Trying foods

I just had one of those this is so Cambodia moments, where all these little events conspire to create a perfectly apt snapshot of a place.

I was sitting in the stagnant mid-day heat, eating a lunch: something I didn't know what it was. The TV was on, loudly, in the large and nearly empty restaurant. A truck rampages past, honking in its speed so loud I cover my ears. A woman sedately rides by in its dusty wake, wearing pink floral pajamas.

Oh, Cambodia.

Yesterday was a note-worthy day: my trip odometer clicked over to 1000.0 kilometers! My legs are fine with all this riding; Cambodia has been as flat as Texas. The circumstances of riding in Cambodia are actually more wearying than the physical effort itself: the dust, heat, bad roads, and impossible traffic.

We've been riding a number of days now in this country, and I've finally put a pedal on what has been rather unsettling. There are no trees. The spaces along the roadside are almost all entirely bald. I suppose if one grows up in this landscape there is no concern, but trees have been such a part of my world that I miss them. Cambodians have cut down the majority of their forests, for slash-and-burn agriculture and also for fire-wood (which is the main source of cooking fuel). When we do ride through an area with a few trees along the roadside, the whole atmosphere becomes richer for me, and I certainly appreciate the shade.

We are staying the night in Muong Ruessi, and tomorrow we bike the short 40 kilometers to Battambang. Buddy Lissy and I are both looking forward to this city--an urbane French influence supposedly still exists there, with more of a tourist support system (meaning good food where we might know what we're eating!). We've spent a lot of time in small towns, where every single local stares ceaselessly at us, with few services or compelling food options.

I do enjoy eating things that-I-don't-know-what-they-are. I have endless curiosity for tasting new things: "what comes in that shape?" "what kind of fruit might be in this?"  The other day I had Birds Nest White Fungus Drink, which I tried simply because of the name, which came in a little brown can with a (guess what) bird on it. It was cloyingly sweet, but cold and fuel for bicycling, and had little white chunks of gooey tapioca-like-things. Those, I assumed, where the birds nests. :)

I also tried a bag of cold white liquid (into which I poked a hole and slurped out), also with little uniform tiny chunks in it. Also cloyingly sweet. I think a lot of the white-based things are with sweetened condensed milk. There seems to be two categories of snacks here: the insipidly sweet, and the savory, doubtlessly flavored with fishy, something (I've avoided those entirely).

Then there were the neon green smiles. I assumed they were a sort of candied peel of citrus, because they were sour and chewy, shaped in gentle curves, and very lovely.

The local style of coffee is served mixed with sweetened condensed milk, over ice. This is thick and rich and just-right-dark, like a melted coffee icecream. I relish these so much half-way through a biking day.