Translating the hand painted signs of Kratie

This is one of a handful of signs I've had translated and profiled on my other blog.

Take 2: Our Appearance on National TV

Following this post by Gilly our moment has finally come.  This four minute trailer extolling the virtues of Kratie province is currently being broadcast on all of Cambodia's main national TV stations.  In fact, we knew it had been completed last week when one of Gilly's colleagues came into her office to say she'd seen Gilly on TV the night before.

The song was specially commissioned for the film and runs through many of the province's tourist attractions.  For those who can read Khmer there are synchronised text lyrics for your karaoke pleasure.

I think it's fair to say that we are the stars of the film as we seem to appear more than anyone else.  This may be because we responded best to the director's shouts of "happy, happy everyone!".  I can't decide on which scene I like best, what's your vote?

Kayak the River Gambia: Challenge Completed

In March 2007, our friend Shadie died in a car crash in The Gambia. A charity has been set up in his name and in 2009 I took part in a 10km run to raise money for it.  This year, my brother, Grant and Shadie's  brother, Kamil took the fundraising to a whole new level.  They set themselves the challenge of kayaking down the River Gambia.

On the 7th of April, after 9.5 days of travelling (56 hours 55 minutes of paddle time) they completed the 300 mile journey down the River from the border with Sengal down to Banjul, Gambia's capital. They met some hippos and a few crocodiles along the way (nothing they couldn't handle, though it depends who you talk to!) and raised a wopping 20, 570 pounds for Shadie's charity - ShadieFarage.com.  We are unbelievably proud of them and this massive achievement. 

Arriving into Banjul (I'm not sure why Grant isn't smiling...)

 Their fan club cheering them in

 Grant, at the finish line enjoying a hard earned and refreshingly cold Julbrew beer

 You can read more about their adventure here and donate to the charity here

Local Celebrities

On Tuesday, Sam's boss came into his office and asked 'Sam, do you want to be a filmstar?'  Sam considered the question and decided yes, then called me to ask the same thing. It turns out the Ministry of Tourism needed some foreigners to be in a promotional video of Kratie, something that should help with the work Sam is doing with CRDTours in this area. I was extremely excited.  We set off at 9.30am all ready for action and really should have known better. The first hour was spent waiting by the ferry boat for the crew to arrive and all the family members that would be accompanying us on the trip.  And the whole day which we had anticipated would take an hour, ended up taking 6!

We finally set off at 10.30am in what was now pretty unbearably hot weather. There was a lot of sweating going on which will most definitely show up on camara but at least it will look authentic. Come to Cambodia, it's really really hot!!

First we had to walk up to the information office and ask about tours on the island. We were shown a map and then put onto a horse cart that would take us round the island. We had to do about four takes of this before we realised what was expected of us.

 

All the island locals watching our acting skills

We then did some moving shots with the filmcrew on the back of a moto riding along side the horsecart. This went on for a long time and involved us eating at least two 'kralan' (sticky rice) each while looking very happy about how delicious it was.

This is just before we ate all the sticky rice I'm clutching.

All the family and friends being taken to the homestay house for lunch

Some poor, unsuspecting real tourists had joined us by this point and we all had lunch together at a homestay which was very good.  After lunch was an enforced rest on the beds which had been laid out in the homestay.  Sam actually got a short nap, consistent with his behaviour on holiday last week, and it was all filmed.

We then set off on our bikes to plant a tree to support eco-tourism.

I found this very exciting as it is the third tree that I've planted (only the second time it's been filmed though).

Here is a photo and a clip of me planting a tree in Tower Hamlets with my Year 1 class.

And here I am in Namibia planting a friendship tree as part of our visit

 and now my Cambodian tree

 Sam's tree gets two thumbs up

Guarding our trees

Eco Tourism! Cambodia, Kingdom of Wonder!

(we had to do about six takes for this bit as shouting in unison is harder than you think)

It was an unexpectedly fun day and yet another great experience for us to remember our time in Cambodia.  The video is supposed to take around 2 weeks to make and then will be aired on all the Cambodian channels.  We're going to receive a DVD so will be posting that up as soon as we get it!

The big trip back home

Me and Sam have been on a bit of a journey this last month visiting England for the first time together. It was also my first time home in 18 months and I have to say there is no feeling like it. I cried when I arrived at Heathrow; I think the excitement and anticipation was too much for me. I wanted to do a big blog post all about how amazing it was to sample all the delights that London has to offer. This mainly revolved around food, friends and family.  However, I'm finding it hard to suitably sum up all that happened in the 4 weeks that we were away. So, instead here some pictures of the highlights.

Here I am enjoying some cakes at a three course cream tea treat!  I'm slightly ashamed to say that I put on a whole stone in those four weeks (that's about 6 kgs). Impressive, I know. 

Being wined and dined with my family in London

Totally worth the crazy journey to Jamaica to spend time with my sister and nieces

I got to meet this little cutie for the first time

On the beach in Gambia

Celebrating being in Gambia together

Me and Sam showing off our brave sides

Sam is looking decidedly more relaxed than me considering he squeals like a baby when he sees a spider!

Though I think my brother and Dad win the prize for still looking cool in your 

shades while holding a snake ....

Sarkis's wedding....the reason we went to Gambia

All dressed up for the wedding
 
We even made some time to visit the VSO office in Gambia where Sam admired 
their hand-painted sign!

On holiday with Sam and Birdy

 

                                      

 I think the pictures speak for themselves!

