China, Oct. 3-5th

I have been needing a break from work so when I saw we got three days off from work the first week of October I jumped at the chance to plan a trip out of town. I have never traveled completely on my own and felt this was something I needed to do. So I booked tickets and headed to China for a week. This also coincided with my birthday, which meant for the first time in my life I wouldn't be talking to anyone on my birthday and the people I would be with would have no idea it was my birthday.



In my Hutong



So after reaching China I had some time to wander around the streets and Hutongs (living area's for people) that were around my Hostel. I had a fun going into shops and seeing all the food people were cooking.

My Hostel

Homemade Noodles!!

Hutong area

On my birthday I went to the Great Wall. The trip started off with a Jade Factory, the Ming Tombs, the Wall, lunch, a silk factory, and then a tea shop. The day ended with the best Kungpow Chicken I have ever had and birthday cake at the Hostel. I had a great day exploring the wall, eating a peach, and drinking lots of tea!

Ming Tombs

Bells inside the Temple

Cable Car ride to the top!

On the Wall!!

My wonderful Chaco's!!

So many steps and such a great view

This guy was waiting at the bottom...I couldn't say no to a picture

At the Tea House

 The Tea house was amazing! You just sit and they make you tea to try. You can just keep drinking until you can't take another sip! I was in heaven and did buy some tea from this place and another little shop. I can't wait to drink it. They whole presentation is cool as well. They have a whole set up for preparing the tea, teaching you how to drink different kinds, and explaining about each kind of tea. There are also certain streets in the city were everything on the street is restaurants, which is amazing. Plus people love sunflower seeds and will just sit in groups outside while they wait to eat, munching on seeds and spitting the shells out.

At night on the street full of restaurants

My cake was good, very light with fresh fruit inside. I even had a group of people from Spain there and they sang to me in Spanish, which completely made my day! I loved getting to hear a language I understand besides all the Chinese. I tried learning some words but I just kept wanting to speak Khmer to everyone, which is a good and yet bad thing.

Me with my crown and cake!

The next day I went to see the Summer Palace with two of the people I went to the Great Wall with. We had a fun time walking around the grounds. There was so much to see and TONS of people. The first week in October is a week holiday for everyone in China so there were a lot of tourists at the different sights. The Palace has a huge lake on it as well so we took a boat over to one of the little islands and then walked back around.

At the Summer Palace

Some cultural dancing

They have a really cool area down along the water way as you come in. It is all shops and places to eat. It was all quite enchanting and I loved seeing all the different things people were doing and making. One of the guys on the bridge was making little dolls out of clay but we weren't sure how you would even get it home or how long it would last. But it was amazing watching him do everything.

Shops along the water, entrance of the Summer Palace

Making dolls out of clay

T-shirt they had for sale

This guy was using a hula hoop that looked like a giant slinky

People at the Summer Palace

One of the many buildings on the grounds

I have to include this video as well... and let you decide what you think. I loved that she looked like a bee!

Going for a Bike Ride

The day after my sister left I was invited to go for a bike ride with a friend. She had asked me before to join her and a small group of friends. Last time they had left a 7am and didn't get home till 4pm...with my friend being pulled via bungee cord by another biker. She is an avid biker but the guy leading the bike trip does bike races all over Cambodia and is a local Khmer. Knowing all of this I agreed, after my friend assured me we would be back by noon and there was another lady going who doesn't do much biking. I ride my bike all over the city but the longest I have ridden would be around an hour.

On the way to meet the biking friends

We arrived and the Khmer guy who does this all the time let me borrow one of his mountain bikes instead of using my city bike. Once we were ready Lucky (Khmer guy) lead the way out of the city. It was beautiful riding on the back roads through small towns. The fields were dazzling green and the sky was a bright blue as we stopped 10 Km outside of town (this is about 6.5 miles).

Riding on the roads

Local farmer with his cows, plowing the field

It was a nice easy pace we were going and took time to stop and get some pictures. Parts of the road were almost impassable for cars which meant big mud holes. With my mountain bike I didn't have any problems and I had to laugh as the red mud splattered me on my legs and shoes.

A Saturday can't get much better then this!

Planting Rice

The picture below was at one of our stops were we decided to part ways. My friend and her boyfriend and I went up to a little hill top to check out a rock (my friend is a rock climber) while the rest of them journeyed on farther. There were 2 Khmer guys, the three of us, and a couple from Switzerland who were going to bike to Siem Reap, they had two weeks and were planning on going slow and enjoying the country side.

