Grand Designs

We have now been working for three weeks as volunteers for MaD (Making a Difference). This means we are MaD volunteers! We are involved in a number of projects, including building an orphanage, renovating an old building and converting into a vocational training centre and helping MaD to set up a new web site. So as you can guess we are pretty busy, but enjoying it! There are lots of volunteers coming to Cambodia and others leaving so the team of volunteers is always changing. Apologies to those who we don't catch on camera.

Due to technical difficulties, the photos are out of order, but we think you are used to this by now.



This is Kutila (on the left) with her mum and sister. She kindly invited us to have dinner with them on her day off at a local Khymer restaurant. She works at one of our locals and we see her on Thursdays for the weekly pub quiz.

This is a Khymer bbq. It is hot coals in a pot with a metal frame that you balance meat and vegetables on. There is a ring round the edge where if you are a good cook, you can make your own soup at the same time.

This is the back page of the Phnom Penh Post. As you can see, the whole back page was dedicated to Hull City. The get loads of column inches and air time over here. Not sure how much longer this will last!

This is the Women's Vocational Training Centre that MaD is refurbishing. To give ourselves a break from desk work, we would come here in the mornings and rip up a few floor boards. In the interests of saving the environment, the floor boards are now being used as shuttering on the orphange project.

The WVTC before we pulled up the floor.

The floor needs a little TLC! Do any of you woodworkers fancy coming out and helping us?

Banana delivery at the local market. We think he could have taken at least another 10 bunches. It is a lot of weight to be towed behind a 125 moped!

This is the site that the orphange is being built on. We are filling in the ground right into the paddy field. We have a couple of technical problems at the moment, but we will keep you updated. When finished, the orphange will be 18m wide, 40 m long and 9 metres high, with a thatched roof. It will look gorgeous and will house 34 orphans. We have met most of the kids and despite our lack of enthuisiasm for children, they are absolutely lovely. We normally arrive on site around 8 am as it's one hour from Siem Reap. We work until 11.30 when we take the kids for lunch. They are really well fed and eat huge quantities - 3 plates of rice for some little ones. This may be the only meal they get each day.

Classy red wine, our latest find at only $5 per bottle. Need to take it up with the local supermarket and organise a bulk discount.

Garry digging a trench at the orphange site. We do have a health and safety policy in place. Spot Garry's safety sandals and safety baseball cap. In the background, you can just make out the wheelbarrow - a pile of mud on a cement sack with two sticks in the sack. It does need two people but works well and the wheels never fall off. We are thinking of investing in a proper wheelbarrow as it will be 8 times more efficient and a good capital payback at $10!

We have mentioned before that we have tried to get a picture of 5 on a bike. Count the legs here and you will see that there are 6 on this one. Maybe we shouldn't have encouraged them to wave at us!

This is the back garden of the MaD guesthouse. We are not sure if we will move in there - yes, they are live crocodiles, about 100 of them!! Anyone fancy some new shoes?

The 10 km dirt track from the main road to the orphange site is a little tricky to drive down, especially when it has been raining. This lorry was delivering to another site, not to us and didn't quite make the corner, but slipped into the ditch. No-one was hurt, but we all stopped to have a look.

Here are some of the team. from the left Mark, from Leeds, then Simon, Rachel, Toni and yours truly.

Starbucks - this is a roadside cafe, that we have started frequenting on the way to work each morning. Fantastic coffee! Look carefully and you will see the ducklings under the table, the dog on the left and there are a couple of chickens knocking around.

Simon and Mark are building a house for the guy on the left. First job was to install some decent drainage so the house wouldn't flood. The guys spent the day chest deep in mud, water, scorpions, spiders, snakes and other stuff!! At this point, they had just finished and the water had started to flow freely past the site.

We have bought a motorbike and this is it being washed and valeted! Some of the rules of the road that we have learnt are:-

a. drive on the right, but not too far on the right , as this is for people driving on the left

b. a red traffic light doesn't mean stop. It means proceed with caution

c. a gree traffic light doesn't mean go. It means proceed with caution

d. when asked to stop by a policeman, either drive round him or turn round and go the other way.

