Expresso Kamuchea

[tan]

Hi, Shap,
the river reverses its flow indeed: Phnom Penh- translate :penh's hill: penh was a lady who dreamt that budha told her to tell the king to move the capital to the hill by the quarte bras (the four arms.)and buid a temple there. the king complied or so legens goes.. when they moved they saw this wonder:four arms.. a bend in the Mehkong, the bassac- nothing to write home about as rivers go, and the tonle bati. (the tonlesap is the big lake(,the bati the river that leads to it. and it ran seawards as rivers do; then the rains came and the bati changed course.(they tell me it is the only river to do so). and boy, doe it ever, last week when i had my-that's it for today!hour- and sat on the first floor bar at the fcci,i saw boats struggling to get' upriver', great clumps of waterhyacinths raced by- towards angkor wat,not seawards. Every year,somewhere in may- the king,now the new one, before old sihanouk had to struggle behind a pair of oxen, the plowing ceremony- to make the river change course and ensure a rich harvest...
a great number of houses here are on stilts:the land floods reugalrely in hte rainy season...
Looked at the link you gave me and read a bit of his biography. Rach Gia as a town is mentioned... but i can not see the family vacationing there, his father must have had business there...nobody in their right mind goes beaching there: the towns industry is drying fish and the de producion of the ever present fishsauce...

<small>[ 08-16-2005, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: tan ]</small>

[Shapley]

tan,

Yes, mentions Rach Gia as one of the towns they stop at along the way. His father had a shipping business in Saigon, as well as ownership in several plantations along the route. I'm not sure what other businesses he may have been involved in, as he does not go to great detail in that regard. Their large house in Saigan was above the shipping offices.

They spent three months of the year in the village on the Gulf. He describes the draining of a large swamp they pass through on the way (The road was on a causeway, about sixty miles long, through the swampland, south of the village). I forget the name of the swampland. It was drained make the land arable. Apparently the swamp trapped large amounts of water during the rainy season, and then held it to stagnate the rest of the year. A canal was trenched across the land, and then smaller canals at right angles to the main canal, until the entire network of canals would permit the growing of rice, as the stagnant water was replaced with fresh. Hopefully this description will help you identify the place.

I have not yet gotten to the war in the book. Moitessier was interred by the Japanese during their occupation of the land, and left during the French Indochina conflict (I recall this from reading his other works). I can see from his discription and yours that the decades of war have ravaged the beautiful countryside he describes. What a pity.

V/R
Shapley

[tan]

..That would have been in the mehkong delta; from rach gia there is a long channel leading to ha tien, where they would hav crossed what is now the border...
at about ha tien the land changes: the in-between area before the delta: first small designer hills,intersped with padi, then bigger hills,then kep, then kampot and the road ( now route 3, i think, also called the takeo road.( in cASE YOU WONDER; IN'94 I TRAMPED MY WAY ON BOATS FROM SAIGON TO HA TIEN... WAS FORBIDDEN,BUT I DID NOT KNOW AND THE SCIPPERS TOOK A DOLLAR AND TOOK ME INTO THEIR BOATS AND MADE ME PART OD THEIR FAMILY LIFE FOR THE DURATION OF THE TRIP...AND DID NOT CARE...IF YOU ARE UNAWARE OF THE PARTY LINE YOU DON'T HAVE TO tow IT,IT SEEMS...
when you go caving around kep,yep, danger claustophobia,the odd scrape and bruise, nothing will keep me from digging around those mountainettes: there you can see a virtual map of the change of enviroment: limestone and our red sandstone mingle with the odd chrystalls...will send pics as soon as...
eeks, i really have outstayed my wellcome at villagephotos... have found a new site but it takes
some practise...
and today is the big day: the pics of the move should be hilarious!! Alex cometh to document at some point..
we're ready: i wrote a step by step scenario, set priorities etc. then we could do no more.so alex, gordon and me decided as all for me to do was wait, we might as well get drunk: wait for the priorities to priorise themselves-as alex put it. now BEEEG hangover-a kingdom for a paractamol....
well, some more, on pics have one more hour, then off to the races!!
tan

[piqaboo]

tanja,
sounds like a pretty standard moving day, except for the roof ornament. Good luck and have fun!
(and may you violate the law that says what you need most will be the hardest to locate and unpack).

