Phnom Penh Pal

Back to school

2012-03-03T00:20:00.003-08:00

Unbelievably, we’ve just finished week two of our language class. How time flies when you’re having fun!

We came to Kampong Cham nearly two weeks ago to start our language training. There’ll be more about our current home in a later blog I’m sure but I thought I’d discuss the important things in my life in this installment. For Gordon it’s the price of beer – for me it’s stationery and sugary treats.

Two weeks ago, nine nervous volunteers turned up for day one of our language class at Western University clutching a pen, enthusiasm and not much in the way of Khmer language knowledge. At this point I'd only just figured out that Khmer is not pronounced K'mer, it's actually K'mai. Anyway, we were all given a new notebook (pink for me, blue for Gordon) and a pen. Free stationery - so far, it was going well! And then the onslaught started.

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly an onslaught - I’m not sure an onslaught can ever be an enjoyable experience and this was brilliant - but yowser did we learn a lot in day one. None of your ‘my name is…’, ‘I’m 31 and from Scotland’ for us! Oh no. We learned how to say I, we, you, him, her, they. We learnt verbs, conjunctions, negative statements, lots of food related nouns… I genuinely didn’t think I had it in me but after day one, “Knyom chole-chet rien pea-saa Khmer ch’raan!” (approx. I really like learning Khmer language.)

When we left our first class I was delighted to discover many of the other volunteers shared my love of making study notes looks pretty, so we set off along the road to find different coloured pens and coloured card for flashcards. After stopping at a couple of roadside shops, where we managed to get some fancy double-ended highlighters, we hit paydirt at the market when we discovered the stationery stall.

Heaven really is sparkly pens with Disney princesses on them. Who knew that all the different pens and nice paper that I left at home would have been just as well coming with me…

Our language teacher, Dara, is a legend.

Dara at his whiteboard

He has somehow managed to give us the capability to hold a (basic) conversation in Khmer and two weeks later I’ve also learnt rather a lot about the English language that I didn’t know before! I now know about subjects and objects, prepositions and pronouns – things I’m sure I was told at school but have forgotten the names of.

Of course, we need food to sustain all the learning we’re doing and there’s a lot to choose from. Again, I’m sure there will many posts about food in the months to come (especially given Gordon’s capacity for consuming it) but the best things about a new country for me are discovering what sweet treats they have in store.

Today we had this little dragon shaped wonder from our local bakery, and the other day we had the wodge of sticky delight pictured underneath.

Neither are particularly sugary (says the girl with the sweet tooth). The dragon had some sort of bean paste inside it, dyed to look yellow so that it looks like an egg inside (we think… when we asked what it was we think they said ‘pong taya’ ie duck egg so we had presumed it would be savoury) and the rectangle of cake is topped with sesame seeds, some little green things (seaweed?) and candied ginger (I can’t think what us Scots would call it, but one of our new Canadian pals said it and that’s exactly what it is!)

Ellen, our Dutch volunteer, came across the waffle lady one afternoon. For days we thought she had been hallucinating as none of us had seen her, however yesterday, there she was!

a waffle plus another lovely coconut cake ma-jig

waffle lady! (plus Ellen who sneaked into the pic)

Of course, we haven't only eaten sugary sweet treats. The fresh fruit is also delicious and Anna, who has been in Cambodia since the summer and has just started with VSO, has been introducing us to a whole new world (NB deliberate Disney link) of tropical fruit.

Here she is chopping up a Pomelo - a cross between a giant orange and a grapefruit and delicious

jack fruit

And here's the jack fruit being prepared - very sweet and sticky

they look like a small potato, but they're more like golden kiwi fruits

sweet tamarind - gooey and yummy!

And finally, Gordon would never forgive me if I didn't mention one of his new favourite foodstuffs - banana in sticky, coconut rice, cooked over coals in a banana leaf. We get ours from a lovely wee lady on the street corner behind our hotel who laughs whenever we try to talk in Khmer.

not a particularly good pic as all you can see is charred banana leaf - but the white bit in the middle is the rice with the banana inside!

And, for no reason other than I like it, I leave you with my favourite Khmer saying that I've heard so far

Mean teuk (have water)

Mean try (have fish)

Mean loy (have money)

Mean s'rey! (have women!)

lea hai!

