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A long-winded collection of tips & tricks for travelling without tribulations
As some of you may know, we’re currently in Laos. For those of you who didn’t know, we’re in Laos! We’re in the beautiful capital city of Vientiane. Here’s a map for some geographical context:

We’ve been here about a week so far, and plan to be here a few more days. I totally love it here, but I’ll save all my gushing for another post.

The other day, our friend saw our hotel room, and he was teasing us about how it looks like we’re quite settled in, because our stuff is absolutely everywhere. I assured him with an oft-heard Heather Page refrain: “don’t worry, I have a system”. But the thing is, I totally *do* have a system. And a few months into this work/travel lifestyle, it’s gotten pretty darn good.

So, with the aim of sharing my knowledge and experience with others, here’s a run down of the tools and habits/systems that we swear by in order to cut the stress out of travelling:

Tools
- Agoda.com – this is the site of choice for booking accommodations when travelling in South East Asia. There are tons of listings for hostels and hotels, and they usually have really good flash deals/discounts
- GoogleMaps – Probably the most important tool that we use. Kevin has an Android phone, so he’s able to pre-load maps. How? He views the whole geographical area on the map, and then types “ok maps” into the search bar, and clicks “enter”. This downloads the whole map onto his phone, so he can access it without wifi, allowing us to navigate with only his GPS. Pretty darn convenient. You can also star locations on googlemaps (on the phone or in your browser), and it will remember them.
- TripAdvisor – Y’all already know that I’m crazy about Trip Advisor. Before we head to a new destination, I’ll go through the top 30 listings or so, and look at locations near our hotel. From there, I’ll make a list of places we’re checking out.
- Wikitravel: a real-life travel guide to cities written by fellow travelers. This advice on this site tends to be realistic, honest, and super practical. Some articles are better than others, but Wikitravel is a great, simple resource for answering questions about cell phone service, neighbourhood dynamics, and transit.
Habits/Systems

The most important thing, that I cannot stress enough, is that for Kevin and I, travelling has become a serious team effort. We both do research that we share with each other, and we each execute different parts of our systems. A lot of our strategies are things that one of us learned or came up with separately, and then brought to our collective system of travel survival. Anyways, here are some things we do to keep ourselves in order.

Habits:
- Cash: When we travel, always make sure we have at least a bit of cash. That way, we can exchange a bit of it in the airport and enter a country prepared.
- SIM Cards: One of the first things we do is purchase new SIM cards, get them into our phones, and then save each other’s new phone numbers. This is a big one for safety and convenience
- Bring a pen: This is simple but super useful. When flying into a new country, you have to fill out paperwork. They’ll give you this paperwork on the plane, but they rarely have writing utensils. If you don’t have a pen, you either have to borrow a pen from a neighbour, of you have to wait until you get to the airport and use the pens there. By bringing a pen, you save yourself a ton of time going through Passport Control/Customers. Essentially, be prepared and get to the front of the line.
- Know what you’re doing and where you’re going: Don’t wander out of the airport looking lost or confused. Know where you need to go, and have studied a map well enough to know what direction it’s in. This isn’t the most important thing of all time, but it’s a good rule of thumb for keeping safe and not getting ripped off.
Systems:

Packing our suitcase
- Packing clothes: I usually end up packing a variety of clothes, many of which I’m conscious of wrinkling (unless, of course, I just leave all of Kevin’s dress shirts in our closet, in which case wrinkling is the least of our worries). The best strategy I’ve followed so far is to just roll things up: dress pants, dress, shirts, etc.
- Packing non-clothing items: It’s all about Ziploc bags. I can never have enough Ziploc bags: the medium and large sizes. Somehow when I was packing to come to Asia, I brought 6 or 7 bags, and I am SO grateful that I did. I use them for all of my non-clothing packing needs. It’s a great way to keep the suitcase clean while also keeping things organized, and knowing where things are. On top of that, it makes re-packing that much easier when getting ready to leave. Combined with my 2 makeup bags, it’s my best system yet:
  - Makeup bag: larger products that will mostly be used only by me, like large makeup stuff, hair products, bobby pins/elastics (in their own smaller bag, of course), contact lens solution. Toothpaste and toothbrushes usually go in here as well.
  - Medium Size Ziploc Bag: Anything remotely medicinal. This includes Advil, bug repellant, Tiger Balm, polysporin, band-aids, medical tape, cough drops, Imodium, among other things
  - Large Ziploc Bag: Things Kevin uses. This includes his infamous hair wax, baby powder, nail clippers, a comb, asthma puffers, and anything else he might look for over the course of a trip.
  - Other Larage Ziplock Bag: this one rarely has much in it. I usually keep 1 additional bag available while I’m packing. As I wrap up, I sometimes notice a few random items that I’ve forgotten, and I’ll toss these in the bag. The purpose here is to pack small things without losing them in the process. By tossing small but necessary random items into a bag, they become less lose-able.
Manageable Unpacking
- Okay. We packed the suitcase, made it swiftly through the airport, and arrived at the hotel. What’s next? Some preparatory unpacking
  - Step 1: Sit the suitcase on something (a suitcase holder, or a bench, a chair, anything will do) and open it up
  - Step 2: Take out the dress shirts and pants, unroll them, and hang them up. Most hotels have at least 3 hangers. If they don’t, go ask the front desk for hangers. 3 is always enough to layer all Kevin’s shirts and pants in the closet, to avoid wrinkling. If there’s an extra couple of hangers for my dresses, that’s a bonus.
  - Step 3: Release the bags! I open the bags and move all related items to the right place. My makeup bag goes straight for the bathroom, along with half the stuff in the “Kevin” bag. The other bags sit in the suitcase, piled beside stacks of shirts and pants. All shoes are removed and placed near the entryway.
Other tips
- Check the bed sheets and mattress for bed bugs. Not sure of strategy here. This is a Kevin-led process
- Make sure the air conditioner works. You can also open the air conditioner and clean out/dust off the filter for max A/C. Again, not sure of strategy.
- Get your electronic chargers out and ready, so they’re already there when you need them. There’s nothing worse than forgetting to charge your phone because you were in a foreign space. If you need an adapter and don’t have one, sort that out right away. Ask the front desk, as they usually have spares, and if they don’t, they can point you to the nearest convenience store to pick one up.
- Check the WiFi and make sure it works. If it doesn’t, start figuring out where the nearest good WiFi spot will be. Pre-travel research is super helpful in this case.
- Keep photo copies of your passport with you. If you have a travel visa, get a copy of that as well.
- Don’t let the front desk keep your passport. When you check in, they’ll want to take a copy of your passport. From my experience, this is usually non-negotiable, though sometimes they’ll accept a drivers license. If they ask to just keep it and give it back to you later, insist that they instead make a copy right away. Make it clear that you don’t mind waiting, and you won’t leave without it.
- Be mindful of the weight of your bag, and repack as needed. This is especially important if you’re travelling with a non-rolling suitcase and/or going somewhere that rolling isn’t always an option. We always travel with backpacks, which we use to carry heavier items.
- Be patient with each other. Travelling is stressful. Be forgiving and be willing to help the other person, because in the long run it will make everyone’s travel experience better.
That’s all I can think of for now. Did I miss anything? Have questions? What other strategies do y’all follow? Comment away!

Also, here are some photos of our packing strategy in action:

our suitcase/stuff/my workspace

luckily, this room has plenty of shelf storage

I went shopping! New hilarious tshirt, and new lovely handmade dress

Our unpacking space, and my workspace

the bag system!!
November 12, 2014
Keeping in touch around the world
Living abroad can be hard. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to be on this crazy round-the-world adventure, and Kevin and I are having a blast together. However, because we’re travelling a lot, and because we’re both spending so much time working, it can be difficult to make close friends here. In that type of scenario, it’s been extremely wonderful and valuable for me to keep in touch with friends and family back in Canada. In some cases, I think I’m closer with some people in Canada now than I was when I actually lived in the same country as them.

