(Actual) Homestay in Cambodia

After leaving Phnom Penh, it was off to a tiny little rice farming village to sort of get a taste of the local life. We had done these before, both in China and Vietnam, and I wasn’t anticipating much. The “homestay” in China was a visit to a guesthouse in a small village. We got to eat local foods, but we had very little interaction with local people. The one in Sapa, Vietnam was just a drunkfest with karaoke. Fortunately, the one in Cambodia turned out to be quite different.

I wish I could remember the name of the little village, but I do not off the top of my head. I’ll look it up and plug it in. The bus ride to the village took several hours and we arrived at the homes in which we were staying late in the afternoon. We wanted to go out and harvest some rice, but we arrived too late for that. We looked around at the homes in which we were staying and briefly met the owners of the properties. Afterwards, we were allocated to houses and we left for a short trek and dinner.

The trek was along a muddy road, since it had been raining, and across a few bridges. The biggest highlights of the trek were having local children run to the street when we passed by to say hello and a waterfall that was too far away to be very exciting. It took about 45-minutes to get to the restaurant. Once there, we had what I couldn’t call much more than a mediocre meal, but the people who served us were nice and I guess it served it’s purpose.

After dinner, we returned to the homes in which we were staying. All of us gathered with all of the hosts and their families and we sat together drinking rice wine and sharing food while we went around and asked questions of our hosts and they asked questions of us. This was tremendously interesting as we were able to learn much about rice farming and life in Cambodia’s rural villages. There also were some interesting information about life during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Overall, it was one of the most enjoyable evenings of the trip.

Around 10:30 or 11, we went to bed. Eight of us slept on sleeping bags or mattresses located in a room above where we had just met. Thanks to Advil PM, I slept really well, waking up occasionally between three and five because of a rooster that had problems telling time. Also, it was my first time sleeping while surrounded by a mosquito net, so that was interesting. I woke up for good around 6:15 and had a little panic attack because I couldn’t find my bank cards. Eventually, I found them in the pants that I had been wearing the day before and all was well in the world.

We said goodbye to our hosts and went back to the restaurant from the night before for breakfast. There, we had instant coffee, garlic bread and omelets for breakfast. I must say that I learned that garlic bread is a very underrated breakfast entrée.

That was it for the homestay. We all wished that it had been a little bit longer in order to spend some time in the rice fields and to go trekking to the waterfall that we had barely seen the day before, but such is life. From the homestay, we headed out by bus to go to Sihanoukville and the beaches. We’ll start that discussion in the next entry.