Well, 3 months have literally flown by, and tomorrow is going home day. CARE have an MIS that does most of what they want, including the 8 pages of changes from mid last week. They will start entering data into it and testing it out over the next few months, and hopefuly it proves useful.
I get on a plane tomorrow, happily via Changi rather than Bangkok, although there are consistent 2-hour waits between each flight. Still, better have a safe transfer time margin than miss a plane.
Still have to finish packing - despite sending 20kg back by courier, I'm not sure if I'll make it under the baggage limit (which has a lowest common denominator of 20kg). Also have no way to weigh the bags pre-airport, so hopefully no surprises.
Has been a great trip, and I would recommend this mode of "holiday" (extended stay, volunteer overseas) very highly to everyone and anyone. Cambodia too is a great place - visit it.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
2008-11-26 - FedEx
Today I finally took the 2x 10kg boxes full of souvenirs I had acquired to the FedEx office. Also coming along for the ride was one of those triangular FedEx tubes, containing some rolled-up canvas paintings and drawings, also souvenirs. I had acquired the boxes and tube on previous visits to the FedEx office – they give them out for free, not the case in Oz I’m fairly sure. They are nice sturdy boxes too, except that the glued together flaps in the bottom come apart instantly, although the box remains structurally sound.
I knew the boxes would cost US$120 each to send – not cheap, but sadly still better than excess baggage charges by a long way. Tube pricing was unknown.
After weighing the boxes and shuffling some stuff from one to the other to get them both to 10kg, they told me I had to fill out one waybill for each box – they can’t sent multiple boxes on the same waybill for some reason. Also had to complete multiple invoice thingos that listed what was in each box, including number of items and value of each item (they assume I can remember these things).
Then they tell me that the tube, which weighs about 4kg, will cost US$140+ to send – are they sure – yes – how come – because it has a large volume – but the box is bigger and weighs more – the box is special - uha. So the paintings are getting carried on the plane.
After this they tell me that both the remaining boxes cannot have the same sender / receiver names on the waybills – no idea why, though it best not to ask. So then I had to change one sender address to the office here (I was using the guesthouse address), and different names at home too.
After all that, they look up a big book of FedEx rules or something, and it says they cannot ship “personal effects” to Australia. They then go out the back to check, and apparently this is incorrect or ignorable.
After all that, finally paid the money and got the customer copy of the waybills. We shall see if the boxes actually arrive…..
I knew the boxes would cost US$120 each to send – not cheap, but sadly still better than excess baggage charges by a long way. Tube pricing was unknown.
After weighing the boxes and shuffling some stuff from one to the other to get them both to 10kg, they told me I had to fill out one waybill for each box – they can’t sent multiple boxes on the same waybill for some reason. Also had to complete multiple invoice thingos that listed what was in each box, including number of items and value of each item (they assume I can remember these things).
Then they tell me that the tube, which weighs about 4kg, will cost US$140+ to send – are they sure – yes – how come – because it has a large volume – but the box is bigger and weighs more – the box is special - uha. So the paintings are getting carried on the plane.
After this they tell me that both the remaining boxes cannot have the same sender / receiver names on the waybills – no idea why, though it best not to ask. So then I had to change one sender address to the office here (I was using the guesthouse address), and different names at home too.
After all that, they look up a big book of FedEx rules or something, and it says they cannot ship “personal effects” to Australia. They then go out the back to check, and apparently this is incorrect or ignorable.
After all that, finally paid the money and got the customer copy of the waybills. We shall see if the boxes actually arrive…..
Sunday, November 23, 2008
2008-11-24 - Thear's Moto
The guesthouse night shift guy, whose name is Thear, has a moto. It’s a ~2004 Suzuki Viva or something – approx 100cc, and very common here. There is a bit of an ongoing saga about this moto.
It all started when I noticed he would arrive in the evenings on a moto-taxi, and leave on another one the next day. Asking how much this cost, the answer was 10,000 riel per day, or about $75 per month (all the guesthouse guys and gals work 7 days a week). When you compare this to the average monthly salary of under $100 / month, there is not a lot left. He tells me the rest goes to his mother for family expenses.
About a month and a half ago he was at work looking quite wobbly, and when I asked him if he was sick he showed me some unpleasant injuries from where the moto taxi was in an accident a previous day – some nice deep scrapes and some largeish burns on the back of a leg, where the moto exhaust had landed on him. He also showed me his scars from previous moto accidents.
A day or two after that he is looking even worse, and tells me he has a fever and can’t sleep. He’s not gone to the doctor because he has no money, and I’m thinking infection from the cuts, so I gave him a few bucks and told him to go to the doc. He does, gets some drugs as well, and heals up.
