final episode...of the Asia trip

And here we come to the close of our 2011 Asian adventure.  Jordan and I were talking about this on the way home from church a while back.  It feels like this trip was forever ago!  Maybe it's because since this trip we've moved to Washington for him to start his job in Portland, became pregnant, traveled to Ireland, moved to Canada for Jordan's new job in Calgary, I had pancreatitis and then galbladder removal surgery, and we've been getting ready for our baby that's due tomorrow (as in February 24th).  Jordan said that it feels like, "Isn't it time to go to Asia again?"  I guess so, because we've already started booking our flights for our trip in October when we'll go to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Speaking of Taiwan, I don't think a trip to Asia is complete for me if we don't stop in Taiwan.  One day we will live there...it's in my plans.

So what happened and what did we see when we were in Taiwan in 2011?

Taiwan

We met these Taiwanese people in the Dumaguete airport.  They loved that Jordan spoke Chinese and we got to know them while we waited to board our flight back to Manila and then on to Taiwan.  Because we were on the same flight to Taiwan we all decided that we should wander around Resorts World together before our flight.  They were so much fun!  By the end of it all we exchanged Facebook information and e-mails so we could keep in touch once we went our separate ways.  We actually met up for a bit another night while in Taiwan, more on that later.

My anniversary present: a bathtub!  For those of you who have read about previous birthday and anniversary gifts, if we're in a foreign country, it's either fresh fruit or a bathtub, both make me extremely happy.

It was definitely a warm day and seeing the kids playing in the fountains at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial (中正紀念堂) reminded me of being a child in Portland, Oregon when we'd go to Waterfront Park in the summer so we could play in the fountain and wander around Saturday Market.

These are the friends we made while in the Philippines (except the first girl from the left...she became our friend after this night market and guotie 鍋貼 outing).  We met up near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial where we took a shuttle to the Grand Hotel and then tried to find a night market that was supposedly near our hotel...no such thing...so we stopped at a Si Hai You Long 四海遊龍 shop where we talked until the store closed about marriage, relationships, food, and just about anything else.  It's not exactly common to be as young as we are and married so they had a lot of questions for us about how to find someone you really want to be married to, things to think about while dating, and what kind of life adjustments need to be made once you make the leap.  Well, one thing I have a lot of is advice and I don't mind sharing it.  Jordan did some translation, but with what English they knew and the common language of relationships, most of our ideas came across and were well-received.

We stopped in TaiZhong to meet up with one of Jordan's friend and had Turkey Rice, which I crave to this day, and Jordan caught me stealing his pickled radish.  I'd move to Taiwan just to eat Turkey Rice...and the chicken we had at the restaurant in the picture right above this wordy blurb.  Again with the Yao family, this time they had a new baby with them.  Each time we visit they have a new baby so they said to stop coming, haha!  Well, this time it's our turn.  We will be going to Taiwan in October and will have our own baby to show them.  Anyway, the chicken was cold and freaking delicious.  I have never in my life had chicken so tasty.  I mean, all I can think of are cuss words to use as adjectives in describing how amazing this chicken was.  So we'll move on...

Yes, that's an Asian Jesus.

We met up with a good friend of ours, Ryan Huang, that we got to know through couch-surfing the year before and went out for teppanyaki.  Teppanyaki...the bacon with onion (minus the pepper) is heaven...also something I crave regularly.  If I were pregnant in Tawan not only would I be in heaven, I would also be fat...and not just a little bit fat.  Thankfully I've only gained 15lbs throughout this pregnancy, but you can rest assured that it would probably be tripled if I were in the land of awesome food I crave.  Below that picture is an indecipherable phrase on a t-shirt found at a night market.  Yeah, try and make sense of that one.

