Heading to the Ukraine

In less than a week we will be traveling to the Ukraine! Along with 8 others from our church, we will be partnering with a local Ukrainian organization to run a winter camp for orphans at 2 separate orphanages. This organization goes into the orphanages on a weekly basis to build relationships and mentor the kids.

During the winter camp, we will be teaching the kids, spending time with them, playing sports, making crafts, and eating with them. In addition, we will be doing a Christmas party which the kids would not normally receive.

We would love for you to join us in this work, including praying for the team and giving financially. We cannot do this ourselves, and we ask for God’s hand over the preparations, physical and mental health, adjusting to new customs and cultures, unity in the team, and stepping out of our comfort zone for God’s purpose.
 
Please join us in sowing into the work by donating financially here on Chimp, an online charity.

• Every dollar you donate is matched, dollar for dollar by an anonymous donor
• You will receive a tax receipt for your donation
• We are fundraising as a team so all money raised goes towards the whole team

Thank you for your generosity.
 
We are so grateful for you and thank you in advance for your support. Please contact us if you would like to learn more. In addition, come back here regularly for updates on our travels. We will try to give updates here, but will have limited internet access on the trip.

Europe in the Fall

Back at the airport. It seems like I was just here yesterday.
This trip we are heading to the tulip capital, the city of romance, and Tuscany country, to name a few locations. But first we have a non-stop, 8.5 hour flight.

After we've stretched out and massaged our muscles, we will be posting stories and photos. Stay tuned!

Bangkok (round 3)

Our flight from Pho Quok was uneventful. We had a 3 hour stop over in the smoggy city of Hoi Chi Ming City. We spent it reading books. On our 1 hour flight to Bangkok we attempted to play a game using small pieces, and decided it was a bad idea once we had lost 2 pieces under the chair. (Fortunately we found them before we left the plane). We also played Monopoly Deal, which was easier to play on the food trays, and we didn't lose any cards.

In Bangkok, our resort had a shuttle, so we were anticipating VIP service. We walked out to no name on a board or smiling faces. As we looked around wondering if we should just take a cab, a helpful tour guide for another company said to go to the next meeting place 200 meters down. In fact there were 4 meeting places. We found our resort and driver at the last one.

Our resort is called the Floral Shire Resort; a fitting name to end our trip. We both feel we are coming back to "the Shire". No, we don't have a ring to bind us, but we will magically appear in Vancouver tomorrow. Having been gone for over 3 weeks, we feel like we've been in another world, lived an adventure not unlike Frodo's.

We are back in Vancouver and happy to be here!

Phu Quok

We arrived at the tropical, but overcast, island of Pho Quok. We hopped in a taxi and headed off to our hotel. The hotel was about 45 minutes walking distance from the central town, but there are restaurants all along the way.

The hotel is part of a museum. There's a temple, carved wood, and loud squawking eagles.

On our second day we rented a motorbike to explore the island. We went to the northeast side, along a paved and gravel road. Some sections were still under construction, including some bridges. We took the temporary bridge in their place.

When we arrived at the beach about 1.5 hours later, it was windy, nippy, and dirty. We snapped some pictures and headed back to the other side of the island. However the weather got gradually worse and worse - turning to drizzle, then rain, and finally pouring cats and dogs. I drove on, carefully, with the rain hitting my skin like tiny needles. When we arrived back at our hotel I had a shower and we both collapsed on the bed, tired from the long day on the motorbike.

The next few days had more rain and thundershowers in the weather forecast. So we decided to stay nearby and lounge on the beaches. We enjoyed spending time relaxing on the beach, reading books, playing card games, and cooling off in the water. It didn't get too hot as the sun was usually covered by clouds, but it was very humid.

On one of those days, we went to have lunch (at 3pm) after spending time at the beach. We were finishing up when it started drizzling, then down pouring like we've never seen it before. We thought we were back in Vancouver! We settled back into our chairs and ordered another MANGO drink to wait out the storm.

On the second last day we met our first Canadians at the beach - a little girl and her grandma. The grandma was Vietnamese and her daughter had married a Canadian. Unfortunately we could only communicate intermittently as they spoke French, being from Montreal. The little girl, who was 4, didn't let that stop her though and babbled away at us in French, with her grandma interpreting occasionally. She told Anna she had "nice big blue eyes"  and was fascinated with the scrabble style game we were playing called bananagrams (Thanks Sheldon and Jane!)

We also enjoyed as much ice cream as we could - quickly learning which places had good homemade waffle cones and authentic New Zealand ice cream. But my favourite was called the Mango River. It was made entirely of mangos: mango ice cream, mango smoothies, and mango chunks. It was so good I had it each of our 5 days here!

Speaking of food, we enjoyed Thai, Italian, and even some Swedish foods for lunch and dinner.

We are about to head to the airport to start our long trip home. We feel so blessed to have gone on this trip. It will be difficult to come home after being away for more than 3 weeks, but we are both feeling it's time to go.

