Home

We're Home. We arrived back to a rather chilly house around 1am yesterday. It was a long journey stretching to almost 24hours, door to door. We were tired, but excited to be Home. Inspections of all the rooms could not wait until the morning, despite our weariness and the nausea-like symptoms that were just starting to kick in due to lack of sleep. Even when I finally forced myself to crawl into bed it was gone 2am and I could not sleep. Eventually I did...only to wake about 4 hours later. So yesterday was a long, strange day. Chores to be done, including unpacking of course. The contents spilling out of 6 suitcases in various rooms of the house...when you're this tired, it seems reasonable to just grab at the things you actually need, as you need them. Not to mention the fact that over the course of the last few weeks, since we had to starting packing up the apartment on January 4th, we have in fact been living out of suitcases. Anything can become habit if you do it for long enough!

I'm conscious that my blogs are all a bit out of sync. I still have to gather my thoughts and share our experiences of Cambodia and Laos, along with some photos of course. However, with computers still in transit that job will have to wait a bit longer, but it will get done. Eventually. In the meantime, I can tell you that we had a fabulous holiday in both locations. We were way to busy to stop to blog along the way! So much to see and to experience. So much to take in. So much relaxation needed....and enjoyed.

We returned home to snow of course...this is Ottawa, in January. But it does appear to have been a mild and low-snowfall Winter so far. January a few years ago looked very different to this with our front garden piled high with snow....today, there are no big piles, just a generous layer, providing a pretty white blanket over everything. So far.

People are already asking me what will become of my Blog now that I'm back...will I continue? What will I write about? Right now...I don't have an answer to that, but blogging feels somewhat in my bones now and I'm not sure I can stop...so I'll just have to see where it goes from here. Watch this space....

Impressions of Cambodia

Cambodia is, quite frankly, one of the most amazing countries I have ever been lucky enough to visit.

Until we moved to HK, it was never on my List. Just hearing the word Cambodia would conjure up some terrible images in my head, images I had no desire to look at. Images I wanted to get out of my head. I didn't want to be upset. There were so many other places to go...why visit somewhere so troubled? Somewhere you were forced to acknowledge how cruel the world can be, how hard so many people have had it, and so recently. The war ended in 1989. I look back to what I was doing in that year. I was 22. I was young and happy. I wasn't really interested in the news, especially "bad" news in faraway countries. It was worlds away from my life. Of course I thought I had problems, things to worry about, and worry I did, even at such a young age. I had no idea how truly lucky I was. Anyway... I digress slightly, but if I was disinterested all those years ago, then by contrast I did not want to leave Asia without having visited at least one country that was not all about fancy skyscrapers and designer shops. I wanted to experience something else, to at least be a little more aware of how things are in far away places.

Siem Reap did not disappoint me. Despite our rather luxurious hotel in the middle of the town, you simply had to step outside of the air conditioned haven, to see how some of the locals lived. You certainly get a sense of the change that is underway, the adjustments that the country has made in the last 20 years. The people are definitely learning about tourism, and fast, but of course there is still extreme poverty here too and so many have had their lives so brutally affected by land mines, which still exist in some parts of the country. A concept that is so far from my comprehension, but a very real fact of life for many.

The people of Cambodia, or to be more precise, Siem Reap, were friendly and in the main, happy souls. Many of us could learn something from their ability to smile through poverty and hardship. They seemed very happy to have all the tourists there and did their best to speak english and communicate with us. We had a guide to take us to see some of the major temples in Angkor Wat so that we could learn a little too, rather than simply wander around taking photos, which for both of us, can easily happen. We were lucky with our guide, he was keen to share much of Cambodia's history, both the good and the bad, and on top of that he kept offering to take our photo...together, which becomes a rare treat when you travel as a couple!

Having said all that, mine is not a history blog, more of a photo blog, so here comes just a few of my favourite snaps from our temple tours around Angkor Wat & Siem Reap.

On our first morning in Siem Reap, we booked a 5am alarm call so that we could be up in time to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was rather cloudy unfortunately, so as photographers we were a little disappointed not to get the colours we craved, but just to be there and witness the new day dawning in such an amazing place, really was worth the early start.