Not too far from Ryan's place is Aunt Lisa and her amazing Tomato Rice...while I have never had it, Jordan assures me that it is also heaven in your mouth, so we're hoping that we can have some in October.  Aunt Lisa took us to LuGang 鹿港 where we took a little walking tour of the really old city (after a hotpot lunch, of course).  She's super tiny and very sweet.  She and I hopped into an empty tricycle for an impromptu photo op while the driver was away somewhere.

The Wu kids...some of my other most favorite people on the planet.  They live near Aunt Lisa's place so it was super convenient for us to stop by and play with them.  Jordan played basketball with the three Wu kids as well as a couple other random boys who were also playing while I took the pictures.  The next day after church we went back to the Wu's place for snacks and conversation, and the obligatory goodbye photo, before we left to go to TaiNan to visit more people and eat more food.

Nick Huang is such an awesome guy.  I really love hanging out with him and always wish for more time to spend with him each time we get together.  We got into TaiNan pretty late, so none of the food places we went to last time were open and it was also raining, so we weren't going to park somewhere and then wander around.  Instead, Nick made quite a few stops (as you can see from the table full of food in front of us) so we could try a little of everything.  His sister-in-law made guotie that were absolute heaven and Nick's nephew ran around, played hide and seek, wanted to be tickled, showed me dinosaurs, and played catch.  After dinner we went to find pineapple cakes for souvenirs for our family and Nick's little nephew came with us.  He sang along to Nick's tunes all while making up words and bouncing around like the crazy little monkey he is.  Nick warned him to sit down and buckle up but he wouldn't do it, of course insisting that he was fine, until we had to stop suddenly and he fell off the seat and bonked his head on the console.  Jordan's "I told you so" followed and he calmed down for a minute.  Now...before anyone reading this becomes all incredulous about children not properly fastened down in a carseat with 17 belts and buckles to keep them there, remember that we are in Asia...a place where many American sensibilities and rules do not apply.  And now moving on...

Who would I be without my love for pups.  Jordan's friend had a dog so I got my puppy fill for the trip.  Our last stop was XinZhu.  We ate at a noodle place, a bread dongxi store, Si Hai You Long with Thomas Chen (pictured with Jordan above), and of course a 7.

Overall, I love Taiwan.  Our trip in Asia comes to a close for another year and we hoped to go back again the following year but we weren't able to make arrangements to go until 2013.  No matter, at least we get to go back!  We are so very fortunate that we have the opportunity and the financial discipline to make trips like this a regular occurrence since they are so important for our well-being, sanity, and the happiness of our marriage.  We're still looking for people who want to come with us and be our traveling buddies, so send your applications via a comment of any of our posts =].

...part 6

Just so everyone knows, while on our trips I try to keep a travel journal.  I love to write down the things I see, the people we meet, the things we do, and (most importantly) the food we eat.  Well, I always start with good intentions.  I'm fairly consistent for the first week.  The second week is where I start to fall behind.  And then, by the end, I've usually gotten so far behind that there's virtually no hope of catching up, though I try to with all the energy I can muster.

Such was the case with this trip.  I was on the island of Siquijor in the Philippines, roughly 4 or 5 days into our time in the country.  Do you know how far back I was writing for?  I was trying desperately to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai...I didn't even make it through all of Chiang Mai before I gave up.  So, needless to say, my journal has a bunch of blank pages from our last day in Chiang Mai all the way through the Philippines, Taiwan, and the many national parks we ventured through in the western United States on our way home to Utah before moving to Oregon.  Yes, my friends, what you will get from here on out are pictures with commentary instead of the exhausting essays that have preceded this post.  I suppose you're relieved since each post is impossibly long and I've always been garrulous.

And so we continue...

Philippines

These people are my really good friends.  I served my mission in Utah with the three girls and when we got together in San Fernando 4 years after I got home from my mission (and about 5 for two of the others) it was like no time had passed at all.  We had a little picnic before heading up into the mountains for some sightseeing.  I also got my first mosquito bite in the Philippines while eating this lunch...the mosquitoes there are freaking brutal!  I hate mosquitoes in general, and I mean a hate fire fueled with nitroglycerin, but these nasty blood suckers make that hate worse.  Serious kine, they make me so angry!!  But, thanks to something that's not sold to the general public in the United States, a little ethyl alcohol immediately took away the sting and itch those nasty insects leave behind.

