Water Festival

Over the weekend of November 20-23 was Water Festival here in the city. This meant no work on Monday or Tuesday, Fireworks every night, and loads of people coming into the city. I was excited to see what this would look like, as most holiday's means the city is almost empty from the departure for the residents. Water Festival is celebrated because twice a year the current of the Tonle Sap will change the direction it flows. This weekend marks the changing of one of those times. It is thought to happen because in PP the Tonle Sap and Mekong river combine. The Mekong apparently at this time of year has so much water that it pushes the current of the Tonle Sap North instead of the usual South ward flow.

The air in the city seemed to buzz with excitement and the warmth of the days  gave the feel of summer. But everything in my head told me it is November and the Christmas decorations I saw while Skyping with my parents couldn’t be denied. But the activities and fireworks during water festival whispered differently. I went with friends to the river front to see some of the boat races and hoped to see the single team of rowers that were foreigners. Apparently in years past their boat has sunk.

We found out upon arriving that the foreigners had gone earlier then we thought but we still enjoyed watching the boats. On each boat was 50 rowers each in a matching shirt and they moved in such a fluid and perfect way that it was fun to watch them speed along the river. They start at the North most point of the river front to the Southern most place, two boats at a time. There is a load speaker explaining which boats are racing and each boat has a number. The foreigners, who had only practiced once, had begun and then were passed by two other races. I'm sure their were multiple contributing factors to this loss, but seeing as they were using a boat built for Khmer people who are smaller and lighter then the foreigners, I'm sure that was one of the reasons. The only way we could speculate how they decide who wins from the over 300 boats racing is by time.

Video of one of the "races":

The races happen all day for the three days and only the teams that "win" more on to the next day's races. After watching the races for a while I headed back to my house. From the kitchen in the evening I could hear the boom of fireworks and went up to our roof to see if I could view them. Side stepping a bat on the floor I was able to see the fireworks popping and booming in all their brilliant colors.

The following evening with some of my housemates and a friend we journeyed to the river front hoping to see the fireworks and eat food at the night market. The riverfront was chaos and because of the extra traffic we got their late and missed the fireworks. So fighting through the crowd we went to the market to grab some dinner. After eating we walked along the riverfront to find a building where we could sit on the open roof to see the floats in the river. Each float is done by one of the different "ministries" here. The Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Planning, etc. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

After a little while I headed back to the house so I could get up early in the morning to go running. My fellow companions stayed out and got some pictures of the river front from the other bank and saw the second set of fireworks they had planned for later.

I spent the rest of the Water festival avoiding crowds, making posts for my blog, and catching up on The Office. It was marvelous to have a few days when I didn't have to work or travel but could simply enjoy resting and doing what ever I wanted.

Dentist

One of my friends here had told me about a Dentist she had found that she was very impressed with. I haven't been to the dentist since last October and thought that if he was as good as what she said I would try him out. I have been diligent with my oral hygiene living here as I knew I might not get a chance to see a dentist but felt it was time to get my teeth cleaned. I was also very curious about what this type of experience might be like. So once the team left I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned.

When I arrived I found a shoe rack were we could leave our shoes and put on clean Kroc's that they had lined up wait to be worn. So slipping out of my shoes and chose a nice bright green pair before going inside to let them know I had arrived. When the time for my appointment came the dentist himself was the one who came in to clean my teeth. The chair they had me sit in was nicer any I had sat in before and the room was clean and looked like any other dentist office. I explained quickly about my filled in front teeth before he started cleaning. For those who don't know I had a gap between my front two teeth and my dentist filled it in when I was 21. But because of this I also tell a new dentist or who ever is cleaning my teeth because at the top of where they started the process is a little ridge that can catch food or my dental floss. I am very faithful about making sure nothing is stuck up there and have never had a problem with it.

The dentist set to work cleaning my teeth and once he was done pulled out a little piece of metal and began working on my filled in teeth. I was very confused at what was going on as nothing that I knew of was wrong with my filling. I had images in my head of it breaking and then reminded myself of all the work he had done for my friend, which means he could easily fix it if he did any damage. He must have noticed the creased look on my face as he stopped to explain that he was filing down the ridge because it wasn't healthy for my gums. (He spoke excellent English...He is Khmer) I was astonished at the care and quick work he did. He told me it would be better in a week and sent me on my way, even sending my bill electronically to the front desk as I was walking out of the room.

