Any visitor to Cambodia around this time of year cannot fail to notice the extraordinary spectacle that is the Khmer wedding. The wedding season for obvious reasons corresponds to the dry season and reaches a crescendo in March. These are enormous occasions which traditionally lasted for 3 days although in recent times 2 days is more normal. The first day and a half is full of ceremonial rituals attended only by family and close friends but all weddings culminate in a large feast usually at lunchtime on the second day. I have attended quite a few where there have been 1500 guests but I suppose 7 – 800 is more the norm. The smallest wedding I have been at was my own two years ago to which “only” 300 were invited! Needless to say this can be quite ruinous for family finances and there is much saving (and inevitably borrowing) to pay for it all. Every family wants to put on a “good show” and will not want to be seen cutting corners. With these kind of numbers attending you can imagine that wedding invitations come thick and fast.
Last year I was invited to 32 although I didn’t attend that many – it is perfectly acceptable to send a deputy in your place and my brother in law Rong is usually happy to oblige. On arrival at the feast you are seated at a table of 10 which when full can start dining. There are usually about 8 courses and copious amounts of beer are provided – you can understand why Rong doesn’t mind helping me out! Other than the sheer numbers two other things stick out to the casual observer. Firstly the women wear the most amazingly beautiful and colourful clothes with the men very drab in comparison. Secondly, and equally obvious, is the extraordinary noise level of the music coming from the massed banks of speakers. The volume is turned up so high that the music is often so distorted it becomes painful to listen to. Locals don’t seem to mind but it does make conversation very difficult. As wedding rituals get underway at 5am anyone living within 500 metres has an early morning alarm call! Strangely one does get used to it after a while although it is something that tourists often find quite bemusing. When we were looking for a site for Bambu Hotel we were very conscious of finding somewhere away from late night karaoke bars and beer gardens and this is something we have achieved although there is little we can do if one of our neighbours has a wedding. Generally our guests have found it very interesting and like to talk to our staff about local traditions – we have also been lucky that none of our immediate neighbours has felt the need to tie the knot yet!
Noise levels generally here are something that visitors often struggle to come to terms with. It has to be remembered that Cambodians get up in the morning much earlier than most westerners do – just before daybreak at around 5am. As a result they go to bed much earlier too – at around 9pm. Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and the coast are busy all day and night because of the number of tourists there but Battambang, being less visited, has a much more provincial feel and is virtually deserted after 10pm. I had some friends from Spain visit me a couple of years ago and they couldn’t believe that at a time they were usually getting ready to go out everyone else was going to bed! However you must not think that that Battambang has no night life. Far from it. Traditional Khmer beer gardens with live music and karaoke abound and will often stay open to midnight. As more western visitors come to Battambang a number of new bars and restaurants have opened to cater for them. One in particular and a favourite of mine is Madison Corner run by the irrepressible Patrice Belin. He stays open until 5am catering for the night owls with great food, drink and music not that I ever get a chance to stay out that late.
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