Cambodian countryside

I started my new job with a very timely trip- the annual Daughters' staff retreat. It was brilliant timing for me to be able to get to know the staff team and who does what.
It was the first time i had been outside Phnom Penh, so I was looking forward to the journey, and it didn't disappoint.
Most of Cambodia is covered in Pea green rice fields

The people you may be able to see are planting rice in the flooded fields. It is rice planting season now.

Along the journey I also saw lots and lots of ponds covered in water-lilies, very pretty.

Not the best picture of lilies- but they were everywhere along the side of the road

We passed through small villages where the houses were mainly still in the traditional style: wooden and on stilts. Most houses had a cow or 2 underneath, a hammock, the odd chicken, some a motorbike. 

Typical Cambodian house from a village in the provinces. 

The place we stayed at was near Kampot in the south of Cambodia, near the coast. We traveled for 3 hours on main roads, and then for 1/2 hour on a red dirt track (very bumpy) until we arrived at the beautiful retreat centre. 

We stayed by a river, so here I am... by the river

Our accommodation- cute or what :-) 

The Khmer staff were in charge of catering. We went to the market in Kampot and they bought food which we cooked on a BBQ. I struggled with the food... Im not massively keen on rice, which we ate 3 times a day. I don't eat chicken's heads or chickens feet, and rice with pork, or noodle soup for breakfast is not really my thing. I think I will have to get used to some interesting dishes :

I found that the retreat place sold wine and almost crisps (salted broad beans), and had a stash of french magazines so I made up for all that rice and food with eyes like this. . .

Phew! Wine-O-Clock for me. A moment of (almost) normality on a lovely balcony

We went to the beach, at a place called Kep. The French (Cambodia used to be a French colony) had got there 1st and put a massive statue of a naked woman on the sea front.

Very Un-Cambodian. Very French. 

There was also a massive crab statue. Here are some of my new colleagues, with me and the Crab.

At Kep beach 

What a great way to start a new job.