Discovering Cambodia Part 1...

My Chinese New Year holiday was a holiday that left me feeling sad, inspired, ashamed and encouraged; a whole range of emotions. Since moving to China my idea of a "vacation" has changed so much it's shocking to me. I guess that reflects changes within myself. Things that were once so important to me, seem to have been put into perspective... which I'm so grateful for. Don't get me wrong, I still love laying by a pool with a yummy drink in my hand. But perhaps there's more to traveling than just that???

For my CNY holiday I was able to discover a country that, I'm embarrassed to say, I hadn't given much thought to in my privileged little life. However, I learned that Cambodia is an amazing and beautiful country in so many ways. The rice paddys, the temples, the PEOPLE! What wonderful people! They truly are beautiful inside and out and I appreciated any opportunity I had to interact with them and see them in their day to day life. It was extremely humbling.

To start the holiday off, a friend from home and I met up in Bangkok, Thailand, and then joined a group of people we would travel with for the next 12 days. Lucky for us....the people in our group were very cool and we ended up making some good friends. :)

Once we headed out onto the road in our first of many bus rides (this one was a short 9 hours including customs entering Cambodia), we ended our day at our first Cambodian destination, Siem Reap. Oh Siem Reap! I can't really say enough about our few days there. It was so amazing and surreal to me! Our first full day in Siem Reap we headed to Angkor Wat....which I thought was one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Haha...I'm laughing at myself now because I'm looking on google and finding a lot of conflicting information. Regardless of what list it may or may not be on...it was spectacular!

This is my best picture of Angkor Wat as the sun was rising. 

We got there at about 6:00am because in order to get a good view (and good pictures) you have to see it as the sun is rising. So when we arrived it was dark; we could barely see the silhouette of the temple. Hundreds of other people were there with us...vying for a good position to get "the" picture. Well....I'm sorry to say I did not get "the" picture, or even a decent picture as the sun was rising, but because I knew "the" picture was not going to happen for me, I left the area where everyone else was and I explored around the temple in almost complete isolation. I got to walk around these amazing sandstone creations built in the 12th century and it was nearly silent. It was serene, tranquil...an experience my words could never give justice to. I did get a few nice pictures of some of the structures we wandered through and the best part is....there are NO people in the photos!











Ok, so there is a person in this photo. :)   I had to get a pic with my Trailblazers shirt!

I found myself taking a lot of pictures that show the repetition in the architecture....like pillars and archways. I would use the technical photography term for this style of photo but I don't know it. :)

I really liked these shots and these areas of the temple because I felt like they really captured the massive size of this place and the feeling of complete abandonment. Taking a picture of the entire structure from a distance is fine, but for me close ups were much more impacting.

One of the towers. 

View of the courtyards from Bakan, the highest level of the temple...the place closest to the Gods. 

Once the crowds started filtering in we toured around a bit more waiting for the rest of our group and then we made our way around the back of Angkor Wat. From this side I got a better photo of the temple as a whole.

To the left is a photo of some of the many, many carvings all throughout the temple. If you actually stop and think about how amazing this is for just a moment...it's insane! They had to get the sandstone, float it down the river, assemble it into these amazing temples...and then they did this??? Their beautiful and intricate artwork covers the place, from the walls to the ceilings! I know we live in a different world today, but stuff like this makes me feel so pathetic! And extremely impatient!





After spending several hours at Angkor Wat, we spent the rest of the day at 3 other temples. I have to admit...after Angkor Wat it wasn't going to get any better for me so I was kind of "checked out" by temple #2. You'll have to forgive my less enthusiastic portrayal of the rest of our day.

The 2nd temple we went to is called Bayon temple and it's best known for the 4 faces that adorn all 4 sides of each tower. It was cool....I'll admit it. But it was mostly photo ops of people posing as if they are kissing a face on a tower. Eh...not for me! I did get one nice picture though.

The 3rd temple we went to is called Ta Prohm temple and it's the temple where Tomb Raider, with Angelina Jolie was filmed. At this point in the day I was full on DONE! Of course it was beautiful the way the trees and temple structures seemed to grow together, but at that point beauty was lost on me.  I may have been what some would call "grouchy"? I'm not sure, I think that's up for debate. :) Regardless...here's a photo!