How much is a beer?

2012-02-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

The male decides whether a place is expensive or not by the price of a beer. Not bread, milk, vegetables or meat, but beer.

So whilst descriptions of meeting monks, visiting a Khmer Rouge prison or buying stuff at markets will help some build a picture of Cambodia, others will do so by the price of a beer. And it should be a happy picture that appears, as a can of beer is about $1.

Admittedly, these are small 330ml cans and in some bars you may pay $1.50 but it's still good value when a dollar equals 65p or so.

The popular beer is the local Angkor - their Tenant's or Carling, although defo better than Carling. Unsurprising to many will be that i've been trying the range of local brews and couldn't resist the temptation of the Black Panther. Especially since it was 8%.

It went down a treat, so when I was told by another volunteer that the ABC was considered even better, and just as strong, I looked forward to getting some of that. Even though its name was rubbish compared to Black Panther.

So I ordered an ABC and happily supped away. Until the bill came. Claire shot a look at me and I withered.

Twice the price?! How much?! Quick mental calculation of exchange rates. Oh right, only $1.50 compared to the Black Panther's 75 cents.

Looks like I'm resigned to drinking Black Panther at 75 cents.
How good a picture does that paint?
Gordon

To drive on the left or right?

2012-02-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

Before coming to Cambodia, we had laughingly been told to enjoy the traffic. No descriptions were given because it seemed that none could do justice for what lay in store for us. Officially, you drive on the right in Cambodia. But not always.

Firstly, if you are turning left, you do not go forward into the far away lane, and then turn left, you go over to the left hand lane before the corner and follow the kerb around so that you are driving towards the oncoming traffic in their lane. Whilst driving forward, you then try to veer over to your righthand lane - avoiding the oncoming traffic whilst doing so.

You can also overtake by going into the left hand lane at time you like and on any road you like, no matter how narrow. The oncoming traffic should just stop to let you overtake and move back in. Or sometimes, they will weave in between you and the vehicle you're overtaking. Simple.

Thankfully, cars are in the minority with most people on small motorbikes or in tuk tuks which gives room for all this swerving. Two other volunteers, Ellen and Catherine, in a tuk tuk below.

Bikes are also common and it is by bicycle that we are to get around Phnom Penh. So on Thursday Claire and I took to our bikes for the first time. What makes cycling even more interesting is that there are no road rules. There are no give way signs, no stop signs, no road markings and very few lights.

So when approaching junctions, nobody has right of way. Cars, tuk tuks, motos, bikes and pedestrians all meet at a four way junction and have to work out for themselves who is going where and when. Cue lots of zig zagging, swerving and braking as everybody comes to a near stop in the middle.

The plus side of this anarchy is that nobody goes very quickly and people accept the muddling through without road rage. So, the only unforeseen thing we encountered was the uncommonly heavy rainfall, for this time of year, which we cycled to work through.

And as you can see by our smiles, that only seemed to make the whole thing more exhilarating.

Gordon

your pals are now in Phnom Penh

2012-02-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

And so we are here!

The last few days in Perth went by in a blur – so much to do in terms of saying goodbye to people, organising what to take with us, clearing out my flat (how I ever managed to fit all of that stuff into one wee flat I will never know), attempting to pack, more clearing out, more packing, more clearing out… you get the picture. (My poor mum and dad have been left with a list of things to do and a pile of things to take home / to the charity shop / to wherever they decide. I really can’t thank them enough for their help with sorting out the flat. Dad’s going to paint, mum’s going to clean. They’re superstars!)

It’s only now that we’re here that it’s finally beginning to seem real. Even on the plane Gordon and I were in agreement that we didn’t “feel” anything. No excitement that you usually get about going on holiday, no decisions about what we would go to see first or where we would eat, or wondering whether the accommodation we’d booked would be any god – our fate was in VSO’s hands!