After spending some time in the mountains with some really pretty scenery and almost getting attacked by monkeys, we came down to the ocean.  The fish in the second picture were directly behind and below where we were sitting in the first picture.  My friend's son has no fear and wanted to jump right in where the fish were, so the guy behind us is her husband holding their son while he views the fish.  It was a little early to see the hundreds of bats take to the air for their dinner, so we just watched them hang and "converse" with one another in the trees across the street from where we were sitting (as seen below).

A couple days later we went back to the airport to fly down to Cebu where we met up with another friend of mine from my mission.  Diva is one of 17 siblings and a part of one of the happiest families I have ever met in my life.  Supremely humble and kind, they are an extraordinary family.  Diva and her sister met us at the airport and we first went to drop off our stuff at our guesthouse before going to visit the Mormon temple in that city.  After that, we took a jeepney most of the way up a hill with the intention of watching the sun set from a great lookout spot.  When the jeepney took us as far as its route would allow, we negotiated for the four of us to pay for a ride on a couple of motorbikes.  The drivers took one look at the white couple and then at the two tiny Filipinos that accompanied us and said, "One big, one little each."  Haha!  Meaning, one big white American and one little Filipino on each motorbike to even out the weight.  And even with the balancing, we all had to stop and walk a certain part of the road up to the view point because the incline was too steep and the load too heavy for the motorbike to make it the rest of the way.  The sunset was virtually non-existant, but the moonrise was really pretty.  Soon it was time to head back down the mountain for dinner, a shower, and some sleep.  The next day was church and a meal with Diva and her family.

This is the bedroom that Diva's siblings that remain at home all share together.  For those of us who had to share a room with a sibling, and one of the opposite sex, I can only think back on memories of arguments and no privacy.  Imagine 6 or more boys and girls all in one room with one of the drawers in a filing cabinet as your own...now be grateful for what you had (and currently have).  And aside from normal sibling behaviors, they all get along and play well with one another the majority of the time.

Mass was being held outside since it was such a large crowd.  Never have I seen such a large crowd gather for religious purposes.  Even the number of concert-goers at the Christian rock concert Jordan and I attended probably couldn't top the number of Filipinos gathered here to listen to the sermon.  I tried very hard to not to lose Diva as we made our way through the crowd to see Magellan's cross, but Jordan had a pretty easy time keeping track of me since I was at least a few inches taller than most of the people there and had a lighter hair color than everyone else.

By the way, this is Magellan's cross...but not really.  The real one is encased within the large shell you see in the photo.  Time and moist air would have reduced the original to nothing by now if it had been left in the open air for viewing.

The nice building in the background is the Mormon temple.  It is a pretty structure on its own with a parking lot large enough to accommodate those that attend the temple.  This squatter's settlement is obviously not very far from it.  There will be no commentary here about the money spent on building religious buildings versus the amount spent on caring for the poor.  Anyone who knows the Mormon church knows of the monetary support offered through the welfare and humanitarian programs they provide around the world.  I will, however, say that there is a large portion of the general membership that thinks attending church and the temple regularly and checking the box next to whether or not our home and visiting teaching has been done for the month makes us an active participant in Jesus' gospel while we ignore the literal and figurative squatters in our backyard thinking that the organization of the church is taking care of them for us.  'Tis not so.  We need to open our eyes and live and serve as Christ would if we expect to recognize Him and be recognized by Him.

