At work, in the restrooms, they installed "Suggestion Boxes." These boxes are abbnormally large for their purpose and are made from plexi-glass. I don't know if these boxes are for any and all suggestions related to my place of slave employment or if they are for suggestions related only to the facilities. Either way no paper is supplied, so if you need to make a suggestion, you have to scribble it on some toilet paper, or at least that's what i did. My first suggestion: "get a sewer system that allows for the flushing of toilet paper."

Also at work, they put in boxes of condoms with a "memo" urging the workers to use condoms, prevent stds, etc. (Cambodia didn't have a problem with stds until UNTAC rolled through in the early 1990s). Within a day, all the condoms were gone. They have not been replaced. Apparently condom use is no longer important.

I know my posts have been slow of late, but its not entirely my fault - they blocked blogger at work. normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but internet access outside of work in cambodia is like a slice of pizza in cleveland - you can find it, but you're gonna pay far too much money for it and you're going to be disappointed.

I drove for the first time in Cambodia. I chose a Nissan Pathfinder for its versatility, its size (the only traffic law here, if your vehicle is bigger, you win) and it was the only car my friend was willing to lend me. It's a bit like playing a video game, you're constantly dodging a variety of obstacles, such as chickens, cows, people, sink-holes, ox carts, and just about anything else you can imagine, with little to no visibility - especially at night. As if avoiding all those hazards wasn't enough, you also have to contend with other vehicles. The roads in the provinces are barely paved and are not wide enough to accomodate 2 lanes of traffic. So every time a car or truck is travelling in the opposite direction, you have to pull half-way off the road so that the both cars can pass. I quickly tired of the constant speeding up, swerving, slowing down, etc, so I went with the cambodian approach - anytime I saw (or thought I saw) a car, truck, moto, person, chicken, whatever I laid on my horn and hoped for the best. It seemed to work, except I did accidently drench an elderly man with muddy water. I felt really bad about that, but seriously how was I supposed to know that the puddle would produce such an expansive splash.

This past weekend I travelled up to the top of Bokor mountain. It was so eerie to spend the night in the middle of deserted mountain-top resort town in the middle of the jungle. I rode in the back of a pick-up truck for almost 3 hours to reach the top - i dont think my back will ever be aligned properly again. Bokor is so high that we were literally in the clouds - I stood outside and watched as a cloud rolled over the ridge, into the plateau, passing over me, and then off to the sea.

After Bokor, we went to a small island off the coast of a little villiage town called Kep. The island is completely deserted except to a small patch of coastline which has about 20 bamboo huts. I spent the night in one of the huts, and I have to say that it wasn't too bad, except that the floor, which was about 4 feet above the ground (in case of flooding), was broken in many places. One wrong step and I'd have a large piece of bamboo piercing my leg. The only other drawback of the huts was that tree branches and leaves composed the roof. This wouldn't be a problem except that it rains everyday here. And of course it poored all night. Constantly repositioning yourself so that you can sleep without getting wet isn't the best way to spend a night.