Birthday Tea!

My second day in Thmar Pouk, December 8th, was my birthday.

Looking around my bare-walled house I decided I needed birthday treat – I would make myself... a NICE CUP OF TEA! Shouldn’t be difficult?

a) Tea bags. Hah! Bought them up from Phnom Penh.

b) Milk. Get that already too – this is going to be easy!

c) Water. Hmmm, stuff from the tap is already tea colour.

d) Speak to landlord in stuttering k’mai - he disappears.

e) Buy small bottle of water from stall opposite, but drink it down as thirsty.

f) Landlord reappears with big bottle of water – we’re in business!

g) Pan. The kitchen’s bare – a simple trip to the market?

h) Where’s the market? More faltering khmer. I think I’m being told there’s one round the corner

i) There is fruit and veg nearby, but I can’t seem to find the John Lewis kitchenware stall...

j) Anywhere else? Ask again – ahh, the *new* market is what I need – just a couple of kilometres away

k) How to get there? Has to be a first outing on my ‘new’ moto – please let it work / let there be enough petrol / let me find the way / let it be open

l) How much? Having got there and found an aluminium pan. I guess the Le Creuset’s were all sold out. Is aluminium poisonous? Anyway, I’m desperate to buy – but how much is it? “200”. 200? Eventually work out this is Thai baat – simply multiply by 100 to get 20,000 Cambodian riel, divide by 4,000 to get $5, and tweak a little to give you 3 or 4 quid. Brain aches too much to haggle. Time to go home for tea!

m) Gas. Grrrr. There’s a bottle but it’s empty.

n) Another begging trip to landlord, who disappears again.

o) Eventually someone appears with a new bottle (for a price).

p) Mug. Yep that’s me – why didn’t I think of getting something to drink it out of?

q) Never mind, just needs a little trip to the new market’s Selfridges bone china outlet stall.

r) Return with a couple of slightly grubby half pint glasses, soon polished up.

s) Result. It’s all come together at last: boil the clean water in the shiny pan using the new gas, pour over tea bag in new glass, add milk to taste, and I have a nice cup of birthday

t)


Now, a slice of cake perhaps?