Journal: Monday 27 July 2009

Monday started with my Level 1 students and a lesson about jobs. We read a story about a man with 13 jobs! Then it was off to Soup Dragon for breakfast and waiting for the Couch Surfers to meet us for our big trip out to the countryside.

We had organized a day of visiting the Artisans d'Angkor Silk Farm, the Western Baray (a water reservoir popular for relaxing in hammocks among the locals), and Da's village for making banana rice cakes and riding on a buffalo cart to see them planting rice.
Jen & Sebastian getting the low-down from the Artisans guide.

The tour at Artisans was fantastic as usual. I always learn something new every time I go. They have also renovated the tour so that you walk along covered walkways. Plus there is a lovely museum-like building at the end of the tour which shows some historical silk uses and such.

From there we went on to the Western Baray for a picnic lunch of grilled chicken and fish. Yummy! I loved the roasted fish with the freshly grated mango sauce. Don't forget to pick up some nom plai ai which are little rice dough balls filled with sugar cane topped with shredded coconut. We spent about an hour or so hanging out there before heading back to the house.

Back at the village, Da's mom had prepared the ingredients for making some rice cakes filled with bananas. This was a lot of fun to include the CSers on. We all enjoyed dabbing some pre-cooked rice on the banana leaves then folding it around a slice of banana before folding up the banana leaf to close it.
Sebastian & Jen getting a lesson in making traditional rice cakes from Da's mom.

The rice cakes were left to be steamed while we took off for a ride on an ox-cart through the rice fields to see some people planting rice. Unfortunately the timing was not the best as the rain decided to come after we got out to watch them planting rice. We had to hurry back to the cart, but there wasn't enough time to get back to the village for shelter before the rain hit.

And hit it did! The wind was gusting so hard that when it started to rain it felt more like little needles on our exposed skin. Without any protection we got drenched. By the end of the ride we were literally dripping wet. Of course, it was fun and exciting for the first few minutes, but after awhile I was counting down the minutes until we got back.
Sebastian & Da at the cart pulled by water buffalo.

Naturally, as soon as we arrived and ducked under some shelter the rain stopped and the sun made an appearance again. The villagers certainly enjoyed laughing their heads off at the soaked foreigners. We eventually laughed, too.

We slogged back to the cottage to warm our spirits with freshly cooked banana rice cakes. Double yummy!

We met up again later in the evening after I finished teaching for dinner at Khmer Kitchen.

Journal: week in review

Today is Tuesday. This past weekend was full of activities.

To start, I enjoyed a lovely Friday night with a dinner at Kampuccino on the riverside with two of the new teachers from ACE along with three Couch Surfers (1 from the US teaching in China, 1 from Sweden teaching in China, and 1 from China working in Shanghai). We enjoyed sharing our stories about life and teaching in China. One of the ACE teachers spend over seven years in China! He's glad to be in Cambodia.

Da and I spent all day Saturday at his parents' house. It was great to see his dad out of the hospital and looking well. We stayed all day because that evening we would be having Cambodian BBQ for dinner.

"Cambodian BBQ" originally posted by Cooking Momster

Cambodian BBQ is quite a bit different than Western style BBQ. They use a round tray with a mounded vent on the top that sits on top of a portable butane stove. The tray holds water where you put the vegetables to cook while you are grilling the meat on the mound. The grill portion is greased up with a combination of pork fat cubes and dabs of margarine. It's really fun and tasty! You enjoy the meat and veggies with a dipping sauce which varies according to who makes it. It's definitely a fun group meal.

After eating BBQ we headed back to town to meet the manager at the Angkor Night Market to discuss our contract for renting a stall to sell our daily tour packages. This will certainly be an undertaking, but I think we can be successful selling the individual daily tour packages to tourists who come to Siem Reap without any tour plans, particularly those on a budget. Additionally, we're hoping that our Cultural Heritage tours will be more appealing and hot buys!

Sunday was spent relaxing as I got to sleep in a little bit. This means I didn't have to be up at 5:30am to go to school. I laid around watching TV and finishing a book I was reading. My ideal way to spend a lazy day. Later in the afternoon we went to the International Fellowship, meeting one of the CSers there for the service.

