Merry Christmas

Dear friends and family all over the world!
We wish you a Merry Christmas from Phnom Penh!
It´s been +32 degrees today, so we´ve spent the afternoon in the pool. Not too bad way of spending Christmas Eve, we must say..!
With all our love,
Maria & Janne

Christmas Nostalgia for all Swedes

Recognize this intro? Brings back childhood memories from Christmas 1979, doesn´t it?!

Louise visits Phnom Penh, and Polly visits the veterinary

Louise has been here on a stop over on her way home from the climate conference in Bali.It´s been wonderful and great fun to have her here; four intense days filled with shopping, sightseeing, good food and catching up.

Louise left last night, and I´m now looking forward to Janne´s arrival on Saturday. Janne himself is mostly preparing himself emotionally for leaving Polly Jean for three weeks. She´ll be staying with her beloved dog sitters Kamilla and Ville who always gives her the very best of care and attention, but of course Janne still feels it´s very sad to leave her, especially for Christmas.

Talking about Polly Jean; the visit to the veterinary for a wound on her leg, that I wrote about in the previous posting, went well. She just hates going to the vet., and is always very scared and nervous when she has to go there. But this visit went better that expected, and although it was an emergency appiontment on a Friday evening it actually turned out to be cheaper than expected, too! Below, I´m pasting Janne´s e-mail that he wrote to me to tell me how it all went. I think it´s a pretty cute story, and I´m so proud of our Polly Jean who had to put up with it all. (Sorry all my English speaking friends that you can´t read it).

SAGAN OM POLLY JEAN PÅ DJURSJUKHUSET
"När vi kom dit var Polly jätteglad och ville busa. När jag vägde
henne (30kg kärlek) fattade hon vad som var på gång. Vi fick vänta en
stund innan vi blev uppropade.

En djurvårdare lät Polly åka hissbordet upp och hon satt och skakade
lite. Hon pillade lite i såret och rakade det sedan. Polly var så
jätteduktig och satt bara och skakade lite. Jag gosade och berömde
henne. Sen pillade hon lite till i såret med en metallpinne och sa
att det nog inte behövde sys, men att veterinären ändå borde titta på
det.

Vi fick vänta så pass länge i rummet på veterinären så Polly somnade
till slut. När hon väl kom blev det samma procedur; hissbord och pill
i såret med metallpinne. Polly var lika duktig igen. Hon sa att det
inte var någon fara. Jag skulle bara tvätta det med vatten varje dag
för att hålla smuts och skorpor borta och se till så hon inte slickar
där. Sen sa hon att ´-vi glömmer att ni varit här´. Vi behövde inte
betala nåt alls! I glädjeyran köpte jag ändå en krage om hon börjar
slicka i såret samt för framtida bruk.

Jag fattar ingenting? Varför behövde vi inte betala? Det tog ju iofs
15 sek för veterinären att kolla. Eller är det för att Polly är TV-
kändis? Glad är jag i alla fall. För att det blev gratis, för att jag
åkte in och för att jag nu vet ungefär var gränsen går för vetbesök
vid sårskador.

Nu blir det pizza (Polly ska få en bit)!"

One of those days... and nights.

Today has been a really shitty day. You know the kind when you just KNOW that you should´ve stayed in bed the whole day because EVERYTHING is going wrong. You know... like waking up at 04.30 due to a killing neck pain from an old whip lash injury which maked it impossible to go back to sleep again. Taking some pain killers which of course doesn´t work. Trying to log in to your bank via Internet just to find out that there´s an error which blocks your log-in pass word FOREVER. Going to the bank just to realize that you´ve left your Visa card back home (which means that you have to drive back home through the crazy traffic and get exhausted and sweaty from going 10 stairs up and 10 stairs down again). Asking your husband to help you out with the blocked pass word just to learn that the bank will not do that, instead they are insisting that you call them yourself from the other side of the world to in some mystical way prove over the phone that you´re really you. So you make that phone call to the cost of a smaller fortune, just to find out that it was a total waste of money as the bank refuses to assist you ANYWAY. And - this is the icing on the cake - driving home from office, wondering why there´s a big crowd of people on the corner just across the road from my building; just to find out that a guy was robbed and shot to death on the spot there an hour ago... I guess that his day turned out a lot worse than mine. But anyway - there you have my day.

But there has been some good things as well. Like having my friend Johan here this evening, helping me out with the curtains which has bothered me as I´m too short to put them up myself. Actually, it turned out that Johan had a really shitty day too, probably even worse than me, (not the least as he had to fix my curtains as well). So we agreed that it can´t be a coincidence. We came to the very logical conclusion that the powers in the universe must be in great disharmony right now, turning all positive into negative. We did our best to turn it back to positive again by ordering pizza, listened to christmas music from Johan´s lap top and talk about the upcoming holidays that we both look forward to.

I must also tell you one positive thing that makes me very happy; my friend Louise will arrive tomorrow! She´ll stay with me for four days, on her way back to Sweden from Bali where she has attended the climate conference. I just can´t wait to pick her up at the airport tomorrow. So, I must say that tomorrow looks a lot more promising than today. At least, I do hope so!

PS I´m adding this a couple of hours after I did the posting above. Janne just called to tell me that Polly Jean has hurt a leg, probably during playing with friends at the doggy day care. She has a deep wound, that will probably need some stitches. They are now on their way to an emergency appointment at one of the veterinary hospitals. It´s way past midnight here now, and I´m wide awake, worrying about my beloved dog. I guess this means that the Shitty Day has decided to work the night shift and turn into a Shitty Night. Damn. I´d better go to bed now before this gets any worse than it already is. So; good night.

Cambodian rock and roll - the history and its future

Christmas spirit?

The past couple of days it hasn´t been a question about whether it´s been hot or cold here in Phnom Penh, as I was writing about in the previous posting. It´s hot. Probably around +32-33 degrees, I´d guess. In this heat, I´ve been driving around Phnom Penh to do my Christmas shopping. It started yesterday, with me and my friend Mimmi going to the International Bookstore to check out their stock of plastic christmas trees. Yes - I know; I can already hear you commenting and mumbling all the way from wherever you are; "Plastic?! How tacky, is she insane?!" Well, I don´t like this any more than you do, but I do live in Cambodia now and I don´t have very much of a choice, ok? So anyway; we found some quite impressive plastic trees in all kinds of sizes, the biggest ones more than 3,5 m tall. And giant plastic raindeers, santa claus costumes, glitter in all kinds of colours, and all kinds of christmas decorations, one tackier than the other.... Well, if it´s christmas decorations you´re after and you´re not too picky about the design being as far from minimalistic as it can possibly be, you won´t be disappointed here, that´s for sure.

