Interesting Times

After two days in the city we are getting to grips with the fast-track lifestyle of the capital. No more sleepy rural towns for us, this place means business. On saterday we moved into the roomy flat on 113 st. First we threw out all the junk left by our predecessors, swept the floors and finally settled in the windowless room (well, there are windows but they all have a splendid view of the south wall of the building next door which is about 10 cm away from ours). We'll be living there with two of our colleagues, Marjan and Jules, for the next 6 weeks. They have been in the flat since last week, celebrating Khmer New Year.

As always it was very important to have a handy map of the city and a good bicycle. With these two instruments we were ready to start exploring the city. Partly acting on what the Lonely Planet has to say, and partly on our own gut feeling, we cycled down major and minor roads in search of sights, dines and drinks. And a myriad of tastebud-sensations we encountered! Siem Reab is nothing compared to this bustling metropole. Of course the traffic is completely lethal and it doesn't have that small town, personal feel, but I'm sure we'll be able to make this our home for the next weeks.

Orientation is pretty easy in Phnom Penh. The streets are generally wide and straight. The great boulevards are named and signed and the smaller streets are numbered (unlike our what we experienced in Addis Abeba). Today was supposedly our first day at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital but apparently the monday after the New Year holiday ... counts as a holiday. So more exploring for us! The obvious ones are the royal palace and the national museum which we'll do soon but the more subtle jazz clubs, sporting options, documentary-cinemas etc.. will take some more time. We'll definitely also pay a visit to Adam Pletworth-Hewett from Vicious Cycle and maybe organize another little bicycle trip. And Phnom Penh is of course the best point to start any voyage to the coast, the cardamom mountains, the mekong, ratanakiri, kampot, ... It'll be a hard pick!

But first comes work. Mine is gynaecology for the next 6 weeks and Katie is to start in paediatrics in a different hospital. But as happened in Siem Reab, this may be jumbled about a bit as time goes by.

Keeping you posted,
I part with this interesting chinese curse;
"may you live in interesting times"

L.