I was in a ‘take-a-breather’ and have a look at what I’ve done with blogging mood last week. I was busy making a blog master list, blog posting schedule and doing that made me realize from one blog hosted in Blogger, my online endeavors have mushroomed into something big, well its big at least for me. I’m a one-woman show you know, I don’t have writers on my payroll hahaha so having more than 10 blogs is big.

How do I keep up with it? By being organized and picking only topics that I have real interest in. I have learned early on that I always end up abandoning blogs when the topics are not of interest to me, so I stick to stuff close to my heart. Also, from something that I considered a hobby, blogging is now earning me a decent side income! An added motivator .

I’ve been blogging for close to five years already and this blog is running towards its 4th year, and I figured its about time I give something back to my precious few readers. I’ve been thinking of running regular giveaways on my blogs. Since this blog is all about living as an expat in Phnom Penh and exploring Cambodian culture, then its just a cool idea if I giveaway stuff uniquely Khmer and other items made in Cambodia. What do you think?

I still have to think about the mechanics etc, so I’ll be posting the details soon. I’ll also be running giveaways on my other blogs GirlonAThriftHunt and FeminineReveries.  GOTH is about bargain shopping so little trinkets and bargain buys would make cool giveaways. I’m thinking of easter gifts for kids to start off the fun this April. As for Feminine Reveries, its about fashion so I figured fashionable trendy stuff would do great.

Any thoughts or suggestions? What would you like to get as giveaways?

When I first visited Phnom Penh way back in 2004, I was just alarmed at how vans and other vehicles cram every space in their car till its almost bursting at their seams. It scares me to just stay behind these cars for fear they would suddenly ‘unload’ their load on us. lol! Safety here obviously is not of primary concern. Insurance, injury lawyers like personal injury Tucson are almost ignored or unheard of.

Especially vans travelling to provinces are soooo crammed full of people, goods. It’s an ordinary thing to see a motorbike or two hanging at the end part of vans with just a teeny weeny rope holding it in place. I told hubby about this concern and he said, people particularly in the provinces make do with the limited resources they have. Petrol is expensive and the vans traveling back and forth to these areas are limited so they have to fill it up with their supplies as much as they can.

I can understand that but I also fear for their safety. I wish they government could do something about establishing about a better transportation option and an effective railway system would help them out. Cargoes like this are better transported using trains don’t you think?

Every time I see a van filled up to the gills, I can’t help but utter a silent prayer. To keep their passengers and motorists safe.

Forgot to update this last time, but here goes some airfare promos from one of our favorite budget airlines. It’s almost summer so why not go for a nice beach vacation or perhaps a shopping break? Check out AirAsia’s latest promo fares.

Magnificent Malaysia  - Book from 15 March 2011 – 20 March 2011 | Travel Period – 11 November 2011 – 29 February 2012. Fly from for a super low fare starting from $9.

School Break – Book from 14 March 2011 – 20 March 2011 | Travel Period  - 4 May 2011 – 30 June 2011

• Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur – $45
• Phnom Penh to Bangkok – $25
• + A lot more destinations.

Don’t Think Twice, Just Pay The Lower Price – Book from 7 March 2011 – 20 March 2011 | Travel Period - 1 June 2011 – 31 August 2011

Where to find this and that. That’s the usual expat dilemma when moving and living in a new place. Come to think of it, I’ve been here close to three years already and I still find myself constantly doing classified searches. So I decided to compile a list of my favorite Cambodia websites offering classified services and more.

{If you know of other sites not mentioned here, kindly leave a comment or email me via my contact page so I could update the list..}

Classifieds:

(1)  Bong Thom – well known classified site here in Cambodia. Offers classified listings as well as job listing. This is usually one of the first sites I visit when I am looking for something.  Though the site is not so aesthetically pleasing and sometimes can be confusing to navigate from too much text and bling blings, I have to give it credit for having great categorization. All classifieds have categories so it’s much easier to look for what you want. Another plus is their RSS feeds readily available for you to subscribe. If you have a RSS reader, just subscribe to their feeds and you can easily get updated.

(2) Classifieds Cambodia – another free Cambodia classified site. Easy to navigate and well organized. Plus factor? Thumbnail feature, where you can have a quick view of the items/services on offer.

(3) Expat Advisory Forum – Classifieds –  A well known Cambodia expat forum with classified ads listings. Worth checking out. You can also get advice on where to get hard to find items.

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…