Here comes the rain....

The rainy season has well and truely started now (early) and we feel lucky to have missed the swealtering heat that we heard so much about before arriving. Instead, we have unpredictable and often very heavy downpours to contend with. But never fear as we have invested in various ways to stay dry. Sam is sporting one of them below.

Off to work in an early morning shower

As the rains mean the river levels rise, we have had to say goodbye to the lovely picnic area that is Kampee which sadly I feel I have not been able to make the most of this year.

Our last visit to Kampee this year with Ingran and Linda

Today, after a weekend of mainly studying and work, me and Sam set off to expore some more of Kratie and stumbled upon the new rainy season Kampee which we are calling Lily Huts. We spent the afternoon chilling here and admiring the beautiful view.

There have been a few uplifting moments recently depite our sadness over the market situation. The carnival has been in town and after 2 failed attempts due to rain, we finally made it there last Thursday. The highlight of the evening was watching motorbike drivers drive round inside a wooden cyclinder shaped area. The video below will explain it better. It was quite exciting and impressive but I don't think I'll be doing it again as the whole contraption that we were standing on shook for the entire time - no health and safety here. Zac and I lost the bet that they would be wearing helmets and had to buy Abi and Quennie a beer!

And then there was the boat party in Phnom Penh to celebrate 20 years of VSO in Cambodia (see Ingran's blog for 10 ways to organise a successful party). It was a really fun night with lots of...

Dancing...

Silliness...

And Angkor beer!

Our batch: we all arrived together in September

Sam showing off his London hat wearing style

And of course the night ended with us seeing if we could all fit into a tuk tuk together. We managed nine but the other fifteen people had to get their own tuk tuks!

The rain has made sitting by the river a bit more difficult but we still get the occassional amazingly beautiful sunset.


We don't have any holiday plans at the moment as I've been away so much but also because July and August are seriously lacking in the public holiday department. I'm sure someone will realise this soon and amend the situation. We are, however, looking forward to the stream of visitors that will hopefully start arriving in October through to December.