Severed fingers and mountain bikes

We raised over $1500 dollars at the Dengue Fever gig, they were an amazing band and really lovely. They were so pleased to be playing to support Epic. The organisation was a bit tricky as equipment is not easily accessible so there was a lot of begging, borrowing and some stealing involved but in the end we got a great night together and filled the centre with about 400 people. It was great profile for Epic and the band did a workshop for some of the kids in the day.

I went up to the Cardamom mountains over the last holiday period (they have about 35 public holidays per year). It is a truly incredible place. Apparently one of the most diverse and important eco sites in the world. The mountains take up 10% of Cambodia's total land mass and have a massive diversity of flora and fauna. We got a long-tail boat up into the forest for two hours through beautiful scenery before reaching Chi Phat where we were to stay for three nights. The village has a eco-tourism project run by the Wildlife Allience which sees the proceeds of homestays, guides etc ploughed back in making sure the mountains are safe from exploitation, poachers and tree felling.

We went on what turned out to be a relatively tough bike trail up into the mountains. It was amazing scenery and I was taken aback by how beautiful it was. Unfortunately coming down the mountain at speed my hand got caught in some bamboo and I was tanked off my bike by the razor sharp tendrils. There was so much blood pouring from my hand that I thought I had lost a finger. I wrapped what tissue I had around but blood kept flowing and our guide had FORGOTTEN THE FIRST AID KIT!!. Holding my hand up I preceded to march double time to an army anti-poacher outpost and had a little first aid done although I was still too scared to look at it. I then had to cycle off road for 15k with one hand to get back to the town and first aid. I was a bit shaken but managed to patch myself up and continue the trip. Phew! We did some walks to swim in a few beautiful waterfalls and saw many enchanting sites before heading back to Kampot on the back of motos going very fast through mud roads with no helmet on. If you ever come to Cambodia do not miss this place.

There are many projects on and this week I have been making a film for a crowdfunding project to help raise funds to bring the new commission to the UK. The StopGAP piece is coming on well and premieres in Phnom Penh on the 26th November, we are all going up for it and to celebrate my birthday going to Heart of Darkness, the Penh's seediest of clubs and the one which all volunteers from various programmes are strongly advised to avoid. We are hopefully also going to do Khmer karaoke and have a Khmer wedding photo done, I am the bride. So if I don't get a cap popped in my ass (or worse) I will see some of you soon!!

Dengue Fever (the band not the disease)

I spent another wonderful long weekend on Koh Rong Samlom island with some friends. I cannot state the beauty of this place enough - but I will try! A true island paradise with no one there just unspoilt white sand, amazing bush to walk in, many interesting animals. It is really difficult to leave there when the time comes to return to the mainland. Although the weather was beautiful and the rains have totally stopped now the journey back was very choppy, big waves buffeting our small fishing boat which listed and rolled atop of the swell before plunging into a watery valley....every 10 seconds for 3 hours!! We were wet through and glad to be on dry land.

Ronise and Irena



The clearest water I have ever seen



We had some lunch in the hell hole that is Sihanoukville. Why anyone would want to stay in this place which seems to solely be inhabited by sex tourists and dazed/dizzy backpackers desperately trying to find a bar run by someone from their own country serving their own food..very strange. That is why Thailand is there, to soak these people up but unfortunately they are coming to Cambodia more and more. It is a grubby and unlovely place which is full of hawkers and I was very glad to get back to Kampot. Luckily backpackers don't last long in Kampot as there is no nightlife or KFC.

I and my colleague Irena have been planning a gig for the last week or so. Next Sunday (13th Nov) Dengue Fever http://www.denguefevermusic.com/ are going to play at the Epic Centre!!!! They are a very cool band from the USA and are touring SE Asia and are awesome - give them a listen you will be very impressed. http://youtu.be/CQYOGkCk2DA It came about because of friends of friends of friends etc.

Dengue Fever

Anyway we are organising the gig which is very tough as we are having to get the technical gear of which there is little in Cambodia but we will manage. Everyone is really excited and we are expecting 100s of people to attend as this kind of thing happens VERY rarely here. I have also been working with each of the programme managers to write their objectives of the next three years as well as managing the Stopgap dance project which is going really well. This week is mainly Cambodian holiday (again!) and I think I am traveling up to the Cardamom mountains http://ecoadventurecambodia.com/ which sound lovely - report to follow.

