Tom's Travels

Morning walk along the Rhine

2012-02-04T18:19:00.001+01:00

This morning as I walked along the Rhine the sun was low and provided beautiful color. The Rathaus (city hall) has rich red sandstone but the early morning light made it stand out even more.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T18:32:00.001+01:00

I welcomed the New Year in Basel, Switzerland. The Swiss are sticklers for time, the city’s fireworks launched at exactly midnight.

A million candles

2011-12-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

Tonight more than 100 places in Switzerland displayed candles in support of “Eine Million Sterne,” a Caritas initiative to express solidarity with the poor in Switzerland and around the world. Here are some photos of the candle displays and Christmas lights in the center of Basel’s Old Town.

Tom Fakler Photography website

2011-12-13T20:00:00.000+01:00

I have just revamped my photography website.

There are new photos from recent trips, take a look.

In doing this, I had to change the location of photos for this blog, so you may have received an e-mail announcing the again.

Please let me know what you think of the site!

View camera on the High Line

2011-11-19T15:29:00.002+01:00

While strolling the High Line in New York City a few weeks ago, we came across a young lady photographing with a 4 x 5 view camera. I assume she was trying to capture the light and shadow on the building on the right.

Light and shadow

2011-11-13T02:00:00.002+01:00

The windows of the old restored New England sheep barn where we stayed recently has old glass panes which distort the light. Your eyes do not see it but the shadows show the distortion.

Desolation

2011-11-11T16:37:00.002+01:00

The dictionary defines desolation as "empty, bare, uninhabited, deserted, alone and solitary"; these are all words that you could use to describe Wadi Rum. You could also describe it as peaceful, tranquil, serene and a great place for contemplation.

Natural bridges, Wadi Rum

2011-11-06T02:00:00.004+01:00

There are some rock climbing areas in Wadi Rum, the closest we got to these were two natural bridges.

Camel ride at sunrise

2011-11-04T02:00:00.008+01:00

We hired four camels and a driver to have subjects for our desert photos. The camels showed up at 06:30 and we were ready to go by 07:00.

Camels don’t walk very fast but if you take a photo of them and then want to get back in front of them and set up for the next shot, they seem to be moving very fast.

Setting out in the morning

Godan the camel

2011-11-02T02:00:00.005+01:00

While in Wadi Rum Anita and I had the opportunity to ride camels. Anita was very lucky: she rode Godan, the youngest camel. Godan is about two years old and looked and felt like a very large soft toy.

The only problem with Godan was that he wanted to stop at every bush for breakfast. Anita was unable to get him going again after he stopped. The camel driver finally tied Godan to the camel ahead of him.

Godan with Anita aboard.

Jerash, Jordan: Roman column city

2011-10-30T21:05:00.007+01:00

I have always admired Roman architecture, but when Anita and I visited Jerash in northern Jordan, I developed a deeper understanding of how important columns were to Roman architecture.

The city has two main streets lined with columns; the longer of the two leads into the Oval Plaza, which is defined by columns.

The Oval Plaza

Typical capstone

The two main streets

Columns in front of the temple of Artemis

Petra Sandstone

2011-10-28T02:00:00.009+02:00

Petra was carved by the Nabataeans because it was easier to carve sandstone than to build with it. In my view it also gave a very nice interior finish to the caves.

Take a look at some of the sandstone in Petra.

Smoking in Jordan

2011-10-26T02:00:00.007+02:00

In the USA smoking is banned in most restaurants; in Jordan it’s on the menu, yes, many menus have a page listing the flavors of shesha you can order. Shesha is the tobacco that is smoked in a Hooka pipe (water pipe). I was quite surprised to see it so prevalent in Jordan.

I had dinner and watched people having a great time at Haret Jdoudna restaurant in Madaba, there were several people smoking.

Pipes ready to go

Glowing embers are placed on top of the foil which is on top of the tobacco.

Smokers enjoying their pipes

Crossing the road

2011-10-25T02:00:00.004+02:00

In Jordan as in Morocco, old ways meet new; I saw an example of this while driving near Madaba. As I drove along a wide busy highway I saw a goat herder bring his charges up to the edge of the road and order them to stop. They obeyed like a line of school children waiting to cross the road. As the flock waited for an opening in traffic, one of the goats stepped onto the shoulder, just like boys in a school clas. The shepherd threw a rock at it and the animal hopped back up on the curb.

It was a very busy road and I did not have the patience to wait for a break in traffic to observe and photograph the goats actually crossing the road.

What a difference a day makes

2011-10-24T02:00:00.005+02:00

What a difference a day made in Madaba, Jordan.
The photos on the left were taken one day and the ones on the right hand, the next. A sandstorm had blown in from the Saudi Arabian desert.

Basel at night

2011-10-23T09:23:00.005+02:00

The other night with a full moon I went out to take a few photos of Basel, Switzerland.
Basel Munster

Bridges over the Rhine

Les Trois Rois hotel

Day trip to Meknes, Morocco

2011-09-18T11:46:00.005+02:00

While refurbishing our old house, Dar Borj Dahab, in the Fez medina, Anita and I took a day trip to Meknes, which is only a 30 minute train ride from Fez.

Place el-Hedim in the Meknes medina is great for people watching.

In the ceramics souk we found a sea of tajines, traditional ceramic cooking vessels.

Just around the corner there were rows upon rows of babouches, traditional Moroccan shoes.

Inside, the covered market is filled with spices, olives, sweets and dried fruit.

As I watched the couple strolling around Place el-Hedim I wondered if they were looking for tagines, babouches or something from the spice market.

Mobile phone recharge

2011-08-26T00:15:00.002+02:00

Every time I get a new mobile phone sim card it comes with a different recharge process and codes. When we arrived in Morocco, I picked up a new Maroc Telecom card with just a few dirham’s worth of time on it. I had forgotten that Maroc Telecom does not provide coverage in the ground floor rooms of Dar Borj Dahab.

When the time on the card ran out I purchased a Meditel sim card because Meditel provides better coverage throughout the house. The card came with 30 dirham of time. I’m set!

I put the chip in and tried to call. It did not work! I listened to the message which was in Darija (Moroccan Arabic). I understood two things: first, from the message, I assumed that I could press 1 for an option, but no idea what the option was; and second, that I would not be using the phone until someone helped me change the language from Darija to French.

When our house manager Mouanis came over, it took him about ten minutes and two calls from another phone to get the sim card working, but finally I had a working phone.

After making a few brief calls I checked the credit remaining. With just 10 Dirham left, it was time to recharge, so I purchased a 20 Dirham recharge card at the corner store.

The Meditel recharge card is the red sliver pictured below a credit card. The instructions were in a font that was so small neither Anita nor I could read it. I tried to send a text message with the recharge code as I would have done with a Maroc Telecom recharge. That did not work. Ok we need help on this too.

Our plasterer Abdelkader was about to leave after work, so I asked if he could help. Abdelkader, who speaks Darija, Spanish and a little French, said “Ok”. He looked at the instructions on the recharge card and dialed the access code 555. He realized my phone was set to French so he dialed 555 on his Meditel phone and then pushed the numbers on my phone to match what he was hearing in Darija on his phone.

It worked.

Beng Mealea

2011-08-23T01:23:00.008+02:00

While we were in Siem Reap, ABOUTAsia recommended two temples that made up a half day trip, Banteay Srei and Beng Mealea. These photos are from Beng Mealea.

Banteay Srei

2011-08-22T01:09:00.002+02:00

While we were in Siem Reap, ABOUTAsia recommended two temples that made up a half day trip, Banteay Srei and Beng Mealea. These photos are from our first stop in Banteay Srei.

Angkor without the crowds

2011-08-21T16:57:00.002+02:00

Yes, I am in Fez, Morocco, this post and the next few are from Anita’s and my trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia.

It is hard to make good photos with if there are hordes of tourists in the way, how do you avoid them at a popular site like Angkor?

Anita contacted ABOUTAsia, a tour agency in Siem Reap who set up a two day itinerary and guide for us. The requirements were to be at the right place at the right time but not to be with the hordes of tourists. They did a great job. The staff at ABOUTAsia all have a scientific background and have studied visit patterns to Angkor and know where and when the hordes will be and can send you to areas that are relatively tourist free.

We were only 100 meters away and were the only people there. It was not the guide’s fault that the sky did not cooperate.

Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and unlike many, his presentation was smooth and did not sound as if he was reciting. He interjected pertinent facts at just the right time.

Because both Anita and I had been to Angkor before, we wanted to see some of the more remote temples. ABOUTAsia recommended two temples that made up a half-day to trip, Banteay Srei and Beng Mealea.

Here are photos from the Angkor complex.

Mr. Tom, a Big Welcome!

2011-07-28T02:00:00.009+02:00

After over a year volunteering in Cambodia, I am back in Fez. Anita of Anita’s feast offers her view of our return to the Fez medina.

* * *

Mr. Tom, a Big Welcome!

It’s been more than a year away from Morocco for Tom. He’d previously spent the better part of two years on-site here, managing the restoration of our 400-year-old house in the Fez medina, before leaving for Cambodia. Not surprisingly, he made many friends during his time in Fez. Heart warmingly, they remembered him and as soon as they got a glimpse of us toting suitcases from a Petit Taxi, came running with bear hugs and Moroccan kisses of welcome. On our first foray through the medina, there were greetings on all sides.

Walking through the oldest part of the Medina, we stopped to chat with several shopkeepers, and the friendly warka maker in the souk around the corner from our house.

We spotted carossas taking a break from ferrying goods into the pedestrian-only streets. The moment we stepped into the Medina, our neighbors were giving directions to the fellow who was loading our suitcases into his carossa.

While standing beside the R’cif roundabout waiting for a taxi, I thought I heard someone call out “Tom!” “Tom!” I was not imaging things…It was Abdelrahim, owner of the local hardware shop we’ve frequented ever since coming to the medina. In a moment, we were admiring telephone photos of Abdelrahim’s daughter. Miriam, born not long before Tom left Fez the last time, will turn two next month.

Our favorite fruit vendor introduced his son, grown in our absence big enough to run the shop with his dad. The boy weighed up grapes on the balance scale, made change and waved us on like the little businessman he’s become.

We’ll have numerous opportunities to reconnect with old friends over the coming weeks in Fez, but it will be hard to top an extraordinary Fassi welcome extended to Mr. Tom.

