One year in Cambodia

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.

Smells of Cambodia

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.

Kampong Cham rice fields

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.

Boat race training

Work has been a little busy this past week. Thursday I left the office at 23:00. I made a promise to myself that I would not do work work this weekend.

Saturday morning I went with a group of VSO volunteers to photograph their practice for the boat race during the water festival in November. VSO took two pickups full of volunteers to the training location. They were practicing with a village that has one of the long boats. When we arrived one of the volunteers remarked how dusty I was. In Cambodia during the rainy season roads are either sticky mud or dry and dusty. Today was dry and dusty.

The whole village got into the act. The children watched as the volunteers were trained in the proper technique of paddling (done on dry ground.)

About lunch time the complete village gatherer around the boat (about 15 meters long) and tipped it upright, then moved it out of its house and into the water.

I watched as the villagers handed paddles and bailing pans to the kids in the boat. I asked one of the volunteers if they would be bailing and she seemed quite surprised that the boat leaked.

As the boat was parked five children took a small boat out and showed off their speed and maneuvering.

The volunteers loaded and off they went. I did not stay; I needed to get back to town to run several errands. 

 I hope they made it back.

From Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh

On moving day, a Toyota Camay arrived at 07:15, we loaded all of my things, which have seemed to multiply 10 times in just four months. The car leads the way to Phnom Penh and I followed driving my moto.

In the USA and Europe when embarking on a long trip in a car, I always put a little extra air in the tires to give better grip and increase the gas mileage. I did the same for this trip. As rough as the roads are in Cambodia that was not a good idea. About half way, the car turned to take the new bridge over Tonley Sap. The bridge may be new but the road to it is old and very rough. I really questioned the merits of pumping up the tires on this part of the journey.

It was about 125 km (78 miles) from Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh. When I have taken the bus I enjoy watching the scenery, there are people working in the rice paddies, motos scurrying every which way and people in their daily lives along the road. On this trip there was no time for looking around; I had to keep my eyes on the road. Dodging pot holes, other motos and avoiding oncoming traffic took all of my attention.

The driver said he knew Phnom Penh and the way to the guest house. We were about six blocks from the guest house and the car passed the turn. I raced up alongside the car dodging other motos and singled him to follow me. I was quite lucky that I had stayed at this guest house before and was familiar with the area; I could lead the last kilometer.

When I got off the moto, I noticed I was shaking. I am not sure if that was from the bounding around for three hours of riding or the scares on the road.

From the palm tree to you

Coconuts are everywhere, from time to time I see them laying in the road, one had fallen off of a moto as it is going to the market. Below is a photo of one of the older modes of transportation for coconuts. I don't know how old the bicycle is but it has seen better days.

Green coconuts have a very nice juice; the locals say it is a very healthy drink. A nurse friend said it was a very good electrolyte replacement drink. They can be purchase at most of the small shops, from vendors on bicycles and in restaurants. The one shown below is in a restaurant, when you purchase one from the bicycle, it is not as nicely carved.

In shops in the countryside they cost about $0.25 the one in the restaurant was $1.00.

Tour of the rice paddies

Late in the afternoon, I took my moto for a tour of the rice paddies just west of town. As I was going through Wat Nokor (a Buddhist temple area) I notice what looked like a pond of alligators. It was a pond full of water buffalo. They were cooling off after a hot day.



Being the end of the farming day there were several young children bringing home the cows.



I came upon a herd of cows headed home. This reminded me of Switzerland when the cows go up to the high pasture in spring time and come back down in autumn. As the herd would go past a house some of the cows would turn into through the gate, there was no need for anyone to direct them, they knew where to go.



Farmers are still planning rice. A farmer had just pulled and bundled rice shoots, and set them alongside the road. He had carefully counted them twice, I assume he was waiting for an ox cart to come along and tick them up.



As the rice grows from shoots into more mature plants, the countryside is turning lush green.



I finished my loop in the rice fields and went to dinner.

Yes, I had rice for dinner.

Bus to Phnom Penh

I took my customary seat in the front row of the bus on the way to Phnom Penh this morning. Oh good, there is no one in the other seat, this will be comfortable. Once on the road, I tried to listen to my iPod. I could just coax the iPod to create enough sound to be louder than the radio speaker just a meter from my head.

The drive turned the bus down the street that leads out of town. About a kilometer further, he pulled over and opened the door. There was a moto outside with young woman who looked to be Cambodian on the back, carrying a large pink bag. She got off of the moto and the pink bag was put in the luggage compartment.

The young woman we had just picked up happened to be the person that had the seat next to me. When her mobile phone rang, she answered in very good English, telling someone that one of her students had taken her to the bus and she was safely on board. I asked what she teaches, and she replied "English". She told me she is Indian, from the northeast, where people look more Southeast Asian than elsewhere in the country. That explained a lot.

