I Welcome June

I have a good feeling that it is going to be a good month. I've saved up about half my vacation days and still have plenty of things that I want to see, and well, since I'm going home soon, I need to vacation now - and I'm sure as heck ready to.

Starting off tomorrow, I will be headed off to Vietnam will fellow SALTer Liz Andes and we will be meeting two other SALTers (and personal friends) Nate Morrow and Bryn Olfert in Ho Chi Min City. Not sure what we'll be doing, but it doesn't really matter because it's going to be awesome. I'll be there for 5 days and am very excite!

A few weeks into June I'll also be going to Siem Reap, Kampot, and Kep and I plan on relaxing for the entirety of these trips.

Then of course I'll end things GC style with Michael Ruth, a totally awesome kid who will be in Cambodia the next few months. I am also very excited to see him and spend some time in the city hanging out with an old friend. Cheers world, life's looking pretty good right now.

Camping in Kirirom

Cambodian IVEPers from previous years at Kirirom.

This weekend I was invited to go and a camping trip with a small group of IVEPers from previous years (they came to North America with MCC years prior). We traveled about 3/4 hours from Phnom Penh to a site in Kirirom, which is an ideal place for camping. The idea of camping isn't very popular in Cambodia, in fact most people who go to Kirirom only do day trips or stay at the hotel resort (tourists), but that's not to say that they don't allow you to pitch up a tent and spend the night in the woods - which is exactly what we did.

It was an incredible trip, exactly the kind of thing I've been needing. I was more than surprised upon arriving to find Kirirom to be nested in the thick of the forest where trees are everywhere and a stream runs free; it was a beautiful place. I spend most of my time in Phnom Penh trying not to think of how much I miss either greenery, fresh air, or open space - Kirirom had it all! It was actually rather surreal how much the experience felt like something I would do back in the States. We were free to do what we wanted; we played card games, set up a tent, built a bonfire and cooked marshmallows - it was amazing. The only real difference was that I got to see a monkey (again, I know right!?) and instead of worrying about bears, we had to worry about tigers.

The group was a nice small size: 4 MCCers and 5 IVEPers (all whom spoke great english, and were easy to speak to in Khmer - we had great Khmenglish all weekend long). It was really nice getting to know the IVEPers and seeing what they've done after their year in North America, as well as just the chance to be with Cambodians who know exactly what it's like to be living in another culture for a year. I don't know if I'll get to go to Kirirom again, but I highly recommend it to anyone in Cambodia who needs to retouch with nature.

The Mighty Mekong

Remember my old blog post about the exciting adventure I had on the Mekong River. Well one of the fellow rafters, Steve, collected all the video we took during that day and made a video. It's fairly long but a good summary of our trip, enjoy:

NOTE: I'm not wearing a lot of clothes in this video, one does not need clothes to conquer the Mekong.

It's A New Year

Last week everyone in Cambodia took the majority of the week off for Khmer New Year, a national holiday. In contrast to Water Festival, where everyone from the provinces/countryside come to Phnom Penh to celebrate -- Khmer New Year instead sends the majority of people out of Phnom Penh back to their homelands in the village. However, while the other SALTers went with their families to visit relatives in various Cambodia provinces, my family (and thus I) only have family here and stayed in Phnom Penh. It was an interesting experience seeing the population of the biggest city in Cambodia drop by more than half for a week. The biggest difference for me was traffic, it was nice having a lot more breathing room on the road, although it was ironically a more frightening driving experience since no one seems to follow any of the rules. A common New Year resolution must to blow every red light possible... It seems most of the police men also leave Phnom Penh and the few who do stay don't seem to really care much. As is Cambodia.

It would have been very easy for me to spend this free week alone in my room whilst peering out of the steel-barred window. My family didn't seem to do much for the occasion besides putting up Christmas lights in the door and setting up a fruit offering complete with Pepsi Twist. (I'm just remembering I didn't get a photo, darn. I'll have to upload the few photos I took later, for my camera is not with me at the moment.) I still don't really know what type of special occasions would inspire my family to 'go out' and 'do something' since they didn't seem to be phased by the New Year. Although maybe I'm just wrong, and they spend their afternoons fighting crime and going to water parks when I'm at work -- it could happen!

