Penny and Fred

Cable rocks

Ahh cable is great, we couldn’t really justify having it in oz but its 5 bucks/month here… yeah!  We have Discovery, ESPN, CNN, a couple of movie channels, National Geographic (but the sound is stuffed - boo), another sports channel and an australian channel.  There’s another 40 channels but they’re not in english.  Today I watched a bit of Melbourne v  Port on the aust channel… I think they telecast most AFL games, spewing I missed the Essendon v Carlton…u bewty!!! I know, I know the prelims in ‘99 right?  I caught a bit of the NBA the other day so I can still get my basketball fix, but we mostly watch the news or discovery here.

This little bit of luxury might just keep us sane

Posted in Daily Life | 3 Comments »

More shopping

We have a huge living room, it needs a few plants and pictures on the wall but these things we can buy in the up and coming weeks.  BUT if we wanted to chillax in front of the tv we needed new cushions for our cane lounge setting and sofa cause the ones provided were in an awful state.  Cane furniture is the way to go over here, its cheap and comfortable.

So, Hua came over in the morning and picked me up and we left for a group of cane furniture shops about 10 mins away.  Over there I found what we needed and my great purchases can be found in the Apartment photo gallery.  I bought 2 cane bedside tables, cushions for the lounge setting and a huge cushion/mattress for the spare couch.

Time to put the feet up

Posted in Daily Life | Add a Comment »

Next step… setting up our kitchen

Although the food here is great and we have already found some nice restaurants both cheap and expensive we can’t eat out all the time… that would kill us.  Well, I hope we can eat at Chinese noodle once a week - that duck noodle soup is just awesome there.  So while picking up some breakfast for my hard working girlfriend, I organised a tuk-tuk for the day, someone that was recommended by the guys at the guesthouse and that could speak english as Penny and I still haven’t had a lesson in Khmer.

After a spot of breakie together I was back at the Russian market to buy cooking utensils, here was my list:

• 4x plates
• 4x bowls
• 4x rice bowls
• 4x chopsticks
• 4x spoons
• 4x knives
• 4x forks
• 1x egg flip
• 1x serving spoon
• 1x tongs
• 1x big fry pan
• 1x small fry pan
• 1x medium pot
• 1x meat cleaver
• 1x large knife
• 1x chopping board
• 2x mugs
• some plastic containers

Feel free to use the list if you ever need to start up a kitchen again.  Although it was all quite cheap the quality isn’t the best, the plates and bowls are plastic but look nice enough.  My favourite purchase was the meat cleaver, hopefully I can get pretty handy with it and buy one when I get home.

Next stop was modern gas to look at rice cookers, toasters and kettle.  They seemed quite busy so I checked out the prices but thought it would be better to purchase them with Pen.  So last thing I planned for our day was a trip to the supermarket so that we could stock the fridge and pantry and yes that did include beer.   Asahi $13 a slab of 330ml cans! whoo hoo!   Hua my tuk-tuk driver did a great job so I rewarded him a bonus with a couple of beers, too bad they weren’t cold… I’ll be calling him again tomorrow for cushion and furniture shopping.

Posted in Daily Life | Add a Comment »

We’re movin in!

How exciting…. we have really done it.  Knowing today was the big day and things were getting busier at Penny’s work, we got up early and were well prepared.  After breakfast we loaded all our gear into a tuk-tuk for the short trip from the guest house to the apartment.

The front of the place is protected by these great big iron gates and once unlocked there is space to fit 2 cars (undercover) then comes the front door of the office (the complete ground floor).  After quickly introducing myself  to all of the staff, Penny had to start work, which meant it was time to get dirty.

The place is primarily double storey with super high ceilings (in the office, living room and kitchen) but also has rooms in between so you could say it has 4 “half” stories.  It also has a nice balcony, roof top terrace, the living room is spacious but the kitchen is very basic.  (Gee I sound like a real estate agent, Mick am I qualified?) Our old kitchen will be sorely missed, over here we have 1x small fridge, 2x burner gas cook-top using bottle gas, small sink, small glass pantry and no oven.  Not to worry…….. cause we have Cable!

Anyway enough about that cause the whole day was about cleaning and getting the place livable.  I had some help in our house keeper who we will be employing 3 mornings a week to help with cleaning (apartment and office), shopping, laundry etc.  But before we could get started we needed cleaning products so I raced to the supermarket on the back of a motodop.  A  motodop is a man who can afford a small motorbike and who’s primary income is picking up passengers for a small fee.  I found my guy in front of the office but he was waiting for someone to come out of a meeting with Penny, he agreed but he wanted to keep the other fare as well so we hooned there and back, great first time experience on the back of one through the busy streets of Phnom Penh (PP) holding a broom and a mop while the driver carried my other purchases.  He was quick but not quick enough, he missed his other fare as the meeting had already closed by the time we got back, feeling responsible I gave him a few extra riel for his troubles.  I think he was ok with that.

The rest of the morning the house keeper and I were scrubbing tiles, sweeping and washing curtains.  My personal aim was to have our bedroom spotless so we sleep easy that night.  That meant lots of tile scrubbing, dusting, mopping, cleaning the bed frame and airing the mattresses.  Whilst doing this I think I sweat out more than as if I played 10 basketball games …… have I mentioned it gets quite humid here?

