Christmas comes but once a year, and believe it or not, it does come to Cambodia. Of course it is slightly disguised as a normal day but the weather is a chilly 80 degrees (the locals are wearing fur lined parkas to work - seriously). Many of our friends (well, 2 friends) have been asking for our address to send Christmas cards. The good news is we do have an address, the bad news is we have yet to see a postman, or even a bloke on a moto delivering mail. Therefore this is our Christmas card to all of you and we suggest any reciprocation comes via the Internet.
We had our school Christmas party the other day, at the Raffles no less. $24 per person and some pretty good food. If you like green curry, under done pork and lots of rice. The White Elephant where everyone brings different gifts was also very interesting. Pringles and gin as a package deal vied for the most traded with the mosquito kill packet (did you know that mosquito repellent comes in 14 different flavors - hope the mozzies appreciate it).
We are happy to say we have finished our Christmas shopping - see the picture of Simon at the "store". He was at our local "mall" the Russian market, and as you can see, the shoppers have not been deterred by the economic downturn. The motos and tuk-tuks are crammed full of holiday trinkets and dead pigs. The chickens that have escaped the first round of bird flu hang upside down from the motos but are still alive.
There is one place in town where you can buy Christmas gift wrapping. But at $3.00 a sheet (that is more than a good meal and a beer) we have decided to wrap our gifts in school art supplies. There are not too many holiday decorations as you might imagine, we struggled to get the picture by the tree (note the king, queen and royal son who by the way is a ballet dancer above the tree and us). We do see some strange Santa decorations on doors, they look suspiciously like Hello Kitty with a beard.
We did get the opportunity to attend a traditional pantomime (very big in England). It was very loosely based on Aladdin using Beatles music to new words (the copyright laws are like the drinking and driving laws in Cambodia - they just don't exist.) The song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was sung as "We are Cambodia's only pantomime, we hope you will enjoy the show." Men dressed as women, booing and hissing the villain, and 3 year olds singing about figgy pudding and wandering off the stage. Just like home.
With Cambodia being in such the Christmas spirit, we are off to Hong Kong and Borneo with our family to find the real spirit of Christmas, which I am led to believe comes with lots of presents and lots of spirits.
That's about it, just wanted to let all you young people know that my 75 year old parents are going to be the first ones to use our spare room on the 5th floor of our Phnom Penh apartment. Of course it may be their last visit but God Bless them for being adventurous. Merry Christmas to all and the best of everything in 2009. Hope to see you here in Phnom Penh.
Marilu and Simon
Monday, December 15, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Kicking around Cambodia
Did you know that in Cambodia it takes longer to build a one hundred yard piece of road than it does to lose 50% of your net worth? Could that 50% of net worth have paid for that one hundred yard stretch of road? Quite possibly, as it seems that roads here in Cambodia are made of rocks, sand and bits of wood. (Roads and labor are not really expensive here)
So, the past two weeks have been an interesting blend of happiness and depression. While our stocks and shares seem to be taking a nose dive, we are finding that our limited dollars do go a long way here. We found a new restaurant that was having a grand opening - they were so excited to see some foreigners that they proceeded to give us free beer and appetizers. We knew Simon wasn't feeling 100% when he passed up the free beer and ordered a Sprite! We did have a lovely dinner of river fish, roasted "bird" (not sure what kind, pretty small and bony), seafood rice, two kinds of fish and all for under $15 for the 4 of us.
Our school is searching for a new head master and for the past 3 weeks we have had visits from 3 candidates. For the first two, there was a social evening on Friday which included a potluck... that didn't work out so well as most Cambodian houses/apartments don't have ovens and those of us with "Western" kitchens that do have ovens either haven't figured out how to turn them on or we just go out every night and don't bother to use it anyway. So this week we wised up and took a boat ride on the Mekong river catered with spring rolls, friend banana and the good old standby pizza. The pizza was gone in the first 5 minutes (you know teachers and food) and the rest of it turned out to be quite delicious. The sunset over the Mekong was a big improvement over the school cafeteria for ambiance. The fried bananas however, were still there at the end. It is pretty warm here to be either using an oven or eating fried bananas. Think Vegas in the summer.
