First Visit to Kompong Thom - Our new Home
Trip Start
Oct 14, 2005
1
7
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
The Arunas Hotel
Kompong Thom, Cambodia
Sunday, November 13, 2005
We visited Kompong Thom, our home for the next 2 years, on the 8th and 9th November. It took about 3 hours from PP, with 7 of us crammed into a landrover. Very uncomfortable.
We stayed in a nice hotel in the centre of the town, Arunas Hotel. The hotel is quite famous as it has a lift - I think the only one in the province of Kompong Thom. There are some photos on the blog showing the view from the hotel, which give a fairly good idea of the town. The town is quite small, but seems friendly and sleepy. The Stung Sen river runs through the town and is apparently the route to the Tonle Sap lake, which we will both be working on (2.5 hours by motor boat).
Most of our time was taken up with house hunting for us and also Alison, who is also working in the town. House ranged from the sublime (8 bedrooms, 3 balconies, a living room the size of a normal house) to the ridiculous (wooden, holes in floor and walls, no kitchen and no bathroom). The whole house hunting process was very odd - we were not sure exactly what was happening at any point in the process. So much of what happened in terms of houses that we saw, contract negotiations etc. was beyond our comprehension. Certainly the language was confusing but also the subtle hierarchies that meant we saw houses which Piseth (our Khmer resource management guru from the VSO office) knew we would never take (e.g. the one with no toilet) but we think he had to show us because someone of importance in the town had asked him to show us. It turned out that an important policeman lived in the house so maybe that is why we had to visit it. We will never know...
After much confusion and rides on motorbikes we found a great house (you are all welcome to come and stay!!). There is a picture of Piseth on phone negotiating our house contract....It is a bungalow (very middle aged...), with air-con, big gates and is surrounded with a wall which has glass embedded into the top, so very secure. It has two bedrooms both with en suite. It couldn't scream expat workers any louder - so much for trying to fit in with the locals! The house is owned by a guy who is high up in the world of forestry so, naturally, the house is head to toe in beautiful tropical hardwoods which look amazing! Also there is about 5m3 of timber in the back garden waiting for something to be done with it. It is these sorts of things that you see in Cambodia and cant help but wonder about corruption and where did this man get the money from to buy the wood? So much is logged illegally here that you can never be sure that the wood is legal...It is a shame but the forests are being plundered, even in protected areas, but that is the subject of another blog entry I am sure!
On the house front, Alison found a house about 5 doors down the road from ours, which is great as we are all going to need all the support we can get! The location of the house is great - in the posh (??) part of town near the aforementioned hotel with lift, and also near the hospital. It is a good distance to stagger back from the bar when alcohol becomes the only panacea for the frustration of working with a government department in a developing country.
We also visited our offices. Mine (Bram) is in a little building set in grounds with its own grazing cows. I have my own desk and a new computer (one of only 2 in the office), although no internet connection. I met 4 of the 7 people who work there and they seemed pleased to see me. I still have absolutely no idea what they actually do though! The best thing about the office is the colony of large flying foxes (bats the size of crows) which roost in a tree just outside.
My office (Rachel) is similar to Bram's but I have not got a computer...shame! I will be able to use one in the office though, which has got internet access. It is dreadful really that on a project which has been loaned nearly $20million by the Asian Development Bank, that they are struggling with a lack of resources... a lot of the money has apparently gone on high wages for UN FAO consultants...but I will no doubt rant about this later, especially when I start to think about how on earth Cambodia will pay this money back!
I didn't get any photos of my office, but my manager is called Mr Horn and his boss (the Director of the department in K.Thom) is Mr Phanny. Oh how those names will keep me amused....
Comments
House Prices
We enjoyed the picture negotiating house prices :-)