossed out at first seeing all that raw meat, chicken, fish, eggs and knowing that I would be eating some of it later, but surprisingly enough, it all turned out really tasty; we're good cooks. We were given a cookbook to bring back with us, so get ready everyone for some serious Khmer cuisine! It was such fun to cook well for myself, meals I create for myself typically consist of soup and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich or eggs or something of equal simplicity. I made Amok curry with fish, Lok Lak diced beef with a sweet/tangy black pepper sauce and fresh vegetables, and a chicken hot/sweet soup with lots of pepper! After that we went back to our guesthouse and hoped on two motorcycles(the most common mode of transportation here) and were taken on tours throughout the countryside and rural villages. My parents, you may not find this next part amusing. Jokingly, I said to my driver, "So, when are you going to let me drive this thing?" Twenty seconds later, he pulled off onto a side street and told me to hop up front. By the way, this bike is manual, not automatic, and I have driven a manual car once in my life, and that was last year. So he gives me a twenty second lesson and tells me to go. I don't do it confidently, or perhaps the problem was that I was too confident. I go slowly a couple of times, not well, and stop quickly, not liking it. He told me to try again, and so I said, fine, last time. One last time was all I needed to crash the bike and we both fell over with the bike between our legs. I scraped up my right knee a bit, but a part from that, most of the damage was done to the bike. $90 worth to be precise. I now look back on it and find the amusement in it and realize it could have been a lot worse...My advice to you: next time you are in a third world country riding leisurely throughout rural villages, leave the driving to trained semi-professionals, lord knows I should.
After that we crossed over a suspended bridge (which I find to be a bit thrilling and cool) and made our way to a bamboo train. This train would be outlawed in the U.S. due to all that liability jargon, but it sure was a good time. Basically it is a small flat truck bed size raft made of bamboo with wheels and an engine. Then you just fly down an abandoned train track for a few kilometers. It's shaky, loud and the fear and threat of derailing is prevalent. We ran into another bamboo train cart coming our way, but because they had less weight on it (we had four people and two motorcycles) they had to get up, disassemble the train and wait for us to pass. How crazy is that? Only in Cambodia, I suppose! Then one of our drivers took us to his home to meet his mother and show us pictures and American books he has (a little random but friendly and warm all the same). After we came back to town and I paid the man for the damage I caused to his bike (tear) Mary K and I went and had Cambodia's best fresh fruit shake. It sure was. All the fruit is always picked fresh and nothing added to it, but mango, pineapple and banana! Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know about the "closing ceremony" in Cambodia! Wish us luck as we use the ever-so-reliable and efficient logistics system of Cambodia and Thailand...Should be interesting.