Nat's News

Bonking and Running

2005-11-27T12:15:00.000+07:00

Bonking is the name of the movement required to be done continuously when one is dragon boat racing. It involves leaning forward as the paddle is inserted vertically into the water then sitting back up straight as the paddle is brought through the water thereby using your back muscles rather than arms.

After a few Sunday morning bonking training sessions, we were as ready as we’d ever be to compete in the Phnom Penh water festival, a huge 3 day holiday where about 400 boats from all over the country race each other down the fast flowing Sap River watched by a couple of million people on the bank and another many million on television.

The actual race was the least interesting part of the whole experience. We, having trained only a handful of times and being generally not as adept as the Khmer teams, never stood a chance. They should have put us against girl teams or other mixed teams or at the very least boats from land locked, non- riverside towns! As it turns out, we always came second (there are only two boats each race) - except for once when we came third because the winner of the next race pipped us at the finish line. But we did really well and managed to paddle in time and didn’t disgrace ourselves and most importantly didn’t sink in front of the King like they did last year. I saw one boat sink which was actually really funny. It was just racing along next to its opponent one second then the next second, it had stopped and all you could see were white caps at water level making out the shape of a boat. I am especially happy we did not sink considering the amount of rubbish that made its way into the river generated by the million spectators. In training the week before, we had to disembark into thigh deep mud next to a sewerage outlet and it was suggested we all take worming tablets... but the worming tablets I had were for children and were chocolate so it was not such a bad thing!

There was a really great atmosphere on the river when we were waiting to race alongside the nearly 400 other boats from all over the country all struggling not to get swept downstream to Vietnam. We said hello and good luck to everyone and danced to the drums some teams used to keep time. There were teams sponsored by various NGOs, restaurants, beer, cigarette, condom and concrete companies and many more but most t-shirts were only in Khmer script so I have no idea where they were from. There was also an all HIV-positive crew to raise awareness about AIDS in Cambodia. We all wore the red ribbons which one of the boat crews were handing out. Each boat had their shrine offering bananas, cakes etc the Buddha and some had what looked like human hair hanging off the back of the boat. I’m not sure what that was about. Some boats had dancing girls in traditional costume at the front. We had a huge blow up Kangaroo (about half our crew was Australian...). Being the only barang boat I think we must have been on par with the Cambodian national team for popularity. Or more likely the crowd just enjoyed laughing at us! An especially large crowd always formed to watch us to our warm up and stretching.

On the last night of the festival, we watched the fireworks from the boat then got out into the middle of the biggest crowd I’ve ever been in. I couldn’t bear fighting my way to the bar for the team celebration. I had such an overwhelming need to get the hell out of there. The moto home took ages as the streets even far from the riverside were nearly at a standstill with cars, motos and pedestrians. I’m very glad to have experienced the Water Festival here but would happily forgo the experience next time…

On the Tuesday of the Water Festival, only five days before the event, having not run once in 5 months, I decided to run the 10k race of the Angkor Wat Half Marathon. This involved a 6 hour bus trip to Siem Reap on Saturday then a 6 hour bus trip back on Sunday. Madness. I managed 2 training sessions beforehand and did the run in under 1 hour so was very happy. It was pretty special running past Angkor Wat, through the gates of Angkor Thom, past the Bayon etc. The run is for charity, “to bring Artificial Limbs to Mine Victims and Save the Youth from HIV/AIDS” so there were many wheelchair athletes and amputees running on prosthetic limbs. It was very inspiring. The official guide book for the race was clearly not proof read by a native English speaker and provided us with much pre-race amusement. The official web site is also pretty funny and under “How to apply” has the instructions to “7-Join to our official overnight party” (an overnight party – before a marathon?!) and “8-Please enjoy your running on the day of the race” … you can check it out at http://www.angkorwatmarathon.org/

So it was a pretty energetic and action packed week for me. It was lots of fun and kept me well distracted from the fact that Jono is away for a month. He gets back in a week!

No left turn?

2005-11-16T16:49:00.000+07:00

There’s an intersection of two main roads in the middle of the city. There’s a ‘no U-turn’ sign. There’s apparently also a ‘no left turn’ sign, hidden behind a tree. My colleague from work was driving and we turned left. The police were waiting just around the corner. This happened to me once in Australia. But of course it was a ‘no right turn’ - and there was a sign. That time I was given an infringement notice on official paper and I obediently but begrudgingly paid the $55 fine to the government It was only a no right turn between 3pm and 6pm and it was like, 3.10pm and it was really safe and they have since taken that sign down anyway so the cops that day were just revenue collecting – just like in Cambodia really. In Cambodia the ‘fine’ depends on your bargaining skills and there’s no paper trail. My Cambodian colleague offered 1000 riel (US$0.25) which was not accepted. The policeman wanted 20,000 riel (US$5.00). He started writing out some sort of ticket and said something about going to the station. My colleague then made me get out of the car to offer 5,000 riel. So in my limited Khmer I put on a dumb barang (foreigner) act and eventually with a subtle nod of the head from the superior officer I handed over the cash and the deal was done. So I’ve bribed a police officer. I feel bad but wasn’t keen to find out what the alternative would be. Still if everyone refused to pay then perhaps the police would start policing instead of seeking out money like this and maybe even form some sort of union to pressure the government to increase their pay from $10 per month or whatever it is so they wouldn’t need me to supplement their income.... Oh Cambodia – gotta love it.

My bargaining skills must be better than Jono’s though. He had to pay a cop $2 once but I’ll let him tell the story! And I just heard another AYAD's story where she had to pay $5 for driving the wrong way down a one way street (which everyone does anyway). The police in her case said pay a fine now or go to traffic school (whatever that would be here???) for 3 or 5 days then pay a fine. She tried to say 'I'll go to traffic school' but the cop, obviously preferring the on the spot fine straight into his pocket was very keen to negotiate the fine. Anthea also has a police encounter story on her blog...

Work

2005-11-16T16:28:00.000+07:00

View of half floor from downstairs

There are very few actual office buildings in Phnom Penh. Most offices, apart from government departments and the like are in houses. Most expats here would live within a stones’ throw from an NGO – or five. My office is in a tall narrow Thai or Chinese style house – I can’t remember which. That knowledge was gained during our house-hunting, which despite the happy ending, was a frustrating and traumatic experience so it’s all been wiped from memory. Because NICFEC is a poor local NGO with hardly any money, to save on electricity, the stairwell is kept dark, there is no air conditioning and lights and fans are turned off as soon as we leave a room. Quite sensible really – except maybe the dark stairs. To make matters worse, the power goes out at least once a day for at least an hour. All the Khmer staff, even those with little English now know the word ‘blackout’. I think when we finally get a generator and the blackouts stop I will miss my coffee breaks reading the paper at the cafe down the road.

Each morning at 8am there is an office meeting which I sometimes attend. It is pretty much a waste of time for me because it’s in Khmer and from what I gather involves people taking turns to stand up and paraphrase news items from the morning paper. Sometimes when the director is there the meeting is about work. Everyone claps which signals the end of the meeting when the lights and fans can be turned off and the work day begins.

Other ‘quirky’ things about my office are: When it rains very hard, the floor floods because there is a half finished room at the back which is full of rubble and open to the elements. The accountant’s office is in a half floor - Being John Malcovich - style, with a miniature door. Lucky our accountant is not tall. We all sit at our computers on blue plastic outdoor furniture chairs. No OH&S ergonomic consultants here... Because offices are also houses, almost all office toilets will have a bath or shower often with toothbrushes too – haven’t figured out whose those are yet.

I have just recently been assigned some projects to work on. One being the Parliamentary Watch Project and another a women’s rights/domestic violence program so I think I will now be relatively busy at work. Which is great – but a shock for me after a year of mostly bumming around!

Our AYAD profiles are on the web finally. Just go to http://www.ayad.com.au/ and click on Meet the AYADs then Intake 14 etc.

Our House

2005-11-16T15:59:00.000+07:00

I’ll always remember the moment I sat down to compose this blog post. I have set up my new laptop on our gorgeous wooden balcony and am enjoying the tropical view into the canopy of boganvillea, palm, mango and banana trees. We also have a custard apple tree but I’m not sure which one it is yet. It would be pure paradise if I were lying in the hammock but then it would be too hard to type. I never thought I ‘needed’ a laptop before but now I love it. I am addicted to ‘geeking it up’, as Belinda, one of my housemates calls it! The other thing I have become addicted to since being in Phnom Penh is riding my bicycle. I ride everywhere. I thought I would be too chicken to brave the PP traffic but it turns out I’m not. A huge revelation! The experience has also improved since I stopped trying to wear skirts to work. There’s too much to concentrate on without having to worry about the whole of PP seeing my undies. Besides being better for the wallet, environment, legs etc, it’s also surprisingly quick – and I ride slowly – I have beaten people on moto taxis to places before!

