Get out of my dreams, get into my tuk tuk

Monsoon season my ass, it's barely rained since I got here. And it's hot, miserably hot. I hear all these stories about it raining so much that the streets flood and you practically have to swim home, but aside from some random freak showers there hasn't been much. And I do mean freak showers, yesterday it rained for a good 20 minutes in broad daylight. It was sunny, bright, and hot, and rain was pouring down. Considering how relatively windless this town is, I don't really get where the rain was coming from.

The reason I had to deal with the heat so much more than usual yesterday was that I finally moved into an apartment. I got a place with Pete, the aforementioned boyfriend of my classmate Emily. It's a pretty sweet place; not too far from where we were before and still located in the area known as "NGO-ville". We're above a Korean barbecue that I'm stoked to try out, and very close to a very cheap and very tasty Thai restaurant. I must say doing a leased contract signing was less than fun with the language barrier, even with Pete being a law student. We also had to pay the first month's rent and security deposit in cash, which is of course an amount of money that we don't usually have on us. I'm sure my bank is wondering if my identity has been stolen since it's probably not normal to see over $400 withdrawn from an ATM at a convenience store in the middle of Phnom Penh. Still, the apartment is nice. My coworker wasn't lying about how hooked up this town is with cable; we get the freaking Disney Channel for crying out loud. Any town where I can sit and watch MythBusters without using a satellite that I power by pedaling a bike isn't entirely Third World in my book.

I also visited a couple places that were on my list; the Foreign Correspondents Club and the Heart of Darkness (best bar name ever). The FCC is the expat hangout for Phnom Penh; it's on the riverfront and is very comfortable/casual and just a cool looking place to grab a drink (which, unfortunately, is a bit expensive for PP). From there my friends and I went to Heart of Darkness, which is the most notorious bar in Phnom Penh. It supposedly was, or is, frequented by Cambodian mafia, and a number of shootings have occured in its past. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I was even less sure when they patted us down just to get through the door. It turned out to be ridiculous; it the nicest bar I've been to in Cambodia. Nice decor, indoor with lots of air conditioning, plus a dancefloor and plenty of tables. I'm pretty tuned in to avoiding dangerous situations, and this wasn't one at all. Besides, one guy getting shot years ago isn't exactly sketchy. Those are better odds than DC.

Another hallmark moment came for me on Saturday night when I broke my record for seeing the most people on a moto-bike (basically a small motorcycle) so far. Five people. Five freaking people. Three adults, an infant and a baby. Sure, what the hell, pile 'em on! It's amazing what people will transport with these little bikes; they think nothing of hanging on to 15 feet of piping and just scooting off down the road.

OK, I'm rambling now so I'll stop. Me and some of my UN friends are planning a trip to Kampot this weekend; which is supposed to be a quiet little beach town with national parks and old French buildings. There are these bungalows up in the mountains a few minutes walk from the beach that we can get for cheap, so we're organizing a quick weekend out there. You can check it out at:
http://veranda-resort.com/Index.html

By the way, Happy Memorial Day everyone. Turns out that's not a Cambodian holiday (who would have thought), so I get to work. Have a beer for me and remind an immigrant that These Colors Don't Run.