‘The strangest, but most enlightening day, of my life’

by Rory Morris (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Making a local connection Cambodia

‘The strangest, but most enlightening day, of my life’ By Rory Morris I'd been travelling around Cambodia for a month, and having just been lucky enough to witness the breath-taking ancient wonder of the world, Angkor Wat, it was time to make my way south to catch a plane to Perth. It was midnight in the bustling town of Siem Reap and I just managed to make the sleeper bus, which would take me to Phnom Penh. I jumped aboard to the sudden realisation it was fully booked, and was to share my 'bed' with someone; a young Cambodian woman called Bopha. I later found out that his name translates to flowers. Can you imagine sleeping beside someone you don't know, side by side, for 8 hours? Sun shining through gaps in the basic bus window curtain woke me, it was 8am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. Bopha, along with what seemed like her group of friends were giggling at me, with my dishevelled demeanour. Curiously, and to divert attention away from me, I asked them what was funny and one of them who spoke English piped up, asking me why I didn't make a move during the night. I responded simply with the fact that in my culture, that was regarded as immoral. They all added me on Facebook. Amidst this giggling and chitter chatter, a skinny looking, dark skinned bystander was listening in called Bunroeun. He caught my eye and smiled over, then asked me if I had any plans before my flight, which was at 4:30pm. As I had already seen the typical sights such as the harrowing Killing Fields and mesmerising Mekong I had time to kill, and Bunroeun offered to share a tuc-tuc, at local prices, to show me his university. The university was modern and professional versus my expectations, though this was slightly naïve as my friend was actually very well educated, having been sponsored by a French man. We picked up his exam results and then a few friends joined us for some extremely spicy noodle lunch. My mentality with locals is always; 'I'll have what they are having!'. It was fascinating to see and hear how this group of guys interacted and we all learned a lot from each other. We then parted ways and made our way to his house to relax. After walking across some fields with buffalo grazing, we arrived at a wooden shack around the size of a shipping container, where Bunroeun and his family lived. Turned out the quality of sleep on the bus hadn't done us any good so we decided to try and nap for a little while before the airport. No-one else was at home so I was offered his mother's bedroom and he slept in a mattress in the front room. I've never seen so many mosquitos in my life, and my only defence was an electric fan which kind of kept them at bay. Wild. Uncomfortable I didn't last long in this environment, so I got up and walked out to find his mother arriving home. A very small woman, wrapped up in a turmeric Buddhist robe and shaved head. His mother was a monk. She spoke very little English, so we gesticulated and shared an unripened mango, which she sliced up and dipped in a pile of mixed spices from the floor. Glancing down at my phone, it was time to go! I woke Bunroeun up and asked him to take me to the airport and said goodbye to his mother. I hopped on the back of his scooter with my bags and we went on an epic journey, whizzing through the streets of Phnom Penh before arriving at the airport. I got off the scooter and he looked me in the eyes and told me he needed help to get out of his third world country. What could I do to help him? I gave him my email address, to send me his CV, and promised I would help westernise the format. He now works in Switzerland.