These children probably know nothing of how the outside world views their poverty.  Does it look like they care?  They were some of the happiest children I've ever seen.  Similar to the children in Bali playing soccer in the abandoned and overgrown lot we saw back in 2010, these kids don't need Call of Duty or World of Warcraft to feel entertained or happy.  A foreigner pulling out a camera down the street is more entertaining for them than what our kids in rich countries, like the USA, have come to expect and even demand from their parents as part of a happy and fulfilled life.

This is looking back on the small, small city of Dumaguete where we flew when our time in Cebu came to a close.  Dumaguete was just a very short stop-over on our way to the island of Siquijor where we planned on staying 3 days.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were excited to go to an island where we could enjoy more time on the beach.  In the very first photo is the girl in pink and her husband in the black t-shirt...when we told them our itinerary for the Philippines they told us they spent their honeymoon on Siquijor.  So they gave us an expectation for price and a few tips on places to go for swimming and snorkeling.

We toured around the island and stopped at this little bay (a suggestion from Edellen and Paul's honeymoon).  It was so calm and beautiful!!  We had a really great time and while snorkeling we saw lots of little colorful fish as well as a sea horse.  Rare to see one of those in all the times we've been diving, so we were very excited.  Jordan made friends with a bunch of children and a few guys around our age and when we took a break from swimming, they offered us our second lunch of the day...close to a half hour after a different family offered us lunch.  We met the first family while touring through a super old church and I offered to help them take a picture of their family as they were celebrating the newest baby's baptism.  When we arrived at the beach we were surprised to see them there and they lit up when they saw us.  They invited us to eat with them...their lechon baboy was so good!!  Never had better.  From our time in the Muslim majority Malaysia we were craving pork, so this was perfect.  The second family had their version of lechon baboy, so we had a lot of pig that day.  A lot.  This beach was also where I got stung about 18 times by little jellyfish across the arms and chest.  (The picture below isn't in focus on my arm, but that's the best one we've got of the incident.)

When we left Siquijor we spent 2 nights in Dumaguete and wandered around pretty aimlessly for most of the time.  We had an extra guest in our room, a mouse, so at night and whenever we left our hotel room we tied up our snacks and put them up in the bathroom in the middle of the shower curtain rod so it couldn't get into our food.  Necessary precautions to protect my precious snacks.  There's no way I'll give up my snacks.  While in Dumaguete there was some kind of race that was going on one night while we were having a McFlurry.  We had no idea what was going on, but were intrigued nonetheless.  Time passed and pretty soon it was time to head back to the airport to get to Taiwan.

...part 5

And the story continues...

Thailand

I've heard stories about Bangkok's traffic and have even seen pictures...but it's really like that in real life!  It's awful!  What we thought was going to be a short way to our hotel tuned out to be a very, very long walk.  And when asking for directions, we've never encountered such unhelpful Asians before.  "The Land of Smiles" was quickly becoming a flat-out lie to us.  I was slipping because of the slick sidewalks, light rain, and serious lack of tread on my slippers (flip-flops) that were so thin at this point that they were transparent at the heel.  So, needless to say, I wasn't in a great mood as we attempted to find our hotel.  By the time we checked in the light rain had become a downpour so we were completely soaked and I was grateful that I changed the way I packed our bags with dirty clothes and the plastic toiletry bag on the top so most of our stuff that was important and clean was still dry (lesson learned from experiencing Cambodia's rain storm).

Where we were staying had so little English around that it made finding food difficult.  We hadn't yet learned the phrase "not spicy" in Thai yet, so Jordan was a bit nervous if he could find anything to eat at all.  Seeing as how we were really hungry and the rain wasn't letting up any time soon, we trudged back out to a street that caught our attention on our aggravating walk earlier.  I wasn't really feeling like eating much of what I saw so I bought a bunch of bananas, but Jordan found a rice dog (similar to a hot dog, but made from rice...which I'm sure you can figure out by what I called it).  We stopped at a 7 on the way back so I could get instant ramen and drinks for the two of us.  I don't mind spicy food at all, but there's a limit to the amount of spice I enjoy since I still like to taste what I'm eating.  That being said, I chose one that didn't have the pepper symbol on the packaging to be on the safe side.  After purchasing said ramen, I went to get the hot water for it and began pouring in the seasoning.  Noticing that the contents were mostly red, I thought, "Well, I can probably handle it," and was going to leave it as is, but Jordan said to take some of it out.  Jordan's stubborness won over mine and I took out about half.  He was so right.  I was about to sip and slurp a bowl of liquid death.  I had to eat a banana after every two or three bites to recover.

