Same Same But, A Little Bit Different

I lived in SouthEast Asia in a tourist town.  Millions of people from all over the world come to visit that place every year, ticking the boxes on their travel the world project.

I lived there and it was pretty much just like living anywhere else, in some ways.

Same, same . . . I get up and go for runs, eat cereal for breakfast then walk to work.  I sit behind my computer, at my desk in my air-conditioned office.   I have conversations with my workmates, we share jokes, make fun of each other and discuss the weather.  I make a coffee a few hours in and I take a break at lunchtime.  I either meet up with friends, head home and make something for lunch or I go for a swim.  After work, I go to the gym, meet someone for dinner or stay at home watching movies or mini-series’ I’ve downloaded by torrent.  If I cook it’s a meat and veggie stir fry or a tuna salad. Some evenings I’ll have a bourbon & coke or a glass of wine. My one bedroom apartment is on the second floor and its temperature is controlled by a fan or air-conditioning.
On weekends, I go out with friends for drinks and or dinner, sleep in, go to the pool and or gym, or sit in coffee shops working on my laptop or reading.

But different . . . it’s hot when I run pretty much any time of the year. My office is on the ground floor of a guest house, and on a regular basis the electricity goes off, sometimes only for 5 mins other times for days on end.  For the majority of my workmates English is a second language and I can speak very little of their language (Khmer) so in some ways I’m always the outsider – whole conversations, complete with laughter bound around the room that I will never be part of.  My gym and swimming pool are part of a 5-star hotel and membership is only $60 a month.  I can have pretty much any countries cuisine for lunch and it won’t cost me more than a tenner including a drink. Meeting up with friends will only ever take me 5 – 10 mins on a bicycle and if I can’t be bothered cycling it’ll only cost me $1-$2 to get the local transport (tuktuk).  Groceries cost about $30 a week but half the time its cheaper to eat out. My bottle of bourbon I buy at the supermarket and it costs about $8.  In my apartment, there are no hot water taps, but you can have a hot shower if you have a water heater attached. Cooking is done via gas and its where I boil the water for the dishes from an old fashioned kettle.  I pay for the water I use and it amounts to a whopping  $3-$4 a month. Coffee is expensive, $2-$3 for a latte, but you can sit in the coffee shop all day using their wifi, which is generally always of a good quality, the coffee, and the wifi.

As a visitor, it may seem like paradise, or a dirty, dusty little village but for me its home and  like anywhere else, life goes on like normal; issues, fun, drama, laughter.