Phnom Penh

Jaymie and I are sitting in Bryn's office at DDD after a full morning of getting to know PP. Please check out her organization at www.digitaldividedata.org. They provide digitalization to clients around the world. There are 175 operators here in the PP office - all disadvantaged or handicapped young people who have been trained in computer skills, data entry and IT skills. They are earning money and also going to school with scholarships provided by DDD. It's an amazing project. Jaymie and I will be volunteering every day - helping look at the English curriculum, written materials, and maybe doing some tutoring. We met with Rathay - the head of HR - an amazing guy who has worked in many different places - hotels, hospitals, Price Waterhouse. His story, like all we've heard is amazing. Getting up to learn English at 4:30 because if was illegal under the Vietnamese, finding English tutors in odd places because he knew it was his chance to get out of Cambodia. And then his deciding to stay ultimately to help his country.

We reviewed some of their English materials and then discussed how we might be helpful - questions of training slow learners, assessment of proficiency, reinforcement for completing goals...familiar territory. After a brief siesta at our hotel we went out to drinks at the Elsewhere with a group of DDD folks and alumnae who have gone on to other jobs. Very inspiring to see how DDD has provided them with skills and confidence to be successful. Dinner at a wonderful restaurant where we sat on pillows and enjoyed fishcakes, lemon grass soup and eggplant. not to mention angkor beer and sticky rice with mangos. yummm.

We have a driver for the whole week, named Toro. He has a Toyota Camry like everyone else here. The driving is CRAZY like it is all over Cambodia. Motos, tuk-tuks, bikes and cars all converging with no stop signs or stop lights. Toro drove us around after our morning meeting at DDD. We saw the river front, palace, and various sights and lunched at the Foreign Correspondent's Club (FCC) - delicious western food - a nice break after all the Asian food.

As I write this post on B's computer we're watching her training some of the staff on a new website initiative. She is a STAR here - quel surprise. When we arrived this morning there was a sign "Welcome Bryn and family". I am honored to be introduced as Bryn's aunt.

When I get back to our lovely guest house I will upload some more pics. Going backwards a bit - - on Saturday we got up early and went to a temple on top of a small mountain. The steps up were treacherous but down was even worse. But worth the journey to see the Tonle Sap river and the reservoirs around Angkor Wat. After Leonora left midday :-( we spent the afternoon at the pool and then went to the Western Baray - a giant reservoir. We took a boat out to a temple on an island and returned in time for a glorious sunset. When you see the scope of this reservoir (Cambodia's Quabbin) you totally understand how marshalling the water resources was key to their success. I said it would be really cool to design a college course around water - from a cultural, economic, environmental basis. Sunday morning Jaymie and I did a final walk around our hotel area, checking out some galleries and the river front. Following a swim we took a private car to PP. The driver spoke no English which was only a bit challenging when we tried to get him to slow down a bit and find a toilet. The drive was long (5 hours) but beautiful. Past rice fields, rural villages, duck farms and drivers of every possible vehicle. Many of the trucks had so many people squashed in you just can't imagine.

On to Cambodia

After a wonderful farewell banquet at No Signboard Seafood in S'pore we left on Wed. a.m. Lee and I left for Cambodia. Our first place was to Bangkok. Since we were changing airlines and had to go in and out of immigration we missed our next flight. We made the best of it by shopping in the fancy airport and having shoulder massages. I'm hoping Isaac can make this his next business venture: massage at US airports. If you were stuck in the airport wouldnt that be better than just drinking?? Anyway we made it to Seam Riep by 7pm on the next plane and met Jaymie and Bryn at our beautiful hotel, the Shinto mani. Everyone in Cambodia is so gracious and friendly. Instead of handshake they bow with hands in prayer position. The height of the hands signals the degree of respect with the highest being for a deity of course. We had our first dinner at the hotel and began our affection for fish amok - a Cambodian dish.

