magic mystery tour

i couldnt believe it. after all how many people get to see this? i was sitting under the shade of a nearby tree after about an hour of wondering through rice fields helping phally take his cows down to the nearby stream. all you can see for miles around is palm trees and in the distance the mountains of kompong speu province with their dense cloud covering making the whole setting so ineffibly sublime. i figurd i am the luckiest man alive.

it took us about 2 1/2 hours to drive to kompong speu on my little 100cc moto and we stopped twice to fix my back innertube which is now dotted with little rubber plasters, oe for each time i drive a little too fast over a rock. i really should splash out on a new tube...but $3 is a lot of money. so with an excruciatingly numb bum, dry throat and an assortment of insect carcases splattered on my visor we made our way down the long bumpy road through village after village of peope who all seemed to be milling around not really doing anything with themselves. before we arrived at phallys house. cambodia is an agricultural country if i ever saw one and phallys parents, house, village and way of life, although wildly different to that of the city or aything i am used to in england, is typically khmer. it really was a beautiful place. after a nice big lunch and some interesting traitional tea, which supposedly can cure any disease..!, phally proceeded to point out proudly all the fields that his family owned and all the ones he himself had ploughed or planted. his parents have barely ever left kompoung speu let alone cambodia and couldnt believe it when, after answering about 100 questions, i told them how many countries i had visited in my life and how long it takes to get to england and how much it costs! not a very culturally sensitive conversation but i was only answering their questions. unfortunately i couldnt realy understand much of what they were asking me so phally worked as my translator as most of the village turned out to see the specticle. i found out later that most of them had never seen a white person before, had i known that i would have found the whole experience a lot more intimidating but as it ws i was trying to be as laid back and 'cool' as possible, which has never come easy to me but i think i just about pulled it off this time. it was a really great day which was only briefly tarnished by a flash thunder storm getting us soaked to the bone on route back to the city.

it is such a simple way of life, they have almost no income at all. in fact i didnt realise this but they grow the rice so that they have something to eat and not to sell on. i figured they sell it to make some money to buy food but they dont....they keep it and eat it for themselves, which i guess makes sense and saves a lot of running around but i was struggling to see how they can afford to buy clothes and send phally and his sister to school in the city. apparently they only work 4 months a year whilst the rain is falling, then phallys dad works in the village community programe helping people build roads and houses etc. that seems to get them through but some have it a lot harder. its an incredibly basic but hard life. i was very happy to have had the experience, it is something that will stay with me for a long time.

the night before a few friedn joined me at the green vespa for a couple of drinks to say a proper goodbye, which was pretty sad in the end. last time i will see isaac and kerry has gone to bangkok without saying anything so im not going to get the chance to see her or the kids before i go which is a real shame as i love those kids. i suppose thats another reason to come back, i have been given about a hundered reasons already. its good to know that people want you to stay it makes me realise that i have done some good here and have some good friends that will miss me. im sad but excited to be leaving. so i sipped my beer, perhaps a little too quickly, which the magic mystery tour album playing in the background and sadly confessed to glynn that this was indeed the only beatles album i dont own, finished my drink and called it a nighty. was a blast.

life moves on, things change, deal with it tucker!

adios,
Ben.