Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Costa Rica to Nicaragua to Miami

saritaskr — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 21:30:00 GMT

17 de agosto - sabado (en el avion al Miami de Managua)

1:15 pm

I was so proud of myself for keeping up with regular writing during our travels more or less. But then we started doing a lot more rigorous hiking and activities & we were so busy from sun up to sun down that spending hours to write just got checked off my list of things to do & sleeping took more of a greater priority. Entonces…

Here we are at the end of our trip already back on a plane headed for Miami and reaching Denver by about 11:00 p.m. tonight. Noman has some sort of surprise awaiting me (or us?) when we get home. I have absolutely no clue what it is! All I know is… something happened at the last minute or he thought of something at the last minute & as a result, this is what he's filled me in on:

He missed his initial flight from Denver to Charlotte
The car is completely packed full of who knows what sitting at the airport
Because there’s only enough space in the car for a driver, I’ll have to take a bus separately to get home when we arrive in the middle of the night and he’ll have to come pick me up from downtown
We’ll be paying for 2 weeks of parking at the airport since he missed his first flight and left so late
He lost the parking ticket so he doesn’t know exactly where the car was parked at the airport or how much they’ll charge him...
We have to be somewhat busy tomorrow doing “something”
He’s told everyone about what this surprise is- even friends we met along the way while traveling- except me... and I have no clue what he’s talking about… his family was really surprised that he did all this without telling me.

This is all that I’ve been told so far. We’ll see when we get there tonight I guess. My only guess was “are we moving?!” Like maybe he found a cool place to move to all of the sudden- which would be cool, but he told me that’s not what it is. So we’ll see after my bus ride home tonight.

So other than that randomness, let me catch you up on the past week a half and wow!!!...what A LOT we’ve done in that amount of time! Here’s the highlights of our agenda/accomplishments to start with and we’ll see how much time I have to explain any or all once I put down a rough list (being that we’re supposed to arrive in Miami in about 45 minutes and it's taken me a while already just to write this intro...

Indian night learning how to make homemade curry & naan at Essence Arenal (our army tent veggie hotel)!
took a super expensive private shuttle ($55/ per person!!! geez!) early in the morning on Paris’ birthday to go to Tortugero-“the turtle place"/island off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
1 hour boat ride more to get there
Lonely Planet guy showed us where our hostel "miss Miriam ll" was, which was super helpful because we showed up on this island having no clue where to go next!
Me, pear, & a daughter-mom pair from Germany when on a turtle watch in the middle of the night in secret, undercover-co-op, black military gear & watched sea turtles come in and off the coast and lay eggs (these were HUGEEEEEE greenback turtles!!!)
Woke up for a canoe animal watching excursion at about 5:30 the next morning: including the sights of rare birds, howler & spider monkeys, an anteater, and a few cayman crocodiles which were eerily close to our canoe!
Transit back to San Jose on Friday morning: boat off the turtle island ~ bus to the next city, Cariari ~ public bus to San Jose ~ taxi to hotel (total cost less than $10!) and total time: approx. 6-7 hours. And boy was my mom a trooper with her limping leg!
1 night back at Casa del Parque in the capitol city and dinner at a cool, local pizzeria.
No show taxi driver in the morning, so we saved some money & found the public bus for about $2 to take mom to the airport. We missed our stop to actually get off the bus at the airport and ended up stranded on the middle of the highway for a while before finding a taxi to rescue us and take us back to the airport.
Goodbye mama :( She flew out to go back to North Carolina because her teaching semester starts sooner than mine.
Hello Noman :) He flew in from North Carolina, ironically enough, after visiting his family for Ramadan.
Paris, Noman, and I took a public bus back to Casa de Parque for 1 night, including a weird walk around Chinatown, including an unplanned, overly expensive dinner (we basically got lost walking all around & were starving & it was the only place we could find to eat!)
Bused it to Monteverde/SantaElena the next morning around 5:30 AM.
Found our hotel after roaming the streets with Paris shouting out “Kristy Benton??!” looking for a person who left her kindle on the bus with us.
We end up finding the girl, Kirsty, actually checking into the same hostel as us ironcially.
Spend the next 3 nights with a fun mix of new friends at our hostel Pension Santa Elena - Mats from the Netherlands, Kirsty (kindle girl) from the UK, & Samir (briefly) also from the UK.
Night walk to animal watch w/ flashlights
Woke up early to go on another nature hike in the cloud forest. Very cool! And beautiful! And excellent guide who was excited about every single tree and bird and animal we came across!!! :)
Afternoon rappelling down a set of 6 waterfalls...WOW! Amazing! Slightly nerve racking! Exhausting! Bruise inducing!
Learned a fun new card game that’s apparently super popular called “backpacker’s favorite”, aka 'Shithead'.
Next day - canopy/adventure excursion including: Ziplines through what seemed to be the top of the earth...crazy high! One was over a mile long too! Sitting & strapped in face-first like” superman“ flying, suspension bridge, & a Tarzan ”swing” which is the scariest, or at last ranking very high on the list of scariest experiences I've ever had... up there with hot air balloon ride (although I know I’m the ONLY one who was even remotely scared of that) but this Tarzan thing was mutually deemed terrifying by ALL!!! It included being pushed off a crazy high platform & free-falling, sort of similar to bungee jumping before the rope caught you & went swinging way high up back & forth. It was crazy INTENSE!! And “awesome!" (as we’ve now been told by our new travelling companions that Americans severely overuse this expression).
Communal dinner with me, Pear, Noman, Mats, & Kirsty followed by birthday surprise dessert for Paris & of course… more Shithead.
Back at the bus station the next morning by 5:15 a.m.to head onto our next adventure en route to Nicaragua... What's up with all these early mornings on vacation??? But that's when the buses come, so that's what you have to plan around.
We meet a guy from Canada named Roman at the bus station who decides to tag along with us for the next few days. Side note: this is Roman’s first international trip, he’s 23 years old and is traveling by himself, has a tiny backpack carrying only TWO shirts, ONE pair of pants, ONE pair of shorts, ONE pair of underwear, a towel, some sunscreen, bug spray, and a pair of flipflops. That’s IT! He knows NO Spanish except for the few words he’s picked up along the way… like a few colors & “donde esta”… whoa!
One bus to another bus to the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua...
Paris temporarily loses her passport & goes sprinting back to find it at the border!
Successful! Passport found! Whew!!! That was close...
Another bus to a boat.. and voila… we have arrived at a very cool spot. Isle de Ometepe!

Arriving in Miami.. To BE continued…

(5:10 pm. - moutain time / 7:10 p.m. Miami time) Noman & I have made it to our gate and have about 45 more minutes before we board. Good unexpected surprise = they just made an announcement asking for 2 couples of people to volunteer to sit in the emergency exit seats & we jumped up (no one else was listening apparently) and we snatched them! Very exciting considering our flight from here to Denver is 4 hours. So now we’ve acquired extra legroom! Yahoo!!

Alright, back to the list… where were we???

Isla de Ometepe!

We walk around for a little bit with our new found friend Roman in tow -looking for a good hostel, when a girl on a scooter tells us about a place, so we start following her. Then her brother shows us on his scooter also & soon enough we’re following both of them to who knows where. Luckily, we end up at a great place, owned by a guy named Robinson- a charming, tall, smiley, super chatty guy about our age who used to live in Tennessee of all places, who bought and has been running a small hostel on this island for about a year. We found out later that he’s a massive ladies man/player, but he was helpful & enjoyable to be around nonetheless. There’s a giant room with 3 double beds and lots of windows for about $7 per night & we're all set up to stay for a few nights on the island! Exciting!
We’re up early the next morning by 5:30 and by 7 (after being snapped at by the owner of the American Café for being late to our scheduled breakfast) we’re on a short bus ride toward one of the 2 giant volcanoes on the island, ready for a MASSIVE hike!
We meet a new friend from Argentina named Mauro who joins our group for the hike, so now we’re up to 5! Plus our guide, Walter.
This hike certainly ranks up there with Cerro Chato, the last volcano we hiked in Costa Rica, now topping the list of the TWO most difficult hikes I’ve ever done! 5-6 hour hike total for me & Noman and an hour & a half longer for Paris who hiked even further up the volcano & another hour on top of that for Mauro,Roman,& Walter who made it to the very top. Holy crap! What a hike! But wow, the view from on top was incredible! Definitely worth it!
Fun dinner to celebrate afterwards-after rounds of showers becuase we’re all covered in dirt, dripping in sweat, & disgusting!... we go to a recommended Italian pizzeria- me, Noman, Mauro, Roman, Paris, and a girl joins us who regularly visits the island due to nursing research she does there with woodstoves.
Rounds of shithead are in order-then off to bed-I pass out for a while in a comfy hammock :)
Island- day # 2. . . we rent scooters & ride around the island! Sooo much fun!! This is my 2^nd time ever officially driving a motorbike. The first was with Courtney in Panama City Beach, Florida which was actually stressful because I didn’t know how to break and there was tons of traffic as we were driving up and down the main, busy strip. This time was the exact opposite: long country roads except the occasional herd of cows, and I actually knew how to drive it! So that was helpful of course ;) Paris tried at the beginning but wrecked & ran into a sidewalk in less than 1 minute after starting. So just Nom, Roman, and I drove and Pear just rode with us. We drove down to the beach, ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant by the water & then met Mauro at a natural spring nearby where we all went swimming. Noman was especially excited about drinking fresh coconut juice at the springs :)
We drive our bikes back across the island, say bye to Roman, Mauro, & Robinson, just in time to catch a 4:00 ferry out and manage to somehow figure which public bus will get us closest to our next destination in Nicaragua - Granada!
After a few more hours, we end up in Masay on the side of the road & it’s already gotten dark, so we decide to take a short taxi ride on to find a hostel before it gets too late. We find a very unique spot at a colonial mansion that’s been converted into an amazing backpacker’s hostel with open roofs/garden areas, stone pool, beautiful trees throughout and lots of hammocks!
The next morning we enjoy free all you can eat pancakes at our new favorite hostel and our nice taxi driver from the previous day comes back to collect us and take us to the airport. He asks if we want to visit a popular market along the way that we’d read about & is in Masay, so because we left so early, we were lucky to be able to make an extra hour stop & buy a few cool souvenirs before leaving, including a cool ceramic jar & an awesome beige and red bag to add to my international collection!!! Perfect way to end our trip!
Managua to Miami & now Miami to Denver! I’m finishing this just in time because our plane is just about to take off! 4 hours from now we’ll be be back in Denver- one adventure has come to an end, while apparently another will begin with Noman’s surprise ;)

See you next time! Where should we travel to next???