[tan]

thanks Pic
..that would be my computer and internet pack!!!
one more hour and i'm off...
Shap, here a colonial in phnom penh. doesn'tone just want to grab itand restore th poor fellow? :



played with pic site - but must practise more, time is running out for today's play... <img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1050924/colon.jpg" alt=" - " />

[piqaboo]

Hi Tanja!
Are you sane? sober? moved? do you know where your toothbrush is?

I hope it went well.

[Shapley]

tan,

It's sad to see the ravages of war and neglect. I know Moitessier's book was written through the filter of memory, but I doubt many today could describe the country in the same ideological tones he uses.

Perhaps, with time, some semblance of a more peaceful past can be restored there.

V/R
Shapley

[juan j]

Hello Tanja,

Thank you for your kind welcome.

I recall reading something about Siem Reap in your posts. Have you been there? How does it look like? This name came out often a while ago when I was reading about Pol Pot and the events that led to the Vietnam invasion.

If I remember correctly, Siem Reap was a key point in the route to Phnom Penh and there was a fierce fight over it. In the end the Vietnamese won and marched to Phnom Penh.

It is sad when such a beautiful country is ravaged by war.

Good luck on your move and your new guesthouse. They said that you always lose something and find something else when you move.

Juan

[tan]

Thank you all for your kind wishes!
All went-this country will never end to surprise me- without a hitch..on our side that is...
our landlord,who should have gotten hi... together,
earlier was not so lucky:
bye the time our wagon with its coelie( yes that is still a profession here, mostly on markets but for a move of 40 meters you really don't need a truck, our posessions are not heavy or bulky only numerous and
messy if you don' t lable them -we did..)
So, landlord- going out-on one side, we- coming in on the other.
Landlord gooing out- he goes down to his new guesthouse on ochetiel beach.
he certainly did not label his darn monster of a dog. tried to 'forget it'. no way!!! elvis would have made a meal of him,still... ( elvis still at home)...so landlord tries to catch monsterdog. dog did not think so. now imagine a well rounded chinese gentleman chasing a growling mongrel around our-respective posessions, round and round.
Finally Sokoen our secutity guard takes a big sturdy rice bag, one of the 100 kg kind, and manages to get the growling kicking mutt inside. mutt not happy-
manages to get head out of bag and bites sokoen, ans good...
sokoen has to let go...and i run for that wonderfull first aid kit gloria got us.
landlord manages to get moving, sans mongrel.
We keep putting our place in order, the painters start on the rooms, Bob hooks up my internet, the ghanesh buddha gets a suitable place and we keep stumbling over the chinese altars that our landlord left at every conceivable and incoceivable place; chinese altars stand on the grouund, khmer ones have a high place... bob's khmertoid howls...
an the mutt growls on.(not a combination i rellish- as in dangerous-). finally landlord returns for his lucky plants- and mutt and altars...or so i hope.
seems he intends to forget the latter ones..
ok, for the altars i have an idea: put htem up in the guest rooms,they are kitch but very very decorative,) as for mutt i am strikt: out! or i'll shoot it- personally- not an idle threat in cambo, my neighbour has an ak 47 that i can borrow ...
so mongrel chase goes on yet again..i offer to lend them some of gloria' s morpine,they refuse. build a sling on a stick.chase goes on some more... finally they get it atound the neck. HOUWL. sokoen manges to get in rice bag yet again...string around bag,bye bye mutt, home, the new one if he does not strangle himself...as if i cared...
meanwhile one room is rented, i'd rather had kept both guesthouses empty for a day or so..but these guys are just too nice: came all the way from germany on a motorbike!.
at five pm most is settled, the renovation ahead off scedule, things have found their place..
i give everyone the night off: we put a table in the middle of the sizable front yard, the bayon neighbours make a few plates of khmer snacks, we get a few jugs of beer, and party,with western and khmer neighbours. My guests: no wonder this place did not work, we bet this couryard has never wittnessed any real fun.true. (we have a pic of the official toast, and tomorrow the monks will come for the blessing...)if alex and me don't get the pic side sorted, dear RC, i might yet have to take you up on your offer!!!so let me try some more...

