Any body been given a woman? I have one now! Would welcome thoughts

Hello readers! I know its been a while. I'll try to bring you up to date now.
Since Siem Reap, we have taken only one trip, to Battambang, end of September, early October. I rode up with brother Pat, his wife and baby girl. The baby was an angel all the way up and back not a peep out of her! Must be the drugs! - Just kidding!
the road up to Battambang from PP was really beat up! huge potholes, some 1 meter across. Glad I wasn't driving. Battambang is way the hell up country. All rice fields. Lots of flooding all over.

Last night, got invited to see a couple of Buddhist monks in town, They are family friends of Chroeb and her sister, Lin. After meeting them at the lion monument, we went back to Lins house for a water ceremony - I still don't know the purpose of this, but it was very wet! Fortunately, Chroeb heated the water so it wasn't a great shock to my system!
Chroeb seemed to place great importance on this, as afterward she was even more affectionate than usual. Met Lins boyfriend again - he seemed much more calm than our previous meetings. Are all the French people so emotional? I think that Lin thinks he is angry all the time, but I think she is misreading him. He is really a decent guy, and cares for her a lot.
Home life keeps getting better. My workbench is done, and much of my equipment sent from the states is here and in place. Just waiting for one more machine, and then I can start my custom knife making again. It's more a hobby than a business, I sell to friends, and some others, but not yet advertising or selling on line. I'll be looking for local wood, horn and other materials to make handles. I know there is some nice wood out there!
Gotta go now.

Hello Madmax, yeah, I have been missing your comments for a good while by now, have been contemplating what might have happened. Thanx Buddha nothing serious, simple laziness on your part! )
I had been to Battambang some two years ago, from Siem Reap, and the road was rather ok by local standards, no real reason 2 complain. Perhaps it is in better condition from that direction.
The city had a decent little core of an old French heritage, some interesting boutique hotels, that riverside raised platform bar, I forget the name.
Custom knives? Can u also throw them? )
cheers, bestest

Glad you enjoy my posts! Any idea what the water thing was about?
Neither monk spoke a word of english - but one DID have a cell phone! What would Buddha think about that?
We took route 5 from PP up to Battambang. The road crews were out repairing pothole, but only 2 crews, and hundreds of holes! The recent rains must have really tore up the asphalt!
Battambang had a few nice restaurants that we tried. One was a Barbeque place, the other was "The Villa" - nice French food, but a limited menu selection. The onion soup was good, their version of caesar salad was not good. Far from the original recipe, no anchovies, had corn, tomotoes, and a creamy dressing. My version is far better!
I did love the French homes. Battambang didn't get destroyed by the KR, thankfully. Still, the scars remain all over Cambodia.

As far as my knives go, they are not for throwing! these are custom-crafted, with handles of rare woods, bone, horn, onyx, red jasper, and many other jem-stone material. When I sell them, they generally sell for $250 or more. Most of my knives are for show, or carried and used with great care. I also make custom leather sheaths, both left and right-hand carry. I make them for the pleasure of creating something! I do take orders - if you want one, I need to know what your needs are.
Throwing knives generally have no handles, or just leather wrap. They are generally not good quality, as they bounce around, hit the floor, and other things. They are usually sold in a set of 3.

Yeah, I knew that your knives are not for throwing, I was just trying to end my note with a sort of pun, perhaps did not end up sounding that funny... (
You should market your knives to Jemenis, everyone has to have one there. I guess they are not much against the big guns though, nowadays in their country!
We are soon going your way, departing next month, first to Indonesia.
After that we will proceed Northwards, towards Siem Reap.
Perhaps reaching Sihanoukville by January.
I might knock on your door, finding u by asking after the great magic artisan, the sharpest man in town!
How is that for pun? I might need to improve a bit more... ;o)))
cheers, bestest

Enjoy your trip! In Siem Reap, I can reccommend a great hotel - The Smiling Hotel, a 5 star place, and you can get great rates if you go through Agoda. I  got a great suite, complete with jacuzzi bath and breakfast for $34 a night. I was very impressed. Take the 3 day pass to Angkor, too much to see in one day.
If you get to Sihanoukville, ask the tuk-tuk guys for me. The one with the yellow tuk-tuk is a nice guy. Been using him for a year now.

