Christmas in Cambodia

Despite having lived in Australia for nearly 13 years, I never really got used to Christmas in warm weather.  It just never felt right, some how it never really felt like Christmas.

Well it is even less Christmassy (is that even a word?!) in Cambodia.  Which is not surprising, seeing as it is a Buddhist country.  You do see the odd Christmas decorations around and some shops play Christmas songs, but it all feels a bit tokenistic and half hearted.

Some of the Christmas decorations are also quite interesting.  There is a car show room near me which has decorative tinsel seals with lights on - nothing quite says Christmas like a seal balancing a ball on its nose! It was quite sweet though because when I started taking pictures of the Christmas decorations, the security guard put on the Christmas music and played Jingle Bells.  I felt a bit bad when I walked away after he had made a special effort to please me....but I really couldn't spend any longer looking at the decorations!

Christmas Seals!

 More traditional snowmen

I think part of the lack of Christmas spirit might also be because it is traditionally a time you spend with friends and family.  With Adriana in the States and having only been here 5 weeks, I didn't really have much of either around.  However, despite the short time I have been here, I have met some really nice people and thankfully some of them took pity on me.  So on Christmas Eve I went over to a new friends place for a Christmas celebration.  It was a really great evening, good company and delicious food.  We even did Secret Santa so there was some gift opening! 


On Christmas Day, I went to the office.  I would say that I went to work but to be honest I really didn't get much work done!  It didn't feel right to be working on Christmas Day and the office was pretty quiet.  Weirdly, there were more Westerners in the office than Cambodians who it seemed had decided to take the day off (I think a lot of people are having to use up their leave before it expires).

In the evening, some of the volunteers organised a boat trip on the Mekong for volunteers and staff.  We hired a boat for 3 hours and everyone brought some food and drink to share. It was a really beautiful evening, the full moon on the river was incredible and it was very peaceful (something that you don't experience very much in Phnom Penh).  A very enjoyable Christmas celebration.

Phnom Penh skyline

Moon on the Mekong

More moon

 

The benefits and perils of living above a market

OK.....so perils might be overstating it a bit......but who doesn't like a dramatic title?!

So, my new pink apartment is located above a market - the Royal Mart.  They don't seem to have big supermarkets here. A lot of food is still bought from the fresh fruit and veg markets but if you don't feel like buying meat from the street, there are a number of smaller markets that are generally pretty well stocked.  Think of a big 7-11 (hopefully without the staff exploitation http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-31/exploitation-part-of-7-eleven-business-model-insider-says/6733682) or an IGA, tesco metro type store. 

One of the main market chains here is Lucky (http://www.luckymarketgroup.com/stores.html), which definitely caters for the expat crowd and apparently even stocks Waitrose products!

Unluckily, I didn't end up living near a Lucky store (sorry for the terrible pun!)...but to compensate I do live two floors above the Royal Mart (https://www.facebook.com/royalmartcambodia) where "everthing is reasonable price".  Although it isn't that big, they do have a pretty good selection of Cambodian and expat food.

The Royal Mart

 The market is run by a family and I think there are about 4 generations involved.  The owners of the market also own the rest of the building and are my landlords.  The store takes up the ground floor, the family live on the first floor and floors 2-5 are apartments (I am on the second floor) 

 So going back to the title of this blog.......there are several benefits to living above a market. For one thing, I think it adds to the security of the place.  Security is something that you have to think about in Phnom Penh and I have heard a few scary stories of places being broken into when people are sleeping.  Living above a market means that there are always people around during the day (well from 7am-10pm when the store is open).  Also, I realised when I got home late one night that there is actually a security guide who spends the night sleeping on the ground floor.  I am sure that his role is to ensure that no one breaks into the market....but it does provide more security for residents as well. Although to be honest I am not sure how effective he would be if someone really wanted to get into the building!


It is also handy having your landlords on site and knowing where they will be if you have any problems or need something fixing (like the cable TV for example!).  But probably the best thing about living above a market is just the convenience of buying things.  If you find you need something you just pop downstairs and get it.  For example, I ran out of water last night and it was so easy for me to go down two flights of stairs to restock.  Although I was a little disappointed that one of the young guys who works there didn't help me carry the large container up the stairs as they have in the past....but I guess it was good exercise for me!

However, the main benefit of living above a store is also the biggest disadvantage (peril!).  It is just way too convenient to buy things. I have a bit of a weakness for snacks.....crisps are my particular weakness.  My consumption of crisps is generally moderated by my laziness.  Even if I have the desire I generally can't be bothered to go to the shops to buy them.  But now....all I have to do is go down two flights of stairs, it is way too easy.  Another weakness is alcohol and again it is way too easy to buy if I feel like it and I don't have any at home.  The cost is also not a deterrent....beer is about US 60 cents a can (they even have a 4 for the price of 3 special at the moment) and Bombay Saphire Gin is an incredible US$10 a bottle!!

My apartment is the one on the left on the second floor...so convenient for snacks and drinks!

In my first few weeks I was dropping into the store everyday on my way home from work just to pick up a little treat!  But I have had to exert all my will power and show enormous restraint not to continue this habit!  I have a few moments of weakness but overall I have been better.

It is also a bit weird as sometimes I buy supplies from other places (including the fresh food markets) and when I do, I feel like I have to sneak in the back door in case the landlord sees that I have been shopping in other places.  I have this strange feeling of guilt, like I am being disloyal or something! 

But overall the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and I think I could get used to living above a market. 

Footnote: I have been eating crisps and drinking gin whilst I write this blog.....delicious! 

Getting into the Olympic Spirit

For some reason, there is an Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh. Whilst it has never been used for the Olympics, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t put to good use on a daily basis. The first time I visited the stadium was during the middle of the day and it was pretty much deserted, which isn’t surprising considering how hot and humid it is (and this is winter!).

