TGIF

Want to go swimming now. D and I will go to the pool after work and do laps. So hot here even with air con 35 degrees with 79 % humidity.

There's a party later at Gasolina and I probably will go. It should be fun.

Later

Rice and UNSC

"In order to be credible, the Security Council, of course, has to act" – Condoleezza Rice Thursday, April 27, 2006

You know it's this sort of statement that annoys me. Well Dr Rice who is on the council? The five permanent members are the US, France, the UK, Russia, and China. Each of these states has its own agenda and may not agree with your ideas on the Iranian nuclear situation. If one of these states exercises its right to vote for an option other than yours, does that mean that the UN Security Council loses its credibility? The two are not linked. Perhaps you meant the UN Security Council members. This appears to be another less than subtle attempt to discredit the UN.

Certain states persist in declaring that the UN is no more if the UN does not vote in the manner that state wishes. Please get down off your high horse.

Under the Charter, the functions and powers of the Security Council are:

• to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations;
• to investigate any dispute or situation which mightlead to international friction;
• to recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement;
• to formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments;
• to determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression and to recommend what action should be taken;
• to call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression;
• to take military action against an aggressor;
• to recommend the admission of new Members;
• to exercise the trusteeship functions of the United Nations in "strategic areas";
• to recommend to the General Assembly the appointment of the Secretary-General and, together with the Assembly, to elect the Judges of the International Court of Justice.

provided the five permanent members are not squabbling among themselves.

Of critters and other ancedotes

Well Blogger was down yesterday so posting was not possible. Great weekend in terms of my social life - dinners, market visits, and my friend D had a housewarming party on Sunday evening which was most enjoyable.

D had quite an episode with a visitor to her bathroom. In the middle of the night she went to the bathroom. When she turned on the light, not two inches from her foot, was a foot long black scorpion. That's quite a surprise when you have just woken up. After she told me I started considering whether I should start turning on the light when I go to the bathroom at night. I have never felt inclined to before. After all with the darkness surrounding you, you can pretend to be asleep and so tell yourself that you will actually get your necessary eight hours. Perhaps I should reconsider. I am not overly concerned because my bedroom is on the third floor. I think scorpions would have a hard time climbing up three flights just to scare me.

The weather has, of course, been hot and humid averaging at 35 degrees with 74% humidity. I love my air con so much that I may have to start taking it out to dinner and sending it flowers. Last night after work I went to the Himawari Hotel for a swim. It was a most enjoyable experience - did laps, messed around, and sat in the jacuzzi - lovely!

If anyone has a spare $14 000 lying around, for that price you can build a rural school in Cambodia. $14 000 will build a three to five-room school, and support teaching and supply materials for two years (to be matched by an international fund.) An additional contribution of $1,700 will fund the installation of solar panels that provide energy to operate a computer with future Internet access. See http://www.ratanakiri.com/ for more info.

Ciao for now

Interesting facts?

Things I have learned while living in Asia:

1. Drinking bottled water causes gallstones

2. Having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS

3. A fan in a closed room can cause death

4. The government has found a cure for HIV

P.S. None of these "facts" are true!

Karon Beach, Phuket

I had a fantastic week in Thailand with P. Thailand is amazing – pure perfection and beauty. The hotel was absolutely beautiful with wonderful ten degrees air conditioning. It was lovely to enter that cool room and jump on the bed for a pillow fight! The food was lovely but we mainly stuck to Western food, since we’ve been eating mostly Asian food for the past three months. Yes, that’s three months - a quarter of my year in Cambodia over – unbelievable! Phuket is quite expensive for Thailand apparently and was pretty expensive compared to what I am used to in Cambodia, but in saying that, it was still very very cheap compared to Ireland. Don’t know how I will cope if I return to Ireland. Buying the same stuff but for ten times the price and a lot of the time, much better quality over here!

Thai people are absolutely beautiful people, so friendly, unassuming and usually very respectful, inoffensive and are not in your face when trying to sell you stuff. Quite a change from the motodops in Phnom Penh. The people are very different for neighbouring countries.

We went out most nights and the first night was spent helping P to avoid the many prostitutes that were after him. He finally accepted that they were not going to bite his head off so we just enjoyed their company after that. There are prostitutes in every bar we went into. Lovely, young, girls who spend their time in bars trying to hustle Western men. I saw seventy year old men with girls that looked barely out of their teens. It was quite perverted.

Karon beach where we were staying was absolutely amazing. The weather was weird. The first day on the beach it was a bit cloudy but hot and we both got burnt without realising it. I tried to convince P to put on sunscreen but due to the clouds he declined. Its strange, I put on factor 40, a hat, a t-shirt, my sarong, and stayed under the brolly and I got burnt to a crisp. P put on factor 12 and lay in the sun all day and tanned – not fair. I don’t particularly care about the colour but the burning burns!