Saigon / Hoi Choi Minh City

We arrived in the big city of Saigon at 4:30pm, to our VIP treatment that we have come to enjoy. We were scheduled to visit the famous Co Coi tunnels, but as we were 40 minutes late and the tunnels were 1.5 hours away, our guide recommended we postpone it. We agreed and went to the hotel. As we were driving, the first thing you notice is the packed streets with motorbikes. They were everywhere - weaving in and out of car traffic, beeping their horns, and piling up at lights. I was glad to be in the car with some personal space and clean air.

Our hotel is in the heart of the city, 2 minutes from the night market. We checked in and Anna researched a good place to eat dinner. We found one called Pizza 4Ps, literally meaning, pizzas for peace. It was about 7 blocks away, 1 block parallel to our hotel. Some reviews said it was tucked away from the main street, so I scribbled down the address. We headed out and walked to where we thought it should be. When we realized we had gone to far, we double backed but still couldn't find it. We were getting hungry and grumpy. We found a cafe with free wireless internet and checked the address and map. We headed back, going up a side alley, turning left and there it was at the end of the alley. It was a small place, quiet, with a rustic Italian feel. The walls and concaved ceiling were all made of brick. A wood stove was off to the side. We sat down at one of the small tables, with a candle on it.

Looking at the menu, we wanted to try everything. We settled on a procciutto pizza with a large piece of mozzarella cheese in the middle that you cut open and spread over the pizza, once it comes out of the oven. It was likely the best pizza we have ever tasted. We devoured it. There was  an apple pizza for dessert - which was the only one we got a photo of, as they were so good!

The next morning our guide picked us up for a 3 hour trip out of the city to the Mekong delta. We were expecting to join a tour boat, but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and had a private boat all to ourselves, with a driver, waitress, and our tour guide. We travelled up the delta to a floating market. The sellers post their food on top of a pole on their boat. They live on the boat all year long. When a child is 3 years old, they go to school with their grandparents while the parents continue to run the business.

We stopped at a small village making various foods, including a version of rice crispies squares.  We sampled them with jasmine tea. They also make puffed rice.We also visited a brick making small business.

Then it was lunch. It was a traditional multi-course meal. We were enjoying it, until they brought the main dish out - a fish with its full body intact, complete with the eyes and gaping mouth. Anna lost her appetite. We ate as much as we could bear. The meal was finished off with rice and then native fruit.

We travelled back to our car, enjoying the sights and sounds along the river way. We arrived back in the busy, hectic city traffic to our hotel.

As we had been munching all afternoon and had a late lunch, we were not hungry. However we did find a nice cafe across the street from the hotel. It was on the second floor, away from the loud street noise. It was a 'Michael and Anna' kind of place: there were vinyl records hanging on the wall (some from Russia in the 1960s), exposed brick walls, and vintage decor. There were a lot of young people here, and we remarked that most of them were probably on their first date. It brought us back to our first date, and we enjoyed reminiscing about the past and thankful to be beyond that stage in our relationship.

The next morning we were up and ready to go by 7:30am. The tunnels were 1.5 hours north, along the Mekong river. The tunnels were built in the 1900s, first for the French wars during colonization, and then used as a communist stronghold during world war II. The Co Coi tunnels are an elaborate network of underground passageways 3 levels deep. The first level was for soldiers, the second for living quarters, and the third for storage. The first level was 3 meters underground, the next 6 meters, and then 9 meters. This was the perfect place for building tunnels, as the soil was very hard clay, it was above sea level so water drained out, and the people knew how to live in them. The tunnels also had secret entrance doors, booby traps, and air ventilation.

The Americans built a base just 5 kilometers away, not knowing they were so close to the tunnels. At first they didn't think anyone was there, but then they started seeing soldiers. But the soldiers would disappear all of a sudden, through secret doors, and confound the Americans. The people would come out at night, gather shrapnel to use for weapons, booby traps, and for digging. They were very poor and didn't have any supplies themselves.

After learning about the tunnels we got our experience of them. As Vietnamese are smaller people in size, some of the tunnels have been widened to let international visitors in. We crouched down and went into a hole about 1 meter  high by half a meter wide. Anna mentioned right away that she was getting claustrophobic. We went slowly for 40 meters and then took break at an entrance/exit hole. When we got to the next hole, it got smaller after that. Anna decided to go up to the ground level, and I carried on. The tunnel narrowed, and I started crawling on my hands and feet. Its not that the tunnel was so small, I was too big! After 20 meters I popped out and joined Anna.

After passing through the gift shop we went straight to the airport to catch our flight to the small southern island of Pho Quoc, Vietnam. This will be a time to enjoy island life and relax on a beach before heading back home. Our Southeast Asia trip is almost finished.

Hoi An

We arrived in Da Nang around 6pm to be screened by unpleasant customs officers. We also had to go through screening to exit the airport to ensure our luggage matches our boarding ticket - good check, as I wonder if someone will walk off with my luggage!

