Willy took us fishing across the street from the hotel... which is behind the tuk-tuk next to the rehab store...The gray box on wheels is "Vanna's book stand" He lost both his hands from a landmine. He has a beautiful smile! We bought our postcards and a book from him.
(picture) very proud of this fish caught in the gnarly river!
I immediately nicknamed him Willy, none of us were ever formally introduced. After the day of boarder crossing, he was who greeted us at our guesthouse, "The Shadow of Angkor." He showed us our room option- perfect and cute with three little beds and a balcony in the middle of the old market area, and then tried to talk us out of staying there. He stops and starts in the middle of sentences, sometimes ending them with a oooooo or a weeeeeeee or a great hohoho laugh. His sentences are a tonal mystery, he speaks like a beat poet- with a french accent. He fluently speaks Cambodian, Thai, and French and says he knows a bit of Vietnamese, Chinese, and English. From his long winded stories (that we fully provoke) I believe that before Cambodia he has lived in Vietnam during the war- driving a truck that shot at American soldiers, Thailand as a private driver, France doing who-knows-what, and Sweden and Norway ("where he still lives"? not true...) testing car breaks...?
He is always reading French story books. It only took one time of asking what book he was reading for us to get lengthy detailed and bizarre stories told to us every time we stay in his presence for more than 10 seconds. His hair is greying which makes me think some of his fantastic craziness could be attributed to old age, but I was sure he was on drugs for the first two days. When I asked him what time it was, he put his watch up to my ear to listen. It beats too fast to give the accurate time, but he doesn't need to know it anyway. He says, "he has no work" which confused us because we thought he owned the guesthouse we are at... When I asked what he does - he said he sometimes goes to Angkor Wat, sometimes walks around, and sometimes goes fishing, otherwise he just floats! Love him!
We listen to stories that we do not understand, often he makes up words or speaks in another language. He shares with us mythical fables of his own imagination where he names characters "kid A"and "kid B"... he pages through his book at the moment as if to remember the story he is telling us, but I think he is just grabbing ideas with words for a world to create. Willy, short for Willy Wonka, never really proved that he works or owns the guesthouse. He often is behind the counter but the jury is still out.
Again, pictures will happen when they can happen. A moment of thanks to Willy for a new friend and a great time.
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