Birthday fun at the Olympic Stadium
on Phnom Penh Pal (Cambodia), 04/Oct/2012 16:17, 34 days ago
Sam and Gilly are two volunteers who are based in Kratie. They are the couple who've inspired ourcompetitionto see who can visit the most provinces (Gordon is currently in the lead after his work trip to Siem Reap).A few weekend's ago it was Sam's birthday and and we were invited to the celebrations here in the big smoke! It started with drinks and snacks at the VSO office (ok, that was actually to welcome the new volunteers who had just arrived but it couldn't have been timed better), then headed out for dinner on the Friday (pics of the fantastic ectoplasm cake plus Sam's take on his birthday weekendhere). Saturday afternoon Sam and Gilly were off to the Olympic Stadium and invited us to join them for some fun at the pool.Gordon is a massive fan of the Stadium and has been wanting to swim there for ages. We went a few weeks ago after work, finally determined to take a dip. Sadly the pool was closed. We did get a chance to see the Cambodian Olympic team in training. There were just swimming laps so it wasn't particularly inspiring to watch however there were two guys there who must be potential (or previous?) Paralympians. One had no legs and one had half of one leg. And they were the fastest in the pool! Now that was inspiring.Anyway, this was the day for swimming. But first we decided to watch Sam throw himself off the 10 metre diving board and take some pics. And then I took some more pics. Rather a lot more. I'd forgotten how much fun my DSLR is (thanks dad) and took one or two more than necessary thanks to the joy of burst mode!Sam at the top of the 10m diving boardcowabunga!You have to look pretty closely to find Sam in this photo. Fluke capture!(I know this doesn't fit on the page but I had to make it big enough that you could see it)There were loads of young Khmer guys jumping off the 10m board so I ended up taking quite a lot of pictures of them too...Some of the jumps were jaw-dropping and squeal inducing (on my part, not theirs). After spending so much time taking photos I only ended up swimming for a short time - and 50 metre pools are knackering so after three lengths I was happily done (I haven't been swimming properly since I came here - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)The swimming pool - where there wasn't much swimming action from Gordon or ISlightly later in the evening - after swimming - with the sun starting to setThere were some young kids in the pool who decided they wanted their photo taken toonotquiteas impressiveAfter the pool we went to watch the sunset in the main part of the StadiumSamean and Gillyaerobics...  aerobics...and more aerobics! Plus lots of people walking or running along the steps/seats (the swimming pool is just behind this bit)our next subjects muscling in on the photo action earlyWe met some more photogenic kids who we persuaded to have their photos taken...And as the sun set over the Stadium we headed off our separate ways... Sam and Gilly for birthday steaks and Gordon and I for fantastic pizza with Ken and Samean. Happy days.