the Mekong Monologues

Note to self; buy warmer clothes

2009-01-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T07:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

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...?

2009-01-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-31T01:18:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

For calling or for walking...?

2008-12-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-21T06:07:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

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?!

2008-11-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-04T15:44:00.000-08:00

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....

2008-10-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T01:24:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-10-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-09-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

The circle of life

2008-09-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Size doesn´t matter...

2008-09-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Motorbikes, or "motos" as they´re called here, is the main mean of transportation in Cambodia. As you can see for yourself, there´s no limit for the size of a load that can be carried on a "moto" ...

Cruising....

2008-08-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

I´ve now decided to book a tour to Ha Long Bay this coming weekend. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about 3 hr from Hanoi.

I´m going on an overnight cruise on this boat...
Not too bad, huh?

I´m really excited about this. The only thing is that I suddenly realized that for the very first time in my life, I´ve booked a cruise... And a pretty luxury one as well... or what do you say about this?
I´m afraid that this is a pretty clear sign that I´ve reached the middle-ages... :-/ So pls don´t tell anyone..! *blushing*

Hanoi = love

2008-08-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

I love Hanoi! Just so you know... A wonderful, beautiful city with tons of atmosphere. Great food and shopping, amazing arcitechture and art galleries. I love it!!!

Next stop Hanoi...

2008-08-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I´m leaving for Hanoi where I´m going to take a course in "Project and Programme Management" for two weeks. I´ve planned so I´ll get three weekends in total in Hanoi to get some time to explore the city as well. Ever since I watched the beautiful movie "At the Height of Summer" or "the Vertical Rays of the Sun" as it´s also called sometimes (see the movie clips below), I´ve always wanted to go to Hanoi, so I´m really looking forward to it.

To treat myself, and to get some well deserved time off from the studies, I might do this as well. What do you think?! :-)

August the 13:th - my birthday

2008-08-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

So this is how if feels be exactly between 30 and 40... So far, so good, I guess...?!

I´m planning to celebrate by spoiling myself rotten today! :-) Yaaay! I´ve taken a day off from work, and will spend the day shopping, going to a spa and have dinner with friends at the Spanish tapas restaurant Pacharan on the riverside.

The birthday kicked off with knocks on the door at 7.30 this morning. My dear friends Albin, Mimmi and their son Noam payed me a surprise visit, singing happy birthday. They brought Swedish chocolate pudding (aaahhhh! My all time favourite!) - one for breakfast and one for lunch, juice (made of "youngberries" - what could the hidden message possibly be?) and also a very nice painting, made by Albin.
He made this painting some time ago, and I´ve loved it since the very first time I saw it. It´s inspired by their cat "Skruttis". I´ve spent many days and nights with Skruttis, cat sitting her when her family has been away, and become very attached to her. Sadly enough, she ran away some time ago, and hasn´t been seen since. We all miss her terribly, so this painting is not only a beautiful painting, it´s also a nice memory of Skruttis.

Thank you to Albin, Mimmi and Noam for this very nice birthday surprise this morning!

Thank you also to Janne and my parents, who are giving me this beautiful lithography; "Woman with dog"
This is one of my favourite art pieces (you can spot the bull terrier, right?!) by one of my favourite artists; Olga Semenova. It´s been bought for me in Stockholm and Janne will bring it with him when he´s coming to Phnom Penh in October.

Ok, better get going now. Well, I´ve started the day with some really nice chocolate pudding and some youngberry juice :-) for breakfast, but I guess I´d better head to my favourite café for a treat of good coffee and french baguettes as well. After that, Albin has promised to take me to some good places where I get plants, flowers and pots for my project "Pimp my terrace". He, Mimmi and Noam will give me a couple of plants as a birthday present to start off my project.

Can´t wait to see how nice my apartment will be with these two art pieces, one Semenova and one Hagberg, on my walls. And a dazzling terrace as well!

Aaahhh, life between 30 and 40 is pretty good after all...! :-)

True love

2008-06-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wonderful. True love. So beautiful it makes me cry.

Our 10:th Wedding Anniversary!

2008-06-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

On the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 10:th anniversary..! I can´t believe it´s already been 10 years since the day we got married in S:t Olofs Chapel, a beautiful little red wooden church by the sea on the west coast of Sweden.

This was the happiest and most beautiful day of our lives. Together with friends and family who had joined us from Sweden, England, USA and Hong Kong, we had a wonderful ceremony and celebration which we´ll always cherish in our hearts.

Unfortunately, we don´t have any digital photos from our wedding day to be published here (as digital cameras simply were not invented then), but I´m posting some photos from the beautiful little chapel (built in 1721) and its surroundings for you to see. They show the chapel, the altar and the view over the sea seen from the chapel.

The other day, I found the song that we chose for our wedding dance on You Tube; Dance me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen has always been very special to us, and we love this song. When I found it, I was happily surprised to see that Cohen obviously had written this song with weddings promising eternal love, in mind.

Darling; I´m dedicating this video to you. Thank you for always believing in me, supporting me and loving me no matter what. Thank you for always being there for me, wherever I am in the world. Thank you for standing by me in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health. Thank you for 10 wonderful married years. What we have is truly unique, and I´m looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together! I love you more than words can say.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

At home...

2008-06-26T14:26:00.001-07:00

I´m writing this at my home in Stockholm. I landed here early morning on the 20:th of June, just in time for the traditional Midsummer celebration. I´ll have four weeks of well deserved vacation here in Sweden, which I´m very much looking forward to. No plans yet, except for spending week 29 in Halmstad on the west coast where my family lives. On the 21:st of July, I´ll head back to Phnom Penh and Janne will head for another duty trip abroad, this time to Amsterdam. But that´s then. Right now, we´re only resting and relaxing. Mmmm... nice...!!!

Let´s go shopping

2008-06-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

This isn´t a very good picture, but I couldn´t resist showing it to you; look closely and you´ll see that it´s a roller coaster. It´s running inside a shopping mall. That´s how big the shopping malls are in KL.... This picture is from Berjaya Times Square, a gigantic mall with 900 shops, a cineplex with Southeast Asia´s largest cinema and movie screen, and a huge indoor theme park of 133,000 square feet called Cosmos World. All in one building.

Monorail

2008-06-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

One of the many means of transportation in Kuala Lumpur; the Monorail.

Beautiful lampposts...

2008-06-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

I admire the beautiful and imaginative lampposts they have in Malaysia...
Here and below are two in the shape of flowers...

2008-06-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

2008-06-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the first moghul-style structure built in Kuala Lumpur, which was officially opened in 1897 as the Supreme Court. Today, it´s housing the High Court and is the centerpiece of KL´s historic district.

Old and new, side by side...

2008-06-26T04:56:00.000-07:00

In this picture you can see both one of the minarets of the beautiful Jamek Mosque, built 1909, and the Kuala Lumpur Tower, the second tallest building in KL, built 1995.

Petronas at night....

2008-06-26T04:36:00.001-07:00

Quite impressive, I must say... We felt really small, looking up on the 452 meter tall building from the ground...

Petronas Twin Towers

2008-06-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur are the world´s tallest pair of buildings at 452 metre (1,480 ft). Between 1996 and 2003 it was the world´s tallest building, until the Taipei 101 Tower topped it by 56 meters (190 ft). The towers were designed by Cesar Pelli and Associates, and the cost for the whole project was USD 1,2 billion.

A weekend in Kuala Lumpur

2008-06-26T01:28:00.001-07:00

The weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur was great in every way. It was of course lovely to see my beloved husband Janne again, and get the opportunity to spend some time together. KL is a modern, clean, well-organized city which made me, a Phnom Penh citizen, feel like "the hillbilly cousin" on a visit (which I was, I guess). With numerous impressive shopping malls, multi laned highways and modern buildings side by side with old colonial and islamic architectural wonders and with a multi ethnic population, Kuala Lumpur comes across as both outwardly cosmopolitan and very Asian at the same time. Although, I must say that I kind of missed the "chaos" and "unpredictability" of Cambodia. One of the highlights for the two of us who has a big interest in architecture, was the many interesting buildings to admire.

More photos will follow, but as there seems to be a problem with publishing all of them in the same posting, you´ll find them one by one or in pairs, above.

Going to Kuala Lumpur

2008-06-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yaay - today I´m happy for two things;

1) I have internet connection in my flat again! Which means that I have a fair chance of connecting with the rest of the world after two weeks of isolation.

2) Today (Saturday) I´m flying to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to meet up with my beloved husband who´s there on a business trip. He landed there this morning, I´ll arrive this afternoon, and we´ll have almost two days together in KL, before I have to go back to Phnom Penh for work on Monday morning. Less than two days in KL might not seem too long time to some people, and most would probably not bother to fly from Cambodia to Malaysia for a short stay like that. But for a couple like us who don´t see see eachother more often than once every three months, it´s a very welcome addition to all that time that we spend apart.
And oh, there´s one more thing that makes this visit to KL very special to us; We got married in June 1998, and went to Malaysia on honeymoon. We spent almost two months there and in neighbouring countries, and already back then we said that we´d really like to go back to Malaysia for our 10 year wedding anniversary. And now; voila - 10 years later - we´ll be back there (almost) right on time for some romantic anniverary celebration. Which I´m reeeeally looking forward to! ;-)

So now; time for some last minute packing - as always...

Birthday Girl!

2008-06-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Polly Jeans´3:rd birthday! Hipp, hipp, hurray!

Oh, how time flies! I can´t believe that it´s three years since we got our little beloved puppy girl!

Happy birthday, honey! We love you sooooo much!!!

Waiting...

2008-06-11T04:58:00.001-07:00

We're all waiting for something... You are probably waiting for a new posting here. I'm still waiting for the installation of internet connection in my new flat...

