chaskemp's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries

chaskemp's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member chaskemp on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/chaskemp en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:27:19 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Hong Kong to Home — Hong Kong, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1185202080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1185202080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1185202080/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:27:19 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Hong Kong, China

What an incredible response I got to my last post: Cherikoff's bakery?Jul 17, 2007 04:28 EST by cherikoff (211.30.230.17) New! "My grandfather started the first Cherikoff bakery on Nathan Road as you say and I read about you wanting to get to one of the many Cherikoff bakeries now in China. Are they a quality bakery? Or is it because they still offer European specialties rather than the semi-sweet or unpalatable (for Caucasians) baked products in Chinese bakeries?"_____________________________Small world! Leslie says, "Isn't the internet a truly wonderful thing!" Saturday: Finished packing and caught the bus at 7:50 to the Star Ferry, across the harbor, through a mall, and here we are again at Tsim Chai Kee Noodle for king prawn wonton noodle soup, etc. all over again for breakfast. On the ferry on the way back, I drank a can of Nescafe coffee facing backward, watching Hong Kong Island recede ... back at GH at 10:50 for last shower, check-out, use internet, walk to the A21 bus stop 4-5 blocks from GH.  Another great bus ride and here we are at HK airport 9 hours before our flight leaves so we won't have to pay an extra day for left luggage. Really, it's no problem to be early because GH check-out time is 12 and HK is too hot for wandering for us without a shower at the end of the wander. And there is no urgency to wander because this is the 6th time we've been here since 2005 and actually, we've wandered this place many times since 1978. And, there are not many better places to be than in this airport.   Through the afternoon we had coffee at Pacific Coffee, steamed bun with BBQ pork at Lost China Snacks, child's chicken strip dinner at Popeye's, and roast duck on rice at Café de Coral. Wandered duty-free shops, Leslie sampling Rose Essentials from Bvlgari and trying to get me to put on something from Armani. Okashi Land shop has Collon Crackers - hopefully not a typo. They also sell 1000 gm bags of duck tongues (a lot of tongues, I'm thinking) - two for me please. Great gifts for someone. Maybe I'll bring a bag home for you.  The HK airport is on Lantau Island in the South China Sea and is reached via an elegant suspension bridge. In the early evening I walked to a different side of the terminal and looked out the window to see a 747 illuminated by the sun setting in clouds over the shining water and green hills beyond. To lay me downTo lay me downLet the world go by, like clouds a-streamingTo lay me downTo lay me downTo lay me downOne last timeSettled in at Gate 63 around 9pm, waiting for 11pm boarding. To lay me downOne last time I'm flying tonightAlreadyLittle girl wearing a black dress with sparkling glitter trim moon-walking backwards on the moving sidewalk running through the center of departureI'm flying, we're flyingSoonOver the dark Pacific and under the wide, black and starry sky. I have a good and simple book (The Hidden Life of Dogs), but the excitement of the departure terminal is too much.  Leslie: We're in the HK airport, again drinking coffee at Pacific Coffee, hmmmm. We had to come about 8 hours early or get tagged with another $30 US charge for our Left Luggage, so here we are.  David, remember when Thai wouldn't let you check your luggage even in 1st class several hours before your flight so you had to lug it around or pay to put it in Left Luggage? Cathay Pacific took ours cheerfully at 1:30 for our flight that departs at 11:30 tonight and said that we could have brought it as early as 6:00 am. I wonder if that's Thai's lousy service or the ever looking for another Baht BK airport? Anyway, if you have a choice, give Cathay Pacific a try.  So we'll go thru customs and immigration shortly and hang out in the Departure Lounge. We do love an airport and this one is great!! I'm going to polish my nails for the first time in a month once we get settled- I have this awesome tiny bottle of straight Japanese acetone that I bought in a little shop in Chiang Mai mall not often frequented by westerners. The girl I bought it from had to figure out from my charades what I wanted and there was no way to explain that it had to be seriously "non-green" to take off this OPI polish but she was certain her stuff was good and it's industrial strength after all. I love helpful people when traveling - it really makes things easier. So off we go again. See all of you soon. Love, Mom/Leslie Long flight. The "living earthquake" guy sitting in front of Leslie spilled his orange juice and that gave us a little drama. Food was good - this is Cathay Pacific. We assembled a "tripnic" (Leslie's word) from the snacks from this flight for the next and last flight, which is on American Airlines (the airline that sells crummy boxes of high sodium, high saturated fats, high sugar snacks).  LAX not bad this time around. Flying out of LA we start out over the Pacific - midnight black with a few sparkles from ships and LA an endless carpet of lights sparkling in the night. Coming into DFW 3:30am California time and 5:30 Texas time we can see the dawn lighting barely the sky with traces of red. The last time I saw the dawn was in Luang Prabang.  "Whole generations of westerners who went out there as soldiers, doctors, planters, journalists ... lost their hearts to these lands of the Mekong ... they are places that take over a man's soul" (from River of Time by Jon Swain, one of the last westerners out of Cambodia in 1975). Like the cashier at Tsim Chai Kee Noodle said when we said goodbye our last time there for breakfast on Saturday as we left - "See you next year, maybe." And she said, "Thank you. By-by." The garden is lush, overgrown, some roses blooming - roses, jasmine, and 4 o'clocks perfuming the night air. We're home. Good trip. Thank you. By-by.______________________________Finally, a little poetry for the last entry for this trip. By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea ...   There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;  For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say;  "Come you back, you British Soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"  Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay;  Can't you 'ear their paddles clunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?  On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin'-fishes play,  An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!   'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,  An' 'er name was Supi-Yaw-Lat jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,  An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,  An' wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:  Bloomin' idol made o' mud--  Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd--  Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud!  On the road to Mandalay ...  When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,  She'd git 'er little banjo an' she'd sing "Kulla-la-lo!"  With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek again my cheek  We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.  Elephants a-piling teak  In the sludgy, squdgy creek,  Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!  On the road to Mandalay ...  But that's all shove be'ind me -- long ago and fur away,  An' there ain't no 'buses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay;  An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells:  "If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."  No! you won't 'eed nothin' else  But them spicy garlic smells,  An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells;  On the road to Mandalay ...  I am sick 'o wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones,  An' the blasted English drizzle wakes the fever in my bones;  Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand,  An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand?  Beefy face an' grubby 'and--  Law! wot do they understand?  I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land!  On the road to Mandalay . . .   Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,  Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;  For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be--  By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;  On the road to Mandalay,  Where the old Flotilla lay,  With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!  O the road to Mandalay,  Where the flyin'-fishes play,  An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!   "Whole generations of westerners who went out there as soldiers, doctors, planters, journalists ... lost their hearts to these lands of the Mekong ... they are places that take over a man's soul" (from River of Time by Jon Swain, one of the last westerners out of Cambodia in 1975).
