Our housewarming party.

So with only 24 hours notice that we were having a party to a) celebrate Jeff’s 52^nd birthday and b) christen the house, the compound family mobilized. Text messages and emails were sent out and whilst I went to work and had little to do with things, everybody else at home did a marvelous job of procuring everything you need for a right royal shindig. When I arrived home at 5pm the BBQ was fired up, the beers were on ice and the women were in the kitchen making like a professional catering company. The crowds started arriving first as a trickle and then as a flow and before you knew it The Compound was in full swing. Kids everywhere you looked, gorgeous women everywhere you looked and a fantastic night was had by all.

Parties Galore

Man this city is just too much fun. Why this weekend alone we already have ;

Tonight, The Compound's first party ;

Friday ;

Saturday;

and........

Phew.............

Compound Wives Club

Leakhana and Vatey seem to be getting along fine. They go to the market alot and whilst Jeff and I are sucking the piss on the roof and planning our next addition to the 'Pound, the girls are generally nattering away somewhere in the bowels of our vast estate. Aliyah is an ever present little bundle of joy and Jeff's aunt ( ming ) has a wonderful air of peace about her and always has a welcoming smile.

Will's 30th invitation

Our good mate Will turns 30 this weekend. Should be some soiree ! First he sent this ;And then Lawsy sent this email to everyone !

Phase One- Drinks and fried canaries at The Quay Restaurant Rooftop. 4-9pm MAY 31.
William should put at least $1500 behind the bar for everyone to drink ... as it's HIS 30th he should be paying but we know he is tighter than a gnats chuff.

Phase Two- If you can throw in minimum of 2000r (but 3000r would be better!) PER PERSON. we can then present Will with his favourite Hello Kitty print and a one way bus ticket to Poipet.

Phase 3- There will be no 'Sit down dinner' as we are all alcoholics and we all know that EATING IS CHEATING. However Lawsy is a piglet so she will order pizzas from FCC . No, she won't be sharing so don't ask her ! Of course a 5000r bar tab won't last all night, but Bruno is willing to perform acts of self degradation for money towards drinks.

Phase 4- DANCING and Jacuzzi so bring yr bikinis( Bruno ) or budgie smugglers ( McGinley ) and no peeing in the spa - this means you Bruno ! Lawsy will be topless in the Jacuzzi so its first in best dressed with regards to seating.
Phase 5- Horrendous hangovers.

The weekend that was....

Thank god we bought the car because Saturday was a VERY busy day. And hot?….Jesus h Christ. You could have cooked eggs on the pavement. Leakhana and I headed to Pho Olympic for a bowl of delicious pho soup and after two of them and a coffee I was ready to tackle a list a mile long. We drove out to Takmeo and bought some split bamboo for the living room (placed in a big blue terracotta pot it makes for a wicked interior feature) and then also bought some bougainvillea for the roof. Two teak chairs, plastic bins for charcoal and soil, bottles of water for the cooler and several other things and I was ready for a change of t-shirt. After a bit of a nap, we got ready and headed out for The Pugwash Cruise which after a nervous start due to a downpour, turned into a cracker of an afternoon.

Sunday started with the same ferocious heat as the day before and with a slight hangover, it was no fun at all. I snuck off to have Cadillac’s breakfast sandwiches which are the Rolls Royce of Breakfast McMuffins and then I had to go to Russian Market to get Silen (one of the Original Jungle Bar girls and now working at Cadillac ) a 23^rd birthday present. Couldn’t help myself and also ordered two huge silk lights for the living room. Then I decided to do a bit of DVD shipping and bought the entire box set of the sopranos and also the first two seasons of Californication which is a fantastic HBO series starring David Duchovny.

After a bit of television I decided to go and check out the new Sovanna Mall and I have to say it is pretty impressive. Hilarious watching the Khmers from the provinces freak out at the elevators! Bought myself a remote controlled 4WD for $22. Yay ! a new toy for the roof .Finally to end the weekend off we headed over to Cadillac for some birthday cake and a few beers with Silen ( she loved her pink t-shirt ) and the Cadillac regulars and then it was off to Classic Bar for a nightcap before heading off home......

The Gucci Guard House ?

No doubt designed by the great architect Van Molyvann, I came across this photo on another blog http://alisonincambodia.wordpress.com/

Looks to me to be Gucciesque ?

At any rate....its pretty cool.

The compound gets a new BBQ

Last night Leakhana cooked the most insane ribs and baked potatos on our little clay pot. She knows how much I love the Rusty Keyhole's ribs and with a little work on the marinade we will be eating the best ribs in the Penh. Jeff loves ribs too and I am sure Rib Night will be a monthly occurrence. So in the interests of making life easy, I have bought a new bbq. I was out checking out some steel work I am having done for the sports field when lo and behold, I see my steelworker makes industrial grade BBqs. " I will take it NOW ". I had wanted a gas BBQ but they run at $500 ++ so at $70 I thought this was a bargain.

