Sunday, 1 November 2020

Welcome to November!

Another day, another 20-second scroll on Facebook has revealed even more doom and gloom coming from the Northern Hemisphere. Lockdowns and Trump, and masks and toilet paper shortages.
It makes even the most mundane day in Cambodia seem lightyears away.

Things are still going really well over here, and I'm trying not to make this post a brag. Just the fact I can meet in more than a group of six and I feel I'm rubbing my joyous life in your faces. Sorry about that.

Work

My pet sitting business is picking up! This weekend I was cat-sitting a six-month-old kitty called Kamow (Khmer for black...guess what colour she was...) seemed fitting that I was catsitting a black cat on Full Moon Halloween. And as I type this I have a ten-month-old puppy sitting at the end of my bed called Pixie.

This weekend along is enough to pay almost all my monthly rent. So KERCHING!

Bookings are flying in, and I'm sure my hot competition isn't too happy about that... but that's a story for private chats.

With the help of a friend, I've also managed to secure some play dates with a cute Russian five-year-old called Will. I teach him some English, play and hang out and I've got myself a salary! After months of watching the funds dwindle in my bank account, I no longer have to feel guilty about upgrading myself from a $1 beer to a $2.50 Margherita at Taco Tuesday.

Talking of rent, I've decided to upgrade from my pimp pad, to an even pimper pad (with a garden!) straight across the road and only $20 more a month. Breaking the bank a little with the extra $20, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Watch this space for another MTV Cribs video...

Kamow The Kitty

Pixie the Puppy

Play

What I have I done since my last post? I have no idea. Every day blurs into one!

Halloween

Halloween was a tame one this year in comparison to the last few (well, apart from last year where I was somewhere in rural Thailand drinking rum and soda with some strangers...) But that doesn't mean it awasn't a good night, or a well behaved one! This year saw a Friday night costume, and a Saturday. Budget friendly, as always.

Whilst the rest of the world is running headless about Corona, here in Cambodia we're all freaking out about chikungunya. Chikungunya (or as we call chicken-tikka, chicken-korma, chicken-run-yeah, chicken-whatever) is a mosquito spread illness. It can last from 1-12 weks and completely wipes you out...and a lot of people are getting it. So REALLY, the scariest thing in Siem Reap right now? Mosquitos. So that's what I dressed as. The original costume was two balloons on my head, some homemade plasticbag-and-coathanger wings alas, the only photo is just me in a stripy top...it's the thought that counts.

Saturday I was a zombie lumberjack. Much more traditional Halloween.

Me, J and Dan on Friday

Saturday: Me and Dan

Taco Tuesday, Frozen Cocktails and Rapping Around Siem Reap

The Tuesday straight from Hariharilaya we indulged in somee Mexican food at MaybeLater on their Taco Tuesday. I ordered a water, but a margherita showed up...and the night continued in that fashion. I'm currently doing a mexican tour of Siem Reap to trial all the burritos and tacos on offer. As it stands, Maybe Later (and their damn tasty, but strong, margheritas are currently first place).

And next up starting a night with $1.50 frozen pina coladas is only ever going to end a certain way. That is with Rakdaddy sigging on the rack of my bicycle as we parade the streets of Siem Reap.

Posh Pressure Hour

Every Friday at the local, Star Bar, they do an event called Pressure Hour. Basically, you buy the first beer ($1) then between 5.30pm and 6.30pm it's unlimited beer. The only rules are that you can't leave the bar, or go to the toilet until the horn blasts at 6.30pm.

There's a group of us, call us regulars if you will, who attend most Fridays. Now, my friend Amanda is from The States and she is always dressed nice. The idea sprung into our heads that one week it'd be fun to all get dressed up as nice as we can...so that's what we did. Fancy Friday: Posh Pressure Hour. Get dressed up real nice, then get drunk and slur some Karoke. The same as we usually do, just this time a little cleaner. It turned out to be a great sucess!

Sports

Urh.... yeah. About that. There's not been much of that happening.

Usually I cycle a lot, but between being a little hungover, socialising, eating, uhh existing. I haven't been on the bike as much as I should. So this weeks goal is to saddle up once again and getthat bubble butt back again.

As for Zumba, Yoga, and Running....ummm yeah. I'll get back into them this week too.

BUT I have still been playing Ultimate Frisbee once a week. That's something...right?

Drinks with the Ultimate crew

Water Fasting

After indulging in three buffet-style meals a day at the retreat I felt my body needed a reset so I decided to do a waterfast after doing some research about it. And I detoxed for five days by not taking any solid food...or any food at all actually. Just water. Not lime water, not water tea. Just water. Maybe with ice.

Here is a photo of me with my first wonton soup after five days.

Now, I feel great!

Me and J, gangsta

I'm a superstar...at the Star Bar

(L-R)Co Fancy Friday Originator Amanda, me, Jared and my new next-door neighbour Pascal

Sunday, 18 October 2020

This Week I... JOINED A CULT (or went on a Yoga and Meditation retreat, depending how you look at things)

cult
noun

a religious group, often living together, whose beliefs are considered extreme or strange by many people.

Okay, so yeah. This week I definitely joined a cult.

Chanting in unison in forgotten languages, group circles and spoken words before every meal, synchronised movements and praising to the outer universe...yep. I was defo in a cult.

But you know what- it wasn't half bad!

I'd heard many things about this yoga and meditation retreat just outside of Siem Reap (the city I now call home). Many things mostly being very positive anecdotes from past visitors and taking some time out to go to a retreat had always been something that interested me. With COVID 19 still raging on they had slashed the prices 75% so now it was in my price range so I booked into a dorm at just $100 for a six-day escape.

