Heading home

We are waiting in Siem Reap International Airport now for our first of three flights home sweet home. 

We're ready. 

We arrived in Cambodia yesterday afternoon and were hit with sweltering heat as we went directly to the Angkor Temples. A massive 310 square km complex of hundreds and hundreds of ancient falling down sites that are at the same time objects of beauty and awe. It goes without saying that the whole Angkor site is spectacular...and hot as Hades. 

You can read on the Internet if you want all about Angkor so I won't waste any time and will just focus on Quinn and my impressions. 

First of all, it was hot (which I know I already mentioned) so we sweat buckets, I mean true rivers of sweat. Why this is noteworthy is only because of the fact that when you tumble out of your air conditioned minibus like we did one is immediately surrounded by children selling magnets (mostly) and scarves and other things that are sold at tourist places around the world. 

The children were at Angkor Wat this morning, too at 5:30 am. They (and others, adults) work all day to sell a few things. They have no reprieve, no air conditioning, no cold bottled water waiting. They just sell. 

I am sure you know just how troubled the past has been for Cambodia. The very recent past. Our new guide for our day and a half said it was living hell. I believe him. 

The bottom line is that we have it better than these people could ever imagine even now back home. It's humbling. 

We are going home with a new sense of what we have, how we can be more content, more grateful, and more considerate...all these things and more have been taught to us by the children and men and women in the three countries we have visited. There are many things that still need addressing around here, and it's still far from much of what we take for granted back home, and truly, I'm not sure exactly what next steps need to happen to continue to raise the standard of living: Like free schools, good medical care, removal of the thousands of unexploded mines that continue to maim people, and clean water. I don't know what to do but I do know that because of this trip I will be paying more attention to ideas and organizations that are doing good work to try to help. Like World Vision. Others?  I will find out. 

Here are some pictures of Angkor and things we saw while there. If you know of any good organization as well, let me know. 

Thanks for reading along on this trip. Quinnie and I are ready to be home.

This is the temple in Angkor called Taprohm. The trees are strangler figs and grow all over. 

More from Taprohm. 

Above is Angkor Thom. Another teme site. 

Angkor Thom. 

Angkor Wat at sunrise. 

Inside Angkor Wat. 

One of the many children who carry a basket full of things to sell the tourists. 

Angkor Wat. 

Woman at Angkor selling her blessing. 

The end. 

What Just Happened.

Stop.  Hold the presses.

Quinn and I rode elephants.

Really, that's is all I should say because who cares about the rest.  We rode elephants all day.

All day.

We were in Laos Saturday night until this morning (Monday) and on Sunday (Easter) we got to ride an elephant.  (Did I mention this already?)

Luang Prabang is a beautiful charming town.  We did get to visit the night market, see the monks this morning at 6am make their way to the temple and receive their food offerings and obviously drove/walked around the town.  We also visited Toubee's (our guide, soft spoken and gentle) wife in the silk shop where she works.  But, the main event was the elephant experience.  I wish we could have stayed a little longer there to see more of the city, but there just wasn't enough time before we had to fly out to Cambodia, where I am writing from now.

Quinn woke up Sunday morning with a wide smile on her face.  She was really excited.  So was I.  We drove to the Elephant Park, a preserve that rescues elephants and trains them, and feeds them (apparently, the hardest part is keeping them fed, they eat a lot and cost a lot of money because of it, hence the elephant riding operation).   Laos used to be called the Land of the Million Elephants.  They don't have a million elephants anymore, more like 1,600 and that is all the land and farmers can handle.

We arrived at 9 am and were "trained" to drive elephants around and next thing I knew, Quinn was climbing up on a four ton animal with big ears and a wiggly trunk.  "Pie, pie" means "go," and "how, how" means "stop,"  and that's all I remember.  Quinn took her test drive first and then I followed after.  After the first go, we climbed to a tall platform and boarded a wide bench for our hour long ride.  About ten minutes into the ride, our mahout (the elephant trainer) slid off the neck of the elephant and told Quinn to hop in the driver's seat after we had crossed a wide river.  Then, at another river crossing, he took over again only to direct me to take over.  I "drove" the elephant (lots of "pie, pie!" since my elephant (she) kept looking around for her mahout...but he was running around snapping pictures of the whole thing) for about thirty minutes or so...all in all we ambled into and through a little village and back to camp about an hour later.

the view from up top

We told our new friend, "Kup chai, lai, lai," (thank you very much) and fed her bunches of bananas which she happily grasped with the end of her trunk.  So much fun.

baby

But, the day wasn't over.  We boarded a little boat and sped upriver to another spot and fed more bananas to a baby girl elephant, who pulled on the pockets of her trainer begging for more and more food (they eat a lot).  Along with us were a two couples from Australia, a Dutch woman and a family from Korea, plus our little tour group.  I can say after watching all of these people interact with the baby that elephants are universally charming.  Totally.

