Up Country

No sooner had we settled in to our appartment than we split up again. Sarah settled down to work in earnest (of which more anon), while Perry went off to Kampong Cham to do the main bulk of his language training.

Kampong Cham is a smallish town about 120 km northeast of Phnom Penh and situated on the River Mekong. It's an awful lot quiter than Phnom Penh and proved to be a good location for learning, exploring and, from time to time, socialising. A typical day would start at about 7 with breakfast at the communal house where most of the crowd were staying. Then off to class at 8 for 4 hours solid slog. Then lunch back at the house, followed by revision or, quite often, a wee nap. Most afternoons the more foolhardy amongst the crowd (yes, that does include Perry, but how nice of you to ask) then went off exploring on our bikes. Much of the countryside was delightful and we also gained a bit of an insight into rural Cambodian life. The picture below was taken from the top of a hill, looking down on the Mekong.

You can see what appear to be beaches in the distance. They're not - at least, most of the time, they're not. What you can see is the bottom of the river, which is at its lowest level at the height of the dry season. In a couple of months, the water level will be 15 metres (that's nearly 50 feet) higher. For what this means to Cambodians, see the next picture.

This is the bamboo bridge that runs across from just south of Kampong Cham to an island in the Mekong. It may look rickety. It is. Nonetheless, both Perry and Sarah cycled across it, avoiding the workmen who are constantly maintaining and repairing it, and without (quite) falling into the river. When the rainy season comes, the river washes the bridge away. This happens every year, and every year they rebuild it anew. Frankly, it felt as if you could wash it away with a garden hose. But, apart from the bicycles and motorbikes, it's constantly being crossed by ponies and carts, motorcycles with trailers and even cars (our view on that one is that there's no bloody way on Earth...). Perry has a great video clip he took while cycling across holding on with one hand. It almost ends tragically as he loses control of both camera and bike. Unfortunately, we can't post it as he had the sound recording on.

Sarah came up for the Khmer New Year weekend (12 - 14 April) and the whole gang made a bit of a party of it. One of the highlights was a boat trip up the Mekong, with exploring and, for the stout hearted, swimming. In the evening, we put on a barbecue and played our favourite music (jokingly called Mekong Island Discs). All agreed that it was a particularly fine day. In the photo below, Sarah is boarding the boat. The gangplank was fairly rotten, but then so was most of the timber on the boat. Sarah managed not to fall in and the pump on the boat worked just faster than the leaks.

As part of the in-country training, Perry got to spend a weekend staying with a Cambodian family in a small village some distance out of Kampong Cham along the banks of the River Mekong. It was a great opportunity to see Cambodian village life and to try using the Khmer (with mixed success and quite a lot of laughter). The picture below shows a typical village scene. Outside of the towns (and even in them in many cases), most Cambodian houses are still the traditional style, made of wood and up on stilts. Like all the wood in Cambodia, that used in the houses has often seen better days. Perry particularly remembers one ominous crunching, splitting noise as he was going upstairs in the dark. Hope the family eventually found the broken bit.

Oh yes, after we finished our afternoon's exploring, we had dinner and then either played games or occasionally went to one of the two rather fine bars on the waterfront. No need to say too much, but some of the crowd now know what time the sun comes up in Cambodia. Those games can be terribly addictive.

More soon. In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers.

At Home

We moved into our bijou des res (appartment for any plebs reading) in April. The first thing we had to do was equip the place as it contained furniture, cooker, fridge (luxury!) and nothing else. Most of our stuff was bought and/or haggled for in the market. As you can see below, plastic appears to feature very heavily in this year's Cambodian chic.

Do you have it in any colour other than gop?

Please note that Sarah is not pregnant in the photo above (except with unknown expectation - she's just about to experience Pol Pot's revenge for the first time and is, at this stage, just wondering why she is swelling up).

Nonetheless, we were soon in and comfortable. Having our own space was something of a joy (SOMETHING - hah!) after the weeks of communal living (Sarah only had two of them, Perry rather more, of which more anon). The appartment is on the second floor of a family home, with three generations of the family living below us. The pictures below give some idea of the feel of the place.

This is the living room. Sarah has since moved the furniture around (No! Really?) Below is the vew from the living room out onto the balcony.

And now, as the song goes, we come to the tragic bit. We have to boil and filter all our water (unless we want what to get what are described by the volunteers around here as "pets"). We didn't quite get into a routine in the early days. Once upon a time, early in the morning, Perry put on a kettle to boil that he would later pour into the filter. Sadly, the wicked fairy (going to work) intervened and our hero was dragged away, kicking and screaming. Come lunchtime, however, he escaped and rushed home to have lunch. However, horror on horrors, as he opened the kitchen door, his first thought was "It's bloody hot in here". His second was "And steamy. Oh ****!". He rushed to the cooker but it was too late. We don't know what the melting point of aluminium is, but Perry had found it. The tragic remains were properly disposed of, although Perry's sugestion of giving them a viking funeral didn't go down too well.