Pura Vida! Costa Rica!

saritaskr — Tue, 6 Aug 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Journal #3-

6 August 2013

Tuesday, 8:45 a.m.

Alrighty folks, time to re-cap! We've been covering A LOT of ground lately in our trip!!...

Miller Time sent a friend to retrieve us from our Portobello cabin and take us back to Panama City to the bus station. We made it to the station by around 8:00 p.m. last Friday night. You can picture the bus station as more of a mall, with an attached grocery store, shops & a food court. All the different bus/transit companies go in and out of the same central place. While Pear and mom waited with our big backpacks in the bus terminal food court and scouted out our dinner options, I went over to the grocery store & bought us more snacks, water, and loaded up on car sickness meds for our long trip (I'll never travel by bus EVER AGAIN without car sickness medicine of some sort, which is the lesson I learned the hard way after throwing up for HOURS on our 24-hour bus ride to Machu Picchu in Peru a few years ago!). We ate veggie pizza and salad stuff, then waited until about 11:30 p.m. for the TICA bus. Most of the others on our bus were local Panamanians, Costa Ricans, or Nicaraguans, although we did meet 1 girl from Germany & another couple from Sweden. I was pretty content to take my little bonine pill, and I passed out until the police started boarding our bus as we came closer to the Costa Rican border. The border crossing process went -in a nutshell- as follows:

Police get on bus & check everyone’s passports.
We drive a few more minutes...
More police get on bus & do the same thing again.
We get to immigration to exit Panama- we unload all our stuff from the bus & all go into a room with all our bags.
They open & check each bag & look at passports again.
They bring in really cute looking golden retriever to walk around and sniff all our belongings for drugs.
We put our bags back on the bus & go get in line.
The wait x 40 people = ~45 minutes.
Immigration asks me a total of one question at the window, “What is your profession?” (hmm, I'd heard that there'd be a little bit more interrigation than that, but I'm not complaining), takes a photo, checks passport.
So where did our bus go at this point? We don’t really know. We asked some people & they basically said – "on the other side" (Of where? The border?), so we proceeded to walk across the border. Where IS the border? I don’t know. People ahead of us were already gone so there’s no one to really follow. So we just start walking, ask a policeman along the way, he says to just keep walking & we’ll see it... Hmm, okay, so we keep walking. We walk through an intersection with traffic on all sides, which looks like a random town- far from what you'd picture when you think of crossing an actual 'border'. Then we see our bus & get our luggage back off the bus. Then we wait in a different immigration line to get into Costa Rica.
Of course, they check our passports too, and documentation, & ask me how long I’ll be in Costa Rica.
Wait in another line. They open & check our bags again. Finally, we get back on the bus.
Oh wait, but of course the police has to stop us a few more times periodically and each time guards get on & off our bus, they check our passports again.
x 2 hours total = we’re finally officially in Costa Rica! Yippee!!!

Then we stopped an hour later to eat lunch & then rode for about another 5-6 hours, where we reached our “temporary “destination: SanJose’. Taking a taxi to our hostel was an easy 10 minute ride and very stress-free. Of course the taxi driver made sure to warn us about the area we were going to: "esta MUY peligroso!" Luckily, I’d read that it's very common for taxi drivers to makeup stuff in order to get you to go to a different hostel where they have connections. Paris didn’t get that memo so she seemed a bit concerned about his 'that's a super dangerous area you're going to!' comment and kept asking the driver a bunch of questions. I filled her in later. Nonetheless, our hotel was in an awesome area & was no less than AMAZING! Hotel Casa del Parque near the National Park, for those of you who plan to visit San Jose... you must stay there! Beautiful giant room with 4 beds, a beautiful VEGETARIAN restaurant, & all in a gorgeous historical house. All for a whopping $11 per person. We’ll be returning there next weekend when we do our airport runs ;)

7:00 the next morning, Sunday, we’re waiting for our shuttle to arrive (which we soon found out that we paid way too much $ for! Dang it!) and then had to call the company because they went to the wrong hotel and couldn’t find us. By 8:00, and with the help of hotel staff, we were found & on our way to La Fortuna, with about 8 other Americans - an easy 3 hour ride.

We soon found out, upon arriving to La Fortuna, that our hotel was more outside of town than I’d thought and lacked regular transit to reach it. Luckily... our driver took us all the way up there- and yet I couldn't help but think that for the money we'd overspent on that fancy shuttle, he better have!

We arrived on top of a mountain, overlooking a vast lake, Arenal Volcano, and Cerro Chato which was another volcano right next to it. We’re currently staying in a super cool spot that’s tucked away in the jungle. They have a resident chef who serves amazing all vegetarian cuisine - breakfast ~ $3, dinner family-style where you get to learn how to actually make the dishes and eat all together ~ $12.50.

Sunday night he (Kelly is the name of the chef) taught us how to make falafels & last night we made sushi rolls. I can’t even describe the food- it’s THAT good!

It has an SIT-ish vibe up here (if you're familiar with the graduate school I went to in Vermont), slightly earthy/hippie. We’re staying in an old army tent (but it’s revamped & an interesting space) overlooking the jungle. Right now I’m listening to howler monkeys which kind of sound like distressed old toads.

Mom hurt her knee pretty badly Sunday afternoon as we were walking around the hotel property :( She could barely walk & has a severe limp. She didn’t fall or anything - it had been hurting for the past few months and she even had it checked out before she came. The doctor said nothing was wrong, but like I said, all of the sudden it just stopped working really & for the past two days she hasn’t really been able to walk :(

A van/small bus comes up to our hotel twice a day that we can take to get down to town- it’s $6 total per person round trip. Sunday night, we let mom rest & Pear and I went down to the free community hot springs which was PACKED with people and a very cool place. Lots of different natural hot springs in the forest. Paris kind of fell down a little waterfall at one point, but we made it out okay.

Then yesterday we hopped a ride with a family from Montreal-Canada who were going hiking at the same place that we wanted to go, Cerro Chato! So we ended up hiking with them all day long: a dad, mom, and their 16 yr. old son who was a really funny kid who liked to jump everywhere!

THIS HIKE WAS NO JOKE! Even if mom had been in full health there’s no way she would’ve been able to do it. Hell, I could barely do it! It was an absolutely gorgeous day though, the first with no rain in this town for almost 2 weeks we'd heard others say. It was Sunny, beautiful & we hiked for about 5 hours. Super steep incline, crawling up part of the way holding onto branches, etc. Then when we got to the top, you had to basically rock climb straight down for about 20 minutes. When I say straight down, I’m talking STRAIGHT down!

Then we arrived at a lagoon lake at the very top of the volcano where Paris and some others swam for a bit & we ate some lunch. Then it started to look like rain so we booked it on back out of there: rock climbing up, hiking down, & got back to the central observatory where we started just in time for a downpour of rain! It was awesome that we missed the rain completely because we would've been in the middle of a mudslide for sure on that volcano if we'd been hiking it in the rain. The dad’s name we were hiking with was La Chance (they speak French) and it was true that he was our “good Luck” (chance) charm!

Then we went back to the hot springs for about an hour even though we felt totally exhausted from the hike! But wow! Was it worth it! Best hike I’ve ever been on to-date!

Then Kelly made sushi with us last night. Terrific! As usual! And we chatted with some others over dinner-a French guy who’s an expert wildlife photographer, a german couple who lost their (well his) luggage at the San Jose airport a few days ago flying in, but they delivered it to him all the way up the mtn!, a girl from Baltimore who’s been traveling and camping around Costa Rica for the past few wks/months; and some other guys from, well somewhere, who spoke English and German too. A great, eventful day, then we headed back to our tent and crashed as mom was telling me a story about something - hmmm… I need to ask her what she was saying now that I’m thinking about that.

Last night it stormed all night & the fresh air and breeze from inside the tent felt awesome. The only downside was that we all had to pee in the middle of the night & didn’t want to walk to the bathroom in the middle of a thunderstorm - my mom hobbling and me just not wanting to get muddy and drenched. We waited as long as we could stand it, and then at about 4:30 in the morning, it stopped raining for a few minutes, my mom and I jumped up at the same time & hurriedly hobbled down the gravel road to the bathroom. Paris went in the bushes earlier I think ;) Then we made it back to the tent in less than 3 minutes when it started to storm again!

