Suomi on paras!!

Hey all... greetings from Helsinki, Finland!!

So after spending a couple of lovely sunny days with Sophia in Hamburg, I jumped on a plane to Finland via Denmark. Copenhagen airport is nice, at least for the first couple of hours... I got quite bored towards the end of my stopover. Walking around and around waiting for my departure gate to show up on the screen...

I arrived in Helsinki at about 11pm, and kinda watched the sunset from the plane.. even after sunset, it's still so light! The wonderful Iida, her mum and dad and little sister Hanna, came to pick me up from the airport and drove us to Iida's apartment in Espoo, a little way from Helsinki. We chatted about so much, we really just clicked back in to Belgium mode... as if we hadn't been apart for 4 years. We talked until the early hours of the morning until we had to call it quits so Iida could get some sleep before getting up super early in the morning to go to work.

Bus ticket in hand, I went into Helsinki and wandered about trying to orientate myself. I had no real idea where I was or what I wanted to do in Helsinki, I had a tourist guide in Swedish which had a map in it. I wandered about the shopping centres, shop after shop, it was really fun just window shopping, being mistaken for a Finn and being spoken to in Finnish and just smiling politely when I didn't understand a word of it. I met up with Iida after she finished work and we went out for dinner and kept chatting. I really have no concept of time here in Finland, because it is so light for so long - even when it's dark its not really dark. I think I would like to live here in the Summer, but definitely not in the winter when it is the opposite... always dark.

I accidentally stumbled upon the National History Museum and that gave me something to do, wandering around looking at artefacts and pictures from different points in Finland's history.

Iida had the day off on Wedneday so we went on an adventure, trying to find a lake in the middle of a national par- we got lost, but eventually found somewhere nice to sit in the sun and have a picnic and chat. it was really fun. We played a card game, once, before Iida and I had an argument because I didn't understand the rules and Iida didn't understand why I didn't understand, so we put the cards away and sunbaked instead :) Ah, Iida, I've missed you!

Yesterday I woke up at Iida's parents house, after a lovely dinner with her parents, two of her sisters and their exchange student, Patricia. I felt a bit funny, had a bit of a 'visual aura' happening from like when I was younger and got migraines. I thought I'd be ok, before we ran to the train and then my left had and side of my face went numb... uh-oh. So, I threw up on the train, luckily just before the stop we had to get off at, and with vomit pretty much all over me (I caught most of it in some paper towel) I wne to the bathroom, got changed and we went home. I felt really bad, because Patricia and her friends had planned a day at Suomellina, a kind of old fort thingy... just for me. I went back to Iida's parents house and slept the rest of the day.

Hanna and I are going to Heksinki again today and we'll meet Iida after work, and I think Iida and I are going out tonight until my plane leaves at 7am. Should be fun. Lucky I'm feeling better today.

Lots of love, can't wait to see my host family and Belgian friends again very soon :)

I'll be back in Aus in no time at all.

Much love and prayers <3

Ich bin in Hamburg!!

Hey there!

So, a lot of time has passed since I wrote on this blog... and I was too lazy to finish talking about how amazing Hoi An is for making clothes and how sweet it was to ease back into civilisation via Singapore and how amazing my mum is for travelling to SE Asia and paying my way :)

Anyway, I was home for 3 months and now I'm << á l'étranger >> again, this time in EUROPE!

So, after an almost sleepless night (3.5hrs) the night before I left and a lovely, but hectic, day of catching up with people for some last minute goodbyes, I got on the first half of my long haul flight en route for Dubai. It was horrible. Not only was I wedged into a window seat next to an old man whose shoulders imposed on my already limited space, but he and the grumpy 50 year old lady next to him slept all the time so I didn't want to wake them. For those of you who have sat next to me for extended perods of time, you'll know that I fidget. I don't like to sit down in one spot for too long. Unless of course, I'm sleeping. Now, although I may have almost mastered the art of sleeping on all kinds of transport, including motorbikes, tuk-tuks, buses and short-haul flights, the long-haul is something I struggle with. It seems as long as I do not want to sleep, it comes without hassles, but when I want to sleep, I can't. So I wriggled and jiggled (I only used that word because it rhymes... it kind of freaks me out a little) and turned my air conditioner on and off, pushed my seat upright then reclined, sat up straight and slouched, seriously empathising with the patients in hospital that get bed sores for lying in the one place for too long. Hours passed slowly, punctuated frequently with 4-course airline meals and lame songs or movies. I watched a movie that must have been really exciting because I have lost all recollection of it, and also watched the "no strings attached" movie that inondated the Vietnamese and Singaporean TV Ads whilst I was there. It was silly.

ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT. Boy meets girl. Girl is afraid of falling in love. Boy has sex with Girl numerous times. Boy falls for Girl. Girl falls for Boy. Couple stops having sex. Girl runs away. Girl changes her mind. Girl and Boy have sex again. Girl and Boy live happily ever after. The End.

