Rabbit Island for Phchum Ben Holiday

Time seems to disappear at the moment and already i've been in Cambodia for 7 months and as always seems to be the case i don't feel like i've seen much of the country yet. With limited leave it's hard to use it effectively when you have to plan visits home for friends weddings and family events. Not that i'm complaining, it's always so nice to be involved, and ultimately i am making the choice to travel home but it also seems a shame that my travel time here is therefore limited.

Anyway, we had a short public holiday last weekend for Phchum Ben, the festival of the dead and the other Jemima, her daughter Izzy and i all went to Rabbit Island for 4 days. It's a small island just of the coast of Kep in the south of Cambodia. It's simple, basic and beautiful. Just a few bamboo bungalows on the beach, a crystal clear ocean and some nice seafood.

Our days were spent enjoying the sea, relaxing in the sun and practising some yoga at sunset. Everyday was peaceful. We talked and we talked, we contemplated, we dreamed. It was a perfect holiday. We got a little too much sun, Jemima's bottom lip swelled up like a massive hot dog, which wasn't so pleasant, and i had a very red chin for a few days but it was definitely all worth it.

The island really reminded me of my time in Madagascar and i did a lot of reminiscing. We all recognised how lucky we were to be able to come somewhere like that for a long weekend. It's the sort of place that many can only dream of. Every evening as the sun went down the light was different, the first evening we watched the most spectacular sunset. The yellows, reds, blues pinks it was trully magical and can't really be captured in a photo although we did get some good shots.

So we returned to Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon feeling thoroughly relaxed and rested. Perfect.

Life carries on!

So a few months have passed and having done so well keeping my blog updated i have now let things slip. I'm determined that this time lapse won't stop me trying to backdate a few things and carry on with new things that are happening.

I'm still happily living in Cambodia, loving Phnom Penh and all that goes with spending time somewhere like this. Work has been disappointing these last few weeks. The program is not developing as it should and we've been faced with a lot of controversial situations with the client. It's all very frustrating, you can see what should be happening, and how well things could be moving forward but we're held back by individuals and bureaucratic nonsense that seems to be never ending.

So at this stage i will remain here in Cambodia until the New Year and then i will probably head back to Brisbane and see what the next chapter in my life will hold.

Moving to a new apartment

After 6 months of house sitting it was time for me to find my own place to live in Phnom Penh. I looked at quite a few different places and wasn't really taken by any of them! I think because i wasn't sure what would be happening with my job i wasn't as enthusiastic as i might otherwise have been.

I decided that having been offered first refusal on a friends place that that would probably be the easiest option. It was in a safe neighbourhood, it was light and airy and it had a nice feel to it. It was however very typically Khmer in that there were tiles from floor to ceiling and also very high solid walls dividing the whole place up. Having put a small deposit on this place i stopped looking around and accepted that as my new home.

A week or so after putting a deposit down i was visiting a friend, he lives on the 5th floor of an ugly building in the centre of town. The apartment however is so roomy and light and the views were amazing. We spoke a little about his place and i mentioned about my new place. To cut a long story short the apartment next to his was empty and he was sure that they would rent it to me.

After looking at the place i spoke to the owner and signed the contract the next day. I love it. I feel truly at home and every day i enjoy coming back to the views and the air. I bought a fair bit of furniture, it's a good time to invest and it makes a world of difference in the apartment.

Will i stay or will i go?

That is the big question at the moment. My six month contract in Cambodia is fast coming to an end. We have submitted all that we are required to but there is a lot of doubt as to whether or not our company will get the next phase of the program. Having been adamant that i didn't want to stay longer than 6 months i am now predictably hoping that GRM win the next phase. I have really settled here and would love to stay for another year or two.

So, my fingers firmly crossed and i should find out in a week or two.

A busy few days!

Having submitted three 130 page documents our team was completely shattered. The boys had arranged a team dinner at the Russian restaurant but by the time i got home i was shattered and the last thing i felt like doing was getting drunk with the guys i'd spent the whole week with. Luckily my friend Jemima came to the rescue and asked me to me her for a drink.

What a night, we ended up going from party to bar, to party, to another bar and another one. It was all a lot of fun and it didn't end until 7:30 am. Watching the sun rise over Phnom Penh was beautiful and getting into bed in my air conditioned room a few hours later was even nicer.

I had four hours sleep before i had to get up to catch my flight to Hanoi. I had a meeting on Monday as the tourism project that i manage there hasn't been paid for months. There are no direct flights to Hanoi so you have to fly through Laos. It ends up taking 6 hours to get somewhere that should really only take 3.

I spent the rest of my weekend relaxing and reading and enjoying not having to do much. We had a good meeting on Monday and i hope we'll get paid soon. Tuesday i was back down in Cambodia for the final submission due on our currect project.

