Home at last!

Well I left Korea on Tuesday night and here I am on Tuesday afternoon at home! What a trip! My internal clock is all mixed up, hopefully that won't be the case for to much longer. I definitely had a great time traveling with the Oquist family! Peggy- awesome mama, Russ- I can handle in doses :) , Kris- love my travel buddy! We all had so much fun, what an unforgettable experience --literally, since I can reminisce with 2500 pictures! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my latest adventure each day, I hope you enjoyed right along with me!
Jenna

Farewell Asia

I am now sitting in a not-so-comfortable lounge in the Korean airport. Apparently they only have a business lounge for our airline and it would cost $30/person if we wanted to use one. Lame. So we spent the early morning/night in a general lounge on the fourth floor of the airport. This 12 hour layover here is already half way over, because I've slept so much! This airport is really nice; it is exceptionally modern and clean. It entails practically every aspect a mall. I fell asleep curled up in two chairs and woke up to world news on TV. I’ve been so disconnected from the world for two weeks... and my family/friends. I would have to say that I feel satisfied about this trip overall. I’m not wishing to leave or stay. I think I’ve had enough adventure for two straight weeks. One driving force for not wanting to go home is work and school-- responsibilities in general. Haha, well that’s life! It could be a lot worse as I know. At least I have a job and don’t have to work rigorously for absurd wages and have the opportunity for an education. I’ll have to continue my new experiences in the near future. I've learned so much in such a short time about this world we live in. A great experience overall! Europe your next, Right Ma’s!?

See you all soon…

Cambodian Islands

My sunburn feels better but stills stings. Today we went snorkeling at a nearby island, it was so much fun, despite my burn! There wasn’t too much coral or sea life to look at but it was still interesting and the water was so warm! We went to a second island where many tourists were and relaxed there. Our guide, Kris, Russ and I played volleyball on the beach and got some of the locals to join too, I loved it. I still played even though it was a painful situation when I fell into the sand with my sunburn. I’m hard core, haha. We had a leisurely lunch on the beach. Russ played some guitar and we all sung along as we waited for our lunch. It was a beautiful atmosphere. Russ, talking to everyone he sees, met a Cuban couple that owns a restaurant in Cuba which he has eaten at, small world! The husband also played some guitar as well, he played beautiful Cuban tunes. We ended our day by dropping Russ off at his hotel and proceeding on to the airport for our flight to Korea. On the drive there we got to watch a gorgeous Cambodian blood-red sun set. Ron would be jealous J. The ride was longggg, 3 hours in the van. It was amazing our driver knew how to get to the airport because we were in country side with many dirt roads leading several directions with no street names! Looking at all the villages as we rode home was quite a rollercoaster, metaphorically and physically. Kris and I had a great time listening to music together and dozing off when we could; we were literally bouncing up and down off our seats when the road was really bumpy. It’s still hard to comprehend the bleak situation of these people’s lives. I had plenty of hours to reflect…

Incomplete Bliss

January 6^th

Today was amazing. No wake up call, I slept in, and had no schedule to follow. I enjoy all the sightseeing during this trip, but I needed at least a day to relax and today was it. Kris, Peggy, and I took a tuk tuk to the beach. A tuk tuk is a sort of taxi, a man on a motorcycle pulling a kind of carriage you sit in. We found a beautiful spot on the beach and caught some rays. The best part was getting a one hour foot/leg massage (for $5!) while dozing off in the sun and sipping on a margarita! I couldn’t have hoped for a more blissful day ;-) I felt like I was in a Corona commercial. The water was great like yesterday. The one downfall was all the kids that came to sell you food and other items on the beach. Kris and I got some cool jewelry from them. Some were just plain annoying though! You would say no several times and they still wouldn’t leave. For the most part we weren’t bothered too much. We swam for a while and then made a sand castle. I asked this cute little boy to help us build because he looked very interested in what we were doing; he was so happy and enjoyed helping Kris and I. Us three created a sand version of Angkor Thom. Hahaha. Some other kids joined us a little later on too. The kids all laughed when I told them we were creating Angkor Thom. I had a pretty interesting conversation with a girl my age that spoke English. She was envious Kris and I were from America... We talked about our experiences in both our countries, amongst other things. I met my Cambodian Chewy today, so adorable! I wanted to pet him so bad! We were all getting a little red by the end of the day so we walked back to our hotel for a nap. Tropical sun burn = misery. We all didn’t expect the sun burn to set in this bad. Peggy had to nurse me back to health, I took a milk bath. Lotion hurts to put on. This is going to make a super long flight even longer and painful. Where’s my blissful ending?!

Island in the sun

January 5^th
Today my journey began with a 4 hour drive to the town of Sihanuokville, Cambodia. Scenery consisted of poor villages or trash littered countryside to stare at. Everywhere you look there is trash. Once we had to veer right to avoid hitting some cattle on the road. Our destination was renting a motorized canoe and touring the Ream National Park on the way to a private beach. The park covers 210 hectares and is home to around 155 species of birds and mammals including dolphins and mangrove tree farms. We saw white herons, colorful birds, little fishes, and jumping fish of some sort. The water was all murky and dirty, I didn’t think that reaching a swimmable beach was really possible in the near future.