So at one point both old people next to me decided to get up to go to the toilet, so I seized my chance to stetch my legs and take my long-awaited pee break that I had been too timid to request earlier. Waiting in line, I started to realised it had been quite a while since I had been to the toilet and the air hostesses had been attempting to drown me in the amount of water and juice they had offered me. I got the the front of the line and the seatbelt light came on. Rude. So, being the obedient soul that I am, I returned to my seat without emptyng my bladder. And then the oldies went to sleep. Crap.Well, not actually, I just really needed to pee. Oh well. Another aspect to my fidgeting... trying to cross and uncross my legs in the squishy economy class seats. I think I kneed the lady in front of me in the back every 3 minutes for about an hour. It got to a point when I had to ask grumpy sleepy old lady to move... I ignored the seat belt sign (rebel!) and went to the toilet. I honestly think the Captain just forgot to switch off the seatbelt light... there was no turbulence!! 

So we finally arrived in Dubai. Whee.. I could stretch my legs. My knees clicked and threatened to hyperextend and I could barely stand on the shuttle bus... I found the gate I was supposed to be at and shuffled all the way to the opposite side of the airport to gate 207. I sat on the floor for a while, and finally found a seat where I slept for about half an hour. I woke up about 5 minutes before boarding started, and was puzzled to find no trace of "Hamburg" on the gate. I re-checked the departures screen and saw it now said 224... had I dreamed 207? had I simply looked at the wrong flight? None of that seemed to matter, as I had to power-walk to the other side of the airport to the right gate. I got there just in time... I had about 10 min before the gate closed. Now I was puffed.

A new flight, and as looked at the stupid seat "A" on my boarding pass, I prepared myself for another squishy ride. How relieved I was to find this time there was no seats in front of me, and noone in the seat next to me. Paradise!! A comfy 8 hours flight and I arrived in Hamburg, grabbed my bag and met a beautiful blonde German (Sophia!!) as I exited the airport.

So during my flying time, I ate dinner, midnight snack, breakfast, second breakfast, lunch. I had beef steak, chicken pie, lamb curry, sliced cold non-descript meat (maybe pork) and chunky cold non-descript white meat (maybe pressed turkey)... erk. Lucky Sophia is vegetarian... I definitely needed a break.

We caught the train to Sophia's place and chilled out for a bit before grabbing some dinner (baked potatoes, yum!) and then wandered around the city of Hamburg. Came home about 9pm (still broad daylight) and crashed out for 12hrs, before being woken up in a sweat by the sweltering German summer sun.

We had a pretty chilled morning, some fresh croissants with Nutella for breaky, and I read for a bit while Sophia worked on an essay for uni. Then we went into town to get some lunch (yummy vietnamese coconut and peanut rice and vegies), an awesome ice coffee then we sat/lay on Sophia's Law School equivalent of South Lawn in the sun for several hours with Sophia's best friend Larissa, a gorgeous sporty girl with crazy awesome curls. Sun still high in the sky, it was 6pm and time to grab a quick dinner before going to watch "Der Biber" (Jodie Foster/Mel Gibson - The Beaver), a film about a man with severe depression who uses a beaver hand puppet  as an alter ego to cope with life. It had me in tears.

Went to bed about midnight last night (the sun had finally set) and I'm currently having a lazy morning while Sophia tries to get her essay finished. It's ok though, I stole (she gave me) her internet password so I'm just chilling. It's really nice to not have to do anything. I like just being around people, talking is optional.


This afternoon we're going to hang out at the Port,where Sophia will do some reading and I wil crack open the mini-textbook that I've decided will be a replacement for the 7 recommended readings before uni stats in 5 weeks time. She'll be right, mate. Right??

Tomorrow I'm heading to Helsinki, Finland to see the lovely Iida, whom I have not seen since we said goodbye at the Brussels Airport on 07/07/07. So so excited, I'm so excited (Even though it's Saturday..?)

I heart Europe so much. Less than 3.
Stay tuned for the Finnish of this adventure. Ha ha.

"Left my heart to the...."

So the song "Khe Sanh" has been inappropriately running over and over in my head since I arrived in Vietnam last Sunday but luckily I don't know enough words for it to be too offensive. Mum and I have been living the high life for the last week, splurging on luxury hotels, watching pay TV (crappy crappy modelling and idol shows and ads for the new movie No Strings Attached - "you're miniature, you fight like a hamster!" )  and seeing the sights of Vietnam.

Let me take you back, however, to my last week in Cambodia. For my birthday, Kate and I went and got our nails done and hair straightened and I was an hour and a half late for my daily moto pick up. You can't hurry people in Asia. I was so late my non-English-speaking motorbike driver tried to call me ask me where I was. I couldn't answer the phone because it was in my pocket and I didn't want to smudge the nail job. In the end I just had to hurry over to him, flash him my newly painted French nails and shrug apologetically "Som toh, som toh" (sorry, sorry) I told him it was my birthday. It was so sweet, the next day, he had learnt four new English words: Happy Birfday to Yew. Awwww.
After finally making it into work for a 10am meeting with my supervisors, Allan and Matt- two of the Aussies from the office-, Kate and I went out for a lovely lunch of Khmer cuisine. One of each of the food groups: fish, chicken beef and pork :D
I bailed on work early to go and get a "Seeing Hands Massage by Blind Cambodian" where Kate and I put scrubs-like outfits on and got massages from blind people. It was pretty cool, although I did feel a little strange with a guy I'd just met with one knee either side of my hips on top of the table. He was fascinated by my right hamstring right up high... maybe a little too fascinated, but it needed a good massage because it still hasn't healed properly from the time I tried to kick over Chris' head at Taekwondo. He was pretty good: one hour, six dollars, bargain!
Then Kate, Colin and I had pizza, beer, strawberry chupachup infused vodka and a game of Mah Jong before the three of us and Matt headed to a bar to hear Allan and another guy in their first ever (maybe?) public gig together. Kate and I both fit on the back of Matt's motorbike, and I very classily flashed my underwear to the world for the duration of the journey because I was holding on the motobike rather thatn holding my skirt down. Whatevs, it's my birthday, I'll do what I want :P The gig was pretty nice, just chilling listening to live music. The guys are both from Melbourne so I've decided I'll be their dial-a-crowd for when they perform at the Brunswick Hotel.



