Dessert Lady cuts a fine figure

We are lucky enough to live very close to a dessert lady who offers a number of tantalising sweeties for those nights when grilled chicken doesn’t cut the mustard. She has a limited but popular supply of desserts ranging from bowls of sticky tapioca with banana or pumpkin, mung bean custard, baked egg custard, coconut jellies and some kind of yellow bean thing all on display every night for her passing customers. Dessert lady typically rocks up at around sunset and stays well into the night, til at least 10pm some nights. I admire her dedication to the cause, especially as she is on her own, outside a dark market but she always has a smile on her face and is happy to serve up sugary delights to her customers.

Don’t know what it is but it sure tastes good!

She seems to be a very popular lady for her sweet treats, though I think some of it may have to do with her sexy dresses and friendly personality, so she will often sell out of my favourite choice – the baked custard delight. It has the taste and texture of bread and butter pudding custard and a sweet sugary syrup that she scoops into a bowl, tops with ice, coconut milk and some more sugar syrup to be served in a bowl or in a bag, depending on whether you want to sit at her street stall or take it home to nom on the couch.

Tapioca and banana – so good!

All of the desserts she makes up she serves in the same way – with ice, sugar syrup and milk. Mick and I have eaten varieties of these in Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Sometimes they are served with corn, kidney beans, chewy tapioca balls, noodles and even a slosh of red cordial for good measure. The crushed ice that gets piled on top works to both keep the dessert “soup” cool and water down the painfully sweet thing you are about to consume. But I do highly recommend getting in and having a go. It’ll remind you of your childhood treats of snow cones but with added yums.

Dessert Lady – Street 9 at P’saa KupKoh

Who needs a tuk tuk?

Work work work…that’s what everyone wants to know about….so here’s a bit of a rundown so that everyone is kept up to date with what I am doing and where…Mick will have to update yáll on his own work situation which involves moving to his office space in the front of our apartment.

My placement through the program is with an international NGO who is working in the field of road safety…a huge issue here in Cambodia. With nearly 2,000 people dying on the roads every year and hundreds of thousands more injured, it is the biggest killer in the country. More people die on the roads or are permanently disabled from road crashes than from land mines which is interesting considering most people would think that land mines were a bigger issue.

Colourful Motos

Here’s a few tidbits to let you know the real situation on the road here:

• Nearly 1.3 million people die every year on the worlds roads with over 50 million people suffering severe injury including permanent disability, acquired brain injury and ongoing health problems. 
• Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists make up approximately half of all fatality crashes.
• In Cambodia, there were 1,905 fatality crashes in 2011, although it should be noted that this number is only crashes where there is police or hospital intervention. The real number of fatalities would be greater.
• Nearly 50% of all fatality crashes involving people aged 15-29 years old. 21 % of all fatalities are aged 20-24 years old.
• Approximately 10% of all motorcyclists hold a licence.
• Over the last 7 years in Cambodia the number of fatalities has doubled.
• Only 6 % of passengers and 23 % of drivers were wearing a helmet.

Cheers!

So….as you can see, the road situation is pretty dire here. From driving around in a tuk tuk or on a motodop it is pretty apparent that there are major problems. In the last few years, there has been increase in cars on the road (and huge 4wd’s at that!) thanks to increasing development and interest in Cambodia – some people are earning more money so buying a car seems a good thing to do plus there are many NGO’s here, active development agencies and embassy staff meaning more cars, taxis and mini buses ferrying people all over the place. Good in theory until you realise that the road system itself is unable to cope with this change in traffic. Small roads and intersections become easily clogged with motos, cyclists,tuk tuks and big cars. There is a madness and chaos as everyone just tries to shove through. Eventually it works but peak hour times are getting longer because of the congestion. In addition, unlicensed riders and drivers, overloaded motorbikes, no helmets, serious drink driving issues and major road works going on everywhere (to improve drainage) combines for a fun road situation.

