Hangin' Around The Penh

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These past 8 days have wizzed by... The first few after arriving in Phnom Penh were spent getting my barings, checking out the markets and going to the local park; Wat Phnom. This was home to Phnom Penh's only resident elephant; Sambo, who i was not expecting to run into to be honest! I was getting over excited about the monkeys that are scattered around before I ran into him! Quite a few of the first days i got caught in the sudden downpour that occurs at roughly the same time in the afternoons until i finally cottoned onto the wet season pattern and did any interneting in the afternoons. I spent a day lounging by a hotel pool trying and failing to get a tan while the Cambodians around were frowning at the insane western girl sunbathing in 38C midday sun! Then Caro arrived! She just hopped on a plane and came to stay with her brother providing me with a friend to hang around with! We did the tourist things and went to look at the National Museum and Palace. For respect at the Palaceyou had to wear long trousers and a shirt with sleeves- it was so hot, we had to keep sitting down after every other building! Caro had her shoes stolen at the entrance to one of the buildings, (you have to take your shoes off to go in) and i had to go racing around in the heat trying to find the daft German hobbling around in sandels far to small for him-"Ï thought they felt a bit small...!" (You'll have to imagine that in the steriotypical German accent.)

We both got caught in the afternoon downpour walking back from visiting Sambo at Wat Phnom. We had to do emergency poncho buying and still turned down the tuk tuk offers as we walked past because we were too stingy to spend the dollor to get back a little quicker and dryer. "Ah so you want a shower" came the confused replies from the tuk tuk drivers.
Sambo the elephant had finished giving tourists rides around the park and was making his way home after a hard days work when he passed the only pedestrians around; two idiot westerners in matching blue poncho's slipping along in flip flops among the puddles...
Our reward for being so damn stubborn re the tuk tuks was to walk along the riverside with Sambo the elephant taking up half the main road on his way home! Some good pictures taken that afternoon!
We thought seeing as it was such a miserable afternoon we'll have a massage! So we stepped out of the thunderstorm and into a darkened shop offering massages and manicures and alike... We were told that the power was off so we'd have to wait for the lights to come on before we could go upstairs for our massage. Power cuts often happen in Phnom Penh as there isn't enough electricity to supply the whole city. To solve this the power board alternates who has power and so some parts of the city have no electricity for short periods of time... An hour an a half later, we were still waiting for the power and our massage. Eventually we were led upstairs to a small room lit with a red light and prompty told to remove our clothes- at this point Caro started to doubt my recommendation, but with a bit of encoragement carried on regardless. I enjoyed my massage but periodic glances in Caro's direction told me she felt differently... while my masseure was being quite gentle, Caro's was standing on her back and pumelling her into her matress. Caro was not happy...nor was she happy the next day when she awoke to the feeling of having been steamrolled!

After our drenching and Caro's abuse experience, we thought a quiet night in with a DVD of sorts would be appropriate. Here we were to go down a road that would lead to an intense addiction neither of us could have forseen... Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House! Yes, its true, we have spent a good few (many) hours watching the dramatics of life in a teaching hospital according to NBC! If you've never had the pleasure we certainly recommend it - we could even lend you the whole of seasons one to four which we rushed out to buy when Matt's collection ran out!

One night when we weren't watching House, Matt took us to the Olmypic Stadium at dusk to watch the social life of Phnom Penh unfold. Similar to other asian cities, the populus will gather in places like the Olympic Stadium to excercise at dawn and dusk; the only times when excessive movement doesn't lead to sweating your weight in water. The synchronised aerobics was quite a sight to behold with dozens of khmers lined along the top of the stadium, siluetted against the skyline. I attempted to join in but couldn't manage to co-ordinate my limbs enough, but at least provided entertainment to those watching. We saw the cambodian swimming team doing lengths in the pool along with the divers...well, diving. The most impressive sight that night was the sky; bolts of lighting were lighting up the thunderous clouds with only a few seconds in bewteen each flash. It reminded me of the Gods throwing lightning bolts in the old Fantasia video and provided Caro with the knowledge that if she were a cloud, she'd have lightning.

