The Story So Far ...

We said farewell to our work friends at the RSPCA and BBC on 14 September, farewell to our families on 3 October, and set off for Africa to save cheetahs, decorate school buildings, and look around a bit. After a trip home for Christmas, we headed for South East Asia on 6 January -- where we were stunned by Qatar and Cambodia, taught novice monks in Laos, and acted as security guards at an Elephant Festival. It was back home for four weeks to look after John's dad, before we tangoed our way through five South American countries in fifteen days. We then snooped our way through New Zealand, dipped our toes into Fiji, drove-thru California and were home from home with family in Vancouver.

Now, we are home itself. Fulfilled, happy, and ready to earn the respect of our friends and family by knuckling down and earning some money once again ...

Saturday, 22 January 2011

Henri et Jean en Cambodge


Henry spotted it in a souvenir shop.  A poster that echoed back to Cambodia's sixties heydey, when the Belgian schoolboy sleuth, Tintin, had an adventure here.  The poster showed the cartoon's cover, Tintin en Cambodge, the detective rummaging amongst the ruins of Angkor Wat.

It seemed apt.   We've cantered through Cambodia as if in some comic strip.  The fields have been saturated green, the palaces gilded with gold, the skies translucent blue.  People have smiled just a little too much, echoes of the Truman Show.  Animals in the meadows have looked a touch touched up.  The food was sublime, pre food-poisoning; menacing thereafter.

Yes, Cambodia is a curious spot.  If Tintin and Snowy had come bounding around the corner of the Silver Pagoda with a battalion of sticky rice pots in hot pursuit, I'd not have been too surprised.

John

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