On Christmas Eve, we departed Siem Reap for our homestay. We’d been told by Intrepid Travel that this would be a way for us to experience life in rural Cambodia, as we’d be staying with a family, eating dinner with them, etc. Sean and I were very excited about this – it was a big draw of this particular trip. We knew it would be no-frills, but other than that we didn’t really know what all to expect.
On the way out of the city, Dyka stopped at a local mart to get some baguettes for the next day’s breakfast for our group and he also picked up these Santa hats for everyone and he got a Santa mask for himself. It was priceless. Although Khmer people don’t celebrate Christmas since they’re mainly Buddhist, they decorate everywhere for this Christian holiday for the tourists. It was interesting to see the various interpretations of Christmas trees, holidays lights and other decor as we traveled around. 
We stopped on our drive to sample some Kralan, a bamboo rice cake. It’s a mixture of rice, black beans, shredded coconut and coconut milk that’s packed into a hollowed out bamboo stick, sealed up with leaves and then roasted over a fire until cooked.
Dyka showed us how to open it in order to eat the rice inside. It was a very simple dish, but one of my favorite foods on the entire trip. It was fresh, savory at first and then finished with the soft sweetness of the coconut milk that had cooked into the rice. Lovely.
Our stop for lunch was pretty much a rest stop, complete with a little gift shop. The view, however, was quite nice.
And Sean’s lunch was rather unique as he opted for a dish of beef and Morning Glory (local greens) with fire ants! You couldn’t really taste the fire ants, but as shown below, you could see them.
It was early afternoon when we got to our homestay. I was expecting us all to be sleeping in mats on the floor of one big room, so I was surprised to actually have a private room and a bed. The feel was that of a guesthouse, rather than actually staying with the family, especially since we barely interacted with them other than to meet the head of the family. We had a local guide from the village come over and he mostly dealt with us while we were there.
The local guide offered to take the group on a tour of the village. Dyka had already scheduled us on an ox cart ride later, so some of us were a bit confused as we had expected to be involved with the host family in some way – gardening, cooking, cleaning, etc. I was already not terribly excited about the ox cart ride – Dyka had really pressured us into doing it and paying the $5 per person. I understand the desire to support the local village, but I had assumed the tour overall had covered any obligations. However, we know that a little bit of money to us is a lot to others in this part of the world, so we decided to join in the activity.
I was also tired – we’d been going nonstop for almost a week since leaving the States – and I wanted to catch up on journal writing. A few others opted to stay behind from the village tour, so I did too.
Sean went, though, and got some great pictures. He saw how the rice is dried and processed in the village, was shown all sorts of local vegetation including banana trees, orange trees (pictured below – the oranges here are green!) and lemongrass plants, and was able to try some frozen fruit drinks.
The ox cart ride was…interesting. Bumpy and dusty are the two words that come to mind as we went through some of the back roads of the village.
We passed a school and all the children ran out to greet us, shouting “Hello!” and “Goodbye!” and “Bye Bye!” as we passed by.
This is a typical home in rural Cambodia. They are built on stilts due to flooding during the rainy season, and then during the hot and dry season they spend all their time underneath the house, as it provides constant shade. There is no running water or electricity or garbage service.
Our ox cart ride took us out into the rice fields, which had already been harvested. We got out and walked to a nearby lake that our local guide informed us was filled with leeches. He advised to watch our step and not fall in. Funny guy, hehe.
Leeches aside, the sunset was very nice and it was truly quiet out here, which was refreshing. The roadways and cities are full of constant honking.
This boy followed our tour for awhile on his bike, but never approached us. Seems he was just curious.
When we returned, we were all feeling pretty dirty from being outside all day and in the dust. With no running water, Sean and I turned to our wet wipes – they actually did help us feel freshened up. I used my Shewee in the bathroom and was SO happy I had it. The toilet was cleaner than most, but was still a hole in the ground. Sanding up to pee is so much more comfortable than squatting.
Turns out our host family did have some electricity at night – the strips of lights were powered by a car battery that was powered by a solar panel. We ate by candlelight and had a ton of fun just chatting and enjoying each other’s company. While I was still bummed we weren’t doing anything with the family, I was grateful for the downtime and to spend quality time with our group. The food was really good – we had a papaya soup with pork on the bone and ginger, and a pork stir-fry with green beans and ginger. We all brought drinks and played some games after dinner.
It was a pretty early night for us all and while it wasn’t the best sleep I’ve ever had, it wasn’t the worst. I did have to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, but they kept the lights on so it wasn’t bad.
Dyka had asked us to get up at 5.30 for breakfast on Christmas day. We groaned, but obliged. He made such an effort to make it special for us and we were all truly touched. We were expecting to eat our plain baguettes on the bus, but he had gotten instant coffee for us and asked the host family to prepare a proper breakfast. Our baguettes were warmed and toasted, and served with fried eggs and vegetable fried rice. We were all grateful for the extra effort on our holiday.
Sean was the one who displayed that gratitude outwardly for all to see. He put on the truly creepy Santa mask, grabbed a box of coconut shortbread cookies from our stash of snacks and proceeded to frolic around delivering a cookie to everyone in our group. He noticed the host family laughing right along with us at his showmanship, so he went over and offered a cookie to each of them before dancing back over to us. It was hilarious and it also lightened the mood, as I think most of us were feeling tired and dirty. 
We left shortly after breakfast for Pnomh Penh. As happens with almost any group, someone had gotten sick and been sick for awhile. Poor guy just could not shake that stubborn bacteria from his system. Our Pepto Bismal seemed to give him some relief – so glad Sean picked that up before we left!
There is no interstate system in Cambodia, so the drive to the capital took about 5 hours instead of the 2 that it would have taken with a more advanced infrastructure. We stopped at a rest area and Sean got to have the weirdest food of the trip – fried tarantulas. He didn’t eat the body – Dyka did and said it was like a soft-boiled egg as far as texture. Ick. Sean said the legs tasted like garlic and were crunchy. Quite an unforgettable experience, that’s for sure!
From my extremely limited experience in that one village, I would say it didn’t seem that the people were unhappy. I would never presume to know what’s best for someone – indoor plumbing, running water, bigger houses, etc. are not all necessary to be happy. What did concern me was the lack of access to any clean drinking water other than plastic bottles, the trash everywhere – even in the small streams and ponds, and the precarious nature of it all. One sickness, one broken bone, seemed to be all it would take to destroy their fragile balance of happiness. If all were healthy, then all seemed fine. But to be treated for and recover from an illness would be quite a feat in their situation. 
The homestay was a unique experience and I’m truly glad to have had the opportunity to do it. If we Americans had more vacation time, I think a stay in a small village is something I’d spend more time doing as part of a another trip.