So, how do I keep in touch? Thanks to modern technology, it’s not as tough as one might think. There are a variety of tools that I’m using, some more effective than others. Here’s a list and my thoughts on effectiveness:
- Skype
  - This is probably the tool I used most for communication, because I use it for work and personal communication. 90% of the calls I do with my RecruitLoop colleagues take place via Skype. Because I use it so often for work, I began using it for personal as well. Skype has a great instant message function, but is also the best tool I’ve used so far for face to face calls. Ususally once a week I’ll have a lengthy Skype call with a friend. The main issue with Skype is that it gets upset if there are any blips in internet connection, so it can freeze from time to time. Still, this is my overall go-to for calls.
- iMessage
  - I only really discovered how this worked a few weeks ago, but it’s quickly taken up a big role in my overall communication strategy. iMessage allows me to text message any I know who has an iPhone, using either their phone number or their email address. On my Macbook, it just looks like an instant message program, but the message I’m sending arrive as a text message. This is the best because it’s an easy way to just have day-to-day conversations with friends.
- Gmail
  - This is standard. Everyone uses email. The problem is that responses take time, particularly when there’s a lot of time between emails, because so much more time is needed to write updates.
- FaceTime
  - I pretty much only use this to call my parents on their iPads. It’s pretty good, though their internet isn’t amazing, and freezing or dropped can be frequent. But still, since it’s the visual lifeline to my parents, it’s important.
- Facebook
  - As always, Facebook is a go-to timewaster. It’s my insight into the important news in Canada, and keeps me updated with what everyone is up to. It’s also a good way for people I’m not as close with to get in touch with me.
- HipChat
  - This is used for work only, but since I use it daily, I figured it deserves a mention. HipChat is like iMessage or MSN messenger, but internal for companies only. It also has a very unique and cute and funny set of emoticons that can be added to messages. It’s a staple at startups.
- Google Hangouts
  - Mostly used for work, for group meetings. I rarely understand how Google Hangouts work, so I’m loathe to expose my friends to this technology. Maybe one day in the future, if Skype fails me.
And of course, my blog! A great way of sharing the big updates and daily stories with everyone.

Am I missing a great tool? Suggest it in the comments!
November 2, 2014
Trip Advisor Reviews

Have I mentioned lately that I’m completely obsessed with Trip Advisor? Because I am.

If you’re ever wondering, “what does Heather do in her spare time over there in Phnom Penh?”, one possible answer is “writing Trip Advisor reviews” (in fact, I just said to Kevin “shush, I’m writing a blog post about Trip Advisor reviews and he said “noooooooo! that’s the ultimate possible review review review”. So that should give a taste of how much time I spend writing Trip Advisor reviews).

We started using them for some basic restaurant research when we first moved to Phnom Penh, and were immediately impressed with the reliability of their reviews. We found one of our favourite restaurants, Brooklyn Pizza, by reading Trip Advisor reviews, and I immediately went home, signed up for Trip Advisor, and wrote a review describing that despite my skepticism about a pizza joint being top of the restaurants list in the city, it was a super great restaurant.

And it went from there. I’ve now written many reviews for hotels and restaurants in many different cities. Here’s a quick snapshot of my profile:

Why Trip Advisor? Why all the work? It’s not work! It’s fun! I swear!

Honestly, Trip Advisor is one slick operation when it comes to user engagement.

First, they got me completely hooked with their badges. Like all properly gamified systems, they started out with only a few requirements, and become gradually more difficult. Once I’d written one review, I knew I could get to 3 and become a “Reviewer”, and so on, and so forth. I’m now Senior Contributor, and actively working towards being a Top Contributor.

So, as you can see, I’ve been banging out these reviews pretty quickly. But it’s not just about numbers – it’s also about Helpful votes. That’s right, quality is also key. And I’m telling you now that getting an email saying someone clicked a button to indicate that my review was helpful is like crack. I make most of my reviews quite detailed, including all of the types of information that I look for in reviews: notes on bathroom quality, cleanliness, service, location/directions, hours; anything that you could only know by going to a place. And this is a key point: I get a lot of value out of the reviews I read on Trip Advisor, so I don’t mind (in fact, I’m glad to) writing my own good reviews. I find a lot of these reviews genuinely helpful, and as a regular traveller I know how difficult it can be to have guidance on where to eat/stay while abroad, so I’m glad to share my knowledge with others.

Here’s a snapshot of all the places where I’ve reviewed something:

Of course, there are other badges for writing reviews in multiple cities. In my quest to rise up the reviewer ranks and earn my “Passport” badge for having reviews in multiple cities, I wrote reviews for every place I’ve visited in the past year. This includes restaurants in Toronto, and places Kevin and I went on our trip to Portugal and London earlier this year. Hell, I even reviewed a place in San Francisco that we ate last year, just because it was so damn good and worthy of a good review.