Holiday!!

Just returned from my holiday around Cambodia with my girlfriend. We spent a few nights in Phnom Penh which was really interesting, good bars and restaurants and plenty of things to do. The city has a really good feel about it.

We went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". An estimated 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, tortured and killed at Tuol Sleng.

A sobering experience and a graphic portrayal of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge as they went on to kill an estimated 20% of the population. A bit weird were the coaches of foreign tourists seemingly oblivious to the museums content and just wanting to take photos of the graphic images it contained - doubly chilling.....

So, on to Siem Reap. The flooding has been terrible in the region here and many hundreds have been killed and many thousands displaced from their homes. The road on the 4.5 hour journey to Siem Reap was flooded either side all the way there with families living and keeping their livestock of the road, water everywhere as far as the eye could see, and it is even worse in more rural regions. The rains seem to be coming to an end now.

Siem Reap is a great place with lots of good places to eat and a charming feel. Much more touristy than I have been used to but still really nice. It was a bit flooded with water up to our ankles for the first couple of days but it dried out after that. Great vegi restaurants and some really good Khmer food.

We hired a tuk tuk for the day - Mr Danny - who took us to all the temples we wanted to go to including Angkor Wat. Very impressive and an experience I will never forget. The temples are beautiful and well kept. There were not too many tourists so much of our day was spent on our own in the incredible surrounds. There are so many amazing temples and ruins stretching for miles and miles but you only ever see Angkor in the media.

We then traveled back and stayed in PP for a night before going down to Kampot for a night to visit a few old haunts. The next morning we went to Koh Rong Samloem island, 3 hours boat ride into the Gulf of Thailand. It is a navy owed island who lease one of its incredible bays to a guy who has set up 12 beachside bungalows in paradise!!! Nothing could have prepared me for just how beautiful and secret this place is. Only a handful of people were on this tropical island with amazing beaches, reef , bush walks etc and a great little bar and restaurant. We spent some time with a really nice American couple who were getting picked up by a yacht they had chartered to explore the even more remote islands. There were beautiful fish to see and some interesting wildlife. I am not a great fan of beach type holidays but this place was very special and seemingly untouched by tourism apart from this one, well run, sustainably managed place. Shhh don't tell anyone. I am actually going back there with some friends this weekend!! Check out the sunsets!!

It was then back for a few days in sunny Kampot and some trips in the local countryside to show my girlfriend some of the sights and meet some of my friends. So a great trip all round, Cambodia is a very beautiful place, easy to get around with lovely people.

The new dance commission with Stopgap has started now so I am back to work sorting that, the four artists arrived safely from the UK and started work, although I think the heat may have been a bit of a shock, but as the saying goes 'if you can't stand the heat...get out of the dance studio' or something....

Pchum Ben week!!

Sorry nothing for a while my internet at my house is down. I have moved into a great house I share with an Australian called Irena who is also a volunteer. It is a big house raised in stilts (piece of mind when it floods!) and has a nice veranda and hammocks in which I spend a lot of time reading. It feels much more settled to be in a house and sometimes we cook but normally too much monkey business and we go out.

View from my friends house

Klang - strongest, cheapest and best

It is Pchum Ben, Festival of the Ancestors in Cambodia this week. Buddhist tradition demands Cambodians visit many pagodas over two weeks. Food, flowers, rice and gifts are given to the monks to convey to the afterlife so the dead do not haunt the living. They are up all night so lots of music, praying (over loud PAs) and earplugs. I have a week off work which is a bit weird as I have not stopped since arriving. Lots of businesses are closed and it is tricky to get stuff. I have visited beautiful Kep with some friends for a swim in the sea and crepes at the yacht club - very posh but no yachts, or other people for that matter. We also visited http://www.jasminevalley.com/ to see some other friends who were staying there, have a look, it was paradise and the guy who runs/built it was really nice.

I went swimming and kayaking in the upper river here at a friends house they have in the river - it was very very beautiful in lush rice fields and jungle rising into the elephant mountians. I kayaked all around the backwaters through thin palm fringed waterways going past tiny hamlets and plenty of friendly and curious people.