Our house is great and the best thing about it is that it came with dogs! The previous tenants had 2 dogs they couldn’t take with them and fortunately all 4 of us agreed to keep the dogs. They are really sweet. Except when we open the gate to get out and they escape and get into fights with other dogs and run through mud and eat rubbish and ignore us when we call them to come back in. I also don’t find them endearing when they get overexcited after parties and break through the doggie barrier at the top of the stairs and run around on the verandah being noisy all night.... or when they push open the fly screen door downstairs and head straight for the rubbish bin or jump up onto the dining room table. Naughty!

The dogs are sisters and one of them may be pregnant! We had an eventful trip in a tuk tuk to the vet to get all the animals* rabies vaccinations and Meika has a big uterus which means we might have puppies soon which is sooo exciting but then we would need to find them all good homes. Meika's the one with black around her eyes. The other, more blond one is Lara. It's been fun seeing their personalities emerge. I think Lara is more intelligent and she's my favourite but she's can also be a real bully to Meika and to the cat. The dogs actually have two names. They also get called 'bread and butter' in Italian (panini and bourini??) by our Italian neighbour.

*We have a cat too. Her name's Nobel (Bel). She’s nice as far as cats go and there’s a remote chance that during the course of the year Bel may help me slide along the scale away from being a pure dog person... but for the moment I like her being around because it’s fun spraying her with water when she does naughty things like jump up on the kitchen bench or come into my room. I can’t deny that in our case the cat is more “useful” than the dogs. Bel caught four mice one night – or maybe it was 2 then the same 2 dead ones retrieved from the rubbish – we’re not sure. So we let her inside regularly to catch mice but mostly she just lies around and cleans herself so maybe they were just a one-off housewarming present. I hope not because Belinda had a mouse in her bed and mouse poo (Microsoft Word doesn’t recognise poo as a word. It also doesn’t recognise recognise – I’ll have to change it out of American spelling) has been spotted in the kitchen...

Brief on Angkor

2005-10-22T16:16:00.000+07:00

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

I'm back. Apologies to those of you bored at work who kept opening my blog looking for a distraction and had to resort to the smh or equivalent! I have been pretty busy since my last post a month ago. A week of orientation in Phnom Penh (mostly very frustrating house hunting - but with a very happy ending), then a week in Siem Reap over P'chum Ben - a buddhist festival and finally starting work. By the time I started work two weeks ago, I'd almost forgotten that's what I was here for. More about our gorgeous house (and doggies) later.

The week in Siem Reap was fantastic! Jono had organised it all... partly for our 4 year anniversary... We arrived around 6pm in the pouring rain at the bus station where you hop off the bus into a sea of moto and tuk tuk drivers all yelling at you to go with them. Fortunately, we could happily wave away the hordes because were greeted by a smiling driver holding a large sign with "The Golden Banana Welcomes...Jonathan" - with the name written inside a massive yellow banana. Our tuk tuk had heart shaped plastic windows protecting us from the driving rain.

The rain had stopped by the morning so we hired bikes, bought our one week pass and headed off for Angkor Wat! We only ended up using 4 days of the pass but could have a day off also which helped prevent the common Siem Reap disease of Temple Fatigue or being 'Templed out'. Cycling was an excellent way to get around - as long as we avoided riding back when ALL the tour buses made the trip - before sunrise and after sunset in particular. The first day we climbed all around Angkor and tried to decipher the bas reliefs with the help of our guide books. We also rode to Ta Phrom (the 'tomb raider' one with all the overgrown trees). Both temples were amazing and different. If you know the old lonely planet with an old man at Ta Phrom on the cover, you can still find him there - selling copies of 'his' LP. We didn't have the heart to tell him that he's been superseded by monks walking through lotus.

After our first day - sore bums and all from riding - we decided to take a day off. We went to lunch at a butterfly garden and happened to arrive just as a new intake of butterflies were about to be released. The English guy who owns the place pays local kids to catch the insects. Big butterflies are worth 100 riel (2.5 cents), dead butterflies are worth nothing but torn wings are fine. He told us that the kids are from a really poor village and this bug catching is paying for school. It took way over an hour for all 38 kids to have their catch counted and released and to be paid. It was a very colourful and amusing if not a bit laborious.

I never knew butterflies could be held like that!

Back to the temples. Day two we left the Golden Banana at 5am by tuk tuk to see Angkor silhouetted by sunrise. We took dozens of photos but felt envious of Cindy (another ayad and professional photographer) who came with us with her 1000 Mega pixel (or whatever) camera and tripod. Straight after sunrise we went to catch the 'good light' on the faces at the Bayon. This temple was again so amazing and different to the others. I think what struck me the most was the scale and the variety in the designs and details at all the temples. However there are so many that you do get a bit confused with some of the more similar ones at the end of four days. We went back to Bayon the last day but got distracted watching monkeys outside the temple and never made it back in. The young monkeys were climbing up a tree and jumping from a high branch into a small lake for fun then swimming back to the shore and doing it all over again. They were just like human children - but better and faster at climbing trees. I had never seen monkeys even swim before - they were so cute.

Another great thing was Jono being able to have conversations in Khmer. It meant we could chat with the little kids selling bracelets and stuff and randoms monks and other people around the temples. I think we were shown some great things that we would have missed otherwise. I start Khmer classes on Monday!

After SR we caught the boat to Battambang which was also fantastic, particularly seeing all the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake. These people literally live on water - with their dogs, cats, chickens, sometimes even cows and crocodiles. The boat trip did feel a bit long and crowded after a while though. There was a small amusing interlude when my empty water bottle was commandeered by furious hand signals as an emergency toilet for a little boy.

I only stayed in Battambang one night as I had to come back to PP to move into my new house! More on that later!

Back in Phnom Penh

2005-09-20T14:00:00.000+07:00

If you read Paul's first blog as an AYAD about dramas staying overnight at Bangkok airport, this will sound somewhat familiar. There were 7 of us flying from Sydney who had to stay overnight in Bankok before catching our flight to PP the next morning. The problems started at Sydney airport when some people checked their luggage to Bangkok and some to PP. I was asked at check in if I wanted my luggage to go to PP and said yes before opening my suitcase in the middle of the airport to fish out a spare pair of undies. We had been given vouchers for the airport hotel but no clear instructions about where the hotel was or what to do when we arrived. The people who had only checked their luggage to Bangkok obviously wanted to go to the baggage claim to avoid their bags going round and round all night before being blown up for being unaccompanied. The baggage claim is after immigration where they stamp your passport and then don't let you back in to the arrivals area where, we later found out, the hotel was. Since I was not concerned about bags, I went with Emma, another AYAD to find the hotel. The people at the reception very casually and clearly explained that once our friends had gone through immigration they could not come back and stay at the hotel. We ran back as fast as we could to immigration to stop the others spending the night on chairs in the waiting lounge. Too late. They had all had their passports stamped. Fortunately a very nice Thai immigration dude felt sorry for us and had their stamps cancelled and let them back through, after fishing through piles of immigration forms to retreive theirs. This debacle cost us an extra hour's sleep. The airport hotel, oddly named Louis Tavern Dayroom, was fine - or rather, would be fine if Bangkok airport had a curfew more like Sydney airport. We clearly heard every flight announcement until about 3am... I should have pulled my earplugs as well as undies from my suitcase.

So eventually I arrived back in Phnom Penh yesterday at the same time as the AYADs from Melbourne and Brisbane who didn't need to stay overnight anywhere. Jono was at the airport which was a great surprise. He originally planned to come to meet me but ended up with some jobs to do helping Hour (our in country manager) greet all the AYADs and make sure we all got on the bus. Some of the others told me later they were surprised when I got a kiss on the lips and they only got a welcome handshake. It's good to be back. Jono was also recruited to give us the city tour this morning which was very funny. We're off to check out houses to rent this arvo but that means me stepping out of the internet cafe into the rain without an umbrella - oops.

Rain, Rivers and Reading

2005-09-15T17:50:00.000+07:00

Welcome to my belated blog about Laos... I am actually in Sydney at the moment for a short stay before heading back to Phnom Penh as an AYAD (Australian Youth Ambassador for Development) for another 12 months. So I'll be getting back to blogging about Cambodia again very soon.

First a few words about my travels in Laos. The title I chose, rain, rivers and reading is really representative of much of my 3 weeks in Laos. I would have included buddhas but it doesn't start with 'r'. (the photo is of the Buddha cave in Luang Prabang)

Starting at the beginning with the border crossing at Lao Bao. It was fortunate that Wina (my Quebecois travel buddy) and I got our Lao visas beforehand from Vietnam, although a bit more expensive, we got 1 month visas and you can only get 15 day visas at the border. Wina is going to find out what Canada did to piss off Laos because her visa was the most expensive of any country. Crossing the border involved a long walk in the rain where the path of least mud was in the middle of the road between the bumper to bumper stationary trucks waiting to cross into Vietnam. It felt like I was 'an illegal' trying to sneak across the border without being seen. Continuing the feeling of being smuggled across the border, we were bundled into a mini van, 4 people to a row (very squashy) for the trip to Savannaket. My poor backpack was strapped to the roof, keeping dry - sort of - by wearing my raincoat like a limbless, headless body.

