The King`s Birthday and Buddha day

A random picture to start with:

Frangipani, my favourite flower,beautiful to look at and smells gorgeous.

May is a very good month for public holidays! Last weekend lasted 5 days thanks to the King`s birthday and Visak Bochea Day (Buddha Day). Lots of the volunteers from Kratie are away on holiday so I thought it would be quiet but instead volunteers from other parts of Kratie came visiting and a good time was had by all.  Katie, Esther and Louise, who I came to Cambodia with, came to stay with me in my new house. Esther and Louise came from Siem Reap on Friday and after what sounded like a horrendous 10 hr journey arrived here just in time for drinks by the river.
We had a tour of the hospital on Saturday morning and then Katie arrived while we were sitting having a drink by the river. In the evening we went to Gilly and Sam`s for drinks. Can you see a bit of a theme here!
On Sunday we went to see the dolphins, then somewhere I had not been before Kampi rapids.

                                    

 I think `rapids` is a bit too strong a word but it is a very popular place for families especially on holidays. They can go and sit on wooden platforms built over the water and have a picnic and swim. It is a really nice place and I`m sure I will go again.

Yesterday I went for a final cycle ride round Koh Trong Island with Remi as he is going home to Holland this week. We took his landlord`s daughter with us. She was a beautiful girl but dressed as if it was the middle of winter: jeans, long sleeved t shirt, woollen hat, hooded fleece. I had on a short sleeved tshirt and cropped trousers as I was baking. The girl on the ferry had socks and gloves on as well as the items above! We asked her why she had so many clothes on and she said it was to protect her skin from the sun! Nothing to do with skin cancer though it was more to do with the Cambodians wish for light skin.Most of their toiletries contain a whitening agent including deodorant! She had a lovely light brown skin which many people in the UK spend a lot of money trying to achieve but she wanted to have skin like mine which as you know is pretty white. I have actually got a tan now but the white skin under my watch strap sends them into raptures. I have been called beautiful 3 times since I got here not for my face obviously but the colour of my skin!!

Not a pretty sight I know but I rest my case!

                                                     Today I cycled to Phnom Sambok (about 45 mins) with Quennie and Miwa. We left at 7 30 to avoid the worst of the sun but it was still pretty hot. Although it is my 3rd visit I had never seen monkeys here before.

Monkeys on the roof!

Quennie and I

So this must be Miwa

A monk`s worldly goods, his robes and the bowl he takes out to get rice(begging bowl),but I wouldn`t be surprised if he had a mobile phone somewhere from what I`ve seen!

On the way here I saw something I haven`t seen before  a calf actually "fall off the back of a lorry"! It seemed o.k. just mooed a couple of times and ambled off followed by the driver. The way animals are transported here is a whole blog of its own which I won`t be doing as its too depressing! We got home without any more excitementt and I fell into my hammock and was quickly asleep. We were then subjected to a storm of which I took a video but I`m still not sure it shows how hard it rains here!

Still loving my house and having left my bat at my old house I share this one with the biggest certainly the noisiest gecko I have seen here. I have managed to block it from my bedroom by the careful placement of a booklet about Phnom Penh but it still roams free in the house after dark which can startle me sometimes

My lodger

Tonight I went for a meal with Miwa and Quennie and Remi joined us for his last drink in Kratie! Back home now at 8 30 ready to watch day 5 hour 7 of 24 which I am addicted to.


I don`t think the video is working!

House number 2

I think I have mentioned before how noisy my old house was due to the metalworks on one side (7 days a week!) and someone with an extremely bad and permanent chest infection which involved a lot of hawking up phlegm 24/7! So enough was enough and when I got the chance to move into Amy`s house as she had decided to leave Cambodia I jumped at the chance. So I contacted the tuktuk driver(Sithal) who had moved me in a month before and arranged for him to come round on the Sunday morning. Sam came to help as well and all my worldly goods in Kratie were put in a tuktuk and I moved 2 roads away.
The difference is amazing and I feel so much more at home here! The house is really well furnished by the landlord downstairs and Amy and Kevin left me a lot of stuff they had bought, toaster, hammock, coffe table, and lots of storage things from Ikea.

Living Area

Kitchen

Balcony

Beautiful Kratie Sunset

Will stop now as I did promise Ellie I would post the pictures today.

Irrawaddy Dolphins

This week has been quite busy as the other education volunteer and I had to plan out the activities, workshops, meetings etc,  we want to do this year with some money from VSO in Canada. So that took 2 mornings, Wednesday morning we had a meeting of all the VSO volunteers and the Volunteer Assistants in Kratie. It was a good chance to met up and find out what everyone does. On Friday afternoon I went to Joe`s restaurant to watch the Royal Wedding while wearing tiaras which we had fashioned from old boxes and aluminium foil!! I knew all those years of making hats with the kids would pay off!!

Yesterday I went to my VA`s house where his wife showed us how to make Ban Chow. It is a thin pancake made with rice flour (which they grind themselves), real turmeric(not ground) and coconut milk, filled with bean sprouts, meat or egg, onions and served with salad leaves and a sauce of peanuts, carrot, garlic, palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce (which they use as a seasoning). You use your fingers and dip the pancake with the salad into the sauce. It is delicious! They are a lovely family and were very welcoming and generous. It was a lovely lunchtime.

This morning I went along the Mekong to Kampi the home of the very endangered Irrawaddy Dolphins. We saw a lot of them but this is the best picture I managed!

This is a picture of Ami, who is leaving Kratie on Friday, Adrian, a doctor, who I met in Siem Reap and who was visiting Remi, another doctor, here and me(again!)

This is the entrance to the place where you pick up the boats to go Dolphin watching.

On the way back the tuktuk driver stopped and bought us some fruit which comes from a palm that they get palm sugar from.

They are the white things at the front which have been removed from the green/purple things behind. The texture is like lychee but they have juice in the middle. They don`t taste very strong but are quite refreshing, which out here is always a good thing.

We then went to a Wat at the top of a hill -Phnom Sambok. Which was very peaceful and had lovely views.

View to Mekong

When we got back to Kratie we went for a drink by the river then for lunch. I had a bacon sandwich, which was not bad but not like homemade!! Just off to Skype Ellie now and going out for dinner tonight!