Introducing Tim Lasse

Planning applications

The first field trip today with the APSARA Authority turned out to be a planning inspection. We visited two very different sites, where families living inside the Angkor Archeological Park had applied to build new houses.
To protect monuments from sprawling development, APSARA has banned new house-building in the park unless it replaces an old house. But the indigenous population of 120,000 is growing fast and unauthorised houses are sprouting up like weeds. Planning applications – often made late if at all - are running at about two a day.
Our guides for the morning were an archeologist and an architect from APSARA's Department of Land and Habitat Management. We drove north of the ancient city of Angkor Thom along a dirt track to the village of Nokor Kroa (meaning “Outside the city”, apparently it dates from the eviction of citizens who had brewed alcohol inside the city walls, the scoundrels), and stopped at a house on the outskirts of the village.
A line of four young children guarded the entrance to a low, single-roomed hut, set on suspiciously new-looking two foot high posts in a scrappy field of young banana trees and litter. The family said they had lived there for 15 years. “I don't believe them, the trees are young and I heard they moved here recently from their parents' house,” said the archeologist. The dwelling looked poor and disorganised, and the parents seemed anxious about our visit. A stack of new 10 foot high concrete foundation posts stood behind in readiness for the new house.
“Their house is already illegal and I think they cannot stay here,” said the archeologist. “But I expect they will build the new house anyway and then it is a matter for the police. But it is very hard for them to move people,” she said.
APSARA is planning a new sustainable eco-village at Run Ta-Ek to absorb the overflow from more than 100 park villages, but it's years from completion and will be small, housing only 850 families. In the meantime, this family of six would have to carry on sharing their illegal single room.
The second visit was more upbeat. The family was a bit older, more relaxed and seemed proud of their home. The parents had lived there since 1979 when the Khmer Rouge era ended, and had since built a profitable small holding. There were six pigs, a run of ducklings and well tended fields at the back. The house was equipped with hammocks, electricity from a car battery, a yard with bikes and motorbikes and a separate kitchen block. Outside the kitchen was the source of their wealth – a traditional rice wine still. “They can make 10 litres a day and sell it for 3000 riels ($0.75) a litre,” our guide explained.
“I think they will get approval,” she said, stopping to photograph the posts of a large new house, already in advanced stages of construction.
G

Auntie again - welcome Tim Lasse!!!!

The big news of the day first ... I have become an auntie again!!!! Tim Lasse, my sister Helen and her husband Stefan's second son, was born early today!!!!!! I am super excited!!!! But I am also a little sad that I will not be able to meet him in person until we get back from our trip; I am hoping his proud parents will send a picture over soon ... right now he is still a bit camera shy!

Today G and I had our first day working at Apsara, the authority responsible for all the ancient Angkor monuments. In an amazing departure from our usual “lazing around until noon” routine, we actually got up just after 7:30am and were sitting at our desks at Apsara before 9am ... woho!!!! The gentleman with who G had sorted out our volunteering was away on a field trip but his deputy (so, the deputy general's deputy ...) gave us our assignments and we got on with things - G proof read and summarized a document for the website and I translated an article about one of the departments recent projects from German into English. The work was quite simple and we were done within a few hours but both of us came away saying how much we had enjoyed doing something productive, which is more than I can say for anyone else sitting in our office .... one chap was playing computer solitaire for the entire time that I was working on my translation, while what I initially thought was a team meeting turned out to be a gossip session about the boss ....things clearly are the same the world around :) Tomorrow we will be issued with our Angkor passes (super exciting and incredibly generous, considering how expensive they are) and then we are being taken on a field trip with “our” department ...not sure what I am more excited about :)

We then had a lunch time laze by the pool, as one does, before heading off to our respective teaching jobs. For me it was my first computer teaching session and it turned out to be great fun, particularly the part where the kids call me “teacher” and how I got them to line up by the door at the end to say good bye and then gave them a cookie ...not sure that was strictly necessary but I had seen that Anne Shirley do that in Anne of Green Gables and thought that looked like quite a nice little tradition to have :) but not that I an writing this, it actually sounds a little insane .. oh well! In all seriousness though, I was really impressed how quickly the kids work out how to use the computer and how intuitively they know what buttons to press. I think they will take no time at all before they all become right little tech wizards. This was only their first lesson and the teacher, who was in fact MIA today, has so far only managed to teach them who to turn the thing on ...bless him, he himself has not really ever used a computer. Anyway, so I got them started with the painting program which they really enjoyed and tomorrow we will learn to make a little movie, so watch this space ... yay!!!

