Penny and Fred

Here’s the post you’ve all been waiting for…

Hi All,

We are very sorry that we have not written for so long, but you know how life goes…  I wish we could say that we have been up to a heap of exciting things and seeing the country, but sadly, due to how busy I have been with work, we have not been lucky enough to get out of the city since our trip to Kep.

I have alot to update everyone one so here goes, I’ve gone for dot points as it may be easier for everyone to follow, in no specific order:

• Since Kep work has been full steam ahead.  From one day to the next we are never quite sure how long I am going to be in a job.  Damn, those greedy Yanks and their involvement in the stock market.  It’s meant that humanitarian dollars all over the world have dried up and we, like many other NGOs in Cambodia are feeling the financial pinch.
• Kylie (my flat mate from University) and her boyfriend Graham came to visit.  Although, only a short trip to the capital, we managed to cram in a heap of site seeing and most importantly eating…
• We ate frog for the first time and then the second and the third.  Needless to say, we thinks it’s YUMMY!!
• Took a trip out to the province for Pchum Ben (festival of the spirits - at least that is the best way I can explain it).  It’s a very low key affair where Buddhist’s go to temple to make offerings to the monks who will bless them and pray for the spirits of their family members.  Cambodian’s believe that everyone has 7 spirits and not all of them move from this earth when they die, with some remaining earth bound for a variety of reasons.  I think praying for them helps them to reconcile what ever keeps them here and helps them to move on.  No doubt it’s alot more complicated than that, but that’s all I could get in the translation of the event.
• Continued to drive the Land Crusier around town and country, with mixed results.  I have not had an accident yet, but yesterday I thought I was going to die when a truck was coming right at me on my side of the road and had no intention of getting out of my way for anything.  Needless to say that after a 4 hour round trip I was exhausted…
• Visited the family of one of my colleagues, south of Phnom Penh in Takeo province, a really beautiful part of the country, but marred with sadness.  We traveled along a 2km stretch of dirt road and both sides of the road were dotted with elderly people and young children begging for food and money.  In all the things I have seen in the past 5 months, this was the thing that broke my heart the most…  It felt like it was from a scene in a movie, when a war is over and people are starving, with their hands held out in absolute desperation for survival.
• Saw a mashed rat on our street and I swear it was as long as my forearm, hand included - it has been turned into flat Stanley - not a pretty site, but was obviously a nice meal for one of the local dogs, as its remains didn’t stay around for too long.  Unfortunately, Fred missed out on seeing it…  I’m sure this will turn into his greatest regret about Cambodia, having not seen the squashed rat.
• We celebrated Fred’s 31st Birthday…  Not to anyone’s surprise we went out for Japanese, tasty, but expensive and sadly not up to par with our favourite Mutsie’s in Northcote.  Looking forward to a visit when we come home for Xmas…
• We celebrated my 31st Birthday…  And again we went for Japanese… What can we say… We’re so predictable some times.
• We moved house… We now live 2 streets from the office, just far enough for me to get away from work, but close enough for me to be able to conveniently walk to work each day.  Our new place is great and the spare room has fresh sheets on the bed for anyone wanting a tropical south east Asian get away…  Anyone? Anyone?

I think that’s about it…  I’m sure we have done a million other little things over the past months, like talk with our local restaurant waiters, great for practicing our Khmer language skills and very entertaining from both sides.  They love us so much now, that every time we go there we get a free mug of beer.  No complaints from us…

Hmmm, maybe I’m forgetting something… What is it?  I remember…

WE’RE ENGAGED!!!

Looking forward to ready your replies from the post and keep the “about times” to a minimum please people.

There are photos to come, but because I am technologically challenged, you will all have to wait for Fred to get his act together to post them.

Over and out until next time (hopefully in less than 2 months time)

Love to you all. xxoo

Posted in Friends and Family, Special events | 2 Comments »

Our trip to Koh Kong

Heya all, sorry its been a while since our last blog entry and we have lots of things to say however we still have internet issues and Pen is working very hard at her new job to keep things rolling along.  We will be upgrading to 3 Gigabytes next month (from 2 Gigabytes/month lol), we found out that Skype uses alot of juice, but we will hopefully talk to you all again soon. 