Afterward, we arranged to have dinner at Moloppor Cafe along the riverside. I love their cashew nut shakes! At the end of our meal with the two CSers from China it started to rain. Eventually it began to pour so we moved upstairs (a place I had never known existed until now.) to enjoy a beer and peanuts until the rain subsided. The rain slowed enough, but it was still coming down.

Monday was a super full and crazy day that deserves its own post. Plus I need to download my pictures so that they can illustrate what I'm talking about.

Journal: week in review

There really hasn't been a lot of exciting things happening. My life has become a redundancy. All days roll into one. My weekends are a time to veg out. The only day to sleep in is Sunday since every other day I have to be teaching at 6:00am.

Highs: Picking up postcards from the post office. Cool, rainy evenings. Meeting the occasional Couch Surfer. Homemade lunches or dinners. Milo + instant coffee in the morning. Watching House on AXN.

Lows: Early mornings. Heavy downpours. The occasional poorly-planned lesson. ANZ Royal Bank. Ants. Hot room at night. Having to find a motodop in the morning when Da couldn't pick me up (one morning I was 10 minutes late to class!).

Must-do's before I leave: Visit Angkor Wat and take some pictures since it's so green during the rainy season. Complete my research survey. Find some businesses to apply for Heritage Friendly status. Go shopping for rattan purses to bring back for my aunt's shop. Buy more palm leaf ornaments. Visit the villages to deliver the T-shirts, school supplies, and soaps that are being mailed. Eat more roasted bananas, and bananas in general.

Rain, glorious rain

So, last week was hot and dry. This week it's been raining every day, even throughout the day. Thus the roads stay wet and muddy. But it certainly makes for betting sleeping with the cooler evenings.

So far no serious flooding up here in Siem Reap, either. I'm sure other parts of the country are not as safe.

Journal: week in review

Since I started teaching last week, I found that I had less time and energy to put into my other obligations. That will need to change as I am here for more than just teaching. I really need to nail down my research problem as well as take care of some Heritage Watch business.

I enjoy all of my classes, though it is a bit tiring to teach every morning. Getting up at 5:15 am is not that fun when I finish the night before between 8:00 - 8:30pm. That's just enough time to eat a light dinner, take a shower and get ready for bed.

Lesson planning is not complicated for me. I know what I need to prepare for my students and so I don't have to spend much time doing that.

Saturday night was a fun night. Since it hadn't rained all week, the heat was really making my room a sauna. The night air is so much cooler outside than inside. So when Da suggested driving around town, I was totally up for it.

We ended up going out to the north of town which is referred to as Pyoung You (or something like that) because it was where the South Korean city hosted an exhibition a few years ago along with Cambodia. Now it's just a bunch of open space with nice roads and lighting that becomes the place to hang out at night. There's even a sort of carnival set up with rides and games. Most people go to sit on the mats and drink or eat with friends or family.

While we were driving through the crowds, Da spotted some of his good friends. We actually passed them and continued driving, but they eventually called him and we went back to join them. It was a good thing because my backside was getting a bit sore from sitting on the bike.

The night was so lovely with a nice breeze blowing the entire time. It would have been great to just stay there all night.

When his friends finished, they decided to meet up with a couple more friends and continue the party at a small restaurant near one of their homes. We ordered a few dishes and then the beer was served. We called it quits at 11:oopm, but I'm sure that most of them would be there several more hours. Da had an early meeting the next day as a client was arriving.

I spent Sunday doing very little of anything. I read a book and watched TV. I've been reading The Life of Pi. I didn't think that I had read it before, but I got to the middle section and felt like I was reading something I had already read before. Strange. The book is not as captivating as others I've read, but it's certainly interesting.

Sunday evening was fellowhip, then we went for a drink at the local Sokimex gas station that has a small cafe inside. I was feeling up for bubble tea. It was threatening to rain the whole evening and even sprinkled a bit, but nothing really dramatic.

The drama happened early Monday morning at around midnight. The heavens opened up and it poured for nearly three hours. The sound was so loud because of the metal roof at my place. Of course, this meant fresh puddles and soft mud the next day.

A good laundry day

The only good thing about heat without rain during the rainy season is that you can do your laundry knowing that it will dry without the threat of rain.

