Coming soon to a blog near you...

     I have so much to tell you all, but the internet is not terribly cooperative. It may be due to the massive amounts of rain we're having, but the connection is down or extraordinarily slow everywhere today. The post is written and the photos are ready to upload, but I need the bandwidth. I promise to try again tomorrow - hope for better weather and faster connections!

Everyday things

     After 20 years of my amateur haircuts at home, Steve went to the barber down the street and had the full treatment: haircut, shave, shoulder massage. A much better deal, as I never gave him the shave or massage.

You gotta trust your barber if he's holding a straight razor that close to your jugular.

I bet this barber chair is older than I am...

Haircut, shave, massage: $3.

     We bought bikes on Monday. So many choices! Well, actually, not so many: there are the $38 bikes (one speed), the $50 bikes (one speed, heavier frame) and one special $45 bike (three speeds and a belt rather than a chain.)  Steve went for silver, I liked the special blue one. They forgot to install locks before we rode home, so they came to the guest house in the evening to install them later. Unfortunately, mine had a blow-out yesterday morning about 100 yards into our first ride. The tire came off the rim, then the tube had an anuerysm and popped with a sound like a gunshot, which greatly amused some construction workers nearby. I guess the bike shop will come back yet again and fix it. Biking here is an adventure all its own, but absolutely the best way to get around town once you've got the hang of it.

My new bike - no chain, but belt-driven!
(The other bikes are those that belong to the guest house.)

     We enjoy some time with the kids every day. They are impressed by Steve's Lego-building skills, they enjoy a good book, and they wait patiently for a turn with my computer. I'm happy that our new home will be less than five minutes away by bike, because I would miss them if I couldn't continue to see them often.

     Jaz has a Khmer lesson every evening from her friend Yeum. He was Venerable Yeum when I met him in March, but after six years as a monk he has become a laymen, or just a regular guy. I didn't recognize him with hair and without his orange robes. He's a wonderful young man, and when I'm feeling a little more settled I will begin my own Khmer study. Having sat in on Jaz's lesson today, I suspect it will take me about three years to catch up to where Jaz is now. Yeum can dictate sentences and Jaz can write them in Khmer, which has one of the most challenging alphabets you can imagine - it has 70-odd characters, with things I don't understand at all like dependent and independent vowels. Wish me luck; I'll certainly need it.

Jaz and Venerable Yeum in March

Yeum and Jaz this week

     We spent some time yesterday riding around town, figuring out where we'll buy things like sheets and towels and pots and pans. We spend all kinds of time pondering questions like, "Will we want a toaster oven?" and "What will Steve cook first?" We drooled over the produce in the market as we always do, but were thrilled that we'll soon be able to shop there and bring home lots of fresh food.

Obligatory market produce photo

     Oddly, I dream of (former) co-workers almost every night lately. The dreams are vivid and complex, sometimes full of obvious themes or meaning, and at other times mysteriously weird.  It's odd to dream of people I worked with for so long when I've never dreamed of them before. It contributes to the time and space warp that seems to have happened - events in early August already feel like they happened many months ago, and full-time employment really seems like very ancient history. It's impossible to beloieve we were still in Portland a week ago.

     More house info coming soon, I promise. We went back to visit the house again yesterday and found the landlord working on some improvements we asked for (and even some we didn't.) Here's a peek at the front of the house - the landlord and his family live downstairs and we're renting the upper floor, which all by itself is larger than our house in Jericho:

Our new home. Address: 627 Banteay Chas, Slorkram Commune; Siem Reap, Cambodia

And so it begins: the first 48 hours of our life in Siem Reap.

Here are a collection of observations:

     Never having been here in the rainy season before, it’s fun to see what the weather has been like so far. It’s not nearly as hot as other times we've been here, and sometimes it’s downright pleasant and breezy. I can often sit outside without sweating at all, which I find disorienting. We’ve had one day with no rain at all, one day with brief intermittent sprinkles, and one day with a good but short-lived downpour in the afternoon and the occasional sprinkle later in the day. The puddles dry quickly, but my feet still get dirty riding through the spray from my tires. The countryside is green and lush rather than the dry empty rice paddies we usually see in March and April. There seem to be a few more mosquitoes than usual, but nothing a little DEET on my ankles won’t take care of.

