Note to self; buy warmer clothes

Note to self: remember to go to the market tomorrow to find a long-sleeved top of some kind, and perhaps a scarf as well. It´s well needed when driving the motorbike in the mornings and evenings, as this season has brought some cool temperatures. Only +19 degrees Celsius this morning.... brrrrr......

Note to self; avoid motorbike driving in bad traffic

Note to self; don´t insist on driving your own motorbike when you´re going out on late afternoon or evenings on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays. That´s when the Phnom Penh traffic situation is at its worst, so really - you don´t need to expose yourself to that. So far everything has been working out fine, but as the traffic situation gets worse by the week, it´s really unnecessary to expose yourself to that risk. Instead of taking your motorbike; catch a tuktuk or call a cab. You stubborn woman. Photo: Michael Regan

Home, sweet home, part 2

As some of you know, I moved to a new flat in June last year. And I just realised that I haven´t posted any photos of it as I promised you that I would. But better late than never, so...
This is the building where I live. I´m on the top floor, in the penthouse. Which is great, despite the fact that it comes with a lot of climbing as there´s no elevator. For those of you who know Phnom Penh, the street is starting at Sothearos Boulevard and runs westwards, parallell to and one block south of Sihanouk Boulevard.

One of the good things of being on the 5:th floor is of course that it comes with a great view;
The view from the terrace to the northwest, where you see Independence Monument and Wat Langka

This is street 294, seen from the terrace, going west to the neighbourhood Baeng Keng Kong 1...

...and east, towards the river.

When entering the flat (from the left in this picture), there´s a large open space with a combined kitchen- and livingroom area.
From the kitchen you reach the rear balcony, which has a beautiful view towards the north, in the direction of Hun Sen Park and the Royal Palace
And voilá; on the balcony there´s also a washing machine!A modernity that one can´t take for granted here in Cambodia, so I´m very happy for it. In my previous apartment, the clothes had to be washed by hand or taken to a laundry. For some reasons, most washing machines here are installed outside of the building. Don´t ask me why. Another strange thing is that it´s not possible to programme different temperatures on this model. And as it´s connected to a water tap with lukewarm water only; lukewarm washing it is... But it´s still a luxury!

The guest room, waiting for guests to accomodate :-)

From the livingroom, you open the door out to the lovely, spacious terrace...



In the apartment, there´s also a master bedroom, a master bathroom and a guest bathroom as well. But no pictures of those. Some things I need to keep to myself... ;-)

Going once, going twice...

Anyone..?! Oh, come on now, guys! This has to be the offer of the year, and the year has hardly even started yet! Going once, going twice...

Do you see what I see...?

This pic was taken at a nice little restaurant bar in Kep where we had lunch on New Years Day. At the time, I was quite sure that one of the other guests happened to be - a turkey... Do you see it as well? Or it it just me, maybe I had too much to drink the evening before? I mean, a turkey.. at a bar... Well, on the other hand, this is Cambodia...

Happy New Year 2009!

Since I moved to Cambodia, we´ve kind of established a tradition of celebrating the New Years Eve in Kep, a relaxed little seaside town with an outstanding atmosphere and breathtaking sunsets. (Well, this is only the second time actually, but that makes it a tradition, doesn´t it?! ) Anyway...


... from Kep we wish all of you friends and family all over the world a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Two familiar travellers, perhaps?

Me and Janne in Siem Reap, 22:nd of December 2008

For calling or for walking...?

There was no way I could resist buying these pair of flip-flops for my Apple nerd of a husband when I found them at a market in Saigon some weeks ago.... (Please note that the Apple logo is in gold! Fancy, huh?!)

He got them for Christmas and yes - he wears them all the time...

Christmas Khmer style

Hi there! Long time, no blogging... Sorry for the silence here. A very intense month at work has left no time or energy for blog updates. But finally the holidays are here, so... here we go again!

Janne arrived yesterday for a bit more than 2 weeks holiday here, which of course feels great! We will spend christmas and new year here in Cambodia, as we want to make the most of the time that is left here before it´s time move back to Sweden by mid-April. Can´t believe that I only have less than 4 months left here now.... Feels good and sad at the same time...