After a quick lunch we headed back over and we each got our very own pachyderm and then rode them back down to the river to give them a "bath."  More like we got soaking wet in the river while the mahouts giggled at us.  The mahouts sat on the back of the elephant and dumped water over us and commanded the elephants to spray us and such.  Crazy.

We left around 3pm and called it a day.  The best day ever.

beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos on the Mekong River

I wish we could have seen more of the town, but there really just wasn't time.  It was so pretty in Laos, so clean-ish (even with nearly all dirt roads) compared to the chaos of Vietnam.  Both countries might be equally poor (hard to say, I could look it up, I suppose) and while Vietnam is barreling toward modernity (but at the same time is still developing and quirky), Laos is taking its sweet time.  I liked that about it there. I saw many tourists who also were drawn to the peaceful ambiance of the place.

Toubee and his wife and daughter at the
silk shop where his wife works

night market for tourists in Luang Prabang

There is so much more I should write about, but really there's so much that I would not do justice at all to any of it if I were to try to explain more about what it is like to be in a place so very very different from anything I have experienced before.  I can say this, part of wandering around the world that is the very best thing is meeting people, sharing a smile, and especially hearing their stories.  That's really what I cannot get enough of.  Some pretty horrible things have happened in this part of the world.  What the people here have taught me is a lot about resiliency but mostly about listening.  Their stories matter.  What they have learned matters.  What they can teach us is invaluable.  The world is not a perfect place and hope is a precious gift for those who have found it.

This has been a wonderful realization.

Quinn and I board a plane in twenty four hours and then over twenty-four hours later, we will return home. Tomorrow from the airport, I will try to write about Angkor Wat and Siem Reap...another place I cannot believe we get to visit.

For now, goodnight.

the monks collect rice offerings at 6 am

Leaving Laos

two views of the morning market 

Happy Easter

I will post tomorrow about the wonders of Laos. Enjoy Easter Sunday. 

El Salvador and the Salvadorians

Day to day, there were several regular day things that we did or saw that didn't get much attention, but that probably need to be recorded for my own memory's sake. Here are a few:

➡️the mission house was hot - almost unbearable. We had one oscillating fan that offered some respite, but the air quality never improved. It was stuffy, humid, and always 7 degrees warmer in our bed room than anywhere else in the house. 

➡️it was so loud in the room we slept in that the girls all wore ear plugs all night. We were sleeping over a very busy street. When traffic was moving slowly, cars and busses were honking. And at 3am when things were moving quickly, cars and motorcycles would scream down the street. Around 4am the garbage trucks would start their work - every day. Including Sunday. 

➡️there are few outlets here. They are on US-style outlets, but most are just 2-prong. But there are rarely more than two per room and the one might be a single near the light switch. Needless to say, people have cell phones charging in odd places and extension cords with multiple things plugged in. 

➡️they use the US dollar. And most of our dollar coins end up down here. 

➡️the water pressure fluctuates a lot. Sometimes there is almost none. Tough to take a shower with a trickle - just ask Gillian. 

➡️no TP allowed in the toilet, so all soiled TP and feminin products go in the trash - often times just a small waste basket with no liner. Yeah, ish. 

➡️cold showers. No hot water here. A full week of that and a hot shower sounds really nice. 

➡️garbage is everywhere.  People literally throw any kind of trash on the ground wherever they are: beach, out their car windows, and into the streets

➡️driving insanity. Just like Janna mentioned in her blog, the driving is organized chaos. The big difference here is that the testing to get your license is very difficult. Josué, 28, still hasn't passed his test. Harrison, failed his while we were here. You need to know many "what if" scenarios.

➡️for example, cars are not allowed to move AT ALL after an accident. They must wait for authorities. This causes massive traffic jams because people are not allowed to get out of the way. 

➡️cars of a certain age are not allowed allowed to be insured. 