I wonder what Polly Jean is waiting for. What do you think..?

Busy, busy; working and moving

2008-05-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey...! Long time, no see... No, I didn´t disappear in Chiang Mai even if one can think so as it´s been awfully quiet on this page since I left for my vacation. A quick resumé: I came back two weeks ago, after a lovely holiday. Chiang Mai and Bangkok was lovely as always, and it was great to see my friends again. Since I came back, my life as been really, really busy. On all levels. Too much work, which has made me abandon my ususal commitment to myself not to work on weekends. So I´ve been working weekends, evenings and on holidays. During the little time I´ve had left for my private life outside work, I´ve continued my efforts to find a new apartment. And so I finally did, about a week ago. It turned out it was available from the 1:st of June, which means that the last week has been dedicated to preparations for moving.

All in all, this means that I´ve been incredibly busy these past weeks. I´m very tired, and haven´t found enough energy or inspiration for blogging which explains the silence here. However, I know this far too busy schedule will come to an end by mid-next week. At that point, some milestones will have been reached at work, I´ll be installed in my new apartement and I can start to look forward to the very well deserved upcoming summer vacation in Sweden later this month. So, even if life has been far too busy for my own good the past month, I can see the end of it and I´m still in quite good spirit.

So; about me moving; although I like my old flat, and I´m a bit sentimental about moving out and leaving this neighbourhood, I´m also looking forward to stay in the new one. It´s a lot cooler (temperature wise), which I´m happy for. It has a very good location as well. For those of you who are familiar with Phnom Penh; the flat is on street 294 which runs parallell to and just south of Sihanouk Blv, on the part between Norodom and Sothearos blv. It´s next door to Talking to a Stranger, and just one block from La Luna, Java Café and Hun Sen Park, and from the terrace I can see both Independence Monument and a glimpse of the river. Another good thing is that as opposed to my current flat this one doesn´t suffer from electricity cuts. It´s better furnished and has a wonderful, big terrace with a nice view. I´ll of course post some photos here for you too see later on.

Ok, the mover will be here in two hours so I´d better continue with the packing. Last minute, as always... It´ll probably take a week or so before my telephone and internet connection is installed in my new flat, which means that this blog will have to take another short break. See you later!

Going on holiday to Thailand

2008-05-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today, (Tuesday, although the blog date claims that it´s Monday) I´m leaving for a holiday in Thailand. Yippiiiee! This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are National Holidays here in Cambodia thanks to the Kings´birthday, which gives me a opportunity to visit my dear friend Johan and his girlfriend Alon in Chiang Mai. Johan used to work at our office here in Phnom Penh, although not for the same organisation, and we became very good friends. Johan is actually the one who taught me how to drive a motorbike! (Mission impossible completed) Can you imagine what a patient person he is?! Since the beginning of this year, Johan and Alon have relocated to Chiang Mai, and they´ve invited me to come and visit them. Which I´m of course very happy to do! I´ll be away Tuesday-Monday, making a stopover at my beloved Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok on my way back to Phnom Penh.

I´ve been to Chiang Mai some times before, the first visit was in 1995 when I conducted my very first field study in South East Asia. The last time was four years ago when Janne and I spent a couple of days there on our way to Laos. I´m excited to go there again to see what it´s like now, and to see my dear friends of course.

By the way; I´m considering to buy a camera in Chiang Mai to replace my broken one, and the prices seems to be pretty good in Chiang Mai. Anyone of you who has experience from using either Nikon Coolpix P5100 or Nikon Coolpix S700? If so, please let me know what you think.

Ok, the taxi will pick me up to go to the airport in less than an hour now, so I guess I´d better start to do some packing now - last minute as always.... *sigh*...

Dosa Heaven

2008-05-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

If you love food, like I do, Phnom Penh is a wonderful city to live in. Soooo many great restaurants serving food from all over the world; Lebanese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Thai, French, Maroccan, Spanish, Mexican.... I think that the only kitchen I haven´t seen represented here so far is the Ethiopian.

Most restaurants are doing home delivery as well. I´ve completely forgot how to cook. Or, I´ve rather found a new way of doing it; I´m taking out my plastic folder that contains all the home delivery menues that I´ve collected during my year here. I´m going through the menues carefully, but will most likely finally pick the same Indian restaurant as usual. I´m making a phone call, placing my order, stating my adress and voilá - 20 minutes later there´s a delicious Indian meal on my plate. That´s the art of cooking, folks!

Some of you might be familiar with my passion for Indian food, and when I first moved here I was very happy to find that there are plenty of good, very good, Indian restaurants here. And tonight I´ve made a new discovery on the Indian restaurant scene here in Phnom Penh; "Dosa Corner" on street 51. It has only been open for a couple of months, but the rumours has started to spread that they serve the most delicious dosas. And I can only agree - Dosa Corner should be named Dosa Heaven!!! Mmmm...!!! The taste sent me 15 years back in time, to Kerala in southern India where I was doing my very first study trip to Asia. At the village project where I was studying, the wonderful Mitraniketan, dosa was served no less than three times a day, and you had to be careful not to over eat it. But now, after visiting "Dosa Corner", I´m certainly facing the same risk again. I´m just happy that I don´t have to make the dosa myself. It´s soooo much easier to just pick up the phone... :-) But if you would like to try, here´s a master to learn from;

Khmer delicacies (?) and Spider Man

2008-05-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

This evening after work, I went to "Lucky Supermarket" for some grocery shopping. And I found some ingredients that I thought might serve as an inspiration for you if you don´t know what to have for dinner tonight.

Unfortunately the photos are not very sharp (those mobile phone cameras never keep what they promise, right?!), but this label says "Frog meat"...(look closely and you´ll see that it´s skinned half frogs with toes and everything)....

...and this one says "Chicken leg - claws".
And yes; the claws are still there as you can see for yourself.

If you´re not inspired enough, just take a look at these pics below of my father eating spiders - more specifically fried tarantulas.
I ordered this Khmer delicacy for him at a restaurant here in Phnom Penh which serves specialities from all parts of Cambodia. The restaurant serves them with a dipping sauce which might add some more flavour, otherwise they are not known for having very much of a taste.

Talking about restaurants serving Khmer delicacies; after the grocery shopping I went to a restaurant owned by some Khmer friends of mine. Most of their menu is Italian, but they do serve some Asian specialities as well. I noticed today that one of the dishes on the menu (nr 10) is described as "Mount Frog - price of frog meat served with hot sauces". I have no idea what that means, but I tend to always go for the pasta, anyway...

Arrival Day

2008-05-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

After a quite pleasant flight Stockholm-Bangkok-Phnom Penh without any delays but more unfortunately no sleep either, I arrived to Phnom Penh at 9 am this morning. An hour later I was at home in my apartment, had taken a shower and went to bed for what I thought would be a two-three hour nap, which is my usual strategy to fight the jetlag after a flight. But I guess I was more tired after being awake for 21 hrs straight than I had realised , so I didn´t wake up until 5 pm, which means that I had slept for 7 hrs. Not a very good thing to do if you want to adjust to the Cambodian time zone, but I guess I really needed it... Unpacked my things in just 5 minutes, as my bag from Sweden only weighed 7 (!) kg. I must say that I´m really improving my skills when it comes to travelling light! Went out for an Indian meal together with friends, and are now ready for bed again. Only 6 hrs after I woke up, but I´m really tired so hopefully there won´t be any problems sleeping the whole night through despite the jetlag.

Yet I don´t know how it actually feels to be back in Phnom Penh again. Of course I miss my loved ones who are still in Sweden. At the same time, Phnom Penh is also my home now, just as much as Stockholm. I have two homes now, in two different cities, two different worlds... It´s just too bad that my loved ones and I can´t be in the same one all the time.

I guess I need some more sleep before I can reflect on this any further. *yawn* Good night!

Departure Day

2008-04-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I´m leaving Sweden and flying back to Cambodia. As all D-Days - Departure Days - this is not a very happy day. But for a change, it´s actually not a very sad one either, as I know that I´ll be back quite soon; in less than two months it´s time for the summer holidays which I´ll spend with my loved ones in Sweden. It´s been a very nice stay in Stockholm (except from the bad cold I caught) and lovely to meet the Swedish spring. And important for me, even more important than I realised before I arrived, to come home and "touch base", to reflect, to breathe, to re-connect to my loved ones; family and friends. And for us, our family, to make that decision that we´ve been thinking about for some months now. Where to live? Should we relocate to Cambodia? We, as me, husband and pets. There are so many factors to consider in a decision like this; job opportunities for both of us, the financial situation, the social situation, how the pets would react to the transportation and change of environment, the balance between far and away, work and relaxation, nearness and distance.... Both countries and living situations has their pros and cons. But we´ve finally come to the conclusion that this is not the time for us to relocate. But - if the circumstances will change in anyway, we´ll reconsider again, so we haven´t outruled the possibility of moving at a later stage. But for the moment, we´ll keep both our base in Sweden and the one in Phnom Penh and continue to travel between to see each other every two-three months.

Today, I´ve done exactly half the time of my contract in Cambodia; the first year out of two, and I now have one more year to go. It´s been a wonderful year in some ways, and also a very tough one in others. Now I´m curious about what my second year will bring. Looking forward to one or two visits to friends in Thailand, two vacations together with Janne to some nice places in South East Asia, and visits from friends who already have planned visits for later this year.

Ok, I´m leaving for the airport in less than two hours, so I guess that it´s time for some last-minute packing now. Next posting will be from Phnom Penh...

Monday morning

2008-04-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

Another Monday morning... don´t we all feel like this?

A nice weekend and some great music

2008-04-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

It´s Saturday night people, and I hope that you all are having a good time, wherever you are in the world and whatever you´re doing. I´m having a very quiet evening myself. No dancing, no drinking, instead I´m enjoying a very relaxed evening with friends (Peder) and family (husband and pets), exactly what I need right now. But if I was going out dancing, this is what I´d dance to; enjoy!