Anyway, G has just come back from his class and I have, while writing this note, befriended a fellow traveler and we will all now head off for dinner together ... so ...

Take care, kids!

Lots of love
Cxxx

Enter a bat

My first primary school class today was interrupted by a bat. In broad daylight, it flew in through the window and circled the room twice, before flying at my head and leaving. I chalked up the word “bat” in large letters and a moment later the children were singing out “it is a bat, I spell B-A-T bat!” as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The rest of the class went well enough, with Simon Says proving a popular game. We did a clothes vocab exercise, which quickly became an excuse for the boys to tell the girls to “take off your skirt” (or their little brothers to put on your skirt).
This morning I met someone from the APSARA Authority, the government department that looks after monuments. Catherine had sent them a fax last week requesting the meeting and it looks like from Monday we will be proof reading and translating for them in return for access to the monuments and some special field trips...
We just had ten minutes of rain. C is feeling a lot better today. Rice harvesting continues over the weekend so no lessons now til Monday
G

Hot and humid

It's 35 degrees and humid, and C has had heat exhaustion. After a day in bed and gallons of water and salts she's out of bed and feeling much better, but still tired and not speaking much.
It's the last few days before the rainy season is supposed to come and cool things down, at least in the evening when it can reach 90% humidity. But for now it's no more cycling around at noon, or clambering up temples. School is closed today as the kids are harvesting rice so we are staying in Siem Reap, close to the pool...
At the temples, the Kmers just ignore the heat, always selling and guiding with the same urgency. The foreigners stagger along in slo-mo with soaking t-shirts and plastic water bottles. Some tourists wrap scarves around their heads against the sun, others are followed about by air conditioned SUVs issuing chilled hand towels. We have opted for straw hats and bicycles, which are breezy until you stop moving. Up next - video of clambering around Ta Keo, a so-called "temple mountain" (the one they didn't finish after it was struck by lightning)
Happy St George's day
G

Faces we like

Back to work

OK, enough lazing around it's time for some work now! Our "voluntourism" began today, after a few days of tentative meetings and exchanging messages with local schools.
Catherine is helping develop a curriculum for computer studies at a rural school about to receive a shipment of PCs (see http://laptop.org/en/); I will be trying to teach primary school English.
We visited the Tchey school by rickshaw earlier today with Lori Carlson, founder of the Ponheary Ly Foundation. After a quick tour of the classroom blocks, kitchen, padi fields and various NGO buildings each with their own story, we spoke to our new teaching colleagues and even spent ten unprepared minutes teaching.
More on this to follow, including on Lori and the foundation. Now time to write some lesson plans...
G

Cambodia

Hello boys and girls and greetings from Siem Reap in Cambodia!

First of all, thanks for all your replies to my last round robin - I am glad you liked it!

Second of all, I wanted to let you know that from now on you will be able to follow our adventures via our blog:
http://catherine-and-gregs-blog.blogspot.com/
There are just a few posting on it so far but we hope to update it every other day or so. G has just posted something about our time in Siem Reap and a very entertaining video clip from one of our many tuck-tuck rides in India … have a look!

As you will see from the blog, we decided to abandon the overland trip to Thailand and instead flew straight on to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Many of you know that going to Angkor Wat was high on our wish list for things to do during our sabbatical and I am delighted to say that the place is living up to all our expectations. On our trusted little bicycles we have spent the last 3 days zipping around Angkor, visiting temples and each and every time being stunned by what we see ….