View of Phnom Penh from the hill

At our stop we asked Lucky how far we had traveled...his answer was 29 Km(this is about 19 miles)...but we had to get back to the city which was about 29 Km from were we were. Did I mention that my bike had a really tiny seat? And you should be asking...Kara, have you been training for long bike rides? The answer to that question is no. This means my hiny was getting quite sore. So I did some shifting in my seat I headed back to the city with my friend and her BF. We road through move villages and had to stop as a herd of cows met us head on in the streets (the cows won the right of way). Not the cows in the next picture but a whole herd walking right down the middle of the street.

cows on the road home

House by the road

We stopped a few more times as we road home...sometimes for water and sometimes because my bum just needed a break. We finally reached the main highway that would bring us back into the city. We found a place to eat and enjoyed some of the local food before setting off again. As we were coming into the last part of the road before getting into the city I had to stop. I could see the sign over road and wanted to make it but my body said no. My knee was also hurting by this point and I knew I had reached my limit. So meeting up with my friends (I was walking my bike) we turned around and there was a Tuk Tuk driver. I have never been so happy to see one of these guys in my life. So this guy drove me home after getting my bike inside.

Do you see the dirt on my legs?

I also got to take pictures while I road...I was trying to keep myself awake. I could have fallen asleep but didn't think that was a good idea.

Starbucks copycat :)

So covered in mud and sweat I arrived back home to find some of my housemates who all asked what happened to me. I laughed and told them I just finished biking 50 Km (30 miles). It was while I was cleaning up I realized I had gotten mud on me and then got sunburned. So on my knees I have some nice white marks from where the mud was. I was so glad I went and loved every minute of it, even while my body was hurting. It felt so good to get out of the city and see the real Cambodia tucked away from the busy city life. Also you kind of feel like a movie star as you go through towns because all the kids run out and are yelling hello to you in English. It is very cute.

Phnom Penh Adventures

Back in the capitol city we ate at different places and I had different people for my sister to meet. We did do some sight seeing, most of which i didn't take pictures of. I took her to the genocide museum and killing fields and the Royal Palace. I also was able to take her to where I work and spend an evening playing games with my friends. We ate cake at Bloom and spent time shopping in the market. It was a very nice relaxing way to finish her time here.

Royal Throne room

Silver Pagoda

I even had a Monk start a conversation with me while we were at the Royal Palace. He said we didn't look like sisters because I was fat and she was thin. I wasn't even up set, which I think was a good thing?! I figured they would say that because I am not as tiny as the girls here...just never had someone say that to my face. I just told myself he was being honest not trying to smash my self esteem. On the other hand I found it funny and frankly don't care what that monk had to say about me.

Flower pots for feet...

What lovely gardens the King has

Our last day also involved getting our toe nails done and making sure all of my stuff that needed to come  home with her fit in her luggage with everything she acquired on the trip :) I had a great time having her here and felt truly blessed that she could come!

Siem Reap with my Sister

After leaving Malaysia we flew to Siem Reap so my sister could see the temples. I had a surprise for her :) That night when we went to watch the sunset I paid for us to take an Elephant ride up the hill to the temple. It was a lot of fun! Neither of us had ever ridden an elephant before. Here are some of the pictures we took on the ride up:

Ready to ride!

Coming down

On the Elephant

At the top we had someone take a picture of us...which you can see was from far away.

The next day was looking at temples and exploring them almost entirely people free. I loved not having to move around tour groups!

Michelle

Me





After the temples we had a snack and some lunch. We ate great food and I have included a picture of a fun T-shirt. Notice it says Wat (not Walt) Disney. And the picture is not the castle but of Angkor Wat. I thought it was very clever.

After lunch we tried finding different things to do for free in the town. The first stop was a pottery place where you can make your own, but we didn't have time to get them fired. The shop they had was cool and then our tuk tuk driver told us about a free silk worm farm tour. We were slightly skeptical but decided to check it out. The drive out was very relaxing and the farm was amazing! I never knew how they collected the silk before. They use the cocoons of the worms to get the silk. The first time they collect it, that is raw silk and when they do it a second time to the cocoons then you get the refined silk. They even use a type of tie dye method to make the patters in the material.

Collecting the silk



Getting ready for the tie dye

On the way back into town we stopped at a bath and body type place. It is their factory where they make their soaps, tea's, curries, body scrubs, and bath salts (that's the short list). It was amazing to see how they make everything and even got free tea. I bought some of the bath salts and a body scrub. They all smelled amazing!

Our driver Tom

One of our nights we ate at a place that is only $1 for yummy fried noodles. It started to rain so we pulled on our .50 cent rain ponchos. The next day we headed back to Phnom Penh.

Indonesia and Malaysia

My sister came to visit me! We wanted to see our Exchange student who lived with us for a year so we journeyed to Indonesia to see her. On the way we had a lay over in Malaysia. We jumped on a bus and then the Metro to go see the twin towers (ironically this was on September 11th and it was a huge Muslim holiday in Malaysia and Indonesia). We had a great time in the city seeing the towers, eating in the mall (which is part of the towers), and then heading back to the airport to fly to Jakarta. 

                                 At the Mall they had great food and fun places to sit!

While we were with Sunny we got to stay at her house, meet her husband and son, and see what she now does. She works at Malls setting up stores before they open, so to the Mall we went. They also had a great restaurant we went to for lunch and a huge Lego display, I can't even imagine how many hours that would take to build.

I'm not sure this menu is big enough...what do you have to eat?

