Cambodia at Second Glance
December 8, 2008 · Print This Article
We took a bus yesterday from Phnom Penh. For the first time in my life I saw water buffalo. Being here reminds me a little bit of Ecuador, but then again, what could be more different?
Here they eat fried tarantulas, and when we made a brief stop on our bus a woman selling them tried to scare Eliot into buying one. My question is, how do you scare someone into eating something? Anyway, she thought she might have a little fun by putting a live tarantula on Eliot. He remained perfectly calm, and when we said that we did not want to buy a tarantula, fried or alive she took it off of him. Well, when we tried to walk away she tossed it on Eliot’s neck. That was when Eliot started to look at my mom like, “What is this woman doing to me?” We finally got away from the tarantula woman and back on the bus where we had to tell my dad the whole story.
The 6 hour bus ride was not that bad. It helped that my dad chose the air-conditioned bus, but my mom says that it wasn’t even an option. All for now.
Hey you all last nite Carolina beat Tampa Bay and now they are 10-3 and the top of their div,!
John
Ainsley, what WAS the tarantula lady doing??? Eliot had to have been VERY frightened (despite past experiences with scary spiders). In Spanish we would call this lady “mal intencionado,” and that is being kind. Thank God goodness flourishes in the world, as all of you have so wonderfully shared with us. Love you and miss you tons, Martha
Hi there Ainsley,
I love that second photo. Did the Supercuts from California hold you over, or did you all have to sit down and get hair cuts after that nice boy? (Zach did that once, but I had to comb a few lice out of his hair when he was done. Luckily, he got a buzz like your bro, so it was pretty easy to get them out!)
You also neglected to tell us which famous person spent time in the Fancy Guest House before the Dugan - St. Clairs! This is important datum in the Johnson household.
I think that the spider vendor must have been quite surprised at Eliot’s calm demeanor. (Go Eliot! I can’t believe he didn’t flip out when she threw the tarantual on his neck.)
I can’t fathom why anyone would think it would be amusing to throw a spider on a child’s neck, but as you have learned, different cultures do sometimes have different notions of what’s funny. (I imagine in this case, however, that the lady was just a bit nuts!)
Have you all considered buying any of the little cloth masks that many people wear in SE Asia? I’m sure they’re not OSHA approved, but they did help us cope a bit with the smog and motorcycle fumes. Of course, masks make breathing extra-fun when it’s a hundred and twenty degrees outside…
Keep enjoying your air-con buses! (I’m drying up like a prune over here with my heat blasting round-the-clock…)
Hugs,
Jenny