It's my party and I cry if I want to.....

Last day on the Temple run.... some 59 km out of Siam Reap! .... It was so serene and beautifull... Nature trying to take back the ruins and almost succeeding... The Buddhist pagoda delivering a nonstop soundtrack of plinkity plonk ( My feeble attempt at re interpreting Khmer music) and a deep male voice shouting some blessings or maybe telling us; "That life is only a illusion !"

A goodbye to rural Cambodia: Throngs of children going to school in their blue and whites ( Well, in some cases only sort of...!) Water buffaloes having a ball in the flooded fields, Morning (Salad and vegetables) Market at the side of the road only lit by solitary candles (in the wind of bodies and motos) sat on top of the green bundles, sunset over the foothils, boys having a morning bath in the blossoming Lotus puddles, small children still asleep at the top of the stairs to their shacks on stilts, young girls burning sugarcanes, making them ready for later clients, smoke across the road from the cooking fires, the sky turning gold and the perfume of Jasmine, Tamerind, Lime and "Sun silk Shampoo" lies heavy in the morning mist, the sound of animals; Dogs yapping , cocks crowing, geckos and cricketts and the sound of human interaction makes my morning universe complete... Thank you!


Now after another deluge, I treated my self to a aromathics body massage, a facial and a manicure... The very best yet! The long, soft, brown and strong hands makes my body seem mine again and when the same girl uses the very same beautifull hands of hers to give me the softest facial touch... Then I might concur that life is only a illusion but what an a illusion this is...!
With all this indulgence I miss out on the two 'dates' I had for this evening; A Skype call a 19:00 from Saigon and a dinner date with an Austrian girl I met yesterday... Hmmm.... That's how it is around here; I can only make one plan at a time... Two; and I'm bound to screw it up!

Going out for dinner, this last day of my Cambodian adventure... Hardly able to walk for sprained muscles ( All that Temple trekking) and with a bad case of the blues... I choose a nice looking Indian... But somehow they make my dinner go so fast, that after 20 min I'm back on the street... aptly called "Pub street" - How's that for a birthday dinner ? I'm in a bad mood already but now I'm feeling sorry for my self as well..... So I slog it down to my usual place; The shadow og Angkor Wat.... They don't have Brandy.. So it'll be a Amaretto and a coffee then.... I take the luxuxery of a TukTuk home to the hotel, where I have to clear a misunderstanding of how much to pay for my room.....They said 5$ when I came and now it's 12 $... We settle on 10$ but somehow sour the ambience... And right now I can hear them discussing the fact, that I have been up at crack of down every morning and have had to wake them up also (to open the gates) and that I initially said I would stay for 5 instead of the 4 days I actually have stayed..... And now I will not pay up.... "A, Bon contes fait de bonnes amis" (- Better sort out the finances, if you wanna have friends)

Hurray what a birthday!
But tomorrow it's onwards christian soldiers.....

I bow humbly, (if I only could) and send lot's of love to all who has send me mails and text's messages on my mobile...! I know you're all out there! Right now I'm missing everyone who's absent tonight!

Be back tomorrow from Paksé, Laos....
Love from the old gal....

Random thoughts and some explanations...

Well... Had a nice morning , again, Mr.Nol and I... No sunset due to heavy rain and cloudy weather... But never mind, I've had so many other very interesting conversations, every time we stop for coffebreak or yet another Temple... I'm about had enough of Temples, I think... The Khmer might think me lazy or shallow... But I tried to explain that for me it's not only the fine, very fine temples but everything around them... that seems to fill me, my eyes and mind up in matter of hours... Talked to some of the selling women today and we all agreed that the Chinese don't make for very good tourists/costumers... They come in hordes, spilling out of countless buses, zip up and down the Temples, shriek, talk very loudly and buy nothing....

When I had my fill of impressions, which takes me about 5-6 hours... I'm good and ready to go back for a siesta at my hotel... So about 10-11 ish we head ''home"...

Today was different, being Sunday, Nol invited me home to meet his family... I was delighted of cause, only sorry that I came empty handed! ... He lives with two of his sons and a 'new' wife (They were married in 2005) in this really nice, sparse big wooden house! It's very modern in the way it's not on the usual stilts.. But his oldest son lives in , what must be their old home, which is a really small half wooden half palm leaves shack on stilts... it sits in the backyard... What a rare treat...... They invited me to some fresh coconut juice and we sat and talked for awhile and then went back to my hotel in between downpours... We'll be back on the road again tomorrow at 5:00 am.... Even though it's my birthday!

Random observations:

The motos here is normally carrying 3 adults... But this number can easily increase to 4 + several kids. Motos are used as transportation of ANYTHING! 50kg's sacks, a basket full of piglets, 5-10 mtr long bamboo/iron/metal/wood sticks... you dream it up and it's probable been done!

Why has caring Canadian, American or English families who has donated a house or a palm leaved shack, put up signs, sometimes much bigger and in much better shape than the "house"it self? - The sign stating f.ex that this run-down, poor excuse for living quarters, for a whole family was donated by Mr and Mrs Thomas Jones. Canada!