My organisation is working on advocating for changes to the existing road traffic laws relating to helmet wearing. At present there is only mandatory helmet wearing laws for drivers not passengers which is a serious issue. Passengers are just as at risk of being involved in a crash as drivers so it makes sense for them to wear a helmet. The proposed changes to the law would also include helmet wearing for children and standards for helmets which do not exist right now. Most people who do wear helmets are not wearing high quality, safe helmets. They are wearing helmets that look good, are heavy but would provide very little protection in the case of a crash.

Helmet?

The other projects that the organisation is involved in include education for students from kindergarten and into universities about road safety. Helmets are donated to students at schools that are determined to be high risk schools – namely those on major highways in and around Phnom Penh. There are excellent gains and when informed about the serious risk of death and/or injury parents and teachers seem genuinely interested in making a commitment to road safety.

Day-to-day wise, I am based in an office close to the Olympic Market area. It doesn’t look like an office from the outside, more like a house with a gate at the front. There are 7 full-time staff (including myself) and a few volunteers who come and go. There is a head office based in Vietnam that I hope to go and visit soon too – a side trip to Saigon for some AMAZING Vietnamese food would be so awesome! I work in a small room with the program director who is a 30-ish (i think!) professional, well-educated guy who just got married. Everyone in the office is extremely well-educated with international study experience and very good English skills which makes it very easy for me. Some of the other volunteers have struggled to fit in their organisations due to language issues.

Everyone is dying to know what it is like in the office – are there differences and similarities to working in Australia? Do you eat lunch together? Do you have aircon? How long is your lunch break? What time do you finish. Well, for me it is a whole new experience working for a small organisation. In Australia I was one of hundreds, thousands even working in the public service. Here, its small and intimate. The work culture is similar to Australia, but also different to other volunteer placements here. I was led to believe that everyone in Cambodia took long lunches, didn’t do much work and always ate together. Unfortunately, I seem to be placed in the only organisation that has a 1 hour lunch break (some peeps have up to 3 hours!), half the office goes home at lunch because of family commitments and the others tend to bring lunch from home. Sometimes we eat together, other times I strike a lonely figure eating at my desk while I catch up on the news. I do have aircon that is a little too effective at cooling the room down. My room-buddy likes to keep the temperature at a very cool 20 degrees which has meant I have needed to bring a jacket with me! Crazy! That is of course only applicable when the electricity is working which it doesn’t always thanks to the power outages. I work a very reasonable 8:30am – 5:30pm and get brought to and from work on a motodop at the cost of 5000 krl (~$1.25) each way.

No relaxing time like this in the office!

Culture wise, it is similar to working in the public service I would say, but I must make it clear that my role and my organisation are very different to other NGO’s here. All the staff, as I said before, well-educated and have been exposed to working with Westerners. The organisation is headed up by a CEO and Director who are from the US who expect and receive very high quality reporting. Projects are well run, evaluated, reported on and there is a lot of contact with local Khmer and English language media.

So…any other questions about my work? I am sure I will update everyone more on projects etc as I go along on this crazy work-volunteer-adventure.

Birds eye view

Phnom Penh has a huge amount of markets that cater to tourists, locals and expats alike. Mick and I are lucky enough to live directly across from a small local market so we have easy access to fresh fruit and veg, meats, plastic containers, makeup, socks, soup and coffee. But if we are in need of more things, more selection of things such as fabrics, fans, brooms, electrical items, machetes, bulk seafood or clothes, then we have to head further afield. Orussey Market (P’saa Orúsee) is a huge market located about a 5 min tuk tuk ride away from ours and offers everything and then some all in a convenient multi-story building that is surrounded by food vendors and tuk tuks.

For those days when cracking your own egg seems just too hard.

Mick was the first of us to venture there on a boys day with a couple of other volunteers. He sent me an excited text saying that I would love it there and it reminded him of a ginormous G’kad Luang (Chinese Markets) in Chiang Mai. That got me very interested as I loved wandering around the markets in Chiang Mai amongst it all, finding “treasures” and “snackz” and everything else.