Have a great weekend, all!

The spring is here!

2008-04-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

After some crappy days, I´m now back on track and am finally able to enjoy the lovely Swedish spring weather. 17 degrees celsius, sun,flowers, and the first outdoors coffee break of the year...
...including Swedish coffee in cute Moomin cups, Ben & Jerry´s "Cookie Dough ice cream" and chocolate sauce.

And - with the most handsome and wonderful man in the whole world by my side.

It just can´t get very much better than this, can it?! :-)

New layout

2008-04-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

I´m trying a new layout for the blog. After a year with the old one I thought it would be refreshing with something new. What do you think?

Self pity

2008-04-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

I´ve pitied myself for some days now. Instead of seeing friends, enjoying the lovely spring weather and walks with my beloved dog as planned, I´ve been in bed with a flu for four days. Headache, muscular pain, a runny nose and a soar throat has made it impossible to anything else but to stay in bed and watching bad soap operas. Lucky for me though, I´ve had the world´s best bed companion by my side; Kasper. This guy just looooves to stay in bed all day. He´s not very much for soap operas, though - he´s far too intelligent for that!

Politeness in Cambodia

2008-04-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

For you Swedes out there; if you would like to know what´s considered to be polite in Cambodia, how to address someone and the Khmer art of greeting people, you can listen to a Swedish radio interview with me on the subject here
The interview start approximately 10 minutes into the clip.

Reunited

2008-04-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken my first evening back in Stockholm. My precious princess Polly Jean was sooo excited, and wouldn´t leave my side even for one second. So we spent the whole evening cuddling and bonding on the sofa.

Back in Stockholm

2008-04-13T22:30:00.001-07:00

I´m still suffering from a bit of a jetlag, but otherwise I´m feeling great and am of course really happy to be reunited with my beloved husband and pets in Stockholm. It´s early spring here, which means around 8 degrees celsius. A bit chilly for someone who´s newly arrived from Cambodia, but I do enjoy this break from the tropical hot season. It´s really refreshing to be able to go out for a long two hour walk without risking to die from dehydration. For the first time in a whole year, I´m wearing jacket, gloves, long sleeve sweaters, jeans and boots. And although I´ve never, ever appreciated this cold Scandinavian climate before, I now love the feeling of wrapping a large scarf around my neck, pull down the cap and the cool wind in my face. No matter how much I love Cambodia, I must say that this change of climate and environment is lovely and really refreshing. Seems like my beloved Cambodia makes me appreciate Sweden even more.

Janne has been very thoughtful and sweet as always; preparing my arrival by filling the kitchen with tons of my favourite Swedish food; Kvibille cheddar cheese, dark bread, snacks, candy etc. And on top of that a beautiful boquet of tulips - my favourite spring flowers. And he makes me delicious Swedish coffee in the mornings. I´m getting really spoiled here...!

I was very happy to see that although I haven´t been at home for 8 months, our pets immediately recognised me when I walked through the door. All three of them greeted me in their very own warm, loving, personal way. Polly Jean was of course the most intense one, she practically freaked out, made all those crazy bull terrier sounds, runs and jumps all over the place and shivered from excitement. She´s practically been stalking me for two days now, and won´t leave my side. The cats are of course much more dignified, and shows their affection in a much more tactful way.

Another nice thing about visiting Stockholm is of course the opportunity to catch up with friends I haven´t seen in a long time. Yesterday, we had a visit from our dear friend Mats who very recently has moved back to Sweden from Greece. It was great to see each other again after spending the last couple of years in differens countries; him being in Athens, me in Phnom Penh and Janne in Amsterdam. Mats´ visit was the second "happiness shock" for Polly Jean this weekend, who almost couldn´t deal with any more excitement and showed off a very intense and contact-seeking behaviour for the whole time Mats was here. As soon a he left, she crashed out on the sofa, totally exhausted from all the excitement and emotions she has experienced this weekend.

I´ll now be here in Stockholm for 2,5 weeks, flying back to Cambodia on the 30:th. I´m actually having my annual New Year holiday now, as the the Khmer New Year - the biggest holiday in Cambodia, is being celebrated this week. I´m also taking the chance to take some more days off, as I´m in a great need of some rest and recreation. I´ll also work some days at our head quarter here in Stockholm, and also deal with some more practical things such as a health check-up, and boring but necessary paper work like tax declaration and renewal of my insurance.

So all in all, this visit will be a combination of a lot of things and probably pass very quickly. So I´m happy to know that I´ll come back again pretty soon; by the end of June it´s time for my summer vacation which´ll mean 3-4 weeks in Sweden. Including the celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary on the 27:th of June

Last minute of everything before departure....

2008-04-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

(Hmmm.. I wonder what´s wrong with the typeface.. changing between different sections in the text... strange..?)

Well, anyway; Tomorrow evening I´m leaving for Sweden, and tonight I´m doing last-minute-packing in the middle of the night as usual. Don´t have very much to pack though, as I can´t bring any of my clothes from Cambodia to Sweden for very obvious reasons - I won´t be able to wear them without freezing to death. My beloved husband told me over the phone that there was snow in Stockholm yesterday... Brrr....

I´m experiencing a very stressful situation due to a heavy work load at the office, and I´m in great need of some time off. But at the same time, I find that the work load makes it very difficult to let go of work, to not think about it. A sign that this is probably the very best time to let go. This´ll be a good practice for a workoholic like me; to let go of work even if I think I can´t (yes I can!), to focus on my private life for a change (a good balance between your professional and private life is necessary and very important), to learn how to leave work at a time when I´m needed the most (they´ll be just fine). Work isn´t everything. It´s so easy to say, but more difficult to practice. But I´m working on it. Hopefully it´ll feel better when this very-last-minute-of-everything are over and done with, and I´m sitting on the plane.

Can´t wait to see my loved ones!

Humour in Cambodia

2008-04-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

For those Swedish friends who'd like to listen to another radio interview with me, this time on the topic "popular humour in Cambodia", can do that here. It starts about 12 minutes into the clip.

The monsoon season is here

2008-04-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

Dark skies, heavy showers, thunder storms, black clouds, a flooded street. Yesterday afternoon the monsoon arrived to Cambodia. The thunder and rainfall lasted for most of the evening, and I watched the spectacular lightning from my apartement on the 5:th floor. The same this afternoon; the clouds built up during early afternoon, turned darker during late afternoon and then very suddenly; thunder and heavy rainfall. Seems like the monsoon season has arrived here to stay for the next six months...

Note to self: make sure to pack a raincoat and rubber boots when going on that field trip to nortwestern Cambodia later this week...

At miien pleu´n tee!*

2008-04-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

It´s late evening here in Phnom Penh, and my apartement is pitch black. The only source of light is my computer screen. As so many other evenings during the past weeks, there´s no electricity. There´s a huge scarcity of electric power in Phnom Penh. Cambodia doesn´t produce any itself, it´s all imported from the neigbouring countries. This means that the electricity is scarce and bloody expensive. I´ve heard that Cambodia has the highest price for electricity in the world, and considering how painful I find it to pay my domestic electricity bill every month, I don´t doubt it. The shortage of electricity and the boom of private investements with new banks, offices, housing estates and other building that requires a lot of electricity, going up in Phnom Penh every day is not very good combination. Adding on the fact that the hot season is here, which requires all households and businesses to switch on their air-cons and fans doesn´t really help either. Not to mention how hot it gets in the office and at home during the power cuts… Without air conditioning and fans, the temperature soon climbs up to close to +40 degrees celsius, which makes it impossible to work, think, sleep… Even my Khmer colleagues are complaining, finding the heat almost unbearable. They don´t sweat as much as I do though, as they are more used to it. The other morning, I came to the office for a meeting with my colleagues, just to find the electricity cut off. Although it was still early in the morning, the temperature was already almost too much to take. We agreed to make it a short meeting, due to the heat. After approximately 10 minutes, a colleague pointed at me and laughed loudly ”-Look! The water is coming out now”!, which I guess means ”Look, she´s sweating!”.

So, how does Cambodia handle this problem with lack of electricity? The solution ”the people in charge” as my Khmer colleagues call them, is: electricity rationing. The electricity to different areas of the city is cut off during different parts of the day – and you never know when you´ll be effected as there´s no information about this. Sometimes you´ll have electricity in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, or in the evening. On just one of those periods. Or, if you´re unlucky – none. Yesterday for example, my electricity was cut in the morning. When I came to the office, which is situated in another part of the city, it was soon cut there, too - for five hrs… But at least there was electricity in the evening. Which is obvious not the case tonight… or for any evening last week, for that matter… The funny – or rather very annoying – thing is that if you´re lucky to live in a neighbourhood where ”high ranking and powerful people” (to quote my Khmer colleagues again) - live as well, you won´t have this problem. Because in those areas, the power will never be switched off! One of my colleagues is lucky in this sense, as he lives next to the deputy Prime Minister. While I have my electricity cut several times a day, he hasn´t had any problems with power cuts for as long as he has lived there; the past six years… Here in Cambodia, it´s obviously good to know your neigbours… So; until a minister or alike moves in next to my office or apartement, I guess that I just have to get used to the ”black outs”. I think the only way I can avoid to go crazy from frustration is to try to see it as an opportunity to improve my patience – and obviously also to amuse my colleagues.

* Khmer for ”There´s no electricity!”

Some more radio interviews...

2008-03-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

For those Swedish speaking friends who'd like learn a bit more about the situation for youth at the labour market in Cambodia, you can listen to a radio interview with me here (about 13 minutes into the clip).

Another interview, about holidays here in Cambodia - for example the non-existing Easter celebration and the three New Years - can you listen to here (first there's Britney, then me! ;-).

