Apartment Teaser and Bicycle Bliss

Two exciting things happened last weekend: I moved into my new apartment and bought a bicycle.

While my official bedroom won't open up until September (I'm staying in the other bedroom occupied by a friend who is out in the field for the next two months), it's wonderful to settle into a home and begin to explore the surrounding neighborhood. Everyone's been asking for photos of the place, but I am actually going to keep you all in suspense until I get my actual room set up. However, I am sharing a photo of two of my four adorable feline roommates. That's Morocco in the forefront and Gypsy lounging in the back.

Having a bicycle in Phnom Penh has been an unexpected joy. Before arriving here, I was hesitant to cycle around and assumed traffic would be similar to what I have seen in India, with jam-packed roads and every vehicle imaginable all competing for road space. While the roads are quite busy here, there are few buses and large trucks, no cows and everyone tends to drive their cars/motobikes around 30-40 km/hr. After assessing my comfort level with this traffic, and seeing loads of expats cycling around town, I ventured to O Russei market last Sunday and picked up this gem of a secondhand bicycle. She came complete with basket, fenders, rack, skirt guard and a bell; everything I could hope for to get around rain or shine. Traffic has always struck me as a living thing that has an inherent pattern of ebb-and-flow, so I've started to pick up on how every piece of this organism operates here and how I can safely fit in. Larger vehicles always have the right-of-way and the larger the vehicle the faster you should go. I'm used to zipping around NYC at a fast pace, but here I noticed that if I start peddling hard people don't anticipate it and I end up getting cut off or almost running into people. But taking on the acceptable lazy pace of other cyclists here means that everyone knows what I'm doing, can gauge if they can pass me, etc. and allows me to show up to work sweat-free. Beyond serving as transport to/from work, I decided to cycle as my main mode of transport here and am starting to get a good hang of the city and beyond...

Yesterday, bright and early, a few of us took a ferry across the Mekong and landed with our bicycles in a world completely different from the bustle and sparkle of Phnom Penh. We cycled around on dirt roads through temples and farms, waving and sharing "Hello!'s" with cheering kids. It was amazing to be out in nature for a bit, and to also see the rural side of Cambodia. I haven't had a chance to go to the field yet for work, and so agriculture in Cambodia had just been in my mind until yesterday. Here are a few shots of the sights, and I'm sure I'll be cycling out there again and will take far more photos.