Why not just give the 50 - 100 $ such a place costs and be done with it?

In the whole of Cambodia, I've only seen a handful of people wear glasses! Either they are so expensive that it's impossible to buy or else this is a nation of 20/20 perfect eyesight!

In populated areas it's hard to find birds or crickets... The sound of crickets only heard on the grounds of big Hotels/Resorts and birdsong only deep in the woods... Which is a bit weird, the unnerving sound of crickets being THE sound of heat and warm weather....! But alas they are being fried and served up with chili.. Birds likewise... The same in Vietnam!

"The Kmer Rouge" evacuated all towns and cities, killed most of the intellectuals and skilled workforce. The "Kmer Rouge" 'only' ruled this country for 3 1/2 years, but continued to be active up to 1998... That's only 10 yrs ago!!! It's a monumental effort to have rebuild this nation ravaged by corrupt leadership for centuries, civil war, genocide ( about 3 million during Pol Pot, Big brother no.1 in the Khmer Rouge) famines and the thousands & thousands of landmines, which still claims about 500 lives a year!

Tourists with the right wallet size, wouldn't know the difference between Cambodia, Thailand or Club Med in the Caribbean..... Extraordinary people, the Cambodians: They still have a smile and a hello for you and everyone else passing them by!....

Well... Tomorrow it's my 50th birthday and I've already had some congrats! Ninon is on the way to Portugal from Spain and therfore out of reach... But I don't feel alone and the rain has stopped!

Same, same... but different!

(I actually managed to upload, one of my own photos!]

I've kinda got into a rhythm now... Get up at 4:30 am... fall into the waiting Mr.Nol's Tuktuk (A moto with a wagon attached) and the ride through the still quiet town of Siam Reap and out to the woods of Angkor... All the security guards are sound at sleep on their posts, outside the bigger hotels/resorts, banks and VIP houses and some shops... The few motos or bicycles on the streets are driven by yawning drivers and the kids on the back (And front... all 3,4,5 of them) are sleeping against each others backs (wonder, they don't fall of!)... A few street kitchens are either opening or closing.. You can tell by the state of drunkenness of their customers, which it is... It's still pitch black and I'm freezing.. But even I learn ! So today I've brought my warm jacket and a silk scarf... Then it's not so bad, I almost is asleep as well, when a bat flies into the inside light of the Tuktuk, and he lands at my feet... His furry belly touching my toes.... This is where I yelp out like puppy... He died from the collision and it's a easy matter, getting him out... But it sure sets my heart pounding...This is way too early for me....!

But then we arrive at this magnificent artificial lake, [the 986 century] Solitary and out of the way and thus avoiding the crowd at Angkor Wat, proper! As I sit next to the lion guarding it and see the sunrise ( All 5 secs! It has and still is very cloudy!) I manage to blot out the group of babbling Japanese behind me. - And the persistence of the usual band of kids selling; bracelets, guidebooks, coffee and what have you... leaves me unperturbed... Ah... the beauty of it all; A man fishing with a spear inside the lake, the birds and the rings of water where the fish comes up for air.....!

Today we do the "real thing" meaning; I'm being driven around, from one temple to the next... And everywhere we stop, I have to buy at least a postcard from the kids.. If not their pouting and nagging will give me bad luck for the rest of my life...! ( Me thinks...)

I invite Mr. Nol for breakfast and we have a good conversation about life, economy and lack of it, loss, the joy of good health and loving children (He lost both his parents during the Pol Pot regime - he's 41 yrs now) and this mans kindness and gentle ways impress me no end...!

The we take off again and the temple of Te Keo rises before us - the only temple in the Khmer empire, which is build a bit like the Inca pyramids, it stands "only" 22 mtrs high, but the 'steps' are extremely steep and has been corroded over the years... Well, I think I can get to the top... So I start.. Halfway I'm not so sure and when I finally get to the absolute top, I'm aware of 'things' - can hardly use the word; muscle, for what I have left in legs.....- I didn't know I possessed! And hurray, what do I find at the top - besides an fantastic view over miles and miles of dense forest? Yes! Two kids selling Buddha, Ghanesh and other Hindu gods statuettes and postcards! To my complete and utter surprise; These two are incredibly nice, soft mannered and well spoken in English!!! To the usual question of my origins, the 13 yr old boy named Hin answers:" The capital is Copenhagen and the money is Kroner - Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Checoslovakia has Kroner - Same, same but different money! " Now I'm impressed! So I sit down and we have a talk; The cost of schooling ( 500 Rial a day!- 4000 Rial = 1 USD) which is preposterous, considering that an average worker makes max. 20 $ a month! So that's why they are selling in the morning, so they can attend school in the afternoon...( So of cause I buy some of them!) We compare scars we have on our legs and they tell me how a Japanese fell of this pyramid, breaking an arm, a leg, lost 4 front teeth and the camera went boinky, bonkity, boink... down the stairs... Later they teach me some Khmer words... Which I forget in the same instant I begin my crawling decent... Actually I'm scared shitless all the way down, my legs quiver, my heart's thundering and I decide that this was the last time I climb anything... never mind pyramids!