We took the boat on the river into the city instead of braving Bangkok traffic in a cab and decided to see as many temples as possible.  Apparently we arrived during the time where the government was sponsoring tours around the city via tuk-tuk for only 20 baht, provided we make one mandatory stop at a place called Thai Factory.  We thought that was a pretty good idea, so we hopped into one.  I was excited at the prospect of having some tailored clothes for cheap, so I talked Jordan into thinking it was a good idea as well.  Off we went to temple number one.  A huge, 25 meter tall Buddha was there.  There were smaller Buddhas around the courtyard, and there were colorful lanterns overhead to decorate the open space.  Super impressive.

Next, we saw the reclining Buddha.  The caretaker's English was really good so we asked him how to say  common greetings as well as "little spicy" and "no spicy" so as not to kill Jordan with culinary carnage.  He also explained that for only five minutes of looking while in Thai Factory, the tuk-tuk drivers get a 5L fuel voucher, so both of us get something good out of the stop.  Along with the reasoning behind the stop as explained by the caretaker, both Jordan and I felt even better about a slight detour to Thai Factory.  Our apprehension subsided.  Yeah...not so smart.  When we stopped at Thai Factory, I was kind of surprised that it was a really small place that looked like any ordinary tailor's shop.  I was expecting a factory of some kind where you could pick and choose among many tailors (or ignore them altogether), which styles of clothes, either western or eastern, that you wanted.  Not so.  We spent way too much time there looking at material and patterns only to realize at the very end that each item was going to cost very close to what you would pay an American tailor.  Even after talking the price down considerably, it was still going to cost upwards of $58-65USD per piece!  We finally left, me apologizing profusely to Jordan for having wasted so much time, and we headed to temple number two.  We were duped into thinking it was just one mandatory tailor stop...we tried talking our driver out of stopping anywhere else, but he repeated the same thing over and over, "No buy, just looking looking!  We go."

We go, alright...  We stopped at a temple where they collected Buddhas from different styles, places, and eras.  After taking our shoes off and wandering around a bit, we decided to head out.  The sky was getting grayer and grayer, and the time later and later, so we tried to hurry our driver along to the next temple.  Well, apparently he wasn't in the mood to listen to us and definitely in the mood to use less English as well as driving to another tailor shop.  Okay...homie don't play dat.  Once we got to the next shop we saw other tuk-tuks heavy laden with sadly suckered whiteys.  We hopped out and I walked down the street to hail a cab and Jordan gave our driver 20 baht, despite his obvious irritation, and hurried to catch up with me.  Our cab driver spoke great English and took us exactly where we wanted to go, no questions asked.  He made great conversation with us too.  He also informed us that we probably wouldn't make it in time to see any more temples for the day since they were all closing at 5pm.  So we rushed over and they told us we couldn't enter for two reasons: 1) I wasn't wearing long pants, and 2) it was closed...10 minutes ago.  Nice.  With only one day in Bangkok, we were glad that it was pretty much over and annoyed that we didn't get to see more.  We'll skip Bangkok the next time we're in SE Asia...well, I'd go for the sweet-glazed pork and sticky rice we ate after missing the visit to the last temple.  It was heaven on a styrofoam vessel.