Dried food anyone?

As we had just moved into our new home, it was time to go get things for the house like kitchen things, bedroom things and anything else we thought looked cool. On arriving it was apparent that this place was massive. For someone who has never done Asian-style markets, this place would probably be pretty overwhelming. There’s the “wet market” section which is a polite euphemism for the butchery-blood-guts area that has everything from pigs heads to bags of congealed blood to live chickens on the ground. But these markets are also the freshest place to buy your meat from so don’t shun them for a piece of perfectly formed, plastic wrapped, unknown meat from a supermarket. The meat in Asian markets are generally from animals slaughtered that day and are offered for sale without any preservatives so if you do get meat here, it has to be cooked the same day.

Ikg of your tastiest prawns please!

The wet market also will have seafood and the selection in Orussey was impressive. Mud crabs, prawns, squids of all shapes and sizes, gorgeous looking fresh fish and perhaps some kind of mini shark, mussels, clams and things that just looked yummy.  Prices were very reasonable and all the produce I saw was super fresh – unfortunately we didn’t get any this day but I will definitely go back to get some for a bbq or perhaps a tom yum soup.

Orussey also offered up a very large section of dried food products, in particular the very pungent offerings of dried fish and prawns. A lot of westerners find these items revolting and gag-inducing but they are all part of the charm in my opinion. I probably wouldn’t go and shove a fly-covered semi-dried mackerel into my gob, but I have probably eaten things that have the meat in it!

Dried fish big enough to feed the whole family!

The mezzanine and top floor of the market offers all things clothing and fabric related. Glitzy dresses for weddings, tailor-made shirts, cheap t-shirts, kids clothing, undies, reams of fabric of every kind, beads and buttons galore, handbags, shoes and phone cases.  Imagine an item of clothing and it will be there, find any kind of thong or plastic shoe and iphone cases are in abundance, especially those featuring cute cartoons or sequins.

Its definitely a market that I think we will spend more time getting acquainted with and I can see many items purchased here. Its worth a look if you are in town but be warned, its not very tourist-friendly so unless you know the Khmer numbering system you may struggle. If all else fails, take a calculator (or buy one there!) and a finger ready to point!

Orussey Market - Street 182 and Street 141

Sovana Restaurant has something for everyone –  From the basic fried rice, veggies and grilled meat dishes to more exotic dishes such as roasted bees, ant larvae and raw crab salads. And you know its good because it is packed every night of the week with hungry expats and locals alike. It is considered a decent restaurant to bring even the fussiest eater who will enjoy the succulent grilled beef, the stuffed squid with pork, the fresh herb salads and of course the jugs of beer.

Mick and I arrived early on a weeknight to a heaving restaurant and got shoved into a weird back corner table to wait for our friends. A cooling jug of beer with ice was of course ordered – Angkor I believe –  and then we ordered a couple of grilled dishes (beef, pork & chicken) plus some fried veggies while we waited. This restaurant has a sister restaurant down the road – Sovanna 2 which is bigger, and has more tables outside but seems to lack the good, quick service that Sovanna 1 does. Its def Our first dishes arrived just before our friends did and we got stuck into the meats. The chicken was succulent and full flavoured, the beef was juicy and cooked to perfection and the pork ribs were chewy nuggets of awesome. All of these were served with the distinctive Khmer condiment – Kampot pepper & lime!

Once our buddies arrived, we got to ordering more dishes – raw prawn herb salad, raw crab salad, grilled prawns and stuffed squid. My favourites were the raw prawn salad and the stuffed squid. The salad was made up predominantly of sawtooth coriander which is a very popular Vietnamese and Cambodian herb from what I can tell. It doesn’t taste like normal coriander but is very fresh tasting…hard to describe! Maybe like a cross between Vietnamese mint and regular coriander? I have found it at Asian grocery stores in Australia before and it is amazing in Tom Yum soup! But I digress…back to Sovanna.

