How to Survive a Wedding on your Street

We're getting married in the morning!
Deal with it.

Once upon a time, scarcely a month ago in fact, a wedding occurred on my street.

My sentiments regarding Khmer weddings has already been documented; Illogical public displays of nonexistent wealth in an effort to impress one's neighbors and community members. (Yes, I struggle with gross displays of nonexistent and legitimate wealth.) While I realize the average amount an American lays out for a wedding has recently peeked $27K (they are not immune to my immense judgement either), there are two things American weddings don't feature:

1. Street blocking.
2. Noise.

Street Blocking: I live on a narrow street [see above]. My street normally has cars parked on both sides and when this happens, it's a single lane road. It's very much a side street in a residential neighborhood and my neighbors are lovely and quiet.

However, for a wedding, you are allowed to pitch a tent that blocks the entire width of the road. If it's directly in front of someone's house..."Well that suck folks! Sorry! Guess you're not getting your car or your motobike out of your house! You can do the same to us when it's your turn but for now...sorry [not]." I become most frustrated with street blocking. While this wedding did not block my street, it did require me to zig-zag across my neighborhood to enter my street from the side that wasn't blocked. Not only is street blocking a complete and utter safety hazard, I find it stunningly rude from my cultural perspective but oddly it's not so here.

Noise: A sound system blasting at 5am when your wedding starts and finishing at 11pm when your wedding ends during which your entire building vibrates from the noise? Sorry, but I can't really even begin to make that sounds positive. The good news is that if you have friends, you can spend the night with them which is what I did and for this I'm very thankful. Again, how is this not considered rude? I will never understand.

For all of weddings loathsomeness, I will say this: the tent is down and the rubbish is cleared that very night. On this point, we can agree from a Cambodian and American perspective that this is only common courtesy.

How to Visit Kep

A Weekend Away

Kep has two pronunciations. Foreigners read it phonetically like it is, "kep." Cambodians pronounce "KI-pe." This is because the Khmer alphabet cannot be accurately translated into English due to strange sounds nonexistent in English. Why is any of this important? It's not, really. I just wish it was spelled differently.

I lived in Cambodia almost 2.5 years without properly visiting Kep. Expats who live in Cambodia were appalled. Kep is only about five hours south by bus (faster by car) and a highly popular expat weekend getaway. Cambodians prefer the much more developed (possibly overdeveloped, occasionally irritating) Kampong Som/Sihanoukville.  Kep is a sleepy town. There isn't much beach to speak of due to the rocks, but you can get very tasty crab and other seafood. The guesthouses and hotels cater to expats and from what I've heard, there has been an explosion of amenities in recent years.

I went down to mourn the late King Sihnaouk's Cremation. Since we were given two additional days off from work (on top of the 17 public holidays) and because Phnom Penh was flooded with people for this rare once-in-a-lifetime occasion, getting away was only logical. Kep was also busy, foreigners looking to get away from the closed streets and businesses. We had a hard time finding a hotel in Kep the week before when arranging hotels. I took a bus down with friends to meet other friends.

We did all the things that one does in Kep. We laid by the pool and caught the sun. We walked down to the crab market and ate crab in the tiny little wooden restaurants overlooking the water. We went down to the beautiful "Sailing Club" where we enjoyed beverages at white tables in the sand, and walked down the dock at sunset. We (I) went kayaking and admired the restful little town from the distance of the ocean, the water shallow and warm.

Our biggest adventure was to Bokhor Mountain in Kampot. Kampot is only 20 miles away from Kep. We rented little green automatic motos and zipped along the awful awful road for an good hour to get to Kampot. From Kampot it was another hour of driving up the windy "mountain" (more like a large hill) overlooking the sea. It was easily one of my favorite Cambodia experiences. Three were also many Cambodians making this adventure traveling in cars. Since there are no rest areas, they pull off on the road and picnic.

Leaving for Bokhor, we were clean and tanned. Returning, we were a different color.  For one, we were covered in red dust. Secondly, (and I speak for myself) we were painfully roasted from an excruciating sunburn. (My Aussie friends lather up in sunblock while I from North America refuse to believe the sun is actually that strong. When I do learn this point, I quickly forget). Alas, what is a good trip without a good sunburn.

Coming back on the bus from our long weekend away (which is just painfully tortuously long given that it's so freaking close!), I realized just how blessed I am. When I first came to Cambodia, I didn't know I could take a quick and relatively inexpensive jaunt out of town with friends for a long weekend. And yet, here I am. Entirely blessed.

Kep is what you make it. If you want to relax, eat some good food, and spend time with friends, it's the perfect place. Also, you can call it "Kep" or "KI-pe," whatever works for you.