From this..........

To this !

The Compound gets commercial

Jeff came up with a cracker of an idea for the compound. With all that available space..why not open up a car wash ? I was hesitant at first as car washes are a dime a dozen but then Jeff put his business plan to me which was sublime in it's simplicity. Bikinis.

We opened up yesterday and business has been steady....

Srey Sponge washes my jeep for the first time......

Finally...a car !

After weeks of searching..here she is ;

1995 Jeep Cherokee Sport
Brand new tyres
All neat and tidy and best of all...

NOT the 6.0l gaz guzzler but a 4.0l original.

and its in my favourite colour too.........

Hope the wife likes it !

Brownie Points,jobs and scooters.

After today, my BP score is about 10 bazillion with the wife ( not that I needed them....she loves
me ! ).

Firstly, we have just helped Srey Neung buy her first scooter. She has saved up about $500 after 2 years of toiling 6-7 days a week and I spied the exact moto in the exact colour that she wanted being sold by a German expat on a local website. At $1200 and with only 2000kms on it, this scooter represented a bargain. I don't think the owner knew how much it was really worth
( about $1600). We spoke to Neung and offered to lend her the balance of the money with a 5 year repayment plan ;-). This morning I inspected it and took it for a ride ( very embarrassing ) and then screwed Ze German to $1100 and tonight at 5.30pm I will take my little sister-in-law
( 23 years young ) to pick it up. She really deserves this bike becuase she has been working very hard for years and her money all goes back to the family. out of $80 a month she earns, she spends about $30 on motodops to get to work !! I really do not care how long she takes to pay the money back and will make sure she has a helmet and a lock and everything she needs.

Srey Neung's new ride

Secondly, I just got Dany his first ever job. Dany is 20 but because his schooling has been erratic at best, he seems more like 16 or so. Certainly no Banjo or Max ! However Dany is a good kid and he is honest and has only ever wanted to work with cars. Leakhana was going to pay $350 to send Dany to a mechanic school that teaches Khmer boys all about cars but first rang me the other day and asked if I could talk to some of the mechanics I have been dealing with whilst looking for a car. So I rang Gary Kwai, an Australian mechanic to see if he needed any juniors and lo and behold he was actually looking for a gopher/ apprentice. So today at 2pm ( after counselling Dany about a what to wear, eye contact, a firm handshake and relaxing during the interview ! ) I took Dany to GTR Mechanic Shop. I left him alone with Gary and his Khmer wife and 28 minutes later Gary called me. I was expecting him to say " Dany passed out from
nerves " but he actually said " Good kid. He starts Monday on a one month trial" !! The Aussie mafia strikes again !

Phnom Penh's newest gopher....

Great stuff all round and I fell very chuffed at having been able to help my family.

Outfitting THE COMPOUND

Jeff already has ideas for a business venture.
THE COMPOUND Car Wash .
I like it.

Yesterday was the King's holiday so after a few hours at work It was time to go shopping for everything one needs to outfit a COMPOUND ( GOD DAMNED I LOVE THAT WORD ! ). Prior to hitting the shops I went around to THE COMPOUND to see if the rather large 4WD I am eyeing off would fit in the car park. It will. I was lucky enough to meet the owners there and lucky enough to be ale to halt the installation of the ugliest imitation copper ceiling fans you have ever seen. We will install our own silk lights thanks very much. They seem like very very nice people though and were more than happy to comply with a few other requests with regards to built-ins and gate rectification ( currently I cannot get my hand through the bars to open the front gate ! ) etc.

Ok ...so off we go and first stop is the custom bed shop. We have ordered two beautiful teak daybeds for the rooms that will be stained almost black. Ours is a queen and will have a square mosquito net frame built over it ( $180 ). Srey Pich's is a single ( $120). Then we hit the mattress shops to buy some imported inner spring mattresses. $150 for ours, $90 for Srey Pichs. Amazing value as back home they would have cost hundreds and hundreds. Next stop is the cane wicker emporiums for a bunch of stuff. I thought long and hard about this. I decided I could go two ways; Spent an absolute fortune at I'Ching on my dream stuff or buy rattan furniture that is cheap, looks great ( I actually really like Rattan and it was making a huge comeback in OZ before I left ) and this furniture will always resell. I decided on the latter and we ended up with;

A square 3 seater sofa, two square armchairs ( all with dark red cushions ) and a coffee
table ;$380
A custom made huge side dresser for all the bub's nappies and toys and clothes and breast milk suckers and whatever else you need for baby ; $210
A small dresser for Srey Pich's room ; $120
A large custom 3 door, multi-shelf dresser for Leakhana and my clothes ; $260

Now all we need is;

-Flat screen TV
-Some big silk hanging light shades ( can't wait to get them up...they will make the place ! )
-A 150x150cm mirror to put over the downstairs bedroom window that looks into the living room.
-A custom made kitchen Island
-A Bbq ( working on getting a Weber in from Australia )
-Oh yeah...a cot for bub !