Over Penny’s lunch break, her boss offered to take us to the Phsar Toul Tom Poung AKA The Russian market to buy bed linen, towels, pillows, bath mats and other essentials for our first night.  We also found a DVD stall which came recommended, so we know where to go for our movie fix.  Also across from the  market we ate at a very nice cafe which helps Khmers to learn how to work in hospitality.  Your paying a bit extra but the cafe promotes fair trade and responsible employment.

There was more cleaning in the arvo but by the end of the day our bedroom was clean and set up, we were both super exausted and ready for a good nights sleep.

Posted in Daily Life | Add a Comment »

We are not bad bloggers

Loving Phnom Penh so far and done quite a bit of exploring but we haven’t published much… we are not bad bloggers, we can improve.  Although its still the “honeymoon period” and we’ve only been here days, I can already seen why friends who have been here loved it.  We are still currently in the 8 room guest house, its like a giant tree house with a great open common area upstairs with lots of wicker chairs, little tables and cushions + free wireless internet.  A great introduction to Cambodia for anyone I think.  We connected to their network connection on day 2 however we could not access the web… lucky we got in contact with our favourite IT guru Bronny on Skype  and she talked us through it.

So to get everyone up to speed, over the last week we have:

• Met up with Penny’s new boss and friends who had just completed a 750km bike ride across Cambodia for charity
• We visited Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21).  Once a high school made into a prison and used by the Khmer Rouge to torture and killed around 17,000 Kmers between 1975-79.   I heard much about it but  had to see it with my own eyes…. shocking to think this happened only 30 years ago, truely horrific what these people must have gone through
• Found a couple of cheap local restaurants which be both love… including Chinese Noodle which Andrew and Eider will remember on their last trip here, was the one that had the staff making the awesome noodles out the front.  We both had a terrific duck noodle soup and shared 12 steamed dumplings….mmm.. yes we will be coming back.  The cost of duck noodle soup is $1.20 + 12x dumplings is $1.20, however its in US dollars and the current conversion rate is killing us!!! 
• Yesterday we attended a Childrens Festival which was held for children from a displaced village outside the city.  This was arranged with the help of the organisation Penny’s now working for and another well known Non Government Organisation (NGO).  We were welcomed with a beautiful lunch of BBQ meats, fish, spicy mango salads, rice, vegetables and watermelon, one thing this trip is not lacking is awesome asian food.  The festival included traditional Khmer dancing, a play, music and lots of fun games.  Later in the arvo we took a walk through this village and discovered how bad the living conditions were… very 3rd world and indeed of development         
• Made a new friend, a British woman who works in healthcare and lives in Cambodia.  She showed us a nice local restaurant which offers tradition Khmer food at a cheap price and came out to the childrens festival with us.  We have exchanged contact details and will definitely be intouch
• Penny has started her new role and has been flat out since, shes lovin it and will tell you all about it soon

Posted in Daily Life | 5 Comments »

We made it!

What started out as an exciting adventure and sad farewell, quickly turned to bewildered gazes and near coronaries…

Like any good travellers we arrived early to the airport to check our luggage and clear customs, only to be told by the ‘check-in-chick’ that we could not fly.  This is when the bewildered looks and coronaries began….  It appeared that because we had neither a return ticket booked or a valid Cambodian Visa, we were not allowed to leave the country. 

Obviously, what followed was a lot of pleading and “please check with someone else”.  Our friendly ‘check-in-chick’ made one phone call after another, left the booth, returned, only to leave again.  Passengers waiting patiently in the line, quickly grew impatient, at watching us take up soooo much time.  On her final return, we were given the green light and wished a friendly “GOOD LUCK”.  Somehow this was not as comforting as I thought it would be, but we took our boarding passes, had our final cigarettes and walked our way to the departure lounge.

For those of you that were unaware that our flight had already been rescheduled…  We were ready to get the goodbyes over and done with, when an all to familiar announcement came over the loud speaker,  “Ladies and Gentleman, we regret to inform you that your flight has been delayed by 30 mins.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused”.  So we settled in for our final 30 mins of ’sledging’ from our nearest and dearest.  Who needs enemies, when you have friends like ours….  That means we love you guys and wouldn’t have it any other way…. 

Anyway, as I was saying our flight was delayed. ’sledging’ etc.  It was finally time to say our farewells and board the plane.  All was going well until I gave my stoopid brother a hug and that’s when the waterworks started, which in turn started the waterworks of my two best girls, Bronny and Tammy.  Sorry ladies….  I tried my best to keep it together.

Off we went.  A quick stop over in Darwin and a long layover in Singapore and we were finally boarding our last flight to Phnom Penh.  A quick visit to the Immigration desk and we left the airport, our wallets a little lighter, but with visas in hand.  A quick negotiation with a tuk-tuk driver and we were on the road to our guesthouse, a lovely little two storey tree house, surrounded by a lush tropical garden.

Posted in Daily Life | Add a Comment »

Welcome to our blog!

As you probably know, we flew out yesterday to start our exciting new lives in Cambodia.
We’ll post up our first full entry soon, but in the meantime, here’s a video that was put together from our farewell dinner at the Tepinyaki restaurant in Doncaster East last Saturday.  We’ll have some photos up soon, too, from both the farewell parties.

- Penny and Fred

Posted in Daily Life | 4 Comments »