Ponytail helmet

2011-07-25T02:19:00.003+02:00

In Hanoi, there were several women wearing what looks to be a very functional invention, the ponytail helmet. What, you have never seen one.

In Vietnam, helmets are required and there does not appear to be any manufacturing standards. Helmets are not only required but they are a part of one’s outfit. We spotted helmets being sold in a hat shop.

Ponytail helmets more than regular helmets are a mark of style.

Vietnam cover-up

2011-07-21T13:39:00.002+02:00

In Saigon, Anita and I noticed many people riding motos wearing face masks; we assumed it was to filter out polluted air, even though the air seemed fine.

We wondered why the masks were so large, some continued down over the neckline onto the shoulders and chest.

In Hanoi, we noticed even more women wearing face masks than in Saigon.

Some of them were wearing not only masks, but also helmets, huge sunglasses and lightweight windbreakers with extensions to the arms, covering the hands.

We asked a young man traveling on our tour to Halong Bay if he could explain all the cover-ups. He responded women in Vietnam are serious about protecting their skin from the sun, they do not want to get dark skin. OK, that makes sense; all of the skin creams advertized appear to have a whitener in them.

Hanoi street food

2011-07-10T02:34:00.001+02:00

There were several things we wanted to see and do in Hanoi, Uncle Ho's mausoleum, try several restaurants, and generally explore the city. First on the list was Pho at a local restaurant, we asked the desk clerk and he gave us directions to the most authentic and best local Pho spot in Hanoi, he said it was small and on the street. We walked to the area where we thought it was and found three people eating Pho sitting on the smallest stools I have ever seen.

The woman serving was sitting under a large umbrella, clients were sitting next to a building. After asking the price and joined the people other clients.

When lunch was served, we set the bowl of soup on one of the small stools using it like a table, this put the soup about ankle height which made us bending over to take a bite (slurp using chopsticks). The Pho came with a plastic bowl full of leaves that could be added to our soup, which we placed on another stool.

The soup was good. The other clients got a chuckle having us eat with them and take photos.

On to Hanoi

2011-07-07T13:50:00.002+02:00

Our initial plan was to take the train from Saigon to Hanoi, but the train ride from Saigon to Hoi An changed that. While in Hoi An we purchased two tickets on Vietnam Airlines from Hue to Hanoi in hope the flight would be more comfortable than the train.

The day after looking around Hue, we packed up early and went to the airport for a 07:30 flight to Hanoi. When we got there we found out that we only had one reservation. We asked about later flights that day, they were all full until the 10:00 PM flight. What happened? The reservation document we had looked official and it said two tickets. Somehow, there was only one reservation in the airline's computer.

After much discussion we decided to stay at the airport waiting for possible standby seats on the midday flight. Would we get lucky? I was told there were a lot of free seats on the 10 PM flight, we decided to not purchase the 10 PM tickets and try for standby seats on the midday flight. The mid day flight boarded, no seats for us!

After the flight took off, I asked about the 10 PM flight, I was told there are NO seats on it. WHAT, earlier I was told there was a lot of space. By this time we knew where the Vietnam Airlines management office was, I went there and asked what to do. After a long discussion, two seats opened up. One in coach and one in business class, I said we would take them. That meant that one of us would go business and the other coach. At least we would get there.

We called our hotel in Hanoi and revised our arrival time for the second time. This time we would arrive at 11:20 PM.

We were the first people in line for the flight. We hated to leave our airport home for the day NOT!!

At check in we asked if we could upgraded the coach ticket to business class, no problem, there's lots of space. We quickly upgrade and were finally on our way.

Incense along the road

2011-07-04T02:02:00.002+02:00

In Hue, Vietnam, Anita and I decided to rent bicycles and look around, we headed south to the tomb of Tu Duc, the longest-reigning Nguyen emperor. On the map the route seemed short and flat, unfortunately, it was not flat, with a WHEEEE we went down the first hill and then realized we had to go back up the same amount we had just came down; with some effort we peddled up and were on the flat again. When we reached the top, we spotted a very colorfully display that we thought was incense, come to find out it was just the sticks the incense is placed on.

It was early morning and the shop keeper was not yet available, we went to the next shop to take a photo of her display and were shooed away. We were back on the bicycles toward the tomb, and found several more shops with similar displays. We met a woman who was setting up to make incense by hand. She had a large mass of incense on a slanted narrow table, she wrapped a little around the stick and then twirled the sick and rolled the flat device to pull the incense from the pile, all the time working to cover the stick. She was fast.

She spoke very little English but gave Anita a short course in making incense sticks.

Anita said she thinks she should stick to her day job, rolling incense sticks did not come naturally.

Train from Da Nang to Hue

2011-06-30T01:39:00.005+02:00

I know you would think that we would NOT ride the Vietnamese trains after the last experience. But we decided to take the train from Da Nang to Hue; this journey is only three hours and goes along the Vietnamese coast, and really has spectacular scenery.

We arrived at the station early; I wanted to take a few photos of the train. The doors opened to the platform for a North to South train and I went out and started to photograph, always vigilant for guards saying No Photos. I walked to the end of the yard and back.

Yes, it is a government run train, there were many people standing around supervising.

When I returned to the doors that I had come out of, they were locked and there was no one around! Hummm, I know the door will open when our train is called but I would like to go back inside and sit down. I was looking around and a vendor pointed to a door down the tracks a little, it was a small shop and inside there was a door into the waiting room.

We boarded the train about noon; watching vendors up and down the station sell everything from treats for the ride to gifts for relatives.

The seats were the same, way too small but I knew it was only a short journey. The scenery was spectacular. The photos were taken through rather dirty windows. The coast was beautiful, we were traveling along a single track that was at times perched on the edge of the hills.

The train descended and we rode past several bays where fish were being raised.

This train journey was ok, but we still decided to fly to Hanoi.

Sanitary conditions – not really

2011-06-28T02:31:00.006+02:00

While walking though the Kandal market looking for a particular breakfast dish, noodle soup with green sauce, I must have seen 20 other things for breakfast but not what I was looking for.

I was getting hot and tired and turned toward an exit, along the narrow aisles I saw a young child moving chairs around for customers. This vendor happened to have what I was looking for; I looked at the conditions of the stall, and decided that the sanitary conditions were below my very low standards. I know it is hard to believe that I have standards after living in Cambodia for over a year, I do, they are very low but this stall did not measure up.

A little further on, I watched a boy back his moto out of the market, just about knocking over a person and a vendor's stand. As I made it to the street there was a vendor selling what I was looking for. She was dishing up from one of the pots on her bamboo yoke. I looked at this arrangement, not seeing a seat and the conditions of the water she was using to wash the dishes, I again decided to pass.

I went home without breakfast.

Fishing village Duy Hai

2011-06-26T01:50:00.005+02:00

Anita and I signed up for a sunrise photographic tour of Duy Hai, a small fishing village, with Etienne Bossot of Hoi An Photo Tours. We were picked up before sunrise, on the ferry just about the time the sun came over the horizon. The boat ride was smooth and short. The photo below is later ferry, not ours.

Etienne was a very good leader, he gave instruction to those who asked for it and had his assistant David lead the rest of us to the most promising areas for photos.

Duy Hai is a village of about 2,000 people at the mouth of the Thu Bon river who's livelihood is based on catching and processing fish to be shipped to China.

Conical hats are an iconic image of Vietnam; I never had any idea how hard it is to photograph a conical hat. Because of the shape, they are almost always reflecting sunlight and therefore burned out to white. How then do I create a portrait of someone wearing a conical hat without having the hat overpower the face? After some trial and error, I came up with the solution, you shoot from below, get the face and the underside of the hat. In the portrait below shooting from below worked, unfortunately, the sky did not cooperate.

There were two other items that caught my attention other than portraits, coracles (the round boats) and

fish processing plant and drying process.

For more photos from the day, click here.

Lanterns

2011-06-24T02:15:00.009+02:00

Lanterns must come from the Chinese influence, I saw two types of lanterns in Hoi An; decorative hanging and floating lanterns.

Lanterns decorate the modern bridge across the Thu Bon river, and many places in town.

There are numerous shops making and selling lanterns.

Every evening as the sun sets several floating lantern sellers congregate next to the river. You can purchase a lantern and set afloat downstream. Unfortunately there were never enough floating down stream to make a photo.

Old bridge in Hoi An

2011-06-22T02:21:00.003+02:00

There is an old bridge in the old city, it is not large but the architecture and details are worthy of a visit.

For details of the bridge, click here.

The bridge spans a small canal that flows into Thu Bon River.

Looking onto the bridge from the old town.

Pagoda in the bridge.

Looking onto the bridge at night

Hoi An

2011-06-20T02:02:00.005+02:00

The train stopped in Da Nang, we knew it was only a shot bus ride to our destination Hoi An. After Saigon we were weary of taxi's right outside the station. We were standing looking around getting our bearings and a man approached us and four more foreigners, all of were looking for the bus station. He was a minivan driver, he had to pay to park his van at the station but it was a block away and he would take all of us to Hoi An for a reasonable price. We all agreed and off we went. This ride would be about the same price as the bus and shorter.

The ride to the edge of Hoi An's old city was about 30 minutes; it was about a 15 minute walk to the hotel. As we crossed the bridge over the river that separates the old town from the new town, we were set upon by two professional hustlers. I took this photo and then the requests for money started. We hurried along to our hotel.

Anita would be in a class tomorrow from Tranh Diem Vy at Morning Glory Cooking School, we decided to go to the restaurant for dinner. Dinner was a great start to the Morning Glory experience, Anita and I were fighting over the stuffed squid it was so good.

After dinner we walked around the riverside area of the old town. There are several beautiful old French colonial buildings.

Vietnamese trains

2011-06-18T02:40:00.004+02:00

Anita and I like train travel and the web site The Man in Seat Sixty-One had some very good things to say about Vietnamese trains. Our plan was to take the train from Saigon to Hanoi with intermediate stops.

The web site said you needed to book early, it was certainly right. I tried to book a soft sleeper from Saigon the Da Nang four days in advance and they were all booked. There were two top bunks available in a hard sleeper, I decided that we would take soft seats for this stretch of the journey.

