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Published: January 31st 2012
The View
From the Gecko Cafe, the lovely & safe HA electrical pole!Sue’sdai everyone! (In case you’re wondering, that means “hi” in Khmer). I hope everyone is well and happy! It is 8:22pm on a Tuesday night, and I’m missing you all like crazy…. Only 14 days to go!
Continuing on from my last blog, where I was curled up into bed watching Lord of the Rings….! That night flew by, and after the most comfortable sleep of my life, we woke up and had breakfast at the Green Gecko Café – I had breakfast quesadillas (consisting of cheese, egg, beans and salsa… an interesting combination!). After breakfast we went to the hotel, where Sophie and I indulged one more movie – ICE AGE! When Ice Age ended, we left to visit the local markets – an experience in itself. The overpowering, poignant odour of rotting animal flesh combined with the musty, crowded stalls, it was not my favourite marketplace.
We then proceeded to the Eden Café, where we had a vast array of small meals (soup, fries, springrolls & wontons). The owner was American, and almost cried with happiness when I ordered ranch sauce for my fries instead of ketchup… it must be very lonely in
Local Dentist
In the middle of the local markets... as you do! Battambong! After a deliciously satisfying snack we headed to the dreaded Bus Capitol!
Turns out there is a god, we received a bus that had WORKING air conditioning, LEATHER seats and a driver that didn’t have a fetish for honking the horn every two seconds. Though, according to Murphy’s Law, something that can go wrong, will go wrong. The man opposite Colleen and Sophie decided he would demolish an enormous bag of nuts – UH OH. He ate with his mouth open, littered the shells of nuts onto the floor and crushed nuts combined with saliva were splayed across his face like bugs on a windshield. Despite this small setback, we arrived safely in Siem Reap, with smiles on our faces and our luggage intact. Hungry as wolves, we headed into the nearest café – Joe-To-Go. I spent a whopping $2.50 on the most delicious croissants, loaded with cheese, tomato and mayonnaise.
After we devoured our small snacks, we headed back to Earthwalkers, and were we greeted by no hot water, no air conditioning and a bathroom smaller than my closet. Despite this greeting, I was happy to be home, and settled down onto
Khmer Aerobics
For only 25c, they were well worth it! my lumpy mattress for a quick read of my latest book. Off on a tangent, the books I’ve read so far are – Keeping Faith, Salem Falls, Picture Perfect, The Lies we Told, Good in Bed and the Reader. I can’t stop reading… I feel like my love for reading has being reinvigorated once again! Good in Bed was not what you are thinking… it was about an overweight woman who’s ex-boyfriend wrote rude blogs about her (really funny) and the Reader was a german classic translated into english, about a boy who falls in love with a woman 20 years his senior. It has been made into a movie, which I am now dying to see!
Back to that afternoon…. After a quick rest, we decided the best way to top off a rest & relaxation weekend was to treat ourselves to $6 one hour, full body massages!! They were amazing (and very much deserved!). On Sunday, we had another chilled day, and poor Soph was sick yet again. We went to the local markets (amazing) and saw some weird things… Dad, you’d be very interested! In the middle of these crowded market stalls… was the
10 days old!
Oh hey cutest puppy ever! (besides Mish) local dentist! In this tiny, glass room, no bigger than our home’s bathroom, was the dentist with all of his equipment… a very odd sight to see!
That afternoon, we all (except Soph who was a spectator) took part in a Khmer aerobics class! For only 25c, you got a full one hour class! It was held outdoors where public events are held, and had about 100ish people involved. For all you ladies who have ever participated in Zumba, I want you to think of that image, triple the number of people who have no coordination and there you go – that’s Khmer aerobics! It was very funny to do, and I must admit, we were in the group of people who couldn’t keep up due to lack of coordination!
These past two days (Monday & Tuesday) have been very exhausting, yet rewarding at the same time. When we came back from Battabong, we were delighted to see that the contractors had started to lay the bricks down for the wall! Now, after two days of really hard work, the brick laying is ¾ complete! Tomorrow we will finish the brick laying, and then
Progress
The wall is nearly finished - oh yeah! only the top foundations are left to fill! This news really was great to receive, and I can’t explain how happy I am that we are actually going to finish this wall!! All this hard work, sweating, lifting, mixing and moving will make a difference to these children’s lives and give them safety and security when attending school – an essential part of school life!
Tonight, we had our language lessons with our hilarious teacher, Rhett! As usual, we all had stitches at the end from laughing so much, and my face physically hurts from how wide I was smiling! I learnt how to say ‘beautiful puppy’, which I was very pleased with. You see, our Khmer mothers neighbour’s dog had puppies and they are only ten days old! They look like little hamsters, and are actually the cutest things I have ever seen! SO ADORABLE!! Which makes me think of my beautiful puppies I had to leave at home (I wish I could have brought ‘the Mish’ in my suitcase with me!).
Anyway, we have another early morning tomorrow, so I better get off the laptop and go to bed – even though
The Mish!
My baby girl wanted to come with me!! :( the idea is very unappealing! I miss you all and can’t wait to tell you about this experience face-to-face!! Chum-Reap-Lee! (Goodbye) xxx
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