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.