A first taste of the rainy season

2008-03-06T04:32:00.000-08:00

It's thursday evening, 8 o'clock PM and I'm still at the office... I wanna go hooooome, but it's raining like h**l outside, so I have no other choice but to wait... and wait... This reminds me of last year when I arrived to Cambodia. There were so many evenings that I had to spend at the office, waiting for the rain to stop and for the level of water on the flooded streets to sink to a level low enough for me to drive my motorbike all the way home without the engine dying half way... After some time, I learned how to read the signs in the sky that would tell me wheather there would be rain soon or not. And I got familiar with the regularity of the rainfalls; in the beginning of the rainy season there would usually be a heavy rainfall around 6 or 7 in the evening. Later in the rainy season, there would be an additional shower around 2 in the afternoon. And as I got more used to it, I had to spend less evenings at the office. But now, this evening, as we haven't had rainfall since October, this rain caught me completely off-guard, so now I'm stuck. However, the rainy season shouldn't start for another month or so, so I guess that this is just a very first taste of the rainy season. But I'd better be prepared for it. So I don't have to spend any more evenings at the office than necessary...

Gender equality in Cambodia?

2008-03-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

As the International Women's Rights Day is soon coming up, on Saturday the 8:th of March, I've been interviewed by Swedish radio concerning gender equality in Cambodia. The interview was broadcasted live yesterday, but for any Swedish speakers who'd like to listen to it afterwards, you can do that here. (The interview starts around 11 minutes into the clip).

A tribute to Leonard and his crown prince Jason

2008-03-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know me well are most likely familiar with my passion for Leonard Cohen. His music and lyrics has for many years been very important to me; spiritually and intimately connected to different situations, relations, experiences and phases of my life. I´m usually very critical and not at all forgiving of other artists trying to make covers of Cohen´s songs, as they - according to me - never ever can make it into the same league as him. Nothing good has come out of those lame cover versions, with the one and only exception of Jeff Buckley´s beautiful cover of "Hallelujah". Until now, that is; this very evening when I was watching - hold on now - American Idol!?!?!!! Because there, suddenly, this young guy named Jason Castro, enters the stage and without a warning makes the most beautiful cover of "Hallelujah" that I´ve ever heard. His version was so beautiful and touching that it moved me into tears, and now I just can´t stop listening to it. And I just HAVE to share it with you!!! Because something as beautiful as this just has to be shared. So here you go, ladies and gentlemen - I give you Jason Castro´s blessed version of Hallelujah;

And, inspired by the moment, I just feel that I´d like to share Cohen´s beautiful lyrics with you as well;

HALLELUJAH
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

the Foreign Correspondents Club

2008-03-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

Here in Phnom Penh, one of the a places with tons of atmosphere is the Foreign Correspondents Club.

Situated in an old colonial building overlooking the river, it´s the perfect place to enjoy a cold drink overlooking the street life along the riverside. Its´ reputation has reached far outside Cambodias boarders, so it´s usually the place where tourists end up their first evening here. So did me and Janne, when we were visiting Phnom Penh for the first time back in 2002. I remember that our dear friend Andrew had described it as a must-place-to-see-and-be in Phnom Penh before we left from Bangkok, and we followed his advice. Ever since, this has been Janne´s favourite bar in Phnom Penh. And it´s well deserved. This building with its beautiful yellow exterior, with its dark wooden furnitures and colonial style interior, sweeping ceiling fans, long rustic bar, and marvellous setting, gives you the feeling of taking part in a never ending era of visitors on a mission to Cambodia. And you can easily imagine how all the foreign journalists, photograpers, and press people have gathered here during the wars and conflicts that Cambodia has been through. Picturing them sitting along the bar with a bottle of whiskey, smoking and discussing in the latest udates from the frontline... The funny thing is, that this Foreigh Correspondents Club is a total rip-off concept. Compared to other real Foreign Correspondents Clubs over the world, for example the FCC in Bangkok, despite the name this one in Phnom Penh has never functioned as a press club. It opened up in 1993, and has been established as a place for entertainment, dining and drinking - only. So I tend to think about it as the Fake Correspondents Club. But who cares, really - as long as it works, and it does. The concept actually works so well that the owners recently have bought the neighbouring building..;

...to be renovated and integreted with the FCC. This is one of Phnom Penhs most beautiful and most photographed old colonial buildings, which like many of its kind was almost completely destroyed during the Khmer Rouge era, and not been rebuilt since then. After many years of negotiations and bids from different interests and investors, it has now been announced that the building has been bought by the FCC, which will restore it and make it into a luxury hotel and restaurant, connected to the present FCC by a short bridge. This is in many ways typical for what is taking place in Phnom Penh right now; a booming city, with both national and international interests suddenly waking up to recognise its architectural and historical heritage, and the economical benefits that will come with it.

Talking about correspondents clubs, I´ve recently been invited to become a foreign correspondent myself. About a month ago, I was approached by a Swedish radio channel who has a pool of foreign correspondents all over the world; in Finland, Paris, Singapore, Argentina, the Central African Republic, etc. And I was asked if I could consider to be their correspondent in Cambodia?! It sounds pretty serious, but actually it isn´t. No in-depth analyses about political situations or broadcasts from frontlines. Just a weekly topic that can be just about anything; traffic, food, university life, etc, picked by the radio channel. And they will call one of the correspondents to comment on it in a live broadcasted interview Monday-Thursday at 9.10 AM. Before I could consider, I was of course curious about the first week´s topic. And - to my joy and delight - my first topic would be: PETS!!! Yes, that´s right; pets! My all time favourite subject! So how could I possibly say no? So I agreed and the interview was broadcasted on the 5:th of February. The interviews are available for a month on the channels´website, so for a couple of more days, Swedish speaking friends can listen to me talking about pets in Phnom Penh here. (First there´s Britney Spears, then there´s me :-) About a week ago I was interviewed again, this time about breakfast habits in Cambodia, which you can listen to here. But since then, I actually haven´t heard from the radio channel again, so who knows if they´ll let me go on air again or not. But who cares; after all, I´m only a Fake Foreign Correspondent. But according to the traditions here in Phnom Penh, the Fake versions of a Foreign Correspondent might be just as good as the original! :-)

Parents visiting

2008-02-23T04:37:00.000-08:00

My parents have left now, they departured for Sweden earlier this week. It´s been absolutely wonderful to have them here. My fathers 60:th birthday celebration in Kep on the 6:th of February turned out great . We had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant by the sea, where my father could enjoy seafood -his favourite - directly from the sea. After that, we had a drink at the beach, watching the sunset. In the evening it was time for the birthday cake, delivered from the city of Kampot. As my fathers birthday happened to be at the same day as the Chinese New Year, he got a Chinese cake, which turned out to be, well... a bit...different...

Dad at our bungalow veranda in Kep

For present, I gave my father a Khmer cooking class, which he took in Phnom Penh the weekend after. It was a full day of Khmer cooking; spring rolls, Fish Amok and dessert as well. He really enjoyed the cooking class, and was quite exhausted but very happy after a full day of dicing, chopping, frying, and eating.

My parents seems to have really enjoyed their stay here, and it was of course a bit sad to see them go. Unfortunately, they had bad ending of the trip, as my mother who had been a bit ill from stomach problems the last couple of days in Phnom Penh, actually collapsed on the flight between Bangkok and Vienna, due to dehydration and negative side effects from her blood pressure medication. She was taken to a hospital in Vienna, but could continue her travel back to Sweden already the same day.

Apart from this unfortunate end of the trip, I´m happy to report that they´ve very much enjoyed their time here in Cambodia. Especially my Dad, who´s absolutely fascinated by the street life, the traffic and markets. For my mother, it´s all the friendly people, the warmth and kindness that they´ve met here, that has made the strongest impression on her. I´m very happy that they made it here, so they now can relate to my life here, and that we now can share experiences and memories from Cambodia together.

Mum and Dad at Veranda Natural Resort

So thank you Mum and Dad for coming all this way - hope to be able to welcome you back again sometime! And Mum; hope you feel better soon!

Go Snowball!

2008-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

This is "Snowball" the parrot, who lives at a bird rescue centre in Indiana. Snowball loves Backstreet Boys, and has taught himself to dance to their song "Everybody".

This video is great if you need that extra input and energy to get through a bad day. But today, I´m sharing it with you to celebrate that things are finally starting to feel a bit better. After a really tough month, suddenly there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, after all...

Go Snowball, and have a great weekend, everyone!

Congratulations, Dad!

2008-02-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

Today is my father´s 60:th birthday!

Dad and Polly Jean

Here´s the birthday plan: We´ll start the celebrations with a nice birthday breakfast at a French restaurant, and after that take a tour along the riverside up to the buddhist temple of Wat Phnom to look at the Chinese New Year celebrations that starts today. At lunchtime, we´ll leave by car to the small coastal town of Kep, which´ll give my parents a view of the Cambodian countryside on the way. We´ll arrive to Kep in the afternoon, and check in at the very beautiful and atmospheric Veranda Natural Resort, where we´ll stay until Saturday. The plan is to arrive just in time for some drinks on the beach, watching the beautiful sunset. In the evening there´ll be a delicious dinner, and I´ve asked the very helpful staff at the Veranda to assist me in getting us a birthday cake - which they´ll bring from the city of Kampot 20 km away as there are no bakeries in Kep - and I´ll bring some birthday candles from Phnom Penh to decorate it.

We hope for a nice birthday, and that my father will truly enjoy it!

The parents have arrived

2008-02-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yepp, they´re here now. A bit tired of course after a long flight, but in very good mood and pretty enthusiastic about finally being here. Just so you know.
Time for bed now, I´ll have an early morning meeting tomorrow, while the parents hopefully will be able to sleep late and start to adjust to the time zone; +6 hours difference between Sweden and Cambodia.