Sometime after this, I asked him how much it would cost to get to work and back if he had a moto – about 4000 riel in fuel (1L), or in other words $30 per month. This is a substantial income gain ($45 per month, or about ½ his salary), so I ask if he has a moto – turns out he does, but after a previous crash (he is somewhat accident prone it seems) it was not rideable and so was sitting unused at home. There is no money for repairs, as most of his salary goes on moto taxis to work, and the rest towards bills – their power bill back home is large as their house floods every time it rains, and they have to pump it out. The required repairs would allegedly cost $50.
So then I say, what if I lend you $50, you fix your moto, ride it to work instead of the moto taxi, and then in one month you will have saved $50 in taxi costs and can pay me back. He likes the maths and we do the deal. In the following days as the moto is fixed, it turns out the repairs will cost another $20, so the loan is extended.
It takes a week to fix his moto, and then it appears at the guesthouse. What also appears is that it has no tail light (more accident damage, $15 to replace), no instrument cluster (just some black plastic covering the hole where it should be, $25 to replace), and no license plate or registration ($35). He is afraid of riding it to work, as he could get pulled over and fined – rightly so too – the police fairly often set up little roadside checks and pull over suspect bikes.
In the end, I shouted him a tail light, but still no instruments (needed for rego) or rego itself. He did indeed get pulled over too, so there was a $30 fine. The fines are on the spot, so he got to stay with the nice policeman until his mother arrived with the $30.
The current situation is that, while the family does get some benefit from the moto by using it instead of moto taxis around where they live (no police checks there – outskirts of town), Thear is still getting moto taxis to work. Am not too sure if I’ll get paid back, but that’s not really too important.
Amusingly, he also tells me he doesn’t like the moto because it is too old and he has had lots of accidents on it. I told him that it’s fine (a lot newer than my 28-year old car), he should learn how to ride better, and he complains too much. He rejects this assertion.
If anyone wants to contribute to the Thear’s moto fund, let me know:-)
It all started when I noticed he would arrive in the evenings on a moto-taxi, and leave on another one the next day. Asking how much this cost, the answer was 10,000 riel per day, or about $75 per month (all the guesthouse guys and gals work 7 days a week). When you compare this to the average monthly salary of under $100 / month, there is not a lot left. He tells me the rest goes to his mother for family expenses.
About a month and a half ago he was at work looking quite wobbly, and when I asked him if he was sick he showed me some unpleasant injuries from where the moto taxi was in an accident a previous day – some nice deep scrapes and some largeish burns on the back of a leg, where the moto exhaust had landed on him. He also showed me his scars from previous moto accidents.
A day or two after that he is looking even worse, and tells me he has a fever and can’t sleep. He’s not gone to the doctor because he has no money, and I’m thinking infection from the cuts, so I gave him a few bucks and told him to go to the doc. He does, gets some drugs as well, and heals up.
Sometime after this, I asked him how much it would cost to get to work and back if he had a moto – about 4000 riel in fuel (1L), or in other words $30 per month. This is a substantial income gain ($45 per month, or about ½ his salary), so I ask if he has a moto – turns out he does, but after a previous crash (he is somewhat accident prone it seems) it was not rideable and so was sitting unused at home. There is no money for repairs, as most of his salary goes on moto taxis to work, and the rest towards bills – their power bill back home is large as their house floods every time it rains, and they have to pump it out. The required repairs would allegedly cost $50.
So then I say, what if I lend you $50, you fix your moto, ride it to work instead of the moto taxi, and then in one month you will have saved $50 in taxi costs and can pay me back. He likes the maths and we do the deal. In the following days as the moto is fixed, it turns out the repairs will cost another $20, so the loan is extended.
It takes a week to fix his moto, and then it appears at the guesthouse. What also appears is that it has no tail light (more accident damage, $15 to replace), no instrument cluster (just some black plastic covering the hole where it should be, $25 to replace), and no license plate or registration ($35). He is afraid of riding it to work, as he could get pulled over and fined – rightly so too – the police fairly often set up little roadside checks and pull over suspect bikes.
In the end, I shouted him a tail light, but still no instruments (needed for rego) or rego itself. He did indeed get pulled over too, so there was a $30 fine. The fines are on the spot, so he got to stay with the nice policeman until his mother arrived with the $30.
The current situation is that, while the family does get some benefit from the moto by using it instead of moto taxis around where they live (no police checks there – outskirts of town), Thear is still getting moto taxis to work. Am not too sure if I’ll get paid back, but that’s not really too important.
Amusingly, he also tells me he doesn’t like the moto because it is too old and he has had lots of accidents on it. I told him that it’s fine (a lot newer than my 28-year old car), he should learn how to ride better, and he complains too much. He rejects this assertion.
If anyone wants to contribute to the Thear’s moto fund, let me know:-)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
2008-11-17 - Water Festival - Aftermath
Another wander down to the waterfront on Friday and apart from some trampled looking gardens and grotty paving it was all back to normal. It hadn’t rained at all during the festival, so the streets weren’t looking too good, but the Cintri guys and gals were out in force and had already removed a lot of loose rubbish.
