This ‘feature’ is long overdue. Sreisaat, the Queen of Wishful Shrinking and I actually went on this ‘Noodle House’ food trip a month or so ago. Lol. But life happened and I also forgot to download the photos from my camera. I should really just stick to using one camera for blogging coz I always forget where I stuck the photos.

Anyway, we were invited to a movie screening by the ever generous Legend Cinema Phnom Penh and afterwards we were starving. Yes, popcorns and cola weren’t enough for us. You know, we do have a big appetite hahaha.. So we checked out our Phnom Penh Drinking and Dining guidebooks and picked out The Noodle House. I guess we were in the mood for some noodle goodness. It’s located a few blocks down from the riverfront in a lovely old colonial house.

Love the simple decor, the really friendly service and the food. The drinks menu was really interesting too. Here’s what I had.

Keuy Teuw in Spicy Coconut Soup.

Fruit-Mint Shake – the exact name on the menu escapes me now but you can bet it was a really interesting name.

Vegetarian Steamed Buns

Yummyness and very very affordable too! This was definitely a treat, and I must say I would prefer treating myself to this than buying myself call of duty modern warfare 3 xbox 360. Yes, that should tell something about moi. That.. my stomach comes first.

Noodle House

32A, St. 130

Tel. 077 919 110

Here goes my random post again. This is beginning to be my favorite part of this blog. Lol. It may not be that ‘SEO friendly’ nor do I think posts like this would get a lot of hits and earn my blog a gazillion but then it makes me happy to write down my most random thoughts. There is just something so liberating about being able to write down even my most convulted thoughts. It allows me some time to be introspective and also marvel at the circuitous way my brain actually works. Hahaha.

So what have I been up to and thinking of these past week?

My first thought yesterday? Oh no. I totally forgot to post my Cambodia Snapshots entries for last week. My excuse: I was swamped with things to do. Hi-ace was going to a week-long meeting in Korea and with a load of things he has to do already, he was left with little time to prepare his stuff. So it was no brainer that I’d put on my ‘secretary’ hat and prepare presentations and such.

Phnom Penh’s see-sawing weather is driving me nuts. Why? I dunno when is the best time to do laundry. Lol. The past week whenever it looks like were going to have some sun, I always make a mad dash to load the washing machine. I know I could make use of the dryer but I still prefer to just squeeze dry our clothes and leave it to fully dry under the sun.

The level of water on Mekong River is scaring me. I know this is the first time I have seen it that high. I don’t want to see more flooding.

I’m sooo looking forward to our trip to Manila on the 27th. I miss my mom and the family will be together for All Saint’s Day. We’ll all be visiting Papa’s grave. This will be the first time I go home and won’t be seeing him and I can’t help but tear up. I miss him dreadfully, I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that I won’t be seeing him anymore. Ever.

On a lighter note, I decided to add little somethings to my wardrobe. You know I swore when I was younger that even if I get fat or thin when I age, I don’t want to look losyang. I always believe one should make an effort to look good whatever age, size, color etc you are. Some do it for others (ie to please their husbands, bf’s etc) but me, I do it for myself. I feel good about myself when I’m dressed presentably.

You might ask why I don’t dress up primarily for hubby. Well, he already thinks I’m a goddess so I need not worry. LOL. Kidding! I hope he doesn’t read this. Hahaha.

I do like shopping, but most of the time I prefer thrift shopping. Or bargain shopping. That’s why I just loooove Tuol Tompong Market (Russian Market) here in Phnom Penh. There are lots of branded factory overun clothing in there at just a fraction of its retail price. So this is where I get my everyday and casual clothing. I simply can’t justify spending more than $20 on a clothes that I would just use inside the house or for a casual stroll outside and that’s the main reason I shop at Russian Market for clothes.  They are cheap and chic. I blog more about my shopping and thrift finds at GirlOnaThriftHunt

All items from various stalls in Russian Market-Phnom Penh.

• Leggings – $2 each; Nice fabric, I wasn’t too keen though on the way the ends flare a bit. I like my leggings tapered. But this is definitely very serviceable. And at that price? Huh, great steal.
• One-piece dresses – $3 each; I love this. Can be worn alone or with leggings. The fabric is soft and made of cotton. The sewing though is not perfect but at that price, I’m not complaining.
• Tank Tops – 3 for $5. Very comfy. I got three in neutral colors. Easy to pair with other clothes. Great fabric.
• Cardigans – $3 each. <3 <3 <3. Lightweight and stylish cardigan. Perfect for chilly days without adding a lot of bulk. I’m going crazy about cardigans these days. Lol.

This is a photo heavy post ) Hmm, I’m just too lazy to spread this over several posts. A week ago, we had long holiday because the Khmers were celebrating Pchum Ben. With a few days on our hands we decided to visit Ho Chi Minh City again. Last time we went there we didn’t do much sightseeing, we were just there to eat and shop. We picked the place since its near, just a few hours bus ride. For the PP-HCM leg of our trip we took Mekong Express. Left 8:30 am and before 1:30 pm we were already getting our passports stamped at the Vietnam border. You know you’re in Vietnam when you see this..Heh.

I pre-booked our hotel, picked out Hong Thien Loc Hotel for its proximity to buses going to Phnom Penh and also its right along Pham Ngu Lao street. Very central. The hotel was nice enough, nothing stellar but good enough and I got a really good deal online compared to if we just walked in.

And here’s pic spam of our three day trip.

