a taste of phnom penh

8:30am: i wake up...slowly. too much movement only worsens the film of sweat that has accumulated since the sun began to make it's presence known. stumbling on to my half asleep limbs, the very first order of business is opening the balcony and the back doors of our apartment, in order to take advantage of any possible breeze that might waft through. these days it's not uncommon for it to be over 90 degrees before 9am, with humidity levels above 70%. fast forward to 1pm, and well... yeah. (oh rainy season, where art thou???)

eventually hunger takes over the desire to do nothing, and breakfast is approached. everyday it's the same deliciously simple combination of fruit, muesli, and yogurt. with combinations of up to five different fruits at a time perched in our fridge and awaiting my morning taste buds, this is a meal to look forward to. did i mention it's mango season? and with a ridiculous price tag of 3/dollar, those sweet receptacles of heavenly nectar are never absent from my breakfast bowl.

hey! speaking of fruit, how about a game? i'll post a picture of a fruit (or vegetable) not commonly found in the west. the top prize, (my unending admiration and respect), will be awarded to the reader that can correctly identify it first. we'll start out with a relatively easy one:

name that fruit!

after breakfast, any number of activities begin to fill my day, one of which will typically be a small trip to the outdoor market that sits a 1/2 block away...

(the blue arrow is roughly where our apartment is located)

this incredibly lively smattering of stalls, sellers, smells, and smiles is cambodia's version of walmart, with just about everything one could possibly need, for sale under 'one' roof.  it's our local one-stop-shop for:

• fruit/veg (ie: a heaping bag of tomatoes, zucchini, carrot, limes, cilantro, & pineapple... for $3)
• every kind of household item (ie: a box full of new kitchenware, for $5)
• rejuvenating ice coffees (50 cents)
• fresh free range eggs (10/dollar)

...in addition to a random list of who-knows-what-else, that might make it onto our list for the day. unlike other parts of the world, where having to shop for food so often becomes a mundane 'chore'... here, this routine activity remains an unpredictable adventure to look forward to. at the very least, it never fails to be a poignant reminder of exactly where i am... and where i'm not.

delving full force into this local market requires no small amount of resolve. the smells attack and overwhelm. mystery items commonly end up in my shopping bag. the piles of freshly caught, wriggling river fish are not unknown to wriggle themselves right off their trays and onto your feet. flies swarm wherever heaping slabs of meat or the sweet juices of produce abound. stares sometimes follow me. beggars with gray hair or pig-tailed hair often approach me. and the corrugated tin sheets that roof the maze of lanes underneath act as a highly effective heat trap, raising the already sweltering temperatures to almost unbearable heights.

i absolutely love it.

the unplanned life

I know I'm supposed to be finishing my tales of travel in Thailand, then moving on to Vietnam, and then talking about the month I spent traveling around Cambodia... but I don't feel like doing that, so I'm going to write about now instead. And, I guess I'm supposed to be traveling through Laos at this point, seeing as how that was next on the list after spending some time in Cambodia... but neither Dave nor I felt like doing that just yet either, so instead we rented an apartment in Phnom Penh. Expectations: fail. Whoops! :)

So, yes, right now I am writing this blog from within the walls of my two bedroom apartment in the capital city of Cambodia. (Which means there's an extra bedroom for all visitors!) If you had told me, even just three months ago, that I would be a rent paying citizen in this city, I wouldn't have believed it. That, my friends, is why I know I am incapable of making or following a long term (5 year?!?) plan... because I can't even stick to the plans that I'd laid out for the next few months. This transient lifestyle of mine fits hand in hand with a spontaneous lifestyle, working best when all feasible options are essentially possible at any given moment. Which is one of the reasons why, contrary to some notions, it can actually become wearisome at times. Every day a mountain of possibilities has to be narrowed down into what I actually decide to do. Sounds great in theory, especially when the options include sunset boat trips on the Mekong surrounded by dozens of endangered river dolphins. Yet, when every day is filled with a fresh and unending pile of choices that have to be made, and absolutely nothing is a given (not even where you will sleep or get your next meal), the constant tasks of entertaining myself, feeding myself, transporting myself... always within the surroundings of a place I've never been in before, can be quite daunting. Then there's Dave, who'd been at it for ten months straight, so it's no wonder he was getting a bit worn out.

Of course, even once 'taking a break' had been decided upon, the relentless narrowing down of all feasible options was not remotely complete. Eventually though, after a week of thoroughly considering several different countries, we decided on the obvious path of least resistance that lay in front of us. From day one, we loved Cambodia. Phnom Penh is a vibrant city. We were getting to know some great people here. Also, quite importantly, we knew that this place offered us the ability to really sink our teeth into the current goals and inspirations that were swirling around in our heads.

A funny thing happens when I'm traveling about and all my time is to some degree 'free'. Interests, new hobbies, creative ideas, topics to research, goals to accomplish... all begin to pile up at an alarming rate. More than a journey through geographic places, traveling becomes a journey through all the possibilities of things I want to do with myself. Last year in India I devoted several weeks to a Yoga Ashram, as that was something that I'd always to delve more deeply into. Then I volunteered within a community where I began to learn a long desired skill of growing food, not to mention gaining useful instruction on medicinal herbs. While there, I finally began to work towards other long intended goals of learning to play the guitar, and practicing poi. For some reason, in the day to day grind of working a full-time job, so many of my best laid intentions never manifest, leaving the dozen different ideas that are always bouncing around in my head unexplored. But when I leave the world of employment temporarily behind, and instead head out on a constantly evolving path, my life begins to revolve around these explorations. As constant motion while traveling becomes too tiring, so too the goals and inspirations growing inside me become too enticing, leading me to want to settle down for a minute or two and get busy!

Hence, I've finally gotten around to writing this blog entry that's been a long time coming. Expect them to come a bit more frequently in the weeks to come. Or..... don't. Cause it's still me we're talking about here!