Siem Reap

We arrived in hot Siem Reap (35 degrees) to an awaiting tour guide and driver, with signs with our names on them - we felt like VIPs! We were whisked into an air conditioned van and taken to our hotel. After dropping our bags, we had bicycles standing by to take on a tour. Our first stop was a nearby temple. Our tour guide did an excellent job leading us out of the crowded street traffic and into true countryside.

We arrived at the temple and learned about the usual design of them. There are guardian statutes on the walkway, a library to house historical records, and towers for the king and then smaller towers behind them for his wife(s),  grandmother. The materials are different kinds of bricks - limestone for the base and frame, and softer sandstone ones for decorations and covering the frame. There is script on the doorways to tell stories, and visual stories on the walls - primarily of war scenes. The temples have been significantly influences by religions from India, as people came to Cambodia in the first decade. The Khmer (Cambodian) people mainly followed Hinduism first--this results in many images of god creatures. The most prevalent is the snake (for water) and dragon (for the underworld). Interestingly, the main religion then switched to Bhuddism (I can't remember the date for this) which is now still the most prevalent religion, approximately 60% of the population. 20% are Christians, 5% Muslim, and I can't remember the others...maybe 15% Hindu?

We biked to 3 different temples on the first day. While we were biking between, we went through some villages and rice fields. There were lots of butterflies flying around. They have many different kinds here, and its great to see them.

We got back to our hotel and crashed. I (Anna) found this day the most exhausting so far. We were up at 6am to get to the airport and then straight onto the bike tour once we arrived. And it was extremely hot (for me, not for Michael. Who knew--he handles the heat better than me! That was a shock.)

The next 2 days we had the pleasure of being escorted around to the main temples around Siem Reap by our wonderful guide, Riyun. She was very informative, teaching us about Cambodian history and culture and we were so thankful to our wonderful travel agent for arranging this for us. We also had a private air conditioned car and driver who kept us hydrated with cold water from a cooler in the back. Much better than riding in tuk tuks  in the sweltering heat, breathing in car exhaust!

We chose to start early in the mornings, at 7am, to avoid the heat and the insane crowds. There are apparently lines hours long to get into some of the temples which we were very thankful to avoid. It also meant we could spend the hottest part of the day at our hotel, near the pool, rather than under the scorching sun.

It was amazing to see the intricacy of the carvings and enormous size of the temples. All of the carvings depicted either battles or various gods, many of whom are very scary looking. I wonder if the people lived in a lot of fear in these times. It seems so. How thankful we are for our free country and most of all, loving gracious Father!

The Khmer people are lovely-warm, friendly and welcoming. Most speak quite good English, which was a pleasant surprise. They have endured so many atrocities in their history--they are still removing land mines planted by the Khmer rouge. At one time the country was 70% covered in landmines. In one temple our guide told us not to step off the path as there could be land mines. And yet the people are so positive, resilient and beautiful. We would like to explore more of Cambodia in the future. But now we are at the airport, waiting to fly to the fourth country on our list, and by far the one Michael is most excited about because they have tailors who will custom make suits for us! We fly into Danang, Vietnam, and then drive to Hoi An, a beach side colonial town. When we arrive, we get to enjoy a New Years Eve Banquet at our hotel. We wish a happy new years to all our family and friends back home, we miss you all!

Pakse

Today's adventure was a remote island village, waterfalls, and dolphins! We departed by bus for 2 hours to arrive at a place called 4000 Islands - it lived up to its name. There are 3 larger islands, and thousands of other islands spotted throughout the river valley. We had been told this was a good day trip so when we bought our tickets from the hotel we thought we were buying round trip tickets. As we were on our way there, though, I (Anna) started to wonder if they were only one way, as everyone else on the bus was staying on the island for a few days and no one was doing just a day trip. Once we arrived, we asked our driver, who thankfully spoke some English but he told us the only bus going back to Pakse that day was him and he was leaving in an hour. We had to go back that day because our flight left for Siem Reap early the next morning from Pakse. We debated staying on the bus and going straight back to be safe but the driver said there was a bus going past the main highway we could flag down and get on back to Pakse. As Michael says, we decided to live on the edge (he says not to worry, Mom!) and try to do the latter option so we could stay and explore.

We got onto a narrow boat, holding 20 people. It was about 3 feet wide by 40 feet long. I (Michael) thought it would capsize at any moment, especially as backpackers loaded in with their bags. The place we were going was a backpackers mecca, with small huts overlooking the Mekong river.