This morning we’ve had a pretty steady rain and I haven’t even made it outside yet because I’ve been writing this for the past two hours with my jungle view from the tent & the sound of rain and howler monkeys on and off again. I suppose it’s time to go and I should see if the internet is working so I can send Noman a message & tell him we are alive and well!

Signing off from up on a jungley mountain surrounded by nature, volcanoes, & all happy things and people! :) Pura Vida!

...Oh, one more random funny thing! I told Paris this morning, “Hey Pear, tomorrow is your birthday!”

And her reply was “Yeah?! What day is it?”

Hmmm… captain obvious strikes again! 😊

Panama to Costa Rica

saritaskr — Fri, 2 Aug 2013 16:44:00 GMT

2 de agosto – viernes, 2013

It’s our last day in Panama. We’re in Portobelo still in our little blue cabin overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Paris signed up for a third dive this morning. Yesterday she went diving with 3 expert divers from Switzerland. Total in their group was a man and woman (mid 30s) with their 4 and a half year old little daughter Alicia, and grandparents. They stayed for two nights and left about an hour ago. We spent some time with them, shared tea, kayaked in the ocean with Raoul and Alicia (a series of about 4-5 waves dumped my kayak mostly full of water so I was paddling with 100% effort and moving about as fast as a SNAIL, but it was still a blast! Only my second time in a kayak and I’m really into it. I want to buy one when I get back!), and found a Panamanian/Vietnamese restaurant down the street where we ate dinner. Randomly enough, the restaurant we went into, the manager spoke fluent French, English, AND Spanish so the Swiss grandparents were super excited to be able to chat with him in French! 😊 And I was excited to eat veggie Pad Thai! Who would’ve thought we’d find that here on such a small coastal city? Apparently the Vietnamese man is big into sailing and he hopped into his sailboat solo and sailed from Vietnam to Panama, ended up on the coast of Portobelo where this restaurant was, and asked the owner if he needed help. The owner said business was slow and told him that he could try to improve it, so he created more of a French-Vietnamese menu and has been here ever since! I love hearing people’s stories! Everyone you meet has so many stories and a history that you know nothing about it if you don't take the time to actually TALK.

The Swiss family left today and headed out in their rental van that they are driving across Panama with. They travel for about 5 weeks every summer to different countries to go diving. They’ve done over 350 dives and Raoul has a professional camera he dives with and uploads pics of everything he sees while diving...pretty interesting. You should've SEEN his camera too - wow! That thing was a BEAST! Alicia, the 4 1/2 year old little girl, had the most fun of course looking in all the holes on the cabin grounds for crabs – they’re everywhere here! And she wanted to sit next to me on the van to the restaurant and at dinner. Today she told her parents in English with the cutest French accent, “I don’t wanT to go.” If you heard the accent you’d know why it was so cute ;)

It’s about 11:15a.m. now and I’m sitting on the cabin porch; I was laying out in the warm sunshine for a bit just looking at the ocean, but it started to rain a little. Now it’s stopped so I will probably go back to reading. Then “Miller time” is picking us up around 5:00 and we’re headed back to Panama City to go to the Albrook bus terminal to bus it on over to San Jose, Costa Rica. Our bus leaves around midnight and we’ll arrive in San Jose by 4:00pm tomorrow afternoon. We’ll cross the border first thing in the morning and then go on to the city.

Our relative plan for the next few days will be:

-1 night in the capitol city of Costa Rica - San Jose

- Our shuttle to the Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna leaves at 7:00am - it should be a 4-5 hour trip.

- Then we’ll stay in some tents at vegetarian bed & breakfast up there on top of a mountain for about 3 nights.

I'll touch base with you again soon from Costa Rica! 😋

In & around Panama!

saritaskr — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 15:58:00 GMT

We arrived in Panama last Saturday! Pear, my mom, and I all met up after customs in the Panama City airport since we were flying in from different locations - I left Denver around noon and flew into Panama City via Dallas. Of course I almost missed my flight leaving Denver, but what’s new right?

We had a hotel booked in Panama City in the neighborhood 'Exposition' which is not a touristy area by any means. Most of the local taxi drivers live in that area, and it was really cool because we were in a very non-touristy area, we got to really PRACTICE our Spanish more than anywhere else we’ve ever been (we, being Paris & I, translating for our mom too)! We talked to taxi drivers, negotiated prices, ordered-food and and basically did everything in Spanish which was a big accomplishment; especially compared with our experience in Peru when we were much more timid and cautious overall since that was really our first time traveling independently overseas. So wow! What a difference! I think Paris & I would both say that we have improved a lot-or “think” we have anyway because the advantage here in Panama is that it’s relatively easy to navigate different forms of transportation... much, much easier! In Peru it was a lot more intimidating and confusing as a newbie. So by default, now of course we think we’re traveling super-stars with mediocre Spanish and improved transit abilities. We’ve heard that the roads in Costa Rica are much worse, which may make our transportation process a little bit trickier, so we'll just have to see what that pans out to look like once we get there in the next week and a half.

Back to Panama City though...we walked along the Pacific Ocean & through an older, historic section called Casco Viejo. We navigated through Amador & we randomly met a really nice guy named Daniel who was driving a full bus by with some 'white' people in it. At that point, we'd been walking for a while so we hopped in & it turned out that he spoke fluent English which was very helpful at that point. We met some other people in the van who were from Curacao, an island near Venezuela. I’ve gotta look it up when we get back. Anyway- they’ve been there for 5 year, but are from Holland and we chatted with them for a while. Then we rode around with Daniel while he was taking a break from escorting those folks around & he drove us over to the Trump Towers, where we walked up to the restaurant & swimming areas from one of the highest levels we were able to access. We saw a famous Panamanian rapper just chillin' with his crew up on the deck. And the view was aMAZing!!! Not to mention the pools! Geez!! Some people have TONS of dough! As we were up there looking down at the ocean view I couldn't help but think 'Where are we?! How in the world did they even let us up here!'

So then Daniel told us about a train ride on the Panama Canal Railroad that went in the direction we were planning to go in the next few days, so we arranged with him to take us to get train tickets the next morning. The plan was that he'd drop us off at the train station, then he’d meet us in Colon which was the end of the line for the train, then he'd drive us to Portobello where we had a small cabin reserved by the ocean where Pear was going to spend some time scuba diving. As I mentioned, that was "the plan". BUT... plans change, especially when you're in a different country, you never quite know what exactly will happen, and such was the case this time around as well.

So this morning he meets us at 6 am at our hotel but his van was broken. So he says he’ll ride with us & get a rental car in Colon from a friend. Well by the time we all made it to Colon, I guess he couldn’t get the car he'd planned to, so he helped arrange for another guy to drive us to the next city an hour and a half away - our scuba destination. The man's name was Miller- who also spoke fluent English - and in a nutshell, we ended up with TWO super nice "guides" who showed us all these cool places that we never would've seen otherwise! It pays to be flexible! :) We walked across the Panama Canal Locks on the Atlantic Side today, and Paris & some guys from Holland got yelled at by a Panamanian security guard for stoppirg on the bridge where you have to keep walking at all times... It was a "you had to have been there!" moment which gets a little lost in second-hand story telling and translation... Meanwhile, Daniel & Miller told us all about the history of the Panama Canal and the surrounding areas, taking us to places off the radar & beaten path - just being able to actually walk ACROSS the locks where the ships come through the canal was incredible! And afterwards we were able to stop by the former base of the School of the Americas, which has been renovated to distance itself from its terrible history to a now, extremely modern posh hotel.

How did I even forget to mention that we saw the Panama Canal, Miraflores Locks on the Pacific Ocean-side in Panama City?! That was so cool - we spent the entire day there a few days ago, just watching ships come through and walking through the four level museum.

Now that we’re on the Atlantic coast of Panama for two more days, we'll stay in Portobello on the coast before we head upwards to Costa Rica via TicaBus. So far, VERY fun adventure!

Re-cap: we’ve met people from Holland, Curacao, a woman from Canada who owns a hotel on Isla de Taboga (and an adorable little dog) where we took a day trip to off the coast of Panama City & got completely sun burnt yesterday. Let’s see, we met a guy from Argentina here on business at our 2mares hotel, an American woman named Rachel who lives here with her 4 yr. old son in a winnebago & we’re only on day 5 of our trip!

Tonight we’ll probably eat some rice here w/ some folks from Switzerland that we met at our cabin just after Daniel & Miller dropped us off in Portobello, and then Pear will go diving tomorrow. That’s it for now! I wish I actually had a a pen & paper but that’s ok... this works too.

Hasta luego!

A VERY important note!

saritaskr — Thu, 7 Apr 2011 12:15:00 GMT

Now that I'm back in the good ol' USA, I'm really looking forward to being able to vote for American Idol. I don't know how it happened, but somewhere in the midst of Chinese boy bands & watching Khmer covers of Lady Gaga videos in Cambodia, I stumbled back upon American Idol and now I'm as addicted to the show as I am of Snicker Bars. It's crazy stupid, but I'm seriously into it. If anyone here back home wants to get together to watch the shows with me every Wednesday and Thursday night, we can meet up and have a big American Idol party!

It doesn't matter that I'm getting progressively closer to 30 years old... don't judge me! I just wanna watch American Idol and bounce around, pretend I can dance & bust out in song. If you would like me to give you a live rendition of the entire DreamGirls movie, I'm happy to do that also.

