Boat race practice

Just one of the several hundred boats practicing on the Tonle Sap for the boat races which begin on Sunday. These things are awesome - I counted 70 people on this one - the beter teams are like a machine - every oar perfectly in unison. Should be quite a spectacle, especially if the tropical storm remnants get here on Monday as predicted.

Be careful what you put in your mouth - words to live by

The other night we travelled out to some unidentified part of the city to a restaurant run by one of Da's seemingly infinite number of relatives.  Among other delights we hade snake - yes real snake - a water snake of some kind - not an eel - about 2 feet long and about an inch in diameter choped into half inch segments and fried in the wok.  I ate more than my share and it was very good - most of the bones were crunchy and edible - only a few had to be rejected.  We were eventually left with the head - about 2 inches of malevolent grin - nobody - not even the 4 or 5 Khmer seemed ready to attack that of course they kept on encouraging me - but the eyeballs and teeth just made it impossible.  Eventually Da started to toy with it and break off small pieces - she was about to suck on it - to extract whatever I dont know when she noticed that the fishing hook that had been used to catch the sucker was still in its mouth.  Apologies were profuse from the restauranteur - I can only imagine what would have transpired had I popped the whole thing in my mouth and bitten down - caution paid off.

Pajamas and stuff...

I have mentioned this before I think but I remain fascinated by the way that Khmer women wear pajamas as regular street wear.  I guess it makes sense - cotton loose cool but it remains incongruous in my sight.  Da went out shopping yesterday in hers - I look forward to trying to persuade my daughter to do the same when she visits - I need to start compiling a collection of the most incongruous looking examples. Another thing that continues to amuse is the obvious lack of recognition of what we would consider socially suicidal - I am sitting in the lobby bar of the hotel where I stay when not renting (a hotel used almost entirely by Westerners) currently hearing completely uncensored rap and hip hop music with all the F/N/MF bombs intact - imagine that in the lobby of Sheraton or Westin in Seattle.  Tomorrow Da is leaving at 5am to go with various relatives to Kompong Speu - about 100 miles I think to pay tribute to some dead relative - I declined that particular trip (something about the 5am just didnt ring true with me) she returns on Saturday so I have liberty on Friday to have a night on the town alone - will be fun.  Then Saturday night she works so I get to stay home and overdose on English football on TV in bed with air conditioning and beer.  Sunday the Cambodian water festival starts - three days of boat races on the river - supposed to mark the time when the Tonle Sap reverses course (too much water coming down the Mekong - cannot get out the delta - floods back upstream reversing flow and filing Lake Tonle Sap - the richest ecodiversity-site in the world (after the Amazon apparently) and source of most seafood here)  but from what I can see the river is still flowing very quickly in the "right" direction - there have been warnings that the boat racers face the most dangerous conditions in many decades - will be there to film and take pics.  Aparently 2 million extra people come to PP for the event - the opposite of Thailand where everyone leaves the capital and heads to the proivinces for holidays.  Supposedly 350 boats representing al provinces, schools, branches of government - should be spectacular.

Cambodia Highway 1 - returning from our picnic

A brief video from the back seat of our tuk-tuk dodging traffic on the main Phnom Penh - Vietnam highway. Pay particular attention to the motorcycle of dead chickens towards the end of the video.

Lake side picnic

We took a tuk-tuk about 15 miles out of town to a lake side picnic restaurant - a very precarious walk along planks not designed for my immense weight led us to a platform over the lake - various food vendors arrived by boat and we ordered both from them and from the restaurant - delicious and cheap.

Domestic "bliss"

Yesterday the power went out suddenly at about 930am - the time I knew because I was laying in bed watching CNN - not unusual we thought - there are often power cuts in Phnom Penh - demand usually exceeds supply - I have no clue where and how Cambodia generates electricity - for all I know it is a half dozen (bpram muay) water buffalo turning a wheel somewhere outside of town.  Three hours later we were kind of aware that there seemed to be music coming from the neighbors - hmmm - surely not batteries.  Uh, no - we had been shut off for non payment of the bill apparently - the bill which in our case we did not have and had not seen. Seems the landlord had omited to pay anything and when we moved in and started using power someone noticed.  So a few phone calls ensued and shorthly thereafter a couple of guys in an Electricte Du Cambodge van (apparently another French leftover) arrived - I paid $15 and all was well.  All was well I say until such time as I tried to go to the bathroom.  Zero drainage - zero flushage.  I informed Da and waited for her plan of action - hell I dont know whether you call a plumbr in Cambodia or what - I drew a plunger and showed it to her - a word that is lamentably missing from my English/Khmer dictionary - some devices are universal and should be obligatory in any dictionary. Next I knew I heard hammering - I looked into the bathroom and she was laying on the floor chipping out the tile cement under the toilet with a borrowed hammer and chisel.  Any attempt by me to help was swiftly rejected (honestly I tried). I withdrew - half hour later I heard porcelein sounds and investigated  - she had removed the entire toilet and was now atacking the hole with a length of bendy bamboo longer than she is and a viscious length of wire which constituted a home-made plumbers snake.  Once again (thankfully) my help was rejected - not sure my stomach was really up for the task anyway. She emerged with a plastic bag the contents of which were better left unknown I think.  She then replaced the toilet - and re-grouted/cemented the whole thing.  I was warned not to use the toilet for 24 hours - pee in the shower she said - orders with which under the circumstances I was happy to comply.  Today all was well.  She is indeed Khmer-Superwoman, or maybe they are all that way.  Honestly I tried to help.

Milestone

Today marks a week since I used toilet paper - we dont even own any.  Must say the high pressure hose is really the way to go ecologically and frictionally - as long as you can avoid the self-administered enema.  I know TMI.