We set off across the river, teetering along as a loud, rustic motor propelled us. The boat ride was about 15 minutes through the waterways between the islands. We disembarked on the sandy beach and walked through the narrow dirt street, only wide enough for bicycles and motorbikes, no cars. We wandered down the street, lined with tourist huts selling tours for various destinations. We settled on one and booked a tour to see fresh water dolphins and the largest waterfall in southeast Asia (by volume of water).

It was lunch time. We decided to go to an Indian restaurant that had the same name as the one we went to the night before. Unfortunately it wasn't as good, but did give us a full stomach for the long afternoon ahead.

I (Anna) was roasting in the hot weather, so I dunked in the water and felt much better. Michael was handling the heat surprisingly well and decided not to cool down.

We got on the rickety boat to go back the way we had come. We also realized that we were the only ones on the tour. Back on solid ground, we took a van about an hour away, further down the Mekong river. We got on a similar boat and headed out. It was in the outback; no cars, people, or animals around - just lush vegetation, trees, and the sound of motorboats in the distance travelling around the area. We arrived at a small bay, along with a group of kayakers staying at  nearby resort. The driver turned off the motor and we waited for the fresh water dolphins. Eventually one surfaced, then another. I tried to take photos but we were too far away. We got some good shots on the other camera. We whistled to coax the dolphins to appear - not sure if we caused them to surface, but we had an association relationship between the 2 events.

It was hot, and Anna considered jumping in the water to col down and to swim with the dolphins. I convinced her otherwise.

After an hour on the water we headed back. The tour guide drove us to the waterfalls. These claim to be the largest waterfalls by volume. They were impressive. It was very hot so after taking photos, we filled our water bottle with the fresh, clean water. We are so thankful for the water purifier/bottle combo given to us by Anna's mom.

We got back in the van and rode back to on the main road. We had heard the bus coming from Cambodia would be there around 5-5:30, but we know it's Asia, so we expected it to be later than that. However, after waiting more than 2 hours with no bus in sight, and it turning dark, we were wondering if something had happened. Thankfully there was another larger van there to take travellers into town, and he had a cellphone. He heard that the bus had been delayed at the border, as no one had their paperwork done beforehand. Considering they had 10 hours prior to that to do it, I don't think they had any excuse.

Eventually, around 6:45pm the bus pulled up and about half the people unloaded. We got on and got to sit in the full back row. This was a double decker bus, with the driver and luggage below and seats above. Because of the size of the bus and poor conditions of the road, the top swayed left and right, more so in the back. We could only handle it for about half an hour and then moved to an empty set of seats closer to the front.

It had been a long day. We tried to rest our bodies, but the bumps and movements of the bus restricted any kind of sleep. We decided it was a good idea to travel by air rather than bus in Asia.

Our bus rolled in to Pakse at 8:30pm. We knew exactly where to go: the Indian place from last night. We ordered takeout as we were exhausted. It had been a long, adventurous day and we were happy to be back "home" to a solid, warm bed.

Bolaven farms

The next morning we left pakse for Bolaven Farm - a coffee farm run as an NGO, whose goal is to provide villagers with education and skills to make a living for their families. It is really neat. People go through a 3 year program, learning to grow organic coffee, getting paid on a sliding scale depending on how much coffee they harvest and how well they take care of the land allotted to them. They are given a house to live in with their family beside their plot. At the end of the three years, they will have made enough to buy their own plot of land and grow coffee. Their are many farmers who have successfully done this. The farm has a central meeting place where the families that live on the farm meet together for church services and they were having special celebrations for Christmas with lots of singing. The farm also does lots of extra programs teaching them English, helping with medical bills and other things. We had a great time playing games with the kids and took lots of pictures - and one of the kids had a camera and took a photo of me!

It is Christmas day, so the kids had the day off school. The farmers and their families (about 150 people) shared a meal, the parents had a worship service, and then the kids sang and danced. It hits a deep cord in my heart when you see the joy and happiness of little kids praising God, who have so little here on earth. Some even have partial blindness, but that didn't hold them back from singing their hearts out.

The kids loved 1 song in particular, so much so that it must have been repeated for at least 45 min. Anna and I got into it and sang and danced with them - to the laughter and joy of the kids.

