Living the Dream 2012- Cambodia

Alright, so I'm really awful at event blogging, I'm aware! :) I'm sorry for the delay and the suspense that I'm sure you've been feeling to know about the rest of the trip... Here we go..Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia!

We arrived in Cambodia to the beautiful blazing sun and nice warm weather. This is the custom house where we essentially just had to show them our passport and walk right on through. The Cambodians were really nice and were asking where we were from.. when I told him we were living in China as teachers he spoke to me in Chinese (luckily it was the like 2% I know)! We passed through and hopped right back onto the bus to head towards Phnom Penh.

Easiest visa I've ever received before! :) My passport was starting to look pretty legit by this point.
At one point the bus had to get on to a fairy boat to cross over the water... you can imagine how this motion sick time bomb over here felt about being on the back of the bus AND on a boat!! haha. Needless to say I don't remember a lot of the ride for the simple fact I was drugged.
We got into the city at night and were instantly greeted by many took-took's that were non stop harassing us to bring us to our destination. haha.... It turned into a much longer night than we expected because there were some issues with finding a place to stay. We were sort of instantly greeted by the "lets play the foreigners" game, where they try to get you to stay where they want you to which happens to be the most expensive places then drive behind you as you walk away following you, trying to get you to listen. After roaming the streets with our packs for about 30 minutes we found a place to stay!

I honestly did enjoy the ride, before all the sketchiness set in. It was a really neat way to see the city and it felt really good at night!

The nest morning we were up bright and early! We went and got breakfast and met up with a really cool friend/connection we had in Phnom Penh. They had cinnamon rolls and all other kinds of deliciousness we do not see here in China! After breakfast we explored and walked around a little. They city has such a unique feel to it and it was a beautiful day.
The architecture is very buddhist in nature. This was my first time traveling to places that had a religion that was from the top down. The religion was government regulated Buddhist. Its influence was from the buildings, to the number of temples, to alters being in every shop, business and restaurant.

Now I will let the photo's speak for themselves... Note: We stayed in the nicer more built up area of the city... we did travel through some very run down areas to get there. One thing I noticed about Cambodia were its extremes.


Buddhist University..


Elaborate Temples..

We were only in Phnom Penh for about 6 hours of awake time... we quickly were back in a bus and on our way to Siem Reap. The Cambodian country side was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of being in the bush in Africa because of its living off the land appearance. People used what they had to make homes and to live by and were obviously not what you would consider wealthy, yet still, there were huge, elaborate temples everywhere. You would maybe go 5-10 miles of country side shacks and then there would be another one. It was amazing to me.


This is a field that sat next to the temple you see above..
We had finally made it to Siem Reap and were ready to eat! We found a cool restaurant where we were ready to eat and relax after a really long bus ride.
You can see the excitement! haha. Poor Jacqueline was super sick while we were there.
I had somewhat developed a pineapple obsession while we traveled through the more tropical climates!

The next day we woke up ready to go. This is us eating breakfast at the Villa where we stayed getting ready to head to Angkor Wat.

And here we are. This is Angkor Wat. It is a temple that was constructed in the 12th century originally Hindu then Buddhist. This temple is huge to say the least. It is made of of an outer enclosure and central structure. The structure and design of this temple is so intricate. I am a little bit of a history geek, so imagining what they must have has to do to not only build this but also give it such detail blows my mind! It was a really cool thing to see but with other things, it was just that a site. This is still what they would consider practicing.. although I believe it is more for the visitors than it is of traditional worship. We did have to cover our shoulders and knees to enter into the upper court, or what is seen as the holiest place.











These are the stairs going up to the upper area... and yes they are as steep at they look!




I'm not going to lie walking down these stairs you knew if you made one slight trip you were tumbling all the way down and taking everyone else with you!
Later that day the girls got away for one of our favorite things to do in Asia.. get our hair washed! It really seems so small but it is like a 30 minute head massage and scrub! We made friends with the Cambodian women who worked there and had an awesome time!


The next morning we were off again.. this time we were on our way to Thailand. The final destination site. ( This is where you had you walk from cambodia into Thailand.)
Only one more vacation post to go!!! I think I can.. I think I can...

I promise once I am finished updated on all the adventures I will be sure to update you all on whats been happening in Huangshi since I've been back!

Vietnam.. Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City

Next up... Vietnam

The bus ride into Vietnam was great. The first part of it I was pretty influenced by my motion sickness meds, luckily they wore off by the time we had made it into the country side of Vietnam. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. You see pictures and hear stories but I didnt fully understand until I saw it myself. Although, I do not have any pictures the country side was literally like driving through a painting. Gorgeous.

