Movin' and Shakin'

Busy Busy Busy!

Did you know that Cambodia boasts over 25 national holidays every year?
Last weekend, Cambodia celebrated the King's (Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Bâromneath Norodom Sihamoni Nai Preah Reacheanachakr Kampuchea; Yes, that's his full title + name) birthday. I took advantage of the time off by taking a small road trip (on my new motorcycle) to the quiet coastal towns of Kep and Kampot, you can find a small compendium of my photographs from said trip HERE

Kampot is a wonderfully quiet and breezy riverside town, the perfect getaway from the heat pollution of Phnom Penh. We stayed at Bodhi Villa, an low-key hangout guest house, featuring au naturel rooms with only fans and mosquito nets. Bodhi Villa is conveniently located on a river (which nobody seems to know the name of), making it the perfect place for a swim. It also features a high jumping plank. Delicious cocktails, western food, and stoned foreigners abound.

Kep, a slumberous beach town. During its hayday, Kep was the getaway for rich Cambodians and French colonials. Kep was devastated by the Khmer Rouge. Today, Kep feels more like a ghost town: eerily beautiful abandoned villas, quiet beaches, large empty fields with colorful flags, distant islands, and large verdant hills. In the future, it seems that Kep is poised to become another tourist monstrosity. Imagine littered beaches, massive Chinese style hotels, tik-wood filled mansions etc...

As such, I feel very fortunate to have seen Kep the way it is now (cheap, natural, empty, beautiful), before the inevitable changes start to set in. If you have the chance, I recommend you stop by.

After my trip, I returned to the office to find a pretty decent pile of 'To-Dos', no surprise there. On top of this, the Burmese crew and I are moving to a apartment (featuring two bedrooms and two bathrooms!!!). I've been running back and forth between the office, my old apartment (which is located on the 5th floor[imagine me climbing up there 10 times in a row in 40 degree heat]), and my new apartment. Not a moment to spare, but that's the way I like it, which segues nicely into my next post...

Readership

For month's I've been struggling to write in my blog due to concerns over readership. Any posts targeted towards my family and friends abroad seemed flatten my experience into a simplified hyperbolic account. On the other hands, when trying to convey the nuances of my lived experience and inner mental life, I risked shunning readers at home, who wouldn't see what I was writing in context. As such I've decided to start targeting this blog solely to my loved ones at home (loosely defined as wherever people I care about reside).