Friday 11th February: Karaoke, More puppets and the Art of the Haggle.

Having spent 11 days in Cambodia, I'm getting used to my new routines of taking cold showers, followed by applying liberal amounts of sunscreen and spraying myself in a halo of mosquito repellent. I've also become a bit more relaxed about Cambodian traffic (though when I ride tuk-tuks I still sometimes close my eyes when the driver goes through a busy intersection with no traffic lights). I'm also learning a bit about Khmer culture from watching Khmer Karaoke (which is one of the only channels that work on my TV). Would you believe that I have 2 karaoke channels dedicated to cheesy Khmer love songs? I myself (being half Japanese) should be a well-seasoned in karaoke, but these are in a league of their own. While most karaoke videos show completely irrelevant montages in the background (such as pictures of flashy hotels, badly dressed women from the 80's or squid farms), Khmer videos are full of soap opera-esque mini plots. After having watched a few, most of the plots follow a similar formula which goes as follows:

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl falls in love with someone else (usually bad man with questionable taste in shirts). Boy gets heart broken. Bad man cheats on girl. Girl goes after boy. Boy decides he doesn't want her anymore and meets another girl (story repeats).

Turtles, arachnids and Banana Sandwiches

Puppet wise, our giant puppet parade family has welcomed three new members to its numbers: a rainbow-coloured spider with brightly coloured legs (which resemble boiled sweets); a polka-dotted orange and blue-green turtle; and a black and white buffalo called the cobre (the national animal of Cambodia, which is nearly extinct). Needless to say, these puppets are extremely large (especially the buffalo - which I think I will call Steve). A few different groups helped to make these puppets including 'ABC and Rice' (a school that offers education and food for poor families); young teacher trainees; and a class of deaf students (mostly teenagers). It was really interesting to work with the teenagers (quietest workshop I'd ever been to!). Initially I found it hard to communicate with them, as I do not know Khmer sign language (let alone Khmer spoken language) but I soon found that most gestures are pretty universal (and one can go a long way with a little pantomime). After some observation, I felt that their signing reflected a graceful elegance (particularly their beautiful hand movements) which may be connected to their culture which is so steeped in traditional dance - they could make asking for directions to the toilet seem like a delicate and refined hand ballet.

It's been lovely making enormous puppets. Each day we play games to get to know the group (games with names like "Zip Zap Boing" and "Crazy Monkey") and eat banana sandwiches for morning and afternoon tea. At the moment we are working on making a car, a bird and a 5 headed serpent called a "Naga" (you can probably tell which puppet I think is the most awesome). The workshops are now being held in two separate sites; one at the Pagoda temple with Jig (the puppet mastermind) and the other at a teacher's training college with the Battambang boys (i.e. some Khmer art students from Battambang city, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Siem Reap). I'm working with the latter group, and the groups today were from "This Life Cambodia" (a community development organisation with a focus on education for high school students) and "Grace House" (a school for poor families in an area of Siem Reap about 15 minutes cycle out from the city centre). I did a quick bit of sketching as the kids worked today, though after 5 minutes of sketching, one of them caught on and soon I was surrounded by about 7 excited children pointing at my drawings and trying to figure out who I had drawn. One girl took my hand and tugged me across the field of children and white rattan cane, showing my sketch of her to all her friends and eventually to her teacher. By the end my feet where covered in cool dew and bits of grass and I had a big smile on my face (twinged with a slight sense of guilt for having distracted the 'minions' from their work of making puppets!)

Night Markets a.k.a. "There is no such thing as free size"

I also recently had my first night market experience (which was prompted by a desperate need for new shorts, since I'd been wearing the same pair for days and the laundry takes at least 48 hours here). Emma and I were told that the place is buzzing after 7pm, so we headed off around 8.30. The markets were teeming with colourful stalls selling everything from tacky souvenirs (like t-shirts that say 'SAME SAME'), luxurious silk scarves, $3 pedicures and massages, sun hats, sparkly bags, carved wooden chopsticks, soft toys, Buddhist statues, paintings of temples, bolts of ornamental fabrics and a myriad of clothes. It was a bit overwhelming to try and look for my trousers, as each stall had very similar items. The tricky part wasn't really to find the pants, but to bargain for them. As novice hagglers, Em and I were a little rusty and I think I may have paid a dollar or two more than I should have (but my conscience is still intact). Here are some tips that I have now picked up from my bargaining experience:

1. Be like Lady Gaga and have a Poker Face. The trick seems to be that you need to look as disinterested as possible in the item you are about to buy, as if you really couldn't care less if you got it or not (once the salesperson knows you want something, they'll be more likely to hike up the price and stay there).

2. Be a smiley but stubborn mule. If you want to buy something, say how much you want to pay for it and stick to it, e.g.:

Me: How much for this bag?

Saleswoman: "Nine dollah"

Me: I'll give you $4.

Saleswoman: Ok I do discount for you lay-dee - Eight dollah. This berry good pry.

Me: Four.

Saleswoman: Seben dollah.

Me: Four.

3. Don't hesitate to walk away. If the salesperson won't budge with their price, just walk away. You can always come back later and they might give it to you for the price you want. Otherwise, you'd be surprised how many of them will come after you shouting "Ok lay-dee, I give you for four dollah!"

4. There is no such thing as "free-size". I found out this lesson the hard way, after buying a beautiful blue dress (which the saleslady had insisted is a one size fits all), only to find the top bit a little too snug for comfort:

Saleswoman: You like dress lay-dee?

Me: Yes, but it looks too small for me.

Saleswoman: No small lay-dee, it flee-sye. It fit you. You berry plitty lay-dee

[note to self: never fall for flattery from anyone trying to sell you stuff]

I still did get a reasonably good price for the dress though, and on another note, I can probably get it altered for about $1 anyway.

So, I bought myself two pairs of trousers - one is a deep purple little number that is made from light T-shirt fabric and swishes beautifully as a I walk (although it was a tad snug around the waist initially, now it has stretched so much it sags - thankfully it also has a tie around the hip). I also bought my first pair of Thai fisherman's pants, which when I first tried them on (without knowing the proper technique) I looked like I was wearing a giant pink nappy. With some help from Emma, I soon got the hang of it. I don't quite look Cambodian yet though - besides the fact that I'm not exactly what you'd call a size minus two, I also don't wear pyjamas all day like some of them do. The other day I needed to quickly get something from the downstairs foyer in the guest house and whipped down to reception wearing my pyjama pants and black singlet (with a cardigan for modesty) - and one of the staff thought I was going out. I wonder how much more laid-back this world would be if we all showed up to work in fluffy pink slippers and comfy jammies with slogans like "Me want more cookie"?