Since our last entry we have had a nice holiday to Koh Kong (KK) near the Thailand border.  We needed to upgrade our Visa’s from holiday to business and the cheapest way was to head to the border.  It was the annual King’s birthday break from 12/5 to 15/5 so we organised a hotel stay and coach tickets to KK.  Packing two backpacks we headed off early on Wednesday the 13/5.  The trip was 5hrs but was all sealed road, some of you may know previously Cambodia had some horrific dirt roads with heaps of humps and ditch.  We got to see some of the outskirts of the city and the the (very) beautiful landscape. 

We stayed at the newest hotel in town, which we were told had a swimming pool (yay!) and was just a short stroll from the main drag.  Once we arrived we were greeted by many tuk tuk drivers asking us if we wanted a lift.  Lucky I knew it was very close so we politely said “no thank you” and “som toh” which means excuse me or sorry in Khmer. 

The hotel was quite flash but only cost $15/night and we saw the pool, it was nice but right in the middle of the complex.  There was not room to chill by the pool, our room was on the ground level and the pool was 2 meters from our door step.  After getting settled in we took a walk to the main drag and found Fat Sam’s bar.  Sam, who lives up to his restuarants name, was a great bloke and told us what’s what around the place.  He served some great pub food too.  I (more than Pen) was again hanging out for some tasty anglo food, burger and chips, chilliconcarne, bacon and egg sandwich.  I really got my fix on this holiday.

Next we decided we were going to hire a motorbike so we could do our visa run to the border 12km away.  Sam told us that a man named Franky had bikes for hire for $4/day, cheaper than most places.  So we gave him a visit and he was a top bloke as well.  Even “taught” us how to ride the thing, seeing both of us have never ridden a motorbike before lol.  Interestingl, he told us he takes people out to a village nearby for an overnight stay, in the jungle of the Southern Cardamons.  Another guy had already booked into the motorbike tour (35km sealed road and 35km dirt road), lunch by a waterfall in the jungle, visit a remote village and sleep in hammocks in the jungle under a shack on stilts.  We both looked at each other and said yes, this is what we want to do (not really thinking about the fact that we haven’t ridden a motorbike before).

Next day - Visa Run: We thought we might as well get that business out of the road first so we can relax for the rest of the holiday.  So after a few shakey bike practice runs around the town with Penny on the back, we headed out of town for the 12km trip to the border.  Wow the border is a place to see, wish I took a few photos but we thought we may get in trouble.  The place was quite busy, people crossing in both directions, people waiting at the many different stalls you need to go to get your visa, heaps of shops, people loitering, military police, kids assisting border security, the list goes on.  We parked the bike and decided all we were going to do it walk across (100m) into Thailand and turn around and re-enter.  Two and a half hours later -  work visa’s yay lol.

The next day - Jungle Trip:  It was a 6am start so we were up early and cruised up to Franky’s place, a little better on the two wheeler still a bit shaky (Penny was more scared than me… poor girl).  And once we met up with the other guy who was coming with us, Dutch guy, - real nice guy as well, we were off.  Both he and Franky knew I was new to the two wheeler so they looked after us as best they could.  My second day on a bike and I was going on a long trip on and off road with Penny on the back :-)  There’s just something really enjoyable about riding a bike and I’ve never felt it before… still being as cautious as possible with Penny on the back.

The trip on the road was not so bad at all, it was still early and there wasn’t that many cars on the road, the jungle and hills all around us was quite a site.  Not long after we were off road and heading into the jungle on dirt road.  How awesome, it was dense jungle on either side of us and doding puddles and rocks on the dirt road.  It wasn’t long again till the road got more steep and rocky with bigger puddles.  I joked with the others that it was a real bike riding lesson, sealed road first (mostly straight and a few hills) {beginners}, next was dirt road (flat and a few puddles) {intermediate}, then finally dirt road, but very rocky, bumpy, stream crossings, hill climbs and decents {expert} - a real quick “learn how to ride coarse” with Penny still on the back.  She was awesome the whole trip her confidence grew with mine although she copped a few heavy bumps in the back and held for dear life on numerous occasions.  We were both so glad when we finally arrived at our destination.

