Welcome to Phnom Penh

Sitting on the rooftop terrace of the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) in Phnom Penh looking out over the mighty Mekong and Tonle Sap river on a balmy July evening, sipping Angkor beer while the ever present buzz of tuk tuks and motodups chaotically zoom up the street below me, i finally feel able to say to myself; "Welcome to your new home....."

36 hours earlier i arrived into Phnom Penh to be greeted by the instant steamy sweaty feeling i will have to grow accustomed to over the next 2 years. The heat was oppressive as i was met by Leakhana, the head teaching assistant at iCAN and one of her friends Kasol. I had spent the previous half an hour trying to obtain the correct business visa, after the ad-hoc production line that is Cambodian Immigration had incorrectly given me a tourist visa and then attempted to rip the entire page of my passport out!!!

Leakhana and Kasol were the first Cambodians i had met and already the world famous Khmer friendliness and smile welcomed me to Phnom Penh. Andrea, a kiwi teacher had arrived at the same time and we met as they took us to the promised "school mini bus" which would take us to our guesthouse. The mini bus turned out to be a Toyota Camry with no air-con and little to no room for the bags that contained all our worldly possessions. Andrea and i squeezed into the back with my guitar perched across our already sweat filled laps.

Imagine getting into your car at the beach on the hottest day of summer after its been parked in the sun all day, well that doesn't even come close to how hot it was in the "mini bus." The registration stickers and parking permits were melting off the windows!!!

I wasn't sure what to expect from Phnom Penh, i knew it was going to be different, poor and dirty, but i was in no way prepared for what i saw on that first drive from the airport. Rubbish lay everywhere around the road, in the gutters, hanging from trees, in the rivulets, on balconies, inside doorways, everywhere. Where there wasn't rubbish there were people, masses of them. If they weren't sitting in the doorway of their property or begging in the street they were riding a moto and tuk tuk and zooming all over the road like they had a death wish.

We drove down streets the wrong way, through side streets, down main roads until we reached a sign which said "Tuol Sleng War Museum of Genocidal Killing." It was here we exited the "mini bus" to be greeted by a handful of touts who tried to sell us a thousand different things and offering us rides to Killing Fields. Leakhana checked us into our rooms at the gorgeous Boddhi tree guesthouse and I instantly stripped off my sweat drenched clothes and headed for a cold shower. Never has a cold shower felt so good. After an afternoon nap and i headed downstairs for dinner with Andrea, i ordered a Cambodian Green Chicken Curry and it was delicious! A few beers later and Leakhana returned with 2 more new teachers, both from the UK, Jo and Olivia. We spent the rest of the evening drinking Angkor beer and discussing what the hell we were all doing in this crazy country.

When the bar closed I headed to my huge bed still unsure if coming here was the best idea and wondering if i would survive the culture, and lifestyle let alone the heat. The only comfort i had was that of my new best friend, the fan in my room. Seriously the best thing i have ever had and the most essential item for any bedroom in Cambodia.

I woke drenched in sweat and again headed for the cold shower before a continental breakfast down in the garden with Andrea, Jo and Olivia. We met another new iCAN teacher, Louise another British lady who has lived in Phnom Penh before. She has become and invaluable source of local knowledge. We were weighing up what to do with the day when Andrea mentioned a bar she had heard about which had a pool. An excellent option in the already stifling 10am heat.

We negotiated a tuk tuk ride, for a now very expensive $5, to the Elsewhere Bar and Cafe. The ride was again through dirty moto filled streets until we arrived to the street where the Elsewhere Bar was situated which was relatively clean and filled with expat bars and restaurants.

We enter the high walled bar to be greeted with an oasis of sunlounges, couches and an amazing pool. It was like stepping into another world. The rest of the day was spent sipping beers and lazing in the run, interspersed with dips in the pool. We headed down the road to a local restaurant for some more affordable food ($2 instead of $5) and i had some amazing chicken Pad Thai, and then back to Elsewhere for a further afternoon of relaxing.

It was here i heard first hand about the corruption which plagues Phnom Penh. I met a journalist from the Phnom Penh Post (local English language newspaper) and he passionately ranted for about half an hour about how NGO's (non governmental organisations) as poisoning the Cambodian workforce and not allowing the Khmer people to become independent and to have value for their jobs and respect for their employers. He spoke of the lack of respect for the police and how this was inherent to alot of the problems in Cambodia. It was interesting to hear his point of view and he was very passionate on the topic, almost a world away from the heavenly oasis we were sitting in.

We walked home just before sunset and rested before heading down the river and the "touristy area" for dinner. Our tuk tuk driver this time was called Lucky and he was hilarious. He asked us where we were working and when we told him, he said he was friends with Mr Sam from iCAN and showed us a photo of him he had stuck to the top of his tuk tuk roof. What a small city!!! He entertainingly took us through the Independence monument roundabout (think Champs Elysee roundabout but worse) past the Royal Palace and to the banks of the Mekong and Tonle Sap for our dinner. We got his number as he will be valuable in the future due to his fun loving nature and not trying to rip us off.

After dinner we headed to the world renowned Foreign Correspondents Club for a drink. The rustic charm of the place is set off by the disturbing photos of the Khmer Rouge days lining the stairway as you enter the bar. The FCC was home to the foreign journos and diplomats who came to Phnom Penh after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and is a Phnom Penh institution, a place to be and be seen.

As I sat on the rooftop terrace laughing after a great day with new friends, it dawned on me that this was my new home. The fear had subsided, the excitement had kicked in and the adventure had well and truly begun. My next 2 years are going to be wild, crazy, backwards, exciting, eye opening, absolutely life changing, and i cant wait.................