]]> Bangkok and Hong Kong - once more — Hong Kong, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184600580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184600580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184600580/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:19:13 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Hong Kong, China

Flew Luang Prabang (happy we to have gone to this great town) to Bangkok on Wednesday. My camera running out of power and can't find charger. A month ago someone we know was cheated out of several hundred baht by the official Bangkok taxi stand (or what appears to be official or at least the airport franchise) for a 220 baht taxi ride to Sukhumvit Road. They cheated him by telling him the standard fare was 400 baht + airport fee + toll road, so we were on alert when we got to "Taxi Meter" at BK airport. They tried to scam us and Leslie caught them out. They wanted to charge us for two taxis (which they planned on us discovering only after we arrived at our destination) because we were three people with 6 bags. When Leslie tried to question the dispatch guy about what they were planning for us he would babble nonsense at her and then say, "Okay?" - as if he spoke just a few words of English - oh sure. She would say, "No, what are you saying?" The guy would gesture incredulously at our bags like they would make the taxi more expensive to operate or something. I would say, "No, no problem - Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck?" Of course he didn't know the exact meaning of my words; but he did understand that I wasn't buying his theatrics. Then the guy walked away from us (oh, they are sooo friendly in the LOS), so I stood right between the two sitting down dispatch guys at their table - impossible to ignore - saying, "What's the plan? What's the plan? Three people, one taxi." Oh gosh, hope I wasn't being, you know, culturally offensive by standing too close to the lying cheaters. Finally we got what we wanted. Of course we spent another 70 baht for the toll road (more about that in a minute) and a 50 baht airport theft - excuse me, airport fee.  The toll road is necessary or maybe not. The next day when we left we caught a taxi from Sukhumvit back to the airport. The taxi driver missed the turn and gestured apologetically to let us know he missed it. I said, "No problem, mai pen rai." In the end we got back to the airport in about an hour - same, same and the same as it took to get from the airport - except it cost 176 baht (we gave him 200).   Back to the arrival in BK. We stayed with Jean Francois, a friend of a friend. Gracious host, very nice apartment, excellent aircon.  We went to dinner at the all-time great food court downstairs at Siam Paragon Center. We all got the rice with two things for 50 baht. My two things were tom kha and red curry. But the man behind the counter said, "Sorry, out of red curry." I said, "Okay, what's that?" pointing at a platter of what turned out to be pork (fatback, as we say in Texas) with chili and red curry paste. Then the man gave me a bowl of the last of the red curry gravy with just a little meat (I would rather have the gravy than the meat, anyway). So I ended up with rice and three things + cukes and prik nam pla for 50 baht ($1.50USD!!!). It was our last night in BK (maybe ever), so I dashed over to the grocery store and got 100 gm "Chiang Mai sausage." What a feast! They wanted 100 baht for sticky rice with mango. We'd been paying 20-40 baht, so didn't get any, which was fine because we were really full.  Here's a good thing about the crappiest airport I've ever been in (shoddy construction; poor security; institutionalized thievery; incredible waits at security; hot, crappy departure area - and if you're early, an even worse waiting area; incomprehensible signage, and a design based on making you walk past endless shops selling luxury garbage, lower-class "luxury items than, say Hong Kong airport - Bangkok is what you get with hog-wild corruption). But here's the good part: a floor below departure area there are some restaurants and at the end of the row, there is a mini-food court called the Miracle Court. They have okay (as good as anything else in the airport) rice with pork and chillis and a cold fried egg on top (you have to be an Asia traveler to appreciate the cold fried egg part) and all the prik nam pla, etc. you can eat for 30 baht. AND, you can get decent sticky rice with mango for 50 baht. There is other stuff, too, like passable espresso and Americano for 30 baht - so I had sticky rice and mango for breakfast - happy me.  Cathay Pacific flight BK to HK was typical Cathay Pacific: comfortable, decent food, nice staff.  Took bus to Mongkok MTR station, walked the 3 blocks to Sincere House where the Dragon Hostel is. They were holding the usual tiny HK GH room for us - $260 HKD/night ($29USD). It's hot here - 95F. We hung a t-shirt over the part of the window where sun was coming through, stuffed a towel between the top of the aircon to hold a sheet of paper to direct air downward, and hung a sarong over the tiny entrance area at the door to keep the aircon part of the room even smaller. Camera completely out of power.  Leslie just said, "Oh my, Charlie, we're really old to be doing this this way. We haven't changed much (in how we travel) since we were young. We just aren't taking the buses in Bangkok anymore."  We have some bad TV channels in this room. I'm surfing through and see advt for Bondi-Enema. Heavy-set middle aged man walks out of the bathroom rubbing his belly and saying, "Ahhhh" - Bondi, that's my enema.  The first clue I had about refugees was when I was 13 or 14 years old and stumbled across a book, From the Land of Silent People by Robert St. John. It amazes me that I never had a clue that great things were possible, like creating and writing that book. I never caught a dream, it never was sent my way, I never made it up on my own until so much later, until a war later, until a war's aftermath later, until Leslie. On the way to pick up dinner to have in our room I went by the open-air corner vendor to buy two large washcloths I've wanted to get since last December and the place is gone - covered with metal shutters. What? Dinner was rice and duck and rice and pork from a different corner. Duck was good, pork not great.   So after dinner I went to the Ladies Market on Tung Choi Street a block from our guesthouse. I found what I was looking for and something I wasn't looking for. In 2005 I got lost somewhere just south or barely into the New Territories and after wandering for awhile, stopped into a BBQ pork and duck place and had an excellent rice, pork, and duck plate - and took a couple of fun photos (I'm easily amused). It was a helpful stop in a long wander.  Tonight I was walking north along behind the vendors and saw an alley running off to the right and at the end of the alley, lights, and so I headed up the alley and when I got to the end (a street over), there was a nice vegetable market and then I saw that same BBQ place - a few doors off corner Soy & Sai Yee Streets. Alright! When I got back to our room I was telling Leslie about my excellent adventure (what an exciting life!) I realized that Cherikoff's Bakery (which I re-discovered in that 2005 ramble) may be somewhere near ... Cherikoff's is one of the Russian businesses (started by people fleeing Russia after the communists took over in 1917) found here and there across Hong Kong. Cherikoff's used to be on Nathan Road about a block from the old Anglican church in the area where beautiful old trees (improbably) line the road. Leslie and I used to go there a lot for coffee, sandwiches, and pastries in the 1970s and 80s. Then it was gone, replaced by a McDonalds. We'll see tomorrow if we can find Cherikoff's - after the usual, much-loved time on the Peak on HK Island.   