Christmas Day - Barbeque and Sunset

Tuesday 25th December 2007

Altogether a very unusual Christmas day. I was a little disappointed to find not one present under the Christmas Palm Tree in the morning, no stocking bulging with gifts, nothing! I suppose one can't expect as much from Santa on an elephant. It must be a lot slower than reindeer after all. So, instead of gorging myself on Christmas food, I swam in the ocean, sunned myself on the sand and had a very relaxing day. We watched an amazing sunset and then ate our gorgeous Christmas BBQ dinner with a VSO colleague and friends based in Thailand who were also staying in the same beach huts.

On Boxing Day, during the journey back to Cambodia, my family got round to calling which was absolutely fantastic! The phone was passed round the whole lot of them celebrating in Walderslade and it was so good to hear their voices - thanks mum! Then back in Phnom Srok with Corine I opened all the Christmas parcels and cards that had arrived! Santa hadn't forgotten me after all! It was great to have reminders of home, some treats and some necessities and eat some very sticky (almost liquid but not quite) chocolate - which had to be eaten straight away due to lack of refrigeration facilities - well, that's my excuse!

Christmas Eve - Sunburn and Elephants!

Monday 24th December 2007

I had a very different Christmas to usual. Some fellow volunteers and I decided to give ourselves a holiday after all the hard work we've been...urm...doing so we packed our bags and travelled to Ko Chang, one of the Thai islands.

As soon as we crossed the border it was like stepping into another world. Despite the landscape and climate being similar to Cambodia, there are many differences between the countries and it struck me how much I have got used to from the relatively short time I've been in Cambodia. For example, Thailand has roads laid with tarmac WITH ROAD MARKINGS!! And because of the tarmac, there are no clouds of dust covering everything in sight. The trees are green instead of dirty brown, the cars and people look clean and are not covered with a layer of brown dust. I absolutely adore Cambodia but the dust is unbelievable!


Ko Chang was amazingly beautiful; palm trees, clear water, warm sand and our beach hut was less than 5 metres from the sea!

On Christmas Eve, Jean treated Corine and I to a day on a kayak so after we had applied plenty of suncream (or so I thought) we paddled over the sea to some smaller islands. It was great exercise. I sat at the front and Corine behind which meant that she was apparently in charge of steering and could also unfortunately see when I occasionally stopped paddling! The island that became our destination was surprisingly crowded with other tourists on snorkeling and diving trips but other than that it was very beautiful. The only disappointment was that my tan washed off in the sea and I realised that I am still whiter than Casper the Ghost! Over the weeks spent in Phnom Srok and Sisaphon, the dust has become so ingrained into my skin it gives the impression of a vaguely attractive tanned appearance. It was good to feel clean though!

We made it back to dry land (me with a sunburnt tummy and legs - sorry no pictures, but at least I've changed colour!) in time to don Christmas hats, crack open the gin and decorate the Christmas (palm) tree. And then Santa arrived, on an elephant of course! The rather more up-market resort next-door to our modest beach huts, obviously had connections in high places and had arranged for none other than Father Christmas himself to visit on the back of an elephant. I like to think that he prefers a sleigh personally, but the staff there had made a real effort to decorate the grounds with fairy lights and dress up as elves - all a bit surreal really but great fun!

After a lovely meal we retired to our hut with the gin bottle and Jon's iPod and sang the collection of Christmas carols he happened to have with him. Merry Christmas!!

Up On The Roof

Wednesday 19th December 2007

With roughly only 4 hours of electricity a day to power the fans (which is usually between 6 and 10pm) I have found that my part of the guesthouse on the top floor gets rather hot! I have a huge car battery to power an extra fan through the night but last night I found that it had run out of power. In an attempt to get a decent night's sleep and not wake up drowning in my own sweat, I decided to explore cooler places to sleep. Last night I chose the roof! With Ree's help I set up a mattress and pillow on the roof and she loaned me a huge mosquito net umbrella thing to save me being eaten alive. It reminded me of a similar net that mum might put over her trifle to stop flies getting to it while we ate dinner - except that this one had a rather attractive flowery pattern and was bright blue. It did the same job though.

The sky was so dark and so full of stars that I spent a long time watching it and saying "'wow' to myself over and over again. It was beautiful! I was woken up by the dogs barking and howling at about 4am - which isn't unusual - a bit like a Mexican wave effect. I went back to star gazing until it died down and then just as the sun started rising the cockerels began, competing to out do each other's volume. They in turn woke the dogs up again so I watched the sun rise from my roof (with more wows) and got myself ready for work.

I was definitely a cooler place to sleep but I can't say I had a better night's sleep - I could've watched the stars all night!

