Friday, August 5, 2011
Flight home
2.5 hour flight + 10 hour flight +12 hour flight = some sleep, lot of movies, some seriously interesting smells, and lost luggage :( and writing this blog post at 3 in the morning because I haven't gotten over the jet lag. Well I guess I couldn't have expected everything to turn out perfectly. In all the trip was well worth it. I got a whole lot of new experiences, stories, and friends. I'm glad I was able to do it with one of my best friends.
Last couple days
On Sunday we went to church at the international branch. Afterwards we found the Cambodian members that were living in Thailand. They were soo happy to see us and we had a blast talking and laughing with them. Cambodians will always have a special place in my heart, no matter where they are. Afterwards we had the necessary Sunday nap and then had really good ribs for dinner.
The last couple days we saw some pretty cool stuff. We went to the King's summer palace where we drove a golf cart around this super nice area.
We also went to their dad's factory. He is the CEO of a very large food exporter. I'm not gonna lie. We looked pretty darn good too.
I forgot to say earlier, but Thailand was very different then what we had expected. It is much more modern than Cambodia. We spent a little bit of time in the malls. We even saw Captain America. We also saw a couple things that made us laugh.
Then we came across something that is very rare.
Yeah I don't know how this works but it's gotta be super rare. I mean how many original secondhands can there be?
The girls were busy getting a haircut so Kory and I explored. We found ourselves at the arcade and as a goodbye to Thailand we beat Terminator!
The last couple days we saw some pretty cool stuff. We went to the King's summer palace where we drove a golf cart around this super nice area.
I forgot to say earlier, but Thailand was very different then what we had expected. It is much more modern than Cambodia. We spent a little bit of time in the malls. We even saw Captain America. We also saw a couple things that made us laugh.
Then we came across something that is very rare.
The girls were busy getting a haircut so Kory and I explored. We found ourselves at the arcade and as a goodbye to Thailand we beat Terminator!
Thailand mixed with a little piece of home
To start of this post of our adventures in Thailand, it's important to know how lucky we were to stay with the Pinvises famliy. Not only had it been quite a long time since we had a nice bed and a/c, but also our meals hadn't exactly been gourmet. They took us in like family, and it was soo nice to get to know them and count them as friends. Everyday they would take us to a new place to see, and after a nice dinner we would relax at the house and usually watch a movie in their sweet movie room. I never could stay awake...They had this sweet massage chair and Kory and I were used to going to bed around 9. The night life in Cambodia and Vietnam didn't really fit our personalities.
We went out to this island and biked around for a bit. We found this pottery making place. The people were sooo good at making pottery. They were super fast. They even let us try it out. As you can see, a masterpiece in the making
Another day we took a trip out to a place called Ayutthaya. It had a bunch of old temple ruins. We took a nice bike ride around and got a couple pics. When the Burmese invaded Thailand, they destroyed the temples by taking off the heads of the buddhas. Which is very disrespectful in Southeast Asia.
One of the heads was forgotten about and it through the years a tree grew around it. pretty cool though.
We also saw these cool baby elephants that would do tricks and dance. I'm thinking about learning to be an elephant trainer in Thailand. Unfortunately it takes longer than a week so I'll have to find another time.
On Saturday we went to this super cool 7 step waterfall. Here are some pics.
It was super cool to swim in; however, there were a lot of fish and they would start nibbling on our feet if we stayed still too long. Afterwards we went to a tiger farm. Check out these.
We went out to this island and biked around for a bit. We found this pottery making place. The people were sooo good at making pottery. They were super fast. They even let us try it out. As you can see, a masterpiece in the making
Another day we took a trip out to a place called Ayutthaya. It had a bunch of old temple ruins. We took a nice bike ride around and got a couple pics. When the Burmese invaded Thailand, they destroyed the temples by taking off the heads of the buddhas. Which is very disrespectful in Southeast Asia.
One of the heads was forgotten about and it through the years a tree grew around it. pretty cool though.
On Saturday we went to this super cool 7 step waterfall. Here are some pics.
It was super cool to swim in; however, there were a lot of fish and they would start nibbling on our feet if we stayed still too long. Afterwards we went to a tiger farm. Check out these.
