The Move!

We moved into the new house!

A procession for the King's Birthday?

Not to give something more importance than it's due, but after getting married, and living in rooms in houses for 6 months, we're pretty happy to have our own place. Since Em is teaching, and is in the habit of lesson planning every weekend for the upcoming week, and since she is also studying online, AND since we still want to make friends and spend time with people, it left us very little in the way of time to move on this three day weekend. Still, we managed. :)

Bunthueon and I waiting for the procession to pass @ road 3

Actually, the bulk of our moving/shopping happened in a 2 hour time-span where we hired a Tuk-Tuk driver, and made a few trips around town, and back-and-forth from GEMS to our new place.Originally, we were just walking to a shop to buy some sheets and pillows for one of the beds in our place - the pillows are enormous (but not very comfy in the end!) and an enterprising tuk-tuk driver by the name of Buntheourn convinced us to hire him for a ride home. We had plans though, and asked if he wouldn't mind trucking us around for an hour. In the hour we returned to GEMS, put the sheets in the washing machine, then headed to Street 2 to buy some electrical appliances for the house. We played the sellers on either side of the street against each other's pricing to get good prices for our purchases, and, after loading up the tuk-tuk, headed to the house. At this point, we still didn't have electricity running to our place! Em thought we might ask the tuk-tuk driver if he knew anything about power and how to get it up and running...and he didn't, but it turns out he was bright enough to follow the power-lines from our house across the street, and over to a power-box in the yard of the 'across-the-street-' peeps (can I just call them neighbors? or is there a term for neighbors that face you as opposed to ones that are beside you?) he strolled in, and flicked a switch, and voila! we had power. Lucky lucky.

The second trip from GEMS to new home

We then decided to head back to gems and check on the sheets...and I wanted to go to the bank, because our shopping had almost exhausted our cash. The bank was, how do the french say,  Fermé. So I called Emily, and we decided we'd just pack and move all our stuff right then. Boonthon and I pulled an about-face, and headed back to GEMS. Emily had already hung the new sheets to dry, and packed two bags. I started loading up the tuk-tuk, and helping to pack. Buonthorn and I headed to the new house to drop off the bags, then back to GEMS, then one more giant load, and we were all done!

After we moved in, Emily spent an hour getting to know
The local chillins.

Of course, moving our stuff is only 1/4 of the battle. Cleaning the place on Saturday was another 1/4, unpacking is another 1/4 (which we're nearly through!) and the last, and perhaps longest 1/4 is buying stuff. I'm kind of torn about buying stuff. On the one hand, I like nice things. For reals! I like things that are well-made, and aesthetically pleasing, and functional, and best if they're all three rolled into one. On the other hand, I feel like spending money on things is a bit of a waste. Right? If a .50 cent bowl will hold as much soup as a $5 bowl, why not get the .50 cent one? I'll let you know how that internal battle plays out, or if you have any advice - I'm all ears. In the mean time, We bought a bunch of cheap, functional things (except for aluminum pots which changed color and stuff flaked off of!) and will have to get a few more things and some furniture before we can really say that we've 'settled' in the place.

First we bought bikes, then stuff
and a bucket to put the stuff in

We got new (second-hand) bikes! They're pretty awesome. They came with baskets and lights. The lights are cool - they have a little wheel that connects to the front wheel, and that's how it powers the light. faster = brighter! The cityscape has transformed with our purchase of bicycles - everything is now so close and so easy to access. I'm glad we walked around for 6 weeks though, because now we really appreciate the power of the wheel.

We were pretty insular last weekend, but we managed to join a Diwali celebration with some of the friends from malaysia (they're not hindu, but they took the excuse to make the food :D). Then we all watched "3 idiots" on our projector. Great film. Check it out.

Ridvan and Wody at the Psar Thmeuy Market

There's more to say about the weekends unending activities, but that's all I'm into typing for now.

much love,

Ash.

p.s. "Fixing the Broken Things: Partie Deux" is coming soon!