I apologise for this blog being a little lack lustre... I'm watching America's Next Top Model at the same time.


For Thursday I slept in a little, taking it reeeally easy and skipping work to go buy presents for the people who'd helped me during my stay. When I finally went in to work at 3pm, I forgot my computer cord, so I had one hour's battery before I had to bail and go home. Not so productive. I did one transcription though. Looking for a quiet night, Kate and I went for a swim in a pool at one of our local pubs, only to have most of the westerners we'd met in Cambodia walk in a few minutes after we'd jumped in. How embarrassment. We did meet a lovely man, Troy, who told me that I'd want to make sure I was on the Pill if I was swimming in that pool. What a charmer. 

Friday was better, and I crashed the boys' lunch for one last time and we had the biggest burger, and it must have shown in my face when the burger came out because Allan offered me words of encouragement before I'd even started.  Looking for a quiet night, Kate and I went for a swim in a pool at one of our local pubs, only to have most of the westerners we'd met in Cambodia walk in a few minutes after we'd jumped in. How embarrassment. We did meet a lovely man, Troy, who told me that I'd want to make sure I was on the Pill if I was swimming in that pool. What a charmer. It was Troy's farewell the following night so he said that we should come. I'd already been invited on facebook because every man and his dog was invited. I'm not a man, nor do I even like dogs, but I somehow managed an invitation. So after Kate and I donated all our household items to the Mith Samlanh Fun Fair and then got ripped off by some cheeky cyclo drivers, we headed out. I was in a good mood so I just gave my cyclo driver/rider the three dollars, told him it was too expensive, and walked away. They laughed because they knew that we knew that they'd ripped us off, but we didn't really care. Cambodians are nice people.

Saturday Night was a big night. So much fun, but we didn't make it to either "institution". Next time.

I said goodbye to one of the lovely ladies from church, our security guards, our tuk-tuk drivers, and then I said goodbye to Kate and headed to the airport. Bye bye Cambodia, hello Vietnam.

Once my private driver had picked me up at the airport and dropped me off outside the Hotel, Mum and I had our little reunion moment and it took me all of 15 minutes to spread the contents of my pack across the room. What a mess. I don't think Mum missed that part of me.

My first full day in Vietnam we went on a trip to the Mekong Delta and I was a little scared I'd lose my buffet breakfast on the boat like I did in Siem Reap, but it was ok. We just go a bit wet from the splashes. Mum got soaked, and it was only after that our guide offered us raincoats. Thanks. We changed to a little boat and I was given an oar but it was really just to make me feel useful because I think I was actually making it more difficult for the skipper to steer. I had fun paddling along, pretending I was in charge of the boat because I was at the front.

Then we went to Hoi An (not Ha Noi as I kept getting confused... who makes two of the three biggest cities in a country anagrams of each other? Communists...) And I got some AWESOME clothes made for clinicals and a very interesting interpretation of a dress from a photo I took in. It may feature at the Whitley Ball 2011 if I can pull it off. Possibly.We shopped for two days and then went to Marble Mountain where Mum worked up a good sweat and I very sadly scuffed up my brand new tailored shoes. In the words of my mother, "it makes Pyramid Hill seem like a pimple." The caves were spectacular though, with many hidden natural symbols, pointed out by our guide, like breasts, a couple 'sharing something special', and unicorns and frogs...

After Hoi An, we went to Hanoi. I'm hot and tired and cbb continuing tonight. Maybe tomorrow morning.

Love you, see you Sunday!! xx

Bird watching??

Just got back from a hectic few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia's most touristy location, thanks to its famous Angkor Wat.