My bike

Breakfast khymer style

Work wise I have been busy with this UK/China tour and have been working with another volunteer, an arts consultant from the UK, to develop the strategy and organise away days with Epic management team. The rain has been bad here recently, 200 tourists had to be evacuated from Siem Reap the other day, it is rainy season I suppose and it hasn't rained much really. I was planning on going up to the Cardomom mountains, apparently one of the last intact forest ecosystems left in SE Asia but it is tricky to get to at the best of times and with the rain being so bad I decided it would/could/probablywould end in some kind of accident especially as there are tigers/elephants up there.

My girlfriend Maggie is coming out to see me in about 10 days we are going to spend some time in Phnom Penh before going up to Siem Reap to Ankor Wat etc then come back down to Kampot and then over to Koh Rong Samloem island http://www.lazybeachcambodia.com/Home.html which is apparently heaven. Not normally my bag but will give it a go for three nights. Take is easy, signing off

Touch and go....

Hello all so I have been working hard at work managing the creation of and UK and China tour of a new piece of dance to be created in Oct/Nov. Stopgap Dance Company are coming over to work with an integrated company over a five week period. Composer Chris Benstead is also coming over to work with the company throughout. The tour is funding dependant so I am trying to find more funding and produce back up plans so as much as possible can happen.

I fell ill last week and had 72 hours of extreme head pain before packing myself off to Phnom Pehn to a private hospital where I was given lots of drugs, IV drips etc and stayed a couple of nights in PP to get better with the luxury of air con and TV before returning to Kampot. I am now back to full strength and on the cold (medicinal) beers. No health care in Kampot and very expensive in PP I hope my insurance will cover!

Sorry nothing too exciting as have been mostly ill - joy.

Arumpiya yaa yaa

A short video edited together by Joe of the New Gypsy Orchestra of us singing 'Arumpiya' in various locations - a traditional Khmer song the locals go mad for!!!

When it rains it rains....

Although it is technically rainy season here it is actually very dry with heavy rain sporadically. Over the weekend it rained really heavily, we did not go swimming at the waterfalls we had planned to visit as the roads are even more dangerous that usual in the rain. A few of us sat in a bar playing games for the afternoon drinking red wine because at only 25 degrees it was too cold for beer. Its back to mid 30s now!

The gig at Bhodi went really well and we made lots of cash as the owner gave us the beer profits for the night!! Lots of singing and fun but perhaps a little too much beer, I had to go for a long cycle the next day to sweat it out!

The main streets in Kampot are tarmac but all the others are orange dirt. After rain you have to get used to cycling calve deep in water which is filled with god knows what including venomous snakes. A friend had a 3 foot Russells viper in her lounge the other day, IN HER LOUNGE! These guys are responsible for most of the deaths in Asia from bites - thousands...

I am having a strategic away day today to start to develop a 5 year plan with the MD - I hope it's not too hot.....it will be....always is....here I am....in the sun.....etc etc

If music be the food of love...

My time here is getting more musical by the day. A few of us go out to a beautiful spot on the river out of town on Fish Island where there is a Cham fishing community. It is a lovely place and the people are always pleased/amazed to see foreigners. We sat on the riverside and played a few songs with two guitars, a shaker and a harminica and watched the sun go down and fishing boats go out to sea. Most of the village came to sit with us and watch and luckily someone knew a Cambodian folk song so all the sweet little kids sang along - it was great fun!

There is a guy, Joe, from England who is traveling around SE Asia linking up with musicians to play fund raising gigs in local bars. Three of us started practising at the weekend and had our first gig this Tuesday which went well, we had another last night which was better and we raised more money. I sing and play the shaker! They are all to raise cash for Epic. We play with one of the students from Epic too and he sings traditional songs and we try and keep up!

At work this week there is a conference going on at Epic with the ministry of education and lots of other NGOs. They are doing a lot of talking as seems to be the way here but yesterday they spent the afternoon doing workshops in sign, dance and art which was great fun. They also saw a performance from the VTP (vocational training programme) students who make up the main dance company here - they are super talented dancers. Here is a question I was tackling yesterday - how do you teach a deaf person to mix sound? Here no disability is a barrier to anything. We have our biggest gig tonight and going on an adventure this weekend - watch for report!

