1.21.2005

"Take me to your heart
Take me to your soul"

This love ballad reverberates throught the streets of Cambodia on every given night, played at those ubiquitous weddings. I don't know who wrote it, but it's the perfect anthem for the normally unsentimental Khmers, even when they have no inkling as to what it is about. With it's simple, childlike lyrics, it's ideal for a country with such limited English--but ever increasing demand to the language. There's even a Khmer version, where only the chorus in sung in thickly accented English.

There are other songs I've come to enjoy while being here. One song, sung by a nasally voiced woman features the catchy chorus:
"Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah
oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah"
The first "oh yeah" is drawn out, the singer holding the ohhhhh, the rest of them sang more choppily.

The other song I like is very popular--it's played all over the country at "music restaurants" and hummed by motodop and taxi-girl alike--but the only way I can describe it is by saying it sounds like this: "ding dong ding dong ding dong ding day yuh ayyyyyy" then it goes, "dunk dunka dunk ducka dunk" for a while. And then the "ding day yuh ayyyyyy" part which serves as the chorus. There are perhaps inumerable versions of this song. I believe it has some sort of sexual theme and may be a bit lewd, or so I'm told.