We’ve just had a three a holiday here – Pchum ben –  on  Thursday Friday and Saturday – where the Cambodians go back to their villages and pray for their ancestors. A lot of Phnom Penh was empty: or emptier than I’ve seen it since I’ve been here. People get together, visit pagodas and pray for their ancestors. Some pray for people who died without decedents and therefore don’t have anyone to pray for them. I went and looked at some pagodas. Nice architecture. During this I lost a credit card (it was eaten by an ATM) and broke a tooth, needing root canal treatment. Fortunately I could get a dentist to look at it on Saturday and do the root canal work on Monday. The rest will be done over the next few days.

I was short of cash when the credit card ate my machine so I had to get someone in Australia to send me some money via Western Union, and try to get some “wired” (don’t you love that expression?) to my Cambodian account by my bank in Australia.

The rainy season hit last night. It started bucketing down late into the afternoon with a vengeance. Very soon the streets were flooded and the drainage system couldn’t cope. Instead of riding my bicycle to uni, I took a tuktuk. The tuktuk driver got lost, the motorbike stalled and I had to walk the last few blocks on my own. When I got there none of the students had turned up (because of the rain, I guess.) They sell these little plastic raincoats for 50 cents here. I had a purple one over the top of a blue one.  If you saw it in the movie it would have been funny.

Today the skies seem clear.