A Weekend in Kep

We've just had a 4 day holiday from school.  Monday was Women's Day (why did I have to move overseas to learn about that one?) and Tuesday was a freebie. So the girls and I decided to hop a bus to a seaside town called Kep.

Kep (sounds like Kipe) is on a little southern tip of Cambodia.  Compared to Phnom Penh, it is quiet, quaint and peaceful.  It was delightful to breath fresh air and get a break from the noises of the city.

After a 4-5 hour bus ride we arrived just outside our little boutique hotel, Brise de Kep.  It was right on the sea with little curtained sunbeds.  We decided to walk along the beach into the town proper and find a place for dinner.

Here I'm standing at the end of a boat slip.  I have to digress from my original story and mention the giant gastropod I'm sporting on my t-shirt.  Yes that's a large snail, and you can't tell but that quirky snail is reading a book.  One of my students made that drawing, and it made it onto the school t-shirt.  To the folks from Vegas- has anyone been to see the Cirque show Mystere`?  Well, I won't spoil the ending, but if you've seen it you'll see the connection to my shirt.  See, I was meant to be here.


Returning to Kep... here are some photos of our walk along the sea.

There was lots of statuary around town.

Including this monstrosity.

If you couldn't surmise from the picture, Kep is known for it's fresh and delicious crab.  

If I was a teacher in this town I might be tempted to tell my students that the giant Kep crab comes alive at night and pinches off the toes of children who don't do their homework. 

Some of the leaves were turning red on the trees and it almost felt like fall in New England... almost.

It was relatively clean and there were sidewalks to walk on.  Did you hear me? Sidewalks! I tell you it was a wonderful, beautiful thing.

Fishing boats at sunset.

We had dinner at a little Italian place and I had a stuffed crab salad (in honor of Kep and its giant crab mascot).  Mango smoothies are a work of art here. They are as beautiful to the eyes as they are to taste. I can't help getting a still life shot in.

We were able to watch the sunset from the deck of our restaurant.  My camera cannot do justice to the fiery orange orb that slowly sank towards the sea.

After dinner we caught a tuk tuk home because it was too far to walk back in the dark. We met the friendliest fellow who I'm just going to call "Shawn." We practiced our Khmer with him and he practiced his English with us. Every time he turned around to talk to us he would swerve all over the road.  It was fine because Kep really is a quiet town and there weren't many people on the road. And we were going about 7 miles an hour, anyway.  

The next day we decided to go out to Rabbit Island. It's only a short boat ride away.  

We took a boat like this one. HMS ____ fill in the blank with your best idea.  I'm sure this gal hasn't been christened with a bottle of Champagne.

Our boatman. In case you're wondering, yes the boat had a motor. He only used the bamboo pole to push us away from the dock and aim us out to sea.

Our approach to Rabbit Island.

We had a nice long day sitting on the beach and swimming in the sea.  I saw this beautiful creature while swimming.  I'm sorry to say that some other kids found him.  I later saw him being carried to shore, destined for a soup of some sort, I'm sure.  I should have given him a toss into deep sea.  I feel a bit responsible for his shortened life span.

Massage huts right on the beach.  A bit public for my taste, but some folks were giving it a go.

I had spicy crab for lunch, what else?  We watched as the man walked to the ocean and retrieved our lunch directly from the sea.  

The next morning a few of us decided to do a little hike in Kep National Park.

There were pretty views of the ocean along the way. It was a little bit tortuous to look at that ocean as we climbed up the hot, dusty trail.

So we descended and decided to look for a pool around town to take a dip in. This turned out to be an adventure. The Royal Rock has the newest, nicest pool in town, but after a whole day at Rabbit Island with ineffective sunblock, we needed a pool with some shady areas and the Royal Rock could not offer this to us. 

Someone recommended the Le Ponton, but once we got there we found out their pool was full with hotel guests.  On we went to the Malibu.  "So sorry Madame, we just put acid in the pool."  We ended up at Kukuluku that Mr. Shawn (remember the friendly driver? He made a few appearances over the weekend) had been recommending all along.  It's definitely a place that one 'ends up' in.  It looked like a bombed out war ruin, with water related relics all around.  But the pool was clean and we used it for free.  I wish I had taken a picture to share with you, but really the place was more a topic of conversation than something you want to document in visual history.  After our cool and refreshing dunk in the pool, Miss Susan and I sat on a curtained sunbed on the beach (it was best to make as little contact with that beach as possible) and hashed out most of the problems of the world.