After the craziness of touristy Vietnam, the south of Laos was blissfully quiet and devoid of travellers. It was so peaceful to walk around without being hassled to buy something or go somewhere or asked 'where you going?' - that was the most annoying.

After a quiet night in Savannaket watching an amazing sunset over the Mekong, nursing an obligatory Beer Lao, we headed further into the sleepy south. The pre-angkor temples of Wat Phu Champasak were as interesting and mystical as the guide books say but the most fun was the adventure to get there. After a complex array of sangthews (local buses), tuk tuks, boats and more tuk tuks we arrived in the tiny riverside town of Champasak. The next day we hired bicycles to ride the last 14kms to the temple ruins. The ride was along a very quiet dirt road surrounded by peaceful bright green rice fields. The only concern on the road was avoiding chickens, ducks, turkeys, cows, buffalos, dogs, cats and potholes. We also got caught in a massively huge downpour at the temple - which will happen when choose to travel in the wet season.

That afternoon we did the tuk tuk- boat - tuk tuk relay back to the 'main' road and hailed the first sangthew heading south. In we piled alongside the babies, chickens and bags and bags of corn. I don't really like the smell of so much cooked corn I've decided. Somehow we conveyed where we wanted to go ('si phan don' or 4 thousand islands) and arrived after dark - in the rain, of course. We were surprised to see so many foreigners there but then worked out it's where you would end up if you came across the border from Cambodia. We stayed a couple of nights there and did a day trip to see the Mekong dolphins and what was somewhat dodgily claimed to be the 'largest waterfall in SE Asia'. The dolphin viewing place was actually in Cambodia. I got to say thank you in Khmer to the 'policeman' who was selling drinks. We saw quite a few dolphins, but as in Kratie, no good photos... The waterfall was really a cascade. Sure there was a lot of water moving over some rocks but we saw it at the end of a long day - and it was pouring rain - so a brief glance and one quick snapshot sufficed.

Having ventured further south than the south of Lao, we travelled north to Pakse then hopped on the overnight bus from Pakse to Vientiane. The only seats left on the VIP bus were in the VIP room downstairs which had a tiny doorway you had to crouch down to fit through and a ceiling so low not even I could stand up. Inside was a giant U shaped lounge. It was a very odd way to travel and felt like a cross between a hobbit loungeroom and the Spice Girl's limo (apparently). However, it lacked any popstar ambiance as the Laotians quietly went to sleep sitting up and the travellers fought for room to lie down while Mr Bean played on the TV (marginly better than the usual bus entertainment of karaoke clips).

We spent a few really nice quiet days in Vientiane. It was great after 6 weeks of travelling to stay in a house and have cereal for breakfast (thank you Paul!). From Vientiane we kept journeying north to Vang Vieng, which is set in a spectacular landscape of rivers and mountains but spoilt by Friends. Friends the TV sitcom, which blares from every restaurant on the main street. We arrived on a very rainy afternoon and sat in one such restaurant for lunch. After about 3 episodes in a row I wanted to throw something at the television and at all the backpackers watching. Tubing down the river in old tractor tyres (which is the thing everyone does in VV - apart from watch Friends) the next morning was very relaxing. We swam into a cave which was fun but turned back when it got too dark and scary.

I decided I couldn't deal with another day of Friends so we booked the local bus to Luang Prabang that afternoon. We were told it was the bus from Vientiane and should stop in Vang Vieng. It didn't. After about 3 hours of waiting - in the rain - a mini van appeared to take the 3 of us going to LP. It was great - instead of the usual 4 to a row we had one each so could stretch out and sleep.

I've already written a bit about LP. I spent about a week there - a lot of the time in a great bookshop cafe called l'etranger, sheltering from the rain. When Wina and I parted in LP, I went in a boat 8 hours further north to Muang Ngoi. I ended up being the only passenger in my 20-seat boat and other boats of foreigners were joking as they went past that I must be special and giving my the royal wave. It was a bit lonely but I finished my first book of 4 in 4 days (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Eleven Minutes and The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho and Bear v Shark - if you're interested...). Muang Ngoi was lovely and quiet and since I chose not to walk to the waterfall and get covered in mud and leeches, there was nothing else to do but lie in a hammock and read.

There seems to be a pattern of bus stories... my local bus from Nong Khiaw back to LP broke down. We spent 2 hours watching the driver bang wildly with a hammer at some part of the underside of the bus then another couple of hours waiting for another bus as apparently the banging didn't fix the problem. I was tired and starving by the time we reached LP. All I'd had to eat all day were 2 strange biscuits. One was salty with a chocolate centre and the other was sweet with seaweed on top.

As an appropriate end to my time in Laos, I spent 2 days on a boat on the Mekong from LP to the Thai border. I read another book in between watching the amazing scenery roll past. The jungle was so thick in parts it looked like a richly textured green blanket thrown over the trees.

I'll finish by sharing just a few of the amusing attempts at English we came across:

Above the toilet:
"Ladies, please don't throw your private papers in here" (I refrained from tossing my bank details into the toilet).

"Don't throw paper and napkins at the toilet"

In some menus:
breakfeasts
fried sprigrolls
frurt shake
fried rice with cattle fish
boll eegs
meats with carry
sandwick
samd wich
egg plant

Responsible Trekking

2005-08-10T07:51:00.000+07:00

On deciding we couldn't spend our whole time in Luang Prabang in L'etranger cafe and bookshop, Wina and I booked a 2 day trek with 'Action Max Eco tours' after procrastination resulted in a good price. When we turned up the morning of the trek, the first thing the French owner said to us was 'you're not going to make me rich - you got a really good deal'... And I thought the purpose of 'Eco-tourism' was to benefit the local community not to make expats rich... After that uninspiring start, the trip improved. The others in our group were a French couple who'd just been living in Canberra. Outnumbered by francophones, I spoke French for much of the 2 days. I also learnt how to say hello in Kamu and Hmong (Saba Le and Nho Jhong respectively - my own spelling) which were the ethnicities of the minority villages we visited. Our guide Tou (pictured above) was Hmong, not Lao.

The first day of the trek was Wina's birthday so I secretly asked Tou if a celebration or ceremony could be arranged for our stay in the village that night. He said he would talk to the village chief to organise a Basi. Now, I'd heard about Basis from Paul in Vientiane. I understood them to involve drinking alcohol from a communal cup and having bits of white string tied around wrists. Maybe the Basis Paul has attended have been abridged because he's a vegan?? So... I had no idea that disclosing Wina's birthday would make me responsible for a death.

About 6pm in the Hmong village, Tou told me we would have a Basi for Wina but we were just waiting to catch a chicken. Anticipating the answer, I asked what we were going to do with the chicken. It would be killed, of course. I tried in vain to convince Tou that a Basi without a chicken sacrifice would be absolutely fine with me. He went to check with the chief and the shaman but came back with a chicken. Sorry chicken, I tried. In fact, I had to pay 30,000 Kip (US$3) for the chicken. Happy birthday Wina - chicken slaughter is at least an original birthday present. I should be saying 'rooster' because tradition says that at Basis, roosters are killed for women and hens for men. I tried to tell myself that it was a 'cultural experience' to see a rooster get its throat cut, blood drained, dipped in boiling water, plucked, gutted, chopped and boiled... but I still felt responsible and guilty. At least some of the villagers shared in the feast with us. No, the guilt did not stop me having a taste...

The village was incredibly basic. There was no bathroom, at least that we were told about, and the chief's house where we stayed was 4 walls, a roof and dirt floor. The rooster's blood was drained straight onto the floor of the house but quickly licked up by the dogs. I didn't sleep well on the hard bamboo mat. Especially after I woke up to tiny ants crawling on my face, hair and pillow. The other thing I forgot to mention was the mud. Miraculously, it didn't rain at all for the 2 days but earlier rain had left ankle deep mud in some places.

It was an interesting experience for a night but I admit I couldn't live like the Hmong and Kamu people. The shower, massage and body scrub back at the Lotus spa in Luang Prabang were very very much appreciated.

Vietnam continued

2005-08-06T16:44:00.000+07:00

From Mui Ne I took the bus along the winding road up the mountains to Dalat. On the bus I met a Canadian living in Hanoi who was working on updating the new Insight Guide to Vietnam so I got to read the newer than new edition hand written on a photocopy of the old one... She also gave me a few travel tips including don't believe everything you read in guide books - which I'd already discovered for myself.

On the bus I also met Milka from Lapland and ended up sharing a room with her in Dalat. I felt very old when I found out she was only 19! I got over that quickly and we did some fun things together like have 20 glasses of Dalat red wine each. Well... we bought a bottle and the local restaurant we went to gave us micro mini glasses to drink the wine from. We also did a great 17km hike with a lovely guide through minority villages, coffee plantations and across scary long suspension bridges.

