Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Tuesday 26 oct 19:15
On Saturday I had my final fgittings for the skirt, top and jacket that I've had made for the wedding - everything fits ok, but the I'm unsure whether I like all of it, so who knows whether it will be worn or not. To help me feel more comfortable in it she is making a scarf to help tame the jacket down and match it to the skirt. It's all a bit too fitted and sophisticated for me! In between all of that I had my hair cut by an Australian lady and then got ready for drinks at the Foreign Correspondents Club - they were to celebrate a colleague of mine's daughter becoming pregnant for the first time after many miscarrying many times. We then walked into town for dinner at Angkor Wat before coming home and leaving the young ones to enjoy Siem Reap's nightlife.
Sunday was another touristy day because I had agreed to go with three new vols around the temples. I had decided to go as I love riding round seeing the beautiful Cambodian countryside, it is green and luxurious, so it is difficult to appreciate that so many people live in poverty. Apparently most farmers earn less than half a dollar a day which equates to about 30p. The rice seems to be growing well ready to be harvested in Dec or Jan, the large rice fields are now cut by machinery, but the small farmers still cut by hand. At this time of year there don't seem to be many people working in the fields. However, I have not seen many of the things I see daily in the markets being planted. growing or harvested, onbviously I need to travel further. People make rudimentary bamboo ladders to climb to the top of the palms to collect juice from the flowers in bamboo bottles must have nerves of steel. Along the road every few yards women were stirring a liquid in a large metal pan making palm sugar, which they then try and sell or use in their own cooking. I'm been amazed at how much sugar is used in their savory meals. Sugar cane is also grown here and they have just opened their first factory to process it.
It was a very hot day and walking around the temples was hard work, as there are many difficult steps to climb and precipitous edges to look over. Wherever one is you are assaulted by a young child with a whining kids saying, 'Only a dollar, buy ten postcards from me, or some bracelets.' It gets very waring because later older ones will appear with the books and they are more persistent. By the time we got to Angkor Wat again we were exhausted and had to fight our way through the Japanese crowds. The sore throat I had been fighting all day was worse and I could feel a cold coming on. However many times I see the temples I am struck by their size, majesty and the workmanshop involved, as so many of the millions of stone blocks are carved and tell so much about life of the times. The animals around, the jobs people did, how they travelled and to some extent the food they eat. The heirarchy of workers to important people is obvious. We gave in before sunset and came back via the shop where we bought emergency beers, before dinner upstairs.
After a sleepless night due to the heat and feeling unwell I had got up feeling grim, so decided I would not be able to go to school. As the morning passed so did the fever, fortunately in my mini Boots bag I had remedies for everything and so began popping pills. Fortunately by this morning I was feeling better and my cold was under some form of control, so off I cycled to school. Rle playing Bonfire Night went down reasonably well and the children enjoyed looking and laughing at the clothes of the day. Some children had experienced a few fireworks but not a s colourful as the pics I showed them.
I had a worrying lunchtime as my friend, Dog did not appear and apparently didn't show up yesterday either. Luckily I kept her some meat as she arrived very late, but looking very hopeful and she very bravely took it from my fingers.
On the way home I got drenched as we had an unexpected but very heavy rainfall, so I had to shelter for about half an hour under a shop awning.
Tomorrow I am going to visit two state schools. so that will be interesting and I'm looking forward to it. Then on Thurs evening I'm going to an Art Exhibition of work by childen who are victims of landmine accidents. We are taking twenty children in a truck.
Piseth (25 yrs) and Danny(23yrs) had to go to Phnomh Penh last week to try and arrange for some wood turning machines to be allowed through customs - it has all been bought and paid for by people in Australia. They travelled there by bus - 6hrs but returned by plane - it was their first time and apparently both were terrified and green when they got the plane and both vowing they'll never get on one again.
Bedtime now. Have a good day and take care, love J
PS You can read about the Bamboo railway and Cambodia's attempt to bring back rail travel in a recent BBC article on the web and there is a picture too.
- comments
meryl glad to hear you are feling better. Take care . Chris got the job. Meryl and Jon in very wet Hoi An