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decreaseThe taxi from airport drops Norah and me at the hotel. First nights are the delight of my Asian tourist life, but Reunion Games have to wait: In the hotel lobby, two shy school kids beam at us with relief - her niece and her nephew! They will join us for the evening.
I know we will spend some time with relatives and friends first, after that she is free to go out with me alone. That’s their logic. Without asking I know she had to fight to go the airport on her own, without a bunch of relatives; she doesn't say so, but I know it. Her niece and nephew are sweet anyway, like any Khmer kids from a decent family; just shy, and I never can remember their difficult names.
Hotel Room
The four of us head to the double-room. - "Sorry", asks the receptionist? - "Yes?" - "For the kids, you need extra beds then?" - No, thanks! The youngsters are just here for some after-school entertainment; the night will be the two of us only.
In the room, we quickly find out that everybody is hungry. They insist to bring pizza to the hotelroom. Funny, they are shy to make me eat Khmer food, and they don't want to go out - just a pizza on the clean parquet floor they want. My ever-anticipatory Norah has already parked her Honda at the hotel; so she is in her shoes and off to "Nike's Pizza".
Bathroom
Now the kids get even shier, all alone with the big white man in an intimidating hotel room. I have a few small presents for them, marker-pens and a connect-4-game. But these presents I will give to Norah later, she can hand them to the kids; that's more relaxed for everybody. So I open the suitcase, put a few trousers into the wardrobe and go for a shower.
After splashing, Norah is not yet back. The kids play with the TV's remote control, still shy with me alone. - "Everything ok", I ask? - "OK!" - I offer them water, coke and snacks from the minibar, but they decline.
While I move more stuff into the wardrobe, I hear the girl starting to moaning a sermon with a high pitch voice. Sounds like a painful complaint. She's about eight. - Boy answers something, I think he's ten. - Moan-moan-moan goes the girl with that high voice. - Boy tries to calm her. - Moan-moan-moan! - I try to simply ignore them. Then they both get up, boy and girl, and make a beeline: towards the toilet they shuffle, past me, boy first, girl follows up closely, and into the loo they disappear. Girl needed a pee, but had been shy to go past me and into the cabinet alone; so for her relief she is guarded by her older brother.
Only now I notice a vase of roses on the sideboard. That's from Norah! She has placed the flowers there before I came.
My Khmer Lady!
Norah is back with two pizza boxes and a big bottle of cooled drinking water. - "But you know we have water in the fridge", I tell her. - "Hotel water too expensive", she says resolutely. - "Wow, Norah, you brought roses for us", I go, "thanks, that's wonderful!" - "Ah, no, not important...", murmurs Norah, now shy like the kids.
After a quick pizza on the floor we first make it to the riverside to say hello to Phnom Penh's finest view with the Royal Palace lighted up in front of a setting sun. Then it's another short dash on two motorcycle taxis over to the poor funfair, where the kids happily ride a few carousels for a few cents. Buddha has an eye on us, as neither carousels nor our chairs break down while we use them.
8.30 p.m. already! By handphone, Norah calls a tuktuk driver of her trust to ferry niece and nephew back to family. There we stand on the road: Norah and Hans, suddenly alone together for the first time.
She smiles at me in anticipation. I smile at her in anticipation. Now we are on our own and free to go back to the lodge.
© Hans Meier
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