If i ever run for the National Party (highly unlikely but who knows!) I think I will use this photo on my pamplets :)

So the story behind this is that I had Food For Work Measuring Training. Basically we drove out to the middle of Takeo province and had to do a full volume measurement of a road that the villagers had built, which was aproximately 1.5km long and about 1 metre off the ground. The villagers get a 4.5kg of rice for every cubic metre of earthwork done, and 1.5kg of rice for every square metre of grassing (grass has to be grown on the slopes of the road to help stability). Theoretically it is a straightforward equation (thank-you Maths in Society!) but in practice the road dimension vary a lot. So we measure the volume of a representative section every 100m. 90% of projects are checked by the sub office at three points but 10% are fully measured by HQ.

It was so hot and so dusty but lots of fun. This signboard is put up at the start of the road so the villagers know how much rice they are theoretically entitled to if the project is done to the right specifications. This helps prevent some corruption but doesnt help much if many of the villagers cant read or write.

Oh and this is some of the traffic that uses the road.

The second half of my tail involves going to the seaside town of Kep for the w.e. Basically it was a resort town in the French colonial days with many grand houses but it became a Khmer Rouge stronghold during those years and all the houses were totally gutted. As you walk around you can see the shells of these places, riddled with bullets. The place I stayed at was great , like a giant treehouse.

The beaches on the mainland are pretty dodge but you can take a boat out to various islands which are better (Crab at Kep is divine!). I went to Rabbit Island which was nice but there is meant to be some really good snorkelling at some of the further out islands. Plenty of time for exploring. Rabbit Island was the first time I have shared the beach with livestock!

And hopefully next week I should begin formal Khmer lessons, prob 3 days a week for 1.5 hours.

Have staff retreat at Sihanoukville (the more famous beach resort town in Cambodia), then the w/e after i will have to go to Phomn Penh then the weekend after that I go for a few days to Singapore to spend time with Mark, Tara and Amali. YAAY.