Busy, busy; working and moving

Hey...! Long time, no see... No, I didn´t disappear in Chiang Mai even if one can think so as it´s been awfully quiet on this page since I left for my vacation. A quick resumé: I came back two weeks ago, after a lovely holiday. Chiang Mai and Bangkok was lovely as always, and it was great to see my friends again. Since I came back, my life as been really, really busy. On all levels. Too much work, which has made me abandon my ususal commitment to myself not to work on weekends. So I´ve been working weekends, evenings and on holidays. During the little time I´ve had left for my private life outside work, I´ve continued my efforts to find a new apartment. And so I finally did, about a week ago. It turned out it was available from the 1:st of June, which means that the last week has been dedicated to preparations for moving.

All in all, this means that I´ve been incredibly busy these past weeks. I´m very tired, and haven´t found enough energy or inspiration for blogging which explains the silence here. However, I know this far too busy schedule will come to an end by mid-next week. At that point, some milestones will have been reached at work, I´ll be installed in my new apartement and I can start to look forward to the very well deserved upcoming summer vacation in Sweden later this month. So, even if life has been far too busy for my own good the past month, I can see the end of it and I´m still in quite good spirit.

So; about me moving; although I like my old flat, and I´m a bit sentimental about moving out and leaving this neighbourhood, I´m also looking forward to stay in the new one. It´s a lot cooler (temperature wise), which I´m happy for. It has a very good location as well. For those of you who are familiar with Phnom Penh; the flat is on street 294 which runs parallell to and just south of Sihanouk Blv, on the part between Norodom and Sothearos blv. It´s next door to Talking to a Stranger, and just one block from La Luna, Java Café and Hun Sen Park, and from the terrace I can see both Independence Monument and a glimpse of the river. Another good thing is that as opposed to my current flat this one doesn´t suffer from electricity cuts. It´s better furnished and has a wonderful, big terrace with a nice view. I´ll of course post some photos here for you too see later on.

Ok, the mover will be here in two hours so I´d better continue with the packing. Last minute, as always... It´ll probably take a week or so before my telephone and internet connection is installed in my new flat, which means that this blog will have to take another short break. See you later!

Going on holiday to Thailand

Today, (Tuesday, although the blog date claims that it´s Monday) I´m leaving for a holiday in Thailand. Yippiiiee! This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are National Holidays here in Cambodia thanks to the Kings´birthday, which gives me a opportunity to visit my dear friend Johan and his girlfriend Alon in Chiang Mai. Johan used to work at our office here in Phnom Penh, although not for the same organisation, and we became very good friends. Johan is actually the one who taught me how to drive a motorbike! (Mission impossible completed) Can you imagine what a patient person he is?! Since the beginning of this year, Johan and Alon have relocated to Chiang Mai, and they´ve invited me to come and visit them. Which I´m of course very happy to do! I´ll be away Tuesday-Monday, making a stopover at my beloved Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok on my way back to Phnom Penh.

I´ve been to Chiang Mai some times before, the first visit was in 1995 when I conducted my very first field study in South East Asia. The last time was four years ago when Janne and I spent a couple of days there on our way to Laos. I´m excited to go there again to see what it´s like now, and to see my dear friends of course.

By the way; I´m considering to buy a camera in Chiang Mai to replace my broken one, and the prices seems to be pretty good in Chiang Mai. Anyone of you who has experience from using either Nikon Coolpix P5100 or Nikon Coolpix S700? If so, please let me know what you think.

Ok, the taxi will pick me up to go to the airport in less than an hour now, so I guess I´d better start to do some packing now - last minute as always.... *sigh*...

Dosa Heaven

If you love food, like I do, Phnom Penh is a wonderful city to live in. Soooo many great restaurants serving food from all over the world; Lebanese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Thai, French, Maroccan, Spanish, Mexican.... I think that the only kitchen I haven´t seen represented here so far is the Ethiopian.