After a short rest at a small village store and farm we headed to the waterfall.  It was another short ride then a short (but steep) trek through the jungle whilst fending off some leeches.  The waterfall was out of this world and we all had a quick dip in the nice cold water, then had a bit to eat and took a bunch of photos.  After lunch we headed into the village, so crazy, in the middle of nowwhere, basic huts, shops and small wooden shacks on stilts but villagers and farmers cruising around on motorbikes and using mobiles.  I saw 2 mobile phone towers while we were riding!  So raw, but with a few mod cons.  The village was small but the people so friendly….  Such a great experience

Just before dark we headed to our camp which was a small patch under a shack on stilts (after we pickied up some beer).  We collected some fire wood from nearby and setup the hammocks.  These where no ordinary hammocks, they were large and had a built in moskito net, positioned strategically around the camp fire they doubled as seats.  Chilling back once the fire was under control it wasn’t long till Franky’s friends, a local farmer couple and their 5 young kids came to visit.  It was great trying to communicate with them and we all had many laughs.  We took heaps of photos and Penny even taught the eldest girl how to take photos and showed her the results on the  camera playback .  We all had a ball as she snapped photo after photo.  Our new dutch friend went up to the shops to get some more munchies so none of the kids would miss out on treats.  Could the night get any better?

Well after it poured down with rain and started to get dark, mum and the kids headed home for dinner and sleep.  Their father hung out with us for a bit longer and had some more beer before tea.  Soon it was dinner time and Franky pulled out his marinated chops which we talked about throughout the trip.  And did they live up to all the hype! Now everyone was full and tired, it had been a long day…. lights out.  I scared myself to sleep with the eerie sounds of the jungle and thoughts of tigers.   Ohh yeah, we did see a few fire flies in the dead of night which were cool.

The next day we got to sleep in a little then went back to the farm/shop for some coffee before heading back to town.  It was better riding on the way back on the dirt roads, but on one particular hill climb we fell into a ditch in the middle of the road and Penny fell sideways off the bike while I just managed to keep the bike upright.  Penny was ok, and we carried on until we were going down a steepish hill on the sealed road the brake blew and I had to gear down and use the hand break to pull over.  We swapped bikes and got home safely but our bums were so sore from the long ride.

We chilled out in the pool that day and had a nap then went to socialise at Fat Sam’s.  Met a few more really nice people, one guy we met worked in the forrest for a long period of time and he was going back to PP to teach english.  We found out he lives just around the corner so we’ll catch up in the near future.

A great adventure!  I’ve tried uploading the 30 odd photos at a bubble tea restuarant (with free wifi) just around the corner from where we live, thought I could do the lot over lunch with Pen but it was soooo slow.  Don’t know if it didn’t help with the 3 or 4 other guys using the internet there that day but it was slower than dial up speed!  I had to abort.  Promise the photos will be up soon.

Posted in Special events | 1 Comment »

Anzac day, what a day (and night)

The day started after a little sleep in, although sleep in’s are hard to come by here at the apartment.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether its a saturday or sunday morning our neighbours are up, dogs are barking, cats are crying, music’s blaring or theres some construction activity going on.

The big game (Essendon vs Collingwood) was on at 11.30am here, so we had a quick breakfast and called our trusty tuk tuk driver to take us down to the riverfront.   The pub was great, it had a nice pool table,big sceen tv, great bar and furniture.  Although  there wasn’t a big crowd as I expected, expats started rolling in near the beginning of the match.  We soon found out there was 5 Essendon supporters to 1 Collingwood (Penny), but none of us felt bad for her.

Halftime lunch: I couldn’t resist the chicken and mushroom pie with chips and veggies and Penny had the beef lok lak with egg on top.  The menu had many aussie favourites like chicken parmas, hamburgers, chops etc… so no expat can feel homesick.  

I could go on and on about how good the game was and how it was the best match I HAVE EVER seen but I won’t cause this will turn into Fred’s Bomber Blog and most of you will not be pleased including the beautiful girl on my right.  5 mins to go I thought it was all over and I think I started to sulk, however it ended in Hollywood style; Essendon kicking the goal to lead in the dying seconds, the tv cutting out only to connect back after the final siren and me hugging a man I have never met before.  Wooo hoooo.

Well we ended up talking to the guy I hugged and his mate, then started to have a few beers and play pool with them.  They were both Melbourne lads, so we all got along fine.  Later on we found out there was an anzac day party held at another aussie bar so we went there for a BBQ and a few more lagers. 

The place was full of aussies, most working for NGO’s I believe, Penny and I met some great contacts, one in recruiting and one who worked at the local english newspaper.  The BBQ was superb and the night ended with a raffle and two-up.

What a day!  Check the photo gallery for pics of the day

Posted in Special events | 2 Comments »