We took a long weekend trip to Malaysia a couple of weeks ago and found that the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, has grown and westernized quite considerably since we last visited. They now have 2 airport terminals and it takes over an hour to get to the city. Then it was all malls and restaurants with US or European prices (the wine was really good!) We were quite happy to come home to Phnom Penh where we are able to buy all of the episodes of the Sopranos for $7.50, Simon had 3 pairs of custom made trousers for $25, our airport has 1 runway, 3 gates and they just broke ground for a taxiway, and every afternoon you can see an elephant walk home from work along the river side.
Simon did have another run-in with the police on the moto last weekend as well. We were pulled over for having our headlight on during the day (big fine, big offence). So, Simon discussed with the officer the reasons for us being pulled over while the locals kept driving by and also turned off the light. The cop and Simon got louder and louder with Simon pointing out that we were teachers and probably teach his child (probably not at our school on a policeman's salary). They went round and round until finally the policeman's partner wouldn't back him up about the light and the supervisor came over and told them to let us go. At the next stop light Simon was asked by several people "how much he paid" and was given lots of street cred for having paid no fine whatsoever... the police here are seriously underpaid and they do pull over anyone who looks like they have money and charge them made up fines...they obviously don't know about the last two weeks.
We just had the apartment painted (it probably cost the manager $35) and so the guest room is looking good. The cooler season is just around the corner, the rainy season ends in November...that's all for now, take care and more later.
So, the past two weeks have been an interesting blend of happiness and depression. While our stocks and shares seem to be taking a nose dive, we are finding that our limited dollars do go a long way here. We found a new restaurant that was having a grand opening - they were so excited to see some foreigners that they proceeded to give us free beer and appetizers. We knew Simon wasn't feeling 100% when he passed up the free beer and ordered a Sprite! We did have a lovely dinner of river fish, roasted "bird" (not sure what kind, pretty small and bony), seafood rice, two kinds of fish and all for under $15 for the 4 of us.
Our school is searching for a new head master and for the past 3 weeks we have had visits from 3 candidates. For the first two, there was a social evening on Friday which included a potluck... that didn't work out so well as most Cambodian houses/apartments don't have ovens and those of us with "Western" kitchens that do have ovens either haven't figured out how to turn them on or we just go out every night and don't bother to use it anyway. So this week we wised up and took a boat ride on the Mekong river catered with spring rolls, friend banana and the good old standby pizza. The pizza was gone in the first 5 minutes (you know teachers and food) and the rest of it turned out to be quite delicious. The sunset over the Mekong was a big improvement over the school cafeteria for ambiance. The fried bananas however, were still there at the end. It is pretty warm here to be either using an oven or eating fried bananas. Think Vegas in the summer.
We took a long weekend trip to Malaysia a couple of weeks ago and found that the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, has grown and westernized quite considerably since we last visited. They now have 2 airport terminals and it takes over an hour to get to the city. Then it was all malls and restaurants with US or European prices (the wine was really good!) We were quite happy to come home to Phnom Penh where we are able to buy all of the episodes of the Sopranos for $7.50, Simon had 3 pairs of custom made trousers for $25, our airport has 1 runway, 3 gates and they just broke ground for a taxiway, and every afternoon you can see an elephant walk home from work along the river side.
Simon did have another run-in with the police on the moto last weekend as well. We were pulled over for having our headlight on during the day (big fine, big offence). So, Simon discussed with the officer the reasons for us being pulled over while the locals kept driving by and also turned off the light. The cop and Simon got louder and louder with Simon pointing out that we were teachers and probably teach his child (probably not at our school on a policeman's salary). They went round and round until finally the policeman's partner wouldn't back him up about the light and the supervisor came over and told them to let us go. At the next stop light Simon was asked by several people "how much he paid" and was given lots of street cred for having paid no fine whatsoever... the police here are seriously underpaid and they do pull over anyone who looks like they have money and charge them made up fines...they obviously don't know about the last two weeks.