Bye Cambodia
After a day long bus ride to Siem Reap, we spent a couple days to visit some friends and then caught the night bus to Kampong Saom (Same beach as before). The night bus was pretty crazy. Unfortunately I fogot to take a picture, but the beds were flat for about 4 feet and then inclined for about 2 feet. They weren't the most comfortable beds, but we gotta a little shut eye. They also made everyone take off their shoes after they got on the front of the bus. That made for some interesting smells.
Kampong Saom was as relaxing as the first time. We even found a new favorite thing. At nights, they put all the tables and chairs on the sand and had 3 dollar barbeques. They were sweet! Also, we couldn't eat without a fruit shake :)
Wednesday we decided to end our stay in Cambodia and head over to Thailand. We caught the bus and made it to the Thai border around 2. Once again we got a couple laughs and smiles out of the custom officers, Then we crossed the border and our communication ability declined dramatically. We were told that another bus would pick us up across the border, but there were no buses. We were put in a van and then changed vans about 4 times every 10 minutes. The final van was to take us all the way to Bangkok where we were gonna meet up with the Pinvises family. We served with their son in Cambodia. On the way over, I asked Kory if we wrote down their number. (We didn't have a phone, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it.) Turns out that we forgot to write down their number as well.......this was gonna be interesting. We stopped to get gas and there was a little cafe near by which had wi-fi! We also had just enough juice on my itouch to pull the numbers off our email before it died.
Now time to figure out the phone situation. We were gonna ask the driver to borrow his phone but he spoke no english and we were in the back seat. Luckily the person in front of us pulled out a phone and called someone. He was nice enough to let us borrow his phone. Then we called Ariel and her dad talked with the driver and we were dropped off on the side of the road and took a taxi. It was now around 10 at night and we had been on the road for about 15 hours. We final stopped and we looked at the meter. it was 200 baht. about 7.50. We only had about 140 baht on us, but we werent too worried. we had dollars on us as well. Well we quickly found out they don't take dollars in Thai like they do in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ariel pulled up behind us and we embarrassingly asked her if she had 40 baht. She searched in her car for a couple minutes and came up with just enough. Long day.........but it was nice to sleep in Air Conditioning and comfortable beds that night. They even had Thai curry waiting for us when we got there!
Kampong Saom was as relaxing as the first time. We even found a new favorite thing. At nights, they put all the tables and chairs on the sand and had 3 dollar barbeques. They were sweet! Also, we couldn't eat without a fruit shake :)
Wednesday we decided to end our stay in Cambodia and head over to Thailand. We caught the bus and made it to the Thai border around 2. Once again we got a couple laughs and smiles out of the custom officers, Then we crossed the border and our communication ability declined dramatically. We were told that another bus would pick us up across the border, but there were no buses. We were put in a van and then changed vans about 4 times every 10 minutes. The final van was to take us all the way to Bangkok where we were gonna meet up with the Pinvises family. We served with their son in Cambodia. On the way over, I asked Kory if we wrote down their number. (We didn't have a phone, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it.) Turns out that we forgot to write down their number as well.......this was gonna be interesting. We stopped to get gas and there was a little cafe near by which had wi-fi! We also had just enough juice on my itouch to pull the numbers off our email before it died.
Now time to figure out the phone situation. We were gonna ask the driver to borrow his phone but he spoke no english and we were in the back seat. Luckily the person in front of us pulled out a phone and called someone. He was nice enough to let us borrow his phone. Then we called Ariel and her dad talked with the driver and we were dropped off on the side of the road and took a taxi. It was now around 10 at night and we had been on the road for about 15 hours. We final stopped and we looked at the meter. it was 200 baht. about 7.50. We only had about 140 baht on us, but we werent too worried. we had dollars on us as well. Well we quickly found out they don't take dollars in Thai like they do in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ariel pulled up behind us and we embarrassingly asked her if she had 40 baht. She searched in her car for a couple minutes and came up with just enough. Long day.........but it was nice to sleep in Air Conditioning and comfortable beds that night. They even had Thai curry waiting for us when we got there!
Friday, July 22, 2011
The boonies
The bus to ratanakari took about 11 hours but we finally made it and found a decent guest house. As they were showing us the different options of rooms, we saw a mattress under the stairs and asked how much that was a night. He thought we were joking, and said $1. We were serious....
Haha just kidding. they found us a much better place.
