Alby

Why not, it's Saturday??? KFC for lunch, races in the arvo and the Western derby in the evening!!!Just like being back home.......Almost!!!! Arrived trackside an hour early, which wouldn’t have been so bad except that it was stinking hot!!!(Common occurrence in these Asian countries of late) This gave me the chance to have a good look around, search for a cold beer and seek out some hot tips from the locals! The races themselves are run very similar to races back home except for a couple of things or I’ll coin the common Vietnamese term “same, same but different!” The horse’s look more suited to giving children rides at the local show than competing against each other on the race track!! (May have to look into bringing one of Errol’s nags over from home. it ... read more

Because the chickens not stupid that’s why!!!!! My biggest safety concern while I was in Cambodia was definately anything to do with being on or near a road. Walking home in a drunken stupor a 4 am in the morning no problem, riding a pushbike during peak hour that’s another story. While I was fortunate enough to date (touchwood) to avoid any major incidents I’ve had countless near misses including a couple of bumps from cars. Full concentration is recondmended when crossing a road, driving on a road or even walking on the footpath which quite often doubles as a road in heavy traffic. Around 50 people die each day on Cambodian roads everyday..Law enforcement of the road rules seems only to take place when the local “boy’s in Blue” need a little extra pocketmoney ... read more

Phnom Pehn the capital has it all!! A dodgy past, beautiful architecture,(thanks the French!),bustling markets, international restaurants from all over the world, traffic from hell, interesting nightlife, the might Mekong river and the best sports bar in the world..(3 big screens!!!) perfect for watching the world cup! I’ve been offered cocaine ,heroin, yama, ecstasy, happy pizza’s, Bob Marley cigarettes, bad girls, nice girls ( the bar girls that are looking for a relationship!), sisters, brothers, sickening young girls, real diamonds (opposed to the not real ones!), spiders, monkeys, ancient artifacts, cheap land (which I’m sure the real landowners wouldn’t have known anything about!) and that was just at my guest house, I hadn’t even walked out on the street yet!!! I even went to a restaurant that advertised that it could make any sandwich… So ... read more

After only seeing the insides of the Angkor What bar for my first couple of days in Siem Reap, I was well overdue to go and check out the real thing. It was the reason why I came here in the first place…not the cheap buckets!! I hired a bicycle and made my way to one of the worlds most famous world heritage sites Angkor Wat.. Hiring a bike was a great idea after to talking to fellow tourists at 2am at the bar who’d done the “temple thing “on bikes the previous day. Making the around 25km round trip and climbing over temples, nursing a hangover as the temperature soared above the 35 degree mark wasn’t the wisest decision I’ve ever made considering it only cost $12 to hire a motodriver for the day..If ... read more

Alby teaching English! Well, it is Cambodia where anything can happen and usually does…. You can only drink cocktails on beautiful tropical islands for so long until a feeling of guilt starts to play on your conscience. (Plus the fact the monsoons were coming!) So, Siem Reap, Cambodia was the destination of choice partly due to the fact they were screaming out for volunteers and that it’s quite cheap to survive there. I was paying $100 US a month for a guest house room with fan, hot water, cable TV and wait for it… this was the sealer…FREE laundry!! Salarin Kampuchea was the lucky school to recruit the tanned Aussie lad with mumbling English. The school has a couple of hundred or so snotty nosed, dirty, smelly loveable little tackers with the odd adult thrown ... read more