Royal housewarming!

11 Friday… Preparing a housewarming…

To celebrate our settlement in Phnom Penh we invited the people from the VVOB office for a housewarming.

If you want to celebrate you certainly need food and drinks. So on Friday, after a hard day working at the office we stopped at a local shop to buy our material. “Loaded as a donkey” we drove to our apartment. Bags on our steering wheel, boxes ‘KLANG’ beer between our legs… We felt like real Cambodian motorbike drivers!

Saturday was D-day.

We prepared our apartment to welcome the people. Cleaning our bedrooms and bathroom, doing the dishes, sweeping the floor, organizing the furniture… After these dull jobs we finely could find some rest.

So in the afternoon we decided to visit the Royal Palace and the silver Pagoda. Hier geraakt je niet binnen in een topje, zelfs niet met een sjaaltje over je schouders. Ook een korte broek dragen, is uit den boze. Daar stonden we dan in onze zomerse kleren! Gelukkig verkopen ze aan de ingang zo van die mooie, witte, ruime, T(ent)-shirts. Once we thought we ‘d seen it all, our eyes fell upon two monks who were sitting nearby the miniature of Ankor Wat. We needed a break so we sat down on a bench. The monks were looking at us. And although it was not our intention to talk with them, because we didn’t dare to, but to our surprise they started talking to us. It was a very interesting conversation! Friendly people, those monks! We hebben een mooie foto van onze gesprekspartners in de rechter diavoorstelling geplaatst. Wanneer je er op klikt, opent het picasa webalbum. When we looked at our watch, we saw that we really had to go. Luckily the monks also had to go. After that we drove on a ‘grande vitesse’ to our apartment.

After a quick shower and the last preparations we were finely ready to welcome our guests. On Cambodian time everyone arrived. We gave our guests a little guided tour in our apartment and the rooftop balcony. Time to celebrate! With some music, food and hot temperatures, the Klang beer flowed lavishly into our mouths (Klang means strong). About 12pm the last guests leaved our apartment.

We had a joyful evening, thanks to the lovely people from ‘the office’! We are looking forward to the next housewarming!