SOLAR PANELS OF OUR MINDS (Breaking Out of Phnom Penh)

Pursat is the Middle Kingdom of 10 solar panels that was redacted in the minutes of the Monday meetings.

From the silhouette of its Kravanh Mountains, boiled leaves were harvested by Khmer Rouge stragglers that were marinated in Pursat's version of the prahok ktis and served as a unique wild cardamom soup with a fish roe garnish that hinted of Monday's pangat na hito and per diem resolution. 

Kampong Chhnang is the New Kingdom with only 6 solar panels, the manifestations of a digital rights review and a sustainable housing discussion.

A day before, huge pots of Khor Bourguignon adorned its pavements where fair finance was debated as either an attrition against credit card debts or topping up three bank accounts while in a nearby canopy, a committee of nubiles carried stacks of potted eel stew and 9 cans of beer on their nimble heads.   

Battambang is the Old Kingdom with 18 solar panels granted from Mao Tse Tung Boulevard where the Ironman of Bakal 2 chaired a caucus.

There, cows graze in flooded ricefields before being herded by a lost stick into plates of delicate Khmer steak and crispy fresh corn, antecedants to a famous bowl of savory yellow pork noodles that transformed into a Khmer-style spicy papaya salad and omelette at a tropical garden near the pumping station. 

Muddy and rugged were the the roads to the solar panels of Cambodia, somber as the monologue of a commune chief and the daily ritual for morning alms, poignant as the children bathing and catching fish in the irrigation ditches, and seductive like a pasenger of PR 2621 flashing the outline of her underwear beneath flimsy white pants to steal the thunder from the shine of the new Techo International Airport and a classy hotel transfer.

The long rip back to Phnom Penh was punctuated by roadside snack of grilled fish paste and boiled rice noodles in lieu of a doubtful farewell dinner.

Instead, the Russian Market laid out a curbside feast of crabs, shrimp, squid, salmon fins, and sea snails while the Grab driver waits somewhere.  

PR 2262 was on time but did not serve wine.

Back in Manila, the blessings of Our Ladies of Remedies in Malate and of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila were implored for the day's nasoendoscopy after an early morning reunion at the Salcedo Saturday Market... 

KHMER BEER, BULALO, LOMI, atbp

Prologue

"The volcano is the lake and the island is its crater!" screamed the town crier as he threw his bike into a maze of last payments made and pending as per a booking list and the required procurement for a couple of annual plan reviews about the siren song of an inihaw na bangus who took out the garbage and swept the yard before jumping into a 6-hour bus ride to an integrated terminal exchange for a late lunch of Hokkaido ramen because the airport premium lounge is a dud.

Chapter 1

The piyaya safely arrived in Phnom Penh, landing on a pavement of coordination meetings shattered by an unexpected budget constraint in Manila that a couple of reimbursement tried to glue together with a paste of Khmer lager and craft beer, boiled bovine offal, fried chicken knees, and dry schnitzel...

...from the kitchen of the widower's girlfriend whose fondness for Dutch seasoning is marked in bottles of SAP/Adobe, Pastel, CORE, PRISMA, and YOSAS to match three greenish amulets that were abandoned in strange outhouses as barriers against the floodwaters of a late afternoon cloudburst of ADP reviews... 

...for the selection of a venue in Jakarta where a bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles, a tray of Cambodian fish cake, and a plate of fried Greek feta cheese were exhibited and will be consolidated for delayed submission to Melbourne as the PMU regrouped to mitigate Kuala Lumpur and talk about HR matters. 

Chapter 2

It was Saturday morning when PR 2622 taxied to the spot where a fisherman netted an image, a less-than-a-foot tall sculpted wood that kept disappearing from its ornate encasement at a widow's home until it was enshrined as Our Lady of Caysasay at where it keeps reappearing near Santa Lucia's well where the music of a wedding ceremony at the cavernous Minor Basilica of St. Martin of Tours can be heard, where it can be seen from the capiz windows of the Apacible Heritage House, where it is venerated by the waving flags of the Agoncillo Museum... 

...and offerings of Leslie's delicate Tagaytay bulalo, lomi from Lipa for a parking slot, and dimsum and mami from Binondo that marked Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz with a heartburn all the way to the Seng Guan Buddhist temple where Tomas Pinpin might have played mahjong with Voltes 5 and a Chinese pastry chef.   

Epilogue

It was later announced that the Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken chain went bankrupt in the US and that its Asia franchise is obtained by the Berjaya Group of Malaysia who might have sold LED fog lights in Banawe and Easytrip RFID tags in Balintawak, at least according to the Thursday Group who convened for fried Spam on Sunday night. 