This morning Leslie ran into one of the (wonderfully quiet) Chinese women in the room next to ours at the Dragon. Hello, how are you, etc. and when Leslie asked her where she was from the woman said, "Sveden."  We decided to have dim sum on our last full day in HK, so skipped our usual breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage, copy ham, and coffee at Mimi's Fun Ho café. We had some peanut butter and coffee in our room and took bus down Nathan Road to Star Ferry (stepping out of the bus you instantly catch the salt water smell of the harbor mixed with exhaust), magic ferry ride to Central, #15 bus up the Peak, bus back down, walk to Maxim's Palace City Hall for dim sum. Maxim's is the first place listed in Lonely Planet's "Top Five Dim Sum Restaurants" in HK - "the most raucous (and genuine) place for dim sum in Central." We had shrimp dumplings, fried taro/pork balls, shrimp rolls, sui mai and tea - and guess what?  In comparison to Arc en Ciel in Garland (Dallas suburb), at Maxim's the shrimp in the shrimp rolls were better (but not as good as what we've gotten on Lamma Island), the fried shrimp dumplings were equal in taste, the sui mai with crab roe was better, and the taro/pork balls were about the same, except smaller. So, really, one place about as good as the other. Of course the view of the HK harbor (you have to get to Maxim's early for a harbor view table) is a 1000x better than what you see outside Arc en Ciel (a sea of Toyota Camrys). Arc en Ciel is also cheaper. And to continue the heresy, I have yet to find better roast or BBQ duck or pork anywhere in Asia than what is at 1st Chinese BBQ in Richardson (another suburb) - Toyotas, burbs, education ...  We had a nice time at the dim sum place, walked to the bus stop by the "house of a 1000 orifices" (Jardine House) and caught the #15 to the top of the Peak. Everyone should ride the Peak Tram, no doubt. It's interesting and a good ride with good history, but the bus is much more scenic, cheaper, and gets you to the same place. On the Peak, we went to our favorite place, Pacific Coffee and enjoyed an unparalleled view, decent coffee, and internet with the coffee. Bus back down and found our way back to Tsim Chai Kee Noodle for king prawn wonton noodle soup, "green vegetable with oyster sauce," cream soda, and a glass of hot water (no idea what's the story on the hot water). Two soups and the rest was $39 HKD - about $5USD. Now that is better than anything you can get in Dallas at any price. Thanks, astroboy! Nice walk through a humongous mall - there are many of these in HK - Star Ferry back across the harbor, bus to Mongkok (nice talk with young woman on the bus). Leslie went to shower and I went in search of Cherikoff's Bakery. Alas, I never did find this bakery. Stopped in at another place (Taipan Bakery) and picked up some snacks and by 7-11 for milk from the Trappist Dairy - aahhh, cold, fresh milk.   Like many other guesthouses and hostels in HK, the Dragon Hostel has a number of disconnected sections, each comprised of a hallway with a small area for a fridge, water dispenser, etc., then a series of rooms off the hallway. Our current hallway has a large heart-shaped glass clock with a giant green speckled life-like (well, sort of life-like) plastic lobster on each side of the small clock face. A lobster clock - why didn't I think of that?
]]> Phnom Penh Reflections — Phnom Penh, Cambodia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183459620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183459620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183459620/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:35:10 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Reflections and random thoughts on our time in Phnom Penh. We're in Chiang Mai, but this was written in Phnom Penh and on airplane ... Song of the day: Standing on the Moon. It's raining every day.  Cooler, but still a price to pay (in sweat) for being outside. I'm to where I hate that wet back feeling. Big baby. We get pretty close to zero exercise. This is our last week in Phnom Penh. From here we are off to Bangkok for a few hours, then Chiang Mai, then Luang Prabang, back to BK, HK, and home. The first time I was in Phnom Penh I experienced it as dark and menacing. The second time it was much less negative. This time I caught the stark yin and yang of it - Hagar and the slums. HOPE and HIV. Samnang and the hangers on the corner. Chhavelith and the cops stopping random (poor) people. The sick, naked man and the man who covered him. Light and dark, kind and cruel, stark. Except for being with David, it is almost like this (time in Phnom Penh) is separate from the rhythm of my life as I imagine it might unfold in whatever comes next. Phnom Penh does not seem to be where Leslie or I fit. If we were more with patient care we would surely feel differently. Most things here (in healthcare) are seriously stuck in the past and it's like few people seem to care that 1950s style medical care and not rocking the damned boat will have little impact on what matters the most (<morbidity/mortality). And I don't have the strength to swim against the tide.  Working on the classes I taught at the hospital I used my Terminal Illness website over and over again. Also the Refugee Health site. It was almost like much of the work I did on those sites over the past few years was in anticipation of this time in Phnom Penh. On our last day at the hospital, there was a farewell lunch for Leela and me at In Many's (say In Mah-knee's) home. People there were Phalla (nurse educator, ER nurse, my best friend there), Many (hospice), Rotha (director of nursing), Hong (educator), Rassi (educator and the guy I hung out with in the office), Leela (true servant, from Amherst), and a couple I didn't know. The food was good: big hot pots of soup with meatballs, to which each person would use their chopsticks to add whatever they chose from the vegetables, noodles, beef, shrimp, cuttlefish, and then take whatever out of the pot and put it into a small individual bowl, season with pepper, chilis, salt, garlic, lime, etc., and eat it and then add some more, and so on. In a graceful gesture, Many had a new bottle of ketchup for me. For dessert we had fruit and little pumpkins stuffed with coconut jello(?). Leela and I were given some nice gifts - book, lamp, krama. It was a good party and a great way to leave.  As we left the hospital several people talked of how unusual it was for a family to volunteer together. It also was significant to people that David is Khmer. On our last evening we went to the Art Café, where David and Antone played Mozart and a French composer whose name I don't recall. Igor and Ces came by, bringing Leslie and me a beautiful bouquet. David has made some good friends here.___________________________I hear a cry of victory,Another of defeat,A scrap of age-old lullaby,Down some forgotten street. Standing on the moon,With nothing left to do,A lovely view of heaven,But I'd rather be with you.