After some more of this spectacular place, I'm all "Templed out" by 11:00 am.. and we head home just in time, before the heavens opens up and an all day rain starts... It's still raining....!

Mr. Nol will be waiting again tomorrow at 05:00 am.................

A mere walk in the woods.....

Mr. Nol, my very nice TukTuk driver, were waiting this morning at 05 am... Off we went to see the mythical sunset at Angkor Wat - One of the seven wonders of the world, but only just discovered 100 years ago! The magnificent and enormous temple site sits in the middle of jungle/wood, it's an incredible architectural homage to the first the Hindu Gods and later on to Buddha... The buildings date from the 4-500 century and onwards to the ninth.. Build by different Khmer kings, or rather their the hard labouring . And yes, it's true all that you read or heard about the place, it's truly amazing, breathtaking and so big, that it'll take you days to get around to all 4 corners of the excavated site....

If you can imagine this place, where every little piece of stone has been carved with divine pictures, with dancers, priests and artists and the more mundane as a woman giving birth, weavers, workers and entire murals depicting the glory's of wars fought and won!( Siam Reap means" Siam defeated"-Thailand being the Siamese kingdom...) Ahr... the breathtaking beauty of all this is hard to describe in my limited English ( Or any other language...!)... Besides the usual; ah's, oh's, wow's and the Oh my,my's!

Me being who I am, and pretending that I know everything.. or at the very least; making it up/figure it out as I go along... Did not study any guidebook, did not ask anyone, but simply started up through the main entrance... Said hello to a Khmer boy who apparently lives inside this enormous building, half ruin, with his grandmother,who takes care of a huge Buddha statue... hidden within the endless corridors.... and then I went out on the other side and up a road....And through the woods......... Actually,when I eventually figured out that I was probably lost, I just kept walking.... As there's so many temples on the way, hidden behind small lakes and big trees, it was actually fine with me, being lost! Had some conversations with a couple of kids walking to school( It was now about seven am) and was even offered a ride on the back of a bike, but as the girl offering only reached my mid thigh- I took her...! Great fuss, we stirred when we arrived at her classroom...

Finally I came back into the official trail of the main temples but against the flow of Tuktuks, buses, motos and elephants! I at last, found a place to have breakfast and get "ripped of" by the gang of kids there...Told them to go to school, instead of selling stuff in a very insistent manner to dumb, lost tourists like my self... But when a small girl out in the middle of nowhere ( Well,next to a Temple of cause) asked me the usual question of "Where you from" answered; "Oh, Copenhagen" to my; "Denmark" (Which normally only causes a blank look) - I just had to buy; her 2$ silk scarf - yet another one!

After 5-6 hrs I was back to Angkor Wat from the "wrong side" and was "rescued" by my very worried Mr.Nol... When I told him the whys and hows.. He naturally ( I would have done it my self, if I knew how!) made me the laughing stock of all the Tuktuks waiting for their clients..to take them around to the next Temple.... and the next one, and so on...!

Out here in these incredible and divine surroundings: I don't know who looks the more idiotic: The loud Chinese males with cowboy hats, the very serious Japanese girls in full " Explorer" mode ( Being driven in 4WD Lexus with air con!!), the Korean girls in disco outfits incl. high heels, the pale European girls with bad postures or me, doing a 16 km "walk in the woods" barefoot with only flip-flops ??????? (Was bitten by big, bad black ant MF twice! I cried like a baby)

"Memsahib wants to go home" she cried to her driver, which he did... giggling all the way! Tomorrow I'll be back for more, but in the correct way, ha'kuun!

Ps. After some hours of good siesta, I went to town, had my self a good old 5 US$- 1 hour foot massage (Ninon, you'd love this place!!!) - Some dinner by the river and will now be going back to my room and watch some Spanish TVE, at least it's "soaps" where I understand what they're saying, as opposed to the endless Chinese, Korean, Indian, Russian, German, Khmer, Thai ditto....!

By the way to ensure us all a good night sleep, could someone please silence the big Bullfrog outside my window? He is quite unattractively and very loudly serenading/or lamenting the absence of a fellow Bullfrog all night?! - it sounds like a mix of a cow and a donkey...!!

Driving Miss Gabs....

Sorry for being such a moralistic prude this morning! But I was woken up at around 4:00 am...My room being right next to to the kitchen and "Le Picine" - A small affair filled up with chubby Canadians/Americans and well fed Europeans.... and their typical derrogatory remarks about all things foreign....! I'm not too good my self, mind you... I suspiciusly easy fall into the role of imperious old Memsahib.... With a disarming smile...(I hope!) When the hotelboys tell me that "your driver, Madam, is here"- And after all these manicures, pedicures, foot masssages, back rubsand the beeing wated upon hand and foot at all times and everywhere.... then it's even harder not to do the "White Woman in the tropics" act... I don't think that I've carried my own backpack for much longer than 100 mtrs, I have not been ignored in restaurants and the mere fact, that I can go anywhere... even places, where anywhere else in the world would be a "no-no"for riff-raff like me - Just because of my lack of skin colour.... Makes it heaven on earth, ha'kuun! ( Which means: "Thank you" in Kmer - ethnic Cambodian)


