Wow, what a day....with so many varied experiences...

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Wow, what a huge day...............and a day full of contrasts, and “wow, haven’t seen that before”....

Started the day with a “feedback session” with Projects Abroad re my observations on living in Cambodia, my school placement, and the apartment we live in... As you know, I will nearly always tell it like it is, so I was straightforward about the fact that the apartment desperately needs some TLC, and future volunteers will be able to thank me for the rooms being given a new coat of paint etc.

Then I walked less than 100m down to the local dressmaker and have organised for some tops and dresses to be made. One of the family members living in the shop/house is a newly qualified doctor and spoke good English, so he translated for his sister-in-law (dressmaker) and his soon to be grandmother-in-law, and we had a great chat about life in Australia etc – his grandmother had lots of questions, and I told her that I will love her forever when she guessed my age as being well below reality!! She was 73yo, and looked maybe 60/65yo. Thuon (the young doc) has asked me to go to dinner with him and his boss, as his boss loves chatting and practicing his English whenever possible.....so am happy to go, as it will be awesome to get to know some locals. I was telling Thuon that last time I was here I donated blood and wanted to do it again, so he said he’ll take me when I am ready to donate – cool.

After lunch, Anne (one of the Danish girls) and I went to the bank (yea, my new cards are working), then wandered over to Central Market (it’s about 3 kms from our place, and a LONG walk in 34+ degree heat/95% humidity) to look for flipflops for her. While we were there, a rather scruffy Western guy approached us and asked if we spoke English. I said yes and he immediately got excited over the fact that I was an Aussie and said he was from Canberra . He then proceeded to tell us a great story about how he’d just arrived on a bus from Siem Reap and fell asleep and that someone had stolen his bag/wallet yada yada yada. I told him to go to the police, and he said he had and they’d told him to go to the Australian Embassy etc, but when he went it was closed..... Anyway, all the time he was talking, I kept having a niggling feeling that I’d heard this BS story the last time I was in Phnom Penh.........so when he asked for money for food etc, I turned him down and told him that I had a feeling that his story wasn’t genuine and that maybe he was trying to con us. He just walked away. Now, I’m sorry, but if he was genuine, he would have defended his case, but he’s obviously a con artist. I feel sorry for anyone that falls for his story. I thought about it during the afternoon, and I’m almost 90% certain that I encountered him the last time I was here. Crettin !!

Just before we arrived at the market, we were sitting in a cafe across the road having a cold lemon juice (yummo), and there was a policeman watching the world go buy as he drank his tea. We watched him call someone over, and very obviously bribe him for some misdemeanour, and the guy paid up and walked away....the cop noted the tuk tuk rego in his book, pocketed the money and that was it. It was SOOOOO obvious that it was out and out corruption, and I’ve read about it, but was quite amazed to see it less than 3 metres away from me.

Anne and I went for another walk to the market around the corner from us later in the afternoon (still looking for flipflops & I can’t understand why she didn’t buy the pretty pink Mickey Mouse jelly ones that I pointed out to her !!!)....and after walking through the fish and meat section, again I have to question my sanity over eating meat in this country. Sure, I’m not sick from the food that our cook is making, and I’m convinced she shops in this market.....but I have to wonder is it a matter of time, and do I go vego ??? There are so many flies...and the meat is in the open on the street ....and there is dust from the motos and cars as they drive by...and it’s hot....and people spit....and I hope none of you are eating as you read this, or you might just be convinced to go vego with me.

I spoke to Jo (Turner) in the afternoon – she’s rented an apartment in Kampot and is in the process of establishing herself. Angus is also in the process of learning the art of roasting coffee beans (decent ones) and slowly getting the cafe established. They will have local milk supplies in December, so that’s a good thing – the few milk supplies in Cambodia at present are generally imported from Holland – most milk is long-life or powdered.

I also called Tim (a friend of Shelley’s friend, Deb) and we’re catching up for dinner on Sunday night. So will have some Aussie company – yea, looking forward to it.

Anyway, tonight was the monthly volunteer dinner and we went to a great Cambodian restaurant, that also has traditional Cambodian entertainment – loved the food (Sharon, we had an awesome Fish Amok – yummo)....but I cannot get into the entertainment. It’s just so, um, uninspiring, and like the Vietnamese Water Puppets in Hanoi, the music & singing almost sounds like cats being skinned.

Hmmm, afterwards we went to a bar called Top Banana.......interesting place. There’s writing all over the ceiling, and I’m guessing the people that have eaten the “Happy Chocolates” are literally & figuratively flying high as kites when they write the stuff. Oh my goodness, I could not believe the amount of people smoking dope.......or drinking it in cocktails (really didn’t know they could make them)...but apparently they were out of their $1.25 Happy Chocolates. Ok, and the safety advisor in me came out for a brief moment when I saw the staircases leading to this rooftop bar – they were as steep as ladders, ok, steeper actually, and they expect people drunk as skunks and as high as kites to get down these things without killing themselves! Wow weeeeeeeeeee.

But apart from that, it was a great night. Caught up with some of the other volunteers from Apartment 6 (it’s about 10 mins away from the ours) and met some of the newbies.....there are some really interesting people that volunteer, and from so many different walks of life. Had a great time getting to know a very nice (French) Canadian dentist .....and for those “in the know”, No, his name is not Richard....haha

Last and not least, and I’ve seen this so many times now that I’m no longer shocked, but the lovely, young Danish girls were quite disturbed by it...........we arrived home, to a crowded street as all the local “Nigel No Friends” were at the karaoke bar/brothel next door. As we went to get out of the tuk tuk, one of the guys was peeing up against the tyre of one of the cars almost in front of us. The girls were mortified, but as I said, I see them peeing up against anything upright on a daily basis, and hardly notice these days. Men!!!

Ok, so now I’m home and needing to sleep, but I think some of the fumes floating around may very well be floating around in my lungs etc, so sleep is evading me......I’m off to play Solitaire, hopefully that will put me to sleep.

Love to everyone from Cambodia.........hugs, xx

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