It was our first Friday at Phnom Penh and we need to perform our Jumaat prayer at the mosque. The seniors had told us before that there is a mosque nearby. We asked Bong Vandy to take us to the mosque but he was unable to understand our request. Suddenly with his hand pointing up he remembered and said, ‘Muslim! You want to go to Muslim?’, and we said ‘Yes!’. Actually he already knew that every Friday we need to go to the mosque but the gesture that he usually use was just the word Muslim. It was so funny that we laughed our hearts out.
The three of us guys went to the mosque while the ladies stayed at home preparing the food. We went to the Mosque Al-Jamee’ Al-Islam. The mosque is quite near to our house but it is still far if we just walk there. At first we thought that we couldn’t understand the Khutba but we misjudged them. Indeed the Khutba performed by the Imam was recited in Khmer language, but it was then translated in English and surprisingly sometimes it was translated in Bahasa Melayu.
Our experience at the mosque was unforgettable. During the prayer, the PA system’s transmission were hijacked and changed to a local radio channel. We continued performing our prayer although we could barely hear the Imam’s voice. Alas, everything ended well as we were expecting something to happen. After the prayer we went straight back home as Bong Vandy loyally waited for us outside the mosque.
At home we had our lunch before we went out to the Malaysian Embassy. Before this, we had called Mr Fadzil, a Malaysian Embassy’s secretary and asked him if we can go there. This is because we knew that every embassy or is a restricted area and we cannot easily enter without any authorization given. Again we asked Bong Vandy to send us all to the embassy.
As soon as we arrived at the delegation, we called Mr Fadzil and told him we were outside the building. He told us to report at the guardhouse as he will call the guards to let us in. As expected, the embassy’s guards asked us why we are there. We told them that we are Malaysian and we would like to meet someone and in an instance their phone rang. They told us that Mr Fadzil called and we were given the permission to enter the compartment. They were very strict as they scanned our bodies before they let us through.
We entered the embassy and met up with Mr Fadzil. We sat together and had a little talk about the embassy and Phnom Penh. He had worked here for a long time and quite familiar with this place. He had also introduced us to some of the embassy’s staffs. The building was beautiful and the ambassador’s house was so big and magnificent. He said that we should meet with the ambassador some other time whenever we are free. He also invited us to attend some functions held here.
As it was getting late, we thanked Mr Fadzil for his hospitality and took some pictures in the embassy before we decided to go home.
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