November 2005 in Cambodia

Tuesday the 1st
Those crazy Philippines
Dull Bank Holiday Tuesday evening, just lounging around at home watching some television, when there is a knock at the door (a very rare occurrence here) it was my (slightly crazy) Philippine neighbours, it seems that they were having yet another party at their place, and as usual the neighbour gets the invite to remove the risk of complaints about the noise – they can get pretty rowdy when full of that Philippine rum !

So I figure I would pop round for an hour or so, show my face and then slip back home to watch the season one finale of Deadwood on HBO (sad, sad, sad, I know!)


Wednesday the 2nd
To Holiday, or not to holiday?
Technically today is not a holiday, however as part of the bank holiday fell over the weekend, I know for a fact that a lot of my colleagues would simply not come in today so that they did not miss out on a bank holiday just because it feel on a Saturday or Sunday

I went into the office in the morning and was on my own until 10 o’clock, when I decided that I could just as easily finish the presentation I was working on at home.


Thursday the 3rd
Book Launch at Friends Restaurant
A friend of a friend has written a new book about Cambodia. She is an anthropologist, who was here to help my friend raise money for a free school that he was building.

The launch was held at Friends Restaurant, which is an overpriced, pretentious, NGO-elite hang out that normally I would not go to, but as Dickon is a friend and as he has worked so hard for the last two years trying to build a new school, I felt I should go and support him (plus it was free food and drinks)

The book is called ‘The Monk, The Farmer, The Merchant, The Mother’ by Anne Best.

It contains the life stories of 4 people (a monk, farmer, merchant and a mother; oddly enough) all of them are from Battambang province and are all in their 70’s or 80’s so they can remember King Sihanouk, the Lon Nol coup, the Thai invasion of Battambang, the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot, the Vietnamese invasion/liberation/occupation of Cambodia and the UN fiasco after that. In short, they have lived through rougher, harder and shittier times than most people [me included] are realistically capable of imagining. I found it an interesting read for several reasons; having been here for a year and a half now and having many Khmer friends, I have heard similar stories about parts of these times but it was interesting to read four peoples recollections and thoughts on all these events without the associated worries or guilt.

Well, in order for Dickon to raise money for the building of his free school, he did not follow the usual route of writing proposals and beseeching NGO and other Aid agencies for cash, he simply got out his address book and wrote to all his family, friends and former colleagues. Of course, it helps that Dickon is an old Etonion and former Wall Street Banker – am sure that if I tried to raise US$250,000 in such a manner I would not manage much more than £3.50 !

Anne however is not one of his old public school/wall street crowd, and as such could not ‘just pop a cheque in the post’ so she decided to come to Cambodia for a month and give her time. After much discussion and thought she decided to write a book about the lives and history of some of the ordinary Khmer people. Funding was available to publish the book and then all profits from sales would go to the School Fund.

The crowd at the party was quite an eclectic mixture, from Khmer rice farmers to the Australian Ambassador there were approximately 50 people milling around sipping wine and congratulating themselves on a job well done. Dickon was rushing around greeting everyone, making sure that the restaurant did not run out of things and generally spent the night making sure that things ran smoothly for everyone else – poor guy.


Friday the 4th
Not a Bank Holiday, but still a day off

No electricity for half the morning and all of the afternoon.
I decide to take an early lunch and go to P’sar tool tom poung – also known as the Russian Market – where I relax in the shade with an iced coffee and a bowl of chicken fried rice.

After which I decide to treat myself to some new DVD’s - as a way to reduce expenditure in bars and restaurants over the weekend!
7 disc boxed set of The West Wing: Season 5 for US$12 (£7) yes, that should keep me busy over the weekend :-)


Wednesday the 9th
Independence Day
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/09/content_3754020.htm

Yes, 52 years ago today wirily old King Sihanouk finally managed to kick out the French colonists from Cambodia – he probably just told them that they had just invented the croissant in Vietnam and they all stormed over there in outrage, then got lost looking for the road back.

Today, his son King Sihamoni, lit the flame in the Independence Monument (a huge pineapple looking monument atop a series of steps in the middle of one of the few traffic roundabouts here in Cambodia)

While all this was going on, I had lunch with Nicky, Peter and Margaret – the volunteers that all arrived at the same time as me. Today is Nicky’s last day in Cambodia, at 18:30 this evening she is flying back to the UK for good.

Unfortunately, for some reason best known to herself, she chose to have this farewell lunch at Café Java, which is a horribly overpriced restaurant that seems to cater for horribly over paid NGO or diplomatic staff, the food is nice, very nice. But the portions are tiny and the prices large. After we had said our goodbyes I arrived back home and had a sandwich !


