Kampot Bike Ride, December 30th, 2009
By Bodhi
The morning I woke up with a fever was starting like a hundred other mornings. I woke and suddenly a heavy jolt came over me and I had to lay back down again. My body was very hot and I couldn’t understand why. My mom was sleeping. My dad let me watch a bit of video. Mom woke up. She noticed how hot I was. We were all thinking I had a cold.
We went on a bicycle ride, but when I tried to get on the bike, I felt as heavy as a boulder. When I finally got on, I felt light again. We rode for a little while. I asked my dad if there was a light on the bike. How do I turn it on? My father said showed me there was a little cylinder and he pushed it toward the bike. He said the friction on the bike pedal is making the electricity and makes the light come on.
We were in Kampot, Cambodia. It is a nice town. I see so many things. I see a ditch. People are digging in it. We get to a restaurant. A man says, “Sorry, we are having a little construction today. It will be about an hour.” We looked at each other and said "Goodbye". We checked another restaurant. We had breakfast (at Rikitikitavi). I had a nice smoothie with muesli on top. My mom had crepe with chocolate on it. My dad had eggs. I still felt heavy as a boulder.
We rode over a bridge. Mom found an alley way. We saw another bridge along the way. It led us pass some kids. My dad said hello, which is “
Sousidai!” It was not long before we saw the street again. We found the bridge we had seen a couple of minutes ago. We saw some people fishing. I went to check it out.
It was actually kids, boys, who were doing it. I said hello but they didn’t know how to say anything else in English. A young one caught a lot of fish. He wasn’t fishing with a normal fishing rod. He was fishing with a bamboo stick and a fishing line and a couple of hooks and prawns. The fish were a little small and flattish. They were silver and a bit of yellow.
Then I went back up and got on my bike. All of a sudden the bike took off without me on it. I was trying to keep from falling into the ditch which had appeared a second ago. I felt myself falling. I jumped off the bike, but I was too late. The bike fell on my legs. It didn’t hurt too much. Then I fell into some thorn bushes. That really hurt. I cried. My mom got me out.
We rode to a wat and I laid down on my mom’s lap. Some monks came over. After a little conversation, we were on our way again.
Who drove us, both in car and tuk-tuk
KenHe was a good friend and a nice driver. We were at the sun bears together. We saw the sun bears’ tongues, which were about ten inches long. They were!
Mr. Chum
I remember him because he was nice, friendly, and helpful. He was nice because he watched me when my parents went looking at some temples when I was too tired.
Mr. Mo
I remember him because he was funny, smart, and grateful for being alive. He was funny because when we asked why he didn’t go swimming much, he said, “I am afraid of the water. I can’t swim.”
I also remember him because he was curious. I know that because I showed him my notebook and he was ondering what some of the letters meant, like “t” and “h” together make “th”. I remember him because he could read Khmer but not much English.”
Vandon
Vandon is a nice man, or boy, as my mom says. He was getting married in Feb. We went to the caves with him I bet he liked them but I bet you ten bucks he’s been there before. It was a very good time with him. He let us have dinner at his house even. He gave us a coconut fresh off the vine so we could drink it. It was so sweet it was like sugars cube freshly out of the bowl. It felt like a match lighting a fuse.
Once we went to an island with Mr. Vandon and he had his fiancé with him. He didn’t come home that night. They slept over on the island and his fiancé got sick. This island is called Rabbit Island. It is a very tropical place. It a good place to find natural body paint. I found body paint with a certain type of rock.