However, you have no need to worry about us, as the average speed is 4 miles per hour. Just a bit quicker than walking. Everyone slows down for ducks, chickens, cows, children and dogs etc to cross the road

This is Toni building a restaurant and dining area for the MaD volunteers.

TTFN

Garry and Alison

Templed out

We did a spot of sight seeing, after all that's what everyone does who comes to Cambodia. We have 5 million photos, but you'll be pleased to know, we have selected only a few of these. We are in Siem Reap, which is close to the Ankor Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage sight and rightly so. The Temples were built from sandstone 1200 - 800 years ago. We first visited them by accident on our tandem whilst on the way to the Landmine Museum. The Temples are only 8km from Siem Reap but the Landmine Museum is 37k, which we only discovered after cycling 15 km towards it! There are so many temples that it is difficult to go round them all on a tandem. We made what we thought was a good decision and hired a tuk tuk and a guide for 2 days. On the third day, we got back on the tandem and revisited our favourite places. The tandem was a lovely idea as not many Cambodians have seen one of these, so they were all laughing and pointing at us. The whole thing has been a great experience and highly recommended. Get yourselves over here and have a look.

Lots of the temples are now ruins, but this one still had the corridor intact with the roof still on. Pilgrims would meditate in the corridors before visiting the temple. Many of the corridors had stone carvings telling the stories of mythical or historic events. Each king, when he came to power would try and build a temple bigger and better than his predecessor in order to gain more approval from the gods (either Buddhist or Hindu, depending on which was in favour). The population of Ankor 1000 years ago was one million. Looking at how many temples there are, we don't think there was much unemployment.
This is Ta Prom which you all know, but don't realise it!
This is inside Ta Prom - ring any bells? This actual doorway was used in the film "Tomb Raider". Angelina Jolie played the part of Lara Croft and had all kinds of adventures in these temples. There is an Angelina cafe here and one of the bars has named a cocktail after her as it was allegedly her favourite hangout when they were filming here. (Cointreau, lime juice and soda - yummy). This temple is around 800 years old and the trees growing out of it are mere saplings at three hundred years old.

The Bayon Temple, one of the most famous here. It has 54 towers, each with 4 faces on pointing north, south, east and west.
Believe it or not, 1000 years ago this was the hospital. One of the kings built 102 hospitals and provided free health care to all citizens. Fore runner of the NHS. This hospital may be in better nick than some of ours (any comments?!!).

To get the best views, you had to climb up the stairs to the top to see the higher layers. Yes, these really were as steep as they look. Ok if you have size three shoes, but coming down you have to go sidewards. Going up you have too go on all fours. Some of the temples have several layers representing the different layers of heaven. Not sure if we got to heaven or paradise but it was pretty cool up there. View from the top. Could be Nirvana or paradise?
Ankor Wat, probably the most famous temple, surrounded by a moat. It is currently under restoration so our other pics of this have scaffolding all over.

Look closely and you'll see this is a little boy fast asleep, with a wild monkey cuddled up fast asleep next to him. We crept past them in order not to wake them up.
We met a couple of lovely Irish girls both called Laura, which was quite handy. We had a great evening drinking jugs of beer and cocktails. Laura is a big football fan. Guess which one? This photo was taken in "Ankor What?" bar .

We christened these kittens Laura and Laura. They had been adopted by the Buddhist monks in Ankor Wat.
We have started to get into this hammock thing. It's pretty cool really, especially when it's raining and you are on your tandem.
All hammocked out! Look at the Buddha belly - who says Garry is losing weight?

Siem Reap is famous for its sculputes, normally buddhas. This fly is made from old guns!!
We've tried to get photos of massively overloaded vehicles. By Cambodian standards, this one is half full. This is the local bus!
Again, a local bus still only half loaded. We have seen them loaded with motorbikes and trailers on top.
A fearsome crocodile
Raffles number 3. This time in Siem Reap drinking a femme fatale - a Jackie Kennedy favourite. It was happy hour and we managed to finance this visit without alerting the IMF!

If you've read the blog "answers", you may recall that the IMF heavies are looking for us as we still owe them $53.75 cents. This is the last known photograph of their leader. She is thought to be travelling under the pseudonym of Caroline Hayes, last known location she was being held hostage by a pig in Australia. Has anyone seen her recently?