The three sisters :)



The Lego City



Wow...this take time and dedication

After visiting with Sunny and her family we had to leave and ended up sleeping in the Malaysian Airport. I can't say it was the best night of sleep I got. It is hard to relax with your arms clutching your luggage :) but I had oatmeal with me so when things opened up we got free hot water and made our breakfast with very tiny spoons. Only later did we realize they had regular sized ones we could have used.

oh tiny spoon

Out with the old and in with the new

To everything there is a season and time. Unfortunately this means things wear out and break. Sadly the day has come when my dearly beloved Chaco's have taken a hit. They have walked with me over hundreds of miles in Europe, Ireland, Central America, multiple states in America, and now South East Asia. But their time is coming to a close. I am trying to console my feet and tell them it will be ok with out my Chaco's but I am not doing well at convincing them. I didn't even have to break my feet in when I started wearing them...they have been good to me over the last 3 years. The good news is that I can send them in to get fixed, possibly for free! But that has to wait till I am State side again.

Black square is suppose to be attached :(

So with this new dilemma I need to have other shoes ready and broken in for when the Chaco's are finished. I have plans of wearing them until that day comes. So I went to the market to see what shoes I could find. The fun part about living here is that you can find fakes of almost anything. The sandals that caught my eye are "Dr. Martens", are they the real deal? Most likely not, but are they cute? Yes. Did I pay $5 for them? Yes.

The new shoes

I also woke up this morning to discover my running watch had blinked it's last digital number. This is not good timing as it is week 2 of training for the 1/2 Marathon I am running in December before I leave. It was strange running with no way of knowing how fast my miles were. So during my shoe hunt I also went to look for watches. In the market you can find more watches then what you think could be possible. I just needed something cheap and simple with the following features: stop watch, clock, light, alarm. And to my delight I found one cheaper then what I got my original Wal-Mart one. Plus it had all the features I wanted and I got to pick the color :) Is it real...who knows, but I like it a lot and for $4...I'm happy. Thank you Adidas ;)

Wal-Mart vs. Russian Market

While in the market I also was looking at some of the clothes and a Khmer lady saw me try something on and told me I looked beautiful (in Khmer). She then proceeded to ask what size pants I wore, which didn't matter because they use different sizes then in America. But she liked the dresses I was looking at and must have had someone in mind because she started having me try all the ones she liked on. Everything was "sah-aht" except for one of them, which she informed me was "aut Sah-aht" meaning not pretty. I think she bought two of the dresses, I smiled and was glad I could be her personal Barbie doll :) I forgot to ask the lady selling the dresses if I could get more off the dress I bought for helping her make the sale.

Khmer Massage

At the beginning of August I was working and visiting one of my friends in Siem Reap (we both work for the same organization). I found out she had a local place she goes for a massage. Now something you should know about my friend is I think secretly she is Dutch...she just doesn't know it. This girl knows how to find a deal, get a deal, and not spend money better then most people I know. I watch her bargain for Tuk Tuk rides and get the price she wants, usually lower then what most will pay. So it came as no surprise that she would find this Khmer massage place and request to be a VIP member so instead of paying $6 she would only have to pay $3 (which is also valid for one guest...guess who that got to be :))

I had not yet experienced this type of massage as I have stuck with the usual Western style massages when I have gone to help my aching body (have I mentioned there is NOTHING comfortable to sit on in this country! I will take the floor with a pillow over some of the furniture here). Needless to say, for the first few months here my body would ache at the end of the day. One of the nice things about living here is that getting a massage is much cheaper then getting one back home. So as I was staying with her and had heard about her being a VIP member we went for a massage one evening.

To start the experience we sat and drank tea. As we were chatting a guy came up and sat down and by the way the girls were acting we could tell he was someone important. His English was excellent and he dressed very well, but informed us he was a Tuk Tuk driver....yeah, right. I have never met a Tuk Tuk driver that well spoken or dressed. Neither of us believed him and I was getting the "sleazy guy" vibe from him. Sadly with our line of work we know what else can happen at these massage places and had a hunch this guy owned and ran this particular one. Next we were taken to nice chairs (that were actually comfortable) and they washed our feet and gave us clean flip flops to wear.

After climbing some stairs to reach the massage room we were given "pajama's" to change into. They were very comfortable fisherman pants, as they are called here, that are huge and would fit anyone. You tie the pants to fit you, which is nice. And then a button up shirt finished the ensemble. So my friend and I laid down on mattresses on the floor next to each other and waited for our massage to begin. The girls came in and began. I can't say it was a relaxing massage...but it was very interesting. Think of going to a Chiropractor, with some massage, and someone helping you do Yoga. Also the massage is one of the hardest massages I have ever had...I think my friend Netty needs to come and get one. So while I was laying there being twisted, cracked, and bent I was intrigued.  I'm not sure I felt the same relaxed feeling as my Western massage but you still aren't sure about moving when you are done...but for different reasons. The massage was kind of a work out for your body and I'm not sure if I want to get another one. But  I am glad I now know what a Khmer massage is all about, especially if I need something cracked in the future :)