Koh Kong is a frontier town and my impressions of last time were exactly that but with cows and chickens rather than horses. So today, as soon as the dry season rain stops, I set out to explore what has changed. From what I can see, unlike most places I have revisited, very little. So far the only thing I can see that is different is the addition of the hotel I am staying in. The waterfront, ripe for development is still rubbish strewn and dusty, there is still very little traffic about. The market is still the same, dark and smelly but interesting, with the extra dark central bit where the gold is worked and sold and where I bought nice gold bangle last time, also appears unchanged. Money changers sit along the side of the market with their piles of riels, bahts and dollars behind flimsy glass cases, no Securicor needed here... And the girls all sporting their daytime pyjama's which I had also forgotten. Nice toasty flanelette ones with cute teddy and cartoon designs appear to be the SS12 fashion choice here in Cambodia, Victoria Beckham, eat your heart out. Still can't work out why, in this heat, nice warm pyjama's are a fashion choice.... But I hear Angelina Jolie is here a lot so perhaps they take their fashion lead from her....
Out in the evening for a walk along the riverside you realise it changes as night falls. Lots of small food stalls spring up, another big, actually huge, pig is set out to roast. Weird dried fish hang on to the grimy, greasy fingerprinted glass cases of the stalls which are held upright by their attached motorbikes and are unflatteringly lit by the small strip light running from the bike's battery. Lots of barefoot kids run around. The smells are surprisingly very appetising, but no, you know me, I am not tempted! But it's so dark it's hard to see what's what. No streetlights anywhere, and I hesitate to walk down the cross streets up to the main drag as they are so dark. I'm not afraid of the people, more the feral dogs and other nasties. I need to take a torch next time. At least there is no issue here about falling down holes in the pavement that you have in other SE Asian cities, there are no pavements to have holes in! Just the compacted dirt, it must be a complete mudbath in the rainy season. And the absence of the all pervading drain smell you get on many Thai streets - but that probably is because there are no drains...
There was a huge Cambodian wedding celebration happening along the street. Big frocks, video camera's and lots of glitter. I stopped to take a look and a young guy with good English started telling me about it and identifying various members of the wedding party. He was bemoaning the fact that weddings here are so expensive, and it is the poor groom over here who has to pay 80% of the cost. He said if he wanted to get married, he would have to save for at least three years. They are always so big, he said, with 200 - 300 guests. He had just graduated after doing his Bachelor's degree in Cambodia, but went to Korea to do his Master's. He now worked for an NGO helping young Cambodian's who have no money to get their degrees. He walked along the road with me for a while and it's awful really, all the time you are waiting for the request for money. It didn't come by the time I said I was walking back to the hotel, but it makes me sad that we are always so on our guard it's hard to take the hand of friendship for what it is.
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