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.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

February 4 and 5




Way behind in my blog and I apologize. Took a few photos of fishing boats in front of the hotel on the Mekong in Phnom Penh; and wishing Lauren would be with me to give me a few pointers as I was trying to catch the sun breaking through the cloud cover; and at the same time enjoying the struggle to learn on my own.
Flew back to Siem Reap and now such an old pro I took a tuk tuk home to my apartment and the driver spoke good english and was complaining that he was down on his luck and not getting much work and in desperation want to the airport. I paid him $4.
Friday I went to work sifting sand at Trailblazers and was by myself there with no other volunteers;and so decided to try and do a sand sculpture with my sifting as you can see by the photo.
Later took a 30 lap swim workout in the Sokhar pool and arrived for drinks with my interviewee for the day Damian Evans a bit perspiry. He is an archaeologist from the University of Sydney who is an expert on the Ankorian water system which he says is unparalled in world history in its sophistication for pre industrial man. He is an important contact and a handsome and personable Aussie and will add credibility to our film.
I went then to Quiz night at Rosy's guest house and was on a team with Chris and Scott and a new 23 year old intern named Dale. We did not win but did OK and it was fun. Missed where the tallest building in the world is ( right answer Dubai, we guessed KL) and did not know that John Dory was a bird . Then headed out with the boys to the X bar but they did not show up, or as I later found out they were on the tippity top crow's nest of this roof top bar where the cognoscenti go. Wonder why I was not there!!
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