Back Home?

Just got back last nite. Phnom Penh was pretty wet last nite, must have rained cats & dogs...

As I walked into my service apt, something strange happened. I experienced a sense of relief, a sense of familiarity - sort of the "ahhhh, home sweet home, it's great to be back" feeling. It's strange cos
1) I have always dreaded leaving Spore/JB & coming back to Phnom Penh - all the discomfort of leaving frens & family, the emotional isolation have been pretty hard to bear.
2) I don't really have much friends in Cambodia, the nightspots (karaokes, nightclubs, discos, massage parlours) just ain't my thing...
3) And I try not to get too close to the staff for fear of blurring the lines of my authority...they are a sweet-talking bunch, always kena tipu by them...

Anyways, somehow it ain't that bad anymore. Life is pretty good in Cambodia. To think of it, with exception of the slowass internet connections & the obvious distance away from friends & family, there's really nothing much to hate about staying in Cambodia. Haha, I don't know what I was complaining about for the past 6 mths...Here's to another 6 to 18 months in Cambodia!

I used to have 1 place I call home, my birthplace (Home #1 - JB, Malaysia). My family still stays in the old semi-d in the JB suburbs. Spent 17 years in that house. Memories of building forts with old cushions, hijacking my sister's Barbie sessions with He-Man & Skeletor...haha...

Then when I moved to Spore to study & work, made new friends, Spore became my next home (Home #2 - East Spore to be exact). The east is so laid back, so relak jack... Telok Kurau is so Malaysia... U'll never catch me staying in the west. No offence but staying in pigeon holes next to industrial estates is not my idea of home lor...

My travels to foreign lands (in previous & current jobs) have never translated into such a familiarity that I could call them my home - most prob it's due to short trips, dissatisfaction with the job or the place, or a deliberate estrangement (to avoid getting too involved with the place or the ppl). Of course, that changed last nite.