Cambodia 1300

In Cambodia it is the women who take charge of the trade. For this reason a foreigner, arriving in the country, loses no time in getting himself a mate, for he will find her commercial instincts a great asset.
Foreign sailors coming to the country note with pleasure that it is not necessary to wear clothes, and, since rice is easily had, women easily persuaded, houses easily run, furniture easily come by, and trade easily carried on, a great many sailors desert to take up permanent residence.
-Chou Ta-Kuan 1297 AD

Jasmine Restaurant

We returned from the states and got to work setting up the restaurant. Jasmine had a lovely birthday party, about 18 locals came by and had a great meal followed by cake and carcassonne. Then the monk came by the next day to bless our business and he told us the best day to open would be Monday (this was Saturday). So we opened on Monday. Our Swedish friend Anders was in town for the birthday and he stayed for the opening. We had no sign and no customers. The next day we were closed (we will be closed Tuesdays). I made a quick sign and strung some more christmas lights and Wednesday we opened. We were packed, overwhelmed and exhausted. Thursday the same groups came back for another meal and we were packed again - $100 in sales just that evening. We met some nice people and they all loved the food. They came by for breakfast the next day. Now it is Saturday and we have had only two customers ( it is 8 p.m.). The blender/ coffee grinder broke and the electric grill stopped working (need a better transformer) but we are pulling it off. Our customer have been reporting back at their guesthouses what excellent food we serve and that has prompted visits by the locals to snoop around for our secret. More later...

Jasmine Restaurant, Kampot

Jasmine Restaurant, Kampot
Originally uploaded by ubikwity.

Bob and Dave were visiting from Washington State.

wedding in sb

wedding insb
Originally uploaded by ubikwity.

Back in Cambodia

After three weeks stateside we are back in Cambodia. Once we are unpacked we will be focusing on getting the restaurant open. I hope to catch up on my blog backlog and get back to writing my novel. As I am writing this at the K-West restaurant on the riverside in Phnom Penh three security guards passed by and I looked around to see who they were escorting. A smiling old man with a coterie of woman passed a few feet from me ans smiled at me. I smiled back, he looked very familiar. He was very short, he looked in good health, and he only had a small group around him. They left the restaurant and got into three landcruisers. It was King Sihanouk. I checked by looking at my 10,000 riel note and asking my waitress...

Cambodia 1965

This is an interesting look at what Cambodia was like before the "troubles". Bear in mind that in 1968, Nixon began his secret bombing campaign and in 1970 Lon Nol overthrew King Sihanouk in a bloody coup that led to civilwar, culminating in the Pol Pot regime in 1975 which was overthrown in turn by the vietnamese invasion in 1978, which then led to another civil war that lasted until 1999.
In 1965 Cambodia was the richest nation in South East Asia.