Dalat is very different to any other South-East Asian city I've been to so far. Everyone in the streets wore beenies and the markets sold only parkas! (It wasn't even that cold...). It's also unique because instead of the usual cry of 'you want motorbike' or something similar the drivers in Dalat cruise up stealthily beside you and almost whisper 'I'm an easy rider'. There are apparently many impostors but the real easy riders have caps with their names embroidered on and have a good reputation for motorbike tours around Dalat.

So one day, I hopped on the back of Nguyen's bike and off we went. One of the most interesting stops was at Dragon Pagoda, so nick-named because of the 40-odd metre long mosaic dragon made mostly out of BGI Beer bottles which I found strange in a Buddhist temple. Incidentally, Nguyen told me BGI is now owned by Fosters.

I also was fortunate enough to be in Dalat for the festival to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the embroidery workshop. Exciting, no? The festival involved 'important' people such as a visiting artist from Hawaii, the head monk from somewhere's brother and a few others being called to the stage and presented with their own image embroidered onto fabric and framed. The 'ceremony' was quite dull but it was great to see the whole of Dalat out enjoying themselves in the street. I can't imagine an embroidery festival being so popular anywhere else.

From Dalat I headed back down the mountain to the hedonism of Nha Trang. For 5 days, I lay on the beach reading and getting massages, swam and did some diving and exploring. The dives were not that spectacular. Apparently all the big stuff has been eaten over the years by the locals.

One day I did the 4 islands 'party boat' tour which started with some snorkelling - but only by me because I brought my own mask and the ones handed out on the boat leaked. I had carried my mask and snorkel for weeks from Phnom Penh through the non-snorkelling regions of the Mekong Delta, Saigon and Dalat so I wasn't going to have carried it for nothing! The snorkelling was followed by a kind of international karaoke where our Vietnamese host, Dat and his boy band of guitars and pots and pans encouraged everyone to sing along with him a song from their country. I was the only Australian and sang along to Dat's special rendition of 'Watching Matilda'! Surprisingly all this singing happened before the 'floating bar' where free sweet red wine was poured into our cups while we bobbed about on various flotation devices.

Prior to that boat cruise I had dined on my own a couple of night and was starting to feel a bit lonely but met lots of people on the boat, one of whom, Wina from Quebec, I have been travelling with since! After a fun messy mud bath to complete my time in Nha Trang, Wina and I went north to Hoi An (gorgeous buildings, too many tailor shops) and Hue (interesting old royal palaces and tombs) then across the muddy border into lovely relaxed Lao!

Fishing village, Mui Ne

2005-08-02T16:01:00.000+07:00

Fishing village, Mui Ne
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

Here is a picture I promised to go with my Mui Ne blog. There are also a few other photos you can view now from Mui Ne, Dalat , Hoi an and Hue. I am very far behind in my posts... too busy experiencing to be documenting. The big news is that Nat's News will again be broadcasting from Phnom Penh from late September where, if all goes to plan, I will be working for a year.

Mui Ne morning

2005-07-26T19:15:00.000+07:00

Since I shook off the evangelist in Saigon, I joined the Vietnam tourist bus trail north. My first stop was Mui Ne. A beautiful beach but too quiet and couple-populated for a newly solo traveller like me. I woke up at 4.45am for a sunrise tour of the massive Mui Ne sand dunes. The bungalow resort place I was staying at had big gates which were sensibly locked at that time of the night. I forgot to tell them the day before I was doing a sunrise tour and couldn't see anyone around. So, with my jeep driver and a Belgian waiting on the other side, I climbed over the fence. It was dark and I was still half asleep and I cut my hand on the way down (not badly). A bit too much action for pre- 5am.

As we approached the sand dunes, I thought we were driving into a mob of early rising local children protesting with banners. 'Save our dunes', 'No child exploitation' etc. Very wrong. They were holding up slippery plastic sheets which are forced under every visiting bum to assist your slide down the sand dunes. So much for 'Save our dunes', more like 'Give your dong' - (Dong being the Vietnamese currency for anyone who thought I was saying something else).

I was really looking forward to peacefully watching a glorious sunrise after a quiet trek up the dunes. No such luck. Tom from Antwerp and I were escorted by four of the young 'demonstrators' who periodically raced each other down the side of the dune only to come running up moments later. Certainly, this must be one of the more fun ways for kids in Vietnam to earn a few dong. The sun rose, as it does, and I succumed to the 'madam you slide' mantra, as I'm sure everyone eventually does. It was fun but my white top still carries traces of the red sand. The colour of the sand and topography in the area was so familiar, I felt like I was at Mungo National Park in NSW!

What didn't feel anything like Australia was the fishing village we then visited at 6.30am. The market was at its chaotic and colourful peak. The fishing boats were moored just off shore and there were baskets everywhere on the beach containing the night's catch which was being weighed, peeled, gutted etc by women in conical hats. There were even buffalo-drawn carts on the beach ready to take the fresh produce off to the market. It was very photogenic. I'll try to post some photos soon. I'll write more soon about my couple of weeks in Dalat, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue. I'm off to Lao in a few days too so stay tuned!

Born again in Saigon

2005-07-11T18:10:00.000+07:00

Welcome to my first post from Vietnam. Today was my first day travelling alone. I began the new chapter this morning with a reasonably drastic haircut (but not drastic enough to warrant a photo - sorry!). It was a relaxing experience which included a surprise facial, that is, I was surprised when they started cleansing and massaging my face as well as my hair. So I now feel lighter and ready for my adventure. After the salon I confidently set out on foot, waving away cyclos, motos and taxis in the direction of some markets I wanted to visit. With the assistance of the map, I found what I was looking for. This was exciting for me since I have a particularly bad sense of direction and spent the last week following Jono around like a puppy while he lead with map and compass. A compass would just confuse me further so I was just going with the map. I detoured via a bank and managed to let them give me a cash advance for $100 using my advanced diving certification as ID, which incidentally has my name spelt incorrectly as Natlaie, (together with a photocopy of my passport). Normally you are meant to have your passport to get money but the hotels here hang on to your passport and show them to the police apparently - some communist keeping tabs on foreigners thing...

After the bank, I was walking through one of the pleasant Saigon parks, when a Vietnamese guy on a bicycle calls me over and says he's a student and asks if he could practise English with me. I thought why not - seems harmless and I'm in my new confident and open minded traveller mode. He signaled to a park bench close to the road. I made up a story that I couldn't talk for long because I was meeting a friend. The conversation starts relatively predictably.
'Where are you from?' Australia.
'Where in Australia?' Sydney.
'Are there a lot of Italians living in Sydney - you're Italian aren't you?' Well no.
'But your grandparents are Italian - am I right?' Yes my grandparents are Italian. (well....it was much easier to go along with it!!!!) 'Can I ask you a question?' Sure.
'Do you want to be brung again?' Sorry?
'Do you want to be brung - b-o-r-n - again - you know, recycled?' OK I know what you're trying to say (laughing by me).
'Don't be nervous, Jesus loves you and died for your sins.' etc etc etc etc.
I asked him some questions like Aren't Vietnamese people normally Buddhists? He said yes but he found God in 1990 when a New Zealand guy asked him 'Do you want to be born again?' and he said yes. Now he cruises the streets of Saigon on his bike with his black brief case using cunning means to 'spread the word'. I found it all quite amusing and just smiled said I wasn't interested and walked away to my 'lunch appointment' with him calling out to me that Jesus died for my sins. Sad now that if a Vietnamese student really wants to practise English with me I'll be a bit suspicious.

The week I spent with Jono travelling from Phnom Penh by boat to the Mekong Delta then through the Delta to Saigon was great. There are many stories from that week. I might let Jono tell them on his blog (link on the side of my blog page) and hopefully the photos will be on his blog also.

But just in brief... after our river border crossing which involved many hands 'borrowing' our passports and an order that before anything else can be done we must go to the toilet (a problem with our helper's lack of more subtle English words rather than a requirement to enter Vietnam we assumed), we boated along the canal into Chau Doc. There we visited some interesting temples and had a sauna and massage at what was certainly a brothel (very innocent, I assure you - but maybe keep an eye on Jono's blog for that one). The local mini bus we took from Chau Doc to Cantho was part of a cigarette smuggling operation. I was sitting next to a women who looked like the Michelin man with cigarette boxes strapped all over her body under her clothes. At one point she handed me one of her many bags full of cigarettes to hold but I maintain that I lacked the mens rea to be guilty of the smuggling. It was only confirmed to us after the trip what was really going on.

In Cantho we went to the floating markets at 5.30am. They were amazing so hopefully you will see photos soon. Another highlight of the Delta was a homestay we arranged by complete luck and fluke with a family on an Island in the middle of the Mekong River. The family was lovely, especially the gorgeous grandkids. They showed us around the lovely island and fed us well and we repayed them adequately for the damage done when Jono crashed their motorbike into a ditch. Those so inclined, don't panic. Jono only got a couple of scratches. RIP banana tree and papaya tree.