Thankfully, my host brother took me under his wing and invited me to join him in his personal festivities with friends. One day was spent eating KFC with his years-long friends and gambling small amounts of money (usually around 13 cents per game) on a variety of chance and card games as well as the ol' classic 'Bingo'. The next night we went out with another group for Khmer BBQ (translated to 'Fire Mountain' - delicious) and then moved on to some Karaoke.

I must make a side-bar to say that it was definitely a goal of mine to do Karaoke with a group of Cambodians since arriving, nothing like grabbing a microphone and making a fool of yourself in front of people you don't know.

I felt a bit strange at first, and perhaps because my expectations were hoping for a more exciting experience: 9 of us got our own private room and big screen TV to Karaoke and enjoyed the next 4 hours politely sitting uniformly and typically singing slow songs. No dancing, no standing, no one even daring enough to order a soda. I did give a heart-throbbing performance of "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Boys which I like to think made the night a bit more electric.

I spent this week mostly observing my [host] brother and his friends 'hang out' -- not being skilled enough myself to actually engage in the rapid Khmer conversation. I'm very thankful for my [host] brother, we may be a few years apart and each live in our own different worlds, but there is no disdain between us and I've come to understand him as a very loving and caring Christian and through Christ I know that we will be able to stay brothers forever.

On the flip-side, one can only spend so much time in someone else's friend circles before you start to miss your own. I've frequently thought of and missed my many good friends back home and pray that they are all doing well. I've been very lucky to meet so many great people over the years and hope see these friendships continue.

Lastly, in light of homesickness I was blessed to receive a large stack of birthday cards in the mail today -- I think I counted 20 cards, awesome! My birthday was on March 29, but you know how sending mail to the other side of the world can be :D So a BIG 'thank you' to everyone from Metamora Mennonite Church and family members/friends who sent me a card, you know who you are, and there are too many of you to address specifically in this post, it's already long enough :P

Well God bless to everyone out there reading this blog, thanks for checking in to hear from me, feel free to send me an email if you wish. I've been having a wonderful experience and have never felt quite as close in my relationship with Christ as I have this year. It's hard to believe it's already been 8 months here, I'll be seeing some of you soon.

The Rogue Chicken

It's a beautiful Thursday morning, I wake up for some pork and rice which will fill my body with the energy needed for the ride ahead. Today I'm going out to visit a partner in Me Sang with Daphne Fowler, MCC's partner advisor for ODOV. It should be a good trip, the Fowlers tell me the moto ride to Me Sang is a fun one and that there is a good chance that I will enjoy it. I am excited.

We ride out of the city limits of Prey Veng and find ourselves on a dirt road that rides through village and countryside. For me, this is a wonderful experience. The air is fresh, sky is clear, and the fields are green and alive. We dodge large cattle, dogs, chickens, and the occasional naked baby while zooming along the bumpy path. Villagers drop their jaws at the site of our skin and slowly watch us fade in the distance. It was a wonderful ride -- scenic to say the least. I really enjoy the chance to be able to see the countryside and try to soak it in as much as possible. Our visit to the partner is short -- over a cup of tea, I discuss the options we have for developing a new website then Daphne talks some budget mumbojumbo. In and out, I'm already pumped for the ride back.

This is when everything does not go according to plan.

Like I mentioned before, villages in Cambodia commonly have a good selection of livestock that practically live on the roads. You have the cattle and water buffalo that appear frightening but move slowly and give you little trouble. You have the scrappy dogs that lay down on the road, sometimes bark at your feet, and normally get out of your way. You also have the chickens that spend their days running around aimlessly and occasionally scrounge through the dirt in hopes of finding something to swallow.

Sidebar:

Chickens are really stupid creatures, it really amazes me that a meat so delicious could come out of an animal so incredibly dumb.

Here's the scene:

I'm riding along, enjoying the wind flow throw my fingers as I breath in the beautiful countryside. I'm thinking to myself, "It's been a wonderful morning, this moto trip is just peachy!" I swish and swoosh past bumps and cows as naked babies play happily in the dirt.

MEANWHILE, in the tiny brain of some psychotic chicken, a trigger goes off. This trigger tells this feathery fiend that, if there's any good time to go berserk, rapidly shake your insignificant body into a tantrum and run into the middle of the road -- it's RIGHT NOW BRAAAAAAAK!!!!!