Our tour guide and driver took us to our resort outside Hoi An, about 45 minutes away from the airport. It was by far the most remote and third-world part of our trip so far -  single lane, dirt roads with frequent motorbikes, cars, trucks, bicycles, and people creating a maze for the driver to weave through. There were narrow, angular streets with small homes with open doors. There were rice pads, archaic bridges, and darkness. And then we turned a corner and arrived at our resort. It looked very stylish and nothing resembling the journey to get here.

We checked-in and went to the New Year's Eve Gala banquet hosted by the resort. The restaurant was situated above a river, with views of motorboats traveling up and down the river, and a shipyard in the distance. (I even saw sparks from a welding iron). It was New Years Eve and we were kilometers away from family and friends, but we were together and happy. Small candles in paper boxes were lit and placed on the river - making for some nice photos.

The banquet was buffet style: a large variety of seafood, BBQ skewers, noodles, soups, and pastas. We were feeling tired from the long day of travelling, so we tried to make the best of it. The food was quite exotic. We both sampled a number of dishes. Anna had the traditional soup, and I had some shrimp skewers. That turned our to be a bad choice, as my stomach started feeling queasy shortly after. Anna's stomach was also not feeling well, so we went back to our room, forgoing the nights festive party and dancing, although we could clearly hear it from the room. The blaring music went past midnight, but we were still up - spending most of the time in the washroom. Once I had cleared my system, I fell asleep around 3am. I hope I don't spend have another New Year's Eve like this one in the future.

We had booked a 1 hour  walking tour in the morning at 10am. In spite of the previous nights events, we trekked on. But we made a 2 hour stop at the tailor first. We settled on 3 piece suits for each of us, 2 blouses and a wool coat for Anna. The tailors took our measurements and we selected fabric. It was a long process but  well worth the time to construct a unique and personalized piece of clothing. We left the designs in their hands and eagerly awaited our fitting the next morning.

We set off on the tour, looking at a covered bridge built by the Japanese, with a temple off to the side. It was built in hopes of getting help on the seas when travellers and fishermen were on the dangerous waters.

The small town had narrow streets, open markets, and motorcycles everywhere beeping their horns. People had informed us that the town would be like a scene out of southern Italy, with small cafes by the canal, and peaceful times. Unfortunately we didn't find that town! We spent the early afternoon walking through the small town, taking sitting breaks for me as I still wasn't feeling 100%. But the walking was draining, so at 2pm we went back to the resort to sleep. 3 hours later I had regained my energy and felt better.

The next day we went back to the tailors for fittings. The clothes looked great, considering that they were simply sewn from a photo or hand drawn - no patterns. However each piece needed some adjustments.

Since we liked the workmanship  we decided to get a lace dress. We had a design in mind and shared the photo with the tailor for fitting later that day.

We rushed off to our scheduled cooking class at 11am. The class included a tour of the food market where they described how to select fresh and ripe ingredients. Thankfully we didn't need to select the ingredients that we would use for cooking. There were an amazing variety of new things to see. Some of them were: cooked blood, which we thought was liver, intestines, stomachs, ears, and actually any other animal part you could think of. They eat it all! Our guide reached down to a bucket of prawns to point and this apparently upset them, as they all started jumping out on to the ground. There were live crabs sitting on a table wrapped in banana leaves and if they weren't sold that day they would be put back in the river and given a second chance at life!

We then took a 10 minute boat ride to the Red Bridge Cooking School. Our chef was a humorous friendly man with a British accent and a remarkable story. Just 10 years ago he was a kid on the streets. He got connected with a group that taught him life skills for language, culture, and cooking. He conversed well with our small group of 8 people, making jokes about food designs and ingredients. We made spring rolls,  Vietnamese pancakes (very good!), and fruit and vegetable salad, eating each dish after we made them. It was all tasty, fresh, and filling. After our tutorials, the school provided stir fry with rice, and native fruit for dessert - mangos, dragon fruit, watermelon, and pineapple. We left feeling very full.

We went back to the tailors for a second fitting. The majority of the clothes fit well, except Anna's suit skirt and the lace dress was very different from the one in the photo. They worked on the clothes and asked us to come back in an hour, for more fittings and determining next steps. We were leaving at 11:30am the next morning, so could only be back in the morning for a final fitting. We went to explore the night life of the town, walking over a brick bridge, and enjoying some New Zealand ice cream in a nearby cafe. There were loud motorbikes everywhere, so it was nice to have some time to relax. We then walked back to the tailors. The lace dress had been adjusted, but was not any better. The tailor agreed to try one more time, from a new piece of cloth.

The next morning we took a shuttle into town. The suit skirt fit perfect and looked very flattering. The lace dress was another story - it was not the same details as in the photo and that changed the style of the dress. It was also laying wrong on Anna's body. The tailor was gracious to refund our money for the dress.

We went back to the resort, crammed our luggage full of our new clothes, with the suits as carry-on, and left for the airport.

Our flight is short - a 1 hour domestic flight to the big city of Hoi Chi Minh City (previously called Saigon). We are excited about seeing warmer weather in the southern part of Vietnam. Everyone we talk to says this city is crazy busy, loud, and hectic. We will see what happens, stay tuned!

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!