Postal Address

If you are unaware I have a local PO box for mail to be sent to. It is housed at the Main Post Office (in fact the only post office in Phnom Penh). Should you wish to send me a letter, postcard or a box of Arnotts Savoury Shapes please do to:


PO Box 1602
Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Cheers

Phnom Penh Post Office


Further things I desire.....


Savoury Shapes


Vegemite



Carlton Draught



Saladas


Quarter Pounder



Cheezels


Collingwood Premiership

Dave's Visit to the Lake - Part 2

The lake is very nice and the setting is very peaceful as it is off the beaten path of tourists. The photo of the lake is taken from the pontoon that you sit on where they serve your food. There are about 20 little pontoons and they are connected by an old rickety walkway. Beer or the deadly Khmer wine is served here at very cheap prices (beer .50c a can and a bottle of wine costs about .40c and a 2 day head-ache). One of the highlights is watching the locals wipe themselves with cheap booze and attempt to walk along these paths without falling over or in. The only thing better is watching a foreigner attempt to walk along these paths without falling over or in.


There are no table or chairs/cushions, just a mat on the floor and the utensils to eat. One of the few dishes I like is the fish (its called 'the fish', don't bother trying to find out what type it is - pointless). Comes out on a steaming dish and served with random grass cuttings. Once you pick off the grass it is quite tasty. Eating it gets very messy, but I think that has more to do with the intoxicated state of the patrons. Below is the state we left the pontoon in.



Any visit isn't complete (and I think it has been legislated by the Cambodian National Assembly) that at least one of the dinner party at any Cambodian dinner gets absolutely blotto and then proceeds to insult and abuse their fellow diners. Below is a shot of Annette (friend of Annie) in the aftermath of one of her tirades in which she:

1. threw a full bottle of wine
2. swore violently at all in attendance
3. collapsed into the aforementioned dish of 'the fish'.



I think Dave was ok with the outburst, but then again he has been friends of the Ryland brothers for too long to be concerned with graphic violence.

It was nice seeing you Sanch.

The end.

Sanch's Visit to the Lake

David (Macca, Dave or Sanch if you prefer) dropped by Phnom Penh a couple of weeks ago and as expected proceeded to help me in ruining further my bladder, kidneys and wallet. After 3 days of showing him the sights of PP (markets, Palace, Riverside in 10 minutes. Drinking at pubs and bars 71 hrs and 50 mins), decided to take him to one of the local resturants that are by the lake. In tow were Ryan, his missus Annie and a group of her friends.

The food was local. (Please note I am increasingly making more Cambodian friends who are viewing this blog, so I have to be more diplomatic about what I say about their culture....but). Khmer food is crap. It is like very bad Thai food and despite how often I try I still haven't been able to adapt to eating it on a regular basis. Typical of what was served is shown in the picture below. Included (shit you not) is snake, spider, cockroaches and beetles of various quality (click on the photo below to get a better look).

Despite the food, the location is very nice set on the lake north of the city. Very well placed too should you wish to take a slash, throw some rubbish or throw up (which invariably happens when you eat the food). Dave did his Ray Charles impression assisted by back up singers and some girl eating a snake (trust me that last part was not a dirty joke).

David was getting a bit randy as the night wore on and started to expose himself to his fellow guests. So unusually were his lily white nipples that one of the local girls mistook it for a rare albino nut beetle and attempted to retrieve it from his shirt in a bid too eat it.

Later that night Sanch (aka.MarkRead) was seen touring the bars of PP. Here he is a local fan of Choppers bookline keen to get an autograph.

New Years Eve 2007

This New Year's Eve was my first in Cambodia and decided to join some friends who had arranged a boat to cruise the Tonle Sap River which it the main river that runs through Phnom Penh. The boat held about 20-30 people and was planned for a 3 hour tour ("the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed...."). The boat is no Queen Mary and was steered by a fella who looked suspiciously like a bloke who drives a motor-taxi around town. He steered the boat around in circles for the whole time with a steering/rudder type thing that was made out of Lego.



It was actually quite cool for Cambodia at this time of year and more so at night on the river. Most of the poor Khmers were freezing to death and wondering why they were bothering. New Year on the 1st of January is referred to here as International New Years as the country also celebrates Chinese New Year (3 day holiday) in February and Khmer New Year (4 day holiday) in April. The idea of only 1 day for a holiday is absurd to them. As you can tell by the photos below it was really going off on the boat.



Entertainment was provided by a friend of a friend who is an Australian guitar player and singer who did a lot of Johnny Cash. He was very good under the conditions and did a lot of other requested songs. No one really got up and danced, but it didn't stop one brave Khmer girl who took up the role of back-up dancer for the set's duration (I think it was his wife). Most of the revellers were more interested in drinking mainly to keep warm (20 Celsius is a blizzard in Cambodia). Most of the drinking was done around a small table that refused to remain level which confounded most of the locals as to why their drink kept tipping over ("Drink fall down. Pick drink up. Drink fall down again.")



Some noticeable celebrities that appeared at the party were (in order):

* Annie (girlfriend of house mate and fellow teacher Ryan) shown here indicating how many times her drink had fallen off the table.



* Me, Trea (terrified in the "Land of the Giants) and Ryan.



* Simon and Slek (fellow teacher and friend)



Highlight of the night was the firework display at midnight. Phnom Penh does put on a lot of firework displays for the generous amount of holidays the country has. They are always held on the river, so we had a good vantage point on the boat directly under the display. But quantity does not mean quality. The fireworks, in a word, are pissweak. By way of comparison, below is a picture of New Year's celebrations in Sydney on the water as shot by the photographer some kilometres away from the central display:



Below is a photo I took directly underneath the Phnom Penh display at the height of the explosions (the slightly less darker blur in the middle are the fireworks). Given the country's history involving ordinance and exploding things I expected somewhat better.



After the fireworks, one of the passengers aboard had a birthday (1 Jan) and a cake was brought out to celebrate (the lighting of the candles was more of a dazzling display then the previous fireworks). Cambodians love birthday cakes, but not so much for eating. The average Khmer think cakes tastes too sweet, but are perfect for use in hand to hand combat. After the candles and cutting comes the smearing of icing of anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity. Below is a photo of the contestant considered the most successful in avoiding the cake standing next the person considered the least successful.

We offloaded back on the riverside at 1.00pm where further celebrations where neither recorded or remembered.

The end.