Photo was taken from Phnom Chisor, Takeo Province. I don’t know what this ruins is called, perhaps it’s still part of the Phnom Chisor temple? I find it an interesting sight from my perch a few hundred meters above it.

Wary. That should describe my feelings when I decided to weigh myself today. I won’t divulge figures hehe but yeah I gained weight again. Arrgh! Why am I having such a hard time losing excess weight? I blame genetics, my slow metabolism. But mostly I’ve got myself to blame.

I should stop eating high calorie food. But hey! Phnom Penh has such a great variety of affordable international cuisine that is really really hard to resist the allure of these palate temptations. I should also be consistent with exercising. I have very slow metabolism and I keep wishing I’m like Chinks who eats like she haven’t been fed for weeks but just burns it off in a few hours.

I’m not exactly lazy about exercising. It’s just that whenever my established routine gets disrupted I fall into a lazy pattern again. Like for the past month, I’ve been consistent in upping my cardio exercises. Then we went for weekend trips a few times and now its back to zero exercises.

Hi-ace suggests I should go and get a gym membership but knowing myself, whenever I get busy I just keep ditching gym sessions so this would be a waste of time and money. A friend suggested just using the easy ways like getting a quick lipo, or diet meds, or even hydroxycut but no, that is definitely a no, no for me.

I’m thinking of trying a different tactic. Rewarding myself whenever I achieve a certain lbs of lost weight. Hmm. Like if I lose xx lbs on July, then I’ll allow myself to get those gadgets I’ve been itching to have. Say if I lose 2 lbs before June ends, then I’ll buy that Fuji purple camera I’ve been planning to buy, if not, I’ll wait till I reach my goal..

Hope this works..And uh, legs above is not mine. Mine’s too big for public consumption..lol!

Just recently I received two emails from soon-to-be Phnom Penh visitors asking about shopping in Phnom Penh. Both also mentioned the Russian Market and what they could buy from there aside from the usual souvenirs. I had been thinking of updating my ‘Shopping in Phnom Penh‘ category but I keep forgetting. Now that I’d been prompted I’ll be regularly posting stuff I score from Phnom Penh’s shopping grounds.

Russian Market or Tuol Tompong Market is my favorite market in all of Phnom Penh. In fact, I go there almost three times a week! The market itself is nothing interesting architecturally, just a bunch of stalls put together but really its what you can discover inside that makes it a really popular place to shop.

I shop there for fresh produce. It’s the best place for buying Cambodian silks, carvings and quality Khmer souvenir items. Lots of Cd’s and DVD movies there. If you are also the adventurous sort when it comes to food, then the food hall in the middle of the market is one place to sample the local Khmer fare.

This market also holds a secret loot of brand name clothing from various factories across Phnom Penh. Over runs, excess stuff from factories making clothes for  Department store brands like Kmart, Target etc can be found here and at just about 10% of its SRP! Gap, Abercrombie, H & M, Calvin Klein, Lee, Adidas and a lot more brands can be found here and its easy to go shopping crazy because they are so cheap!

Beware though, Russian Market is super hot and you have to squeeze yourselves in the narrow passages between stalls but its totally worth it! I usually go there around 9-10 am when the heat is still bearable and around 1-2 pm also is a good time if don’t like crowds. If the heat is really unbearable then there’s a new air-conditioned store right across the street from the market called WExport, but you’ll pay a premium price for a little blast of cool air.

Anyway, I bought these things from the Russian Market last March, mostly casual items I could use for the summer. Just so you have an idea what else you can find there..

Lee Capri Pants and Merona pants (Coral) – $4 each.

Kipling Backpack (large) – $8 (You can also buy Northface bags at similar prices. Vendor’s usually quote $12 for a large backpack but haggle, haggle, haggle. If you buy more you can probably get it for less than $8. These are from Vietnam but curiously they sell almost at the same prices at times lower than in Ben Thanh Market in HCM)

Kipling slingbag/beltbag – $4

Will post more items soon..