]]> Saibidii — Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184287560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184287560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184287560/tpod.html Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:07:18 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

In the evening before we leave I take a last turn through the night market - women softly saying, "Saibidii" - "Saibidii" - "Saibidii" - Down one of the streets children at a wat are chanting in Pali so familiar for these past 25 years. I make a small purchase, negotiating with the woman wanting to make her first sale of the evening. Reaching agreement on the price I find myself 2000 kip short. "Wait me 5 minutes," I say and off I go to the restaurant where David was eating with his friends at a table on the lane. I borrow some kip from him and pay the woman 3000 more than we had agreed on, making us both happy. She takes the money and starts hitting the bills softly against her other merchandise (for luck on this night) - slap, slap, slap, slap, slap ...   Our last morning in Luang Prabang - I awake early at 4am and with not a small amount of fumbling and rustling (waking both my roomates) I manage to fix a cup of coffee and head out to sit on the veranda outside our door. Sorry, roomies, but it was worth it.  Geckos chuk-chuking. The sky is lightening as the sun comes up off to the left - misty mountains straight ahead over rooftops of various colors/shapes of tiles (red, orange, brown) and metal roofs in different colors with palms feathering the sky and clouds fluched pinkrising high and roosters greeting the day. A big drum beating slow and then faster and now traing off at a wat off to the right. Now the same drum beat straight ahead (at the wat where teenage and pre-teen monks are usually lounging around the entrance, happy to exchange greetings) and now the same drum beat repeated off to the left and roosters cranked up crowing and the pink clouds fading to grey while wood smoke drifts lightly aqnd the geckos still chuk-chuking and sparrows (tiny citizens of the world) cheeping, In the house next door a radio is playing some okay Lao pop-rock - "Baby I love you," I'm guessing. Shutters opening below - doors opening, closing in the building to the right, water running, dishes clattering, a woman and a man talking softly in early morning voices and I can smell sticky rice cooking. A couple of flights of birds flapping, flying low over the guesthouse. Dog starts barking next door.   Far off in the distance I can't tell if it's mountains or clouds or both.   Saibidii   Breakfast with Leslie, David, Ben, Magera, me - on the Mekong, of course - the Mekong rolling muddy, strong on by.   Saibidii
]]> Luang Prabang - thanks Somsai — Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184043780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184043780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1184043780/tpod.html Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:34:44 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

This may be our last post for the next week or so as we'll be traveling most of the time...From Leslie: Hello All, This is just an update from the time we left Chiang Mai, Thailand until now. The Chiang Mai airport is the Love Field of Thailand- small with easy curb access so no stress involved as there is in the huge new airport in Bangkok. There was only the lengthy wait you'd expect for the Lao Airline counter to open and the somehow impossible task of reconfirming our tickets from Laos back to Thailand. Travelers are instructed to ALWAYS reconfirm your flight, which is, of course, impossible to do by phone, and often even in person at the airport so it's hard to know what to do. But I was able to find a nice lady once we arrived at the Luang Prabang airport who took care of this pesky detail.  So off we go in an airport van to the plane which is on a remote stretch of runway. For the first time on this trip, all the other passengers ar westerners- David is the only Asian. This is a good forecast of the tourism boom in Laos which opened for tourists in 1989 so is still relatively obscure for most travelers. The plane was a prop plane with about 50 seats on it- not very reasuring when it comes to safety. When a fellow passenger asked me if I could understand the preflight safety instuctions, I told hrer it sounded like "Pray hard" to me, which I did. Charles kept trying to be reassuring by commenting that the plane was made in Germany (yeah, like during WWII as David said) and were built to last, etc, etc. At takeoff, it really felt like the pilot and crew(if there was a crew?) were peddling like crazy and the plane shuddered into flight. After the deafening roar of lift off and the beginning of the flight, it was smooth and really fine. The inflight snack was 2 sugar dusted fishsticks on croissant with chili sauce, cake and 2 lychees. Yea for lychees!!   The Luang Prabang airport is so small that there's no need for a van- you just get off the plane and walk across the landing strip to the terminal which is 1 very small building. After slowly making your way thru customs and immigration, a Toyota truck from our guesthouse picked us up. I have to sign off so will pick up later. Love to all,   LesliePlane from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang is two-engine prop ATS or something to that effect. Good flight. Flying into Luang Prabang over forested mountains and as we come closer, some forested, some cleared, some terraced with padi fields. Mekong River below, with mountains off, off into the distance and clouds. The Mekong orange/brown with silt and as we pass through mountains the river is hidden behind green, now reappearing, tiny villages along the river and we're below the mountains, below a wat on a hilltop,  coming down fast (but I'm miles above ...) and we're down and taxiing up close to a small terminal. Walk to the terminal, easy immigration.My internet friend, mozzies, recommended the Namsok Guesthouse, so before we left Chiang Mai, we emailed to reserve a room and arranged for airport pick-up. A pick-up picked us up and away we went into LP. The town is beautiful. I've only been in one UNESCO world heritage site before (Hoi An), which was nice, but this place is more than that. Almost all the buildings are French colonial or traditional Lao (wats everywhere) with wonderful greenery and flowers everywhere and all framed by mountains covered in trees and mist. A paradise!We checked into Namsok - $15 for aircon triple with hot water and fan. When we checked in David alsdo reserved a room for his friends, Ben and Magera, who were due in around 3am from Hanoi. Dinner on a veranda restaurant overlooking the Mekong - laab, chicken with chilli, amd tofu with cashews and vegetables. In the morning around 7am, Leslie was sitting on the veranda outside our room around and Ben walked up - 48 hours after leaving Hanoi to Vientienne to LP - the last 13 hours on a people's bus (where after the seats are filled, they fill the aisle as well). Ay Caramba! Ben and Magera crashed, needless to say. Leslie, David, and I had breakfast in a French cafe and while she and I walked around town, David went to the internet cafe across from our GH. Our initial impressions of LP held - nothing but beautiful buildings, plants, ahhh. Many travelers about - all ages, but mostly young and mostly European. So David was in the internet cafe across from our GH (sandals littering the entrance) and a message came in from Ben. "Where are you?" "At the internet cafe across the street from the GH." "Really? Me too." and they turned around and there they were. David and Ben and Magera hung out in Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and HK in 2005; and now in Luang Prabang in 2007. Small world. David, Ben, and Magera took off and Leslie and I had lunch on a terrace over the Mekong - roll on you mighty river. There were some people at the restaurant filming two ladyboys doing some kind of slapstick routine involving a lot of beer, throwing up over the railing, passing out on the table, and so on - except they were more like a couple of good old boys dressed up with makeup on than actual ladyboys. Leslie had spicy chicken and I had dessert: mango and sticky rice. The mango/sticky rice here is not as good as in Thailand - more rice, not as sweet, less mango. After lunch I went to the market and got more mango and Leslie went back to the room for a nap. By the time I got back, drenched in sweat, she and David were sound asleep. Sign at the bank: Please. Wearing the normal clothes. Thank so much for helpping.Breakfast with David, Ben, and Magera - on the Mekong again. Happy me. It's gotten very hot here. We're slow walking. Lunch at Indian cafe: Tika masala, garlic chicken, garlic naan, raitha for less than $7. Leslie confesses that our several meals of Indian food here are to minimize our time in the Chungking Mansions in HK - where there is excellent Indian food, but too much strangeness. "Now," she says, "The only reason to go to the Chungking is to see Anna" (the woman at the internet cafe).Really, all we've done here is hang out (and watched Wimbeldon). Tomorrow we're headed to Bangkok for one night and then HK for a couple od days, and then home. Except for leaving David, we're both ready. Leaving him is easier for all concerned, because the day we leave, his friend Brandy is coming in and will spend the next month with him in Phnom Penh and hither and yon. They are leaving Asia together, so soon, soon, we'll all be in one place again.