I fell asleep on the canoe, woke up an hour later, and saw it most definitely was! It was an island called Koh Thmei, including a white sandy shore and clear water! A wild dog came to greet us on the docks. There were no tourists at all. Us four and our two guides packed a picnic for lunch which was a fun treat eating on the beach. After lunch Russ and Peggy made a sand castle and Kristina and I collected a bunch of unique shells. Kris and I also played in the warm bath water for a bit, jealous? Haha.

We then took a relatively short hike through the rainforest-like scenery on the island. It was awesome, I love nature, except when it bites me (score: 6 bug bites). There were all sorts of trees and foliage including an exotic tree with orange bark, massive termite hills, interesting plants and flowers, creepy spiders, and massive interwoven roots everywhere. I really felt like I was in a rainforest when it started to lightly rain on us half way through our hike. The trees created a canopy for the most part. Locus buzzed extremely loud and clear. The trail submerged into a coastal village. The kids ran to say hi and some just looked at us with a smile. This village had their own school which was quite primitive. Many of them were fishermen/women.

Our canoe driver met us at the end of our hike and road us back to town. The weather was a bit overcast and warm; it was a perfect day for everything we did. On our way back we witnessed a kings fisher ascend toward the water, lunge, and dash away with an eel! The eel rapidly squiggled around in its talons as the hawk flew into the trees. We all thought this was way cool! During our ride both ways the water was always perfectly glassy, ideal for water skiing or wakeboarding for sure. At one point the driver needed to refuel and turned off the boisterous motor and we rocked back and forth in silence. It was a serene moment to take in. please visit a gain, thank you! Hahaha.

After our adventure we checked into our hotel, which is not my favorite at all, then proceeded to eat dinner along the river at a delectable sea food restaurant. Kris and I ordered crab and toward the end of dinner Kris was still cracking away at her crab. The waitress saw this, came over, and started cracking the crab for her. Hahaha. It was the funniest thing to watch! Apparently she wasn’t fast enough or qualified for the task. This had all us laughing.

Boating!

I didn’t fly today! This time we took a boat ride on the Ton Le Sap Lake from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It took about 5 hours but included beautiful scenery accompanied by perfect weather. The locals waved to us from the shore. There were submerged forests, floating villages, pontooned homes, and interesting countryside. Some of the Villages were the poorest I have seen. I did enjoy sitting in the sun with my hair blowing in the wind, taking it all in. Russ and I also met some Russian and Japanese tourists whom we chatted with for a bit. The ride was fun and different, an Indian Jones-like adventure. I also got some reading in which I was stoked about. When we got off the boat it almost dumped me and many others into the river because it got side heavy, no bueno! We had a great lunch and interesting conversations with our guides who joined us. After lunch we visited the King’s Palace of Cambodia. I wasn’t that impressed with this one, though there were some very interesting facts that went along with it. There are several buildings used for different things still to this day. The King was there when we were touring which was pretty neat; we didn’t see him though. We finished the night off with shopping and a balcony dinner at the famous FCC restaurant downtown which overlooks the river. Every restaurant has several lizards crawling around the walls, they are so cute!

An eye opener

January 3^rd.

Today I visited two more ancient ruins the first one being Bantay Srei. Even before we could get off the van kids were raiding us to buy things. None the less, I was easily amazed by all the intricate carvings. This area was pretty small compared to the Angkor ruins. To the righ musicians playing beautiful Cambodian music. I went closer to listen and learned a sad part of history. The music was played by land mine victims. Some of their faces were deformed, completely scarred, missing eyes, and had missing limbs. It was a depressing sight to observe. Northern Cambodia is still filled with millions of land mines to this day. About 30-40 mines are accidentally triggered each day. This was one of Princess Diana’s main concerns she helped with. As we walked to a bathroom site some mine victims just sat a bit off the dirt road gathering pity money for their disfigurements. They didn’t even need to beg or say anything, people just gave money. Cambodia is still suffering and dealing with past trauma from the 70’s with genocide and horrible acts inflicted by the Khmer Rouse. If you were educated, you were killed; the rouse believed the country should only consist of farmers among many other requirements. They basically had a small holocaust in place. According to Seng Hak their motto was, “It’s better to kill 10 innocent people than to let 1 enemy go free.” Disgusting.

Driving to the Bantay Srei ruins we drove past many villages. Along the way you could see wells with signs posted that someone had donated money to have a well dug. It costs about $120 to make one…Only 22% of Cambodia has running water, an even higher percent doesn’t have electricity. I dislike using a bidet and bringing my own toilet paper with me, I’m spoiled at home. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a village along the road. Their living conditions were so horrible. Makeshift bamboo huts, living near their livestock, dirt everywhere, naked children running around, and dogs with diseases exposing raw skin. It was so primitive and unsanitary I didn’t want to believe people really lived like this. We greeted the people, who were very friendly and all smiles, bought some things from them and left. I had a whole new appreciation for the saying, “You better eat all your food, there are people in Africa who’d love to eat that.” Along the way we came across some water buffalo, many items the locals sell are made from their horns and also all the abundant palm trees. Cambodians can’t and don’t leave any resource unused.