➡️people drink out of little plastic bags. Yes. Plastic BAGS. For example if you wank a coke from a street vendor, he will pour some into a plastic bag and tie it off, sometimes with a straw sticking out. Some of the water here just comes in little bags in place of bottles. And distributors will carry truck loads of bags of bagged water. Where do you think all those bags end up?

➡️we got harassed one day by a drunk man who wanted to help us get our bags into the cars. When we refused him, he went crazy and started swearing and pounding on our car windows. That day we were with Barbara and on our way to teach guitar. She has an old car with no AC and we had all 3 girls in the back seat with a piñata. It was a hot day. When we pulled away from the angry drunk, we didn't get very far because it was bumper to bumper traffic. So he just walked along side our car and pounded on the glass. Barbara and I took turns lowering and raising our windows to let in fresh air. This went on for 20 minutes. 

➡️most of what you drink here is warm water. They use bottled water but they don't have the Culligan-style cooling units. Instead they just use a 6 inch tall base that the jug sits on that has a valve. Simple and effective, but not cool and refreshing in the heat. 

➡️it is not really all that pretty here. The closest thing I can think of as a reference point is Los Angeles. You know how the mountains of LA are green and kinda brownish? Same here. Also the sky is kinda hazy, smoggy like LA. Every now and then, you catch a view or a scene that is beautiful, but for the most part, it is So Cal pretty here. 

➡️people from North America are "gringos" here. You will here them say it to each other as you walk by them. It is not considered a bad word - just a fact. 

➡️helmets required for motor bikes but not for bicycles. 

➡️the gang fighting here is mostly about vengeance and territory. Very little drug stuff going on here. 

➡️dirty place; clean people. The people don't smell here. In fact, we were told that the men in particular are obsessed with being clean, smelling good, and looking good. You have never seen so much hair gel in your life. 

➡️Perros, or dogs, are everywhere. And the don't get hit by cars often. 

➡️Cristian was shocked that people in the US would moon someone. In fact, it took me a while to even describe it to him. I finally showed him some movie clips. He hated it. "Why would anyone want to do that?"  Good question, Cristian. 

➡️people wear longs pants and don't sweat. You see shorts too. But it is not uncommon to see people covered head to toe. Even on the soccer field. 

➡️they are a good people here. Very relational. They laugh a lot and work very hard. Lots of hand shakes and hugs. Big smiles. We enjoyed our time here tremendously. This part of the world needs some love. We would definitely come back. 

Halong Bay to and from

Well, we are sitting in the Hanoi International Airport (just three months old!) and waiting for our flight to Laos.  Only three nights left and then we begin the long journey home.

Propaganda signs line the highway

The last two days have been calm and low key.  We drove from Hanoi early in the morning yesterday 110 miles to Halong Bay...it took us nearly 4 hours.  Yup.  There is only one road that goes to Halong Bay (a natural wonder, high tourist spot...one road).  And, I meant to say earlier that if we didn't make it out of Vietnam, it would likely be due to an accident on these roads.  Really, I know I keep talking about this, but the only option is to keep your eyes on the back of the driver's seat.  People actually, no joke, drive on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD.  I am not talking like in England or Australia wrong side, I mean that if a driver gets tired of his side of the road, or maybe knows his turn is coming up sometime in the next ten miles, they just saunter on over and are driving right at oncoming traffic.  And, no one panics, no one shakes their fist and puts their head out any windows yelling "Get over!"  Nope, it's like it happens all the time.  Wait, it does.

Anyway, I asked Phong today what kind of training one needs to get to get a driver's license and for a motorbike, he says, you just pay five dollars.  For a car, it is much more difficult, you have to take a class for three months and then take a written test.  Woah.  This explained a lot.  No behind the wheel, no road test, nothing.  Just money to line the pockets of the traffic division.  Wonky.  And, since there are five billion motor scooters to every one car, you know how likely accidents are.  And...we only saw one.  A man lying in the middle of the road surrounded by motor scooters.

Okay, on to Halong.  We stopped at a tourist shop which employs physically disabled people in work.  They do handicrafts and tailoring and have a little cafe.  We stopped again there today on the way back for lunch.  Without work like this, the people would not be accepted in their villages and would suffer.  It is a massive shop and filled with tourists, so it is good for everyone.

Halong Bay, the cluster of boats is a fishing village, the
people live here all the time.

