gooood morning Viet Naaaammmm

As it looks like the division of blog-writing labour has been split to Gordon commenting on the social and political aspects of our time here in Cambodia while I tell you about "stuff wot we've done", it would appear that it's my turn again. And this time it's our trip to Vietnam.

We went to visit Gordon's friend Annalise and her wife Nadine. Gordon used to work with Annalise in London and it was her decision, approximately three or so years ago, to volunteer that inspired Gordon to make the same decision. Many will now know the story that, until Gordon mentioned to me that he'd like to do something similar, he swears he had no idea that I had been saying (to anyone that asked. For years!) that about the only thing career wise that I was sure I wanted to do was volunteer with VSO.

My mum did VSO in the 70s in Papua New Guinea. While it wasn’t something she spoke about a lot, it definitely sparked something in me. Mostly itchy feet and a desire to see the world, but also wanting to not just travel, but to live and work somewhere and “make a difference”. So, after five years with Gordon seemingly having no clue about this (I still swear he must have known) I was very excited to meet Annalise to thank her in person for his inspiration!

We hopped on the bus in Phnom Penh at some early hour in the morning and, slightly surprisingly, actually departed almost on time. We were in our favourite seats on the coach, numbers 15 and 16, and looking forward to the six hour journey. And then the air con kicked in.

While I appreciate the cooling of the bus (we once had to do three hours on a bus here with broken air con. The driver sat with the door open as we sped our way down the road with me convinced something, or someone, was going to fall out at any point. It didn’t make a lot of difference and we arrived hot, sweaty and rather bedraggled anyway) this was chilling to the point of ridiculousness. After putting on another t-shirt, and then borrowing yet another of Gordon’s, and then wrapping my pashmina/scarf round my head to try and stop the freezing air blasting it, I finally made some feeble “I’m cold” gesture to our lovely conductor. He promptly swept the curtain from the window and tucked it up into the overhead compartment, effectively blocking the cold air from the ducts. Genius!

An added bonus to the journey that we weren’t aware of came just outside Phnom Penh when we stopped at the river. It took a few moments after getting off the bus to realise that we weren't standing on land, but had actually driven straight on to the ferry. It's a flat, drive on, drive off affair where there are no barriers to stop you falling off the front or the back. We did our best Kate and Leo impression and stood at the very front of the ferry as we made the short hop across, wind blowing in our hair.

our bus, on the boat

Fried crickets for sale on the boat. No, we didn't partake.

The ferry at the other side waiting to cross

We got off the bus and, rather miraculously, managed to find Annalise in a cafe without getting lost (our Cambodian mobiles didn't work in Vietnam).  A spot of lunch followed by a walk through Saigon, stopping to buy some impressive tarpaulin like ponchos when the rain started, and a short trip on the expat bus out to Annalise and Nadine's place was afternoon one.

Just like Cambodia - but with hats! And these hats were everywhere.

That night we went out for bia hoi. Translated as "fresh beer" it's brewed daily and is super cheap. At 10,000 dong a litre, and with 22,000 dong to the dollar, it was certainly not breaking the bank! We had a great time there as an old soldier came over and chatted to us and then tried to set up Annalise with his, rather embarrassed, son.

Next day we went on a tour of Saigon, wandering through the market, looking at the Reunification Palace before swinging by Notre Dame to the Post Office.

food stalls at Ben Thanh market

another stall

Coconut seller, with one of the great hats. Interesting fact, coconuts in Phnom Penh are sold from
wheelbarrow  type carts and are not cut into the same shape as they are in Saigon. Ladies carrying two
baskets like these in PP are usually selling noodle soup.

Reunification Palace

street scene

Notre Dame

Gordon, Annalise and the Post Office

personal grooming outside the Post Office

How much would you love to phone home in one of these? Inside the Post Office

Cannae beat a map!

The rather beautiful Post Office

We went to the Ho Chi Minh museum in the afternoon. It was basically a LOT of photographs, mostly with captions in Vietnamese, so we didn't learn a huge amount. But it was raining, and it was indoors, so it was a winner!

the Saigon River, from the museum

Crowds outside the Reunification Palace in 1975

Ho Chi Minh museum 

Next day was Monday and Nadine and Annalise had to work, so we set off ourselves (managing to get the local bus, for a grand total of about 35 pence each) into town to meet our tour bus to take us to the Cu Chi tunnels.

