Our First Visitors!

Hi Everyone

Laura and Alberto came to stay, over half term week.The flight to Siem Reap from Singapore takes just 2 1/2 hrs; its then the dirt road up here in a taxi, which, because the road is good just now, as there hasn't been too much rain, takes approx. 2 1/2 hrs. They came loaded with goodies - blue tac, quality dusters and dishcloths, books, DVD's, M & S nibbles, good wine and biscuits! The best thing for Geoff was a DVD machine which plays DVD's through the television screen. We really appreciate our simple pleasures.

2 German friends offered to take us all in their NGO Land Cruiser to a remote temple of the Angkor era, well off the tourist route. It was very impressive, if not a bit daunting, as there were huge stone door ways which looked as if they were about to topple over and huge trees growing through the masonery. Some beautiful carvings too. We had a great picnic under the trees - ratatouille, salad nicoise, roast loin of pork and tortilla. You have to be inventive here!

The next day we hired bikes and cycled around the sights of Samraong - the market, my office, the wat, Enfant De Mekong, the charity that Geoff is to work for, the hospital and the lake. Alberto said it reminded him of rural Italy in the 60's! We escaped the heat by watching the film "Milk", Sean Penn, which was excellent, in their ac. hotel room, and enjoyed the relative cool of the evening on our flat roof with good wine and food. Then we went off to Siem Reap to enjoy a lazy time at a boutique hotel with a lovely pool.Hopefully, we'll meet up with them again in Singapore in September.

Clive has asked us via post a comment about the mossies here and how we deal with them. Peter G. also referred to them after hearing a "Today"article, so I thought more of you might be interested! We do have mosquitoes which carry maleria - these bite at night, and denque fever - these bite during the day, but particularly during the rainy season. We always wear anti- repellant cream, sleep under a net which has been impregnated with some chemical whose name I can't remember, and we take anti- malerial medication daily. So far so good - we both feel very healthy, sleep and eat well and we've both lost some weight - me more than Geoff, big surprise! It's hard to take exercise though as it is always hot and there are few facilities for sport. We really enjoy our bikes and have begun to bird watch around the lake as the water rises.

Our big news this week is a straw and wood shelter which our landlord has erected on the roof to give us some shade! This will make such a difference to the quality of our lives as we could only sit outside up their after about 5.30pm. So think about us this weekend sipping our iced Ricard, which retails here for $5 a litre, surrounded by coconut palms, and views of the lake and Thai mountains.That actually sounds more beautiful than it actually is but never mind! Geoff's gone to SReap today to collect some cushions for our heavy wooden lounge furniture and buy a connection to enable us to post some photos on the blog.How is it we still manage to lose only useful things!

Please keep emailing or posting comments. If you'd like to write - we get post sent up once a week - our address is: VSO Cambodia Programme Office. PO Box 912. Phnom Penh. Cambodia

Lots of love to you all
Carol and Geoff xx