A Cambodian Wedding

While in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we made friends with a young tuk tuk driver Salt ( pronounced Saul) and he invited us to visit with his new inlaws and his wife Moom. They have been married about 5-6 weeks and have only spent about 8 days together so far. The first picture is one we took of them at the family home and the rest are pictures we took of their wedding album.
A traditional Cambodian wedding usually lasts two days and includes feasting and a huge procession around the town. The bride usually wears up to 10 costumes and the groom about 7.
You can see what an attractive couple they are in everyday life and you can also see that you can hardly recognize them in the wedding pictures. Imagine the stress of all those hairdo's and makeup.
This wedding had over 300 guests and that is considered small by their standards. It cost $2100 which is unbelievabe considering Salt makes an average income of $50 a month. He was saving to get married and was halfway there after more than a year of saving when an Australian friend offered to help him pay for it. It was very important to have this kind of start in the marriage because Salt comes from a very poor farming family and by comparison Moom comes from a comfortably off family.
Both families were against the marriage because they are both year of the tiger and were also getting married in the year of the tiger and this is considered to be a bad omen. Cambodians are very superstitious. Moom was heart broken by this and eventually the families relented.
I am a little worried about Moom because she has a recurring illness that invloves high fevers, huge headaches and stomach pain. The Australian friend is coming to visit soon and will take them to Vietnam for medical help.
It's wonderful here because on an individual level travelers are helping where they can. We found out that Salt's family lives on about $25 per month for a large family. We gave him some money and asked him to buy some special foods for them at their new years in April. He said he woud rather give the money to his mom so she can decide what to do with it and alsoo s that she will have something to fall back on.