I’ve also earned a “first to review badge” for creating a listing for and then reviewing Jack’s Place – the super remote bunch of cottages that Kevin and I
stayed at for a couple of days while visiting the Philippines. They have basically no online presence whatsoever, so I suspect that my review will be able to provide some helpful information for others looking to learn anything about this place.

Beyond their badges, Trip Advisor also totally rocks at user engagement through email marketing. They email me on a regular basis, sometimes about the success of my reviews or my progress as a Trip Advisor user, and sometimes with emails about interesting locations I might want to visit. If I read about a restaurant online? Or save it to one of my trips? They email me a few days later asking if I’d like to review it. Rarely are their emails out of place. Additionally, their emails are always quite lovely and actionable and sensible.

If you’re looking to research your next travel destination, or if you’re even just looking to study a great example of gamified user engagement, I highly recommend that you check out Trip Advisor ASAP.

November 2, 2014
TWG does not equal Twinnings: Lessons in Observation

When I packed up and moved to Southeast Asia in July (still can’t believe it’s now nearly November!), I headed to Bangkok to meet Kevin. He’d already been there for about a month, but had recently transitioned over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Of course, I’d already booked my flight to Bangkok by the time he made that move, so he just flew back to meet me when I arrived.

Wise move: Bangkok was a nice transition to Phnom Penh. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a crazy huge, crazy busy city, especially downtown, where we were staying, but it was certainly more like “home” than Phnom Penh. Anyways, we spent around 4 days in Bangkok, and did lots of various sight seeing. This, naturally, included going to malls. Downtown Bangkok is choc-full-o-malls: expensive malls, western malls, discount malls, small malls, enormous malls, super local malls, technology malls, you name it.

This is just a long-winded way of saying: I went to Bangkok and I went to a mall and I saw something that I thought was pretty darn interesting.

What was this? A TWG Tea Salon. I don’t have photos from that moment, but here are a few things I picked off Google Images that give a sense of what their signature Tea Salons look like: fancy, like tea-with-the-Queen fancy, but positioned in an open space in the middle of a mall. See below:

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Kevin and I were really into the idea of this place. My reaction? “Wow, Twinnings has tea salons in Asia?? That would play SO well in North America!”. For weeks we talked about how much we liked this idea, how we were surprised Twinnings hadn’t opened something like this in Canada, and how we wanted to see if we could get the rights to open one of our own in Canada. I mean, come on. Twinnings? The favourite tea of the Canadian Motherland? How could that not be a success?

A few weeks later, Kevin and I went to Manila, and found another of these delightful tea salons. In need of breakfast, we decided to sit down and eat there, instead of just ogling it from outside.

Sitting there in a Tea Room in the middle of a mall in Manila, we noticed the following

1. This is kinda weird – it feels like we’re on display

2. This tea room looks fancy, but I can see un-fancy mall stores and people all around me

3. Everything is labelled TWG – how exactly does that translate to Twinnings?

Spoiler Alert: it doesn’t.

After thinking and talking about this place for a month, we realized that we actually had no idea what we were talking about.

TWG stands for The Wellness Group – a Singapore based company that imports teas from all around the world. Not connected to Twinnings.

And yet, their branding seemed so similar – that yellow? TW? Seriously? It was a serious *mind blown* moment for us when we realized that TWG and Twinnings were totally separate companies.

Anyways, there’s a TWG Shop in Times Square, and there’s also one in Phnom Penh, so I guess TWG is slowly but surely creeping around the world.

When it reaches London, is Twinnings going to have something to say about this? I’d be calling my lawyer if I were them.

Check out photos below of Kevin and I at TWG in Manila, including photos from their TWG Menu. A few feet away from their Tea Salon, they also have a Tea Shop, where they sell packaged teas, tea pots worth thousands of dollars, and other TWG merchandise.

October 29, 2014
We went to the UAE!

Some of you already know this, but we recently spent a week in the United Arab Emirates. Here’s some history, courtesy of Wikipedia, follow by a map, to start us all off on the right page:

Established on 2 December 1971, the country is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities). Each emirate is governed by a hereditary emir who jointly form the Federal Supreme Council, the highest legislative and executive body in the country. One of the emirs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah,Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE. Islam is the official religion of the UAE, and Arabic is the official language.^[8]Sharia Law is a main source of its legislation.

