Today Dad Turned 65

Day Sixteen: 2/27 – RV Tonle Pandaw Day #5
Title: Today dad turned 65!

This morning we left Phnom Penh a little later than scheduled. Some of the workers on our boat are new and their papers were not in order for the border crossing. Once those issues were resolved we got on our way roughly a half an hour behind schedule at 8:45ish.

We only had one excursion planned for today. It was scheduled to be a short visit to one final Cambodian village. As we approached the shore little kids starting coming from everywhere. It seemed as though the visit from the foreigners is always the highlight of their week (I think one of the Pandaw ships stops there weekly). As we disembarked the boat the children were ecstatic. English is not taught in this village, so we couldn’t communicate with them well. They did, however, want to hold our hands and walk with us everywhere. We strolled with a guide for roughly 20 minutes and over half the passengers had a kid taking each step with them, hand-in-hand.

As I walked around the area smiling at the kids it became obvious, yet again, that my braces were very amusing. Each kid who looked at me would grin and cover their mouth. I was tapped more than once by a little one who wanted to see the foreign objects on my teeth. I tried to draw my usual picture and explain the purpose of the braces, but this proved impossible since none of the kids spoke any English. Eventually I made one of the older kids go over to our guide with me so he could explain in Cambodian their purpose. The boy immediately understood and ran off to tell the other kids. From that point on I had a little bodyguard telling all of the other kids about the objects on my teeth.

After returning from our little adventure lunch was served. As usual the food was very good and the company was even better. My favorite food item was the pineapple tempura. It was seriously amazing. We ate with Karen, Dave and Nicole again. We also ate with Peter, a German man in his early 70’s, who is traveling by himself. He is a former physician so dad enjoys his company. I have also had fun discussing photography with him. In fact, after lunch we met for an hour and went over our best shots thus far on the trip. It was really fun and interesting to see the sights through someone else’s lens. Peter let me keep a copy of all his photos so I can share his work with you when I get home.

Border crossing into Vietnamese waters can evidently be challenging. Because of this the cruise allocated the whole afternoon for just this purpose. I think Vietnam requires almost all visitors, regardless of nationality, to obtain a visa prior to entry. The crew collected our passports when we embarked on our journey so they were hopeful that everything was in good order for our entry. I think that our tour director, Neville, may have left our boat early in the morning to tend to the crossing details because I didn’t see him until the afternoon. Eventually the boat started moving and we were yet again underway. I saw Neville shortly there after and asked him if there were any issues. He said no, then grinned, and told me he had taken the gate keepers a bottle of “good whiskey”. Nothing like a bribe of alcohol to get things done ;~>

In the late afternoon after Peter and I finished playing with our pictures I joined the cooking class on the sundeck. The boat’s chef taught us how to make California spring rolls. After the lesson we each had the opportunity to make (and eat) our own. It was kind of fun.

During cocktail hour on the sundeck I played Scrabble with Cathy and Nicole. It made me think of you, Pete and Jane, because when I play Scrabble on vacation it is almost always with you guys. When Cathy was putting the game away she dropped a tile through the deck floor. This wouldn’t be the end of the world but the game was not any of ours. She didn’t think there was any way to retrieve it but I was convinced that there had to be.

The area below the sundeck floor is actually the roof of the third level of the boat. After a little investigation I found that there was clearly enough room for a person to fit between the roof and deck. Cathy and Nicole did not want to ask anyone on the staff to get it so I told them I would. I am pretty sure I mentioned in previous writings that I made friends with Roath who works in the “front office” which happens to share space with the “saloon”. I went downstairs and told her that we lost a piece to our game below the floor of the sundeck and that we were hoping we could get it back. She said, “yah… no problem… I send someone up.” And she did. In less than five minutes two of our deck hands came to the deck. I showed them what they were looking for and they divided to conquer. One guy jumped over the rail and pulled a Spider Man like move sliding under the deck. The other took the long way and crawled down from the stern (the piece, of course, fell just about smack dab in the middle of the boat). Within a minute or two they had saved the “Y”! Nicole and I were pretty darn impressed. When I relayed to dad the success of the mission he asked if I rewarded that men accordingly. I said I had not because I didn’t have any money. Colin, the older British guy, suggested that I should have just given them a kiss. Instead I opted for a shower… by myself.

After my shower and before dinner I went to the saloon to write dad’s birthday card. I had not told anyone, other than John P. and Sigrid, that it was his birthday. I had only told them because it came up in conversation earlier in the week. As I was writing the card Roath came up to ask me if it was dad’s birthday. I said that it was and asked her how she knew. She said it is standard operating procedure to check the passenger manifest to see if anyone is having a birthday while on the cruise. I was really impressed. She told me they had a surprise for dad at dinner but that I was not allowed to tell him.

We ate dinner this evening with John P., Sigrid, Tom and Linda (the couple from the first night). In honor of dad’s birthday John P. and Sigrid bought him a bottle of nice white wine (wine and hard alcohol are not included in the price of the cruise). The cuisine this evening was Indian in nature. I enjoyed it. There was a particularly good chicken curry that I think would have made Mercy proud. We were having a lovely time chatting and waiting for dessert to be served when all of the sudden the room went dark. In marched the entire kitchen staff, led by Neville and his guitar, singing happy birthday. Dad was very surprised and quite happy. He likes to be the center of a good surprise. After the song and blowing out of the candles Neville introduced each of the staff members to dad who all wished him a happy birthday. Roath also gave dad a present. The gift was a very nice Pandaw polo shirt. Overall I think that dad would rate his 65th birthday as one of his best. Another noteworthy birthday was his 21st.

Tonight at dinner Tom asked dad what he did for his 21er. After first describing his 22nd birthday (I think the wine had sunk in) we learned that the majority of dad’s 21st was spent at a happening nightspot in Lancaster, PA. Dad turned 21 during his senior year of college. Most of his fraternity brothers (Lambda Chi Alpha) turned 21 before him, so they wanted to properly welcome him to the legal drinking age. Dad and the boys spent the evening at Hildie’s. They played darts and he played poorly. Then they played table shuffleboard and he played even worse. During their games the winner had to drink and the loser had to drink more. Clearly this resulted in dad drinking a lot that evening. Fortunately, Hildie’s was located fairly close to the frat house so his buddies didn’t have to drag him too far home. His overarching memory on the 44th anniversary of his 21st birthday is that beer tasted better after he turned 21.

Katy