A 'Home' in Siem Reap

I finally have a house!!

Somewhere that I can call home, instead of a hostel room, with my clothes strewn in different piles across the floor (I know what you are thinking right now mum… “that’s just what you are like at home”!!).

Not that there is anything wrong with the hostel that I am staying in, it’s lovely and I would highly recommend it to anyone that visits Siem Reap.

The house hunting process took a little longer than I thought it would – partly my fault and partly because of circumstances.

The first place I looked at was only 150USD a month, I’d budgeted 250USD, so this house would have allowed me some extra cash but was the size of a shoe box!

I found out about a different house, when my Director and I were at the bank depositing a cheque. We got chatting to an acquaintance of his that was leaving town and she mentioned that her house was available for rent. I went and checked it out after work and it would have been great, it had more space than the one I’d seen earlier and was the same price. The landlady was really sweet. I was very interested in the property and told the current tenant that I would take it. She explained that she did not want to rush me, and gave me the evening to think about it. After calling her and confirming the following morning, I was very disappointed to find that I was called two days later saying that the property was no longer mine. I had already made plans to go away for the King’s Birthday long weekend, so the house hunting would have to wait. There was fun to be had in Kampot, Kep and Rabbit Island – there was no way that I was going to be missing out!

I tried to find the real estate agents office yesterday at lunchtime, but I couldn’t communicate with the tuk tuk driver about where I wanted to go. I made an appointment to see the real estate agent today and with map in hand arrived in time to be shown four houses/apartments. Two were right next door to the real estate agents office, one was right beside the river – a perfect location and the other was very close to the two properties that I saw on Day 1.

The house that I chose looks a lot fancier than what I was expecting to be staying in but its light and bright, will be great for visitors, has a huge living area and dining room, nice kitchen and best of all – TWO BATH TUBS!

The landlords are lovely, a family that lives on the same property but in a different house. The wife is a stay at home mum, the husband a tour guide and they have four children, three girls and one boy.

The experience at the Real Estate agents was quite funny, as you enter, on the wall above the receptionists desk are about 100 cheesy photographs of people shaking hands and not only do you signs the documents but you must also give your thumb print.

I will forward pictures of this over the weekend, I move in on Saturday!!