We boarded the train about 23:00 and headed into the night, I soon learned that soft seat is not an accurate name, they are not soft and they are very short. I'm six feet tall and these seats are made from someone about 4 and a half feet tall. If I pushed back in the seat my head was a foot above the headrest. The other end was also a bit of a problem; my knees were in the back to the seat in front of me.

This was not a problem for the lady in the seat ahead of me, she gave her seat to her son and she curled up on the floor. I gave that a lot of thought but I decided against it.

It was a long night, the lights stayed on until about 04:00. I have been known to sleep in all conditions; this was a real challenge even for me.

There was an advantage on the train over the buses in Cambodia, the TV screen volume was not very loud.

During the morning part of the journey I walked around and looked at the soft sleepers. Another misnomer, hard rack would be more like it. The base of the bunk was metal with a 1/2 inch mattress on it.

There were other things that The Man In Seat 61 said that were not true on the trains we traveled on, leading me to believe that he has never been on a Vietnamese train.

Rainy season sort of in Cambodia

2011-06-16T01:15:00.006+02:00

This year the dry season ended a month or more early and the rainy season has sort of started. We have been having short blasts of rain every few days. When the rainy season decides to really settle in, this will be a daily occurrence.

If you have ever lived in a tropical area, you know what real rain can be. In about 15 minutes the street has filled with water. Part of that is due to a large volume of rain and the other is people plug the drains to prevent the smell from coming out during the dry season.

My kitchen is on the west side of the building, and my small window has a tendency to let in rain when there is a wind from the west. Next to the window, decorative ventilation holes in the wall let cool air in and hot air out. But they also let in water when there is a west wind. I had the opportunity to mop the kitchen floor this afternoon because with the rain there was a west wind.

Pho Vietnamese noodle soup

2011-06-14T02:29:00.012+02:00

Pho is a national dish in Vietnam and is Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Vietnamese basil, lime, bean sprouts that are added to the soup by the diner. One of our goals was to try this meal. Guide books and the doorman at out hotel pointed us to one of the many PHO 24 restaurants in Saigon, "this one has the best pho in the city".

Traditional Pho is normally served with beef or chicken but at PHO 24 there are many options; Anita had a deer-in-the-headlights look when presented with all of the options. It was very helpful to have pictures of everything.

Pho comes with vegetables that can be added to the soup

It was great!

Wandering around Saigon’s ChinaTown

2011-06-12T03:14:00.002+02:00

After visiting several pagodas, Anita and I happened on one of the numerous street market, which was very much like a street market in Cambodia, vendors hiding from the intense sun under huge umbrellas.

There was the standard sleeping vendor

Fish and fruit vendors

People making snacks, we stopped to watch a young lady make small white balls coated with a green sticky covering. Of course none of us spoke the others language so we do not know what it was called or contained. We watched as the young lady carefully cooked the green sticky covering on a banana leaf grill, yes the grill was a banana leaf stretched over a dish of hot water with a heat source below it.

To me the snack did not have any flavor but it was fun to watch her make them.

Saigon Chinatown pagoda

2011-06-10T02:38:00.003+02:00

Pagodas in Saigon appear to be just for worship, as compared to in Cambodia where they house monks and schools. There were several pagodas listed in the guide book and we visited three. The temples are actively used for worship, we saw numerous people making offerings and praying.

Each pagoda had a large number of places people could light incense and in some there were large sticks and huge coils burning. Smoke from the incense was a great photographic topic but very hard to capture well.

Decorations in the pagodas were very detailed and done in the most part with bright colors. In Quan Am Pagoda there are two sections and between them there is an outside fountain.

Traffic in Vietnam

2011-06-08T02:09:00.003+02:00

Before my trip to Vietnam, Cambodians told me that traffic in Vietnam was much worse than in Cambodia, so when I stepped out of the bus in Saigon, I was wary of crossing the street. What a surprise, for me the traffic in Vietnam was much easier to deal with than in Cambodia, in Vietnam for the most part motos and cars go the same direction on their side of the street and stop for stop lights, stop signs are another matter.

There were the standard large loads

Bicycles seemed to be more prevalent in Vietnam than Cambodia, in Cambodia motos still rule.

Streets are still clogged from time to time, at the end of the school day streets will be packed with parents waiting to pick up their children. Women in business clothing chatting on their mobile phones with two children hopping on the moto, fathers looking boarded, the moto is the Vietnamese SUV.

The motos are used to transport just about everything.

Vietnamese Pancake

2011-06-06T02:19:00.002+02:00

Some time ago, colleagues at DDD asked me if I wanted to go with them to have Vietnamese pancakes for lunch. OK, I did not know what it was but I might as well try it.

What a Vietnamese pancake looks like is a large omelet with pork and bean sprouts. I really enjoyed mine.

In Vietnam I attended a cooking class with Anita and learned that a Vietnamese pancake is not an omelet at all, it doesn't contain any eggs. The outside is made of rice flower and the color comes from turmeric. The trick to making a really good Vietnamese pancake is to have a well seasoned wok, have it hot when you coat it with batter and make sure that your batter covers the wok evenly. Then you let it cook until it is just about crispy then add the filling. Flip it in half and let it cook a little to warm the filling.

Anita and I went to a restaurant where Vietnamese pancake were their specialty, there were about as many fillings as you could imagine.

Pancakes are eaten with leafy greens, my colleagues showed me how to use a lettuce leaf like I used hubsa (Moroccan bread) to grab and hold part of the pancake. You can also add other types of green leaves (don't ask me what they all were) for additional flavoring.

Saigon night market

2011-06-04T01:46:00.021+02:00

When the Ben Thanh the large market in central Saigon packs up for the evening; a night markets spring up on the streets outside. In the early evening, vendors start to do their evening setup.

In an hour or two there are hundreds of stalls ready for the evening crowd. One of the specialties at the restaurant we tried was shrimp steamed in coconut milk. This must be very popular, they had several sitting ready to go.

Out front this restaurant has grills and a man making a round bread, he fries it in a wok of hot oil and it grows and grows until it is a little smaller than a soccer ball. We did not try it but I will next time.

Along the street all of the shops move their wares out onto the street, it's a very lively and a bit chaotic, but definitely fun.

Trip to Vietnam

2011-06-02T10:43:00.001+02:00

Anita and I decided to take two weeks traveling in Vietnam from Saigon to Hanoi because, the last time I was in Vietnam was over 35 years ago when I evacuated refugees just before the fall to the North.

We took the Mekong Express bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon. I thought I knew where the bus station was in Phnom Penh, I was wrong, luckily it was only 100 meters from where I thought it was.

Mekong Express is much nicer than either the Capital or Sorya local buses, it still has the annoying karaoke. The bus ride was about six hours with a ferry crossing and rest stop. On the ferry there were vendors selling fruit, the rest stop had a nice array for items.

The bus dropped us off near on the edge of a large park in central Saigon, we were not sure which side of the park we were on. We asked the bus attendant and she said "just a minute", then she got in a taxi and left. I guess we're on our own; we looked for street signs, they were a little scarce. We finally decided to take a taxi, we knew it was not far to the hotel. I would go into the details of how we got ripped off but suffice it to say we paid $20 for a $1 distance. When we went out the next day the door man gave us a list of reputable taxi companies.

Update

2011-05-27T04:26:00.002+02:00

No, I did not have another moto accident I have just been too busy to blog.

Anita of Anita's Feast was here for six weeks and has headed back to Switzerland. While she was here we traveled for two weeks through Vietnam from Saigon to Hanoi. She cooked in Saigon, Hoi An (half way up the coast) and Hanoi and I photographed.

While in Hoi An, on the Vietnamese coast we took a early morning photo tour of a small fishing village with Hoi An Photo Tours Etienne Bossot

While in Hanoi, we took a boat trip to Halong Bay a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

When we returned to Phnom Penh, I was back at work and she had some time to look around Phnom Penh. Last week the NGO I am working for had a retreat in Siem Reap and Anita accompanied me to Siem Reap. We stayed in Siem Reap a few days after the retreat to; you guessed it, cook and photograph. Beng Mealea was the last temple we visited

Back in Phnom Penh I am back to work sort of speak. My contract with DDD ends at the end of the month. I did not take all of my vacation so I am on vacation until the end of the month. During this time, I will be updating my web site, looking for photographic work and sending out resume's looking for something new to do.

A unique pagoda

2011-04-09T01:00:00.001+02:00

Some weeks ago I was reading about an area where Tonley Sap (the river) and the Mekong come together. It described a pagoda in the shape of a boat. About three weeks ago I walked around the area but did not see that pagoda. On the same trip I passed a kilometer long stretch of houses build on stilts on the edge Tonley Sap, it looked like several of these houses were being taken down.

Yesterday I took my moto out to look around and went to the same area. The kilometer stretch of houses along Tonley Sap has been cleared of houses. This is only on the river side of the dirt road.

There was an article in the paper some time ago about the lack clear ownership on land because of the lack of records during the Khmer Rouge time and the corruption forcing people from their land. I don't know if this was the case here.

I followed Tonley Sap a few kilometers beyond where I had gone the first time and I found the pagoda in the shape of a boat.

The pagoda area is raised and there steps up into the compound. I did not want to park my moto outside, so I decided to try to drive up the board going up the steps. The first was not very good. I backed off and luckily two young men helped me get it up the second time.

The pagoda is truly in the shape of a boat with a tree in the boat. Inside I found a monks robe and a piece of traditional cloth laying on the edge of the river that surrounded the pagoda. I did not see any monks but I did hear chanting, there were several people cleaning up.

Shoe repair down the road

2011-04-07T01:25:00.001+02:00

On Saturday, I took an hour plus walk around a slightly different part of town. I passed several interesting sights. When I got home and took off my repaired sandals, I noticed is had a sore spot on the ball of my right foot. After some investigation I found that the patch over the thong hold had a raised edge and my foot had been rubbing on it. the blister is not large but is a bit painful because I step on it often.

This afternoon I took my sandals back to the repair man and pointed the problem out. He said no problem and went to sanding the patch down. When I came back after shopping he cut the patch down and the felt OK.

Again, I will tell you how they are after I have put a kilometer or two on them.

A NEW RECORD 7

2011-04-05T02:01:00.001+02:00

I have seen four young men on one moto, three on the seat and one sitting in front of the driver.

I have seen a moto loaded with the family for a vacation.

The other day my colleague Ammar and I were chatting and I what was the maximum number of people he had seen on a moto. He said "six". I was impressed the most I had ever seen was five.

