jungle parties, poutine and the lot

I've now begun my first foray into living abroad. Sure, South Africa was 2 months, but really, I was more of a tourist in that setting.

The romanticized musings of a foreigner introduced to the new lands of the east continue; I'm a honeymooner essentially. It's now been 48 hrs since I've arrived and for some strange reason, I find myself sitting here, typing this out before I head off to see the waterfront.

Since I've probably communicated with many of you (thank goodness for the internet) as a result of being smacked in the face with a mean case of jet lag (I am 11 hrs ahead of EST), some of you probably have heard the following....

1) I found poutine in Cambodia. I later learned that a Quebecois guy came over, married a girl, and opened this restaurant that's just down the street from my hotel. Oh Chinoiserie, how you make the world go round. I suppose he missed the mixing of melting cheese curds in hot gravy slathered on French fries so much, he insisted on putting it on the menu. I'm slightly hesitant about this, and we all know that curiosity killed the cat.

2) I rode my first moto! The first of many subsequent rides I'll be taking while i'm here. For those worried about my neurologic health, yes, I will be buying a helmet once I move into my flat next week. I also rode my first tuktuk, but unless it's raining, I much prefer the wind blowing through my hair and watching my motodriver deftly navigate the uber-busy streets of Phnom Penh. In fact, this morning, my moto-driver managed to move in the opposite direction of the lane we were driving in.

Success has also been wrought in making friends! As much as I wanted to first avoid the expat crowd at first, I now realize that the melting pot is inevitable, and could never be a tossed salad. Through a fairly convoluted 6-degrees of separation, the guy who had booked my hotel for me, Prateek (who is friends with future roomie, Tara) came knocking at my door yesterday, when I was coincidentally shacked in while waiting for a perpetual rain storm to stop. He's a USAID public health specialist from Texas. Meeting him lead to really good Khmer food, and an invitation to an expat party in which he dressed up as some sort of Jungle warlord, in uniforms bought from some black market army outfitter. Now let me offer you a key piece of advice to travelers going to the other side of the world. Alcohol, in this case, "Jungle Juice" and jet lag do not necessarily make the best of mates, but in the end produce what's probably the best solution to jet lag. But aside from Jungle Juice and jetlag, I did manage to make a very diverse group of contacts, including an Aussie mercenary who patrolled the Lao-Cambodia border, and told me this while adjusting his loin cloth so that all necessary bodyparts were appropriately sheathed.

On the way home, I also heard my first gunshot in the street while tuktuk-ing along a seemingly quiet, barren, street. This was around the tacky and glittering Millionaire's Club. Note to self..stay away from there around midnight.

I've also managed to find really good Italian food in PP. It gave me the first sense of home, or Toronto, since arriving here (which I suppose speaks heavily about Toronto itself). This was a result of finally meeting my boss, Brrunnnnnnnnnnno Malton-i. At least that's how I like to pronounce his name. I look forward to working with him, and hope he gets over his Dengue fever soon. Despite this, he insisted that he give me a short tour of PP on his moto this afternoon, which was really great. We then spent lunch discussing Fellini, Mexico-US border issues and being sick in Cambodia. All of this took place sitting in an Italian restaurant, next to 2 Italian men, who appeared to have some sort of stereotypical affiliation with a certain organized crime posse from Italy. Globalization is wonderful, no?

I also learned today that Cambodia has 60 days worth of public holidays. Yee-hah The IOM, my employer, however, is the one who decides which holidays we get. Damn it.