I´ve never been head over heels for christmas actually, but as I´m married to someone who´d probably be best described as a "Christmas fetishist", I thought that I for the sake of love could check out the possibility of creating something that could at least vaguely remind us of a traditional christmas celebration, although we´ll be spending this christmas in a tropical heat this year. And for the same reason, I went to the western grocery store "Veggies" today, to get my beloved husband some pickled herring, which is a must for him on Christmas Eve. After that, I went to Pencil Supermarket for some grocery shopping, and found that also they are selling plastic christmas trees and were busy putting them on display outside the store;


I went inside, escaping the hot sun and spent a good half an hour in the air conditioned store, trying to cool down, doing my shopping listening to "Jingle Bells" and other christmas carrols from the loudspeakers, with the sweat still almost pouring down my back. I couldn´t help thinking that it felt a bit weird, and that I found it a bit difficult to get the different pieces together. I mean, I have my picture about what Christmas usually is like, and I just found it a bit contradictory to listen to christmas carrols and looking at christmas decorations, in a temperature of +33 degrees. But at the same time, I wouldn´t change it for the usual Christmas time in Sweden, either. With all that stress, the hectic christmas shopping where you´ll spend hours in the department stores, the darkness and the cold. That I can do without. But what, or rather who, I can´t do without is my husband. But he´ll arrive on the 22:nd, just in time for Christmas. And perhaps, we´ll go to the International Bookstore to get one of those plastic trees... Well actually, I´ve already promised him one... What don´t you do for some christmas spirit?! And your loved one :-)

Hot or cool, thats the question

In about mid October, the hot rainy season started to give in for this year and gave place to the dry season with it´s cooler temperatures. It´s not very often that we get any rain this time of the year, and the morning and evenings are comfortably cool. Well, if you can call around 26 degrees "cool" compared to the European weather this time of year, but still... By Cambodian standards it´s considered cool. Even cold. So cold that you have to put on a thick jacket and wrap up in blankets. "-It´s so cold", my Khmer colleagues are complaining and switches off the air con. "-What´s the temperature today?" I ask. "-Oh, it must be as low as 27 or maybe even 26", a colleague replies. "- M-hm" I reply. "-Don´t you think it´s cold?" she asks me. "-Well, not really. Actually, I like it, I find it very pleasant" I answer. My colleague looks a bit puzzled by the fact that the cold doesn´t seem to affect me. "-But if it was as low as.... 20 degrees" she asks, trying hard to to make me admit that Swedes actually CAN freeze sometimes, "..wouldn´t you feel cold then?" "-Well" I say, "yesterday I spoke to my husband and it´s snowing back home now, which means that it´s below 0 degrees. As that´s the temperature I´m used to, I probably wouldn´t find +20 degrees very cold. On the contrary, still very comfortable." She looks at me as I´m lying and laughs almost nervously, as she was speaking to an alien, and wraps the scarf even tighter around her slim shoulders. "-Oh, I think it´s really cold now", she states. Later the same evening when I´m leaving the office I notice that our night guard whose regular "uniform" is a cotton krama (traditional Khmer scarf) around his waist and nothing more, now is fully dressed in trousers and a sweater and on top of that is wrapped in a giant blanket. The blanket is so big that he has truble walking, and you can hardly see him in there. He´s struggling to relaease one arm from somewhere inside this giant tent, to open the gate for me. I´m driving my motorbike out on the street and accelerate when I´ve reached the main road. The wind is cool and nice towards my face, and for the first time since I moved to Cambodia, I´m thinking that it would´ve been nice to wear a long sleeved top.

Thinking back at the monsoon season with the hot temperatures and flooded streets, I welcome this time of year. Although, I must admit that the rainy season also has it´s charm. One thing that´s not so good about it though, is that the street where I live tend to get flooded when it rains. Below, I´ve published some pictures where you can see what it looks like.

When I took those pictures, I suddenly heard a loud scream from the neigbours across the street. I looked in that direction, and saw a snake crawling up from the water, into our neighbours livingroom on the ground floor. The lady who lives there was of course terrified by the unwelcome guest, which explained the screaming in this otherwise pretty quiet neigbourhood. The guys who runs the motorbike repair shop next door to her, came running and killed the snake by beating it with a stick. Poor snake... Afterwards, they played with it by putting the life less body on the tip of the stick, chasing each other. I made it pretty clear to them that I wasn´t interested in participating. I asked our gate keeper if he knew what kind of snake it was. He stated that it was poisonous, and explained that you could die from by being bitten by it. Whether it´s true or not I have no idea. Ever since a Khmer colleague of mine tried to convince me that peacocks are poisonous, I have a slightly sceptical approach to the stories being told about poisonous animals here in Cambodia... But anyhow, this snake encounter was enough for me to decide that I´ll never again walk home through flooded streets, pushing my moto with water up to my knees. Obvoiusly, you just don´t know what´s hiding in there. And thank God that I´m living on the fifth floor, I swear that I´ll never complain about that again!

Home, sweet home

This is where I live, on the top floor. That´s my balcony up there!

Back to the beach

Tomorrow, Saturday, I´m going back to Kep again!

This time with some staff from my office; a bunch of my Khmer colleagues and my Swedish boss. We´ll stay at...
...Veranda Natural Resort - the same place as where Michael and I stayed a couple of weeks ago.

I´m really looking forward to some good time together with my colleagues, peace and quiet...

...and wonderful sea views.

Just keeping my fingers crossed that my stomach which has been troubling me for more than 10 days now, will let me enjoy the trip as well.

In line with all Khmer time schedules, we´ll leave faaaaar to early according to me; 06.30 AM... Which means that I probably should go to bed now to get a few hours of sleep...

Back -but not on track

I´ll go straight to the point; Michael and I had an absolutely amazing holiday in Kep. But I have to save the photos and story telling about this until later, because since Monday evening I´ve been in bed with a fever and stomach ache. Michael left for Vietnam on Tuesday morning, and I do hope that he´s alright and hasn´t caught whatever I´m suffering from. At least he was ok yesterday, when I texted him.
Until I´ve regained enough energy to fill you in on our holiday, I´m publishing one of Michael´s beautiful photos for you all to enjoy;

Going to the coast

Today, Michael and I are leaving for the coast. We´re going to Kep, a sleepy little town for some beachlife and relaxation Wednesday - Sunday. I´m really looking forward to it, neither one of us has been there before so it´s going to be both interesting and great with a change of environment for a while. No matter how much I enjoy living in Phnom Penh, it´s always nice to get a break from the city life now and then.

For some more information on where we´re going, check out http://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/southern_cambodia/kampot/kep, and http://veranda-resort.com to see where we´ll be staying.

A visit from London!

Ha, Michael is here and I´m really happy about it! I picked him up at the airport this morning, and now he´s sleeping after the long flight from London to Phnom Penh via Singapore. For those of you who hasn´t met Michael, I can tell you that we hooked up as friends at Crete 17 years ago and has been very good friends ever since. Some of you met him at my wedding 9 years ago. We´re trying to meet up as aften as we can, last time was in Amsterdam earlier this year, and a couple of years before that we went to Switzerland together. And now he´s here, yippie! I´ve taken some time off from work, so next week we´ll be travelling together, probably going to the coast for some relaxing beach athmosphere. We´ve both done all the Cambodian "must see" sights already, such as Angkor and Sihanoukville, which gives us a lot more freedom to go wherever we just feel like.
Now I´m going to try to wake him up and take him out to lunch, so he starts to adjust to the Cambodian time...

The Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok - a place to dream in a city that never sleeps

This week the Pchum Benh festival is celebrated in Cambodia, which means that I´ve got Wednesday-Sunday off from work. A perfect opportunity to go to my favourite city Bangkok I thought - so here I am! I arrived to a flooded Bangkok on Wednesday evening, checking in at my beloved "the Atlanta Hotel" (www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com) where I´ve stayed so many times before. Oh, my beloved Atlanta... Can´t descibe in words how much this place has meant to me over the years... This has been my base for my studies, research and writing, and for my travels - both on my own and together with Janne. I´ve met many good friends here, it´s become my Home away from home where I always feel welcome and being greeted as a family member. The family "the Atlantians" as we sometimes joke about ourselves, a group of more or less (usually more) excentric writers, researchers, independent travellers, expats, etc, of which many have visited the Atlanta for many, many years and still are coming and going on a regular or irregular basis. The Atlanta is a budget hotel, pretty much untouched since the 50:s, with a wonderful art deco lobby and sweeping staircases. Also with a lovely restaurant with tons of 50:s athmosphere, with the most delicious food and an extensive vegetarian menue. There´s actually where I´m sitting now writing this, and this is also where I ususally spend my evenings, reading, writing, catching up with old friends I haven´t seen for quite some time and sometimes also making new ones. In the daytime, it´s lovely to relax by the pool or in the garden, watching the turtles in the pond that´s constantly expanding as more and more baby turtles are hetched every year. And of course to cuddle with some of the more than 40 cats that has been adopted by the Atlanta. I´m always crying when I´m leaving this place, and I probably will tomorrow as well. But it´s good to know that I´m now living only an hour away by plane, which gives me the opportunity to come here a lot more often now. This might be the first, but maybe not the last stay at the Atlanta for me this year...?!

Congratulations, Darling!

Today, my beloved husband turns 4..-ehh, hrhum... I mean 32. 32 it is. For sure. 32. Congratulations, Darling! To celebrate this, I´d like to share a couple of photos with you of the most wonderful man in the whole world...;


Janne on a terrace in Nafplio, Greece...


...and on a beach in Athens.

Aaahh! Isn´t he handsome!?! *proud*

On top of that, I´m also happy and proud to tell you that the two of us are celebrating our 12:th engagement anniversary today! We got engaged on Jannes 32... -eehhrmh.. 22:nd birthday back in 1995. Which means that I was only 22... ehh, hrhrum.. I mean 12.. or... eehhh... anyway, never mind.

Congratulations Honey, and congratulations to Us, too! I love you!

Finally connected

Hurray, today I´ve finally managed to get an internet connection installed in my flat here in Phnom Penh! Yippiiee!! I celebrated by immediately calling Janne via the iChat programme on my Mac lap top. Wonderful thing, that iChat I must say! Making it possible to see and talk to eachother via a tiny intergrated camera in the lap top screen. Talking and looking at eachother over a cup of coffee... Makes the world feel so much smaller, bringing us closer together although we´re so far away... Talked to my parents via Skype and web cam as well, and the sound is so much clearer now when I don´t have to bring my laptop to internet cafés. And Marco called me from Holland too, showing off their adorable Schi-tzu/Jack Russel Terrier "Lola" via Skype and webcam. So it´s been a great day in that way; feels like I´ve been visited by dear friends and family and even a dog from all parts of the world! :-) It´s been so nice to see them all here in my livingroom in Phnom Penh! :-)

I can´t believe how much the modern means of communication have developed since I did my first field study in Thailand back in 1995... At that time there was no internet, mobile phones, web cams or sms... The only means of correspondence was via letters, which took two weeks in either direction. I remember that I at one point missed Janne a lot and wanted to let him know, so I went to a post office and sent him a telegramme which I guess took less than a day to be delivered from Hua Hin in Thailand to Linköping in Sweden... It was a simple little telegramme, with only three words; "I love you"... But I was very happy to be able to get that message across from one part of the world to the other, so quickly... What Janne thought? I think he was mostly surprised when the messanger from the post office knocked at the door... But anyway, what a change that has taken place! We´re now able to communicate with friends and loved ones on a daily basis, quickly and for free... I feel so fortunate for this, as it makes it possible for me to live and work as I do right now, and still be able to stay in touch with you all.

So; here´s to new means of communication, and here´s to my newly installed internet connection in my flat on street 115 in Phnom Penh! Cheers!

PS. For those of you who haven´t installed Skype yet, I strongly recommend you to do so. It´s very easy, just go to www.skype.com and register for a Skype account. And then you´re able to call other Skype users (frends like me!) all over the world, for free via your computer.

Bullie Bags!

Look what I found at my local market "Psar O´Russei" the other day;
BULL TERRIER BAGS! :-)



Ha ha, now my collection of bull terrier bags can grow even bigger! :-) I´ve bought a lot of nice bull terrier bags of different brands everytime I´ve been to Bangkok, but I didn´t expect to find any in Phnom Penh. But obvoiously, there are some really nice ones, just 200 meters from my house! Lucky me! :-)

Polly Jean and Janne - media stars!

Today, I´m extremely proud to see my loved ones; Polly Jean and Janne, being interviewed in Expressen, one of the biggest evening newspapers in Sweden! :-)
We´re told the interview will be broadcasted on some local tv channels as well, but frankly it´s just very small channels so you´d be very lucky to catch them there.

For those of you who don´t understand Swedish, the theme for the whole thing is that Polly Jean has her own page on Facebook. (And yes, of course it was me who set it up and now poor Janne has to cover for it while I´m abroad....) The interview is a part of the coverage on that Facebook has become such a huge phenomenon, and that now even pets has their own pages on Facebook. The interview explains that we first set up the page to introduce Polly Jean to friends far away who are curious about Polly Jean but never have had the chance to meet her. But quite quickly, Polly Jean started to get friend requests from dogs - and a pig! - from all over the world; Bolivia, England, USA, South Africa etc, so her page kind of started to get a life of it´s own... Well, I guess you´ve to take a look for yourself to see...
To see the interview on webb-tv, go to: http://www.expressen.se/webb-tv/index.html?serialid=5938
To see the article, go to: http://www.expressen.se/husdjur/1.844549/nu-har-hunden-polly-blivit-basta-van-med-en-gris

And last but not the least; thank you Martina for coming up with this totally wicked idea and for talking us into putting Polly Jean on broadcast. I guess that´s one of the reasons that you really deserve my nomination of you as "my most creative friend" on Facebook.

Back in Phnom Penh, and going north east.

It was of course difficult to leave Stockholm and my loved ones behind after three wonderful weeks together. But luckily, I also felt immediately at home when I landed at the airport in Phnom Penh. It´s amazing how quickly you adapt, isn´t it? Seeing my friends here also helped, of course; thank you Johan, Mimmi & Albin and Marco for being such lovely friends. Now I´m looking forward to Janne´s visit over Christmas and the New Year. Hopefully, I´ll also get visits from some friends as well; Louise in mid-December, and hopefully will Michael be able to make it here from London in October/November.

