Xmas ramblings …..

I am completely removed from xmas being up here in my little town but i remember last year as I was in Bangkok and now reflecting back, its kinda kewl that i got to see a Thai version of xmas.

I never will forget the "jinka bells, jinka bells" carols which I have no doubts happens cos maybe the Thai language not have the "jiggle" sounds in their language

For me the 25th was a normal work day, although plenty of expats arrange to take some annual leave so as not to work. there was an expat lunch gathering for the day however i was in the nearby town of Stung Treng. i had a health sector meeting of like-minded organisations and we all discussed how our liaising with the government is going, or not going as the case might be.

Odd tv moment, as I rarely turn tv on but on English language Natural Geographic say an “asia showreal” about xmas in asia. They showed the ‘xmas elves’ of southern china as they make toys and xmas trees; meaning the factory workers and showed the competition for the design of xmas decorations in Singapore as well as a Japanese Santa going to a father xmas conference in Denmark, who gets ‘accredited’ as a quality-assured Santa who then returns to Japan to teach other Japanese Santas. The Santa debates with Japanese colleagues about how turkey is not real xmas food and everyone should eat pork, cos that was what he was told in Denmark

Bet not many of you have thought about Santa schools in Japan

Travel stories from November

Getting to KL from PP this is what I wrote, in ecstasy it must be admitted;

already so impressed with cleanliness, helpfulness and sense of expecting people to be around. My leaving Phnom Penh was curious but not stressful; the staff very unorganized and they must have had a total of about 6 flights for Saturday yet were unable to figure it out. Leaves a sense that one is pushing the staff to absolute limit, simply by showing up and expecting a flight.

On return home:

Happiness no mice!! Saw white fur on seat a few times but now kitty clearly not wanting to share my balcony even tho it would be very welcome

Last year after few weeks away when I went and lived with the nuns and then to Bangkok I had so many mice move in due to my absence. Took my months to convince the blighters I am not the sharing type …

Silly things from the travels

- I did get through customs easily with the 6 month of tablets I had with me. I had wondered how unlucky would I be if some dude decided to check my luggage. 6 months supply of naturopathy tablets to deal with intestinal issues, such as acidophilus would be close to useless for a male customs dude but in Cambodia it would seem so wealthy to have so many tablets and so would b stolen on principle. But hey, as usual there was no customs at all …..

- Brisbane with only one set of loos and over crowding at midnight was all very unwelcoming. it was a twilight zone of international airport procedures. Had to go through customs again even though only had boarded plane at Sydney. Eventually got back on identical plane and went to Kuala Lumpur

Cambo news stories worth checking out

Stories about Cambodia

Have found this terrific compiler of Cambo stories. Some people might enjoy seeing what’s happening in my backyard:

http://www.cambodia.org/news/

Game hunting African style but in my province??

This is the type of development that is coming and yet there is no land title system and so the land is being stolen rather than negotiated. Local people might actually like to join the monetary system and get into tourism but here local people have no rights; local people only know about this proposal if they saw the english paper news!

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9583

One of the Cambodian’s princesses story of her exile from her country and now she is a diplomats wife …..

http://homepage.mac.com/norodom/norodom/articles/2003/07/profileincourage.html

The international war crimes court system is at, http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/

A longer story about the first person going to trial: http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=914&Itemid=31