Most restaurants are doing home delivery as well. I´ve completely forgot how to cook. Or, I´ve rather found a new way of doing it; I´m taking out my plastic folder that contains all the home delivery menues that I´ve collected during my year here. I´m going through the menues carefully, but will most likely finally pick the same Indian restaurant as usual. I´m making a phone call, placing my order, stating my adress and voilá - 20 minutes later there´s a delicious Indian meal on my plate. That´s the art of cooking, folks!

Some of you might be familiar with my passion for Indian food, and when I first moved here I was very happy to find that there are plenty of good, very good, Indian restaurants here. And tonight I´ve made a new discovery on the Indian restaurant scene here in Phnom Penh; "Dosa Corner" on street 51. It has only been open for a couple of months, but the rumours has started to spread that they serve the most delicious dosas. And I can only agree - Dosa Corner should be named Dosa Heaven!!! Mmmm...!!! The taste sent me 15 years back in time, to Kerala in southern India where I was doing my very first study trip to Asia. At the village project where I was studying, the wonderful Mitraniketan, dosa was served no less than three times a day, and you had to be careful not to over eat it. But now, after visiting "Dosa Corner", I´m certainly facing the same risk again. I´m just happy that I don´t have to make the dosa myself. It´s soooo much easier to just pick up the phone... :-) But if you would like to try, here´s a master to learn from;

Khmer delicacies (?) and Spider Man

This evening after work, I went to "Lucky Supermarket" for some grocery shopping. And I found some ingredients that I thought might serve as an inspiration for you if you don´t know what to have for dinner tonight. 

Unfortunately the photos are not very sharp (those mobile phone cameras never keep what they promise, right?!), but this label says "Frog meat"...(look closely and you´ll see that it´s skinned half frogs with toes and everything)....

...and this one says "Chicken leg - claws".
And yes; the claws are still there as you can see for yourself.

If you´re not inspired enough, just take a look at these pics below of my father eating spiders - more specifically fried tarantulas.
I ordered this Khmer delicacy for him at a restaurant here in Phnom Penh which serves specialities from all parts of Cambodia. The restaurant serves them with a dipping sauce which might add some more flavour, otherwise they are not known for having very much of a taste.

Talking about restaurants serving Khmer delicacies; after the grocery shopping I went to a restaurant owned by some Khmer friends of mine. Most of their menu is Italian, but they do serve some Asian specialities as well. I noticed today that one of the dishes on the menu (nr 10) is described as "Mount Frog - price of frog meat served with hot sauces". I have no idea what that means, but I tend to always go for the pasta, anyway...

Arrival Day

After a quite pleasant flight Stockholm-Bangkok-Phnom Penh without any delays but more unfortunately no sleep either, I arrived to Phnom Penh at 9 am this morning. An hour later I was at home in my apartment, had taken a shower and went to bed for what I thought would be a two-three hour nap, which is my usual strategy to fight the jetlag after a flight. But I guess I was more tired after being awake for 21 hrs straight than I had realised , so I didn´t wake up until 5 pm, which means that I had slept for 7 hrs. Not a very good thing to do if you want to adjust to the Cambodian time zone, but I guess I really needed it... Unpacked my things in just 5 minutes, as my bag from Sweden only weighed 7 (!) kg. I must say that I´m really improving my skills when it comes to travelling light! Went out for an Indian meal together with friends, and are now ready for bed again. Only 6 hrs after I woke up, but I´m really tired so hopefully there won´t be any problems sleeping the whole night through despite the jetlag.

Yet I don´t know how it actually feels to be back in Phnom Penh again. Of course I miss my loved ones who are still in Sweden. At the same time, Phnom Penh is also my home now, just as much as Stockholm. I have two homes now, in two different cities, two different worlds... It´s just too bad that my loved ones and I can´t be in the same one all the time.

I guess I need some more sleep before I can reflect on this any further. *yawn* Good night!