Diving Heavan: Koh Tao

We were relieved to arrive at our beach dive resort, Buddha View, after our long journey from Bangkok to Koh Tao. That day we simply hung out on the beach and enjoyed the sun and long awaited ocean. The debate was on whether we should snorkel or take up scuba, since Koh Tao is an island famous for having some of the best snorkel and dive sights in the world. It is also one of the cheapest places in the world to get dive certifications. We considered doing our open water dive certifications but after giving it more thought, we decided we just wanted to get some fun experience diving first. The next day we went our in the afternoon for our first dive. We had a short briefing on the boat and practiced our skills in the sand before we went down to the reef. Unfortunately the visibility wasn't the greatest since it had stormed overnight. But, we loved it so much that we booked two more dives the following day, with hopes of having better visibility. The next day was a gorgeous, clear day, perfect for diving! For our second dive, we went out to "Twins" a diving location with tons of busy underwater sea life. It was absolutely amazing to be in the under water world, swimming around weightlessly, not even being noticed by the fish. They just carry on as if you aren't even there. I felt so much like scuba diving was a practice of yoga underwater. Together with the focus on the breathe, the weightlessness, and the peacefulness being under water. For our second dive, we went to a shallower dive site that had stunning coral and rock formations. We were lucky to see a puffer fish and feeding frenzie of big fish on the small. It was amazing to see at right before our eyes. Later that night, Jeremy swam lanes in the pool, while I practiced some yoga, and then we packed our bags to leave for Koh Phangan in the morning.
-ken

We slept on a park bench.

We expected to get dropped off at the pier around 6am and the first boats leaves at 7am to the smallest of the three gulf islands, Koh Tao, our destination. Surprise! surprise!.. at 2:30am we get dropped of at the pier!! 3 and a half hours ahead of schedule! There was nothing at the pier except a cement pad with a few park benches, a few lights and a closed ticket office. We laughed and sat a around fora bit, not really sure what to do. There wasn't anywhere to go. We grabbed a bench and set up camp as we put our long shirts and pants on to help protect us from the swarms of blood thirsty mosquitoes. We tried to get as much sleep as we could but it was so hot, humid and sticky and there were sooo many mosquitoes. I was fortunate to falls asleep for a few hours (thanks to my Bayda genes), Jeremy on the other hand sat up all night and didn't sleep a bit.
The first boat to Koh Tao did leave right on time at 7am. It was three hours on the boat to Koh Tao and when we arrived, we were soo happy to see our resort guy waiting for us at the end of the pier. It felt like the long journey there but the island was stunning and we were soo excited to spend the next three days there.
-Kendal

BANGKoK

We took a night bus to Bangkok, scheduled to arrive at 6:30am.. For the FIRST time ever this trip, the bus arrived early and we were dumped in Bangkok at 4:30 am. We couldn't believe it! We managed to find a room where we stayed for just one night.
That day we strolled Khosan road, the popular tourist Vegas-style strip. We met a lovely local man who informed us that it was the sacred day when they celebrated the death of Buddha. He arranged a tuk-tuk to take us to the temple that was only open on this special day of the year, where there was the lucky Buddha housed inside. When we arrived, a sweet old man showed us how to pray to the Buddha for good luck and told us how lucky we were to make it to this temple on this one special day. He was also shocked that we had even arrived there in the first place, since no tourist ever know about this lucky Buddha! We love finding the non-tourist things to do and were excited that we were able to do this. Later on that night, we ventured out to another very local area and found a massive second hand market. At first we thought it was a night market full of junk but when we actually realized that this was all old, used, one of a kind stuff, we began to really look through it and found hidden treasures! Amazing old watches and jewelry, old time shoes from 20 or 30 years back. It was a blast from the past as we came across our favorite old action figures, original gaming consoles and tamoguchis! We spent all night there looking at so many hilarious things.. We had so much fun! By midnight we decided to head back to our place, but first stopped to have a beer and a foot massage back on the famous Khosan Road. After our amazing foot massage was done we decided to pay a little more for a back rub too! After that, we were out like lights!
The next day we went to the temple where the ginormous gold reclining buddha was. The temple there were beautiful as they were decorated with beautiful tile and glass work. Afterwards we finally indulged in some long-awaited Burger King! Jeremy thought he had died and gone to heaven for a bit!
Bangkok was everything that we expected it to be and we were very happy we only planned one night there. The air was disgustingly thick and heavy from the pollution of the city. The streets were crazy and there were tourists and Thai people everywhere! We enjoyed the craziness while we were there but that evening we caught a bus to the pier, to catch a boat out to the islands in the gulf!! Islands are more our style ;)
-Ken