Sounds of Phnom Penh

2005-07-02T17:45:00.000+07:00

I'm off to travel in Vietnam tomorrow so this will be the last post from Cambodia for a while. It's hard to believe I left Australia exactly 2 months ago. I have really enjoyed being in Phnom Penh and the couple of trips around Cambodia but am also very keen to hit the road and experience the new sites, sounds, smells (well maybe not keen for all the smells) and tastes of Vietnam.

To give a bit more of a picture of Phnom Penh, I will try to describe some of the interesting calls and sounds I hear everyday from inside and outside the house. There are many street sellers here and many of them have a unique cry to alert potential buyers. A ubiquitous call is what sounds to me like 'bung bung'. This is the bread man on his bicycle. We sometimes like to buy his fresh baguettes and delicious sweet bread in the mornings but the problem is he thinks he's competing in the Tour de France and by the time we fumble around for money and gate keys he's a hundred metres down the road. Anthea sometimes chases him down on her bike.

The next most often heard cry sounds to me like 'ot chey' which is the people collecting bits and pieces for recycling. I should make it clear that this is NOT because Cambodia is such and environmentally friendly place and they are trying to entice Ian Keirnan to orchestrate a clean up Cambodia campaign... it's a place where the road/footpath etc is the rubbish bin. It's just people trying to eke out a living. Often the children and babies will travel with the scraps in the wooden carts that are slowly pushed along.

Then there's the ice cream trolley. We are not talking 'Streets' here, it's ice cream on a stick sitting in little metal moulds. A treat I will probably not risk trying here. However, just like the 'ice cream van' of my childhood, this one plays music but instead of greensleeves (is that what it was called??) it plays the Lambada. Anthea told me the other day that some reversing trucks also play the Lambada. Not a very safe double-up for the hungry distracted child I would have thought...

My favourite sound of all is our washing machine at home which plays 'here's comes the bride' before AND after the wash! What's the message there? And if there's not meant to be a message - What the??!

There's also the guy on the pushbike with a stereo on the back who you give money to to play your favourite Khmer tunes so you can listen to 20 seconds of it as he rides off down the road... (as you can tell I haven't quite figured out how this one works). There are also various horns and bells to signal the coming of items I haven't worked out yet. Of course there are dozens and dozens of other street sellers on foot, push bike, or more sedentary, who don't use music, sounds or calls... they sell anything and everything like noodles, sweets, savory little pancake things, tiny snails with chili (very popular with the locals), fried fish, unidentifiable things to drink, brooms, sarongs, bath mats, plastic bowls etc etc etc. There are even people walking around with a set of scales you can stand on to weigh yourself for a small fee.

The other obvious sounds of the streets are constant beeps - just to warn other vehicles that you're there, and, especially if you are a foreigner, the cry of moto, motorbike... but my thoughts of and experiences with moto taxis are the subject of a whole other blog!

I just want to finish with one story which I love from my flatmate Stewart. He works for Oxfam and very often travels to remote villages in the provinces. He gives his spiel to the villagers about the work he does and the Oxfam project in the village then asks if there are any questions. Inevitably there is one question for him. 'Are you married?' Cambodia can be a sweet place!

Dolphin in Kratie province

2005-07-02T17:43:00.000+07:00

Dolphin in Kratie province
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

Ever wondered where your donation to Oxfam goes?! Hope you like kitch faded statues. Just joking - Oxfam does really great work here. Next to this Oxfam dolphin was health promotion and anti-domestic violence billboard sponsored by Oxfam. I'm showing this photo as a poor second to the real thing which were much better in real life than in the photos. Have a look at the link 'nat neumann'to see some more of my recent photos from Kratie and Phnom Penh.

Children and animals

2005-06-30T10:40:00.000+07:00

Our area is getting more dangerous before dark and the assailants are getting younger. Remember our mugging incident where some of the local kids stole 3 cans of drink? Well now I am reporting on 2 separate incidents of indecent assault.

The first was on Jono. A very tiny nude child - maybe 2 years old - came up to Jono holding his hand out like he was asking for money, then quickly changed his hand position, reached out, grabbed Jono's balls then ran off laughing. A bit of a shock but kind of funny and no harm done. The second was on me. Jono and I were walking to yoga one afternoon and some of the kids were running after us and laughing and jumping and holding our hands wanting to be swung between us, like kids do... so it was all fun and games then one of the little kids - I'm not sure if it was a boy or a girl actually, jumped up and hit me on the breast. Also no harm done - except the tiny grubby black hand print it left on my t-shirt!

My contact with animals has been less violent but no more welcome. I have been reluctant to write about this because my mother will probably order me to come home (to Australia, land of funnel web spiders, dangerous snakes etc etc...) but we have had about 5 scorpions in our house. they are big and black and look like scary creatures from outer space. The pattern has developed where if a scorpion is sighted, we scream, to alert the others of course, then have someone stand guard to watch where it goes while someone else runs to get Narith, our guard/scorpion killer, who comes in smiling and laughing at us with these huge tongs which he then uses to effortlessly pick up the scorpion by one leg and carry it outside. I don't know what happens after that.

The other recent visitor we have had in our house is a tiny (quite cute really) mouse. I have no idea how to catch a mouse. We have dealt with this by just making sure all the food cupboards stay closed and hoping all the cats from next door eventually do their job. They seem to cut cats tails here so they are all short and curly. It's awful.

We also have a part time dog. Our next door neighbours have a dog and we have a lawn. Somehow, this dog mananges to open the gate (suspicious...) whenever it is feeling sick. It then proceeds to eat grass (which I understand is what dogs do when they feel sick) and vomit on our driveway. This has happened twice. We don't like it! But it is a very obedient dog and we have started showing him the door back to his place whenever he's in our yard and he happily trots home.

That's all the children and animal stories for the moment!

Where's the rain?

2005-06-30T10:01:00.000+07:00

It's now the end of June and the rainy season was meant to have started at least a month or two ago. Every day on the ABC Asia Pacific weather report Phnom Penh is 36C and rain. Who prepares these reports?? We have had the very occasional 5 minutes of rain but that's all. My XXL raincoat is still in its packet. The 36C every day is more accurate. It's relentlessly hot.

Jono and I both had bouts of an upset stomach sickness in the last week. His lasted about 3 days, mine only about 24hours. We are both better now after doses of Norfloxacin and many glasses of gastrolyte...

While Jono was in bed feeling sick on Saturday, Anthea and I went shopping. This time, it was second hand clothes (and food, of course) shopping at our somewhat local markets called Boeung Keng Kang or as I like to remember it, Bong King Kong. Being non-touristy markets it was a real pleasure not to get harassed by constant cries of 'madam you buy' etc etc. I ended up buy 5 tops for $3. The shopping involved sitting on tiny stools at tiny stalls and going through piles of clothes that were occasionally hung up but mostly came from a garbage bag. It was very hit and miss and there were no change rooms or mirrors (only Anthea's good advice!) but I had a few hits. I decided to experiment and get some clothes I wouldn't normally choose since I was only paying $0.75.

There were a few beggars at these markets - as there are at all the markets - but on this day I had the unusual experience of a beggar giving me my money back! I sometimes give beggars 100 riel - which is about 2.5 cents (US!) - not much but it's the amount locals also give I think and they always seem to be happy with that. However this time I didn't have any 100 riel notes, I only had a 50 riel note so I gave that to a women and she looked extremely offended then gave it back to me! I later gave that women a mango which cost over 500 riel - so I guess she knew what she was doing to wait for something better!

On Monday afternoon - also while Jono was sick at home (I'm not a very dedicated nurse am I?!) I went to the opening ceremony of the first international sporting event in Cambodia since 1968! It was Cambodia, Canada and Australia in the Asia Pacific disabled volleyball championships. One of the AYADs, Andrew, works with the Cambodian team so he got us VIP tickets. I think we could have walked in off the street, but it was nice to feel special. The ceremony comprised of about 10 speeches which became 20 with the translation factor. Sok An, one of the deputy prime ministers who some say is the power in the country, was the 'guest of honour' but his speech was not translated to English. The Australian and Canadian ambassadors were also there and gave speeches, of course. I felt oddly patriotic when the Australian national anthem was played. The best part of the ceremony was the demo game, and particularly a Canadian player who is 7 foot 2 and the reaction of the crowd and the Cambodian players whenever he came onto the court - a kind of nervous laugh.

We are going to watch Australia play Cambodia tonight at the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium. Apparently, you can have an Olympic stadium without hosting any Olympics!

Dolphins and Temples

2005-06-21T11:15:00.000+07:00

I'm back in Phnom Penh now after a 4 day long weekend in Kratie and Kompong Cham provinces. Kratie is a quiet town on the Mekong River about 7 hours by bus from the Capital where you can see the rare fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins. We really wanted to go there or back by boat and asked anyone we could about the possibility but the response was always as if it was the most absurd request they've ever heard or that we were only asking as a joke... it was strange! Apparently the boats between Phnom Penh and Kratie only stopped running quite recently since the road has now been upgraded and the boat was slower and more expensive they just no longer had enough travellers - pity. We're definitely going to get the boat down the river to the Mekong delta in Vietnam! The bus trip was long... especially with the mandatory stops for breakfast and lunch. I could have tasted deep fried spiders at the breakfast stop but declined.