This week, the work has really kicked off for sure. Tomorrow, I´m leaving for a weeks field trip to north eastern Cambodia . Me and a couple of colleagues are going to Stung Treng and Ratanakiri in north eastern Cambodia, to visit two of our Cambodian partner organisations who works with Democracy and Human Rights there. North eastern Cambodia is supposed to be very different and beautiful, it´s fairly remote and populated by indigenous people, so it´s going to be very interesting to see. The situation for organisation working for human rights is getting more and more difficult, and Cambodian activist are being abducted and/or killed for claiming their rights. Land grabbing is a common problem; rich and powerful people stealing land from poor and indigenous people, taking away their possibilities to make a living. This issue is one of the things we´ll look deeper into during the field trip, so I´m looking forward to a very interesting week.

For some information on where I´m heading this week, check;
http://www.travelfish.org/region/cambodia/northeastern_cambodia
http://www.travelfish.org/province/cambodia/northeastern_cambodia/ratanakiri

Going home and away at the same time, part 2

In an hour, I´m leaving for the airport to go back to Phnom Penh after three wonderful weeks in Sweden. As you might recall from the last posting, I was a bit emotionally puzzled about leaving Phnom Penh - which of course turned out to be a totally waste of energy. Being here in Stockholm, spending time with my loved ones has been fantastic. Thanks to all my beloved friends and family who have made my vacation so warm and lovely. I´ll carry this summer with me in my heart, all the way to the other side of the world.

So, soon to be leaving, of course I can´t help wondering how it will feel to return to Phnom Penh again..? My home away from home... I feel just as puzzled as I did when I was leaving for Sweden... But as that turned out just fine, I guess that this´ll do, too..?

As much as I dread leaving Janne, Polly Jean and all good friends in Sweden, I´m also looking forward to see my friends in Phnom Penh again; Mimmi & Albin, Johan and hopefully Marco who´ll be on one of his regular visits from Holland. It´s really, really nice to know that I have some good friends to get together with when I get back. And it makes this process of saying good bye, just a little bit easier.

So, to all my dear friends in different parts of the world; lots of love to you all, and thank you for being you!

Going home and away at the same time...

On Friday evening, I'm leaving Cambodia for three weeks of vacation in Sweden. It'll be fantastic to see Janne, Polly Jean and the cats again, can't wait! We'll spend the first two weeks in Stockholm, and the third week on the west coast in Bohuslan. We'll just take it easy, relax and the only thing we've planned is: not to plan anything.

The travel itself won't be very much of rest and relaxation, though. My dear khmer colleagues are taking the opportunity to send some fruit with me, to their friends in Sweden. 10 kilos of mango and pomelo... Well, I guess that I'll have to wait and see what the staff at the check-in counter at the Phnom Penh Airport has to say about 10 kilos too much on the luggage scale...

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the vacation and some rest, as it has been quite a lot of new things to take in and adapt to since my arrival here. I think that it might have taken some more energy than I actually realize now, being in the middle of the whole relocation process. So; rest and relaxation is the theme for our summer holiday this year.

But no matter how much I'm looking forward to see my family and friends again, at the same time it feels a bit strange to leave Phnom Penh right now. Partly because it feels like I've just arrived - although it's actually three months ago, but time flies so fast, doesn't it?! And also because it's a bit confusing to leave my home here to go to... well, my other home. I do have two homes now, in two parts of the world. And travelling between these two homes will be a part of my life for the next years to come. It's an exciting feeling and I'm so happy for the opportunity to live like this. But the emotional process of travelling in between the two homes for the first time puzzles me a bit more than I had expected it to, actually. But I guess that the pieces will fall into place as soon as I, and hopefully the fruit too, have arrived at the Arlanda airport early Saturday morning. Because as I said; I just can't wait to be with my loved ones..! :-)

The way to get around in Phnom Penh...

So, I have finally faced my fear of the Phnom Penh traffic and am now getting around on my "moto" as they call it here; a steady Honda SuperCub 70cc. The first challenge was to learn how to drive the damn thing. The second was to get used to the heavy and unpredictable Phnom Penh traffic, where no rules - if there are any - are obeyed. So, I´ve found that the way to do it, is to throw everything overboard that I´ve ever learned about driving, because frankly the "western style" driving won´t help here, just get you into trouble. So forget about any ideas that you might have about that you should "plan" your driving, not drive on sidewalks, to give way to other people,to look carefully before you make a turn, not to drive in the opposite direction on a one-way lane, to stop at red lights, etc. Because that's not how it works here - rather you just do what you feel like. So; I´ve kind of started over, put all my previous driving skills aside and am now learning how to drive the Cambodian way instead. In both the heavy afternoon city traffic, and on bumpy muddy roads. And I'm having a great time! And yes - I´m driving carefully, slowly and I'm always wearing a helmet. (The photo below has been the only exception to that so far).

Me on my moto, in front of the office

My new apartement

Today, I got the keys to my new apartement! :-) As I´ve mentioned before, I won´t move in there for another week though, as I´m staying with Skruttis the cat until then. But today I went there for the first time to check everything, unpack some stuff that has been in suitcases since the my arrival here on the 1:st of May. And I also started to make a list over what things I have to buy... So here we go; Waste bins (4), pots, pans, coffe maker, electrical water kettle, cutleries, plates, glasses, toilet paper, kitchen towel, bath towels, bed linens, duvets, curtains, furniture for the balcony, mugs, hangers, laundry basket, washing powder, soaps (4) toaster... well, I´ll spare you the rest, as this is just a start. I guess I´ll spend quite some time on the markets in the weekends to come.

I´m really happy for this apartment and I really like it, so I don´t think it´ll take too long before I´ll feel at home there. I took a stroll in the neighbourhood when I had finished all the practicalities in the apartement. I haven´t really been there before, and I was really happy to find that it´s a very charming part of town and it seems very peaceful, too.

I´ve taken some photos for you to see the apartement as well; enjoy!


The living room


The view from the guest room


The balcony

That´s all for this time, I´ll publish some more photos when I´ve got everything in place.

Finally - a home

Let me share some good news with you; I have finally found a place of my own here in Phnom Penh! After two months of going around with estate agents to look at one place after the other, I´ve signed a contract for a quite small but nice 2 bedroom flat on street 115. It´s not the kind of a traditional wooden house that I´ve been looking for - but after looking at one wooden house after the other that needed major renovations, and also after endless discussions with private landlords over all means of things and details, I´d almost lost hope about finding a place that I´d really like and that would also be a good practical solution. But a couple of weeks ago, I was shown this apartement by one of the estate dealers. It turned out to be a very light, nice and by Cambodian standards modern flat, with a small balcony. Not in the same area as I have looked at before, but still a convenient location; close to food malls and restaurants. So, after some consideration, I decided to drop the idea of a wooden house and instead settle for this more practical solution. And I´m really happy!! The apartment is really cute, fully furnished, and it has a guest bedroom which means that I can welcome friends and family to stay. And although it is pretty small, it´s at the same time very well planned when it comes to both light and storage facilities which otherwise is really difficult to find here in Phnom Penh. And I can set up an internet connection in the apartement, too. So I´m really, really looking forward to moving in. I´ll have access to the apartement from the 15:th of July, but I´ll stay in my friends house until the 22:nd of July when my they´ll be back from their holidays. This as I don´t want Skruttis to be on her own, and I don´t want to move her to a new place for only a week as that probably will cause her stress.