How to describe the past week? One word comes up – Hectic! But to borrow my friend ZJ‘s term – haylavvit! I’m still on with blogging. I went shopping a couple of times. Still helping out revamp Ouwie’s business. Still doing house chores, planning new things.

After coming back from our weekend trip in Kep, Cambodia (post about this coming up really, really soon..) I was all refreshed and charged up to do things that were just piled up on my ‘to-do’ list. And a lot were taken care of.

I also have some things to plan. Like how to make Mother’s Day for my mom extra special even if we are not there to celebrate with her. Should we send her flowers? A gift? I’m thinking something nice and something she could enjoy. Not an oximeter or a pedometer, but more like a book, a bag (ssshhh she’s bag addicted), or maybe a gift certificate to a spa? Or Hi-ace suggests a PSP coz among all of us, she’s the master of computer games. Lol! She even has her own computer for the sole purpose of gaming.

Anyway, as for us here in Phnom Penh, it’ll be a long holiday again for King Sihanouk’s birthday from May 13-16. And were going to Siem Reap. I’ve been there already but why is it I’m so excited about the trip? Pub street, maybe? Shopping, maybe? But really, its because though I have lots of photos of Angkor Wat temples I don’t have one in digital format (I was so untechie that time and was sporting around a camera with a film!), so this time I’ll be taking loads of photos. I’m also being freakishly prudent about our expenses on this trip. Lol! We are almost always out somewhere every weekend and budgeting for this is not fun at all. I’ve decided to go budget (except for food hehe) for this trip so I’m checking out our accommodation options.

More later..

Don’t get me wrong, I love Cambodia to pieces and I consider it now my second home. But there are times I think of things I miss and am on the diet for just because of living here. Sure, coffee here is delish and there’s close to a gazillion coffee shops around, but I miss Starbucks sometimes. I also miss Manila’s humongous malls, I miss Divisoria. I miss those craft shops in Quiapo. And many other things..

Another thing I miss are fashion magazines! I’m not a fashionista, nor do I obsess with brands. But I like knowing what’s in and what’s going on with the world of fashion etc. When I was in Manila I used to stock up on fashion mags and I specially loved Preview. And we don’t didn’t have that here in Phnom Penh. Really, in my desperation to keep myself abreast with the trends I turned into obsessive online surf shopping and even managed to create two blogs for my finds! See Lui-Bloggera and Feminine Reveries.

So, I was pleasantly surprised, no really I was ecstatic to see a fashion magazine one time I was doing my groceries. And it was in English!!  Finally, a mag I could read! It’s called the FMagazine, and I was also intrigued with their tagline – ‘The First Fashion Forward Magazine in Cambodia.” I grabbed myself a copy and was surprised! It was actually good. I love the styling, I seriously didn’t recognize the Khmer singer on the cover coz she looked so ‘sushyal ba’ haha, the layout was great. All in all, it was pretty impressive for a magazine just on its 5th issue. I wish to see more articles but the ones they had were good too. It features a lot of fashion trends from abroad intermixed with local fashion finds, places to be and I think its amazing to see local Khmer celebrities styled and looking really fashionable for a change.

I’m making the mag now a monthly treat for myself. And oh, I realized that yeah, this thing is bound to get some comments like, ‘sus, Cambodia is a poor country, so a fashion forward magazine is not really needed now or going high-class is too much for a country where most people earn less than $2 a day..” Some conservatives consider fashion as trivial and too frivolous but guess what, if a community wants to progress and move on, it has to embrace and learn about culture too. Fashion is inevitably part of that. And if you really think about it, fashion encompasses a big industry, one that Cambodians have a serious chance to play a role at.

And besides, having trendy mags like this would slowly open the locals eyes to new things, new trends, to explore more.  A little fashion education wouldn’t hurt a bit, right? I think FMagazine’s efforts to introduce new things to locals is highly commendable and here’s to hoping for good things for them.