the end

as promised these are my remaining photos from new zealand.

ive been back in england for two weeks now and things are starting to feel normal again, ive been enjoying fresh air and the smell of grass. it was good to get down to cornwall last week with all the guys and hit the waves for a while then the new frontiers conference this week was a very special time for me. all i can say is i am overwhelmingly happy to be with my friends and family.

thanks for reading and being interested in everything ive been up to i hope youve found this blog good. i havent always spoken about my faith in christ openly on these pages but i can confidently say that it is the one thing in my life that kept me going and gave me hope. there is nothing or no one who can ever compare. amen.

far far away

well as tony blair said yesterday. 'that is that...the end.' good one tone.
much has changed in myself and the world since i started writing this blog and i am grateful to it and everyone who has shown an interest in it and in me. i am glad to have done something worthwhile with the most forming years of my life and cant see how i will ever regret anything that ive seen or done in the past year, i look back and know how much i have been cared for and looked after and will really never forget all my friends and family in cambodia. i know now that my time there has finished and feel a strong leading elsewhere but i am glad to have been able to experience life in another country and on another continent and in another culture, there are not too many people who can say they have done that. more than anything through the life experience i have learnt alot about myself, i feel like if i hadnt achieved anything this year at least learning something about myself makes the whole thing worthwhile.

it may sound arrogant to consider these past few years an 'era' but i felt at christmas after all that had happened that this year was the last of an era, perhaps because im 20 now or maybe something else but i know it is time to move on. i am, therefore, annoncing my defection to buddhism....joke. i have sadly seen far too many buddas in the last few months particularly in bangkok where they seem to hold a much greater significance in daily life. i will be glad to leave this city.

this is not my last post i will put some more photos on here and leave a final note next week but this is my last from far far away.

adios amigos,
Ben.

my own worst enemy

new zealand was colder than i expected and bangkok is hotter. going from -8 to 35 is quite a shock to the system, although im glad for it if it means im half way home. the khao san road has changed little in the last 10 months since i was last here. they do have a burger king and starbucks which would probably come as a shock to any fearless traveller who was expecting nothing but a street with the sign khao san and a bunch of phased backpackers hanging around wondering what to do.

my flight from aukland was very bumpy which i dont appreciate a bit, despite the amount of flying ive done recently i still feel quite nervous flying, maybe something to do with all the episodes of lost ive been watching. i am my own worst enemy.

my last night in queenstown was a laugh, me and DJ went out for a beer which turned into an all nighter as i discovered what new zealands nightlife had to offer, we soon ran out of money so went down onto the street to busk for a while and earn enough for a couple more rounds. we spent most of the night convincing these two kiwis that we were sweedish, isiots didnt even know where the country was. that stopped working for a while so we evolved into danes until a guy from denmark came up to me and asked what part of denmark i was from so i broke the sad news that we were in fact from england, i think we left him very dissapointed. the bars are full of tourists like myself who were ignorant to the fact that it is acceptable to dance on the bar, they even have a pole to stop you falling behind into the staff. so DJ quickly surprised me with an out of character move by polevolting onto the bar and displaying the greatest show of english patriotism by dancing like no man from anywhere else could, of course i quickly joined him and the whole bar was watching these two english hobos dance on the bar. soon after the dance floor was empty because everyone was on the bar with us. we retired to the pavement to get some more beer money. what a laugh, i havent been out on a night like that for quite a while!

looking forward now to being home, also a little apprehensive. i struggled to relate to the social element of the church in aukland and can imagine it will take me a while to settle back into life in england, not that i really want to settle anywhere just yet. i guess we will have to wait and see.

kath&andy,steve&heather in aukland pass on their love to all in england.

see you all soon,
Ben.

frostbite

it has been snowing for two days now almost completely solidly. we had a snow fight with some guys across the street yesterday which was funny and ended up with this poor japanese woman and her kid getting caked in snow, not by me though. i had to move out of the lodge i was staying in because they were prebooked so me and rich are going to stay in DJ's abandoned villa down on the lake, as you can imagine its pretty basic but it does have a log burner so i guess we will set up camp there for a couple of nights. its the beginning of the winter festival tonight which means lots of live gigs and fireworks, theyve set up a stage down by the harber so i guess its going to be quite a party in the snow! the plus side is the whole place looks even more incredible covered in snow. i did wake up this morning thinking i had frostbite though, ouch.
two guys i was sharing a room with at the backpackers loodge invited me up north with them on saturday, sadly i have a flight back to aukland in sunday, that could have been fun, they have a camper van and a few months with no plans, i can see the attraction but not sure i could manage two months in a van with two strange canadians. mental.

