Cookin up a storm, Mice, Elections and Bastard Thais

So this past weekend, I have done a cooking class believe it or not. Steve, an American friend, texted me in the week to see if I was interested in doing a Khmer cooking class. So I thought what the hell and joined in. They had this really cool set up and arranged everything. It was eat as you cook so we were all stuffed.

So these are my fat baby taro and carrot spring rolls



My banana flower salad...


The curry paste which has like 15 different ingredients...

And finally my Fish Amok, the signature dish of Cambodia


He also taught us how to cut flowers out of vegetables. I guess someplace, somewhere that is a valulable skill to have but as you can see below, maybe not my forte...

I also watched the rugby with Cristy, Sharon and some others and Cristy and I went shopping for giant Jayavaraman VII heads, the guy on the Bayon Temple, to ship back to oz. A few of us are heading back to oz over September-December (me the last one to go as always) so we may sea freight some stuff back.

This week I am Head of Sub Office and its been really great so far, lots of HR and other management stuff to be done as well as we have to cut schools and TB distribution points to save 1100 metric tonnes of rice by the end of this week. So its been a bit busy but satisfying.

In national news, the election is on Sunday. So far not much violence, but one opposition journalist and his son were shot dead about a week back in Phnom Penh. Compared to the last few elections when grenades were exchanged I would say its an improvement. But all indications are that the ruling (since 1979 ) Cambodian People's Party will win again. I have a few friends doing election monitoring in Kampong Speu Sunday so this weekend shall be fun, visitors in the Speu!

So the mice wars continue but I think i have won, they have had several casualties and have been reduced to using child soldiers. The secret weapon? Well believe it or not peanut butter and cloves. Peanut butter on the traps means they cant piss off with the bait, they lick it and get trapped and they hate the smell of cloves so they dont go in my cupboard anymore (unfortunately i hate the smell of cloves as well but its a small price). The video below was made before this victory so enjoy, I am in the process or organising a ticker tape parade so certain avenues of my house may be blocked off...

In other national news, Thailand has invaded Cambodia. Well there is this disputed border region and this amazing temple, Preah Vihear, that sits almost right on the current border. So the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Thailand. Since then its been pretty quiet, but last week UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site.

Originally the Thai government supported it, but the opposition party held mass protests and its no secret that the Thai king does not like this government, and controls the army. So a few thai protesters ran the border to protest and were arrested by Cambodia then returned. But several hundred Thai troops entered Cambodia and have occupied a Khmer pagoda. So there are thousands of Khmer troops there now, surrouding them, but pretty close are thousands more Thai troops ready to cross the border.

Its just madness, and in my opinion the Thais are being total pricks. I mean its bad enough they supported the Khmer Rouge but they have this pathological hatred of Cambodia (probably because the Khmer Empire used to control all of Thailand, and in the 1800s the Angkor temples were occupied by Thailand until the French forced them out.

So i don't think it will go to war, but its crazy.

So i am on an anti-thai boycott cos they is assholes. Its really interesting to see the Khmer staff here, they are constantly forwarding updates, historical maps and pictures of the troops around. Half of them are walking around with radios to hear constant updates and they joke about going up to defend Preah Vihear, but I get the feeling if shit really went down, they would actually go up there.

Anyway, thats enough ramblings for now : )