On our first night in Kratie we had dinner with a very international crowd who we met on the bus. They were from USA, NZ, Holland, Israel, Mexico and France. It was good talking to so many solo travellers and I am definitely feeling inspired. They all spoke pretty good English but when Jono said he worked at a training school for judges and prosecutors in Phnom Penh, there was a bit of a misunderstanding. There was some surprise that such a school existed. Yes, we said, it is unusual, we don't have such schools in Australia or USA etc, it's modelled on a French school in Bordeaux. Ohhhhh, they said. A short time later, it was revealed that a couple of the group had understood that Jono worked at 'a training school for prostitutes'! I don't think I need to elaborate on the joke potential following that one...

On Saturday, we had an early start to go and see the dolphins which are about 15kms by moto from the town. Jono decided to hire a moto for the day but wasn't confident to have me on the back so I had a driver/guide and Jono followed on his own bike. It worked out really well and we had a great day. The dolphins were really cute we saw quite a few fairly close to the boat but of course always missed the perfect photo! They are a bit smaller than the 'ocean' dolphins and have a round head and small dorsal fin. It was just so strange to see dolphins in a river.

It was quite expensive (for Cambodia) to see the dolphins - US$5 per person which was $3 boat hire (to go about 200m into the middle of the river) and $2 'entrance fee' for dolphin conservation (which we later heard is partly to pay locals not to fish...). There were 6 of us on the boat so in a country were a public servant earns $20 per month, somebody made a bit of money from our 1.5 hour boat trip. Anyway, our boat driver starts saying 'I have lived all my life in this area and know a lot about the dolphins but my family is very poor and I only get paid 2000 riel a day to drive the boat, so if you give me 2000 riel (50cents), I will tell you about the dolphins.' We all decided we had paid enough already and would instead email the dolphin conservation society and tell them that the boat drivers should be paid more to educate and be part of the conservation aims. After we didn't pay him the boat driver was very pissed off and uncooperative and used the motor even though he was not supposed to because it scares the dolphins away. Apart from all that... the dolphins were wonderful!

We then continued a further 21kms along the Mekong on our motos down a picturesque but potholed and bumpy country road to a large temple where we chatted with the caretakers (I don't think they were monks because they weren't wearing orange), who were old smiling men with the worst teeth I have even seen. They showed me an illustrated book in Khmer and English on the life of the Budda, so know I understand the meaning a couple of the images we see in temples. We then had a nice lunch in a tiny village restaurant with no menu where I learnt that the Khmer word for eat can also be used for drink. I got very confused with the women asked me in Khmer if I wanted to eat a coke! Jono's Khmer is really good now - he can have conversations. I'll still too shy and have been more slack with my study.

In the afternoon we went to another temple on a 'mountain'. Well really a very small hill - but it felt like a mountain by the time we got to the top of the stairs. We got back to town exhausted and watched a beautiful sunset over the Mekong from our hotel balcony. I will try to post some photos of Kratie soon.

That was Kratie basically 'done' and we had a day to spare as Monday was another public holiday - the King's mother's birthday. We stopped in Kompong Cham, another town on the Mekong on the way back to Phnom Penh. We had a recommendation for a guide from another traveller. He was great but has not stopped calling Jono since we got back but that's another story... So we found a room, had some noodles for lunch from a market stall then set off on another temple expedition. Jono was too tired to hire a bike again so we each had a driver this time. The road to the furthest temple was even more bumpy than the day before so he made the right decision. I really enjoyed the moto ride through the villages along the Mekong. Everywhere you looked there was something small but interesting to see, people cooking on the side of the road, baby buffalo being walked along, motos carrying anything and everything from TVs to pigs.

The second temple we saw was my first glimpse of Angkor period architecture (I think this temple was from the 11th century). It was an amazing site - a 'modern' temple (about 1911) had been built in the middle of the maze of Angkor era ruins. Then following the damage done during the Khmer Rouge time, some of the temple was rebuilt in the 1980's. So there was the contrast of today's flouro paint loving super kitch buddism alongside 1000 year old brickwork and sculpture. This temple has probably been my favourite site in Cambodia so far - but of course I haven't seen Angkor Wat yet, but as our guide pointed out - the site was free. At this temple there were more toothless old men and one of them told me and Jono (albeit through my driver who I don't think would count interpreting as one of his main skills) that we both looked Cambodian because 'foreigners have blue eyes and we have black eyes' and we are short.... well maybe we are closer to Cambodian height than some foreigners but last time I checked we both still have blue eyes....

The other interesting thing we did in Kompong Cham was just walk through the markets. Because they are not as used to foreigners as they are in Phnom Penh, everyone stared at us. They seemed especially fascinated by my nose...hmmm... I know this because there was lots of smiling at me and pointing at their own comparitively smaller and flatter noses... We sat down to eat at the markets and I started to feel a bit like a zoo animal. It was an experience though!

Monks by the Mekong

2005-06-10T17:20:00.000+07:00

Monks by the Mekong
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

Mislead

2005-06-10T17:07:00.000+07:00

I am sorry if I mislead anyone by my photo to think that either elephants are a popular form of transport around the streets of Phnom Penh or that they are even common here. I believe there is one (he has a name but I can't remember it right now). I have seen him on the street along the river on a couple of occasions only, in fact I was at a dinner last night and someone asked if so and so the elephant has died because they hadn't seen him for a while. Monks on the other hand are a very common and beautiful site around the city.

Phnom Penh street life!

2005-06-08T17:21:00.000+07:00

Phnom Penh street life!
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

I am so excited that my photos are working! I must rush back to work now but will post more soon.

Some cute locals

2005-06-08T17:17:00.000+07:00

Some cute locals
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

One of the most fun things we can do is just step out our front gate in the early evening with the digital camera. There are always kids around and they have a great time posing for photos but the real hilarity starts when we show them the photos. It seems to be the funniest thing in the world to see themselves on the screen. In this photo I particularly like the little groover on the left!

Me in our kitchen

2005-06-08T17:09:00.000+07:00

Me in our kitchen
Originally uploaded by nat neumann.

This blogging photo thing is very new to me. Thanks Paul for walking me through it but it's still proving to be a very slow process. I will try to post more but for the moment here I am posing in the kitchen dressed in some 'teacher' clothes I bought here!

On Being an Interviewer and a Teacher

2005-06-07T09:20:00.000+07:00

First of all, as I'm sure after the Schapelle Corby decision (poor girl), you have all been waiting impatiently for the result of the Cambodian Supreme Court in Visal v Tech... The five judges annulled the decision of the Court of Appeal, ruling, among other things, that it was illegal to have held a closed court. However the decision was sent back to the Court of Appeal at a time to be set and both sides are claiming victories because nothing was really decided about the presidency and all the international donors and Cambodian legal community are in the same position of uncertainty. Enough about that. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see previous blog post.

Interviewing
Last week my supervisor at CDP asked if I could be on the panel to help interview candidates for a new CDP accountant. This particular round of interviews was to be in English, bien sur. My understanding was that I was to observe and help assess how good their English was (important for the job to write reports to donors etc etc). Then I felt some pressure when I got an email saying "The recruitment committee has decided that only you would be allowed to judge ability of candidate in speaking English and score them". I have never interviewed before, know relatively little about CDP and even less about accounting yet I felt I was more or less conducting the interview and deciding who should get the job - it was quite fun!

I asked them some 'Australian' type questions that I have been asked many times in interviews such as 'tell us about a challenge you faced in a previous job and what were the steps you took to overcome the challenge' etc etc... I got very blank looks, even after I re-worded to 'how would you fix a problem?' Although one girl did answer if she couldn't solve a problem she would resign... They have clearly never been asked more than what's your education and what did you do in your last job? We interviewed the top 4 out of 158 applications. I was very surprised at their apparent total lack of preparation. They couldn't even say clearly what CDP did. One girl said she wants to work for an NGO to help people but when asked if they wanted to particularly work in an NGO the others mostly answered 'not at all, I just want any job' - not a great answer, I thought! But maybe it was just the language barrier... If I were interviewed in Khmer I would only be able to answer be saying I am happy and healthy and I like rice. I can also say I sleep a lot which is never a great think to say in an interview!

So I gave my report to the committee and the director has interviewed the top 2. I don't know yet who got the job.

