Weeks End

Great weekend. Saturday Dani and I went to Udong by Tuktuk. Tuktuks generally go about 20 kms an hour and Udong is 46 kms away. It was quite the journey. Udong appeared to my eyes to be a pagoda on a hill rather than a bustling town that the guide books had promised.

A mere 540 steps later we were sweating buckets but were atop the hill. Dani and I had two little boys each to fan us on the way up. They stuck with us the entire time and though appeared around ten they were actually thirteen. Spoke fantastic English. We gave them a couple of dollars and they were delighted - a month's worth of school. We saw monkeys - the Khmer word for which is "soier" or similar - both big and small. The small ones were quite cute but they bite and have all sorts of nasty diseases so we kept our distance.

Restaurants in Udong are not really like anywhere I have been before. You sit cross legged on a wooden table, about three feet from the ground, and eat the scrawny roast chicken and rice - the only thing on the menu - wash it down with water. The salt and pepper are mixed in one dish and you then squeeze lime juice over the mix - pretty tasty. Then relax into the hammock or just lie flat out on the table and sleep. The kids will fan you for as long as you want, and then some. All the while, people come over with things to sell - flowers, fruit, toys, laundry baskets, turtle eggs still in the turtle ... I bought a wicker basket to keep stuff in - the endless business cards, anti mosquito bite cream, my parker's cartridges which I was delighted to find in Phnom Penh.

Well we headed back to Phnom Penh because I'm forbidden to travel after dark, and because I had to pick up my clothes from my tailor so I would have something to wear to work today. Felt like royalty on the way back. Every kid we passed yelled "hello" and smiled - so cute. Got sunburned on selected body parts - both knees, right forearm, and a heart shape near my left collarbone - very random. My clothes weren't ready because of electricity cuts but I bought DVDs instead. Went to bed early but sunburned burned and I was too hot to sleep!

Sunday was a day of luxury. Eva, a Finnish girl, invited me to a spa with her in a very expensive hotel. I sweated it out in the gym for as long as I could before joining her by the large, luxurious, outdoor swimming pool. It was surrounded by trees and I did not even hear the noise of traffic. Fluffy towels, waiter service, free bottled water - ab fab! It was like those ads you see for expensive resorts - made me forget the developing world for a while. After a few hours of lounging in the pool, I headed off for the Khmer Kitchen where I had lunch with some colleagues - yummy yummy food. I meandered home under the hot sun and set to cleaning the apartment. Relaxed with a book.

Liam, Layla, and all that jazz

I have two lizards at home called Liam and Layla. Layla is the larger of the two - she's twice as big as Liam. But Liam's only a baby. He's an inch and a half long and is not even fully green. He hangs around the sitting-room chandelier mainly, whereas Layla prefers the roof of the upstairs bathroom. They are very cute!

Here it is not possible to keep the lizards out. In the poshest restaurants in Phnom Penh you see them chasing each other up and down the walls until you pick your favourite and vote on the race outcome! They vary from an inch to a foot and a half. If Layla or Liam grow that much, I'll be showing them the door because I like living alone - well alone with the mosquitoes and other insect forms. I'll hoping that Liam and Layla will take care of the insect issue coming into the hot months.

My project is almost finished. I am still not happy with one of the articles because I was supposed to make a collage of photos. The only tool I have is MS Picture Manager which is shite and not properly installed to boot. No collage just text and pics. Maybe I can hire a consultant to help?

I'm thinking of hiring someone to clean the house. I've been offered many's the time but I refused. Now the realisation is that I don't have time to clean three times a week (it's got to be that often because of the insect population) especially because of the hours I work.

Going to the market again tomorrow to pick up the clothes I had made, exchange DVDs, buy fruit and household goods, and to not buy knockoff handbags. Having a handbag here is an invitation to be robbed, according to security!

TGIF - have a good one

Night Swimming

Did I mention the heat? It is hot here. Too hot to sleep.

Planning to do some tourism this weekend and pick up my clothes from the market. In fact I've to leave work early to pick up my clean clothes from an NGO for battered women that does laundry and silk-weaving.

I had a lovely lunch with a Finnish girl who has a maid who shops, cooks, cleans, and launders - the thought is tempting ... will consider the issue. Finnish girl and I are going to a swanky hotel on Sunday for swimming and gyming. I'm really looking forward to it.

Work, work, work - there is much work but it is interesting and I enjoy it!

Heat

It's hard to believe but the temperature is rising. The afternoons are so hot that when I come home for lunch all I can do is drink like a fish and try and cool down under the fan.

Coming back from work in the evening is pleasant. But without a token breeze, the scents just hang in the air - flowers, rotting fruit, moto exhaust. The dust blinds and chokes but its all part of the experience.

The nights are too warm. The cold showers are too warm. I may need air con for when the temperature rises - up to 45 C in March/April.