I guess that you all are quite busy with all the Christmas preparations, only a couple of days to go now.... I´m happy to tell you that the christmas spirit has reached Phnom Penh as well! Yesterday for example, we attended the annual christmas party at my office. This yeears celebration turned out to be the best both me and Janne has ever attended. Very fun, enjoyable and a great mix between Khmer and Swedish traditions. It started out in the early afternoon with a traditional buddhist ceremony with monks chanting for an hour, blessing both the staff and the office and giving good luck for the new year. After that, a delicious smorgasbord was served, with both Swedish and Khmer delicacies; meetballs, cheese, Janssons frestelse, fried and fresh springrolls, mixed Khmer fingerfood, Swedish snaps, etc. Followed by a Khmer version of Santa Claus, bringing gifts for all guests. I got a Khmer hairclip and Janne a "Doiche Gabbana" womens´watch. Now we´re certainly dressed for success! :-) After that, the Khmer dancing started, to the very loud sound of Khmer karaoke. I did my best practising my Khmer style dancing, but left the singing to my Khmer colleagues. As all Khmer parties, it was all carried out in a very warm hearted spirit and finished very early. At 7 pm, almost all guests had left already. It was all great fun, and we really want to come for next years party as well!
(Unfortunately, I don´t have any photos to publish from the party yet, but it´ll come, I promise.)

Today, it was time to do some christmas decorations of the apartment. As we don´t have a christmas tree, the plants on the terrace just had to do. So now all the bamboo plants, bougainvillier trees etc on the terrace are all beautifully decorated with lights, glitter and other kinds of christmas decorations.
Janne decorating our "christmas tree"

To top the christmas spirit even more, we invited some friends over for some christmas treats like glögg, cheddar cheese and gingerbread cookies this afternoon. It sure gave us a taste of christmas!

So it´s christmas is here in Phnom Penh as well - Khmer style..! :-)

Tomorrow we are leaving for Siem Reap, to celebrate christmas at the astonishing Angkor temples. Merry Christmas!

Sihanoukville and Lazy Beach

I just received reports from Stockholm that the first snow of the year has fallen. So I´m posting some photos from warmer latitudes to help you all to feel a bit.. well, warmer... Here are some photos from our trip to Sihanoukville and the island of Koh Rong Saloem that we did by the end of October.

First, we made an overnight stop in Sihanoukville. The hotel we stayed at, the Reef Resort, was a nice and friendly place with good food and a true haven in an otherwise very much destroyed Sihanoukville.

Janne in the pool (where else?!) at the Reef Resort

We were actually shocked to find Sihanoukville in such a state... A very sad experience and so totally opposite to the memories we have from our first visit there 6 years ago. What used to be a nice and quiet little seaside town with beautiful beaches has turned into a very shabby, dirty town and the Serendipity part of Occheutal Beach is covered with garbage and dominated by an overestablishment of shabby backpacker hangouts. Yep; things are changing quickly in Cambodia, just as at so many other places around the world that suddenly becomes popular tourist destinations...

So, after one night in Sihanoukville we were happy to take the boat to the island of Koh Rong Saloem, approximately 3 hrs off Sihanoukville.

Janne on the boat, looking forward to the beach...

After a quite pleasant boatride we arrived to Lazy Beach, a lovely bungalow establishment where we stayed for four nights.
The view from our bungalow

This is truly a great little place, a tropical hideaway from the rest of the world... Very basic accomodation, a bit more basic than we were up for at first actually, but the rest of it totally made up for that; the restaurant with delicious food, the relaxed athmosphere, the two lovely dogs running around, the nice staff, lazy afternoons in the hammocks reading books, swims in the turquoise sea and so on, made our stay there very pleasant and enjoyable. There´s no mobile phone connection or electricity on the island, only a generator running for a few hours in the evenings. Which all adds to the feeling of a hideaway from the rest of the world.

Lazy Beach, seen from the boat

The only drawback was the boatride back to Sihanoukville, as there was a very bad weather on our day of departure from Lazy Beach. Which made it impossible to board the boat from the pier, so we had to swim out to the boat in quite rough sea, and try to climb up and onboard. But with good assistance from fellow passanger we made it without any bigger difficulties. The worst was still to come, though; the seasickness that kept me company for most of the 3,5 hrs it took to get back to Sihanoukville. Next time, I have to remember to bring medicine for that....!

That perfect gift?!

As Christmas is coming up soon, I thought I should provide a good suggestion for what kind of gift to buy for that special someone who has everything already;
How about a "Niske"-bag?! Anyone?! I can pretty much guarantee that the person you have in mind doesn´t have this one already.
Available at the Binh Tay Market in Ho Chi Minh City.

