Today went off the beaten trail and headed out into the countryside of Cambodia to do a home stay with a local family (Pharin). First part of the journey was to jump onto a public bus to Kampong Thom. I was a very comfortable 3 hours.
Then we got picked up by 2 Cambodia tuk tuks (called a Remorque). Their version is a motorcycle with a 4 person ricksaw attached to the back of the bike. It was an 45 minute ride along bumpy roads to our homestay family.
The local guide was there to meet us with the family, as the family (3 generations) spoke very little English, adding a rather interesting twist to staying at the homestay. The Cambodians like to call the toilet their "happy house", and the girls got introduced to the bucket & pail method of washing and flushing…
The homestay home was a traditional Cambodian home on stilts (as mentioned in a previous post). We got to hang out with the family underneath the house, with the girls playing with the host's 6 year old daughter. There is something to be said about having hammocks to chill in... We tried to help the family out with their daily chores, but where very politely told no. We think that the language barrier did not help and they did not want the "city folk" to mess things up.
We got to share dinner with the family before settling in for an early night. As the family are cashew nut farmers, they generally get up with the sunrise and head to bed after sunset. One thing to realise about the homestay is that there was no air conditioning, only a ceiling fan, and even when the sun set the temperature was still above 32oC (during the day it hit around 39oC).
Good luck for getting a good night's sleep
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