Field work ends with a splash!

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Hi All,
I'm here in Bangkok writing this in air-con comfort with hot showers no less! I haven't had a hot shower since before I left Sydney! Not that you need them in Cambodia.
After a bus trip from hell - Karaoke that made your ears bleed, children throwing up, buses breaking down, a moto accident that left a dead man by the side of the road (at least he looked dead from where I sat), the smell of durian wafting from the seat behind, the border crossing was a doddle! Then it was a cramped 4 hour minivan ride next to smelly German backpackers to Bangkok. At least I've achieved what I came here for, my samples are on their way to Envirolab in Sydney for analysis. Now I can get on with the joys of thesis writing.
But first, a story of my final groundwater sampling event. I had to go back out to my first field site to re-collect groundwater samples from the wells I installed in August. Sua, my translator & Fixer extraordinaire calls my driller, Kuan to ask if we can use his pump for sampling. Kuan says this might be a problem in that the wells might be underwater on account of the wet season. Great I thought, what else can go wrong? Anyway it turns out that they were not underwater (strictly speaking - the well heads were sticking out) but we would have to use boats to get across the flooded channels. So we get to the site and have a look at the boats. They were also underwater. They are made of a whole palm tree trunk and are open at one end. The little boys who owned the boats and ferried us over use clay (impermeable as Mike, the Stanford researcher has found, his lysimeters refuse to fill due to the thick overlying clays) to stop up the open end. Ingenious! I was a bit worried however, the boats were very rickety. But we made it fine. Except once when I fell in whilst getting out of the boat, to the great hilarity of all Khmer onlookers! The main thing was that I kept all my equipment dry.
So. Bangkok. It sucks. Compared to Phnom Penh the city is ugly, smelly, traffic is awful and what the hell happened to the food? When I first went to Thailand, in 1994, I stepped out of my hotel into the first restaurant I could find (concrete floors & plastic chairs & tables with the kitchen on the pavement), and had the best Pad Thai I have ever had before or since. Try getting Pad thai here now! I walked for about an hour from one roadside stall to the next, in restaurants on both sides of Rama IV road and did not find one establishment that had Pad Thai on the menu. It's their signature dish for Chrissakes!!! I pointed this out to one restaurant owner and received a shrug in reply. I had to settle for pork and rice which was horrible. In Cambodia the pork is succulent and sweet with very little fat and a lovely sauce. This pork was fatty and tasteless with a gluey sauce. Anyway I have been told by a pharmacist that pad thai can be got near the Ibis hotel so I set forth. I found a restaurant and yes they did have pad thai on the menu. Unfortunately it was not a taste sensation. You get better pad thai at any food court in Australia. And it was expensive. Total disappointment.
So I'm flying back to Phnom Penh today. I must admit to a little homesickness. I'm not looking forward to going back to an empty house. Oh well. The challenges of living away from home.

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Comments

[johkir]

Thanks Guys
Thanks, glad you like the blog, I like writing them. I can sympathise about being depressed going back to work. I'm trying to figure out how I can do this AND get paid for it full time! Except that the kids would probably have something to say about it!