It's been a pretty busy last couple of weeks, since we made new friends and have been going out a bit. On Saturday, we went to dodgem cars and ten-pin bowling ($1 per go on the dodgems!!) followed by a bar to watch the sad defeat of the Socceroos to Japan, then out to a nightclub for dancing. I'd decided to try a night out sober, and so it was quite an eventful night, looking after a 17 year old boy, Nicky, who was staying in his cousin's room in her absence and was supposed to be in the care of a very drunk housemate (a guy who works at the same office as me, Matt, who had decided to try to drink his height in beer cans. He lost count). So I took it upon myself to keep watch, trying to talk to a drunk 17 year old boy about random things... 17 year old boys are barely even human, but we managed to keep the conversation going a little. I 'rescued' Nicky from the influence of a very big Norwegian (I think) man who was serving up shots, but then he proceeded to spit all over my face as her tried to talk to me... smelling like vomit and other really pleasant things. He asked me if I wanted to go for a walk outside with him, and giving him the benefit of the doubt (that he actually just needed fresh air) I agreed. Luckily (perhaps) he only made it as far as the toilet. As it was nearing 3am, I kept an eye out for Matt who was supposed to be getting me home safely, and also ensuring Nicky went home with him. I saw him heading out the door and had to remind him to take Nicky home. I got home safely at about 3:30am, having to wake up the secrutiy guard to be let into the apartment block. Slept for a little bit and then got up for church the next morning... Who needs sleep anyway?



My enter key is broken (Thanks to Ash and Callum) so I apologise if this blog lacks sufficient/or too much paragraphing.


So, Wednesday night I went for a 5km run around the running track that I discovered far too late in my stay here. I was a little bit buggered after that.
Thursday morning Kate and I got up at 5:30am to catch the 7am bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Arriving just after midday, we decided to get some lunch, then head out to the temples to have a look around before sunset. We checked out Ta Prohm, which I believe was featured in the Tomb Raider film. There's like, lots of trees and stuff growing on top of the temples, which is pretty cool, and there doesn't seem to be any mortar between the bricks, they're just stacked up haphazardly and wedged together to stop (or attempt to stop) them falling down.

Then we climbed up to a temple (which was absolutely swarming with tourists) and watched the sunset, which was a little disappointing because I was expecting the sun to set over the temples, but it just set over the horizon. Goes to show, you shouldn't go in to things with expectations, or you might be disappointed.Watching people (especially old people) struggle down the extremely steep stairs and not fall over like dominoes was probably my amusement for the day. But the steps were tough, so props to the oldies for making it up and down without breaking a hip. Home to bed, after a quick dinner, and we met out roommates,including a very drunk, very sunburnt, very loud bikini-clad German girl with a jug of alcohol in her hand with a straw. She was lovely, but it was no wonder she did not emerge at 5am with us to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. The sunrise was amazing, and despite me being a complete cynic and threatening to push the Korean tourists who sat in front of us into the lake, it was pretty awesome. We sat in what we thought was the front row, but soon learned that unless you're pretty much in the lake/moat/body-of-water, people will sit infront of you and block your view. My camera battery died at approximately 7:30am... on the bigesst sight-seeing day we've had yet. At least when it died at the Taj Mahal, it would turn on long enough to take one photo at a time, about 30 times... not this time. It died and it died for real. Lame. Kate and I shared Kate's camera. We spent the whole day looking at temples (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bantey Srey) and also went to the Landmine Museum and the Butterfly farm - to lighten the mood a bit after the landmines. On the way home, we stopped at a temple that was by far the least touristy, and at certain point you could walk around and not see anyone else. It was kind of eerie, but I appreciated a little peace at that point. On the way home, I stayed true to my tradition of falling asleep in any kind of moving vehicle. (Bus, plane, train, I could already cross off, and the other day a motorbike ... a little dangerous, but we were stopped at the traffic lights... and after this weekend, a tuk tuk, a big boat and a little row boat)

 Up again early, to meet our minibus at 6am to head out to an "ecotour" as recommended by my Belgian host family. Having no real idea what was in store for us, we were shuttled to a boat, where we were taken onto the Tonle Sap lake, and I think we got lost at sea for a little bit. After breakfast just outdie a floating village, we continued the 35-ish kilometre trek across open water. I lost my breakfast somewhere in the middle of the lake... I don't think my stomach was expecting to be tossed and hurled about as if it were in the middle of the ocean. Either noone else on the boat noticed (there were 6 of us plus the driver and the guide) or noone seemed to care that I was throwing up over the side... and then missed and threw up on the boat. I used my drink bottle to try to wash it away... with little success. Once there was no food left in my tummy, I was ok. I have now thrown up on a boat. Another thing to tick of my list. Yay.

Arriving at another floating village, we changed to 3 smaller boats, all tied up in a line, powered by a motor on the first one. We were handed binoculars and a laminated sheet with a whole heap of bird pictures on it and told to see what we could see. My binocular skills fail dramitically. Epically even. Anyways, Kate and I were in one boat as we headed through a "flooded forest" checking out endangered pelicans and storks... I came prepared for a day on the water so I had my hat, sunnies and sunscreen, along with a long-sleeved shirt to keep the sun off. I even had ali-baba pants that could cover my legs. After waht seemed like hours on the boat, we arrived at a viewing platform and risked life and limb to climb up rickety bamboo ladders to miles up in the sky (maybe 30m) to check out some birds nesting. Back down the rickety ladder, and then into the bushes for a "natural toilet"... *sigh* slightly unimpressed ... then back into the boat for the trip back to the floating village for lunch. I pulled the legs of my pants up for about 20-30mins because I thought maybe I could get a tan, but then it got too hot, so I covered them up again.
Lunch at the floating village I took my protective gear (hat, sunnies, over-shirt) off to eat, and then promptly put it back on after watching two ladies make boxes out of hyacinth leaves, and being told to get back on the boat. We travelled slowly through the village, waving to young children (many of whom were, for some reason, lacking items of clothing) and some of our group members taking lots of photos of said lackings. Slightly odd. Back onto the wild sea, but I slept for most of it, and we didn't seem to get as lost, so my fish soup, rice and vegetables stayed comfortably where it ought to. We watched the sunset over many little boats and floating houses that scattered the horizon, and then got minibussed back to the hostel. It was a lovely day. I got changed to go out for dinner and realised that my leg (just one side) was sunburnt from my attempt at a tan. Puzzlingly, however, my shoulders are also sunburnt... which either happened through my light cotton overshirt, or inside at lunchtime. Crappy pale skin, plus doxycycline photosensitivity. If  I get skin cancer, I'm suing Cambodia...

