Hair Stylish

I went to La Belle this afternoon and it was my second time to this "High Class" Shop; however I felt happy because there I found very good hair stylish. It is the same price as it's next door salon which I went there a few times.

The hair stylish is a middle aged lady and she dressed very casual. She is not like any of the young hair stylish having punk hair, "messy" hair style etc...ha ha

I was very worried that she would cut too much of my hair and I would have very short hair. Well she did a good job.....just nice and I look younger and beautiful.....yea

I would say she high quality and experience hair sytlish and I will recommend you to go. If you want a good hair cut, colouring hair and perming hair, you can try La Belle at Sihanauk Boulevard.


Very happy...

Seven Year....At last...

I would like to thank my new Cambodian friend who was willing to accompany me the whole day to check the price of PSP (Play station) for my nephew and went to the Gems Exhibition. Believe me you can hardly get this type of friend who want to spend time together with you the whole day in more developing countries or developed countries.

After visiting the Gems Exhibition, we went to a newly open restaurant for dinner and I met with a few of Penangtis. They may be at their 40s -50s. I did not have the chance to know how long have they been here, but they know that I came into Cambodia 7 years ago…. One of them just said,” We have to respect her lah as she had come here for so long….”

It was so coincidence that the general manager of the restaurant is Malaysian. She is new in town and we exchanged our experiences here. I give her some tips of the environment and how I went through my work life for the last 7 years

Well, I was thrilled with the compliments above! After 7 years at least there is someone recognise that it is not easy to be in this environment! On the other hand I respect those that came here longer than me, I am sure they encountered more unforgettable scenes than me.

Housekeeper

The agent sent me 2 bio data one is 22 years old and another one is 28 years old. Going through the bio data, my heart told me that the 28 years old will be better as she has more life experience and she has a few old family members which she may be suitable to take care of my parents.

Arrived in Cambodia 8.30am yesterday from Singapore and I went to the agent directly from the airport. I was lucky that I had given chances to interview maids and meet with them personally. 2 maids were interviewed by me.

What did I find from the interview......
1) 22 year old has better command of English than the 28 year old. The former also understand a bit of Mandarin.....superb
2) 28 year old maid started complaining about her last employer and she was asked to do a lot of work.
3) 22 year old maid answers increased my confident on her, for example I clean, wash clothes, wash car, help in cutting vege and fruits, etc....

A few days from now, I may know whether my selection is suitable for my parents......
It is difficult to make decisions on such and it will always have expectation gap!

Ox Cart

We hardly find an ox cart that sell ceramic kitchen utensils in most of the cities in South East Asia, however if you are lucky enough you still be able to see it in Phnom Penh. This ox cart passed by my house once in a blue moon. This is something special about Phnom Penh that we will not able to experience in cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or the Philippines.
The ox cart is from Kampong Chhnang. It is the province the famous of making ceramic products. The seller travelled around 120km and this may take then 4-5 hours to arrive. How much they can earn from the trip? Perhaps USD50-100, however it is better than unemployed or being a thief.
As global warming is the current hot topic of the world leaders, should they consider ox cart as one of our transportation to reduce carbon emission?

Photos of Siem Reap

This was a couple of photos I had taken from Siem Reap. The first one is Bayon in Angkor Thom and the second one is inside Angkor Wat.

A Responsible and Happy Seller

Knock, knock, knock......do you want to buy beancurd sweet today?



We will normally buy from her three bowl of beancurd except some days that we felt guity of eating too much sweet or worried about our high urine acid. The seller is a lady, not sure what is her name is but we called her "bong" means sister in Khmer language. Every morning around 8am she will carry 2 baskets balanced with a stick on her shoulder stop in front of our house. One of the basket carrys the beancurd which have a small cacoal stove to keep it warm and one basket is the palm sugar with ginger, coconut milk, some small bowls, spoons, some bottles of soy bean milk and a small pale of water holding on her hand.



Her beancurd is 500 riel (USD0.12) per bowl and is always warm. We normally will purchase 3 bowl from her. 2 bowls with palm sugar and coconut milk and 1 bowl without coconut milk. We do not use her bowl as we normally like to eat cold, so we use our bowls. Our bowls are bigger than her standard bowls, however our bowls are filled up with the beancurd all the time.



One day we tried to observed how she sell her beancurd for our neighbours who used her standard bowl. We noticed that she gave them 5 scoops of beancurd per bowl. As our bowls are bigger she give us 7 scoops per bowl and charge us the same price. We felt so happy because we buy something cheap.....ha ha



There was once my friend (Samneang) asked her how much did she earn every day. She told us her revenue per day 20,000 riel and her profit is about 10,000 riel. She only sells in the morning. She has a mother staying with her and she has to take care of her mother due to old age. She really amaze us as she earns very little, however she are still happy everyday and having a very bright smile to us. One thing we notice is that she is very happy if we buy from her. We feel that she is so pure, good hearted and complacent. We try to buy from her everyday.



Today, before I left my Cambodian home, I had a chat with her,

I asked, " why you did not sell beancurd for the past few days?"

Bong answered " I went to provice"

I asked " Why did you go to provice"

Bong answered, " I went to get palm sugar"

I asked, " There is no palm sugar in Phnom Penh?"

Bong answered, " The palm sugar here is not pure, there are chemicals inside"



I respect her so much as she is only a very small seller but she understand her responsibility and integrity of a seller. She make sure that her product is organic and safe from any chemicals! In this world, it is hard to find seller like her......!!!!