On our first full day we began in our tuk-tuks (motor cycle with a pull behind cart for people) and our guide,Ly, a 36 year old man whom we had hired for 2 days. He is so knowledgeable about the more than 200 temples in the area. We learned about the change in religion from Hindu to Buddhism which resulted in yanking all the Buddhas off the temples. These temples were built from 890- 1191, many by the King Jayavarman VII - not to be confused with all the other Jayavarmans. The guy made incredible temples for himself, his mother, his father and his relatives - in that order. He was Buddhist and his dad was Hindi - and he respected the dad's preference and made him a Hindi temple. nice, don't ya think? Angkor Wat - the biggest was the one for himself. Some of these temples were in use forever but many had been abandoned in the 1400's and only re-discovered amidst the jungle that had grown around them in the 1800's and 1900's. Amazing. The temples are beyond beautiful and no pictures can do them justice. The engineering genius is staggering. And the trees and roots now intertwined with the stone work is unbelievable.

We returned to our hotel for foot and body massages. After the long day of touring it was bliss.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was in a Thai restaurant where we all expressed our gratitude at the opportunity to make this trip and to be together. All of us missing our people at home.

On the second day we set out earlier because it's really hot in the middle of the day. Because we were going to temples that were further out we opted for an AC mini-van. good call. Ly had told us some of the mythical stories that are recorded in the beautiful bas reliefs in eachof the temple. On day 2 we got to see the heroine Sita who had been fought over in a previous temple. The Cambodian Helen of Troy. These are some great stories and the carvings are so detailed and magnificent. we also stopped at the Land Mine Museum. it was put together by a former child soldier who has devoted his life to de-mining the country. His organization also cares for children who are victims of landmines. It is a small little place with a very moving video. Landmines continue to be a serious problem as you know. Our guide had told us his own story of being separated from his mother and siblings at age 3 and living on his wits from several years. The thought of a four year old walking thru the jungle looking for his mother, eating berries and roots is just unbelievable. He described the time when the Vietnamese took over after the Khmer Rouge as just as bad. Until the U.N. threw them out it was still a terrible place for the Cambodians. There are so many reminders of this awful period in our history. And yet the Cambodians have moved on, embrace even their enemies and are working hard to make this a desirable place for tourists. Awesome in every way.

Afterward our second temple day we had some terrific pool time.

Peranakan Museum

Andrea's colleague and friend, Dinesh, gave us a private tour at the Peranakan Museum. we were joined by A and I's friend Katie, an ex-pat who they met through friends of Leah Bicknell's. small world. It's one of two Asian Civilization Museums in S'pore. It's focused on the Peranakans - people of mixed heritage - usually Chinese father and Malay mother. He is a history student at NUS and is leaving academia for the Defense Dept. He serves as a docent at the museum and gave us the most interesting tour of all the exhibits. One of the best featured the jewelry - BaBling. Afterwards we all went out for drinks along the Quay.

Downtown shots

Maxwell Hawker Center. Chinatown lanterns. Leonora's posing with Sir Raffles, the Englishman who really brought on the trading to S'pore. He's revered here - Raffles Hotel, Raffles Place etc.

Downtown touring

Isaac zoomed over from school and met us at the Maxwell Hawker Center. After a sumptious meal (again) we traipsed around Chinatown and then to the Asian Civilizations Museum. Fantastic exhibits and beautiful view of the Singapore River - the contrast between the traditional houses and the skyscrapers is pretty cool.

Tooth Temple

Monday was a big touring day. Lee and I took the MRT and our first stop was the Tooth Temple. There are 10,000 Buddhas along the walls. And they are inscribed with people's names. Fundraising round the world is the same - reminded me of all the named plaques in synagogues in the US.

Pulau Ubin

Our Sunday outing was to Pulau Ubin - an island near Singapore. We took a long cab ride and then a "bumboat" to the island. And yes, Leonora and Isaac and I were happily back on bikes. We biked the whole island and meandered on the boardwalks of the mangrove swamps. They say the island gives you a sense of Singapore long ago. It's a nature preserve now and there are farms as well.

Leonora's here

Foot massage at Beauty World. Massage is completely part of the culture here. We were here at the Beauty World mall around 6pm and the shop was filled with men and women, young and old. You could get foot or full body massage.