We just had the apartment painted (it probably cost the manager $35) and so the guest room is looking good. The cooler season is just around the corner, the rainy season ends in November...that's all for now, take care and more later.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Silk and Bullets
Another birthday has come and gone for Marilu and as many of you know, Simon always comes up with something pretty special for her birthdays. This year was no exception. We started the day with a nice walk around the Royal University grounds. Unfortunately this haven of knowledge has seen better days. The picture is of the university swimming pool, Simon has been running around there in the mornings and has seen people catching fish out of the filthy water. It doesn't look as if Michael Phelps will be challenged anytime soon by the Camodian college team. We then went for a banana pancake breakfast and some lovely gifts. Simon knows how much I love bags/purses and so he went out and found me a lovely, handmade silk bag. It is beautiful.
Then we set off on a moto adventure. Up past the airport, through flooded streets we were off to find the shooting range. After getting lost a couple of times we finally hired a tuk-tuk driver to lead us to the range. He promptly led us to the go-kart track (who knew they had a go-kart track here in PP - and it is a huge one at that!). After much gesturing and signing we got directions from the go-kart guys and went through a military check point into the Special Forces training center. Set amongst bunkers, climbing walls, and commando training fields is a shooting range.
I was politely greeted by a bunch of guys in t shirts and shorts (the instructors) who showed us the menu (which includes, so we are told, shooting an old cow with a bazooka- at $700 we declined this option). Next we chose the guns... I first shot 40 rounds with an AK47 - I have always wanted to shoot one of those after seeing them in all the movies. Then Simon talked me into firing the M-60 machine gun.....See the attached photos . It was amazing! The bunker we were shooting in, the sounds, the recoil (the instructor had to brace me up while I shot the AK and the machine gun was all over the place as you can see with the blur in the photos.) So, I shot 40 rounds with the AK and hit the target about 7-8 times (but accurately when I did get it). I had 150 rounds with the machine gun and hit the target 3 times! (Do not believe all you see on those Rambo movies)
What a hoot - a once in a lifetime shooting experience.
Aside from the birthday, things are going well here. We have bought a moto. We got pulled over by 3 policemen within 7 minutes of owning our new moto (named Dora by the way, see photo of the styling footmats). The policeman had batons out and demanded a $30 fine. We had no id except a Nevada driver's license, no proof of ownership of the moto, and even I have to admit, Simon was going the wrong way around a round about (others were doing that too). But in the true Cambodian bartering spirit, Simon managed to go from a $30 fine to a $3 fine. After handshakes, pats on the back and smiles, we headed back into the traffic once again, the wrong way.
We are keeping up with the Olympics, it seems the Cambodian coverage of the Olympics consists of pirating the live feed from Australia and over dubbing their own voices over the top. The overdubbing is annoying when they know something about the sport, like badminton, but really good when it comes to swimming, and track and field as they have nothing to say.
Everything else is good - exploring the neighborhood (see our local fish market), we even got haircuts yesterday at our local salon, 40 minute cut and a 30 minute hair washing which includes head massage for the grand total of $2 each.
And oh yea, by the way, school is fine.
That's all for now, keep the emails coming, all the best, Machine Gun Kelly and Easy Rider
Then we set off on a moto adventure. Up past the airport, through flooded streets we were off to find the shooting range. After getting lost a couple of times we finally hired a tuk-tuk driver to lead us to the range. He promptly led us to the go-kart track (who knew they had a go-kart track here in PP - and it is a huge one at that!). After much gesturing and signing we got directions from the go-kart guys and went through a military check point into the Special Forces training center. Set amongst bunkers, climbing walls, and commando training fields is a shooting range.
I was politely greeted by a bunch of guys in t shirts and shorts (the instructors) who showed us the menu (which includes, so we are told, shooting an old cow with a bazooka- at $700 we declined this option). Next we chose the guns... I first shot 40 rounds with an AK47 - I have always wanted to shoot one of those after seeing them in all the movies. Then Simon talked me into firing the M-60 machine gun.....See the attached photos . It was amazing! The bunker we were shooting in, the sounds, the recoil (the instructor had to brace me up while I shot the AK and the machine gun was all over the place as you can see with the blur in the photos.) So, I shot 40 rounds with the AK and hit the target about 7-8 times (but accurately when I did get it). I had 150 rounds with the machine gun and hit the target 3 times! (Do not believe all you see on those Rambo movies)
What a hoot - a once in a lifetime shooting experience.