Trying to take the right bus to where we were going was a nightmare.  It was inconvenient, signs were inaccurate, people were unfriendly, and generally clueless about how to get anywhere even when they were friendly.  So we finally hailed a cab after two hours of attempting public transit.  Once home we went back to the street from the night before where I got more heaven bananas and Jordan his rice dog.  We also used the internet to print out our boarding passes for the next morning's flight to Chiang Mai.

With another pissy dude to drive us to the train station and awful, horrible traffic, we made it to the airport where we left for the best part of our Thailand trip.  We ate and wandered and enjoyed our evening.  A crepe cart, a huge night market, and finding a great deal for a rafting and elephant ride trip made the day complete, so we called it a night and went back to our hotel for a shower and some sleep.

Chiang Mai is full of super nice people and the tourists don't even piss me off, so that's a huge plus already.  Our elephant ride and rafting trip was amazing!  The elephants were definitely not starved or beaten, in fact, when they wanted a snack, they got one and the men with reeds to keep them on the trail just stood there until they got their eat on and needed to catch up to the others before whacking their thick hide on their ankles.  I got to ride on the neck, so I was immensely pleased...incredibly happy...thrilled...whatever extreme word combination you can think of to describe sheer joy and excitement.  The rafting part was awesome too.  Our raft leader was fun and we got along really well, so when it was time to swim and I was hesitant because I was wearing contacts, he pulled me in by the life jacket to have a swim with him.  Needless to say, we were happy and tired by the time it was over.  I want to do it again...right now.  Well, maybe not right now, being 8 months pregnant and all, but if I weren't currently pregnant, I would want to do it again um, yeah, right now.  When we got back to town we decided to hit up the night market again to narrow down what we wanted and where we could get the best starting price before haggling down further.  I had a list of things I wanted that I made before we started the trip so Jordan could be prepared for what I wanted, and so I could keep myself under control.  Pleased with our finds of a table runner, a square plate/bowl, baby shoes, and coin purses, we went back to our hotel and packed up for our flight to Phuket.

Okay, let me sum up Phuket for you.  Lots of drunk foreigners, stunningly beautiful sunsets, more he-shes than I've ever seen in one place, expensive food, rubbish on the street and beach and in the ocean.  Yep, that's pretty much it.  We didn't go to any of the outer islands, which I'd do if we ever decide to head out that way again, but we probably won't for quite some time...like maybe ever, but you never know what the future holds.  We found a cute Chinese couple that had great noodles at a cart, so we ate their most nights.  And we swam in the hotel's pool aaaaallllllllllll the time.  It was a really great pool.  Almost like being in Bali again where we swam every morning, afternoon, and night in our pool.  We also watched a lot of Asian MTV.  Oh, and after 5 weeks, I finally took out my cornrows.  They lasted as long as they could and my scalp could take no more.  They were becoming loose and I had this unbearable scalp itch going on that it was starting to become super unpleasant.  So out they came!  I left the crazy fro for a day and a half before we got to our Tune hotel in KL on our way to the Philippines...it took 4 washes to get it back to normal and a lot conditioner.  Enjoy the final pictures before reading part 6 to come soon...

...part 4

Cambodia

And here we are in Cambodia.  The Phnom Penh airport was super clean!  Not that I was expecting squalor and filth, it was just cleaner than most airports I've been to in SE Asia.  The driver we had was super nice and chatty, which made the hours and hours it took to get to the guesthouse in Siem Reap where we were staying.  We stopped once for some dinner where we had beef lok lak (so delicious!!) and then continued on.  I was so sleepy by the end, and the roads were so terrible that I wished I had taken a Dramamine.  But the conversation was great, and the scenery was even better, so I wasn't upset by the road conditions.  Day two in Cambodia were the temples.

