Thursday 9th February 2012. Weak to Week.

All I can say in my defence is: I’m not a scout anyway.

So on Tuesday night I drank. Not a great amount, but enough. I got to bed by 11.30pm and wasn’t too hungover in the morning.

I was invited out again, so it’s not completely my fault. A new chap joined our team from Korea, so as is customary, we went out for a meal and few beverages. We were driven to a North Korean restaurant by the driver. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there weren’t any large pictures of dictatorial types waving. There were pictures of the ocean, quite a few of them, with crashing waves, strange, stormy skies and towering, craggy cliffs. The paintings were huge. The restaurant itself was brightly lit, with lots of whites and yellows in the decor. There were large tables running the length of the large room and a few round tables at the wings. At the front of the room was a stage, complete with keyboards, a drum kit and TV screens. There was obviously going to be some entertainment. Arthur confirmed this was the case, and told me I was definitely going to be impressed. I wanted to be the judge of that.

We sat at one of the round tables and the menus were delivered by the all-female waiting staff. They wore their hair in tight ponytails and wore frilly dresses in white, yellow or pink. They poured us glasses of a yellow liquid as we read the menus. I wasn’t completely surprised to find they had dog on the menu, with a dog broth and some dog steaks on offer. I told Arthur that I would try most things, but not dog. It’s just not something I want to do. Call me a narrow-minded Westerner, but I just can’t see the attraction of eating man’s best friend. Besides, I am yet to find an animal that offers the range of tastes and cuts that a pig can, and I doubt I will.

Then the soju and beer came out. I decided to drink slowly and not be drawn in to the regular gumbay shenanigans of the Koreans, but they weren’t as bad as I’ve seen before, to be fair. Although to start with they insisted on drinking “bombs” made by pouring a shot of soju into their Tiger beer. I misheard at first, thinking it was some Korean word that sounded like “bum”, but soon got what they were trying to say.

The food came and I have to admit I was impressed. There was lots of seafood, a few random but tasty kimchi dishes and beef skewers. The best thing was the sausage-like meaty dish they brought out. It was pretty much a mix of haggis and black pudding with a little kick of spice. I really liked it, but forget what it’s called. Finally, some honey-drenched rice pancakes came out, which were sticky and stodgy and rather delicious.

After half an hour of eating and drinking, a selection of the waiting staff moved to the stage area and some typical oriental pop music started. The girls grabbed microphones then began to sing along, the words to their song on the screen behind them. I took my mobile phone out and got ready to take a picture, but before I knew it another waitress was beside me saying, “no cameras!” I didn't think we were actually in Pyongyang, but there you go. I put my phone away.

As the singing continued, some girls brought plastic bunches of flowers to each table. They picked me out, for some reason, and I was handed one. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but Arthur said I should just watch and see what happened. The singing gave way to dancing, and I started to realise that these young ladies were actually very talented. The dancing was extremely well-drilled and choreographed, and some of the spins they performed brought rounds of applause from the audience.

More singing next, and as one of the performers sang solo, I watched a Chinese man sitting at one of the long tables take his bunch up to her and receive his own round of applause. A minute later he joined the lady on stage with a microphone and started singing the song along with her. Oh, crumbs. I hoped I wasn’t expected to sing after taking my flowers up.

The next song was an English–language song, something from the ‘60s about rain, I think. It was a duet this time. I plucked up the courage to stand up and take the flowers to the nearest girl, and then skulked back to my seat as the people around me smiled and clapped. I tried to hide as well as a man of my size can, and wasn’t beckoned up to sing, thankfully.

I went to answer a call of nature and on my return I was greeted by the sight of five ladies performing music with rock instruments. One of them was playing an accordion, but we’ll let that pass. They sang into headset microphones and played with no little talent and a great amount of enthusiasm, smiling all the while. The lady on the drums performed a quite incredible drum solo and I looked at Arthur with mouth agape. He just smiled back at me. He was right: I was impressed.

A couple of songs were performed with traditional Korean instruments and the show was over. We finished our drinks and made our way out, thanking all our amazing hosts for the evening. It was still before 9pm, so of course we headed to another K-TV joint to warble and drink for another hour or two. I left Arthur with the new guy at about 11pm and was driven home. Well, not home exactly. It’s a serviced apartment where I sleep, but not really home.

So now it’s Thursday and I’ve got a 2 day weekend to look forward to. I’ve decided to go and see some more of Cambodia. I am going to Sinahoukville, a town on the coast for the weekend, staying one night at a mid-range hotel (got me a good deal on the internet, as you do) and just having a bit of R&R. And maybe some booze and nice food. I have been told there is some amazing water for snorkelling in there, so might just have to have a go at that as well. The Koreans folks are setting up a driver to take me there and bring me back, which is awfully decent of them.

It will be good to see some more of the country. I only see a very small slice of the place, but it is so varied. Even in the 100-yard walk from apartment to site office I see many sides of this city and country. I see the colonial influence in the apartment building, and then walk around the corner to see what could be classed as your typical non-tourist street here with basically-furnished local cafes and street vendors selling their wares from their little bicycle-propelled carts topped with parasols. Mopeds pick their way between the people, occasionally honking their horns to get attention. As I near the site entrance there are labourers coming to and fro, all wearing hard hats and many wearing the light blue surgical masks that seem very popular in the Far East. There are often groups of young men playing a Cambodian version of hacky-sack with some kind of plastic shuttle-cock, and I have to say, they have some skills, these guys.

Work itself is manic. Things are getting quite involved and “interesting”. The good thing is, the days are flying by. I’m not bored, there’s no time to be bored. I just need to control the stress levels. I have been swimming a few more times, probably three times in a row this week now, and was given some goggles by the lovely chap at the front desk. A previous guest had abandoned them pool-side, so thanks to whomever that was. They’re a bit scratched up and old, but are a good make and do the job of keeping the water out of my eyes.

I’m doing my best to stay in most nights now. I have found a book with restaurant phone numbers in so I can order food delivered to my door now. It’s just a case of making reasonably healthy choices. There are one or two decent films on TV and plenty of English football to see, and I have watched about 18 out of 176 episodes of my Family Guy collection. Then there’s keeping this little record up to date. All in all, I’m keeping myself busy. If I keep myself healthy, I’m laughing. Ha ha, he he, ho ho!