Today we slept in and just wandered aroung the Siem Reap marketplace, spending far too much money. Jumped on a minibuss back to Phnom Penh and here we are. Witnessed a motocycle accident, but the bus passed it by before I had a chance to see the result of the wobbling and sparking from the exhaust dragging on the road. Our bus didn't stop so I could only pray that the rider and his passenger(s) were not injured, or if they were, that help was available. Our bus just swerved to miss the moving motorbike, slowed down, then kept going. It was a little scary.

Tomorrow I'm getting a motorbike out to a "suburban" area to interview maybe one or two more women, then I think I'll be done. Transcription will be happening all week. Except maybe Wednesday, not sure how productive I'll be, probably going to get a manicure, pedicure, massage, hair straightened... you know... :D

Then I leave Cambodia on Sunday, and I get to see MUM in Vietnam! Only a couple more weeks and I'll be home. I'll try to make it to Piss In The Pond, if I'm not too dead. I don't plan on sleeping on Saturday night... there's an "institution" I have to check out and it might be a late one. Or early.










take care. love and prayers xx Miss you all a lot and praying for all the natural disaster that seem to be happening. would love to hear your news. love you :)

Every day life isn't worth blogging about...

Hey guys,

I've been told off for not blogging. But since nothing super exciting is happening because we're settling in well to our version of the Cambodian lifestyle, I have chosen not to bore you with news about nothing... But I've been told to blog anyways. Here goes...

I've done about 18 interviews so far, with people from various positions in and out of the drug field. For confidentiality reasons I can't tell you much more than that. Each interview takes about 40-60 minutes, and I tape record everything then type it up later so I can have what is called a "transcription", which is a written version of the interview as it happened. Each 40 minute audio file takes about 6-8hrs for me to type... as you know, I've never been a fast typist, and it's very difficult to write down word-wfor-word when you don't know what they're even saying... so I have to rewind and listen to some parts over and over again until I get it, or give up. So far, out of my 18 interviews, I've transcribed 3 1/2, lost the audiofile for one (oops... must've forgotten to press record!) and typed up hand-written notes for an interview where the guy declined the voice-recorder....  so that leaves 12 1/2  times 8 hrs of transcribing to do... How excitement.

That wouldn't be such a problem if I had a fully functional laptop. However, mine currently, allegedly, has viruses and trojans and windows explorer stops responding every few minutes for apparently no reason. Sometimes when I start my computer, it tells me I have no sound card so cannot have any sound output, which makes transcription difficult. Using the IT crowd's favourite tactic (for those non-nerds, that means turning it off then on again) usually gets my sound back. But then media player refuses to play the files if I pause them for too long so I have to restart the player again, try to fast forward to where I was and keep typing. To make things more trying, our internet is temperamental and only loads some webpages some of the time... So let's just say I'm learning a lot about patience. I haven't been to a taekwondo class in 3 months, so it's challenging to find new ways to let off steam. I saw some little kids doing tkd and really wanted to join in but I think I was too old, and it might have even been the wrong denomination of Taekwondo, so I didn't want to cross over to the dark side accidentally...

Everyone in the office where I'm based is really lovely, and most of the foreigners are French so I can eavesdrop on conversations at the water cooler and what not. It's pretty funny, because they don't expect me to know what they're saying... Kate and I went to see a film at the French Cultural Centre (CCF) and were a little disappointed to see that it was all in Romanian with French subtitles. The storyline was lacking too. Completely. At least it was free.

We've been eating well, trying out new restaurants every night, occasionally finding new gems... like tonight, we visited what we've termed a "plastic chairs", a Cambodian-style restaurant aimed not at tourists but locals. There are heaps around, of varying quality. The most exciting are those with no menu, just bain-marie-style, point-at-what-you-want-and-hope-it's-not-dog-or-cat. Tonight we had a plate of rice each and two plates of meat and vegetable mixes to share, and a can of drink, for 5000 riel each. That's $1.25 Am-aaa-zing. I like those places. Just don't drink the ice.

We lashed out the other night and spent $15 on an all-you-can-eat buffet (salads, meats, desserts) and all-you-can-drink softdrink and draught beer, because they told us it was a "food and arts party"... not much of a party really, but the Cambodian music was cool until all the musicians stopped playing and the backing track continued... ha.