Deserted Olympic Stadium during the heat of the day

But if you go early in the morning or in the evening it is a totally different story.  The stadium is transformed into a buzzing social and sporting hub with people congregating to exercise and socialise.  There is a whole range of activities taking place from soccer, badminton, volleyball, running, walking, aerobics, dancing, tai chi and other martial arts.  All this is accompanied by stalls serving food and drinks and people just hanging out, watching the world go by.

A lot more action at night (and in the morning)

Some sort of exercise with swords

Or with fans

Aerobics

As part of my attempt to try to get back into exercising, I decided that I would go to the stadium this morning for a run (running on the streets is a bit tricky due to lack of pavements and volume of traffic).  So I woke up early (before it got too hot) and rode my bike to the stadium where I parked it securely under the watchful eye of a diligent security guard for the vast sum of 500 riel (about 17 US cents)!  To be honest the run was a bit of a torturous struggle (it has been a while), but I did enjoy watching everything else that was going on at the stadium. 

In addition to all the usual activities, there happened to be an event taking place called ‘Running for Non Handicap Environment’ which I believe might have been for International Human Rights Day (a public holiday in Cambodia....but not for me unfortunately).  The title of the event was a bit misleading but I think that it was to promote the rights of people with a disability.  They had a number of races for people with a disability, including some wheelchair races.  I believe that this was going to be followed by a fun run (although I had to get to work, so couldn’t stick around for that).  So that provided me with some additional entertainment during my run which was good.  Hopefully there will be other events going on in the future because I find track running completely boring and I need something to motivate me to keep on running!

Running for Non Handicap Environment

Events and Fun Run

Finding a place to live

On arriving in Phnom Penh I was staying at the elegant and inexpensive (well the last part of that) Burly Guesthouse.  The Burly rates a 3.5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g293940-d2275223-Reviews-Burly_Guesthouse-Phnom_Penh.html) many of the reviews comment that it is cheap and well located which is probably about all you can say about it.

The first night was spent in a  US$ 8 'fan' room i.e. a room with a fan but no AC.  After one night I decided I was worth an additional US$5 per night and upgraded to an AC room.  Weirdly, the extra $5 didn't just pay for AC (which I probably didn't really need - it is winter here after all!) but the new room was also lighter, quieter and had hot water.  

Needless to say, I was pretty keen to get out of the Burly as soon as possible and get settled into my own place and so we embarked on the adventure that was finding a place to live in Phnom Penh.

I have to preface this by saying that Adri probably (definitely) did the majority of work in finding a place to live.....but I like to think that I contributed at least in part!  

When I was looking to rent out my apartment in Melbourne, I selected a Real Estate Agent and they then pretty much do everything (for a fee of course).  The key thing about this is that I just have one Real Estate Agent.....not so in Cambodia. Landlords don't seem to have a relationship with any particular agent.  It appears that landlords just advertise their property, usually through a sign on the building and then a random selection of agents take people around the properties.  

Over the course of about 3 days we probably saw about 30 properties between us (again I have to mention that Adri did the bulk of the leg work).  We used a few different agents and due to the system here, we got taken to the same places a few times.  For us it seemed that the agents served more of a transport service than anything else, but whizzing around Phnom Penh visiting properties on the back of a motorbike probably did save us some time.

Of the 30 we probably only saw a handful that we liked and we did start to wonder if we were just being too picky!  But some of the places were terrible - no natural light, dirty, inaccessible.  We saw this one place which was in a great location but you had to enter via fire escape stairs which were coming away from the wall!  Another 'western style' apartment had the lounge in the bedroom.  I also saw the smallest lift I have ever seen - more than two people was a squish!

But we did eventually find a place we like that ticked all the boxes - good location, safe, clean, light.  We actually saw this place separately with different agents (we had decided to divide and conquer) so we went back to view together.  The landlord actually offered to pay us $50 to not go through an agent but we decided that they had worked hard for us driving us around so we should try and benefit one of them at least.  I later found out that the landlords have to pay the agents a months rent (more that $50!!) so no wonder that landlord was keen to avoid the agents!

Once we had found a place things went pretty quickly - it's a bit less formal here and we moved in the next day.   It was great to be in our own place and feel that we can get settled.  We are living in an area called Toul Tompong (near the Russian Market) - so far it seems like a good spot with a mix of Western and local places.  I am looking forward to exploring the area in more detail and finding good places to eat, drink and hang out (I have found a few contenders already).

So this is our home in Cambodia....for the next 6 months at least.                                      T

The very pink bathroom 

The bedroom with pink curtains

The kitchen

The dining area (well kitchen really)

The lounge

Another lounge shot with pink curtains (there is a theme here)

To blog or not to blog

Since arriving in Cambodia I have been considering whether I should write a blog or not.  In fact, I have considered writing a blog quite a bit in the past, but I have always struggled to think of anything to write about and doubted whether anyone would be interested in anything I had to say.

Obviously, I have now made the decision to blog and there are three main reasons for this:

1. When I have previously lived and travelled overseas I have written journals and I guess a blog is the modern day version of that.  It is just that it potentially has a wider audience than a personal journal (or not!).
2. From the two weeks I have spent in Cambodia so far I reckon there will be heaps of interesting things to write about.
3. It will pander to my lazy tendencies, in that I won't have to update everyone individually about what I am doing!

The main purpose of this blog is so I can have an ongoing and everlasting recollection of  my time in Cambodia......so I guess that the key audience is me.  But hopefully other people will also enjoy reading about my experiences and observations. 

Apparently I am supposed to say that the views expressed in this blog are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO...so there it is.