The salad was a touch spicy, but not that spicy, and the stuffed squid was out of this world. The last time I had stuffed squid this good was in Vietnam when Mick and I went in 2008! It was perfectly cooked, not chewy or rubbery, the minced pork filling was perfectly seasoned and so yummy that we ended up ordering more! I would go back again and again for that squid….I’m even drooling now thinking about it.

The total bill for many jugs of beer and many dishes of food for 4 people came to ~$35. That’s right, <$9 each!  Will we go back? Yes. Yes indeed.

Sovanna Location – St.21, Tonle Bassac (Between Sihanouk & St. 294)

Its been a pretty awesome month getting to know this city, preparing for living here, meeting people and developing good relationships and of course eating many tasty things. We had our first big long weekend – 3 days off work in the second week! This country has so many public holidays it makes the measly 10 or less that we have in Australia seem criminal!  On our long weekend we did a trip to Koh Rong (post to come) and Sihanoukville with a group which was fantastic.  After all the excitement and stress of leaving Australia and getting to Cambodia, we actually really needed some time to relax.  Anywho, I decided that we should do a round up of whats been going on and how we are settling… some of it fun, not all of it though!

Paranoia

One of the key things that has stuck with me from the first few weeks was that of being scared. Our orientation schedule included a lot about personal safety, house safety, health safety. People are out to get you, get your stuff, hurt your friends, hurt your house and take everything you have now and in the future. Every tuk tuk driver, moto rider zooming past, every young kid schlepping on a street corner will try to steal all the things from you. Oh and your house will probably burn down. And you will be sick with really horrible things. And stressed. Very stressed.

The reality is that there are bag snatchers and petty (opportunistic) thefts but they are easily avoidable, and can have a minor impact on your day to day living. Don’t carry your passport round, avoid having many moneys in a bag and don’t leave your things unattended. There are problems with fires here in Cambodia, but again simple things like not putting your gas stove on a pile of newspapers will reduce that risk. Getting sick can also be avoided by regularly washing your hands, not eating awful bad dangerous street food (YEH MICK) and drinking plenty of fresh bottle water.

Assumptions

Having been here for a month, I have quickly realised that I need to drop my expectations and go with the flow. Don’t assume that everything will be as expected, as planned or as you believe it should be. This goes for everything from where you are going to live, what time you will get somewhere, what your food might contain, what food you ordered, what the weather is going to be. Some people struggle to adapt and change to new things and places. Not getting the right kind of tea, getting served a dish with coriander or having a burger that tastes funny can throw their whole day or week off, things taking longer than they thought they should can be devastating. And this results in someone losing their cool, getting upset or being a crappy, demanding barang. Not cool.

On the flipside however, you can also be pleasantly surprised by assuming things, for example our island getaway to Koh Rong was amazing! I was expecting a crappy island, grotty rooms and lots of sleezy sex tourists. The reality was a stunning, warm and rustic island with breathtakingly beautiful beaches that weren’t crowded.So I guess the moral to this is to not assume everything to be a certain way and you will be bound to get a surprise…even if it involves intestines in your soup! Yum!

This is not Thai Food

Mick and I loved Thailand. We loved the food the most. The spice, the sour, the BANG of flavours that are so amazing. It really is no wonder that it is considered one of the best cuisines in the world. And although we know Thailand is not Cambodia, one can still hope. Cambodian food is good, but it isn’t at all like Thai food. There is very little chilli used in the dishes, the fish sauce is Vietnamese-style which is very different to Thai-style fish sauce and hence the flavour is different. There are baguettes everywhere. The papaya salad includes different herbs (not a bad thing!). There is a distinct lack of coffee shakes and instead there is Vietnamese-style coffee – strong and served with sweetened condensed milk. Bags of fruit have to be hunted down.

I am very much looking forward to exploring more and more Khmer food and finding those dishes that make me happy in my belly. I want to discover the foods within the market across the road. And I also want to go for a chilli-induced trip to Thailand every now and then.