She has been teaching as a volunteered in Kampong Cham for the last year. When she told me that she was volunteering without any income for her efforts, I felt a little sheepish knowing that I am getting $343 a month. She told me it had been quite difficult living on infrequent donations.

Our conversation turned to how she is treated, since everyone assumes she's Cambodian. I said that as a white foreigner, I am usually shown to the head of the line. She told of a time at the doctor's office; when a Cambodian nurse prioritized several white expats into see the doctor ahead of her.

After a year of volunteering with no income, living on the gifts of others, she has arranged a teaching position in Phnom Penh and was moving to her new job in Phnom Penh.

Almost

Some weeks ago a friend wrote that she liked my blog. She said she felt like she was on the back of my moto with me. She is lucky she was not riding with me this evening.

I am going to Phnom Penh tomorrow and needed cash. I went to the bank, which is about one kilometer away. I arrived at the bank at 18:20 and the ATM was out of order until 18:30. I just sat there waiting. There was no need to go home and come back. I did a withdrawal to cover my trip and left.

I started up my moto and turned on the light. There is a large hole on the side of the road just outside the bank parking lot. As I carefully working my way around the hole, still riding on the shoulder, a car suddenly appeared, taking up the right lane and moving onto the shoulder. Yikes! There was no time for me to react. He missed me by inches.

I drove home very carefully. By the time I reached the house, I had calmed down.

Despite the fact that Cambodia does not register on the world's top ten danger zones for drivers, its roads are clearly not for the fainthearted. I agree with Traveling Mark that bigger rules the road here.

Shoe Shine

I was having lunch at a restaurant today here in Kampong Cham, and I watched the shoeshine boy. His method is a little different to what I have observed in the US or Morocco.

In the USA, the only place I have seen shoes being shined is the airport, something I've not tried.

In Fez, men and boys carry small wooden boxes and stools through the medina offering a shine. You can get yours seated or standing. You place your foot on the shoe shaped part of the box and the man or boy goes to work, shining your shoes on your feet. It takes just a few minutes and usually cost me less than $1.00.

In Cambodia, the shoeshine boy did not have a box, but a tattered blue plastic sack with his brush and shoe polish. He walked through the restaurant looking at everyone's feet. When he found a customer, he left his flip flops for the man to use while his shoes were being shined.

The actual shine appeared to use very little polish, just enough to do the job. I assume polish is expensive here. When the shine was done, the boy returned the shoes to their owner, put them on the floor, and helped the customer put them on. Then he took his flip flops and continued about his work.

I wear sandals so I don't know what a shine costs here.

Friday the 13th

Last evening I was invited out to dinner with colleagues and the volunteer I replaced. There was the customary mix-up on when to be where but we all made it. Dinner included beer over ice, lots of clinking of glasses, rubbery and dry meat and soup.

Arriving home about 21:30, checked e-mail and decided to go to bed. Turning on the bedroom light, I spotted a little something black on the bed, partly covered by the sheet. It must be something from my back pack, which I had emptied on the bed in the morning before leaving for work. On inspection, it was something that a dog or cat left. Yes somehow an animal had got into the house, and used my bed as a bathroom. I was NOT HAPPY.

Looking out the back door over to my landlord's house, it was as expected, dark; he and his family were already asleep. What to do? Take the easy route. I put a fan in the bedroom, blowing out to reduce the odor and went upstairs to sleep. There is no screen on the window in the upstairs bedroom, so it stayed closed against mosquitoes, set my phone alarm for 06:00 am, turned the fan on and went to sleep.

In the morning, when I turned on the water in the upstairs bathroom, there was none. The water in the bathroom had been turned off. I turned the main valve and was sprayed by a hose that had no end; this explained why the water was off. I quickly turned it off and headed for the shower downstairs

I opened the back door to see if my landlord was up. His wife was in the space between our houses. I said hello and asked for her husband. She speaks no English and did not understand what I wanted, although I did say the word "problem" in Khmer. Before long, my landlord was headed to my door. We discussed how dog or cat dodo could have happened and stripped the bed.

After work my landlord brought the washed sheets back and we made the bed.

I guess Friday the 13^th started a little early for me.

House warming

Last night I went to a house warming. The party was held around tables in the living room, which opens onto the driveway of the house. I sat next to a doctor who spoke a little English, French and Khmer. It was nice to have someone to talk to.

I have learned that if I do not want to drink beer, I must fill my glass with something very fast. I grabbed the bottle of water and filled my glass. Everyone else poured beer into everyone's glass. With water in my glass and later a Coca Cola, I joined in the clinking of glasses. One time, I forgot to clink before drinking and I got a disapproving look.



