Cambodian Wedding Part 2

The second day of the wedding was split in two. The first half of the day was the rest of the traditional Khmer wedding stuff: more blessings from the monks and exchanging of vows. The evening was dedicated to the reception. At most weddings, you hire out a function room for the reception. But when two very wealthy families unite in matrimony, they hire out all the function rooms.

Guys, I’m talking about 4000 people attending the reception.

Yeah.

I was told I had to wear a gown to the reception. I don’t own gowns. All gowns are longer than I am. I stood next to a tall guy the other day and I was the same height as his elbows. HIS ELBOWS. That’s how short I am. I ended up borrowing a dress from Liam’s sister, who bought the dress at some op shop. It was such a plunging neckline I had to wear a boob tube underneath. Paired with my over the top hair and the clashing eyesore of turquoise and lime, I looked pretty awful. But it was OK. I was having fun.Al looked gorgeous in her cobalt gown, which apparently cost her $300!

There were some stunning dresses on display, and sadly I didn’t take any photos. My camera is shocking in low light situations (as you can tell by these atrocious photos). The dresses the younger women were wearing were much more westernised. Think tight-fitting fishtail gowns dotted with sequins and $80K emerald necklaces. Pretty fancy stuff.

The reception was a boisterous yet contained affair. There was lots of dancing, singing, eating and drinking. The lights were so dim I couldn’t take any photos great photos. Some of the food presented that night included a curry, prawn and mango salad, scampi and suckling pig (I should say, a suckling pig at EVERY table) and ABALONE! It was pretty amazing. Al and I made the mistake of stuffing ourselves with the entrees and we could barely finish all courses, which was a shame because all the good food came at the end!

I can't remember what else we did. All I remember was we drank a fuckload of scotch (18 year-old Chivas, actually), and enjoyed good conversation with everyone. I also got to witness some Khmer traditional dance. It is such a contained and orderly dance, very poised and uniform. The dancers softly move their feet to the beat while their fingers delicately arch backwards. It’s fascinating to watch and impossible to mimic.

Later on, when everyone reached a state excessive drunken stupor, some brave young souls jumped on the gigantic stage and belted our some Khmer songs. I am super partial to karaoke so was half keen to sing but also not drunk enough to not care if I was dreadful. One of the groom's friends coaxed me to come on stage with him and we screamed something into the mic along with some of his other friends and the bride and groom. 

All in all a good night. I think by this stage, we were pretty exhausted by all the wedding activities. I can only imagine how exhausted the bride and groom must be. The next night was the last night of the wedding. We were told it was going to be a very chilled out affair at the groom's house so I was looking forward to a chilled out Khmer BBQ of some kind with close friends and families.

Oh, how wrong I was! But I'll talk about it in the next post.

Cambodian Wedding Part 1

So I’ve realised a post about the rest of my trip to Cambodia is long overdue. Just to remind you, I went to Cambodia in May this year to attend a wedding. Al, my boyfriend’s sister-in-law (his brother’s wife) is half Cambodian and one of her half sisters was getting married. Al urged me to come to Cambodia. At first I was really hesitant to go because I’d be a stranger at the wedding. I mean, even Liam wasn’t going to be there because he couldn’t take time off work. But after some convincing, I said yes and I’m so glad I did.

The wedding was a 3-day epic. Think of the fanciest wedding you’ve ever been to and multiply it by 100. The night before the wedding, we went to visit Al’s family. Their house was still in the middle of construction – adding exquisite drapery and chandeliers to the house etc. By the next day the whole street was transformed into a dining hall, decked out with round tables, plump chairs and a red carpet. The street was tented in PVC, zipped up to trap the air-conditioning (yes, there were about 12+ air-conditioners!).

Earlier that day, Al and I went shopping for a dress. She wasn’t keen on wearing her traditional dress but she couldn’t find anything she liked. I looked around and found this black dress, which had a pleated skirt. We also got our hair and make up done professionally at a salon the hotel receptionist recommended. It cost me roughly US$12 to get my hair, makeup and nails done, including tips. The lady who did my hair was wonderful and I tried to tip her well. I LOVE my hair! My fringe is so bouncy!

The first day was a bit like a “giving away the bride” ceremony. This ceremony actually went for 1.5 days! The bride and groom were blessed by the monks, exchanged vows and the prime minister of Cambodia and his wife even made it to give them their blessings!

One of the highlights of going to the wedding was seeing the Khmer dresses. There were some amazing silk dresses. Khmer dresses are almost like the Chinese qipao, except it’s a top and a skirt, not a dress. Al had a custom-made lilac number on. The styles of dresses were roughly the same, some of the older women had more elaborate details and decals on theirs

It was a very long process, lasting several hours. It wasn’t necessary for people to be there for the whole ceremony. In fact the tables outside were set up with food for any hungry patrons. There were people there whose jobs was to offer drinks to everyone while they wait. The actual room where the ceremony took place was tiny so flat screen TVs were hooked up in the dining areas, streaming the ceremony.

Here are some shots of the wedding food. Not great photos because I was too busy eating everything. The food below was the spread for the whole 1.5 wedding ceremony. The food we had wasn’t exactly fine-dining, but there was so much of it! Think tables brimming with tasty traditonal, home-cooked dishes. I find Khmer food has a lot of Chinese influences. Think soy-based stir fries with ginger.

Pickled vegies. Its salty-acidic flavour is very addictive.

Some sweet egg rolls, probably made with lots of coconut cream.

Something wrapped in banana leaves. I didn't get a chance to eat that one.

Deep fried fish drenched in a sweet and sour sauce. Very tasty but nothing too amazing. It was a very tasty piece of fish. It actually reminds me of the fish my mum makes at home, except she makes a chinese salt and pepper version with allspice and lots of onion and garlic. 

