Sunday, January 16, 2011

Odd and Interesting Things in Daily Life

Tim Bloggin' this one. I had to get a bunch of random pictures out of my camera, so here they are. It's kind of all over the place, but this is all in a days living here in SouthEast Asia. Enjoy!

This is the "give away free food" day at Sarpino's, a new pizza place out of Canada. Evidently Malaysia got the rights to the franchise worldwide. We met the ambassador to Malaysia, pretty cool. He said if we ever needed anything to look him up in Malaysia...that included if we had any problems. Really Cool! On the table are Chicken Wings, Lasagna, Pizza, Two different salads, bread sticks, and of course Soda. Coca-cola is pronounced "Coka." Yummy, and free. Most of the people with us are other teachers at Logos. We didn't plan meeting there.. just happened to all show up at the same time. Wonderful time!
This is always something sobering to read as you are filling in your customs sheet prior to arrival at an airport. Malaysia doesn't even try to be politically correct! You Deal, You Die! Period. I think it is kind of a nice touch, don't you!

The Men's bathroom at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I love the fact that you can see them, but they can't see you. Still.... you have a moment where you want to dive for cover when some lady walks by! Too Funny!

I was looking for these particular CD's of an Awesome music group and found them with Bob Bridell's help. We were trying to work a deal on them. And, of course Bob, being my interpreter was supposed to be helping me. He asks how much and the lady says $1.50 each. So Bob looks at me and says "Not Bad!" then he leans over in a semi-conspiratorial way and quietly looks around to be covert... "How about 2 for $3.00," he says. I look over at him and start laughing and say, "Isn't that kind of like $1.50 each, just more of them!" He realizes what he had just suggested , and at that point it is a complete meltdown for us as I ask Bob if he can please not do me any more favors in the "lets make a deal" scheme of things! Bob and I are Kindred spirits with our bizarre sense of humor, so I love hanging out with him.

Bob, pretending to be, "OH SO Excited" about an incredible "find" at one of the Russian Market DVD-CD vendor stalls. See the lady staring at the DVD he is holding.... The way Bob is carrying on, she is probably wondering if this is the last one available in Phnom Penh

For those of you who are followers of Bob's new Mosquito killer- bug zapper group, this will be a familiar item. For those of you who have no idea what i am talking about, you can catch up on FB. This is an electronic mosquito zapper. charges with 220 volts of amazing killing potential. Your Job, if you decide to accept it, is to chase mosquitoes around your home trying desperately to kill them before they bite you and give you Dengue, or malaria, or some other diabolical disease. It's actually a pretty hopeless task, but it does make you feel better as you "Nail" on of the little buggers and they snap, crackle and pop on the electrically charged "screen of death." If it is an extremely large mosquito (usually meaning that its too late... they already fed on YOU!) then they actually cook for a few seconds, filling the room with an aroma of freshly fried bug!... This is the same smell you can find right down the street where the actually do sell an amazing assortment of insects and creepy crawlies, all fried up fresh for you and ready to eat. Dine in or take away... your choice. What a World!

Me Holding the Mosquitoes worst Nightmare Is that really a spider web that they tried to incorporate into the mesh screen... Hmmmmm



Security at the Russian Market...... Yes, that is a very young guy with his two friends... and that is an AK 47 Russian assault rifle. If anyone actually were to get out of hand it would probably turn into a bloodbath pretty quickly. I thing just having that around is a deterrent to theft. Up until about 5 years ago, you could buy one of these off rows of gun racks for about $50 U.S. Amazing how much progress Phnom Penh has made in such a short amount of time.


A Rolex.... Well, not really. the Chinese wording that they threw in is just a dead giveaway..."Crystal Perpetual Date just" it kind of leaves one wondering, just what....

Our Gas Cylinder in our kitchen....why I threw this in is for new prospective teachers to get a clue on what some of the day to day stuff is like. This lasts us about 5-6 months and runs about $19 U.S. to fill up. They deliver to your home at no extra charge. Well... at least they don't tell you there is an extra charge!

We were looking for Band aids. They don't call them band aids, and they really don't look like band aids. Yet another learning curve. and $2.00 U.S. Yikes! but I sliced my finger on the broken glass on the desktop, so there was nothing else to do but pay the $2 and wrap up, yet another slice in my poor, scarred body.

Another pic of the box with the elephant holding the band aid...(Sorry,.... Neoplast!)


For those of you coming to Phnom Penh... If you are bringing ANYTHING that is 110 volts. This is what you need to bring with you. It is a converter. This was $5.00 U.S. and we picked it up in Indonesia at an Ace Hardware in the mall. If you buy them in Phnom Penh, they are about 5 times the size, come from Viet Nam, and Hum like a bee. this is definitely worth the investment. One for each room and a power strip brought along is also helpful since they don't have them for 110V power.

This is what you want to ask for when you go to Lowe's, Home Depot, or Ace etc....

This shows you the size....the little thing on the left is an extender for deep sockets, which they have in Indonesia and Malaysia, but not really needed here in Cambodia.
All for now. Thanks for checking in.... Leave us a comment if you choose. Enjoy your day and remember to thank God for all of your many blessings!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Going home this summer!!