We've been trying to cook once a week, but we only have a stovetop (no oven) and one saucepan. And a huge mother of a ricecooker... we've had spaghetti with tomato and vegetable sauce, spaghetti carbonara, and a vegetable-tomato sauce that we ate with nacho chips and cheese for lunch one day. Kinda
 like a vegie-bake without the bake.

I think I've found a church that I like... I had another in mind but after an incident, I've decided I might give it a while (if ever) before I go back. We're currently going to a little Anglican church filled with oldies and one family with about 10 kids. Everyone there are foreigners, except a few Cambodians that speak/want to learn English. They seem nice enough, and it's only a temporary option. They don't have a regular pastor because they're still searching, but the lay preachers so far haven't been so bad. The guy yesterday had one lady storm out because he was "quite boring and anti-semitic" and she announced that to the congregation before slamming the door behind her. Each to one's own I guess... he was just giving us the history and background to Pontius Pilate and his decision to crucify Jesus. Oh and those naughty Jews... just kidding. If I have any Jewish friends who are reading this, I love you..

I'm loving just jumping on the back of randoms' motobikes and asking them to take me home, which is what happens instead of public transport here. Motodops are cheaper thatn tuk-tuks so I take them. I have a helmet, don't stress. One moto driver waved to me at the market and I got on his bike because I felt a little sorry for him because one eye had a cataract (white pupil) and the other eye barely opened. I thought to myself, "awww, this guy won't get any other customers, I better say yes" before realising what sort of hazard a blind moto driver could be on the road. It was ok though, because about 50m down the road he put some glasses on so he could see. I was a bit edgy about how close things were on his left side, and especially since his left-hand mirror was missing, but I made it home safe and sound, and he was very thankful for the money. I think I overpaid him but I just wanted to show him I cared. It was a bit cute though, when we stopped he wouldn't look around and show his face until he'd hidden his glasses in his pocket - he must've been embarrassed by them.

Moto drivers often don't have any idea where I want to go, but they pretend they do.. that's always an experience, especially when my driver flagged downa  white girl on another motorbike to ask her where I wanted to go... She had no idea, understandably, and couldn't communicate that to him either. She just shrugged sheepishly and apologetically. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but the driver had taken me to a random hospital so I didn't know where I was so I couldn't figure out where I wanted to go... We made it eventually. I can say "turn left" and "turn right' in Khmer now.


Erm what else of excitement has been happening? My havaiianas broke in India (yes, brand new at the start of the trip, I'm very disappointed in whoever of you told me havvies were unbreakable and would last forever. you're lame.)

Me and another girl are looking for a house together so if you know of anywhere cheap, close to uni, for end of Feb to end of May with two rooms, let me know!

Wow. This is far too much writing about nothing. Sorry.

Love and prayers xx

p.s. I watched the first Twilight movie again on telly and I still liked it, and now I'm craving the second and third ones. And I like Justin Bieber's new song, Pray.
p.p.s. Don't judge me.

Happy New Year!!

So I'm sorry it's been quite a while since I updated... Let's see how I go filling you in:

Christmas was spent in a luxury hotel in the deluxe suite, and we paid three times the price of any other hotel we'd stayed in ($15 each!!!) and we were all still pretty sick from memory, although Kate's norfloxacin trumped my azithromycin because she was well by Christmas Day and I wasn't. Hye Jin and I went to Midnight Mass at the Sacred Heart (Catholic) Cathedral where the Carols started at 11pm, led by a choir of amateurs, most of whom didn't know the words. It was really nice to hear Christmas carols, since the only other one we'd heard was "Here comes Santa Claus" from a dancing Santa doll in a shop in the central circle of Connaught Place, New Delhi. A power outage temporarily put a halt to things and the guy sitting next to me asked us out for coffee, an invitation that we politely declined. It restarted and the guy bailed. Then chiming bells and everyone stood up, looking really excited: in came the pope-looking guys and altar boys with smoking incense and silly outfits. The sing-songing ("Iiiin the naaame of the Faaather and the Son and the Holy Spiriiiiiit, aaaaaaaa-meeeeeeeeeeen") was a bit unexpected and the poor altar boy nearly passed out from smoke inhalation, but the mass overall was really nice, and the sermon even made me cry because it was talking all the injustices here on earth, and it pretty much reflected what we'd seen on the streets of Delhi. It assured us of the hope that we have that there's more to life than our time on earth, which was a very comforting reminder.

About 2am, when Hye Jin and I assumed the mass was coming to an end because they invited their fellow Cathoilics up for communion, we decided to go home and get some sleep. I had a skype chat with mum and then went to bed.

A sleep-in on Christmas was a nice change, Kate and I got up about 10am, after Hye Jin had left for a Korean church service she found. I was feeling a little off but did not want that to ruin Christmas, so we had a lovely breakfast of breadsticks, croissants, strawberries, grapes, chocolate (and Kate had vegemite)...

Then an unplanned skype-to-phone chat with dad was lovely, before we decided to head out and not waste the day sitting in the hotel. When Hye Jin was back, we took Kate to the manicure place that Hye Jin and I had gone to while Kate was having an afternoon nap, and then the three of us had 'coffee' in a chainstore called "Cafe Coffee Day." I had a chocolate brownie with ice-cream too. *guilty face*

Feeling exhausted, we headed back to the hotel, as by this time it was dinner time. We had pasta (I had spaghetti bolognese) for Christmas dinner and it was amazing. I had a sneaky skype chat with Anna before dinner, and it was lovely to talk to her.

