Things To Do In Phnom Penh With Your Mum

My mum’s tight grip on the pole of the tuk-tuk from the Pochentong airport was to be expected. I have seen it before with many a visitor and I remember my own first journey: sniffing the whiff of heat and city life with nostrils sterilised by airport air, ears still popped from the flight blasted by rush hour traffic horns and tired eyes widening to a whole new palate of colours after the steel grey skies of a cold British winter.

My two sisters who had travelled to Cambodia with my mum had seen it before though they still wore those well-known adjustment expressions after the long flight.

I was over-whelmed with excitement that my Mum was finally here in the place I have been living for the last four years. She had grabbed my partner Makara at the airport almost as tightly as she had me and he had been so nervous about meeting my mum that I think he was quite relieved to have some time to calm his nerves by travelling behind us in the luggage tuk-tuk.

I had given my Mum a few options of places to stay in Phnom Penh and she had chosen the Blue Lime. It was a good choice. As she stepped onto the balcony of her beautiful room and looked out to the pool and the street life below her eyes welled with tears of happiness.

The pressure was on to make the stay special not just for my Mum but for the six other members of my family – my four brothers and sisters and my sister in law – as they had all worked hard all year to fly all the way across the world so that they could see me, where I live and what I do, who my friends are and most importantly to attend my engagement ceremony.

It was a busy time of year at work and I had to go in most mornings for the first week but my mind was not really connecting to work as I tried to plan the next few days with my family and get the balance right between doing and seeing plenty of things whilst also making sure my Mum had the most relaxing time possible.

My Mum is definitely not a fussy person and she told me she just wanted to see what I do and how I live, but when I analysed this request it made me think, ‘What is it that I do exactly?’

I do a lot of sitting on my balcony reading. I do a lot of ‘daerlengs’ round the city on Makara’s motorbike. I do a lot of doing nothing. None of which really fits into the category of things to do with your Mum in Phnom Penh.

Luckily The Blue Lime was my Mum’s idea of heaven: sitting in the shade by the pool napping and reading.

My sister had bought me Bride magazine so we spent a lot of time planning my wedding next year and it was truly amazing to be having a laugh with my Mum and sisters under the shade of palms in Phnom Penh.

Another winner was the FCC where we went that evening. My Dad visited Cambodia a couple of years ago and he stayed at the FCC and loved it. My mum thought the strawberry daiquiris were pretty good there too. Makara and my friends joined us and we had a brilliant evening there and down at Phnom Penh pizza for dinner- a regular haunt of ours and therefore somewhere I wanted to take my Mum.

The real winner on the dining front though was Exchange. We went there for my friend’s birthday. It was my first time there and I was extremely impressed. For $22.50 a head we had huge sharing platters of delicious starters followed by generous portions of three main courses and then cheesecake with free-flowing beer or wine for two hours during the meal. We were so impressed by it all that we booked in for my birthday a few days later and were again bowled over the by the value for money and the quality of the food.

On both visits we were encouraged to head upstairs after the meal for the 7-11pm happy hour at The Vault and enjoyed absolutely wonderful ‘two for one’ cocktails.

My birthday night ended with Makara, my friends, my brothers, two sisters, sister in law and myself at Led Zeppelin bar, which made for a brilliant night.

The highlight of the family in Cambodia experience though was, of course, engagement day. I suffered from exhaustion and nerves the day before and my tour guide capabilities waned to the point that I made the dreadful decision for us all to go to eat dinner at Boat Noodle. I don’t remember the food being so bad there before but it was truly dire. I took one sip of my Tom Yum soup and had to spit it out again.

The next morning myself and my seven family members as well as six of my friends got in minibuses and headed for Makara’s home in Lovea Aim district Kandal province. It was a wonderful journey there especially on the chugging passenger ferry which my family loved.

Makara had gone back the day before to get the party organised. My Mum’s eyes widened when she saw the huge stack of speakers in their garden.

The Pen family came over and Makara’s Dad hugged us all and put necklaces around my mum and sister’s necks. I marvelled at the surreal but brilliant meeting between my Mum and Makara’s Dad. My mum gave him a small solar powered radio and he gave her an almost inappropriately affectionate hug then put a cigarette in her mouth and attempted to light it for her.

We all went upstairs where fruit was laid out and the elders of the village were waiting. My heart was beating so fast as Makara and I knelt before them and they chanted their blessings at us. I was unaware of the crowds of family and friends gathered in the house as Makara took my hand and asked me to marry him.

I had told my Mum in the minibus on the way out that Makara didn’t understand it when he saw people crying tears of happiness, so I couldn’t believe it when I saw tears rolling down his face as he told me he loved me and how happy he was. The elders blessed us again by splashing us with water from sprigs of flowers and then we all went back downstairs.

That Saturday was the best day of my life so far. Under the house we ate three different dishes of amazing home cooked food. Makara had filled his huge water store jars with ice and Cambodia beer.

The meeting of the Spencers with the twenty or so members of the Pen family was nothing short of joyous and drew crowds of on-lookers as we danced together to ridiculously loud music blasting from the huge sound system. My Mum was dancing to ‘Gangnam Style’ with Makara’s dad at one point.

The minibus took Mum, friends and family back to Phnom Penh at six pm, as they were wilting with heat and exhaustion but ridiculously happy all the same. My younger brother and two sisters stayed in the province and we were dancing from 11am to 11pm with Makara’s family and friends, the commune chief and the local police.

I felt as if I could literally drink the happiness in the air and my sisters and I complained of face ache from smiling too much as we snuggled together under a mosquito net at the end of the very long but very memorable day.

Waking up in the province with my family and my fiancé was a very special feeling. My brother had fallen asleep in a hammock and was suffering from bad bites on his feet but they healed quickly and as I sit here now by the pool at Vanna Hill resort in Kep I can see that I have some pretty contented family members around me.

Anna Spencer

Top image courtesy of Darren Wilch. More of Darren’s work can be seen at Cambodia Images.