Heading to Ho Chi Minh City

This week, there´s the big, annual Water Festival here in Cambodia. 1-2 million Cambodians are heading to Phnom Penh from all of the countryside provinces to enjoy the boat races on the river, the fireworks and all the other festivities that are going on. It´s a nice party atmosphere, but incredibly crowded. You can´t drive anywhere in the central part of the city or on the river side, most restaurants and shops are closed for the holiday, so unless you are very much into watching boat races and just loves crowds of people, there´s not very much to do but to stay inside and watch dvd for a week. Which I´m not intending to do, so instead I´m taking the opportunity to go to Vietnam for a few days. I´ve never been to Ho Chi Minh City (previosly Saigon) in southern Vietnam before, so that´s where I´m going. On tuesday afternoon I´m catching a bus from Phnom Penh that´s supposed to reach HCMC in five hours, but I guess we´ll have to see about that.... I´ve actually never herd anyone being overly enthusiastic about HCMC so I don´t have very high expectations, but it´ll be interesting to see this commercial hub of Vietnam. And also to compare it to the very different city of Hanoi in the north, as the two cities are supposed to be eachothers´opposites when it comes to character. And of course; a change of environment, some good shopping, Vietnamese coffe, delicious food, art galleries and lazy afternoons at atmospheric cafés reading a good book, will be very nice..!

The infinite rainy season

Seems like we have an infinite rainy season this year... There´s just no stop to it. By all means, it should´ve stopped nearly a month ago, but instead it´s increasing. And on top of this, the temperature has hardly dropped at all. So to summarize; instead of dry and cool as should be the case this time of year, it´s wet and hot. Can anyone explain this, please?! Louise?! Climate changes? Well, whatever the reason, the consequenses are the same; almost every evening I´m stuck at the office after working hours, waiting for the rain to stop before I can take my motorbike and drive home on the flooded streets of Phnom Penh. A very unusual November-scenario, for sure...

This wet and hot climate gives a good breeding ground for the dengue mosquitoes as well. There´s a bad outbreak of dengue fever in Ho Chi Minh City (read: Saigon) now, which is situated only approximately 300 km from here across the Vietnamese boarder. And where am I going on vacation next week? Right; to Ho Chi Minh City, of course...

Well, I guess I shouldn´t complain. Needless to say, there are of course so many people in this country who are effected a lot worse from the rain. For example in the province of Rattanakiri in northern Cambodia, where the infrastructure is very poor and roads hardly exisist at all. The rain turns the already weak road network into flooded mud basins, making any kind of transportation very difficult. Below are some photos from a fieldtrip I did to Rattanakiri last year to visit one of our partner organisations who work in that area. It turned out to be the most adventurous road trip I´ve ever done, and I learned a lot about the challenges that many Cambodian NGO:s are facing when working in remote areas during the rainy season... And I´m deeply impressed by the work they are carrying out all year around, goal-oriented and untiringly in all weathers and seasons facing very difficult conditions..;

The "road" to one of our target areas. The road is flooded like this every rainy season, and it´s not uncommon for vehicles to get stuck so bad that they never get out of there. On the side of this mud basin stood several abandoned lorries who had been stuck there since last year.

Our car is stuck....
...again and again...

But we had a very skilled driver, aged 19 who had driven on these roads for 10 (!) years already, who managed to get us out of the mud every time. (He´s kneeling beside the car on the second pic from the top)

The situation was a lot worse for these guys, who got stuck one late afternoon, had to stay overnight in the car and still hadn´t managed to get out of there when we passed again the next day... I always think about them when I see this photo and hope that they eventually got out of there somehow, without having to leave their car behind...

A great man, a great day

Today is a great day...! Barack Obama will bring change, hope and peace. He will make this world a better place. Congratulations, mr President!

Actually, it already feels a bit easier to breathe, doesn't it...?! :-)

Going to the beach....

On Sunday morning, we´re heading to the coast for a well deserved holiday. We´ll stay one night in Sihanoukville first, before taking the boat to our main destination; "Lazy Beach". On the island, there are no telephones, no internet-connection, no television, no modernities what so ever. Just a long, beautiful beach, the ocean and us with a pile of books. The food and drinks are supposed to be excellent, which of course is a bonus as well. So we´re looking forward to a lovely, relaxing week.
So long!

Oh, Happy Day

He´s here now; the most wonderful man in the whole world. He´s asleep in my bed, jetlagged and tired, while I am far too happy and excited to lay down beside him. On the contrary, I just wanna run in circles like a crazy person and scream of the top of my voice out of pure happiness! Together again! Iiiihhhh!!!! Imagine that you can still feel like this after 14 years together. Isn´t it wonderful?! :-) Happy, happy, happy day!!! :-)

"Oh Happy Day" from the movie "Sister Act 2"

A decision has been made...