MORNINGS IN PHNOM PENH

The two standees (not I-Stand) were assembled in Phnom Penh (the standee capital of the Oxfam universe) where we posed standing between them (not behind them or on stage).

There are two minor typographical errors but the green wordmark and red kangaroo were screaming, hopefully loud enough for the benefactors in The Land Down Under.

Before the standees stood up, all due invoices were settled although Elite was reverted back to Classic on the day Bulan's parchment finally came home from Miag-ao before the political circus arrived in Bakal 2 to activate Workplace, update Outlook, dive deep into DocuSign, and secure support for a possible Brussels 2.        

Aroun suostei!

A morning walk through an agenda and its guidance note around Grandmother Penh's commercial hub earned an elevated Khmer lunch from a kitchen called Eleven One and an accidental dinner of grilled thuringer, bratwursrt, and bockwurst at a bar named after Berlin.

Dila mshvidobisa!

A commune of breakfast stalls in Chaktomuk agreed to collaborate on promoting energy transition finance before Shindi called them inside for a Georgian lunch of khinkali, khachapuri, mtsvadi, and chkmeruli that were heavy enough to push the regional convenings in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta but not so much for a top-up of grilled pork intestines in the shadows of Chairman Mao, and Khmer balut/penoy within smelling distance of the Dames of Tonle Sap.

Selamat pagi!

Signages along Samdech Mongkol lem Sreet declared Bangkok to be safe and secure for a post-earthquake midterm assessment, that the Year 3 burn rate and Year 4 indicative budget pie were on track, that lunch therefore will be an Indonesian spread of beef rendang, gado-gado, chicken satay, spicy tempeh, and shrimp curry from a resturant in Sumatra where the transcripts were transmitted before boarding Bopha Titanic for a duel with its house Volcano, sangria, and red wine. 

In Bakal 2, mornings were spent in the bike trails, burning calories to make room for the return to pale pilsen and a row of of cocktails from the Godfather of PAGGS Premium Lounge.

There was Irish whiskey on Saturday afternoon too but it was the beer from a 45th wedding anniversary celebration that warmed the soul because the Craft has been exposed to be a sham actually...

WORK, WALK, DRINK (Phnom Penh 2025)

"Death is a black cat and a pet dog

uncharitable omens of a culling

spectral noises from VTE, PNH, KUL.

Fraudulent, like two bogus NBA tickets

novel, like guerilla rides and Windows 25  

tarty, like airport merlots and a cab sav."

o0o

And so it was that defiance was sheperded at 245 Mao Tse Tung Avenue where the MCPs converge on JET to nullify arbitrary fiscal restraints that ushered the onboarding of Dili, Phnom Penh's presumed concurrence, and the rescheduling of Yangon --- reassurances of social protection and a reiteration of responsible finance as reimagined from the smog that repositioned a PMU to be able to seize the day with the aid of a Dutch-compliant computer.

The Point Community Mall meetings were celebrated with elaborately prepared traditional Khmer royal cuisine --- a huge fried freshwater fish on Day 1, everyday vegetable soups and salads, and ancient and delicate amok rei in Day 3 --- the daily fare of the Houses of Sisowath and Norodom until they were deposed by the Khmer Republic who was deposed by the Khmer Rouge who was deposed in the Christmas Day invasion of Vietnam in 1978 who withdrew in 1989 but left the pho bo to nurture Day 2 of the 2025 meetings that concluded with a disappointing Bassac Lane version of pork served charcuterie style.

We worked and ate.

We walked and drank. 

The long late afternoon strolls along the adjacent parks of the Independence Monument led us to a streetside grilled carabao jerky and cans of Dragon premium dark beer, a restaurant version of beef barbecue and bottles of Cambodia lager, a box of Anchor light lager beer to commemorate the reunion of the middle and younger brothers, and a night cap of amazing rice porridge and cold Angkor lager --- Cambodia's national and most popular beer. 

o0o

"Touchdown to a brunch in Baloc

to a vigil and padaya dinner in Sto. Rosario

fused like cheese, fish crackers, and an embutido."

THE PHNOM PENH CONVENING

Finally, the docket was sealed, the rooster finalized, the arena booked with a downpayment in lieu of a framework agreement, and the entry requirements submitted and approved as weeks of uncertainty and negotiations converged at the 25th floor of Fairfield by Marriot along Russian Federation Boulevard to snatch a wacky group selfie amidst a possible security situation. 