Good night.

Parents on their way

2008-02-03T05:10:00.000-08:00

Right now, my parents are on their way to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. In some hours, they´ll start their journey Copenhagen-Vienna-Bangkok-Phnom Penh. I´ll pick them up at the airport tomorrow evening. I´m really happy to welcome them for two weeks in Cambodia. It´ll be their first time in South East Asia, and I´m really... eehhmm... wondering what they´ll think. (No, I didn´t use the word "tense". I did not. Or did I..?). My parents are very excited and of course quite a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I´m pretty sure they´ll really like it. On wednesday it´s my father´s 60:th birthday, which we´ll celebrate by the coast in Kep. I´ve taken some days off from work, and it´ll be lovely to spend some days together with my parents there, sipping drinks and watching the sunset. Their second week they´ll go to Siem Riep to do Cambodia´s number one must-see-sight; the Angkor temples. And here and there, we´ll have some days together in Phnom Penh, too. I hope they´ll enjoy their vacation and get some really good memories to bring back with them to Sweden. And who knows, maybe they´ll become as addicted to South East Asia as Janne and me, which would mean that this´ll only be the first out of many visits to come. Well, who knows how it´ll all turn out... I guess that I´ll have to get back to you on that.

Happy travelling, Mum and Dad - see you tomorrow! :-*

MANAMANA!!!

2008-02-02T00:13:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks haven´t been very easy on me, to be honest. A lot of turbulence in my professional life, which drains me. I´m tired and low. Trying to cope the best I can, hoping that this mess somehow will become more clear soon, making it possible for me to make some major decisions.

In times like this, it´s always good to get some inspiration and cheering up. Today, the guys below are what makes it for me, and I´d like to share them with you. They make me happy, gives me energy and a feeling of "...so fuck work, fuck major life decisions, anguish, shattered dreams, fading goals, uncertainties and let´s just....MANAMANA!!!"
Enjoy!

Afraid of heights..?

2008-02-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

Safety and security is not a very big thing here in Cambodia. Here´s an example; what you see is two guys painting a cell phone tower which is placed on my neighbours´ roof. They are painting it by hand, climbing up and down 20-30 meters above the ground, without any safety equipment what so ever. I feel dizzy just by watching them. Do you see those people and vehicles down on the ground on the second photo - they just look so small?!

And you might guess that I´m not too happy about having a cell phone tower placed just across the street either, considering that it´s supposedly not very healthy for you. But when I´ve thought about this for long enough, I tell myself; "Ok, at least I don´t have to paint the damn thing, climbing around up there, 30 meters above ground with nothing else to keep me from falling down than my own bare hands and feet". And then suddenly, I just feel soooo fortunate and secure again.

Very wet celebrations, indeed!

2008-01-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

This is how we spent Christmas Eve in Phnom Penh..;

...and New Years Eve in Kep..;

Do you see any similarities..? :-)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

It´s now possible to publish photos on the blog again, so here we go;

Happy New Year to all friends and family from Kep!

Long time, nothing new

2008-01-16T02:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating the blog for a long time, must be quite disappointing for you to go in here and not finding anything new. As you might know, I´ve been away for some weeks without access to e-mail connection. And since I got back to Phnom Penh a week ago, there´s unfortunately a problem with the connection to the website host for my blog. It won´t download any photos, and I don´t know why. Any other blogspot.com-user out there that has experienced the same problem? If so, please let me know. I do hope that there´ll be a solution to this soon, so I can publish some photos from me and Janne´s wonderful vacation in Vietnam. Until then; please be patient and bear with me.

Lots of love, and best wishes for the new year!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family all over the world!
We wish you a Merry Christmas from Phnom Penh!
It´s been +32 degrees today, so we´ve spent the afternoon in the pool. Not too bad way of spending Christmas Eve, we must say..!
With all our love,
Maria & Janne

Christmas Nostalgia for all Swedes

Recognize this intro? Brings back childhood memories from Christmas 1979, doesn´t it?!

Louise visits Phnom Penh, and Polly visits the veterinary

2007-12-18T15:38:00.000-08:00

Louise has been here on a stop over on her way home from the climate conference in Bali.It´s been wonderful and great fun to have her here; four intense days filled with shopping, sightseeing, good food and catching up.

Louise left last night, and I´m now looking forward to Janne´s arrival on Saturday. Janne himself is mostly preparing himself emotionally for leaving Polly Jean for three weeks. She´ll be staying with her beloved dog sitters Kamilla and Ville who always gives her the very best of care and attention, but of course Janne still feels it´s very sad to leave her, especially for Christmas.

Talking about Polly Jean; the visit to the veterinary for a wound on her leg, that I wrote about in the previous posting, went well. She just hates going to the vet., and is always very scared and nervous when she has to go there. But this visit went better that expected, and although it was an emergency appiontment on a Friday evening it actually turned out to be cheaper than expected, too! Below, I´m pasting Janne´s e-mail that he wrote to me to tell me how it all went. I think it´s a pretty cute story, and I´m so proud of our Polly Jean who had to put up with it all. (Sorry all my English speaking friends that you can´t read it).

SAGAN OM POLLY JEAN PÅ DJURSJUKHUSET
"När vi kom dit var Polly jätteglad och ville busa. När jag vägde
henne (30kg kärlek) fattade hon vad som var på gång. Vi fick vänta en
stund innan vi blev uppropade.

En djurvårdare lät Polly åka hissbordet upp och hon satt och skakade
lite. Hon pillade lite i såret och rakade det sedan. Polly var så
jätteduktig och satt bara och skakade lite. Jag gosade och berömde
henne. Sen pillade hon lite till i såret med en metallpinne och sa
att det nog inte behövde sys, men att veterinären ändå borde titta på
det.

Vi fick vänta så pass länge i rummet på veterinären så Polly somnade
till slut. När hon väl kom blev det samma procedur; hissbord och pill
i såret med metallpinne. Polly var lika duktig igen. Hon sa att det
inte var någon fara. Jag skulle bara tvätta det med vatten varje dag
för att hålla smuts och skorpor borta och se till så hon inte slickar
där. Sen sa hon att ´-vi glömmer att ni varit här´. Vi behövde inte
betala nåt alls! I glädjeyran köpte jag ändå en krage om hon börjar
slicka i såret samt för framtida bruk.

Jag fattar ingenting? Varför behövde vi inte betala? Det tog ju iofs
15 sek för veterinären att kolla. Eller är det för att Polly är TV-
kändis? Glad är jag i alla fall. För att det blev gratis, för att jag
åkte in och för att jag nu vet ungefär var gränsen går för vetbesök
vid sårskador.

Nu blir det pizza (Polly ska få en bit)!"

One of those days... and nights.

2007-12-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today has been a really shitty day. You know the kind when you just KNOW that you should´ve stayed in bed the whole day because EVERYTHING is going wrong. You know... like waking up at 04.30 due to a killing neck pain from an old whip lash injury which maked it impossible to go back to sleep again. Taking some pain killers which of course doesn´t work. Trying to log in to your bank via Internet just to find out that there´s an error which blocks your log-in pass word FOREVER. Going to the bank just to realize that you´ve left your Visa card back home (which means that you have to drive back home through the crazy traffic and get exhausted and sweaty from going 10 stairs up and 10 stairs down again). Asking your husband to help you out with the blocked pass word just to learn that the bank will not do that, instead they are insisting that you call them yourself from the other side of the world to in some mystical way prove over the phone that you´re really you. So you make that phone call to the cost of a smaller fortune, just to find out that it was a total waste of money as the bank refuses to assist you ANYWAY. And - this is the icing on the cake - driving home from office, wondering why there´s a big crowd of people on the corner just across the road from my building; just to find out that a guy was robbed and shot to death on the spot there an hour ago... I guess that his day turned out a lot worse than mine. But anyway - there you have my day.

But there has been some good things as well. Like having my friend Johan here this evening, helping me out with the curtains which has bothered me as I´m too short to put them up myself. Actually, it turned out that Johan had a really shitty day too, probably even worse than me, (not the least as he had to fix my curtains as well). So we agreed that it can´t be a coincidence. We came to the very logical conclusion that the powers in the universe must be in great disharmony right now, turning all positive into negative. We did our best to turn it back to positive again by ordering pizza, listened to christmas music from Johan´s lap top and talk about the upcoming holidays that we both look forward to.

I must also tell you one positive thing that makes me very happy; my friend Louise will arrive tomorrow! She´ll stay with me for four days, on her way back to Sweden from Bali where she has attended the climate conference. I just can´t wait to pick her up at the airport tomorrow. So, I must say that tomorrow looks a lot more promising than today. At least, I do hope so!

PS I´m adding this a couple of hours after I did the posting above. Janne just called to tell me that Polly Jean has hurt a leg, probably during playing with friends at the doggy day care. She has a deep wound, that will probably need some stitches. They are now on their way to an emergency appointment at one of the veterinary hospitals. It´s way past midnight here now, and I´m wide awake, worrying about my beloved dog. I guess this means that the Shitty Day has decided to work the night shift and turn into a Shitty Night. Damn. I´d better go to bed now before this gets any worse than it already is. So; good night.

Cambodian rock and roll - the history and its future

2007-12-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas spirit?

