Cambodian Wedding, Part 1

I was very excited to receive my first invitation to a Cambodian wedding!  In Kenya, many of my friends had talked about going to weddings and I was disappointed I was never able to view that rite of passage.  I was worried I might miss out again in Cambodia, until my embassy colleague, Sophal, announced he was getting married, and I received the anticipated invitation in my inbox.

A Cambodian wedding is traditionally a multi-day event, with various rituals and ceremonies conducted before different audiences of the bride and groom's family and friends.  In this case, we were invited only to the wedding reception.  Upon arriving, we were greeted by the bride, Hemroth, and groom, Sophal, who were beautifully dressed in green outfits.

Sophal walked us into the reception hall and showed us to our table.  Looking around, we saw many Embassy friends seated in the surrounding tables, so we exchanged several greetings before finally sitting down.  After getting drinks, we took a look at the menu to see what we were having for dinner:

Ha!  The menu was all in Khmer.  But luckily our table mates helped translate and explain each dish.  All the food was served family style, placed in the middle of the table on a lazy-susan. 

Fried fish - yes it's a whole fish with the head and tail

Seafood platter

Clockwise from bottom - mushroom delight, crab leg soup, rice, fruity desserts

 Once dinner was over, the real party started...stay tuned for Part 2!

Angkor Wat 100K Bike Race

As I previewed in an earlier post, Jeremy and I rode in the Angkor Wat 100-Kilometer Bike Race.  Although I realize that doing physical exercise early in the day makes sense in a tropical climate, the 5:30 a.m. call time seemed a bit extreme.  It was still completely dark out!  It was actually quite amusing when the organizers got on the microphone and asked all the cyclists to "move up here to the start gate."  I couldn't see them or a start gate!

Geared up and ready to ride!

Jeremy and Rich await the start.
You can see the towers of Angkor Wat in the distance behind them.

By the time the race actually started at 6:15, dawn had thankfully broken.  The route was four laps around a 25-kilometer loop passing by two prime Angkor temples: Angkor Wat and Bayon.  On the first lap, we encountered a massive pig trotting straight down the middle of the road through all the cyclists.  Sadly I did not get a photo, but we all had a good laugh about it!

The second lap passed without incident; after the second lap, I was happy to take a half-way pit-stop for bananas and a bathroom.  The break was very welcome, but it was hard (literally) to get back on the bike seat again with another 50K ahead of me!  The third lap was definitely the most difficult, as each pedal stroke aggravated my saddle soreness.  But along the way, I was able to get this perfect picture of an elephant passing in front of Bayon Temple.

I soon got another psychological boost - Jeremy!  He had raced off at the start and I figured I wouldn't see him again until back at the hotel.  But as my friend Lauren and I started our fourth lap, Jeremy suddenly appeared at our side.  He had had a mechanical issue and pulled off to fix it.  Having lost the group he was riding with, he decided to wait for me and Lauren and bike the final lap with us.

This made the final 25K easy-going and we eventually crossed the finish line at 11:30 a.m.  For our effort, we received a finisher's medal and a pretty sweet bike jersey.