Mozzeenet

I had some sad news this week - my grandmother who lived in NZ died on Wednesday. I felt sad but also happy because she was 94 and had had dementia for a number of years. The funeral was yesterday and they were expecting a lot of people. She was close to her family and made a lot of friends, coming from a farming community then being involved in a lot of community activities.

She was my Mum’s mother but my Dad went over to represent Mum at the funeral because Mum is visiting my brother in Africa so couldn’t make it back in time.

She was a very kind, generous lady always making an extra place at the dinner table for visitors and as a grandmother, reading us stories and having fun.

She liked writing letters and knew a lot about current affairs, politics and geography even though she had to leave school at an early age because her father died when she was 13 and she had to help her mother look after the other 4 children.

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Work was quite busy this week doing this and that. I’m almost finished the computer assessments and virus updates for the centre apart from a few which couldn’t be updated due to incompatible software or hardware so that is satisfying.

I also started planning the website project. I am beginning with the basics like getting a web strategy in place. I also began reviewing the current website which is quite rudimentary but not the worst I’ve seen.

The plan was to go down the coast this weekend but Ana wasn’t feeling well so we decided not to go. Instead, Sonia and I did a day trip to Kirirom National Park in Kompong Speu province.

It was a good day although I was counting the kms until I could get off the motorbike at the end of the day (they had those signposts every km saying how many kms to PP - I think that made it worse because I was reading every sign until it got too dark to decipher the numbers). You get decidely saddle-sore after a couple of hours riding.

We hired the big bikes again and two of our regular moto drivers drove us there.

The best part was in the National Park where the trees and jungle are thick up to the road-side. The road was paved all the way so it was easy driving, peaceful and very quiet apart from the occasional bird call. The national park is in a mountain area, the start of the Elephant mountain range I think. On the way, I could see the blue-hued ranges in the distance.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area beside the river where there are some small rapids and waterfalls. There were lots of Khmer families there as well picnicing, swimming in the river and relaxing.

Lunch was a cooked chicken and rice (seems to be the usual fare in these places). After lunch, Sonia and I decided to go on a walk - someone had told Sonia that there was a loop walk which took about an hour.

We walked along wide and narrow tracks through pine tree plantations - there was jungle nearby. The best part about it was it was so peaceful, nothing around at all.

We walked for an hour and then began to get concerned that the path was not going to lead back to where we had started. We couldn’t see any sign of the picnic area and had become a bit disoriented. After a while longer, we decided we couldn’t risk it and had to turn back.

The bikes had to be back at Lucky Lucky Motorcycle at 6pm, latest 7pm when they shut and it was now 3.30pm with a 2 hours drive back to Phnom Penh and another 1 hour back the way we had walked.

We power-walked back, my feet were starting to get blisters from my shoes and the clock ticked on. Sonia was ahead of me then she stopped.

It was a fork in the road, 3 paths and we couldn’t remember which way we had come. We started to get a bit panicky envisaging a night in the Cambodian jungle without water, cooler temps because we were in the mountains and all the creepy crawlies (I had already disengaged 2 leeches from my legs), not a good predicament. Pretty stupid actually.

One of the paths was quite narrow - Sonia started walking down it to get a feel for it because the other paths didn’t look familiar. I had remembered going through a narrow part and the hill on the right looked like the hill we had circled on the way.

We decided the narrow path might be the one at the last moment. Before that, we were tossing up between the other two paths. It was luckily the right path and we soon saw our footprints in the muddy parts. We were very relieved.

We hurried back (my feet have two big blisters today) and quickly gathered our stuff to leave. Being very hot from the 2 hours walk, Sonia had a quick dip in the freezing water and I put my sore feet in which was nice then we headed off.

Close to PP, we realised we weren’t going to make the 7pm deadline so we gave them a call and they were nice enough to wait for us - we got there around 7:30pm.

I looked a wreck when I saw myself in the mirror at home. Sonia and I then went for dinner - we had a steak for sustenance after the tiring day and then went straight home and crashed in bed.

Today my butt and legs are rather sore, not as bad as I thought after how I felt last night. I am tired but a nice, relaxed tired.

I met up with my friend, Natalie, this afternoon at Mith Samlanh (”Friends”), the restaurant set up by a French guy and which is run by street-kids. It is a very successful org doing a lot of good work.

I had a divine chocolate cake, tastes like it is made from real chocolate and is really moist and not too rich. I also had an orange mandarin, lime and mint freeze - also fantastic. I think that may constitute my dinner for tonight!

Went to pick up my clothes from the tailer today but my dress has to be altered, it was too big so that is disappointing. I can pick them up in the morning. I also had a shirt made from black chiffon-type material to wear over another black top - it fits well and looks quite nice.

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia