Bed

30 May 2010

Probably the majority of Cambodian people don't sleep in beds.  In the rural areas, where houses are constructed of bamboo, people sleep on a reed mat spread across the split bamboo slats that form the floor.  The mat keeps the mosquitoes from coming up from below.  In more substantial houses, people sleep on the reed mats on the floor or on all-purpose wooden platforms that serve as chairs and table during the day and as a bed at night.  Again a mat is the only mattress.

The house we are renting had two really big solid double beds on the second floor and no bed on the third floor where I planned to sleep.  Our trusty crew of motorcycle taxi drivers was finding it very difficult to hoist one of the big beds from the second floor to the third so I decided to buy a simpler bed for myself.

Buying a bed on the street

 Over the years I had passed two shops selling the all-purpose platforms on a street in our area so I knew where to go to find a bed platform.  I borrowed the Maryknoll truck and got one that turned out to be wider than I wanted.
Sleeping on the floor

 I couldn't get the first bed upstairs without calling for help to hoist it with ropes.  The stairs are arranged in such a bizarre way that it was just not possible.  I borrowed the truck again and went back and traded for this narrower platform, and a motorcycle taxi driver and I were able to get it up the stairs.  Before I made the trade, I was sleeping on a pile of 9 or 10 reed mats seen under the newly arrived bed.  It wasn't uncomfortable but I was eaten alive every night by ants who started their breakfast about 4:30 AM.
Buying a futon

 My next stop was a bedding shop in the commercial district of Phnom Penh.  They have all sorts of bedding and I chose what would be called a futon, I think, the blue mat rolled up in the foreground.  The futon was $25.  Earlier the larger bed platform was $18 and I didn't ask for any money back when I traded for the next smaller size.
Protection against ants

 This is the final arrangement for my bed: the wooden platform with the futon on top and that covered by a sheet.  To fend off the ants, I established a double barrier, first, the little supports filled with water under each leg of the bed, and then also the white stripes on the bed legs.  The stripes are made with an insecticide chalk that is deadly for any insects coming into contact with it.  So far the precautions against the bugs have worked and all I have to contend with is the heat.

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