square peg

so those were a few pics from kiwi land. the mountains and lake is queenstown where i am currently residing and the boat and volcano is aukland, sorry they got a bit mixed up!

everything down here has been a bit funny the last couple of days. me and DJ have played two live gigs with his new blues songs which are great. the music scene here is great we saw a fantastic band play last night at one of the clubs for free and stayed most of the night, then headed down the road because D had a $1 beer cupon so we ended up at this bar where they were having a jam night so we got up and played for a while. theres nothing quite like rocking out with some groovy blues tunes. as they say down here...'totally sick man, so heavy...'

ive been bunking in a travel lodge with these two cnadians who managed to crash the camper van they hired. im not a big fan of the communal living arrangment in these places but hey-ho not long to go. need to go out and find rich i havent seen him for a couple of days, no one has any credit on their phones because all the money is spent on food.

i must confess although i have really enjoyed playing and hanging out with the guys down here the last few days i still feel like a square peg in a round hole, in many ways this is my old life. i dont think ill ever fit in to this way of life again, i feel a little uncomfortable but thats ok, im only here a week and its worth the sacrifice to spend some time with the lads.

in reply to your comments...sorry about the date on my carera...every time you turn it back on it needs to be re-set so i never nother. and jeni.....last time i got some photos printed you complained that i was in them too much and the only ones of you were the ones you had given me, so now your saying take some more of yourself? far out man...far out.

Ben

NZ

fit for a queen

well i arrived in queenstown after a short flight south over miles of mountain ranges. fortunately it was a cloud free day so the views from the plane were incredible. spent yesterday catching up with Rich and DJ and reminicing about old times and playing some old songs. DJ is busking as is rich for money and neither of them have any money. rich is sleeping on the sofa at this big house with a bunch of other people and DJ is squatting in an abandoned house outside the town. we hitched out there yestersday and back then spent the night at some friends closer to town.

the scenery is really amazing...

(sorry this is a boring update, i dont have the patience or energy to write anything descriptive or interesting even though there is plenty i could write about)

...and its been great to spend some time with these guys although they are a bit all-over-the-place. we went out to arrowtown yesterday to find DJ who was out there busking. it is a pretty nice but really small prospecting town from the days when a few farmers found gold in the local stream. so its all very posh down that way.

its been a bit of a shock going from 33 degrees to 3 degrees but im adjusting ok. steve tipa in aukland lent me some thick wool cardies, which despite being a bit too big are very cool. its a bit trendy to look like a bum here it seems, probably because most of the people ive met so far actually are bums...sorry rich, i know youll agree! i dont really know what im goin g to do for the next few days but it doesnt really matter there is plenty to be doing if it doesnt include busking, hitchhiking and building big log fires in an abandoned house. david did quite proudly turn to me with a smile and declare 'it does have running water.' which i found both surprising and novel. the saga goes on. this is life on the other side of the world, strange it seems.

all blacks ogres

another day another dollar. had a nice long sleep this morning then caught the bus downtown into the city centre.

had a good lunch down at the missions bay and caught up with andy which was great. good to hear all their news and a little of what theyve been up to, he promised to take me out on the boat whilst im here and looked up some flights for me down to the south island which was kind. its funny seeing all these guys down here i havent seen any of them, obviously, since i left england so seeing them here is a little odd. but good to catch up.

Aukland, and New Zealand as a whole, i have gathered, is incredibly green and there is heaps of water all round the city its easy to get confused. after lunch yesterday we went up to the top of mount eden which is right in the centre of town and has a 360 view of the city, it also happens to be an old volcano, which is another first for me! the views were incredible you could see for miles and i was left wonderinf if this is one of the only capital cities in the world where you can climb a volcano and see the entire city in a few short minutes. brilliant.

riding the bus from the suburbs was surprisingly interesting, i cant help but think that ther first people to discover this island were in fact american cowboys. the shop fronts all have this old rustic overhang and are topped with old fashionedc saloon style shutters and white washed wooden slated walls. it truely is an odd place, with so many new things and a mix of familarities. one thing ive seen is how completely mental the kiwis are for rugby, they have a countdown timer to the rugby world cup in the city centre and every park we drove past didnt have the classic footie posts but the rugby ones instead, schools kids out throwing the rugby ball arround and a spontaneous ruck by the swings, not to mention all the billboards featuring some large ogre looking all black who looks like he is a bit gutted about missing out on an extra role in lord of the rings sporting some new predictably black rugby kit. the all blacks must be New Zealands biggest export, maybe except lamb....

these internet cafes dont have inputs so for the imte being i cant put any photos up here...watch this space, though hopefully soon.

