Up date from Phnom Penh

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Time for another entry on the travel blog. Having spent the first two weeks in a very nice hotel, I have now moved into a small one-bedroomed apartment, which is very nice and adequate for my needs. It is costing me £245 a month and comes with all the usual facilities plus free wifi! It is good to have somewhere to cook, although nice as it is to eat out, you do get rather fed up with it every night after a while. I do feel a little more settled here but that may be partly due to the fact that I am looking forward to seeing my daughter Lucy, who is currently travelling in Thailand with a friend and will be coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Mind you I am still struggling with the heat and wonder if I will get used to it and the constant dripping perspiration! It is such a relief to go somewhere where there is air-conditioning, even to do my shopping in the supermarket!

At the moment my work placement is not wildly exciting but I guess I need to give it a bit longer to see if things improve. Sitting constantly in front of a computer screen is not really my idea of how to spend the day. There is only one other English speaker in the office, a young American woman, but she is only around for a few weeks more. Each day last week I was glad to see the end of the working day and will have to admit, that I got into rather a decadent habit of having either a glass of wine, cocktail or gin and tonic, when I got back to the hotel, as it was happy hour in the restaurant!

I have decided that the only way I am goIng to survive here for six months is to keep busy in my spare time and try and establish some English speaking contacts, especially people of the older generation! I went to a reception organised by the British embassy earlier in the week and completely alien to what I would normally do, I walked over to a group of British people of more mature years and introduced myself. By the way Kevin, if you are reading this, I did not wear a cocktail dress! Everyone was very friendly and I finished up with an invitation up to Battambang, which is a town further north in Cambodia, from an ex UK teacher would you believe, a phone call from a couple with an arrangement to meet up the week after next and an invitation to a regular Sunday brunch meeting, which I went to today and everyone made me very welcome.

I haven't done any sightseeing really over the weekend, as I have been busy moving and haggling over the price of sheets and towels in the local Russian market, which is quite some place. I guess it is similar to markets all over the world really but you don't want to spend long in it, as it has a tin roof and it is like a furnace inside! However, yesterday I was invited to a farewell boat cruise on the river Mekong by two volunteers, whose voluntary placements in Cambodia, have almost come to an end, which was lovely, as we sailed away from the jetty in the fading light with a lovely breeze to cool everyone down.

Well I have come to the end of what I have to say on this entry and I will now upload a a few photos. Messages from any of you would be most welcome.

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Photos

A street in the tourist area of Phnom Penh
The hotel, where I stayed, is located in this street

Comments

[Elsa]

At last
It's the first time I look at it but Sandra has passed on some info. At last there is some light at the end of my busy tunnel. It all sounds very interesting over there but too much sitting indoors. She said you might come home at Easter but you don't mention it in this message - 24th March. I am having a short break from my work which is nice. I'm trying to catch up on phone calls, visits to the ill and aged and e-mails. London School of Samba invited me to dance with them in Denmark in May and I'm going. I haven't seen the other two since you left but will go to Daniela's concert in April. Keep well and see you when you return. Love, Elsa

[Chris]

Greetings on 29th March
Well Julia, I just sent you an email, but have now found your blog, so am writing here too. It's great to see your photos, the ones of your street remind me so much of Bangkok, all the electric wires festooning the place. It sounds as if you are beginning to establish yourself, especially making a few contacts and getting a bit of a social life organised. Have you learned any words of Cambodian yet? Now that I've found your blog, I'll make a point of looking at it often, so do keep the photos coming! Love from Chris