This place is full of foreign people, of the sort you don't see in any other place in Cambodia....(Apart from Sihanukville, which's fast becomming the San Antonio, Ibiza of Cambodia) You kniw the sort; Bleached, young and extremely pale English girls in miniskirts and minimal tops, constantly playing with their hair... The male counterparts are equally pale going pinkish, in low hanging shorts and t-shirts saying something about getting drunk and that not being a problem or sporting a marihuanna leafe/joints/dead reggae heroes totin' ( And then they don't get it , when the are pulled over by the police in drug controls?) They are all very loud and not in the least interrested in the country, culture, peoples... only in having, what they consider a good time: Getting drunk, stoned and laid.... preferably as cheap as possible...They will haggle a beer down from the 0.50 cents it costs to maybe 0.45 c and being very proud of it! This in a country where an average worker makes max. 20 USD a month!Halleluja.... Let's save the world!

Well, tomorrow my driver is waiting for me at 5:00 am and of we'll go, to see the sunset at the Angor wat.....

And now it's raining cats and dogs again... Turning all the red dirt roads into rivers of mud.....; "Driver!... come here... Memsahib wants to go home!!!".....

"Red earth and pouring rain"

Had a looooong busride to Siam Reap... The bus was full of babies, who took turns in crying every single minute of the 7 hour long trip! I have a thing about children crying... My heart seems to break for each one of them, bur seeing how the loving mothers, sisters, fathers,grandmothers etc. having no luck in getting their child to stop crying! Maybe the clapping of hands, singing in loud voices, soft but insistent slapping in the bottom and yelling is not the most appropiate technique for soothing babies? When I finally Arrived in Siam Reap, I was good and ready to throw the lot out of the bus windows!

Had the good fortune (?) to sit alongside a very young (20yrs) Danish girl, who also was travelling solo... And had been for 6 months... Chapeau! But her ignorance was of encyclopedic proportions.. and it made me wonder if this Global village stuff is all that great after all? If people, who actually take the time and money to go to the other side of the world, just as well could have been busing around Greater Manchester ship canal... (It rains there too... All year round, mind you!)- Okay, you can't get a B&B for 3USD, but the knowledge (or rather lack of it) of what is happening around you is the same... She didn't have a clue to who, where and what! But she had conscientiously taken the antibiotics for 2 months (?) that her country doc had given her as Malaria medicine....! But I let her be, reading her book about a foreign journalist's escapades in the Phnom Penh's 3usd brothels, under age prostitutes, drugs and shoot outs in the 1990' es - apparently he had a blast! So did the Norwegian girl and her two Dutch friends I met in Sihanukville... They had tried out Ak-47, grenades and Bazookas with some Cambodian Military guys out in the jungle... They had used live ducks, as they taste better than chickens(!) to shoot... All of them being pretty bad shots, it took them several rounds of ammo, before they finished them of!- Luckily they had it all, proudly on tape!
I don't know which is the worst here, the ex-military guys profitting on 30 years of civil war or the turists, who are enabling them to do so?

The new road to Siam Reap was uneventful.... Passing the scenery of wooden/palm houses on stilts, rice paddies, poor small villages filled up with garbage and filth and humans in all shapes and forms... Saw a lot of schools on the way and the amount of Ngo's that is everywhere in the country! I passed some of time, chatting to a young monk, travelling with his granddad and immensely proud of his rather limited English!

Arrived in this really nice place, I think... A bit touristy,of cause.. Being so near to one of the official seven wonders of the world!....

Goodbye Cruel World - Hello Divine Angor Wat.....

It's early morning, it's about 6:30.... The Guesthouse cleaners and waiters are sleeping on the stairs, immaculate in their starched uniforms. That's something you see all over; In the market stalls, shops, bars, verandas, restaurants, post office: Someone sleeping... either in a hammock, on the floor, on top of shop supplies..... or on top of undelivered mail... Don't matter which time... just blissfully sleeping... I get it alright, I do my siestas too... No need to stay awake during the hot hours...!

Yesterday afternoon, I was off to the Royal Palace and The Silver Pagoda... I had been so clever as putting on my only sleeveless shirt I own... Which is "INTERDIT, Madame!" S0 I had to put on my raincoat, I bought in Thailand... Good stuff! It's has it's own sprinkler system on the inside, or so it felt like... After about one minute! I was dripping wet in the humidity of the afternoon heat.. So maybe I didn't pay so much attention, as I should have? But I really think, that all this gold and splendor is a bit like taunting the poorest of this country... of which there are millions! The Silver Pagoda burst of a silver floor... But the floor is very hard to see, under the carpets and when visible, they are stucked together with tape! The emerald Buddha is very nice... But I liked better an unassuming little one, outside, almost hidden under a tree.. Someone had given it their grandmothers best light blue cardigan to wear... I took photos, but this PC do not have an USB... So you must wait, till I find one!