It took him only 30 mins from the time I walked into the room and left to pay...which was only $15 for the cleaning and $10 to file down the ridge. The following day when I thought I would floss I realized  why he said it would be better in a week as I felt pain from the slight inflammation. Oops :) I should have listened to my new dentist!

Kratie (craw-che)

During my last team's visit, the Rural Development director and I decided to take them one of our projects in Kratie. This meant spending the morning in Kompang Cham and then driving up the last 2.5 hours to Kratie, which helps break up the drive. On  the way to Kompang Cham there is also a rest stop we will use to take a short bathroom break and I usually find some delicious banana chips. There are also girls ready to tell you how beautiful you are to sell you their fruit. They also sell other things there as well, which I have pictures of...spiders, eggs, and ducks already cooked.

After leaving Kompang Cham we ran into a short delay, which our driver was able to fix. Though when I offered him my help he was surprised to learn that I know how to change a tire.

After making it to Kratie we spend the evening at the school we were visiting to give them supplies. It was here for the first time in the open I saw one of the creepiest spiders I have ever seen...

After church the following morning we went to see the freshwater dolphins that live in this part of the Mekong River. It was fun and very peaceful to sit on a boat in the middle of the river listening to the water. We sat silently waiting to hear the small stirring of water and intake of breath as a dolphin would surface for a minute before vanishing again beneath the brown waves.

Leaving the docks

After seeing the dolphins we headed back into town to eat lunch before returning to PP for the rest of the team's trip. On the return back I took some pictures of the country side.

Water Buffalo

Traffic

Here are a couple video's from the city. The first is a cross walk that cracks me up..notice how the count down increases  speed of the walking man's feet :)

This second video is an average day's traffic here:



Bangkok Part 2

On Monday Heather and I went for a run. We didn't think taking 4 days off while training for a half marathon was a good idea. As we were running in a near by park the National Anthem came on and everyone stops moving to pay honor to the King. This also happened before we watched the movie, and apparently every day at 8am and 6pm...note to self, run before 8am in Bangkok or you loose your stride! After our run we had some breakfast at a place called Au Bon Pain which is similar to Panara. It was so nice to eat a bagel with cream cheese, sigh.

Franki with her morning coffee

City view with the Sky train we rode

 We decided to do a little site seeing so we jumped on the Sky train and went in search of the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was called the Silk King and started the trade between Thailand and America, but when he was 61 years old he vanished and they still have no idea what happened to him. He was in Malaysia and went for an afternoon walk and never came back. Our tour guide showed us the paper he got telling his fortune and he was told that because he was born in the year of the horse he needed to be careful when he turned 61. She told us to consider that if we were born in the year of the horse...and then followed it up with, but don't worry about it if you don't believe in Horoscopes. I laughed glad I don't believe the fatalistic nonsense.

His house

 After seeing his very cool house and gardens we found some street food before looking for an indoor market our friends had told us about. Outside the mall I took a picture of a Spirit house which you see all over the place in Thailand and in Cambodia...but they looked much nicer in Thailand. The second picture is of their daily offering to the Spirit house.

 After walking through the mall/market we decided we wanted to find a place to sit. So we found a book store, grabbed some reading material, and sat down for a while. We then hopped on the Sky train to meet our friends for a Mexican dinner. The food was great and it was fun meeting a couple more Americans working in Thailand. After dinner a smaller group of us headed to a desert place where I had a baked ice cream sundae...which was a chocolate chip cookie with chocolate inside...but it was shaped like a little bun. It was great! I understood why one of my friends went twice during her two day stay in Thailand.

For our final day we went to another area of the city to run an errand for a friend. We found another Starbucks and enjoyed some of the Christmas flavors! I had a Peppermint Mocha Frappachino, which was amazing! We bought some street food and headed back to say good bye to our other host before catching our flight home.