]]> Chiang Mai - lazy days — Chiang Mai, Thailand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183623600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183623600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183623600/tpod.html Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:04:26 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang MaiMade it from Phnom Penh to Bangkok to Chiang Mai - arriving about 3pm. Taxi to Roong Ruang Hotel where we had stayed before. Airport "taxi meter" is a rip-off - 122 baht for what should be ~60 baht. Best to walk out to airport entrance and catch tuk-tuk there. Anyway, we checked in to Roong Ruang - the room a little grotty. David pointed out that when he and I stayed there before we had spent the previous night at the grottier Midtown GH ($5 double), so the RR seemed great at the time. We had a look at a new hotel (Lanna Hotel) across the street and decided to move there the next day. Dinner at a place that serves Italian, Mexican, and other Western foods - and David showing how much he's missing Western fare after 10 months in Cambodia. He had a bacon avocado cheeseburger and immediately made plans to come back the next day for a salad. We talked of bookstores, coffee houses, spending time with friends, things of home. Comfortable night at RR and in the morning breakfast at Thai place where David and I ate several times in 2005 - scrambled eggs, toast, and Nescafe style coffee for 40 baht (about $1.20).  Moved hotels, rested, took songthaew (pick-up truck taxi) to a mall to get some things for Leslie (I left some essentials in our left luggage in BK airport). There was a small, okay food court near where we went in. Then, after walking around we found an amazing food court (amazing to me, not to Leslie). We got tom yum from two different places and in both cases it was nothing like what we expected. Mine was 35 baht (~$1USD) and had ground pork, sliced chicken, shrimp, fish balls, noodles, and all kinds of other good things, put together by a meticulous woman - don't you just love it when people take pride and care in what they do. Dave and I each got a box of sticky rice with mango (yet another obsession) for 35 baht/box - best price and best taste so far. I got another box on the way out. The sticky rice and mango was right across from the man selling "cricket little" - fried little crickets (actually, I think they were roaches), fried silk worms, and other delicacies (for someone else). Dinner at same place as before, the Art Café - salad, pizza - alright. Tomorrow, I take an all-day cooking course.  We've ended up on the same street and same block as before. Good Thai restaurant (Phon Non), Art Café, JJ's (java and juice), a bar open to the street with a pretty good band playing that old-time rock & roll, Eco-Tour, pizza place, 20 baht pad Thai street place, roti from a street cart for 10-20 baht.  Sign at entrance to the Supreme Guest House down one of the nearby sois: "No entry for drugdealers, missionaries, and pedophiles!"  Songthaew with sign on the side that says "Monkey School" - alright! Cooking class: took songthaew to a house outside of town. Class was on a covered patio behind the house. There were 10 Australians, Brits, and Irish; and 1 Korean, and 1 Texan. The Australians, etc. talked incessantly and (mostly) unintelligibly about soccer.  We each had a place to chop vegetables, etc, and a gas burner for wok and pan. (While I'm writing this into my little notebook I carry everywhere, I'm listening to the Ipod (Hotel California again) and flashing on Sophea and I rockin' with our air guitars at David's great birthday party - what a fine time.) I made or learned how to make pad Thai, panang, red & green curry, tom kha, tom yum, chicken with cashews, drunken noodles, papaya salad, and the crown of it all, sticky rice with mango. Most of these things I've made in the past, but in every case in this class, I learned something of value.  Back to the hotel for a rest, then walk down the street for some 20 baht pad Thai and 15 baht roti (with banana and sweet milk) on the sidewalk. This pad Thai place was where David and I had eaten several times before and I remembered it as the best pad Thai we'd had - but questioned my memory until we had it again: it is the best. Leslie on the phone to Cathay Pacific to change the time of our flight. When she told the agent what seats we want, he said, "Oh my God, madam!" "What?" "Those seats are not available." "Oh."  Leslie stopped in at a silver shop on Tha Phae Road to ask where she might find gold earrings similar to the ones in the shop. David and I had a good laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Oops, joke's on us. Leslie got the name of a market where there are some gold  stores, and directions, and the name of the market written in Thai. So today we walked to the Warojrot Market, which turned out to be a good market with all kinds of shops and stalls - food, gold, clothes, housewares, everyday things - and on one the streets leading to the market, plenty of quality hill tribe things. In the former times good hill tribe things could be found at the Chiang Mai night market, but now the night market is totally tourist-oriented with vast amounts of tribal copy things sold by person after person - same same, but not different. I bought a knife for fruit carving, a mesh bag for steaming sticky rice (WooHoo!), and some other everyday things. A man in the market went waay out of his way to help me find the mesh bag. Thank you.Lunch: tom kha, pat si euw, and chicken with basil. Dinner pad Thai again and roti again. Happy 4th of July. Leslie was reviewing a few of our freedoms - really a lot - from freedom to criticize our leaders to freedom to have healthy babies to freedom to go to school free. Here's to the men and women fighting for the U.S. Tomorrow we're headed to Laos - Luang Prabang - so it may be a few days before the next post. David is supposed to rendevous with his friends, Ben and Magera, who will be coming off a 36 hour bus ride - Hanoi to LP. I'm sure they'll be in good shape. Only those who've ridden Bangkok's Sky Train will have a chance at a clue what this is about (actually, nobody will get it - this is for you, Leslie): "Chitlom - Nana" 
]]> Stories from Phnom Penh — Pnom Penh, Cambodia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183102080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183102080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1183102080/tpod.html Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:26:10 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Pnom Penh, Cambodia

Finished, at last.These are not your usual travelogue entries, but they do reflect part of what we've been doing. I wrote these for Chhavelith - who can use them, change them, or not use them. Up to you, brother. Will someone (Elexa or Victoria) please send this link to Chhavelith - thanks. The second story seems dark, but within the darkness is dazzling beauty and light ..."As you know, I did not think I would be alive. I was so sick"(Chanthy's story) In her 40 years of life Chanthy has been in a forced labor camp, worked as a farmer, been a wife and mother, been a beggar, and now supports herself with a small business. She also has HIV infection and has survived multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).  Chanthy was 8 years old and living in Svay Reang Province when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. She endured forced labor, starvation, and the murder of her parents before the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown. She married young and had three children before she and her husband, a farmer, separated. By age 19, she was in Phnom Penh with three children, looking for work in construction. She and her children lived outside a temple wall, with other homeless people. There was little work for women and she ended up as a beggar, making 5,000 riel on a good day and 2,000 riel on a bad day (4,000 riel = $1 US). She met a man, also a beggar, and they set up a household against the temple wall. This man she calls her second husband beat her regularly and gambled away what little money they made, but also gave her a sort of stability - and he gave her the virus. "I learned I am infected since 1998 when my husband became sick."  Her husband died in 2000. She took care of him as diarrhea and AIDS wasting syndrome took his strength and then his life. It was at this time that the HOPE home-based care team became involved with Chanthy. "I felt sad when he died because I didn't see his face anymore ... I told his family he was dead, but nobody came to join with the funeral."  