I inevitably ended up back at the Central Market, and then got my much-overdue $1 haircut from a roadside guy, before heading back to the guesthouse to do a whole lot of nothing.
I inevitably ended up back at the Central Market, and then got my much-overdue $1 haircut from a roadside guy, before heading back to the guesthouse to do a whole lot of nothing.
Taking the boat back to somewhere
Barge moored along the river
Another barge - this one has a backing board, so you can see what it is during the day too
Where the boat crews were camped - largely all gone already
Monkey on the power line near the post office - probably escaped from Wat PhnomAlso discovered what was leaving a rather large mess on the balcony at the guesthouse each night – there is a small bat that roosts off the balcony light, and seems to consume about 5 times it’s own weight in fruit or something every night, most of which ends up on the floor.
2008-11-17 - Water Festival - Day 3 PM
As it got dark the barges were lit up again, there were more fireworks, and this time Lukas had a charged camera battery and some spares. The barges are large and impressive, but don’t photograph that well (on my poor old Ixus anyway). There is again one barge per ministry, featuring, like the parade a week ago, the ministry emblem / logo, plus possibly some images depicting what the ministry does – build powerlines, print money, etc.
After it was all over, it was time to walk back to the guesthouse, and the streets were well and truly packed. Lots of strings of teenagers all holding hands so they don’t lose each other and just enjoying the atmosphere, and some pinch points where it was quite crowded and you moved maybe a metre a minute. I had been warned about the crowds and didn’t really mind them, although did take anti-pickpocket precautions and put the valuable stuff that hadn’t been left at the guesthouse in zippered, hard to reach pockets, etc. My $2 in change for vendor snacks did indeed get stolen without me even noticing, but I suspect it will be better used by the new owner than by me.
After it was all over, it was time to walk back to the guesthouse, and the streets were well and truly packed. Lots of strings of teenagers all holding hands so they don’t lose each other and just enjoying the atmosphere, and some pinch points where it was quite crowded and you moved maybe a metre a minute. I had been warned about the crowds and didn’t really mind them, although did take anti-pickpocket precautions and put the valuable stuff that hadn’t been left at the guesthouse in zippered, hard to reach pockets, etc. My $2 in change for vendor snacks did indeed get stolen without me even noticing, but I suspect it will be better used by the new owner than by me.
There was also the odd genius trying to ride their moto or drive through the crowds, which wasn’t working out too well for them. Even once back on un-closed roads, there was a massive jam getting into Pasteur / 51 street and 278 street where the guesthouse is, and all the cars were having to turn back because forward wasn’t happening.
Royal barge starting to light up
Royal barge again
The rest on their way
Ministry of justice
Ministry of agriculture I think
Rural something - the large wheel is a waterwheel that spins
Infrastructure - the big cog spins too
Telecommunications
Finance / economics / treasury
Urban planning
Sports and youth and something else I can't remember
APSARA Authority - the Angkor people - all neon barge, rather than lots of little lights
First ones on their way back already
On the right is a new one, on the left is one coming back downstream
Posts and telecoms (but different to the other telecoms one eearlier)
Quite a nice one with a temple on a hill - doesn't photograph well though
Pagoda at the front of the royal palace
Crowds - it was this density at least pretty much everywhere
Hmmm - lets drive through2008-11-17 - Water Festival - Day 3 AM
On the last day of the water festival it was back to the barang tent at about 9am. The tent was fairly empty at first, but it was nice to sit there in the cool breeze and read the paper. After going for a wander to get some munchies around lunchtime, the tent started to fill up and by about 4pm was packed.
During the day, it was more heats or finals, interspersed with some interesting events such as a boat sinking right in front of the tent (they were too busy waving), a practice session for what seem to be the royal rowers, and an unconscious rower being carried up the bank right past the tent – I’ve never seen a bunch of podgy tourists clear a path so fast.
Whoops
Boat-refloating is achieved by bailing a lot (carried out by a select few)
The white boat was the only one to contain some barangs - the ones wearing life jackets
More sweeps
There is not a lot of boat between the water and the crew
These guys got out of their 2 boats, got dressed up and had a little paddle-in-the-air practice - I think they are royal rowers or such - guy in the blue shits is a permanently grumpy manager type in charge of it all
The even longer than normal long blue boat
Look carefully at the crew in the middle of the blue boat - number 304
Getting closer
The other type of "Khmer maiden"
Sitting on the shirt of the guy next to me
Team of 3 long seated boats - that's a team of about 165
This one sits unusually high at the back
Crowded - final estimates were about 3 million people - based on 324 boats there would have been about 60,000 competitors alone
Another, more traditional, "maiden"
Doing the hand dance
As dusk settles, one final row past the king
The royal boaters from before
The finish line now has a ribbon across it and some balloons
Coming up the riven en masse
Lotsa boats
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