Today I set a new record, there was a family of seven on a moto. The father was driving; he had two toddlers in front of him. Mom was on the way back, it looked like she was trying to nurse an infant, and she had two more toddlers between her and pop.

I saw the moto stopped at a light. I counted them once and said to myself, "that can't be" I counted them again, yes "seven". Then I counted to make sure I had all of the heads. There were really seven on one moto.

I had been shopping in the Russian marked and did not have a camera. I really wanted a photo of this.

Stone carving

2011-04-03T02:44:00.001+02:00

My daughters might like to see the hand work done not far from my house. On street 178 just off of Nonrandom there are four or five stone carving shops. Yes, they start with a large or small block of stone and carve it into some very intricate designs. I have seen other locations along the highway to Siam Reap where they carve large items, about the size of an old Volkswagen.

Near my house the largest piece I have seen is about four feet tall, that's not small when you think it has been chiseled out of solid stone.

The carvers in Cambodia come by their talent from a long line of carvers. The Angkor complex has thousands of carvings. Below is only a very small sample.

The work is mostly done with traditional tools. It is slow work.

In addition to carving more artistic items they carve signs of all sizes from very large to signs for house numbers.

Shoe repair shop Cambodian style

2011-04-01T01:50:00.002+02:00

When I departed Switzerland for Cambodia, I knew it would be warm here and my footwear should be sandals. I brought two pair and a pair of running shoes. The running shoes have not had as much use as I would like but the heat makes it hard for me to run, my sandals on the other hand have carried the load. Of the two pair, I have one pair that I have used most of the time, last week I noticed they were getting a little more than worn, time for a fix up.

I remembered passing a shoe repair shop on my to the Orussey market, why not give it a try. I put on my second pair of sandal, packed the worn pair in my backpack and headed to see what I could work out. The shop was open, and as expected the man did not speak any English. He did understand that I wanted new leather on the inside.

I thought he may have some leather available, he did, he pulled out the leather from another large leather flip flop type of sandal. How could I tell, it was the shape of a sandal, it had stitching round the edge and there was a hole where the leather top went into the base between the large toe and the others.

He placed it on my sandal and it looked like it would work. I asked when it would be done, expecting tomorrow some time, and he said 5:00, that was about 45 minutes. Great.

I walked around the market, purchased fish for dinner and bananas and rice cooked in the banana leaf. I arrived back the shoe repair at about 4:45. When I returned the man was still working on one shoe. He was cutting and putting a small piece of leather over the hole in the new leather where the flip flop part had been.

The repair was a little expensive, I am sure it was tourist price, $3.00. I will tell you how well it works down the road.

Fresh pork in the market

2011-03-30T01:01:00.001+02:00

Pork is my meat of choice in Cambodia and I think that is the case for many others. When I go through the market, there are numerous stalls selling fresh pork, every cut of pork you can think of and some that are new to me.

The woman is selling just about everything from the pig except the squeal, you can see tails, liver, intestines, raw bacon and many other cuts laid out on a reed mat.

In the next photo you can see brains laying on lotus leaves, it looks like intestines in the red plastic bag and pig ears on the right.

In the last photo, the lady is trying to shave the hair off of raw bacon.

I know this is the way it goes for meet in the market, I don't think on any of this while I am having my pork and rice breakfast.

Children on motos

2011-03-28T02:29:00.002+02:00

In Cambodia the major means of transport is the moto, I have several posts on motos, this one is about children riding on motos. Children start riding motos very early, I have seen several that were newborn being held by mom as dad drove. The child below is not a lot older.

This photo has the whole family aboard. I have been told that there is a law that you can only have two people on a moto. Now what constitutes a person may be up for discussion

By the time children in Cambodia can walk their balance must be very good or they would not be able to ride on the moto. I have seen two or three children very scabbed up, it looked like they had fallen off of a moto.

The next photo is one of the only times I have seen a parent and child with a helmet. Would this be legal in the USA?

The child is riding on a box of water bottles, no problem he fits.

Children have to learn to balance early so they can ride. I have seen several children riding looking like they are very bored with the whole process. I guess they ask the standard question, are we there yet?

Ice

2011-03-26T02:48:00.012+01:00

In a recent post on worms I discussed hygiene conditions in street kitchens, not to beat a dead horse to death but I will show a little of how ice is handled on the street. The ice that is in iced coffee, in tea, on your vegetables and that cools your fruit and meat.
Ice comes in long blocks about a meter long 20 cm by 15 cm, unfortunately I don't know how much that weighs. You can see that a load of 26 blocks looks quite heavy.

When it is delivered there are no special precautions taken it make sure it stays clearn.

The lady in the photo below has sawed 1/3 of the way through the block with the saw that she is using as a hammer. She taps on the rusty ax with the saw (hammer) and the blocks pops into two pieces. She is well practiced at this.

Depending upon what the ice will be used for she may saw a small slit in it to allow her to tie it up with a handle

So it can be carried home

If the ice is destine for the crusher, it is only cut in the length that the customer needs. It is then fed into the old rusty crusher which spits it out into an ice sack that has been used many times for holding crushed ice. This is where the ice in your coffee or tea comes from.

Iced tea or coffee anyone?

Home delivery Cambodian style

2011-03-24T02:23:00.004+01:00

I was walking around my neighborhood and came across the home delivery lady. It is a little different from the fancy delivery provided by Whole Foods but it be it is considerably cheaper and the selection is a bit limited but.

This lady only has fruit and vegetables; I have seen some that include meat and some that have a three wheeled cart with a much larger selection.

This delivery lady has bananas, a reddish sweet potato, a type of bean and most importantly a friendly smile for her customers.

The next photo shows a lady with a plastic container with meat on top of the vegetables. I wonder what happens if the bicycle tips over. I think I know.

Street vendors normally do not ride the bicycle, they just push it around to carry their load.

Restaurant down the alley

2011-03-22T02:02:00.003+01:00

Anita and I will be going to Vietnam next month for two weeks so I have been reading the Lonely Planet guidebook on Vietnam. The guide book talks about street food and gives advice to only eat where there a lot of motos, where the main dish is served from a very large pot indicating they sell a lot of this dish every day and don't drink the tea, because the tea glasses are most likely not washed between customers.

For breakfast this morning I went the restaurant down my alley, the place was packed, I checked out that they were serving from large containers, "Yes", lots of motos "Yes", lots of people "Yes" the only qualification is they are college age. My standard restaurant makes the grade in Vietnam.

I ordered the usual rice and pork, it seemed to take forever, and I decided to have a cup of tea. I took a tea cup that was turned upside down in the red plastic drainer, poured a cup of hot tea. There was one lone piece of tea bark in the cup along with very weak tea. I sipped for a while because the flavor is something akin to an old sock. They strain the tea leaves with cloth and I can only taste the cloth.

Breakfast arrives, it was extra tasty today, and it may be that I have not had rice and pork for three or four days. As I was savoring breakfast the husband came by and cleaned dishes from the table, as he did he picked up a used tea cup, tossed the remaining contents on the ground and set the tea cup upside down in the red plastic drainer. The same cup holder I had taken my cup from.

Hummm I guess the restaurant down the alley is more similar to Vietnamese restaurants than I thought.

Independence monument

2011-03-20T03:00:00.001+01:00

Independence monument is at the intersection of the two main streets in Phnom Penh, Norodom Boulevard which runs north and south and Sihanouk which runs east and west. It is a major landmark for instructions on where to go. The monument was built in 1958 and is based on the form of lotus-shaped stupa, of the style seen at the great Khmer temple at Angkor Wat and other Khmer historical sites.

You can see that the top of the monument is shaped like the lotus flower.

Decorations around the top of the monument are Mythical serpents, or nāgas, that represent an important motif in Khmer architecture as well as in free-standing sculpture. They are frequently depicted as having multiple heads, always uneven in number, arranged in a fan. Each head has a flared hood, in the manner of a cobra.

Below is a nagas in front of a temple near Kampong Cham.

With the dry season about to start the blue sky in these photos will be some of the last I will have for some months.

Kitchen at the end of my alley

2011-03-18T01:06:00.001+01:00

For breakfast I go to the restaurant just 50 meters down my alley. The family has turned the ground floor of their house into a restaurant. They server from about 06:00 to about 14:00, the menu is always the same, you guessed it rice, pork, eggs (fried or scrambled) and Cambodian coleslaw. The cost is 3,000 real ($0.75).

The ground floor of the house can seat about 50 people and there are four tables outside, so this is a big operation. They make the coleslaw in a large plastic container that must be 24 inches long, 12 inches deep and 14 inches wide. Some time ago, I watched as one of the daughters took large pieces of pork and sliced it into the thin strips that is cooked and served.

The clientele is mainly school age people come here for breakfast.

The first two months when I went for breakfast I did not pay attention to the kitchen. Wow it is an industrial strength kitchen. The kitchen is outside, where else would it be in Cambodia? There are six or seven charcoal burners with rice pots on all but one, which has pork bubbling away in oil. Smoke curls up into the hood which keeps it away from the restaurant.

Pork is bubbling away right next to several rice pots.

In the photo below, the rice pot on the left is empty, in the following photo the caked rice has been popped out and is being dried. I have asked several people what the rice is popped out and dried but I have never heard a good esplanation.

Got to run, time for breakfast.

Eels in the market

2011-03-16T02:47:00.001+01:00

I was walking through the market looking for frit and came across a man scooping eels out of a large container into a cloths basket so they would be ready for sale. Now I know where the small eels I have seen escaping for the drain came from.

Take a look at the following photo on the left side, is a small eel trying to escape the frying pan. I wish I knew how to prepare them like in sushi, smoked eel is great.

Chef Deb, do you know how to prepare an eel?

In Cambodia people are not as reluctant to have their photos taken as in Morocco.

Not for the faint of heart, Worms

2011-03-14T03:20:00.001+01:00

A colleague who has lived in the third world went to the doctor to have his overactive collection of worms removed, he told an American colleague about worms. The American colleague immediately goggled worms/parasites (Don't do that), he just about got sick on the spot. Ever since that he has been very concerned at every lunch, "is this safe to eat" the other colleague keeps telling him, "living here, you have worms all the time, you just don't know it". The American colleague asked "why don't we get them in the USA?" Well there are some in the USA but the chlorine in the water and sanitation there keeps them down.

