The Boeing 737 came to a halt on the tarmac of Pochentong, Phnom Penh international airport and the passengers disembarked. One in particular looked very smug, even though it had been a long flight. ‘Maybe here at least I will safe away from those two.
On a hot morning in May, Nick cleared customs, got into a tuk-tuk and told the driver to take him to a good, but cheap, hotel. They drove out of the small airport and headed off into the city and towards the riverfront. The tuk-tuk stopped outside the Angkor International hotel.
“Here’s very good,” said the driver knowing he would get a commission from this hotel. “And only five minutes walk to the riverfront and lady bars”.
“Great,” said Nick and went into the reception and took a $15 room.
Nick decided to have a sleep, watch a bit of TV, then go out to explore Phnom Penh. He had been given details of several bars to visit along the riverfront and the names of the British ex pats who owned them. Nick turned on the TV and nodded off.
****
Pon, the Tinju Prime Masters life had changed dramatically since returning the holy relic. He decided to accept the position and title of Prime Master of the Tinju for protection of the holy relic and, undertook another role as defender of the monarch to Crown Prince Vijiralongorn, which had taken him to many countries. He had just returned from the visit to King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia in order to repair relations between the two nations, after once again, the Thais had accused the Khmers of amassing troops around Preah-Vihear temple in the North of the Cambodia, which the Thais have always claimed to be theirs. The Cambodians never accepted this and now the politicians of both countries seemed to be ignoring each other. His majesty, King Bhumipol of Thailand, and his friend, King Norodom Sihanouk, the present Kings father and former King of Cambodia, decided a state visit was in order, to heal the rift growing between the two neighbouring countries, therefore King Bhumipol sent his son the Crown Prince.
This was Pons third visit to the Preah Barom Reachea Vaeng Chaktomuk, Royal palace in Phnom Penh and the third time he had seen Kim Doung, the head maid in waiting to Her Majesty Norodom Monineath Sihanouk, the King’s mother. Pons feelings for Kim had grown stronger, but he hurt inside as he realised they could never be together as her parents had arranged for her to marry a rich, powerful Khmer.
Although they had only talked and on occasions held hands, Pon knew that he loved this lady and she felt the same way, but Khmer tradition and parental authority in Cambodia is paramount and his position would not allow him to plan any different.
‘But at least I get to see her often and she is always in my dreams, which will have to do,’ Thought Pon
Kim announced during Pons last visit that her marriage had been planned to take place on the next day of the new lunar cycle, as that was considered to be a lucky day. Neither Pon nor Kim considered this to be lucky as it was only two weeks away.
.
Arranged marriages still happen in Cambodia between the traditional and usually rich Khmer families, which would increase the parents status and social standing .As in other cultures the girl has to stay a virgin (pure) but the man who is usually a lot older, can take as many concubines prior to marriage as he wishes: The Khmer men are the diamonds .The ladies silk: You can wash a diamond and it is still pure. You can wash silk but it will never be pure again, although now in modern day Cambodia with the foreign influence, more and more families ignore this tradition
Pon, now back in his large living quarters at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, prepared his notes for his English language class, but his thoughts, as usual, on his beloved Kim. His mother, Banti, entered his room.
“Are you okay my Son?”
“Yes mother, I am fine,” said Pon, lying.
“Are you in love son?” Banti enquired.
Pon, shocked by his mothers question replied
“Yes mother,” he then went on to explain about the situation regarding Kim and when he’d finished his mother hugged him.
“Don’t be sad my brave son, Buddha will find a way.”
She then held on tighter and repeated, “Buddha will find a way.”
The tender moment was abruptly broken by the rapid entry of a Tinju monk.
“Prime Master,” said the agitated monk catching his breath. Pon knew the monk to be one of the guards of the holy relic.
“Prime Master,” repeated the monk, after regaining his composure and respectfully Wai-ed Pon
“Please come to the temple of the sacred light, we have a grave problem, master.”
Banti broke her hold on her son and Pon and the Tinju hurried out of the room.
****
Nick had a peaceful nap, showered and headed off to the riverfront ‘Eat, then on the beer’, he thought.
His first stop was the Green Park restaurant, a recently opened eatery near the riverfront and got talking to Max, the owner. Max recommended the best places to go for a good time, and while Nick chomped down a Chicken Florentine, Richard an English friend of Max’s came in to the restaurant and Max introduced him to Nick.
“This is Richard, also known as the animal,” smiled Max and he will give you the grand tour.”
Richard sat down next to Nick.
“Hi mate, hurry up and finish eating we have got a busy time ahead, and time, tide and chalice waits for no man.” Said Richard appearing to be in a rush.
Richard had been in Phnom for two years and was a souse chef at the Intercontinental Hotel. His drinking, and shagging antics were legendary, and his benders usually lasted for days, earning him his appropriate nickname and, if a misguided tourist went out with him they would usually end up in some dubious Vietnamese brothel in a bad state of wankered.