While there are certain things that are found in almost every temples – such as some mention of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk – each temple is in its own way unique. Ta Prom is overgrown and many walls are crumbling under the weight of trees growing on it. Ta Keo was struck by lightning during the building work and so abandoned before it was finished, you can quite clearly see where carving work was begun but then given up. Preah Khan is so remote that hardly any one goes there which makes it very peaceful.

G’s post gives you a great idea of what we have been seeing, along with some pictures, so I will leave it at that and say bye-bye now.

Take care all of you and do stay in touch.

Love
Cx

PS: We now have a Cambodian mobile, so feel free to get in touch. Our number is +85517238473

transport in India

Temples temples temples

What takes 300,000 people and 6,000 elephants to build, and a week to visit? Angkor Wat, of course, which turns out to be a monument to a king's mother (Clinton cards weren't around then).

Like everyone else who comes here, we've been completely awe-struck by the temples at Angkor. We've visited every day since arriving, biking through the heat and water sellers around each amazing site. The "new" temples from the 10th and 11th centuries are at least as imposing as the European cathedrals from the same time.

Some of them lie in ruins with their stones spread out and numbered optimistically by archeologists from India and Japan. Their half-standing walls and chambers are overgrown by huge “Spung” tree roots (think Narnia, or Tombraider). But others, like Angkor Wat itself, are intact enough to be thrilling.

There are dozens of temples. According to our guide book each Khmer king built more to “keep people busy”, something of an understatement given the weight and carving of each stone block.

The carved faces are undeniably Cambodian – a lady in our restaurant last night was a dead ringer for the god-king face carvings at Bayon – spooky but oddly reassuring.

In Bangkok airport there is a slightly disturbing lifesize sculpture in which two teams of men pull a huge snake apart. This is not a monument to animal cruelty (or a cartoon on recent Thai politics) but a reference to a local creation myth called “Churning of the Ocean of Milk”. It also appears on an intricate 50m long bass-relief carving at Angkor Wat.

In the myth, gods and demons have a tug of war over the snake Vasuki, which is looped around Mount Mandara in the middle. As they tug, the mountain rotates, churning the cosmic sea of milk for 1000 years until it releases the elixir of life (or a very pungent cheese). Apparently the gods and demons were going to share the elixir when it was ready but the gods reneged and kept it all, forcing the poor demons to steal it and setting the scene for all kinds of trouble. I don't know whether ancient Kmers believed it literally but the statue appears at every main temple entrance and gate.

The other bass-reliefs at Angkor Wat are about war and judgment. Mythical gods and demons (again) fight in one, while human armies led by god-kings fight in another. The details of each battle are just as elaborate and grizzly. A further panel on judgment shows good citizens going to a heaven full of semi-clad maidens, and bad citizens being dragged by their noses to a hell packed with carpentry-inspired tortures that make the battle scenes look quite appealing (no wonder they had such a big army).

Today we are taking a break from templing and chilling in our hotel, the dubiously named "Golden Banana", to plan the next phase, working in a local school.

G

Thailand was revolting, let's go to Cambodia

Things have calmed down again, after a bit of a scare before tonight's flight from Mumbai to Bangkok. Clashes in Bangkok between "red shirt" protestors and police brought some travel advisories and made us look at alteratives to our planned Thai overland - go via Laos, or fly via HK. But we're flying as planned now, we'll be in Bangkok at 10.20am local time on Weds 15th, and flying straight again at 3.30pm the same day to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

G

India

Hello my little Woozies and Greetings from Bombay,

G and I have been on the road for over a week now and so, as we near the end of our second “country”, I thought it was about time for me to get in touch and provide a bit of an update on all the exciting adventures we have been having so far ... would not want you to think I am neglecting you all!

We got off to a great start from London, and contrary to all gleeful predications that I would not have learnt from my Kenya mistakes and would once again be carrying everything plus the kitchen sink with me, my luggage weighed in at under 10kg :) yay, I was so proud of myself, although it does mean that I only have five tops and thre trousers to wear and even now, ten days into a three-month trip am distinctly bored of them, hmmm ...