After a lot of thinking and measuring different alternatives against one another, I´ve finally made up my mind. I ´ve decided to return to Sweden in April next year. Even if I do love living here in Phnom Penh, there are two strong reasons for this decision. The first one is strictly personal; I feel that it´s time to go home and reunite with my loved ones; my beloved husband and pets. As I wrote in the previous posting; no place in the world, no matter how much enjoy living there,  can ever be my home to 100 %  if they are not by my side. In April next year we´ve been living on different sides of the world for 2 years, and it´s been working surprisingly well. But we don´t want to go on like this forever. And it feels like it´s a good time to go home "to touch base" for a while after two years. And as my very clever and supportive friend Louise said the other day; "Sometimes it´s good to leave when you´re on the top of things, when everything is going well. And not wait until you´ll find yourself in bad situation. In that way, you´ll leave with positive memories and be able to make the very best of the situation..." I couldn´t agree with her more! The second reason being that my employer has decided to localize the position that I have. This is a policy decision for all our offices globally, which means that all Swedish staff with my position will successively be phased out and replaced with nationally employed staff. Which in turn means that if I´d like to extend my contract when it expires in April next year, I would not be employed by the Swedish head office anymore but by our office here in Cambodia. Which comes with worse conditions for everything; salary, benefits, insurances, etc. The whole idea is of course that Swedish staff will be phased out and replaced by national staff, so we will now start to recruit a Cambodian replacer for me, that hopefully will be able to start by the beginning of next year for a handing over process before it´s time for me to leave.

This decision is quite new, so to some extent I still have mixed emotions about leaving my beloved Cambodia... But at the same time, it feels nothing but right to reunite with my loved ones. The decision kind of grew on me when I was in Sweden in September, and I made up my mind during my last days there. So when I came back to Cambodia earlier this week and was notified by the head office that my position would be localized, it just confirmed to me that I had made the right decision already.

Work wise, I just have to see what happens. Formally, I still have a permanent position to go back to, but as the governmental authority that I´m employed by currently is undergoing a major reorganisation, who knows what the situation will be when I´m finally back in Sweden... So I´ll start to look for some other jobs as well, and take it from there. Right now I´m not worried at all, I must say. I´ll just take it as it comes. And I´m sure it´ll work out in one way or another, as it ususally does. My biggest challenge has actually been to take this decision at all, and I´m sure that now that piece of the puzzle has fallen into place, the others will too, eventually....

I´m not at all excluding the possibility of going abroad for another mission in the future. On the contrary I´m pretty sure that I will, but for the time it´s time to go home.

So; see you all Swedes in April!

BRING IT HOME TO ME by Sam Cooke

A place called home

Today is a PJ-day. I just can´t get enough of this best female rock star ever.

Today is also one of those days when I´m thinking about where I belong... what it is that defines a home..?

At the same time I feel that I´ve reached a conclusion that my home is where my heart is. Where my loved ones are. A place can never fully be a home if they are not there. We just have to find that place together. And most likely we will in the future. Or maybe we already have..?

Which all in all makes this song very suitable for this very particular day.



A PLACE CALLED HOME by PJ HARVEY
One day I know
We'll find a place of hope
Just hold on to me
Just hold on to me
Walk tight, one line
You're wanted this time
There's no one to blame
Just hold on to me

(Come on my love)
And I'm right on time
And the birds keep singing
And you're right on line
And the bells keep ringing
And the battle is won
And the planes keep winging
And I'm right on time
And the girl keeps singing

One day they'll be a place for us

I walk and I wade
Through full lands and lonely
I stumble, I stumble
With you I wait
To be born again
With love comes the day
Just hold on to me

(Come on my love)
And I'm right on time
And the birds keep singing
And you're right on line
And the bells keep ringing

One day they'll be a place for us

And the battle is won
And the planes keep winging
And I'm right on time
And the girl keeps singing

One day they'll be a place for us

Now is the time
To follow through
To read the signs
Now the message sent
Let's bring it to it's final end

And I'm right on time
And the birds keep singing
And you're right on line
And the bells keep ringing
One day they'll be a place for us
And the battle is won
And the planes keep winging
And I'm right on time
And the girl keeps singing
One day they'll be a place for us

One day
I
Know
They'll be
A place
Called
Home

Lazy Sunday morning in bed....

The circle of life

I´m now in Sweden for a couple of weeks. This due to equally sad and happy occations, which reveals both the dark and bright sides of the circle of life. It reminds me of how very important family and friends are at all times, and how important it is to share the most crucial moments with each other. In sickness and in health, in happiness and sadness. For joy, love, support, sharing, celebration, friendship and care. We´re truly blessed to be a part of each others lives. Thank you for including me in yours.