Struth.


** All THE COMPOUND images care of Jeff who clearly has way to much time on his hands.

( Almost ) selling land ....

Off down to Kep for the millionth time last weekend, ostensibly to sell one of our blocks to a potential buyer. Murray rented us his ute, a brand new Four Courier, and we left Friday afternoon. Either the road is getting worse or the truck has a terrible ride but it was so bouncy Leakhana thought she was going to give birth on the way. It was all I could do to keep my lunch down and we arrived feeling like we had been stuck on the Wally World roller coaster. After checking into the ever faithful Kampot Guest House, we headed straight to the Rusty keyhole for ribs and bed came early due to sheer exhaustion.

Back to the Keyhole the next morning for breakfast and Anthony turned up as he needed to settle up on his second block of land. I got the urge to go tree shopping so we convoyed over to the tree shop and we bought 20 2ft mango trees ($1.50 each ) and four mangosteen trees ( my favourite fruit in the world ! ). We then headed out to our land and whilst Anthony and Leakhana settled up (Anthony is putting all his land in our name……glad he trusts us!!), I marked out where the trees were to go. We then headed off to the White Horse market to get some idea of the cost of earthworks, road building etc and finally we made it to Kep Lodge sunburnt and in dire need of a beer. After a few tinnies and a shower.,Leakhena hit the hay and after a quick trip up to the old reservoir with Humphrey and Mark (who just happened to call me out of the blue ) I went and picked up our Australian prospect. With her lovely adopted Khmer children in tow, we headed out to the watermelon farm and she was impressed. On the way back in to Kep she said she would 100% buy it and when I asked her for a deposit she did not have one but said “not to worry I can give you one Monday!”. Today she tells me she cannot organise the money in time and despite trying to make it possible by extending generous time frames, the deal fell through. Really not that worried because the land price is spiralling out of control down there.

The Old Kep Reservoir

Saturday night we met up with Humphrey and Mark for the windiest feed of crabs we have ever had in Crab Shack number 1. There was so much wind swell you could have almost surfed and at one stage I thought maybe Burma's cyclone had hit us ! After a bottle of red wine at the Kep lodge bar with a few fellow Aussie travellers, we hit the hay totally drained. Sunday we headed back to Kampot and after a few diversions to scout more land ( I know I know…call me The Donald) I made a disastrous turn that would cost us 3 hours. Unfortunately Murray’s ute is not 4wd and when you hit a brand new mud road in it, it gets bogged. After initial sick feelings in the stomach about spending all night in the bush and a couple of hours of head scratching and swearing, a little man appeared from nowhere. Fortunately the new road is part of a big hydro scheme and there were some heavy machines there. One D4 , 1o minutes and $15 later and we were on our way!

Looking for this.............

Led to this !

Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy back to Phnom Penh, a cold beer and bed at 8pm !

Moving House again.

The COMPOUND

Our landlords recently put the rent up to $280 on our current apartment . and even though I originally whinged and moaned that is still actually a pretty sweet deal for that apartment. HOWEVER with baby coming and car coming, we need some more space . I was lazily looking around at options when out of the blue my good mate Jeff rings me up and says "Are you interested in splitting a compound with us" . I have know Jeff since day one ( in fact I had my first ever job interview at Jungle Bar with Darren when Jeff still owned it ) and we have remained drinking buddies ever since. Jeff is married to Vattey and they have a little toddler - Aliyah. So I meet Jeff at the new place and I am pretty much smitten straight away. The first thing you notice is the whopping big gates and fence and then the huge front courtyard with room for 3 cars and motos etc. Plenty of room for the toddlers to run around, cars to be washed, gardens to be created etc. Jeff has the tal one on the RHS of the photo..it is massive ( 5 beds i think ) and he gets a HUGE amphitheatre style room to set up all his gadgets ( he is an audio,hi-fi freak geek ! ). Ours is the one on the left. It looks small but it is actually EXACTLY the same lay out as our current apartment except it is ground floor so no more slippery steps to get up ! All of it is brand new ( Khmerised but quite nice )and there is a big courtyard out the back as well. The COMPOUND is right near Russian Market and there are some nice cafes and beer gardens around. This is Jeff;s first venture over to the dark side ( west of Monivong Blvd ) and I think he is really going to love it. There is a villa being built next door to us so I hope the noise isn't too bad but I guess we just deal with it. I have some ideas about improvements such as a thatched, waterproofed BBQ shelter out the back andmaybe even a shaded cover at the front but at any rate it is going to be a really nice set-up. I think it will be great having a mate next door to have the odd beer with and the kids can play together and we can watch each other stuff when either of us are away etc. The rent is $80 more a month and the rates are fair. The street is quiet and it will be good to be in a new neighbourhood. More photos to follow....