So - I guess that I´d better start planning for some serious shopping now. Because here in Cambodia, the concept "fully furnished" doesn´t really cover anything except just the furniture. Kitchen ware, bathroom equipment and a lot of other things are always provided by the tenant. So Russian Market, Central Market, Lucky Supermarket - here I come..!

Wedding Anniversary

Today, on the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 9 year anniversary. I can´t believe that we have been married for 9 years already..?! It´s diffucult to comprehend that almost a decade has passed since that wonderful day when we walked down the aisle at the little red wooden chapel in Tylösand.

Today, I sent Janne 9 red roses, to tell him how much I love him and to thank him for 9 wonderful years together. The roses were delivered to his office two hours later. It´s quite impressive that thanks to the modern means of communication, you can send flowers from Cambodia to Sweden in less than two hours, isn´t it?

We´re already planning for where to go next year, when we´ll celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Perhaps, we´ll go to Singapore and Borneo where we went on our two months honeymoon in 1998. It would be pretty romantic to revisit some of the places that we visited back then, don´t you think?! :-)


Thank you for 9 wonderful years together, Darling! I love you more than words can say.

Midsummers Eve

Dear family and friends,
today you are all celebrating Midsummers Eve in Sweden.

And Michael - you might be celebrating it in London, too? I know you went to IKEA the other day, perhaps for stocking up on pickled herring for Midsummer?:-) (Remember when we celebrated Midsummer in Crete..? :-)

Well, wherever you are dear friends and family, today is a day when you all will eat pickled herring (except for the vegetarians of course), with potatoes, sourcream, chives and most likely drinking a lot of "snaps" with it. Perhaps there'll be some dancing around the midsummer pole as well. Many of you will go with your friends to the countryside for a traditional and romantic - and as usual cold - celebration. Stockholm is a very empty city at Midsummers Eve, as everyone seems to migrate to the countryside or the archipelago.

Here in Phnom Penh, there's no such thing as midsummer in sight. It's more like "the first quarter of the rainy season" or something. So no celebration for me tonight, but probably a nice evening anyway. As usual, I'll probably go out to dinner with my friend Dre, and then go home to Skruttis the beloved cat, watch an episode or two of "Grey's Anatomy" on DVD before going to bed, hoping for a long sleep tomorrow morning. Although that won't happen as Skruttis always wakes me up for her breakfast at 06.30 AM... And tomorrow evening, there'll be a somewhat belated Midsummer celebration with my friends Dre and Johan. We're going to the supermarket to try to find something similar to what you guys are eating today. Strawberries, sourcream and potatoes should be no problem to find here, and the rumour claims that there's even pickled herring in some stores. Well, I guess I just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what kind of Cambodian version of Midsummer meal it'll be for me this year...:-)

I am thinking about you all today, and I wish you all a happy Midsummer!

A constant flow of people...

Both the social and the professional scene here in Phnom Penh are very international; a mixture of people from all parts of the world coming to Cambodia for work or tourism, short or long time. I stay and work in the southern part of the city, which means that I seldom run into tourists though, except for the few times I´m going to one of the more tourist oriented markets in the weekends. At the office, the vast majority of my colleagues are Khmer - out of 15 staff, 5 are Swedish and 10 Khmer. It´s a new and very rewarding experience for me to work in an international team like this. Through my work and especially the social scene, I meet a lot of expats from the western countries, too. There´s a huge western oriented restaurant- pub- and music scene here, side by side with the huge karaoke places and noodle stalls, which means that you can have the best of two worlds whenever you feel like it.

What´s characteristic for the social and professional expat scenes, is that they are constantly changing. People are coming and going all the time. Some are staying for only a shorter period of time, doing volunteer work or research. Some people, like myself, are staying for a some years, before heading back to their home country or for a new mission in some other Asian country. There are also some who find themselves staying for 10 years or even longer, making Cambodia their new home country.

The only thing for sure about this dynamic scene, is that it´s constantly changing. This is of course a bit different compared to home, where your social network most likely is quite stable from year to year - well, I don´t know about yours, but mine seems to be quite unchanging anyway. But here, you meet and make friends with people who you might not even know if they´ll be around next month or not. This means that there is a constant flow of people; a lot of new aquintances, and also a lot of farewells... For example, last week there was a good bye lunch for my new good Swedish friend Susanne, who returned for Sweden after a couple of months of field research here in Cambodia.

Goodbye lunch for Susanne at Intercontinental Hotel. From left; Dre, Johan, Susanne and me.

This coming week, another Swedish aquaintance is leaving after a two year mission here. In August, my Lithuanian friend Dre is leaving for Europe after some months of volunteer work at Ecpat here in Phnom Penh. And in December, my good friend Johan might move to Chiang Mai. As I said; a lot of goodbyes... At first, this might seem sad. And it is. I must say that I miss Susanne already, that I don´t like to think about that my wonderful friend Dre will leave quite soon, and that I for my own egoistic sake hope that Johan will be around also next year. But, at the same time, I´m adapting to these dynamic social relations. I´ve made some really good friends, and I hope for some more to come along in the future. My social network here in Phnom Penh is energetic, warm and supportive - good friends altogether. And the fact that people have already come and gone in and out of this network during the short time I´ve spent here, hasn´t changed this. So I´m kind of getting used to the fact that my network here will change and look different over time. And although I will miss the friends that are leaving, just as I miss you friends at home sometimes, I also appreciate the possibility of meeting so many new and interesting people, all of whom have their own stories to tell and experiences to share from all parts of the world... And together, for a shorter or longer time, we´re writing a joint story here in Phnom Penh. Which we´ll look back at sometime in the future, when the time has come for each and one of us to move on, leaving others behind...

Two of my good friends; Dre and Susanne, in a tuk-tuk.

Birthday Bitch

Today, wednesday the 13:th of June, our beautiful English bull terrier Polly Jean turns 2 years old.


According to the report from Janne, the birthday celebration started early morning, with Polly receiving a so called big "boomer ball" from me and Janne. It is supposed to be impossible to destroy, even for a bull terrier. (Well, I guess we have to see about that). Polly showed a great interest in the boomer ball, so it was brought to the doggy day care where Polly spends her days when Janne is working, for Polly Jean and her friends to play with. There'll be more celebration in the evening, with Pollys magic three P:s ; Pizza (Polly will get a children's pizza with ham and cheese), more Presents and a small Party to which, among others, Polly's friends "Whoopie" the Grand Dane, and "Morris" the miniature bull terrier, are invited.


Happy Birthday, my beloved Birthday Girl! I love you so much!