We have decided to stay here for a while and have volunteered for some work for a charity called Mad For Good, helping local communities with medical and educational projects.

We will let you know how we get on.

Bye for now

Alison and Garry

Inspired by the Girls from Beverley

A few days ago we received an e-mail from "the girls in Beverley". For those who don't know "the girls from Beverley" this is a select/exclusive/elite/sometimes debauched team that meet regularly (usually Wednesday nights) for drinks, debate and merriment. They've been known to drink long into the night in order to figure out the meaning of life and whether Austrlian wine is better than French or Italian. We received the aforementioned e-mail from them whilst they were obviously tackling the later of the above two problems. Perhaps they had sorted the meaning of life the previous week!!! Anyway, from the tone and content of their e-mail they were obviously having a great time. Much wine had been consumed and some spilt.
Reading their e-mail inspired us to run our own wine tasting. Off we went to purchase the best quality wines available in Cambodia. There was one particular cheeky little number we had seen in Phon Phen that could (according to the label) cure Lumbago and wouldn't give you a headache. Unfortunately we couldn't track it down in Siem Reap. So we're going to come back to that one. Watch out for updates.
Being seasoned hands at food, wine and whisky tasting, we knew it was important to record the results in a professional manor, so we set out a spreadsheet with the name of each wine and the particular characteristics we were looking for. We both filled out the questionnaire blind so we were not able to see each others results. Amazingly, there were some similar comments.
Below are the results of our wine tasting evening inspired by "The Girls from Beverley".

This is Wrestler wine, obviously if you drink plenty of this you will develop enormous muscles.
Bouquet - Alison - unintrusive. Garry - not half bad.
Taste - Alison - gentle, not full bodied, hint of sherry. Garry - not too strong a taste, just as well as it's not too good. Harmless but 20% proof.
Comments Alison - beats Liebfraumilch and Blue Nun, better than beer all night. Garry - cap was difficult to remove, probably for a good reason - it's best left on.
Score Alison - 4. Garry - 3

We called this Mr Universe wine as there are posters around with a guy in a Hawaiin shirt and the label advertised all around Cambodia. Don't know what its name is though. Maybe it was subconcious marketing that made us buy this wine?

Bouquet Alison - smells of something, not sure what. Garry - same same.

Taste Alison - slight liquorice taste, warmer, stronger but not really moreish, unless there is only beer. Garry - same same.

Comments Alison - would drink after two beers, hope it cures lumbago and I hope I wake up. Garry - same same.

Score Alison - 4.5. Garry - 3.

Zato - this is posh Japanese rice wine.

Bouquet Alison - lemon dettol, doesn't bode well. Garry - likely to put blisters on your lung.

Taste Alison - lemon washing up liquid. Garry - better than I thought it would be, maybe a little hint of lemon or paint thinners.

Comments Alison - pretty bad, inoffensive, would prefer beer, sexy bottle. Garry - bottle looks good, but I would only drink it if I was desperate and I'm not sure anybody would be that desperate.

Score - Alison - -1. Garry - 1.

A recognisable wine - Australian and very expensive, see price of $9 dollars compared to $1.50 for some of the above!

Bouquet Alison - very similar to known and trusted red wine. Garry - gentle, but good.

Taste Alison - tastes metallic, maybe tuna after taste. Garry - good with slight after taste of Wrestler.

Comments Alison - shame it's more expensive than our room bill. Can't have more than one bottle of this one. Garry - would buy again, bargain.

Score Alison - 6. Garry - 5.

This was the setting for our wine tasting. About 25 Korean and Japanese tourists checked into the guesthouse whilst we were wine tasing and walked past us. We invited every one of them to join us. Apart from one couple who told us they didn't drink, we don't know why no-one else joined us!!

Bye for now.

