Welcome to Cambodia

Our friend Belinda visited Ghana in Africa for two months and she gave us our best suggestion yet. When the people, the poverty, the daily trauma of living in a foreign country just becomes too much - use some of those hard earned dollars and find the biggest, most expensive Western hotel in town and pay to use their swimming pool. We have found the Himiwara (where we spent a lovely time with Simon's brother Matt who came over from Hong Kong) and have spent a number of days swimming, lounging and ordering poolside lunch.

The international airport of Phnom Penh, a city of 3 million people, 4 million motor bikes (that all seem to hit the road at 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM) has space for 3 jets at one time - that is max capacity. Phnom Penh airport looks like Las Vegas from the 1920s. The city however looks like Bangkok 30 years ago.

Our favorite restaurant so far, Khmer BBQ. As the sign proudly displays, open 7 days a week, closed on Monday. We did take a Khmer cooking class (see picture for our delicious spring rolls). They put a lot of effort and ingredients into their meals and then turn around and charge $2.00 for a full plate of food that is quite tasty - just watch out for the chilis.

We had a lovely week down at the beach - for any visitor this is a must. Nice place with a pool, walk to the beach and every evening the bars set up BBQs and do fresh fish for dinner (again about $2.00 for a full meal and $.50 for beer.)

We moved into our apartment two days ago (see picture). We have a nice 2 bedroom with 4 balconies. The kitchen is kind of small but as you can probably guess, eating out is the way to go. By the time we found food, paid for it and got it home, not to mention condiments and cooking utensils - we would be way over the $2.00 per meal. The apartment also comes with a maid 6 days a week - she cleans and does laundry - life is rough.

Exercising is proving a little tough, the 2 gyms in town charge $1500 a year and it is too hot and dangerous to run on the road - motor bikes (motos) and bikes, and cars everywhere. Every Sunday we get together with about 40 other foreign visitors for what is known as the Phnom Penh Hash House Harriers running club (see picture). This consists of standing in the back of a truck for a drive to the country side, running around for about an hour and a half past mangy dogs, charging cows, laughing Cambodians and grunting pigs. After which, we drink beer. Not quite Boston marathon training but still good fun.

The driving here is crazy. It appears there are absolutely no traffic rules. We are still not sure which side of the road to drive on as everyone goes every which way. You think that drivers in Vegas run red lights.... there are 3 traffic lights we have come across in the city so far, all of which are completely ignored. However this has not stopped Simon wishing to buy a moto. He sees himself as something of a 50 year old "Easy Rider". But going at maximum speed of 15 mph on a bike that has an engine the same size as a lawn mower and horn that sounds like road runner on the cartoons - the image is not quite the same. Marilu however, prefers to travel via tuk-tuk (see picture) where she sits in back (with rain shelters when needed) and lets the Khmer driver battle with all the rest of them. The only downside is you have to haggle and bargain prices BEFORE you get into the tuk-tuk and there are many tuk-tuk drivers who want to be your new best friend.

The school is terrific, huge soccer pitches, swimming pool, playing fields and most importantly large air conditioned classrooms with windows. The a/c works the best from 1-2 o'clock when the many garment factories close for lunch and the school gets their share of electricity. There are many power outages here as the grid can't handle the demand. So a generator is crucial and our school and apartment both have them.

Oh yea, one last thing, at the end of a long day a one hour massage is $4.00. That of course is without the "happy ending" that is offered to men. All best will write more later.. Marilu and Simon