On the way we stopped off at a lacquer factory - captive tourists and all that! It was actually great to see them making all the lacquer pictures and to see the processes it goes through. And to learn that they use lots of crushed eggshell.

Our guide to the tunnels was a young guy (red t-shirt a few pics below) and he was great at explaining and showing everything. It was a really interesting trip. (I'm sure I would have found it even more interesting had I managed to stayed awake for his chat about the war on the minibus to the tunnels...)

Another guide shows where all the tunnels were round Saigon.

Gordon slithering down one of the hatches. Claustrophobia ahoy!

A hidden trap. The ground would go from under you and you'd land on the spikes underneath. 

Gordon with half a tank

Our guide helping sell the bullets for going to fire the guns . We decided not to pay to shoot any
 but I did jump when I heard them go off. Guns are really loud!

Part of the tour let us climb down into the tunnels and "walk" along a 100m stretch. Even although it was lit for us it was still pretty dark, and very hot. And really hard work. We both came out with thighs that felt like we'd climbed a mountain.

It's hard to believe people lived in the tunnels. There's too much to explain about what we learned here but it's a must do if you visit Saigon.

In the tunnels - that have been heightened and widened for foreigners...

A model of the tunnels - they worked on three layers. A real feat of engineering.

We got dropped off at the War Remnants Museum after the tunnels. It was a pretty grim reminder of the  horrors of war. And another time that I was glad not to be an American. They're really not a fan of Americans in Vietnam, and they're not shy about showing it. Outside the museum is lots of old planes, tanks and helicopters and inside are hundreds and hundreds of photographs of the war and its aftermath, in particular showing the affects of Agent Orange.

All too soon it was our last day and Annalise and Nadine packed us back off to Phnom Penh complete with a suitcase full of swag from their house (they leave Saigon in August after two years there) - pillows, wine glasses, knives, a vase - you name it, we swiped it. Thanks guys!

We had a few hours in the city before our bus was due so we wandered round taking it all in a little more.

I think every park should have a sign banning teasing animals.

See the tall building on the right with the bit sticking out of it? That bit is a helipad and it's on a hotel. It's never used, as only the military are allowed to fly helicopters. Most pointless 'bit' ever built?

Ben Thanh market

fruit seller

And possibly my favourite photo from our trip - a fish boat beside a penguin bin.

Shock: Scot admits the power of English

Just after we arrived in Phnom Penh, we were walking through The White Building - concrete blocks of claustrophobic flats crammed together with unlit walkways and ground levels furrows. The White Building is notorious rather than desirable.

Front doors to the flats were often lying open so you could easily see the main living area. Staring out from one flat, placed over the dinner table, was a blackboard. Written at the top was the "Past Perfect Tense" with various English phrases underneath. Scrawled in chalk on the outside of the house's concrete wall were a list of English words and grammatical rules.

A Cambodian home in The While Building complete with a white board full of grammatical rules. I kind of love this picture. Plus, we've got a white board now too!

I could not help but stare. I never saw any of the family but I began to think about what drove the parents to obviously put so much effort into helping their children learning English. What did they think learning English would do for their children? What life would learning English provide? The answers become clear pretty quickly.

Nothing to do with this blog - but you can guess what the next one may be about

The EU recently asked Cambodian charities to apply to a specific fund for Cambodia. All NGOs had to do was read the guidelines and submit an application. Except the guidelines were in rather technical English with no Khmer translation. And the applications all had to be done in English as well.

Just as most donors act similarly to the EU, most research in Cambodia is published in English too, even when done by Cambodians for Cambodian NGOs, meaning only a few Cambodians could even conceivably read it. This is a country where if you are aged over 30, your school years were spent surviving the Khmer Rouge and civil war so education levels are understandably low.

In meetings, native or very fluent English speakers (Dutch, French etc) rapidly go back and forth, whilst many Cambodians are still, in their heads, translating what they want to say from Khmer to English. Soon, the conversation moves on and they miss their chance.

Just another photographic interlude to lighten my oh so serious topic. We used one of these ferries to go to Vietnam. Could stand right at the edge with no barrier.

All of this means that if you don't speak English, then you're not in the game. You don't even get to warm up.
Cambodia is losing people who may have the skills and intelligence to be brilliant in certain jobs/professions but never get the chance to because they don't speak English. If speaking a second language was a prerequisite for your job, would you have got it? Plus, those professionals who do speak English devote all of their time improving their English rather than learning other skills.