Checking out and checking in

No, unfortunately I still haven´t found a place of my own. At least I haven´t signed a contract yet. There are very few apartements and houses on the market for the moment, and the prices are sky rocketing here in Phnom Penh, which makes it difficult to find a place that suits both my wallet and my requirements. But as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have looked at a traditional khmer wooden house which would suit me perfectly. The owner has promised to keep the house for me until the tenants are moving out around the 20:th of June, and we´ve agreed on some - if not all - details of the contract. I do hope that the landlord, who is a really nice elderly Cambodian man, will keep his promise to me. If everything will work out as planned, my employer will do a security check of the house tomorrow, and at the same time we´ll start to settle on the details of the contract with the landlord. And if we agree on everything, the landlord has promised me that I can move in there around the 25:th of June. I´m a bit supersticious when it comes to talking too much about a deal that is not settled yet, so I don´t actually dare to give you more details of the house for the moment. But as soon as - or if- the contract is signed, I promise to get back to you all with the details, and of course photos too.

Well, although I haven´t found a place of my own yet, I´ve at least checked out from the hotel where I´ve been staying since I arrived on the 1:st of May. Two days ago, I moved in at my friends Mimmi´s and Albin´s house.

So now I´m staying here..!

My dear friends have left for a five weeks summer holiday in Sweden, and needed someone to look after their lovely cat, "Skruttis" when they are away. So; ta-daa! Now I´m staying in the biggest house I´ve ever stayed in my whole life - 10 rooms and 6 bathrooms - and even better: I´m staying there with a wonderful cat!! It feels so good to have a cat again - you all know how much I miss my pets at home. Skruttis is the loveliest cat in Cambodia; social, talkative and she loves to cuddle. She follows me everywhere I go in this giant house, and I´m trying to convince her to sleep beside me at night. I´ve bought ham for her at the supermarket, which she loves, so now she wakes me up like four times at night, meowing really loud, and I could swear that she says "ham, give me ham..!"

Skruttis

Last week, it was time for Skruttis´ yearly visit to the veterinarian. After the appointment, her master Albin called me to inform me about what he had seen at the vet; a six week old kitten, abandoned and in need of a new home... The tiny, tiny kitten now lived in a cage at the reception desk, and it was so small that there was not a single sound when it tried to meow... The veterinarian had asked Albin to ask everyone he knows if someone could take care of this little kitten, and as Albin knows how much I adore Skruttis, he of course called me... I really, really had to challenge myself to say "No. I would love to, but no". As much as I love cats, and as much as there´s nothing I would want more than to take care of this little kitten, I just can´t. I actually made a decision before I left from Sweden that I won´t get any pets here in Cambodia, for the simple reason that it would kill me to leave them behind the day I´m leaving Phnom Penh. So, it was with tears in my eyes that I had to say no to giving that little kitten a new home...

But anyway; I am very happy to have the privilige of taking care of Skruttis for five weeks, and I hope that I there will be more "cat sitting" for me in the future as well. If I move to a place of my own before my friends return from Sweden, Skruttis will of course come with me to my place and stay there until her family is back in Cambodia. I hope she´ll like it there. I guess I can always bribe her with some ham...!

Beautiful Skruttis - my new house mate!

Mothers Day

Today Mothers Day is celebrated in Sweden. So I´m sending a lots of warm hugs and kissen to my mother - I´m thinking about you today!


Congratulations on Mothers Day, Mum!

It's a boy!

Today, I was very happy to receive the wonderful news that my dear friends Jenny and Anders have become parents again! Their first born son Arvid, who turned two in April, now has a little brother!

The little fellow was born at 02:46 am, he's 51 cm's tall and weighs 3,7 kilos. Both he and the rest of the family is fine.

According to the Chinese Calendar that we use here in South East Asia, this little baby is born in the year of the Golden Pig. It is actually the luckiest year to be born, and happens only once in 600 years! So I'm happy to tell you that this little baby boy is a very lucky child, that 'll live a very fortunate life!

Until then; congratulations to you all - I'll definitely celebrate the happy news here in Phnom Penh!!! And I'm very much looking forward to meet this little guy in August!

Visits and visitors

Janne has booked his tickets for coming to Phnom Penh in December, and I'm of course very happy! He's arriving on the 22:nd, staying for three wonderful weeks. We'll spend Christmas here in Phnom Penh, and who knows where we'll be celebrating New Years Eve...? So many opportunities here; only an 1 hr flight to Bangkok, 5 hrs by bus to Saigon, 3 hrs flight to the Philippines...

It's been decided since long that Janne will come here in December, and I'm planning to go to Sweden for two weeks of holiday in Sweden in August. But appareantly we're not the only ones in the family planning for a journey?! Yesterday, I was surprised and of course very glad to hear that my parents have made reservations for coming to see me here in Cambodia in February, and at the same time we'll celebrate my fathers 60:th birthday together. My parents are planning to arrive on the 4:th of February, and Dad will turn 60 on the 6:th, so we'll have some celebration to do and some Angkor temples to see, before they go home to Sweden again on the 14:th of February.

Another visit that I am very much looking forward to, is that my friend Louise probably will combine an environmental cenference in Bali with a visit to Phnom Penh. She'll hopefully turn up here around the 13:th of December. Hurray!

So, as you all understand I'm very excited about the planned visits, and I'm also hoping for more friends to show up here! To give you a clue about a good time to come, I'm listing the dates I'll be off from work due to National Holidays during the rest of this year:
21/9: Constitution Day
10-12/10: Pchum Ben (don't ask me what that is)
29/10: Coronation Day of His Majesty the King of Cambodia
31/10: Birthday of His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk
9/11: Independence Day (no, not the movie)
23/11: the Water festival
10/12: International Human Rights Day (Take the chance to raise your voice and to make a change!)
But of course you're more than welcome to come at other times as well!

And yes, I'm still looking for a permanent place to stay. Hopefully that will be solved soon - keep your fingers crossed for a lovely wooden traditional cambodian house on street 398! - so that I can welcome you all to my very own place here in the wonderful city of Phnom Penh! :-)

Taking the dog for a walk?

I'll continue on the dog subject that I started in the previous posting. I was very happy to find that here are a lot of dogs in Phnom Penh, and the majority of them seem to live good lives. Some of the dogs are kept as kind of watch dogs, walking around freely as they like, sleeping on the pavement outside the family shop. Other dogs are kept as pets, family dogs. And, this is the interesting part, they stay in the house - the whole time! My first day at the office, I started to discuss my favourite subject - pets - with a Cambodian colleague of mine who also adores pets and has three dogs and God knows how many cats at home. I asked her curiosly where she takes her dogs for a walk, as Phnom Penh don't have very many green areas, fields or forests to talk about. She just looked at me in a funny way as she didn't understand the question. "Well, when you get home from work or in the weekends, where do you take the dogs for some play and excersise?" I asked. "Walks? That we don't have time for" she answered. "They stay in the house. They can play in the livingroom. Sometimes I give them a ball, then they play a little more, that they like". Ok, this was a kind of unexpected answer to a Swedish dog owner, used to a constant bad concious the days my bull terrier is not taken for at the least three hour long walks.

