Better late than never right?

Tomorrow I will have been in Siem Reap, Cambodia for one month. I figure better late than never in starting a blog right? I've been putting it off for so long with excuses like, 'I don't have time,' 'I don't know what to write,' 'I'm too tired,' 'I'll start it tomorrow.' Lately though I've been thinking of all the people I know who don't have Facebook and would like to hear about some of my adventures here in SE Asia. So today I finally start writing something. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up or how often I'll update it, but I'm going to try. :)
Instead of attempting to fill you in on ALL the stuff I've been doing since I got here, I thought I'd write out a list of all the crazy/weird/odd/different/cool observations I've had.

1 – It's bloody HOT, and humid, all day, every day. The nights are slightly cooler. In fact, the evening temperatures are just about ideal. Unfortunately, they occur at night; the day temps are in the high 30's (C) and the humidity is around 55% or so. It's rained once since I've been here. Although, rain is hardly what it did. A few drops of water happened to fall from the sky and if you were lucky enough to be outside for those 5 minutes you may have been graced to feel a drop or two. I miss variances in the weather.

2 – The traffic here is at first glace chaotic but on further observation you see that it's quite an organized chaos. They generally drive on the right hand side. But of you want to turn left, then you merge over to the other side of the road, make the turn, and then merge back over to the right side of the road. The two best pieces of advice I've received about riding my bike around town are, 'Never stop or start suddenly,' and 'just keep moving, they don't understand what you're doing when you stop.' If you happen to be in the wrong place then it's not a huge deal, everyone goes slow enough that they just move around you. There are no stop signs and only two or three traffic lights in all of Siem Reap. It may look chaotic, but it works quite well.

3 – It is possible to carry just about anything (live or dead pigs/piglets, chickens, a refrigerator, 8 people, building materials, bags of rubbish, etc) if you have a bike, moto or tuk-tuk.

4 – The people here must have amazing balance. From an early age they can sit in front of or behind the driver of a moto, they can stand in front of the driver of a moto or a bicycle, and they can sit sideways or astride on a bicycle carrier. Then the driver has to be able to pedal/drive with that extra weight. It's amazing.

5 – The locals have fabulous, hard, well shaped nails and both the males and females grow them out to indicate that they are not farmers. I am very jealous.

6 – There are dogs everywhere, of all shape and colour and breed. Most of them are small/medium sized. I haven't seen any large dogs. They don't seem to belong to anyone. For all that this is a very poor country, the dogs appear to find enough to eat; very few of them look starving.

7 - Even though there are dogs everywhere, you don't see their poop at all. You would like it'd be on the street, on the side of the road, under every step; but it's not. I wonder were the do their business.

8 – There is a sever lack of grey haired elders. There are lots of young kids running around, many of the businesses are run by young adults or middle aged people but you hardly see anyone over the age of 60 or so. An entire generation of individuals was wiped out 30-40 years ago.

9 – Cambodians don't eat any dairy. It's likely because they don't have refrigerators to keep dairy cool. Most of their shopping is done the day to ingredients get cooked and electricity here is expensive. So no cheese for me. :(

10 – Gas is $1.20 USD a litre.

 A monk at Wat Bo, just across the street from where I'm staying.

 Villages in the flood plains of Tonle Sap Lake.

 Where the locals go to shop.

 The floating/on stilts village of Kompong Phluk

 A temple at Sambor Prei Kuk

The winning team!