Exploring Kompong Chhnang

Kompong Chhnang (yes, that's the correct spelling) is 50 miles North of Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. This is a wholesale hub for domestic and international fish sales. We ventured up to see the catch and arrived in town around 11:00 AM. No fish. What's the deal?

The deal is fisherman fish at night, often out for two nights. They tend to return about 3:00AM and sort and sell all their catch by 5:00AM. On the wholesale fish market, things need to move fast and early to the end buyer. Local product refrigeration, except raw ice, is non-existent.

The next several photographs are of a derelict, extremely high-quality. Weird/creepy airport funded by the Chinese during the mid 1970's, as a secret air-base to keep their eye on a troublesome neighbor, Vietnam. To make sure the air-base remained secret, all 10,000 Cambodian laborers that built the airport, upon near completion, were bound and buried alive to keep the project quiet.

All the other photographs are random of this simple little town.

Koh Samui, Thailand.

For a couple days, I flew in to explore for the first time the island of Koh Samui, Thailand. While much of Thailand is land-bound, Thailand does have a very long Southern peninsula shared with Myanmar (Burma). Similar in appearance, but much longer than the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.

Koh Samui lies roughly halfway way down the peninsula in the Gulf of Thailand. Koh Samui is to Thailand what Maui, Hawaii is to the United States.

I ran out of video space on my small Sony 'point and shoot' early into the trip. For this reason, I can only show a small segment of this fun experience.

Just How Bad Can Things Get?

No one knows today how bad things will get. What I can comfortably predict is this just passed stimulus package will not do the trick alone. I predict six months from now the world will still be attempting to restart engines in an even more bleak environment.

Economists of all stripes tend to agree the stimulus package is not a silver bullet that will solve the issues at hand. At best, this is a bridge to buy time for private enterprise to figure out plans that make money and get us headed in the right direction.

Lost on the minds of many is the fact liberal bank pressure by President Clinton for, 'a home for every American' couldn't be shaken by either Bush administration. Liberals insisted, let the good times roll. Without controls, roll they did.

We simply need to return to profits, not property value as the driver for income.

Winter at Wolf Creek Ranch

In the United States, I am developing a wonderful 70-acre property called 'Wolf Creek Ranch'. There, it is now Winter. Come Spring - I'll be back to push forward our next phase of development. Instead of taking Wolf Creek Ranch to market in 2009, I plan to keep and improve this property and maybe sell in 2010 or 2011.

Photographic Fun With the Setting Sun

We traveled to Kampong Som, Cambodia this weekend to create a video presentation for the Australian Ministry of Tourism. When our 'natural' video light began to fade, we packed-up the video equipment and unpacked the still camera to relax, enjoy and play with the setting Sun.

These pictures are fun.

Jeff Actually Applies for a Job!

The Tourism Authority of Queensland Australia is taking applications for what is essentially an on-location 'video/still/text blogger position' to promote the Great Barrier Reef. The term of the contract is six months. Remuneration is USD$105,000.00. The money is fine, but the juice I get from this opportunity is more critically honing my story/composition/delivery skills.

In part, the application requires a :60-second video featuring the applicant espousing their knowledge of the reef and why the applicant is competent for the position.

I am on it.

Very early Saturday morning Chean Long and I will make the half-day drive to the beaches of Cambodia for a backdrop for my prepared :60-second video.

Anyone of course can apply, but the web site has been so inundated, the ISP is currently down from the apparent tsunami of applicants.

http://www.islandreefjob.com/.

After we finish our shoot, next week we will edit and share here our results. The application deadline is mid-February. The job begins in July.

Hired or not, what fun.

"Compagnie Fluviale du Mekong" Promotional Video

We have completed our promotional video for the French cruise-ship firm, 'Compagnie Fluviale du Mekong'. The target audience for this 12-minute video are travel agents in North America.

Unique and distinctive to our work-product, is the fact only pictures and guest testimonials are used - without any narrative. Very unusual. This idea was a tough-sell. Two months ago, when I originally pitched this concept to the client, I was shown the door.

Well, we were called back. This is our finished production. Keep in mind a blog, as does 'You Tube', 'dumb-down' video's for quick loading. Our work is all in high-definition, but cannot be viewed as such here. In the actual advertising campaign, a DVD will be mailed to travel agents for full audio / visual impact.

Mekong Cruise Still Photos

As is true in much of Asia and the Far East, superstition abounds. Over here, one is best advised to have some form of Spirit to protect against bad things (living or dead) from entering a home. It is widely believed in Cambodian culture, Spirits live in trees and come out at night, walk the village and see the home they lived in when they were alive. Here, some form of bad Spirit protection at the front entrance of a home is a damn good idea. I went to the house to find out what Spirit this figure represented. The front door was open with the aroma of a recently completed breakfast. Washed, wet woks hung to dry. Not a Soul to be found on the property.
Or was there?

In the Kingdom of Cambodia, the capital city of Phnom Penh is 85% electrified. Outside the city, 18% of the Kingdom is electrified. These are bars of ice as they come from the producer. This is a ice wholesaler sawing smaller ice bars for salespeople to in-turn sell to food vendors.

Outsiders should always avoid this ice.

Chean Long

This young fellow ran-up to my well underway cart and gestured, 'can I come aboard?'. I smiled and nodded the universal head gesture, 'jump aboard'. The moment on-board, the boy looks at me to make sure he is welcome. We relaxed, took in the scenery and one another. He hopped-off the next village with a smile and a wave and he was gone. If this little Mister had been a paying customer, his bill would be the equivalent to .11 cents.

For what seemed to be miles, this young girl, with likely her younger sister (in an innovative handlebar seat sling) was right behind me. We often just stared at one another. My cart hit a bump she avoided and we both laughed. Just to pass the time we mocked one anther's facial twists just to have fun passing our happenstance being road neighbors.

Do I feel lucky today? Many Cambodians are between 85 and 115 pounds dripping wet. Not me.