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Other entries in Takeo

Takeo - a homestay - live like the locals!

After Kompong Cham we headed on a 3 hour local bus journey to Phnom Penh, on arrival we transfered to our own private air conditioned bus.... and what a luxury that was!  We continued driving for a few more hours, as the journey progressed the main road became long winding dirt tracks as we drove away from urban city settings to the rural leafy mountainous region of Takeo.

It was still light ouside when we reached the village of Takeo, the locals prepared a small welcome meal.  It was a real treat with small red, green and orange coloured raw chillies as side appetisers.... once again the adventurous Kwis showed the others how it's done!  We watched in amazment as they sampled their way through the different coloured raw chillies and watched beads of sweat trickle down their faces, to the amusement of the locals.  The Kwis, Adam and James (a.k.a. String) are competitive in their bug/adventurous eating (in Ankor they sampled frogs legs tossed and seasoned in a garlic sauce), chilly eating and beer drinking..... they are the entertainment!

After the meal we drove deeper into the dark woodlands, no street lighting just the head lights on our bus guided us through the village lanes.  On arrival we were greeted by our host family, along with their three children, three cows, roosters, chickens, piglet, dogs and a litter of two week old puppies.  The family lived in their wooden farm house built on stilts with a straw and tin roof.  We recieved the most friendlist of greetings and sat under the house in the open air close to their camp fire, listening to the sounds of the forest.... cicadas and frog all around. 

The house had no electricity, shower, air conditioning or running water..... but we were happy to be experiencing the most basic of rural living.  We stayed up late trying to converse in English with the family, we laughed so much as neither of us understood each other.  Jitsa, one of the girls in our group, took pictures of the family and later showed them....they were amazed and one picture in particular bought so much laughter that the mother was almost in tears.  Though there was a language barrier, her laughter and facial expressions kept us all amused! 

In the upstairs part of the wood hut were our sleeping quarters with mosquito nets placed over our basic bedding.  We stayed up playing cards under candle lights... no ipods and internet here!  Then it was time to go to bed, and believe me what an experience that was.  Throughout the night the family dogs were in and out of our sleeping quarters, sniffing around the bedding and tripping over things - all we could see were dark shadows outside the net.  Just when you thought you were nodding off the roosters started to 'cock a doodle do' at 1am... this set off all the roosters in the entire village in synchronisation.... later followed by dog fights elsewhere.  The roosters carried on till 6am in the morning..... I got out of bed in the morning only to bang my tired head on a wood beam in the ceiling. 

In the morning we said our goodbyes to our family and headed for Sihanoukville in southern Camdodia.  The homestay was a worthwhile experience, though we hardly got any sleep, I'm greatful for the experience and it's not everyday you get to live like the locals..... experience rating: priceless!

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