     

     It’s wonderful to be back at Seven Candles Guest House with the family. The kids are all a little bigger, but no less amusing and engaging. "The kids" are Yaya (age 5), Alice (also age 5 but a few months older than Yaya), Alice’s brother Fifi (age 6) and Yaya’s older sister and brother  Sasa and Sith who are (I think) 11 and 13. We see very little of the older kids, especially Sith, but by Day #2 the younger ones were at our door, ready to see if we brought any good snacks and jump on our bed and draw pictures of mermaids. Fifi seems displeased by the notion that we will be moving out into our own house, but we talk about how he will come and visit, and in the meantime, he’s very happy to go anywhere with us.

     

     The town itself looks the same, though it is obvious that it is not a busy season for tourism. There are still construction projects scattered everywhere, as well as numerous examples of Constructus Interruptus – half-finished buildings of all sizes that appear to have been abandoned mid-stream. A few familiar restaurants and businesses have disappeared, and new ones have taken their place. My favorite place to get iced Vietnamese coffee has been dismantled and is being reborn as a guest house. Some of Jaz’s friends have set up a little noodle restaurant that opens every evening in a space otherwise occupied by a computer business. A new upscale restaurant opened between the guest house and downtown – we chanced upon it one night and splurged on a nice meal and cocktails with our friend Lori.

     Food! Glorious food! On our first full day here, we were a bit extravagant. Steve and I had breakfast at one place ($7 for eggs, toast, coffee, tea, etc. for two, though ordering a "vegetarian omelette" got me two poached eggs with a side of hot dogs and french fries....?), Jaz and Steve went somewhere else for lunch (another $7 for curried chicken with rice and a tuna melt) and then we had the very splurgy dinner mentioned above ($35 for several cocktails and some fascinating Khmer fusion cuisine that included things like Mango Lobster on a Cucumber Nest, Leek Mushroom Cappucino, Mekong Lobster Tagliatelle, and two cocktails each.) The next day, we ate simply. Breakfast cost a dollar each for eggs and beef served on a cast iron griddle with baguette on the side. Lunch included 50-cent drafts of my favorite beer and $1 tacos, and dinner was Jaz’s treat at her friends’ restaurant, where a plate of noodles, meat and vegetables costs a dollar, though beer is a little pricey at a dollar. I’m still most excited to get our own place so Steve can set up the kitchen and start cooking, but clearly eating out here can be plenty cheap – and the choices are almost endless.

"vegetarian omelette" -
well, there were vegetables on the side...

     How we spend our time so far: When we’re not eating or hanging out with the kids or making house-hunting plans, we sit on the balcony and watch the traffic and the monks go by. We listen to the morning roosters, quickly followed by the sounds of ice being chopped or metal being cut or someone with a loudspeaker driving around town announcing something we don’t understand. We watch the construction across the street and marvel at the low-tech methods for building multi-story concrete buildings. We zip and unzip our bags looking for surge protectors or toothpaste or something else we can’t quite find yet. We compile lists of things we should do: buy bikes, find a decent map, stop by Wat Damnak to say hello. Sometimes we just sit on the front steps of the guest house chatting with whoever is around, or sitting and doing nothing at all but watching various projects going on around the house. Sitting, watching, smiling, wondering.

     Other expenses: Our room at the guesthouse will cost us $15/night while we’re here. (We get the friends & family discount – it’s usually $20.) We had some laundry done, which cost $3.50 for 10 T-shirts, 3 pairs of pants, and a pile of underwear – all washed dried, folded and ironed We stocked up our mini-fridge with milk, juice, beer, diet soda, coffee, cereal, a few snacks,  and even a bottle of wine, which came to $27. We bought $20 worth (40+ hours) of internet time. We bought SIM cards for our phone ($3 each) and $5 worth of calling credit for each of us.  We hired a tuktuk for 2-3 hours one day while we went around looking at houses for rent and paid $10 for that – we probably could have paid much less and still been fair, but we like to take good care of the drivers, especially when tourism is slow and business is scarce.