<small>[ 08-17-2005, 06:42 PM: Message edited by: tan ]</small>

[tan]

Daer Shap,
wrote you the texts with explanation.. do not know if it is acceptable to you all, leave it to you as the wiser and more tuned in if my rather unhandy explanation makes sense to anybody...
Juan,will look for the hisrtorical part about seam reap tomorrow (of course, as soon as we work out our pic problem, we' ll send you pics!)...could you please tell me which book they made you read, for that piece of happy disinformation, will look it up, and provide you with who what and why...
thanks, tanja

<small>[ 08-18-2005, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: tan ]</small>

[tan]

the guesthouse begins to take the shape we envisioned. Today, the tuktuk will make it on the roof- well not exactly the roof- too high-,it will be on a platform peeking out from some greenery in the garden...,nose in the air, as if is just about to take off for a flight.
now i have the happy task to fill the rooms. Had fliers printed in pp, now i have to meet 8 busses a day to hand them out, a task so dispicable i will not let my staff endure the abuse you get from tourists and backpackers. did two busses yesterday, at least the fliers are so pretty that they do not get thrown away... so, if the guesthouse the moto maffia deposited them is not to their liking, they'll move. hopefully to us.
my poor staff is maxed out: we need more help.good help. western. for the time beeing,my friends help out...
also i have to supervise the renovations, pay bills for wood , nails, paint etc.
But: the rooms that are finished look stunning, all the planning has paid off..
today the board for the entrance gets brought to the painter. a complicated design, but lox, our painter has a computer now..of course,with season arriving in a few month, there will be a line ahead of me as long as sihanoukville...
of course,i'm taking pics of he progress as soon as we outwit the free photosite...
this afternoon the monks will come. bob will have to coach me there.. an ohh,we will have to build the altar for our gahnesh, he is too heavy for a market bought house altar. pa says i have bought the real thing- quite by accident i may add.

:confused:
it just started raining again... a green and woody smell, dripping banana leaves waving in front of my window while it slowly gets lighter outside...
six am, time for a coffe...

<small>[ 08-18-2005, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: tan ]</small>

[tan]

Hi, everybody,
the tuk tuk had to wait till today for its upward journey; we will need twelve people to lift it, .. that was not the problem here: a western neighbour of mine reopened his newly renovated - upscale french restaurnt yesterday.
.. he had thought of something... we have a fellow expat from finnland i think.nice guy, but somehow not really into working....but of course there cometh the time when even our frugal friend needs to do something about cash. So restauurateur offered him a job, as a receptionist in a little straw shelter at the entrance ot the restaurant. so far ,so good...
(i had heard a story , but filed it away as yet another urban myth, as there are plenty in cambo.. or so we allways think...)
and sure enough, as usual here it turned out to be true...there is our friend starting his job:
everyboy who passes makes a quick gettaway into my new place and starts howling...my staff dito... so i take a peek,and start howling too...in a short while my garden is full of neighbours and friends trying to keep it down. see,we like this guy...
the man is wearing a complete cambodian courtiers
costume, complete with golden shoes-front culed upwards , sarong, golden vest and crown also golden.scandinavian hair and beard,also golden. to get the right 'collouring' for the job he spend some time in the sun and turned an interesting shade of purple/red. the overall effect is hilarious. we are all helpless with laughter and . well we should take a picture . several tried, but shaking with inheld giggles they came back, 'we can't do that to him. nobody has the heart, but nobody can stop laughing eighter: result, i decide it is to dangreous to lift the tuk, someone will start howling, the rest will follow and the thing will surely hit someone..when it comes crashing down. so today it is. sorry.no piture, would be - well not something one does to a fellow expat...
the busseswere a nightmare,the crop of backpackers downright evil asa collegue of mine put it- mildly i think.
i got saved from the evening busses by the monks who came for the blessing of the house. sam had lnd us her family size prayermat,and everybody gathers on it, also what guests we have..you have to sit in acertain way,feet pointed away from the monks, we settle down.
the headmonk knocks back a can of red bull then says in english: will all tourists please make themselves comfortable, i will not have the mess we had at the new years ceremony...
(that was a lenghty one, everybody's legs fell asleep and everybody fell all over the place trying to get up. it took the help of all the prayer widdows, the mc and even the monks to get everybody back on their feet.
by the time the ceremony was over, so were the busses.legit excuse.will send pics of the blessing, with explanation..asap.