2007-12-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

The past couple of days it hasn´t been a question about whether it´s been hot or cold here in Phnom Penh, as I was writing about in the previous posting. It´s hot. Probably around +32-33 degrees, I´d guess. In this heat, I´ve been driving around Phnom Penh to do my Christmas shopping. It started yesterday, with me and my friend Mimmi going to the International Bookstore to check out their stock of plastic christmas trees. Yes - I know; I can already hear you commenting and mumbling all the way from wherever you are; "Plastic?! How tacky, is she insane?!" Well, I don´t like this any more than you do, but I do live in Cambodia now and I don´t have very much of a choice, ok? So anyway; we found some quite impressive plastic trees in all kinds of sizes, the biggest ones more than 3,5 m tall. And giant plastic raindeers, santa claus costumes, glitter in all kinds of colours, and all kinds of christmas decorations, one tackier than the other.... Well, if it´s christmas decorations you´re after and you´re not too picky about the design being as far from minimalistic as it can possibly be, you won´t be disappointed here, that´s for sure.

I´ve never been head over heels for christmas actually, but as I´m married to someone who´d probably be best described as a "Christmas fetishist", I thought that I for the sake of love could check out the possibility of creating something that could at least vaguely remind us of a traditional christmas celebration, although we´ll be spending this christmas in a tropical heat this year. And for the same reason, I went to the western grocery store "Veggies" today, to get my beloved husband some pickled herring, which is a must for him on Christmas Eve. After that, I went to Pencil Supermarket for some grocery shopping, and found that also they are selling plastic christmas trees and were busy putting them on display outside the store;

I went inside, escaping the hot sun and spent a good half an hour in the air conditioned store, trying to cool down, doing my shopping listening to "Jingle Bells" and other christmas carrols from the loudspeakers, with the sweat still almost pouring down my back. I couldn´t help thinking that it felt a bit weird, and that I found it a bit difficult to get the different pieces together. I mean, I have my picture about what Christmas usually is like, and I just found it a bit contradictory to listen to christmas carrols and looking at christmas decorations, in a temperature of +33 degrees. But at the same time, I wouldn´t change it for the usual Christmas time in Sweden, either. With all that stress, the hectic christmas shopping where you´ll spend hours in the department stores, the darkness and the cold. That I can do without. But what, or rather who, I can´t do without is my husband. But he´ll arrive on the 22:nd, just in time for Christmas. And perhaps, we´ll go to the International Bookstore to get one of those plastic trees... Well actually, I´ve already promised him one... What don´t you do for some christmas spirit?! And your loved one :-)

Hot or cool, thats the question

2007-12-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

In about mid October, the hot rainy season started to give in for this year and gave place to the dry season with it´s cooler temperatures. It´s not very often that we get any rain this time of the year, and the morning and evenings are comfortably cool. Well, if you can call around 26 degrees "cool" compared to the European weather this time of year, but still... By Cambodian standards it´s considered cool. Even cold. So cold that you have to put on a thick jacket and wrap up in blankets. "-It´s so cold", my Khmer colleagues are complaining and switches off the air con. "-What´s the temperature today?" I ask. "-Oh, it must be as low as 27 or maybe even 26", a colleague replies. "- M-hm" I reply. "-Don´t you think it´s cold?" she asks me. "-Well, not really. Actually, I like it, I find it very pleasant" I answer. My colleague looks a bit puzzled by the fact that the cold doesn´t seem to affect me. "-But if it was as low as.... 20 degrees" she asks, trying hard to to make me admit that Swedes actually CAN freeze sometimes, "..wouldn´t you feel cold then?" "-Well" I say, "yesterday I spoke to my husband and it´s snowing back home now, which means that it´s below 0 degrees. As that´s the temperature I´m used to, I probably wouldn´t find +20 degrees very cold. On the contrary, still very comfortable." She looks at me as I´m lying and laughs almost nervously, as she was speaking to an alien, and wraps the scarf even tighter around her slim shoulders. "-Oh, I think it´s really cold now", she states. Later the same evening when I´m leaving the office I notice that our night guard whose regular "uniform" is a cotton krama (traditional Khmer scarf) around his waist and nothing more, now is fully dressed in trousers and a sweater and on top of that is wrapped in a giant blanket. The blanket is so big that he has truble walking, and you can hardly see him in there. He´s struggling to relaease one arm from somewhere inside this giant tent, to open the gate for me. I´m driving my motorbike out on the street and accelerate when I´ve reached the main road. The wind is cool and nice towards my face, and for the first time since I moved to Cambodia, I´m thinking that it would´ve been nice to wear a long sleeved top.

Thinking back at the monsoon season with the hot temperatures and flooded streets, I welcome this time of year. Although, I must admit that the rainy season also has it´s charm. One thing that´s not so good about it though, is that the street where I live tend to get flooded when it rains. Below, I´ve published some pictures where you can see what it looks like.

When I took those pictures, I suddenly heard a loud scream from the neigbours across the street. I looked in that direction, and saw a snake crawling up from the water, into our neighbours livingroom on the ground floor. The lady who lives there was of course terrified by the unwelcome guest, which explained the screaming in this otherwise pretty quiet neigbourhood. The guys who runs the motorbike repair shop next door to her, came running and killed the snake by beating it with a stick. Poor snake... Afterwards, they played with it by putting the life less body on the tip of the stick, chasing each other. I made it pretty clear to them that I wasn´t interested in participating. I asked our gate keeper if he knew what kind of snake it was. He stated that it was poisonous, and explained that you could die from by being bitten by it. Whether it´s true or not I have no idea. Ever since a Khmer colleague of mine tried to convince me that peacocks are poisonous, I have a slightly sceptical approach to the stories being told about poisonous animals here in Cambodia... But anyhow, this snake encounter was enough for me to decide that I´ll never again walk home through flooded streets, pushing my moto with water up to my knees. Obvoiusly, you just don´t know what´s hiding in there. And thank God that I´m living on the fifth floor, I swear that I´ll never complain about that again!

Home, sweet home

2007-12-01T01:19:00.000-08:00

This is where I live, on the top floor. That´s my balcony up there!

Back to the beach

2007-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Saturday, I´m going back to Kep again!

This time with some staff from my office; a bunch of my Khmer colleagues and my Swedish boss. We´ll stay at...
...Veranda Natural Resort - the same place as where Michael and I stayed a couple of weeks ago.

I´m really looking forward to some good time together with my colleagues, peace and quiet...

...and wonderful sea views.

Just keeping my fingers crossed that my stomach which has been troubling me for more than 10 days now, will let me enjoy the trip as well.

In line with all Khmer time schedules, we´ll leave faaaaar to early according to me; 06.30 AM... Which means that I probably should go to bed now to get a few hours of sleep...

Back -but not on track

2007-11-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

I´ll go straight to the point; Michael and I had an absolutely amazing holiday in Kep. But I have to save the photos and story telling about this until later, because since Monday evening I´ve been in bed with a fever and stomach ache. Michael left for Vietnam on Tuesday morning, and I do hope that he´s alright and hasn´t caught whatever I´m suffering from. At least he was ok yesterday, when I texted him.
Until I´ve regained enough energy to fill you in on our holiday, I´m publishing one of Michael´s beautiful photos for you all to enjoy;

Going to the coast

2007-10-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

Today, Michael and I are leaving for the coast. We´re going to Kep, a sleepy little town for some beachlife and relaxation Wednesday - Sunday. I´m really looking forward to it, neither one of us has been there before so it´s going to be both interesting and great with a change of environment for a while. No matter how much I enjoy living in Phnom Penh, it´s always nice to get a break from the city life now and then.

For some more information on where we´re going, check out http://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/southern_cambodia/kampot/kep, and http://veranda-resort.com to see where we´ll be staying.

A visit from London!

2007-10-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

Ha, Michael is here and I´m really happy about it! I picked him up at the airport this morning, and now he´s sleeping after the long flight from London to Phnom Penh via Singapore. For those of you who hasn´t met Michael, I can tell you that we hooked up as friends at Crete 17 years ago and has been very good friends ever since. Some of you met him at my wedding 9 years ago. We´re trying to meet up as aften as we can, last time was in Amsterdam earlier this year, and a couple of years before that we went to Switzerland together. And now he´s here, yippie! I´ve taken some time off from work, so next week we´ll be travelling together, probably going to the coast for some relaxing beach athmosphere. We´ve both done all the Cambodian "must see" sights already, such as Angkor and Sihanoukville, which gives us a lot more freedom to go wherever we just feel like.
Now I´m going to try to wake him up and take him out to lunch, so he starts to adjust to the Cambodian time...

2007-10-20T23:30:00.001-07:00

The Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok - a place to dream in a city that never sleeps

2007-10-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

This week the Pchum Benh festival is celebrated in Cambodia, which means that I´ve got Wednesday-Sunday off from work. A perfect opportunity to go to my favourite city Bangkok I thought - so here I am! I arrived to a flooded Bangkok on Wednesday evening, checking in at my beloved "the Atlanta Hotel" (www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com) where I´ve stayed so many times before. Oh, my beloved Atlanta... Can´t descibe in words how much this place has meant to me over the years... This has been my base for my studies, research and writing, and for my travels - both on my own and together with Janne. I´ve met many good friends here, it´s become my Home away from home where I always feel welcome and being greeted as a family member. The family "the Atlantians" as we sometimes joke about ourselves, a group of more or less (usually more) excentric writers, researchers, independent travellers, expats, etc, of which many have visited the Atlanta for many, many years and still are coming and going on a regular or irregular basis. The Atlanta is a budget hotel, pretty much untouched since the 50:s, with a wonderful art deco lobby and sweeping staircases. Also with a lovely restaurant with tons of 50:s athmosphere, with the most delicious food and an extensive vegetarian menue. There´s actually where I´m sitting now writing this, and this is also where I ususally spend my evenings, reading, writing, catching up with old friends I haven´t seen for quite some time and sometimes also making new ones. In the daytime, it´s lovely to relax by the pool or in the garden, watching the turtles in the pond that´s constantly expanding as more and more baby turtles are hetched every year. And of course to cuddle with some of the more than 40 cats that has been adopted by the Atlanta. I´m always crying when I´m leaving this place, and I probably will tomorrow as well. But it´s good to know that I´m now living only an hour away by plane, which gives me the opportunity to come here a lot more often now. This might be the first, but maybe not the last stay at the Atlanta for me this year...?!

