Wheelchair woes

On the second day in Phnom Penh, I received a message to report that the wheelchairs I had shipped over from Wheelchairs for Kids had arrived in Phnom Penh port. So exciting, as I hadn't expected them for another week. I looked up the address of the port office, which was near to where we were staying and they spoke to my tuk tuk driver about how to get to the port. It was going to be an hour round trip, so we would have to come back another time. 


So this brought us to our second trip to Phnom Penh a couple of weeks later, for the sole purpose of sorting out the wheelchairs. We drove for 40 minutes from the city in a tuk on highway 3, past the airport out to Tec Srun Dry Port, arriving about midday, armed with the shipping documents. The guards at the gate turned us away as it was lunch time and said to come back at 2pm, as of course government officials need a verrrrry long siesta. At the suggestion of our driver we headed back to the airport to wait, as at least it had air conditioning. 


After some terrible and over priced coffee, and an impromptu Khmer lesson we were back at the port after the obligatory rest. Moved from office to office, I was sat down on a chair whilst the documents were whisked away elsewhere before being told that we had to have the documents stamped by a government minister back in Phnom Penh. Argggggh! 


So back to the Pehn, jiggegy jig, presented my documents and a timid woman told I need to write a letter stating what the product is and its weight and show a copy of my passport. Never mind that the shipping notice I presented has all this information! So we went back to the hotel, I whipped up a letter, printed a copy of the passport, back in the tuk and away we went. We were handed a manilla folder to house our documents and sat and waited....and waited. People came, people went. 


Eventually a man ushered us to his desk. He looked at my letter and laughed, saying it was very short and needs to not be written to this "Whom It may Concern" but to some minister's name. He then brings out some one else's letter as a template, saying it needs to be on letterhead and contain all this other information. Plus we need the registration documents for TTLC and  the letter and the passport need to be in the name of the person who is the manager/director of the centre. My heart sank. They are in America. I fought back tears as my ears buzzed and things flipped out of focus. I was so disappointed that it was so difficult to help these children in their home country due to their own country's red tape! I had paid for the shipping, the chairs were not being resold....it just didn't seem fair. If only I had shipped the goods in my name and not TTLC's I would have the authority to pick them up. Big mistake. 


Heavy hearted we stumbled back into the tuk. A whole day gone wading through bureaucratic bullshit for no result. Sigh. 


To top things off, back in Kampot, 3 hours away, I receive a garbled phone call in broken English from the shipping agency and freight company, Straights International in Phnom Penh asking why I hadn't collected the authority to release goods customs document from them and paid them $150. Oh, maybe because no-one told me to?

Kampot

After a few days in the Penh it was time to head down south to Kampot, which takes 3 hours by car taxi. Stayed the first night at Les Manguieurs for $10 in an airy hut on stilts with cracks in the walls that opened to the great outdoors and the ground below. Concerned about mozzie born illnesses as we were right on the river, we packed up and stayed at Veronica's. When she had visitors, we found a new home at Natural Bungalows. with a little private beach. This was our residence for the next 2 weeks. 

Ordering pepper crab at Crab Market at Kep

Fishing boat- they go out to sea at 5pm and fish all night ready early in the morning for the market

Tek Chou zoo, 8 km from Kampot town was well worth the visit. We were the only visitors and our Tuk Tuk driver took on the role of tour guide. He had about 3 words of English. He proceeded to lead us around the cages, which were not were not fenced off at all. He tried to get a rise out of every animal by banging on the enclosures; snake, lizard, vulture, you name it.  He threw a stick in at a sleepy looking croc, whose eyes just poked above the slimy green film of it's pool, and then jumped a mile clutching his chest when it launched in his direction, jaws snapping!

We walked past an aviary like cage of monkeys and it took us a while to realise they were exiting from a hole in the roof and coming down to greet us outside of the cage. Suffice to say I started running in the opposite direction! One great scorched orang-utan held out an empty drink bottle, which we filled and he gulped down the water gratefully in the most human like way possible. 

The zoo was not complete without some photos of some very creepy statues and abandoned merry go rounds. 

  

The Tuk Tuk driver actually turned these two figures like this and spent 10 minutes getting to line their hands up in a hand shake!

Face Your Fears and Eat Them

After a sombre day of reflection we wanted a nice dinner to cheer us up. TripAdvisor suggester Romdeng so we thought we would give it a go. Friends and Romdeng are sister restaurants and are part of Friends International – an organization that assists urban children and youth by providing a safe environment to learn skills for becoming productive members of society - bonus! Plus we were curious about the fact that they had tarantulas on the menu. We had already committed to giving the arachnids a go, and chose a Lotus bud chicken salad and a fish amok as our mains. 

The 3 crisp spiders were brought out on a pristine white plate, resting on salad like they were perched on foliage about to scuttle away. It was mighty strange seeing big fat spiders immobilised like that, like it was some freakish trick and they would soon be released from their frozen state and come alive again just as you pick them up. Just the mere sight of them turned the stomach a little. 

Bravely we ripped off a leg, tentatively dipped it in the lime pepper sauce and had a nibble. Totally fine if you keep your eyes closed. Tasted like deep fried nothing, crisp, almost hollow airy tubes. So far bearable. Meanwhile, Jed had ventured to the body and encouraged me to give it a go to get my opinion. It took quite a few mouthfuls of fish amok to pluck up the courage. I bit into the bulbous sac and a squishy nutty texture oozed into my mouth. Nasty! Didn't warrant spitting out, but still, not exactly a desirable flavour/texture combo that I need again. We ate through the rest of our meal, feeling a little ill sharing our table with the remainder of the spider carcasses, but proud we had a story to tell and for our culinary bravery on our second day!