Happy 3rd Birthday Janelle

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to Janelle
Happy Birthday to you

Life on Water

One of the main landmark at the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is the intersection of four rivers, namely Tonle Sap (Sap River), Tonle Bassac (Bassac River), Tonle Thom (Upper Mekong River) and Tonle Toch (Lower Mekong River). It is also known as Chaktomouk, the Four Face River. Here, you can see families practically living on the water.

The first community I passed by live on boats at the river mouth intersection of Tonle Sap and Tonle Thom.

Further down on the other side of the river, at Lower Mekong River, people live at wooden houses, some on the ground and some on the water.

Typical lifestyle and daily activities of people who live above the water...

Noticed a girl changing in full view of the public. Very skilfully done; using a big piece of hard cloth to shield her body, she undid and wore her clothes, all done within a few seconds...

Houses and more houses...

Over here at one secluded corner of the river, people reside on boats. According to my tour guide, people on boats here are mostly Vietnamese.

Reference: aguidetoasia.com

Transformers

Watch out... Transformers is coming to town...


Autobots... Transform... chak chak chak chak chak...

Children of Cambodia

Welcome to Cambodia, where you can see children children everywhere.

Children selling books and souvenir items are a common sight here. These cute little kids will follow you and persuade you to buy their stuff. If you don't want to buy anything from them, at least give them some sweets. They would be happy to accept your offer.

This girl here below is lucky as she is employed to play this traditional instrument at the lobby of the four-star hotel which I was staying at. In the morning when I come down for breakfast, I will see this girl with her sweet face playing some sweet music to soothen my senses. Not many children here are as lucky though.

A young child manning a stall at the night market.

Children bathing and playing in this canal that flows to Tonle Sap Lake. You can see families staying on boats and houses above the water here.

The not so fortunate children...

The last photo here is the most pitiful. It shows a mother and her two children spending the night by the street. Notice a child asleep on the footpath and a baby being carried by the mother.

Gold Man

Noticed this Gold Man at Bintang Walk...

Go ahead and meet him... he brings you luck and fortune...

Earth Hour 2009

This was how I spent Earth Hour on 28 Mar 2009 from 8:30pm till 9:30pm.

1) Lights off at 8:30pm.
2) Light a candle.
3) Light a second candle from the first candle.
4) Blow off the second candle.
5) Repeat steps 3 to 4 over and over again till 9:30pm.

Ok, I did more than that during that one hour, but anyway, during that period of darkness and quietness, some thoughts came to my mind. I feel we should continue with this Earth Hour awareness campaign in whichever way possible in our daily life. Few ways we can continue with this cause:

1) Make every Saturday 8:30pm to 9:30pm into Earth Hour. If that's not possible, try to make it at least one Saturday a month, lights off from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. That would be a good start.

2) Avoid the habit of leaving lights and fans on when nobody is around. Lights and fans should be switched off once the last person leaves the place, no matter how short the period of time it may be.

3) When printing, use recycled paper as much as possible. At the same time, use email to communicate, instead of faxing. Hello, this is the paperless age. Don't waste paper unnecessarily. Save the trees.

4) When shopping, avoid using plastic bags. Use cloth bags; they can be used over and over again.

5) When packing food from a restaurant for take away, avoid using styrofoam or plastic containers. Bring own container to put the food in.

If everyone can just make a conscious effort to consistently follow one of the above suggestions, it will certainly contribute towards preserving our planet Earth.

Lessons on Teamwork

The slides below were forwarded to me; valuable lessons which I feel that I should share...