Farewell Phnom Penh

saritaskr — Thu, 7 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT

I've been back in the U.S. for a few days now. And it's fairly strange being back actually. For the past month I haven't written much (sorry about that!) because I've been finishing up classes with students, independent work projects, and trying to organize some things for the wedding too... you know all the fun stuff - printing wedding invitations, finding a location to actually reserve for the wedding (I guess most people start planning those kinds of things WELL BEYOND 3 months before the wedding. Who would've thought! ;) So we're jumping on board & trying to make up for lost time.

I'm happy to say that we were able to print all the invitations & reserve a wedding venue before we left Cambodia, so now we can officially start inviting our beloved crew to a wedding that can exist somewhere other than on the side of the road (Hey! They do it all the time in Phnom Penh by the way! How convenient is that? No need to rent out a facility for way too much money - just throw up a tent in the middle of the street and you're good! Worried about blocking off the entrances to people's homes? Don't be! They can just walk through your tented wedding party to get home - everyone works around it ;)

In Cambodian spirit, I have considered where I might possibly put up a tent on my street to invite everyone to huddle under for an E. Chestnut Street wedding, but I do recall us trying to make-shift a fire pit in our backyard a few years ago to have a barbeque and for some reason the neighbors (and police) didn't like that so much. Too many regulations & protocalls around here... so, unfortunately, the firepit and tent blocking off the street just won't be embraced here in the States as they are in other countries. Hmmm. There goes that idea.

We have chosen a lovely place to have the wedding though. I won't spoil it for you ahead of time ;) Wear your sandals & outdoor attire - it might be a little warm out there!

So yes, things like this have kept me a little busy during my last moments in Cambodia. Plus saying goodbye to students, and that's never any fun... especially when my little 8 & 9 year old bunch are asking me, "do you think any of your other students are as SAD as we are?" And then when it's time for me to leave they come and stand out in the street to continue waving to me as I drive off with Mr. Dat in my tuk tuk. It kind of felt surreal actually, like a scene from a movie. And then after saying goodbye to students, there's our friends we're leaving behind in town (sorry to leave you there Tommie & James! Enjoy the rainy season coming up while you're walking down the street knee-high in water to get to work! I'll be thinking of you guys ;)

Mr. Seng helped us pack up the tuk tuk which would have seemed to be MUCH beyond its capacity to an outsider, but for those of us in Phnom Penh who are continually amazed at the amounts of people & stuff a little tuk tuk can hold, it wasn't entirely surprising. Then Noman, Seng, and I headed off to the airport with ridiculous amounts of luggage in tow - HOW did we acquire all this stuff? That's all I want to know... HOW? How is it possible? What on earth did we bring back with us?

Folks at the Phnom Penh airport let us get by with more than other countries would have I'm sure - in terms of weight/amount of carry on bags, etc. But we made it through, about 30-ish hours back home via South Korea and Washington, D.C.

I sat by an elderly Cambodian woman on the long flight from Korea to the U.S. and she chatted with me in Khmer (of which I understood about 5%, but I'm very good at smiling and listening anyway) and I helped her fill out her customs forms since she didn't speak or read any English. She even gave me a little jasmine flower wreath which she carefully wrapped up and watered before we got off the plane :) And she wanted me to pay particular attention to something about THREE... Of course, since I don't speak Khmer, I left it to my imagination. The jasmine wreath will stay alive for 3 weeks? 3 months? I should water it 3 times a day? I'm not really sure, but I did understand the THREE part - so that's good ;)

All the flights went smoothly. The questioning in customs went relatively smoothly as well - we only spent a couple of hours more than everyone else undergoing background checks, etc.

And voila! I'm back in Charlotte before I know it. The 45 minute ride from the airport to my house was a little jarring since I haven't been in a car for 6 months and am not used to travelling over 5 mph in my tuk tuk. I was literally holding onto the door handle bracing myself as we drove around the curvy, mountain roads back to Stanley.

And OF COURSE we had to stop and grab a biscuit on the way home! :) Ahhhh, biscuits!!! I've missed you biscuits. And cheese. And bagels. And stoves with more than 1 burner. And toasters! I toasted a piece of bread in about 1 minute and a half yesterday and was almost giddy ;) Toasters are fantastic!

I've actually eaten SO MUCH since I got back that my stomach is completely messed up. I'm not used to the food here, which is pretty surprising! I didn't think I'd have to RE-adjust back to American food. So my stomach is currently taking a beating on that. Nonetheless, I still haven't slowed down on putting away any food though. Noman's mom made pertis (I have no clue how to spell that, but they are like little heavenly samosa type things) and I was so entranced with eating them ALL as quickly as possible that I kind of forgot to socialize during the meal. When you have a plate of pertis all to yourself, you've just got to eat them as fast as you can! I'm pretty sure that's a golden rule.

And my mom and sister made mashed potatoes, and my dad made me the BIGGEST strawberry shortcake I've ever seen in my entire life! And I ate the whole thing with just mounds of whipped cream (Sorry stomach! I HAD to!).

So farewell Cambodia.

I will miss you tuk tuk.

I will miss you street 136.

I will (not) miss you scorching hot, humid, sweating every second, weather.

I will miss your smiling faces and waves and laid back style.

I will miss you geccos everywhere sneaking into my apartment.

I will miss you Europe Guesthouse.

I will miss you Blue Pumpkin.

But you never know... I may make it back before you know it ;)

Off the southern coast of Cambodia...

saritaskr — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:00:00 GMT

While Paris was here visiting, we went on a bunch of different weekend trips to places throughout Cambodia. One place I wanted to take her to was Sihanoukville (and yes, I did just have to copy & past that name in because I can NEVER remember how to spell it!). Sihanoukville is on the southern coast of Cambodia and is most well-known for its BEACHES. I’d heard it was a tourist hot-spot, but had no idea to what extent until we got there. So Pear, Nom, me, and a friend of mine who Nom works with, Tommie, all headed down to the beach on a big, fun 6 hour bus ride playing your favorite Cambodian music videos all the way for about four dollars and fifty cents J

We spent the first day in Sihanoukville itself, where the beachfront is just SWARMING with tourists, but the weather is perfect (as long as you like HOT), the ocean is clear & wonderful, and there are rows upon rows of places to get some food right by the water. We even found a place that had chocolate-dipped fruit on a stick!!! The chocolate mango was unbelievable!

The next day we decided to put a little bit of distance between us & the many, many, many other tourists there, and Tommie found a place for us to go to called Korong (or “Monkey Island” as it’s also commonly referred to) that’s about 2 ½ hours off the coast of Sihanoukville by boat. It was a longer trek than we expected to actually GET to Monkey Island. We knew about the 2 ½ hour boat ride, but didn’t take into account all the time we’d have to sit around waiting for different trucks to pick us up and deposit us at different stops along the way to reaching the actual boat. But 5 hours later we reached what I’m convinced is one of the greatest places on earth! It’s a small island with only 2 or 3 guesthouses on it so far, so it’s very remote, undeveloped, with very basic bungalows along the oceanfront.

By the time we arrived it was late afternoon and we were all starving but wanted to go to the beach before the sun went down. Paris stopped off at the guesthouse to grab some food, while Tommie, Noman, and I walked down a path for about 30 minutes which was a mixture of woods, rocks, and beach at different points… and we got to a long section of white-sandy beach and we were literally the ONLY 3 people out there! All you could see around you was beach that was backed up to a beautiful green forest & huge rocks, and then just beautiful, clear blue water in front of you with views of other distant islands scattered around. It’s AMAZING!!! One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. You feel like you’re almost on a different planet because it’s so quiet, so peaceful, so relaxing… I just floated out there in the ocean until almost dark.

After we had been out there for a little bit, Tommie said she wanted to go find Paris (I was nice enough to make Paris a trail of arrows in the sand so Paris would be able to find us like Hansel & Gretel J). So Noman & I were out there floating around in the ocean (well, I guess “technically” I was the only one floating because he can’t swim), what felt like a million miles away from all humanity, and what do you know??? He pulls out a box with a Khmer ring in it from underneath the water & asks me to marry him while on one knee in the middle of the ocean! I was just cracking up, asking him, “Where in the world did that box come from? You just pulled it out from under the ocean!!” But eventually I regained composure, said YES, and here we are, coming up on a wedding in JUNE! So get ready for the wedding everybody J I’m looking forward to celebrating with you!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

saritaskr — Sun, 6 Feb 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Fun visa stuff has sent us out of the country again for at least a few days. This time to Malaysia! To be completely honest, among the options, I was least excited about going to Malaysia even though I didn’t know much about the country at all. I just knew it bordered Singapore and was a little hesitant about embarking back into masses of shopping malls & paying $30 for a taxi again. But as the plane was flying over Malaysia and I looked down, I knew instantly that everything I had thought about Malaysia was wrong and that this place might have some potential afterall – all I could see from my little AirAsia seat was beautiful, thick jungle, and more trees, and more trees, and even more trees! Yay for green! I’m happy already J

We ended up staying in Kuala Lumpur (the capitol city) most of the trip, which was not a part of the plan, and most people who have been to Malaysia would be completely confused by this because there are so many different beautiful parts of the country! But we were just completely struck by the architecture there first of all – gorgeous Turkish, Islamic style buildings on one side, with Chinese style housing on the next street over, add a good bit of Indian influence throughout, and oh! Look over there! That church & house looks like it came straight out of New England in the 1800s! What? There’s some crazy diversity here, that’s for sure… it’s fantastic!

