Bong-Srai Visits Cambodia

In mid-May, one of my Cambodian dreams came true: my sister Diana came to visit!

We met up in Bangkok and spent a few days in Thailand exploring the northern neighbor of Cambodia.  This included an elephant hike (above, Diana looking eager) and white water rafting (below, it was really white water drifting - low season and all that), and a night in a "traditional Thai village" that rather resembled my own site where I've been living for the past year...

We took advantage of all of the tourist stops, and saw Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha upon Buddha (they really like their golden Buddhas up in Thailand).

Diana looking awesome (so, normal) in the Grand Palace in Bangkok

Upon reentering Cambodia, we stopped first in Siem Reap for her to see the temples of Angkor Wat.  One of Diana's good friends who is currently living in Hong Kong, Jill, met us for some unforgettable days at the ruins.  As you can see below, we had some grand fun in our matching tanks while we showed other tourists the meaning of "style."  (Jill isn't even posing, that's just the way she stands - like a superstar.)

And of course there were the peddlers and sellers, who accosted us at the beginning and end of each temple trying to sell their wares.  Diana preferred to talk to the children selling stuff and make friends.  They were rarely swayed from their objective of making money off of tourists.  

A great reason to travel with Diana is that she loves taking pictures - she carried 3 cameras around with her during her trip. THREE. Unnecessary? She didn't think so. But the plus side of that was that she took pictures I wouldn't think of seeing: a man balancing pipes on a moto, girls in their uniforms riding their bikes home from school - those things are all second nature to me now, part of the scenery and part of my life here.  They aren't things I would think are photograph-worthy but seeing them afterwards I thought to myself, "this is something I want to remember" and was glad she took photos of things I had considered rather mundane.  

However the polls show that the best part of the trip was when I got to take Diana back to my site to meet my host family.  She hit it off right away with Sokchea and Man Kheang, especially when she revealed her gifts to them of Spiderman/Angry Birds themed clothing and games.  

In case you're wondering, my little brothers still draw her pictures and my host mom asks me to tell her hello and that she misses her and was happy when she was here.  Not joking about that.  She really hit it off with the host family!

Alas, Diana learned the hard way, as I have, that when gifting the boys with a puzzle, it probably means you will end up doing it yourself.  

My favorite part of the visit by far were the goodies she brought me: making myself sick on Reeses’ pieces, finally having a watch after not knowing the time for a month, and new running shoes that Sokchea would later thank me for having because the old ones smelled so bad.  Just kidding. Obviously it was having Diana around for two whole weeks! Plus, having Diana around is great for my ego: she kept complimenting me on my Khmer ("that's because you don't know how it's supposed to sound," I told her), and all the Khmer people we met told me we had moak doyk (similar faces)...before following it up with, "but she is skinny and you are fat"...so it goes.  

But seriously - for me, one of the hardest parts about living in my village is that due to the lack of English (...Americans and understanding of American culture), being able to express myself is difficult, if not impossible.  I am limited by foreign words, facial expressions and hand gestures that I am wary of making in case of offending someone by chance.  To be able to be with not only another American, but my sister who knows me so well and thinks in a like manner, was the real holiday for me.  Some PCV jokes were a little more on the difficult side for her to understand in the beginning: "I'm perpetually hungry" - but then when we got to site and she had a rice meal with my family, she understood that rice doesn't really fill you up and that sleeping in a village takes a little bit of practice. In addition, we found it amusing that though we apparently have the same face (I can't see it...but I'm not going to argue with a statement like that), I am the only one who looks Khmer... and Thai! When we were in Thailand I got the good old "you have a Thai face" a few times from the locals just like I get "you have a Khmer face" here in Cambodia.  But Diana didn't.  

It was interesting for me too, to be able to see the ways that I myself had assimilated and didn't notice many parts of Khmer culture that she did.  For example, at one point we were in a taxi with our bags strapped to the roof (quite normal here) and when we slowed down some moto drivers ran alongside the taxi, reaching for our things.  "Amanda, they're stealing our stuff!" Diana said to me frantically.  But I knew they wouldn't take our things, they just thought we might get off and hire them to take us somewhere so they were getting our bags for us.  On a bus, I got off at a stop to get a snack and Diana stayed put, watching the stands and people milling about outside.  I smiled at that one; it took a while for me to feel comfortable to get off at a stop too - the first few times I took the but I never got off at a stop.  

People in my village asked me the the same questions about her as they had (and still do) ask about me: how old is she? What does she do? Is she married? Why not? Does she have a boyfriend? What is her salary? What is her boyfriend like? Why is she so white and you are not? Is she going to get married? Is she going to have kids? Is she moving to Cambodia? Does she like it here? Does she miss America? I answered the questions the best that I could and reminisced about my own answers.  It was also really fun to introduce her to my sister so that they could see that me being an odd American wasn't an anomaly - it runs in my family. :)  I was sad when she went back, but no big deal, Diana is a regular correspondent and suffers my torrent of attention when I have access to internet and whatnot.  

Diana is going to post a "celebrity blog" next, about her experience here and I am curious enough to read it myself.  I wonder if the things she thought of are the same things I thought in my first few days here, and I wonder if she dreamed of the States like I do.  

Waiting for the Superparents to arrive next!

xo-Amanda