House were we stayed

Franki and Heather with their final food buys

Me, Celeste, and Franki

We had a great time in Thailand and it was a great way to spend our long weekend thanks to the holiday on Tuesday. I would suggest a visit to Thailand as everything is labeled well and they have maps for everything ...even the airport. And at the airport they had free samples which were very good :)

My week with Jen! Part 2, Bangkok Part 1

On Friday of Jen's visit we took the hour flight with two other girls who work here to visit Bangkok. My friend Heather and I have been trying to visit this city since April. But in April the Red Shirts had a few issues with some of the elections and burned part of the city...thus we did not go in April. Before we left for Bangkok we enjoyed some Dairy Queen at the airport as a start to our weekend of little luxuries.  The flight is only an hour so by the time you get settled in for the flight you are landing already, which is nice. When we arrived we exchanged money and Heather's friend Brook was there to pick us up. Brook and his wife Sara have been in Thailand over a year and are working as Missionaries. For our first two nights we were staying with them.

The first night wasn't too eventful as we were sitting in traffic waiting to get home. Once we got to their house we dropped out stuff off and went to a restaurant to grab some authentic Thai food for dinner. The next morning we headed out to the weekend market for some shopping. Not wanting to try to find a place to park we took some of the local transportation.

Barbie Pink taxi

Sticker inside the cab

 The market we went to is only open on the weekends and has some really cool stuff. They open it up to companies on Friday night before the public can go through on Saturday and Sunday. One of the companies that does this is Pier One. After being at the market I could see why. Some of the stalls were filled with things I would see at that store. We had fun walking through the shops and ate some amazing Pad Thai for lunch at one of the street vendors shops. We headed home to drop off our treasures and so we could start making dinner. We opted for homemade Mexican and Sara is a great cook. So while Brook ran to the store for some last minute food us girls helped Sara make homemade tortillas for our tacos. The meal was rounded out with two kinds of homemade Salsa, one being Pineapple.

Brook, Franki, Jen, Sara, and Heather

 That night we spent hanging out and catching up on Season 7 of the Office and other Thursday night shows that Brook and Sara are able to get that we can't. The next morning we packed up our things and took a taxi into the city to stay with another friend of Heather's.

Sara and Brook

Me, Heather, Jen, Sara, Brook, and Franki

 Once we got into the city we stopped at one of the major malls for some lunch. It was here that we had to bid farewell to Jen. She had to catch a plane back to Cambodia to get her flight home that night. It was sad to say good bye but I was so glad she got to come and had so much fun hanging out with her.

Outside the mall

Lunch was at Sunrise Taco's and I didn't take a single picture of the food because we were so excited that we ate every bite. I even used a spoon to scrape out the last bits of salsa...did I mention how much I miss good Mexican food? In the mall we also had fun looking through a gourmet grocery store and took some time to get drinks at Starbucks.

Ahh...hot chocolate where you have been?

We then headed to Celeste's apartment for our last two nights. We were able to meet a few of the people she works with in Thailand and had fun chatting for a bit in the afternoon. Later she took us to see what time movies were playing and then we headed out for more good Thai food. After dinner Franki, Heather, and I went to see The Switch before returning home for the night.

Heather and I

My week with Jen! Part One

One of my friends from College came to visit me during the first week in November. As I had to work for a couple of the mornings I had to make arrangements to make sure she still got a chance to experience Cambodia. So the first morning here I gave her my keys, cell phone, and helmet and sent her off to do some site seeing while I went to my meeting. The rest of the day was buying Jen's ticket to Bangkok, eating good cake, and getting our nails done. We spent that night playing Catan with the two girls we would be traveling to Bangkok with over the weekend. It was a fun night and fun playing the games. The next day we just hung out and watched TV shows and movies...which is very typical for Kara and Jen time. We went to a Documentary that night with people I work with about sex trafficking from the perspective of guys who buy sex from underage girls.

The rest of the week was more hanging out, eating good food, playing another game of Catan with a couple of the American girls who live in my house, and shopping in the market. I made sure to introduce Jen to some of the local fruit and we played Speed Scrabble with my usual group of friends. On one of the days before we left for Thailand we went to Wat Phnom. I always hear about the monkey's that are around the Wat and have never seen them. Our reason for going was to see the elephant you can ride, but he was not there when we got to the Wat. But it was ok because we got to see the monkey's...which are just running around wild.

Wat Phnom

Jen and I

One of the many monkey's

Me and the Monkey

Sitting on the lamp post

 After we left the Wat we walked to the riverfront. On the way we stopped and bought some sugarcane juice...and I got a picture taken with mine on the river front.

It was a very fun day and the weather was amazing all week. I even started wearing my jeans, which is saying a lot. Our next adventure waited for us in Thailand!

Here is a video from the Monkey's :)