Of course, I did hear from people who actually LIVE there that there’s a good bit of racism & segregation with different ethnicities sticking together and not mixing well with the others, but first of all… that pretty much happens everywhere, and secondly, I was only there for a few days, so of course I didn’t get any sort of personal glimpse into that side of the city.

I visited extravagant mosques, including the National Mosque & Masjid Jamek. The National Mosque has certain hours allotted just for tourists so they don’t disrupt anyone’s prayer time. At first, I didn’t quite get why not everyone was allowed to go in at prayer time, just to visit & see what it’s like. But THEN, once the tourist time rolled around, I got the picture pretty quickly. Tourists are crazy, man! They’re (WE’RE) like hyper animals on crack bouncing around, wanting to see & do everything all at once. Yeah, there’s a reason for “tourist hours” all right… tourist hours here I come!

They gave me a bright purple choir robe with a hood on it to wear, just so I could go in the building. And there was a group of Korean women behind me who were busting out laughing when the guide put head scarves & robes on all of them so they could go inside the mosque as well. I remember thinking that they were being disrespectful & might offend the guide. However, I have to admit that after I got all robed up, all I wanted to do was flap around like a chicken & do the ‘walk like an Egyptian’ dance. I tried to contain myself as much as possible, of course, but it’s not quite as easy as you’d originally think! Something about hooded choir robes just brings out the crazy in ya’! ;)

Apart from that, we visited all KINDS of places and I think we saw every single inch of the city – gorgeous gardens & parks, museums, markets, and then over to the Petrona Towers which are 2 MASSIVELY tall skyscrapers next to each other with upscale malls underneath. They held the title of the tallest buildings in the WORLD until about 2003 or 2004 (and taller than both the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building in New York, I believe). The mall aspect of them truly resembled Singapore the most, but because we attacked it in moderation it was very cool. Hey! I even found a fancy movie theather to go to for $5 (I miss the movies!). Unfortunately, they only had sweet caramel popcorn, instead of the super healthy buttery loveliness we have in the States, but oh well … can’t win every time. And it’s so UNREAL how expensive it is to go to the movies in the U.S.! Especially when every theather I’ve been to in another country that I can even think of has been FARRRRRRR nicer & poshier (by a landslide!) than any theater I’ve been to in the U.S.

On a different note, Malaysia also has SCORES of islands, jungles, volcanoes, and areas to visit that outdoor lovers rave about … maybe one day I’ll make it back for a longer span of time because I would love to travel around the WHOLE country. I’d also consider living & teaching there in the near future. There’s one job position right now that I kind of have in the back of my head for the fall… who knows??!

Another aspect of Malaysia that we were absolutely THRILLED about was the FOOD! I heard the food was great, but I’ve heard that about many other places too and wasn’t that impressed… but WOW! Malaysia’s got it goin’ on with the food! Geeeeez! And since it’s a Muslim country, most of the food is halaal (even McDonald’s!), which means the animals are killed in a humane way & are prayed over & they don’t include little unknown bits of crap in the food. So for people who lean towards the “picky eater” label, and who aren’t even Muslim, halaal food is great!! J

Ah, Malaysia... who wants to go back with me???

Time flies...

saritaskr — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:00:00 GMT

I can't believe it's almost FEBRUARY! I feel like I've kind of been in a time warp, especially with the lack of the winter season completely! I've been here for 3 months now and I'm really surprised at how quickly the time has gone by so far. 3 short months ago I'm sure my Gramma Gladys was wondering why her crazy granddaughter had lost her mind and wanted to move to the other side of the planet, and yet, fear not Gram! I'll be back before you know it! :)

But things have been going well here :) I just got back from a class I teach 3 times a week from 7-8pm. I'm tutoring a Korean man who's the manager of a big construction project nearby, along with one of his Cambodian staff who studies with him. At the beginning they came across as very serious, almost stern, but once we got to know one another, it's been great. They are hilarious! Never judge a book by its cover.

I've also been working with a woman who owns a Korean restaurant about 10 minutes away, and she is absolutely LOVELY!!! When we started our lessons together we could barely communicate because she's just now starting to learn English for the first time and she's in her late 50s. She is wonderful! Now every time I meet her at her restaurant for English lessons, I have lime juice waiting for me and she makes me food :) Hehe... It's a very tough life; you wouldn't be able to imagine the conditions I'm working in! I mean, seriously... fresh sushi rolls, lime juice, hot tea, cupcakes, steaming hot corn on the cob, delicious Korean food... it's really tough... but what can I do? Endure it, I guess ;) Lol. And now when she sees me pull up to her restaurant on my moto (yes, I'm warming up to the motos too, little by little) she comes out to greet me using the new English phrases we've been practicing & then she holds my hand as we walk into the room where we have our feast, I mean, English classes! Yes, yes... English classes. She asked me to come over earlier tomorrow so she can make me a whole Korean meal :) Like I said, these conditions are just... tortuous! ;)

Beyond teaching, I've been picking up some very surprising habits. One includes eating A LOT of snicker bars! I guess I need to preface this a little by saying that in the U.S. I really don't eat sweet stuff too often - unless my Gram's making a homemade apple pie or something insanely heavenly like that! But really other than that, I'm not too much of a dessert person. I don't like cake and don't eat too much junk food or sweet stuff. But for SOME reason, for the past few months I have REALLY gotten addicted to desserts! After almost every meal it seems that I'm craving a dessert! Noman brings me brownies, I'm buying snicker bars, my students are giving me cupcakes... I am developing a SERIOUS sweet tooth! But for some reason, snicker bars in particular are rocking my world! One day it dawned on me that I had literally eaten 3 snicker bars that day alone (1 after breakfast, lunch, AND dinner!), and since then I have backed off considerably, but I still crave snicker bars!

Another habit I've developed is watching TV. I haven't really watched a lot of TV since I was in college. Movies are a completely different story, don't get me wrong! I LOVE movies! But not TV so much. In grad school there was 1 show I watched once a week on a regular basis throughout the summer, but that's about it. I'm just not a big fan of TV. I think most of what's on TV nowadays is just plain CRAP. Crap, crap, crap.

BUT... since I do have a nice TV that came furnished in my place here, AND I have a lot of free time during the mornings since I teach in the afternoons and evenings, I have really gotten hooked to watching TV too. :( Of course, I have no idea how current these shows are compared to what's new in the U.S., but I've gotten especially hooked on watching really stupid shows like America's Top Model, Britain's Top Model, Australia's Top Model... What is UP with me watching all these modeling TV shows? I don't even like modeling! But I'm telling you, it really sucks you in! I can't stop watching them! Lol. Apart from crappy modeling shows, I can more proudly say that I'm quite fond of Junior Master Chef, where these little kids aged 8-12 cook up these extraordinary dishes that just make me really want to learn how to cook! I can't even boil an egg & these KIDS are whipping up just AMAZINGLY complicated dishes. It's so cool; I'm a big fan! :)

So yeah, with incredible students who are spoiling me completely, along with eating an enormous amount of snicker bars while watching mostly crappy television shows, my time in Cambodia is really flying by! ;)

Photos: Siem Reap

saritaskr — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:11:00 GMT

Trip to Ancient Temples

Amazing or Annoying?

saritaskr — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:30:00 GMT

One minute I'm completely amazed by certain elements of Cambodian culture, while the next minute I'm gritting my teeth with frustration and annoyance. Not sure what I'm talking about? Here's a little glimpse:

Yesterday I saw 5 people packed onto one single motorcycle. This was not a giant, super-sized moto with a banana seat. This was a regular ol' moto with 5 actual adult-sized human beings riding one in front of the other and booking along at a pretty good speed too. Amazing! How do they do it??? When I ride just with the moto driver in front I feel like I'm going to fly off the back. How in the WORLD did FIVE people stay on that thing???

The most annoying question I hear almost every other day, in one variation or another, is "How much did you pay for that?" I could be walking to my apartment carrying a juice I just bought & the guy who lives nearby just HAS to know how much it was. Dude, it was about 27 cents... is that okay with you? Or I could be walking through the lobby to get to my apartment carrying groceries and the staff wants to know, "How much did you pay for that?" How do I even answer that question? Do I start pulling out the individual vegetables I bought and itemize everything, or give a rough estimate of the whole bag? And do they even know what's IN the bag? And... here's my question... does it really matter? Really? Or I'm in a tuk tuk in a different city of Cambodia riding to my hotel & the driver asks me how much my hotel costs per night. Okay, that's an acceptable question you may think, but how do you answer it when you KNOW that you're paying more for your hotel room than the tuk tuk driver makes in a day, and as soon as you hit them with the shocking news that foreigners actually have that much money (well, HAVE is relative... SPEND is probably the more appropriate word choice), he keeps talking about it for the entire drive to the hotel... "Oh wow! Why you pay that much money? Too expensive! How much money you have? Too expensive! Too expensive! Wowwww! Why you stay there?..." (side note: on that particular trip, I did pay the most amount of money so far that I've spent for 1 night on a hotel - it cost a whopping $20). In summary, it doesn't matter what you buy - get a haircut? rent an apartment? buy a hammock...a snicker's bar...a baguette? Inevitably, every time, someone WILL ask you, "How much did you pay for that?" So yeah, it gets just a little bit ANNOYING! Not the question so much as the long response you'll get once you give an answer. It doesn't even matter how you answer the question - a response is coming, like it or not. One question I do opt of entirely is how much I get paid. Eiyieyie...I don't even want to go there.