After her husband died, Chanthy continued begging, and she began gambling. But something was different. The HOPE home-based team was involved and they encouraged her to enlist in their program for widows and children. Working in a partnership with the Friends Program, they supported her, counseled her, and found a place for her to live in a slum. The counseling led her eventually to the idea of purchasing a scale (for $8) and she went from place to place weighing people for a small fee. On a good day she made 10,000 riel and on a bad day, 5,000 riel. Her situation was also improved because she was able to follow strict program guidelines, including no drinking and no gambling. Unfortunately, her HIV and tuberculosis were not well-controlled and she had difficulty working - "I was sick and coughing too much."  Counseling and treatment continued, and as her condition improved, she saw greater possibilities for herself. In 2004 she asked for and received assistance in buying a foot-powered sewing machine. With the sewing machine she was able to make bags for Friends to sell in their shop. She has been sewing for three years now and every month she is able to put some money in the bank. Chanthy has gone from begging to the bank.  Chanthy is far from wealthy or even comfortable. But her two daughters are in school - well past the age when she left school - and her son is employed. The HIV and tuberculosis are controlled and she feels good almost everyday. She ticked off what she has today: a place to live, money in the bank, a job, and clothes. "I have more power than before ... thank you so much." Nhey's StoryThis story is based on two visits to Nhey's home. Her story is dark in some respects, but also shows a reality and beauty seldom seen. When I left this woman's home I told her that Í had been thinking about her since I first met her three weeks ago. I said, I know you're like the rest of us - in some ways good, in some ways bad - and most of all, I know you have a beautiful spirit and I have been and will continue praying for you ..._____________________When we pulled out of the hospital on Bunthy'sthe way to make a home visit, there was a man, naked, emaciated, sitting in the dirt outside the gate. As we stopped, another man came out of the hospital grounds and put a patient gown around the man in the dirt and began gathering his few rags and papers. As we drove away, Bunthy said, "I remember 10 years ago when it was like this a lot" (dying people outside the gate). Nhey is 42 years old. She lives with two girls in a small house built atop an apartment building in Phnom Penh. The girls, age 10 and 11 are the daughters of a woman who took care of Nhey during the Khmer Rouge regime. After the Khmer Rouge, the women went their separate ways. Around 2002 Nhey's friend became sick with HIV and came to Phnom Penh with her daughters to live with Nhey. The woman's husband, who gave her the virus, disappeared and she does not know what happened to him.  At that time, effective antiretroviral therapy was not widely available, and the woman took about a year to die. She stayed in the small room where we were talking and during much of that year she had severe diarrhea. Nhey smiles, "I was sewing and could work at home - so I can stop and help her." Nhey keeps talking and Bunthy translates, "She feels like difficult, but she has compassion because she don't know what will happen to her in the future."  Eventually the woman became too sick to stand and Nhey carried her to what was then the only hospice in Phnom Penh. "At that time I was strong." The children were not allowed to stay with their mother and so stayed with Nhey.  In 2003 one of the woman's daughters was diagnosed with HIV and in 2004, Nhey was also diagnosed. The other daughter is negative. With help from the HOPE home care team and another organization Nhey continued caring for the girls. In 2006 Nhey's second husband died (her first husband was killed by a landmine). During the funeral, her daughter drowned. It was more than she could bear and Nhey feels that she has been mentally ill since then. She is sad and forgetful, and sometimes panics and runs confused through the streets. She cries as she talks about the two girls and what will happen to them when she dies. "Before I was strong. Now I'm weak." The weakness is only in her body ... The man who was dying outside the gate was gone when we returned.  
]]> Phnom Penh - My Life — Phnom Penh, Cambodia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181876220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181876220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181876220/tpod.html Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:08:15 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Saturday Two hours at the Russian Market. Whew, talk about hot, still air. Hopefully I'll remember to take some photos inside there this next weekend. After the market, a day of shower, rest, shower, rest ... SundayBack to the market to get some silk. Ran into two Belgians from the hospital (we're all dripping sweat). Like at home, it's always nice to unexpectedly run into people you know. Back to our room - I went downstairs for a cooking lesson from Juedi - how to make pleeah ta khorn (raw beef salad) and luc lac (fried beef). As I mentioned earlier, she is an excellent cook and is also a good teacher. After lunch, more sleeping, shower, and then I caught a tuk-tuk to the riverfront to have dinner with Chris and his wife. I met Chris on a backpacker message board (where he goes by salaygomez). He and his wife, Siv work for NGOs in the provinces - she in a food program and he in community development. It was a very nice dinner - pizza at (the notorious) Happy Herb's Pizza - but we didn't have the happy kind. Chris and his wife both very interesting - not to mention extraordinary. He is Italian/Albanian with a lifetime spent in the 3rd World and a quiet commitment to One Love. Siv is a Chinese/Khmer biologist with life experiences beyond the pale. But then it's fairly common here to meet people who are extra-ordinary. I've met some nice people on/via the internet: o  Chris - a true old Asia hando  Jo - who has a great website on Burma and who helped me so much with Burma.o  Tao - one of the co-authors of the infectious diseases book.o  Ken - my WWII Australian palAnd many more.  The tuk-tuk driver from our place to the riverfront took me through the amazing throng of people who come every Sunday evening to picnic in front of the royal palace and on the river. When traffic would stop (like about every 50 feet), there would be a press of people up against the tuk-tuk and there we'd be, inches from one another, sometimes touching, smiling at one another (girls giggling, like "Did you ever see anything like that old foreigner in the tuk-tuk?). All the way around, a good scene. Tuesday Pho for breakfast (allllright!) and on to the hospital. I talked some with Jana (say yana), a volunteer NP from Connecticut, who is here with her daughter, Molly, who graduated from Berkeley this year. Then I caught a ride to the hospice to see if I could do something with patients, but when I got there my contact, Mony was not there. So I caught another ride to the Community Resources Center and did some writing for Chhavelith. I hope what I did was what he wanted. When he and I were leaving he stopped to talk with a girl. I thought there was something special about her and the way she was interacting with him and I asked him about her. That's how I learned what follows (he told me part and another man told me part). A true story: back around 1997 there was a man working in HIV/AIDS outreach here in Phnom Penh. He found a woman very sick with AIDS and got her into a public hospital. When he came to the hospital to follow-up on her (follow-up - a man after my own heart) he found her alone in a room with no care, nobody to clean her or feed her. Her 2 year-old daughter was with her, and when the hospital would bring the woman food, the little girl would feed her mother the best she could. The man came back a day or two later and the woman was gone. He went looking for her and found her and her daughter sleeping outside a railroad station. "She was very skinny and small."  He took her to Hope, where she and her daughter stayed for a year before the woman died. At that time there were no services for children with HIV, so the man's mother-in-law took the little girl into her home. Shortly after that, Hope started the child on what was then called "highly active antiretroviral treatment" (HAART) and is now called ART. The drugs were very expensive at that time and were paid for by "...an American. He lives in Japan."  