Yesterday my friends and I hired ourselves a guide to show us around the Angor Temples (one of the 7th wonders of the world - post to come on this later). Our guide, “Mr. T.,” was pretty awesome and ended up inviting us to his friend’s wedding!
We were so hesitate to go, umm… yes, but we’ve never met the bride or groom?!? but apparently in Cambodia, weddings are open to anyone and everyone who wants to come celebrate (donation permitting, of course)!
The bride and groom in their traditional Cambodian outfits.
Cambodian weddings are long and intricate affairs that consist of multiple ceremonies… Saturday was day number two of this couple’s celebrations.
A Kiwi, a Canadian, and an Australia at a Cambodian wedding. I think it was a very high end wedding (re: Heineken beer, and everything was “very expensive,” as Mr. T put it).
And then there was the food….
Oh Lordy, the food… that centre plate is “black chicken,” which we were told is incredibly high quality chicken. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. As I’m vegetarian (including no fish) these days, I dined on rice, veggies, peanuts, beer, and lychees (which I looovvvve).
They were lychees with spikes, but nonetheless, delicious!
Also, one of their traditions is to do a cheers at the table every single time someone’s glass is full. Umm, that’s a lot of cheers when there are 10 people at the table with very small glasses.
My favourite part was the bridesmaids. Omg! omg! omg! they were soooo cute! All sisters too. Their dad was so proud and asked me to email him my pics.
See? Told you they were cute. And the bridal party (along with all the woman there) were STUNNING. Like, whoa. I couldn’t stop staring at their eyelashes as they were all so long (seriously, south east asia has really tapped into the long-eyelashes market). The bride wore several outfits. This was her western one.
And of course, just like with all weddings, there was dancing!
Lots and lots of dancing. Their traditional wedding dance was a lot like line dancing.
Mr. T. ended up getting pretty drunk, then wanting to drive us to another bar, which lead to awkward times as me, the Kiwi, and Australian stood there staring at him, then the car, then the police everywhere… who didn’t seem to care about all the drinking and driving going on (which was pretty bad, I must say).
However, we did all make it to the next bar alive, and i ended up rolling into bed at about 3am, with a date with a British lawyer set for 7:30pm tonight.
He’s originally from Salsbury, England, but has lived in Bangkok for the past 12 years, and is moving back to London next year. He was a true gentleman too, asking me on a proper ”date,” as opposed to just lip locking (so Liz-when-she-was-22 style) on the d. floor. So yes. You guys, I am going on a date tonight. In Cambodia!!
I was impressed with his smooth skillz, killer blue eyes and blue-steel cheek bones (true story) that I actually said yes, although sitting here now, I’m a little (re. a lot) nervous. But I suppose, if anything, it’ll be nice to talk to someone new and to hear what he has to say about Bangkok’s flooding… as I head there tomorrow (despite the British goverment currently having a ban for their citizens to go, and the Canadian government issuing an “avoid non-essential” travel.
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Right now it’s 3:30pm (12 hours ahead of Toronto time), and I’m lying in bed somewhat watching 101 Dalmatians (seriously, Cruella De Vil is soooo evil) and answering emails. Sundays are good days… hope you have a good one too! xo Liz