Our fate took a little longer to get to their hands than planned as we had a delayed flight from London, which meant we missed our connection in Bangkok. Luckily there was another flight to Phnom Penh (PP) later that evening so we finally landed around 11.30pm.

lots of forms to fill in before we can enter the country

The lovely Pirit from VSO met us - and then had to hang around even longer as we discovered that only my rucksack had made it to PP. Our three other bags were waiting for us elsewhere. My favourite part of the night came when we worked out what had been packed in what bags and tried to see what we had for the next day. I had clothes but no toiletries – and Gordon had nothing. Gordon, in all seriousness, said that he could wear a pair of my shorts the next day. It took me a while to stop laughing – I know he’s lithe (skinny!) but I don’t think he’d really thought it through given that the only shorts I own are short shorts. He might have managed to get them up to his knees…

So finally, much, much later than planned, we made it to our home for the coming week; the Burly Guest House. Sadly, our room looks nothing like the one pictured on this site, and going by the cold shower this morning we might not have the warm water either, but it’s home and it’ll suit us just fine (and it has free WiFi so I can do the blog!)

After a surprisingly good night’s sleep (thank you ear plugs) we got picked up by a tuk tuk and taken for lunch with the seven other VSO volunteers (a lovely bunch) then had our first afternoon of In Country Training (ICT). We’ve missed quite a few days of it but this afternoon we had gender training and then a “staying healthy” briefing. Who knew there was so much to worry about! Dengue fever aka “break bones fever” being my ‘favourite’ so far… Tomorrow we have a morning of finance and corruption training (not linked obviously) and then we’re all genuinely looking forward to a two hour session with a Monk about Cambodian culture and religion in the afternoon.

I just realised that I’ve only taken two pictures so far so I’ll need to get going on that. I’ll leave you with Gordon practicing his Khmer on the weird big fish in the very small tank in the reception…

Team Lycra wins war of attrition

2012-02-04T06:14:00.000-08:00

It was a battle between our bikes and our behinds. Thankfully, our behinds saw off the challenge surviving the pain and torture. Team Lycra won this war.

Last Sunday, four of us set out from Dalgety Bay to cycle across Scotland (and back!) to raise funds for VSO who Claire and I are going to Cambodia with. During Christmas I decided that I would cycle from the east coast of Scotland to the west coast, and back again.

I shared this plan with close friends over a pint and full of Christmas goodwill and maybe a little alcohol, Mike Gow, offered to join me in this venture. Gowser is a mate who does not always reply immediately to texts, but you know he's one of the best mates you can have when he volunteers to cycle 160 miles during freezing weather just to keep you company and help raise some funds.

Two other friends (Emma and Stuart, both in yellow, Mike, and me taking the pic) decided to cycle the first leg (east to west) with us too, so when we set off from Dalgety Bay at 8am on 29th Jan, Team Lycra was four. You may not see this in the picture, but Emma cycled in knee high boots. Style.

We pedalled along over the Forth Road Bridge, joining the canal at Linlithgow and it was all quite pleasant. Except for the mud. Without mud guards, Mike and I were caked in it. So when we arrived at Falkirk Wheel for sandwiches, we were probably rather unwelcome guests for the people getting ready for a wedding. Still it was nice munching away to the sounds of a harpist.

We bade farewell to Stuart and Emma at Glasgow, and Mike and I toddled on towards Dumbarton. Now, the end of the cycle route is a little place called Bowling. But I decided that it would be better to sample the nightlife of Dumbarton and stay there. Gow was fine with this when I told him it was only an extra mile, but less so when we had cycled another four and had still not arrived at the B&B.

However, we did manage to beat Claire, who was bringing fresh clothes etc, to the B&B. Yep, 8 hours of cycling and we still managed to get there before Claire.

We set off the next day to a gorgeous sunset in Dumbarton. However, this inspiring setting was soon destroyed by constant aching in our bums. I have been told child birth can be pretty sore and I know getting a ball kicked in the private parts can too, but wowsers this was bad. Hours and hours of agony. If pain is weakness leaving the body, why did it all have to leave in the one place?

Eventually, we made it wearily back to the East coast and crossed the Forth bridge once again. We were nearly home.

As of now, we've raised £1750 which is unbelievable. People have been ridiculously generous. In fact stupidly so. People who I've not seen in years have donated, in fact people I've not even met have sponsored Mike or donated because of Claire.

During the worst of 'The Agony' (kind of like 'The Terror') I tried singing to take my mind off the pain, which only added to Mike's. What did work was thinking of all the people who had sponsored us. It made me realise, not for the first time, how very lucky we are to have friends like the friends that we do.