After I went down to the Tonle Sap to find a restaurant with an upstairs balcony... I did the whole river front and at last found a place for my sundowner... The riverfront is full of people; street kids, old lady's selling copied "Lonely Planet Guidebooks" -( I bought one for Laos, they are fine, but for the maps... They tend to be almost unreadable, when they are copy ones!) White guys with their Cambodian girlfriends hang around in big groups at the "English/Irish/American pubs", Landmine victims begging, Tuktuk drivers hassling, Street kitchens cooking up grasshoppers w/chili or Sugarcane being thrashed by a big wheel into fresh and very sweet juice. The traffic is awesome; Motos, cars, trucks, bicycles and Tuktuks... It's quite normal to ride at least three persons on a Moto! The highest number I've seen so far is 6, but then 3 of them were kids... I have even seen a mother breastfeeding the baby and daddy driving the Moto with the older kid in front of him, while chatting away on the mobilphone!
Well all this does not come silently.. so the noise is deafening! Shouts,honking, beeping ( instead of using the lights, naturally!) of horns and chanting, music from open doors...... At last I found a semi quiet place to wound down, enjoy the sunset and say goodbye to this city...
Now I'll go looking for a place to have breakfast - just a fruit salad- a cup of tea and hop on a bus to Siam Reap...

Ps. Néné has asked for an explanation of "Kmer food"; Well," Kmer" is what most of the population of Cambodia, calls themselves and their food is more like Vietnamese than Thai... That means they use bitter leaves a lot, a lot of green salads, chili, onions, not so much meat and then mostly chicken and pork.... And then they have as the Vietnamese inherited the "Baguette, the croissants and the brioche from the French colonialists - Jubiiii, This beeing one of the better things to have survived over the years!

"- And all the angels beat their wings in time..... Shine a light!"

Imagine if your neighbourhood school suddenly turned into a prison of the most evil sort; And I mean evil in the purest of forms.... Where children and young people is guarding you, torturing you and killing you for no offence other than being alive, able to read or some other misdemeanor..... The horror is not the prison it self, but the ordinariness of it all; It's located in the middle of a pretty and quiet street. Being a former school, you can still see the blackboards used in the classrooms turned into cells and torture facilities... This is right in the middle of Phnom Penh, at the time (1975- 78) a very deserted ghost city, as the xenophobic Kmer Rouge didn't believe in education and such frivolities, only in the rice growing, back aching, painful life of a peasant.. So they tried to turn the whole Kmer nation into such lucky, lucky people! And using such much force and violence in the process, that when their 3 and half year regime ended, they left a country devoid of culture, education, skills, religion, food ...... and men... only 30% of the male population survived the "Mighty Revolution" - Not that women weren't killed along the rest of the "enemies of the cause", but mostly men and boys.. Either as prisoners or as child soldiers against the Vietnamese army!

The young children used as guards were reportedly "normal"when the started; But in a short while, they evolved into these monsters of pure evil - sorry to repeat my self, but I have no other term for the inhumane activities of these youngsters - But as in Nazi Germany the monster starts to feed on it's own and many of the original jailers became incarcerated and killed them selves, by another generation of youths waiting to take over.... Can't remember if I have already written about a BBC "Hardtalk" I saw before I left Denmark? It was an interview with the American Proffesor P. Zambardo and his Stanford studies on the evil that apparently lies dormant in all of us "normal people"- Yes I have, just tag Zambardo or the BBC and the piece will turn up!

It was a "good" and sobering visit, this morning.... Seeing all the photos of former prisoners, brought in from all over country... Some of them even smiling to the camera, maybe being the first time they were having their photos taken and not knowing what lie ahead, in terms of suffering and pain...... yet? - There is thousands of these photos of old, young, infants... and every each one of them is dead on the premises: Just an ordinary primary school, in the middle of a nice tree lined street in a good neighbourhood...... Even the former pupils' physical training gear was used to torture the prisoners..... What did the neighbours think of the screams in the night ? - It doesn't say..... But the same thing is happening just west of here, one country over in Burma.... this very day!

( Had an annoying experience there, though... Two young Cambodians were making the tour around as well, their mobiles ringing at all times, them laughing and pointing to some of the photos and instruments of torture.... Ahr, the fickleness of memory, youth and respect ...... , I told them at least to go outside, while on their phones, signs everywhere, saying, this is a place for silence.....! First time I've lost my temper in Cambodia)

I will not be going to the so called; Killing Fields.... The rain has washed away the earth, and the bones are laid bare in the mass graves..... I do not believe in walking upon the remains of humans and anyway, hopefully their souls has gone to a quieter place....

Think I'll go the the Silver Pagoda instead, when the rain ceases and pay my respects to the living and the dead........

Shine a light.................................

Rolling Thunder Review

Well... If I could compare Saigon to a vivacious young whore, and I think that I did earlier on.... Then Phnom Penh is a grand old dame... But just as confused as everyone else around here! I've had Kmer meals served up with good South American Salsa music, Danish 3rd division football results on Cambodia national TV and seen 4WD Lexus' coming down on PP streets so filled up with garbage, street kids and landmine victims that it was hard just to walk through....