The last ruin we visited was Ta Prohm. It is a remarkable site where the trees and the monastery intertwine in many intriguing ways. Some strangling figs were an incredible sight. This was a ruin sight that was left in its natural state, just pieces laying everywhere. In the very center is this unique area where you can pound your chest and it creates an incredibly loud sound! Our last visit for the day was a hike up to Phnom Bakeng at sunset. This was a beautiful and calming view of all Cambodia. In the distance you could see Angkor Wat. LOTS of tourists were here. Everyone sat calm and collective just watching the sun set. Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat are the two ruins where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider. Our guide Seng Hak has met her and her son.

Ancient Cambodia

January 2,

The airport transportation bus took us passengers to the wrong plane to start out with. Haha, I almost flew to Indonesia! Dang. Everyone un-boarded the plane and we took off for Siem Reap, Cambodia. This time our tour guide was Russ’s favorite; he even brought him a guitar. Our quip for Seng Hak the guide is ‘Seng Hak, you rock!’ I know, brilliant, but his laugh when we say it is priceless. He is a funny well educated Cambodian. After we settled into our hotel we toured Angkor Thom. It is the ancient city capital. The country is known for their Angkor Wat ruins; it’s on the currency and depicted everywhere you go. All the hotels and stores are named ‘Angkor’ something, translated ‘city.’ Cambodia is actually very tourist friendly in Siem Reap, over 2 million visitors in the year of 2007. Cambodia is French influenced, unlike Thailand being very British influenced like the driving situation etc. Everything is translated in Khmer (Cambodian language) and English. In Thailand they only had both languages if they needed to, trying to preserve the Thai culture. 4,000 riel equals $1, though Cambodians actually prefer the USD and accept it just about everywhere. Some Cambodians are even payed with USD.
Angkor Thom was incredible, quite a sight! It was amazing that visitors were allowed to walk all over the ruins. The ruins are made out of nothing but sandstone, no binding material—just rocks sitting on rocks. The engravings were very intricate. The weather has been surprisingly perfect, not hot as expected. I drank fresh coconut juice out of a coconut— quite a delectable treat! Angkor Watt was Hindu influenced meaning symmetry was one of the biggest concerns. This is the main temple of Cambodia. It has a huge moat around it, only 2 meters deep for times of war. This one was made and dedicated to a king. They are in two different spots in the city. PS there are wild dogs that run around everywhere. I miss my Chew dog! :-/
Thailand didn’t have too many people that would try and sell you merchandise. Cambodia being an even more poor country had plenty of beggars around these tourist spots. As soon as I got out of the van I was bombarded with little kids saying ‘madam, madam….’ In some areas it was annoying, they would try and trick you by saying a book was only $1 and then you’d go to look at it and they’d say $10 madam. Or once in Thailand this little girl said a flower was free after I refused it several times, then I took it and she said: $10 baht, $10 baht! Sneaky little guys, they are pro. Even if you say no they’ll still follow you around. In some area’s it was just sad, it was their way of making a living. If you buy one thing, be prepared to be flooded with all the other kids selling something…
After seeing Angkor Wat I ate my first Khmer cuisine. Everywhere we go the food is pretty much always ordered for the group ahead of time, we get to try a lot of different foods. The Khmer’s main diet consists of fresh water fish, and rice dishes, lots of ginger is used in Khmer and Thai food. Talk to you later!

So long Thailand!

January 1,

Today we visited Doi Inthanon National Park. It was very beautiful and woodsy. It was very much similar to the landscape you would see in central California. This is where the highest point in Thailand is, about 8,000ft. That is roughly comparable to Big Bear... Next, we visited Vachiratrakarn Waterfall. This was a beautiful sight, but not as impressive when you’ve seen many before. Thereafter we went to the Royal Pagoda. This was a windy cold area high in the mountains. On the drive up my heart would skip a beat once in a while. The driver’s seat is on the right, and the direction of traffic is also reversed. I would doze off occasionally and look up freaking out that we were on the wrong side of the road about to get hit! When we reach the top there were two temples: one for the kings and one for the queens of Thailand. These temples weren’t as extravagantly embellished as some I’ve seen, but still beautiful workmanship altogether. Near the temples also included a garden and mini waterfall dedicated to the king and queen. I found a huge bee’s nest in the garden. If it weren’t over cast the view would have been spectacular from this point.
Lunch was sad. This was our last day with Jaran. Kris and I were going to miss him, he had a good sense of humor and was pretty knowledgeable as I mentioned before. At one point during our tour he bought a cowboy hat and said he was ‘John Denver.’ Hahaha. I even sent Jaran Denver a postcard. He took us to the airport; we all said our goodbyes and headed off to Bangkok. This flight was delayed an hour and a half. By the time we finally got to our hotel we were all dead tired. I only brushed my teeth and I was OUT, not looking forward to our 4am wakeup call.