If you speak English, you're in demand. It's hitting home how being born in a wee city in Scotland has already given me a step up on the rest of the world.

Ciao / Au revoir / Lea hai
Gordon

Landing in trouble

In late 2003, the Government organised a competition to select the best development plan for Boeng Kak Lake in the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh. The winning idea, which was ignored, envisioned public parks, a museum, shops and new houses. Instead, a 99 year lease was given to a company owned by a Senator of the ruling party who had a vision of high-rise luxury apartments and lots of cash.

They started filling in the lake with tonnes of sand and evicted thousands of families from the area. Ever since arriving, we have read about the continuous protests of families against their eviction and lack of alternative housing. Many are left with nothing because they do not have land titles, which is hardly surprising given 30 years of civil war and violence. Plus, most tarpaulin shacks don't come with land titles.

During one protest in May, thirteen women were arrested and two days later were tried and sentenced for trying to occupy state land illegally. Larger protests ensued and appeals were launched.

In a bit of a surprise, the appeal court, whilst upholding the conviction of the thirteen women, reduced their sentence from two and a half years to time served. But even good news in this story is superseded by bad - a pregnant woman miscarried after being hit by police during a protest.

You can see how the whole story unfolded here, which also shows a pic of what the lake looks like now - swamped with sand and without much development happening.

Land is the biggest issue in Cambodia. Rights and laws do not matter as much as money, power and force. The poor literally are the dispossessed as they get moved from their homes, farms and forests at gunpoint. A mixture of local, provincial and national government is giving away 99 year leases on millions of hectares, and it's not the affected communities or public purse that are seeing the cash from these sales.

Yesterday saw a campaign launched because of land taken by a sugar company owned by a ruling party Senator (see a pattern emerging?). The sugar ends up in Tate and Lyle bags being sold in Europe. Some things are not so sweet here.

Gordon

Ratanakiri part 2 - with the rest of the gang!

Anna has two geckos (tukkai in Khmer) that live in her house - Gordon and (I forget, maybe) Glenda. She pointed out to me the lovely little snuggle/sigh sound they make at the end of their calls. Hard to explain unless you've heard it. It actually made me laugh out loud one night in bed it's so darn adorable. Anyway, above is a pic of two of the moth/mosquito/fly munching guys in action at the restaurant next door where we went for dinner when Gordon, Andy and Ellen arrived. They're pretty big and, supposedly, if they bite you, you can't get them off you for at least an hour. But I love them.

The next day we hopped on some motos and went in search of waterfalls and lakes. Bliss.

Gordon with his trusty moto driver, Ellen

swimming in Yeak Lom, the crater lake

beautiful waterfall...

...which we went swimming in!

another stunning waterfall

And now for something completely different. I'd like to now apologise to my mum for putting this up. Please don't think you raised me badly! These t-shirts need some comment though.

One of the things Gordon and I have noticed is the English slogan t-shirts that so many people wear here. They are regularly inappropriate, borderline pornographic and almost always with spelling mistakes. Who makes them? Who for? And who is the proof-reader?!  (another particular favourite of mine was a girl in a "Charnel" t-shirt, complete with diamante and interlinking C's. I only wish I'd had my camera)

This one was at the same football ground for the final of the four day event. At first we thought he was just a spectator and then we spotted him out on the field. Organising things.

Yup. That's him in front of the banner. Directing the winners of all the sports
down the middle of the pitch to the podium.

And because no blog is complete without some kind of mention of food, here's some kind of weird milkshake type drink with black jelly bits in it to finish us off.

Ratanakiri

This post was meant to follow in swift succession of the Mondulkiri blog however, as ever, life got in the way so it's taken far longer than usual...

After Mondulkiri (for me) it was off to another northern province, Ratanakiri.

We went to visit Anna (blog here), another volunteer who joined VSO Cambodia the same time as us. She's in Ratanakiri (RTK) working as a Community Development Adviser. We teamed up with two other volunteers who started the same time as us to have a mini reunion in a very lovely part of Cambodge. Travel in Cambodia mostly goes through Phnom Penh so the two other vols, Andy (blog here) and Ellen (blog here but it's in Dutch so you may find it kinda difficult to understand), who live in the north-west of the country had a 6-10 hour journey down to Phnom Penh and then another 6-8 hour journey up to Ratanakiri in the north-east. Anyway...

