Crunchy Cambodian Cockroaches

A bag of fried insects. Blerch.

I’m told they’re actually crickets. Bought on the Cambodian side of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. The transaction took place through the window of  our rental car.

Darling Man is such an adventurous eater. He had spent the long weekend wistfully regretting not buying fried insects at the border as we passed into Cambodia.

And so, he tried to make the best of our stressful exit from the country.

We had gotten caught-out — trying to be free and easy travelers — by not booking a return bus ticket back to Ho Chi Minh City. At the end of Vietnam’s national day long weekend, all the buses were booked out. We lost our traveling companions on Sunday morning. They missed the bus from Sihanoukeville to Phomn Penh and weren’t answering their phone.

In Phomn Penh two rude Nordic backpackers pushed in front of us to get the last two bus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City. And they certainly didn’t look like they needed to be at work the next day.

So we decided to hire a car. Travel agents couldn’t help us, so we tried a motorbike taxi driver, who sped off to find a friend with a car. We were worried about what would happen next but we ended up in the back of a clean and luxurious air conditioned car… stuck in the traffic jam at the border.

That’s when Darling Man wound his window down and began negotiating with the fried insect vendors. I protested. He ignored me. A plastic bag was handed in and the car was filled with a fried nutty smell. Darling Man crunched on a few as I squirmed in my seat and looked the other way.

I flat-out refused to try them, and not just because I was three months pregnant. No matter how exotic eating insects in Cambodia may sound later on, the smell of them turned my stomach.

When we got home our dog turned her nose up at these fried treats. I couldn’t bring myself to kiss Darling Man for weeks.

When pressed he said they were tasty, but I think he was just trying to save face.

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By: Barbara

A career girl who dropped out, traveled, found love, and never got around to going home again. Now wrangling a cross-cultural relationship and two third culture kids.