“First on the agenda was the Night Owl bar, loads of girls,” announced Richard as they left the restaurant and went into the hot, sticky Phnom Penh streets.
They arrived at the Night Owl on 104 Street.
“ Where's the go-go bars mate?” enquired Nick
“Nope, don’t have them, you will find Cambodia a lot more subdued than Pattaya. I went there once for a day or two but I can only remember the first couple of hours, I was spannered the whole time. I only came around in the taxi from the airport home,” said Richard and smiled
They entered the Night owl and Nick instantly liked the place, as there were about thirty girls, all wearing short skirts, and no other men in sight.
“It’s early,” said Richard “get in early and pick the best,” which is what he liked to do, but for what reason remained a mystery, as he always ended up wankered and usually either alone, or with an old tug he’d picked up at the end of his drinking session at 4 or 5am, from the Walkabout hotel, a 24 drinking and freelance taxi girls, hung out.
Taxi girls same as Thai bar girls.
They sat at the bar, the girls all whooped at Richard “Koy-t, koy-t” Nick not wanting to appear rude, never enquired what they’d meant by Koy-t.
Nick quickly realised about the bars being subdued, because after the initial excitement of the lads entering, the girls just milled about and chatted amongst themselves. Occasionally the girls would ask them if they were ok, and would they like another drink.
‘A refreshing change to Pattaya’ thought Nick, no hassle to buy them drinks or mauling and he thought the girls here were prettier than the Thai’s and spoke better English. Several had already caught his eye.
‘Yep,’ thought Nick, ‘I will enjoy it here, it’s a cheap Charlie’s paradise’.
Cambodia has two main types of beer: Anchor and Angkor, yep, you read correctly, both the same sounding words, but to avoid confusion Anchor is pronounced Ansh-orr.
****
Pon and the young Tinju monk ran into the temple of the sacred light. The sun shone through the skylight, hitting the top of the statue, and the two treasures, but instead of the usual brilliant light show as the light danced its way between the two, nothing happened.
Three other Tinju guards’ wai-ed Pon when he entered and all five stood gazing at the non-spectacle. The tourists who had come to witness this daily wonder had been led out by the monks’ moments earlier.
Pon started to climb the fifty-foot statue of Buddha until he reached the top. He found himself a purchase and removed the clear glass cover off the Buddha’s tooth relic. He removed the gold bejewelled box, put it in his pocket and climbed down. Once on the ground he inspected the relic.
Pon didn’t understand, the relic appeared to be fine, it looked exactly the same as always, and he had seen this holy box many times before.
Confused, Pon took the box, left the temple, headed into the main part of the palace and went into Khun Taksin Sawaldees, office.
The remaining monks were shocked and bewildered “What has happened, have we failed in our duty”? Asked one monk.
****
Nick and Richard had been steadily crawling from bar to bar, Nick having a great time, because the drinks were cheap and he hadn’t given anyone a tip all night and Richard had paid for any lady drinks bought, so he was in heaven. His only problem seemed to be keeping up with Richard with drinks and by eight o’clock Nick was spannered.
They entered Barbados bar to the whooping of the girls “Koy-t, koy-t” and one girl prodded Richard in the cheek.
Nicks curiosity got the better of him and asked Richard,
“Why do they call you koy-t?”
“Ah, ha,” said Richard, “it’s a secret.”
Richard ordered three Sambucas, one for him and Nick, and one for a pretty young lady who joined them.
Richard chatted to the lady, while the shots were poured. He produced a lighter, set fire to the alcohol, passed one to Nick and one to the lady.
“Welcome to Cambodia mate” toasted Richard and he blew out the flame and drank the shot down.
“Cheers” said Nick and he blew out the flame and drank the shot.
“Cheers said the Khmer girl and she drank down the shot, Horrified, Richard and Nick looked on as flames spluttered from her mouth and set the side of her hair alight.
“You’re supposed to blow the damn thing out first!” exclaimed Richard, as the girl leapt off her stool wailing. The rest of the bar staff threw water over her and slowly, but painfully, the flames got extinguished. The girl ran upstairs in tears. Nick and Richard hurriedly left as the girls blamed, Koy-t
“You won’t be going in there again will you mate?” said Nick.
“Of course I will, stupid girl did the same last week, with a B52 type concoction that I bought her”.
Chuckling like a couple of clowns they got into a tuk-tuk.
“Shanghai bar,” ordered Richard, “Bun Man?” (How much)
“Two dollar,” said the driver.
“One dollar,” laughed Richard.
“OK koy-t” the driver laughed back and the tuk-tuk sped away towards street 51.
****
Pon knocked and entered Taksin’s office. Taksin arose of his chair and wai-ed Pon
“Hello Prime Master what brings you to this part of the palace, it must be urgent”.
Pon returned the wai.
“Khun Taksin, we have a problem and I would like your advice.”
“Of course Pon, how can I help?”