I got to the capital, Banlung, a few days before the others so I headed out with Anna on a trip to visit a school director. The school was about 45 minutes away by moto and my transport for the day was kindly provided by Anna's volunteer assistant (a volunteer's Khmer sidekick who translates not just the language but everything that goes on that we don't understand) Narin.

After the school we stopped for a ubiquitous iced coffee with condensed milk - delicious, although I can barely manage half as the caffeine gives me heart palpitations - and Narin asked what we were going to do now. We both presumed we'd be heading back to Banlung but then Narin suggested that we go and visit another crater lake...

One of the main attractions in Banlung is the beautiful crater lake, Yeak Lom. Anna and I had gone there the night I arrived for a quick cool-down dip and I was definitely happy to see another one. 45 minutes later we arrived here:

Narin and Anna beside the lake

Sadly with no swimmers we couldn't go in - and, as the top pic shows, the deck was also broken so we couldn't even sit and dangle our feet in. We did however have a swarm of bees (they must have been killer bees the noise they were making) fly over the trees above our heads. Anna and I were both for bolting but Narin very calmly just told us to stay still. He explained we were fine in the trees as they wouldn't fly down to us - but it's a problem when people are working in the field. Scary!

On the journey we passed kilometres upon kilometres of rubber plantations. While I know they're not good for the environment, and many people have lost their homes because land as been cleared to make way for them, there's still something that appeals to me about the long straight lines of them with their little cups to catch the rubber and their winding lines where the bark has been cut.

That afternoon we went to a football match, part of a big sports weekend that Anna's work, the Education Office, was hosting. Neither of us are particular footie fans but it was another great chance to experience something new.

As this is going to turn into another epic blog I'm going to do this half of the trip, before the others arrived and then do another when the rest of the gang got here. Here are some more photos...

Narin popped by the next morning, got some jackfruit out the tree and cut it all up for us!

He then was passing later in the afternoon after picking up a chicken coop.
I guess he knew we'd get a kick out of it being on the back of a moto so he dropped in again.

and the only picture I took of Anna's beautiful house - complete with
coconut, jackfruit, durian, mango, avocado etc trees in the garden

Just as I took this picture the minibus arrived to drop off Gordon, Ellen and Andy - but that's for part two...

Life's a balance between cheap beer and prison

There have been so many things that I have wanted to write about Cambodia since I have arrived: disgusting income inequality; corruption; mass forced evictions; and unjust imprisonment. However, I put off writing about these things until people had the chance to understand where Cambodia is in terms of development, which was the whole point of this blog I wrote recently.

Plus, Cambodia is also about the kindness and friendliness of our Khmer colleagues and others, the wonder of swimming in waterfalls and volcanic lakes, the mad mass dance aerobic type thing that happens every morning and evening all over the city and of course the cheap price of a beer. But some Khmer people have more than the price of beer to worry about.

There are two English language newspapers in Cambodia, The Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, and I quickly began to read about the issues I've highlighted above. Don't get too excited about Cambodia having a free press, the Khmer language newspapers do not quite cover the same stories or in the same fashion. When reading the first such story, I thought that I must write about what is happening, but I quickly realised that there was no rush - there would be plenty of stories to write about.

However, there are three stories that seem to encapsulate the struggles facing people in Cambodia: the murder/manslaughter of anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty; the shooting of three garment factory workers  by the Bavet town Governor at a strike protest; and the imprisonment of 13 women who had built a wooden shack where the homes used to be after being forced from their land for property development. Their stories will be told in the next few blogs.

So how do Claire and I fit into this situation? Well, we don't. We live in a different situation. Our life can consist of art exhibitions, yoga, and mini (v mini) street parties for royal jubilees. It can also consist of street food, the local markets and cheap long distance buses. The difference is our freedom to have both. 

Could we put ourselves in a different situation? Could we be beside Chut Wutty, the striking garment workers and the imprisoned women? To an extent but not if we wanted to continue doing the work we came here to do as VSO volunteers. It would be hard to convince the Government that VSO is here to work with them to build capacity when you are viewed as supporting the opposition. And this is a country where the popular and elected PM is not afraid of saying they will "make the opposition dead".

