Cambodia #4

The floating village, not too far from Siem Reap in Cambodia.

below: Jason on the porch of the Community Leader's family home.

Jason caught some fish.

the sorry fish..

another catch of the day, Jason tried but said

he wasn't keen on eating snail. Here cooked in

coconut milk and Lemon grass.. (did you know

that snails are one of Birgit's favourite friendly

animals....?)

our captain asleep in the boat's hammock ..

Cambodia #3

above two photos of Birgit's fledgling polaroid project.

Putting an end to taking photos and not sharing photos.

Unfortunately the polaroid camera is broken and the bottom

of each photograph has a big black area on it. But

nobody minds that. How rarely does anyone these

days see a polaroid photo of themselves... So it remains

magic and a novelty, even with the black mark. ;)

Cambodia #2

every morning at 6.30am we get our wake-up call..

chainsaw applied to roofing tile.. no better way

than this to ensure everybody within a mile radius

will be wide awake come 7am..

And if that's not enough the loudspeakers blaring

music or buddhist chants surely will do the trick..

The rooster get's up half an hour after the cacophony

begins - too late mate.. we are awake..

p.s safety harness? don't be silly...

(seriously we sometimes can't watch this man,

one wrong step and he'd be off the roof...)

Below is Birgit's friend Nakry at the Silk Farm

where he works as a guide. Jason learnt how

weaving patterns works.. Or at least we both got

a rough idea.. All very very detailed and precise,

one thread missed and a week's work will be ruined,

which will also mean no wages for the weaver, as they

are paid per finished piece of silk..

Below: a decadent treat of a fully western priced Cafe Latte,

(at a hotel called Elephant Terrace, where we get great internet,

but we've only just come here for the second time today - too

expensive for regular visits..)

but Jason says it was worth it, coming from him that was a big

compliment as really he normally refuses to pay more than

50cents for a coffee here...

The Angkor Photography Festival (in Siem Reap),

everybody lined up looking up at a large projection

screen, ready for the evening's slideshow, showcasing

a selection of 15-20 photographers from all

around the world, with a focus on Asian

Photographers. This weeklong program of exhibition

openings at local galleries and hotels plus these open

air slideshows staged every evening is coming to an end

with one final slideshow presentation and end of festival

celebration tonight.

below: one evening of exhibition openings at the

Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap, part of the Angkor

Photography Festival, a unique annual event.

below: a frog in a presentation bowl of folded lotus flowers..

..and Jason having an eye to eye with the frog...

joining Noung on a trip to a local village that

the NGO organization she works for supports:

HUSK turning Landfill into a Classroom...:

the below photograph shows a rice field, which was

destroyed during the month long, one meter high,

flooding (september-october).

The villagers here can only grow one crop of rice per year,

losing this harvest means that they will be without the

necessary rice to support themselves through the year!

the below grandmother has severely impaired

vision, her children bring recycling to her to fill

recycled bottles with. Husk offer a reward scheme

which will offer rice, cooking oil, blankets, mosquito

nets in return for set numbers of recycled bottles

filled with garbage. These bottles are then used in

a project that builds a school building with these

bottles.. (similar to this: xxx )

http://webecoist.com/2011/05/06/drink-it-in-14-buildings-made-from-plastic-bottles/

Cambodia #1

flashback to Thailand:

Siem Reap / settled in

We have settled in and are making local friends, attending the Angkor Photography Festival slideshows every evening, last night we also squeezed in an annually performed shadow puppet play.. The weather is hot and most days we spend around $4 on food each, although today we blew the bank with a couple of small meals that cost that much ($4) for just one meal each, sadly the offerings were tiny.. But tasty.

Happy and content.

And mostly healthy, Jason = very healthy, Birgit = chest infection with coughs.. (which made for a boring week, spent mostly in bed recovering.)

reincarnation

one life a monk, another life a dog..?

We got Jason a memory card to use in my camera and

I'll upload some of his photographs once we have wifi

in Cambodia. We are setting off tomorrow evening and

should reach Bangkok around 5am local time (tuesday)

and Siem Reap in Cambodia anytime between the same

day early evening or the following day afternoon (wednesday).

Overland travel...

Birgit took some polaroids to share with these local girls who were

putting on a traditional Hilltribe display at Doi Suithep Temple.

Jason took some great photographs of the girls, we'll upload them soon.

catching up with the past weeks Bangkok to Chiang Mai

below you can see some of the photographs of the last days in Bangkok,

our departure and arriving in Chiang Mai.

And some Chiang Mai photographs, too.

and here is how Heng's place has been since september... This is his home and workplace, a shop. He has lost a lot of property to the flood damage. The fridge is just the tip of the ice berg... We hope he is ok at the moment with increased flood height and more flooding potentially to reach this area.

Bishnu and his friend and his colleague. This is a young guy from Nepal, who looked really quite concerned as we were leaving and he had to stay in Bangkok with at that time a lot of uncertainty about the upcoming flooding situation.

So far this area hasn't been too badly affected.

Although it wasn't entirely dry either..

AT Mo Chit bus station, it was pretty full, many people took the opportunity

to take precaution and visit family, friends or other outside of Bangkok.

as we were leaving Bangkok some streets had become shallow waterways..

In the background you can just see the mechanics building boats..

morning arrival in Chiang Mai, renting bicycles.

first fruit shake in Chiang Mai at a cafe/bar run by a Greek guy.

It was quite a relief to be out of Bangkok and certain to be able to stay

dry..

getting up early means much better chances of meeting roosters.

we bought custard apples and some good oranges from this man.

Tesco is invading everywhere.

Kay demonstrating abdominal massage for us.

before lunch

after lunch

tallest bamboo in the hills around Chiang Mai.