Location: Ruby Pailin Hotel & Grandma's hut
Cambodian Time -> 6:24 PM
USA Time: -> 5:25 AM
Bus ride.
After a day of settling in the city, my mom and dad sprung a nice 7-8 hour bus trip to the deeper regions of Cambodia (totally thought it would be shorter then that). We had some breakfast and left the city by 7:30am. Sunny with the window seat snapped some awesome pictures of the monuments and temples we passed. I knew we were getting close when we were seeing less tourist around the city. 7 hours in, We made it into the city of BATTAMBANG where we switched buses and took another 1 hour trip into Pailin where my grandmother was staying.
Waddup Grandma!
When we arrived we walked into a small village down a small road to her place. Her house was a small narrow 3x12 sq. ft. hut with dirt floors and a couple hammocks. There was no way we were going to fit my family of 4 and another family of 5 (that had traveled with us) in there, of course my dad booked us a hotel a few blocks over, ($10 a night) with an excellent view of the mountain tops and the small busy market place. Might I add the sunset is absolutely stunning and has all the rustic colors of red, orange, and yellow. A good 3 mile stretch of just green mountains in view of our hotel room/balcony. It's great.
So back at my grandma's house.
My parents shooed Sunny and I into the back alley of the house residing my elderly, nearly pushing 90 grand mother. She was propped up on a wooden bed unable to walk but smiling happily and topless greeting us. She had no hair, no teeth, and quite frankly, she was kind of a little shocking to look at (am I going to hell for saying that?). It seemed like She took a liking to Sunny more than me, touching his face constantly, tugging on his arm, and demanding why he didn’t know how to speak Khmer (maybe it's a male dominance thing?). My family came trickling in laughing and giggling as they were all making fun of our pale skin, accents, and our unusually thicker bodies (Cambodian people are flippin’ tiny.) But it was all in good fun, and interesting to be around people who look similar and share the same blood as you. ( I have hardly any family in the states [blood-related anyway])
So here we are, Sunny & I sitting stiff-bodied in front of my top less grandma trying to be as polite and comfortable as possible, (I mean I’ve only met the lady once), it was pretty cool to finally see the one grand parent I had. My dad finally claimed it was his turn to visit with her and made us go back to the hotel with our uncle to get rest. We’re in bed and passed out by 7:30pm.
Day 3 (Motorcycle ride to Thailand)
We wake up by 6am and we have breakfast consisting of strong milk coffee, pork, pickles, & rice. My moms two brothers had us hop into the back of their motorcycles and we decide to go visit the Thailand and Cambodian border (only 20 minutes away!) and check out the market place there.
The ride had quite the scenery and was so beautiful and green. The air smelled so clean because of all the vegetation and the mountains were filled with nothing but trees and farmers. No damn city smog or sewage crap in sight. We even stopped at a creek with a bridge made of rusty metal and wood that was barely holding all our weight. Sunny and Dad found some cool natural glass made from a volcanic ash that was once there millions of years ago (according to Sunny & Dad).
Any who, we stopped at the border and checked out some of the shops. Nothing too crazy. I tried to walk through the meat market and couldn’t handle the cut up animals (mostly the smell) and we headed back to Pailin.
Now my dad is out drinking with a few friends and my mom is hanging out with grandma. I’m currently relaxing on the balcony taking pictures of the view and sketching some future potential collections. It’s great because this place is just filed with inspirations.
Sunny decided to video blog and we already have a ton of pics! Cannot wait to show you guys!
I'm done for the evening. Good day :).
