At home

Home is a gated property with two buildings in the nicest neighbourhood in Phnom Penh. We live in ex-pat central, district Beung Keng Kong 1. This is a neighbourhood of large, mostly French colonial houses, which provide office space for many NGOs. And serving the ex-pat population are dozens of restaurants, cafés, gift shops, and massage parlours. We think of the neighbourhood as like Queen Street west of Bathurst (in Toronto) with its mix of trendy and old establishments. In one block I find a guest house with spa on the main floor, an iron fabricator (making mostly gates), a travel agency, an internet café, an Indian food restaurant, a Khmer and Italian food restaurant, a massage parlour, another travel agency, another internet café, and on the corner (on the sidewalk) a restaurant catering to Cambodians, serving breakfast only (the whole restaurant disappearing by 9:00am).

Inside our gate are two buildings. The main house has an office, living room (which doubles as a yoga studio if it is raining on the tin roofed terrace), and an unused kitchen. Actually, we have two cats who use the kitchen. Their Whiskas is kept in a cupboard and they eat on the counter. Above this are three bedrooms and two baths. We have the bedroom with the en suite bath and a terrace. Dara (pronounced like que sara sara) is the only other house mate. She is the de facto second in command of the studio, though while Isabelle, the director, is in Canada and Anna-Marie is in charge, Dara is the go to girl for everything. She is also a real sweetie and we’ve taken a shine to her, and her to Anna-Marie especially. We are in the midst of fifteen days of Buddhist holidays, the final three of which are work holidays. We have planned an excursion to her home province to spend the holidays with her aunt and uncle in the country. 

The roof of the main house is a covered terrace and secondary yoga studio. The main studio is on the roof of the other building. Both buildings are of concrete construction, with HARD tiled floors. I’ve already learned the trick of practicing on two yoga mats, in an attempt to save my old bony knees. Below the yoga studio is a garage (used as utility and storage), a bath room and change rooms, and our kitchen (described in a previous entry).