Or at least trying to. Lol! It’s beginning to swelter here, I know I should stop wishing its December still and just deal with it. The summer heat and dust is all part and parcel of living in Phnom Penh. The kiddo has been constantly asking to go to swim. But it suddenly occurred to me that I did buy her an inflatable pool last Christmas and this has been on storage waiting for the summer season.

So I spent the whole of Saturday morning just blowing air in the inflatable pool. Hahahaha, joke. We set it up in the front yard and she had a whale of a time splashing about.  So that’s how the kiddo beat the summer heat, and I was seriously tempted to jump in too but I was just too shy coz there were a lot of onlookers aka our neighbors.

 

We might just make this a weekly thing from now on…

 

 

Something spontaneous. That’s how hubby plans his trips so this is no longer a surprise. Last week he just came up with the idea of going to the beach coz Phnom Penh is too hot. So okay, we packed some swimming gear, called our usual hotel for a bungalow and set off early Saturday. We usually take Capitol Bus (near Orussey Market), RT to Sihanoukville costs just about 30,000 Riels (about $8).  We left around 7:15 am, stopped one time somewhere in between for some snacks, and before 12 noon we were already settling in nicely at our hotel.

Orchidee.. Popular with expats. Good value hotel, really friendly service and just a few hundred meters from the beach and dining options, and yes they do have a lot of orchids..

a major reason why we always book with Orchidee.. the pool!

 

After a quick lunch, the kiddo was all excited to swim already so we just walked over to nearby Ochheuteal Beach. This beach is really popular and could get really crowded but I prefer swimming here as the water is shallow, the sand oh-so-fine and there are lots of seaside bars you can order drinks from. I plopped down on one cushioned recliner (rent it for just a dollar) with a huge shady umbrella while the kiddo and hubby frolicked in the waves.

seaside bars..

a stretch of the beach…

I was not yet even seated for 5 minutes and a couple of beach vendors began asking me to buy this and that. This used to annoy me but I learned that a firm NO they can easily understand. But I gave in to one lady asking if I wanted to clean my toe nails. I haven’t had a pedicure for ages so I said yes. So I got a little foot pedicure complete with scrub.

the pedicure lady…and she favors multi-colored nails!

 

the bead girl I had fun talking with..

A child sauntered near and asked me to buy some of her beads jewelry, I said no, but I can’t help but engage her in a conversation. She’s 12, goes to school in the morning, afternoon she spends her time selling accessories on the beach and also she said she practices her English with barangs and in the evenings she does her homework. I had a really interesting conversation with her and I found it admirable she speaks an almost perfect English.

After a few hours of swimming, we had to drag kiddo out of the water lol! and went back to the hotel, but I guess the few hours swimming wasn’t enough for her coz she went right into the swimming pool for another hour. Then we had a quick snack of pizza then met up with hubby’s colleagues for dinner.

We got up early the next day. Had our free breakfast buffet and headed over to where else but the beach again. This is the best time for me to swim, early morning till about 8 or 9 am. Then we moved to the pool.. Then it was time for lunch, I was too exhausted I just opted to have a tuna sandwich. Then it was time to head back to Phnom Penh. Hmmm, I wonder I feel so tired but relaxed at the same time..

too much swimming and this happens… hehe that’s the kiddo playing around.

 

Capitol Tours

14AEo, Street 182

beside Capitol Guesthouse

+(855) (0)23-217627

 

Orchidee Guesthouse

#23 Tola St Ochheuteal Beach, Sihanoukville

+(855) (0) 34 933 639 | +(855) (0)12 380 300

www.orchidee-guesthouse.com

email: orchidee@camintel.com

 

Yahoo! Saturday. I was actually almost giddy last night coz I don’t have to get up early to fix breakfast. No classes so I could at least stay in bed till 7. But alas! Hi-ace and the kiddo have different plans. Both woke up so early. And when somebody is up, I can’t really just sleep. And besides the kiddo finds it fun to tickle me till I’ve no choice but to get up.

So what to do? Saturdays are my downtime. I don’t do anything, its my time to be lazy or to do whatever I fancied. So we just drove over to RUPP coz the kiddo wants to feed the fishes there. There’s a couple of small ponds in the university {IFL} with lots of tilapia fishes and she has taken a fancy to those fishes and always goes there to feed them. Then we had breakfast in the cafeteria there. Ssshh, this is one secret indulgence..breakfast in small Khmer eateries. I had…

Iced coffee – I dunno why Khmers like ice coffee for breakfast or anytime of the day, but I’m not complaining. I love coffee here.It’s soooooo good, a must try.