Here's Lee and Andrea waiting for some food to take the party at Jordane and Caroline's. We watched a video of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies on a projection dvd player. Jordane and Caroline and their son Mateo live in a very cool apartment near downtown with a fabulous view. Other INSEAD friends were there as well.

Halia at Halia

Orchid Heaven

This is the Singapore Botanic Garden - the most beautiful orchids you've ever seen. And the home of the Halia Restaurant. As you may remember Halia is a name for ginger - there's a whole garden of gingers here too. After I toured the gardens on Saturday morning Isaac, Andrea and Halia joined me brunch at the Halia Restaurant.

A very cute child with his mom.

Shabbat Shalom: Contraband Video from the Shul

Photos from the Synagogue in S'pore

Photos from Maghain Aboth Synagogue. Don't tell on Andrea - she would probably get arrested for this.

upstairs in the women's section.

Shabbat Shalom

After checking the website for shuls in Singapore we only had the option of the orthodox synagogue for shabbos. I really wanted to see some Jews-round-the-world. There is a progressive group here but they dont have a building and they only have services once a month (not this week). Isaac had been there for Yom Kippur so knew the way to Waterloo St. It's a beautiful building and there was some serious security upon entry. Andrea and I had to go upstairs of course and there were only about 6 women in the section. It was a traditional kabbalat shabbat service . I would say there were about 30 men - many of them in black hats but not the full on look. maybe because it's so hot here they don't do it all. Almost all Caucasian but a few other colors. It was a little hard to follow and they dont really help you out with page numbers. The rabbi had a pretty nice voice and a young boy joined him for many of the prayers. Not clear if he was bar mitzvah age. Some recognizable tunes - Lecha Dodi was one I knew. As many of you know I appreciated that the service was only an hour.

How incredible to be saying Kaddish for JZ in Singapore - thinking of course he would have loved this trip.

Andrea broke all the rules and took some pictures from the inside - she even took a video. when I figure out how to upload them from her phone to my computer etc. etc. I will put them on the blog.

Business World

I was able to spend time at Insead - Isaac's business school on 2 different days. Unfortunately I didnt have my camera on either day. It's a beautiful modern building with orchids in fancy pots all around. I got to meet several of Isaac's friends including Jordane from France (also lived in China so speaks Mandarin as well), Jason, a NJB (nice Jewish boy) from NJ, Naush, a fast talking, charming man from Pakistan. It's completely international of course and everyone is very young and hip looking. People wear jeans or shorts and only rarely a suit.

I went to a Strategies Class taught by a very charming Indian professor in khakis. The case was on supply chains - I think that was the term. Comparing Li and Foung (Chinese supply chain company) and Zara, a Spanish retailer. I understand they are all over the US in prime locations. Very interesting to hear the students discuss the fashion industry from the point of view of differentiation, supply, manufacturing, advertizing (or none in the case of Zara), and other exotic terms to me. The professor introduced me to the class and in true business school style when Isaac spoke the class gave clapped loudly and the professor asked me if I was sufficiently proud. After class I told him that when I visited my daughter at HBS and they knew her parents were in the room they gave her a standing ovation for her contribution to which Isaac said "we dont like comparisons to Harvard here". :-)

My second visit on Friday afternoon was for the Entrepreneureship Contest. Teams from the Singapore campus as well as the Fountainbleu campus competed - they streamed in the French ones. The judges were Venture Capitalists from Singapore. Each team had 15 minutes for their presentation - lots of jazzy power points. The projects were so diverse as were the teams. A luxury bus company in Sri Lanka, a new device for measuring blood sugar for diabetics, software for keeping your contacts on your phone up to date (Isaac's friend Naush), wine in Nigeria, financial services thru your phone in Namibia. Each team had INSEAD students as well as others. We loved the Africans who wanted to do the financial services thru the phone but they didnt win. The winner got $10,000 and also the ear of the VC's for more funding. The judges asked really hard questions in the Q and A. Naush came in second so he got $2k. I did do some knitting for this event since it was really long.

Ready for Xmas

The downtown is ready for Christmas with all kinds of decorations. Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving they get ready really early. It makes me laugh to see all the snowflakes in this very hot place. And there actually arent that many Christians here. I've included some shots of the fancy malls that are everywhere.