But like her younger sister, it's thee place to get lost! For a weekend, a month or a lifetime! A secret love affair behind wooden blinds, where the big fan tiredly pushes the hot humid air around and around, in old derelict french colonial villas, hidden from view by overflowing Frangipani trees and mosquito infested lily ponds. Sneaking out to watch the sunset at the Foreign Correspondents Club overlooking the lazy Tonlep Sap river, while wasting time chatting up pale, old Expats, who seems glued to their seats there, with their shades on - night and day!

I suppose that every nation that has had to customize them selves, to cultures foreign to their natural DNA, more or less by force, has always found a way to implement this foreign 'masse' according to their own ways and byways?! I've seen effigies of Lenin and Marx hanging right by the door of 'The Louis Vouitton super store' in Saigon and here the quite a few Catholics believe in luck and has somehow dispelled with the Roman guilt trip!

Did I say I like this mind blowing place? The only trouble is being a woman and therefore not quite safe to wander alone as the clouds - after dark!

But I have done my bit of wandering during daylight hours! Had my healthy breakfast at a NGO place for Vulnerable Women and Children, which means they have been trafficked at some point, worked as prostitutes until rescued.... By then they probably have AIDS/HIV and are in any case shunned from their homes and families! Cambodia is the country in Asia, that has the highest number of HIV infected!!! Which is not surprising, given the high number of UN soldiers an NGO's in this place.... The same thing is happening in Afghanistan, just as I'm writing. But Afghanistan being Muslim, they deny it completely and thus creating or rather letting the disaster unfold!

I have done some shopping at the Russian market, where I also had my weekly 2 USD pedicure! Today I've opted for red nails with golden glimmer - As a tribute to the Chinese new year about 4 months ago - well, that's what my toes look like anyway!
After all this very tiresome and hard work, I took my 1 hour massage at "The seeing hands" parlour! It's blind people who works there and they are normally pretty good! Today it was a youngish, pregnant girl named Truc. She had lost both her eyes due to a landmine as a kid. I floated away in her strong hands just until she started to stifle one yawn after another..... Then we both couldn't wait for the hour to finish.... I'm still danish at heart!

To celebrate I had a coffee and Calvados at the Foreign Correspondents Club, watching the thunder and lightning bolts come rolling in from the Tonle Sap.... It never really got the show of going and after last night, where a tropical storm kept me awake for hours, I'm spoiled for light shows.... I then decided it was time for a much needed siesta....

Had dinner at at Kmer place down the road from the Guesthouse and I'm now sitting here in the lobby, eaten alive by B52''s- Big huge mosquitoes out to do some grief! Suppose I'll scramble up my 4 flights of stairs. to my room with a view and Spanish television amongst 89 other interresting Chinese, Corean,Italian, French, Cambodian, Hong Kong and American HBO channels.

It's a bit weird though, not having talked with anyone since Saturday... But everybody is pretty wrapped up in their own little circles.... And me being past the childbearing age, I'm only really visible to the Tuk tuk drivers or others trying to make a buck! I'll stay for another day and then head out for Siam Reap and Angor Wat for my 50' birthday and the day after, the 5th year anniverary of Amadeu's death;17 th of June.....

This was a long sigh of relief from a bit lonely and weary traveller..... Now, I still haven't said a word about the sounds and the smells and all these endless impressions, that is blasted in my face, every time I open my eyes..... It's like doing the Louvre or the MoMa turbo style... My eyes and my head's ready to explode about the time I get to see my pillow at night!

If Saigon is like NYC, then Phnom Penh is like Wolverhampton!

One should never make long busrides with a hangover! Which i learned today, painfully! Had a great night out in Saigon with my new pal Tom, who lives in there.... Sat at the top of the Grand old Dame of Saigon; The Majestic Hotel (1925) and watched the migthy Mekong river by night! And got hammered in the process..... Never mind, if ever there's a time for heavy drinking of classic Cocktails, then it would be there, at Graham Greenes favorite bar!

This morning, when the kind, but at times incomprehensible, receptionist at the "Indochine" gave me my wake up call, I (almost) couldn't be asked.... My ticket for Phnom Penh was for 9 o'clock.... But with an gigantic effort, I tore myself away from the allures of Miss Saigon....

It was a good bus ride, though... With a nice little ferry in the middle, if only it hadn't been for the excess of hard booze last night....!! The Cricket was cancelled due to rain in England! In Saigon , we had a mid afternoon thunder and lightning storm, gave the place some much needed cleaning and lower humidity numbers, which I could fully appreciat - Not easy, beeing a woman with menopause in the tropics!

Now I'm here in Phnom Penh and finally have access to some international news, which for some odd reason is out of reach in Socialist Vietnam?! - Almost all hotel/Guesthouses has had a TVset in the room with up to 50 channels, but no news in a language I could understand... But now I'm in this really nice 6 USD place and my Tv has everything... From Italian Rai 2 to BBC world.... And the first I heard was; That Hillary has finally faced the, for her I guess, awful truth, and has withdrawn from the 2008 elections! Wow.... That only took almost a year and I don't know how many billions of dollars.....

