Elsewhere

They drop us off at "Elsewhere", a groovy nightclub with swimming pool and frangipani and curious sculptures made in the fishing basket 'ang rut' method of construction - strips of bamboo latticed together with wire.

Jai has rung and ordered PINA COLADA for all!
Let the conversations begin...

Elsewhere

Jai came to take us out. We took a lift with Reggie and Martina in their black glossy air conditioned comftable Landrover. Martina was Italian and has worked in Cambodia for 3 years. Reggie has lived and worked in Cambodia for 5 years with Save the Children, an Australian NGO. He doesn't know where he's from anymore, he's worked all over the place.

Natalie invites us for a drink on the balcony. We meet her boyfriend, his sister and her partner. They're all doing worthy projects with various Human Rights NGO's in Laos and Cambodia. The mozzies are rife! - Bring on the RID

114 Street 95

Eating lady fingers and slurping coconut juice, holding our new shoes and shorts, we return to Street 95 by tuk tuk, truly satisfied. Lees is onto it and remembers the way...

Psar Tuol Tom Pong

We wander around looking at stalls...the Russian market is a labyrinth of stalls under roof, each with a pocket size shop jammed with goods, foodstuffs or motor bike parts.

It's very easy to moto around Phnom Penh. Everyone's doing it. You agree on a price, jump on and ON Y VA! Best Tour in Town! We took another to Psar Tuol Tom Pong, the Russian Market.

Capitol Guest House

Speaking francais, Marc took us to CAPITOL GUEST HOUSE where we (when we recognised Jai's phone number on the passenger list of the right bus) bought tickets for the 8:30AM bus to Siem Reap. We've only just arrived and we're on the move. Jai is starting a new job in Siem Reap and hence is moving up there to live for a while plus it's New Year's Eve tomorrow and the party's going to be huge! We bought a lemon soda and sat and watched the hectic life around us.

Jai & Marc took us for lunch. We ordered seafood soup (made with pork offal stock!) I ordered fried eel and Jai, shrimp in ginger and rice. Jai is extremely enthusiastic about everything (including Marc!). Lees joined M & J for ice tea- tea poured over ice- Jai is fine about the ice saying there's 2 types; ice the restauranteurs make and ice cut from blocks on the ground sold by salesmen. It's easy to do "when in Rome" she says. I'm taking precautions and just have tea- later I realize I ate shellfish.

Relaxing in hammocks on the balcony, we meet Marc, french & spanish teacher, football coach from Cameroon and Jai's nouveau beau...

114 Street 95 - Home of the Young Australian Ambassadors for Cambodia

We moto with Jai to her house at 114 Street 95. Everyone pushes ahead just before the red light she shouts across to us in the traffic, but not her. At the next intersection she accelerates too late and gets pulled over by the cops. They whack her a 10,000 riel fine (US$2.50). Corruption she tells us later is rife-easy money from vulnerable baraing (foreigners).

Jai

Lees and I find a public phone (a woman in a booth with a mobile) and fingers crossed I ring Jai. A couple of rings and voila! It is she. She's bursting with excitement and tries to organise for us to catch a moto to her house but the house keeper won't know who we are or where to put our bags and maybe it'll be easier to meet us somewhere where we've landed. At last we decide she will meet us close by, on the corner of Monivong and Kampuchea Krom Boulevard. Half an hour later...

CAMBODIA!

In the airport which is as small as Hobart airport, we apply for 1 month visas processed by a long row of very official looking officials, we grab our luggage and walk out into CAMBODIA!
Lees hails a taxi and before I can exchange dollars into riel we're driving along absorbing the sights, sounds and smells of our destination. So much to take in. Let the fun begin. It's only 9:30AM as we step out of the taxi at Psar Thmei, the Central Market of Phnom Penh.

Window seat

I'm sitting on the window again and the views are spectacular. A fat brown snake meanders through a patchwork of fields east of BKK. We fly over a craggy dragon's spine and hills of woolly trees until we descend over the very dry flat country surrounding Phnom Penh.

BK to PP

We're still laughing with relief as we board the plane. We were convinced we'd missed our flight and thought we'd have to persuade THAI to give us tix for the next one.

More seafood dinners as we fly. We've eaten so well, these past 12 hours.

Goo Bye Bangkok

Gate 4 Phnom Penh

Gate 71

I really had to put the skates on!

And then...

King Power Duty Free

On arrival in Bangkok, we made sure we knew where to board for Phnom Penh, Gate 71, 7:10AM. Then we went in search of disposable cameras, as my digital camera was still in repair back in Australia. We had 20-30 minutes to spare so we wandered up and down looking for a camera shop. There are plenty of them! but none sell disposable cameras. Until King Power Duty Free.

THAI FLIGHT TG 994: I'm thinking now as we ride high in the sky I should have called Jai from home. Who knows how easy it will be to contact her when we land in Phnom Penh. Felix took Lees and I to the airport after a jam packed day making deliveries. As usual, I've been undertaking an odd assortment of jobs; illustrating the new Jugularity CD for Ernie Gruner and his mob, rubbing & dubbing old Sheridan footballs for artist Penelope Lee for 'Kicking the Leather' an installation at the MCG and organising summer shows for the Singing Snails at the Australian Tennis Open...
What would it be like serving hundreds of people in these high altitude hotels? Lots of squatting, smiling and gritting one's teeth. It's very colourful in this Thai plane. Random seats are yellow, purple and I'm lounging in hot pink. Last night we slept in lavender blankets and ate from fuschia "airware". Lees is casually smuggling a few items into her hand luggage now!