When we moved here in Phnom Penh, one of my biggest apprehensions was getting along with Khmers. What if they are not nice? What if I find them unapproachable or what if they find me obnoxious? What if I I don’t get along with any of them? I’m famous known among my friends to be aloof and could sometimes be brutally frank. People usually assume at first that I’m unfriendly and I just can’t help the way I am, I’m just not the type to let people close when I hardly know them at all. I’m far from those friendly, ‘social butterfly’ types of person. So, let’s just say, I was scared about how I would fare socially here.

I guess I let my crazy anxieties get the better of me, coz when I got here I was just proven wrong.  I found Khmers to be very friendly and warm. When we arrived I got along famously first with my nephews and nieces mainly because I could easily communicate with them in English. I remember our first day, Hi-ace’s niece set aside half her day so she could tour me around the market and help me buy the things I need. She had always been ready to help with everything.

Cutie Khmer kids..

Khmer ‘Ta’  (grandpa) manning a store..

My Khmer sister-in-law’s are also very very nice. It’s a pity I can only speak and understand a smattering of Khmer but they never left me out and go to some length using sign language to make me understand.

They are tactile sort too. They are touchy and don’t be surprised to see people holding hands even men! I remembered I was really surprised when a few days of knowing me, one of my sister in law walked around in a mall with me and it was just natural for her to hold my arm or drape her hands over my shoulders companionably. I wasn’t used to that, but I must confess I felt touched that she didn’t consider me strange enough to stay aloof from me.

Chinks and I had a brief stopover in Singapore on the way to Manila from Phnom Penh. We only have two days to do our bit of gallivanting around Singapore but I was just so not in the mood to do a thorough tour. We’ll probably do that again when Hi-ace is with us, but since it was just me and Chinks plus I was a bit under the weather that time, we just decided on eating, a little mall hopping and Chinkee just wants to ride the flyer.

Okay, I would have wanted to check out the newly opened Universal Studios but I’d prefer to have somebody else with us. Traveling with a hyperactive kid is just exhausting. Anyway, Singapore is a small city and their transportation system I found easy and convenient, its clean and for some odd reason I find myself thinking of Insinkerator disposals whenever I see the streets of Singapore. .

After checking in our hotel, we hauled ourselves in a cab and went on to Singapore Flyer. It was drizzling a bit and gloomy, and I was thinking it should have been better if we went there in the evening. Singapore Flyer is in this huge, mall-like complex. There are lots of shops, restos, and nice views all around.

Ticket costs S$29.50 for adults and S$20.65 for the kiddo. We got into the tube and prepared ourselves to be dizzy! But I thought wrong, I couldn’t even feel it move! All I know was that we were moving higher up and the views getting fantastic by each minute. One round takes about 20 minutes and we had a cool time snapping photos. It was lucky too that it was just Chinks me and another couple with one kid on the big capsule.

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Twas’ fun but Chinks said riding a roller coaster is better. Haha!

Well, that’s me for the past few days. You might have noticed, I did a few posts, mostly of meme variety. I know I still owe you guys some posts and photos of our vacation, but I guess my procrastination period is not yet on a declining trend, lol!

I  resemble this right now. Really! Except I must say, I’m better looking..lol!

I guess I’m feeling melancholic about not having Hi-ace here and this is not so good for me. When I’m feeling like this I tend to binge. Till now I can’t believe I went on a ice cream and pizza shopping spree the day after hubby left? I ate a pint of ice cream and one whole double pizza just by myself, and I felt horrible afterwards, like I could never get up anymore..

Thankfully, Ouwie and Chinks are with me and keep dragging me everywhere. One lucky thing too, MIL keeps bringing us food, cooked food and fruits so we have no need to cook most of the time. I’m also happy I’ve got friends here in Phnom Penh who I could go out with, pass the time with coffee, girl talk, and thrifting!

I’m keeping busy with my multitude of blogs and I’m ecstatic about some blog experiments I’ve been making. I’ve got a couple of new blogs needing a lot of tweaking and I’m having a grand time doing so. I’m also helping out a cousin with a web project and another cousin with his medical job search. Hmm, my sched is a bit full, so why am I feeling so lazy and bone tired?

Perhaps, I’m in need of some pampering? I should visit a spa and have a scrub or something.. More soon..

Not cooking this time, I guess I’m too lazy. I haven’t really tried much of the food courts in malls here mainly because I’m not a fan of the coupon system, its a hassle! And another reason is that I’m not yet even halfway trying those tempting restos all across Phnom Penh.

Anyway, yesterday Chinks wanted to go to the play area in the mall and we discovered that there is an uncrowded, and fairly big play area within Phnom Penh’s Sovanna Mall food court. While waiting for her, my sister and I ended up browsing the food stalls and we were surprised at what we saw. Tempting, yummy food at super affordable prices. The steepest price I saw was about 10,000 Riels for a huge meal!

And since I’m a huge fan of Korean food we ended up making a beeline for the Korean food stall. Not much variety but what we saw we liked. Ouwie who haven’t tried Korean food got herself the Korean version of Dongas, breaded pork cutlets with lots of side dishes, this is of Japanese origin but was adapted by Koreans, I think.

I got myself my all time fave Bibimbap, steamed white rice with lots of veggies, meat, fried/raw egg, with lots of steaming hot sauce and mixed together..

Each set cost just 8,000 R (about $2) and we both made a promise well go back every after few days so we could sample everything they’ve got in that food court. It was that good!

Still here in Bicol and have one more week vacation time. What have I been doing the past week? Well, I took advantage of the sunny weather and hopped on a lot of places and visited friends and relatives. It was a good thing coz just yesterday it was scorching hot and today its so gloomy and rainy. Trust the weather to be that fickle.

For the next two days, I’m staying in the house coz I’m badly sunburned and even the best face cream or sun block could not do much to keep the sun burns at bay. My mom, me and my cousin have plans to do something like a cooking fest, its just too bad my brother is not here to sample the cooking. I remember he is always willing to be the guinea pig for our kitchen experiments.

Before long, I have to pack our stuff again, were leaving for Manila on the 8th, and we have two days to visit friends based in Manila and also to do a bit of malling. I’m crossing my fingers and praying for good weather when we fly to Manila. I’m a bit paranoid about flying when its so rainy and foggy and besides I’m with Chinks!

My dad too for sure would suffer a bit of separation anxiety so were propping him up from now on about our leaving. I remember last time we left it was really hard for him and he could hardly sleep for a week and I’m hopping he’d be a little used to us coming and going. My mom though is okay and besides she has something to look forward to coz next year she’ll be visiting us in Phnom Penh!

Hmmm, I can’t imagine our Pinas vacation is almost over, it was good but we do have to get back to reality. I’ve relaxed a bit here and for the past weeks have been relatively stress free so I’m all set to work and take on whatever the next few months dishes out on me. I also miss Hi-ace so I’m eager to go back to Phnom Penh..