Ben.

city of sails

well i arrived safe in aukland after my longest flight ever yesterday. it wasnt too bad i watched 4 movies that passed the time quite well. heather picked me up from the airport which was great and i had a relaxing afternoon hanging out in their beautiful new house. i had a long hot shower and took a walk round the block a few times. its amazing how much like england it looks and there is a strange mix of white people and maori with obviously different languages aswell, which is completely different to anything ive seen before. its not as cold as i thought it was going to be and so far ive survived quite well, it was great feeling the cold breeze on my face yesterday as i walked arround some of avondales parks. the city centre is, funnily enough, remarkably city like. ive never been a big city person ive always preferred the country but ive enjoyed walking round the harbour and checking out some of the massive americas cup yachts, i know now why they call aukland the city of sails. there are some very scary familiarities with Cambodia...believe it or not. for example today i went into the ANZ bank which PP has loads of and also the caltex gas stations are common in both places. most frightening of all, as i was walking round the local naighbourhood down a very normal looking suburban middle class street out of nowhere this buddhist monk appeared behind me in his long orange robes and gave me a big asian smile as if he knew me from somewhere. i did a double take just to make sure the jet lag wasnt making me see things and recieved that same patented smile that only people from asia can give you. for a moment i thought perhaps steve was playing a very expensive joke on me by sending a monk to follow me to try to convince me to come back to cambodia or something but then figured that would be a little too much out of the budget!

so once again im getting used to a new climate, culture and currency. this time, gratefully, its only for two weeks and not 9 months. praise god.

off to see a man about a dog.
laters.

some random ones

there are a few photos of the french colonial buildings that are scattered all over the city, which i have always admired and been impressed by. most have been converted into fancy bars or banks, some are left derelict in need of restoration but beautiful none the less.

this is taken from under phallys house which is a traditional farm house on wooden stilts, the building on the left is the kitchen and his grandparents live in the building on the right. this is phallys dad and little cousinin the photo.

these are some random photos because i cant seem to open the folder without it crashing so im just picking them at random, might have already seen some of them. most of the photos i took at phallys village on friday were on my disposable camera so i will have to show them all to you plus i just went and got all my digital photos printed...300 of them! struth.

time to say goodbye to cambodia, i truely love this country and its people and will miss my life here greatly. i would not hesitate to come back here but for now i know where im being led. i dont know what else to say other than thankyou and i love you cambodia.

top five

im in a top five mood.......

top five things i miss about england:

1. fresh milk
2. duvets
3. broadband
4. 'lost' discussion
5. stick cricket

top five things im going to miss about cambodia:

1. 'martha' my moto
2. expat football
3. cheap dvd's
4. chinese dumpling fridays
5. speaking khmer

top five things im not going to miss about cambodia:

1. the smell
2. the dust
3. brohok (fish paste)
4. 10 year old kids driving 250cc motorbikes
5. cockroaches/toads/rats

top five things i want to do in england: (hint hint)

1. sleep
2. sleep some more
3. have a hot bath
4. have another hot bath
5. take a nap...then go to bed.

this will be my second from last post from cambodia, no doubt youll get a few from kiwiland and a couple from bangkok before i call it a day. ive almost finished packing, few other bits to do this afternoon and tomorow then i leave first thing on monday.

feel free to add your own top five lists (eg) top five questions about cambodia, top five reasons to be jealous of me going to NZ, top five presents your looking forward to buying me on my return etc. the list goes on.

Ben.

magic mystery tour

i couldnt believe it. after all how many people get to see this? i was sitting under the shade of a nearby tree after about an hour of wondering through rice fields helping phally take his cows down to the nearby stream. all you can see for miles around is palm trees and in the distance the mountains of kompong speu province with their dense cloud covering making the whole setting so ineffibly sublime. i figurd i am the luckiest man alive.