It was a day of extremes.  From the hot dusty trail, to a cool and refreshing pool.  From the Kukuluku and onto the Sailing Club that evening.

We had made reservations for dinner at the Sailing Club for our last night in town.  It's a classy joint right on the ocean and is perfect for a sunset dinner.  It was clean and beautiful, qualities I appreciate more and more since living in Cambodia.

Here are we are at the Sailing Club.  Me, Susan, Danielle, Meredith and Rebecca. And here we come to the end of our happy Kep trail.  

This may sound odd, but one of the nicest highlights of the trip was the good-natured, friendly and safe tuk tuk drivers.  It made the weekend that much more enjoyable.  Sihanoukville could definitely learn a thing or two from her sister on the sea: Kep.

The Cambodian Snack Fairy

Khana is my T.A. and I am a foodie; the birth of a blog post.

Khana is a great gal for many reasons, but I'm going to highlight just one in this post.  Khana leaves little Khmer snacks on my desk for me, and I love it.  It feels like a present.  Like I've been rewarded for being a good girl and a hard worker.  But it also feels like a treat for no reason at all other than friendship, giving and sharing.  It's like an adventure to discover what it's called and what it tastes like.

It's been a great way for me to try many different Khmer foods, that I would probably never venture out to buy on my own.  I love to try new things, but I haven't bought food off the street carts since I've been here.  Maybe that's why I've maintained good health since arriving...I'm building up my bacterial immunity slowly but surely, rather than one good onslaught.  (Other than the time I ate two pieces of papaya, but we won't talk about that here).

Enjoy a gallery of Khmer treats.  I've tried to list the Khmer names for most and the English equivalent.

A type of sweet potato "dom lowng".  'Dom' means 'pound' as in a nail with a hammer.

"pbote dtuk com bow."  A baggie of corn kernels mixed with sugar and shredded coconut.   'Pbote' means corn, 'dtuk' means water, the rest of the words were unclear.
This one was my favorite because I have a coconut fetish.

Little fried dumplings of potatoes and various veggies "Nom chung chroo" Literally means 'pigs foot snack' because it looks like a little piggy foot I guess.  These have appeared on my desk several times and I'm never disappointed.

An ear of corn. "Pbote sngow" or 'boiled corn.'
 The corn is a bit gummy here, different from what we have at home.

Two little fried snacks. "jak kwai" on the left and "nom powng" on the right, which means 'balloon snack.'

Sticky rice and banana treat wrapped in a banana leaf and then grilled.  It's called "nom ahn som ang".  'Ang' means grilled.

Khmer jello of sorts.  "Nom che kah jun"  or 'Monday snack.'  
It had chopped roasted nuts on top and had a delightful nutty flavor.  

This is a banana, steam rolled flat, dipped in batter with black sesame seeds and fried. " nom jake jian" or 'fried banana snack.' This was a fun one.

Here is the picture of the Cambodian snack fairy.

Thank you Khana, you are special to me.

Ducklings

My students are particularly cute during swim time.  We look forward to it every week; except in December when the polar vortex came to Cambodia and it was an arctic 70 degrees.  Yes, swimming was difficult on those chilly days. 

But the days are warming up, and as we head into the inferno of April, I appreciate swim days more and more.

Kesar keeps working on her land forms/bodies of water activity after she changes for swim lessons.  Maybe the goggles helped her identify the bodies of water more clearly.

We take two school vans to Logos to swim.  Mr. Sato and Mr. Ehud are our P.E. teachers.  Both are wonderful fellows.  They are really super with the kids.

Here are the kids following Mr. Sato to the pool.  They look like little yellow ducklings in their school uniforms.

 Warm ups

Miss Khana keeps a watchful eye from the sidelines.

Now those ducklings waddle out of the pond and back to the classroom.

The Wild Things

"They gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws."


After three simple words: No P.E. today.


And the students were disappointed as well.

New Neighbors

They've been doing construction on a house, not directly next door, but one away, and I met our new neighbors one day after work.