Thanx madmax, good ideas!
when there, I will look u up.
What's up with your lady, who has been given 2 u?
cheers mate
greetings to her from Budapest, as well!

Thanks for the update Max. I'm enjoying your story.

interesting story... keep it coming.. we all love the sweet love story..

MadMax.... Just join the site and your interesting story is my 1st port...lol..
Very nice to read.. keep updating..

Hello faithful readers! I am so amazed at the volume of readers of this on-going tale! I am thrilled to read your comments as well.
Since I last wrote, Chroeb and I have made only one trip, up to battambang for a few days to visit some friends. It's a nice, quiet little town, mostly rice growing, but they do have a university there! The road up to Battambang (highway 5, I think) was horrid, huge potholes for miles! Some big enough to do major damage to a car. My buddy drove,thankfully, and his young age and good reflexes kept us from falling into a pit from hell! Chroeb got to play with my buddy's baby, Linda (half American, half Khmer) all the way up and back. The one-year-old was an angel both ways! It could have been a painful trip! Only one meltdown, just before bedtime!
I know Chroeb wants a baby so much, but there's no way it's going to happen. Vasectomy 35 years ago! I told her the factory is closed. She'll have to get her baby dose from the neighbor's little boy, as my buddy moved to Phnom Penh last week.
Other than that, life has been good, I have all I want and need, and Chroeb tells me she's happy.
We're off to Thailand in early February, going to Pattaya Bike Week with the club, then the two of us will go up to Bangkok for 4 or 5 days, sight-seeing and shopping. THis will be her first time out of Cambodia, and she's so excited!
More news when I can!

Off for a quick trip to Pp to visit brothers and do some shopping! Trying to find a small band saw to complete my workshop! February will be a great month! Chroeb's first trip outside of Cambodia will take us to Pattaya Bike week for 3 days, then up to Bangkok for 4 (or more)days, sight-seeing and shopping. I plan to see the Chatachuk market, then the usual temple tours.
Does anyone have any suggestions on other attractions that would be of interest? I read that the floating market is a waste of time. True? I'm looking for something different, off the beaten path.

Happy new year to all the readers and posters out there!

Madmax are may expats in Battambang? Cheers, Dennis

Max, I didn't get the feeling that Battambang had many ex-pats. It's really an agriculture-driven city, somewhat larger than Sihanoukville, but not geared toward tourism. There are some nice hotels, a new university, some good restaurants. There's one French restaurant in town, good food,and staffed by some French ex-pats. There's not much else to see or do there, though I may have missed some high points!

Thanks Madmax.

Art, was Cherob's family caught up in the Killings by the Khamer Rouge? She was probably not born yet but what happened to her parents or other relatives? Jim Kearney in France (Jim Serne's cousin).
BTW, Judy just wrote she just discovered your blog. I could have sworn I told her about it or she told me about it.

Chroeb's family lives out in the "boonies" - about 100 miles east of Phnom Penh. Her mom died about 4 years ago, and dad speaks NO english. None of the daughters know. I will ask the oldest son if he knows. One interesting factoid - Chroeb's birthday is Jan 8, 1980, 1 year + 1 day from the day the country was liberated from the Khmer Rouge. Khmer births are recorded by the parents, not a hospital or government office. Many parent neglect to write the date in when it happens, sometimes deliberately, to make the child "younger" - possibly to make the girls more desirable?

I am sure that I also wrote Judy about this site, even gave the link. She must be getting forgetful in her OLD age...

Give Chroeb our best birthday wishes and for there to be many years of happiness in her future.