Thursday the 10th
Crunch time for cash
10AM this morning I have a meeting with the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFiD) I have to try and gauge the mood of the main man during it as afterwards I intend to try and hit him up for a job when my volunteer contract finishes next year. This could be tricky...

Sat in the embassy waiting room for 45 minutes until a receptionist came out and told me that the person I was meeting was not in the office today, ho hum. Guess that I will have to reschedule all this then…


Saturday the 12th
Getting Ready for a week of madness
Driving up the riverside this evening, we can see that the preparations for the water festival seem to have started, there are some dragon boats on the river already, some of which seem to be lit up with fairy lights…

A shudder runs over me as I recall the last two water festivals I have been here for. Approximately 1 million extra people travel in from the Provinces to watch the boat races and visit ‘the big city’

Traffic comes to a stand still. Police block off all roads near the river, and those leading to the riverside, so you are forced to walk shoulder to shoulder through the crowd like sardines – or in my case Khmer shoulder to my hip.

Any expat with an ounce of sense who has been here for one of these heads out of the city to the beach, or Bangkok, or Saigon, or anywhere that is not Phnom Penh.

I, of course, have no sense (and more importantly no cash) so I will be staying locked up here, unable to drive anywhere, go anywhere, do anything, etc.

One day during it all I will get dragged down to the river by everyone and will spend 4 hours walking along the one mile of riverside. As I stare and watch the multicoloured boats paddling like fury along the river in their heats, so to will all the slack jawed provincial Khmers fresh in from the rice paddies stare at me – ooo barang, ooo barang – will be there cry. A foreigner, a foreigner !

Oh well, I am convinced at times that my only purpose for being here in Cambodia is to amuse the natives. Ho hum.


Sunday the 13th
Glad I am in Cambodia and not the Philippines
Early evening there is a knock on my door – very unusual again – it is my Filipino neighbour, Dr Phil. He sponsors a basketball team here in Phnom Penh and today they had their very first win (55 to 54) so he is throwing a small party; this is, I think, the tenth party in 2 months he has had, they only need the slightest reason!

So we pop over to the next balcony, to have a beer and a bite to eat, just to be sociable you understand.

Along with the usual, BBQ chicken, BBQ pork, peanuts, et cetera, they hand me a dish of what they say is a great Filipino delicacy. It looked like some sort of pasta – a short relation of tagglieteli – but it was crispy and fried, also it seemed to be meaty rather than pasta, its texture was in parts like elastic and in parts like gravel. The whole thing had clearly been marinated in some sort of industrial strength chilli (or possibly hydrochloric acid).

After a couple of very unpleasant mouthfuls I asked ‘so what exactly is this?’

After a swift discussion in Tagalong a translation was rendered ‘deep fried strips of pigs face, cheeks and ears.

My next beer was very, very, swiftly finished.


Monday the 14th
Ooo, those Damn Filipinos.
My head hurts again.

Getting into the office for 07:00 was a struggle this morning. Although I could have easily had another hour in bed as hardly anyone was in this close to a big Khmer festival.

Around 8 I went out for breakfast with a few of the boys and by the time that we had gotten back to the office (08:20) the boss had already gone home, so everyone that had come in was starting to pack up and think about leaving as well !

At 10 I there was only me and the cleaner in the office, ho hum, guess it is time to start the holiday.


The Water Festival – Bon Omn Thouk: the 15th to the 17th
First day of bon omm thouck
The water festival here in Cambodia is a unique event. The Country is very flat and has a six month monsoon season. By the end of the rainy season, roughly November, the country is very water-logged, the water table rises so high that the Tonle Sap River actually reverses its direction and starts flowing back into the Tonle Sap Lake, this also happens in November. This is what the water festival celebrates, the end of the rains, the reversal of the river and the start of the growing and harvest season. Also, it is the only Khmer festival that is not family orientated; all of the other big Khmer festivals see a desertion of Phnom Penh with most of the Khmers returning to their home towns and home provinces to hold family celebrations. The water festival sees the opposite, the population of Phnom Penh is roughly 1.3 million, during the week of the water festival an extra 1 million Khmers come to the city to celebrate, to watch the boat races, to compete in the boat races and generally party. This, near, doubling of the city’s population usually causes complete gridlock and havoc on the cities roads, making it virtually impossible to travel by car or motorbike, with tens of thousands of people walking everywhere blocking the roads and setting up roadside barbeques, refreshment stalls and even sleeping.

Tuesday the 15th
Enjoyed a leisurely day at home and then thought in the evening that we should head up to the river to see what was going on.