The American colleague also asked why we get them here. The answer to that was simple, hygiene or should I say lack of.

Hygiene in street kitchens is not the best and I bet that in big restaurants it is not much better.

Here the girl is at least using soap but there is no running water, only water in a bucket and you are not sure where that came from.

The woman below is washing next to an open sewer.

Once food is cooked, it will sit out until you eat it, and you have no idea how long that is. Remember it is always warm here.

Another thing is the cloths used to clean up are the same ones all day long. I have never seen anyone use a clean one.

By the way, I just finished my most recent round of medication to de-worm, I do this every six months.

One year in Cambodia

2011-03-11T13:33:00.001+01:00

WOW!! One year in Cambodia. It does not seem like that long in some ways and in others it seems a little longer.

In the past year I spent six months in Kampong Cham and six months in Phnom Penh. On my initial stay in Phnom Penh I went on a cyclo tour. Its has been about 37 years since I drove a cycle in Udorn, Thailand. It was fun to be in the driver's seat and watch the reactions of the locals.

Phnom Penh definitely has more to do but Kampong Cham was much easier to explore and it allowed me to get out into the countryside. Driving my moto really taught me the rules of the Cambodia road.

In my apartment in Kampong Cham I had a great cleanup crew, most of the time they were really on the ball but there were times they were a little over anxious but they did a great job.

I had a small shrine in Kampong Cham and it really worked. After my moto accident I have been thinking of putting up a better shrine here in my Phnom Penh apartment.

Now living in Phnom Penh one of my favorite places is the Orussey Market which is only a short walk away.

For my celebration for one year in Cambodia I went to the Szechuan restaurant, the kimchi is still great.

The only dark spot in the year was my Moto accident, which in reality was not nearly as bad as it could have been. This year I am concentrating on keeping the shiny side up and staying out of everyone's way.

Blessing

2011-03-10T03:09:00.001+01:00

Cambodia is a Buddhist country; there are numerous pagodas around Phnom Penh. Monks take a vow of poverty and receive food and money from the general population.

Monks can only eat in the morning, up until 11:00. In the morning I see monks on the street providing blessings for people. Monks will quietly walk up to the front of a house or business, most do not have any footwear, stand there waiting for someone to ask for a blessing. If someone asks for a blessing, the monk will chant the blessing. Then the person receiving the blessing will either give the monk food or money.

I have been told that your head should always be below the monk's head, hence the position of the people being blessed.

My landlord's shop

Notice that the boy has stepped out of his shoes to receive the blessing.

Corner near my apartment

2011-03-08T03:00:00.002+01:00

I went out early to take a photo walk, the homeless that live on the corner near my house were just packing their carts for a day of trash scavenging. There are about 15 people ranging age from a year up.

Everything they have is in a cart. Also in the cart is whatever they can scavenge. I have seen them with plastic sacks with leftover food they have pulled out of trash piles. It is a rough life, there is no water available on the street. I don't know where they get water. I do know where they go to the bathroom, all over the sidewalk, I have to be careful where to step.

Later in the day the crowd was across the street. There is a restaurant on the opposite corner that has set out plants on the edge of the sidewalk to create space on the sidewalk for tables. The restaurant was closed and the crowd was fixing something to eat there. It looked like there was not much for lunch and it also looked like it had been someone lunch yesterday.

Mistakes

2011-03-06T07:37:00.001+01:00

It's 11:00 in the morning and I have made two mistakes already. Neither was life threatening but both somewhat embarrassing.

First thing this morning (07:30) I grabbed my D100 (older camera) and took an hour and a half photo stroll. I went to the independents monument to catch the morning light. Well, there was an overcast so no morning light. I walked up along Tonley Sap (the river) to see what was going on. The sun was low and glistening off the water so there were no good photos there. Then home past where the moto driver sometimes sleeps. I guess he had not started his day of rest quite yet.

I downloaded the photos. I unplugged the camera and formatted the memory card. I sat back down at the computer and saw a strange message. It was a list of photo files with the message, These were not saved because they could not be downloaded. OH NO! I turned off the camera before the photos had downloaded. OK, I will just plug the camera back in and download them. Not so fast Tom, you were too efficient, you already formatted the card.

After I made a mental note to be sure all photos have been copied from the camera to the hard disk before unplugging and formatting I set out to the market. I took a long way around and stopped at vendor with good looking bananas. I asked the price, they were 5,000 real ($1.25). No thank you, my normal vendor would only charge 4,000.

I purchased papaya and pineapple and then headed to my banana vendor. Hummmm, her stall is usually right here where these motos are parked. This is not good. OK, I will just go to one of the other banana vendors. There are usually two areas with several fruit sellers who have bananas. There were none, NOTA. I don't believe it. Are bananas on strike.

My next job

2011-02-27T05:50:00.001+01:00

I went out to walk around a little and make an image or two. Just up the street I found a moto driver taking a nap on his moto. I don't know if this is comfortable or not but he sure looks asleep.

I walked up to the central market, and found that the old grocery markets that was on the south side had been demolished and replaced by a street. WOW. It makes the area smell a lot better.

From the central market I walked down street 130 and saw remnants of the French past an Art deco building.

Then I found the Shere Punjab Indian restaurant an Indian friend has recommended. Now that I know where it is I will go back.

I walked along the Mekong and watched the boats large and small.

I walked back through my neighborhood and I saw the same moto driver stretched out on his moto.

I had taken the first photo 1 ½ hours ago and he was still snoozing away. This is the job I want.The only problem I see is that I may be too tall.

Internet in the third world: when you need it?

2011-02-11T03:06:00.002+01:00

I have a weekly conference call with our client in the USA, that call is 8:30 PM Phnom Penh time. I prefer to make that call from home rather than going back into the office. This evening when I got home I turned on the computer it took the internet a while to come up but it did. At 7:00 PM the internet dropped and was still out at 7:30 pm. I called the service provider and got the standard answer "shut down the modem for five minutes and turn it back on, we will call you back." Ok, I turned it off and five minutes later back on, nothing and no call from the service provider. I called them again, their number was busy, that indicated to me that they were having problems which would most likely not be fixed to allow me to participate in the conference call.

I hopped on my moto and headed into the office. The call went well but there was some follow up that I needed to do right after the call, by the time that was done it was about 10:15 pm. I had hoped to be asleep by then.

When I arrived back home, the landlord and his family were asleep so I parked at a guarded parking spot around the block. Parking there is expensive, $1.00 for the night.

The internet is working now, I hope it is still working for my 06:30 AM call with the partner in Salt Lake City.

After the accident

2011-02-09T17:12:00.001+01:00

You know that after exercising hard the worst day for pain is two days later. That is also true for an accident. The day after the accident I did OK, but the day after that, little things started to show up, the six inch long and three inch wide bruise on my calf, my left thumb did not want to bend without a lot of pain and my neck being stiff.

I was lucky, the weekend which gave me time to recover. I stayed home Saturday and napped. On Sunday I put on my back pack and walked to the market, I found what I think will be the last sweet corn of the season, that went into the back pack and then pineapple. After the market I walked to the store and added a few more things. I put my backpack on and started to walk home, my shoulder said "not so fast", the top of my right shoulder was not happy with the weight. I put on the waist strap to take the wait lower and saved my shoulder.

Monday a few more bruises showed up, my right elbow was an interesting shade of yellow and blue and there was another yellow bruise that showed up below my shoulder.

The only thing that really still hurts is my shoulder, that is the most problematic when trying to sleep.

Moto accident

2011-02-05T09:13:00.001+01:00

Sorry I have not write more lately but I have been exhausted and my shoulder has been hurting a lot.

On my way to work a few days ago, I made a right hand turn. The traffic in the other lane was backed up because they were waiting for a light. I saw a moto coming toward me in my lane and I was watching it to see what stupidity he would do. He passed me and all of a sudden a tuktuk clipped me from the right. I was not watching that side enough because I was watching the crazy on the other side.

In a flash I was on the ground. I got and I seemed to be ok. I did not seem to have any bad injuries. Someone helped me right my moto and I drove the kilometer to work. At work I got my first aid kit out of the moto and went to the bathroom in my office to clean up my knee, elbow and outside of my right hand. I scrubbed away any dirt and then realized I had gauze pads but no tape. I went to the receptionist who had shown me the DDD first aid kit. I put Batadine on the abrasions and then the receptionist taped down the gauze.

The abrasions are not the problem, when I hit the ground I must have landed hard on my elbow; the problem is my shoulder which did not contact the ground. I think what happened is l landed with a lot of weight on my elbow and my shoulder took the strain.

Lifting my right hand from my lap to the mouse and from the mouse to the keyboard hurts. You do not know how often you make that move in a day.

The worst part of the accident is it ripped up one of my good pair of pants. It will be hard to find a replacement for someone my size in Cambodia.

How I know it has been a stressful week: grocery stress index

2011-02-01T02:09:00.001+01:00

Saturday afternoon, after leaving work, I went to the grocery store. When I walked out, I realized I was a bit stressed. How could I tell leaving the grocery store?

Stress level indicators:

Low stress: going to the market purchasing fish, fruit and vegetables. Cooking mostly at home

Average stress: going to the market purchasing fruit and vegetables. Cooking a little at home

Medium stress: going to the market purchasing fruit and vegetables letting most of them spoil because I have not cooked them. Cooking very little at home

High stress: not going to the market but going to the grocery store. Purchasing large amounts of chocolate, cheese, strawberry jam, butter and other comfort foods. Not cooking, eating out almost all the time

Last week was a High Stress week.

It is going to be a long night!

2011-01-29T16:55:00.001+01:00

I just took a walk down my alley and street to find out where all of the noise is coming from. When I got out to the street its quiet, there is a party at the apartment next to mine, its balcony and mine meet, there is a wall but that is not stopping the noise.

Down the alley there's another party. This one has very loud music. Between the two, there's no point in trying to get any sleep just yet (even with ear plugs). I sure wish I had a couch I could sleep on, it is a little quieter (only a bit) in the living room.

Smells of Cambodia

2011-01-27T16:53:00.001+01:00

Some of the smells in Cambodia are very nice, for example the jasmine flower, and then there are those that are OK, roasting pork wafting into my bedroom in the morning. The remaining are not so nice. To cope with the later I have developed a unique ability to stop breathing once an offensive odor is detected.