Ready Steady Cook

After discovering what Sisaphon had to offer last week (lots of dust), I took the opportunity this weekend to travel by bus to Battambang. Battambang is a lot more ‘on the map’ in Cambodia for lots of reasons. It is supposed to be the second largest city after Phnom Penh – although I think it’s been overtaken by Siam Reap and Sihanoukville by now – shows evidence of French influenced architecture from colonial times and is where Angelina and Brad have spent some of their money. I have some fellow volunteer friends living in Battambang and within the province and they were all around this weekend as we had a Christmas party invite which was really weird – we sang Christmas carols sweating in our flip-flops on someone’s balcony – but fun!

On Sunday morning Onno and I joined 8 other travellers and tourists for a day of Khmer cooking lessons. It was such fun - and what a great idea! The Smoking Pot restaurant (‘smoking’ is an adjective in this context, not a verb as we were informed!) runs lessons for up to 10 people at a time and is so well run. We broadened our cooking repertoire by 3 dishes and cooked a delicious fish Amok, peppery Beef Lok Lak and yummy chicken soup – and it was so easy! We followed our guide round the market to buy the ingredients we needed, which was an adventure in itself – Onno dropped the bottle of chilli sauce and got glass stuck in his big toe, an American girl almost fainted and I shop-lifted half a coconut (by accident, I hasten to add!). Once back at the restaurant, all our equipment was set out for us to use and we followed the instructions given to create a veritable feast! And, after eating all that we cooked, learning some interesting stories from our cooking teacher and taking the mickey out of each other’s nationalities (you can tell the Dutch don’t do Home Ec lessons at school – it’s all in the presentation you know!) we even got to take home a very useful cookery booklet of recipes and ingredients information!

I will definitely be frequenting Battambang and was sad to have to leave on Monday. In the evening I was introduced to Battambang’s nightclub and got to have a bit of a boogie which was a bit of a treat despite the slightly dodgy music. There is a much bigger ex-pat community here and lots more going on than in sleepy Sisaphon. And perhaps I’ll get to catch a glimpse of Brad one of these days?

The Motorcycle Diaries (part 3)

Wednesday 12th December 2007
This week the Dream and I have been getting along famously. I have been using the Dream much more often (partly to stop the kids downstairs chanting ‘barang chi kong’ at me although there has been no let up so far!) and also to build up my confidence on the roads of my district. Like me, the Dream takes a bit of warming up to get started in the morning and I have been riding pillion on my VA’s moto when I’ve had the chance. Sarey has been off sick this week though so leaving my Dream at home has been less of an option.

The roads aren’t too bad and being the dry season, there is no fear of getting stuck in the mud! However, being dry and hot, the roads become very very dusty and therefore present a different set of challenges. In some places the surface of the roads is almost like sand so can be quite slippery and some are very potholed. Despite being offered the back seat of a colleague’s moto, this week I decided to take the bull by the horns and ride myself to the school visit on Wednesday. Little did I realise how treacherous the roads were, how far away the school was and how much I would regret that decision!

As well as trying to keep up with the speed my Khmer colleagues travel at (they have been riding motos since their feet reached the pedals, I have been riding since September!), I had to dodge the potholes as best I could and dodge any oncoming traffic which wasn’t always on the correct side of the road. It was a fairly long journey too and the school we were visiting was quite remote. As you can see from the pictures, we had to cross a rickety little bridge (after paying a toll!) and travel through countryside where the road was barely a road, more of a sandy track really! After sliding my back wheel out a few times and in a slight panic completely forgetting whether I should be applying more front or back break, or both the same, I began to lose my nerve. Finally, I stopped and feeling a bit pathetic, I explained to my deputy director that I was finding it difficult to manage the roads and keep up with the pace of travel and that I feared that if I carried on I might have an accident. (Actually, what I did was stop, shrug my shoulders and say in Khmer “please, me ride with you?” but I think he understood the rationale behind my request.) We left my moto by the side of the track and I rode pillion through the worst of it. With a huge sigh of relief I thought that we would continue and collect my moto on the way home, but no. It was collected there and then for me to continue riding!

Needless to say we reached our destination but there were a few hair raising moments including pot holes so big I almost gave up again and water buffalo who couldn’t decide which side of the road they wanted and although they look like quite gentle creatures, they are actually quite scary looking when you’re up close!! – Oh, how I can laugh about it all now! I’m not sure how I did it but I actually managed to create a traffic jam in the most remote part of no-where – no mean feat!

Once at the school visit (remember I was without translator today) I kept hearing my name being mentioned in the same sentence as the word ‘moto’ and realised that my very kind Khmer colleagues were organising a way to get me and my moto back home without me having to ride it. I tried to explain that in England I would be called a chicken for not being very brave and this became topic of conversation for a good 20 minutes.