On Thursday, Matt took us out into the field to see the kind of work that he does. Me, Caro and Lizzie (a student doing her masters who was shadowing FFI's projects for her dissatation)- sat cramped in the back of Matt's landrover while we travelled the 2 hours into the countryside. We stopped off along the way at a chicken farm. The farmer had origionally been making a living out of cutting down the trees in the nearby forest for charcol until FFI had given him 100 chikens 6 weeks previous to our arrival, and taught him how to manage this and how to grow mango trees. He now had 500 chickens and was enjoying his much more profitable business. FFI had also provided funds to Dam the river that ran next to his land so that he had a water supply for his family all year and the ability to irrigate his crops in the dry season. Matt's team regularly check up on re-educated farmers have prizes for the most improved! The last prize was a ride in the company helicopter! The lucky farmer who won that said that before the ride he thought his land was big, but now, sees that his land was small! Another case we stopped at was in an area where the elephant experts had told the local family where to build watch "towers" (tree houses in reality) so that they could watch for elephants and scare them away of they came too near their crops. In one of the places we stopped, an adult and baby elephant had recently been trying to cross a farm to get to to opposite mountains and had been scared away by the electric fence put in place to prevent such a occurance.
We arrived at our destination early afternoon and enjoyed our picnic lunch in a hut next to a picturesque river. We did have to perfect the art of eating rice, while dancing so the flies couldn't settle and batting away the red ants which had taken a liking to Caro - within two minutes of stopping in that hut she had already been bitten by one! The afternoon was spent swimming in the river and snoozing on the rocks to dry in the sun while the FFI team had a meeting. After our evening meal of chicken (with its head and claws still intact!) fish soup and rice, we went back to the huts and Matt showed us the knack of getting in and our of our hammocks.
"Just tie up your mosquito net Hannah" was my instruction, so I picked up the twine, looked up to the beam I was to tie it to, and found myself face to face with a two large tarantulas sitting directly above my head. I freaked out. The next frame would show me, Caro and Lizzie huddled in a corner looking about crazily and directing Matt to the many spiders that were around the inside of our hut so that he could catch them in his home made spider-catcher that was the rolled up map!
Sometime later, after a walk along the dirt track in the dark trying to spot wildlife and getting cricked necks from looking at all the stars, there was nothing else to do but get into our hammocks and sleep.
"This is my worst nightmare!" was Caro's opinion on the idea of sleeping in the forest, among the spiders and biting ants and getting sea-sick from her swinging hammock. I, on the other hand, have my sleeping superpower so was aware of nothing until I had to be woken up the next morning at 9am!
That morning we walked from our base by the river, to a waterfall hidden among the forest -we were probably the first westerners to visit it. It was stunning! We were also told that a tiger had been spotted drinking at the river and elephants were often seen there. After chilling out there for an hour or so, we wandered back to base, packed up and set off on the two hour journey back to Phnom Penh.

Later that evening we enjoyed Country Night at the Rising Sun - Matt's local english style pub which puts on old country music every friday night while the locals (Matt and his colleuges) dance in that embaressing Dad/Grandad style dancing that only drunken men know how to do. We then moved onto Elsewhere- a local club which hosts a massive garden party once a month. It was rammed with locals, expats, and tourists. A good night rounded off by a good dose of House when we got in!

The next day was the last with the Matlby's before I met my next intrepid group. Caro and I went to Raffles - the poshest hotel in PP- to enjoy the spa and pool. Typically though, we managed to go on the only day that was cool and overcast! It was still worth the 20 dollars to get in to chill out in the treelined pool though. After a shower, and my final dose of House, I packed up and moved to the hotel where I met my new intrepid group! We went for a meal in a restaurant by the riverside that supports an orphanage and on saturday nights the children don the traditional Khmer costumes and put on a dancing show- entertaining stuff!
Later we moved to a local bar where we played pool and went over names again! The new group is made up of the typical massive age range, and majority single female travellers but this time with a brother and sistern couple, and an actual couple which is new. Our tour guide for this trip is origionally from Brighton - so far all my leaders have been locals- but Daniel speaks Thai, Loas, Vietnemese, Knmer and knows his stuff so this trip seems set up to be just as good as the last.

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