Congratulations, Darling!

2007-10-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Today, my beloved husband turns 4..-ehh, hrhum... I mean 32. 32 it is. For sure. 32. Congratulations, Darling! To celebrate this, I´d like to share a couple of photos with you of the most wonderful man in the whole world...;

Janne on a terrace in Nafplio, Greece...

...and on a beach in Athens.

Aaahh! Isn´t he handsome!?! *proud*

On top of that, I´m also happy and proud to tell you that the two of us are celebrating our 12:th engagement anniversary today! We got engaged on Jannes 32... -eehhrmh.. 22:nd birthday back in 1995. Which means that I was only 22... ehh, hrhrum.. I mean 12.. or... eehhh... anyway, never mind.

Congratulations Honey, and congratulations to Us, too! I love you!

Finally connected

2007-09-29T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hurray, today I´ve finally managed to get an internet connection installed in my flat here in Phnom Penh! Yippiiee!! I celebrated by immediately calling Janne via the iChat programme on my Mac lap top. Wonderful thing, that iChat I must say! Making it possible to see and talk to eachother via a tiny intergrated camera in the lap top screen. Talking and looking at eachother over a cup of coffee... Makes the world feel so much smaller, bringing us closer together although we´re so far away... Talked to my parents via Skype and web cam as well, and the sound is so much clearer now when I don´t have to bring my laptop to internet cafés. And Marco called me from Holland too, showing off their adorable Schi-tzu/Jack Russel Terrier "Lola" via Skype and webcam. So it´s been a great day in that way; feels like I´ve been visited by dear friends and family and even a dog from all parts of the world! :-) It´s been so nice to see them all here in my livingroom in Phnom Penh! :-)

I can´t believe how much the modern means of communication have developed since I did my first field study in Thailand back in 1995... At that time there was no internet, mobile phones, web cams or sms... The only means of correspondence was via letters, which took two weeks in either direction. I remember that I at one point missed Janne a lot and wanted to let him know, so I went to a post office and sent him a telegramme which I guess took less than a day to be delivered from Hua Hin in Thailand to Linköping in Sweden... It was a simple little telegramme, with only three words; "I love you"... But I was very happy to be able to get that message across from one part of the world to the other, so quickly... What Janne thought? I think he was mostly surprised when the messanger from the post office knocked at the door... But anyway, what a change that has taken place! We´re now able to communicate with friends and loved ones on a daily basis, quickly and for free... I feel so fortunate for this, as it makes it possible for me to live and work as I do right now, and still be able to stay in touch with you all.

So; here´s to new means of communication, and here´s to my newly installed internet connection in my flat on street 115 in Phnom Penh! Cheers!

PS. For those of you who haven´t installed Skype yet, I strongly recommend you to do so. It´s very easy, just go to www.skype.com and register for a Skype account. And then you´re able to call other Skype users (frends like me!) all over the world, for free via your computer.

Bullie Bags!

2007-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Look what I found at my local market "Psar O´Russei" the other day;
BULL TERRIER BAGS! :-)

Ha ha, now my collection of bull terrier bags can grow even bigger! :-) I´ve bought a lot of nice bull terrier bags of different brands everytime I´ve been to Bangkok, but I didn´t expect to find any in Phnom Penh. But obvoiously, there are some really nice ones, just 200 meters from my house! Lucky me! :-)

Polly Jean and Janne - media stars!

2007-09-18T04:26:00.000-07:00

Today, I´m extremely proud to see my loved ones; Polly Jean and Janne, being interviewed in Expressen, one of the biggest evening newspapers in Sweden! :-)
We´re told the interview will be broadcasted on some local tv channels as well, but frankly it´s just very small channels so you´d be very lucky to catch them there.

For those of you who don´t understand Swedish, the theme for the whole thing is that Polly Jean has her own page on Facebook. (And yes, of course it was me who set it up and now poor Janne has to cover for it while I´m abroad....) The interview is a part of the coverage on that Facebook has become such a huge phenomenon, and that now even pets has their own pages on Facebook. The interview explains that we first set up the page to introduce Polly Jean to friends far away who are curious about Polly Jean but never have had the chance to meet her. But quite quickly, Polly Jean started to get friend requests from dogs - and a pig! - from all over the world; Bolivia, England, USA, South Africa etc, so her page kind of started to get a life of it´s own... Well, I guess you´ve to take a look for yourself to see...
To see the interview on webb-tv, go to: http://www.expressen.se/webb-tv/index.html?serialid=5938
To see the article, go to: http://www.expressen.se/husdjur/1.844549/nu-har-hunden-polly-blivit-basta-van-med-en-gris

And last but not the least; thank you Martina for coming up with this totally wicked idea and for talking us into putting Polly Jean on broadcast. I guess that´s one of the reasons that you really deserve my nomination of you as "my most creative friend" on Facebook.

Back in Phnom Penh, and going north east.

2007-08-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

It was of course difficult to leave Stockholm and my loved ones behind after three wonderful weeks together. But luckily, I also felt immediately at home when I landed at the airport in Phnom Penh. It´s amazing how quickly you adapt, isn´t it? Seeing my friends here also helped, of course; thank you Johan, Mimmi & Albin and Marco for being such lovely friends. Now I´m looking forward to Janne´s visit over Christmas and the New Year. Hopefully, I´ll also get visits from some friends as well; Louise in mid-December, and hopefully will Michael be able to make it here from London in October/November.

This week, the work has really kicked off for sure. Tomorrow, I´m leaving for a weeks field trip to north eastern Cambodia . Me and a couple of colleagues are going to Stung Treng and Ratanakiri in north eastern Cambodia, to visit two of our Cambodian partner organisations who works with Democracy and Human Rights there. North eastern Cambodia is supposed to be very different and beautiful, it´s fairly remote and populated by indigenous people, so it´s going to be very interesting to see. The situation for organisation working for human rights is getting more and more difficult, and Cambodian activist are being abducted and/or killed for claiming their rights. Land grabbing is a common problem; rich and powerful people stealing land from poor and indigenous people, taking away their possibilities to make a living. This issue is one of the things we´ll look deeper into during the field trip, so I´m looking forward to a very interesting week.

For some information on where I´m heading this week, check;
http://www.travelfish.org/region/cambodia/northeastern_cambodia
http://www.travelfish.org/province/cambodia/northeastern_cambodia/ratanakiri

Going home and away at the same time, part 2

2007-08-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

In an hour, I´m leaving for the airport to go back to Phnom Penh after three wonderful weeks in Sweden. As you might recall from the last posting, I was a bit emotionally puzzled about leaving Phnom Penh - which of course turned out to be a totally waste of energy. Being here in Stockholm, spending time with my loved ones has been fantastic. Thanks to all my beloved friends and family who have made my vacation so warm and lovely. I´ll carry this summer with me in my heart, all the way to the other side of the world.

So, soon to be leaving, of course I can´t help wondering how it will feel to return to Phnom Penh again..? My home away from home... I feel just as puzzled as I did when I was leaving for Sweden... But as that turned out just fine, I guess that this´ll do, too..?

As much as I dread leaving Janne, Polly Jean and all good friends in Sweden, I´m also looking forward to see my friends in Phnom Penh again; Mimmi & Albin, Johan and hopefully Marco who´ll be on one of his regular visits from Holland. It´s really, really nice to know that I have some good friends to get together with when I get back. And it makes this process of saying good bye, just a little bit easier.

So, to all my dear friends in different parts of the world; lots of love to you all, and thank you for being you!

Going home and away at the same time...

2007-07-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, I'm leaving Cambodia for three weeks of vacation in Sweden. It'll be fantastic to see Janne, Polly Jean and the cats again, can't wait! We'll spend the first two weeks in Stockholm, and the third week on the west coast in Bohuslan. We'll just take it easy, relax and the only thing we've planned is: not to plan anything.

The travel itself won't be very much of rest and relaxation, though. My dear khmer colleagues are taking the opportunity to send some fruit with me, to their friends in Sweden. 10 kilos of mango and pomelo... Well, I guess that I'll have to wait and see what the staff at the check-in counter at the Phnom Penh Airport has to say about 10 kilos too much on the luggage scale...

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the vacation and some rest, as it has been quite a lot of new things to take in and adapt to since my arrival here. I think that it might have taken some more energy than I actually realize now, being in the middle of the whole relocation process. So; rest and relaxation is the theme for our summer holiday this year.

But no matter how much I'm looking forward to see my family and friends again, at the same time it feels a bit strange to leave Phnom Penh right now. Partly because it feels like I've just arrived - although it's actually three months ago, but time flies so fast, doesn't it?! And also because it's a bit confusing to leave my home here to go to... well, my other home. I do have two homes now, in two parts of the world. And travelling between these two homes will be a part of my life for the next years to come. It's an exciting feeling and I'm so happy for the opportunity to live like this. But the emotional process of travelling in between the two homes for the first time puzzles me a bit more than I had expected it to, actually. But I guess that the pieces will fall into place as soon as I, and hopefully the fruit too, have arrived at the Arlanda airport early Saturday morning. Because as I said; I just can't wait to be with my loved ones..! :-)

The way to get around in Phnom Penh...