The other day I spoke to my khmer teacher about dogs. "Oh, I would love to have a dog" he said. "So why don't you get one", I asked? (In English, of course, my khmer is not nearly that advanced yet). "I have had dogs before" he replied, "Three of them, one at a time. But everytime when the dog is approaching adult hood we have taken it back to the breeder. We just can't keep it". I asked him why. "Because it smells very bad when they poop on the floor" he said. "But why don't you train it to go outside to do that?" I asked him. "Because we are not used to train dogs. And beside from that, our garden is not covered by grass, but by concrete, so even if it poops outside, it smells terrible when the poop lays on the ground in the sun". "But don't you take the dog for a walk so it can do whatever a dog needs to do, somewhere else"? I asked. " Walk away with the dog from the house? No, why should I do that"? my teacher asked in a tone that suggested that now I was asking quite stupid questions. I didn't take this subject any further, I just pictured to myself how the neighbours probably would look at me, if I would do such a strange thing as taking a dog for a walk in this Phnom Penh neighbourhood, and in a Swedish way bending down to pick up the dog poop in a plastic bag - saving it for later.... :-)

Missing Polly Jean

Until now, everything here has been so new to me; a new city, a new job, new people - a totally new life. I hardly haven´t had the time to think about what I´ve left behind at all. Until yesterday morning, when I enjoyed my saturday morning breakfast at a french café near my hotel. Suddenly entered a black laborador, taken for a walk by his master to the bakery to buy some fresh baguettes for breakfast. As I saw the dog and its master together, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of missing my precious princess enormously. And my eyes was filled with tears. The night after, I dreamt that I was at home in Stockholm, cuddling with Polly Jean. It was a nice and sunny afternoon in Stockholm, and we spent it together playing in the garden, and after that we took a nap together on the sofa. Just as any regular saturday. The dream was so real; I felt the warmth from her body and she licked my face - but thank God I didn´t smell her breath. :-) The dream was so real that I didn´t understand where I was when I woke up. It took me a minute or so to understand that I was at a hotel in Phnom Penh, and not at home with my dog. And of course, at that moment I missed her a lot.

Not many people understands how much the pets; boths the cats and the dog means to me and Janne. But I don´t care. I just feel sorry for them, not having experienced the friendship and love that the pets has brought into our lives. Knowing that they have a great life although I have moved 10.000 kilometres away, getting the best care possible by the best master in the whole world, Janne, makes this adventure possible for me. Without his love and care for them, I strongly doubt that I would´ve accepted the job here in Phnom Penh, and definitely not with a peaceful mind. So for this; helping my dream of moving to Asia come true, I´m more grateful to him than I can put in words.

Despite what I now have told you, being away from Janne and the pets is actually a lot easier than I had expected. The new techniques of communication is of course to thank for this. Today, me and Janne spoke with the help of the iChat programme in our laptops, which makes it possible for us to both speak and see eachother. We spoke for nearly an hour, until Polly Jean, who was sleeping with her head on Jannes lap and snored so I could hear it all the way to Cambodia, decided that it was time for a walk. It feels so good to be able to speak and to see eachother; what an enormous change since I did my first field study in Thailand 12 years ago, when we communicated by letters and telegrammes... Now I can listen to Polly Jean the bull terrier snoring and Smilla the cat meowing all the to Cambodia. That is definitely a lovely cure for a longing heart on the other side of the world!


Me and Polly Jean

Here comes the rain again...

Writing this, I´m sitting at the terrace of the lovely Java Café here in Phnom Penh, looking at the rain pouring down at Sihanouk Boulevard. The rainy season is here to stay for sure, with heavy showers every afternoon. We westerners welcome the showers which clears the hot air and cools down the temperature. The Cambodians also enjoys the lower temperatures that the rain brings, but are also a bit worried about the early start of the rainy season. Usually, it doesn´t start until the beginning of June, which means that it has started one month too early this year. The early rains will have a negative effect on the rice harvest, the Cambodians claims, and are therefore not as enthusiastic about the whole thing as the grateful westerner writing this.

Some days ago, I attended my first khmer lesson. My employer has signed me up for a 60 hrs intense khmer class; 2 hrs a day at five days a week. The teacher is brilliant, unfortunately his new student is not... But she is at least enthusiastic and plans to study on the side this weekend.

Talking about the weekend; I now have four days off from work, due to the celebration of the kings birthday on Monday and Tuesday. I also had last Monday off, due to the Harvest Festival. Do you see a pattern here? Cambodia is actually the country in the world with the most holidays. -Me likey! as Yoda would say...

The past week, I´ve looked at some more places to stay. So far, I haven´t succeeded in finding a place, but I´m quite optimistic of the chances. Some days ago, I actually fell in love with a traditional Khmer wooden house. It had an athmosephere to die for, two modern bathrooms and a gorgeous veranda. I told the landlord that if they could install a couple of more air conditioners, I´d take the house on the spot. But unfortunately this wasn´t possible due the soft constructions of the wooden walls. So the estate agency actually adviced me not to take the house, as they claimed it would be too hot. So it was with pain in my heart that I realised that this wasn´t the house for me. And the house contract was instead signed by a French family, which didn´t come as a surprise to the estate dealer who commented that "...-the French loves wooden houses and they don´t care about air conditioning." Oh, how I wish that I was a cool French instead of an overheated Swede... Weel, beside from that house, so far I´ve only seen one apartement which I´m really enthusiastic about. I´ve asked to see that one a second time next week. But my dream is actually to find a traditional wooden khmer house, with a veranda and ac. But I also realise that´ll be an almost impossible task, as there are very few wooden houses on the market due to the fact that older buldings are being replaced by modern ones here in Phnom Penh. They are actually building everywhere here, on just about every street there are building constructions going on. A sign of the economical boost, I guess. As is the increasing traffic situation.

Talking about the traffick situation; I´ll tell you one thing that´ll make it even worse - I´ve got myself a motorbike, or "moto" as it´s called here. As I´ve never driven one before, a colleague of mine - a driver named Vibol - has got the not-so-easy mission to teach me how to drive. How it´s proceeding? Oh well, at least we´ve started. And stopped. What happened in between? Oh well, we laughed a lot - and I´ll think that we´ll leave the other details to some other time... :-)

Back on my feet again

Back on my feet again after that horrible food poisoning. Had a lovely brunch (oh well, at least a smoothie, which was all I dared to have considering the circumstances) with a colleague at a nice cafe yesterday. When we sat there, it struck me how much the cafe- bar- and restaurant scene has changed since I was here four years ago. Just about everywhere, there are lovely little cafes with wonderful menus offering delicious desserts, salads, tapas, fresh fruit juices, smoothies, and just about any kind of coffee or tea you could wish for. (A bit like Luang Prabang in Laos, for you who have been there lately). And when it comes to restaurants; except for the delicious khmer- vietnamese- chinese and thai food you find everywhere here, now there's also a huge number of other international restaurants on the scene here; for example japanese, russian, italian, mexican... Last night I was invited to a colleagues house. We ordered indian food for home delivery, which turned out to be excellent. This wonderful selection of great food in Phnom Penh has come as a pleasant surprise to me, I must say. Except for the fact that I had hoped for loosing some wight during my time here... :-\ Oh well, I guess we'll have to wait and see about that... ;-)

After that smoothie I mentioned, I went to look at a couple of apartements. The first one turned out to be far to dark and gave me claustrophobia. And we don't want that to happen, do we, so I quickly went to have a look at the second one. It turned out to be really, really nice; large, cool, light, including two terraces and also a large balcony - which I by the way have promised Janne. We're both very found of the idea of a balcony where we can have coffee in the morning and sip drinks in the evening. All year round, which is one of the advantages of living in Phnom Penh compared to Sweden. :-p Janne has also wished for a cockroach free apartement, which on the other hand I think will be far more difficult to live up to. :-\ Anyway, this lovely apartement of course turned out to be far too expensive in the end, so I'll continue the search later this week. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I have a home here, where I can welcome you all! :-)

Start - and then stop...