[tan]

ok, the tuk is on, and we got pics,amd we can put them on...
it really took a lot of big expats,did to get the bloody thing up, half a ton of steal... eventually we managed the job tonight. a tricky job it was, let me upload , and we're on for more photos (a gallery won' t really work: if i tell a story - and you have to up and down and whatever link.... slowes down the story.\ but alex and me are on to something other: our digies ( camera's ) can film..../ that one we will have to link, and it will maybe 'takey' till the year 2525 to upload... and we will edit, but four letttr words will fly, we just film and edit and put up....so be warned...
anyway. it wil not be very soon, but let us know if you wanna see it......anyway, i'll try new pics tomorrow- early morning here , evening for youse...

[tan]

...5am..sooo tired, and a long one ahead, but now i can put up pics again, so just a few: my friends, neighbours and fellow expats at work... here the tuktuk drama:the first try to lift, naw, this can't be that heavy... <img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/tuk018.jpg" alt=" - " />
well maybe....it is actually a bit of a job here...
the wall is high, the bulky and big have to lift high over their head...thesmallerr ones pull a rope from the other side.

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/tuk043.jpg" alt=" - " />


<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/tuk048.jpg" alt=" - " />

it works! rose and her restaurant accross the street are having a field day.what IS gooing on there.. for a few days i will hear the sickening sound of motos coliding,because they gawk at the tuk, had forgotten about that part, aw, they'll get used to it... <img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/tuk059.jpg" alt=" - " />

..the fred flintstone approach to the job actually had results...
<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/tuk060.jpg" alt=" - " />had to take pics so quickly,will show a better result when we did the arrangement of and around tuk...

[OperaTenor]

Hi Tanja,

That's quite the wall showing below the tuk tuk. Is it colonial?
No wonder it took twelve people to lift it! I thought it was just a small Vespa scooter from the first photo you posted of it, didn't realize it was an enclosed three-wheeler! Does it still have an engine(making it that much heavier, of course)?

A suggestion: If you're already having issues over capcity to post photos, you may not want to bother with attempting to post films. My digie takes films, too, and I've noticed it uses up a HUGE amount of memory(and therefore space) compared to still photos.

<small>[ 08-21-2005, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[tan]

..well, it is a real tuk. a lambretta. ww2 steel. the half ton was after we took out all the heavy parts!!!
Have you- or anybody else ever owned a real old vespa?? (an original '62 goes for about $300 US here, to start them you have to turn them sideways to get fuel into the line.... heavy) ww2 steel too.heavy man!
my old rebbel is baad, but does not compare to a tuk or anybody else in the vespa or lambretta family...
no, neighter wall nor house are colonials..( i should be so lucky..).but they build the same kind of thing here over and over again 'chinese barroque' as we call it...
then yet, not a bad building.. how did they ever get angkor wat together is a mystery to us...
that is- was it build by aliens>|??? naw, an architect once pointed out to me that angkor is not structurally sound, the only reason it still stands is that we are nowhere near the ' teutonic plates' as bob calls them...
if we post film strips, we will link you to yet another site- so you can all watch it, or not, depending on your tollerance of bad laguage and general misbehaviour,,.anyway it'll take us ages to get this together...
the tuk, has a bit of a history, it is from india, and was imported by an indian friend of ours,
and my friend Shakey dave bought it...(must look up if i ever told you of him...) when he died,i inherited it, about three years ago. would not ever run again,the baby had had it...so had shakey too adding to the eternal part of the sadness that comes with living here- as well as the awareness of the privilege of experiencing a life that could be found nowhere else...
shakey, like simon is someone we will miss forever.