it took us about 2 1/2 hours to drive to kompong speu on my little 100cc moto and we stopped twice to fix my back innertube which is now dotted with little rubber plasters, oe for each time i drive a little too fast over a rock. i really should splash out on a new tube...but $3 is a lot of money. so with an excruciatingly numb bum, dry throat and an assortment of insect carcases splattered on my visor we made our way down the long bumpy road through village after village of peope who all seemed to be milling around not really doing anything with themselves. before we arrived at phallys house. cambodia is an agricultural country if i ever saw one and phallys parents, house, village and way of life, although wildly different to that of the city or aything i am used to in england, is typically khmer. it really was a beautiful place. after a nice big lunch and some interesting traitional tea, which supposedly can cure any disease..!, phally proceeded to point out proudly all the fields that his family owned and all the ones he himself had ploughed or planted. his parents have barely ever left kompoung speu let alone cambodia and couldnt believe it when, after answering about 100 questions, i told them how many countries i had visited in my life and how long it takes to get to england and how much it costs! not a very culturally sensitive conversation but i was only answering their questions. unfortunately i couldnt realy understand much of what they were asking me so phally worked as my translator as most of the village turned out to see the specticle. i found out later that most of them had never seen a white person before, had i known that i would have found the whole experience a lot more intimidating but as it ws i was trying to be as laid back and 'cool' as possible, which has never come easy to me but i think i just about pulled it off this time. it was a really great day which was only briefly tarnished by a flash thunder storm getting us soaked to the bone on route back to the city.

it is such a simple way of life, they have almost no income at all. in fact i didnt realise this but they grow the rice so that they have something to eat and not to sell on. i figured they sell it to make some money to buy food but they dont....they keep it and eat it for themselves, which i guess makes sense and saves a lot of running around but i was struggling to see how they can afford to buy clothes and send phally and his sister to school in the city. apparently they only work 4 months a year whilst the rain is falling, then phallys dad works in the village community programe helping people build roads and houses etc. that seems to get them through but some have it a lot harder. its an incredibly basic but hard life. i was very happy to have had the experience, it is something that will stay with me for a long time.

the night before a few friedn joined me at the green vespa for a couple of drinks to say a proper goodbye, which was pretty sad in the end. last time i will see isaac and kerry has gone to bangkok without saying anything so im not going to get the chance to see her or the kids before i go which is a real shame as i love those kids. i suppose thats another reason to come back, i have been given about a hundered reasons already. its good to know that people want you to stay it makes me realise that i have done some good here and have some good friends that will miss me. im sad but excited to be leaving. so i sipped my beer, perhaps a little too quickly, which the magic mystery tour album playing in the background and sadly confessed to glynn that this was indeed the only beatles album i dont own, finished my drink and called it a nighty. was a blast.

life moves on, things change, deal with it tucker!

adios,
Ben.

an ongoing saga

well the on going electrical blackout saga continues as the church has been without power all day, which for a sunday is obviously very inconvienient, so we spent the morning sweating in our little oven of a building and again i didnt sleep all that well!

the birthday was great yesterday. thanks for all your facebook messages! nice to know people remember me, although i couldnt help wondering how many people would have remembered if it wasnt posted on facebook, skeptical i know, and i myself am very relient on that site to remind me everyones bd's. shocking. so we had a buffet lunch at the sunway hotel with the smiths and then went to the river for drinks and some more food later which was nice although the most almighty thunder storm ive ever seen was crowding the view and making driving incredibly difficult. matt and ryan rang as we were sitting at the bar and sang happy birthday down the phone, good one guys. and i found the second half of lost season 3 at the market so was up watching that untill the wee hours...happy day/s.

today me and jen went out for lunch with nimol and meriday two of the girls who have been coming to the church for a few months, we went down to the amusment park at the south of the river where they have all these really old dangerous looking feris wheels and crazily easy baloon games. we ate khmer food which ive had a bunch of times but when the first plate os snails came out i thought to myself..'dear lord what have i gotten myself into' , i managed to polietly swallow a few and decided to wait for something a little more civilised,...what a snob i am. was nice to spend the time with those girls although i came away feeling very proud and arrogant ater getting a fair share of compliments from them, which werent unnice but certainly made me feel uncomfortable. i came away thinking 'man i need someone to humiliate me just to keep me humble' that sort of stuff can be so dengerous and i was well aware of how easily i accept and let it get top my head. pride is still my greatest battle, as i know it is with everyone. do you like me new spiritual angle? i feel very proud of it....oh crap there i go again!

last week i got a tag heuer watch from the market only to find it stop working after a day or so, which i was gutted about because it looks so genuine, only to find that it is in fact automatic and winds itself as i wear it. glynn has a book full of about 20 watches all fake rolex, tag heuer, omega etc. his borther in law uses them as incentives to get people to buy flying lessons with his flight trainning school. glynn recons you can sell the rolex watches on the ebay for 100 quid, quite a profit if your buying them here for about 8! my business mind clicked into gear as i quickly totted up how much that would be if you sold 50. silly boy was the only response i got from luc!

life goes on, only a week in phnom penh now. im feeling sad to be leaving but excited more and more about the next step.

