Arrival

Arrival in Cambodia... it's different. Busy weeks of searching for a new home, orientation, organising transport, Visas and so on. Slowly getting there after just over two weeks, and hopefully we'll have motorised transport back by tomorrow!

As I said, it's different here... it's certainly not as developed as Hanoi or other cities in Vietnam, and the gap between rich and poor is certainly more evident here in Phnom Penh. Not so much traffic about on the roads as Hanoi or Saigon (by a long way), but more extreme - plenty of small motos about, and also plenty of black Lexus SUVs, Land Cruisers, Hummers and Mercedes too... of course you see these in Vietnam too, but really that's the car of choice here, with little in between them and the humble Honda Super Cub. And there's paperwork too for buying and selling a bike, and they're expensive when compared to Vietnam.. so for the time being we're trying a new sustainable lifestyle with cheap wobbly Chinese bicycles to get about on - fine really, but will need motorised transport for work, if nothing else than not to arrive dripping in sweat.

Visas are a little more complicated too, to get our official visas takes four steps, and three pages in our passports. 1. Arrival on Tourist/Business Visa at airport, valid 1 month and single entry. 2. Fill out paperwork requesting work and courtesy Visas via the French Embassy, wait a week and recieve a blue letter addressed to border immigration. 3. Take a bus to Bavet, exit Cambodia, run in the pouring rain 500 metres into Vietnam, enter, exit, run back to Cambodia immigration, submit passports and blue letters, receive work and courtesy visas (free), valid three months, single entry. Return to Phnom Penh. 4. Fill out another form requesting a year long visa extension with multiple entry, then send to the department of immigration (which is open between the hours of 9am and 10am daily), wait two weeks, and hopefully have our
passports back... We're at the final stage now, fingers crossed for a
safely returned passport!

Found a decent apartment after looking at no less than 23... many without windows and so dark, with heavily barred windows. Moving in on 4th September and now staying in an interim place... bright enough but still with the prison bars! Waiting the arrival of our things from Hanoi too, which are winding their way here by ship, set to arrive on 4th September too at Phnom Penh port, hopefully a rapid liberation will follow!

So, Celine's been to school and met some colleagues and I'm in the process of organising meetings for work and so on, and have already ordered the new business cards. Will likely head to the coast this week sometime, a bit of exploration before work begins.

Onward and upward!