Christmas and New Year

Happy New Year. I spent the night eating soggy fish and chips for one at Heathrow Airport, followed by twenty hours on planes where not a drop of celebratory Cava was served. They’d also run out of food from the ‘Western’ menu so my last meal before returning to Cambodia was something disgusting, pickled and Korean, served with rice.

Before all that, however, I had a great two weeks in England. I’d planned ambitiously to put on ten kilos in order to survive another three months of the Cambodian diet (as well as my tendency to spend too much money on beer and not enough on food). But despite eating past the pain almost every day, I failed miserably, putting on just 200g, which I think is the equivalent of a low-fat sandwich. I did manage to fill my suitcase with chocolate and Christmas cake, so I might be able to put on a bit more weight over the next few weeks, although I probably need to learn the Khmer for ‘Get those thieving Cambodian hands off my English food’.

As this blog is about Cambodia, I won’t write everything that happened over Christmas, except that I had a great time seeing everyone and eating everything. It made me realise that I’m very lucky to have such good friends and family, and made me wonder why I keep moving so far away from them. The fortnight was also the first chance I’ve had to make direct comparisons between England and Cambodia; here are some of the things I observed. (I’m copying a similar format used in Sam's blog after he returned from England last year.)

1. Hot water from the tap is really great. After a few months in Cambodia in which I’d told people that British taps have hot water, I’d begun to have doubts and wondered whether I’d imagined it all, as the idea seemed so absurd. But it was true. I really enjoyed the washing-up I did over Christmas.  I did a lot of it, partly because it was a bit like a nice bath for my hands, and partly because I’d also forgotten that many British houses have dishwashers.

2. Things are much easier when you’re speaking your native language. I really like learning Khmer and I particularly like the ego-boost you get from speaking to strangers who are highly impressed with even the most basic phrases, often responding with warm invitations to come and have a drink with them, or marry their daughters. I’d even learnt so much that, when trying to speak Catalan or even Spanish to Jim’s friends Luis and Muriel, I could only think of Khmer, and in fact the only Catalan word I could remember was ‘Adeu’, meaning ‘Goodbye’, which I decided would sound a bit rude in mid-conversation. Nonetheless, it was really nice to speak English again.

3. Breakfasts are much better in England. Tea and toast beats a bowl of super noodles any day. Similarly, cheese, pizza, roast chicken, chocolate, fresh milk etc are all better than rice, and are considerably better than insects and intestines.

Jim cooks chicken

4. Saying hello is nicer than saying goodbye. The two weeks were over very quickly and, although this time it won’t be for long as I’m due to finish my placement at the end of March, coming home will also mean saying goodbye to lots of good friends here.

5. I have good friends in both places. I was obviously very impressed with all of the parties that were organised for me in England (although I think some of the guests were a bit confused and kept going on about Christmas or something), but I was also quite touched that Tak organised a surprise leaving party the day before I left. He’s living in particularly austere times, so he did his usual trick of inviting friends and then telling them to go and buy beer, but it was very nice all the same.

6. Cambodia really is very poor. You get used to the way things are here, but spending two weeks in one of the richest countries in the world, and also returning via South Korea which must be one of the richest places in Asia, makes you see it all afresh.

7. South Korea is definitely not on the way home. After flights of over twenty-four hours, I’ll make sure I’ve got a world map next time I’m booking plane tickets.