I think it's been 4 days without any rain now. Where has it gone? I need the rain to cool it off in the evenings. Sleeping on a hot bed even with no sheets is no fun.

On the other hand, the sunny, breezy days allowed me to put freshly cleaned sheets and pillowcases on the bed.

Maybe I will celebrate by making popcorn tonight. I went to Angkor Market with only two items on my list but came out with two bags full. The two items? toothpicks and popcorn kernels. What I came out with: toothpicks, popcorn kernels, corn flakes, kitchen sponges, 1.5 liters of Coke, a bag of 12 monkey tea, a carton of soy milk and two cartons of yogurt.

Later on I went to the real market to buy some veggies, fruit and tofu for dinner. Mmm. I'm hungry now.

Journal: Sunday 5 July 2009

Today we were going out to Da’s village to show Magda life in the countryside. We met at Soup Dragon for a quick breakfast. She rented a bicycle to ride all the way out, while we went ahead on the motorbike. It took her about an hour and a half, but she arrived in good spirits.

Houy (Da’s brother) was back from Phnom Penh and he was making lunch. We had a soup with green watermelon and dried fish, a bamboo shoot soup with pork, papaya salad with chicken and fried long beans with pork. I love eating long beans!

We relaxed a little then took a walk into the village. First stop was the village center where there is a kind of meeting place with a raised tile platform and roof. A new addition had been added to this since I was last here, plus there’s now a Buddha statue in the corner sitting behind some curtains that were drawn over it (presumably to protect it from the dust). We sat there for awhile and Magda took some pictures of the children hanging out.

There were some people heading off to the rice fields to prepare the bundles of rice seedlings before they get transplanted, but they wouldn’t really be starting for another half an hour so we headed to the house to visit the new baby.

Little James is a bit more active now. He’s got quite long arms and legs for a Cambodian baby. We got to watch him get a bath and it was incredible to see how strong he is already. He was able to hold his own head up and that’s at 3 weeks old!
Baby 'James', Da's new nephew at 3 weeks old.

After about an hour we took off to see the activities in the rice fields. It was fun to watch them pull out the seedlings then whack the bundles on their feet to remove the excess dirt before tying them up and setting them aside. It’s definitely a messy job! And hard on the hands, too! There were three groups of people preparing the rice seedlings, so we went around to all of them to check them out and get some photos.

Pulling out the seedlings to prepare for transplanting them.

It was now time to go back to town, so we thanked Da’s family and Magda headed back on her bicycle while we drove again. We went straight to the Siem Reap Christian Fellowship service which was at 4:00pm. Tonight was praise and worship and communion, so it was a shorter service.

From there we met back up with Magda for our final dinner. We ate at one of the restaurants at the Old Market. It was good, but they have definitely upped their prices. We said our goodbyes and Da and I headed off to look at furniture. I’m looking for some rattan chairs for the porch, in addition to a shelf. They were a little too expensive and I didn’t have enough money on me anyway to buy anything. But we’ll try again on Monday.

I wanted to go to bed early since I had to be up early for school. Unfortunately I could not fall asleep as quickly as I would have liked. My mind was racing about the first class and my lessons. Just go to sleep already!

Journal: Saturday 4 July 2009

Today started with a quick breakfast at Soup Dragon. I was surprised to hear from the man who is the Heritage Watch distributor who had some things for me. He brought them right over to the Soup Dragon. Now I have business cards, applications and a sim card to use for Heritage Watch related phone calls. Yay!

Today was also the ACE teachers meeting. I attended the earlier one for new teachers since I’ve been away for awhile. Some of the things were the same, but I learned a few new things. I met the other two new teachers, sort of. One I spoke to much more than the other.

I have been scheduled for 18 teaching hours! I will be teaching 6 mornings and 5 nights. That is much more than I was expecting. Plus I may even be given some contract hours, too. I just hope I can manage it all.

Just before dinner, Da and I went on a hunt to find another cell phone to purchase for my new sim card. I'm not interested in switching out my sim cards, so a new phone was a must (sort of). After the 1st place, we settled on a decent used one for $18, and I bought a second one for Da for the same price. Not bad for a mobile phone.