Anyway half way through the day it started to rain. It was an early monsoon. So we went to the sea to swim in the rain. It was like stepping into a bath. The sea was warm and the rain was cool so we stayed submerged for an hour. I did enjoy the contrasts. The rain passed and the blue sky broke through and lasted for the rest of the week apart from a few thunder storms at night but good weather during the day for the most part

Patong is the next beach north from Karon and is quite the party town with flashing neon signs and water guns. New Year celebrations in Thailand and Cambodia were in full swing so I celebrated 2006 New Year for the second time. The local tradition is to throw water on everyone around you, which means a market for supersoakers, especially passing tourists. So on our first visit to Patong, we got all dressed up and within thirty minutes we looked like drowned rats. Quick jump into an Irish bar to escape the wall of water. We were the only Irish there and the band was playing Irish music so we made some requests and had a sing song between the two of us. The Thai band loved us. The first night if getting soaked was fun and a laugh but it continued for three more days and nights, so it got slightly annoying by the end. It also provoked some stupid associations on my part. It sounds silly but seeing all those guns in everybody’s hands made me uneasy.

So all week I was thinking of the tsunami as I floated in the crystal clear water in the sea. I thought of the people who must have been swept out to sea when the ocean retreated. I also thought of all the people who were on the beaches, just as we were – on holidays. Another thing that gently reminded us of the otherwise completely recovered resort was the bits and bobs that was washed up on the beach each morning after the thunder storms. A shoe, or a headlight off a motorbike, a piece of decking floating in the sea one day, which had been varnished at some stage but had also been clearly in the sea for some time. These all reminded us of the tragedy, but on the third last night we got talking to this Swedish guy. He was in Thailand when the tsunami struck. He was part of a group of thirty four friends and family in Thailand for Christmas. Out of the thirty four friends and family, twelve returned home alive. Twenty two people from their group died including two pregnant women. Over 800 Swedish people died altogether. Most of his friends who died were on the beach. The only reason he wasn’t was because himself and his girlfriend were trying to settle their new baby into a sleeping pattern. They were on the third floor of the hotel and the waters completely submerged everything up to the second floor of their hotel. He saved two people himself. Their group are all returning this November to commemorate the event.

We flew from Phuket to Bangkok in the middle of a lightning storm (at night), which was a little spectalular even if air crash films were running through my mind. Other than that, it was just a lovely holiday.

Thailand - woo hoo

It is really getting warm here now. The evening coolness is no more. Perspiring has become another hobby. Going home to pack and then I'm going out to eat because I have one dried apple in the fridge and nothing Aktins friendly in the cupboard. It's hard to do Atkins here because they put sugar into everything - omlettes, meat and veg dishes. It's almost impossible to avoid. But tonight there is a party at Elsewhere and I may make an appearance because apparently all ex pats in Phnom Penh are going tonight.

I'm off to Thailand tomorrow! Going on summer holidays from a land of perpetual summer! I'm very happy to be going and am sure the Cosmos will be plentiful and the sea blue. I'm told the sands are white as well.

Happy Khmer New Year (14-16 April)

Phone calls

As much as I love receiving phonecalls from you wonderful people, please check the time beforehand. I am yawning like a mad woman today because someone called me at 5.30 this morning. Even my very expensive and evil tasting instant coffee isn't making much of a dent in my tiredness. So call again at a different time :-)

Apart from that things are grand. I am getting quite a bit of work done and am looking forward to going to Thailand on Saturday!

Maybe more later ...

River tales

So my dear and faithful readers, this weekend I went on a boat trip down the Mekong to see the sunset with some people from UNDP. Of course, the one day that is chosen is one of the only overcast days we have had since I arrived. Nevertheless we have a grand old time watching the Vietnamese community, who live on the other side of the river, catch fish with the aid of a horse and two cows. We were perplexed to see a swastika above the door of one of those houses. It seemed quite out of place.

After this interesting ride we had dinner at a French restaurant - delicieux - followed by drinks on a boat - a stationary boat this time, which is one of the happening spots in Phnom Penh. It was enjoyable with the drinks and the breeze. We were going to continue in a club but its location was a mystery and half our party had succumbed to fatigue. Besides it was outside the city - we probably would have needed security clearance. It got quite late so home I went. The dog nodded to each other as I went through the gate.

Sunday was threatening rain and I was tired so I stayed in for much of the day. I went to the Russian market to pick up some clothes my tailor was making for me and to buy a bag. I'm going to Thailand for a week starting on Saturday. It's Khmer New Year and we had two days off. I took an additional three and got the necessary clearances. I am meeting up with one of the other Irish UNVs in Bangkok and we're going to Phuket. We got an excellent deal - flights and accommodation for $260 each.

The other thing that happened yesterday is that I decided to get a massage. The mise en scene was great. It was cool, with soft oriental music playing and very dark. It would have been too dark to read by which is my personal light gauger. I did not realise that one is supposed to specify the intensity and the little lady dug in. At times I thought I would yell out in pain but I thought this was relatively normal. I realised the depth of my discomfort when I lay down to go to bed. She had very strong hands.

There was a magnificent thunder storm last night. I went out on the roof to see the jazzed flashes of lightening that were so bright it could have been daytime. They came fast on the heels of the previous one. The light drizzle was refreshing.

I watched Syriana and can't get it out of my head. It is a good flick - confusing and long but recommended. What do you think?