Arrival Anecdotes 1- making a start

10/6 

Who could have guessed how totally disinterested our agent would be in transacting the final step to acquire this apartment? None the less we are done. 

At last. At last. At last.

Brilliant double staging from the car to the street and then to not one but two holding zones. This is what keeps us honest by doing as many of the hard yards as possible ourselves! 
Glad it’s done now nonetheless. 

11/6

Totally a bonus that we saw a hornbill on the rooftop opposite our new abode tonight. 

12/6

I’m grateful to have experienced a Saturday Night in the Aerie. It’s tame. The “weekend bar scene.” I mean- it was not as noisy as I feared street side and actually a mere mumble filters through to the bedroom. That’s a relief  

I am glad we stopped at a new to us but well-established PP venue and had a lunch of dishes we never prepare at home ourselves; all veggo friendly and spontaneous. That’s a novel new concept. 

Even though it required another set of stairs to achieve it I am undeniably incredibly pleased to have bought Oriental Lillies and Tuberoses as a gift from me to me at the end of today. Nothing could have completed the feeling of having arrived as much as that. I’m always grateful for flowers, most especially those with a spectacular scent like those two old favourites. When I haven’t had the opportunity to have flowers at home for so long I simply could not resist the abundance of flower stalls not 200 metres from our new place.

It’s love, laughter, food, friends, books and flowers that turn a house, or in our case an apartment, into a home in my opinion and we have now availed of the complete set with our first visitors and celebratory drinks on terrace. I think this is going to become a regular thing! 

Team TRUNKH welcomed us to the hood, first footed us and joined us on the terrace for bubbly last night and it was a great night even if we were a little thick headed and slow this morning. 

No moniker yet but it will come. 

13/6

We have spent the last 3 nights in the new apartment and are officially residents as of now. Just did the first load of washing and breakfast on the terrace is the new norm. 

Endless cyclic discussions of what needs to be done and in what order but I have heard myself laughing and find myself smiling for no reason constantly. 

My “joie de vie” is returning. 

14/6

We took our first stroll to the local market at about 7am and then wandered on down to Phasar Kandal. Before we had even made a purchase, we bumped into a Khmer couple we know very well. For city with a population of 2.1 million that’s pretty serendipitous. 

We were drawn to those things we usually never see and the vendor tore a lotus leaf in half and wrapped our spring onions, oak leaf lettuce and parsley in that. We will definitely be back at his stall regularly. Early morning marketing runs, walking in shaded streets and relatively light traffic will become a routine I think.

Walking back home we saw a husband, wife and four kids all piled onto one moto! A family of six is impressive. That’s a new record for me. Lucky all the kids appeared to be under ten years old. 

17/6

Our few days in Phnom

Penh to get a feel for the place and try to reimagine the space more to our taste has expanded to nine nights. Yep we love it and wish we could just magically make our new vision appear along with the already packed possessions in Kep, but since that won’t be happening at least now we have a game plan. 

After much discussion and measuring of spaces and objects, finally today we made some hard decisions and came to a conclusive agreement about what we want to achieve. A bit of tweaking to do to fine tune that kitchen is definitely a must. Other changes are also evolving into a solid plan.

Several friends have braved the stairs and joined us for drinks on the terrace and meals in the local neighbourhood in the last few days. The gift of prayer flags blessed in a Lhakhang in Bhutan was an unexpected and beautiful surprise and we had to hang them immediately. 

 

The exhibitions and cultural experiences available in the capital were a big drawcard for us initially considering the move to PP to start with so we couldn’t leave without availing of at least one art show. We also now feel that along with the walks and rides the riverside precinct has to offer the new neighbourhood, community and lifestyle we have imagined for the last few months is now beginning. 

Thanks and grateful acknowledgement goes to seasoned renovators and our home decor expert friends, team TRUNKH. They have patiently contributed ideas and valuable advice as well as offering to put us in touch with tried and true ‘tradie’ contacts, thereby effectively boosting our confidence and easing the way forward from here. Having already nursed, cajoled and supported us through the tedious and frustrating waiting game their patience and kindness has made all the difference. 