(question?? if i scan a picture,and send it, would it count as a photo) in those days we did not have digies, so.. shakey is photographed the old ...fashioned way..)

well let me try to get you more off our 'scene' at mash(name of guesthouse, by now you know it anyway..) the second: ...
the toast, on the evening , after geting rid of the... dog, now it' s ours!!
oeps..will send pic by tonight- your time, there is some kind of party going on, they throw beercans to get me to come- oooh how i miss my home in the country...

[OperaTenor]

Hi Tanja,

When you scan a photo, the resulting file will be a .gif, .bmp, or .jpg. If the program you use to scan the photo is anything like the one I use, you can choose the type of file you wish to scan it to. I was told to opt for .jpg whenever possible as it ends to use less memory than the other formats.

Just out of curiosity, what is desirable about colonials? You refer to colonial buildings with a certain degree of .............. lust( ). And, I'm assuming colonials are European-style/construction buildings built by the French?

[tan]

..indeed, colonials have thae kind of charme that some victorian buildings have, or old farmhouses in tuscany. as i said earlier, one does just wants to restore them...
cambodian' classic' buidling are lovely too, but like my own house, they have no real permanency,wood and straw they are. the temples of angkor are made of stone, only the royal family and noblesse were premitted to use stone...
hanks for the tip, will try to scan shakey's pic as soon as we gt set up here: today we will start to paint the lobby..that finised we set up a real office like structure...now we hang over one small table to do what writing, bookkeeping and somesuch tasks we need to do..
this pic was just irresistable: elvis at happy hour. the next one, lousy layout-i know.. sorry- was the first toast in the yard of the new home.
overslept,- till 6 am 'oh horrors!' as shakey would have said.)have to get a move on...


<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/alex009.jpg" alt=" - " /> <img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/toast.jpg" alt=" - " />
photos by alexander watrin ( he does a better job tan me)

[tan]

..indeed, colonials have thae kind of charme that some victorian buildings have, or old farmhouses in tuscany. as i said earlier, one does just wants to restore them...
cambodian' classic' buidling are lovely too, but like my own house, they have no real permanency,wood and straw they are. the temples of angkor are made of stone, only the royal family and noblesse were premitted to use stone...
hanks for the tip, will try to scan shakey's pic as soon as we gt set up here: today we will start to paint the lobby..that finised we set up a real office like structure...now we hang over one small table to do what writing, bookkeeping and somesuch tasks we need to do..
this pic was just irresistable: elvis at happy hour. the next one, lousy layout-i know.. sorry- was the first toast in the yard of the new home.
overslept,- till 6 am 'oh horrors!' as shakey would have said.)have to get a move on...


<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/alex009.jpg" alt=" - " /> <img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1065368/toast.jpg" alt=" - " />
photos by alexander watrin ( he does a better job tan me)

[tan]

..my excuses for bad spelling, my eyes have taken a turn for the worse, due to stress...
should anybody still be reading...
heavy medication,, might clear it up...
with utter determination i am filling our guesthouses, standing and waiting for busses, ... and talk to people in the full sun does no thelp eighter. on the bright- side- other than the full
sun that is...-,
side it seems to do the job, and people like the place, and we got a real fun great 'strain' of people in! again please bear with my ' hit and miss' spelling, i am virtually illiterate again...