A tuktuk (pronounced "took took") -
most of the motorbikes are 100-125 cc,
and I have no idea how they pull such loads.

     The housing search:  We had been in contact with two real estate agents before we arrived and told them what we were looking for. (Three bedrooms, close to town, some a/c and hot water, in the range of $350/month.) We went out briefly on Friday afternoon with one agent to see a couple of places and made arrangements to see more with him on Monday morning. On Sunday morning we were expecting the second agent to come by at 9:30, but he postponed until the afternoon, which led us to spend the morning out on our bikes looking for “House For Rent” signs. Our first stop was a house that we liked quite a bit, and we were able to look inside with the owner, who lives downstairs. We rode around town for a couple of hours and looked at a one or two others, then saw six more with the agent in the afternoon. Each one he showed us had some good features – either a nice yard with trees, or a bright clean kitchen, or a fantastic second-floor covered terrace – and some drawbacks – too far out of town, dark musty interior, tiny inadequate kitchen. By late afternoon, our heads were swimming with the choices. None were just right, and my thoughts kept going back to the one we had stumbled upon ourselves in the morning. In the early evening, the family piled us into the van to take us to look at yet another house that belonged to the friend of a friend, and this one was clearly not it - while it had its good points, there was no kitchen at all! (When we pointed out this small problem, we were assured, "Oh, no problem! We make kitchen for you!") Then we took the family back with us to look at the first house again – and we all agreed it was the right one. Not surprisingly, it turned out that some of the family members knew the owner, as he works for Laos Airlines and they cross paths in the course of their jobs.  More house details to follow – I’ll keep you in suspense for now, but it looks like we’ll be moving in next week!

No shortage of places for rent...
finding the right one has been the challenge.

     We're adjusting to the time change rather well - I'm awake between 5:00 and 6:00 every day, which is fine. Brief naps are a nice way to pass a bit of the afternoon, so I can still awake past 9:00 pm. 

     List of Things To Do Today:

• Buy bikes
• Pick up a package we mailed to ourselves at the post office
• Start looking in the markets for household items we will need
• Find Steve's camera battery charger
• Read
• Relax
• Drink beer

That about covers it. As I hope you can see, all is going well.


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Leaving isn’t easy, but not for the reasons you might think – or, why I cried in the airport.

     Oddly enough, I didn’t cry when I  left our home or my long-time job or when I said goodbye to my kids or my parents. I cried only once, and it was at the airport, and I cried about how much we had to pay for extra and overweight luggage. I rarely cry, and never in public if I can help it, but the tears just rolled. I was certainly frustrated and pained by the amount of money, but I suppose it was not so surprising that something would put me over the edge on the day we were really leaving.

     It’s not as if I didn’t try to find out what the baggage charges would be. Asiana Airlines doesn’t list them on their website, and my two attempts to call and ask just led me into a voicemail labyrinth from which I could find no escape – and no live person to talk to. It was also frustrating because while PDX staff kept insisting that certain things were “TSA rules,” they had never been mentioned or enforced on our way from BTV – PDX or on any other flight I’ve ever been on. In fact, I gloated a little in an earlier post about how I could actually board a JetBlue flight with five carry-on items, but in Portland everyone seemed terrified to bend the “TSA rule” that allegedly limits everyone to two carry-ons only, no exceptions. And sometimes people in positions of small power like to wield that power unpleasantly. Let’s just say I left PDX with a lighter wallet and a heavy dose of frustration, and we ended up with five checked bags rather than four.