This action came about automatically, one day I noticed I was in a market but I did not smell the dead rotting meat and the fishy water on the floor. I thought that is great. It took some time to realize what I was or should I say was not doing.

I have checked it out in many cases. I get a faint whiff of an offensive odor I just stop breathing. If after some time I take a slight sniff and it is still there, I breath very lightly though my mouth. This has really made walking in certain area much more pleasant.

Lunch

2011-01-25T02:27:00.001+01:00

The other day I went to lunch late, about 1:00, at the normal spot. This restaurant is frequented by a lot of the permanent staff at DDD. When I arrived there were two colleagues finishing their lunch.

The front of the building is completely open during business hours, the metal doors swing back which give a very airy feel. As I walked in I noticed the owner chasing something with a mop handle. I saw that he was chasing and beating on a very large rat. The rat was running along the wall trying to make it to the front, in his case, exit.

About a meter from the front, the owner delivered the fatal blow. The poor rat had been quite beat up. After the owner checked to make sure it was dead, he picked it up by the tail and headed toward the kitchen.

I thought, I hope my meal is already cooked. I have never eaten rat and did not want to that day. Lunch came about five minutes later and tastes like always. I assume the rate was not in today's meal.

Electronic bills payment Cambodian style

2011-01-23T01:53:00.003+01:00

Last evening I could not connect to the internet, this happens from time to time but usually it is only down for at most two hours. Last evening, it never came up, this morning it was still down. Hummmm. What could have caused this?

I receive my bill from the ISP as an e-mail and this month I paid the bill with on-line banking from my ANZ Royal Cambodian bank account. I put two and two together and guessed that my payment had not gone through and the ISP had blocked my account for not paying.

I went to the ISP and asked about my account. Yes, they had not received the payment, off to the bank, luckily they are only ½ kilometer apart. At the ATM I got a mini statement that showed that no money had been deducted for the internet payment. I asked at information if they could check and see what had gone wrong. The young woman showed me the statement on-line but could not tell me why the payment did not work. I had withdrawn enough cash to pay the bill. I went back to the ISP and paid the bill in cash.

Problem solved, I can now post more blog entries.

Cooked pork in the market

2011-01-21T02:24:00.033+01:00

In a previous post I explained why I am now eating pork rather than beef. Pork is available in all markets; you can purchase it two ways, fresh (just barely without the squeal) and cooked.

Today I will show you a few photos of how cooked pork is sold near my house in the Oruseey market.

There are just a few ducks hiding in amongst the pork

The young man in the photo speaks English the woman to the left is his sister. I asked if his family raises the pigs. He said no they purchase them, kill them, cook the pigs and bring them to the market.

Finding a photo

2011-01-19T02:52:00.002+01:00

I have taken over 10,000 photos in Cambodia, finding one or even 50 photos on a particular subject can be a little tricky. I use a tool called Lightroom which allows me to place key words on photos so they are hopefully easily to find later.

I was just starting a post on ICE and wanted to look at the photos I have of ice. In Lightroom I brought up the search panel and entered ice and clicked. What did I do wrong, there a huge number of photos and these are of rICE. OK, I know what happened so I start sorting down through the photos and come across photos from the Water Festival boat race practICE, further I found photos of polICE. I never knew there were so many words that ICE in them.

As I started writing this post I realized there were three other ways I could have gotten directly to the ICE photos. In the end I found 77 photos that will have to be narrowed down to two or three for the ICE post.

Ice

2011-01-17T02:38:00.005+01:00

In Cambodia most people do not have refrigerators, they use ice for refrigeration. Ice comes from the factory in meter long blocks, to use it or carry it home or use it in the market it must be made into something smaller. Ice vendors do a brisk business sawing large pieces into small ones. Vendors saw the ice about 1/4 of the way through the block and then either hit the cut with a hatchet or put the hatchet in the crack and then pound on the hatchet with the saw.

Then tying it up so it can be carried home.

If it is not carried home, it can go by moto.

Around the Orussey market vendors use ice to keep seafood cool. Fish are not put on ice, they are frequently left live until they are sold.

You notice that I have not discusses sanitation of the ice. When I get something cold, I try to forget what I've seen.

Flowers

2011-01-15T03:03:00.001+01:00

I remember driving in the Netherlands seeing flowers for sale everywhere, they were displayed in front of gas stations, all over markets, and it was nice. In Cambodia flowers are not everywhere but they are definitely easy to find. Some of the varieties are not anything I have ever seen before.

In North America and Europe you purchase flowers from a store. Flowers may be displayed in front of the store but there is a store there somewhere. In Cambodia that's not the case. Vendors set up on the street under an umbrella. I don't know what they do with the flowers at night but during the day they are under umbrellas on the street. There are several flower vendors along the street next the Oruseey market.

Labor is cheap in Cambodia, I have watched women carefully turning back each individual pedals of flowers to make a very interesting design.

Note the elegant blue plastic display stand.

I admit it: I’m a REAL Wimp

2011-01-13T03:08:00.001+01:00

I road my moto across the Mekong to a little bar where there was a going away party for a friend from work. On the way home I knew I would go close to the Szechwan restaurant so I decided to stop in for dinner.

As usual I ordered from the picture book, I chose a deep-fried whole fish. The waitress brought the setup, this time instead of a bowl of chilies and a bowl of garlic I got one bowl with half and half. I guess they know I am a wimp when it comes to chili. The setup included a small bowl of Kimchi. This one was not quite as hot as the last one but you could almost see the flames leaping from it. As I ate, I picked off as many of the chilies as I could. The small bowl with the chopsticks resting on it is what I picked out.

When my fish arrived, it was covered in a sweet and sour sauce which had small pieces of carrot and green pepper. I know from my last experience, the green peppers are just slightly less HOT than the red ones (these are not green bell pepper, in fact they make a jalapeño seem mild).

The fish was very good. They had sliced some of the meat off of the bones to help it cook quickly which made getting at the meat very easy. After eating the large pieces I worked to clean the little bits off of the skeleton. In doing this the little bits ended up in the sweet and sour sauce. The sauce had a very nice flavor but was very oily. Last time I was at the restaurant the family carried in six 20 liter cans of cooking oil. I guess the oil should have not been a surprise.

The little bowl in the foreground is an attestation to my WIMPNESS, it contains the peppers from the Kimchi and from the fish.

There, I've admitted it.

I’m a Wimp

2011-01-11T03:37:00.002+01:00

In Cambodia there is one faucet in the sinks and usually one in the shower. Mine is high class, there is a standard faucet that gives cold water in the winter and hot water in the summer.

I caught a cold just after Christmas and went to the doctor. He suggested I take a warm shower. My answer was I can only do that in the summer. I continued taking cold showers for three days. I decided to give in and try a warm shower. Standing in the bath tub, I flipped to circuit breaker for the water heater on. So far so good. I was not exactly sure how to operate it but with only three controls it was not hard to figure out.

It took the water heater about 30 seconds to put out a very nice warm shower. It really felt good. I did fell like a WIMP taking a warm shower. I justified it by telling myself "I am sick and should take care of myself".

It felt so good in fact that for the last week I have been taking a warm shower. I know that this will have to stop fairly soon, I am just about over my cold. I am not really looking forward to going back to the cold showers.

Szechuan restaurant

2011-01-09T02:37:00.003+01:00

I went back to the Szechuan restaurant not too far from my house. The menu comes in two parts; the one on the left is an old wooden photo album that contains photos of the different dishes with a little English and a price hand written on each photo. The other menu is written in Chinese, Khmer and a few words of English.

I chose from the photo menu, selecting sweet and sour chicken. The waitress brought a setup of a small bowls of chopped garlic and red hot peppers, a rice bowl, spoon and chopsticks, this was followed by a mug of tea.

You can see by the photo how large the bowls are, in the next photo you can see how many chili peppers I use.

There was also a saucer of kimchi with a large number of hot peppers chopped in it. The kimchi was very tasty and very hot. The first two bites turned me red hot.

My sweet and sour was served. It was temperature hot, right off the skillet. The sauce was thick and sweet. The chicken didn't have any bones, a very nice change over most Cambodian meals. The green peppers with the chicken were also very hot.

Over the course of the meal, I used up several napkins wiping sway the sweat from the heat.I loved every bite.

Stop lights Cambodian style

2011-01-07T02:59:00.005+01:00

Stop lights in Cambodia are a decoration; about 3/4of the people stop at them, of the other quarter some slow down but most just ignore them. There is a very nice feature that I would like to see in other countries countdown timers that show how much time is left before the light changes.

In Phnom Penh sitting at a stop light, most of the motos turn off the engine if there is more than 30 seconds to wait. When the light counts down to 5 it is like a Le Mans start, engines start and motos start heading for the intersection.

The photos in this post are from the intersection near home. The lights in the photo are color coded correctly. There is another light that no matter if the main signal light is red or green the countdown number is green. That has caught me more than once, looking up and thinking the light is green and then seeing traffic going across the intersection.

Chicken soup

2011-01-05T03:36:00.004+01:00

I caught a cold just after Christmas, Anita suggested chicken soup. I know she was right; there is something to the healing power of chicken soup. I couldn't bring myself to purchase a chicken in the market and cooking it. I don't know if it's looking at the naked chickens hanging there upside down or if it is their heads laying in a pile with their eyes looking at me.

I just couldn't buy one. I know how to cut it up Cambodian style, you put it on the cutting board and whack away at it with a cleaver in random directions until there is not a piece larger than the thumb you cut off trying to hold the chicken on the small block.

It may have been the watching the vendors waving a fly wand at the chickens to try and keep the flies at bay. A fly wand is a stick about ½ meter long with a pompom made of plastic strips on the end.

I don't think it could have been that the chickens are frequently lying on the ground with only an old rice bag between them and the ground. I have eaten enough dirt so I think I am not really adversely affected by that.

I don't think it is that chickens in Cambodia are all skin and bone, no, that could not have anything to do with it.

I guess I just was not sick enough to really need chicken soup.

Taking a well deserved break

2011-01-03T15:13:00.002+01:00

Some jobs have disadvantages and others have advantages. Cyclo drivers have to put up with poor pay and horrible Phnom Penh traffic, but they do have a perk. There is always somewhere to take a break when business is slow.

In the following photos look at the Cambodian braks used to keep the cyclos from moving.