Dinner with Magda at Khmer Family restaurant, owned by the Temple family of restaurants and more (Temple Club, Golden Temple Villa, Khmer Family, Khmer Tradition, Khmer Soup, etc.). Very good food. We sat upstairs on the balcony to watch the life on the streets below. Not as much traffic as during the high season, but some restaurants were fuller than others.

Journal: Saturday 4 July 2009

Today started with a quick breakfast at Soup Dragon. I was surprised to hear from the man who is the Heritage Watch distributor who had some things for me. He brought them right over to the Soup Dragon. Now I have business cards, applications and a sim card to use for Heritage Watch related phone calls. Yay!

Today was also the ACE teachers meeting. I attended the earlier one for new teachers since I’ve been away for awhile. Some of the things were the same, but I learned a few new things. I met the other two new teachers, sort of. One I spoke to much more than the other.

I have been scheduled for 18 teaching hours! I will be teaching 6 mornings and 5 nights. That is much more than I was expecting. Plus I may even be given some contract hours, too. I just hope I can manage it all.

Just before dinner, Da and I went on a hunt to find another cell phone to purchase for my new sim card. I'm not interested in switching out my sim cards, so a new phone was a must (sort of). After the 1st place, we settled on one for $18

Dinner with Magda at Khmer Family restaurant, owned by the Temple family of restaurants and more (Temple Club, Golden Temple Villa, Khmer Family, Khmer Tradition, Khmer Soup, etc.). Very good food. We sat upstairs on the balcony to watch the life on the streets below. Not as much traffic as during the high season, but some restaurants were fuller than others.

Journal: Friday 3 July 2009

The day was more or less the same as any other day. So no surprises here. Rounded the day off enjoying dinner with the two Couch Surfers in town, Magda and Yi.

We ate at a fairly inexpensive place called Angkor Famous in the Passageway behind Pub Street. Enjoyable conversation, then at about 9pm Magda was tired from her day of bicycling around the temples, so we took off for the guesthouse.

Upon arriving she wanted to return the bicycle that she rented, but the person who took care of it was nowhere to be found and the other people there couldn’t speak enough English to really be of any help. After waiting for some minutes, the guy finally showed up and she was able to get her deposit and driving license back. Meanwhile, Da had driven Yi back to his guesthouse before coming back to pick me up.

Off to the house and time for a shower and bed.

McLinky Weekly Blog Hop

Hi Blog Hoppers! I'm Nikki and this is my blog Only In Cambodia. I started this while living and working in Cambodia to write about my adventures and experiences that are uniquely Cambodian. However, as I have traveled around and moved back to the US it has become a way to write about what's going on in my life in general.

I am currently back in Cambodia expanding upon my adventures as a volunteer, intern and a researcher in addition to teaching English again. I hope to continue highlight the numerous experiences that are available only in Cambodia.

Journal: Wednesday 1 July 2009

Today started out as any other around here. Breakfast at Soup Dragon then off to Common Grounds for internet. However, today would be slightly different as I was meeting Rachel (ACE teacher) for lunch and then later that afternoon a Couch Surfer would be coming up from Phnom Penh and I wanted to meet her at the bus and get her set up in a guesthouse.

Lunch with Rachel was great. It was good to see her again and be filled in all the goings on at ACE and elsewhere. She’s getting ready to head back to England for a month with her Cambodian husband. That will be really exciting for both of them. We chatted until nearly 2pm then it was time for her to get back to the hospital and I needed to head out to the bus station to meet the CSer.

To find out more about being part of Couch Surfing, go here

Da arranged the tuk-tuk and we zoomed off towards the bus station in the east part of town. However, once we arrived a group of tuk-tuk drivers hanging said that the bus didn’t arrive there, but in town at the Center Market. Ugh! Back to town again to wait. It was about a half hour wait, then the bus arrived and Magda found me without a problem. I was also holding a hastily drawn welcome sign, too.

We headed off to the guesthouse to set her stuff in the room then it was back to Common Grounds to have a coffee and chat. As the evening approached we decided to walk back to the guesthouse so she could have a shower and we would meet later for dinner. There would also be another CSer from San Francisco meeting us, too, at Khmer Kitchen at 7pm.