Alison and Garry

Answers

After posting our last blog (only yesterday) we have received a number of questions. Rather than answer these individualy we've answered them all below.
1. Yes, there are more S class Mercedes in Phnom Phen than any other city in the world.
2. No, we didn't stay at Raffles.
3. We travelled to Raffles 3 up on a moterbike taxi as we were staying on the other side of town (the wrong side of the tracks). The driver was on the front, Alison in the middle and Garry on the back carrying the rucksack and laptop. Quite an exciting ride as these guys are happy to go the wrong way down a one way street, ride on the pavement and ride down the wrong side of the road.
4. To pay for our little venture to Raff's we asked the driver (see above) to stop at the International Bank of Commerce. There we negociated a loan with the IMF (International Monetary Fund). At first the IMF were reluctant to give us the cash but when we pointed out that if they got their finger out we could make "Happy Hour" and the drinks would be half price and we would probably get free nibbles they gladly parted with the wonga.
5. The IMF have now asked for the money back as they need it for another project. They have threatened us with the heavy mob (see picture below) if we don't pay up soon.
6. We have tried to lay off the loan to a number of International Financial Institutions but with no luck due to the Global financial crisis. We thought we were OK when a representative from Lehmans said he would have a look down the back of the sofa for us. Unfortunatetly the federal government had already been there and had taken away all that they found. Apparently they also needed it for other projects.
7. A generous Tuk Tuk drive offered to help but his interest charges (2 coconuts a week) were unafordable for us. Have any of you guys got $55.73 tucked under a matterres somewhere? Wer're under pressure and don't want to deal with the heavies.
8. Yes
9. No
10. 43

Below is the last known picture of the IMF heavies. There's a rumour that they are somewhat disabled at the moment as their leader is being held hostage by a pig.

Plan B is for us to escape to the mountains using our get away vehicle pictured below.

As you can see we've been practising and we know how to use this vehicle to the max.
Bye for now. Will update you when the heat is off.

Alison and Garry

NB The above is published without the aid of alcohol or substance abuse.

Pyjamas in the Rain

The picture above should have been at the bottom of this blog. Alison on the beach at Sihanoukville and it's raining again.

Damn, we wish we'd had a few drinks before we tried to write this blog, somehow the pictures are all in the wrong order again! We're sure we're better at this after a couple!

We spent around 8 days in Sihanoukville, where it rained and rained, (see photos), then we moved on to Kampot, where we stayed for a few days and it rained a bit less, then moved on to Phnom Phen where it rained a bit less (but lots at a time - see photos). We have now moved on to Siem Reap. As you are probably aware, Cambodia has been through some very difficult times and some of its recent history is very sad, so we are not mentioning anything about that here, although we did visit the relevant local sites. Forgetting the terrible history, we are finding the people wonderful, really smiley and friendly.

This was outside the Russian market at Phnom Phen. It had just rained for three hours solid, so we took shelter in a hostel. One peculiar thing we noticed about Phnom Phen was the number of very expensive cars eg countless S class Mercedes, Lexus 4 x 4s and loads of Hummers. We only saw 3 e class Mercs and 1 c class. Wonder who can afford these? Perhaps someone made some money from selling off the government owned islands and beaches? There isn't a lot of corruption in Cambodia apparently, it's just a "commission" based economy!

Our tuk tuk driver had pulled up onto the kerb outside our hotel, so we didn't have to wade through the flood. You can just see the tide coming in. The water was about 2 feet deep and the motorbikes could deal with this no problem, but the 4 x 4s were reluctant to enter the water and most turned round. It's a bit like in England, meeting a 4 x 4 on a country lane or crossing the Westwood. You have to take to the grass in your ordinary saloon, while the 4 x 4 stays on the tarmac (apologies to those of you owning 4 x 4s - you know who you are!)

Phnom Phen has some gorgeous French Colonial buildings. Above is the restored UNESCO office.

Phnom Phen's National Museum.

Part of Phnom Phen's Grand Palace. Lovely place to visit and the King spends some time here. One of the buildings has a tiled silver floor but unfortunately it's covered over. Most of the visible tiles were loose but we couldn't fit one in the rucksack.

This is a boulevard in Kampot. Lovely town but in need of TLC.

Ref the flooding in the earlier photo's above, this is the rain that caused it. What this guy is doing with the brush is anybodys guess.

