Last Day in Siem Reap

TODAY: Sunday, January 8

Our last day in Siem Reap was spent resting up, practicing our bartering skills, tuk-tuking around, and visiting a village. It was a pretty peaceful day: we got off to a much-needed late start and went to the local market (“Psaa Chas”) to finish up any shopping left over from our visit to the Russian Market in Phnom Penh. After exploring the local market for about an hour, we headed to Creuv Village to talk to the family of Sinat, a Cambodian musician whom we have been learning a lot about on this trip.

If you have been keeping track of this blog, you know that music is a major theme in this trip. One thing that continues to astound me is learning about the everyday lives of some of Cambodia's greatest musicians. In America, the musicians whom we consider to be “Masters” can make a very healthy living by playing music. In Cambodia, though, a large amount of master musicians live modestly in the countryside in small villages. Today’s example was Chreuv Village, where Sinat grew up. Sinat is one of Cambodia’s top performers and is considered to be one of the best of his generation. At just 25 years old, Sinat can play over twelve musical instruments at an expert level. Before today, I had assumed Sinat had grown up in an environment that allowed his creativity and passion for music to flow freely. In actuality, he grew up in a small village, where music lessons are unaffordable for the modest hard workers who live there. Had it not been for his taking a music class in the city and eventually receiving a scholarship to study in Phnom Penh, Sinat would most likely have grown up to live in his home village, leading a life similar to his sister, brother-in-law, and many of the others who grow up there. This makes me wonder, how many great musicians (or great performers of any genre) are not given a chance predominately because of their economic situation?

After experiencing a slight Tuk-Tuk adventure, we all headed to a “Barbecue” restaurant. I don’t know about most people, but to me barbecues don’t typically trigger memories of hot smoke burning my eyes while trying to figure out how to simultaneously boil clams and grill chicken on a large hot device with a chunk of pig fat on top. This was definitely a dinner filled with learning, like when our Tuk-Tuk driver and a lady we’ve never met started guiding us through our dinner. To be more specific, I broke a glass, couldn’t use the metal chop sticks to handle the slippery food and had to switch to bamboo, dropped a copious amount of raw chicken inside of my “soup”, and at one point tried to grill a slice of pineapple. I think that’s when the locals began to show pity on our clan of puzzled high schoolers. I have to admit though, once I began to get the hang of it, I was able to make some pretty good food!

~Maddie