Yesterday I left Cambodia. I feel very sad about leaving as my time there and the people I spent it with are very special, but I’m glad that I had a very good final few weeks. Firstly, the Leo beer festival was lots of fun and for the last two days, as if I hadn’t already done enough for Cambodia’s beer industry, I ended up working with them selling beer with Tak and some other friends. I enjoyed it and actually we were so busy that I didn’t end up drinking very much, which was a nice change.
There were also several leaving events: a party in our house, pizza at Jemma and Dominique’s house, and a presentation from the staff at the POE where I work. It was very nice of people to organise things like that, and I particularly liked the present from the VSO lot in Mondulkiri, which was a Paul O’Connor special edition of Khmer whisky.
With all of that, I felt a bit stupid that I continued to hang around for another two or three weeks, but Khmer New Year was so much fun that I was glad I’d stayed. It involves lots of drinking and partying, even more so than normal.
At one of the parties, Tak came back from the market with the trio of Bad Things - cow's liver, intestines and stomach - along with this particular delicacy. Can you guess what it is yet?
Tak came with me to Phnom Penh on Monday for a final few days. We had a nice time there, with his mum, friends Chumnit and Ratanak, and Dave and Neil. But it was very hard to say goodbye and I will miss them a lot.
