So its been a little while since I updated this thing so let me keep you filled in.
To celebrate Mum’s 60th birthday we had been hatching a plan to get everyone together for it. With me in Cambodia, most people in oz and Mark and Tara and the babies in Singapore it made sense to all meet halfway in Singapore and then proceed to a resort for a few days. It ended up being Simon, Andrew, T-boz, Tara, Mark, Mum, Dad, Dills and Amali.
It was really great to catch up with everyone, especially Amali and Dilan, it is incredible how quickly they are growing up. This was the second time I had seen Dilan so it was excellent to spend some time with him (including an assist for a nappy change). He is such a good natured baby it is incredible.
I arrived late on the Friday night (after coordinating a lift to the airport with Piseth, only to look up half an hour later and see him driving out of the compound without telling me!) in Singapore and the next day we caught the ferry to Bintan, Indonesia to stay at the Club Med.
Club Med is well…interesting. I think we can confidently say we are not a “club med” family, I think we were the surliest bunch there. Simon described it as day care for adults and all the staff are all bubbly all the time. That said we did some interesting things like yoga, kayaking, tennis etc. And drank and ate A LOT.
We returned to Singapore and spent a few days there which was fun, going to the zoo and shopping and what not. We were especially excited to see a shop called Wankos and seeing Aunt Jemima branded pancakes in the supermarket. But even more was that we experienced two earthquakes while in Mark and Tara’s apartment on the 24th floor! That was my first natural disaster. No damage or anything (I think they occurred in Indonesia) but it was pretty amazing. At first I felt like I was sick or something then it sinks in that the building really is swaying back and forth. When the second one hit the next morning we were seasoned pros.
On the Thursday, Simon and I departed for Cambodia. I brought him on a field trip which I hope he enjoyed measuring some fish canals for JICA (Japanese Aid Agency). It was especially funny when this old woman came storming up to the group clutching a poster about Avian Influenza which uses a cartoon chicken to educate people. It turned out she was asking how the chicken was able to use a microphone, because she had seen plenty of chickens and not one of them had ever used a microphone!
On Saturday I took him on a bike tour of the speu, including having a Cambodian chicken rice breakfast and going to market and across the bridge to the Kampong Speu jail (hey we are light on landmarks okay!). We then went to Phnom Penh and spent up big in the markets.
On Sunday we went to Oudong which is the former royal palace which pretty much everyone (Khmer Rouge, Americans) have bombed the crap out of but it still is mostly there. You climb up a whole bunch of stairs (592?) to reach the Chedis (funeral stupas) of Cambodia’s past kings. It was nice but not that impressive, but that could be because I have seen too many pagodas etc.
We then went round the back of Oudong to a Buddhist Institute
. This place was absolutely massive and was rather stunning. But the real reason was to visit a uniquely Cambodian sight, a dead monk in an ice cream freezer. Ok the background. About 5 years ago there was this very progressive monk called Sam Buntheoun who was speaking out against the government and against corruption. Obviously he upset too many people (the Buddhist clergy is notoriously close to the ruling party) and he was assassinated in Phnom Penh outside one of the largest pagodas. As a form of protest, it was decided by some to build him a pagoda for his martyrdom. Until they completed the pagoda they thought to temporarily store him in a freezer. Flash forward 5 years and the pagoda still isn’t finished so there he is in the freezer! But seriously full respect to the guy who tried to fight for the poor.
So this week I have been commuting from Phnom Penh to work so I can spent time with the fam in Phnom Penh. Finally meet up with Mum and Dad etc. tonight after an arduous field trip out to the forest areas yesterday - 3 hours of field work and eight hours of driving on a truly appaling road so much so that I came close to throwing up.
To celebrate Mum’s 60th birthday we had been hatching a plan to get everyone together for it. With me in Cambodia, most people in oz and Mark and Tara and the babies in Singapore it made sense to all meet halfway in Singapore and then proceed to a resort for a few days. It ended up being Simon, Andrew, T-boz, Tara, Mark, Mum, Dad, Dills and Amali.
It was really great to catch up with everyone, especially Amali and Dilan, it is incredible how quickly they are growing up. This was the second time I had seen Dilan so it was excellent to spend some time with him (including an assist for a nappy change). He is such a good natured baby it is incredible.
I arrived late on the Friday night (after coordinating a lift to the airport with Piseth, only to look up half an hour later and see him driving out of the compound without telling me!) in Singapore and the next day we caught the ferry to Bintan, Indonesia to stay at the Club Med.
Club Med is well…interesting. I think we can confidently say we are not a “club med” family, I think we were the surliest bunch there. Simon described it as day care for adults and all the staff are all bubbly all the time. That said we did some interesting things like yoga, kayaking, tennis etc. And drank and ate A LOT.
We returned to Singapore and spent a few days there which was fun, going to the zoo and shopping and what not. We were especially excited to see a shop called Wankos and seeing Aunt Jemima branded pancakes in the supermarket. But even more was that we experienced two earthquakes while in Mark and Tara’s apartment on the 24th floor! That was my first natural disaster. No damage or anything (I think they occurred in Indonesia) but it was pretty amazing. At first I felt like I was sick or something then it sinks in that the building really is swaying back and forth. When the second one hit the next morning we were seasoned pros.
On the Thursday, Simon and I departed for Cambodia. I brought him on a field trip which I hope he enjoyed measuring some fish canals for JICA (Japanese Aid Agency). It was especially funny when this old woman came storming up to the group clutching a poster about Avian Influenza which uses a cartoon chicken to educate people. It turned out she was asking how the chicken was able to use a microphone, because she had seen plenty of chickens and not one of them had ever used a microphone!
On Saturday I took him on a bike tour of the speu, including having a Cambodian chicken rice breakfast and going to market and across the bridge to the Kampong Speu jail (hey we are light on landmarks okay!). We then went to Phnom Penh and spent up big in the markets.
On Sunday we went to Oudong which is the former royal palace which pretty much everyone (Khmer Rouge, Americans) have bombed the crap out of but it still is mostly there. You climb up a whole bunch of stairs (592?) to reach the Chedis (funeral stupas) of Cambodia’s past kings. It was nice but not that impressive, but that could be because I have seen too many pagodas etc.
We then went round the back of Oudong to a Buddhist Institute
. This place was absolutely massive and was rather stunning. But the real reason was to visit a uniquely Cambodian sight, a dead monk in an ice cream freezer. Ok the background. About 5 years ago there was this very progressive monk called Sam Buntheoun who was speaking out against the government and against corruption. Obviously he upset too many people (the Buddhist clergy is notoriously close to the ruling party) and he was assassinated in Phnom Penh outside one of the largest pagodas. As a form of protest, it was decided by some to build him a pagoda for his martyrdom. Until they completed the pagoda they thought to temporarily store him in a freezer. Flash forward 5 years and the pagoda still isn’t finished so there he is in the freezer! But seriously full respect to the guy who tried to fight for the poor. So this week I have been commuting from Phnom Penh to work so I can spent time with the fam in Phnom Penh. Finally meet up with Mum and Dad etc. tonight after an arduous field trip out to the forest areas yesterday - 3 hours of field work and eight hours of driving on a truly appaling road so much so that I came close to throwing up.
posted by Mapu at 4:24 AM
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