Aside from the birthday, things are going well here. We have bought a moto. We got pulled over by 3 policemen within 7 minutes of owning our new moto (named Dora by the way, see photo of the styling footmats). The policeman had batons out and demanded a $30 fine. We had no id except a Nevada driver's license, no proof of ownership of the moto, and even I have to admit, Simon was going the wrong way around a round about (others were doing that too). But in the true Cambodian bartering spirit, Simon managed to go from a $30 fine to a $3 fine. After handshakes, pats on the back and smiles, we headed back into the traffic once again, the wrong way.
We are keeping up with the Olympics, it seems the Cambodian coverage of the Olympics consists of pirating the live feed from Australia and over dubbing their own voices over the top. The overdubbing is annoying when they know something about the sport, like badminton, but really good when it comes to swimming, and track and field as they have nothing to say.
Everything else is good - exploring the neighborhood (see our local fish market), we even got haircuts yesterday at our local salon, 40 minute cut and a 30 minute hair washing which includes head massage for the grand total of $2 each.
And oh yea, by the way, school is fine.
That's all for now, keep the emails coming, all the best, Machine Gun Kelly and Easy Rider
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Flickr
You can also go to 
, a fancy photo sharing thing. Our pictures are posted under marilub2008 if you want to see more pictures.
, a fancy photo sharing thing. Our pictures are posted under marilub2008 if you want to see more pictures.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Welcome to Cambodia
Our friend Belinda visited Ghana in Africa for two months and she gave us our best suggestion yet. When the people, the poverty, the daily trauma of living in a foreign country just becomes too much - use some of those hard earned dollars and find the biggest, most expensive Western hotel in town and pay to use their swimming pool. We have found the Himiwara (where we spent a lovely time with Simon's brother Matt who came over from Hong Kong) and have spent a number of days swimming, lounging and ordering poolside lunch.
The international airport of Phnom Penh, a city of 3 million people, 4 million motor bikes (that all seem to hit the road at 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM) has space for 3 jets at one time - that is max capacity. Phnom Penh airport looks like Las Vegas from the 1920s. The city however looks like Bangkok 30 years ago.
Our favorite restaurant so far, Khmer BBQ. As the sign proudly displays, open 7 days a week, closed on Monday. We did take a Khmer cooking class (see picture for our delicious spring rolls). They put a lot of effort and ingredients into their meals and then turn around and charge $2.00 for a full plate of food that is quite tasty - just watch out for the chilis.
We had a lovely week down at the beach - for any visitor this is a must. Nice place with a pool, walk to the beach and every evening the bars set up BBQs and do fresh fish for dinner (again about $2.00 for a full meal and $.50 for beer.)
We moved into our apartment two days ago (see picture). We have a nice 2 bedroom with 4 balconies. The kitchen is kind of small but as you can probably guess, eating out is the way to go. By the time we found food, paid for it and got it home, not to mention condiments and cooking utensils - we would be way over the $2.00 per meal. The apartment also comes with a maid 6 days a week - she cleans and does laundry - life is rough.
Exercising is proving a little tough, the 2 gyms in town charge $1500 a year and it is too hot and dangerous to run on the road - motor bikes (motos) and bikes, and cars everywhere. Every Sunday we get together with about 40 other foreign visitors for what is known as the Phnom Penh Hash House Harriers running club (see picture). This consists of standing in the back of a truck for a drive to the country side, running around for about an hour and a half past mangy dogs, charging cows, laughing Cambodians and grunting pigs. After which, we drink beer. Not quite Boston marathon training but still good fun.
