'Friends Reunited'

Since we left Battambang on Saturday morning, 'friends (or at least acquaintances) reunited' has been a recurring theme. We decided to travel down to New Futures Orphanage in Takeo via an overnight stop in Siem Reap (gateway to the Angkor Wat complex) and another back in Phnom Penh. This was partly to avoid having to go back anywhere near to that hideous town of Pursat, and partly because we remembered (correctly, we were glad to confirm) that there was a long stretch on the east side of the Tonle Sap Lake with particularly beautiful countryside. It was also interesting to see just how quickly the flooding is now subsiding in most places. The dry season is definitely upon us: we've had no rain for over a week, and the temperature has maintained around the low 30s the whole time we've been here (though we've heard it's likely to climb to the mid-high 30s later this week!).

Paddy Fields - Before and After

In Siem Reap, we stayed in a particularly funky little hotel (The Golden Temple Villa), with a delightful, but tiny, jungle-like garden, within easy walking distance of the bustling city centre. So, on Saturday evening, we decided to return to the 'street food' area of the town centre, where we had eaten some particularly good Cambodian food last year, accompanied by Michel, a charming young Swiss man who was on our Intrepid Tour with us, and who has since brought his girlfriend, Priska, over to visit us in Sussex. (By the way, when we said we had dined 'accompanied by Michel' we mean that all three of us were dining together, not that Michel was a side-dish!) Anyway, at the street-food restaurant, it was interesting to see just how many of the staff we recognised from last year - including the very flamboyant lady-boy waiter/ess, who was every bit as friendly and flirtatious with everyone as s/he had been last year.

A 'Funky Little Hotel'

Our Favourite Lady-Boy (on left)

Food Now MUCH Better than Pursat - whatever your taste!

Then, back in Phnom Penh for an overnight stay on Sunday, we were amazed and delighted to bump into Nak, the Cambodian man who had been our Intrepid Travel tour guide for a whole month last year. We've maintained e-mail contact with him from time to time since then, and had tried to make arrangements to meet up this year, only to learn that he was busy with another tour until well into December. What none of us had realised when we tried to make those arrangements was that, by pure coincidence, we would all be in Phnom Penh on exactly the same day - and walking down exactly the same street at exactly the same time of the evening, too! We know that there are only 14.5 million people living in Cambodia - a very low number indeed by comparison with the UK; nevertheless, this amazing coincidence left all three of us absolutely gob-smacked and laughing out loud - much to the entertainment of people walking by. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time together before he had to rush off with his group - though we have agreed to keep in closer contact from now on, just in case we're in the same town in the same country again at some point.

That same evening, we experienced a little incident which resulted in us being reunited the next morning with another 'good friend' of ours - this time, our bank debit card! We'd been to an ATM machine near to our hotel, and had successfully received the money we'd requested, together with a receipt, but the machine then 'ate' the card, and refused to give it up! Not surprisingly, we were quite distressed at this turn of events (though we've taken care to open one of those pre-paid debit accounts, which means that, should the card fall into the wrong hands, there is a relatively small and finite amount to which anyone might get access). We were also reassured by Blair, a Cambodian-resident Englishman who is part of the CHOICE organisation we met here last week, and whom we bumped into a few minutes later, that this is a not uncommon occurrence here, to which there is a fairly common and almost always satisfactory solution. So, we imnmediately elicited the help of our hotel's wonderful reception staff in helping us sort this out, and got Chabbi, a very competent and friendly receptionist with particularly good English, to phone the bank on our behalf. Bear in mind that this was 6.15 pm on a Sunday evening, and the end of the annual Water Festival in Phnom Penh, when we tell you that a real person actually answered the phone at the bank! No 'dial 1 for this, dial 2 for that' malarky. Anyway, this person told Chabbi that she should phone back on Monday morning at 8.30 am, when the staff on duty would arrange to collect the card from the ATM and return it to us, in return for an 'admin fee' of $5. Sure enough, the next morning, we did exactly that (Chabbi having also postponed our bus trip to Takeo until the afternoon). We were instructed to take a tuk-tuk to the bank's HQ about 10 minutes' drive away, present to them our passports, pay the $5 and, lo and behold, we were reunited with our card, exactly as promised! Now, the cynic in me did wonder whether this is some SBC bank ruse to get more money out of foreigners - though at only $5 a time, it can hardly be worth their while. On the other hand, can any of you imagine such a quick and easy solution happening in any of the UK-based banks or building societies? Not sure I can.

Well, after that morning's 'excitement', and only slightly later than planned, we finally got the bus down to Takeo, and arrived at the Orphanage here late afternoon on Monday. We've therefore only had time to say a quick hello to everyone (though most of the older children were still at school), so we hope to blog again towards the end of this week, with news of what's happening here. Oh, but we have already learned that we shall be reunited later this week with Debbie, one of the volunteers who was here with us last year - the woman who brought over a whole suitcase full of football shirts, to the evident delight of all of the boys in NFO. So, looks like the theme continues ...

I Look Down on Them, Because I Have So Much Blue......

And I Look Down on Him, Because I Have Some Blue...

I Know My Place!