Our night on the farm

During our journey across our farms, we received a truly exceptional invitation - to spend the night at the farmer's home. Since all members of the Czech expedition welcome such experiences, we all agreed and arrived at 6 pm, when it is already dark in Cambodia, at the agreed crossroads in the middle of the field. A delegation with flashlights picked us up - so we wouldn't be afraid of dogs, snakes, and other creatures on the way - and led us safely to the farmer's residence.

Spending the night on the farm is a great honor for the whole family

Therefore, they organized a truly generous dinner for us, which was, as expected, fragrant with Kampot pepper. Since we came directly from Kep, a seaside town known for crab, shrimp, and other seafood hunting, we brought the family an enhanced pile of crabs and shrimp. The farmer's wife took care of cooking them, while we, together with the farmer and his daughter, prepared the tables for dinner.

Besides plenty of rice and meat, which Cambodians love, they baked us a sweet cake made from palm fruit, which was excellent. "My family recipe," the farmer's wife proudly says. The farmer then tells us about how talented his daughter is.

“Thanks to you, she studies in the capital city and is the 3rd best in her class in mathematics and the 2nd best in singing, look! ”

The daughter begins to sing – karaoke – as is the good custom at every dinner in Cambodia. The father smiles proudly, and the rest of us listen with respect to the traditional Cambodian song. After dinner, the ladies wash the dishes, and the gentlemen go into the dark jungle to catch a snake for the morning snake soup. The Cambodian song lulls us all to sleep, and we slowly go to bed – no other way than in a stilt hut. We sleep on the floor – but we do get a modest pillow and a fan – so that mosquitoes can't get to us.

The morning on the farm starts early

The morning on the farm starts early. Already before sunrise around 5 o'clock. Sleepily, we go down the ladder, and the morning activities are already waiting for us. First, cooking the promised snake soup for breakfast, then a lesson on climbing the coconut palm, and the rest of the crew goes to herd the cows. Upon return, the host plays us a favorite song on a drum made from snake skin, and then it’s time for running. Read that correctly – Cambodians never run, but one expedition member was so enchanted by the morning nature that he went for a run – and the farmer went with him. He kept an enthusiastic pace in flip-flops for a respectable 10 minutes and then happily returned with thanks and a smile.

It was time to leave, so we quickly rinsed off one last time in the local shower – that is, a well with a plastic bucket – and set off back to civilization.