Hi again,

sorry for not posting anything for the past days. The thing is that I caught food poisoning my second day here... A bit embarrasing, really... I should know better than to eat just about anything that comes my way without giving it a second thought. What happened was, that at my first day at the office my colleagues took me out to a nice lunch to welcome me to Cambodia. Very nice of them, indeed. I was so charmed by the whole thing that I didn't give it a second thought that it was a buffee... And everyone who's done the slightest little bit of travelling in Asia - including me - knows that we should follow the golden rule of eating out in Asia: 1) stay away from buffees 2) if you can't stay away: at least be careful about what you eat. But did I do any of this? No. So what happened? I've been in bed for almost four days, with high fever and unable to leave "the safety zone" which is the two meters distance between my bed and the bathroom. Cleaning the bathroom floor once and a while, if you know what I mean... I've now taken the risk to leave my room for a short while, to check my e-mails and update my blog. But this won't be a very long posting, if you get my message...

Anyway, before this food posoning struck me, I did my first day at the office. I got an introduction schedule for the coming month, which looks very interesting and well put together. It also includes a lot of time for my khmer lessons which will start next week and also time for looking at apartements. I'm looking forward to a "new start" at the office next week, after this quite unfortunate and rocky start. But here we go again...! :-)

Arrival Day

So, I've finally arrived to Phnom Penh. After a quite pleasant flight, I was met at the airport by a colleague of mine who helped me through the visa and customs procedures, and then drove me to the hotel. The hotel is situated in a nice neighbourhood with a lot of nice restaurants, cafes, shops etc, and is also the location for many NGO:s (it's actually called 'NGO land'), embassies and international organisations. My office is quite near the hotel, which is very convenient. Tomorrow, I'll start looking for a flat.

In the afternoon, another colleague of mine came to the hotel to give me a tour around Phnom Penh. The city has really chenged during the past four years since I was hear the last time. Beside the fact that there's more traffic now, (which is still absolutely NOTHING compared to Bangkok and other Asian cities that I'm used to)I must say that I find Phnom Penh even nicer now than I did back then. Which was a pleasant surprise!

I've spent the evening taking a short walk around the neighbourhood, and had a delicious meal at a café nearby. Of course I wish that Janne was here to share this with me; I know how much he loves Cambodia and Phnom Penh, and how much he would enjoy being here. But besides from that, I find nothing but a great joy walking the streets of Phnom Penh again. There's something so special about this country: the relaxed athmosphere, the low voices, the smell, the people... How can you feel so at home in a country that you hardly know at all..?

Tomorrow, I'll start my new job. The colleagues I've met today has been very nice, welcoming, helpful and warm, which has given me a promising feeling about what it will, or can, be like to work here. But I am also a bit nervous, of course. Please, keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow! :-)

Departure Day

So this is it... the day has come for me to move on. To a new country, a new home, a new job. I´m leaving for the airport in half an hour, and it´s difficult to describe the feelings inside. A mixture of nervousness, excitment, sadness, happiness... The most difficult part is of course to say goodbye to Janne and my beloved pets. And at the same time, I´m so grateful that the day has finally come when I have the possibility to fulfill my dream of moving to South East Asia.

So; these are my last words from Sweden, next time I´ll write you from Phnom Penh. Until then; take care my beloved friends and family - and let´s stay in touch.


Goodbye, sweet home. See you in August.

Happy birthday, grandpa!

Today it´s my beloved grandfathers 91:st birthday! Happy birthday, grandpa!


My grandfather and Polly Jean, august 2005.

My beloved grandpa is one of my best friends. Through life he´s always been very supportive to me, and he has always encouraged me to travel and to see the world. "-Travel while you can!", he always says. "-There´s so much to explore and experience out there, do it while you can." So when I had decided to accept the position in Cambodia, Grandpa was the first to know. When I called him up, I was a little bit nervous how he would take the news, though. It turned out that my nervousness had been a total waste; Grandpa was as supportive and enthusiastic as always. "-That´s good news, Maria. I´m happy for you. This is what you´ve always wanted, and finally you get the chance to fulfill your dreams." "-I hope that I´m not worrying in any way", I said. "-No. I´m not the slightest worried. No, no", he stated and continued" "-I know that you´ll do great. You´re always taking good care of yourself when you´re out in the world somewhere, and you´ll be just fine this time, too. I know it for sure." And that was it. No worries and no questions. Just pure and simple strength and support. Just what I needed at that time. For this, and for so many other things that me and my Grandfather have experienced together through the years, I´ll always be thankful to him.

So congratulations, Grandad. Today is your day. And I´m so thankful for having you in my life. I love you so much!

Countdown - 8 days before departure...

It´s now 8 days to go before my departure to Cambodia, where I´m planning to stay for at least two years. The situation here at home in Stockholm is still "under control" - not too much stress or packing to do. In fact I haven´t even started to think about the packing yet...

I´m looking forward to spend as much time as I can this last week before my departure, with my beloved husband Janne and my gorgeous English bull terrier Polly Jean.


I´m also cuddling with our two wonderful cats; Smilla and Kasper.


I know that I´ll miss them all dreadfully, and I´m trying not to think about how it will feel to say goodbye to them on the 30:th of April.

Now is also the time for saying goodbye to friends, and together we´re starting to plan for their coming visits. Last night, me and Janne spent a wonderful evening with our good friends Peder and Rachel at our favourite restaurant here in Stockholm; "Lilla Pakistan". Mmm... delicious food and wine in the company of two of our dearest friends, made this "goodbye dinner" a very memorable evening. Some days ago, I was pleased to have another "goodbye dinner" with my colleagues from the research department. We spent the evening at a charming thai restaurant, and I received a nice present from them; a little book with the title "Good Luck", illustrated with lovely animal photographs. They do know what I appreciate, that´s for sure! :-) This coming week, I´m looking forward to see some more friends for brunch, lunch, coffee etc. Fortunately there are some nice ways to do such a difficult thing as saying goodbye for quite some time...

I´ll miss you all, and I do hope to get the opportunity to welcome you to Cambodia within the nearest future. Until then - let´s stay in touch!