Ok, everyone, can you hear me screaming in excitement?
Great news!! Tim and I are going home for a summer visit!!

I pretty much told Tim if he doesn't want me melting into total depression and wants me sane, we have to go home this summer. Seriously though, this Mom/Gdma just can't go 2 yrs without seeing my family!

We don't know exact dates yet and we're not sure where the money's going to come from, but we know God has always, and will continue to, provide for us! :)

I am sooo excited!!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Papua, West Irian, Indonesia

Here's some pics of items from Papua. We went to a kind of park/museum land that had houses, and things from the cultures of provinces/islands of Indonesia.
Below are carvings of Papua
Stone axes made in Papua. I have one that looks just like the third one down.

This kind of looks like our village chief when I was young!
Shields

More carvings - I have one kind of like the one on the far right

Drums
Spears and shields, etc

Thatched huts from Papua. The homes in our village were up on stilts; these may be from the mountainous area.



I thought this was realistic, except for the aircons in the background - he he he :)


Carvings made by a man from my village, Agats. But he wasn't there the day we were visiting this park - of course! I would have taken a photo of him too - although he charges to have pics taken of him - LOL :)












Friday, January 7, 2011

Back Home

Well, we made it back to Cambodia safe and sound. Flight went smoothly and no delays, etc.
We came back to a dust-covered, spider-webbed apt and our neighborhood welcome committee began immediately making us feel right at home. There was of course a birthday party going on, so some young girl was singing karoake for a couple hours. This morning at 7 a.m. (so much for sleeping in on our first morning back) our friendly hammer drill guy went right to work to welcome us back. :) But he was nice about it and it only went on for about 15 minutes. Of course, by then you're wide awake and can't go back to sleep!

So we joined our good friends at our favorite breakfast place and sat and chatted for a couple hours. The weather was beautiful - a cool breeze! Probably low 70s :) It's cooler here than in Indonesia, which is closer to the equator. WEll, at least for now, since this is our "cool" season.
The mangos are all hanging from the trees around us at the restaurant, and we'll buy some when they ripen. :)

Tim is off to school to plan for the week; I fortunately had time to prep before vacation, so I stayed home and am blogging and watching movies on my laptop. Which is good, because I'm having some stomach issues right now. I took a deworming pill last night and it's causing my stomach to feel all knoted up and it hurts. Don't know if that's normal or not. We were told you just take one every 6 months just to make sure and we thought since we'll be resting and home this weekend, we'd just go ahead and take it now. :) Oooohhhh, not good....I was in bed by 8:20 p.m. last night. Oh well, I"m sure it'll be better by Monday!! :)

The last couple days of our vacation in Indonesia we just stayed put and relaxed and rested. Tim was sick on Tuesday and part of Wednesday. So we didn't get up to Puncak, a beautiful mountainous area where it's cold and you see many tea plantations. But that's ok, we walked to the mall and just rested. Probably good anyways. Tim says his favorite time was while in Bali. We did have a great vacation, busy, but fun. I loved talking Indonesian again and all kinds of words were coming back to me as I chatted in the mall and markets. It was nice to be able to not feel frustrated and to be able to speak the langugage. :) Tim said he actually learned more INdonesian in 2 wks there than we've learned Khmer in 6 months here! Indonesian is sooo much easier than Cambodian!

Well, I wanted to give ya'll an update. Going to get off now and watch some movies on my laptop. :)

Monday, January 3, 2011

Satay House

Inside of the Satay Restaurant



Satay Ayam - Chicken Satay

Gado-Gado: Mixed vegatbles with a peanut sauce and krupuk (kind of like chips)
Nasi Goreng- Fried Rice

Mango juice with young coconut meat in it






Hotel Indonesia

Hydrant! No such thing in Cambodia!


The following are pics from Hotel Indonesia - a hotel we kids used to go and swim at on the weekends. Now there is no pool and it is sooo much bigger! A mall inside too.

Restaurnat in the hotel


I tried to get a pic of the grocery store in the hotel, but they said no pics. So I sneaked one from the archway in the restaurant - that's fruit in the background, they had tons of fruit in this little grocery store



Mall inside the hotel














Views around Jakarta

Lovely views!

Rain




Look, a Circle K in Jakarta! They have them in Bali too! We have these in Tucson, AZ. !


The Presidential Palace

The National Monument - the flame at the top is plated with gold!
This statue represents Indonesia breaking the bonds of Dutch rule - when it became independent

A beautiful Catholic Cathedral right across the street from the Mosque. The gate was locked up so we couldn't go inside.



The following pics are of the largest Mosque in Indonesia


Tim and I had to wear these robes because we had shorts on and short sleeved shirts. To go inside the Mosque you had to have long pants and shirts at least to your elbows
People sleeping inside the Mosque. This is unlawful and when the security guard comes by he will kick them out

The dome inside


According to our tour guide, it is nowhere in the Koran that women should wear the head coverings, this is only cultural. The only time women should be covered is when they are in the mosque praying. This is so they don't distract the men and cause them to loose focus while praying. The men need to have sleeves down to their elbows and have their legs covered.


Here we are with our robes on

The Mosque outside

This is the Minaret - where the loud speakers are and where the muslim prayers come out of during certain times of the day