A phantom buzz almost ruined Sessions 1-3 (ASEAN's energy cooperation, defining transition in the transport and agriculture sectors, money matters and taxonomy), silenced as Session 3 (community-owned renewable energy) predicated four workshop outcomes and the inauguration of an online policy library prior to Session 4 (gender, the banks, and Mekong hydro projects), reincarnated as a spooky voice intruding into the conversations for a communique.

This is the text between the close (superb Khmer lunches near Mao Tse Tung Boulevard) and open (a craft beer taste test at Street 29) parentheses of the Phnom Penh regional CSO convening...  

...where The Winds blew a $40 dinner on Monday that is why I urinated Teutonic beer on Tuesday because Ganzberg is a German brand that is only available in Cambodia on Wednesdays from courtesans who can't read under a a red light where the local band entertained a floating retaurant on Thursday before being introduced as the muses of the Botanico Craft Beer Garden on Friday night as August segued into September for two more regional events in Vientiane.  

It was my first and probably my last in-person I-JET PMU meeting although it is still uncertain if the Phantom Biker will consider wearing the colors of the Tara Climate Foundation or Rainforest Action Network, or both.

The post-surgery prognosis was exhilarating despite the rains in Quezon City and our disqualification from a social service program in exchange for the emerging possibility of OPLAN SCM-SWDO. 

I was welcomed with ginisang monngo, sisig and pork barbecue by the Tursday Group and I wonder what the MILF of Bakal 2 wore under the orange towel, which is probably why I dozed in the middle of an apparently bigoted homily in Cabanatuan City. 

THE 3rd INDUCTION: 6 Days in Phnom Penh, a Reunion in Almaguer

I don't like wearing propaganda and I have a set of rarely worn fraternity jerseys that will grow molds if not washed for another year of storage.

So I packed these for a week in Phnom Penh where there will be less curiosity on the strange printed emblems that adorned 5 breakfast moments at the 10th floor Rooftop Pool and Skybar of the Phnom Penh 51 Hotel.  

Yes, I wore these for 5 days of what can be my 3rd induction with Oxfam where I recently signed a consultancy/freelance agreement from 01 May until 31 October 2024. 

These dri-FIT shirts were on me during a lunch of herby sinigang na isda and papaitan and salty giniling Khmer style, and a lovely dish of bean sprouts and pork with an all-male Cambodian group; pita bread with feta cheese and Greek keftedes with the Executive Team of Fair Finance Asia; and subequent solo meals of vietnamese pho and Thai pad kra phao.

Oskar said something about a cult as we jumped from Vietnamese craft beer and chips near Wat Botum to frozen margarita and tacos  at Bassac Lane...  

...but Sakara and the masked attendants who served grilled beef, salmon and pork at Koi Pich Riverside and the BBW who brought beef offal to our table somewhere in the Historic District did not care...  

 ...nor did the beer maids who gorged us with huge steins of German beer, baked pork knuckle, sausages, cold cuts and hot pretzel from the kitchen of Hops Craft Beer...  

...even after peeing in my pants after a deluge of Khmer beer, fried chicken knees, more grilled beef and Munich fresh beer in God Knows where.

5 days, 13 meetings, 10 bars, two doses of virtual earthy cyprine juice.

That is what I brought to the Phnom Penh International Airport Premium Lounge where all things I-JET were crammed in a gin tonic cocktail, FFA was mixed as as Cuba Libre, and everything else (OiC, SP, IP2, OiL, PSE) were poured in a tall glass of  Angkor beer. 

In Bakal 2, a sputum culture test turned out negative that led to a chest CT scan with contrast as I tried to fix a broken account number in Phnom Penh where I executed my first PMU-lead actions, received a $650 reimbursement, and submitted a flight booking request to Vientiane and Bangkok.

We are officially twice a millionaire so I opened a decanted pinot noir on Saturday night.

That's also because I next travelled 1,913 kilometers from 17 Pasteur Street to Almaguer South where the coffee is as fresh as the air in Dalton Pass and the igado in Aritao as ancient as the St. Vincent Ferrer Church of Dupax Del Sur.

Me, my brother and my sister were raised in Almaguer where what can be our ancestral house that I first built still stands; where childhood friends are either still alive or dead; where my second girlfriend is now in partial paralysis; and where our next generation gathered to fete our two new college graduates.

There I got drunk over Irish whiskey and woke up just in time for a sinigang na bangus dinner in Puncan...