Memories of Christmas past in Southeast Asia

2010-12-29T05:53:00.002+01:00

Thinking about Christmas without snow and again living in Southeast Asia brought back memories of Christmases I have spend in this part of the world.

Christmas 1973 I was in Udorn, Thailand as part of an American fighter squadron located on the Royal Thai Airbase. A large percentage of the squadron had gone home for Christmas; those of us who were there celebrated Christmas. We looked around for Rudolph and his reindeer friends and their sleigh but they were in other parts of the world. OK, we can make do with what we have here, hefty water buffalo and wooden carts.

We rented six water buffalo and three carts, told the farmers what when on the air base they had to clean up what the water buffalo left behind. The carts arrived on Christmas Eve we loaded into the carts and headed off to regale the base with Christmas carols.

First stop the nurse's quarters, then the base commander's home. As we traveled from place to place I saw the farmer's children keeping to our bargain. When a water buffalo would leave something behind, one of the children would bend over the pile and sweep it off to the side or the road with his hands.

On Christmas day we had a party in our recreation room. The squadron commander ordered two large bowls of drink bloody marries and screwdrivers. We all brought our Christmas goodies sent from home and had a very nice spread.

Three years later I spend Christmas in the Philippines at Clark AFB, where I rented a house off base. Udorn was at the end of the Southeast Asia supply line, Clark was the beginning. When it came Christmas we could get just about anything, we could even purchase a real Christmas tree. I decided I would go native.

Two weekends before Christmas I took my four-wheel-drive out into the jungle, cut a banana tree, tied it on top and took it home. A normal Christmas tree has a hard wooden trunk; a banana tree has a very soft trunk, not suitable for a Christmas tree stand. What to do?

I pounded a nail in the ceiling, tied a piece of monofilament fishing line to the nail, stood the banana tree up and tied the fishing line around the tree just below the leaves. I hung it so it would stand in a bucket of water, decorated it with some small flashing lights and Pilipino Christmas tree.

Christmas in Cambodia

2010-12-25T12:28:00.001+01:00

On Christmas day the high temperature was about 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) so No Snow. I have spent Christmas in places where it was not winter in December (Thailand, Philippines and Texas) for me it doesn't seem like Christmas without cold and snow. In Cambodia it catches me off guard when someone tells me Merry Christmas; it is so hot Christmas seem six month away.

The only signs of Christmas are businesses that cater to foreigners, some banks, the western style supermarket and a few hotels. They have a Merry Christmas banner and some have a plastic garland in the shape of a Christmas tree on the inside of their front doors.

The best one is the gigantic Santa Claus standing in front of the computer store.

On Christmas Eve I was invited to a party at a friend's flat. It was a great party; most of the people were VSO volunteers. The flat was decorated with candles and Christmas lights. The table was piled high with goodies from local Cambodian treats to English puddings. After riding home and parking my moto I passed a parking attendant with a Santa's hat, it really looked out of place.

On Christmas day I awoke early and found my present to myself next to my computer, a new pair of reading glasses. For lunch I joined the group from last evening at a very nice Cambodian restaurant. Two of the women were showing off the fashions that they had made for the occasion. One woman said the dress (material and labor) cost $16.A real Christmas present at that price.

Quite a day in Morocco, Switzerland and Cambodia – Thank you technology

2010-12-23T03:40:00.004+01:00

At 06:00 in the morning my phone beeped, a text message from Switzerland. The message said PLEASE CALL ME. I put the time and all capitals together that this was not a social how-are-you-doing call. Several possible problems went through my head in a flash.

I turned on the computer and waited for it to start and more possible bad things went through my head. What in the world could it be, Anita is in Switzerland, her mother is in the USA, and I am in Cambodia what in the world was going on?

Still half asleep I called Anita on Skype. After a very quick hello, she asked if I had read an e-mail and I said no. She explained that the house we own together in Fez, Morocco had no electricity and no water because the government had come by and removed the meters.

It took me a moment to flush all the worst-case scenarios out of my cobweb-filled head before I realized this situation was not nearly as bad as those I had conjured up.

Every year just before Fez fills up for the Christmas tourist season the government goes around and try to shut down places presumed to be illegal guest houses. The problem is simple: our house in Fez must be occupied, to prevent burglaries. We have a friend who is restoring his own house in the medina (old city) staying in ours and paying utilities. We do not run a guest house, but once again we have been caught up in a seasonal drama.

Living area in our house in Fez click to enlarge

Ceiling and carved plaster click to enlarge

So we do not have electricity or water in the house and Anita is in Europe and I am in Cambodia. How do we handle this? Time to turn to technology! First is Skype to contact Anita and then two people in Fez. Then to e-mail to send messages to other friends to ask what is happening in Fez. Finally I turn to somewhat older technology, the cell phone, and call our friend who is staying in the house.

View into the sleeping salon click to enlarge

Detail of the 17^th century carved plaster click to enlarge

After a few more calls and e-mails between continents and widely separated time zones, we find that the problem has been resolved, utilities are being restored to our house. I am amazed what can be done long distance with technology.

It finally happened

2010-12-21T02:53:00.001+01:00

I was in the market and purchased 10 eggs and picked them up in the thin plastic sack. I am always carefully and put the eggs in the outside pocket of my back pack and today put them on top of the squid and then continued shopping.

I got home and started unpacking; when I opened the outside pocket of my backpack I noticed something was wet and a bit slimy. Oh oh, one of the eggs had broken. I don't know if the egg was checked when I purchased it or if it was hit while in the backpack but I had a little cleanup to do. Where is the cleanup crew when you need them?

Metal chopsticks are tricky

2010-12-19T03:50:00.002+01:00

My colleague Rishi recommended a Korean restaurant about a kilometer from work. He told me that for $5.00 there was a lot of food. I didn't have breakfast and thought it would be a good day to check it out.

I drove up and looked at the building "this does not look like a restaurant", but it was. There must be other businesses and a home in the house. The restaurant room is small with three tables. In this restaurant silverware, chopsticks and spoons are in a small wooden box, not standing in hot water like in a Cambodian restaurant. The waitress brought me a cold wet towel and a plastic bottle with water that had been in the freezer.

The menu had a smattering of English and pictures, I pointed to a rib looking meat dish. I was not sure of the meat, pork, beef or dog.

Shortly the appetizer dishes arrived, an array of kimchi looking dishes. I opened the wooden box and selected a pair of metal chopsticks. I have used bamboo and plastic chopsticks but never metal ones. These were less than 1/3 the diameter of any others I have used. It took some getting accustomed to. I could not hold them the way I normally hold plastic or bamboo chopsticks. After five minutes was up and eating.

The appetizers were very good with the exception of the tofu, it was a bit oily and the tofu did not have much flavor.

As I was savoring the appetizers the main dish arrived. A small plate of ribs with meat attached and a plate of salad, cabbage, lettuce and long green peppers. I was still enjoying the appetizers as the waitress departed, few minutes later she came back with a gigantic industrial kitchen scissor. She cut the meat off of the bones and snipped it into large bite size pieces. That was great; my only tools were metal chopsticks and a spoon.

The meat, still not sure of the origin, was very tasty and tender, so that leaves out beef, I know it was not chicken or fish so that leave pork or dog. The ribs were too small for a large hog it is possible that it was a piglet's.

I will definitely be going back to try other dishes.

I wanted the smiley cup

2010-12-17T02:05:00.002+01:00

In Cambodia silverware, plates, cups do not always match, sometimes they are very nice and other times they are old plastic. This morning at a breakfast restaurant I had my normal rice with pork. The woman brought me a cup with a straw and then poured the tea.

I am not sure why, it may be sanitation, but there is almost always a straw in a cup. Usually the straw only comes ½ inch (1 cm) above the cut. This morning I got a longer straw. I

I received a plain cup but saw smiley face cups, I wanted one of the smiley face cups, not really. These are an example of what some of the restaurant ware is in Cambodia.

The woman went back to tending fish on the grill. Here banana leaves are not used as decoration; they are used in the cooking process and as plates. Banana leaves are placed on the grill, I assume to keep the fish for sticking to the grill and the fish is fried on top of the leave.

Camera care - sensor cleaning

2010-12-15T03:34:00.002+01:00

Single lens reflex digital cameras can get dust on the sensor and that shows up on the photos. I was processing photos and found dust spots on the sensor of my Nikon D100. There are two ways to remove the dust, the easiest is to open up the camera and blow the dust off. After blowing it off with a bulb blower I took a photo against a clean background and found that there were still spots.

The next method is to take a sensor cleaning solution on a delicate swab and delicately clean the sensor. If you scratch the sensor the camera is ruined. The sensor cleaning solution I had was so old that it did not evaporate. Now I have more than one or two spots on the sensor, a lot of spots and streaks. I need a new container of sensor cleaning fluid.

Trying to find sensor cleaning fluid in Phnom Penh is difficult, in fact impossible. I tried eight or nine photo shops and did not find any. I was on the way home and passed a pharmacy. I thought "sensor cleaning fluid is basically isopropyl alcohol". I wonder if the pharmacy has a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol. They did and it was 500 Real $0.12. Sensor cleaning fluid is normally very expensive.

Will it work? I put three drops on the swab. That was too much, but it got all but one spot off. Next time I used one drop and was very careful. The test showed it was clean. I was ready to go.

From Kampot to Kep and back home to Phnom Penh

2010-12-13T02:58:00.002+01:00

My plan was to stop in Kep and I did want to stop in Kep because the seafood is very good. On my way back to Phnom Penh I took a moto from Kampot to Kep (about 25 km) and had the morning to look around. I had the moto drop me at the crab market which is right on the water. The photo below shows two ladies getting a crab pot ready for the day, they tie it out and when a customer comes along, they pull it in and sell the crabs right out of the pot.

I walked through the market and found my favorite, squid. A small squid barbequed on a stick was $0.50. I wanted to try the fish but after three squid I was full.

I walked about two kilometers to the bus stop and listened to podcasts. The bus finally came along; I did not want to go to sleep worrying that if I did not get off in Phnom Penh I did not know where I would end up.

I enjoy taking photos of people in the bus. The young boy was a great subject, at the bus stop the parking attendant was eating a corn on the cob.

To the Cambodian coast, Kampot

2010-12-11T02:49:00.002+01:00

On Thanksgiving Thursday I took a bus to Kampot and Kep. I live about a kilometer from the Soyra bus station. This is a small bus station on a corner of an average street near the Oruseey market, so the area is always crowded. There is not much of a waiting room, it is on the sidewalk outside of the building.

