Tag Archives: Anna Spencer
Don’t Mount a Water Buffalo aka Putting Koh Rong to Rights
When you find yourself pulling electrical wires from sockets of blasting speakers in a furious attempt to remove the Formula Milk promotion company that are set up just inside the front gates of the school in which you work-at least…
Anna Spencer Interviews Khmer Writer Hang Borin
Hang Borin is a Khmer writer whom I had the great pleasure of meeting recently. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1987. His mother had made the perilous journey over the border alone with a young…
Wedding Preparations, Visa Applications and these Giant Walls of Human Creations
Right now, my email inbox is a cheery and eclectic mix of correspondence with Gay, the vicar of the tiny round church which will be our UK wedding venue, Michelle from rentapartytent.co.uk, Stu from the farm-shop who will be doing…
Funeral Weekend Cabin Fever
Sunday 3rd February marked four years since I landed in Phnom Penh. That first morning I woke to the crash of cymbals outside and went to stand out on the balcony, feeling the waves of tropical heat rise up from…
Back to School, Past the River of Smell…
After a pretty hectic December I now fall happily back into my happy, humdrum routine. It’s great to feel the warm but un-aggressive ‘cool season’ sun crawl up from behind during a 6am balcony coffee before embarking on a refreshingly…
Things To Do In Phnom Penh With Your Mum
My mum’s tight grip on the pole of the tuk-tuk from the Pochentong airport was to be expected. I have seen it before with many a visitor and I remember my own first journey: sniffing the whiff of heat and…
Sixty-Nine’s Running Time
When we went to collect our bibs the day before the Angkor Wat 2012 Half Marathon, I felt that it was nothing but a good omen that I was lucky number 69. I would need some luck. I couldn’t stand…
Running Away from Exhaustion in Cambodia
Throughout the whole of October my dreams were bizarre, lucid and persistently awful – the kind of dreams that cling throughout the day and result in emails to loved ones back home: ‘Mum…all good? Just checking because I had a…
My Tuol Tumpoung Fish Crawl
For a lover of fish life is good here in Cambodia where you really don’t have to go far for a good fish supper (or fish breakfast…fish lunch….fish snack ….fish cheese). Fish are literally everywhere. Even the walls in the…
Am I Wrong to Secretly Wish For A Chair Fight?
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I teach two grades – grade six and kindergarten one. Whilst the kindergarten class keep me on my toes with their brilliantly un-developed sense of acceptable behaviour, my sixth grade class sometimes leaves me feeling a little flat. It is…