Ben.

the boy who cried wolf

another night without power last night left me in a semi-insomniatic mood, i have, over the last few months, complained about my lack of good sleep too publically and soon realised that i sounded like a whining baby so abruptly stopped. a classic tale of the boy who cried wolf. as now i really am having trouble sleeping any complaints go without much sympathy, not that i was sleeping really well before but just that the last two nights have been my worst since being here. having said no sympathy steve said i can stay on their couch tonight, which is nice but it means im going to have to get up early to let sovath into the church...the other side of town, and yes...its my birthday tomorow which makes the whole thing just a bit more rubbish than normal. ive said it before and ill say it again but i really cant believe im going to be 20 tomorow. i remember the days of being in year 3 and looking up to the high school kids and thinking how old and cool they were only to realise when i got there the complete opposite was true. it is stranmge how time passes, im sure alot of people will say that the best years of their lives were their late teens, i not saying mine wernt but i havent lived long enough to be able to compare, all im saying is that i cant believe that tomorow i will no longer be a teenager, i can finally brush off the grumpy, lazy, 'cool' and self involved exterior that is a requirment of being in that age bracket...a new leash of life. i feel like simba roaring for the first time or slowing time and flying like Neo. classic.

so things here are going well, generally speaking, i havent got a lot of work on at the moment which has allowed me to finish off a few boopks and those horrible lingering tasks that were delegated to me last october but id been putting off hoping that everyone would forget and i would get away with not doing them. sadly my conscience wont allow such blatant disception depite it being ok with a whole bunch of much more serious moral infractions that have become part of my daily life. its funny how the soul works. i finished reading a book by philip yancey called 'dissapointment with god' whilst we were down at the beach this week. as the title suggests it wasnt the most positive personal account but was incredibly honest and full of those realities that make your heart jump a little. despite relating all too well to the 'skeptic' in the book i came away feeling very encouraged as yancey pleaded the case of 'job' and shared a little of his experience with his creator. i know i not overtly 'christian' in my blogs but sometimes i think it is such a part of who i am and the reason im here that it would be stupid not to discuss my spiritual frailties with any stranger who happens to fall upon this little corner of the inter web. i was touched and motivated after seeing 'KaKa' the AC.Milan stricker wearing a shirt saying 'i belong to jesus' after their champions league victory last week. i must admit i was cursing his talent as liverpool quickly lost their control of the game but couldnt help but admire te guy who is not only one of the best sprots men in the world but is so unashamed of what he believes that he will tell the world on international TV. it made me wonder if i would do the same when our position is swapped and i become the famous footballer i was born to be. i said when not if...

thank goodness i believe in a god of forgiveness, i wonder where id be if i didnt.

Ben.

one for the ladies

well last night was sheer torment, as it turns out the electricity on my street has been out for a few days and there is something wrong with the line under ground. apparently they are fixing it now but who knows really. unfortunately i didnt know this last night and spent much time on my knees praying god to turn the power back on, sleeping without a fan is hell on earth and i barely got any shut eye last night at all. also because the street is only a dirt road and isnt concrete it floods prett badly. last week i returned home from the market duing a pretty heavy thunder storm and was obviously soaked to the bone, i arrived to see about half a dozen people, including sothy, out on the street btrying to unblock the drains becaue the entire road was under a foot of water. sothys house competely flooded and all the drains were wide open and their contence spread out on the higher ground. the next morning, goes without saying, was a pretty smelly one for the occupants of obekom village. indeed i had top hold me nose whilst opening the gate in the morning another bummer was it was a sunday so a load of people were coming. smelly.

its going to be nice and stress free i think not having to put up with monsoon flash flooding and electic blackouts. get this...they actually publish the dates and times of the city blackouts, they have to plan them and tell the people becaue they dont have enough gererators to power the whole city all the time, again unfortunately they only publish the times in the khmer paper so even if i wanted to find out i wouldnt be able to read them. despite reaching a reasonable level of spoken language i have only learnt to write two words in khmer, a little party trick...one for the ladies.

so things are changing and im getting more impatient about geting the next 10 days over with as stress free as possible and just enjoying my two weeks in New Zealand. which i am massively looking forward to now. middle earth awaits the return of the king.