Madmax, that post from the "supposed Captain Hannett Cole, US Marines", is a fraud. I checked all his messages and he posted the same crap on various bloggers here. I also reported him. These guys are so lame they use the same phrases that allows us to ID them immediately. They send an offer for a "business proposal" to people they don't know. Yeah, right. They are just a bunch of internet criminals in Africa. Now they're even attacking the blogs. God, we're not safe anywhere.

I'm helping Judy to translate the French poetry written by your cousin in Normandy. It's good mental exercise.

Are abandoned children roaming the streets in Cambodia?

Jim in France

We don't see any abandoned children here in Sihanoukville, and I can't say that I've seen any in Phnom Penh. Down by the river, which is a high-tourist area, there are lots of children selling books and other things, shoe shines, etc. Some seem as young as 4 or 5, but most seem about 10-12.
I haven't had any posts or e-mails from the supposed Capt. Cole. The e-mail I use here is a secondary e-mail, for this site and for Facebook.
It really bugs me when people claim to be military, or ex-military and are NOT. Almost as bad as those who claim to be "Special Forces" when they were in Viet Nam, or these days, claiming to be Navy Seals. My buddy here was a 15 yr Navy seal, and he has ripped pins and other Seal insignia off the shirts of more than one faker. Good luck with the translation! Every day I see really bad translations from asian languages into english. Doesn't come out too good! Very funny, tho!

Art, that poster is gone. Wow, my report of him must have worked fast. The SOB was hitting various posters with the same stupid message. I get this crap all the time here in French and English and put it on my reject list but they keep creating new email addresses and new names for the same tired message. Into the interest dust bin it goes. They must get some gullible people to respond or they wouldn't keep doing it.

A bit of excitement on our trip to Thailand! Chroeb and I left for Thailand on Thursday, Feb 9. We got to the border crossing around 1:00PM, crossed over, and found our van to Pattaya. After an hour wait for 2 idiots, we started getting loaded up in the van. There were only single seats left, so Chroeb sat in the back. There was a guy from Australia and myself left. The Aussie had 2 bum legs, and was rather tall, so I let him take the passenger (LEFT side) seat in the front row,  and I rode the hump, looking out the windshield. NOTE: remember this part!
 
After about an hour, we got to Trat (a small Thai town on the coast, where we changed vans, and I got to sit with Chroeb in the 3rd row of 4 rows in a 12 passenger monster van. She took the left window seat, I took the right window seat, leaving the center seat empty. After another 2 hours, we stopped at Koh Samet, another beach town to drop off 3 people. Got on the road again about 5:30PM.
 
Around 6:15 or 6:30 (after dark) I was watching out the side window, not much to see. Without warning, I heard and felt the brakes screech, and then a loud BANG! The sudden stop was the result of our huge van (around 6,000 pounds) traveling around 120kph (about 65 MPH) hitting  a pickup truck that had stopped in the fast lane, trying to cross into the east bound lanes. After we hit, the van flipped on its left side, I was thrown into the seatback in fronr of me FACE FIRST (NO seatbelts of course!). My glasses smashed into my nose and eyebrow, After the impact, I bounced back into my seat, then foward again, my head went between 2 seats, catching both my arms,almost dislocating both of them. I then slid foward, cutting both shins. After we figured out which way was up, I saw that Chroeb was OK. We had to get out through the back hatch,as the left-side sliding door was down on the asphalt. I got out, helped Chroeb out, and held her while she stopped crying. She got a few bumps, but no marks, or bruises. She was crying because she was scared, and because I was bleeding all over the place from cuts on my face. My shorts looked like I was in a battle! EMS arrived in just a fewminutes, put me on a backboard, and loaed Chroeb and me intoan ambulance, and went off to the Babgkok Hospital Pattaya - another excellent Thai medical center.
I got 10 stitches above my left eyebrow, and 8 more on the bridge of my nose. My glasses were bent up, one lens popped out, but I was able to saveit, and  got the glasses repaired in Pattaya. I was released from the hospital around 10:30 that night, and thanks to my brothers, got to the hotel just before 11:00PM.
 