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was planning on going, knowing that he's into yoga (definitely much more than I am these days now I find other things to do to occupy my time, like cycling and drinking beer) and he agreed that his chakras weren't aligned or something like that and decided to come along for the adventure too.

Last Monday (12th) we hopped on our bicycles and made the journey 20km out of town.

We are both YOGA AND MEDITATION RETREAT virgins, so we weren't too sure what to expect...apart from the joint confirmation we knew it'd be full of stinkin' hippies (myself included). We joked on the way, wondering how culty it would be. We wondered if the hippies would want to hug us. Will we come back brainwashed? Will I ever wear shoes AGAIN? (Although, given my island gal lifestyle I am still not a fan on those constricting foot cages anyway...).

We've been getting some quite heavy rain in Siem Reap the last couple weeks, making up for an otherwise very dry wet season. When we got an email on Sunday night saying the road was flooded we took it with a pinch of salt. Maybe we should've taken it with a splash as that's what we got as we attempted to cycle the last 4km of the road to the retreat.

With the Tonle Sap* just ahead of us a few more kilometres down the road the river that ran adjacent to our cycle had burst its banks the previous day and as we cycled water came above our peddles and even up to our knees at times...

It. Was. Amazing!

*the massive section of water that's in the middle of Cambodia

The local kids instead of playing marbles and on their bikes, they were swimming and splashing and still attempting to ride their bikes in thigh-high water (for them at least). Residents stood outside their stilted homes and laughed as the "barangs chi gkong!" foreigners ride their bikes. I said as soon as I checked into the retreat and had a bit of free time I'd pop out to spend a bit more time with the people in the road.

And that I did! I was invited for beers, which in my week of vegan-sobriety I turned down but accepted their request for me to join them dancing. There's never a dull moment in the Kingdom, and every day I'm here I find more reasons to call it home.

So, as for checking in! We found the retreat by spotting the only other barangs we had seen all day.

Being hidden behind unmarked, secretive gates, located down a dirt path I don't know if we would've spotted it without. Funnily enough, before I'd even stepped foot into the building I'd been welcomed and hugged three times. Luckily for me, it was by people who I happened to know already and were still at the retreat, months after I thought they'd left their week-long stays....

You don't need to know the whole ins-and-outs of the week. But it was actually hella fun.

The food was awesome. 2019 I decided to quite successfully follow a vegan diet and upon my return to Asia in October the same year I decided that I had to compromise as even avoiding meat can be tough here.

Below is a triangle I created to save me some words on this post.

So basically you can pick two. But you can very rarely have all three. For example, I can order fried noodles. Will they be vegan? Possibly. Are they cheap? Definitely. Are they healthy? Mmmm no.

Superfood salad on the other hand! Is it vegan? 100%. Is it healthy? Of course. Is it cheap? Well, $1 Noodles vs a $5 Salad.... I'll let you judge that. You get the idea.

Yeah. The food was awesome. Completely vegan from the first meal to the last, full of colour and vegetables and healthy stuff and gluten-free and...Cambodian! Not a pizza, burger or lasagne insight. All vegan variations of local Cambodian food that I would otherwise have to turn down due to their love of fermented fish prohok, general love of meat or overuse of fish sauce. Without getting too graphic, my bowels have got some GREAT movement this week. The best part? It's buffet style so you can help yourself to as much as you want.

gross and happy after my cupping....
you cant see the marks too much
cause i aint to toxic

In the morning and evening, we have 90 minutes of compulsory yoga, breathing and meditation and I was definitely more keen on it by the end of the week than on Monday night with my aching knees and out-of-practice Downward Dog. It did spook me a bit when we ended the mediation with an obvious "omm" chant....only for Sanskrit chanting to erupt from the programmes veterans without warning! By the end of the week, I knew all the words to the Hari Krushna chant (mostly from midnight adventures at Glastonbury in my teens). Other programs in the week were fitness, mindfulness seminars, alignment workshops were just a few and in all that other free time?

Well, there's a rock climbing gym, art studio, swimming pool, library, trampoline, I had some traditional cupping* and an oil massage, and there's the local village to explore...maybe that's why this ~~cult~~ retreat is so easy to get sucked into and why my friends have long overstayed their original timeframe...

*Cupping is basically where they use suction cups and squeeze them onto your back and they take out all the toxins. I didn't have too many as I didn't end up with any full/half moon outlined hickies on my other side.

So yeah! Basically just a really quick, not too entertaining post about the last week. Procrastination my imminent return to "the real world" and letting my parents and grandparents (the only people who'd notice my absence) know I haven't fully committed to the stonecutters just yet...

I hid my phone in case someone decided to break into my apartment this week... it'd be a good start to remember where I hid it...

evaluating the splash damage

Just like a beach party....kinda

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

I AM AN ADULT

HELLO UNIVERSE!

Things are going fabulous over in Cambodia!

This month I have:

Not been decapitated by numerous cars opening their doors as I decide to cycle past
Haven't been swallowed up by sinkhole sized pot-holes on the notorious Sok San Road
I've hit a milestone with my latest project underway (thus why I haven't been writing too much on the blog)
MOVED INTO MY OWN APARTMENT (including the resident ginger pregnant cat)
Started a little cycle touring gig, taking out some people on bike tours around Siem Reap and pretending my Khmer is much better than it is
Secured my first client in Pet Care Cambodia (my new dog walking, pet sitting side hustle)
Still been covering a fair few KM on my bicycle and on my legs with some infrequent morning runs
Enjoyed a few beers and margaritas
Went for an All-You-Can-Eat breakfast buffet

Life is great! things are moving so fast in this new little life I#m starting up and it's the first time in a longlonglonglong time that I'm somewhere that I have no intention of moving on from.