Encounter of the second kind

When trying to get some sleep at PTD (Ptheah Toek Dong, our wonderful home for the moment), you are frequently confronted with several factors trying to prevent you from achieving your aim: Firstly, there are often some weddings taking place in the neighborhood, creating music at top volume for just about the whole night. Secondly, the nearby pagoda regularly let’s us profit from its sermons whenever there is a religious festivity (which occurs quite often, but is, on the other hand, quite understandable). Thirdly, there is the army of frogs inhabiting the pond at PTD, who have the habit of copulating at nighttime. We now had the very questionable luck of finding out about other beings with the same habit.
As the fourth factor disturbing as at night is a karaoke bar, starting to play their music at about 11 o’clock, we once had the idea of having a beer and having a look at the place. On our arrival we were guided to a little hut, open to the sides, with an elevated wooden floor. At first glance it looked like a nice concept for a restaurant, with each group of customers having their own space to dine. The fact that two young women were present was not yet irritating, as in Khmer restaurants it is common practice for one or multiple waiters to stand at the customers’ table, awaiting their orders.
It was only when they started touching as that the situation grew weird. We successfully managed to ignore them until our order arrived: Instead of the two beers we had ordered, a tray with about 30 of its kind was brought. Luckily, it was accompanied by the only English-speaking staff of the establishment. After some time we even managed to convince him that the only erotic experience we whished for that night was to be with our beers. Finally, the girls left the hut, leaving us to “enjoy” our beer, the only joy lying with the fact that after having finished it, we were free to leave. Since that night, the disturbance caused by nightly karaoke music has somewhat changed in quality.