Getting about

So I have a bit of a hangover. We went to Bodhi Villa last night to see a couple of friends play some live music. It is a great place, out of town on the river with swimming platforms and a bar right on the river. Very chilled out but lots of backpackers who can be annoying but these guys seemed alright, the usual mix of UK, Oz and Dutch - nothing new there then!

My week has seen me meeting with all the managers and teaching them how to do staff reviews and set targets. I have also written them a guide to project management and evaluation - all fun stuff. I am picking up quite a lot of sign now which allows me to communicate with many of the kids.

Today I hired a scooter and went to Kep, a village on the sea. Very beautiful with amazing crab market. I got talking to a Khymer girl sitting by the beach playing a guitar, a rare sight. She gave me her guitar so I played her a couple of tunes which she liked. I did a walk in the hills up to some Buddhas and a temple with a small colony of nuns. It was super hot and I was wet through with sweat - it was quite hard going with some climbing. I got to thinking - I am on my own climbing up an almost sheer hill in a country without good healthcare - a couple of times I thought it was my time but the devil looks after his own and all that! I had a lovely lunch sitting in a wonderful resturant right on the sea - super nice seafood straight out of the sea in front of you.....mmm squids, crabs, prawns...mmm.

Getting to know you...

So it's all go here. I spent the weekend exploring the local area on my boneshaker bike which has 26 less gears than my bike at home would you believe - I miss those gears - and I also miss being able to go faster than fast walking speed but hey. We went out to 'Secret Lake' I would tell you about it but it is secret but safe to say it was very beautiful and deserted, because it is a secret obviously. I explored all around the town and the market which is incredible, a maze of tarpulin with everything you can ever imagine for sale and some things you cannot. I visited a number of beautiful wats and sat with some friends and watched the sunset over the mountains from an amazing little cham village to the south of the town. Today I have just eaten some of the best food I have had so far at the market. You will not find many foreigners in there as too scary for most!! Have been eating at the Khymer cafes and resturants with friends who speak the lingo, food better and very cheap. Weather is nice and sunny and hot but all good.

Settling in

So I have been really busy this week. I have been helping the director to develop a staff appraisal system which is not a thing many Cambodians understand and has many challenges like explaining what integrity and initiative are for example. All the team have really grasped the principle - I hope! As EPiC have a number of new staff this is a priority. I am also reviewing their IT systems, as you can imagine it is a long way behind on the tech stakes. Today I have taken my first Khymer signing class but cannot show you what I learnt but bear in mind I will be using it as my primary form of communication when back in the UK. Just off out to dinner in one of the many amazing little restaurants in town - cheaper to eat out than in - whist enjoying a few 75c beers mmmmm beer mm. Am exploring more over the weekend - watch this space as they do/did have tigers around here and knowing me I will be killed and eaten.

First day

Epic is a truly remarkable organisation. I have had a great day meeting all their fantastic staff and volunteers. The young people on their programmes are amazing too, working hard to train to be workshop facilitators and to lead workshops in local schools. There is an obvious under-representation of disabled people and associated issues in Cambodia and Epic really does go a long way to tackling some of these. There are great classes with learning disabled little kids which they would never get normally. Today a group of deaf/hearing Americans doing a tour of asia visited - they took part in a brilliant workshop led by the trainees, it was hot work and I am sure that those who know me will have a laugh at me doing a dance workshop!

The food here is good too and Kampot is very friendly the only thing I find a little seedy is the number of middle aged men on 'holiday' here picking up young women or worse - filthy pigs. worse in Phenom Pehn but still present here, these generally overweight weirdos are very low indeed.

Arrived!

So I have arrived in Phnom Pehn after a long flight via Singapore. PP seems like a nice city and quite layed back. I arrived at my hotel, The Pavillion - it is really lovely in an old building with a beautiful pool and grounds. I went for an early morning stroll around the city very early and down to the river to see the buddist monks arriving to the buddist university for study. Everyone is up and doing something very early in places like this before it gets too hot. It is sunny and about 34 degrees today. I am now going to head off to Kampot where I will be volunteering for Epic Arts for the next few months. Epic is an organisation who uses dance to work with adults and children with disabilities. I will be working with the director on a number of projects including their tour of China and the UK as well as strategic development and staff mentoring. This is my first ever blog so hopefully I can keep it interesting and fun! If not I will make stuff up.