A festive Christmas and New Year in Siem Reap

Well, Christmas and New Year are done and dusted, thank Buddha. Christmas Eve for the Journo and I consisted of a quiet evening in Cambodia at my favourite place in Siem Reap — Two Dragons. What we thought would be a nice feed and a quiet night together, morphed into an alcohol-fuelled night and morning that came to an end around 3am. Not that I’m complaining, although I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to be out half the night.

It’s funny how sitting around with some great company, talking mostly rubbish and drinking grog, just how quickly the hours click over. I’m sure by the time we got to bed, we had solved the problems of the entire planet. It’s just a pity I couldn’t remember how. Two Dragons put on a few drinks and supplied a beautiful cake to see out the night. Thank you Russell and all the staff, as well as the greatest tuk tuk driver of all time, Mr Marom.
Now, being a mostly Buddhist country, Cambodians don’t understand Christmas. To most of them it’s just a party before the New Year but they do embrace a good time, even if they don’t understand it, which brings me to New Year’s Eve.
After a big Christmas I wasn’t that keen to go out all night again, so we decided to have a quiet night at home and not cop the beer and talcum powder drenching that supposedly goes hand-in-hand with Pub Street festivities at this time of the year. Some of the young blokes from the last house build were going and almost talked me into it, but common sense and most likely old age, came to the fore and I decided against it.

So the Journo and I settled into the balcony chairs with a wine and a bourbon to have it at home and maybe not stay up to see in the New Year. Then the phone rings and it’s Lin from Two Dragons wanting to know if we are coming over. An invitation like that is all it takes, so we were back at 2D’s for another evening, but with no intentions of another late night. As it turns out I was only kidding myself. Like the previous week, the night was about good friends and food, with a few drinks — and two cakes — and we wandered home around 2am.

So, I am ending this post here, hoping everybody had a great Christmas and has a prosperous and safe year.

The Joker