🍌 Bananas + 🎤 Karaoke + 🏞️ River + 🌄 Mountains = Life In Steung Kach, Cambodia 🛖
Here in the Cardamom Mountains it's tough to get things growing in rock and clay, but our bananas are looking pretty healthy despite the circumstances.
The River Is Slowly Rising ⬆️
After marveling at our nearly ready to eat bananas, I walked down to the river to see Mey-Yii and Monkey taking a swim break on a hot boulder. It's been raining a little now and then, and already the wildfires have come to an end and the river is coming back to life. Our construction goals are far from achieved, but we already learned last year that building is nearly impossible during the rainy season here.
Surprise In-Law Karaoke Visit 🎤
After returning from school with Monkey-B, Pov, and 25 kgs of rice, I noticed we had some visitors hanging out with Uncle Mab. Because I had much work to catch up on, I decided to retreat to my room and catch up on Hive duties before hanging out. Once I knew I had drained my voting power for at least a couple of hours into the future, I went over to the cabin and met the three guys that were already drinking hard with Uncle Mab and our neighbor, and in the process of setting up a karaoke speaker.
I knew I only had a few minutes to try and get to know these folks before the speaker would be loud and any chance at conversation impossible. I am very social, but especially the first time meeting new-to-me people, I tend to focus on conversation and getting to know each other before partying immediately. I don't drink, eat meat, or enjoy listening to karaoke (at least at the volume levels most Khmers enjoy it at), so I get bored quickly and long for a conscious reasoning with a small group of people.
Another Retreat 🏊♂️
I went back to my room and tried to do some Hive work, but quickly realized I couldn't concentrate with the speaker blasting, so I went back to the river and found Monkey-B still there, so I went for a swim/soak. The river isn't really swimmable yet, but there are plenty of places you can lay flat on your back and enjoy a little floating. In the early evening Uncle Mab went back to Pramaoy in the car the three visitors had driven. They live only an hour away, so Uncle Mab will enjoy a short holiday and return soon.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN HIVE AND START EARNING CRYPTO LIKE US
 |  | 🙏 GIVE THANKS 🙏 |  |  |
|---|
first got to say that Banana font is dope, didnt notice until today and that JBL speaker is a banger, my sister has one and the base is just a little too loud for my taste, Im trying to stop drinking for good, not that I do constantly but I still drink a six pack on weekends, Im trying to stay as healthy as I can, thx for sharing ✌️
Haha, thanks, I do try and put a little effort into my thumbnails. Our neighbors on both sides now have massive karaoke speakers, and each day is like a karaoke battle between the two. I think sober karaoke would be difficult for most folks around here because the quality of the singing gets better the drunker you get 🤔😂.
This post felt a lot light hearted. It's not a perfect day, but I guess a short meeting with new people can be fun, and a short blasting of karaoke music can be fun. Speaking of which, there was once I was having a serious wisdom tooth issue, where the controlled medication doesn't allow me to drink hard beverages, I actually drunk a gallon of iced water with my fellow Karaokians 🤣 they're still disbelief the transparent liquid I was drinking is plain water
Sober karaoke, that's a tough gig. Well, I'm trying not to worry about the future, but tomorrow we head to Phnom Penh to deal with bureaucracy for up to one week. We're hoping our combined blogging efforts can cover the cost of our guesthouse and meals while there.
Monkey-B has a good story about confusing rice wine for water when she was a baby. She was in the countryside hanging out a family member's house and grabbed a glass full of clear liquid and took a big swig, and then she described it as burning. She took a second gulp to see if she was imagining the burning sensation, and apparently the second gulp got her buzzed. It's one of her first vivid memories 😆.
When we talk about banana plants, we can imagine how the banana tree has soft and weak roots, but it continues to push against the side of a rock in search of life and bananas bear fruit.
We do have many banana trees here growing on the edge of the slope. Not many things will grow well here, but bananas seem to do okay even if the wind always rips the leaves apart.
Those bananas do look good!
I still drink, occassionaly, but hardly and little, since the last 3 years or so. Therefore I can't really stand the energy of people who drink a lot and the kind of conversations they have, let alone when they blast music and sing karaoke.
It's unbearable for this hypersensitive soul.
I would have chosen a swim/ soak too :<)
Haha, yes I'd rather eat a banana, perhaps even share one with a friend 😆 while engaged in a serious conversation. The times I've sat in a group larger than 4 people and had a collective conversation more than a few minutes here, well, I can can count that on one hand. When drunk the conversations are like scenes from Idiocracy.....
Monkeys and elephants probably have deeper conversations than the average group of drunkards ;<)
This article made me long for our rural home, which is surrounded by banana trees. I love how close to nature you reside.
It is very beautiful here, and although we don't have much bananas, there are now many new shoots we can transplant and increase our banana numbers. 🙏🙏🙏
Karaoke is definitely not my thing, either. Wise decision on your part!
Anything to avoid it, I don't mind that people enjoy it, good for them as long as they don't force me to sit down and witness what is basically a form of torture to me.
Living a simple life just like is very fun and relaxing. I really like to live just like that kind of place my friend.
The pictures and the text tell two very different stories, but the nature here is a good distraction from life's problems.
🙏🙏🙏