After a good night's sleep, we took a walk outside and fortune smiled upon us. We found an old lady selling fried bananas. You might not know, but we have a strong history with this particular delicacy. It was this fruit that inspired the top charted music video Cek Cian as missionaries.
The next too waterfalls weren't nearly as cool but still worth the trip. One of them even had a cool wooden bridge to cross. Apparently most people don't swim, but we didn't care.
The Moto ride rivaled the waterfalls because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.
Here we set the camera on a limb of a tree and took 5 quick shots. As you can see our demeanor changed quickly over those 5 seconds.
We also couldn't help having a little fun on the motos. Ok so this video is super dumb. I didn't have time to think of anything to say so if you didn't think i was dumb before, you will now.
We had been there about a while when a group of kids showed up. They were of course surprised that we spoke khmae and then invited us to eat with them. This is when things got funny. I think every 30 seconds someone would do a toast and we would all put our cans of soda together. I lost it so many times. We could not keep straight faces. Kory especially lost it when I initiated the toast. Cambodian culture is soo funny and it makes it even funnier when you go along with it and initiate when you have another American with you who knows you're just messing around.
Afterwards we played a game of tag in the water. But it quickly became a game of counting to make sure we had the same number of people we started with. They were not the best swimmers. Most of them could only doggy paddle and would hang close to the dock. I was constantly asking Kory "How many did you count?" "6" "ok good me too". and then proceed to play. Finally we headed back to town but got caught in the rain so we pulled of and sought refuge under a nearby tree, not wanting our bags to get wet which contained our money and passports. On the bright side though it made the next trip quite interesting, dirt+water=mud, mud+moto=fun/not fun, We somehow managed to get up and down some pretty muddy hills and came to the top of mountain with a beautiful view.
Tomorrow off to Siem Reap
After a good night's sleep, we took a walk outside and fortune smiled upon us. We found an old lady selling fried bananas. You might not know, but we have a strong history with this particular delicacy. It was this fruit that inspired the top charted music video Cek Cian as missionaries.
We heard about some pretty cool things to see at this town out in the middle of nowhere. So we rented some motos again and headed off to the three waterfalls that were pretty close together. We also couldn't pass up a couple good scenery shots and moto shots.
When we came to the first one, we saw some people leaving and they were all dry. We got a little disappointed because we wanted to swim. But we weren't too disappointed when we realized it was a 30 meter high waterfall. We also couldn't resist climbing down into it.
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| Pretty big huh? |
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| Being an idiot |
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| trying to find my way back up |
The Moto ride rivaled the waterfalls because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.
Here we set the camera on a limb of a tree and took 5 quick shots. As you can see our demeanor changed quickly over those 5 seconds.
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| This one's my favorite. the helmet was falling over my eyes. I look like a little boy |
After the a quick lunch, we went to this pristine lake which was supposedly the result of a meteor. It was surrounded by a dense forest and these pictures do absolutely no justice. It was about 2.5km around and was very deep but was so quite and calm. Kory and I took a couple swims out to not quite half way. I wish I could explain how beautiful it was but I can't. It was sure nice to swim in though.
We had been there about a while when a group of kids showed up. They were of course surprised that we spoke khmae and then invited us to eat with them. This is when things got funny. I think every 30 seconds someone would do a toast and we would all put our cans of soda together. I lost it so many times. We could not keep straight faces. Kory especially lost it when I initiated the toast. Cambodian culture is soo funny and it makes it even funnier when you go along with it and initiate when you have another American with you who knows you're just messing around.
Afterwards we played a game of tag in the water. But it quickly became a game of counting to make sure we had the same number of people we started with. They were not the best swimmers. Most of them could only doggy paddle and would hang close to the dock. I was constantly asking Kory "How many did you count?" "6" "ok good me too". and then proceed to play. Finally we headed back to town but got caught in the rain so we pulled of and sought refuge under a nearby tree, not wanting our bags to get wet which contained our money and passports. On the bright side though it made the next trip quite interesting, dirt+water=mud, mud+moto=fun/not fun, We somehow managed to get up and down some pretty muddy hills and came to the top of mountain with a beautiful view.
Back to the City
Saturday night we headed back to Phnom Penh. Lucky for us they had a movie playing to let the time pass.