On a slightly different note, there's a restaurant here called the Pizza Company. It's a super big corporate chain, but I have to tell you they have the most incredible stuffed crust pizza! I feel like I may have even blogged about this before, but it's definitely on my AMAZING list! And the complicated method Cambodians use to make their salads at the salad bar there is nothing short of amazing, amazing, amazing... It costs $3.50 to go to the salad bar once. So what people do is purchase one little salad bowl to share among the whole table. They use their super creative, ingenious little salad making skills to create an initial base of long carrot sticks fanning from the inside of the bowl. Doing this first actually make-shifts an even bigger space you can dump salad into. Of course, they don't just dump the salad in.. there's a specific process of certain veggies that create layers and layers on top of more layers, and I have no idea if you will have any visual idea of what I'm describing because it's a little hard to imagine without seeing it, but in the end, they turn the small salad bowl they are given into this HUGE amount of salad that 10 people can easily share. It's amazing!

Treehouse bungalows in the jungle - AMAZING!

Beaches lined with hammocks - AMAZING!

Being able to see happy, peaceful little monks walking around everyday dressed in bright orange and carrying orange umbrellas throughout the city - AMAZING!

But please don't get me started on the construction that's going on right now across the street from my apartment... it's endless! I literally have dreams at night about creeping over there and stealing all of their hammers while they are on break so they have no choice but to stop. It's so annoying!

On the other hand, the evening exercise/sports rituals here are definitely a cool sight. Every night before sunset people gather in swarms to do synchronized exercise dances just out near the streets all throughout the city. I haven't joined in on one yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list. Along with the synchronized dance groups, you'll also see pairs of people playing badmitton & groups kicking around this little thing that's kind of similar to a hacky sack only that it's plastic, super light, has a little tail, and you kick it from behind you so that it flies up over your head to the next person... all of this I find pretty entertaining and happily add to my 'amazing list.'

Another 'amazing' that I can't fail to mention is the Cambodian way of re-using and recycling EVERYTHING. Things that we would just throw in the trash in 2 seconds without a thought in the United States, people will look at you like you are CRAZY for being so wasteful with. There have been a few different occasions where I have thrown things away in the trash can in my apartment, and after the cleaning ladies come, there I will find it, resurrected, waiting for me, staring at me in the face, saying, "How could you throw me away? I'm not done yet!" So I'm catching on & learning a lot and I have to say that when I blew out my hair straightener about a month ago, I didn't throw it away :) I'm currently making a pile of my junk and broken tidbits that I will soon take to one of the heaps of stores that exist around here to fix these random things... Why send these to the dumpster when they can be made as good as new?

Bottom line: the amazing stuff still outweighs the annoying stuff by a landslide, which I am truly happy about. I'm thankful to be here, thankful to be having all of these experiences (the amazing and annoying ones!), and thankful that I get to stay even longer so I can keep on adding to my random little lists ;)

Happy New Year from the ancient temples in Siem Reap

saritaskr — Sun, 2 Jan 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Just got back from a short little New Year's excursion to an extremely popular tourist spot & well-known city in northern Cambodia called Siem Reap. Ancient temples, including Angkor Wat (built in the 12th century), Bayon, and Ta Phrom (where scenes from the movie Tomb Raider were shot... not that I've seen the movie as of yet, probably because it's starring Angelina Jolie, but that's a whole different story that I'll spare you ;).

The temples? AMAZING!!!

I saw the sunset the first evening from a small temple up on a mountain that overlooks the countryside, which was really nice except for the other 1,000 tourists that also flocked to the spot, basically overtook the temple, and you could barely see over people to watch the actual sunset. But... it was cool to be there ;)

The next day we went to Angkor Wat which is absolutely a sight to be seen, with a surrounding moat and the whole shabang! I LOVE moats! It's the world's largest religious building and a national symbol for all of Cambodia (even making it onto the official Cambodian flag).

We took so many pictures at Angkor Wat that we managed to sufficiently kill the camera battery, which was kind of a bummer because we went to a few other temples after that, including the Bayon Temple, which were so different than Angkor Wat & definitely worthy of lots more photo-taking. So what do you do??? Re-visit the temples a few days later with a fully charged camera battery! Yay!

Bayon Temple had 50-something towers in it, each with 4 carved faces on each side... I'll post pictures soon because you just have to SEE it! And as we were headed to Ta Phrom, our tuk tuk driver said, "let's stop by this other smaller temple because the view from the top is really good." So we hopped out, went inside & looked up at the narrowest sets of almost completely vertical stone stairs you've ever seen. What???? I'm supposed to climb UP this thing?! Are you KIDDING me?

Many of the other temples had narrow stairs that you had to climb up using your hands, but they were NOTHING compared to this. After pulling myself up 2 sets of these stairs, while purposefully concentrating on not looking down, my fear of heights was freaking me out, I opted out of the last set to the tower, and just sat there thinking about how in the world I was going to get down. We walked around the top of the temple until we found another way down with SLIGHTLY wider steps that took us over 5 minutes to climb down because we were going one at a time at the slowest pace ever. Another couple from Germany that was a little bit ahead of us was talking to us the whole time - we were pretty much all yapping on about how crazy this was, that we were all going to die (or maybe that was just me! ;), and that this would never meet the safety regulations of any tourist site in the USA. We're not in Kansas anymore folks! Not at all...

Put this on your MUST-DO LIST: See the sunrise at the Angkor Wat temple.

We all know how often I actually see the sun rise, but this was absolutely worth it! I left the hotel at 5:00 am, took a tuk tuk out to the Angkor Wat temple in the dark, and I felt like an explorer going out on some kind of special adventure. There are a bunch of stands outside where you can buy a nice hot cup of coffee or tea (it's pretty chilly there in the mornings) and you walk by flashlight into the temple until the sun rises. Since Angkor Wat is massively bigger than any other temple you've ever been to, it doesn't matter how many tourists have dragged themselves out of bed to join you there, it's still spectacular!

And as far as the Ta Phrom Temple goes, there's nothing I can even say. You'll just have to look at the pictures I post of it because there are these incredibly massive tree roots that have grown inside and all around the stones in the temple. You'll see... you'll see ;)

New Years Eve in Siem Reap included a full street party in the middle of the city where all of the restaurants and shops are. Justin Bieber & Cristina Aguilera were thumpin' & shakin' the speakers all the way through town. We found a cool bar/cafe just before midnight where we sat in a bungalow & listened to someone blaring through the speakers in Khmer. Then at midnight a couple of us joined in on a conga line around the bar and attempted to dance in the Cambodian-style, which only resulted in all the white people looking strangely bizarre to the locals, I'm sure, but we all had fun just packed in there together. And the locals seemed highly entertained ;)

So Happy New Year's everyone! I hope 2011 is starting out wonderfully well for you. I need to think up some New Years Resolutions - I forgot about that! Tell me what yours are & I'll copy them ;)

Merry Christmas!

saritaskr — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:30:00 GMT

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your Christmas is wonderful, memorable, and surrounded by good things & good people :) I'm thinking of you & sending warm wishes your way (literally...it's about 80 degrees right now).

Happy day to you! Enjoy!

Weekend trip to Kampot

saritaskr — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Our shuttle van picked us up on Saturday morning, bright and early!, at 6:30am. The guy who set up the tickets for us kept reiterating OVER and OVER and OVER that the van would be there at 6:30 AM, not PM, AM!!! Okay, okay, I get it? I don’t look like a morning person? What????!!!!

Then we take the van to the bus station and hop on a bus for a 3-4 hour ride to the countryside in Cambodia – a very small province called Kampot. I see palm trees everywhere, the river, people working in the fields and rice paddies with machetes… welcome to Kampot!

We had lunch at a really unique spot called the Epic Arts Café. Where WERE you mom? You would have LOVED it! It’s run by an organization which supports people with disabilities in the local community, and everyone in this particular café is deaf and speaks Sign Language. Even on the menu there were pictures showing you how to say different things in sign language, like “Where’s the bathroom?” and “Can I get the check please?” It’s the quietest café I’ve ever been to & we were definitely in the minority because we were the ONLY ones who weren’t speaking using Sign Language. The people were great. The food was great. The organization seems absolutely wonderful too! What a nice surprise! J

Then I checked into my bungalow hut made out of straw, fully equipped with a mosquito net! And for me… that’s paradise! Seriously, LOVE IT!!! J

A little while later we headed out to go explore some caves nearby (well, “nearby” is kind of relative if you’re moving as slow as dirt through unpaved roads in a tuk tuk) called Phnom Chhnork Cave. As we got closer, every single child we saw standing in their yards or on the street smiled at us with the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen & said, “Hello!” in English with perfect pronunciation. Even children who were as young as probably 2 years old were calling out “Hello! Hello! Hello!”

Two boys on a bicycle rode up behind us and followed us the rest of the way as we’re on the tuk tuk, talking to us, asking us all kinds of questions about where we’re from, how long we’re there, etc. I ended up hanging out of the back window in the tuk tuk for the rest of the way to the caves just chatting with them as they rode behind us. When we got to the caves, which were WAY, WAY out in the middle of farming country, the two kids hop off their bicycle and tell us they are our tour guides to go through the cave J Okay! Sounds good!

