February 15

Feb. 15. Went to TB and gave them pix of boy scout and Sras trip, that I had downloaded on my thumb drive. I need to have Steve do a picture of Nak and me and bring it to her.. Initiated Rattana to set up visit to Sras on March 9-10, as March 8 is Women’s Independence Holiday. It seems that the number of three day weekends rivals that of the USA. Nuong, my unsuccessful house broker who also touts herself as a fixer and nature tour guide, broke her lunch meeting with me and rescheduled for later in the day at 5:30 pm. So I did some errands. I needed to extend my visa as I was not able to get a business visa at the airport and ended up with a 20 day visa which expired on February 17th. Guess that means I have been in Cambodia for a month without Lauren, as I re-entered the day Lauren left for home on the 17th of January. I will be fined $5 a day upon leaving the Country if I do not extend. The strange part of it is to get an extension, other than paying the fee of $45, I needed to surrender my passport so it could be sent to Phnom Penh for processing which takes a week when the 3 day holiday for the Chinese New Year is accounted for. I am trusting this process !!! I have a copy of it so that when I travel to Battambang I can use the copy when checking into the hotel, which always wants to copy it. You go to a travel agent to do the extension, so while I was there I bought all of the tickets that Lyman and I need to return to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh after a week of filming there and the tickets for all three of us to leave on March 19th, with Lyman catching his flight home from Phnom Penh and us from Bangkok. I met Nuong for a beer and to hire her as a fixer to arrange for us to be able to film a traditional dance ( Aspara dance)., a shadow puppet performance and a trip to Phnom Kulan ( Mount Kulan) where there is a waterfall and a pagoda to arrange for a blessing by Monks to be filmed at the waterfall. We shall go the waterfall on Saturday and I need to figure out if we should try and film it now with Steve and save a day from our shooting schedule with L and L. I had dinner at home and ate a home made dish of pasta and Bolognese sauce that I had cooked earlier in the day. This is the first real dinner I had made for myself and I froze most of it for another night.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

January 28th and 29thy




Vaughn and I working on repairing concrete filters by scoring the concrete with a power saw and then chipping at it. It saves alot of time but the Khmer employee our friend PHala is disdainful as he would rather just sit there and chip away. I went with my friend Steve PsarKrum market to buy a bigger chisel and hammer and there I got my bicycle repaired. The repairman told me that my bike was not quality as it was made in China so I replaced the light for $2 with one made in Cambodia.
I met Steve and Vaughn for lunch down on Pub Street at a mexican joint called Viva that Chris had done some paintings for and that Scott had made a green geiko out of paper maiche. Then I bought a dish rack of sorts and then visited Se's boss Billy at This Life Cambodia. He is an Australian and more meek looking than I imagined but thinks the world of our Se and thinks he someday could be Prime Minister. Took a swim and a massage and then met an American at the spa at the Hotel Sokha Angkor where I work out. He is this tall good looking guy who helped me with to learn some neck exercises. He shocked me when he told me is 52 as he looks 30. He is here teaching dance meditation and yoga and hangs out at what is now called the Peace Cafe formerly the Singing Tree Cafe. We had dinner and he told me that he was here recovering from a very bad dump by a girlfriend that dumped him because he had a medical problem that made him seem very depressed but has turned out to be a hormonal issue. I empathized with him and moved on. I did meet Kevin ( the biologist) and his wife Beth who were in Town working with Mieko and who were looking for an apartment in Siem Reap., who came in to the restaurant for dinner while we were sitting there.

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