The air feels good here; less humid than in Bangkok, where
we spent a day acclimatizing. We get scooped up by a tuk tuk driver, who drives
like a maniac. He’s a real hot rod. We pay $12 for our terrifying 45 minute
drive to Madison Music, where we’ve planned to buy the ukuleles. Our driver
pulls the classic trick of telling us we only asked to be taken to the street
that the shop is on, and we’d need to pay another $2 to get all the way to the
actual shop (which ended up being only 2 more blocks). Totally worth it though,
not to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere with our heavy packs.
The store owner, Mr. Heng, looks like he’s in his early 20’s
and speaks good English, but doesn’t seem friendly. He gets his assistant
(maybe his wife?) to help us. The walls are lined with ukuleles and guitars,
and we try out a few of their ukes. They have $50 China made mahogany ukes that
sound decent and some cheaper ones with Angry Birds painted on them.
I call James for
backup. James Speck is an expat who lived in Singapore for 20 years, and now
lives in Phnom Penh, where he works in TV and advertising and teaches ukulele
on the side. He tells us he much prefers teaching these days and is thinking
about making more time for it. I found James online a few months earlier, by
searching for ukulele teachers in Phnom Penh. He has been an enormous help to
me in planning the project. He put me in touch with Madison Music, which saved
a huge hassle of transporting instruments all the way from America or even Thailand.
I planted the seed early on that I was looking for someone to continue teaching
music at the orphanage on a regular basis after we launched the program and he’s
been thinking about it.
James arrives within 15 minutes of my call. He is surprised
to see that we are well on our way to negotiating a good price. He didn’t
really know that much about me and I hadn’t told him I’d been in Asia before.
He suggests that I get at least a few Angry Birds as beater ukes for the
younger kids, and I agree it’s a good idea. I look at some $5 tuners
specifically made for ukuleles. Xander gets fully into haggling, which I gladly
watch from the sidelines. He’s doing really well for a first time Asia
traveler. I see that they aren’t very sympathetic and remember that I haven’t
mentioned the cause. I discuss with Mr. Heng that they are for an orphanage in
Takeo and that I’m donating them and his entire persona relaxes. He thought I
was buying 12 ukuleles for myself. It turns out that he’s involved in similar
outreach projects around Phnom Penh and he ends up throwing in the tuners,
picks and some strings for free. He even phones his buddy who might know of a
music teacher in Takeo Province… he does not.
All said and done, we spend $500, which we feel darn good
about! James agrees to join us to Wat Opot in the morning for a day visit. He’ll
meet us at our guest house and ride with us on the tuk tuk with Mr. Huit who is
now employed as the driver of Wat Opot. Exhausted after our crazy first day in
Cambodia, we eat at our guest house and walk to the palace (2 blocks), where
there has just been a vigil for the Khmer King. We witness a street fight, and
hustle back to our room.
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