It is about a five hour trip to Kep and Kampot to towns on the Gulf of Siam. On the way the bus has one bus stop. That day the street in front of the bus stop is under construction to things are a little more dusty than normal. This bus stop is similar to the one on the way to Kampong Cham. There are some differences; this one does not have as much room so there are more small vendors carrying there wears. You can see the girl carrying sacks of cut up mango on a stick.

The stop after the rest stop is Kep a very small village on the coast, which was my destination. I usually go to sleep on a moving conveyance. This time was no exception, when I woke I saw a sign for the Kep Lodge, where I had planned to stay. I noticed there were very few people on the bus. The bus kept on going, and there was a sing for Kampot, the next town down the road. Hummm? After a few minutes I got up and asked the driver "Kep" he looked surprised and pointed behind us, I then said "Kampot" he pointed ahead. OK, I guess I will go to Kampot.

Kampot is a slightly larger village about four kilometers from the gulf on a small river. It turned out I made the right choice. There were five or six restaurants and guest houses in Kampot. Kep has a very small selection of upscale guest houses but that is about it.

This was a good time to rest and relax. I watched the sun set and walked around taking photos of some of the vendors.

The next morning I found a moto to take me to Kep.

Kampong Cham rice fields

2010-12-09T03:52:00.027+01:00

Gideon my tuktuk driver friend called and told me that the rice was just about to be harvested and the government was starting to rebuild the bamboo bridge. I took a bus to Kampong Cham to photograph rice fields. I arranged with Gideon to meet me at the bus station. I was surprised the bamboo bridge was being rebuilt now because the water in the Mekong is still deep. I thought they would wait until the river went down before rebuilding. We went to the river where we could overlook the bridge site. There was about 100 meters of the bridge started out from the far side. Gideon said that they would finish the bridge in the next two weeks.

We took Gideon's tuktuk to the where I had taken many photos of the rice paddies. A tuktuk is not a bad ride on a smooth road but on the dirt road in the country it is a very different ride. I felt like my head would snap off.

We reached full grown rice, WOW! I did not know how tall rice grew!

It was good timing to photograph the rice, it was just before it turned golden. I tried to take photos of the rice cornels on the top of the stalk. I would get situated with a good background and then the wind would blow. I tried numerous time but never got a good shot.

The family below was headed home at the end of a work day.

We found a young woman harvesting rice that had been blown over by a heavy rain and wind. She was using a typical rice harvesting tool. The tool allows her to pull the rice up and then cut it. She would cut enough for a bundle which is about six inches in diameter, she would then cut just a few strands of the stalk, make this into a small rope and then tie the bundle of rice with the rope.

Farming rice is a back breaking living, it is planted bent over pushing the shoots into the ground, and it is harvested bent over cutting it off near the ground and then picked up and tied off. After it is bundled, the bundles are taken to a thrashing machine that separates the grain from the stalk.

Orussey Market introduction

2010-12-07T02:10:00.001+01:00

For a photo walk I decided to go west young man, I crossed Monivong, a main north south avenue and headed toward the Orussey market. The Orussey market appears to be left over from the French colonial period, it is a well worn six story building with parking on top. From the parking I could see the surrounding area the streets are packed with vendors selling everything from silk to sows ears and sweets.

As I was walking around the market, I saw a lady sitting on the ground, she had a tin try of fish about a meter square, the tray was supported on four bricks. Some of the fish were in pieces. Two fish were still alive. I assume looking at their friend's demise the remaining two were trying to wriggle over the edge. The old woman picked up a large club and whacked one of the fish over the head. The fish continued to wriggle, the tray bent when the woman hit the fish, not really killing it. She attacked the fish several times. I finally moved on, the she and the fish were still going at it.

Across the alley there was a small eel on the ground, I assume it had escaped from a different vendor; now where was it going to go? There was a drain not far away but it would have to cross the foot path. I don't know if it made it to safety.

I was in the market just after noon, things were closing down. I saw a butcher with a rather unique way of keeping the flies off of the meat. She had put a sleeveless t-shirt over the meat hanging on several hooks.

Whatever works.

Cyclo drivers waiting

2010-12-05T01:33:00.006+01:00

Being a cyclo driver must be hard work, I gave it a try when I was first in Phnom Penh. In the off moments, there seem to be a lot of those; they have a comfortable place to take a nap why not.

In the next two of the photos you can see that the parking break or should I say parking stone is set while sleeping.

When we did a cyclo tour with VSO, it cost $6 for the half day. I am sure that was good money, it looks like the usual distance is quite short.

Juicer

2010-12-03T02:10:00.016+01:00

In the USA and Europe you can have a juicer in your kitchen. In Cambodia they use industrial strength juicers to turn sugar cane into a drink. The operator peals the sugar cane and cuts it into about 75 cm lengths. These stand waiting for customers.

When you want a drink, the machine is switched on a stalk of sugar cane is run through the press.

When it comes out the far side it is collected, bent in half and run through the press again. This is repeated until the cane will not go through the press any more, about eight times. Sometimes the cane gets stuck, that is what the big what looks like a ships wheel is for, the leverage to really squeeze the cane through. This also works if there is no electricity.

The juice runs into a collection pan. When the cane is wrung out the juice is poured and served.

The juice is very good, not nearly as sweet as I had expected.

Street cleaning

2010-12-01T03:10:00.014+01:00

In the USA a large machine comes by periodically and sweeps the streets. In Switzerland street sweeping machines are smaller because the streets are narrower. In Cambodia, labor is cheap and streets are swept by hand. In Phnom Penh some of the sweepers have uniforms.

The cart is pulled by hand, no motorized machines like the vacuums used in Brussels.

Picking up the sweeping is in Phnom Penh done very much like in Fez, the sweeper has two thin boards, he builds a pile and then skillfully holds the dirt between the boards while moving it into the cart. In the Fez medina they don't use cats, the streets are too narrow and rough, they use trash donkeys.

Lock it up

2010-11-29T01:16:00.001+01:00

When I moved into my apartment my landlord told me I needed a second lock for my moto. The moto comes with a steering wheel (handle bar) lock. With this someone can easily wheel the bike away.

I needed either a lock on the front wheel to keep it from turning or a padlock that kept the large stand in place. The padlock for the large stand would go on the very bottom of the bike which would be hard to put on and take off. I opted for the lock on the front wheel.

I found a shop that had a lock; the young guy tells me $8. Ok, I will look around, that sounds expensive.

There is a moto repair shop every 100 meters in Phnom Penh. I stopped at ten or more, none of them have the lock. I found one that had the lock but they wanted $12. That's way too expensive. I kept looking. I did not know the name for lock either which made things a little harder.

I went back to the fist shop, they young guy was there and his mother. I asked the price, this time it was $12. I should have purchased it when his mother wasn't there. I kept looking.

I finally found a place that would sell the lock and put it on for $10.

Here is a photo of the shop that had the lock, and the boy who put it on.

Taking the race photos

2010-11-27T02:00:00.001+01:00

My last post was photos from the Water Festival. How did I get the photos? I believe the best way to make a good photo is to be up close so you can connect with your subject. I have also learned if you ask to go into what looks like restricted places you can sometimes get in.

The boat race starts very close to a city water pumping station. There is a walk way around the pumping station that put me out over the boats. This gave me some of the very colorful shots.

Several of the other shots were taken down on the water's edge. The banks of the river are cemented and not very steep so walking down to the edge is relatively easy.

Where the VSO boat was launched there was a sewage drain, I found an area that was filled with rocks and stood on that, not having to get into the boat.

For the photos of the start of the race I worked my way out onto the construction barge where the announcer was. I was able to work my way up onto the yellow crane and have a very good overlook. The pontoons were quite stable but when someone went the other way they did roll a little.

You can see from this following photos, this was a working barge, it was littered with junk.

After the barge set, I went back and got onto the tugboat. The tug is on the other side of the barge below. I would have done that first but there was a long line of people walking over the planks and they were under water.

Tragic end to the Water Festival

2010-11-26T10:53:00.001+01:00

Monday night about 10:00 a large crowd was on the bridge from the mainland to an island. The bridge is a short suspension bridge and it began to sway, according to reports, the police fired water cannons at the crowd on the bridge trying to force them to leave the bridge. In the ensuing panic over 300 people were killed, some were crushed and others were electrocuted. The bridge was covered with electric lights and the water from the water cannons possible caused the electrocutions.

One of the operators that works at Digital Divide Data and his wife were on the bridge, they escaped with only minor injuries.

CNN has several articles on the stampede.

I was had been in Kampong Cham photographing rice fields and did not participate in this part of the festival.

Cambodian Water Festival and boat race

2010-11-25T02:19:00.001+01:00

While volunteering with VSO I told another volunteer I would photograph the Water Festival boat race, because VSO had a crew paddling one of the long boats. Check this post for photographs of the practice session.

Last Saturday was the race, I went to the VSO office to take the group photo and to the start.

Then we piled into two vehicles and went to the start. This festival is definitely a draw in Phnom Penh, it was early and the crowd was already starting to grow. Each team has a colored t-shirts, with teams in their boats side-by-side the colors made an exciting photography.

The race is run on the Tonle Sap River, which is unique, it switches directions each year about this time. This year there was still a good current and luckily the boats were rowing with the current. There are three types of boats in the race; the boat VSO was racing was a long boat, with a crew of about 55 people. VSO had 36 foreigners, which is a rarity; I did not see any other foreigners as crew members. In fact I only saw a handful of foreign tourists.

The boats race in pairs, they pull onto the river in pairs,

Head for the start point at a slow pace, and when about 50 meters upstream from the start marker they accelerate.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the finish to see the VSO boat finish. When you want a moto, there is never one around.

Here are some boats that were really fighting for position at the end of the race.

Wedding invitations

2010-11-23T02:51:00.009+01:00

If you need your wedding invitation printed, just go to the nearest pagoda and there will be a good selection of shops that will print your invitations. I know their overhead is low but do they ever have any business. I have only seen people in the shops talking to each other, never any customers.

Haircut

2010-11-21T02:21:00.002+01:00

In my neighbor hood there are several barber shops. They are air conditioned sort of. This one is closed.

You could call these drive-in. Some have covers and some do not.