After several attempts it was declared hopeless. An extra million visitors are estimated to be in Phnom Penh this week.

Most of them seem to be on foot and standing in the roads around the city, along with all the extra; vans, cars, tuk-tuk’s, cyclos, motos, bicycles, et cetra.

In addition to this everybody and their uncle seems to have set up stalls on every square inch of pavement (and several back roads) selling everything from BBQ chicken to red silk stuffed elephants to fake Birkenstocks

Wednesday the 16th
Chaos out there!
Attempting a different route to the river side this evening was just as bad. However with a little perseverance and a lot of honking and aggressive driving, it only took me 35 minutes to travel the 4 kilometres to Dave’s new bar.

The idea was to leave the bike at Dave’s bar (with his guard keeping an eye on it) and then walk the last 3 or 4 blocks to the river. However, I was feeling, hot, harassed and tired when I got there, so I stayed and had a drink with Dave, Brian, Paul and few other that we there.


Thursday the 17th
Last (official) day of the water festival
I am struggling to find a parking space in several impromptu parking lots that have been set up outside peoples houses. Eventually finding one the guy whose house it was tells me how much it will cost, roughly four times the usual cost; plus he would not be staying open all night. So I head back into the night looking for another space, when I realise that I am only a couple of blocks away from Paul, (a friend of mine) house. Now Paul is out of the country at the minute (smart guy) but I know his security guard and he works all through the night, so a quick word with him and my bike is safe and sound inside the compound and we all start walking, or rather trying to walk through the sheer mass of people.

Khmer government officials say that an extra 1 million people have descended on the city. Most of which will be congregating in a ten block area by the riverside. Oh what fun…


Friday the 18th
Back to work
In a way I am almost glad to be back in the office, at least here I am not surrounded by millions of screaming people and melting to death drip by drip.

As expected there are only two of us in the office by 08:00, but I have several things that I can happily finish on my own, in peace and quiet and in the cool, cool, air-conditioned building


Monday the 21st to Friday the 26th
A quiet week, with just work and no nights out – saving money for the house move!


Sunday the 27th
For one time only, USA band DENGUE FEVER is playing the Peace Pub. Everyone who knows their music tells me that this will be an awesome gig. Without doubt, the first real non expat rock’n’ roll band to play in PP.

Tickets are $5 and entitle the customer to two draft beers or soft drinks. Tickets are available from Peace Pub or can be purchased on the door if available.

“I live in Southern California. I have seen and talked to the band several times. If you get a chance, go and see this group. They are simply awesome. The guys in the group are some of the best musicians you will see anywhere. They sound like they were dropped right out of the sixties. “ Shasta

‘’multicultural pop featuring the vocals of Cambodian-American Chhom Nimol (all the vocals are sung in Khmer). Retro surf guitar, the throwback psychedelic tone of the Farfisa organ, rhythms on songs like ‘Pow Pow’ that conjure visions of James Bond dancing the Swim in a Hong Kong nightclub, as well as the absence of any post-punk or disco residue, create a sense of time displacement.'’ Dengue Fever review in local paper.
Not quite sure what the reviewer is saying there, but he seemed to like them!?!?

The concert was due to start at 8:30 that evening, so I decided to get there early to make sure I got a good seat, 7:30 and the bar was already starting to fill up!

Dengue Fever - the gig that never was...

Monday the 28th
Boxes, boxes, boxes.
Damn, I hate moving house! Spent the day surrounded by boxes and packing things. It is amazing how much stuff I have managed to accumulate in nearly two years here !
Down stairs with boxes, back up stairs, et cetera. Damn, I hate moving house!


Tuesday the 29th
Pickup Truck, more boxes, hired Khmer labour and lots and lots of steps.
I had to go into work this morning for an (allegedly) important meeting. So I left the final box packing Figuring that after lunch I and the couple of Khmer guys I had hired could load the furniture, cooker and heavy stuff.

Arrived back at lunch to find that the van could not get here until 4:30pm…

8PM finally in my new flat (10 minutes up the road) just the unpacking to do !

Did I mention that, damn I hate moving house ?


Wednesday the 30th
Mobile again at last !
Vay phoned me last night to say that my bike was ready to be picked up from his bike shop. Turns out that the problem was the clutch plate, it had been replaced before I bought the bike, but the moron fixing the bike did not know the difference between a clutch plate and a brake plate…

Anyway, all fixed and for the princely sum of US$20 – (including an oil change, just for the fun of it)

Almost finished the unpacking, hampered slightly by the lack of a few things – like a wardrobe!

Ho hum.

Remember back when I was all keen and enthusiastic about being a volunteer, and recommending to some of you to do it… mmm?