The Aussie guy from the note above, had his right arm smashed. 5 of 9 of us in the van went to the hospital,including the driver.
 
Heres the kicker - if we hadn't changed vans, and I was still riding the hump, I probably would have been thrown through the windshield, and injured much, much worse, if not killed.
 
Both my legs got lacerations about 6-8 inches long - scraped to the bone, so the doctors didn't stitch eithr leg, to prevent infection. Saturday, a black and blue about the size of a hamburger appeared on my left leg, just above my knee - no pain, just a mark. Yesterday, I noticed another black and blue on the inside of my left foot, under my ankle,and another on my right foot,same location.
   
I got t the stitches out of my face on Thursday, Feb 16.
 
So... all in all, a fun ride. Didn't get to the Pattaya Bike week venue at all - too sore, and walking around made my leg wounds leak blood.I'm OK now, no pain, and Chroeb and I are doing well. We went to a big mall near the hotel, where I bought
her 10 pairs of panties, including 2 thongs, and 5 bras. She was SOOO excited! We also  caught a movie - Star Wars, Episode 1, in 3D. Very cool effects. Chroeb had never been in a full size movie theater before - she was impressed!

Hahaha I have alot Abd also very little to say let me just save my comments for later ... Will keep you posted ... INTERESTING .... is the appropriate word for now ... Lol

A very strange, jumbled posting from elda-bella. Did you think my accident funny? 5 people went to the hospital, elda-bella, 1 smashed arm, 1 head wound, the driver hurt, the man behind me had possible broken legs. MY 18 stitches don't make me laugh at all. My legs still hurt, and my arms are still very sore. Maybe you should post again when you sober up.

Madmax,
I'm glad you and Chroeb are on getting well. Peace, Max

Get well soon and glad to know that both of you are Ok

Last week,after some discussion, I decided to have a teacher come to my house and teach Chroeb English. She was SOOO! excited! She reminded me of my grandson at age 4, when we told him he was going to school soon!
Chroeb cleaned out the spare bedroom, we moved some furniture, bought a white board,some pens,pecils and a notebook. Got her mini-classroom all set up. She was dancing around the room like a kid on xmas morning!
The techer showed up Saturday,promptly at 1300, and taught for over an hour. Sunday and yesterday was the same. Now she walks around the house reciting the alphabet, up to J! "Big A, small a, Big B, small b". She's doing well, as I knew she would. At $30 a month for 7 days a week, its a small investment, with a large reward for her.
As I can't afford a house to leave her when I finally kick off, I can at least provide her with a means of self-support. Seems like a good deal for both of us!

That is so great Madmax. This has been a truly heart warming tale. Thanks for sharing it. Max

MMhhh,just read this posting, being a bikie too,and thinking of living here.Looks like I may have a future here after all.It's an amazing culture with even more amazing people.Be proud of both of your achievements.Remember life passes so fast. Enjoy everyday and each other.Your partnership is working well, I was married to a Swede for 20 years....and that was even harder work, even though we loved each other very much...LOL.Yup you gotta be in it to win it.Keeps the posts coming, I need some incouragement....

Chroeb continues to do well at her lessons! She finished the English alphabet, and is now deep into Khmai alphabet. The complexity of the characters doesn't seem to phase her in the least! I can't believe anyone can write these characters! So complicated. Her English lessons now include the famous A, B, C song, and the days of the week. Next week, the teacher has meetings in PP, so Spring Break for Chroeb. Mid April, Chroeb is going to her fathers home, somewhere east of Phnom Penh, close to the Vietnam border. I am staying home! No hotels, no markets, no doctors... Not a place for an old guy like me.

to Karmaboy - there are lots of bikies in Cambodia! Several other clubs here, Lone Brothers, Cambodia Bike Club, and us, Vietnam Legacy Vets MC. Check out the Chicago bar for starters!