He explained to Taksin about the sacred light and showed him the jewel encrusted box. Taksin took the box and inspected it while Pon continued.
“It does not appear to have been tampered with, it looks the same as always, but I don’t understand, every day we have had the same light show, every day, without fail since we placed the holy relic in the temple. So why now has it suddenly stopped” said Pon concerned.
“Hmm” said Taksin “Your right Pon, it does appear to be okay, but just to be sure” Taksin put the box on his desk and picked up the phone
“Hello Khun Taksin, how I can help you?” said his Personal assistant.
“Noi,” said Taksin, “Could you get hold of Ratray Sesilin at the gem lab in Bangkok.”
“Of course sir,” said Noi.
“We will get a more thorough look at this and decide then, what could have happened” said Taksin.
Several minutes later the phone rang and Taksin answered,
“Hello Ratray, it seems that we have a problem at the palace.” Taksin went on to explain what had, or rather hadn’t happened. Ratray listened, and when Taksin had finished explaining what he would like Ratray to do. Ratray replied,
“Certainly Khun Taksin, I will grab a few vital items of equipment and head straight over.”
“Thank you,” said Taksin, “We look forward to seeing you again, goodbye.”
He then hung up and said to Pon,
“Then we will know for certain, meanwhile Pon, have the temple sealed and look for any possible clues, I will see what I can find out from here”
Taksin recalled something and mentioned
“This does sound suspicious” and continued,” I received a phone call a few weeks ago from someone who wanted to borrow the relic for, he claimed, some scientific research and I told him, no way. I don’t know if this has any relevance. We will wait and see if Ratray can uncover anything before I inform his majesty.”
Pon agreed, wai-ed Taksin and left the office.
Taksin put the relic in his drawer and again picked up the phone.
“Yes Sir,” said a cheery Noi.
“Noi, I need phone records and files from immigration of any Cambodians who entered Thailand in the last few weeks.
“Right away sir,” said Noi.
Taksin thought ‘just a precaution, maybe it’s unfounded at this stage, but we will have to wait and see’.
****
Nick, now wankered, snored himself awake, he had power napped for about 10 seconds and hazily rejoined the present. He looked around him at an unfamiliar and dirty, small room. He felt a strange but pleasant sensation around his todger, ‘Oh yes I remember’ he thought.
The small Vietnamese lady who had been sucking and manipulating his sometime flaccid todger now for about 15 minutes, noticed a bit of vigour returning to the tool ‘Good’ she thought, ‘he has woken up again, I wish he would hurry up and finish, my teeth hurt, all three of them’
She looked up at Nick and smiled.
“Shit,” said Nick, “you’re old enough to be my granny.”
Richard had taken Nick to about 20 different bars around Phnom Penh and, although drink for drink he himself was slightly spannered, noticed Nick was wankered. They staggered out of Bunny bar and Richard announced
“I know a friendly place on street 127 and it is time for you to meet Lilly”.
Sophie’s, a well known, B.J bar , which as you walk in, your todger is out and fought over by hordes of cackling, mature Vietnamese, ladies of the night, for want of a better description.
Richard liked to bring all the wankered newbie’s here to initiate them into the seedier side of life in Phnom Penh. Lilly was his favourite lady, she was sixty-two years-old and in Richards description ‘a friendly, toothless old hag and expert in the noble art of oral phallation ’Richard had taken Lilly to his heart as his adopted mother. It was Richard who had weaned her off tequila A concerned Richard used to go to see Lilly and the old girls, to try to stop Lilly from drinking tequila, which badly affected her health, and after several weeks of his constant pestering, Lilly gave up tequila, and to prove it, every time he went to the bar the girls would show him the bottle that Richard had marked, and it was genuine, Lilly, his old mum, had given up her deadly intake of tequila. She was however, unbeknownst to Richard, now hooked on the stronger Mekong whisky.
Richard always bought drunken tourists to Lilly, or animals victims as Lilly would call them.
Nick flopped into an easy chair as Lilly and another lady removed his pants, Nick gazed blankly into space as the last few shots of tequila kicked in. He was happy in his own world and glad that the calamity’s that happened to him in Pattaya, had not been repeated here.
“It was them bastards,” he slurred, referring to Spock and Stu.
“What?” said Lilly.
Nick grunted again and nodded off.
Lilly and another hag led him to a small bedroom at the rear of the bar and laid him on the bed, where Lilly continued with the job in hand. Richard popped his head into the room
“Enjoy mate,” said Richard
“See you later Lilly”.
“Thanks Koy-t” said Lilly taking Nicks todger out of her mouth and rubbing the shaft.
After Nick came around a little and after the initial shock, he accepted the situation, and as Lilly put her heart and soul into finishing quick, Nick started to mellow and thought
‘What the hell, this isn’t so bad’.
He put his hands behind his head laid his head on the pillow and bravely thought of England.
I will put you out of your misery Koy-t only means dimples