The man's mother-in-law died in 2001 - about a year after he and his wife were married. So a year after getting married, they were given a family of his wife's two siblings and the little girl with HIV, who was 6 or 7 at the time.  The man said, "She was a good girl ... respectful ...not the one who always complain ... we always trained her how to independence."  "At that time she's not good in school ... because of her sickness" (2001-2002). After 1-2 years she improved and started doing better in school. Her grades improved to "fair and good, never low ... At that time I sent her to drawing school." About a month from now the girl will go to Thailand to receive an award for her art through Japan UNESCO. The girl is now 12 years old and in grade 6. First-line ART is no longer effective and she has started on 2nd line.  Cambodia (Hearts of Fire)!I wonder why. Why did Bunthy's M-I-L see the child? Why did Bunthy and his wife see the child? Why did Chhavelith see the mother and child?Lunch with Leslie, David, and several other volunteers. After lunch Leslie and I went back to the hospice where I was scheduled to teach from 2-4. Surprise, I was only scheduled to teach from 3-4. Dooh! I went upstairs to see patients for a few minutes and then came back down to talk with Leslie, the Agape social worker and Bounthy, the hospice social worker (the man who adopted the child). Man, I'm moving in high places and I'm not kidding. I pressed Bounthy for details on the adoption ... Praise with elationPraise every morningLovely creationOf the New Day. Upstairs in hospice there was a very thin young woman, close to death (actually everyone there is very thin). Her brother was sitting beside her bed and they were holding hands. Maybe half the patients had family members there. Some were in chairs (like what we would think of as lawn chairs), some on mats beside the patient beds, and some on the beds with the patients. There are three beds/room (except isolation) and all the rooms have a fan (no aircon). Many, the hospice nurse said this, but I don't remember the exact context: "Oh my God - I very cry for her!" We had the class on pain management and after class David came over with Jana and Molly for them to see the hospice. Afterwards we all rode in the same van to our respective places. Molly told us she taught at an elementary school (after assisting in a mastectomy that morning) before they came over to hospice, except she didn't really teach - just hung out with 5-6 Cambodian girls, having a good time and sweating (no electricity in the school today). The girls wanted to have a sleepover with Molly. One of the things I'm reflecting on is the mission of Baylor University, where I work. It includes something like this, "to prepare young men and women for worldwide service and leadership." I've always agreed with that mission and thought it important, and now I feel it deep and strong - the incredible importance of such a mission in a world so broken and hurting. From Baylor to Berkeley, on the same road. Dinner, as usual, was David, Leslie, Mony, Samnang (except he only takes rice and tea because of sickness), and me. Tonight we had beef with oyster sauce and Chinese broccoli, a great sour soup with chicken, and rice. After dinner we had dragon fruit and mangosteen - the latter emerging as my favorite fruit. Eating with this family is like a tour (de force) through classic Khmer cuisine. And the fruit! It's an extravaganza and so much better than last time, when we had more oily curry than we wanted and assorted okay street food, except the fresh corn was better than okay. Back to our room with David. The three of us together (like Leslie said last December), "piled up like bunnies." Mony (the 10 year old girl, not the hospice nurse) came by to hang out, so now Leslie, David, Mony, and I are sitting in our room with the three of them listening to music and I'm writing this and it's all so good. Praise with elationPraise every morningLovely creationOf the New Day. Vanida flying in tomorrow from Laos. Good times.
]]> Phnom Penh - 3rd week — Phnom Penh, Cambodia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1182591600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1182591600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1182591600/tpod.html Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:34:10 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Friday Rain, at last, rain. We've had two hot, dry weeks after starting out with rain every day in Hong Kong, Burma, and Thailand. In the middle of one still night in Bangkok I got up to go to the bathroom and through the open window overlooking the front of the house could hear the rain off in the distance coming closer and closer and I stood by the window listening and then it was raining hard into the window.  Today when we left work the skies were heavy with dark clouds. In a few blocks it was raining harder and harder - a huge storm and the electric in the van went out but it kept going and we were home in the downpour. Five hours later it was still coming down. For the first time since we left home, we're truly cool. Night -Night. Hak Nam - a place in the Walled City - Just finished Idoru for 3rd time. Saturday Vanida flew in from BK via Luang Prabang today. She said she was coming in at 9am, but at breakfast Davie said the Air Asia flight BK-PP always comes in at 8, so I hurried away on a moto - which got lost and then the transmission started slipping so we crept along the side of the road and got to the airport after 9. Vanida was already outside. We got a tuk-tuk to the Okay Guesthouse (where David stayed for awhile). Her room was fine and after checking in we went for a walk along the river right above where the Tonle Sap River intersects with the mighty Mekong. We ended up at the National Museum - a beautiful building full of religious and cultural artifacts. Then we took a tuk-tuk to the Russian Market, walked around in the heat and then to where Leslie and I stay. We ended up back at the Okay, having a good lunch of curry, ginger chicken and spring rolls. I came back to our room and we got dressed for part 1 of David's birthday party. Sokhom, Juedi, Mony, and Sophea were dressed up and had had their hair done. We had classic Khmer curry (except less oil and fish sauce) with cool noodles, pickled vegetables, and French bread; then cake and fruit. At the table were Samnang, Leslie, David, Mony, and Sophea. Sophea sat next to me, which was nice, because she finally began talking some. Much of the dinner was filmed so there is a film record of my less than good hair blowing in the wind of the fan right behind me. That was just great.  The party ended with karaoke - the first time for Leslie (duet with Mony - "Oh Carol, I am but a fool. Darling I love you, though you treat me cruel") and the first time for me (Hotel California with (air) guitars by 9 year old Sophea and 62 year old me). It was a great party. After that party it was of to the Intercontinental Hotel where some of David's friends came for part 2. It was an international gathering for sure:o Jenny and her 17 year old daughter Jane are Chinese from Indonesia. They live at the hotel so that Jane will be safe while Jenny is working late or out of town.o Andrea is a missionary from the U.S. and has been here for >3 years. o Rith and Sophea are from Cambodia, both working in travel industry.o David is Khmer-American.o Leslie and I are from Texas.o Ces is from the Philippines and works as an HIV/AIDS prevention consultant.o Igor, Sheila, and Kial (short for Ezekial) are the band Blue Avenue - they play 6 nights a week at the hotel and live there as well. Good band, nice people. It was another good time and everyone was very nice. I was touched by Jenny saying that their living situation was the best ever (since she and Jane started on their own >16 years ago) because of Igor, Sheila, and Kial, who have watched over and been friendly and kind to Jane.  Sunday Another day of showers and naps - simple pleasures for simple people. That night we had dinner with Dan, Elexa, and Cornelia. Dan is the new hospital director, Elexa is his wife and works in administration, and Cornelia is a surgeon from Switzerland. It was a warm and stimulating evening. Elexa came to the U.S. when she was 12, speaking no English. Her brother taught her to say, when she didn't know what the other person was saying, "You bet!" or "So what?"  