Where has the time gone? Into week 5 already. I am starting to appreciate the surrounding environment. This part of Siem Reap is a pocket or an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of town. Less traffic, less noise and far more peaceful. Pretty good considering we are not that removed from the centre.The trees are beautiful, indigenous to the area and many if them not found anywhere else. I am lucky to have found this place.
My garden is full of trees and we are planning the renovation around them, they are very old and worth saving. Most of them are local fruit trees whose names totally escape me! Several of them look like apricots. They are taller than this villa which is double storey with 12 foot ceilings.
The owners sent in men who climbed the trees and picked much of the fruit which they then sold. I have had to put a stop to this because of security and wanting to lock the gates when I'm not here. The down side is that the ground is covered in the fallen fruit and it is a heck of a mess. They drop off the trees at night and the noise hitting the roof is like a gun shot! The fruit is very sweet but the skin is thick and the stone is large so not a lot of flesh to eat.
There is another fruit similar in colour but growing in bunches, it will be ripe soon. Another tree bears fruit that looks like large green apples that turn purple. This is Inedible as the tree has been attacked by some sort of grub that is inside the fruit. Apart from this I have bananas growing and. 2 coconut trees.
Outside the gate and on the river bank is a tall lychee tree but the locals have decimated it by pulling off large branches to get to the fruit. This tree and fruit are aplenty mine and the locals should not be taking it, will deal with that next year!
I haven't seen or heard a lot of birds in Siem Reap and this is apparently due to them being eaten during the pol pot era and recovery has been slow. BUT I hear them around here and occasionally see some but no idea what they are. There are many geckos, some funny rapid moving lizards and a type of squirrel that has a double yellow stripe up its back and shoots up the trees. Of course I never have my camera around when I see them.
My bit of terror occurred a couple of days ago when I went to plug an extension cord into the outdoor power point. I came face to face with a snake, girth about the size of my little finger and around 30 cm long and it was hanging out of the socket! It slowly wound itself up and disappeared inside! Gorgeous colours of green and yellow and have since been advised if it has green then it would be poisonous! I didn't need that information to stay well away from it!
I thought that working at the farm was a steep learning curve but everything here is a little more difficult, not only because of the language but because of the lack of resources and local knowledge! After a hard days work earlier this week I went for a shower to discover no water. The tank was dry. The valve for the city water had been on all day but the tank had failed to fill. Apparently the population has outgrown the water supply and frequently it just goes off. I rang the owners son to find out what to do and the family trooped around. Explained to me that I needed to put on the electric pump and get some water into the tank from the well then leave the city valve open so that when the water comes on it will top the tank up. This usually occurs overnight when demand is low. Outcome is that the tank overflowed at 3 am and I had to clamber out of bed and downstairs and go around the back and turn the valve off! Bit of a bloody nuisance really. The valve is currently open but am going to turn it off before I go to bed. The demand will be greater this weekend as the city is full due to Khmer New year. The big drama was that the pump then failed! It was whirring but not pumping. I called Luigi who runs an Italian NGO and we is a mine of knowledge and his guys do ironwork, install aircons, some electrical and some plumbing. Lucky for me he had somebody on duty today and I had a lesson in how to prime a well pump! Fortunately that was the problem.
I had a surprise visitor his week, Peter Norden who is a good friend of Joe and Julie's was escorting a group to Cambodia and he had a free evening so we went out for dinner. Also spent an evening with Samuel at the River Garden which is nice and local and good food so haven't been sitting at home on my own every night! There is an Italian restaurant over the river to me and had heard it was Ok so Nak and I ventured there last weekend. I must say that I was not confident but off we went. The restaurant was lovely but what a shocking meal, neither of us enjoyed it so reluctant to try their small goods that they have recently started making.
This weekend is the New Year celebration and the town is brightly lit up and everywhere are colorful starts made from bamboo frames and cellophane, the music is pumping, the river bank closer to town has marquees set up and food stalls appearing. I was going to go along there later this afternoon but got caught up cleaning out the boxes in the study! Of course, more things than I have space to put them!
Next doors lights look like Blackpool and Christmas rolled into 1. Tomorrow I shall take a photo before it gets too late!
I very excitedly jumped on my bike yesterday to discover the brakes had been dismantled and I had no idea how to reassemble them but found a road side still/ repairer/ bike shop and for $1 he sorted it all out for me. It is so good to have a decent bike to ride! I was pretty lucky to find these guys as so many people don't open over this time.
I have one more week before I start at Grace House and was hoping to have the garden sorted before then but with the holidays that is t going to happen. It will be just one small piece at a time. That is how things are done here!!!!
The most exciting event this week was of course receiving my furniture. Arrived promptly Tuesday morning, unpacked, beds reassembled and packing taken away. Of course I have much more stuff than I need and not enough space to put it all and there are a few boxes that I re packed because I now know that I am never going to need it! I am now living in a home away from home. I just don't have a dining table but haven't actually needed one but 8 chairs on their own look rather silly!
Second most exciting thing was unpacking the high pressure cleaner and I am amazed after the work that it has done over the past 2 days that it is still working!
Until next time, x
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