We walk up 200-something steps up to the top of the cave, then physically climb down our way through the STEEP rocks in pitch blackness using small flashlights and the light from my cell phone. LOVE IT! J We saw bat caves, a small underground lake, a temple which dates back to the 7^th century… so cool!!! And we’re really lucky our “guides” were there because they told us every single rock crevice to hold onto as we were climbing around in pretty steep areas. Of course, these kids do it every day and were practically BOUNDING around and swinging from the tree roots over jagged rocks… And of course I’m yelling out to them, “Be careful! Be careful!” and “Does your mom know that you do that?!” (but of course she probably does and wouldn’t understand what the big deal was since it’s such a common everyday activity).

Then we just paid another $3/person for the bus ride back to Phnom Penh early the next afternoon and headed out. I would have loved to stay there longer, but because it’s really not the far away and it’s so cheap to get there, we’re going to go back to another town near Kampot (called Kep) next month. Who wants to come? There’s still time you know!

Oh, did I mention that both times I’ve taken a charter bus in Cambodia, they’ve played only a few things on the TVs during the drive – Khmer men doing comedy/variety shows dressed in drag OR very dramatic Cambodian music videos ;) Quality!!!

When we got back to the bus station in Phnom Penh, we thought we were close to this mall where we like to go to eat pizza at a place called The Pizza Company (stuffed crust, AMAZING pizzas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yummmmmmm!!!), but it turned out we didn’t know where we were, so we ended up hiking around the city for a least an hour and half, got side-tracked when we happened upon the best stationery store EVER (Ahh! The pens! The paper! The planners! Yippeee!!! And who would’ve thought that Noman actually really likes stationery stores too? I never would’ve guessed it! We were like two hyper kids in a candy store!)… and eventually, the pizza was ours! Oh, so delicious!

What a rockin’ weekend trip! I can’t wait to see more places! This weekend we’re going to go exploring around Phnom Penh. Since we live here and we’re pretty much just working all week, we don’t get to go wander around and sightsee much. So this weekend we’re thinking about either buying bicycles and riding around to all the different sights & Wats in the city, or renting a moto and motorcycling it! I’m pushing for the bicycles, since I did have the falling off of the moto incident, and another “near fall-off” on my most recent moto ride … I just have to admit it. I suck at riding on motos! And I’m pretty sure that I make the moto drivers very nervous because I squirm around too much & it makes them a little unbalanced. I can’t help it! I always feel like I’m going to go flying off of the back & land on my head in the middle of the street! So I keep readjusting just to make sure I have a really good grip.

Funny enough… as I’m sitting here typing this in the lobby overlooking the street, Noman just pulled up on the back of a moto! Ha!!!

A story about a giraffe.

saritaskr — Mon, 6 Dec 2010 23:00:00 GMT

Once upon a time there lived an adorable little giraffe named Broke. Broke lived at the Night Safari Singapore Zoo, and although the other giraffes spent their days there eating straw and wandering through the beautiful, scenic green pastures, Broke spent his days napping amidst the other stuffed toys in the souvenir shop. Although Broke felt lucky to have such a comfy place to snuggle into day after day, he longed for the one day that his princess would arrive, rescue him from the bin, and take him away to a magical foreign land where he could be free.

I mean, seriously… what else could I do? He looked up at me with those cute little stuffed animal eyes and I knew…I KNEW what I had to do. He must be rescued from the Singapore Zoo.

I guess I have to mention that Taylor (youngest Robini) LOVES giraffes! And not only giraffes, but zoos as well. She loves going to look at all of the animals, taking photos of all the lovely giraffes and likes visiting zoos everywhere she visits. I’m not too sure about whether or not the animals themselves actually enjoy their living arrangements in zoological centers, but being that they probably aren’t consulted regarding their personal wishes, there they stay.

To escape from a life of shopping while in Singapore, we decided to go explore the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve one afternoon (Wonderful! Wonderful! I’ve added some photos of it in the blog album), and then visit the Night Safari in the evening. It was such a nice escape from all the glitter & skyscrapers. I even saw some monkeys while hiking in the jungle at the reserve! Then at about 9 pm we hopped on a tram that ran through the Singapore Zoo, and the Night Safari began! I’m not sure how many zoos operate in the evening, but Singapore claims to have one of the world’s only night safaris, where you’re guided through a world of nocturnal animals that don’t sit within glassed cages. It was so cool! I kept thinking how MUCH Taylor would absolutely love the Night Safari.

At almost midnight when we were exiting the Night Safari, I was approached with a surprisingly interesting decision. Do I do what I was born to do?... Rescue Broke from the giraffe-filled stuffed animal bin at the gift shop because Taylor would be so giddy to give him a new home???

OR…

Do I forget the giraffe altogether because our bus is leaving in 30 seconds and I’ll miss it if I even take a moment to look in the gift shop???

Hmm, decisions, decisions…

Cute little giraffe that Taylor would LOVE? Missing the last bus going back to my hostel at midnight in a foreign country?

Get excited Taylor… I went for the giraffe! (*side note: Noman, like a sane human being, was NOT for this choice. Although he did turn out to be a shockingly good sport about it!).

So, I figured that maybe, just maybe, the time I spent in the shop buying Broke wouldn’t necessarily mean that I’d miss the last bus.

Yeah, that didn’t happen. Bus MISSED!

So I figure, no worries! We’ll take a taxi, right? Well, apparently taxis charge TWICE as much after midnight, in an already unbelievably expensive city …

AND THEN I discovered that we were REALLY, REALLY far away from our hostel (kind of like, on the other side of the country far away) . . .

AND THEN I found out another little special piece of info . . . I didn’t have hardly ANY money left because I just spent it all on the Night Safari & a little stuffed giraffe!

SO . . . options, options . . . we need some options here!

We figured out that Noman & I had a collective amount of $10 total. Period. No banks open at midnight, so we can’t get any money out of the bank. Singapore’s super expensive, so $10 won’t get us home in a taxi. No more buses around. We don’t know anybody in Singapore.

What would YOU do? (I’m very curious here… really, what would YOU do? Tell me!).

This is what I came up with . . . Singapore is the safest city/country in the ENTIRE WORLD (reports actually confirm this! The entire world!), so I figure that if we have the taxi get us in the right direction, as far as $10 will take us, then we’ll just hike the rest of the way back on foot. We don’t have to worry about getting robbed in the middle of the night because anywhere you go is super safe, and we’re on vacation so we don’t have to be back at a certain time anyway. If have have to walk for a few hours, it only means that we’ll get some good exercise.

And in the end, that’s what we did… And Broke’s name was inspired by the reality that we actually went completely, literally BROKE by having bought him. So you better pretend you love him Taylor because that was one present that was NOT easy to get!

Photos: Singapore

saritaskr — Thu, 2 Dec 2010 17:00:00 GMT

4 day vacation

Singapore the Sparkly!

saritaskr — Thu, 2 Dec 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Greetings from Singapore! We've been here for a few days and have one more day to spend... We had to leave Cambodia in order to get Noman’s business visa approved (Ahh! It’s a mess!), so Singapore was one of our only options of places to go to for the moment. Immigration departments are so strange… why do you have to leave the country & then come right back again in order to get a visa anyway? I don’t understand. Maybe one of you has more insight into this? It doesn’t seem very logical to me, although I know many countries have this type of procedure.

But, back to the matter at hand - might as well make the best out of visa craziness & enjoy a trip to Singapore, right?! J Life is tough… I know, I know… Lol.

Singapore is TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, 100% different than I'd ever expected... not that I'd ever spent much time thinking about what Singapore was even like, to be honest ... but now that I’m here, I have to say that it's kind of like being in the matrix. It’s the most super advanced country I've ever been to. Noman & I keep laughing everywhere we go because we're so amazed by - well, everything! I really thought I was going to see hover crafts flying over the taxi tonight... It's hard to explain, but it's just like the most super-dee advanced, hi-tech, shiny place on earth. It’s a city & country all wrapped up nicely in one big bow, since Singapore City is the only city in the entire country of about 5 million folks. I did not know that!

And its nickname is The “Fine” City because apparently you can get fined for pretty much anything here in Singapore. I did not know that either! If you don't cross at a designated crosswalk… watch out for the fining police! Drink or eat on any form of public transportation – yikes! They’re coming to get you! Want to buy some chewing gum while you’re here? Don’t even think about it! It’s actually illegal! I’m serious… no chewing gum allowed!

And I’m fairly certain that Santa Claus must live here by the way everything is so decorated in lights. If you have some free time, I’m sure google images must include some stunning shots of Orchard Road in Singapore during the Christmas season. It’s AMAZING!!! Lights, trees, & glowing snowflakes galore!

We ended up in a mall that made my jaw drop because it was the nicest, poshiest mall I’d ever seen (only about 6 or 7 stories, mind you)… only to see ANOTHER one of the nicest, poshiest malls I’d ever seen only 2 blocks away… then ANOTHER a few blocks down the street from that. There are malls everywhere! It’s like the shopping, commercial capitol of the planet! We found a movie theater and were checked in as if we were at the airport, having to choose the specific seats we wanted and everything!

All in all, it's a very cool place to visit thus far, especially for those of you who like to shop til you drop… but I think by Saturday I’ll be ready to get back to good ol' Cambodia J

What NOT to do:

saritaskr — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:00:00 GMT

When in Cambodia… and you’re traveling with someone who has a passport from Pakistan (or Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, or North Korea, for that matter), it’s not a really brilliant idea to sit down in front of the US Embassy and take pictures for over half an hour.

