CHOI MOII!! or Drinkin’ & Fishin’ with Mr. Gi

THE FOLLOWING ENTRY CONTAINS DRINKING OF ALCOHOL, KILLING OF ANIMALS AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL.

As always, click on any pictures to see the whole thing.

…so the drinking continues.  We come to one home along the main road.  There is much libation  and some nice snake, freshly prepared.. I help collect some fresh herbs to add to the boiling mixture that has MANY SCARY GREEN CHILIS for my wimpy white taste buds..   SPICY & GOOD!

Did I mention I’d been drinking? It was a simple affair:  GREAT VIEWS!

We walked to the village Wat,  the Buddhist Temple…Though Buddhism & most temples were utterly destroyed by Pol Pot & Company, there are Wats everywhere along this part of the Mekong.  One every kilometer it seems.  Koki Thom village has a beautiful Wat:
ITS A BIG PICTURE HERE, BUT Y”ALL STILL NEED TO CLICK ON IT TO SEE THE BOAT.
On the right is the local boat used for  Bon Om Tuk, the Water Festival that marks the end of the Wet season, and in Phnom Penh also celebrates the reversal of the Tonle Sap River, which leads to Tonle Sap Lake & Angkor Wat.  That’s right…the river REVERSES COURSE..that’s how much water comes out of the Mekong during the monsoons, it pushes up the Tonle Sap, reversing its course and providing the huge Tonle Sap lake with tons of nutrients..so much that this lake grows from a depth of 1 meter to upwards of 9 meters and grows 4-5 times in size!  . The resulting floodplain provides a perfect breeding ground for fish. As a result, fish population swells and this process provides Cambodias with 60 % of their protein intake.  Unfortunately, large hydroelectric damson the river in China & potentially in Laos threatens this process.  Already fishermen in Laos & Northern Cambodia are having smaller & smaller catches.   oh wait…we’re we all walking down a dirt path lined with green, wild banana trees drinking?

OH YEAH BABY!…….and so we roll on into the night.  The dirt paths once wide in the sunlight now shrink before us in the rising darkness.  Soon there is the light of homes again and the one ahead has goings on that are quite obvious.  Its another party and in we go.  This time -thankfully- it is Vathana who is the subject of attention.  Village boy returned from the big city and cousin of our host, Gi.  He sits on the ubiquitous bamboo platform in a circle of men.

Younger men stand around and in the back, women, who gossip about me. Space is made for Vathana and I and 1,2,3 (“Mooey, Bai, Bei”) a shot of rice whiskey is in my hand again. Thank God i’m not in Vietnam, Where, to repeat, I was always expected to drink a shot with each man separately. However many times I tried to teach the custom of the shared shot, in Vietnam the honor was always one to one, so a few rounds brought me much joviality and a few more brought me closer to the floor.
But this is Kampuchea and “Mooey, Bai, Bei”, glasses are raised and I proclaim “Choii Moi” to much esclaim from everyone, even the women in back.  Handshakes, introductions (“Hello I am Mr. Ben”, “Sok sa bye (how are you)- I am Bram”). “Sok sa bye tae” (I am fine) I reply. Camera comes out, pictures taken and shown on the small camera screen to much hilarity. My liver is a steel wool pad and my drinking stride is again reached. Vathana finally shows the beautiful drinking face I remember from last year. A Wide smile, with no teeth and his eyes equally hidden within puffy cheeks and scrunched brow. A beaming face is a cliche, but right now his could be the accompanying picture of the dictionary entry.
“Choi Moii!!” I toast to him. Again laughter.
Vanthana takes his drink then leans across and says “Baby…that’s the bomb, but you have to speak `Choul Moii’”
“CHOUL MOII, not CHOI MOII?” Again some laughter.
“Shhh..yeah no way baby what you said..its not, ah..good words” “What have I been saying all day?”
“Ahhh…you touch yourself.”

A beautiful brown and deeply muscled hand appears. “I am Mr. Gi, Chou ti wahn (welcome to my home)” “Ahkuhn” (thank you) I reply. Mr. Gi also has a beautiful smile, beneath the cool black eyes where sobriety has recessed but the rice whiskey is firmly held in control. The two of us are soon playing rock paper scissors…and we’re pretty easily matched there..but I am very good @ this..so I end up winning the last few rounds. Perhaps it is this skill that impresses him as much as my drinking, but I am invited to go fishing with him the next morning @ 6:00 a.m…but their is more drinking and Vathana’s father appears to join us. Soon the family and friends are off again from Mr. Gi’s…apparently on some sort of mission. Their is only a dark path and the lights of houses along the way that i remember, but suddenly we are hurrying and there is a chicken in someones hand. A chicken that has been taken…stolen? No says Vathana, but it has been taken without asking. Sort of a festival-village-neighbor balancing thing for some prior slight or action. “Maybe the owner owed the family a chicken but hadn’t paid up?” “Yeah..basically baby!” whispers Vathana as we hurry back to the house…”to kill and eat this chicken?” “Yeah..for you.” Oh I am so there. But @ the house I have to evacuate some beer and I miss the main act itself. In the small hut that is the kitchen Johnny has already started a fire, a big pot of water heating up and I ask to hold the chicken. And there it is..a heavy body in one hand, my other hand holding the neck, which moves loosely without life to hold it. This is a chicken we are going to eat and I make a sort of prayer for it, which i later learn was an impressive step for me to have taken. But then the chicken is in the pot, then out, the boiling water having loosened the feathers for easy plucking…my hands are wet with feathers as they pull away surprisingly easy. It has started to rain, but the fire is nice and warm and there is a meal to be had soon.

I went to bed late but still had the boat out on the Mekong for some fishing…which was basically taking the fish out of the traps set in the river…  I learned to handle an eel using a glove, fortunately not the hard way.  And I thought he was joking when Vathana said to keep my privates covered from a certain fish that likes to bite ‘em…until I noticed all the other men wrapping their kramas carefully around themselves TIGHTLY.

Then it was time for village kids to try the boat: A nice day for a swim!

This picture is wonderful:

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