Teaching
My fortnight long teaching career is going well! Much better now that I have quit the weekend classes. It was way too hard to be at work at 8am Sat and Sun, especially after the very social Phnom Penh Friday nights! Also, that was a writing class for adults and I think I prefer teaching young people. It's more fun! So now I am only teaching 3 different classes at the one school. One class has only 3 students, aged 11, 13 and 16. The 2 youngest are very hyperactive boys probably from wealthy families. They are at the English school full time and I haven't figured out why they don't go to 'normal' school. Anyway, the 16 year old girl puts up with a lot! I walked into the classroom the other day and the littlest one had written up 'rules' on the board which included 'you can throw things at the teacher, you can hit and kick the teacher, you can steal the teacher's things, you can throw phones out the window'. None of this was serious of course but shows how cheeky they are. I corrected the spelling and grammar mistakes in the rules then wrote them all out again as negatives. I was proud of that technique - I think it worked well!

These kids speak pretty good English already and have finished their course book so the challenge is just to keep them interested and entertained. I copied some exercises from a book of idioms and taught them colour idioms like caught red handed and white lie etc. I quickly mumbled 'a blue movie is a pornographic film' and moved on so they wouldn't ask me to explain the vocab.

I am planning to keep working until the end of the term in about 3 weeks time then do some travelling! Bye for now....

Court, Cambodian style

2005-06-02T11:35:00.000+07:00

Today, as part of my volunteer work at CDP, I watched my first trial at the Cambodian Supreme Court.

Very briefly, the case was to decide who should be the president of the Cambodian Bar Association. A former CDP director and legal aid lawyer (Visal) won the election for president of the association late last year. However the incumbent candidate (Tech) who lost the election, appealed the result to the Court of Appeal and was successful in a closed hearing where no members fo the public were allowed in and the decision was not published. Tech apparently has close ties with the government and some, including human rights groups, are suspicious. Visal appealed the court's decision to take the presidency away from him and that appeal hearing is what I saw today. You can read a bit more detail about the case on this human rights group's web site that I found http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2004/895

The Supreme Court room is very simple. The entry is a very normal looking door off a carpark. There was no bowing when entering or leaving the court room as far as I could tell. Perhaps that was because the room was so incredibly packed. Which, compared to the secret appeals court hearing in this matter, is a very good thing. Well, it was perhaps a good thing for Cambodia but it wasn't such a great thing for me. I was squashed in the back corner near the door, sweating and trying very hard not to be pushed backwards and turn all the court lights off with my shoulder.

The 5 judges and many many barristers/lawyers were dressed very similar to in Australian courts. They were clearly very hot. One of the lawyers took his robe off after he finished his address, revealing a polo t-shirt... different to barrister's attire back home. I counted about 8 mobile phones ring in court - a huge no no in Australia.

Of course, the whole proceedings were in Khmer. Fortunately I went with a translator (the librarian from CDP). He is a very eccentric Khmer who seems to model himself on Dr Spock from Star Trek (is he the one with the bowl haircut?) - there is a Star Trek poster in the library and the haircut is suspiciously similar. It was difficult for him to translate everything in the crush of people but I got the general idea of who was speaking for whom. Tech represented himself (or at least he was one of the people to speak for the respondent), I'm not really sure what he said and will have to wait for the Cambodia Daily article tomorrow to summarize for me what I saw... The result should be out soon - stay posted.

Mobbed and Robbed

2005-05-31T01:50:00.000+07:00

Before anyone panics... the average age of the suspects was about 5 years old and they got away with 3 cans of soft drink.

Anthea (flatmate) and I had a big afternoon of shopping, buying clothes, DVDs and lots of food - including a slab (24 cans) of tonic. My hands were very full with bags and my motorbike helmet and Anthea was carrying the tonic and speaking on the phone... So neither of us had any free hands and our gate is difficult to open and involves reaching through a hole and unlocking a padlock.

There are often lots of little kids hanging around and playing in front of our gate. We live next door to a Wat and a lot of people live in the Wat. There are also apparently street urchins who live in our area. All these kids are normally very cute - I will try to post some photos soon (except maybe not of the little nude kids, that might not be appropriate - but so many of them are nude all the time, if you are in the street taking photos there will be nude kids in your photos). Where was I? Yes - we say hello to these kids all the time and have never had any problems... until yesterday, when they surrounded us in a cute but scruffy and hyperactive mob. At first it was funny to be in a sea of dozens of tiny reaching hands but it quickly got out of control and by the time Jono opened the gate for us they had taken the cans of drink off Anthea. 5 cans got away. One little boy was hiding one behind his back so we got that one back, and one little good samaritan girl went into the Wat and came back with another one but 3 warm cans of tonic were stolen and probably quickly consumed.

They didn't try to reach into our bags or anything and were only after the drinks but it did get a bit out of control. This was one of the few occasions when our guard Narith (we finally have his name right - it's not Monirith or Sevirith) was not out the front, but he told off the kids after. I didn't realise that would need a guard to help us fend of 5 year olds! I guess now we are aware of what can happen and will be a bit more alert but not alarmed.

After that 'incident' we locked our huge gate (with barbed wire at the top) and retreated to our expat luxury of gin and tonics and pirated DVD watching.

XXXXL etc

2005-05-27T23:55:00.000+07:00

Shopping for clothes and shoes is something I have never really been into in a big way - until now! There is a popular shoe shop in Phnom Penh called Beautiful Shoes where you select the style you want from the hundreds there, or bring in your own pair to copy, select the colour and they measure you up and custom make your shoes for $12. It's great and so far I have had 4 pairs made and plan to get more!

Clothes shopping here isn't that great as the Khmer style is very different but I've still bought a fair bit, mostly clothes I need for work. I went to the local big shopping centre called Sorya Mall - which is nothing like a Westfield, for example. It's more like a trendier, cleaner, more organised, air-conditioned version of the markets. Khmer people are generally quite small. Which is great because any pants I buy are the right length and not too long, as they commonly are at home. Buying tops is more difficult. I ended up going into each shop and just asking them what they have in large. Very good for confidence building! My body image confidence hit an all time high when browsing some pants to buy for work and the sales person handed me size XXXXL (I didn't even know such a size existed except maybe for those American people you read about who weigh 600kg and become too big to get out of bed or fit through their front door). The pants fit very well and I bought them partly because it made such a funny story! By the way, I haven't put on weight in the last month it's just the very strange, arbitrary sizing here.

The rainy season should be kicking in soon, so I bought a raincoat from the markets the other day. Size XXL! Jono was proud of me to have dropped 2 sizes!

It might have been the subconscious effect of fitting into an XXXXL, or maybe I'm just feeling more settled in, but this week Anthea, our flatmate and I started running! We have to go at 6am, otherwise it's just too hot. It's the only time anyone here exercises and some of the sights are very amusing. The group of people taking an open air aerobics class with portable stereo by the river looked at us when we ran past as if we were the ones who looked funny! There is also badminton, soccer, tai chi and a few old women just stretching by the side of the road, it's great!

I partly need to exercise here because the food is really good. There are a lot of good foreign restaurants and cafes. So far I've eaten Italian, Korean, Indian and Japanese. Some cafes could be in Paddington if you face your back to the street! due to the French influence here, you can also get really good bread, croissants and coffee. I haven't been a total insulated expat, I have also eaten from local places and tried a few Khmer dishes! One of the best local restaurant experiences we have had was when we took a moto ride for about 30mins across the Japanese Friendship Bridge over the Tonle sap river to eat at one of the restaurants that are on stilts over the Mekong river. There was no menu in English and none of the staff spoke English but with our group's (not mine) very limited Khmer, we managed to order. Someone knew the word for fish so we pointed to the river and ordered fish, leaving it up to them how to do it. Anthea is vegetarian and knew how to say no meat, which confused them after we'd already ordered some beef and chicken but it all worked out and the meal was a delicious banquet and only cost us about $2 each!

On the way to cross the bridge police stopped our motos from turning onto a road. We didn't know why until a convoy of police, military and other cars came by, including a big white 4WD with a man in the back wearing a shiny white shirt waving to the people lined along the road. Our moto driver said that was the King. So I've seen the King! He is back in Cambodia for the national ploughing festival which was yesterday. He is currently living in China where is father, Norodom Sihanouk, the old King, is very sick and being treated in a hospital there (says a lot about the medical system here).

The ploughing festival was another public holiday of course. The main part of the festival involves half a dozen buffalo being released into an area lined with baskets of grains, rice, corn, wheat etc etc as well as buckets of beer and wine. Last year the bulls went straight for the beer which caused this year's drought. But this year, we heard something unpalatable to bulls was put into the beer to ensure there would be no drought. Whichever grain they eat means a good year for that crop. Yesterday's hungry animals have guaranteed a year of plenty for the country by eating everything, including the lawn in front of the Royal Palace where the ceremony takes place.

Is there still a drought on in Australia? Hmmm beer drinking cows - could that be the problem?

Something new

2005-05-25T11:09:00.000+07:00

I was feeling brave today and decided to take the plunge into some new (for me) technology and create a blog. This way it will be up to you to think of me and check out my blog rather than sitting back and waiting for my emails! So here goes - my first post!

Life is moving quickly for me here in Phnom Penh. In the last week I have got myself three jobs, started running again, done lots of shopping and seen the King!