Dinner was Cambodian curry, vegetables, small clams and raw fish with ginger. The curry was very good. It was not served over rice; instead we sopped it up with pieces of baguette. The curry contained a few potatoes and bones that had been hacked into pieces with a cleaver. It was cooked in a huge pot, about a meter across. Seeing how fast it disappeared, that was the right amount.



The clams looked very good. I watched how people ate them and gave one a try. I popped the first one in my mouth to get the sauce off. Then I tried to open it. I tried three times and gave up. A man across the table showed me how. I tried again. It would NOT open. I tried a second one and it opened easily. The sauce was the best part. Raw fish that has been scraped off of the bones is mixed whit ginger and was a great combination. Ginger in Cambodia is not as strong as I have had elsewhere.

After eating and taking photos of the children.



I went upstairs with the 20-year-olds. This aspect of the party was much like Morocco, with boys in one room and girls in another.



For a Cambodian party this one went late. I left at 21:00 and it was still going strong. All of the other parties I have attended have closed down around 20:00.

Roach tennis

I came home about 21:00 and turned on the lights. As I walked past the couch, a large bug ran out from under the couch. A roach! It was so big that I stepped back to let it by.

I hate roaches. I went to the kitchen to get a broom. Brooms in Cambodia are a little smaller than in Europe and the USA, just a little bigger than a tennis racket.



Figure 1 Broom/roach racket


Where is this guy? I looked under the couch. There he is. I took a swing at him. He moved to the other side to the couch leg. Another swipe. This time I connected and he went sliding two meters to the front wall. As soon as he stopped sliding he was back in the game, he ran back to his hiding place. My next shot was a misplaced forehand. I missed. The roach tried to sneak by along the wall. A well placed forehand popped him back toward the front wall. He was stunned but he quickly ran back under the couch.

Wow, he's good. Two more misses with my forehand. Tom, plan your shot better and follow through. My next shot was better. I connected with a backhand and popped him under the moto. It was 30 all.

I can't let this roach beat me. He scurried back toward the couch. With a quick backhand, I lobbed him under the front door and out of the game.

Take-away Cambodian style

Language is not something I do well. I have learned a few words of Khmer, but not enough to hold a conversation or order dinner.

Tonight I went to my favorite restaurant for dinner. I wanted to have sweet and sour fish, a dish I have enjoyed there many times. Sometimes it comes with three little fish and sometimes it comes with one large fish. I prefer it with the one large fish, since there are not as many bones to mess with. I tried to ask the waitress if they had the one large fish or three little fish and place my order. The waitress left to the kitchen, I sat at a table because I was planning on eating it at the restaurant.

When the waitress came back she handed me a plastic sack with four Styrofoam cartons. OK, what had I ordered? Evidently, take-away, with one order of sweet and sour fish (two medium size fish) and three orders of rice. Not quite what I had expected but it was very good. I gave most of the rice to my landlord.

How many times when you get take-away, does the sauce drip on the car seat. Here, the sauce was in a plastic bag which prevents it from spilling.



When I arrived home, I had all of the sauce the two fish and the rice was still hot. It was a great meal.

Shower Cambodian Style

Earlier this evening, it rained hard, so hard that I could not hear a podcast. It sounded as if I were at the bottom of a large waterfall.

My landlord's 9-year-old son came running out buck naked. He stood briefly under the drainpipe from the roof, a heavy stream of water, and then ran back to his house.

About an hour later after the rain had slowed down somewhat, my landlord came out wrapped in his karma (traditional Cambodian cloth) wrapper, about to rinse off under the same drain. When I saw that I took him a bar of soap and some shampoo. He thanked me and lathered up. The water is a free shower. After he had showered and rinsed off, he returned the soap and shampoo and went home.

I thought of giving it a try. Perhaps another time.

To the bank

I was sitting at home and my landlord came in. He had told me yesterday that with the rent money I had paid him he would put a pitched roof on the house. Today, he told me that it would cost $250 not the $150 I had paid for rent. He asked if I could loan him $100. I said OK, and asked again to make sure I had the number correct. This time, he said $120. That's very close to my $150 rent. I offered to pay the September rent in advance.

I pushed my moto out and went to the bank. On the way back home, I was following a large bright green open truck. Open here means no cover on the cab and no doors. There were several men sitting all over the vehicle. I passed a flip flop (standard foot wear here) lying in the road. The truck stopped. One of the men got out and went back and picked up the sandal. I just managed to keep the moto upright while I laughed.

I gave my landlord the money. An hour later he came in waiting for the delivery person to bring the wood for the roof. He was disappointed the delivery was late. I teased him, would it be today, tomorrow or next week. About two hours later the wood delivery showed up.

