Food To Travel 4: Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go..........

Rice fields, cows, ducks and plastic bags!!

basket case

Commune buildings

This week has seen me out of the kitchen and into the classroom. I have been advised to change my riding route to school as I was becoming a nervous wreck and not enjoying the bike. The track by the river that I rode last year has been so badly damaged by last years floods that it is now just several kilometres of bone jarring corrugations and dust. I was riding along the main road but by the time I got to class was a wreck! The traffic has increased with the tucks and buses flying along at break neck speed and blasting their horns to warn of their approach but every time I hear this I almost fall off the bike. Told Bridget I was wondering how long I could do this for. Her solution?? A little longer but such a beautiful new route as shown in the photos. I pass cows and water buffalo, ducks, fishermen, rice fields. I ride through a delightful little village and past traditional Khmer homes. Part of the ride is along a highway but is dotted with lovely rural sights. What bliss, riding has once again become enjoyable and something to look forward to!
I am happily surprised to see how the villagers are recovering from the ordeals of last years floods. Unfortunately though, due to the repairs to the weir next to the Crocodile farm on the Tonle Sap river, there has been damming of the water. This has presented a couple of problems. The first being that the river beyond the damming is now very low and not looking too good. The second being that the irrigation channels have been opened and flooding of the lower canals and land is taking place. This looks pretty as seen in the photos but causing a lot of difficulty for the farmers as those who had planted crops have had them washed out and those who were about to plant are not able to! Life goes from one difficulty to another for these people!

I get plenty of time to amuse myself on these daily rides to and from school and enjoy the

Net fishing

time on my own and have likened my routine to my personal daily tri-athlon.
I get up every morning around 6 (actually awake much earlier thanks to the bloody cockrel and the chanting monks but I am sure I have previously whined about this)! I now swim 30 laps (yes I know it is only a short pool), shower, dress, eat brekkie then cycle 25 minutes to school. So far swum and cycled, the running leg of my tri-athlon is teaching - this is an educational tri-athlon. This leg is the most draining at times and can certainly be challenging. I repeat the process in the afternoon by cycling home and back into the pool for 20 laps. The real race is getting down to the pool before the pool man arrives to clean it . My next challenge in the day is during the morning ride to school and when approaching one of the 3 bridges and can hear a truck coming up behind me. The challenge is to get there first. The trucks have to stop completely and slowly creep across whereas us bike riders have to have a run up and take a flying leap as if we were on a BMX track. Last week this resulted in a blown valve and a puncture for me. Get stuck behind a truck and we have to get off and wait whilst inhaling black diesel fumes. Delightful.

Fortunately, what has added to the pleasure of riding has been slightly cooler mornings for the past week. Although by lunch time when it starts heating up I am not feeling quite so zen about it all!

The topic for the class this past week has been taste, the kids found my board drawing most artistic and slightly amusing and were quick to recognise that the lip shade was very close to my lipstick!! Very observant! We did the requisite anatomy and simple physiology but the most popular part was the taste tasting of of oranges, mango and bananas. But I dont want to be considered a push over and added in fish sauce and chilli. No pain, no gain!

Who said I didn't have an artistic bone in my body???

Wednesday saw the arrival of Lois, she is on long service leave and has taken the opportunity of visiting Siem Reap whilst I am here. My
self control has taken a nose dive since her arrival, I hasten to add that I do not blame her, she just hasn't helped! A bottle of bubbly by the pool followed by a bucket of frozen margaritas at Vivas followed by cocktails at Miss Wongs - none of which did my brain cells any good. Little wonder that I found the class challenging
on Thursday morning No more of that!!!.

Peace!

Lois has had a good time doing the circuit of the temples and lazing by the pool in-between these cultural activities
.
The week at school has continued to be interspersed by arrivals and departures which means more dinners and socialising. Such a cosmopolitan group at the moment. We have Australian, English, Welsh, Canadian, French and German. It makes for interesting and diverse conversation as several of the group are on big journeys and have been to some amazing places and we all learn so much from each other.

Saturday was a day of celebration. Saint

How many more cows could get in?

chicken run

Patricks day and Lois birthday! I took Lois for a bike ride along the school route but she wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I was - there was a little complaining about being saddle sore but that was relieved by the visit to Blue Pumpkin for an iced coffee followed by a walk through the market and a browse in the DVD shop. Next stop was the pool at the hotel which put a smile back on her face. We lazed around there eating lunch, lying in the sun, wallowing in the pool, difficult but somebody has to do it. The really hard part was dragging ourselves away to the day spa for an hours body scrub (painful on sunburn) followed by a 90 minute massage. Bliss. I was made for Saturdays like these.

Irrigation for the unprepared

In the evening we went to the most gorgeous restaurant which is set in a traditional Khmer house, called Sugar Palm. Great food and a bottle of French champagne and 2 very happy girls!

We headed into town to meet the people from school at the Irish Pub (Molly malones) but we had ran our race and called it quits after 1 green drink each - grosse!!!!!

We had early morning plans for Sunday but that is in the next post as I haven't sorted the photos yet!