Post
by nightmare.believer » Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:48 pm
I’ve been coming to Cambodia two to three times a year since 2004. Besides my landlady, he is the only person in the kingdom who knows my name. A long time ago, he and I and Andy made plans to meet up one weekend late afternoon. I met Andy on the corner of St.104 and the riverside, where we waited several minutes for Henning to pull up in his car. Henning drove us out by Toul Kork, where we had BBQ and beer towers on the table. It was a Khmers-usually-only kind of place. The kind of place that most tourists would never see. Playboy and his GF showed up as well.
Henning was an instantly likeable person; the kind of person that everyone likes. He used to lean in towards you like he was telling an inside joke, with a smile on his face and say something amusing or relevant to the conversation.
We drove around to a few places drinking…ending up at Cheerleaders. It was an epic evening.
The next time I was in Phnom Penh, many months later, the hotel that I used to stay at near the Garage Bar was full, so with big backpack I walked past Garage Bar (which I had never been to before) when a voice called out my name. It was Henning. He was seated outside the bar with a couple of friends. I was surprised, and impressed, that he remembered me. He bid me sit down and have a drink, but I was tired from the flight, sweaty, and didn’t want to go out looking for a hotel half-drunk, so I declined.
We subsequently met several times to drink together at Garage Bar. Henning was a great conversationalist and someone that you wanted to drink with. Last year in August, I stayed in Phnom Penh for a few months whilst recovering from a nasty broken leg. We had beers together at Garage Bar and he insisted on giving me a ride home. I agreed. When I walked next door to the minimart to buy some Beer Lao to drink at the apartment, he ran out of the bar to stop me, maybe thinking I was pissed and going to walk home. It was this kind of great consideration for other people that I will remember him most for.
Plus he had great hair.
The world is darker without you, Henning. God bless your soul.