Boxing Day, Hye Jin left us and it was just down to Kate and I. I unfortunately couldn't give Hye Jin a hug goodbye because I was in the shower... so I poked my head out and awkwardly waved - clearly Hye Jin didn't want a slimy wet hug from a soapy just-in-a-towel me!

Kate and I went to the Gandhi museum, but on the way when we were stopped at a traffic light, our driver pointed out a man who was crippled and walking on his hands and feet. The driver proceeded to explain to us about the Indian Mafia, and how someone had done that to him so he'd get more money, and that he'd only get about 20%, the police and officials get 20% as a bribe to let them stay there and the mafia keep the rest. It was really interesting hearing it from an Indian... he was muslim and he praised his god that he was lucky enough to not be in that man's place. I silently thanked Mine too.

Gandhi was a pretty amazing man... did you know he was a lawyer?

After a thali (rice, curry, curry, dal, bread) we got a taxi to the airport and in our lat ditched efforts, we refused to get ripped off by the pre-paid driver who asked for more money. We didn't even tip him. Sorry India, we were sick of being ripped off.

At the airport, I discovered that there was no post-box inside the departures terminal so a nice (?) guy at a newsagent agreed to post my pre-stamped postcards, taking my email address to tell me if anything whent wrong. If you get the postcards, nothing when wrong and he was a nice guy :P

Feeling very ill in transit in KL, with Kate as fit as a fiddle, we watched some random movies, including one called "Witless Protection" about a country hick in America, and another about Charlie Bart-something. Interesting adolescent delinquent.

We arrived in Phnom Penh about 10am, after some dried fish (spicy instant fish!!) curry and prawns for breakfast on the plane. Supheap, Kate's supervisor, picked us up and took us to the apartment. And what an apartment! HUGE!! We both got our our bathrooms and toilets (and a spare toilet!) and double beds... amazing!!

We took Monday to settle in, then Tuesday afternoon I went in to meet one of my supervisors. Great guy, chatted about lots of stuff and told me that if I even feel unsafe in Phnom Penh, I should call him straight away. Great :)
Wednesday I started orientation with Mith Samlanh, the local Cambodian 'version' of the Friends International organisation I'll be working with for my research. On the back of a motorbike with no helmet for the first two days, visiting street kids and families around different areas of Phnom Penh. On Thursday I got really sunburnt and bought a long sleeve top, and in the evening bought a motorbike helmet... because it's also cheaper to catch a motorbike than a tuk-tuk. Friday we spent the morning visiting people who inject drugs to provide them with safe injecting equipment and some foods. One of the workers asked me if I wanted to watch someone inject drugs, and took me over to a lady who was just squatting down pumping the blood into the syringe and then out into her arm again to make sure she got all of the heroin out of the needle. Pretty confronting. As we were leaving, I watched a man inject into a woman's femoral vein. The drug team also had to do clean ups and at one stage we were walking across a sandy area to talk to some people and had to watch where we were stepping because there were used syringes in random places.

Living on the streets is just a way of life for these people... one lady handed me her baby while she spoke to the outreach workers. Another, when we were in the mobile drug drop in centre, gave me her baby to hold, then made me a friendship bracelet and painted my fingernails black. I wish I could have communicated but she didn't speak English and I don't speak Khmer. But she looked so young! (She told the outreach worker she was 24)


Kate and I went out in the touristy area to make friends for new years eve. we met some Finnish guys but decided to change venues because it was too noisy in the place we were at. Then we met a guy called Alex in the US army and a lady called Rachel from the UK. We went with them to watch the fireworks (both the official ones and the random ones fired off into the street by partymakers) outside the royal palace and the walked halfway home with them. Kate and I gave up and caught a tuk-tuk the rest of the way home.

We met up with Rachel and Alex on New Years Day to go to the Genocide Museum (S.21) which was very tragic and not a pleasant way to start the new year. As the others headed to the Killing Fields, I pulled the pin and Kate and I went home. I went back to bed because I was tired and coulf feel a cold settling in. I got up around 1pm to get lunch and then went back to bed. Kate woke me up and about 7pm, but I didn't feel like getting up so she wnet and got dinner alone. I slept until 11pm, got a drink of water, then slept through until 6am this morning.

This morning I went to Bethany Baptist Church which is just up the road from here. The 9am session was nice, but I preferred the 5pm one. One lady asked to speak to me after the service and asked me about how I became a Christian and whether I remember the exact day that I was saved. (I know it was a Thursday at the end of September) Then she prayed for me and said how grateful she was that I found the church in the yellow pages. To tell you the truth, I'm pretty happy too: it seems like a nice place to be.

Between services, I joined Kate on a trip to the Russian market where we bought toilet paper and a saucepan and Kate bought the Mahjong titans game. We spent the arvo figuring that out.

Went out for dinner as usual, then came back... Kate's not feeling well, maybe dehydrated. I can feel a sickness coming on... hopefully I'll be ok by tomorrow but I think I've caught a gastro bug again. Damn. I don't want to lost any more weight this way... i ca already see my ribs from last time I was sick.

