🛬 A Visitor From The USA Arrives 🛺 Trip To The Thai Border in Thmor Da 🛃
Recently a visitor from the USA came to visit us, so we've been busy entertaining him and doing things like going to the border gate with Thailand.
Badminton Buddies 🏸
A few weeks ago a close friend of mine in the USA told me that a good friend of his was coming to Cambodia and would like to meet up with my family and I. I've never had anyone I know from my life in the USA come to visit me here in Cambodia, so a friend of a friend is still an exciting prospect. While waiting to head to Pramaoy to pick him up, Srey-Yuu and Kanya played a bit of badminton.
A Big Bummer Arrives 👎
While getting ready for the road trip to Pramaoy to pick up our visitor, a stranger came walking down the hill and told me he was the village chief. Strangely enough, he lives 24km away in Thmor Da where the commune chief also lives, so he isn't really connected to our village in any way other than his title. After introducing himself, he gave us an summons invitation to his house warming party, complete with an envelope for us to offer money for going to something that we are more or less obliged to go attend. I guess I am a crazy foreigner, but I don't like the cultural practice of inviting people to a party and making them pay to attend.
Food Prep & A Braces Mishap 👨🍳
We drove an hour to Pramaoy to pick up Joe, our visitor, and we brought him back here to Steung Kach, where I made a big batch of puris and curry for all to enjoy. Unfortunately Pov had an orthodontic problem; one of the brackets of her new braces become detached. This will mean a trip to the capital in the near future to get it fixed and make some other routine adjustments.
Thai Border Run 💂♂️
Even though we were hosting a visitor, some parts of daily life had to continue as normal, such as picking Sakana up from school and doing a little shopping. While in Thmor Da on one of these runs, I decided to take Joe to the Thai border and do a photo at the gate. This simple gate was supposed to become an international border crossing late last year, but we are still waiting. When/if this happens, it will be a life changer for us, and Thailand will become an easier place to do shopping and many other things.
Drive, Drive 🛺
The weather has been foggy and rainy ever since our visitor arrived, and there's only been a few breaks in this weather that revealed the picturesque mountain landscape that surrounds us. Luckily the tuk-tuk has a roof and is a somewhat rain-friendly form of transport, so tuk-tuk rides have been the main form of entertainment.
There are plenty of things to see from tuk-tuk, from the landscapes to the active minefields, and even I never get bored making the same old drive several times a week. I am easily entertained, and I am thankful for that, and so far our visitor is enjoying seeing life in Cambodia through our eyes.
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very nice post to read. I am very impressed with your work on receiving guests and taking them on trips to the Thai border, a very fun and tiring job but you take the time to make posts and curate posts by members of the Asean community.
It was a fun time, but I was unable to blog and earn income while our guest was here. I am glad to be back home and living my normal day-to-day life, but being a tourist is fun for a short time.
The presence of an old friend in your life is a gift and ask him to reminisce on Cambodia and whether he likes Cambodian specialties
I think so far he likes Cambodia very much, and he's already spent a month in Laos and Thailand.
the arrival of guests from one country where you were born, namely from the US, in my opinion, is the most special thing, because friends from one country are friends of one family, because in Cambodia you have never had guests, only this time you have shared story about guests from the US,, if it is clear that guests from your country of birth have arrived, you can ask him about the conditions and situation there ...
even if your friend visits for only a short time at least you already know even if only a little about the situation in the country where you live ... as well as you can tell him about the natural beauty that exists in Cambodia and some places that can please and spoil the eye ,, who knows thanks to you telling him he could touch his heart and be able to stop by that place especially where you live the scenery is very beautiful ,,, maybe he was a special guest on that day because he had visited you.....
I agree, it was a special experience, especially because the USA is so far away. I hope the experience will make it more likely for my parents to visit someday. Our visitor is considering leaving the USA because he has saved a lot of money from working as a lawyer, so he is looking around the world for a new home. He also mentioned wanting to see South America.
It was such a nice experience having a visitor, indeed. And oh, being at the border between Cambodia and Thailand was interesting!
The reason we bought land here is that the border with Thailand is set to become an international crossing in the near future. This will change our lives dramatically because there is a big city on the Thai side with hospitals, markets, and everything we need for daily life. Right now it takes us 8 hours to reach Phnom Penh in our tuk-tuk, very inconvenient.
Wow. That explains it. I hope it'll happen sooner!
It is very cool that you had a guest, especially since it's a friend-of-a-friend rather than a random person. I have missed your daily blogs, though! Good to see you are back! 😁
I haven't taken a Hive hiatus that long in quite some time. It was fun to be a tourist, but it's nice to be home and earning instead of spending.
I don't like the
summonsinvitation idea too. Good thing in Malaysia being, they didn't put an envelope with serial number together 😂There's one time, I brought two envelopes, one with a small "donation" and a blank envelope with absolutely nothing but written my name/title and the back and a handsome number as recorded my "actual" 500 bucks contribution 🤣 fold the envelope into a 50 bucks bill, and insert the rigged envelop and money into a blank envelope.
Rumour has it, someone from the reception steal from the "contribution" 🤣 the host also test me by asking hypothetical question like how much will I contribute for a friend that is "something like us" to see if I will answer 50 or 500. I make an exaggerated gesture, wrapping my arm around his shoulder, hold him ever so close like I'm about to kiss him and saying how much do you think our relationship worth?! He then laughed and say, "I knew it! I need to be more careful with those little rats", as if he's the head of rat 🤣
That Thai border looks epic! We have something similar here, but I haven't got a chance and not dare to use that border 🤣 but I do hope it work for you. In future we will have content from 2 countries!
Your right shoulder view never fail to fascinate me on the ape Speedometer. Everytime when you make that shot, I can't help it but to imagine you're doing 140mph in that tuk-tuk because of the pointing direction of speed 🤣
Those are some complicated party dynamics, only in SE Asia I guess 😂. I've always wanted to throw a western style party just so my Khmer friends can see it, where my wife and I are responsible for food and drink, and there is no cost to anyone to attend. I've never done it though because I have already paid so much to
willinglyattend their parties. I would be a double loser if I made a free western style party for all to attend 😄.Someday the border crossing will be created and I can get insurance for the tuk-tuk so we can enter Thailand. The Thai tuk-tuks will pass me like we are standing still on the highway with our meager 8 horsepower, but at least we will be traveling with fuel efficiency. The tuk-tuk can cruise at 60k all day long, but at 65k and 70k, the engine screams loudly and burns fuel quickly. I once hit 85k traveling downhill in neutral, but don't tell my wife 😉.
A visitor! That's really exciting, for sure! You must be having a great time with him.
And a visitor from the midwest at that, so nice to hear the accent I have lost through the years. Even the sense of humor was very familiar, and it's good proof that good ole' boy Americans can travel to and enjoy Cambodia.