Hello again! A quick update of events in May... recently recovering/cleaning up from my brother Wolfie's visit. He was here for nearly 2 weeks, and in that short time we managed to squeeze in some amazing nights in Phnom Penh as well as a trip to Siem Reap and a trip to Sihanoukville and Bamboo Island (Koh Ru).
Siem Reap is always pretty fun, and I was happy to see all the temples again, having only seen them once back in October. They are still so ridiculously beautiful! The only downside to the trip was Wolfie was here in the height of the hell-ish hot season, and walking long walks in the blazing sun to see ancient ruins is about as fun as it sounds... Overall it was a fun short getaway.
We had only one night there because I wanted to stay in Phnom Penh over a weekend for another Khmer wedding. This one did NOT live up to our expectation because there was no alcohol at this wedding. Not to say an event is only fun with unlimited booze, but the free-flowing beverages are sort of a staple of a Khmer wedding, and seeing old Khmer men drunkenly dance is half (or all) of the fun! So, unfortunately, the weddings of Cambodia I so hyped up to my brother ended up being unimpressive. Oh, well.
Wolfie was able to spend a few days exploring Phnom Penh on his own while I was at work. He saw the usual tourists sites. He was also able to meet my students, who are obsessed with him, and also play with the kids from SFODA orphanage. He brought lots of clothes and dolls for the children at SFODA and they were really excited.
We had a long weekend (Cambodian national holiday for the King's Birthday), so we headed straight for the beach! Lying in the sand, drinking Angkor beer, and ... well, that was about it. I never get tired of Sihanoukville's fun and crazy beaches. Since we had a long weekend, we all took a ferry to Bamboo Island, a deserted island that could only be called Paradise. It was like someone dreamt up this fantasy, dream land and then realized, it does exist! Bamboo huts, soft light sand, salty water, coconut trees everywhere. We slept in hammocks and bamboo huts. It was out of this world. The weather wasn't so great due to the sudden return of monsoon rains. They took away the heat, thank goodness, but brought intense rain. The ferry rides to and from the island were the stuff of horror movies... like drown in the water tsunami horror movies... BUT, we made it back alive with enough time to spare so Wolfie didn't miss his international flight home! He's gone now and I'm just settling back into routine life.
My contract ends in September and I'm looking at the next chapter. Going to miss Phnom Penh and my life here but also of course excited for the next challenge! Coming up for me is my international playwrighting debut with the Phnom Penh Players! A short play of mine, entitled, "Carnival Games," will be presented at a short play festival I'm co-producing. I am excited to reach one of my goals for my time in Phnom Penh, which was to put up at least one play of mine. Gotta keep up my career and my writing! And, ya know, party at the beach and relax in this heat and rain. ;)
Until next time, enjoy the last bits of cold weather you may be experiencing by remembering how jealous I am of any temperature below 85 degrees....
