What does your day look like?

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
Wow. It would have been a different place in the 90’s.
Yeah it was very different. Phnom Penh was just like a large regional town, most roads were dirt, the tallest buildings were two story, every second Khmer was missing a leg, but there was hardly any people there anyway. The Khmer Rouge were still active and every morning the UN had to de-mine the road out to the earth station where I was working. The whole place was run by the UN, blue caps everywhere. It was UNTAC which was the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, and from memory the Aussie army was the main force, while the Russians were providing helicopters (ex Afghanistan, full of bullet holes) as there were mines everywhere and driving places was problematic. I had a great time though and we got some cool stuff done, which was getting some earth stations, microwave links and telco exchanges going to get the comms back up and running as the Khmer Rouge had pulled all that stuff out for Year Zero.

The current day Phnom Penh, is nothing like the old town. In fact I can’t believe how fast it has changed in just the last five years. Only five years ago, it was scooters everywhere and the traffic flowed like water, whereas the last trip over there it was SUV gridlock and massive new buildings in construction, wrapped in green shade-cloth, as they do. Corruption is rife, so that’s the way it goes.
 

Jpez

Down on the left!
Awesome recollection there Lasmo. The country is changing faster than it can cope with I think. Especially with the Lexus SUV driving Elite sucking every dollar they can out of the system.

I travelled through Vietnam in the late nineties and it was amazing. Looked much like the Saigon in images from around the Vietnam war era.
Nowadays there are maccas and Coke billboards everywhere. I’m glad I got to experience some countries and cultures before mass consumerism took over.
 

Jpez

Down on the left!
Must have been interesting...
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The spread of Western consumerism is supremely unappealing, as you mentioned. Were you on an aid project in Cambodia?
Ok then before the war era, but not all the city was trashed beyond recognition. Far from it.

With Cambodia, kinda. My partner had a contract with Oz aid. I just followed for the adventure but found a paying job with a decent NGO teaching life and trade skills. The vast majority of NGOs over there are a rort or do more damage than good. But that’s a discussion for another day.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Another fruitless search for @moorey in the fine state of Victoria comes up empty.

On the plus side, an empty seat was found.
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Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk
 

Tubeless

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I lived and worked in Cambodia for a couple of years. I had some amazing home cooked meals there. I worked in a really poor village though and usually it was just a massive bowel of plain rice and a tiny little bit of fish, sometimes chicken to add protein. Day after day. On occasion the women would make Prahok next to the welding workshop I ran and boy oh boy was that an experience. Semi rotten fermented fish being ground into a paste. I can still smell it! It would permeate my clothes and come back home with me!
Best times were the weddings. Even the poorest would put on a good showing and cook up a storm of amazing food, endless beer and much hilarity to wash away the drudgery of backbreaking days of labor in the fields. When people have very little they really know how to party!
Had an amazing time in Cambodia (good and bad) and one I will never forget.
I lived in footscray for years and loved the Vietnamese people and culture. Now living in a predominantly ‘white’ suburb and it is so , we’ll white.
Which area were you located in?
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
I'll be looking for you next time then. It is a bit disappointing there. These places are for the folks that aren't worthy of an airline lounge.
Thunk about it though...who really gives enough fucks to make a rad bar at the airport? Seems all the businesses there are soulless before they begin trading. Don't get me wrong a rocking bar/cafe would probably be quite popular as an escape.from all the bullshit that comes with being at the airport.
 
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