𝐊𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝 | ＃❾ 𝙸𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚑 𝚁𝚎𝚐𝚐𝚊𝚎 🎧 𝚅𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚘

     Well, I won't keep you readers in suspense with my regular backstories which wander off into off-topic uncharted waters. If you just want to watch the video, have a look first and then continue onward if you want the backstory.

     Look for various shots of us from 1:55 to 2:23. I will explain the police 👮 encounter, tuk-tuk 🛺 and location 🏞️ afterwards, assuming I still have your attention.

     I've mentioned in past posts that I teach 👨‍🏫 the Cambodian language (Khmer) to non-native speakers, both online and in Cambodia before we left the country. Well, my Cambodian language students came from all walks of life, from German surgeons and nurses to a host of a conspiracy theory channel on YouTube.

     I specifically mentioned the guy with the YouTube conspiracy theory channel for a reason. Well I guess we have to rewind ⏪ and actually say that I only found out it was a conspiracy theory channel after I appeared on it.

     It started out quite harmless; a rather eccentric British-American student of mine wanted to interview me on video for $10 💵 after class. He said the interview would be a few softball questions about the Cambodian language and culture. I agreed quite quickly, overly hungry for a ten-piece. We shot out to the riverside 🏞️ after class to find a suitable bench for this interview to take place.

     We settled on a shady spot at the riverside, and he quickly pulled out his camera, a tripod, a lavelier microphone and a digital audio recorder. After getting mic'd up I have to say it felt a bit professional 🎥 and I got a little nervous 😬.

     He reassured me it would be basic questions and began recording on the camera. What happened after that you can see in the video. It wasn't exactly a "good beard day" 🧔 for me by the way. After the interview was over he gave me the $10, and I went home 🏠 not thinking too much more about it.

     I would only think about the video again about 6 months 📅 after he shot it, because someone approached me in the street saying they saw me speaking Khmer on YouTube. This has actually happened about 15 times in total as a result of his video. The first person that stopped me was able to share the link with me, and that's when I found 108morris108 on YouTube.

     When I got home I got on YouTube and found the video titled, "Introducing the Cambodian Language," At that time it had about 8,000 views 👁️, and I took some time to watch a few other videos on his channel. It actually wasn't a conspiracy theory channel after all, even though there were quite a few conspiracy theories.

     It was more along the lines of "Info-Wars" and "Mother-Jones" type topics covered on the channel, but you could certainly say my video was out of place. The video had up to 23,000 views 👀 the last time I saw it until 108morris108 was demonetized and shut down 😞. I think he still uploads on BitChute under the same moniker though. Morris stopped his studies not long after our interview, and I'd seen him countless times since our Khmer classes, but he seemed to not recognize me or pretended he didn't know me 😕.

     Due to this Khmer language interview video a young French couple recognized me at the beach in Kep. They gave us good vibes 🤝, so we invited them to Kampot for a meal at our Ital restaurant.

     The following day the couple stopped by for a meal and we learned a bit more about them. Over dinner we learned they had been sweethearts 👩‍❤️‍👨 since high-school in Lyon and were just traveling around Cambodia. Steven was a reggae & hip-hop artist filming some clips for a music video he was working on, and Sonia was ethnically Cambodian; her parents being the immigrants to France.

     Sonia was conversational in Khmer, and Steven had learned a bit through the years to communicate with Sonia's parents in France. @Sreypov was all too happy to be able to communicate with foreigners, and Sreypov loved ❤️ that Sonia was an ethnic Cambodian.

     Over dinner we hatched a plan and offered Steven and Sonia a chance to go on a one-of-a-kind travel adventure 🤠. They both seemed quite excited for anything off the beaten path, so we decided we would ride 6-deep in the rickshaw to Tatai Waterfall for a few days of camping ⛺and swimming 🏊🏼‍♂️.

     It honestly seemed impossible at first, but I have a mountaineering & backpacking background, and I lived in RV's 🚐 most of my adult life in the USA. What I'm saying is I know how to pack a small space. We prepped for a few days and it was soon time to go.

     We hit the road early in the morning in one Bajaj RE, with 6 humans, a cooler, food, stove, pots, pans, camping gear and a lot of doubts 😮. I still honestly don't know how it all fit. I really wish I had an interior picture to share with you. Srey Yuu had to ride up front with me and share my seatbelt, if that gives you any clue how tight it was.

     It was a roughly 500km round-trip through some desolate territory to reach Tatai Waterfall. We stopped frequently to for water breaks and to let the engine cool down on the mountain climbs, sometimes reduced to a 2nd gear crawl 🐌. On one of these stops we chose a police outpost just to pick the brains of some locals. The policeman in the video was pointing in the direction he had seen elephants 🐘 and tigers 🐅.

      We hadn't planned on our mountaintop photo session being bombed by one of the two officers, but we gladly let him join in. Before nightfall 🌙 we had arrived at the waterfall only encountering one person manning the gate several kilometers from the waterfall. We arrived to find a paradise sans people, and set up camp under the stars 🌌.

      A few soldiers awoke us in the night to check our purpose for being there. They assured us everything would be safe because they had guns 🔫, although we didn't had any safety concerns. The next morning we waded our camp across the river and began a swim, nap, eat, repeat ritual for the next several days.

     A handful of tourists came by each day, and there were also a couple food hawkers 👩‍🍳, but each evening we had the place to ourselves again. The water there is some of the clearest I've seen in Cambodia, even spotting a freshwater lobster 🦞 while swimming. The temperature is also perfect for all-day swimming, not too hot or cold 🌡️.

     Time flew and it was soon time to head back home. The kids needed to go back to school, we needed to reopen our restaurant, and I also had some teaching duties to resume. We loved the trip and traveling slow in our Bajaj, taking in all the sights and sounds along the way. We also loved making some new friends 🤝.

     On our trip to Tatai Steven got some good footage for his music video project 🎞️. Upon our return to Kampot, he and Sonia continued their journey. When they arrived back in France they contacted us, and we are still in touch to this very day.

     Upon their arrival 🛬 back in France, and once the project was completed, Steven sent me a link for the video. It brought back some good memories, and it was also nice to visualize the project he had been working on during our trip.