Anyway, as you may remember, we started our round-the-world trip in Helsinki, which was a bit of a shock to the system since it was super cold and meant that we had to wear all our clothes on top of each other to keep warm! But that did not stop us from exploring the city, including its nightlife with dinner at the famous Seahorse Restaurant, which was mentioned as one of the 10-best-dining experiences in the world by the NY Times food critic, and then a pub crawl which ended with far too may G&Ts (me) and vodaks (G, he plans to drink “local booze” wherever we are) in our hotel bar (Thanks for the recommendation, Pia). The next morning we were both feeling distinctly sorry for ourselves but after fresh shrimp soup in the Old Food Market we felt well enough to go for a very brisk walk along the windy sea front before heading out to the airport and our red eye flight to Delhi.

We arrived in Delhi at 4am the next morning and, still somewhat blurry-eyed (a red eye flight after a night of heavy drinking and too little sleep the night before was a tough even for me) clambered into a tuck-tuck to the other side of the city to catch a train straight on to Agra and the Taj Mahal. The train ride itself was uneventful, aside from that fact that as tourists we were quite the attraction and that seat numbers obviously count for nothing ... at the time it did all seem quite adventurous but after our overnight train ride to Udaipur, this one was really nothing to write home about, but more about that later. We got to Delhi and checked into our very nice hotel (Thanks for the recommendation, Lex) and after a shower and a disco nap felt human enough to brave the tourist trail and set of straight for Fatepur Sikri, a palace complex 40km outside of Agra that was abandoned because of lack of water. It was every bit as special as the guide book has promised, even if the tourist toots immediately identified us as “fresh meat” and hounded us relentlessly .... The complex in particularly interesting since the ruler for whom it was built had three wives – one Hindu, one Muslim, one Christian – and each had her own palace within the complex, each designed with her religion in mind. The evening we spent on one of the many roof terraces with a view of the Taj Mahal, eating some delicious Indian food while at the same time being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

The next morning we got up super early and headed out to the Taj Mahal before the swarms of tourists from Delhi arrived ... we had a view of the Taj from our hotel room but I was a little disappointed because it seemed so small, but I was totally blown away when I did then see it up close ...the marble really is translucent and changes its shading as the sunlight changes, it started off being nearly see-through, only a misty shape against the sun, then turned golden as the sun rose and by mid-day was snow white in a bright blue sky. One rather entertaining element of our Taj visit was that I got to feel like a super star, because of the very large number of people who wanted to have their picture taken with me ... at one stage I found myself surrounded by about 20 teenage boys, all clamoring to stand next to me while others took the picture :) We then also visited the baby Taj, a somewhat smaller and older mausoleum with similarly intricate carving and inlays as the big Taj, but a little off the beaten track and so a lot less crowded which made it a really nice experience. After a swim in the hotel pool we got ourselves to the station ready for our overnight train to Delhi ...

OMG, despite very detailed instructions on what seats I should book us, I managed to book us into the ultimate cattle class which meant sharing a tiny cabin with ostensible 9 people, only in our case it was 11, not sure what happened there, no air con, no bin, no windows, no bedding and 9 very hostile people, G was worried I was going to burst out in tears, little princess that I am (just for the record, I did not!!!!!!) ...... Faye, I have learned my lesson well, from now on each email you send me with instructions will be read three times at least and then printed off (on recycled paper) and then the relevant sections will be highlighted.