Very busy

Grand weekend - went to dinner on Friday, shopping on Saturday, and lunch and market on Sunday. Friday's dinner and Sunday's lunch were essential the same event. The office assistant is leaving and she's having farewell parties. Friday we were on top of one of Phnom Penh's tallest buildings - 5 floors up - and could see the meeting of the three rivers.

Sunday's lunch was lovely although very very hot and humid. Weatherwise we're heading into the hottest three months when the temperature soars and I wish I had air con. Many different Asian dishes - most of which I had never seen before. Mostly delicious.

Having clothes made in the market - very cheap - with an allegedly excellent dressmaker.

I have an important deadline this week so I may be awol quite a bit.

One more cup of coffee

The locksmith did not come last night so I spent night alternating between the couch and the floor. Wicker gets uncomfortable after a few hours. I was eaten alive by the mosquitos despite my anti-mosquito incense, bug spray, and cream. It was quite a night!

The locksmith came this morning and changed the lock, so I have access once more to my room and am assured that I have the only keys to the front door. Tonight I can sleep softly on a bed and use my very effective anti-mosquito plug.

I am so tired.

Ballad of the hand

It wasn't a great start to the day when the fan blew my bedroom door shut and it locked itself with the keys inside. Let me describe the layout of the apartment. My bedroom has a window looking on to the living room. However, there are bars between the two rooms, as there are on all the windows.

Luckily I was already dressed and the only thing I was missing were shoes. Then I decided to MacGyver my way out of that mess. I went to the roof where I found a long cane, to which I attached a wire hanger. Thus I was all prepared to recuperate my keys. However, something was living in the cane and stung/bit me and my hand swelled up like never before. As a result I was less deft at manovering the cane and the keys dropped on the floor along with the hanger. The plan was to drop them on the bed so I could grab the blankets and drag them over to me through the bars.

Plan B was to grab another hanger and swipe at the keys from under the door but a sock got in the way and that endeavour was also unsuccessful. My hand was feeling quite numb at this point so I banged on the door cursing. I ended up wearing the purple flipflops to work. I trotted along to the dispensary and saw the doc and got hydrocortisone and antihistimines. My hand is fine now after the ointment but my door is still locked.

So I phoned locksmith after locksmith, a grand total of three, and either they only sell locks or don't speak any of the same languages as me. So as a final desperate act, I phoned the real estate agent and he said he'd have someone out at at 12.30. At 13.30 I was still waiting. When I called him back, there was much "Sorry Miss" and promised me a locksmith at 17.00. I'll inform you tomorrow dear readers whether I sleep on the sofa tonight.

Time Passes Slowly

Sunday was a lazy day. Dani and I walked to the Irish bar for lunch. The intent was to go shopping - sheets, food, books - but it was too hot and we only bought books and the Brokeback Mountain DVD. If you haven't heard of the movie, you must be living under a rock. I bet it will get a ton of Oscars. It's based on a short story byAnnie Proulx and I highly recommend it.

The waiter in the Irish bar was an elderly American who I had seen before. I thought he was a customer but he came and took our order. He was hard of hearing and we had to repeat ourselves several times - raising the decibels each time. At the end I thanked him in the usual manner - "thanks a lot". He replied with "No one has called me that in a long time" and smiled. I am not sure but I think he heard "thanks sport". First it gave me the giggles and then I thought of how rude that must have sounded and was mortified - it didn't last though.

During the week I wear proper long sleeved shirts, as one is supposed but that tourists never do. Yesterday I decided to flout that particular convention and wore a tank top. I was going to be a tourist for the day. The amount of attention I got was significantly elevated and I even got whooped from a passing motodop. Dani was tickled pink, and although I found it amusing I put away my strappy tops - only to be worn in the apartment.

While enjoying Dodgeball I had to scream several times down the phone. The pizza delivery man could not find the house. It took an hour and a half arrive and we reckoned that it would have solidified by that time but it was edible. Drumline finished off the evening and I retired to a mosquito filled room and watched the lizards play on the ceiling.

Dusty Fairgrounds

Been a while since I blogged. Weekend was good. I finally moved into my apartment which is spacious and has a balcony. The only thing is that my pillow is too hard so until I return to the market I'm using my towel in its stead.

I went to the "Russian" market on Saturday just after signing the contracts - six copies, three in English and three in Khmer. The market was huge, chaotic and great value. In the food sections there was one of the most appalling smells that I remember - dried fish. I couldn't get out of that section quickly enough. The place was dirty and overcrowded but still a very enjoyable experience. We (Dani and I) haggled furiously with the aid of a notepad and various calculators and for the most part we got reasonable value for foreigners. More importantly I got a saucepan for boiling water - sometimes it is just not practical to buy water, especially if there is a whole week of chick flicks on! After an hour and a half of bargaining and arguments, enough was definitely enough and we tuktuked back to the apartment.