This trip was a bit different from our other travel adventures, as it was strictly a business trip. Kevin and his colleagues had a variety of meetings to attend, so they did that while I worked on my computer in the hotel room.

Of course, we did have a bit of fun on the first day. We spent the first night in a hotel in Dubai, and Kevin and I spent the bulk of that day at the Dubai Mall. This is because when I packed our suitcase, I forgot all of Kevin’s dress shirts in our closet. As a result, we just had to go to the mall and get him some shirts, people watch, eat, see the world’s tallest building, etc. We event found a Tim Hortons’! Kevin’s phone wasn’t working quite right, but here are the limited photos that we did take that day:

tim hortons in my hand!

an aquarium in a mall

After spending the day in Dubai, we went to a different emirate, Ras Al-Khaimah, where we spent the remainder of our trip. We stayed at the Acacia Hotel, which is in located in an industrial free-zone, so the view was rather Mars-esque:

We had to choose this hotel location, because it was the only one in Ras Al-Khaimah that we were certain wouldn’t require Kevin and I to present a marriage certificate in order to stay there. It had its faults, but overall the hotel was nice. The room was comfortable to work in, and they had a nice pool outback, though it was shaded by the building for the majority of the day, which was weird. Still, it was nice to sit outside and work by the pool.

Overall it was a quiet trip. It involved lots of work and lots of dinners at nice restaurants, the best of which were the Lexington Grille at the Waldorf Astoria, and Safran, a Thai restaurant at the Banyan Tree al Wadi. The latter was particularly special, because the Banyan Tree al Wadi is a hotel surrounded by a nature preserve maintained by the hotel. It was beautiful and tranquil.

On the last day, we went back to Dubai, and we got to see the Dubai Fountains, right in front of the Burj Khalifah. It’s likely that we’ll have to go back again in the near-ish future, so I’ll be sure to get more photos next time. The UAE was a nice place to visit, but it has too many highways and requires too much driving. I was very glad to be back in Phnom Penh where I can walk everywhere that I need to go.

October 26, 2014
House Geckos

Here in Cambodia, Kevin and I have no pets. However, that doesn’t mean that our home is without creature companions.

What am I talking about? The house gecko, of course.

We have 1 living under our living room couch, and another living in the a/c unit in our bedroom. Fortunately, they’re fairly quiet, though the one in our room does like to chirp from time to time.

This is what it sounds like:

Sometimes these geckos can chirp quite loudly. When Kevin was living in Bangkok, I could hear them through the phone. Not realizing what we were hearing, he was convinced that there was some kind of exotic bird outside his window. Eventually, someone set us straight. Geckos make an impressive amount of noise for such a small creature!

We don’t mind having them around the house – they eat bugs, and they don’t make any mess. Sometimes they’ll startle us – I often see the couch dweller darting around the floor out of the corner of my eye. They’re green, cute, and have a jumpy little way of moving. They’re also completely harmless, and they’re not big enough to be intimidating (only around 2 inches long). Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them:

The common house gecko, scientific name Hemidactylus frenatus (not to be confused with the Mediterranean species Hemidactylus turcicus known asMediterranean house gecko), is a native of Southeast Asia. It is also known as the Pacific house gecko, the Asian house gecko, or simply, the house lizard. Most geckos are nocturnal, hiding during the day and foraging for insects at night. They can be seen climbing walls of houses and other buildings in search of insects attracted to porch lights, hence their name “house gecko”. Spread around the world by ships, these geckos are now common in the Deep Southof the United States, large parts of tropical and sub-tropical Australia, and many other countries in South and Central America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. They grow to a length of between 3-6 inches (975-150 mm), and live for about 5 years. These small geckos are non-venomous and harmless to humans. Medium to large geckos may bite if distressed, however their bite is gentle and will not pierce skin.

We’re pretty sure that Jean Luc would try to eat them, so it’s best that our cat is back in Canada. For now, we’ll just have to settle with being crazy gecko lovers. They move to quick for us to get photos of them, but believe me when I say they’re adorable.

October 11, 2014
An update on Jean Luc Picard: a lion in paradise
Those of you who know us super well know that Kevin and I have a complete and total obsession with our cat, the beautiful lion that we call Jean Luc Picard.

