Keepin' it Classy

I'm staying at the Classy Hotel, where I've been a few times before. I relaxed by the pool for a few hours, reading Crime and Punishment. When it became too hot I shifted to reading in the water, which was pretty blissful. 'No people with skin disorder', said the warning sign. I performed a hasty check and decided I passed.

TripAdvisor reviews are hilarious entertainment. In Cambodia it seems that western travellers get very het up about Cambodian hotel staff being 'dismissive'. In reality, I suspect Cambodians' reactions are being misread. Dismissiveness is the wrong interpretation of the fact that on the surface Cambodians emote less wildly than Europeans and North Americans, and are fairly bemused as to why someone would rant at the reception desk if they heard a creature scratching around in the ceiling, given that this is something they have experienced every day of their lives. No amount of customer service training is going to rework the framework of a Cambodian's brain so that he or she will start fawning when a wonky shower screen is reported.

Whilst being prone to very regular bouts of outrage, I like to think my outrage is reasonable for the context.

I went into Battambang city to get an iced coffee. It never fails to amuse me that the literal Khmer translation of iced coffee (which phonetically resembles: kah feh teuk dohs ko teuk kork) means something along the lines of 'fruit of the coffee water, with the milk of a cow’s breast, and frozen water.' The translation may be over-egging it a little but it's still funny.

Battambang market was frenetic as usual. These two occupied a basic stall and symbolised the attitudes towards technology of different generations, which is something that has gripped Cambodia as strongly as elsewhere. I think Battambang is great as it's an unthreatening place, but it's changing rapidly. I wonder if it will still feel pleasant to wander when the traffic gets worse and a big city mentality seeps in.

In the evening I went to a restaurant and ordered a bacon salad and lemon juice.

Waitress: 'Excuse me sir, you want meat or no meat?'

Me: 'Bacon is already meat'

Waitress (trying to make sense of my words): 'Bacon is already meat??? You want meat or no meat?'

Me (regretting making little effort with Khmer): 'It already has meat?'

Waitress: 'No meat. You want chicken or no chicken?'

It continued until another waitress with slightly better English came over and confirmed that bacon does not count as meat.