Floating village of Kompong Luong

So, this past weekend, my roommate Dan and I visited the floating village of Kompong Luong.  Before I get into that though, I wanted to share a link to my latest article, dealing with the U.S. visa issue I’ve been covering over the last couple weeks.

So, Kompong Luong: holy heck, this was an incredible weekend trip.  Kompong Luong is a small village outside of Krakor, within Pursat province.  It’s about a three-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh.  It’s a village entirely situated on the Tonle Sap Lake and the crazy thing is that it’s entirely self-sufficient – there’s a school, a church, a hospital, a police station, DVD/VCR repair shops, cell phone shops, gas stations, you name it.  Most of the population consists of Vietnamese fisherman.

Buddhism and the joy of motorcycle riding

Phnom Penh is a relatively small city in terms of area.  According to Wikipedia, it’s approximately 250 square miles large.  (To give you some perspective, Denver is 155 square miles, LA is 470 square miles, NYC is 303 square miles).

It’s a dense city though, home to more than 2 million people, so its population density, at roughly 7,600 people per square mile, is on par with most of the major US cities.  LA has a population density of 8,000 people per square mile, Denver has a population density of 4,000 people per square mile, Baltimore has a population density of 7,600 people per square mile.

All of this is to simply say that because of its relatively small size, Phnom Penh is a pretty bikeable city…but with the mid-day sun beating down on you and the intense heat and humidity suffocating you, even the shortest of bike rides leaves you dripping in sweat.

The solution?  A moto of course.

Cambodian Space Project & other adventures

I’m a few days behind in getting this out, but here is the link to the follow-up story I did on the visa issue.

We heard this morning that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is apparently beginning to take some notice, because they are supposed to be hosting a conference call some time soon with affected/interested groups.  Part of my job this week will entail figuring out a way to get on that conference call.

Becky living it up Cambodian style: mangosteen and Angkor beer in hand.

The other big exciting thing that happened this past weekend in Phnom Penh was that Becky visited, woo hoo!  Becky is a good friend from college and an amazing hoops player.  She was in Singapore for work and flew up to Cambodia for a few days to take in the sights and visit her old pal.