April 14th (2020)

April 14th

HAPPY KHMER NEW YEAR

8.30am 

I have just awoken. Last night I slept about 1am as the building was a bit boisterous. I’m still a bit groggy as I write this, with my bowl of cornflakes before me, and a mug of ‘Red’ to wake me up. The remains of last night’s midnight soft baguette (which I then ate with cheese and butter), is stale and inedible this morning without an oven or microwave to cheer it up.

But no matter, for I am served breakfast by Lem So Leong. Phany has cooked Khmer Chicken Curry, it comes with a ‘glass noodle’, bean sprout, and beef salad with cut baguette slices. I just have no idea how I’m going to repay Phany.

As I take my two (washed) TV trays and cutlery downstairs, Kosal is washing dishes out the back, in the small sink in the alley. ‘He good cook now’, Phany says to me. ‘All Advanced Students can cook’ she says. ‘Well’, I say in mock surprise, ‘your students are so talented, that when they leave they can become Nurses, Architects, Fine Art Painters, Teachers and..’. Phany says ‘cooks’ at the same I say ‘chefs’ and we both laugh.

Phany is stir-frying (a process learned from the Chinese and Chha in Khmer) a few somethings in her wok. I’m nosy, and she lets me try one. Hmmm it does have a familiar taste. But what is it? She explains that Khmers can only fry these when they are young, as they age they become tougher and are only suitable for soup. Phany tries, but ultimately is unable to explain what the plants are in English. Back upstairs, I have just these searched for these plants on Google. They are young Lotus Roots.

On the way back upstairs I had passed Lem So Leong doing something in the mezzanine room. It’s a small room, with a low ceiling and I had to bend my head so as not to have an unexpected romance with crossing concrete beams. Again I was nosy. Lem So Leong is putting the wire on the back of a painting. ‘I give my friend’ he explained. ‘May I’ I said, and had motioned for him to show me. His painting had a very illustrative feel about it and, with more work and some guidance he could be a very good illustrator. I took some photos with my phone camera and congratulated him on his work. 

I look out the front room window, down at the traffic in Siem Reap. With all the boys and girls riding about on scooters it reminds me, not of ‘Quadrophenia’ but of ‘Roman Holiday’ or ‘Genova’, and of Italy. As there are no official gatherings allowed, young people have taken to the streets on their vehicles, parading like vespas on a Piazza. There again there is a truly awful ‘song’ by a band named Scooter, called Cambodia. Go figure that one out. 

It is, or rather should, be a holiday. The most important holiday in Cambodia. There should be water-gun fights on the streets, in houses. There should be a degree of abandon, joyousness and celebration, but Khmer New Year is officially cancelled this year.

Today’s spend.....0