What a week...

Cooking in Cambodia

It's something that a few of us have been meaning to do for a while and just never got around to, so this weekend we finally got ourselves motivated and booked ourselves on the one day course.

We met early at the restaurant Frizz on the river front in Phnom Penh. A very enthusiastic Khmer man, Heng, was taking the course and he first took us to the local market to basically educate us a little on the types of produce available and the sorts of things that are traditionally used in Khmer cooking. It was great to just wander around and ask questions and try various bits and pieces.

We were then taken across the Japanese Bridge on tuk tuks to a nice house bordering the Mekong River. We then spent the entire day cooking and eating. It was a lot of fun and i think we all learned a lot. The greatest achievement was the Fish Amok, which really wasn't too complicated.

We finished the day at about 5pm and headed for a few happy hour drinks to celebrate our new found skills!

Visit home to the UK

I was very excited about going home, i think because work had been so busy, i was just ready for a break. I was also excited to see family and friends that i hadn't seen for a fair while.

The morning i arrived back in the UK it was glorious sunshine, which was a bit of a surprise as everyone had told me how bad the weather had been. I arrived in Bristol and spent the day relaxing at home with mum and dad and the dog. It never stops amazing me how when you travel somewhere familiar it truly feels like you've never been away. I think that's a nice thing but i'm not sure!

Dom, Tessa and Megan arrived on the Friday and it was lovely to see them. I have seen Meg for 6 months and she'd really grown. She's walking now and is a very sweet little girl. She's a bit more clingy than she was the last time but she seemed to warm to me fairly quickly. She's a cuddler, which i love and she also enjoys when you read her stories. It was nice to be able to spend the whole weekend with them all. I'm not sure Dom and Tessa liked me being there too much as normally Meg sleeps in my room but this time they had her in with them - ooops not much sleep for any of them i don't think!

Becky and Steve got married in the same church as Becky's sister Susie, it's a beautiful little place in Bristol. The weather the day before had been a bit iffy so we were happy to see that the sun was shining come Saturday afternoon. We headed to the church, late as ever, we always plan so well but it's always a rush. It was a lovely service with a slightly strange vicar, she kept on comparing the love that Becky and Steve had with each other with all sorts of gadgets that she kept showing in front of the congregation!

The reception was at Leight Court, a beautiful building just over the Severn Bridge, there was a champagne reception and a great little four piece band. There was a gorgeous amount of space for the kids to run around and for the adults to mingle. It was so lovely catching up with everyone and spending some time with family.

The food was fantastic and the champagne didn't stop flowing. The evening carried on with a disco and then some amazing fire works. A bunch of us then carried on to the Marriott hotel in Bristol where we paid stupid amount of money for more alcohol. We all stayed there until about 4am when people started wandering off. All in all a fantastic wedding - everyone had a lot of fun.

I took a lot of photos with my super duper new camera and haven't put many of them on here but if you're keen they are all loaded on Picasa so you can have a look at them there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JStancombe/BeckyAndSteveWedding

The rest of my trip in the UK was spent travelling around seeing friends in the short time i had. I went up to St Albans to see Andy and Charley, we spent a nice amount of time in the pub garden just chatting and reminiscing. I then went to London, i spent the day with Frank and Holly, which is always nice. I then had dinner with Simon, which was also really nice. And then drinks with the Clapham lot. The following day i had lunch with Claire and then headed back up to Charley and Andy's. Time was flying by but that is always the way i think. Jo then came up to St Albans for the day and we walked around in the sun and enjoyed chatting about not very much at all.

I then went back to Bristol for a few more days, again i was so lucky with the weather, it was beautiful. I did lots of reading and lying in the garden. It was nice to feel i had a bit of time off but i also knew that i'd be heading back into the thick of it with deadlines looming on the project.

Oh well, until December that was my little taste of the UK for the time being. The sunset on my last night was incredible. This photo was taken from my bedroom window. I miss not seeing those sunset when i'm here, i don't think you can see the sun set!

Quiet time

The last few weeks have been so hectic, and still are to some extent at work, but it's nice to have the opportunity to have a very quiet weekend.

Most of my friends are away at the moment, back in Europe, enjoying the terrible weather! Mirka and i spent most of this weekend at the pool, frying in the sun! The weather was beautiful on Sunday, it really felt as though we were on holiday. We pottered around and really didn't do much.

I'm back at work today, trying to motivate myself, but i think maybe i slept too much and relaxed too much at the weekend to get going again now!

Heidi is off Dubai today with her husband, a big new adventure, and one that i know will be perfect for them. It's also her birthday today! The big 25 - woo hoo.

So, not too much going on in my world this week but in a vain attempt to keep this up to date i thought i'd make an entry. No interesting photos i'm afraid - i'll try and take some soon.