There were exquisite carvings all over the place...these are from Angkor Wat.

Just one of the many faces of Bayon. This one does not show you the perspective or reflect the actual size of these carvings, but I can assure you that they were magnificent...and huge!

If I had to pick my favourite temple in Cambodia, from the few I've seen, this one, Ta Prohm, probably would just about pip the others to the post. I love how we have no option but to marvel at nature. When She wants something....she will just take it. Truly awesome, in the true sense of the word.

It can be difficult to portray perspective and size in photos, but hopefully this one gives you some indication of the incredible size and vastness of some of these tree roots!

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I love that I can share my pics on my blog, but I find it frustrating that I can only post 5 per blog, as I have SO many wonderful photos from Cambodia! It really is one of the most photogenic places. I'm going to have to add some more to another Cambodia post....so watch this space....

Moving Day Thoughts

So here I am, once again, sat on the floor of the living room floor in Apartment 2202 Bamboo Grove. I feel like I have come full circle. It does not feel much more than a year ago (because it's not!) that I was sitting here, on this hardwood floor checking email etc...feeling chilly and realising that chairs were a most amazing invention! Still, this time, it's just for a day so the hardship will soon pass. For the next few nights, in this interval between departures, we will be well taken care of in a very lovely HK apartment, by some friends of ours, saving us $$$ on a HK hotel bill...one of the most expensive places in the world to stay as far as I can tell!

Right now, it's quiet here. The packing chaps have stopped for lunch and the workmen on the building site below appear to have done the same. Just a distant sound of drilling through my headphones and the churning of the tumble dryer as we desperately attempt to dry some stuff in time to get it packed for shipping!

Apartment 2202 has been good to us, overall... not the most homely place...we never really made it Ours in the true sense of the word Home. We had some furniture and some personal things but it always looked a bit like a student apartment to me, with a mix of things thrown together from a mix of other houses...which is exactly what it was, but it worked well enough for a year. After all, Alan was hardly here, so it has been much more a Home for me than for him...I think he'd agree. But all that said, I think I'll have fond memories of this place. The view is quite breathtaking even though I have come to take it for granted on occasion...especially on the days when it's been so grey that there is nothing to see... but it has been a great base for us, in a central location. Despite all my complaints that have surfaced over the last year, on balance, I think we've been lucky with our choice and I am so glad that we had a space big enough to accommodate some guests, even if it did involve some compromises and some shifting of furniture. Thank you again to all our friends and family who came out to see us here and make our year even more memorable! You know who you are...

Next we have a holiday. It probably looks like we are always on holiday to the casual blog reader, but what we have next, is a Real holiday...not a business trip extension and to a place so different to our usual destinations...I can't wait!

And then...I am looking forward to arriving Home and unpacking our things and really settling in this time. It feels different now that we have our permanent residency. Of course nothing is forever and things change...constantly...but I am still looking forward to some relative stability. A place to settle, to feel safe and secure and to stop for a while....

Moving in Progress

It's that time again. We are packing and moving. It has begun to feel like a very familiar process. Familiar, but far from easy. Even when you have packing assistance, there are so many things to think about...what goes by air...meaning it arrives soon after we do and what goes by sea...that famous slow boat from China. Nothing urgent in that container. We are lucky though that at the end of this shipment is Home. All (or most of) our stuff is there already so it doesn't really matter that this stuff will follow on. So long as it arrives...

The last two days have been rather frantic. Sorting and making piles with post-it notes as labels stating mode of departure. Suitcases...numerous suitcases have been packed for Home and for our final fling in Asia, a trip to Cambodia and Laos. This has been planned for months and had to be postponed once so it is fabulous that we are able to literally squeeze it in before we return to a white and frozen Ottawa. Once we arrive there, all travel will be suspended for a while. It's been a unique experience, over and over, to have the opportunity to see so many amazing places in Asia but by contrast, I am now looking forward to not going anywhere. Well...not very far and just for a while.... there are after all many lovely new places still to explore on the other side of the world too!