Angkor Wat was first.  Huge!  An amazing structure that has seen so much strife; they were renovating the main portion of the temple around the time that we were in Cambodia.  Not sure if that's done yet.  Having seen only pictures in Professor Emmett's SE Asian Geography class while in college, seeing it in real life was wonderful.  I got to see the murals of the Ramayana, the thousands of Apsaras (only one of which is smiling with her teeth, by the way), all the many bullet holes in the stone.  When lunch time came, we decided not to eat at the restaurant across the street, we wanted to go back to the Apsara Market by our guesthouse since it was cheap and super tasty...and where we wouldn't be surrounded by children selling postcards, bracelets, and anything else they had.  I don't mean to sound callous, I just don't like being nagged by adults or children to buy souvenirs or anything else.

Angkor Thom was second.  The city was so large and relatively self-sustaining for so long that the evidence of their daily activities were carved into the walls and structures everywere.  Even though Angkor Wat is the impressive one that everyone knows about, I found this temple way more interesting.  Maybe because I'm in love with every-day life (I fell in love with Jordan and decided marrying him would be a good thing while in an aisle in a grocery store, for goodness' sake).  We found a "window" and had Kara take a picture of us framed in it and thought it was hilarious that a bunch of Koreans in a tour group saw us do it and then copied the idea after Greg and Kara had their turn.  4 white Americans in Cambodia started a trend among Koreans for a minute or few.

Day 2 began with the Tomb Raider temple, which didn't look much like it did in the movie since the weathering of the stones and the growth of the trees and plants have seriously altered the appearance of the place.  The super famous tree was "eating" it's way through the temple's entrance so much so that they had to cut it's roots and the top to kill it and prevent it from collapsing entirely.  The area that this temple is in is much wetter and covered by lots of trees and forest growth, so weathering occurs much faster here and, though restoration work was going forward, they will never be able to completely restore it.  Another temple had a library just to house a special sword.  There were no stairs, just holes used in conjunction with ladders that could be removed so there would be no access to the second floor where the sword was when they were removed.  The second to last temple we visited that day was Banteay Srei, a pink sandstone temple that had been used as "practice" before beginning the carving on Angkor Wat.  Carvings here were deep, ornate, and amazingly preserved for being far, far older than any of the more famous temples.  Last was Pra Rup, the oldest of all the temples we had seen both days.  Dinner on Pub Street again, and then a walk through a night market rounded out the evening.  We bought decorative pillow cases and two paintings (we have yet to mount them, but someday it'll happen).

The next day was the day we separated from Greg and Kara who were off to spend the rest of their time in Asia in the Philippines and our time in Cambodia was not yet over.  We were off to Battambang during a huge downpour that flooded the streets.  Stores along the street to the bus stop were attempting to sweep the water out of their shops and when we got out to walk to our hotel, we were in water just about up to our knees.  Needless to say, we were in the shower as soon as we checked into our hotel.  You never know what's floating and suspended in the SE Asian streets during a flood...well, actually, you can make a pretty educated guess, hence the need for a thorough scrub down.  Oh, and the shower was awesome.  One shower head for scalding, and the other shower head for icicles.

Battambang was nice, but there just wasn't much to do...and for those of you who read this and ask, "But what about the Bamboo Train?"  I'll ask you, "Why?"  And I guarantee that you won't be able to come up with a decent reason as to why we should have ridden the Bamboo Train.  So we went back to Phnom Penh.  We met up with a man we met while in Super China Mart (now Ocean Mart) in Sandy, Utah.  Of all places...he handed Jordan his business card and told us to come see him when we were in Cambodia, and that's just what we did.  We had a good visit with him and his wife and then a good lunch with him the following day.  Church in Cambodia was super nice.  An all-around good feeling during each class.  And then, the highlight, albeit a depressing highlight, of our time in Phnom Penh was Tuol Sleng.  There was such a pervasive feeling of depression throughout the entire school, incredibly humbling and sobering.  Even though this was such a horrific event that occurred in their not-so-distant past, Cambodians are generally happy people.  A little too much alcohol consumption with little care for where they dump their rubbish, but still a cheerful nation.  We were glad to have had a week to explore, but the time had come to fly to Thailand...