Letter from a Future Teacher in Cambodia
Dear Toe,
I’ve been reading your blog in preparation for going to Cambodia. I am going there to teach in an International School run by a US-based missions organization, but I’m Pinay. Your blog has been very helpful and I’m grateful since I knew nothing about Cambodia until I started reading up when I got the job. I first applied last year but am only going to be able to leave in June (God-willing).
I promised my friends I’d keep a blog while I’m there, so I may be following in your footsteps… but that may be wishful thinking since this will be my first attempt at teaching.
I noticed a reference to Matabungkay Beach. I lived half my life right near that–on White Sands (now Terrazas de Punta Fuego). I wonder if my family knew yours?
But what I really wanted to ask you was that statement you made about Pinoys having “POEA”. I was just hired directly by the school and they’re handling my ticket and visa… so is there anything I should know and do aside from the papers they’re arranging for me? I understand if you can’t answer my question… but appreciate your taking time to read.
See you online, and keep up the blogging!
Ningning
Read my reply here.
Letter from a Mother and a Future Expat in Phnom Penh
I blog mainly to express myself and to record the details of my life. But I am very happy that besides being an outlet for my thoughts, I also have the opportunity, through my blog, to help other people. These people are mainly future FSOs, and recently, future expats and tourists to Cambodia, who have been emailing me asking about life in this country I have called home for almost six years now. I have published the first of these letters in the post Do’s and Dont’s in Cambodia. Today, I am publishing an email letter I received last month from a concerned American mother who is about to move to Phnom Penh next year with her family which includes two teen-aged kids.
Dear Toe,
My name is I. and I commented on your Do’s and Don’ts in Cambodia a few days ago and really enjoyed it. My family and I are moving to Phnom Penh next summer and I hope to meet you then and we can exchange stories. Anyway, my husband and I are very excited about living in Cambodia, but we do have a few concerns about teenagers living in Phnom Penh.
Read more in Toe’s Kurokuroatbp
Independence Hotel – Where – Where Jacqueline Kennedy Stayed
In 1967, Jacqueline Kennedy went on a whirlwind tour of Cambodia, hosted by no less than King Norodom Sihanouk himself. She spent three days strolling through the ruins of ancient Angkorian temples and she also went to Sihanoukville to name a street after President John F. Kennedy. See this vintage Time article for more details about her trip.
In Sihanoukville, locals claim that she stayed in the chicest hotel in the country, the Independence Hotel. At that time, it was the tallest (seven storeys) and most modern structure in Cambodia built to accommodate the burgeoning tourist influx, especially in the country’s beach town. It was built by Leroy and Mondet, French architects who were in vogue in the sixties and who built several important buildings in Phnom Penh. The interiors were designed by King Sihanouk.
Read more in Toe’s Kurokuroatbp.