If you’ve ever or heard him in a vehicle (mad whining, people!) you know that he is 100% not fit for air travel. So, where the heck is he?

LIVING WITH MY PARENTS!!

Though we never really had a consistent pet growing up (we had a dog for a small period of time, then cycled through various birds and hamsters), we were never a true pet-having family. When we told my family that we’d be moving to Cambodia for awhile, we were surprised and very pleased when my parents offered to take in our Jean Luc. And we’re more happy about that everyday, because we get regular updates from the family about him. And believe me, people, that cat is living. the. life.

Here is a sample of the things Jean Luc Picard does on a regular basis:
- naps in one of his two beds that are placed on a table at window height. Of course, the beds match the decor in their corresponding room.
- Drinks water from a special bowl that keeps the water moving. This is because they kept letting him drink out of the sink, and he got used to the moving water and now refuses to drink from a regular bowl
- Goes outside for walks on a leash
- Sits with my mom on the deck while she reads
- Comes running to greet someone whenever they come home
- Takes turns alternatively sleeping on my parents’ laps while they watch TV from the couch
- Sits in the washing machine while my mom folds laundry
- Chases bugs and snakes in the garden
- Freaks out when he sees birds or squirrels through the window
- Naps. All the time. #catlife
Here’s a video of his newest toy:

In addition to photos and videos, my mom also shares some great anecdotes:

Luc did a bad thing yesterday. He was on the bathroom counter while your dad was shaving and the cupboard door was open. He took his little paw and knocked out the whole glass container of Q-tips. Glass everywhere. Nicked the granite. Dad picked him up quickly so he would not cut himself. Too much, too early.

– September 21, 2014

Well yesterday Jean Luc had a very interesting day.
He bit his first snake. I thought he had killed it. It curled up really tight and didn’t move for a long time. When Luc bit him, he released some kind of warning odour. The lion didn’t like it and jumped back up on the deck. Lol. Not a noticeable smell but I googled to see if it would hurt him. Nope.
After dinner, Miss Kitty, the cat from across the street made an appearance by the back kitchen door. Luc was very upset by this. The hair on his back raised up and he hissed and let out a mean yowl. Miss Kitty was scared through the door. She wouldn’t go away though and so I went out there and chased her away. Can’t have her upsetting out lion now. She came again later but Tony chased her away. I will have to keep an eye on that. Douse her with the hose.

– July 30th, 2014

Last night we had a big thunderstorm and I picked him up and cradled him in his favorite blanket and he buried his head. Then Tony took blankets and covered the coffee table and made a cave for him. He stayed in there until the storm passed. Poor little guy.

– September 6th, 2014

Clearly he’s in good hands – thanks Mom and Dad!!

See photos here:
October 2, 2014
We have an apartment!

On my brothers’ last day in Phnom Penh, we moved into our apartment. It’s been a nice change from living in a hotel out of a suitcase, constantly unpacking and then repacking.

Now that we’re properly settled in, I decided I should actually share this with you! We’ve been slow to settle in, first buying hangers and baskets, then hanging up some artwork and few weeks later. Now that we’re settled, here it is!

We live on the Phnom Penh Riverside, on a street technically named Sisowath Quay. Interested in sending mail? Contact me for our, though we’ve never received mail here, so we’re not quite sure what to expect from a mail system in this city. I have no idea what our postal code is, and I’ve actually never even seen someone delivering mail in Phnom Penh. So, we’ll see.

As for how we like our apartment? We think it’s great. It’s way too big for us, and the high ceilings combined with the tiled floor make it pretty echo-y. It’s almost impossible to hear what each other are saying from another room; shouting a conversation is both frustrating and impossible. It’s also intensely dark in the apartment at night, which makes it downright creepy sometimes, especially because every little sound is magnified.

However, the view is spectacular. We sometimes sit out there for hours watching the traffic. Crazy things we’ve seen so far:

– a woman in very high heels and small shorts trekking across the promenade just to pee on the stairs beside the river

– a large truck full of bricks with several Cambodians sleeping on top of the brick pile (while the truck is moving, of course)

– a large truck with a tarp in the truckbed, filled with water and living, moving fish

– cute puppies being chased around by children

– a daily exercise class, attended by 40+ Cambodian women of all ages… think Richard Simmons, but outside. Amazingness.