Our boat through Halong Bay

We arrived in Halong Bay around noon and got aboard a three level "junk boat" and settled into our rooms for an overnight cruise around the bay.  First, we docked at an island and climbed the stairs to the top for a view of the spectacular massive rocks jutting out of the water.  Halong means "Dragon Rising" and the many rocks that grace the bay are like dragon scales we are told.  It is beautiful there.  After climbing for the tip-top view, Quinn and I hopped in a kayak and paddled between the many other tourist boats and explored some caves across the water from our boat.   Beautiful.

We got up this morning after Tai Chi and then hit shore somewhere in Vietnam to explore a cave inside of one of the outcroppings.  After that little experience, we packed up and headed back into Hanoi for our flight to Laos.

On our way back we also stopped at a little village and were welcomed into the home of a seventy-two year old woman.  We just showed up on her door step and she asked us in...it probably happens all the time since another little group followed us into her house after we left.  But, she raises pigeons for food and had a scrawny chicken or two walking around her courtyard.  The pigeons were curious about us and so they wanted to visit with us as well in her house.  This woman took out her best whisky (in a 2L plastic bottle that definitely had been around the block a bit) that she made herself with sticky rice and offered it to us to drink.  We declined politely (I hope) and she also gave us a plate of peanuts that she alternately ate and fed the pigeons with.  She was all smiles and let us just hang out at her home (one room, two beds a couple of shelves) and we asked her a few questions about her life.  She has seven children and fourteen grandchildren and her mother waited outside the door while we visited.  She was from another village over.  She showed us the kind of hospitality that people in the US are unused to.  It was genuinely sweet to sit in her tiny room of a house.

Our host

We also visited a large outdoor market and saw every kind of thing you could imagine being sold.  And, the level of dirt and grime is indescribable.  The market was jam packed with people making their purchases of raw meats/fish and vegetables, fruit even tshirts and rubber gloves.  One girl stopped Quinnie on the way out of the market to speak to her in English about her studies and where we were from.  Her English was awesome but her smile was even better.

We are sticky and dirty and ready for our next adventure in Laos.  We go for one day and two nights, then to Cambodia for one night and I have no idea what to expect.  Vietnam was beautiful, dirty, and friendly all at once.  We hear Laos and Cambodia are even more of those things.  So, I will post again soon.

Sunset over Halong Bay

Women came to sell trinkets in the morning.

In the caves

The market (above and below, too)

R&R

Christ for the City always plans at least one day for rest and relaxation. So after breakfast we drove to the black sand beaches of El Salvador. 

It doesn't really matter where you go around the world, beaches are beaches and the people who live near them are laid back. Same is true in ES, except there was definitely more garbage on the beach we were at today. Hey people, seriously!?

One of our CFTC hosts happens to know a surf instructor. He and his gringo girlfriend have a hippie-style place right on the beach that has a small wading pool. Nothing fancy, but soooo comfortable. Just a really laid back vibe that transcended the people. They had a couple of Salvadorian cooks who made us delicious baked chicken. There was a Salvadorian dude there who cut open a coconut for us and we drank it straight from the nut. There were gringos there too, including a guy from Boston who recently quit his job at TIBCO to see the world (how does one end up in ES?) and a classic "no prob bra" dude from So Cal who was working his way down to Peru with his surf board. Probably not a shocker that he is in to bee keeping and has a flexible return schedule. Dude was awesome. He has never ever smoked weed. Wait. 

The surf was not great for first timers, very choppy and a hard rip tide. But we braved the 80 degree waves and learned how to surf from the Salvadorian instructors. Within our 1.5 hours all four of us got up and rode the waves at least once. Fun for sure. 

We headed back to San Salvador (which is not on the ocean. Not sure why it is where it is, to be honest). There was a Holy Week parade prepping to march near where the apartments are situated.   The parade was like something out of Godfather II. But before the March the streets are covered in Alfumbras. Meaning literally "carpet", the Alfumbras are made with salt. Salt that is colored and the poured by hand to make the art work. 

Very beautiful. It took teams 10-12 hours to complete each one.  And they are completed just in time to get intentionally trampled by the parade. In fact the part of the parade that carries Jesus in a glass coffin literally stops and shuffles back and forth for a while on each alfumbra. 

After that we had a nice dinner with Lauren, Josué and Cristian (yeah I have been spelling it wrong this entire time).

Tomorrow we fly back. I can't believe this is it. 

Tomorrow I will take some time to post all the backstory things that made up our trip. For example, did you know that we weren't allowed to flush toilet paper? Nope. Must place in garbage. One day I accidentally threw my TP in the toilet and had to fish it out. Not awesome.