Oh Cambodia

Things in Cambodia work differently to a lot of places. Sometimes things work better such as the ease of getting transportation for cheap around the city and having a guy wait while you shop everywhere. But it also has serious issues like the electricity going out in my office every day. And not just a short blackout, but a 4+ hour blackout. This is a big problem the country is facing yet it is one that the people just accept. My work buddies just get their laptops and chill the dark until it is back on. In the heat. without a fan. The traffic here is horrendous, but it works, mostly. There is corruption from the low levels all the way to the top and back again. Things make sense and no sense at the same time such as hiring a private taxi and getting a ring-in on the way back to Phnom Penh. But its all fun and funny so we are just going with the flow and enjoying the ride.

In Sydney it was near impossible to have this for breakfast unless a) I slept in and then ate “breakfast” at midday or;  b) I made it myself at home. Both these ideas worked on occasion but I am so happy to be back in Asia where everyone eats rice and/or noodle soup for breakfast.

Mick and I have found a couple of really great noodle soup places near our house/guesthouse that we have been frequenting every day with some occasional stops at the pork-and-rice stall which also served a yummy soup on the side. My favourite noodle soups are clear broth ones with pork and some vegies like morning glory or lettuce. Mick enjoys a heartier soup with beef or pork, some innards and garlic, anything really meaty.

In Cambodia there seems to be a number of different varieties – some Thai style, some Cambodian and some Vietnamese influenced. There is also the soups with egg noodles or mama noodles but we tend to not eat them (the wheaty noodles are a no-go).  Most of them are served with some kind of meat, a handful of bean sprouts, some shallots and fried garlic on the top. The great addition to the soups here is Kampot pepper (aka best-ever-pepper) which takes things to the next level. I have also seen a couple of soups that have interesting inch-long noodles which I will hunt down in the future.

In Thailand they have a huge range of different soups such as yen ta fo (pink soup, fat noodles, seafoody), guay tiao (clear soup, thin rice noodles) which would have any number of additions such as meat balls, seafood, pork or chicken and then there was the noodle soup with stewed beef (guay tiao neua nam) which Mick adored.

I’m excited to discover more soups here and of course report back!

Two weeks down and a whole lot of house-hunting, negotiating, learning and training has seen us all exhausted but it has been exciting and very rewarding.

One thing that was touched on in training was managing expectations, which has become all too true recently for a fellow volunteer. A misunderstanding, break-down of communication and differing expectations for both parties has seen a negotiation turn sour.

Unfortunately this is rather common for those of us not used to the quirks of South East Asia.

We quickly became accustomed to the concept of Thai-time whilst living in Chiang Mai. 6PM can quite easily mean 7, Wednesday becomes Friday and next week roughly translates to some-time-next-month!

Of course there were exceptions to this rule. Never have I had my Internet connected so quickly and painlessly (within 3 days, and this was the norm!).

Having expectations that everything will be perfect on the agreed date is something westerners have become accustomed to so it’s easy to assume things will be the same here because it’s all written and signed in blue ink. But that is where we often fall afoul.

Things get done in South East Asia, sometimes with great efficiency. It may not be to your agreed timing but the best you can do is smile and accept that nothing more can be done.

It is better to save-face for everyone than to get flustered and angry over something that is out of your control.

Our expectations can be marred by assumptions held by both parties but not spoken of until its too late. Unspoken rules and processes that routinely take place back home may be vastly different here. Be prepared for the unexpected and try to be flexible and understanding about differences, setbacks or misunderstandings. But above all be polite about it!

If something is not to your liking then the first thing you should do is inform the other party politely and with a smile. Even if you are completely in the right and the other party knows it, the last thing you should do is get visibly upset about it. A smile will go a long way to getting your problem resolved.

Expectations can be a funny thing. Expect to be surprised, expect to be amazed or even expect to be occasionally disappointed. Just make sure you learn to manage your expectations whilst in South East Asia and you’ll have a fantastic time!