By the time we came around to the last temple I started to perk up a bit, and I'm really glad because this temple was absolutely beautiful! It was quite small, but 200 years older than Angkor Wat. The carvings were still so perfectly in tact it was amazing. Apparently when the temple was built they made all of the carvings the depth of a pinkie finger and it was amazing how much of a difference in made. The carvings in every temple were beautiful, but this temple, Bantay Srey, was shockingly different. Again, so extremely intricate and you have to imagine these people didn't use power tools to do any of this!

Entrance to Bantay Srey

Inside Bantay Srey...the carvings were everywhere! Nearly every inch of the place was covered.

This was taken on our way out of the temple. It shows how small the place actually is, but still, so beautiful! The colors were also really lovely. 

Well, the temple day ended and a group of us decided to head into downtown Siem Reap for dinner and drinks. We ended up finding ourselves at a rooftop bar where a Filipino cover band made up of 3 lovely ladies, was playing some truly tragic music. Someone at our table decided it would be a good idea to order a bottle of Tequila....not just shots...the bottle! And it needs to be stated, this someone was not me! I was against it from the start! I'm sure there are some people saying, "yea right Molly", but it's actually true! Anyway, fast forward a couple of hours and you would have found us with an empty bottle of Tequila and myself, along with some of my new friends, on stage singing bad karaoke and I'm sure making people cringe. 

The next morning...I miraculously pulled myself out of bed and we headed to a nearby floating village. I think I may have still been slightly intoxicated because when I woke up I felt ok, all things considered. However, the boat ride to the floating village quickly changed that!!!! I was a little under the weather, but misery really does love company. Thank God I wasn't the only one!!! Once we were out of the really wavy water, we headed down a quiet little river, muddy and brown, but still really beautiful.

We eventually floated into the town area and saw the houses raised incredibly high to avoid water damage, the men and women working on whatever is was they may have been doing, and the kids playing. I especially enjoyed this little guy floating in his tub.





Our boat finally stopped at an area that let us off on the island part of this village. I was excited to be on land, feeling slightly ill and all. But then this happened....

The second we got past the houses we walked into the official "shrimp drying area". 

On a typical day I would have struggled with the smell, seeing as I'm not such a fan of seafood. This day it was especially difficult. I tried to cover my mouth and nose with my hand as best I could to control the smell, and to hide my gagging. It's so pathetic....as I'm writing this I'm thinking about how I started this blog. The stuff these people have gone through and here I am complaining because I'm hung over and don't like the smell of shrimp. Well....I guess we have all areas we can improve right? I should start my list!!!

A woman using excess parts of the shrimp to make food for animals...I think :) 

A kitchen...the woman who was cooking had just climbed up a ladder to get something.

As we made our way through the village, toward the school house, I did notice my hang over seemed to subside for a bit...we were close to the kids and I couldn't wait! I told you in the beginning how beautiful the Cambodian people are. Well it's extremely evident when you look at the children. They generally seem to be very happy, playful and very social. They love to say hello and give high-fives! And they are so beautiful! They have beautiful skin, beautiful smiles and eyes I could look at forever! I fell in love quite a few times.

Here are some of the girls in the school house that seemed very excited we were there. The 2nd girl was giving me the biggest smiles and wouldn't look away. I wanted to go sit down next to her and talk to her, find out her name, find out what she likes to do for fun...but they were supposed to be learning, so I just took a couple of pictures and said good bye.

This little guy was just hanging out outside the school house, and was so adorable. He wasn't quite ready to be social with strangers....can't blame him. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to take him home, give him a nice bath and a good cuddle.









The trip had barely begun and already it had been so amazing in ways I honestly had never imagined.

To be continued...

Catching up...

