the phnom pen

                                             One ear up….one to go.

Jirra is developing fantastically. I cannot believe how impatient and hard on her I was in just her first few months. The poor little thing had such big shoes to fill coming in after Karma but Jirra has a fantastic, affectionate nature, rock solid nerves that get stronger every day as she grows in size and loses her puppy inhibitions and is already showing string protective instincts. We are now walking regularly and luckily we live in a great part of Phnom Penh that has nice quite streets and not too far from our house we can get out into some small farming land. She is great on-leash, does not tug or lunge etc and mostly ignores other dogs although there has been relentless training to get her to that. True to the GSD breed she just loves being with her family and will plomp herself down on a mat in the kitchen while Leakhana cooks or under my feet while I watch TV with a whiskey. She loves the kids and is very patient with them and she is much less “mouthy” than Karma was. Occasionally she will try to have a bit of a chew on my arm but quickly stops with correction. The other day Chris and I took our dogs out to Paul’s property and they rode in the back of the ute. Jirra and Reddy ( son of Coco the wonder dog ) are both only pups but they did not play around and were both very well behaved with no barking or scatty nerves whatsoever. Jirra’s coat is rapidly losing the lovely soft puppy fluff and the coarser black permanent coat is coming through. I think she is going to lose the liver / tan color I love so much and end up a true black and tan GSD but she will never lose the amazing hazel colored eyes that I love so much. They give her a really soft natured look. The left ear is up first ( right you were Chris ! ) and when the right goes up she will really look a fine dog and yesterday she had her final vaccinations against rabies and the vet was well impressed with her condition.

                                      How can you not love those eyes !

                              I have NO idea what that says……

I have had the weirdest and scariest experience this week. I went to work on Monday and around 9am my eyeballs started stinging and when I say stinging….think of someone dumping washing liquid into your eyes. By mid afternoon I could take no more and I somehow managed to drive the car home. I then spent the next 18 hours rolling around in bed in sheer agony taking cold showers and flushing my eyes continually with water. I eventually crashed out from sheer exhaustion.

The next day ,Tuesday, was a holiday so again i spent most of the day in bed. By now the stinging had stopped but my eyes were very sensitive to light and at times i had trouble keeping them open. Almost like my eyelids had lost power. Wednesday and Thursday have seen gradual improvements but I still have these very “lazy” moments where my eyes just kind of drift off and lose interest in seeing for me. Its particularly scary when I’m…ahem…. driving in the traffic. It seems worse at the end of the day when my eyes are tired.

I haven’t eaten anything strange, I was sleeping well, didn’t get bitten ( that I know of ) by any creature so this really has me perplexed. I am going to see a recommended Ophthalmologist tomorrow morning so ill let you all know what i find out….

I know I know you are all sick of reading about the weekender I will keep planning and dreaming about until I die of old age however with the house in Australia on the market and offers coming in….it might actually happen. I cannot remember what I was looking for when I stumbled across this project but I am IN LOVE !  This canteen was built with a budget of $5000 by MIT students for a school up in Siem Reap and its simplicity, functionality and cost effectiveness just scream UNREAL to me. I am a big fan of concrete and tin and with some slightly more upmarket finishing like a nice terracotta tiled floor and polished terrazzo counter tops and then a bunk room added on to it. ….. I think this would make a seriously brilliant weekender. Check it out and let me know what you all think..

Ampil Peam school canteen, Siem Reap.

http://youtu.be/-usFUYcQwWs

My mother in law has finally sold her patch of land in downtown Kampot. Despite it having some issues with paperwork / titles etc ( long story ), a local lady who is obviously connected ” don’t worry about the paperwork, I’ll sort that out…” coughed up $20,000 which is somewhat less than what mum wanted and what it was probably worth BUT again…with problems attached…it was time to take the money and run. So now mum has $20,000 burning a hole in her pocket and she wants to buy a place in Phnom Penh. Obviously that’s not a lot of money and initially I thought she wouldn’t have a hope in hell but on the weekend we went out house hunting and I can report that you CAN buy places in  outer Phnom Penh for $20-25k.

Asking $25,000 "but can discount to $23k"

Lovely outlook to the rear but that looks suspiciously like a waterway......

Closer... inspection showed a clear watermark ( as per the green line ) from last years flooding

We headed over to Chbar Ampov and a little area just behind Chris and Aya’s house and there we found several houses all under $25k. The house in the photos above was brand spanking new, featured two bedrooms and two WCs ( in the true sense of the word they really were closet sized ) and needed nothing spent on it. The block of land next to it at 4 x 20m was also for sale @ $5000 and would have meant you could add on a nice garden or bbq area / carport etc. There were several other properties of varying nature but same price nearby. However as Tra and I inspect the house closely we could see a very clear watermark running along its side – indeed every house had one. Behind the house was a hug waterway that runs through the area and last year we had huge rains and floods so obviously not a good spot to be in when that happens. I am, pretty sure the residents at this end of the street which dipped away would have been knee deep if they left their houses.

Next we visited a “Borey” which are residential developments where the developer buys a tract of land ( in this case swamp ), fills it in with sand and then concretes some roads, wacks on the power and builds as many little row houses as he can. These ones were $23k – $30k for two beds , were quite smart and the first stage had sold out completely. They were building 300 of these houses and with an average of 4 people per house…..that equates to 1200 people living in a little neighborhood without a mini-market etc. Chuck in a dog per household and a few thieves to boot and hey presto…..instant lower socioeconomic slum dwelling for the masses. Maybe I am being a tad harsh but these cheap Borays are horrible IMHO. They lack all of the neighborhood feel that makes Phnom Penh such a cool place to live in. Poor old mum is getting advice from everyone. My advice was to “stick it in the bank, isolate where you would like to live given your budget and then be patient, keep looking and something will pop up….”. So….we keep looking but I rather feel its going to be a stressful time for mum as everyone has an agenda and/or an opinion.

Yesterday after we looked at the house for the second time, everyone else headed out to Kien Svay but I didn’t feel like going so I had ridden the bike. As I headed out of the area the bike felt suspiciously “wrong” and it wasn’t long before I found the problem…a flat back tyre. GREAT ! By now it is 1pm and with an afternoon rain storm coming, it is horrendously humid. Luckily I don’t have to go far to find the nearest tyre repair guy and he gets to work under the shade of a tree in his front year. The village idiot/drunkard approaches me and starts harassing me for money and I smile politely and tell him to shove off. Mr Tyre Man is a little more convincing when he stands up and threatens the chap with a spanner in good humour. Next…. out come the old ladies who want to know all my business. Who am I ? Am I married ? What is my salary ? Do  I like Khmer girls and would I like to marry their daughters ?. I look at the daughters who I guesstimate to be about 14 and politely decline. One of them says ” oh you barangs are all rich but us Khmer have no money” to which I reply ” I am not a barang I am an Australian and I am not rich…” to which she replies ” oh but you have a big motorbike you must be rich…” to which I reply “Is this your house ? It is ? Oh …you own a house…..you must be filthy rich then …” to which she shuts her mouth. Meanwhile Mr Tyre Man is doing an incredibly Macgyver-esque repair on the inner tube which has a hole the size of Canada in it. Using a tin can , some rubber and his little kero-powered hot press, he has me on the road in 90 minutes. The cost ? $ 3. I give him $5 and buy him a cold beer. Sterling effort.

Mr Tyre Man get started.....

Man at work