Much love. It's 10pm and much past my bedtime. It's 30 degrees before 10am here so I gotta be up early to function. We have plenty of room on the floor if anyone is visiting Cambodia between now and February!!

Send me some news. Happy New Year xx

The Taj Mahal

After wandering around Jaipur for a few hours in the morning, we caught a 4hr train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The ticket reservation man had sold us 2 seats, and one on the waiting list, telling us we’d be fine. We were fine, but we inconvenienced many by having to ask them to move, or to keep their beds folded as chairs until we got off. The guys opposite us were heading to Calcutta, 24hrs away on the train. One train. Erk. The man opposite me was a little strage, talking to Kate and Hye Jin while I looked out the window with my ipod on. I wasn’t really in the mood to be social. About halfway through the trip when I’d temporarily taken my earphones out to listen to Kate, he asked Kate, “Why’s she so silent, so serious? What’s wrong with her?” Ha. That just made me want to talk to him less. We finally got off the train with much debarcle about which station we were actually at, and which one we should get off at. One such example of the confusion: (me)“Is this our stop? Should we get off here?” (reply) “Yes. You wait.” Huh? We got off the train and proceeded to a prepaid booth, which we discovered did not exist. About 10 drivers started talking to us all at once, following us and telling us prices and where they would take us. All different, mind you. We finally chose one driver, with a car, to take us to the hotel for a good price. We followed him through the masses of drivers and vehicles to his car, and put our bags in the boot. Then Kate and I realised we’d lost Hye Jin. Crap. I stayed at the car and Kate walked up and down looking for her, followed by constant heckling from drivers and people telling her that her friend already left in a rickshaw. All lies. We eventually found Hye Jin, who had been led astray by a driver who told her that we had already left and he’d take her wherever she wanted. Thankfully we all knew that the one would not have left without the other. We clambered into the back of our drivers car, and he took us to a hotel we asked him to show us. Unimpressed, we said we were looking for another, but he said he’d show us as hotel with “cheap price and good people.” Again unimpressed, we asked him to take us to one last hotel to look at, but he said that he gets paid 30 rupees (75c) if we stay in that hotel. He kept trying to convince us to stay, and I’d had enough, so I said, “If you show us the other one and we don’t stay at the one you want us to, I will give you 30 rupees. Just take us to the other one.” So he did. And we stayed there. He then arranged (persuasively/coercively, take your pick) for us to meet his father who would drive us in a rickshaw around the city looking at tourist sites from 10am. We went and got some food, because by this stage it was 9pm and we hadn’t had lunch, and then went to bed.

Waking up to see the Taj Mahal could have been better if it wasn’t so fricken early. We woke up at about 4:30, alarm went off at 5:30 and we got up and headed to the ticket office to see the Taj at sunrise. Apparently the ticket booth and the gates don’t open until 7am in the summer, despite the guides and signs saying 6am. So we waited in line for about half an hour before the ticket booth opened, and then went to the gate. The lines were still quite short, but there was a delay in us getting in because the head torches that Kate and I had stowed in our bags just in case was forbidden by Taj authorities and I had to walk half a kilometre to the Locker rooms and back. Lame. But we got in just as the sun was coming over the walls and before the major rush of tourists. Got some sweet photos, just like you see in postcards, only there’re people in mine.

After the Taj we came back and had to swap hotel rooms because there was a double booking or something, and then it was time to meet our rickshaw driver, Jalal, the father of last night’s taxi driver. It’s a family affair. He took us to Agra Fort, the Baby Taj, some other places and the garden where the fabled “Black Taj” (a negative image of the Taj Mahal) is said to have been started but never completed. We fell asleep in the sun in the garden for a little bit and then just asked the driver to take us home. He wanted to take us to some workshops or bazaars or something but we just said no. I think he was happy because we’d set a price for the day and it was only 2pm and we chose to go home. We were just all too exhausted. Even now, we’re just on the beds in the room, on our computers, summoning the energy to do anything. I should go find and internet cafe to post this and send some emails: I GOT AN APARTMENT IN CAMBODIA!!

We’re all still a bit sick... I decided to take the first lot of antibiotics yesterday so we’ll see after tomorrow if I’m better. We’re all very paranoid med students and are convinced that we have Giardiasis (worms) but hopefully not. Because I’m not allowed to take my worm tablets until I’ve been sick for 3 weeks. No thanks!!  

Tomorrow we head back to Delhi on the train at 6am, and spend the 24th, 25th, 26th there before leaving Hye Jin and flying to Cambodia for the next part of the adventure. It’s Christmas!!  And even if I’m not feeling 100% I’m still gonna eat Aussie chocolate, imported Nutella and fruit salad. We’ve found a bakery that sells fruitcake and mince pies in Delhi so we’ll definitely be getting some of that! I’ll wear my sari and we’re looking for a Christmas church service nearby... the internet’s not very helpful but we’ll find something! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I’m looking forward to seeing you in the New Year. I’ll be praying for a safe and relaxing holiday for you, filled with lots of Christmas spirit and love!

Take care xx