A shorter gecko

In my house geckos usually stay on the walls and ceiling and I stay on the floor. Once in a while the wee ones and a medium size gecko will run across the floor. I look where I am walking but in the dark I can't always see them.

This evening I walked into the dark kitchen and saw something move on the floor. I was careful to not step in that spot. When I reached the far wall, I turned on the light switch. I looked around and there on the floor was a one inch (2.5 cm) gecko tail twitching. I was horrified, did I step on the gecko.

I don't think so. I Goggled "Why does a gecko's tail fall off?" and found the following: "A gecko drops its tail as a defense mechanism induced by fear. When a predator approaches, the gecko is able is drop the tail and leave it behind to entice the predator. However, the gecko then loses the fat stored in its tail that will keep it healthy during times when food is harder to find."

When I inspected the tail, it had not been squished so I assume the gecko thought of me as a BIG predator!

There will be one gecko without a tail for some weeks.

Trip to Phnom Penh

On Sunday, I took a bus from Kampong Cham to Phnom Penh.

My landlord took me to the bus station on my moto, then rode it home and parked it in the living room. I didn't realize until later that I had forgotten-- EAR PLUGS. The last two buses I have been on, the entertainment systems have been broken (thank god). All of the buses have space for a TV above the rear view mirror in the front and speakers in the ceiling, spaced every two rows. When the systems work, the driver plays DVDs at full volume!



I had brought podcasts on my iPod Nano, but it was no competition for the monster sound system.

On the road, we saw the usual sights. Here are a few of them.



Figure 1 Yes, the moto is carrying the wooden frame for a double bed.





Figure 2 Juxtaposition of old and new is common in Cambodia



Figure 3 This is not a really big load.

About half way to Phnom Penh there is a rest stop, at a large building with a roof and no walls. Around 20 fruit and drink vendors work from small tables.

There are many options for lunch.



Figure 4 Kabob sandwiches



Figure 5 Small chickens

 
Figure 6 Spiders

Back on the road.



Figure 7 Riding on top of vehicles is common here.



The boy below was riding with his grandmother. Both of them were in one seat, with four large sacks on the floor in front of them.

It was nice to get off of the buss and into the clamor of the crowd, it was quieter than on the bus. In the middle of the night, I could have used my ear plugs again, there were two large dogs fighting not far away.

Next trip to Phnom Penh I will take my ear plugs.

New market – waffle lady

For the past two weeks, I have not gone to the new market close to my house and the bamboo bridge. Today I wanted eggs, though and decided to go shopping.

My first time at the new market, there were very few vendors. Today the market is more active, people packed in everywhere. While looking for eggs, I ran across the waffle lady from the old market. I was surprised to see her, and happy to find that her price is still the same and the waffles are as good as ever.

There are two types of eggs here, chicken eggs and duck eggs. Chicken eggs are brown and duck eggs are white. A month ago, I went to the old market to purchase eggs. I bought 10 duck eggs, "I thought I would try them". When I got them home, I was very disappointed, of the 10 eggs only two were fit to eat. The other eight were bad, very old.

I remembered that this morning and almost did not get duck eggs. But there were no chicken eggs, so it was duck eggs or nothing. I looked all over the market for chicken eggs. As I was leaving the market I passed a women selling duck eggs. OK Tom, go ahead. I purchased four. They were much cheaper than in the other market.

At home I hard-boiled them for egg salad. They were fine. When I chopped them up, they did seem a little tough, but that could have been my cooking time.

Good eggs and finding the waffle lady's new location made my day.

Rice planting begins

Rice is the staple diet in Cambodia, and an important commodity. Planting rice paddies begins after the rainy season starts. Farmers have been planting rice near Kampong Cham for the last three weeks.

I have made three trips into the fields to photograph preparation, planting and planting of rice shoots.



Rice is a labor-intensive crop. After a small area is prepared, rice seed is sown, and after about three months is ready for harvest. The seedlings are pulled by hand; dirt and water knocked off against the farmer's leg, and then placed in bundles. 




Both traditional and modern plowing methods are quite physical, requiring a farmer to push his plow through muddy fields. The traditional method uses animals and a wooden plow with a metal blade. In the last photo, both men are exerting a lot of effort to keep the plow making a furrow.


The boy is working hard to keep the tractor going straight, he has to run to keep up when he turns the tractor at the end of the field.



When the paddy is ready, the bundles of seedlings are planted by hand, with shoots peeled from the bundle and placed in the mud by hand. The process looks back-breaking.

The seedlings are quite yellow just before planting and after planting for several days. I think this is because they are pulled from the mud and the water and soil is removed from the roots. In addition the top of the seedling is trimmed off; all of this must be a bit of a shock to the seedling.