The driving here is crazy. It appears there are absolutely no traffic rules. We are still not sure which side of the road to drive on as everyone goes every which way. You think that drivers in Vegas run red lights.... there are 3 traffic lights we have come across in the city so far, all of which are completely ignored. However this has not stopped Simon wishing to buy a moto. He sees himself as something of a 50 year old "Easy Rider". But going at maximum speed of 15 mph on a bike that has an engine the same size as a lawn mower and horn that sounds like road runner on the cartoons - the image is not quite the same. Marilu however, prefers to travel via tuk-tuk (see picture) where she sits in back (with rain shelters when needed) and lets the Khmer driver battle with all the rest of them. The only downside is you have to haggle and bargain prices BEFORE you get into the tuk-tuk and there are many tuk-tuk drivers who want to be your new best friend.
The school is terrific, huge soccer pitches, swimming pool, playing fields and most importantly large air conditioned classrooms with windows. The a/c works the best from 1-2 o'clock when the many garment factories close for lunch and the school gets their share of electricity. There are many power outages here as the grid can't handle the demand. So a generator is crucial and our school and apartment both have them.
Oh yea, one last thing, at the end of a long day a one hour massage is $4.00. That of course is without the "happy ending" that is offered to men. All best will write more later.. Marilu and Simon
The international airport of Phnom Penh, a city of 3 million people, 4 million motor bikes (that all seem to hit the road at 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM) has space for 3 jets at one time - that is max capacity. Phnom Penh airport looks like Las Vegas from the 1920s. The city however looks like Bangkok 30 years ago.
Our favorite restaurant so far, Khmer BBQ. As the sign proudly displays, open 7 days a week, closed on Monday. We did take a Khmer cooking class (see picture for our delicious spring rolls). They put a lot of effort and ingredients into their meals and then turn around and charge $2.00 for a full plate of food that is quite tasty - just watch out for the chilis.
We had a lovely week down at the beach - for any visitor this is a must. Nice place with a pool, walk to the beach and every evening the bars set up BBQs and do fresh fish for dinner (again about $2.00 for a full meal and $.50 for beer.)
We moved into our apartment two days ago (see picture). We have a nice 2 bedroom with 4 balconies. The kitchen is kind of small but as you can probably guess, eating out is the way to go. By the time we found food, paid for it and got it home, not to mention condiments and cooking utensils - we would be way over the $2.00 per meal. The apartment also comes with a maid 6 days a week - she cleans and does laundry - life is rough.
Exercising is proving a little tough, the 2 gyms in town charge $1500 a year and it is too hot and dangerous to run on the road - motor bikes (motos) and bikes, and cars everywhere. Every Sunday we get together with about 40 other foreign visitors for what is known as the Phnom Penh Hash House Harriers running club (see picture). This consists of standing in the back of a truck for a drive to the country side, running around for about an hour and a half past mangy dogs, charging cows, laughing Cambodians and grunting pigs. After which, we drink beer. Not quite Boston marathon training but still good fun.
The driving here is crazy. It appears there are absolutely no traffic rules. We are still not sure which side of the road to drive on as everyone goes every which way. You think that drivers in Vegas run red lights.... there are 3 traffic lights we have come across in the city so far, all of which are completely ignored. However this has not stopped Simon wishing to buy a moto. He sees himself as something of a 50 year old "Easy Rider". But going at maximum speed of 15 mph on a bike that has an engine the same size as a lawn mower and horn that sounds like road runner on the cartoons - the image is not quite the same. Marilu however, prefers to travel via tuk-tuk (see picture) where she sits in back (with rain shelters when needed) and lets the Khmer driver battle with all the rest of them. The only downside is you have to haggle and bargain prices BEFORE you get into the tuk-tuk and there are many tuk-tuk drivers who want to be your new best friend.
The school is terrific, huge soccer pitches, swimming pool, playing fields and most importantly large air conditioned classrooms with windows. The a/c works the best from 1-2 o'clock when the many garment factories close for lunch and the school gets their share of electricity. There are many power outages here as the grid can't handle the demand. So a generator is crucial and our school and apartment both have them.
Oh yea, one last thing, at the end of a long day a one hour massage is $4.00. That of course is without the "happy ending" that is offered to men. All best will write more later.. Marilu and Simon
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