The 5 hour trip back from Phnom Penh took almost 8 because the taxi van drove an alternate route to load up on live fish. There roadside fish ponds were operated by a Vietnamese family and they went fishing for us. The thousands of fish were the size of my pinky and varied from gold to brown to black. They sorted them, weighed them, got them into big bags of water, added air from a pressure tank then tied them off. Our luggage was taken out of the car, the third seat set aside and the van was loaded to to ceiling with the fish. Somehow the 7 of us fit back in with our bags at and on our feet, and we were off. (Bet I ended up delivering more fish than Lindsey's F/V Rainy Dawn! Bet I ate some of those fished mushed in my rice today!)
The usual route has a bridge to cross the Mighty Mekong, but now we had to wait for 3 ferry crossings, about an hour, before getting our turn to load on. Then of course, we got a flat tire and that delayed us another hour. We were all in good humor, and another passenger had enough English so he could translate the tourist jokes that had everyone else laughing their heads off. Like the one about the tourist who''s driver hit a cow and the tourist said "Stupid Cow!" I guess some things get lost in translation, but I laughed right along with my new buddies lest they be telling jokes about me!
No comments:
Post a Comment