Not a great quality photo but this was the biggest Samosa we've ever seen. It was a great little cafe in Kampot that sold Indian grub. We had lunch and dinner there.

Colin and Charmaine a lovely Kiwi couple we met in Kampot. Hopefully we'll see them again in New Zealand.

Hammocks are everywhere. It's not easy to take pictures of them as they usually have somebody sleeping in them but you see them in the strangest places. This was in Utopia! It's just outside Kampot if you're looking for it!

See what we mean about Hammocks. This is in the middle of the pavement in Phnom Phen.

Alison enjoying a cocktail in Raffles in Phnom Phen. We went there to use the internet but the bobbing rastards wanted $10's an hour. It's free everywhere else. Still the cocktails were good. Check out the Elephant shaped glass.

Another thing we did in Phnom Phen, which unfortunately we don't have a photo of, was to BBQ our own food at the table. It's a bit like that witches hat thing you have when you go skiing but you have to contend with a wobbly table, boiling oil and glowing charcoal. We got through it without major injury but Alison was covered in fat and red wine. They say Cambodia and particulary Phnom Phen is a bit like the wild west, we haven't experienced this but there was a little set to outside the BBQ restaurant following a motorcycle collision. It was more "hand bags at dawn" than AK47s.

The sign says "fresh water bathing place". We didn't fancy a shower here. This is in a small coastal town called Kep. Watch out for it as it's currently being redeveloped and has massive potential, even the King has got a place here.

How did this photo get here. Al, what have you been doing. I told you only write the blog after a few beers!
Kin hell, another duplicated photo. Alison is blaming the electricity supply. Compulsary electric shock everytime you plug in. In fairness to her it is a bit distracting.

We took a little tour with a really nice Tuk Tuk driver, part of this was a visit to a cave with a 7th century temple in it. Most visitors enter and leave by the stone steps, however, as you would guess this was not for us. Our driver and guides (more of them later) decided we should crawl and climb through the cave. This was cool if a little dodgey when you're only wearing sandals without "traction control" and we had to swing, tarzan style, on tree roots from rock to rock. COOL.

Garry trying to wash the "slippery as snot" bat pooh off his "no traction control" sandals.

These two little guys - 7 and 14 years old were our guides through the caves. They made us torches from candle wax and sticks. Great chaps.

Our tuk tuk driver in front of a still in a pepper farm. The farmer makes rice wine here using heat from methane made from cow and pig pooh. He shovels the pooh into a hole in the ground and then pipes off the gas to burners under the still. Amazingly, he doesn't pay tax on his alcohol or gas production. Our kind of recycling!

This what you would call a fully loaded tuk tuk - a 100cc motorbike towing a trailer with two people and about a tonne of goods. Nothing is ever overloaded over here! You see some heroic efforts on motorbikes. We'll try and get a picture of 5 up for you.

A Cambodian fashion that is apparently absolutely normal according to David, our favourite tuk tuk driver.
This was funny - a bunch of locals on the beach in Sihanoukville. The game was to put on a pair of undies, run to the other end and back, then switch them to your team player, who would do the same. Nobody could stop laughing, including us. (see blue undies - far left).

The russians are building an internet cafe inside this aeroplane.

A fishing village, just outside Sihanoukville.

He'll grow into this.

A lovely pair of pyjamas, sported by a food seller on the beach.

You can even wear them in the rain - very versatile.

More jim jams - good with a hat.

You can even wear them on a motorbike, whilst carrying small children - kevlar lined?

Short trouser jim jams - good in the heat.

Our first morning in Cambodia at the bus station. It hadn't stopped raining for about 36 hours.

We took a ride on the back of 2 motorbikes to get from the hotel to the bus station, tricky in flood waters, mud and on slicks. The motorbike riders are really good. Can you imagine Garry and a 20 kg rucksack on the back of a bike in these conditions. Good job he had his poncho.

More rain - on the beach this time.
Jim jams in the rain - the next step will be waterproof ones!

Pretty cool riding your motorbike, wearing your pjs and carrying an umbrella. Not an unusual sight.

Time for a few beers now, off to Ankor Wat and other cultural sites in the next few days.

Ciao

Alison and Garry