My next job

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.

My shrine really works

About three weeks ago, a friend sent me an e-mail saying she was having trouble finding a job. I wrote back saying that I would put a special offering in my shrine and light incense on her behalf. Last week, she sent me an e-mail saying "your shrine really works!" She had been offered a job.

Yesterday I took a local taxi to Phnom Penh for a meeting, a three-hour trip on a narrow two-lane highway, with bicycles and motos along the edge mixed with a lot of very large trucks. On the way down the driver drove a little faster than the usual Cambodia speed. He also made several questionable maneuvers, passing on curves and when he could not see if the road was clear ahead, and not shifting down to pass so it took a long time to pass.

On the way back he crossed the line between Cambodian crazy and truly insane. There was heavy rain with a lot of water on the road, and severely reduced visibility. He was driving way too fast for such conditions.

In a blinding downpour, the driver pulled out into the oncoming lane to pass a long line of cars, although he could not see to the end of the line. While attempting to pass, he received a call on his mobile phone and looked down at the number on the phone, then took the call. As soon as we cleared the line of cars and were back on the right side of the road, I told him to either slow down, or pull over and let me out. That slowed him down for a little while, but as soon as we made it through the rain, he resumed his fast pace.

As soon as I arrived home, I made an offering to my shrine and thanked if for its efforts.

Yesterday my shrine saved my life—again.

I was about 300 meters from work and had just started maneuvering to make a left hand turn. Whoosh--a moto raced by me on the left; I could feel the breeze as he went by. Another meter into the turn, and I would have been in a very bad accident. It is my fault, I was making a left hand turn from the right hand lane, no one does that in Cambodia.

I will made an extra offering to my shrine.

Transportation in Cambodia

Cambodians make the best of whatever means of transpiration they have. Take a look at my Flickr photo stream and see how they do it.



Let me know what you think of the other photos.

Packed in like sardines

Tomorrow all of the volunteers need to travel back to Phnom Penh for the last three days of in country training. I had discussed hiring a taxi to Phnom Penh with some of the group but no one seemed interested. Tuesday afternoon I purchased a bus ticket to Phnom Penh.  Later in the afternoon, I had a call from Sara; she was trying to arrange a taxi to Phnom Penh. I said I was interested, even though I had already purchased my bus ticket.

Later in the day Sara called to say that she had arranged a taxi, there would be five people and lots of space. Great, the taxi only takes two hours, the bus three hours.

Wednesday the taxi came to pick me up at 13:00. It was a very old Toyota Camary. It was already with four ladies in it. I thought that I would put my things in the trunk and squeeze in. The trunk was already full. My bag with clothes, helmet and my computer would have to go in my lap.

We put two ladies in the front seat and I was in the back with two other ladies. It was a tight fit. I thought “they give sardines oil when they are packed this tight”.

We drove non-stop to Phnom Penh, we thought if we stopped and got out we would not be able to get packed back in. We crossed the bridge over the Mekong into Phnom Penh. We were lucky, there was not much traffic, some times, and we have been waiting in traffic to cross the bridge for an hour.

Just shortly after the bridge, we pulled over into a parking area. We still have a way to go. I said “why are we stopping”? Come to find out, we could not have two people in the front passenger seat. We all got out, I moved quite slowly after sitting in the same position for two hours. I switched into the front passenger seat and all four of the ladies squeezed with a little help of the driver pushing on the door into the back seat. We loaded my lap with luggage. The driver kept pushing the luggage down so it did not show in the front window.

We finally arrived at the guest house. When he opened the back door, people and luggage popped out like opening a container of Pillsbury Crescent rolls.