In case you decide to do so…because you’re unaware that you’re actually sitting directly in front of the US Embassy…because you’re so focused in on trying to get really good pics of tuk tuks driving by… a few things may happen to you:

First, the security guard sitting in his little hide-out spot might just happen to give a little shout out to his other law enforcement friends on his shoulder-strapped-in walkie talkie.

Next, your Pakistani friend sitting right next to you might warn you that it’s time to go because maybe, just maybe, they have past experience of being instantly profiled as a possible terrorist suspect by almost every different type of security/law enforcement officer imaginable – at airport, customs, immigration, near any type of official building, museum, bank, or pick your place at random and I’m sure that counts as well… And let’s just say that since you’re NOT from... well, one of the countries with passports that make it EXTREMELY difficult to travel...and you don’t think about these things every time you’re in public and you don’t have a growing paranoia in the back of your mind that everyone is constantly STARING at you… well, in THAT case, it may turn out that you’re entirely, and innocently, oblivious to mr. security man talking openly into his walkie-talkie.

So, if you find yourself in this situation at any given time…

And you remain completely unaware of the, now THREE, security guards huddling together while continuing to make calls into their walkie talkies…

And if you just sit there like an ignorant dumbo, still naively attempting to get the perfect shot of that tuk tuk as the sun catches the glint of its handlebars just right…

And meanwhile, 5…6… 7 security guards have decided that “there’s an Arab guy sitting right out in front of the Embassy, just staring at us” (or something similar I’m sure)…

Don’t worry! Just nonchalantly get up from your photo spot, and start walking the other direction…

HOWEVER, IF the security guards come after you… swarm you…and detain you for, I don’t know… let’s say another half an hour… then all you have to do is:

just answer their questions politely,

be glad that neither you, nor your travelling buddy, has their passport on them, in which case it would have been a little harder to get the guards to believe the lie that you’re both US citizens,

make sure you DO give them your correct cell phone number, which (I’m just guessing of course… just a hunch here…) they’ll probably write down in their spy notebook (along with a slew of other things, including your address, place of work, etc.) & call right in front of you to verify that it works properly and actually rings,

and if you do all of these things,

not forgetting to smile regularly, of course,

and then DELETE all of the great tuk tuk shots you oh-so-carefully spent the last who knows how long trying to capture… because the embassy police aren’t too keen on you saving any photos on your memory card that were taken near the beloved, sacred embassy building…

yes, yes, just do these things and I’m sure at some point they will let you go. They may call you again another day to add even more information to their spy notebook, so it’s imprinted forever as they file it away in the vault,

but do not fear, you’ll be fine!

You may, however, realize at some point that it’s probably NOT a good idea to put your Pakistani travelling buddy into this kind of situation in the future, ESPECIALLY when they’ve already had to make countless personal trips to the Cambodian immigration office; the government may make it unbelievably easy for Americans and Europeans to live & work in their country, but not-so-easy for… well, I don’t know… oh! How about Pakistanis, for example, to do the same thing.

In fact, if you’re travelling with someone who does have a passport from one of the previously mentioned countries, and they seem a bit annoyed or skeptical about your carefree “oh, it’ll be fine!” comments, after being detained, or questioned, for the umph-teenth time… you might just want to cut them some slack, and try NOT to do all of the clueless things that come quite naturally most of the time. Hehe...

Well, that, or just stop taking pictures outside of US Embassies.

Moto Adventures

saritaskr — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:00:00 GMT

I finally did it!!! I rode a moto today for the first time! Come on somebody, give me a gold star! Alright, alright… I know good and well (and am reminded by others quite often enough) that I’m a big chicken. I’m okay with that. I have a healthy ego you now… I never claimed to be Super Woman.

But motorcycles? Yeah, I don’t know about that…they’re like deathcicles. I’m not a big fan. I drove a moped once when I was in college on spring break in Panama City Beach, Florida. Courtney Coutret wanted to rent some mopeds and ride around the strip and I thought, ‘Sure! Why not?’

Yeah…

We went out to a dusty parking lot, drove around in a few circles, I think I may have ran into a trash can with mine and almost fell over, and then they told us to bring them back at the designated time – 2 or 3 hours or something like that. As I drove out of the parking lot on my little moped, trying to keep up with Courtney the adventure maniac, I remember thinking, ‘You don’t even have to have a license to drive this thing?’

Did I know how to STOP the moped?

Nope.

Did I run through some red lights?

Yep.

Were people in their cars staring out their windows and looking at me funny because I was alone on a moped, driving down a busy strip while screaming ‘I don’t know how to drive this thing! Get out of the way!’ ???

Uh, yeah…

I think you get the point.

2 wheeled motorized forms of transportation just aren’t my thing. But… back to my point here anyway … I did it! I finally got up enough courage to ride on a moto here in Phnom Penh (side note: to most, if not ALL, other people here in Phnom Penh this is certainly not noteworthy in any regard; it’s apparently not that big of a deal whatsoever & the people here are amazed that it’s actually taken me a month just to get up the guts to take a moto).

And as I’m getting off of the moto after my first 5 minute ride, while thinking to myself, ‘Wow, that wasn’t bad at all!’ I really don’t know what happened; I think I literally just tipped over! All I know was that there I was, laid out flat on the sidewalk, face in the dirt and the moto driver didn’t even flinch. I wish I could tell you that as I was sprawled out there, Noman came rushing over to help me up and asked me in his most concerned voice, ‘Oh my gosh Sarah…Are you okay?’ But, I’m pretty sure he only gave me a half glance over his shoulder while paying the moto guy and when it actually sunk in that there I was, still tipped over, still laying on the ground, I do believe all I heard was laughing and then some sort of ‘Did you break my computer?’ since I was wearing the backpack. Ahh, the romance of it all…

But back to the point here anyway, first moto ride = success! Well, kind of . . . and I even have the bruises to prove it! ;)

Water Festival 2010

saritaskr — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:30:00 GMT

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were the days of the Water Festival here in Phnom Penh, which is apparently one of the biggest holidays here. The capitol city grows incredibly in size because people from all over the country and provinces come here to celebrate the holiday. Since I live within one block of the riverside, I was definitely smack in the middle of all the action. My street was actually closed off to traffic to make room for all of the people. It was truly an incredible sight. Every night there were amazing firework displays over the river, which I could see just by sitting out on my back porch since I’m up on the 5th floor (I KNEW there had to be some kind of benefit to having to walk up so many stairs everyday!). It’s been like the 4th of July here! Actually, I spent 4th of July earlier this year with friends in Washington, D.C. which, as you can probably imagine, was pretty crowded. But I have to say that the amount of PEOPLE packed in the streets near the river seemed to surpass the crowds in D.C. by a longshot – probably just due to the fact that there’s less space, so everyone’s squished together 100x more.

During the day there were boat races on the river, and in the evenings there were decorated boats, covered in lights paraded down the river. I tried to get a picture of the boats in the evenings, but because there were SO MANY LIGHTS on each boat, each picture just ended up looking like a giant fireball on top of the water. There aren’t too many foreigners who stick around to experience the Water Festival, which was pretty surprising to me because I thought an event as big as this one would make all the foreigners come running with their cameras! There are just loads of Cambodians who travel from the provinces to be here for this. The streets are completely taken over by about 4 million people and I’m sure all the tourists are probably scared or something.

I went up to a guy selling corn at his little stand on the corner and when he looked up and saw my face he nearly fell over and afterwards started laughing & kept smiling because he was so surprised that there was a white person out there! I’m pretty sure he charged me twice as much for that corn than anyone else, so it’s not like I was getting any kind of special treatment or anything, but the corn was awesome so it’s all good!

But as I’m sure most of you already know, on Monday night, the last night of the Water Festival, there was an absolutely terrible tragedy just about 10 minutes down the street.

There’s a little island on a part of the river, called Diamond Island, where they were having a concert as part of the celebration and the best place to view the concert was from a big bridge nearby. The bridge was so packed that people could hardly move, and something happened (the police are still trying to figure out all the specifics, although it’s not a huge stretch to imagine HOW this could have happened… a gazillion people packed together on a bridge with no way out & one person gets scared that the bridge is collapsing… not a good situation!)…

The death toll from the stampede is now somewhere between 350 – 450 people, with just as many people hospitalized. A friend living in a different part of the city called to check on Noman first thing the next morning and that was the first we’d heard about it since we weren’t out there that night. I saw a video clip on the news and immediately started sobbing because all those people were only right down the street! And having walked down the riverside both Saturday and Sunday nights during the festival, and having experienced the amount of people there, I completely understood how something so terrible could have happened.

Please keep all the family members & friends of those who were in the stampede in your thoughts & prayers. Today has been declared a National Day of Mourning here in Cambodia and I’m sure you can find news segments on it all throughout the day.

I heard that there were over 400 monks at the bridge yesterday praying, along with over 600 other people.

(copy to see an image)

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.asiasociety.org/files/story/images/101123_buddhist_monks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://asiasociety.org/blog/re-asia&usg=__pgl1Ew5zb_PMvYutrp1It_zW8qg=&h=400&w=675&sz=137&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&tbnid=dNb9Voq_NZg3pM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=138&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmonks%2Bpraying%2Bstampede%2Bcambodia%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26biw%3D1138%26bih%3D535%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1

It’s truly a sad, sad situation . . .

And ironically enough, as today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., I'm being hit right now with a very strong dose of thankfulness... that in the midst of all of this, I'm safe and sound.