everything bagels
Been thinking how good a bagel would be. I really like everything bagels with cream cheese and a hit latte. So when tomorrow becomes today I will head to New York Bagels just a block or so from the river. It’s a small place and someone will always say I could get local Khmer food for less. Here’s the thing. I don’t always want local food. I like street food and the nice little Cambodian restaurants where everything costs $3 or so. Just not all the time. My wife cooks some amount of Khmer food for me and I’m grateful. I like pizza too. Cambodian people like all food. Vietnamese people like burgers. It’s all ok. That’s why there are all kinds of restaurants here in Siem Reap. We all want all kinds of food.
I’ve had to laugh lately at the resurgence of the YouTube bloggers and their cheap Khmer food videos. They run along with how to live here on $700 a month. I would personally not advise someone to do that. People do it though. I think often. Figure what I just said about food here. When a person can buy a meal for less than $3 and find lodging for $100, add it up by the month. See what it comes to. Also remember most Khmer people make about $300 a month. Some like my son-in-law make more. But they also seem to spend over and above what they make. My wife has this “brother” who bought a new van. My wife said he’s fabulously wealthy. Yet the reality is he is in debt. Up to his sideburns. Up to 25k. Payable over years. So I don’t see how he can be wealthy when he owes more than he makes in a year. I never have wanted that kind of wealth. The whole cars, land and home thing. But people here. They sell one thing to buy another. Or it’s gold. One family I see walking lives in a rather dilapidated wooden house but built a wonderful shed for their four-wheel companion. I would venture to guess the car lives better than they do.
It’s just life here and what I see. There are some very nice things living here. I’m not a people person nor do I want wonderful conversations and social gatherings. What I do want and like is the peace living here. The sense that life here can be enjoyed no matter what type of person you are. You don’t need to assimilate. You need to understand the differences. Maybe deep within you know you will never be like that Cambodian person you see every day. That’s ok too. They don’t expect it. I rather think they enjoy how different we are. Who would want to live with a whole nation of people all the same?
Back to bagels
So yeah. All this comes around somehow to my desire for bagels. How life is here. What it might mean and how it feels. How I will never feel some kinship with most people. I just do my thing. I accept some respectable distance from most people. I expect they will do the same with me. I don’t need involvement and social ties.
I just want my everything bagel. It’s the morning now with a coffee at home and plotting my quest to New York Bagels this morning. From there walking can be whatever I want. I could stop for an iced americano after. I have not been to my regular coffee place in months up the river a bit. Time Coffee has always been this favored place to stop and when we lived closer, every day I would go talk to the owner. She loved rock and roll music so I would take over the Bluetooth and share some music. Now she is hardly there and a nice young Khmer man works there. Its a different crowd too. More Khmer people and fewer expats. Doesn’t matter really. I’m glad always to see people have time for Time Coffee. Its not some large spot except in my heart and memories.
Anyways, that’s this morning. Writing and waiting for a little bit until I feel like going.
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