There is an online network of mainly ex-pats living in Phnom Penh. One member recently replied to another, who had recently experienced low level corruption, finishing with this advice; "We enjoy the cheap cost of living but complain about the ways of Cambodia that make that possible." Our challenge is to lead an undeniably privileged life built on cheap living, our duties as volunteers and the work of VSO, whilst making sure we do not complain about the ways of Cambodia when they happen to us, but work to improve them because they are happening to others. 

Gordon

Provincial happenings

Apologies for the recent blog hiatus. May turned into a rather busy, and slightly strange, month for us both. On the 1st of May I started my new job as a Communications Adviser for VSO Cambodia. It's a six month volunteer placement similar to Gordon's. It's been great so far and I'm really enjoying working in the office. More about that later though. Week two of May I was off to the provinces (then Gordon and I went to another province, Ratanakiri, for the King's birthday holiday. Then we finally moved into our apartment and on the same day Gordon got ill. We discovered he had dengue fever, he spent a week in hospital on a drip and the last week has been spent with him recovering and us trying to unpack and settle into our house. More about all of that later...)

So. Week two of May I was off to the provinces! Whereas in the UK we have counties and shires, here in Cambodia we have the provinces. We live in Phnom Penh province, and so far we've visited Kampong Cham (where we did language training) and Kep (where we went for the Khmer New Year holiday) provinces. Sam, another volunteer, was telling us how him and his wife Gilly (their blog here) are having a competition to see who can visit all the provinces first. This sounded like a great plan to me, especially when I heard I'd be going to Mondulkiri so I'd be one up on Gordon!

Mondulkiri is in the highlands of the northeast and is known to be leafy, cool and beautiful. And I was heading up there during avocado season. Bonus. I was off to see how some of the other volunteers lived, where they worked and do some investigating into communications between them and the country office (where my placement is based).

Midwifery Adviser Dominique, fondly known as Domi, was our host for the four days we were there. My other travelling companions were Clare and Ulises - Ulises is taking over from Clare as senior programme manager of health - and Reth and Sokunthea, the secure livelihoods programme team (read more about programme areas here.)

Mondulkiri (MDK) is about 370km from Phnom Penh. The road has been upgraded and paved quite recently and the journey now takes about 7 hours (things happen a lot slower on the roads here). In the VSO pick-up though, we made it in 6 hours. Which still felt a little like an eternity in the heat (even with air-con) and bumpy roads.

Sen Monorom high street - MDK's capital

The next day we were off out to one of the villages to see Domi hold a hygiene workshop. The village was about 45 minutes about by moto along bumpy, muddy dirt tracks. This was my first real trip on a moto if you don't count scooting around Phnom Penh's roads for 10-15 minutes.

the gang, after crossing a big muddy hole

Mondulkiri has lots of indigenous tribes with the majority being Phnong or Bunong, who are forest dwellers. Our remote Phnong village has only recently had the road upgraded (that picture above shows the upgraded road) - it used to take 2-3 hours to do the same journey. The improved road means that the village is under even more of a threat from new logging and, like many of the indigenous tribes, their land may be taken. Land rights are a huge issue in Cambodia - not my area of specialty so not one I will attempt to discuss here.

Domi was doing a hand-washing workshop and then showing how to make oral rehydration solution. It was a really lovely morning, sitting in the grounds of the school, which is opposite the health centre, and seeing how the community responded.

the local nurse (standing) translates from Khmer to Phnong.
The lady on the left, with the krama wrapped round her head,
turned up smoking a home made, rolled in a leaf, cone shaped cigar.
It's  amazing what you can do with a leaf!

the school - the library is through the left door

watching how to make the rehydration solution

Domi and Tak, her volunteer assistant who translates for her

A little girl peed on the tarpaulin while Domi was talking about the importance of washing your hands. The mum went off into the forest to get a leaf, came back and made a scoop out of the leaf to get rid of the pee. Genius. She then mopped up the leftovers with her scarf and hung it out to dry... I wanted to point out that now was a perfect moment for both hand, and clothes, washing but I obviously kept my mouth shut. I saw another mum using leaves like toilet paper on her little boy. The forest really does provide everything.

Before this turns into the longest blog post yet, I'll leave you with some more lovely shots of MDK

road tripping

a tree laden with avocados

we went to a coffee plantation for lunch and then took a wee stroll

view of the "sea forest" - so named as the colours at sunset make
the forest look like the sea

sunset at the sea forest

sunset over Sen Monorom