The school was lovely and the day was fantastic – although I did record on my school visit notes how difficult the journey had been. I was ferried home on the back of my bike (I am such a wimp!) and took the opportunity to snap some pictures... and just to add that touch of authenticity, you can see the Dream's mirror in nearly each photo...

Footloose in Sisaphon

I have spent this week in Sisaphon, the provincial town of the Banteay Meanchey province and the nearest internet connection to Phnom Srok. I have found it to be just as the guidebooks describe it; very dusty with not much going on. It is located along the main road from Poipet (border town with Thailand) and Siam Reap (closest city to Angkor Wat temples). Unfortunately for Sisaphon, the road between the Thai border and one of the main reasons tourists visit Cambodia, is really really bad. In fact, rumour has it that the airlines which serve Siam Reap actually pay the government not to improve the road in order to encourage tourists to fly. This results in Sisaphon just being another dusty town that tourists pass through or fly over.

The reason I am here for so long is to observe an 8 day training course called Effective Teaching and Learning. It is run by the Ministry of Education and funded by VSO, hence the invitation. I haven’t really benefitted from the training apart from seeing first hand, the Khmer way of running training courses. It is all in Khmer and is basically what I would take for granted as a teacher from the west. It has been of great benefit to my Khmer colleagues though and two from my district attended. My VA (volunteer assistant) has also benefitted hugely from participating so it hasn’t been a complete waste of time! I have also managed to write my Christmas cards home, a few emails and update the blog, oh and the view from behind the training centre was something else....

In an attempt to discover what makes Sisaphon tick, I took my bicycle out for a ride around the town tonight. It is amazing what you discover if you put yourself out there! I met one of the guys who works at the bank next door to where I live in Phnom Srok. We had a very short conversation in a mixture of Khmer and English about why we were both in Sisaphon for the week. I didn’t quite understand his reason and I’m sure he didn’t understand mine either but it was nice to be recognised and make a connection with someone. I also passed another Westerner which was such a shock I nearly fell off my bike! Backpackers usually use Sisaphon as a toilet stop if at all so it’s intriguing to wonder why another ‘barang’ might stop for longer!

In the middle of the dusty town there is an open space with a few pagodas dotted over its tired, sun-scorched grass. Every evening between 5 and 6pm, lots of people congregate in this space to exercise (‘hat pran’ in Khmer)! It’s great! The park is packed with people playing badminton, football, volleyball and in one corner there is an aerobics video being shown on a TV screen. It was an opportunity not to be missed so I hastened to join in the aerobics class. As I attempted to follow the class (which was quite a mission as the participants knew the exercises off by heart so didn’t follow the dude on the TV screen which wasn’t to the beat of the music anyway!) I was struck with how bizarre and slightly surreal the whole thing was! Here I was, exercising in the open air with a load of middle-aged Khmers, trucks roaring past churning up dust on their way to or from Thailand, cows being led back from somewhere, and children watching me jumping up and down to Khmer aerobics! The highlight for me was the last song on the video. It was 5 minutes to 6 o’clock, my body had realised that I had been exercising for nearly an hour and had gone into shock, my toes ached from trying to keep the flip-flops on my feet and my hair was stuck to my reddened face in rather an attractive way. I was ready to drop when my brain engaged with the fact that the song I was hopping around to was Footloose! I miraculously found a new burst of energy, was promptly reminded of my wonderful friends in the UK and gave it all I had! I even sang along, much to the amusement of my exercising neighbours! Who would believe it? Footloose in Sisaphon!

My First Fishing Trip

Saturday 1st December

Mmmm – what to do. On Thursday I realised that I faced a weekend alone in Phnom Srok with no plans. After some consideration, I decided I should go fishing so promptly asked around at the office and soon found a willing volunteer to take me.

I have never been fishing before in my life. The closest I’ve got is fishing for compliments and even that has had varied success in the past. I used to be very good at a motorised fishing game when I was young. A battery would power a revolving plastic pond in which plastic fish would open and close their mouths as you tried to dangle a line from a plastic fishing rod into their mouths to catch them. I mean, how hard could it be? I have seen Cambodians catching fish in deep and shallow water all over the country in so many different ways. Some stand up to their waists in water and spectacularly throw a huge net which they drag back to themselves hoping for a catch. I’ve also seen men on fishing boats and with huge fishing rods. They also have amazing net contraptions which lie beneath the surface of the water all day and are collected and emptied when successful.

