Expat Life

Our World Tuesday: Ruins of Bokor Palace Hotel

Posted by The Insider on May 19, 2015 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 3, Expat Life, sights, That's My World, travel, What's On in Cambodia | 4 comments

We celebrated the Khmer New Year in the coastal town of Kep, located down south of the country. The highlight of our holiday was a side-trip to neighbouring town, Kampot.

Kampot is a sleepy fishing town. It is small but the streets are wide and a bit dusty. It is the jump off base to the popular Bokor Hill Station up in Bokor Mountain where the popular ruins of an old French hotel and casino, Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino, is located. I was excited to go see the ruins for the first time but I was disappointed when I found this:

Do you feel what I feel, too? It used to be like this:

Photo by Mark Roy via Flickr.

The before-renovation photo was eerily beautiful; brooding and menacing at the same time that it was a fav destination for exploration by foreign visitors as well as ghost hunters. Some genius had the idea of renovating/refurbishing the hotel — and the result is the ugly, grey thingie that you see on the top-most photo. I’m sure it was called a ruin for a reason 🙁

For more details about the ruins, you can read about it in my other blog, Sreisaat Adventures.

Monday Mellow Yellows: Consumer goods

Posted by The Insider on May 18, 2015 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 3, Expat Life | 2 comments

I always go to local markets for our food supplies and, I tell you, it’s chaotic and noisy and it’s so easy to get caught in things when there’s so many things screaming for your attention. And this is one shop that sells dry goods – from seasonings (soy, oyster, chilli sauces), cooking oils, the pungent fish sauce, dishwashing liquid, laundry powder and bath soaps as well as mature coconuts – all piled together!

All the goods, from cooking to bathroom products, are arranged neatly. Some of the food stuff are put beside laundry products though.

After many years of living in Cambodia, I’ve learned how to navigate the public markets. I’ve also became familiar with the products, their packaging and multi-lingual labels.

Monday Mellow Yellows: Dried fish

Posted by The Insider on Mar 2, 2015 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, Cambodia life, Cycle 3, Everything Pinoy, Expat Life, That's My World, What's On in Cambodia | 3 comments

My younger brother returned to Cambodia from a two-week holiday in the Philippines. He brought back several kilos of dried fish and divided it amongst ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong, there are dried fish available here but they’re mostly freshwater fish. I miss the saltwater fish from the Philippines and it’s always a welcome and a special treat whenever my parents would send us some. A taste of home, so to speak.

When kept for a long time, even in a moist-free container, dried fish tend to grow molds. So what I do is take them out every now and then and hang them under direct sunlight to dry and get as much air as possible.

Hanging fish to dry. I think the fly is more attracted to the scent of red chili peppers more than the dried fish. Odd.

I didn’t have any hooks but my husband made me one – a DIY hook made from an old, plastic hanger 🙂 And I reused the net bags (used previously to hold onions and potatoes) from the grocery.
Even though my husband thinks the dried fish smell like a dirty sock, and could envelope the house with its “nasty” odour, he doesn’t mind me having them occasionally at meal times.