     Our time in the Seattle airport, on the other hand, was easy and time passed very quickly as we met up with my cousin Julien for coffee. I hadn’t seen Julien in more than 30 years, so we had some serious catching up to do, and I was delighted that he would take the time to come all the way to the airport to see us. An hour slipped away before we knew it, but that still left us plenty of time to get through security easily (even with our abundance of carry-on items) and then get to our gate an hour before take-off. Of course, someone had managed to reassign us seats that were in different rows, but we easily found someone on the plane willing to make a switch so we could sit together. And the Asiana Airline flight attendants are the most charming and pleasant I’ve seen in a long time – or maybe that’s just relative to the unsmiling faces we dealt with all day before boarding.

A cousin reunion at Starbucks in the SEA airport -
see any resemblance?

    Our flights to Seoul and then on to Phnom Penh passed as flights usually do - I watched a movie or two, dozed, ate mediocre airline food, and tried to stay hydrated.We landed in Phnom Penh around 11 pm and got through the gauntlet of visa applications, passport control, baggage claim and customs. I was pleased that all our bags were already waiting for us at the baggage carousel, and even more pleased to see Rethy and Mr Hang waiting for us with the van to bring us to our hotel. (I love the awkward greetings with Khmer male friends - they approach us smiling, hands out for shaking, and then continue to move in closer for the obligatory American-style hug, which they tolerate passively with arms limp at their sides.) Our hotel was perfectly lovely, though apparently no one got the memo with our reservation which requested a ground-floor room to avoid dragging our luggage any further than necessary, so we schlepped it all up two flights of stairs. Then we practically raced each other for long-overdue showers. What a surprise when I opened one of our bags to get my shampoo and discovered granola bars that I hadn't packed...and diapers! This certainly was not our bag! Thanks to the luggage tag that included the owner's email address, by 2:00 am we had made contact with the family who had grabbed our identical bag by mistake, and made a plan to swap the bags the next morning.

     We spent Friday morning visiting the National Museum with our Khmer entourage: the family had taken advantage of the opportunity to come to Phnom Penh to pick us up, so Rethy, Mr Hang and his wife and 2-year-old son, Dara and his wife Areni and their 5-year-old daughter Yaya, Dara's sister Srei, Dara and Srei's 5-year-old niece Alice, and Dara's mom all had come to town, so the van ride back to Siem Reap was cozy. We were here at the guest house by 5:30, happy to be done with traveling and especially happy to see Jaz and the rest of the family.

     We're finally here! It feels so familiar, as if I haven't been away very long at all. Now it's time for a good night's sleep before we start our search for a place to live.

Coming soon: baggage blues, luggage laments, carry-on crises

We're here! Safe and sound in Phnom Penh, and we'll be in Siem Reap by this evening. And an hour so from now, we should have all our own luggage in our possession again, which will be nice. More details to come...

Oh yeah - we were smiling, but only because we had no idea what was to come!

PDX oddities and last-minute observations

Why do they name their ice cream flavors after disgraced East Coast politicians?
What's next - Elliot Spitzer Crisp?

Two of my supermarket pet peeves addressed on one sign. Perfect.

Hanging out in Portland

     Our stopover in Portland has been great fun - we've had nice weather, good food, long walks, and time to just hang out with the kids. I'll let the photos tell more of the story.

Saturday Farmers' Market; we had a feast..

Someone did a nice job choosing that tablecloth.

Tamale!

Eating - and probably talking about food.

Blackberries taste like my childhood.

From the Farmers' Market to the Saturday Market...

The Willamette River runs through the middle of town,
and there's a great riverfront walkway.

I spent several happy hours in here, even though I couldn't buy a thing.
(OK, so I bought a copy of Utne Reader to read on the next plane ride.)

There are plenty of vegans, music, and dogs in this town.

Alberta Street Fair - wheel of fortune!
If you were lucky, you could win a free haircut...though we're not sure what her outfit has to do with it.

This kid was having a ball playing along with his toy piano.
(There is no shortage of kids in Portland.)

Waiting for pizza and cannoli.
It was worth the wait.

Wine country on a hazy afternoon. The scenery was beautiful, and the wines were tasty.