Taking my time

It's Pchum Ben again. I'm catching up with house cleaning and watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report. The town is deserted and it's pleasant to be here with the streets so empty. It's also a little freaky but I'm used to that now. Tomorrow I may use the opportunity to take some photographs, catch up on my reading and practice my recorder. Since there's nothing to read here, check out other people's writing:

Ranariddh is back from exile after the King of Cambodia pardoned him

Inflation is rising higher than is acknowledged by the powers that be

Wrapping presents in money is criminal waste when 90% of the world's wealth is owned by 10% of the population

Obama won the debate

Save the poor Wall Street traders

China's spaceship returns to Earth

RIP Paul Newman. I love "Cat on a hot tin roof"

Holiday in the sun

Some pictures from Phuket in Thailand where I went for some R&R. Also shows that it's impossible to escape the ants in this part of the world!

Gone fishing

Broken heart? Stay at home

From Reuters

Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more "heartache leave" on offer as they get older.

Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed. "Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick," CEO Miki Hiradate, whose company of six women markets cosmetics and other goods targeted for women, told Reuters by telephone.

Staff aged 24 years or younger can take one day off per year, while those between 25 and 29 can take two days off and those older can take three days off, the company said.

What a fabulous idea! Now that's an understanding employer. So much better than staring at the ceiling and biting your lip to stop the tears. But how many of those employees will be in work in 15 February?

Could do with some of that here. According to my horoscope, it's heart in a blender time!

leo (July 23rd-Aug. 22nd)
If you're looking for a challenge, you've found it! If you're looking for an "unconventional" relationship, you've found it! If sweet, loving, tender, committed, long-term relationships seem "boring" to you, then you won't find this one dull! If you're looking to have your heart pummeled in a blender, it's your lucky week!

Luckily I don't believe in astrology.

Bribing the police

The police were out in force this past Water Festival due, I imagine to the additional 4 million people that came to Phnom Penh. And some people were unlucky enough to be caught breaking the traffic law in bright daylight on Monivong Boulevard. My friend Z was one such unlucky person.

Z was zooming up Monivong to get supplies from Bayon supermarket. The plan was to hunker down in her place and avoid leaving the house and escape the crowds. The previous year a friend of hers had suffered sexual harassment and Z just didn't want to have to deal with the festival.

The lights were green to turn left but Z continued straight, as did many Khmers. However, she had not taken the watchful eye of the police into account. Busted she was. She wasn't too worried as she actually has a Cambodian driver's licence.

Police: Hello my friend
Z: Hello Mr Police man
Police: Where you come from?
Z: I come from X
Police: How long you in Kampuchea?
Z: Two years
Police: You speak Cambodia
Z: Tic tic
Police: You pay fine now.

Z was lucky that the policeman spoke English but was now in a bit of a dilemma. The standard bribe is $1 per cop and there were only two cops and they were asking for $5. Eventually she haggled and negotiated the bribe to $2 and everyone was happy. Well Z thought she was happy until she opened her wallet and only found a $5 note. Foiled! She ended up giving them the $5 and resuming her course to Bayon, cursing all the way for not having the foresight to expect police on the roads for Water Fest.

Well at least she went through a rite of passage for foreigners in Phnom Penh. At some point most end up bribing the police!

Don't panic!

Celebrate Towel Day!

It's the day dedicated to the genius of Mr Douglas Adams. Carry a towel around with you today in whatever manner you fancy -

you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

Celebrate the author who gave the world such memorable quotes as

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space

We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere ... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

To summarise the summary: anyone capable of getting themselves made President should by no means be allowed to do the job.

My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes.

Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't.

[Trillian] is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

I'll stop there but the whole thing is eminently quotable from the radio series to the TV series, the book and the movie. Do yourself a favour and jump aboard the Heart of Gold.