Jobs first. I suppose I can call myself a teacher now - I taught my first English class the other night at a local language school. I'm trying to ignore the fact that the name of the school is spelt incorrectly (well for us Aussies anyway!) the American Academic Center. The class went well for the most part. It was a beginners class and the topic was cooking! To elicit vocab, I mooed like a cow, tried to explain popeye's spinach eating with some muscle flexing, drew a very bad prawn on the board and did various other ridiculous things. They laughed at me which was good. It was fun! At the end they were meant to write a recipe in English but unfortunately their English wasn't good enough for me to get a good Khmer recipe to try. I still need to figure out how to solve the problem of mobile phones ringing in class - and them answering and having a conversation...

I will also be teaching a couple of classes at another language school close to our house called the InterED Institute. It's on the top floor of almost the tallest building in town (5 floors) and has good views of the city from one side and from the other side you can see the convergence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers. Quite a perk! I will be teaching writing classes for more advanced students, like Khmers working in NGOs who need to write reports etc. I think that will be a good relief from the blank looks of the beginners.

My third job is volunteer work at the Cambodia Defenders Project or CDP www.cdpcambodia.org which is a legal aid/human rights law NGO. Have a look at the web site! I haven't done much yet - just given a bit of help with documents in English and I have been asked to do some research on a case but that involves getting a transcript of a judgement from a dossier in a court in the provinces somewhere, then having the transcript translated to English - each step will involve a lot of time.

Read about shoes and XXXXL pants in the next blog...

Long weekend

2005-05-19T02:30:00.000+07:00

Welcome to my second installment from Cambodia.

Last weekend was a long weekend. Friday AND Monday were both public holidays in honour of the King's birthday.There are a lot of public holidays here... but apparently not many between next week, when there are another 2, and September. I believe November is about half public holidays!

So last weekend we took the opportunity to head for the beach. Possibly our last chance until the dry season returns around November. We went to Sihanoukville, the country's main beach area. It's not that nice compared to other beaches in SE Asia but it started to grow on me after a few days.

The trip didn't start too well when we motoed over to the bus station, in a chaotic area of town near the central markets, and realised we should have booked the bus. All 4 morning buses were full. We could have left at 12.30 but a swim was calling loudly and we wanted to leave right away. The options were minibus or taxi. We hooked up with a similarly stranded scary American women called Marge who was berating her 'travel agent'/moto driver for lying to her by saying she had a seat booked on the bus when she didn't... Eventually her guy found a minibus for the 3 of us and Marge stopped being scary. We each paid $4 for the 4hour trip which entitled us to one seat each - a valuable commodity in a minibus where 11 Cambodians were squashed into the 2 rows in front of us.

The bus stopped several times for food, toilet and other unknown reasons. Jono and I tried a couple of new foods from the roadside stops. In hindsight a bus trip is probably not the best time to be adventurous in this way, but we survived. We tried barbecued bananas, which were delicious and a steamed bun which Jono asked in Khmer if it had no meat and was told yes, vegetables... well, it was very tasty and we picked around the bits of meat that looked a bit undercooked. I did however give away to a little Khmer girl the pineapple I bought that was dipped into a bucket of water before it was handed to me. See, I am being careful with food!

I learnt some new terms in Sihanoukville, 'threaded' and 'braceleted for fruit' and I got both! Threaded is how they wax (as in legs) here. It's fascinating. A simple thread of cotton is held between the 'technician''s'' teeth and 2 hands and is twisted and manipulated to pull out each individual hair. It's very effective and not too painful.

Anyone who got 'braceleted for fruit' was obvious on the beach because they were wearing a distinctive colourful cotton bracelet. I was one of those foreign suckers and Jono appeared to be but only because I succumbed twice and gave him one of the bracelets. The 'scam' is these cute charismatic little khmer kids with very good english ask you to buy a bag of cut fruit from them and offer to make you a 'friendship bracelet for free'. The fruit is quite good but the scam is you pay them $2 US which is a bit much in these parts.

Despite being constantly hassled by hawkers selling bracelets, lobsters, chips, massages, manicures, sarongs etc etc etc, it was a relaxing few days and the water was very lovely and warm and didn't always have rubbish floating around... We also ate some really good barbecued seafood meals from a beach side restaurant called 'same same but different' - a common _expression here (for example used by little boys to explain why you should by their bracelets and not one from one of their other 50 friends...). We met quite a few other expats there including 4 who work at the Cambodia Daily newspaper which was interesting.

On one day we did a tour of Ream National Park with 2 of our new friends Lee and Sam. At the breakfast they give you before the tour we met 2 other Aussies, Leah and Jono. To find this funny, you would need to know that our Jono's middle name is Lee... (maybe you had to be there)!

The tour was good but nothing spectacular. The sign at the NP said there 'may have been sightings of leopards and tigers and to keep your eyed peeled to be the first to see them'. Unsurprisingly we didn't see any... We did sort of get invited to a Cambodian wedding though! Our tour guide made us promise to come to his wedding in a couple of months and thanked us in advance for our presents... we clarified that he did mean presents and not presence! He was very sweet but hmmm.... we'll see!

Despite our bungalow being rustic - but not in a good way - it had a lovely view and overall we had a good 4 days - and ended up BOOKING the air con bus back to Phnom Penh!

In other news I have 2 jobs! One volunteer with the Cambodia Defenders Project (human rights law, criminal defence law) and one teaching English a couple of hours a day. I have to seriously brush up on my grammar. I will write more about work next time.

Each email I will try to write some funny snippets about Cambodia:

- the most people I've seen so far on one moto is 4 adults and 1 child.

- 'petrol stations'for motos consist of plastic soft drink bottles full of petrol on the side of the road.

-because of the above... fortunately and surprisingly, very few Cambodians seem to smoke.

First 48 hours

2005-05-06T05:05:00.000+07:00

I am sitting at my local internet cafe. I've been here nearly an hour so the sweat on my shirt has dried and now I'm quite cool. It's very tempting to stay for another hour. Intenet use is US$0.50 per hour so maybe I will.

I have just calmed down from being really upset due to a bad miscommunication which lead to poor Jono travelling across the city in the heat to sit in a restaurant waiting for an hour for me then celebrating his first day at work by having lunch on his own. I didn't know that there is a Boat Noodle restaurant and a Boat Noodles restaurant.... I have to get my own mobile phone very soon. I had lunch with 3 AYAD girls after visiting the royal palace and shopping at the markets with them this morning - and I asked Jono to meet us for lunch - oops - I felt sooo bad.

I can't believe I've only been in Phnom Penh 48 hours. I am suffering some 'culture shock', particularly with the thought that I will be here for a year. The main shocks are just how completely 'different' everything is (for example seeing 'roadside dentists' - a dental chair on the side of the road), the heat of course and the crazy traffic - I know it's meant to be calm here compared to Vietnam etc but it's not!!! (for me anyway). I've had lots of moto taxi rides already which is the standard way to get around. The women ride 'side saddle' which I was originally too scared to do but rode that way after only about 30 hours of being here, my confidence buoyed by Jono giving me his motorbike helmet to wear. By the way, only about 1% moto drivers wear helmets but I've heard that it's good not to take a moto driver wearing a helmet because they think they are invincible.

I hope to get over my culture shock soon. I have already crossed a couple of roads by myself without too much hesitation, so maybe I'm starting to get used to it here already!

Our house is nice! The landlord, who lives next door and is always available for questions and odd jobs, speaks French which has been really useful! We have a really plesant front yard with flowers and very comfy outdoor seating which was bought yesterday at the rattan markets along with other furniture inluding 3 bookshelves, laundry baskets etc. The funny thing was transporting all this back to the house, which was on a moto trailer - piled very very high. We took photos which I am not technologicially adept yet to attach to an email but will soon. I just found out today I can get a CD burnt with a full memory card from the digital camera for US$2 so I will start taking more photos I think!

Back to the house, Jono and I have 2 flatmates, Stewart and Anthea who are both really lovely. There are 3 bedrooms each with a bathroom (plus a fourth bathroom, of course...). Actually all these bathrooms come in very handy when you have 4 people having at least 2-3 cold showers a day due to the heat. I know some people are very interested in toilets so would be happy to hear that we have a 'normal' flushing toilet which you can actually put the toilet paper into.

The other funny but kind of comforting thing about the house is that it comes with a 'guard'. Not an armed, uniformed kind of guard (fortunately) but a tiny little Khmer guy in oversized clothes with very few teeth who's name none of us has been able to remember yet. He's meant to 'work' (sleep) in our front yard from 6pm to 6am but he always around, I suspect he doesn't have anywhere else to go. He opens the gate for us and decides which moto driver will take us (every time the gate opens at least 2 but usually more rush to us). In fact it is very hard to walk anywhere because everyone asks if you want a moto or tuk tuk. I need to learn more khmer quickly! So far I can only remember how to say thank you, no and one dollar (which are quite useful at the markets).

I have been living in sensory overload for the last 2 days and there's plenty more I could write but I think you would have all had enough. I promise I won't write this much every 2 days but I will try to write regularly.