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 17, 2010

Lauren departs, I am now on my own



Lauren and I spent our last night together in Bangkok, before we headed out in different directions with me returning to Seim Reap and Lauren heading back to US. The transition from this idyllic island beach life of hammock time, swimming, snorkeling and sunning to the big city life of Bangkok was a shock. In the morning on the beach and in the evening drinks at the highest building in Bangkok the top of the Banyan Tree Hotel, the Vertigo bar. The view was breathtaking and the only regret was that we had no camera!! I was looking forward to our last night together without Lauren seeing life through her lens but I do regret we did not have any photos to post her of the amazing City which appears to be larger than Manhattan.
We said our goodbyes at the airport as Lauren headed through one immigration queue and I to another. It was tearful and heartfelt as this has been an amazing bonding experience and I am now left with a significant a responsibility to continue the research of our emerging new documentary. To make it happen. If we do not feel that we have enough substance and compelling message to tell with compelling characters then Lauren is threatening not to return. But I am confident we can put it together.
I am settling into my apartment and did a big shop at the expat super market and it felt like I was at Whole "Paycheck" Foods. It is fun to get myself established in such a foreign environment but not that hard as I know enough people if I need help. My next job is the get an internet connection in the apartment so I do not need to sit in a bar and drink 50 cent drafts to access WiFi. Tomorrow I begin to do volunteer work to build bio sand water filters for an NGO called Trailblazers. So this is my first day and evening on my own in Siem Reap. The best news is that I have hot water in my shower if I let it run for awhile.
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