Home Sweet Home (part 2)

I thought I would share a few more pictures from our house hunting experience.  These are places that we decided not to rent but may consider something along these lines if we choose to make Siem Reap our home for more than a year.  Keep in mind that all these places rent for about the same price and many of them are partially furnished.  All houses have a locked gate and fence that surround the property and all the apartments that we looked at have a pool and exercise room.

House #1 - 5 bedrooms, 6 baths

A bathroom in house #1.  This tub is huge and not the norm for bathrooms in Siem Reap...this is very western!

House #1 second floor balcony off the master bedroom.

House #2 - 5 bedrooms, 6 baths

Bathroom in house #2.  This is a more typical bathroom.  Note the shower head in the middle of the wall on the right side of the picture.  When you shower, you just stand in the middle of the bathroom and clean up.  When you finish, you spray down the entire bathroom, leaving you and the bathroom sparkling clean.  No shower curtain needed.  The bathrooms in our apartment are more of this style but don't worry, if you visit, we've put up a shower curtain.  :)

Apartment #1 with a beautiful pool in the center of the complex.  A few of the teachers that I work with are living in the complex.

House #3 - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths.  This house also had a huge yard but would need a lot of work to maintain it.  There was a garden and tons of mango and coconut trees on the property.

One of the coconut trees in the back yard.

House #4 - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths.  This house may not look as nice as some of the others but was a favorite among those of us looking for houses.  One of the teachers that I work with is renting this amazing little gem.

The kitchen in house #4.  This is one of the largest kitchen we saw in any of the houses with a full size frig and tons of cabinets.  There's even a smaller kitchen located right off this main kitchen which would have been perfect for my husband to brew beer and indulge in any other culinary experiences he wished to pursue.

Apartment #2 - several in this building but located right next to the river.  With annual flooding, no one was really interested in this building.

The only cool thing about apartment #2 was the roof top pool....

and the amazing views!

Home Sweet Home

Finding a place to live in Cambodia is an interesting but relatively easy process.  There are plenty of houses and apartments for rent and its a matter of finding what's right for you.  After looking at several houses and apartments, my husband and I settled on a two bedroom apartment just outside of town.  Surprisingly, a 5-6 bedroom house rents for about the same amount as a two bedroom apartment...and much cheaper than the apartment we rented back in the States.

To my family and friends, our doors are open and we welcome anyone who can get themselves here!  :)  The place is easy to get to from the airport and is very safe with 24 hour security.  Here are a few pictures of the place.

Exterior of the apartment

Living/Dining/Kitchen area

View from our little porch.  (The apartment comes with a pool and exercise room.  You can see the awning to the exercise room in the upper right hand side of this picture.)  

Rules of the Road

Our first few days in Siem Reap have been busy getting to know the town and finding a place to live. Yesterday, Mike (my husband) and I took a walk along the main highway that runs through the middle of town.  There are no "rules of the road" and everyone just kinda goes where they want to.  The main mode of transportation is bikes...motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, but they do share the road with some cars and trucks.  Tuk-tuks (pronounced toot-toots) are motorbikes attached to a rickshaw and serve as public transportation.  For $1 or $2, you can take a tuk-tuk just about anywhere in town. 

Here's a picture of the main road in Siem Reap.  This road runs from Bagkok, Thailand to Phnon Pehn, the capital city of Cambodia.

Here's a short video to give you an idea of what moving traffic is like in Siem Reap.  (I will not be driving while here...as you will see why!) 





Hello and Welcome to my blog.

For the last 14 years, I worked as an elementary school teacher in the United States and recently moved to Cambodia to teach at a school in Siem Reap.  Teaching abroad has always been a dream of mine and I am looking forward to all this opportunity has to offer.   My hope is that this blog will become a collection of photographs and posts that will help capture my experiences while living and working in Cambodia. 

I invite you to Come Along With Me and share in this experience. 

~Kathleen