Elder Meas picked us up from the bus station and took us to a guest house pretty close. I trained Elder Meas when I was in the country for a little less than 6 months. We had our differences at first and had different ways of handling situations. He has all sisters and I have all brothers..so you can imagine. But we got along really well and are really good friends now. He was super nice and let us borrow his moto for Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday we went to two branchs. Branch twelve where Kory served, and branch 4 where we served as companions. It was soo good to see some of the members we baptized. Danaet was there with her family. The only word that can describe this girl is angelic. She is the most christlike person I have ever met and now spends her day off from work helping the missionaries. I had no doubt she would be there.
We also met Sokahn or Mr. kahn as we refer to him. He learned super fast and was baptized within a month. He is now preparing to serve a mission!
We met President and Sister Smedely for sunday dinner which was like a taste of home. Roast and Potatoes. It was really good to talk with them and fill them in on what was going on in our lives after the mission.
We ended up sleeping at a members home. We slept on these thin mattresses with no fan. I slept ok but Kory hardly got any sleep. When I woke up he turned to me and said "I am never doing that again". I agreed. 5 dollar guest houses are a small price to pay for a good night sleep.
Monday was time for a little bit of shopping. I went back to the tailor and tried on my suits.
In all, I spent $280. I got, 2 suits,15 shirts, and 6 slacks. pretty dang good deal!
We hit up a couple other markets for some random stuff and visited some members.
At night we wanted to take Elder Meas to Pizza Company as a thanks for helping us out. We had made plans and then kory got a call from the members who we had borrowed the phone from. It was this girl in branch 12 who kinda have a crush on Kory. We had to give her back her phone and then she asked if she could come eat with us so we said that was fine. We got to pizza company and were about to order when she called again and asked if we would wait for her sister for another hour. We said that we couldn't because first of all we organized this for Elder Meas and they were welcome to come or not come, and we wanted to get to sleep early because we had an early bus to catch. Needless to say they came pretty quickly. And there were three of them.
The dinner had a lot of funny conversations. Two of the girls ordering more food, wanting fried chicken, calling us wierd cuz we were at a pizza place eating pizza (yeah this one still confuses me). We convinced them that Elder Meas was from Phillipines and didn't speak any khmae, only english. The funniest of all was while two of the girls tried to give kory a guilt trip, the one in the middle kept grabbing more pieces of pizza and chowing down while making a couple comments still chewing on her food. She kinda looked like a chipmunk. We all lost it a couple times but me more than most. I was just a spectator the whole time, and was never disappointed.
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| Oh wait where the heck is the TV! |
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| President asked us to model for the new plan for missionary work. Who wouldn't talk to missionaries lookin like that? |
We also met Sokahn or Mr. kahn as we refer to him. He learned super fast and was baptized within a month. He is now preparing to serve a mission!
We met President and Sister Smedely for sunday dinner which was like a taste of home. Roast and Potatoes. It was really good to talk with them and fill them in on what was going on in our lives after the mission.
We ended up sleeping at a members home. We slept on these thin mattresses with no fan. I slept ok but Kory hardly got any sleep. When I woke up he turned to me and said "I am never doing that again". I agreed. 5 dollar guest houses are a small price to pay for a good night sleep.
Monday was time for a little bit of shopping. I went back to the tailor and tried on my suits.
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| Kory caught me off guard but the suit looks good |
We hit up a couple other markets for some random stuff and visited some members.
At night we wanted to take Elder Meas to Pizza Company as a thanks for helping us out. We had made plans and then kory got a call from the members who we had borrowed the phone from. It was this girl in branch 12 who kinda have a crush on Kory. We had to give her back her phone and then she asked if she could come eat with us so we said that was fine. We got to pizza company and were about to order when she called again and asked if we would wait for her sister for another hour. We said that we couldn't because first of all we organized this for Elder Meas and they were welcome to come or not come, and we wanted to get to sleep early because we had an early bus to catch. Needless to say they came pretty quickly. And there were three of them.
The dinner had a lot of funny conversations. Two of the girls ordering more food, wanting fried chicken, calling us wierd cuz we were at a pizza place eating pizza (yeah this one still confuses me). We convinced them that Elder Meas was from Phillipines and didn't speak any khmae, only english. The funniest of all was while two of the girls tried to give kory a guilt trip, the one in the middle kept grabbing more pieces of pizza and chowing down while making a couple comments still chewing on her food. She kinda looked like a chipmunk. We all lost it a couple times but me more than most. I was just a spectator the whole time, and was never disappointed.
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