The big move

We made the move up to Preah Vihear province. It was a long drive! I want to say that the drive was even longer because of the heavy traffic (it was the P'chum Ben festival weekend - respects are paid to the dead at the wats), but I think I keep saying that to myself to reassure me that when I return to Phnom Penh in a month the drive will not be so terrible. It was one of those drives that people warn you about - the roads are terrible. I did not think that it was going to be as bad as people kept saying...but 5 hours of constant bouncing has changed my mind. The whole drive took us 9.5 hours, in the last 5 hours we only traveled 85 miles...The important thing is that we made it, and we didn't lose anything off the roof rack, the motorcycle stayed attached on the hitch, and both moving trucks arrived with most things intact.

Here are some of the guys loading the trucks.






We met a few of the neighbors - which are the girls pictured below. The older one is 9, and the younger one is 5.


We have seen many different animals and bugs since we arrived. Since the house has no screens we have encountered a lot of nature. I have seen cows, pigs, chickens, goats, spiders, huge beetles - some with horns, and others without - both hissing, lizards, frogs, a millipede, a scorpion and a bunch of unidentifiable bugs...this is all in the first few days. Here is the millipede:


This is the rhinocerous beetle. I looked it up in the dictionary - I've got spare time - and it said that in some parts of Asia it is a spectator sport to get two males together and watch them fight...we might have to try that soon.




I drove the car to try and find a car wash - since the car was caked with red mud, and they thought it would be funny to send me out to get it washed since no one really understands what I am saying...no one really speaks English up here - its going to be a quiet month! When I got to the car wash the woman came up, I asked her if she spoke English and she waved another girl over...they coaxed me out of the car and pulled me up a chair in their little circle. They just wanted to ask me tons a questions...I assumed that the filthy car would get washed eventually. When I sat down three of the ladies started talking...I cannot understand anything they are saying, so finally the one girl interprets...they think I am pretty, and they like my nose. I laugh and say "aw kuhn" - which is thank you and then they correct my pronunciation! Ha! They ask me where I am from, how old I am, if I have a husband, etc. Then all was quiet and they got back to work. One boy was a little bit fascinated with my freckles, and he kept pointing to his arms and looking at me - I just smiled and said that they are freckles - which he probably couldn't understand. I kind of felt like I was the sideshow at the car wash - many people came just to look at me and my freckles. One man was trying to get his one year old little girl to come over to me, but she was too scared...later she was looking at something, so she was unaware that I was near her, and when she looked up and saw that she was so close she got startled and fell over. It was a fun day, and I got ripped off and paid the foreigner price of $3.75 to have the whole car cleaned - outside, underneath, inside, windows washed, vacuumed, etc.