Phnom Tamao

I LOVE what I'm doing and I enjoy many aspects of Phnom Penh. However, after having grown up next to a state forest, I have a long standing love affair with trees and greenery and Phnom Penh is sadly lacking in that area. On Thursday, two of the other leadership residents and I visited the wildlife preserve Phnom Tamao. It was lovely to drive out of the city and into the rice paddies and greenery.

Kristen, Nellie and I joined the Betel Nut tour with a couple from Germany and a woman from Australia who is living in Delhi, India. Our guide, Visnya is a native of Phnom Penh and spoke impeccable English. She was very knowledgeable about the animals and a lot of fun too. Visnya is 24 and getting married next year. She mentioned that she's getting to be rather old for getting married and she wants to have a child immediately. At nearly 28, I was feeling like 24 is very young!

I really loved seeing all the animals at the preserve. All of them have been rescued and they are attempting breeding programs with some of the animals.  I especially loved seeing the tigers up close and petting the gibbon. She was nursing her baby and would grab our hands and put them on her head so we could scratch the top of her head. She would put her head down and almost looked like she would start purring! The monkeys were everywhere and followed up around but we were warned not to look the monkeys in the eye because that was considered an act of aggression and could make them attack. We wore sunglasses the whole time to make sure that the monkeys
couldn't see our eyes and get the wrong idea!

We had a marvelous Khmer lunch of rice, stir fried vegetables, curry and noodles and enjoyed talking to all of our new tour friends. I got the contact information of the German couple and I'll visit them when I go to Germany next summer.

On the way home, I took several photos of Phnom Penh and my neighborhood. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

This deer followed us everywhere. His antlers were covered in fur and he was very friendly!

Giant squirrel eating sugarcane.

Our guide with the deer

Beautiful peacock

Cute baby monkey

A red deer

The gibbon who loved her head scratched.

Gibbon baby

This gibbon was unhappy with us and showed his (very red) derriere to demonstrate his distaste!

Our group: Henri, Hanna, Nellie, Kristen, Amber and me

Otters

This one-legged gibbon was brought to the preserve and no one knows why he only has one leg.

Gorgeous creature!

Life is hard. Time for a nap!

I LOVE elephants

This one constantly looked like he was smiling!

These are small snail like snacks that are popular here.

Anything you want for dinner: meat, veggies and fruit

Rice paddies and gorgeous clouds just outside of Phnom Penh

My street

I definitely live on a very "Khmer" street. I am the only foreigner anywhere in the vicinity!

My Khmer neighbors hanging out across from my dorm

"My girls"

I guess I've finally found what I love. Every day that I teach "my girls" is a good day. We have a lot of fun together, we laugh together and we really enjoy each others' company. Today we read about the Atlantis Hotel's $20,000 per night "Bridge Suite" and one of the assignments in the book was to write a postcard pretending you stayed there. I divided my girls into two groups of three and had each group write me a postcard. It was fun to see their enthusiasm and how excited they got over details of the suite. We even looked it up online so they could have a visual while they wrote their postcards to me. It was hard to study such extravagances with girls whose families likely won't see $20,000 in 10 years, maybe even a lifetime, but it was a nice escape to imagine what it would be like to stay there. These are their postcards to me:

Dear Erika,
We have been on Paradise Island for a week. It is a very great hotel that we have never seen before. In the Bridge Suite, it has a lot of luxurious things, for instance, if we stand on the balcony, we see the brilliant sightseeing, and we feel very very fabulous. Inside the room, there are a fantstic four-poster bed, wonderful sofa, gold leaf mirror, silk rugs on the floor, and the fresh smell of flowers, In the bathroom, it has three tilets that are made from silver. We are all feel(ing) very well, and I hopefully have great chance with you to visit this hotel next time. See you soon!!! :-)
Love, your girls

Dear Erika,

We have been on Paradise Island for a few days now. Can you guess what we have seen there? On that island, we are enjoying many unforgettable things for the best one is staying at the Bridge Suite, which is the most expensive hotel that we have never seen before. Are you imagining about what we have met in this hotel? It is $20,000 per night. there are 18 bedrooms in a suite, big balcony, great living room, modern furniture, and magnificent materials such as gold leaf mirror, silk rugs, and Picasso plates on the wall, etc. Furthermore, the cheapest thing in that hotel is a lamp that cost $6,000! And the last thing here, we have met many famous people. We are thinking of the day that you can come here to celebrate the most wonderful party in this world here.
Love,
:-)

One of my greatest hopes for them is that they will have the opportunity to experience something luxurious like this but also that they have plenty of opportunities to make meaningful changes in this country.

 Me and My Girls

Kampot and heat rash

Much as I loved Phnom Penh, the idea of getting out, if only for a few days, was too irresistible, so this past weekend I visited Kampot. I was feeling sick on Wednesday with a horrible stomach ache and when it didn't get better by Thursday, I went to the Harpswell doctor for a diagnosis. He said if we were in the States, he would have run several tests, but being in Phnom Penh limited his options. After a medical history and palpitating my stomach, he decided I had an ulcer. The doctor gave me a few prescriptions and sent me on my way. I spent the night in my nice ac room and left the next morning bound for Kep and Kampot.


I met two girls on the bus who were from England and are here in Phnom Penh for five and six weeks respectively to do research about climate change. Dora and Geeta are both from north London, near Camden, and are starting school as "mature learners" at the University of York. We spent the next day together and I really enjoyed their company. We decided to go to Kampot and both Dora and I had been told that we "must" see Les Mangueieres, a mango plantatation turned guest house with individual bungalows and a house with rooms. We all got a tuk-tuk out from town and took a room together in the house. It was simple but nice.



 The plantation is located on the banks of the Kampot river and has free bicycles, kayaks for rent and nice platforms to lay out in the sun and go swimming. It was a hot weekend, so we enjoyed the water immensely. They had a set menu for dinner and breakfast and although it was a little pricey, the food was quite good.

The highlight of the trip was the boat trip. One of the employees took Dora, Geeta, me and two other people: Gabi from England and Skip from Boston, out onto the river after dark. We went up the river to where fireflies had settled in a few different trees. They were beautiful. There was also lightening in the distance, which made it even more spectacular. We were so far out that if it had been a clear night, we probably could have seen the stars. One of my favorite memories from Laos is laying on the ground staring up at the most stars I had ever seen and a very clear milky way snaking through the sky. We had a great time talking and getting to know Gabi and Skip, who are also working for an NGO in Phnom Penh promoting environmental protection.


On Saturday morning, we went for a nice bike ride through the countryside and a few villages. We saw a temple and said hello to the monks, who spoke a bit of English, and saw an old almost-toothless woman fishing next to a dammed stream. It was really fun.


Dora (on left) and Geeta (on right)
Unfortunately when I got back I discovered that I was getting a rash on my neck and face, which quickly spread to the rest of my body. I was concerned it might be related to Dengue Fever, which is endemic here, so I decided to head back to Phnom Penh. I haven't seen a doctor because I haven't had any other symptoms, but it appears to be a heat rash. I've been in Asia for nearly 6 months now in much hotter weather than this past week, and I never got heat rash during that period. Yesterday I checked into a guesthouse and watched TV while using the A/C to try to make it go away. It's still there and itchy, but the prickly heat powder I have is also helping a little bit. One issue with Cambodia: If you go somewhere other than Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, it can be difficult to get good medical treatment. Even in these two cities, it's a bit spotty.

On Saturday I"m going to Siem Reap, Battambong and maybe Kep for about 10 days. I'm very excited!

Hope all is well with everyone!