bodge job

i was just in the middle of writing a blog then the whole street had a power cut. that is not exactly a rare occurance these days. there was a particularly hot week couple of weeks back and there was power cuts during the night. which you would think is better but i heavily rely on fan assisted sleep, if the electricity goes out the fan stops and half an hour later you wake up in a pool of sweat wondering what happened. after an hour or so it comes back on then you fall asleep again only for the power to go out a little less than an hour leter. the craziest thing is that they actually advertise when there is going to be power cuts and in which part of town, only problem is they dont publish them in english. the city grid is run by six big generators and one of them literally blew up a while back so theyve had to do a bodge job and use the other five to compensate. fair play.

me and chris went out on another adventure yesterday. Sinar, chris's language teacher, was having a khmer new years party in the afternoon/evening. so we went out to chong cham, just outside the city the other side of the airport, to join in with the festivities. i didnt realise till after but apparently i had only been invited because chris didnt want to go on his own and chris's wife was so anti going someone had to go and i was the most obvious option. in my hunt for some genuine cultural experiences i have been roiped in to some pretty strange things the last few weeks. anyway.....so we arrived in this small little estate with all these communal houses with hundereds of naked kids running around through piles of rubbish and flies everywhere. sinars house was pretty typical and doubled up as a convenience store and language school. we hung around for a while and played a few games and watched in horror as sinar tried to get us to try some khmer dancing. it was a big of a laugh and i was actually having fun. i really wasnt releshing the thought of staying there for food, as during the thorough tour sinar gave us i made a close inspection of the cooking facilities and was convinced that there were enough viruses in their pot to go round the whole group. we scampered before the food was forced down our festive faces. i think sinar was a bit dissapointed that we left so early, the games go on all night, literally. but instead we went down to the river and joined some others for a walk and then some chinese dumplings at the new york hotel. sinar clearly had the best party in the area because he had to whites with him. and of course watching two silly foreigners try to dance to this aweful khmer pop music was enough to draw a good sized crowd. it was an interesting afternoon. i wished i had taken my camera but i cant get anymore photos up here in this internet cafe so ill try another time furthur down the road at a different place.

it was a strange little part of the city right on the outskirts and away from all the noise yet just as packed in as the centre. despite the fact that they have loads of empty fields around they all live in these tiny little rooms. one things about the khmer i like is that they are incredibly social people, they never do anything on their own. they have a good sense of community. that does mean you lose your sense of personal space and often the guys will hold your hand or touch your knee when they speak to you, its very effectionate but a little worrying at first.

i was talking to chris after on the way back to the city about what a weird place this is to live. it really is strange. everything is so foreign to my way of thinking. i would assume people want to live in their own seperate houses and that they wouldnt want to live with their parents but here they really do. the way they all eat in groups on the street corners and little packs of motos all follow each other as a large group of friends go out for the night.

im still amazed by the complexity of the culture yet the simplisity of the people and the way they live.
what a strange place.
Ben.