There are more pics on our Just Giving page but I'll leave you with a video of the true hero of this cycle ride, who had only done 25 miles training on a bike before this. Cheers Mike.

Gordon

The pressure's on...

2012-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

No, not the pressure of moving abroad for two years. The pressure of post number two. The weighty responsibility of which falls on my shoulders. And the weight is even greater as I may have given Gordon a wee bit of a hard time about his first post.

Gordon wrote a blog for his job (http://carersblog.wordpress.com/) and I really enjoyed reading it. Not only because I got to find out what the heck he actually did in his job, but because he’s very good at starting somewhere completely unrelated, from love letters in primary school to Star Trek, somehow linking it to the latest policy news and then bringing it back to his starting point. It was thoughtful, moving, serious and occasionally funny. And I thought, on first reading, that his first post on our blog sounded a lot like something he would have written for his work blog. I announced that we needed to have a serious discussion about this and threatened to leave! (the blog that is, and write my own).

Ok, I’m being a little dramatic, but I did think our blog would be a lot less well written and structured, more of a stream of consciousness thing. Fun to do, not something that takes hours to think up. And so the pressure is on for me to perform…

However, having just driven back from taking Gordon and Mike clean clothes and more supplies for day two of their fundraising bike trip (http://www.justgiving.com/teams/cycleforcambodia), and it being a bit of late night last night helping two very good friends celebrate their engagement, my wit switch is off and I’ve accepted that just getting this written is about as much as I can hope for.

It’s a really exciting time and I can’t wait to go. However, I’m also finding it very strange. I still don’t quite believe it’s going to happen - even although I’ve found a tenant for my flat, my last day at work is looming and our leaving party is next weekend – it just doesn’t seem real. Gordon moved home from London on Thursday and reminded me that we were now officially living together. Another thing that doesn’t quite seem real – I expect him to get back on the train and head down south again in a few days.

So, hopefully at some point reality will hit as I still have LOADS to do and I definitely need to get my butt in gear. Until then, I’ll keep teasing Gordon for writing a work-style blog, keep sneakily watching Got to Dance when I should be doing useful packing / going-away type things and keep answering “I’m not sure” whenever someone asks me a question about Cambodia.

And now for bed…

Claire x

PS I typed this in Word and have just copied it in only to realise that we haven't even agreed what font to use, or what size that font should be! Turns out work habits die hard. Maybe I should give the boy a break about still being in work mode...

Cambodia? Not quite yet

2012-01-25T00:38:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid that your Phnom Penh Pal is not quite in situ yet. Rather, I'm still in London and Claire is in Perth - the colder, Scottish one.

But two weeks today, I'll have checked that my passport is still in my back pocket for the umpteenth time. Claire will be glugging water before we have to go through security. And our parents will be trying to smile encouragingly whilst worrying what the heck is in store for us.

What is in store for us is slightly unknown, certainly to me at the moment. I think I've done my homework and prepared well until somebody asks me the most basic question and I'm forced to mumble that I don't know where we will be living or how I set up a Cambodian bank account. I don't even know if somebody from VSO will be there to meet us at the other end. I just hope so.

There are some things that I do know. VSO have placed me with the Cambodian educational charity NEP as a Management and Advocacy Advisor. There are about 100 educational charities that are members of NEP which acts to build strong relations between the charities, share good practice and influence Government educational policy. Hopefully, I can help them be even more successful in these.

Claire's got the added challenge of finding something out there, which makes it even harder for her to answer those excited questions about what we're going to be doing in Cambodia. Sweating profusely does not seem to satisfy people's curiosity.

Despite Cambodia looming , it's actually London that is on my mind. I leave tomorrow and return to Perth where I'm from and Claire lives. I have to say that I love London and find it to be like a friend who can offer you solace, excitement, surprises, knowledge and wonder. It has it all.

Except one thing. It doesn't have Claire and for 3.5 years we've lived apart so I feel a sense of returning home after having been away longer than planned.

So rather contrarily for an opening blog, it is not hello I'm saying but goodbye.
Goodbye London; Cambodia awaits.

Gordon