And beef kho kohr with yellow noodle – I lurve this noodle!!! And I like it really spicy so I dump a lot of chili on it! It was hot and so flavorful I almost wish I had Swisher Sweets to take out the spice!

After that burplicious and super cheap breakfast, we just drove around, dropped by a thrift shop then went to market to buy some ingredients for something I want to cook. When we got home I got busy making biko, a Filipino traditional delicacy made with sticky rice, coconut milk, palm sugar.

I had a fab day.. but geez, I realize dieting is making me weird. All photos I took today are of FOOD! Gah!!!

Yesterday was my sister, Ouwie’s birthday. This is the second time she had her birthday in Phnom Penh. At first we planned on just eating out as we were both feeling lazy. But then again most of our birthdays, we usually cook at home, enjoy some quiet time and wine. Were both not into parties, you see.

In the end, we decided to cook food at home and share it with our neighbor and the kids. Though there weren’t any invitees we still ended up preparing a lot of food. I guess my goal of getting rid of belly fat is on precarious level. It’s really in danger of going haywire lol! I made creme caramel for dessert. Actually most of the creme caramel went to the nephews and nieces as they really love it. The leftovers were the birthday dessert.

Also made shrimp and meatballs spaghetti, I also marinated pork ribs and grilled it which was just perfect with red wine. It was a lazy, burp-lilcious day. And to Ouwie, cheers to your birthday!! And my birthday wish for her? For her to get married and give us some tots to spoil and Chinkee to have cousins to play with. Ha! Talk about pressure.Not much.

And oh, I took photos of the food, but I’ll share that on Friday for FTF.. I’m just too lazy to transfer it from the camera.

Sometimes things really don’t go as planned. And it feels like this week things aren’t going my way. But I’m not complaining, I could just sigh and move on. There are times too I’m in the mood to be surprised. Like I was supposed to go to Olympic Market to buy stocks on wholesale, but it seemed to be always pushed off. Last Tuesday I was already dressed to go but something else came up. Then I was planning to go on a day out with my friends when the night before one of hubby’s older relatives passed away and we were supposed to go to the wake. Having someone pass away is not a welcome news but that’s how life is..

And not just that, a lot of small must-do’s and things I plan on doing seems to be getting side tracked. Like I was planning to have my other laptop reconditioned and the VGA card replaced, but I can’t seem to make it to the shop. Hahaha! I know, that can be frustrating specially when I looked and asked already about prices of reconditioned laptops because I’m planning to just sell it coz I rarely use it. Oh well. At least, I have something to do next week.

Now on to work…

Cambodia has  a sizable Chinese population and their influence in the Khmer culture is really evident. From their food, language and also their traditions and rituals. It’s hardly surprising that Chinese New Year is celebrated here in a more festive manner than the International New Years.

The Lunar New Year is not an official holiday here in Cambodia but even non-Chinese Khmers look forward to this occasion. Most shops and business are closed for a few days. Everything is quiet and majority just stay home, making offerings and praying, while the rest hightail it to the provinces.

Hubby’s family stays home mostly and observe a lot of rituals. They cook a lot of food (seriously a lot..and can last a few days..), make offerings, visit relatives, give gifts, on the first two days. Then the following days are usually rest days. All in all the celebration-holiday lasts for about 5 days.

Anyway, after we were done with offerings and prayers for the first day, we had nothing else to do. Most businesses were closed so Hi-ace decided we go visit the Chinese temple in Takhmao. So off we went. But it was soooooo crowded. I just ended up taking photos of the temple entrance.

A lot of people – Chinese and non-Chinese alike, were lining up the streets buying sugar cane stalks, pomegranate fruits and leaves and mien fruit which they will take inside the temple to be blessed. They believe sugar cane to bring in good luck, help foster harmonious relationships, the pomegranate they believe to ward off bad luck and evil, and the mien/longgan bring in prosperity and wealth.

We did not go inside the temple but instead went to another Chinese temple a few hundred meters from the first one. I love this temple and regularly visit. It’s pretty colorful, ornate, and not so crowded. There was mini-dragon dance and Chinks loves looking at their turtle pond..