My new friend Anni and some other girls who quickly became my friends picked me up in the morning and we rode our motos to Tropieng Tmar – the beautiful lake in Phnom Srok. I was fixed up with a bamboo fishing rod with a bit of flip-flop acting as the float and then threaded small shrimps onto the hook and dropped it into the water. We got by with a mixture of English and Khmer and lots of smiling and squealing when we got a bite.Despite my distinct lack of real fishing experiencing, guess who got first catch of the day? Yes – yours truly!
It was so exciting! The float jiggled up and down in the water so I quickly whipped it out of the water and hey presto, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I had caught a fish alive! I suddenly turned quite squeamish at facing the little blighter and had to get my friends to literally let it off the hook and into our bucket. And so we spent the rest of the day. We gradually filled the bucket with lots of little fish, stopping only for some lunch (Anni politely ate a sandwich that I had bought but I don’t think she liked it much – rice being the preferred choice for lunch). Then, instead of eating our catch, we generously gave half away to my Deputy Director and the other half to my landlord!

Being Looked After Well

I really am spoilt! I have a wonderful cleaning lady who comes three days a week to help me keep my house free from dust, wash my clothes and help teach me cook Khmer! She is also very willing to take me to the market to buy my food with me which is nice to do every so often as I seem to get cheaper prices when I go with her. I was very clear at the start of this arrangement (she is the landlord’s sister-in-law and I barely had a choice in employing her services by the way) that she was to work only three days a week and made sure she understood that I am used to being independent and like to have my own space and might do things in a strange ‘foreign’ way. The problem is she can’t help but try and look after me and is now being too kind!

She (like most of the inhabitants of the district) is always very interested in what I have eaten or will eat and what I buy at the market when without her. I think she (like most of the inhabitants of the district) can’t even consider not eating rice three times a day and cannot fathom that a bread roll sandwich and some fruit can constitute a meal. She (like most of the inhabitants of the district) also thinks that I must be starving when I get home from work.
This week has proved to be my most frustrating to date. After eating a lot of rice, noodles and fried food, I am actually starting to crave some rather bland English sort of food. I never thought the day would come when I would be aching for some simple boiled cabbage or a plain omelette but that day arrived this week. So on one of the days when Ree does not work, I went and bought the ingredients to make a very simple omelette (minus the cheese). Intrigued by what I might make with two duck eggs, a tomato and onion, Ree followed me upstairs. As I chopped and washed the veggies I tried to explain that I was making some English food today. There was a tut from Ree’s lips and the knife was swiftly taken out of my hand and the veggies chopped the ‘right’ way (I was doing it all wrong!). She then continued to fry the egg, tomato and onion in about an inch of oil, adding lots of salt, MSG, sugar and oyster sauce. So much for a bland, oil-free meal. The dish she concocted was delicious by he way and she only acts in absolute kindness as she thinks I am incapable of making food for myself – a belief I want to change as soon as possible.

Food is very important to the Khmers and I have received many gifts of food which I’ve had to deal with accordingly. I have received a big bag of rice this week from a lady at work which was still warm and fresh from the rice mill when she gave it to me – what a treat! I now have enough that if I was in the UK it would probably last me for more than 5 years. I have also had dried fish given to me wrapped in newspaper (which was really nice fried) and a red sausage (which was also really really tasty but I absolutely dread to think about what is in it). The other ‘dish’ I keep being presented with is a less appealing bowl of grey liquid – a little bit like tapioca? – with bananas lurking in the bottom. Twice this has been presented to me, once I had to squash it down the sink, second time I was with company so forced to eat it – yuk!

Breakfast News

In an attempt to integrate into the community in Phnom Srok, practice my Khmer a little and get a decent meal I have been eating breakfast at a restaurant every morning. I usually go alone and have progressed from reading my order from a prepared piece of paper to confidently speaking my order off my heart. A typical Khmer breakfast is noodle soup with pork meat. It is surprisingly tasty and quite welcomed as a way to start the day – and there is always a dog or two not far from your feet in case you find something in your bowl you’d rather not put in your mouth! Many a time I have managed to save embarrassment by surreptitiously dropping something inedible into the open jowls of my canine friends!

It is quite the done thing to eat breakfast out and so the restaurant is usually very busy with men filling up with their morning noodle soup or plate of rice before they start work. It feels good to have something of a morning routine and is even more rewarding when recognised by the restaurant owners (who happen to be the family of a man from my office) and those eating there. I also enjoy the walk from my house, which includes passing the truck stop where drivers wait to fill their vehicles with passengers to Siam Reap, because despite the stares and whispers of ‘barang!’ everyone is ready with a smile and willing to reply to my greetings of ‘Sauce-sa-dey’ (Hello!).

In fact the only downside to my morning ritual is that the restaurant owner has become so used to my order that she has stopped waiting for me to say it and brings it to me automatically which kind of defeats one of the objects of being there which was to gain some language practice. To combat this I have taken to changing my order every few mornings so that I remain a little more unpredictable and still get to practice my Khmer!