More moments

A continuation of small events...

The monks' prayer
In Chau Doc I was waiting for the boat which would take me to Cambodia. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning and I sat at a table of my guest house's restaurant. On the opposite side of the street monks arrived, men and also women, and started to dress up in their orange suits. I asked a woman of the restaurant what was going on there, and showed my surprise about female monks. She told me that this was quite normal in Vietnam, also women were allowed to spend a certain time in a monastery. Now they gathered in the private house on the other side of the street, because the family had "invited" them. Two family members were mentally ill, and the monks were supposed to pray for their reconvalescense. The family had payed a certain amount of money, you could call it donation, to the monks or their monastery.
The prayer itself lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. It was carried out more or less publicly, in the living room that opens to the street. After having finished, the monks got out of their robes again. One after the other got into a tuk-tuk or cyclo and was brought back to the monastery... Life in the house continued as normal as every day...

Giggling about the foreigner
The evening before, I was walking through the streets of Chau Doc. As I had mentioned already, a quite pleasant little city. I didn't know what I wanted to eat and made several rounds... Finally I decided to sit down at one of the small food stalls on the sidewalks. Apparently very rarely foreigners eat there, because first they stared at me, then all started getting busy to serve me. They had only one dish, it was a noodle soup with tofu and tasted absolutely delicious. While I ate, two girls, maybe 16 or 17, sat down on the next table and watched me. They couldn't get over the fact that a foreigner ate at their "reataurant", yet it was a very friendly and sympathetic curiousity... When I had finished and paid, they all were smiling and waving me good-bye... Unfortunately I would leave the next morning, the soup was really good and I would have liked to eat there again...

Death of a cow
On the way from Khompong Chom to Kratie our bus was driving quite normal. That means that he used the horn to warn the others, motorcycles or cars, or to chase dogs and cows off the road. Slowing down is not necessarily a regular behaviour. To be fair, in Cambodia is it far better than in Vietnam, where the traffic could be called "absolutely crazy".
But finally there came a moment I had long waited for. Close to a small village a cow suddenly started to run across the road (it was not one of these big European cows, but somewhat smaller). The driver tried to brake, but he had no chance, it happened too quick. The bus fully hit the cow, with a speed of maybe 60 or 70 kms/h. It gave a loud dull bang, and the cow was thrown through the air and hurled to the side of the street. The driver slowed down for a second, then he continued...
I actually don't know whether the cow was killed, but I can't imagine that she survived the impact. For the driver it was logical to "run away"... There is no such thing as an insurance in Cambodia that covers this kind of accident. The driver's employer would never pay for the damage, so he himself would be liable... A cow means quite some value in Cambodia, and it might be the equivalent of maybe 3, 4 or 5 months wages which the driver would have to pay. Clear facts, so he simply continued...
The question was how the owner of the cow would deal with it. The best he could do would be probably to sell the meat, yet the bitter end of this story was undoubtedly on his side.

The rush

It's not one moment, it happens all the time, whenever one's arriving by bus in any city in Vietnam or Cambodia. Dozens of tuk-tuk drivers virtually jump on the bus to get a customer. It's shouting and gesticulating without interruption, you are surrounded by a whole bunch of people who want to drive you to a guest house or hotel. Often they are sort of affiliated with one or the other place and get a commission if they manage to bring you there. You know that it's there business and their way to make money, but often it gets almost annoying, especially in Vietnam. People are very pushy there and you want to be left alone to make up your mind, but no chance... they won't leave you alone... after a few times one gets used to it, tries to understand (it's their job), tries to take it as cool as possible, yet often enough it simply remains tiring... and you dream of being back in Laos, where everything is so much quieter and calmer...