After a well deserved rest we trotted out to the FCC - Foreign Correspondents Club - which is one of the poshest places in town but has delicious food and comfy chairs. We amused ourselves in watching the lizards race across the wall. Most of them are small, around five inches, although there was one monster of a foot or so. We wiled away the evening, pointing out Cambodian prostitutes and the Western men with them and arguing over social mores.

The humid press of days

Yesterday evening I went with my American friend to Elsewhere. It is a lush tropical café bar not too far from the hotel. The seats were hidden in grottos with vegetation all around. The seats were really cool and big enough for three people to lie down and take their ease. Anti mosquito incense was wafting through the air. A beautiful but small swimming pool was temptingly empty and a screen was hanging above the pool. They were showing a 1920s Soviet movie. There were lights draped along the branches of the trees overhead. A beautiful scene and it was hotter than the pits of hell.

We sat. We sweated. We drank Angkor beer. Then we left – I was knackered and she wanted to go nearer the hotel and where we went had fans. Strawberry smoothy with vodka is a recommendation from me to you.

Children were selling jasmine. Children, younger than my nephew, were out at 10 pm earning money for their pimps and the mafia. Often these kids are sold as cheap labour because their parents can’t afford them. You want to buy some jasmine and then you see the pimps on motos taking the money they are earning and giving them more jasmine to sell. It’s a no win situation.

Ragged and dirty

I had Argentine beef last night and either my memories of Argentina are rose tinted or the restaurant was fooling. Thick, rubbery, and overcooked is not how I remember on the side of an unpaved road atop my horse. Even though the fan was on I still had to take great care that I limited my fly consumption - the little buggers were everywhere. I got a mossie bite on the back of my ankle. What sort of self respecting mosquito would bite someone there. I think it was on its last legs.

The poverty here is shocking, and I do have a profound sense of guilt everytime I say no to a child begging or shoe shining. They are missing limbs and do not have prothesics. I saw a boy a little older than my godson, naked, an rooting through rubbish. I saw an old man who couldn't stand up begging on a street that was glittering lights.

Police, teachers, and civil servants earn $20 a month here. It is not possible to survive on $20 in Phnom Penh. Because of this corruption is rife, teachers will not teach without bribes so the children sell newspapers in their school uniforms to distinguish themselves from those selling to buy drugs. They have to earn $7 to go to school. The police have no equipment or resources. You have to bribe them to investigate a crime, even murder. There is a sense of general lawlessness here. Civil servants act as motodops during their lunch breaks and often have three jobs. The country has had the same prime minister for over 20 years.

It is heartbreaking. So I focus on the trivia

In The Summertime

It is so hot here that as I walk to and fro from work at lunchtime (mornings and evenings are fine) I fantasise about lounging in a pool, with cute waiters bringing me cold Cosmos.

I ran after a random girl yesterday becuase I thought she was Irish and that I should get on with the business making friends. She's not Irish but American. Didn't matter we chatted and went to dinner in this great old colonial style café. The chairs were lounging and the fans were going. It was dusk and the lizards were climbing the walls - very pretty. We sat on the balcony and watched the passers by from the first floor. There was good food, cool beer, and interesting conversation. It felt like I should be drinking Gin and Tonics for the full colonial experience but I dislike G & Ts immensely. Then I thought of pretending it was the deep south and drinking whiskey sour as I and others did in Colorado. However beer won because it was a Monday night and I'm sensible. It was fun though!

Watched The Hurricane when I got back to the hotel - love that movie. I may have to get another real estate agent because this one is not returning my calls. I don't know whether that is normal or here or not!

Mean Eyed Cat

The real estate agent is acting annoyingly and becoming far too familiar in his form of address. He never showed up to our meetings three times in a row and when he finally did show he was 30 minutes late. Formality and professionalism - learn it, live it!

Work is going well. I've designed a new website and edited the texts of the old one. I never know whether frames are fashionable or not. They're in my new site anyway. Now all I have to do is find the webmaster and persuade him to do it my way.

Going for drinks now - maybe I'll meet people along the way.

Have a good weekend friends

Dark As A Dungeon

There was a power cut last night for the whole night which was interesting. Although earlier on I was in the supermarket and everything went dark. I didn't know whether to loot or leave but the decision was made for me when the lights came back five minutes later. I was clutching my handbag like a crazy person and everyone was using their mobiles to see. That’s a terrible idea, although it appears to be sensible at the time, because after you can’t see anything. Better to let one’s eyes get accustomed to the dark and not grab at veg!

Real estate agent showed me a great apartment, which when I went there with security, was already rented. Pity as it was near work and was big and only $260 a month. This renting business is dragging on for soooo long. I just want to unpack.

I had my security briefing yesterday. I am doubly chicken shit now. Hermit times ahead. Some of the rules are no handbags, no out alone after dark, no out after 8pm and all trips have to be approved by security. Certainly is different here!

I discovered that I can’t text internationally so please don’t take it amiss if I don’t text you back. Sorry :-(