Party Khmer Style!

Last night I had the great privilege to attend the birthday party of the son of the nephew of my friend Toro. Down some backstreets by the entrance to a garment factory, the small house looked out onto narrow streets lined with corrugated iron houses. There were perhaps 20 people in attendance, plus lots of children running in and out. The men sat at one table and the women and children at the other. The women made and served the food while the men drank Angkor beer and ate frog soup and roasted fish.

Every time we wanted to drink out beer we had to raise our bottles and chink them with everyone elses. That's a lot of chinking. "Why?" I asked.

"You have five senses. You can see the beer, you can smell the beer, you can taste the beer and you can feel the beer in your hand. But you cannot hear the beer. To use all five sense we must hit our bottles togther."