I have to adjust to being on my own again, after all this socializin' with other travellers.... But it is nice to be walking about. Hop on a Tuktuk, down to the river and have a quiet Mangoshake as my "Sundowner" at "The Foreign Correspondents Club"....(Recent violent history apart, of wich I should probably elaborate some more, and I do have it in mind at all times, but when I get through to the keyboard, it's not the first thing that comes up...... Don't know why!)

I'll do some fotos tomorrow with my brand new Leica 12 megapixels, bought for about 260 USD in Vietnam... Hey, is that cheap? I don't really know and I don't really care..... But I'm happy!

Hippie/Sihanukville, Cambodia

Udsigten fra min balkon paa Otres beach, Cambodia

Det var en lang tur herned.... Forskellen mellem Thailand og Cambodia er enorm og kan ses med det samme man kommer over graensen.... Da jeg endelig to - tre busser senere (Og det er ikke asfalt, Cambodias regering bruger penge paa, det er mest dirt-roads med enorme huller og regnspor) naaede frem til Sihanukville... Er det som at blive invaderet naar man staar af bussen, der staar mindst 50-100 haabefulde udenfor, de venter paa at du vil bruge deres hotel, guesthouse, moto,Tuk-tuk whatever.... Saa jeg taeller lige ned foer jeg bider taenderne sammen og staar af.... Ved graensen var det ligesaadan... Men ung man, han var mindst 17, fandt frem til mig og han koerte mig de 15 -20 km ned af jordvejene til bussen... Stak ham et par dollar mere end han bad om, da han iforvejen var yderst rimelig og meget hjaelpsom... I det hele taget er Kmerene et meget blidt folk, hva er det saa der goer dem saadan nogle sadister naar de gaar ind i militaeret? - Og det gaelder jo ikke bare i Cambodia, men de fleste steder i verden... Men man kan jo bare se paa Burma....

Endte op paa en strand, der hedder Otres, den ligger lidt uden for Sihanukville og er total mennesketom i regntiden... Fantastisk sted, men rummene var MEGET basic( Alt var meget slidt,absolut ingenting i rummet udover en madras paa gulvet - for basic iforhold til prisen - saa efter en aften/nat med super service af nogle meget rare folk..Dog en forholdsvis kort aften da den franske ejer havde lovet at komme ud med benzin til generatoren... da han ikke kom gik al elektricitet kl 21:00! - Men saa havde jeg stjernerne at kigge paa imens jeg roeg en smoeg paa min balkon.. Stod op kl 5:30 og saa solen staa op og sad paa stranden i den koelige morgenbrise... Det ku'jeg godt blive afhaengig af!

Nu er jeg taget ind til Sihanukville by med to hollaendere og en norsk pige. Vi har vaeret paa det Vietnamesiske konsulat og faa Visa og tager alle afsted imorgen - Men de tager til Saigon og jeg tager sydpaa... Det var helt rart at vaere sammen med andre mennesker for et oejeblik...

Sihanukville

ku'ligesaa godt vaere Ibiza eller et andet lign sted for 20-30 aar siden... Det skal nok komme, det er udlaendingene som sidder paa turistforretningen og den gaar strygende!

Hva mon Kmererne siger til alle de disse halvnoegne mennesker, som dasker rundt og vil ha'alt til den billigste pris uden omtanke for folk og den enorme fattigdom omkring dem...? Desuden er stranden her taet paa byen saa beskidt, at jeg ikke ville gaa i vandet her... der floed rundt med affald inkl faeces... YRKS!

Naa, men jeg tager videre til Kompot, det er en mindre flodby taet paa den Vietnamesiske graense....

Tratterat trat - Trat

Efter denne 5 timers bustur fra Hovedstaden ned sydoest... taet paa den Cambodianske graense, vil jeg ALDRIG mere brokke mig over stoejforureningen i Arriva/Movia's linje 5a ! Paa spejderaere! For hele turen - samfulde fem timer gik med den ene Q film ( Vi har langt passeret baade A og B kategorien) efter den anden. Den foerste var vist en Taiwansk fantasy/ Dragon slayer type.... og saa en amerikansk dubbet til Thai (Selvfoelgelig - men dog uden de ellers MEGET underholdende engelske undertekster, jeg saa i Bangkok) Volumen var skruet helt op paa det allermest oeredoevende niveau... Fantastisk at baade boern og voksne kunne sove sig igennem....

Sad mest og taenkte paa, hvormeget det minder mig om Venezuela og Atlanterhavs kystlandene ned til Brasilien: Fransk Guyana, Surinam etc... Der er et par arkitektoniske divergenser og den aabenlyse religioese forskel... Men ellers er det ret 'Same - Same'... Selv Thai tv er som det spanske/Venezuelanske: Daarlige Soab hele formiddagen og shows med halvnoegne unge, smukke dansere og gamle maend til at praensentere forskellige lokale sukkersoede sangere -Den stoerste forskel er den asiatiske ' Saving face' og det, at det ikke er til at se hvad de taenker... ihvertfald for mig...Latinere har en mere aabenlys livsglaede, hvilket egentlig passer mere til min marchtakt...