It's been so long, I'm not really sure where to start! I'll begin with an apology to those of you that I made promises to, that I would blog more. I suppose I'm not off to the best start. I like to think of myself as more of a quality vs. quantity girl, so hopefully this doesn't disappoint. ;)

Gelina, Kandra, Claire and Kenzie...making
"Chinese" look good. :) 

I'm so lucky I got to go home and spend Christmas with the best family ever! It was too short of course, I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do, but it was still awesome. I watched my niece Gelina kick butt in basketball, I was able to spend lots of time with my sister Nancy which was so special to me, I got to help my sister Suzette give her over-confident husband Josh and my feisty little niece Gelina a beat down in basketball (okay, maybe we didn't win according to the score, but it was a moral victory), I had some great times drinking wine and playing ridiculous board games with some of my best friends and I got to spend a really wonderful Christmas Eve with my mom. We went to midnight mass together, and then came home, popped in White Christmas, opened a bottle of wine and talked while wrapping Christmas presents until 4:00 in the morning. :) I'm so thankful for these memories.




After arriving back in Wuxi I had 1 week of school and then was off for the weekend to Harbin, China....coldest place I've ever been! It's located in NE China, close to the Russian border. It's sinfully cold in the winter and is known for their Snow & Ice Festival. The festival was very cool, but different. I think slowly I'm learning that if something is supposed to be beautiful in China, you need to expect an element of pure cheesiness to accompany it. During the day, the giant sculptures made of snow and ice were pretty amazing...I do have to say. But at night, the neon lights turned on and everything went from amazing, to straight up corny. That was kind of okay with me though, because after walking around for 6 hours in nearly 50 below, my breath freezing on the outside of my face mask, and my eyelashes growing icicles, I was absolutely fine sitting in a little cafe with a cup of....what I guess you call coffee, while the others walked around, took pictures and slid down slides made of ice.

View from the highest point...it shows most of the festival. 

I HAD to sport the Trailblazers t-shirt and mom and dad....I hope you really appreciate this because
it was freakin cold!!!!

One picture at night...I guess it is kind of cool looking, but trust me, it was way over the top! Thanks to Doug for taking
the picture when I was unwilling to bear the temperatures or the bright lights. ;) 

Because of it's location, Harbin does have a fairly strong Russian influence in town- the food, languages heard and seen and the architecture. We stumbled across Saint Sophia's Cathedral; it was beautiful and kind of refreshing...it suddenly felt like we were not in China anymore.

After Harbin I had only 2 weeks left of school before heading to SE Asia for Chinese New Year holiday! What a rough life I lead. ;) It was so nice though...to break up those 2 long, agonizingly painful weeks of work, we had a Chinese New Year dinner. The whole staff went to a local Chinese restaurant. It was so much fun eating interesting food (eel anyone?), drinking wine (perhaps a bit too much) and celebrating with the staff, both western and Chinese. It rarely happens that everyone gets together, so I thought this was really special and I enjoyed it very much! 

L-R: Tina (best office I can imagine!), Michael (American who secretly
loves the Seahawks and Skittles), Daniela (Slovakian/American who, I'm
pretty sure, sleeps with a Seahawks pillow at night). 

My Russell Wilson jersey (courtesy of my sister Suzette) was my date for the night...he never disappoints as we all know. :) He was very social and made his way around the party, introducing people from all over the world, to a little team called the Seattle Seahawks. It was a proud night for both of us and I think I can safely say, Wuxi, China...loves the Hawks!

 

James, the IT manager at school, loves anything American! I think I totally converted him. :)

Simon Saunders, Head of School. I'm pretty sure he's not a huge fan of American football...but he was a great sport!












This guy wins the award for my favorite Seahawks fan...little Nadeem Ahmed. While his mom and  especially his dad may not believe that American football is in fact...football....Nadeem is a HUGE fan! I suspect his big brother Zav is probably a fan as well. :)

This past Sunday I got home from an amazing two weeks traveling in SE Asia. I spent a couple of days in the vibrant and bustling city of Bangkok, Thailand, spent 10 days traveling all around Cambodia, and ended the holiday with a couple of days in and around Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I'm still working on editing the pictures from the trip, but I'll share a couple with you now... 

Zaijian 再见