Saak Mu Bai

Gideon got "saak mu bai"-ed again today. What does it mean to get "saak mu bai"-ed, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you.

When we were in Cambodia, our second stop was the town of Siem Reap, from where we went for two days to Angkor Wat. Angkor, as you know, consists of the remnants of the ancient Khmer empire.

On our first morning there, we saw the sunrise over Angkor Wat, then headed to another temple. When we got to that temple, we heard some loud screaming from our left. Evan and I looked over, and saw a small Buddhist woman beckoning us over. Not exactly sure what was going on, we went.

First, she handed us three sticks of incense for good luck. We bowed three times: once for ourselves, once for mother and father, and once for friends (we learned this later from a local boy, as this woman did not speak English). She was a rather forceful woman, and would not stop until we had done so.

In the middle of this scene, Gideon comes walking up and is asked to perform the same task. He does, bowing three times in front of the temple with the incense.

As soon as he is finished, the woman starts yelling at us in Khmer to give her money, pointing at a plastic wrapped U.S. dollar that is on her stand in front of us. Evan and I started to give Cambodian money, and she threw it back at us. She was increasingly persistent to receive our U.S. dollars.

Evan gives in first, and I found a dollar soon afterwards. We were quickly dismissed once we had paid. Gideon, on the other hand, refuses to pay, because all he had was a $20 bill. He offers 2000 Cambodia riel (50 cents US) and is the woman screamed over and over "No, no, no, no" andn continued to point at the laminated US dollar.

Finally, Gideon gives up and decides to walk away, not realizing that doing so would equate to a massive twist of fate. At first she wouldn't let him leave, but once he did, she was screaming after him, over and over again "Saak mu bai, saak mu bai, saak mu bai." We jokingly decided at the time that she was cursing his next seven generations.

Since then, there has been another hypothesis: Gideon must undergo seven trials, seven separate "Saak mu bais" before the curse can be lifted.

The first trial? The head trauma. The first is always the worst (stitches are out, by the way).

The second? Going to the shower in Kuala Lumpur and somehow finding the only one without hot water, our first hot water shower in weeks.

The third? Being latched to by more leeches today than the rest of us combined (3).

The final four await. We are currently searching for an antidote. We'll see what happens.