Sarah points out that Perry has also since killed the iron in the background. He hasn't harmed her muesli bowl yet, so perhaps becoming a cereal killer is something for the next blog...

In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers.

In Town

For the first few weeks in Cambodia, we stayed in the accommodation at the VSO Programme Office. Five star doesn't come close (no, really, it doesn't come close).



Let me show you to your room, sir. It's just in between the communal area and the meeting room and it contains every luxury...



Even a bed. Oh, allright then, only a bed.

Washing facilities were simple and shared and sometimes surprisingly necessary. One of the pleasures of Cambodia is walking around barefoot or in sandals much of the time. Our toes love the experience but the soles of our feet already seem to be permanently black.



Sarah discovers the drawback of being the first of the group to buy a washing up bowl.

Nonetheless, we did find time for a bit of relaxation...



Perry finds time for that all-essential Del Boy moment. Shortly after this, he resisted the temptation to fall sideways through an open hatchway. That happened later.

More soon - including our move to our own place and the tragic tale of the poor little kettle (murderer pictured above... but who?)

In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers.

We're Not In Kansas Any More...

Here are a few photos of Phnom Penh that give a quick impression of the city as we saw it in out first few days. Clck on the pictures to enlarge.

Picture 1 shows the Old Market, with a couple of monks strolling by.

Picture 2 was taken at another market (at this stage we were blissfully lost, so I can't remember which one). The fresh fruit here is fabulous and abundant. It's as if it grows on trees...

This is Wat Phnom, the most important temple in the city. It's not particularly spectacular as Wats go, but has a very spiritual feeling that is rather diferent from the bustle of the rest of the city.

Last, especially for Eleanor, is a picture of the elephant at Wat Phnom.

More soon (now that we've finally got the blog to work!!). In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers.

The Volunteers Have Landed

Trying to curb our enthusiasm... but loving Cambodia so far! A dream of a journey here on Thai Airlines through Bangkok, & arrived Thursday 9am to the first of many beautiful Cambodian smiles from Pisit, the VSO admin assistant here in Phnom Penh. Through baggage, passport & visa stuff in about 15 min (eat your heart out Heathrow!) & on to the programme office where we are based ‘til the majority of our group go on to Kampong Cham on Wednesday. Sarah will stay here at the office until Perry comes back in a week or so for a visit to choose our house here together.

Trying to tell of all we have done, seen & learned even in this few days would take many pages, so here are some sketches & impressions: warm, humid air, a couple of real tropical downpours – unusual at this very hot dry time of the year. What looks like madness on the road is in fact akin to a river flowing; apart from at very big junctions there are no lights & no-one signals, everyone just launches out into the stream & behaves much as we do when we walk down the street, avoiding each other & using commonsense – also not too fast.

DELICIOUS food, prepared here by 3 lovely ladies who sit on the kitchen floor with big bowls of beautiful vegetables, fresh herbs & ginger, chopping & shredding to produce plates of aromatic fish, meat, noodles & fragrant rice, & outside in the myriad of stalls, cafes & restaurants.

The river front: wide calm where the 3 rivers meet, Vietnamese fishing boats punting along, trees & rice paddies far on the other side. Children playing on the pavement while their families sell from stalls – yes I suppose they should be at school... Mothers with disabled children & amputees up at the temple of Wat Phnom; the beautiful sweet smile on the handsome face of the man of about our age with a double above knee amputation (wonder which country made the mine that did that in a rice field) will stay with us.

Lovely tall flowering trees, little birds, big fruit bats, sweet little geckos, the gentle temple elephant who consumed an enormous bunch of bananas from us with one curve of her trunk.

Last night we went to a traditional masked dance theatre; gorgeous costumes, choreography, a great 5 piece band & the chance to hear beautifully enunciated Cambodian - we even recognised a word or two! Oh yes, we have also had some training in between all the important stuff like exploring the city & eating & drinking! Sarah has met women from her office & will be taken along there on Wednesday – apparently they are extremely busy (think the research for the report is a bit behind schedule) – so looking forward to getting really stuck in there.

On a girly note – though Perry actually mentioned it! – our skin, hair & digestive systems all seem to be really benefitting from the lovely soft water & the very healthy diet, no dairy produce seems to be doing us no harm at all & the odd cold beer is purely medicinal of course.

So far, we have no working phones but will have soon & there are plenty of internet cafes which is where we will go later on to get this off Sarah’s lovely new laptop & out to any of you who have dropped by to see how we are doing.

Photos will follow soon!