There has been much to celebrate and a lot of friends who rallied around and made us feel welcome. 

Not Downunder but Upover in the Aerie it seems!

 

Departure Diaries 3- Almost there

7/6

Whilst I am not a Buddhist myself, I do find the philosophy very appealing and find the precepts a perfect guide for living a meaningful and mindful life. I also love living in a Buddhist culture and participating in the festivals, rites and rituals, so I’m grateful for the generosity, acceptance, guidance and compassion of my community. 

This is the fifth Buddhist culture I have lived in and I find it deeply calming and reassuring.

In the last 24 hours we have been given a bunch of bananas, custard apples, a couple of blocks of spiced, pressed tofu and 3 avocados. This is the season of plenty. 

This song struck a chord today, when I heard it playing on the radio and I had in fact been outside staring at the stars and thinking about the many things we love and will miss about Kep. 

“Tonight I went out from the kitchen

And looked up at the stars from the yard

I was hoping to get some perspective

But sometimes perspective is hard

I know my life is a blessing

And all blessings come with a curse

My enemies I know I can handle

But friends now, well ……..”

“Every Step of the Way”

Paul Kelley 

8/6

Green lights on the apartment at long, long last. The documents have been issued and now we enter five days of due diligence. 

Of course the lawyer was in Vietnam at the time but he returned and verified that the documentation was genuine with only one additional brief delay of a single day. Driver was booked. Meeting time set. 

Whoo Hoo we are relocating and about to get very busy.

No not by Tuk Tuk though

DEPARTURE DIARIES 2 - Playing the waiting game in Kep

4/4

I’m so glad Madam Tshewang called today. She yet again inspired me to believe in myself and not get disheartened by the setbacks. She also gave us both reason to believe we will eventually return to Bhutan to visit. The fact that Anjana also wrote to me on the same day boosted my flagging spirits and reconfirmed for me that we have a real and lasting connection to the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon. 

19/4

I saw a coucal fly slowly into the mango tree while I was swimming in the pool a couple of days ago. A russet flash of wings and long tail feathers were in motion. Just last night a bat flew through the outdoor eating area while we were dining and the tranquillity and calm is so restorative. 

Thank you Yary, for the task of maintaining the spirit house. It has brought me calm. 

In the last few evenings, we’ve seen squirrels and a variety of birds including a treepie, a coucal, hoopoes, oriental magpie robins, yellow vented bulbuls, sparrows, swiftlets and common mynas all on this property and a pair of sea eagles hunting in the waters near the crab market and heard the shrill chirping and warbling of the birds and almost deafening waves of stridulation from the crickets at intervals throughout the day but especially at twilight. What a sanctuary this magnificent garden is!

9/5

This morning Ian calmly closed the door of the bathroom on the little mouse that scurried in there in broad daylight and then performed a capture and release manoeuvre after first returning to the kitchen to finish making breakfast.

11/5

We were told today “Expected completion 2 weeks from today” but we are struggling to believe it. 
It’s just designed to make us feel better. 

2/6

I remembered tonight that you recently said that you’d relocated a year ago. 

I’ve been thinking about you getting there and that time before so much. You are amazing to have dealt with all that: juggling abuse, real estate agents, injuries, transport companies, cleaning, dumping, packing and rewriting wills. Relatives and rip offs followed. I hope you pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how strong you are every single morning. 

When I think of all the time we have spent here in Kep I think that time was the most stressful for me. For both of us actually. We both so wanted to be there. More than evicting a former friend, or my knee injury and recovery and even more than the current waiting game we are playing with the apartment purchase, it was not being there when you needed to get out that was so difficult. You did that single handedly. People helped but you made it happen. 

You are incredible. Just thinking about you makes me smile. Love you forever 

3/6

I’m grateful we rode through the streets while the political rally was proceeding in the opposite direction today and people participating smiled and waved to us too and the police even stopped the traffic for us to cross the road to the market. It’s the simple things like a wave from the bicycle repairman, a market stall owner refusing payment, neighbours who watch out for us as we do them, house owners who drop off fruit grown on the property and children we know recognising us and screaming hello as we cycle by, that make us feel connected to this community and confident that we can build that kind of connection again