I love Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is one hell of a city. There is a magnificent mix of the old, the modern, the spiritual and the soulless. There are the newly arrived and those living there for generations. The citizens make up three principal ethnicities - Malay, Chinese and Indian. It is interesting to note that the Sri Mahamariamman Indian Temple and The Masjid Negara (National Mosque) are located in Chinatown. Chinatown also contains Buddist and Taoist temples. It is really quite diverse.

As soon as we set foot in Malaysia, we were made to feel welcome - even by immigration, which has not been my experience in other countries. People, wherever we went, were consistently friendly and helpful, offering titbits of advice on trains and live music venues. Most found it amusing that three foreigners (Irish, South African, French) were travelling together.

Although Cambodia and Malaysia are but an hour and a half (or two hours depending on the prevailing winds) apart, they are very different. To begin with, KL was breezier and so seemed less hot than PP, although the sun burns the same.

I found KL to be a modern globalised city - the first I've visited in Asia (still haven't made it out Bangkok airport) with a great public transport system and a multicultural society. Although it is of course impossible to make any other than superficial statements based on such a short visit, if you are in Asia check it out. It's worth it!

Oh holidays!

I'm on a long weekend break in Kuala Lumpar and this city is fantastic, modern and while not cheap, affordable. The people are very friendly and very mixed ethnically.

Happy Khmer New Year

Rabbit Island

Well it's been a while since I blogged but here are some pics to make up for it. They were taken on Rabbit Island off the coast of Kep. Cambodia. The second is our open air bed (wooden table with a mossie net) and the third is our local gourmet restaurant!

Had a decent time there - mostly good, some annoying. Campfire and sleeping under the stars - good juju

Friends in Cambodia,

Want anything from Ireland / Europe? Now's the time to ask!

Travel

Well I've finally arrived in Ireland after quite the journey. I left the Penh on Tuesday at 8am local time and 33 hours later I arrived in Cork. I arrived in Bangkok without issue and wandered around the terminal admiring the "design" and wondering at the thought that went into it.

The flight to London was delayed - mechanical failure - but I would still have enough time to catch the connection. I confess to boredom while waiting the extra two hours to board. Bloody twelve hour flight and they showed appalling movies, of which the latter beggars belief. So I'm bored and restless and there is still six hours left in the flight and I await the next glorious piece of entertainment which was this. Of course the subject was interesting and informative but it was so overacted and full of sentimentality that I got bored early on.

We land at 10pm - three and a half hours late - and I miss my flight. I don't know where my luggage is and I'm tired what with the activities of the night before. Thank you Thai Air - posh hotel room and two meals and a booking on the next flight out. That turned out to be 9.50 next morning. So I was in heaven staying at a hotel I couldn't afford and thinking that few airlines would do that for passengers nowadays with the low cost revolution.

Amazingly my luggage survived Heathrow and I am once more at home in a cold country.

Everything is damn expensive.

New Years in Snookyville

Return to Phnom Penh

Getting up was hard.

My head hurt.
My hands hurt.
Everything hurt.

Went to meet the others at breakfast. Felt somewhat better after orange juice, water, eggs and paracetamol. Everyone was feeling a little rough. Nevertheless we screwed up our courage to have a final swim in the sea before heading off. C bought some BBQ shrimp from a beach vendor and for the entire journey back to Phnom Penh was vomitious. Perhaps the two events were connected.

The journey back took ages. Hours went by like minutes and we were still not home. Odysseus had nothing on us. Eternity stretching out to grasp my throat. Obviously I made it home but it was a struggle. B called over with gf and introduced us. She seems lovely. I M*A*S*Hed out till about midnight.

New Years Eve

I woke up to an empty room. M and all her stuff was gone. What had I done to make her leave? Am I that terrible a roommate?

The explanation was somewhat simpler. She decided that now that the aircon was fixed we could move back to the old room. Since her stuff was all gone I conceded. And grumbling a little, repacked and moved back to the original room. Met up with the others and hit the beach. Ate, swam, slept, said no to a thousand vendors.

Then it was time to get dressed up for New Years. I wore my black corset top and black pants and was quite happy with the effect. In an interesting reversal of gender roles, the girls were ready hours before the boys. We consumed many cans in our impatience.

