Another Quick Update
Hello All,
As promised, this will be another quick blog entry to follow up from last week. Luckily, it appears I am not longer at deaths door and I seem to be getting better although not 100% yet. Last week was not my best in Cambodia as in addition to getting extreme sunburns, I also got sick and ended up getting robbed.
The getting robbed part, thankfully, was not a big deal since I was not hurt and all the guy got was 30 bucks from my wallet and 2 credit cards cancelled immediately. It was just shocking since I have never been robbed before and this happened in the blink of an eye. The guy basically zoomed up behind my friend and I while we were on her moto, reached between us, grabbed my wallet, pulled it out and drove off, I screamed and wanted to follow (battle instincts) but my friend said we would never catch up and he might be armed so I cried a bit, collected myself and got on with life. The truth is it could have been much worse and luckily I didn’t have anything very important in that wallet.
Work went quite well last week. I am continuously working on my Industry Summary reports as I have to have them complete by Friday, but I am close to finishing up. I was also able to do some research for an international insurance company that is opening a branch here in Cambodia. I had to review Cambodian privacy laws to see whether a disclosure clause in their contract would be valid in the Kingdom. The attorney who assigned me the project thought we were free and clear but wanted to do one last check. Fortunately and unfortunately for him I found some pretty strict privacy requirements for information regarding HIV which focuses specifically on insurance companies. Our clients, however, are quite happy that they can adjust to those requirements and not be blindsided by them.
I also sat in on a meeting with a new client who is opening a joint venture broadcasting company in Cambodia. She was from Moscow and my boss invited me along in case the needed translation skills (and if not just to cozy up to the new client with my Russian skills). The most popular media in Cambodia is still radio and there is immense room for improvement in the media, and particularly TV broadcasting fields. The client is from Moscow and will be working together with a local company. They are in the very early stages of their contracts but it should be quite interesting to see how they choose to develop their cable broadcasts as the company develops.
This weekend we also went o Phnom Chisor which is an old Angkor era temple about an hour outside the city. The temple was quite small but the drive went through tons of rice paddies and was quite beautiful. The temple was also on top of a mountain (phnom means mountain) and while the climb took our breath away, literally, the views were even more spectacular. The temple also seemed to be host to a massive horde of dragon flies, however, since they kept to themselves and didn’t bother anyone we all thought they were quite pretty.
That is about it for last week. This will be my last week in Phnom Penh and next Monday I head home. I will try my best to do my last entry next Sunday before I say ventrey susedai (goodbye) to the city.
Best,
Vlada