After the singing, one of the leaders had a bag of candy and was throwing it into the group of kids - their very own candy man! Some of the small kids didn't get any candy, and started to cry. The amazing thing is that 2 or 3 other kids would come over to share their candy with them. As we've learned and seen, this friendly, generous attitude is very much part of the Laosian people. In fact, in school, students will help each other out on exams so that everyone can pass. From a Western perspective, this would seem to be counter productive. In reality, it means people care for others, share, and make friends, not opponents. I'm not promoting cheating on tests, but we can definitely learn to share ourselves with others to help them grow.
It was a very unique and special Christmas for us to celebrate with people from a different culture and who have so little. It was a sober reminder of how much we truly have to be thankful for, and it was actually a nice break to be away from the western commercialized Christmas, although we did miss spending time with our families.

Savannahket

We spent our time in Savannahket with Tom, Took and their 4 boys, who have grown so much since we last saw them. We visited their church and went to Christmas parties in the evenings. It was neat to see how they celebrate Christmas and hear them sing Christmas carols in Lao. The Lao people are very warm, caring and friendly. We watched tom and took's boys practice a skit showing how Christianity first came to Laos that they were going to perform on Christmas day. One of the parties ended the evening with everyone taking turns performing songs on the stage. They tried to get us to go up but I wasn't too keen. They also had a fire and cooked cow skin. We declined a sample.

On our last day in Savannakhet, Tom gave us a tour on scooters. Anna has been asking me to take her on a motorcycle ride and she finally got her wish! We visited the eye hospital Took works at. They have a laboratory for examinations, and they actually make the glasses right there. There's also a surgery, and an area especially for helping the blind.

We went outside the town to the rice fields and watched as workers toiled to plant a second crop of rice for the season. It was really neat to see how rice is grown. Further out of town we visited little huts on the lake, built out over the  water, where people go to relax, have a cup of tea and play card games.

After saying our good-byes, we left Savannahket by bus. The trip was 5 hours, scheduled to leave at 5:30pm. However, it didn't leave for 45 minutes, and when it did, it went through the town picking up more people along the way. That added half hour to our trip. With the delayed departure and pickup, we didn't get into Pakse until 11:10pm. It was an interesting way to spend Christmas eve--on a bumpy old stinky bus. We were lucky to get the back of the bus so we could stretch out and doze a bit. We were exhausted by the time we finally arrived, 1.5 hours late. We got a tuk tuk to our guesthouse only to find it was closed for the night.
Ironically, this Christmas eve, I maybe got a taste of how Joseph of Bethlehem felt,  who had to travel to his home town in Judea. His wife was pregnant (mine is not, yet!). He arrived in town, likely late, and there were no rooms left.

Thankfully we didn't need to spend the night in a barn, as there was an available and open hotel across the street. It cost more, but that was fine - we had a bed to sleep in.

Bangkok (round 2)

Arrived in Bangkok as a stopover before we fly to Savannahket. The flight was 45 minutes late, so we were scrambling on arrival to catch the next flight. Luckily we were greeted by an airport attendant on the gangway who blazed the path to check-in, as we flew on a different airline. With our host's help, we got to the gate in time.

We arrived to 32 degree sunshine in Savannakhet and the smiles of Tom and Took. We were also happy to see our luggage get off the plane. The "Quick transfer" tag must have helped.

Our accommodations are in 3 story hotel with fake wood flooring. We have a living room in our quarters. Our room is marked "VIP 2" so we are feeling very special!

Tigers, tigers, tigers

Our last full day in Chiang Mai was full of excitement. We knew we wanted to see tigers. But first we went to see a floral garden. There were a full area of orchids with many varieties. It was 25+ degrees and they were broadcasting Christmas music over the loud speakers. I couldn't help but laugh when these lyrics came on: "Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, over the fields we go, laughing all the way!"

Next, Larry drove us to the Night safari (which is also open in the day) and they had 4-5 white tigers. We wanted our pictures with the orange and black variety, so we decided to wait. The tigers were also on the smaller side.

We had a buffet lunch in the Giraffe Cafe. Zebras, lions, and a giraffe surrounded us as we ate. It was fun to eat with the tigers.

After lunch we rushed off to see an elephant show in the mountains. The elephants did tricks, painted, played soccer, and moved logs. Anna even got a hug and kiss from a baby elephant. The nearby one put the hat on Anna's head.

Next up was the tigers! We drove nearby to the Tiger Kingdom. This was a tourist destination, with people young and old flocking to see these magnificent animals. Tigers have a distinct swagger and movement pattern that says "if you get in my way, I will take you down!"

We waited for our turn and received instructions - such as approach the tiger from the back to show you are playful, not aggressive, and don't make sudden movements or loud noises. Unfortunately this place was surrounded in animals of the cat kingdom, and I was sneezing a lot!