Bonus: we have air conditioning! We have an a/c unit in our bedroom and in the living room. We mostly use the one in the bedroom, and the room keeps cool for hours after it’s been turned off. Now that we have a place, book your ticket and come visit us!!

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September 27, 2014
We went to Vietnam this weekend!

When we moved over here, we’d always expected that regular travel would be an added bonus of living in such an interesting, inexpensive, and interconnected region. We ventured to Bangkok and to the Philippines, but after beginning work a few weeks ago (more on that later this week) I was wondering if I’d ever actually be able to balance travel and work.

Well, we tested that theory this weekend, and it went well!

For the past week, Kevin and our 2 friends, Chris and Marie (our first couple-friends! every day is a double date!), were talking about needing to take a trip to Vietnam soon, partly for business, but also partly because we needed a new visa. Visas are only good for 30 days, at which point you can either get an extension, or travel outside the country and get a new one upon your return. I wasn’t really planning to go with them, because my visa was okay for a bit longer, and I was pretty nervous about whether or not I’d be able to manage working and travelling together. Both Kevin and my family can verify that I tend to let my work become the central figure in my life, at the expense of everything else.

I was putting off the decision about whether to go, when on Tuesday they said “hey Heather, we’re going Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday and we’re going to get our travel visas right now. Are you in or out? Come with us!!”

I quickly chose yes, and then figured out how to make it work. Fortunately, my new work team is kindly flexible. So, I packed our bags, I had my daily Skype call with my manager at 7am, and by 8:30am the 4 of us were on a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in Vietnam.

We took the Mekong Express Bus, and it was a rather pleasant trip – despite being only 300km or so, it took us 5 or 6 hours. Still, the scenery was great, movies were playing, and the wifi on the bus allowed me to continue working until we reached the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

As with most things in Cambodia, the trip was filled with interesting, unique occurrences. For me, the highlight was when our bus rode onto a boat that carried us across the Mekong. Whereas this experience, being crammed on a boat in a bus, surrounded by motorcycles and scooters while kids and women manoeuvred around trying to sell water and snacks, was curious and interesting, it was far from surprising. What was surprising was the suspension-bridge-in-progress that we could see just down the river. So, this trip might get a bit more modern in a few months’ (hopefully) time.

Check out the photos here of the boat ride and the bridge:

We were very impressed with Ho Chi Minh City, though were a bit shocked by how much modern it was than Phnom Penh. In some ways it’s like a combination of Phnom Penh and Bangkok – modern, but yet with a relaxed European-influenced charm and architecture. It was also remarkably clean.

The traffic, of course, was next level. Mom and Dad, Kevin took this video specifically for you guys to watch – he wanted to capture the intensity and volume of scooters, and I think he succeeded:

We stayed at Hello Hotel, the cleanest hotel we’ve stayed at throughout all of our travels, which was a very welcome surprise.

The fun in Ho Chi Minh City started right away, and obviously involved food, as all our travels do. We headed to an incredible sushi restaurant, Ichiban Sushi, for dinner, followed by an Internations event at a new restaurant in the city. I’ll write more about Internations later, but it’s basically an online social media site that is used to connected ex-pats at in-person events. We met lots of interesting people, and then headed home to bed.

During the day on Friday, I worked in our hotel room, while Kevin and our friends went to a business conference to try to make some new connections in Vietnam. When they got back from work, we were off to dinner again, this time to Cyclo Resto. It was truly a special experience. The restaurant offers one set menu per night – a mix of modern and traditional Vietnamese food, served family style. When the food is that good, there’s no need to be concerned that you don’t get to choose – and this way you can just focus on enjoying each other’s company.

After dinner, we checked out a rooftop bar that had been recommended by someone at the Internations event. One drink turned into a few, and before we knew it, we’d been relaxing and chatting for 5 hours. Before we called it a night, we headed McDonalds from some late-night McNuggets. To be honest, I was a complete McDonalds fiend during this trip. There’s no McDonalds in all of Cambodia, and I was craving it big time. In the span of three days, we went to McDonalds twice. Sound gross? You should read my bff Rebecca’s blog – she’d agree with you.