Now I don't believe in all the ghost and spirits that Cambodians love to talk about, but I kid you not, this chicken was possessed by some sort of out-of-this-world entity. At that very moment it had gone rogue; a kamikaze bird set on running head-first into the first thing that presented itself. My front wheel.

BRAAAAKKKK! SMASSSH! Those are the sounds I hear right before I find myself becoming weightless as I soar through the air. It was a bit of a blur, and I never actually found out what happened to that friggin' chicken but I think it likely played out like this:

The chicken hits my front wheel and instantly vaporizes into thin air. I do a double front-flip and barrel-roll with a McTwisty and land perfectly on my face. Nearby villagers see me and check, "See a white person totally bite the dust on a moto" off their list of 'things to do before I die.' I casually get back up, jump back on the bike and ride out of the village doing a wheelie while Bon Jovi plays in the background.

Thursday Over.

The truth is that I fell off my moto because a chicken ran into my wheel. I got some scrapes, cuts, and burns from the fall but after a few Band-Aids here and there I'm all better. Chickens are dumb.

That Happs

Some people have cool blogs. I am not one of these people. You'd think having done web development for over 5 years would turn me into the kind of person that would have a "hella awesome blog" but it doesn't appear that way. The best I can do is give the people reading this blog what they want in text. You might be thinking I'm referring to fart jokes, but I'm talking about the other thing people want to hear about: Me living in Cambodia. And you know what? I'm tired of writing super long blog posts because that's what I have to do since I don't update very often so you're getting bullet points. Here is a list of recent "happs":

• I've been doing lots of traveling and it's been great.
• I just finished my 5th visit to Siem Reap (that's alot).
• I'll be back in Prey Veng again this month, and I will see monkeys.
• I like monkeys.
• I'm almost done with a website for our partner 'Rajana' and it has taken way to long.
• I started a new website for another partner.
• I've been playing Minecraft when I get free time and it's an awesome video game.
• I've recently agreed to do comics for the next Mennonite Youth Convention as well as Mennonite Weekly Review.
• I love making comics.
• I still make video games when I can.
• I love making video games.
• I do miss home.
• I do love living in Cambodia and the year has treated me very well.
• Pirates are awesome.

Thailand = My Land

So if you’ve been reading this blog or the blogs of other SALTers I would say the word ‘routine’ is something that is starting to come up pretty often. I would guess that no matter where you live -- as long as you live there long enough -- life will start to become ‘routine.’ In Cambodia I have definitely noticed this ‘r’ word creeping into my life and that’s probably why my recent 2-week vacation with GC amigo Elijah Martens was so super duper!

About Elijah:

Elijah and I became friends while attending Goshen College finding many similar interests such as video games, dinosaurs, laser guns, etc. -- we even started ‘Dragon Club’ together (raarrrrr!). He is currently doing a similar yearlong service term (oh, us Mennonites…) teaching English in China, so we obviously had to make an effort to vacation as a team. Needless to say I was really excited to reunite with him.

Elijah at the Bangkok Zoo.

It was a warm and serene Sunday night when I picked Elijah up from the airport on the 23^rd. We took a tuk-tuk down to the Independence Monument area to find a guesthouse for the night. The reason we stayed in a guesthouse because the MCC office (which does have comfy beds) has guards who like to lock the place up and go to bed at around 10:30. If you’ve ever taken Geometry, Triginometry, or Calculus then you should be familiar with the formula:

The Dragon Formula

X = The time you ‘call it a night’ when on vacation

Y = The time you need to be back at the office (10:30)

Z = No Parents

X > Y = Z

The formula may not be necessary, and may not even make sense, but I have no shame in admitting that we had a good time when a good time was called for. We spent two nights in Phnom Penh allowing Elijah to get a feel for the riverside then we moved on to Siem Reap – a must-stop for any visitor to the Kingdom of Wonder. We spent our days relaxing and seeing the temples and our nights eating dollar tacos and getting our feet massaged by ‘Dr. Fish Massage’ – which is a tank full of small fish that literally eat the dead skin off of your toes, it tickles.