I actually feel right at home in Ho Chi Minh city. I feel like I’m just in a bigger version of Phnom Penh. What with millions of motorbikes making the city roads their raceways? Well for some, the streaming hordes of motorbikes is a novelty and often scary but I must have gotten immune to it while living in Phnom Penh. I think its pretty ordinary hahaha. And I just found out I’m pretty good at crossing the road and deftly avoiding being side swept by those flying motos..

Above: Backpacker Central – De Tham Street

Tiny alleys packed with mini hotels..

Eats? One of my favorite things to do in Vietnam..We can’t get enough of Pho..

The usual tourist circuit..Hehe we decided to do what the usual tourists do..

Reunification Palace. This place obviously didn’t interest me much. This is the only photo I took of the place.

War Remnants Museum.

Lovely Notre Dame Cathedral

I’ve been thinking of starting a ‘random things’ post for my blogs for a long time already. But the procrastinator in me just keeps me from doing so. But since were half-way through the year and I want to have at least one thing off my ‘new year’s resolution – to do list’ then I’m starting this now. Be forewarned, though, I think my random-ness posts would be a lot more personal and messy compared to my other posts. This would be where I’ll be blurbing about things that come and go on my mind. Of course, mostly things I experience everyday, things I observe and whatnot…

• I did a huge load of  laundry today coz it’s drizzling. Yes, I’m weird like that. And now I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it won’t smell bad. Lol.
• Yesterday, I met my Phnom Penh friends, Sreisaat and Mumsified. And I suddenly think I do miss them. You know I’m not exactly very social, and coupled with loads of things I have to do, I’m always left with no time to see friends. So it was great to see them.
• I dropped by IBC bookstore and I ended up buying another pile of notebooks. I seriously don’t know what to do with them except that I looooove notebooks. Oh well, maybe I should start writing down project ideas on one.
• I also went to the wet market with the intention of buying vegetables. But I ended up buying fish, eggs and pork. No sign of greens. I guess I have to go back again tomorrow?
• Need to go and book our tickets to Ho Chi Minh. Well be spending the Pchum Benh holidays there. And oh I really have to search for a hotel. Any recommendations? And I would prefer a nice hotel near Ben Than Market.
• Saturday and Sunday well be visiting several wats and making our offerings.
• And oh, I really really love Khmer iced tea. It doesn’t taste a bit like our usual ‘lemon iced tea’ which is yummy but I know its all just sugar and artificial flavoring. The Khmer iced tea though is made from freshly brewed tea with a twist of lemon + lots of ice.

Ooops. I’ve been missing my regular living in Phnom Penh posts! Lately I’ve been posting mostly just Cambodia Snapshots and Khmer food photos. I do still have my blogging mojo, but I was simply preoccupied with lots of things. Mainly mommy and wifey things. Priorities . I have also been reviving some old blogs and finally I have some spare time now so I would be posting some snippets of our life in Phnom Penh.

For the past few weeks, I had been obsessing on getting fit. I spend a lot of my time tinkering with the computer since I work online so I don’t want to spend some spare time staring at the idiot box or playing on a tablet pc, so I decided I should give myself some love and be fit. I considered enrolling in a gym, but I think that is not for me. I’ve tried that before when I was in the Philippines but I always end up not going. Enrolling in a fitness class is also a no go for me coz I prefer to have a flexible schedule. So I decided to get fit on my own. I started with weekend early morning walks. Now, I jog/walk 4-5 times per week. I do my jogging in the parks , which thankfully Phnom Penh has a lot of. I could walk in the streets but for safety reasons, hubby told me to just walk in the park, I’m the queen of klutz, you see so I could understand his point.

So this has become a routine for us. During the weekends we usually go to the Vietnamese-Cambodian Friendship Park in Sothearos. They have a big free play area for kids so the kiddo can play till she drops and hubby and I can do our brisk walking around the park.

During weekdays, after I send off the kiddo to school and hubby is off to work, I jog around Hun Sen Park. A couple of rounds on that huge park is really exhilarating. Plus you get awesome scenery and this is also an interesting place to do some people watching. See? The photo below was taken during my walk this morning. Lovely, isn’t it?

Sigh. This is what I love about living in Phnom Penh. It’s a simple and good life. You still get to enjoy things for free.

A late post.  I had this in my drafts but I simply forgot to click on the publish button. Sigh. But its never too late for goodies and eye candy right? And I did have boatloads of eye candy with Legend Cinema’s Fast and Furious 5 advance screening and awesome hot cars event. The guys at Legend sure are very generous and you’ve gotta hand it to them. They come up with cool and fun marketing activities for each movie feature. Fast and Furious 5 is still on, so check out Legend Cinema‘s site and Facebook Fanpage.

I was pretty much excited to see Fast and Furious 5. I have watched the previous installments for this series and I did enjoy most of them. Visually, its stunning and who can resist hot cars, anyway? I’m also a fan of Vin Diesel’s voice {lol! yeah his voice} and to see him again with Paul Walker would be a treat. Adding Dwayne Johnson to the cast sure was a stroke of brilliance on the part of whoever produced this film. And I liked the movie. It had awesome visuals, effects, and the script was unexpectedly funny {check out the movie quotes here and you’ll get what I mean}. Yes, funny and that was a surprise since I was thinking this would be an all out action movie considering the mega dose of testosterone from the presence of both Diesel, Johnson and others. As for the acting, well it was so so, but who cares anyway. Just concentrate on the muscles. That’s my advice. LOL.

Here’s the trailer if you need some convincing..

Going hand in hand with the movie {and coincidentally they were also showing Cars 2..}, Legend held a hot car exhibit and here’s some snapshots.

 

Kudos to Legend Cinema’s team for the onslaught of cool events. I think its high time Phnom Penh gets to enjoy all these.