Again cocktails, dinner, dancing, drinking and then some more drinking.

At midnight I was standing on a large rock. Hugs all around. No kissing for any of our group this year. I haven't been kissed this yet this year! Perched on the rock with me were C, Doc, M and assorted Aussies. In attempting to get to the bar I jumped off the rock, wreaked my flipflops and cut my hands. I am wearing bandages as I type. However, it wasn't just me - M and C both fell off the same rock - I am not alone in my disgrace. I also have two parallel cuts on my back but I've no idea where they came from.

Ah well, I'm fine really. You know friends shouldn't let friends text when alcohol has been consumed. Luckily not all of them went through ;-) Of course if D was here she'd be encouraging me to text rather than preventing me.

It was a good evening. I finally made it back to the guesthouse at around 3.40. It was time to go to bed. So I did.

Journey to Snookyville

Just as well that I told everyone the taxi was booked for 9am because everyone was late. After arguing over who would get to sit in the front it was conceded that Doc should get it because nobody wanted to face the possibility of being regurgitated on. And off we set.

We sang. We bitched. We gossiped. I even read two chapters of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" to C and M as a "bedtime" story. Eventually we arrived, half starved with the hunger, checked in, ate and set off for the beach. I'll post photos tomorrow. The water was the perfect temperature. The sand was white and the company was excellent. I would have liked if one other had been there but that was not possible.

Dinner, drinks, conversation...

followed by "we have to change rooms - the air con doesn't work". I must admit to being pissed off at changing rooms - repacking and reunpacking. I fell into a disgruntled sleep.

Happy New Year Everybody!
Best wishes for 2007

Yesterday

Lunch at Freebird to which B showed up having narrowly avoided crashing with helmet-less C on the back of his bike. He got a blowout at 60 kph. Luckily he knew enough not to grab the brakes which is probably what I would have done. Now I know - don't brake with a blowout.

I went to "New World Beauty" recced by J. It was fantastic - I got my hair fixed. It is now a delicate / flaming auburn which I love, rather than a crappy shade of mousy brown.

Movies and beer with B as usual.

On a more serious note - I am being invaded by ants. Everywhere I turned the feckers are there. I spray and spray and spray but to no avail. They turn up repeatedly for the past four days in the sink of the upstairs bathroom. That is weird - are they after my toothpaste or perhaps a spot of mouthwash? I do not understand for what they search up there. Their lust for the kitchen can be easily explained but the bathroom... Colour me perplexed.

Christmas Day

Well Christmas Day began with B and I running around like headless chickens trying to find sellotape for wrap our Secret Santa gifts. Eventually it was found in the last place I looked - hardy har har eh! After stopping for Champers and cash at the supermarket and bank respectively, we headed off to C's Champagne breakfast which was loads to the gills with fine food and drink. The Christmas celebrations got off to an early start!

After fielding many questions about B's marital status and disappointing many chickies and drinking copious glasses of champagne - interspersed with coffee, fruit juice, beer and other bevvies we headed off to the Pav where the water was cool and the seats were plentiful. I managed to get myself told off twice by the owner for talking to loudly but hell it was Christmas.

After much relaxing we headed off to JB's where we awaited our turkey with eager anticipation - so hungry at this stage with brekkie just a distant memory - having a few drinks out of the copious stash that we liberated!

Movies, turkey and drinking followed and the next exciting thing was my managing to get locked in the bathroom. After much shouting and "kick the door down" statements, someone threw in a knife and I unscrewed the handle and got out of that small but clean loo. The whole process took about 40 minutes - excitement city!

All in all it was a good Christmas. Would have fancied a kiss from Mr Blond but wasn't to be. Next time! B and I brought much drink back to our place.

Christmas Eve

Got a disasterous haircut for $25 but that's life. On the other hand I got a fabulous facial. I fell asleep during the treatment - very relaxing. Went to Elsewhere for a barbeque with B and the Aussies. Good times but as has my bike with me it was quite an early one!

Kep