Andy&Jules Cambodia Travels

Greetings All!

Last Friday Julie and I found a nice old Khmer wooden house to rent in downtown Phnom Penh close to our work.  Its nestled between some larger new residential buildings which gives an interesting contrast.  The house has 3 BRs, large living rooms and a nice balcony.  The owning family seem very nice and live below.  The yard is protected by a locked gate and a few dogs.  Most of the interior is wood and large floors planks have a nice flex to them.  We have lots of room for visitors - yeh!  We are very happy with our new house (Pok jeung sap'bai na cheamouy phtya t'may roboh pok jeung)!!

After visiting our work placements we are now back in Kampong Cham with our volunteer colleagues for 3 wks of Khmer language training.  Its a lot of studying and a serious work out for the throat, face, mouth, and nasal muscles for us to try to speak this Siamese  language.  I find myself at times slipping into a generic east asian accent which I remember from growing up watching TV and Hollywood movies.  My guess is that on ''MASH" actors from various east asian countries played Koreans which resulted in a general accent - so, that's about all the background many of us Barangs (Westerners) have to go on.  Some times when I pinch my nose slightly and speak in class our teacher says "very gooooood!!"  But that's okay as the Khmers are a jokey bunch and love to goof around with English.

A number of the other volunteers were required to travel to and return from remote locations where they visited their workplaces. Being the wet season some became stuck several times on remote jungle roads and had to get out of their vehicles to rig cables and pull.  John, Nicki and their drivers found themselves unable to return from coastal Koh Kong province where the rivers rose and picked up speed making the simple ferries unusable.  Instead, they were forced to take a fast boat down the coast to Sihanoukville, and drive from there.  However, Julie and I are bit green because of  the stories we hear about these beautiful natural places.  In Mondulkiri province teachers Andy and Trisha rode to their first day at school on the back of an elephant while Wanda says that Mondulkiri villagers still report tiger sightings.  In remote Rattanakiri province in the far north east, Norman and Marie visited their "wild west" frontier town and swam in a beautiful crater in the jungle with crystal clear waters.

On Saturday evening we went down to the Mekong River for the Festival of the Moon.  Under the full moon the children waded into the river and launched their homemade decorated boats lit with candle lanterns and burning incense.  The children make a wish as they release the boats.  The monks rode up and down the river in a boat with 3 illuminated towers representing the main pagodas of Ankhor Wat.  They chanted and sung as they went.  A very peaceful evening. 

Of course we are a novelty in this small town.  Interestingly, if you are a big person (especially compared to Cambodians), the Khmer people want to touch you and sometimes even smack you on the bum - yes, that's right.  So, children and adults typically like to grab my arm and just as often they will walk up behind me and smack me on the bum and say "You big!" or "Thom na! (very big!)"  But, maybe they just think I have a big bum.  Oh well.  Cambodians are not very shy and usually just say what immediately enters their mind.  Our cooking staff told Julie early on that she has a "long nose!!" with hand movements to illustrate.  But they are very nice and have also told her she is very pretty (sa: aat!)           

Julie is being her usual organizer self has coordinated a local driver and boat to take 15 of us around the area on the Mekong River on  Sunday (our only day off!). We expect to visit a traditional weaving village and some islands and just maybe see a 600Ib catfish and fresh water dolphins or stingrays!!..........

Talk to you in a while Mekong crocodiles!

Andrew & Julie