Bricks are being laid, basic underground plumbing is done, and occasional family tuk-tuk trips keep building materials from running out.
👷 Brick Walls Are Going Up 🧱
The hardest part of the construction process is over with our lodge, and now there is no more need to worry about rebar, pouring concrete, hauling rocks, and other labor intensive work. Now the bricklaying has begun, more fun for my in-law construction crew and a much more satisfying step of the construction process.
My brother-in-law Kaev is in the above picture, and he's kind of the foreman because he has the most experience and all of the tools like laser levels, jackhammers, and whatnot. These pics were taken in late May during my blogging hiatus, but not long after these pics were taken construction was halted in order for Kaev to return to his village and campaign to become village chief.
🛺 Tuk-Tuk Supply Run 🪛
Occasionally we need construction supplies from the town 45 minutes away or the town more than one hour away, and what would normally be a 5 or 10-minute trip in most parts of the country is a half-day family event for us. This is due to the extreme lifestyle we've chosen within a wildlife refuge in tops of the Cardamom Mountains here in Cambodia, there is a law preventing any villages within the refuge other than the military outpost where my family and I live.
👷 Not A Bad View ⛰️
When I took the above photo I had some flashbacks of me in my mid-20s. Back then I was living in Colorado and building outdoor sidewalks, driveways, and tile floors. I often had some very scenic backdrops while working, but it was usually freezing cold and often at altitudes in excess of 3,300 meters. I prefer the Cambodian sun and heat to frozen fingertips and the extreme weather of the Rocky Mountains.
Sidenote unrelated to our lodge construction - the construction work I used to do was mostly in South Park, Colorado, the one made famous from the comedy cartoon series on Comedy Central in the USA. So, this is kind of funny, but my last name is Parke, and I lived in trailer park in Park County, Colorado, and it doesn't get much park-ier than that.
🤳 I'm Still Cute 👨👧
Sometimes I have to literally grab my teenage daughter and hold her hostage to get a photograph together. She still doesn't understand that her struggle to resist only makes the photos better, and also that I am as cute as ever at 41 years old.
The guys are making quick work of putting up the walls, and it's nice to finally visualize things and adapt the original plan when needed. Instead of building three bathrooms with showers I decided to build three small toilet stalls and three small shower stalls, hoping this will help to keep prevent congestion a little more. That's all for now folks, 2:24am as I publish this, past my bedtime but I really want to get back to posting frequently.
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Nice views indeed. That's quite the work crew you've got there.
About your Tuk Tuk. I once had a motorbike with a sidecar when I lived in Thailand and I absolutely loved that machine. It took some getting used to in order to learn how to drive it but once I sorted that out it was such a wonderful machine to have. At the time I also owned an SUV but I could actually carry more stuff on the sidecar. It was always a lot of fun to drive my friends around as well because everyone wanted to ride in this unique vehicle.
One day we were driving to the beach and my friends were mixing drinks in the sidecar while I was driving. This is not a fast vehicle and while I do not condone drink driving one of my friends handed me a sip of a gin/tonic while I was driving. It was just a sip and I didn't get drunk that day on account of me being the driver. Anyway, while he was handing the drink over to me a police truck pulled up next to us and I was thinking "great...I'm about to be the first person ever to get done for a DUI in Thailand".... the police rolled the windows down and looked at us menacingly with their aviator sunglasses and then the cop smiled and said "Good Job!" and carried on down the road. Ah memories.
Please tell me Nadi rode in the sidecar and there is photographic evidence.
Even though I have a tuk-tuk and a motorbike, and back in the states I restored, repaired and tuned classic Vespas and Lambrettas, I have never owned a sidecar and it's still a life goal. I've been spying a very skilled aluminum sidecar guy in Thailand on Facebook, and one day when I strike it rich I hope to design a sidecar camper and have it built.
I have never once felt nervous around Khmer cops, but I've always felt uneasy around Thai police and military. They always have their shirts tucked in, wearing boots laced tight instead of flip-flops, and there was always a feeling that these guys take their jobs seriously and won't risk it all for $20 like many would here. From the stories I've heard too it sounds like hit and miss there with the cops, and in your case sounds like a best case scenario.
Sadly I never allowed Nadi to ride in the sidecar, she has the street smarts of a deer in the headlights and this problem unfortunately exists to this day where she seems to want to get hit by cars and will even pull on the leash to put us into traffic. A few times she fell off my motorbike that had a foot area because I don't think she understands what fast movement really entails. Therefore she was forever banned from riding in a position where it was even possible for her to exit. This is very strange to me because in every other aspect of life she is actually extremely smart.
Without these restrictions she would have been turned into a street pancake many years ago.
Poor Nadi, she's missing out. I had a Lhasa Apso when I was a kid and she was very smart in some very specific circumstances. She was never able to stop attacking the mailman even when my stepbrother shot her with a bb gun, not that I condone that, but it was the 80s.
That father–daughter photo is priceless! 💗
And you actually caught her smiling! 😊
The whole "South Park → surname Parke → trailer park → Park County" thing is hilarious! 😂
Seeing the smiles between father and son, I think you are happy enough in the life of your family life in the mountains. Build beautiful.
Thank you Leap, but remember I don't have any sons, only two daughters 😂.
Thanks, I don't know why Srey-Yuu and I make the best photos when I forcefully restrain her and try to fumble the camera quickly and get a shot. Also, I only visit the USA every few years, and every time I always forget the nicknames I have that are not in use in Cambodia. Many people still call me "Trailer," haha.
I really like your and daughter's smiles. And the view with tuk-tuk too. I used to ride a tuk-tuk when I was a child. Now I want to try driving tuk-tuk.
Thank you my friend. We love our tuk-tuk because it can haul nearly as much as a pickup truck, but it is within our budge, affordable to drive and repair too.
What a wonderful day for you all 😇 It's nice to see the progress; I guess it will finish beautifully.
Step-by-step and slowly but surely, and if HIVE's price bounces back we can finish the house very quickly.
What a beautiful view the background. Your lodge is beautiful.
I feel very blessed to live here, it is very peaceful when it's not raining 😂.
Like my place Philippines in the province I live since birth
Hi, i am from France and plan to visit Cambodia in November.
Greetings. We have a cabin for guests available and tent camping too. There is a whitewater river in our backyard, and even a hiking trail to the top of a mountain where you can see the Gulf of Thailand. If you are traveling to Battambang or Pursat you will be near us and are welcome to visit. We live on top of Phnom 1500 near the Thai border in a remote military outpost within a wildlife sanctuary.
Thank you for your kind invitation, we are going to Phnom penh, Siahnoukville and Siem Reap
Be careful in Sihanoukville, it is run by Chinese mafia and full of failed casinos. Most of the town is now abandoned and crime is really bad there, I haven't visited in 13 years. The islands off the coast of Sihanoukville are still worth exploring, but not as charming as Rabbit Island in Kep.
Your daughter is so cute and so are you... 😁
My daughter gets that compliment often, but not me 😂, thanks.