King Ben.

gurilla warfare

lost interest in blogging the last few days as we spent our time lying on sunbeds drinking milkshakes and listening to the waves crash a few feet away whilst the sun slowly ambles down beyond the horizon. jealous?

twas a good few days down in shianoukville relaxing, although the fist couple of days it rained pretty heavily and the best day was today when we left. never mind, me and jen spent most of yesterday chil;ling out on victory beach and finishing/starting various books of interest and discussing at length harrison fords many talents and deserved praises. long story. altogether it was a wel deserved break and was fully enjoyed. sadly i didnt take any pictures but jeni took a bnch so check her facebook in due course. it is also samuel smiths 11th birthday today so we stopped on the way home for icecream and they are panning some sort of party in the next few days, its all very secretive so i really dont know. the only other time theyve been so obviously secretive was when they were planning to throw a bucket of water my way after a particularly drillig day of home school way back in feburary which later caused an immense water fight involving gurilla warfare much similar to the viet cong, think about it now i got a little over excited by constantly quoting 'platoon' and running around the house with no shirt on and a knife between my teeth, twas awful fun though.

well its our (jeni and mines) birthdays on saturday and im looking forward to a flood of gifts through the post....
.... no im not that optimistic but it shold be a fun day wih an aftenoon at the sunway hoptel stuffing our faces with as much buffet as possible and no doubt a heavy dose of birthday spirit and loud toneless singing, cant wait. then a coupe of the girls from church invited us out for some khmer food in the evening which should be really nice. so its looking like its gonne be a petty good time afterall, i must confess i was feeling a little depressed thinking about the up coming departure and my birthday away from everyone and without much energy to celebate, but now after careful consideration ive decided to make an effort and get completely plastered. joke. but no doubt el vino will flow. happy days.

well off for some food....more flippin rice. ughhh
Ben.

an awkward process

just got an email from my brother titled 'leaving is mental'...indeed it is bro.

when you are a kid wherever you grow up its always the first place you want to leave. fact. ive found the older you get (not that im old) and the longer you spend away from that place the more it becomes the only place you want to be. except for me its not about a place but about the people. the only reason i want to be in that place is because that places is where those people are.

well it seems like the entire expat community is leaving cambodia in the next cuple of months. almost all the foreigners from our church are leaving for different lengths of time. and already a few people have left so we are all getting used to saying goodbye to people. as im sure most of you know this can be an awkward process if you dont know the person that well.

i went out for a drink with my friend isaac last night who i havent seen in about 2 months, it was patentially incredibly awkward but fortunately he brought a friend so we shared the responsibility of starting and holding converstion.

off to the beach on sunday, will be nice not to have anything to do but sit, read and drink beer on the sand for a few days.

Ben.

anyone could be watching

well the countdown has officially begun. i booked my flights to New Zealand yesterday, which im looking forward to, and i played my last game of expat football in which i scored the winner via a header which is a first for me! i dont think ive ever scored a header before, what a way to sign out! so i have about 17 days before i leave phnom penh and a furthur 19 before i arrive in england...just over a month! it seems strange to be saying im going home, ive been told that i will experience culture shock going back into the west which i found to be true at christmas. it feels like all ive ever known has been these past nine months and everything i did before them have been forgotten, i feel like im going to have to learn how to live in civilisation again and actually work for money...shock horror!

its been an interesting end to my time here with a few annoying things happening like getting my phone pinched. by the way if anyone has an old phone they wouldnt mind parting with when i get back in july im going to need one! i bought an old nokia from the market for $18 which is pretty cheap, even by khmer standards, none the less Sovath rubbed it in saying he only paid $16...git. and sothy has demanded that i buy a web cam so we can talk over the internet, im not altogether convinced by these web cam thingys, they are very popular here but im a bit wary...anyone could be watching.

so things are starting to slow down for me nd ive already had a feedback meeting with steve and midge, which was strange in itself. i couldnt sleep last thinking about being home and being with everyone again, there is nothing else i want more right now...except maybe two weeks in New Zealand!

thats all for now hommies, ill see y'all soon.

Bonge

the view

the view from angkor wat

the view of angkor wat.

the entry gate to bayon.

the war museum.

chris checking out the silk at the silk farm.

out on our mamoth ride through the country.

blown to pieces, a khmer rouge tank.

crumbling temple

ta prom

unbelievably the trees are growing out of the walls and off the sides. a pretty special place to visit.