Men det, at det ligner, saadan rent vejr & agrokulturelt og saa'n er ogsaa een af grundene til, at den dyne Vietnamesiske FN kvote-flygtninge (De saakaldte baadflygtninge) som blev 'sendt' til Fransk Guyana og Surinam sidst i '70'erne foerst i '80'erne er dem som har klaret at integrere sig bedst, ud af alle dem som slap ud fra lejrerne i bl.a Bangkok... Hvor der sikkert sidder en masse tilbage, her 20 aar senere...????

Naa, men regner med atjeg bliver her til mandag morgen tidlig, hvorefter jeg daffer videre til Cambodia, har opgivet at tage til oerne herude.. For mange turister og vil egentlig gerne videre.. Jeg er ikke helt oppe og ringe over Thailand....! Fik et tip om at der er blevet aabnet en ny graensepost ind til Vietnam - Taet paa Sihanukville, hvor der ogsaa er et Vietnamesisk Konsulat - saa det vil jeg lige chekke, om det er rigtigt- Info foelger i naeste nummer!

Madame Garbi ( Det er foerste gang jeg er blevet kaldt Madame, men det er bedre end Frue!) - A fragment of News- Trat

Forventningens glæder!

For første gang i mit liv, har jeg kastet mig ud i at brydes med, et for mig, fuldstændigt ukendt væsen/uhyre; Rejse forberedelser! Måske er det alderen der trykker? 

 

Jeg har altid bare taget afsted på må og få;

 - Som dengang hvor jeg, 15-20 min. i boardingtid, stadig løb stafet mellem kufferter og møntvaskeri? 

 - Den gang, hvor jeg ikke en gang overvejede, om det var nok med to appelsiner, en dunk vand, en abe og en dåse Nésquick, når man skulle køre igennem Sahara ! (Alle overlevede, også Hr. Nielsson!)

  - Eller tog ud på trans-Atlanten, på hvad der til sidst løb sig op på 24 forskellige sejlskibe - fra Venezuela til Fr.havns kanal på Christianshavn -  på "Tommelfingeren" med tre (!) kufferter, een af dem, kun med balkjoler! 

 - Til mit forsvar, har jeg dog også  en enkelt gang, haft et forældet ex. af "Lonely Planet Guide" i hånden, til en 4 ugers tur [med en str. XXXXL klorinafbleget blondine, uden stedsans og fremmedsprog eller ret meget andet end; et meget aktivt libido....] - hele vejen igennem Mexico!!

                                                                        

Men denne gang er det med forsikrings expeditioner, ( Det er vitterligt en jungle!), vaccine og visa research, LonelyPlanetGuide's (Købt for få penge på Amazon, de koster en bondegård hos en alm. dansk boghandler !) Telefon samtaler til Moren, som havde ymtet, at hun gerne ville med og jeg havde da også set frem til at dele en måndes tid sammen... Men tror næppe, at hun bliver parat- Hun har oceaner af sagte (såvel som usagte) indvendinger og jeg tror heller ikke, at hun i virkeligheden gider hverken Thailand eller Cambodia.... Men jeg har tænkt meget over det, og jeg tror at når jeg skal rejse alene, hvilket jeg skal uanset, så vil jeg altså hellere rejse i buddistiske lande.... end i Katolske /Hindu/Muslim etc  ( Jeg havde nemlig også tænkt på Mellem Amerika og Cuba - Eller Indien - Kashmir - Nepal)  Jeg når nok ikke hele vejen over til Vietnam og det er nok dér, hvor Moren allerhelst vil til!

Jeg har i disse dage virkeligt nydt at kigge på kort og Atlas - Dét har nu altid været en yndet beskæftigelse  - Og er ved at være sådan lidt klar over hvordan og hvorledes:  Bangkok - Strand/hvile i 2-3 uger på øerne ved Thrat - Båd til Cambodia -  Tog til Phnom Penh -  Mekong floden -Angkor Wat- Tog/bus tilbage til Thailand og så evt. nord på mod grænsen til Laos eller Chiang Mai eller måske tilbage til noget strandheis? For så til sidst at drage tilbage til Bangkok for nogle dages shop til U drop før hjemrejsen..... 

Eller er der nogen som har bedre idéer? 

Er begyndt at få sommerfugle i maven....!    - Eller også er jeg bare sulten ?

Love is in the air.....

Hvem siger, at øjnene er sjælens spejl? 

Jeg er dødtræt, er lige kommet hjem fra et stormomsust  Nørrebro, med vindstød af "Nu er jeg snart på mit yderste!!!" styrke - ihvertfald når det bliver målt indefra en Skinkekutter....!   

 - Vil nu lave kaffe, glo på en eller anden amerikansk serie med IQ på rum-temp. - Altså mit eget intellektuelle niveau i aften! ...- Og så på hovedet i seng og læse "Stormland":  ****** - so far!!!!