My Life in Cambodia

To be exact, I have been in Cambodia for 67 days already and there are 22 more days before my stint in Cambodia is over. Prior to coming here,  I was a little anxious as I don't know what to expect here. As much as there are positive / good things being said about this country, there are equally a lot of negative things being said that is enough to intimidate a few people. The good thing is that it isn't my first time traveling alone.

I remember arriving at Phnom Penh International Airport with a wrong home address as the Street given to me does not exist. Gotta be thankful to SIM cards that easily available in Cambodia and with that I was able to contact the apartment owner who then gave the right directions to the taxi driver (thank God that the phone number given was correct!). The following day was my first day of work and I was greeted by some familiar faces and of course many new faces too. They are a whole bunch of friendly people and I immediately felt at home and the rest is pretty much work as usual (only in a different culture and environment).

Cambodia is "blessed" with basically the most, or maybe one of the most, public holidays in the world and this allowed me to spend time to travel around this country and of course to the neighbouring country, Vietnam, too.

Coming up this week is a trip to the famous beach and islands in Sihanoukville on what would prove to be my final trip in Cambodia before I return to Malaysia in 22 days (a little more than 3 weeks).

All in all, Cambodia has been good to me and I have definitely learnt a lot during my stint here. Cambodia will be missed and it is certainly something that I would look back in the future knowing that I have worked in Cambodia for 3 months. In my short working career (having only began about 8 months ago), I have learnt a lot and I look forward to the new challenges that lies ahead for my permanent job in KL.

Cambodia will be missed and in my next posts, I will write about some of the places that I have visited during some of the plenty holidays in Cambodia.

Update from Cambodia #1: 10 March 2012

Hey all,

This is my first post from Cambodia. It has been almost a week that I have been here. I still have plenty of time here but I have already seen most parts of Phnom Penh. This allows me to plan for other things while I'm in Cambodia for the next 3 months. Current goal is to visit Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Ho Chi Minh and probably go to Bangkok as well.

Cambodia is a lot better than I thought. I met lots of nice and friendly people here, especially those who are kind enough to bring me around Phnom Penh and did their very best to expose me to the Khmer culture as much as they can.

I managed to visit a number of places including the outside of the Royal Palace (it was closed on the women's day), the National Museum, Wat Kean Svay Krao, Riverside and ate at FCC. I also managed to eat a number of Khmer dishes including fish amok, loc lac and plenty of other things that I can't recall its name. In general, my stay here has been good. Met a lot of new friends and even the workers at my apartment is exceptionally friendly. They casually pulled a chair out for me when I got back and asked me to join their casual evening chat which I truly enjoyed. Despite their lack of proficiency in English, they tried their best to speak English to me and it made me feel truly welcomed.

I also remember the first day here in Cambodia (4 March 2012) when I arrived and I was looking for water, the worker at the apartment casually asked me to hop on his motorbike and off we went touring Sangkat Boeng Rang (the place where I live) to look for water.

All in all, it has been a good first week and I will be spending my first weekend at Phnom Penh, wondering what I could do.

That's all for now, everyone. Until next time then.

Goodbye Malaysia and Hello Cambodia (For the next 3 months)

Hey all,

After a long hiatus from writing blogs, I am writing again and this is to tell that I will in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 3 months. After months of hardship in CIMB, I am only pleased to be told that I have been selected for the regional programme, all of which are testimony to my work during recent months. 

Malaysia will be missed nevertheless. However, I am more curious of my life for the next 3 months starting tomorrow at Phnom Penh. I wonder how is life in that country, the condition of the country, what are the cultures and so many other things. 

Always a language enthusiast after having learnt Mandarin Chinese and Spanish over the past few years, the attachment in Cambodia provides me an opportunity to try out or experiment Khmer, the national and official language of Cambodia. I will do my best to learn as much Khmer as possible. 

For now, I'm going to start packing my stuff for tomorrow's flight and will further update from Cambodia or any other parts of Indo-China. 

Until then, everyone. 

Books in My Reading List

Books that are currently in my reading list are:

• Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies - Jim Collins
• It's Not About the Coffee - Howard Behar
• Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
• On Writing Well - William Zinsser

Bob Marley & The Wailers 'High Tide Or Low Tide' (Save The Children's East Africa Appeal)

It has been a long time..

It has been a long time since anything is written / posted here. Time has changed many things such as perceptions of life, goals in life, etc... One of the few things that would change is blogging because I guess I can no longer write about what I do over the past few days, weeks or months. It was more relevant back then in university when I have university workloads to deal with, competitions, sports and going out with friends but as I am only a couple of weeks before beginning my first job after graduation, I don't think blogging in this manner is anymore relevant or "suitable" to me. Blogging was fun for a little while but soon, the interest vanishes.

So, what's next?

Yesterday was the end of part of life and today marks the new beginning. I really wonder what is next.

MC Mong feat. Park Hyo Shin - 기도(Prayer)

Korea's answer to hip-hop, MC Mong featuring one of Korea's very best pop and R&B artist, Park Hyo Shin in this rather old song titled 기도(Prayer). Regardless of how old the song is and regardless the language of the song, good music is good music. Enjoy. =)

Parliament - 20th Century Masters

Funk music. George Clinton's Parliament. Some good music here. =)

been awhile

Exam's coming up, everyone's studying and that includes me too. Things are a little different this time around, it's the "final" final exam for all of us in our degree year. What's next? No one really knows but all i know I am both looking forward to it and at the same time, I do wish that time would freeze and allow me to take a breather from the real world.

-JT-