The Phnom Penh Cyclo Driver, a film by Lin Ravy

When CRDT opened their new tour operator service last year they were very lucky to recruit Mr Lin Ravy to the team.  I was on the interview panel and remembered him using a film he'd made as an example for his answer to one of the questions.  After some basic training as part of his learning for CRDTours he has now uploaded this to YouTube.  I hope you enjoy the result, I think it is an excellent and touching film.

Health and Fitness (includes Sam's video skipping guide)

Before we left England both of us were in pretty good shape.  We used to cycle around 30 minutes to and from work (obviously part time in my case) with Gilly also swimming and me burning calories on the squash court.

Here our 'commute' is under three minutes and Gilly was out of action for a long time after breaking her fingers while running on Kratie's less than even road surfaces.  I didn't have any excuse for my laziness.

But this has all changed as.2012 (unconnected to any of our resolutions) has ushered in a new regime which is already having an impact.  It consists of two key components which, in February, were complemented by a booze free month, which I only broke twice.

Reducing our intake of carbohydrates

I'd been suggesting this for a while (inspired by this guy and this lecture in particular) but Gilly only signed up after her brother confirmed it was a good idea.  We are trying to only have one 'carb' intake per day which is quite tricky in a country where rice and noodles are the foundation of every meal.  We're eating a lot more meat, eggs, fruit and salad as a result.  I buy the meat from the market, ideally before 6am as it is displayed in the open air and you wouldn't go near it too much later.  I'm pretty sure the pork I got the other day was 'slaughter fresh' as the meat was unusually warm when I cut it up for mincing at home...

Skipping five days per week

You can see some videos below of me demonstrating what this means.  Gilly is great at using the internet to research new routines and keep us pushing ourselves each week.  One of these is a 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off routine and I managed 121 skips in one round which is an average of three per second, still some way of this kind of speed though.  We're really enjoying it and so do our neighbours...

Skipping intro, including the 'double under'.  (You can buy the skipping rope featured in these videos, highly recommended, here.)

Skipping reprise.

Sam in Bangladesh

It's all been a bit quiet on the blogging front so here's a little insight into my study tour to Bangladesh last month to make up for it.  Scott has provided a good summary of the study component on his blog, and I won't bore you with the avalanche of hand painted signs that I found, unless that interests you, in which case visit the ghostsigns blog.  Instead I'll just try to capture some of the things that caught my eye when I wasn't trying to photograph painted advertising out of the windows of moving vehicles.

It started like all journeys with a 5.30am minibus from Kratie.  I got lucky and had a seat and a half to myself which I put to good use to make up for the unreasonable waking hour.  My colleague Samedy captured this pose which those who know me will be more than familiar with.

While we were there I was aware of a cold snap back in the UK.  At least people there could prepare and the overall drop in temperature wasn't as extreme.  Here we are one morning when we woke up to sub ten degree temperatures which, after not much below 30 degrees in Cambodia, felt positively Arctic.  Adding to this was a complete lack of suitable clothing, hence the towel on the head.  (And the dog seemed intent on attacking the only protection I had for my feet!)

Even the cows had access to better clothing than we did, many that we saw had these sacking jackets to keep them warm.

Cows were everywhere we went, Bangladesh has a big dairy industry as opposed to Cambodia where lactose intolerance makes it a non starter.  This was a vaccination centre and it was a very lively and noisy with cows and their owners weaving in and out of the thin trees in the wood.

One of the villages we visited was inhabited by an indigenous minority who welcomed us with a traditional dance and some music.

In Cambodia most houses are made of wood.  In Bangladesh they use a lot of mud for construction.  Here you can see one being built and the future layout of the rooms within it.

Some of the houses had these lovely decorative features.  Painted decorations were everywhere and I was amazed at the skills of the people who produce them.

Here you can see the mud fashioned into a simple stove, and one with a big pot of Dahl bubbling away.

If that was life in the rural areas then Dhaka was an altogether different beast.  It is noisy, dirty and chaotic but it felt incredibly alive with never a dull moment.

There aren't a lot of tourist attractions in Dhaka and tourism certainly isn't a big industry in Bangladesh.  However there is plenty to see if you take some time to walk around and look.  For example we found this Disney-esque building which is apparently someone's house.

Another 'sight' was the speed of this donor kebab, one interpretation of fast food no doubt.  It must be said at this point that the food was amazing.  So many spices and a reminder of buffets on Brick Lane back home.  It's also a treat to get mutton/goat which is very rare and/or expensive in Cambodia.

In keeping with my cataloguing of some of Cambodia's best brands, I also snapped some treats in Bangladesh.  Here are four of the best.

The mosquitoes were huge so I was really grateful to have a box of black fighters on my side.

In Cambodia the Lexus is a status symbol, in Bangladesh it's just a cheesy vegetable biscuit.

 Out with those party pooper potato crackers and in with the 'fun' ones.

One can only guess at what the 'boost' might consist of...

At first glance this appeared to be an ominous place to get your dinner in...

 ...but it was just an illusion.

 I grew increasingly tired as the tour went on.  Lots of travelling and concentrating in the many meetings we had every day took its toll and I was apparently falling asleep in this meeting, quite near the end of the tour.  Samedy again captured the moment, I've no recollection of this being taken.  I look like I'm going to kill someone!  That said, I learned a lot and there are many things that I want to apply to the remainder of my time working with VSO and CRDT.