So what have we been doing? So much! We have two weeks of whats called “In Country Orientation”. Basically, that means that we have been hammered with information about the program, health and security, language, culture and more. We have met people from the international head office, local staff, other ngo’s and other volunteers. Everything we have done has been awesome, but it has also been a bit overwhelming at times too. We have been dragged around to some amazing restuarants and cafes, been shown how to use fire extinguishers and allowed to put out some petrol fires, taught self defence moves and thrown one another around on mats and talked extensively about stress.

In the middle of all of this, we have also had to look for a home. We have got quite strict rules about security and safety and choosing a new place to live. Not over the 5^th floor because the firefighting ladders only reach that floor, must have security bars, secure entrance, own entrance etc. Mick and I have gone from one end of town to the other trying to fiind somewhere that we want. Perhaps we are too picky or perhaps we are just not willing to settle because all the other volunteers are pretty much sorted. We have finally found a place that is still in the process of being built. Its right opposite a small market, 15 min walk to the Royal Palace / Riverside area. Less than 10 minutes walk to the BKK 1 area which is an “expat” area with western restuarants, small bars, western supermarket etc. 2 bed, 2 bath, balcony, ceiling fans (very important!) basic kitchen and it has a good vibe to it. It also has the added bonus of being underneath another volunteer’s apartment! Its still to be finalised, but hopefully it all goes to plan.

The other great thing we have been doing has been learning Khmer! We have been allocated about 8 classes, very intensive 3-4 hour classes every day. I must say that this has been really exciting and I feel like we are really making progress. Because Mick and I can speak some Thai, there are some similarities so in a way we have an advantage above the other volunteers. We have heard some of the sounds before such as the “bp” and “ng” sound which are not used in English and we know how to form them. We can already form basic sentences and ask questions, know numbers and greetings. I think we will try to continue these classes 2 times a week for a while. YAY!

Just to finalise this post, I will say a “yay” to us – Mick and I celebrated 7 years of being together the other day. Its been a really wonderful time and I think we have had some awesome experiences. So here’s to another 7 years! Go us!

As trips to Burma are becoming increasingly more popular, it is important in my opinion, for tourists to have some idea of the political situation in the country. Just because the borders are opening up and some sanctions have been lifted does not mean that the country is prepared or ready for the huge influx of visitors. In addition, it should not be assumed that money spent in the country is helping the citizens as much as it could be. Many of the tour operators, guesthouses, transport options and even restaurants are owned and run by the government which means your tourist dollar is bypassing those who need it most.

The website is home to a lot of political and tourism information about Burma including maps of restricted areas , Do’s and Don’ts for Tourists (campaign is advertised at Yangon Airport!) , information about independent tourist operators such as guesthouses, and practical information  such as visas, money and transport.

Mick and I have known the founder of this organisation, Dr. Andrea Valentin for a long time and can vouch for her dedication, compassion, attention to detail and her independence. The group wants to get the people of Myanmar to get the benefits that the tourism dollar can offer and for tourists to think about the local people. Everyone can get positive outcomes from increasing tourist numbers, it just has to be considered properly.

Well…we made it. Safely, relatively comfortable and happy. Of course we were sad to go, tears were shed and scared thoughts shared but we made it. And now the adventure begins!
We had a pretty good flight here, sort of. We were so happy to be given the desirable front seats with the extra leg room – perfect for Mick. What wasn’t so great was of course the fact that children and babies are often placed in the middle front row…and babies and children whinge and cry…!! Not that fun on an overnight flight.  As you might imagine, we were quite pleased to be getting off the flight at Kuala Lumpur even at 4:30am!

Once arriving into Cambodia, we met with the other AVID volunteers at the airport and were collected by the Red Cross Country Manager who had a beaming smile and welcoming words for us all. She shuttled us back to our very comfortable guest-house that even has a pool! Very thankful for that!!

So far we have had little to do beyond the work stuff, but hope to catch up with some friends who live here in the next day or two. And of course we have the weekend to look forward to and many many months of exploring time. Its going to be great!