At one point, Cornelia, who had been in Rwanda right after the slaughters, said (I wrote this down right after she said it), "It's very difficult working in a genocide situation." When she said it, it was EXACTLY like an old vet saying, "It was a hell of a battle." Her time in Rwanda had a huge effect on her and out of her experiences there, has ended up here for 7 years, committed to the mission of HOPEworldwide - bringing hope, of course. Anyway, there we were in high company again. You Bet! Monday Monday was the Queen Mother's birthday so we worked half a day. We had lunch at a small patio restaurant (dog sleeping next to a table, the works) on a corner near the market. Some children came by to beg and we finally moved away from the edge of the patio - did I write something about "no more turning away" the other day? One of the waiters then gently shooed the children away, but of course they came right back. A few more people came in the restaurant and the waiter kicked the dog out of the way, which gave a loud cry. Leslie immediately said/almost shouted in a very loud voice, "Stop that!" In a quiet, strained voice, I said, "Leslie, don't." Later, David said he was shocked when:o The man kicked the dog. o Leslie said, "Stop that!" o He realized that at first, he agreed with me. And that's Cambodia for you. David also pointed out that awhile back I intervened when a woman was whipping a boy. Busybodies. This week I'm working on some planning and resource development things for palliative care and for Nursing Service. It's interesting and exciting - tremendous potential here at Hope.Random notes: It feels so good to leave our room and leave the aircon on and come back 30 minutes later to a dark, cold room. Ahhhhh. Traffic signals, lanes, and so on are just suggestions. When drivers come to an intersection they never stop to check oncoming traffic - just move on through the intersection adjusting as they go. Big things trump little things - from the bottom up: pedestrians, bicycles, xyclos, motos, tuk-tuks, cars, SUVs, trucks ... the bigger always has the right of way - until the smaller gets an edge, and then, like sparrows, the motos or whatever, flood through. The other day two small children on foot were stuck in the middle of an intersection and car after car pressing by them and nobody letting them by until Dara, the best hospital driver, stopped, beeped at them and let them walk in front of us. Good work, Dara. Fruit we've eaten this time around: soursop, mango, dragon fruit, mangosteen (my favorite), lychee, watermelon, longan, papaya, rambutan, banana, grapes, jackfruit, guava, pomelo, apple, and a couple I have no idea what the names are. Our room has about a queen-size bed with 2 feet between the wall and foot, 4 feet between the wall and bed on the side and up against the wall on the other side and the head. In the evenings for about the past week Leslie, David, and I have been piled up like bunnies. Every evening Mony comes in for about 30 minutes and snuggles up next to Leslie. David is on the other side and I'm at the foot. One night David's electricity was off and he stayed with us - these are good times. I'm in an internet café right now, hot, no fan, raining outside. WednesdayPicked up Vanida at the Okay GH on the way to work (she's just back from 2 days at Angkor). She spent the day at the hospital, touring the hospital with me, then Leela. Vanida went to lunch with Leslie, David, Miriam, and me at Hagar (lettuce, clean, safe lettuce). Leslie and Miriam are two peas in a pod - so much in common - justice, quality, etc. Too bad Leslie hasn't been placed with Miriam in infectious diseases. Back to hospital where I did a SWOT analysis (thanks, Carol), which very well.  And speaking of people with things in common - Phalla is the person I work with the most. She and I have very close values and aspirations. Seldom have I had a better working partner. 
]]> Phnom Penh (2) — Phnom Penh, Cambodia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181538480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181538480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chaskemp/asia2007/1181538480/tpod.html Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:26:37 -0400 Back to Southeast Asia again!

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Phnom Penh (Wednesday) Worked all morning getting ready for meeting this afternoon. Like in the classes yesterday there were two primary themes in the meeting: compassion for the poor and pride in themselves and their hospital. From some notes I took: "Very poor ... we cannot accept ... very, very sad. I want to help the person who is dying and cannot speak ... maybe they want to say something before they die (but we don't know how) ... they want to go back home, but cannot. No family to care ... poor ... no food ... no one to help to the toilet ... he has a house (apartment on 4th floor), but unable to go up the stairs ... patient hopeless/end stage so stays here until she dies. I want to help poor people. I love this hospital - helping the poor. My heart just pours out for the hospital ... faithful to the hospital ... faithful to the poor people." After work I walked up to the internet café while Leslie stayed in our room waiting for Linda to come and work on immigration papers. When I was finished, I went by Linda's and discovered that she had not gone to our room to see Leslie because her grandfather is sick with a liver problem for which the doctor said nothing else could be done (it turns out he has liver cancer). And there he was, half sitting, half lying in kind of a chair outside their house with family all around. He was cachectic and too weak to stand. Linda said, "We want to cry, but cannot in front of him" (because he might lose hope). Thursday: I worked fast this morning to get ready for afternoon class. I remembered as I worked that the woman for whom the ceremony was being held at the crematory when we were there had killed herself.  Friday: Cambodian pho for breakfast - excellent as always. On the way to work stopped at the Central Market to buy some shirts (3 shirts for $7). Spent the morning working on a report on the 1st week's activities. Went back to Hagar for lunch (the place where they help people in tough situations learn food service). While we were there I saw someone in a t-shirt that said "I Am Not For Sale." After lunch we went to ... Community Resources Center (CRC) - Ahhhh, home at last. We walk through the waiting area where people are waiting for direct observed therapy (DOT) for TB and up (of course, what else) 3 flights of stairs. When we get to the top we talk for a few minutes with Chhanvileth and some other people on the HIV home care team. We all reflect on the photograph of the team member who died from AIDS 2 weeks ago - these moments of reflection seemed deliberate and important. Then (of course, what else) the plan was for us to go back downstairs for a tour and then (of course, what else) back up for a meeting with the medical director and Chhanvileth. Leslie passed on the down and up plan. I went down and saw some of the people I met earlier this week - still today, taking care of people with HIV and TB. Then back up (have I mentioned that Asia is all about hiking up stairs?) to meet with the medical director and Chhanvileth. It was a good meeting - Leslie and I will both work with home care, infectious disease, and hospice staff and some with patients. So everything seems to be coming together perfectly. Now we're at a farewell event for the outgoing director and his wife. We're in an auditorium that gets pretty warm about 4 minutes into the festivities. It all begins with a blessing flowers dance and just a few moments into the hypnotic dance I click well and truly into Cambodia. It's not just the dancers, but the day of writing about what staff said to me, lunch with David, Leslie, and Gerlinda, the time at CRC ... Cambodia! After blessing flowers there is some folk dancing (blessing flowers is a formal court dance). All the dancing is the best I've seen - no surprise, this being Cambodia and all. Some of the music is recorded and some from gamelan and the dancers as well. At the end of the dancing we learn that the dancers (~30) are orphans. Cambodia! I'm sitting on a row that goes like this: me; my son David on his journey through Cambodia; Miriam, a quick, funny internist from Germany who has worked here for several years; Ian, an Australian CPA whose ongoing mission across Asia is to balance the books; and Leslie, ah, Leslie. All the speakers at the event are men except for Karen (the director's wife) who speaks for <1 minute. Hmmm.... It's evening, 7:30. We're at the Art Café with Leslie, me, Igor (Filipino singer), and Cec (Filipina HIV educator), listening to David and Antone playing a Mozart duet - geckos on the wall, hunting mosquitoes, Bia Lao ... Cambodia!  
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