2007-07-23T23:32:00.000-07:00

So, I have finally faced my fear of the Phnom Penh traffic and am now getting around on my "moto" as they call it here; a steady Honda SuperCub 70cc. The first challenge was to learn how to drive the damn thing. The second was to get used to the heavy and unpredictable Phnom Penh traffic, where no rules - if there are any - are obeyed. So, I´ve found that the way to do it, is to throw everything overboard that I´ve ever learned about driving, because frankly the "western style" driving won´t help here, just get you into trouble. So forget about any ideas that you might have about that you should "plan" your driving, not drive on sidewalks, to give way to other people,to look carefully before you make a turn, not to drive in the opposite direction on a one-way lane, to stop at red lights, etc. Because that's not how it works here - rather you just do what you feel like. So; I´ve kind of started over, put all my previous driving skills aside and am now learning how to drive the Cambodian way instead. In both the heavy afternoon city traffic, and on bumpy muddy roads. And I'm having a great time! And yes - I´m driving carefully, slowly and I'm always wearing a helmet. (The photo below has been the only exception to that so far).

Me on my moto, in front of the office

My new apartement

2007-07-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

Today, I got the keys to my new apartement! :-) As I´ve mentioned before, I won´t move in there for another week though, as I´m staying with Skruttis the cat until then. But today I went there for the first time to check everything, unpack some stuff that has been in suitcases since the my arrival here on the 1:st of May. And I also started to make a list over what things I have to buy... So here we go; Waste bins (4), pots, pans, coffe maker, electrical water kettle, cutleries, plates, glasses, toilet paper, kitchen towel, bath towels, bed linens, duvets, curtains, furniture for the balcony, mugs, hangers, laundry basket, washing powder, soaps (4) toaster... well, I´ll spare you the rest, as this is just a start. I guess I´ll spend quite some time on the markets in the weekends to come.

I´m really happy for this apartment and I really like it, so I don´t think it´ll take too long before I´ll feel at home there. I took a stroll in the neighbourhood when I had finished all the practicalities in the apartement. I haven´t really been there before, and I was really happy to find that it´s a very charming part of town and it seems very peaceful, too.

I´ve taken some photos for you to see the apartement as well; enjoy!

The living room

The view from the guest room

The balcony

That´s all for this time, I´ll publish some more photos when I´ve got everything in place.

Finally - a home

2007-06-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Let me share some good news with you; I have finally found a place of my own here in Phnom Penh! After two months of going around with estate agents to look at one place after the other, I´ve signed a contract for a quite small but nice 2 bedroom flat on street 115. It´s not the kind of a traditional wooden house that I´ve been looking for - but after looking at one wooden house after the other that needed major renovations, and also after endless discussions with private landlords over all means of things and details, I´d almost lost hope about finding a place that I´d really like and that would also be a good practical solution. But a couple of weeks ago, I was shown this apartement by one of the estate dealers. It turned out to be a very light, nice and by Cambodian standards modern flat, with a small balcony. Not in the same area as I have looked at before, but still a convenient location; close to food malls and restaurants. So, after some consideration, I decided to drop the idea of a wooden house and instead settle for this more practical solution. And I´m really happy!! The apartment is really cute, fully furnished, and it has a guest bedroom which means that I can welcome friends and family to stay. And although it is pretty small, it´s at the same time very well planned when it comes to both light and storage facilities which otherwise is really difficult to find here in Phnom Penh. And I can set up an internet connection in the apartement, too. So I´m really, really looking forward to moving in. I´ll have access to the apartement from the 15:th of July, but I´ll stay in my friends house until the 22:nd of July when my they´ll be back from their holidays. This as I don´t want Skruttis to be on her own, and I don´t want to move her to a new place for only a week as that probably will cause her stress.

So - I guess that I´d better start planning for some serious shopping now. Because here in Cambodia, the concept "fully furnished" doesn´t really cover anything except just the furniture. Kitchen ware, bathroom equipment and a lot of other things are always provided by the tenant. So Russian Market, Central Market, Lucky Supermarket - here I come..!

Wedding Anniversary

2007-06-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today, on the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 9 year anniversary. I can´t believe that we have been married for 9 years already..?! It´s diffucult to comprehend that almost a decade has passed since that wonderful day when we walked down the aisle at the little red wooden chapel in Tylösand.

Today, I sent Janne 9 red roses, to tell him how much I love him and to thank him for 9 wonderful years together. The roses were delivered to his office two hours later. It´s quite impressive that thanks to the modern means of communication, you can send flowers from Cambodia to Sweden in less than two hours, isn´t it?

We´re already planning for where to go next year, when we´ll celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Perhaps, we´ll go to Singapore and Borneo where we went on our two months honeymoon in 1998. It would be pretty romantic to revisit some of the places that we visited back then, don´t you think?! :-)

Thank you for 9 wonderful years together, Darling! I love you more than words can say.

Midsummers Eve

2007-06-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends,
today you are all celebrating Midsummers Eve in Sweden.

And Michael - you might be celebrating it in London, too? I know you went to IKEA the other day, perhaps for stocking up on pickled herring for Midsummer?:-) (Remember when we celebrated Midsummer in Crete..? :-)

Well, wherever you are dear friends and family, today is a day when you all will eat pickled herring (except for the vegetarians of course), with potatoes, sourcream, chives and most likely drinking a lot of "snaps" with it. Perhaps there'll be some dancing around the midsummer pole as well. Many of you will go with your friends to the countryside for a traditional and romantic - and as usual cold - celebration. Stockholm is a very empty city at Midsummers Eve, as everyone seems to migrate to the countryside or the archipelago.

Here in Phnom Penh, there's no such thing as midsummer in sight. It's more like "the first quarter of the rainy season" or something. So no celebration for me tonight, but probably a nice evening anyway. As usual, I'll probably go out to dinner with my friend Dre, and then go home to Skruttis the beloved cat, watch an episode or two of "Grey's Anatomy" on DVD before going to bed, hoping for a long sleep tomorrow morning. Although that won't happen as Skruttis always wakes me up for her breakfast at 06.30 AM... And tomorrow evening, there'll be a somewhat belated Midsummer celebration with my friends Dre and Johan. We're going to the supermarket to try to find something similar to what you guys are eating today. Strawberries, sourcream and potatoes should be no problem to find here, and the rumour claims that there's even pickled herring in some stores. Well, I guess I just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what kind of Cambodian version of Midsummer meal it'll be for me this year...:-)

I am thinking about you all today, and I wish you all a happy Midsummer!

A constant flow of people...

2007-06-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

Both the social and the professional scene here in Phnom Penh are very international; a mixture of people from all parts of the world coming to Cambodia for work or tourism, short or long time. I stay and work in the southern part of the city, which means that I seldom run into tourists though, except for the few times I´m going to one of the more tourist oriented markets in the weekends. At the office, the vast majority of my colleagues are Khmer - out of 15 staff, 5 are Swedish and 10 Khmer. It´s a new and very rewarding experience for me to work in an international team like this. Through my work and especially the social scene, I meet a lot of expats from the western countries, too. There´s a huge western oriented restaurant- pub- and music scene here, side by side with the huge karaoke places and noodle stalls, which means that you can have the best of two worlds whenever you feel like it.

What´s characteristic for the social and professional expat scenes, is that they are constantly changing. People are coming and going all the time. Some are staying for only a shorter period of time, doing volunteer work or research. Some people, like myself, are staying for a some years, before heading back to their home country or for a new mission in some other Asian country. There are also some who find themselves staying for 10 years or even longer, making Cambodia their new home country.

The only thing for sure about this dynamic scene, is that it´s constantly changing. This is of course a bit different compared to home, where your social network most likely is quite stable from year to year - well, I don´t know about yours, but mine seems to be quite unchanging anyway. But here, you meet and make friends with people who you might not even know if they´ll be around next month or not. This means that there is a constant flow of people; a lot of new aquintances, and also a lot of farewells... For example, last week there was a good bye lunch for my new good Swedish friend Susanne, who returned for Sweden after a couple of months of field research here in Cambodia.

Goodbye lunch for Susanne at Intercontinental Hotel. From left; Dre, Johan, Susanne and me.

This coming week, another Swedish aquaintance is leaving after a two year mission here. In August, my Lithuanian friend Dre is leaving for Europe after some months of volunteer work at Ecpat here in Phnom Penh. And in December, my good friend Johan might move to Chiang Mai. As I said; a lot of goodbyes... At first, this might seem sad. And it is. I must say that I miss Susanne already, that I don´t like to think about that my wonderful friend Dre will leave quite soon, and that I for my own egoistic sake hope that Johan will be around also next year. But, at the same time, I´m adapting to these dynamic social relations. I´ve made some really good friends, and I hope for some more to come along in the future. My social network here in Phnom Penh is energetic, warm and supportive - good friends altogether. And the fact that people have already come and gone in and out of this network during the short time I´ve spent here, hasn´t changed this. So I´m kind of getting used to the fact that my network here will change and look different over time. And although I will miss the friends that are leaving, just as I miss you friends at home sometimes, I also appreciate the possibility of meeting so many new and interesting people, all of whom have their own stories to tell and experiences to share from all parts of the world... And together, for a shorter or longer time, we´re writing a joint story here in Phnom Penh. Which we´ll look back at sometime in the future, when the time has come for each and one of us to move on, leaving others behind...

Two of my good friends; Dre and Susanne, in a tuk-tuk.

Birthday Bitch

2007-06-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today, wednesday the 13:th of June, our beautiful English bull terrier Polly Jean turns 2 years old.

According to the report from Janne, the birthday celebration started early morning, with Polly receiving a so called big "boomer ball" from me and Janne. It is supposed to be impossible to destroy, even for a bull terrier. (Well, I guess we have to see about that). Polly showed a great interest in the boomer ball, so it was brought to the doggy day care where Polly spends her days when Janne is working, for Polly Jean and her friends to play with. There'll be more celebration in the evening, with Pollys magic three P:s ; Pizza (Polly will get a children's pizza with ham and cheese), more Presents and a small Party to which, among others, Polly's friends "Whoopie" the Grand Dane, and "Morris" the miniature bull terrier, are invited.

Happy Birthday, my beloved Birthday Girl! I love you so much!