Anyway, I survived the train ride and we made it to Udaipur, the city by the lake (only, after little monsoon rain, the lake was really more like a muddy puddle) in one piece, checked into the beautiful, heritage Haveli Kankarwa (Thanks for the recommendation, Faye) and had breakfast on a sunny terrace overlooking the lake and the famous Lake View Hotel, setting of James Bond Octupussy. We treated ourselves to an ayurvedic (spelling) massage, which included a holistic diagnosis in which I was told that I have on leg shorter than the other and suffer from stress ... hmmm ... and then spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Udaipur and visiting the spectacular City Palace, which was just like I had imagined an Indian palace to be – lots of courtyards with exotic green plants and fountains, spacious rooms with mirrors and paintings on the wall and beautifully carved balconies overlooking the city below and courtyards within the palace complex. Much like in European palaces, each ruler wanted to add his little touch to the place, so bits were added every few years, but the overall effect is very cohesive and at this stage this palace was the highlight of the trip for me. In the evening, we had dinner on yet another roof top and indulged in one of the key Udaipur experiences ... watching Udaipur in a DVD of Octopussy, very amusing! The next few days in Udaipur were spent with visits to the Monsoon Palace, a derelict palace high up in the hills above Udaipur from where you can seen the most amazing sunset over the hills of Udaipur; to Ahar, the ruler's grave yard full of ornately carved cenotaph's; a cookery class in which we learnt to make my favorite dhal, G's favourite chipatis, paneer and all sorts of other delicious things; a local dance performance, featuring a middle-aged lady with ten pots on her head walking over glass shards; a lazy afternoon by a roof top pool with views over the city, the lake (aka the muddle puddle) and the many smaller palaces and havelis that are scattered around the town.

Sadly I was struck down with a case of “indigestible peas” on our last night in Udaipur, which meant that our drive to Jodhpur (Thanks for arranging that, Jane) the next day was not as much fun as it could have been. In any case, the drive took us through the mountains surrounding Udaipur and passed Kumbhalgarh, an amazing fort in the middle of the mountains (not even mentioned in the infamous Lonely Planet!!!!!! I felt like a real backpacker, venturing off the beaten track ... only I was being chauffeured around by a driver ...), part of a 33km long wall that was some sort of defence system. We also made a stop in Ranakhpur, a Jain temple complex, again in the middle of nowwhere, with 1444 totally different pillars carved out of the snow white marble that is used for almost all palaces and temples in Rajasthan; an utterly amazing sight to see, even more so considering that the marble was brought to the site by elephants from many miles away. We made it to Jodhpur by 9pm, by which stage I could all but collapse in bed.

The good news was that after a good night sleep I was all well again and ready to explore Jopdhur, which was described as being smelly and hot but we found to be neither. First stop on our tourist itinerary was the utterly amazing, medieval fort Merangarh, which is every bit as mystical and amazing as the name sounds (personally I feel Peter Jackson should have given it a staring role in his Lord of the Rings Triolgy, but that's just my take on the matter). The palace, again adapted and added to by each ruler, was even more ornate and intricate than all the other places we have seen and made very accessible by an utterly amazing audio guide which gave us some historical insight and background to the palace and the rulers along with lots of really entertaining anecdotes about what life was like in the palaces along with some local music, fantastic! The narrator was also very entertaining, speaking in this super posh English voice with a slight Indian twang to it ...what a combo! We then walked down from the fort into the town and bazaar, winding our way through the blue houses for which Jodhpur is famous, with me getting my hands hennaed on the way, not quite what I was planing to have done but I was accosted by this little old couple and my hands were painted before I could even say stop :) The next day G and I went on a mad shopping spree, spending hours (and some serious cash) in two “antiques shops” buying some bed spreads, a side board, a wooden box, some sort of storage implement (not sure about that, G choose it), a tin elephant and two over-life-size silver peacocks which have been named Ethel and Dougie ... all the loot will be shipped to the flat in London, so we are told, and should be there by the time we get home .... watch this space! And then all of a sudden our time in Rajasthan was over and we were back on a sleeper train - rebooked to 2tier AC, thank god! An all-together different experience, including a pillow, sheets, a blanket, windows, AC and a full dinner for 20p. Delightful, finally I understand why everyone raves about trains in India. From Delhi, we flew straight on to Bombay where we are now enjoying being in a real home (Thanks for having us, Jane and Len) and will spend the next few days sightseeing before heading off to Thailand and Cambodia mid next week.

Ok, little woos, I have gone on long enough now and G wants to use the laptop ... so I had better say bye! I will try to give regular, comprehensive updates like this but will also try to send you individual responses whenever you email me ...if that isn't an incentive!!!!

Take care and happy Easter egg hunting!!!

Love and Kisses

Cx (aka, die gleine Lala xxx)