The final morning in Siem Reap we woke to realize that Elijah accidentally booked his plane ticket for the 28^th of February instead of January. Whoops? Good thing it takes 3 minutes and 13 dollars to join a Taxi headed for Bangkok. That evening I returned to Phnom Penh to catch my flight the following morning while Elijah spent the day headed for Bangkok. We ended up meeting at the bus stop the following night and laughed at how easy it was for us to reunite despite the circumstances, then we drifted into and joined the massive sea of tourist on Khao San Road, Bangkok.

Thailand

I was blown away at first at the size of Bangkok, mostly because I guess I was comparing my expectations to my experience in Cambodia. Bangkok is huge, and when I hopped off the bus at Khao San, my teeth almost exploded at the site of all the tourists. I thought Siem Reap was packed full of tourists, it pales in comparison. This road is definitely known for being a popular place for tourists and Elijah and I had no trouble fitting in. Everybody spoke English and there were plenty of ways to entertain yourself. The food was delicious, the streets were alive, the people were energetic, and the night was young.

Bangkok is a pretty cool place; I can see the many different reasons that people would come to visit (some less noble than others…). Thai people are very friendly, you occasionally run into the jagoff who wants nothing but to rip you off and take advantage of you because you’re a foreigner, but everyone is just swell! The food was excellent and diverse; I really enjoyed eating the Pad Thai dish from the street vendors that cost less than a dollar and Elijah and I found some really good Indian food.

For the entirety of Thailand, Elijah and I seemed to follow one basic rule: not to plan anything. While I can see the benefits to planning the entire trip ahead of time, I really enjoyed taking each day as it came. Most decisions for ‘what to do today’ were decided 30 minutes prior and it didn’t seem to steer us wrong. We did a lot of walking around and finding things on our own, it was nice.

After seeing popular sights and visiting the zoo in Bangkok we decided to spend the longest stretch of the vacation in Chiang Mai and took the sleeper train over night. I’m glad we did too, Chiang Mai is a beautiful place -- it really is fantastic. A common hub for tourists, the city has many attractions inside the city limits as well as plenty more to do outside. I had no idea there were so many ways to spend a vacation there, if I had more time (and more importantly, more money) I could do it all again completely differently. The city itself is very relaxed and provides many options for the many wandering foreigners that surf its streets. During our stay we casually met people from all over the world (thankful for how popular the English language is) and really enjoyed how relaxed the atmosphere was. Chiang Mai is a great place to just chill out and put your feet up, a good vacation spot for sure. We didn’t engage in any of the major, popular tourist activates that most people do, instead we found our own way around. Ex. One day we rented cheap bicycles from a shop near our guesthouse, grabbed a map, and rode down the street to one of the national parks. It felt really great to just get out and explore, especially when everyone around you seems to rely heavily on tour guides to show them what to do. It’s also a great way to get some exercise; by not knowing where we were going half the time we got a pretty good cardio workout.

Doi Suthep National Park

One of the days we grabbed a taxi ride up to the MaeSa Waterfall Park where we enjoyed the many different ‘waterfalls’ and swam in the streams beneath (awesome). When we left the park we realized that we didn’t seem to be in the type of area to get a tuk-tuk, taxi, or ride of any kind – so we just started walking in favored direction. After a few kilometers an older Thai man wearing aviators (I would describe as being a ‘badass’) let us into his tuk-tuk and brought us into town to a songthaew heading back towards Chiang Mai. It ended up just being me, Elijah, and around 10 Thai women sitting in the back of a songthaew which would have made a great photo (especially since the woman across from us was breast-feeding her baby the entire ride).

What more to say? Elijah and I did a lot of fun stuff in Thailand, more than I’ll ever be able to fit in a blog post but for the most part we just enjoyed ourselves – and that’s really all I needed. Looking back now I realize there are countless, awesome things to do in Chiang Mai that we didn’t find the time for (aka didn’t have the wallet depth for) such as the popular Elephant nature parks or day-long nature treks, etc. --I technically could have even played with a baby tiger. And if I had the opportunity to go again I probably would do these things. However, I hold no regrets because I got exactly what I needed out of this vacation. 2 weeks of just hanging out with one of my best friends and enjoying life, amen to that.

Now that vacation is over I’m feeling relaxed and willing to fall back into my Cambodia routine. But not too soon, as I’ll be joining Ten Thousand Villages in a Cambodia tour and will once again visit Siem Reap this weekend. Oh, and next weekend I guess I’ll be in Prey Veng… We’ll just say that February will be going by fast for me :D