Friday in Battambang: A multi-lingual breakfast and Ghost Stories

I woke up on Friday morning to see that Jill, Kevin, and I were going out for breakfast that morning. We went to the very popular restaurant with no name. Literally, the owners will even tell you that they don't know the name to their own restaurant (Coming from the family restaurant business side,I still can't get over that.. not knowing what to call your restaurant!!). I just keep thinking of the Cheers theme song, except 'where nobody knows your name.' They serve rice with pork, noodle soup, and other sorts of Khmer dishes for breakfast. Typically what I would have eaten for lunch or dinner is a breakfast food in Cambodia. It was so crowded at this restaurant that the Kane's and myself had to eat with other people at the same table. What seemed a little shaky at first, turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip so far!! The two men we sat with were Khmer, but one grew up in England and had excellent english and the other man worked 10 kilometers outside of Paris, France for a few years! So Jill and Kevin could communicate in Khmer or English, I could talk to the one man in English and the other guy in French (thank you Mrs. Baxstrom for teaching me french in highschool), and if needbe, the other language would be translated. 5 people, 3 different spoken languauges= an unforgettable breakfast!

That afternoon, I had another Cambodian cultural experience. I went to the "cinema" with Jill and a few kids from English Class. We went to see a ghost story-- which in my 'americanized' eyes, wasn't scary at ALL (and I hate scary stories with a passion in the states.. I will not go see them and never will have the desire to).  It was a thai film and it was just funny. Khmer teenagers kept screaming at the top of their lungs and kept turning on their flashlights! Oy. The cinema itself looked like a very old runned down school gym or a very old vaudeville theater. There were holes in the ceilings, broken wooden chairs everywhere, bad speakers, it was muggy and damp, and the only working in the entire place was up in the balcony (in my opinion, we should have stayed on the 1st floor where it felt 10 degrees cooler without the fan). 

Here was the storyline of the movie: A young man and young woman are in love, but the girl's father won't them get married becuase he is a very poor farmer and doesn't make much money. The girl is VERY upset by this and it looks like she commited suicide. She comes back as a ghost to haunt many people and kills her father, brother, and other people who didn't want them together. The witch Dr. and high monks of Buudha all try to keep her away but nothing is working. Later, you find out that the boyfriend went to bed with her and she cried because she realized what she did and he suffocated her because he didn't want her to tell anyone. So he made it look like she hanged herself. In the end, to keep her ghost happy, he jumps into his house that is burning and he dies so they can live together 'happily' in eternity.  

What's sad about this whole thing, is that many people here believe in that the ghosts of people will come back to haunt you.

The movie. eek. 

The lovely wooden chairs. 

The only fan in the entire place that worked.

Looking down from the balcony. 

More updates to come. 

Goodnight.