).K.! Things are done so differently here that in the States. It was interesting that I just bought a couple of 220v power strips... same as the ones in the states, only not really.. let me explain. I bought two new ones, a three outlet and a five outlet strip. I brought them home and somewhere during the next few days only two of the three outlets in the strip now work. I then used the other strip for some other things and about 3 days later two of the 5 outlets in that strip have stopped working. Then to top it off, I went down to the main street near the central market today and bought two 220 volt transformers that reduce the power down to 110. I plugged one of these into another 220 power strip that I had, and the darn thing blew up on me! Scared the hoochy right outa me!! In the states one might have cause for a lawsuit as pieces of a power strip kind-of disintegrate before you in a puff of explosion. Not here, this is just a normal part of life... I think I need to find a higher quality vendor of power strips, if that is possible?

We got our internet hooked up today, Yeah! two guys on a Motto showed up with one of the guys carrying an all aluminum ladder over his head through traffic. He then placed this up against a power pole with an incredible mess of wires and electrical lines. I kept waiting for him to touch the wrong thing, or his ladder to touch a power line and then be blown right off the ladder, or fried instantly, on the spot! Well he gets things hooked up without too much trouble and then crawls over our balcony to with cable in tow. He throws it through the ventilation window way up high in our apartment and then strips the wires and hooks up our router. Nothing is taped down or anything secured and I have about 40 feet of wire on my floor that is extra... maybe just in case I want to move the router someplace else??? Then I go out onto the balcony and there is a spool of loose wire laying there... about 50 feet. I yelled at the guy and held up the wire so he could come clean up or finish tidying a bit with the splices and stuff, but nope! not going to happen, he smiled and waved and was gone.... and I'm holding this spool of wire and going to get a broom to clean up after the hook up guy. It is just very different.

Construction side note: There is not really a whole lot of pride taken in a job well done with many of the workers here. If it works and its not falling down, then its good enough. In construction it drives me crazy to see jobs that are just plain dangerous or finished and just look somewhat shabby. For all we complain in the states about building codes and inspectors, if they ever had to get things to code around here the entire city would have to be dismantled. I really hope there is never an earthquake here because the death toll would be astounding. Everything house is made out of concrete, brick and stone, but none of it to USA code standards. Scary, very Scary! I found out that you can build a huge three story mansion type of house with about 3000 -4000 square feet for under $100,000 but there are a few catches; You can't own the land, only a national can own land in Cambodia, so you have do do everything is someone elses name. Also, the land here runs about $1000.00 per sq. meter. So if I figure that correctly, a 25 X 25 square meter piece of property is going to run about $250,000 or something close to that. So the labor and materials are fairly cheap but the land is at a premium.

Cynthia and I are acclimating to the neighborhood life and market. I have posted a few clips of the market from this morning. If you get there early you can find the food fresh... as in, LIVE or freshly Slaughtered. You don't want to come late or things start to spoil. You will see what I mean when you watch the video. I also have take a pic of the Internet installation so all of you in the states can giggle! We are back to 56K for speed, but it works fine for us. We were spoiled with Cable.... Heck, we were spoiled with everything in the States! I think about just running down to Quiznos or Subway and picking up a sandwich and it seems like it has been months since we did that, not just a week. Cynth and I are dropping pounds faster than a monkey with a tapeworm. Can you sweat Fat??? I swear you never stop burning calories trying to cool your body. Right now my palms are hot from the laptop and I have to keep it raised off the desk to get airflow under it so it doesn't overheat!

The little tour guide pamphlet says that Phnom Penh has an aroma that is distinct to it. They are right. The smell kind of bothered me when we first came, and I thought...'this is going to be a long two years smelling this all the time,' but now I am getting acclimated and don't really smell it anymore. It is a combination of garbage, food, people, rotting vegetation and more garbage. There is no hot water to speak of, but you can wait a couple of minutes and it is very warm just from the pipes running under the street. Showers are quick, utilitarian and about 2 minutes at the most. You want to get it done before the water heats up and becomes yucky!

I am going to try to post some videos, but it takes quite a while with 56k upload speeds. All for now Love you all! Cambodia out!