While on the bus we also met two fellow teacher (in China) friends! They are both from the states and were traveling into Vietnam for their Spring Festival as well. We all ended up staying at the same Hostel and going to dinner together to celebrate our arrival into Hanoi. The man at the end had been sitting by himself at another table and he had been laughing at us so we invited him into the picture. :)

Little did we know that we would become millionaires once we exchanged money in Vietnam! haha. Their currency has way too many 000000's! It was so funny, you'd look at a price tag of 250,000 and then have to remember where you were.. it took a while to get used to.
This is the city of Hanoi at night. The city was cool but really tight. There were people, motorbikes and cars all on top of each other all the time. You had to constantly look out for your life while on the street.

Hanoi during the day...

Some of the monuments we came across in a park. We attempted to translate on my ipad but it never seemed to come out right..

This is what in the past was called the famous "hotel" for American prisoners during the war... this aspect of Vietnam as you can expect was rather difficult. Many people were hurt by the war, things that were out of everyones control.. There was some hostility towards us, not physically but just something you can see and feel. Hostility in my ignorance I didn't expect but I understood. Being there I did my best to respect the people and the place, knowing the wounds, hurt and corruption the people of Vietnam have been through, along with many others as a product of the war.
This was beautiful rather famous Catholic church located in Hanoi.




The next photo is from when we went to see Ho Chi Minh's body.. He was the leader of Vietnam and was held in the highest esteem, seen somewhat as a savior to his people. The place in itself was as if you were on holy ground. Everything was quiet, you had to walk in a line and there were guards everywhere... It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before...
Afterwards we were all tired and indecisive.. we eventually ended up stopping at a random hole in the wall noodle place which was well... less than appetizing. ha. We were pretty certain we were served dog noodles.. but the mystery meat will forever remain just that, a mystery, which is exactly why I picked around it.
This was at a random restaurant we found and fell in love with.. always fun faces...

We were definitely a fan of this place... :) Pizza, Burgers, shakes and real chocolate pancakes..
This is the famous Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, here it is said that the Emperor handed the magic sword, which brought him victory against the Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle god. There is a tower built called the turtle tower where the event is said to have taken place in the middle of the lake.


And this is where my camera was stolen... we were walking in the park and I had just taken a picture and not thinking I put my camera into an open pocket knowing I would grab for it again in a minute.. we walked through a small crowd of men trying to "sell" things and the next thing I knew it was gone. At the time I was really upset and it was really hard for me to not be angry. I knew exactly who had taken it and watched them mock me as I looked for it. I realized through this how much worth we put on things... For me it wasnt just the camera but the memories I had on it. After the walk back I cooled off but was ready to get out of that city. I realized that nothing could take away from the experience I was being blessed with and letting a camera pull down the whole trip was definitely not worth it!
Then we headed off on a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Southern Vietnam. We were ready to be some place warm and sunny.

Yay!! After a really long night of dealing with frustrating hostel owners we found a place to stay and were ready to enjoy sunny, warm, beautiful Saigon.

I was told the spring rolls were famous, so of coarse I had to make everyone try them. :) They were yummy!


After we ate we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels... This is where the Northern Vietnamese army had set up tunnels in the jungle to invade Southern Vietnam (where the American and other foreign troops were).
One of the traps they would set up in the jungle....
This was the entrance to one of the holes they would climb into when a bomb was going off!! They were so tiny. Many people got down in.. but I'm WAY to claustrophobic for that.
For example my crazy, beautiful friend Melodie who just wiggled her way in... I just cant imagine living in one of these for a long period of time..
An American Tank..
Here were the range of guns you could choose from to shoot..
Of coarse we choose the AK47...

Then they fed us the food that they would eat while they were in the jungle. It was some kind of root. It had the consistency of potato. It wasn't the most flavorful thing I've ever eaten but was dense, so I can understand how it would fill them up quickly and keep them full longer.

That night we went out to the night Market (which was always a blast) and we found Tutti Fruity FroYo!! I was so excited incase you cant tell... YUM!

Then we were off again... This is what I looked like when we were headed for the bus to Cambodia. Loaded up and ready to go! Ridiculous.. maybe... :)
Over all Vietnam was an interesting experience. Because we had so many places to go we didn't get to spend a lot of time in any one place which made it a little difficult to get a complete feel for the cities and made us limited to the places we could go and see within each country. I was actually looking into teaching in Vietnam before I found ZR (the company that got me to China:)) and I realized how specific of a calling you must have. How important it is to go exactly where He leads you. Vietnam was a difficult place in some aspects and being there gave me more of a heart to press in for my brothers and sisters who are there serving and loving on those people. I was so grateful for the time we did have there, for the experience to see and explore what we could and to get a feel first hand of the culture!

Next stop... Cambodia!!