No Fixed Abode: Bring on the clowns

Sat 27 Feb 2016 - Battambang

This morning we were awoken at 0600 by the sound of very loud music blaring over the city. Some sort of festival maybe? Never mind down to breakfast, which was interesting. We arrived at the hotel’s outdoor restaurant, placed our order (no buffet today) and waited for our food and drink to arrive. The ‘full american’ arrived without incident but Yvonne’s cup of white tea was just that - white. Unable to miss her morning cuppa she accompanied the serving lady to the kitchen and with a combination of slow english, sign language and demonstration taught her how to make strong black tea in a pot and pour a splash of milk into the cup.

Fully fed and watered we dropped in at reception to arrange tickets and transport for tonight’s circus, more of which later, and enquired what the music, which was still playing, was all about. ‘Wedding’ said the guy on reception. ‘Surely it can’t go all day’ Yvonne remarked. ‘Two days’ said the guy. Oh good!

Planning a bicycle tour tomorrow we set off to find the outfit we intend to use to book and pay. Glenn had downloaded a screenshot of the google map to his phone so all should be good. We wandered along a couple of main roads, dodging the mopeds that sped towards us, until we found street 314 just off a roundabout with a huge Buddha statue in the centre. Now all we had to do was find street 309 on the right and we were there. We walked past a school disgorging hundreds (literally) of kids on mopeds and bikes then past shops of several shapes, sizes and state of repair until we came to the first turning. Oh, no street sign, maybe the next one then. You can guess the rest, no street names at all. Eventually after a wrong turn, a conversation with a local, doubling back on ourselves and counting the turnings we found the place, met the young students that run it (coincidentally getting married next month) and made the arrangements for tomorrow.

On the way back we stopped at a local cafe with Yvonne, once again, visiting the kitchen to discuss the correct way to make english tea. It arrived pitch black. There are some things you just can’t win at.

Passing our first Cambodian Wat (temple) we called in for a look around. Very different to the Thai versions with more Hindu influences due the Hindu kings that use to rule this area. There were figures of monkey gods, rows of men (?) all hauling against a giant cobra, four headed Buddhas, elephants… All in all quite surreal. Most of the Cambodian temples were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge but Battambang was, fortunately, run by a disobedient official. It was in a poor state but is slowly being restored and is impressive nevertheless. By now the midday sun was taking its toll so we returned to the hotel to cool down.

Feeling better we resumed our explorations and visited the wedding from where all the noise was emanating. Gingerly approaching the screened off tent from a shop front across the pavement to the street we were invited in and shepherded into a good vantage point and encouraged to take photos - even though the ceremony was in full swing with the couple lighting candles and officials and monks chanting over the PA.

Afterwards we found another partly restored temple over 100 years old with stupas of all shapes and sizes containing the deceased. We tracked down the museum, which was closed. With time ticking on we returned to the hotel to shower, dine and board our remorque (fancy tuk tuk) for the circus.

The circus, a main attraction in town, is run by a charitable school started by a single French lady that teaches youngsters the arts: painting, drawing, theatre, acrobatics you name it. We had arrived early to visit the art gallery, which contained some amazing work from year 1 and 2 students. Then it was into the tent for the main event. The show receives mixed reviews on TripAdvisor from those complaining about the cost (~£10) and the unprofessionalism of the acts to those raving about what a great job the youngsters do. We definitely fell into the latter camp. It was brilliant! Acrobats, jugglers, dancers, a live band playing traditional music through the whole performance and, of course, clowns. The three young guys that clowned around were hilarious yet all three displayed another skill during the show. One goofed around balanced on a ladder, one performed acrobatics (you know the stuff where they jump onto someone's shoulders etc) and the last performed an amazing routine balancing on a platform sitting atop several cylinders all stacked at right angles to each other. You can imagine the movement beneath his feet with that lot rolling about but somehow he managed to stand up. We had sat with a large group of young Cambodians and they were innocently giggling at the most slight suggestion of flirting on the stage and particularly loved one of the clown’s overly enthusiastic western style of dancing around the stage.

Sure some of the acts had minor mishaps (eg. A guy on a unicycle, jumping up and down along a burning skipping rope fell off and Yvonne was scared for his trousers catching alight). These aren’t professionals but the enthusiasm of the performers and the infectious fun in the tent made for a memorable night. We left with tears in our eyes and warmth in our hearts. All we have to do is get to sleep with the wedding still in full swing across the river embankment and wait for tomorrow’s early alarm call.