mrbrown goes back to basics in Cambodia

Nothing makes you wish that the Internet was more mobile-friendly than when you're in a village in the middle of Cambodia with only your iPhone, a mobile sim-card and a spotty connection.

But I am here for some relief work in the villages which is more important than getting my data plan working. Still, this Singapore boy has a lot to learn about kampung living.

For one thing, my homestay has an outdoor toilet. Not a toilet down the hall from our room, mind you. No, sir.

It is located across from our wooden hut, requiring a walk over muddy ground (it has been raining on and off for the last few days).

The water in the loo is clean but not drinkable and has a funky metal smell. So every day, we brush our teeth with drinking water from a mineral water bottle.

Our unacclimatized Singaporean stomachs would not take kindly to the tap water entering our systems in any way; which is why we are also not drinking anything with ice in it.

The TP dilemma

Another instruction: don't throw the toilet paper into the toilet bowl. There is a basket provided for this.

I had to make my guide repeat it. I thought I heard you say that toilet paper goes into a waste paper basket, I said with a nervous chuckle.

Yep, he replied. Not into the bowl. Into the basket.

If we chuck paper into the bowl, he explained, we'll have to clear it out or the pipes will clog.

Fortunately there is a water hose provided. I chose water over throwing soiled paper into a basket. I am awfully close to Too Much Information territory, I know.

The small things in life

In the heat of the day, you learn to appreciate the little things in life. Like a baseball cap, a cold shower with clean water, and a fan in the room.

The locals, while not always able to afford the things we take for granted (like toothpaste and aspirin), remain cheerful and warm.

They take the lack of infrastructure in their stride too. Wi-Fi, you say? How about clean water instead of the muddy well that some of the poorer families use to survive?

Some of the places I have been to make our homestay look like the Ritz-Carlton.

Still, there was hospitality, and smiles, when we pampered foreigners dropped in.

Dining by flashlight

One night earlier this week, there was a heavy storm and strong winds blew past the thin walls of the restaurant where we were eating dinner. The power blew and plunged the whole restaurant into darkness.

The 13 of us ate in darkness, and because I had already plowed through my dinner, I helped to light up the table with my overpowered flashlight.

As my flashlight dimmed, and the beam got narrower and narrower, I announced that from then on, I would only be pointing the light at the dishes my friends wished to take food from.

After dinner and that storm, I sent an SMS to the wife, who was flying in to join us the next day, "Bring more batteries and my better torch from the bicycle."

We got off lightly from that storm. At the village we visited the next day, one family of seven had lost their home from the winds tearing their wooden shack apart.

We made arrangements to help them get a new home through our donors.

Limited power and an under-performing iPhone

Speaking of flashlights, another thing we have had to get used to is dodgy power.

Electricity is supplied to our huts only for several hours at night. If you wait too long to take your shower at the, ahem, external bathroom, you had better know how to shower in the dark or by flashlight.

I can assure you that it is not an easy feat to bathe with one hand holding soap and the other hand holding a 180-lumen Fenix LED flashlight.

Intermittent power also means that there is a mad rush to charge our electronic devices, like my eats-battery-for-breakfast Sony Nex-5 camera and my iPhone.

Fortunately, the iPhone consumes very little power when you have no data access, something I lived with the first few days here.

So here is mrbrown's pro tip: the iPhone battery lasts longer when you have no Internet access (but it also means your iPhone has gone from Smartphone to a mediocre regular phone with poor reception).

Many of the villages, our home-stay included, use car batteries to supplement the electricity from the power company.

When I saw my room for the first time, I kept wondering why a light in the room ended with two jumper cables, until I was told it was usually powered by a big-assed car battery.

I know I whinge but truthfully, I am having a lovely time here, away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore.

Tonight, my plans involve lying on the hammock outside my hut, enjoying the evening breeze, and listening to the song of the crickets.

Oh, and sending this column to my long-suffering editor via the pokey GPRS connection I finally set up with some help from the telco operator.