Howie-n-Karen: Asia

Good Bye Phnom Penh

This afternoon we leave town on a big air-conditioned bus. We had not expected to stay this long in Phnom (you do pronounce the ‘p,’ ‘h’ indicates an expulsion of air and is never pronounced unless it stands alone as a consonant, as in the 3^rd word above: howie) Penh but circumstances dictated a change in plans.

We had one more outing: a visit to the National Museum, a short walk away. We never got to the killing fields or the zoo, which were recommended by several friends. There is a possibility we will return, either in April, for another week in the Cardamoms with CI or May, to work with WCS. Also, Howie’s CV is being passed around by a health concern which has offices all over Asia.

Some of the sights in Phnom Penh:

Ubiquitous phone booths: sometimes land lines, sometimes mobile phones are used. The booths are not used—they’re more like advertising signs. The numbers indicate the prefixes served. This is around the corner from our apt. and we also buy our water there.

[read on]

Wayne’s World, etc.

Saturday 2/18/06 we moved into Wayne’s penthouse apartment. It’s one of 3 on the 3^rd floor of a French colonial building on Street 13, across from the main post office. Very close to Wat Phnom. We’ve been exploring the neighborhood on foot and watching the world go by from the large windows that look down on St. 13.

[read on]

Cardamom Walkabout/Moto

Our gracious friends at Conservation International (CI) provided all logistical support, however we lacked the Thai cooking tins that are required camping gear, so we stopped at the Thai military market on the outskirts of Phnom Penh ... [Continue reading this entry]

[It is wonderful reading your comments, good friends. Thank you.] On our way to the largest park in Thailand, we stopped in Ban Pak Thale to find the spoon-billed sandpiper. Once again we were trudging on mud dikes between salt pond ... [Continue reading this entry]