This is how it happened:



I pulled up to our gate, and was in the process of unlocking, when a large fellow walked up to me.  As I took off my bike helmet, he asked if I spoke English, and when I said yes, he said, "Oh good, American."  He then explained that they were opening up a club next door.  I thought they meant the gym/club/mini mart at the end of the block.  I thought maybe we could get a deal on a gym membership and felt cheerful at the prospect. He was a big, beefy fellow, so this made sense to me.  

As it turned out the club is not the gym at the end of the block, but the above-mentioned house they've been working on.  And it's a club for their motorcycle gang, the Rebels.  Oh.

Yes well, I then proceeded to ask him if they were "big bad biker dudes" or if they were "nice guys." 


Yes, it came out exactly like that. 


He looked down and said they weren't all bad.  Then I explained that we are all teachers who live in this house and it's our job to train up children to be responsible members of society. 


Yes, I it came out exactly like that.


He explained that they all have day jobs here, and the Aussies keep a close watch over all their activities, so they have to behave whether they want to or not.  Their 'grand opening' party is going to be Saturday, Feb 8th, and our whole house is invited.  I thought, we are also having our school fair on Feb 8th, with hot dogs and a ping pong toss.  I guess it wasn't very neighborly to not invite him, but somehow I didn't think he'd be interested.  Anyway, here are two pictures of our neighbors' newly renovated house and signs. 

Not very hospitable if you ask me.

I went to their website, just to check it out.  I had to click on a firing machine gun to enter the site. I didn't spend much time there.  Meredith looked them up and read that the Cambodian chapter is applying for a casino license, which the Aussies think they will use to launder money and use as a venue for all sorts of other things.  Gracious me.

There are families who live around us; grandpas, children, an elderly grandma in a wheelchair, moms and dads.  The two scenes just don't mix somehow. I really want to know what they think of these big fellas with noisy motorcycles making themselves at home right next door or across the street.

Well, to end on a positive note, Adam, the fellow I spoke to said that if we ever had a problem at our house there would be someone at the club 24 hours that we could ask for assistance.  I thought that was very gentlemanly of him.

I just can't see myself walking into a party full of bikers, so I'm going to skip that party on the 8th.   Sorry, I know that would be a great blog post.  But if there are any other exciting stories that originate from the newest members of our community, I'll be sure to let you know.

Rice Harvest in Rural Cambodia

Here are some neat pictures of rural Cambodia I took while staying out at my brother's place in Takeo Province.  One day some girls and I went out for a bike ride into the countryside and this is what we saw...

 Mushroom farming

Joe gets to ride on the back rack. 

Rice threshing in process.  That's sugar cane growing in the background.

Pet monkey? 

Blowing the chaff away with a fan 

Bundles of cut rice stalks ready to be threshed 

The home of a relative of one of the girls

Lotus flowers in a pond 

You can eat this part of the lotus plant 

One of the girls came back with a stalk of sugar cane from a neighbor. 

You have to peel away the outside bark with your teeth.  Then you can bite off lengths of the exposed sugar cane.  It's very juicy when you chew it.  When you've sucked out all the juice you spit out the tough, fibrous part that's left.

 

(I didn't eat that whole pole of sugar can in case you're wondering, only about 3 joints) 

 Jon is breaking the cane to share

While sifting through my pictures I  noticed how many ways rice was traveling down the path; on the head, back of a little truck, bicycle, and in this picture by moto.

This fella makes babies around town for a living.  Pardon us, sir, you are blocking our path. 

Taking a rest  

 Any idea what this contraption is for?  My guess is that once the rice is cut and tied in bundles, the bundles can be laid and stacked inside the poles then pedaled down the way to be threshed.

 This granny was working out by the rice fields.  She asked if I had ever harvested rice before and I said no.  She said she can only cut about two bundles before she has to take a break.  I thought it was amazing that she was out there harvesting in the first place.

Harvesting rice by hand. 

On picks a pretty flower growing by the rice fields. 

 During the rainy season these rice fields are a stunning green color.  Now that the rains have stopped, everything is yellow.

 Rice waiting to be de-husked by machine

 

To say 'eat' in Khmer literally translates to 'eat rice'.  These little kernels are central to the Khmer diet and way of life.