Yup will do MM, very little around here to prick up my ears,I'm a Guzzi man, love the early stuff,bullit proof.Seen a few Hd's some larger Japanese.Take care  mate and have a good chill weekend

Several weeks back I had my first experience with a fruit called durian. Those of you who are familiar with this are already laughing! Chroeb brought this styrofoam package home one day, and I just caught a small whiff of it as she passed through the living room. About 45 minutes later, I got a good dose of it, and thought something in the trash had rotted, so I went into the kitchen to see what it might have been. I saw, and opened, the styrofoam box, and was about knocked over by the smell! I quickly bagged it, and thinking that the cold would reduce the odor - wrong! About 2 hours later, I opened the fridge, and got assaulted by the smell. I told Chroeb to eat it or toss it, but it had to go soon!

On another, more positive, note, Chroeb is doing very well in her english  lessons, and the teacher has added Khmai to her lessons, as it will help with learning. She works very hard at her studies, doing practice writing, and talking the letters out loud every afternoon. She does homework for 2 to 3 hours daily! I think she is determined to make the most of this gift, and I will continue to pay for the lessons!

Wednesday, she is off to the province with her sister, so I am alone for 3 or 4 days - the first time in over 1 year that we have been apart! I will miss her!

Harden up Princess, LOL Durian tastes great, just ignore the aroma...try everything Chroeb brings home, even the hairy spiders, great with chili sauce and a cold beer....tastes like chocolate............................................

Been a while (again), so here's an update. Staying at home here in snooky, making knives, playing poker. Keeping a low profile...
Got my landlord to install (and pay for) glass doors to go inside the metal sliding steel gate. This made a huge difference in my quality of life! Much quieter, much less dust, dirt, exhaust fumes, and mosquitos!
Chroeb continues to amaze me as her progress in both English and Khmai are progressing at a fast pace. Her handwriting is near-perfect, both in english and khmai. She is now learing arithmatic (simple adding, XX + YY . Her new teacher is a pro, teacing at a local school.
We have been up to Phnom Penh a number of times for club events, including our last trip to attend the NagaWorld Bikefest, last weekend, July 6-8. A really great turnout, and this event will be the first of many. Another bike fest is planned for the big golf club, down highway 4, in mid - late August.
The big news is that Chroeb and are getting married next year, on a trip to the USA, Sept 2013. Looks like it may be held in Las Vegas! Should be a fun time, with my son, his wife and kids, and my daughter and her hubby.

Congratulations Max,

Great to hear a success story, hope you both continue to be very happy.

Good to hear Max. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Madmax,

What a great read and so nice to see her grow in confidence. Really love her definition of cattle (hamburger), very astute.

Cheers

Does anyone have any experience taking their wife/girlfriend to the USA? What will it take to convince the visa issuing office that she/we are coming back? I would like to get as much info as I can as early as I can, to prepare for our trip. The government website is a bit vague on tourist visa requirements. I can help her open a savings account, but it that enough? How much should be in ther account for them to be satisfied? She doesn't own a business, or property in Cambodia, neither do I. Any info will be appreciated!

After lots of research, I've come to the conclusion that the  USA is not going to let Chroeb get a visa. She needs an "Anchor" a reason to return to Cambodia, like a land/house/business title, about $5000 in the bank, or some other strong reason. I haven't had the heart to tell her yet, I know she'll be disappointed. I'm not sure whether I'll go alone for a short stay or not. I'm sure the first thing Chroeb will be thinking is that I won't come back. I can't convince her that I have no place to live in the US, and Cambodia is my home now, and she is as close to being my wife as I can get. More bad news, Khmers are not allowed to marry any foreigner over 50 years old. Stupid law! I don't know if there is any way around that one! We will have aBuddhist engagement ceremony in the next few weeks, to make our union a bit more formal.
If anyone out there has any ideas to help me get her a visa, I'd love to hear it.