Roast duck in some kind of soy-based sauce. I don't remember this one too well.

Steamed dish of prawns, squid and pork, topped with a mop of coriander. I felt this dish seemed quite Chinese. I had a bit of the prawns and it was nice but nothing exciting.

Deep fried battered bits of pork. Al really liked this. She said it went really well with the dip (pictured below).

Spicy fish sauce with bean sprouts. This was a very addictive dip that went really well with the meats. It wasn't too sickly sweet and packed a decent garlic punch. The bean shoots gave it some texture. I could have eaten it on its own.

Some kind of omelet. I think it had minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. I didn't have any.

Standard spinach stir fry with garlic.

This nasty piece of fish was so yummy. Speared with lemongrass, its flesh was so tender and sweet. I think it must have been grilled. Its tough skin acted as a steamer. It went so well with the dipping sauce with the bean shoots.

The full spread.

These are a dessert. It was a bit like lotus seed paste encased in agar agar. Very delicious. All the photos I took of the insides of the dessert were too blurry. Damn my amateur camera skills!

Anyway, I feel this post is getting quite long. It might be time to end it. I'll post a few more about the other wedding ceremonies and all the touristy stuff I get up to. I hope you enjoyed this!

First day in Cambodia

How cool are butterflies? When I was in Singapore during our stop over to Cambodia, we checked out the butterfly house at the airport to pass some time, which was great. It's pretty sad how we don't get such fabulous butterflies in Australia. Going to the zoo to visit the butterfly enclosure doesn't count, although you could say the same about visiting the butterfly house at the airport.

We went to Cambodia because Liam’s sister-in-law Al had to attend her step sister’s wedding. It was such a grand affair and everyone in the family was invited, including me. Liam wasn’t able to make it due to work, but her urged me to go anyway. I thought it would be a bit weird, but it ended up being a wonderful trip!

The wedding was a three day affair! Al initially wanted to go for one day but her husband Brett said it was more respectful to do all three days. The first day and half of the second day was pretty much a traditional ritual where monks came and blessed the bride and groom. The evening of the second day was the big, grand affair where people wear gowns and dine in a very fancy hall. The third day was a wind down dinner at the groom’s house, which is meant to be a more chilled out affair (it was epic). But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll get to the wedding eventually. We did a few awesome things before the wedding so I will lead up to it.

The first time we stepped outside the airport was just like being punched in the face by humidity: you instantly feel that uncomfortable sensation of sweat creeping out of your pores. We spent ages waiting for the arranged transport to pick us up. Rogan and Diana (Liam’s parents) brought cryo-vacked (I don’t know how to spell this), frozen beef steaks to Cambodia and wanted to make sure they made it to a fridge. Apparently beef in Cambodia isn’t very good so the beef was a wedding gift, along with some good quality single-malt scotch. Cambodia is surprisingly into scotch, they only seem to drink the blended kind like Chivas Regal. It’s strange because scotch is such a winter drink and it’s crazy hot in Cambodia. I don’t particularly like scotch because it’s such a sweet liquor. You really aren’t meant to gulp it down.

Driving along the road was very interesting. I couldn’t believe how westernised the streets were: every sign and building had an English translation, which I really appreciated. The petrol stations looked like the ones we have in Melbourne: they have Caltex too. The roads, however, are crazy. Cars and motorbikes were coming and going from every direction imaginable. A two-laned road becomes a three-laned road, with the middle lane going in the opposite direction. That’s how frantic it can get. Strangely, we didn’t witness any casualties, although many times we thoughts we were going to be in a crash.

The hotel we stayed at was the Cambodiana. Al chose this hotel because it’s very central and all the taxis and tuk tuks know where it is. It’s this old-school hotel that was built in 1969. It’s exterior is very beautiful and grand but the inside seemed quite faded.

When we checked in, my room was still being made so I left my luggage in Brett and Al’s room. We were so exhausted when we got there because we did an 8 hour stop over in Singapore airport, which drove us crazy. I just wanted to stay in my room and sleep, but Al’s other stepsister Maria and her husband Tara came to visit and took us all out to dinner at this restaurant by the river called The Titanic.

Yes the name is lame, but it was a lovely place. We sat outside, literally by the river so the breeze was great. The food they did was so tasty and super cheap, but Brett said the food isn’t considered cheap for Khmer standards. But hey, US$2.85 for some pho!!

I wasn’t feeling very well so I had some Khmer hot and sour soup (about US$6). It was perfect, with lots of lemongrass. They even had fresh straw mushrooms, which are so different to the canned ones we get here. These actually tasted good!

Al and Brett both ordered a set three-course meal (costing roughly US$11) consisting of a yummy, tangy beef salad and some fish amok, which is like a fish mousse cooked in a coconut sauce. For some unknown reason, I did not take any photos of the fish amok! But was delicious, although when I some, it was a little cold.

They also got these dessert spring rolls. I can't remember what was in them but my mind is saying pineapple.

I can't remember what Diana and Rogan ordered. I'm pretty sure Diana ordered a salad and Rogan had some lobster in a curry sauce. We were all very tired so we went home early. I was actually falling asleep in my seat!

The next day we went shopping at the Central Market, indulged in US$2.50 cocktails and I rocked the mic at karaoke. I will post about that soon.

In the meantime, if you have Pinterest, let's follow each other! I'm so addicted to it at the moment. I've realised it's a really good way to plan Christmas gifts, dinner parties and whatnot! My Pinterest is 2choux. Let me know what yours is and I'll definitely follow you! Although, just to warn you, mine is very food heavy.