The trainer opened the door and we ducked into the large cagged area about the size of a double-car garage. 3 large tigers, 3 trainers, and 3 visitors were inside. We started snapping pictures.

After 15 minutes we sadly had to leave. I could have stayed longer. Tigers are so beautiful. I think I'll get one as a pet!

As we were driving back, Larry asked if we had heard of the night market downtown. We were curious and decided to see the hand made crafts and food from the street vendors.

We walked around the maze of alleys and paths with people everywhere. It reminded me of a scene out of the movie, Slum dog millionaire. We bought fresh baked bread for about 50 cents and enjoyed every bite. We also enjoyed mango and sticky rice from a food court area.

Our day ended with a shoulder and back massage for Anna and a foot massage for Michael.

We are alive and well. We hugged tigers and live to tell about it!

Our adopted child

A highlight of this trip has been the chance to visit our sponsor child, Supraporn and her family - in their village. The trip takes about 4-5 hours from Chiang Mai, so we split it between 2 days. We set off after lunch with a translator and driver. The first few hours were fine - the roads were surprisingly well marked and kept up. After making some turnoffs, the road turned to dirt, with a 70 degree cliff on one side and a hill on the other side, and skinny trees everywhere. The road snaked around mountain ranges, with sets of 8-9 switchbacks to traverse the landscape. We endured this 2 hour roller coaster ride and arrived at our nightly accommodations - Wat Chan Royal Project. It had a series of bungalows for 2 people. The site was well kept up, with a wooden catwalk. They served dinner, which was simple but pleasant.

The next day we were awaken by Gods natural alarm clocks - roasters - at 5am. Breakfast was not until 7:30, so we just tossed and turned.

Our first stop was the main center in the district run by Compassion. There were no children there as they only come 3 times a week, after school. We then travelled into the village, by a windy, dirt road. We stopped at a small 2 room shack, built on stilts, with 3 pigs outside. We went up and met our sponsor child, Supraporn, her parents, sister, and grandparents. We have her our gifts and she gave us some in return - a hand-sewn shirt for each of us, and cucumbers. She was shy, but excited to meet us. We talked and laughed and drew pictures together. We learned that her parents are the exact same age as Anna and I, and they have a 12 year old ... I'll let you do the math,suffice to say, they started young.

While in the village, we also visited the church, school, and Compassion satellite centre. We  tried local bananas, which tasted very good and nothing like the kind we have at home.

We shared lunch at Supraporns home, and then said our goodbyes. It was only 2 short hours, but it made a difference in the villages life and ours. They said that are were the first sponsors to visit the village.

The life they live is peaceful, hospitable, and kind. We have much to learn from there way of life.

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai and were met by Larry. All of us had not eaten dinner yet, so we went to one of Larry's favourite places closeby. We had Pad Thai soup - a bit more spicy then we had requested - the cooks must have thought we needed some more spice in our life!<br />
The next day, Larry drove us to Big C - a large department store. We picked up sunglasses for us, and some toys for kids in the village.<br />
Driving in Thailand is like driving in England - on the left-hand side of the road. It feels backwards and makes for some interesting intersections. But it functions just fine.<br />
Our next destination is to visit our sponsor child.<br />

Bangkok (round 1)

We arrived in Bangkok to sunshine and all our luggage! Yay! Hopefully the luggage continues to stay with us through all our flights.
Pad Thai was the must for lunch at the airport. We also got feet and shoulder massages - another must for long haul travelling. It really feels like vacation now!
We ventured outside for a bit and it is beautiful, sunny and hot.
We are presently lounging in the very boutique airline lounge enjoying some sticky rice, ratatouille puffs, and choux with cream cheese. Notice the gingerbread house in the back.

One more flight and we will arrive at our destination for the day - Chiang Mai. We are looking forward to meeting the lovely family that is hosting us, the Willems, who are meeting us at the airport. Our long day and a half of travel is almost over and surprisingly we feel more rested than when we started. Hopefully it stays that way. Tomorrow we will be met by the compassion Canada staff and travel to the mountain village where our sponsor child, Suphaporn, lives.

Hello Taipai and Hello Kitty

We've arrived in dark and deary  Taipei to the tastes of authentic bubble tea and hello kitty!

There's a dedicated gate and airplane for all you hello kitty fans. We were fortunate to not be departing from this gate.

Next off to Bangkok!

Off to the airport

Nothing better than leaving Vancouver in the rain, to get on a plane! We are so excited to see south east Asia. 

More posts to come once we land!