On Saturday, we took our sweet time getting our day started. Eventually we headed to a different conference. That conference was closing that day at 5pm. Naturally, when we arrived at 1pm, it was 80% packed up and torn down. With our “work day” now over, we went on the hunt for a mani-pedi location. Marie and I found one that was pretty sketchy and had a very basic mani-pedi done for $2 each. I’d rushed our choice of location due to fear of impending rain, which is not something I’ll ever do again. Everything went fine, but let’s just say that place wasn’t winning any awards for hygiene.

No worries – in keeping with our relaxed lifestyle over here, we then went and grabbed coffee, before heading back to Ichiban Sushi for dinner (it was that good!!). Kevin and Chris started off dinner with “Sake Boom”:

After dinner, we got the restaurant owner to recommend a good foot massage/spa place just down the street. You see, Kevin has a whole host of post-blister skin injuries on his one foot, and we’d been hoping he could get a proper spa pedicure to fix it up. Our earlier location didn’t fit the bill, but this new place did. Marie and I enjoyed our second pedicure of the day, while Kevin enjoyed the first ‘spa pedicure’ of his life. Let’s just say, this will become a repeat activity in our lives. I couldn’t be happier, and neither could he. Watching Kevin enjoy the massage chair while getting his feet done was a true delight – he looked like a cat who’d just discovered the joys of napping in sunbeams.

Sunday morning, we boarded a bus and headed back to Cambodia. The trip went off without a hitch, and now we’re back in Phnom Penh, watching Formula 1 and thinking about our next trip!

Also the alley near our hotel

The view from OMG Rooftop Bar

Standing and watching the rain at Cyclo Resto

In the alley near our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Me attempting a “jump shot”

Spa time!

Ichiban Sushi

September 21, 2014
The Jesus Cleanse

I’m on a cleanse of sorts – let me tell y’all all about it!

In Cambodia, a single beer costs anywhere between 50 cents, and $1.50. The beer I’m talking about is good ol’ Cambodian beer, which in many ways is just alcoholic water with some flavour. That is, it’s not a heavy beer, and it’s not expensive at all, so it’s very easy to drink at least 2 or 3 in one sitting. And it’s very easy to do this every single day.

Naturally, once you’re a few beers in, you’re sick of it. Don’t wanna drink beer? Don’t worry, a gin and tonic is only around $3.00 a glass, so treat yourself!

As a result, after a few months in Cambodia I realized that I’d been consuming an inordinate amount of beer and gin, for no reason other than it was easy to do so.

Enter: the Jesus Cleanse.

My Jesus Cleanse, which began on Sept 9th, was supposed to accompany a 30 day yoga challenge, but that was short-lived. I have done yoga maybe 6 or 7 times in the last 11 days, which isn’t bad, but I’m too jazzed up about the Jesus Cleanse to care one way or the other about my 30 day yoga challenge.

Hold up the phone, Heather – what’s a Jesus Cleanse?

Like most cleanses, it’s a bunch of nonsense that I’ve made up. But unlike most cleanses, it’s pretty simple and it has no unseemly freeing effects on my digestive system/bowels (I live in Cambodia, people, that’s already taken care of!)

Jesus Cleanse = only drink water and wine.

Exceptions are allowed for juice and smoothies. This weekend I also allowed an exception for Coco-Cola, as I enjoyed a rare trip to McDonalds while we’re visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

When we go out to eat, when we go to the bar, when I’m at home, I only drink water or wine. For me, it’s been a great way to cut back to alcohol intake while not totally giving it up altogether.

Besides, as a founder of Wine Wednesdays, I could hardly survive giving up wine.

It’s worth noting that the Jesus Cleanse has nothing to do with Jesus other than being a name. I figured that since Jesus supposedly turned water into wine, and I’m only drinking water and wine, the name was apt. It’s also easy to explain to people – “sorry, no beer for me, I’m on the Jesus Cleanse – water and wine only!!”

I don’t know that my cleanse has blessed me with any amazing feeling-ness, but I drink a lot less now, which I think lends itself to some mental clarity. I also get a prideful kick out of actually sticking with this cleanse. And honestly, there’s not much in the world that’s better for drinking than water or wine.

If any of you have ever heard of this cleanse, or tried something similar, I’d love to know – leave a comment!

September 20, 2014