There was about an hour between dropping her off and meeting back again for dinner. In the meantime it had started to rain, but not so heavily yet. On the way, we picked up a sim card for her so she could use it while she’s here in Cambodia for the month.

Photo Courtesy of Asia Explorers

Khmer Kitchen is always a great place to meet and have dinner. The food’s reliably delicious and there’s enough choices to offer every taste, including the vegetarian. We stayed there until 11pm (the latest I’ve been out so far), just talking about all sorts of things. It’s fun to have new people to talk to and encounter new ideas.

Bed time!

Journal: Tuesday 30 June 2009

Breakfast at Soup Dragon. I tried to send some of my postcards this morning, but apparently my five dollar bill was too worn for the people there and they refused to take my money. Back to Common Grounds to use the internet. The same thing happened there. But, I wouldn’t take no for an answer with them as they had given me it for change the day before.

In the early afternoon we took off to go check out a piece of land that Da was interested in possibly buying. It wasn’t that impressive as it was a bit far on a rough road from the National Road 6, and there were no trees. I did not like it at all.

Before heading back to the house, I wanted to stop and buy some books to read since I had finished mine and Da was going back home early to take his dad to the pagoda for a meeting. I go through books so quickly when I have nothing else to do, so I found 3 which I thought could keep me occupied. Then I tossed in a DVD of Reservoir Dogs.

I spent the evening reading the Robert Ludlum book, The Holcroft Covenant. It’s a surprisingly good book so far. Da surprised me by coming back later in the evening with a TV. He got it hooked up but could only find a few channels. But, I managed to figure out how to configure all the channels and now there are more than 70 including my favorites of CNN, AXN and Discovery.

Journal: Monday 29 June 2009

I lingered in bed this morning enjoying the coolness of the night before. We headed off to Soup Dragon for a late breakfast of the usual: noodle soup and iced coffee.

Next it was off to the post office to check if I had received any mail. Two postcards and a birthday card for Da that he never picked up (since November!). Then it was off to the bank to check if they had my ATM card yet.

When they finally found my card there was a problem. Apparently the picture on the back of the card was only half developed. This meant I needed to wait until Thursday for them to send a better one. More delays! So, we took off around the corner to Common Grounds.


No sooner did we sit down and I received a call from the bank. They had my new card already. I guess they hadn’t looked hard enough for the other one. Off I went to pick up my ATM card and sign it out. Now I’m back in business.

While waiting in the bank, the owner of Angkor Mondial restaurant came in. I wasn’t sure it was her, but she turned around and noticed me. She was very happy to see me and said that her children had missed me too. I had tutored she and her husband for several months when I first lived in Cambodia. They are a very sweet and well-connected family. Originally they ran a water-bottling company, but then built the restaurant. I used to go there for dinner on occasion because I would get a cheaper price plus the Apsara dance show.

Anyhow, she invited me for dinner tonight with the family. It will be great to see everyone again, and have a free dinner.

I also have lunch plans, too. My friends Maria and Adele invited me for lunch today. Once I got back from the bank I received a message from Maria with the invitation. We had seen each other at the service on Sunday night, but were too busy chatting to connect.

So, a brief hour or so at the café for some quick internet time, then it was off to Mollopor Café for lunch with Maria, Adele and Jane. I had the fried beef with Japanese sauce and rice, along with a cashew nut shake. Yummy! We had a great time catching up and chatting about things only the gals will chat about.

Back to the café for more internet. I actually did some work for Heritage Watch today by organizing some of the contacts and developing a list of new businesses to contact.

Dinner at Angkor Mondial was interesting. The owner’s wife had already eaten dinner and her children were at Chinese school. So I was encouraged to grab some buffet for myself and ate while sitting across from her and attempting a conversation.

A lot of the conversation focused on the poor economy and slow business lately. Not enough tourists and tour companies not paying their bills. Her sister had moved to Australia. Her husband was in Phnom Penh to look for a place to open another restaurant. The daughter studied at the local international school while the son still studied in a Khmer school in addition to ACE.

Needless to say, I enjoyed my dinner. They always have good food there. Although I was a little bugged by the manager following me around the buffet, watching me like a hawk. What was his problem? Did he think I was going to steal the silver? Just weird.