Chiang Mai: Part 2

After the first few days flew by in Chiang Mai, our next activity was a Thai cooking class. We thought taking this course would be a great idea because we could take a little bit of Thailand back home with the food we will learn to cook! We each chose opposite dishes from each other, and learned to cook 8 different Thai style dishes all together. After our class we darted over to the night bazaar to see the LadyBoy Cabaret show that everyone was ranting about. Upon finding the venue, Kendal was extremely excited but I was extremely hesitant towards this whole idea and experience... she didn't have to worry about the lady boys checking her out! Haha But after the show began they were actually very impressive dancers lip sinking to brittney spears and everything! After the show, I gave it two thumbs up!
The next day we arranged for a tuk tuk to take us up to the longneck and big ear tribes of Thailand, as refugees from Burma, they ended up in Northern Thailand. Seeing this tribe was unbelievable! The rings around their necks and knees were extremely heavy. The girls of the tribe begin to get rings put on when they turn 5 years old. Some of the older ladies had 25 and 26 rings around their neck which weighed up to 20 lbs! After we visited this village we were told to go see a monkey show also, which was also very impressive! The trainers would mix up cards counting 1 through 9 and the monkey could grab whatever card number the crowd shouted for. The monkeys also knew how to play basketball very well, with one guest from the audience shooting 2 out 3 free throws in the monkey sank all 3.
The next day we rented a motorbike and ripped around the city with it. With no idea how traffic works here we braved the worst and set out on our adventure only to find out that this city has too many one way streets! And with no warnings about them at all, keeping in mind that in Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road! After driving around we found a Chinese doctors office which caught Kendal's eye very quickly, so stopping in quickly to take a peak, Kendal had an appointment within two seconds. Afterwards we decided to drive around the city square and look for cool little shops, getting tired quick and the sun going down all of a sudden millions of moths came out of no where and we found ourselves trying to drive on this motorcycle and hold our breath while getting nailed in the face moth after moth! Returning back safely we packed our bags as for tomorrow Bangkok would be our next stop!
-Jeremy

Chiang Mai: Part 1

After our long adventure through Laos we finally arrived into Chiang Mai, Thailand safe and sound. We found a cozy little place called Tawan Guesthouse where we ended up settling there a little longer than we expected. After checking in we took a walk down the main strip of the city where we found a Burger King, McDonalds and Starbucks. Seeing these joints made us a feel just a little bit more at home and a small sense of relief knowing that Thailand was going to be much more developed than the other countries we travelled from. We surprising passed on the McDonalds and Burger King and instead found a little sushi place where enjoyed fresh made sushi with some amazing spring rolls. Before coming to Chiang Mai there was a zip lining adventure, called "flight of the gibbon" that people and reviews ranted and raved about. The next day we embarked on an adventure of swinging through the tree top canopies of the jungle, attached to zip lines and harnesses. Never doing this before Kendal and I were extremely excited! we woke up at 5am to be the early group so we could avoid the afternoon heat and big crowds of other tourists. Our tour guide "cash" he was extremely enthusiastic and fun to be with for the day! Zipping from one tree to the next, across 33 platforms and 19 ziplines, our day finished to a wonderful lunch waiting for us back at the resturant. Returning to the guesthouse we were really tired and with all intentions of sleeping we ended up skyping home to our families. That night we bought $12 ringside tickets for the Muay Thai boxing fights. We expected to walk into a huge stadium like the one you would see on tv, but we actually ended up being an old, run down boxing arean with worn ropes, no dressing rooms and a terrible announcer who was talking through blown speakers. The fighters were being prepped right behind us in the corner! The ring was surrounded with tons of locals but also bars..the most memorable one to us was the lady boy bar.. Actually called "Lady Boy Bar" where local cross dressing males live the dream and dress like females and prance around the bar... thank god we did not sit there! None the less though there were 8 fights and none seized to disappoint! Flying feet and fists everywhere as fast as lighting. Deciding to order a drink while watching, Kendal thought she read a spot in the menu where it said girls drink 40 baht. ($1.30) Innocently asking about some clarification this ended up being the price that you can pay to order a girl to sit with you and drink for 40 baht! As the fight went on we were entertained with a halftime show, which happened to be blind boxing. Two men boxing with blind folds on and oh yea a midget boxer without a blind fold was thrown into the mix! So instead of 2 blind folded guys boxing we were witnessing 2 and a half men boxing blindfolded, but the midget had the advantage of sight because he had no blindfold!! Only in Thailand! As the fights went on they had to have saved the best for last. Two very good fighters with amazing speed and reaction going at it! With the fight so close little did we know we were about to see Muay Thai fighting at its finest moment this being a quick kick right to the face this would result in a knock out! We looked at each other dumbfounded on what just happened because it was so quick! It was an incredible finish!
Waking up the next morning Kendal was talking the owners of the place about Chinese medicine and naturopathic medicine which she plans to study in the near future. With intentions on getting some information on where to go meet a local doctor, they offered to bring us with them to their doctor. Pulling into a small creepy looking alley loomed a little screen door where a small 76 year old Chinese man was waiting for us. We were introduced right away and before we knew each of us were lying on his working table. Reading palms for only two seconds at most, it was like he had known us for years! He read everything.. personality, characteristics and medical issues, some we knew but others we didn't know about! It was amazing how he knew all this just by looking at our palms, and we didn't say a word. It was incredible and it was very fascinating to meet this man.
-Jeremy

Surprise phone calls home!

When we got to the boarder town, we found the ATM, paid for our boat ride and had an incredible weight lifted off our shoulders! We just missed the last boat across to Thailand at the boarder, so we had to spend one final night in Laos. There wasn't much to do since it was a small town on the boarder, so we sat down to enjoy a no-budget dinner. The excitement was comparable to Christmas, being able to pick whatever we wanted from the menu and we even indulged in ordering a appetizer! That night we found a small run-down Internet cafe and were able to use Skype to make phone calls home. We had skyped home to our families before but it had been 2 and a half months since talking to our parents over the phone and we thought it might be a fun surprise for them to answer the phone to us! I knew my mom would have just been getting up for the day, so I called the house phone and sure enough my mama answered. It was so exciting for me to hear how ecstatic she was to hear my voice when I could hear her tear up in the background. It was really fun to talk to her and wish them a great day! Jeremy tried calling his mom but couldn't get a hold of her and then called his dad while he was at work. His dad too was so thrilled to talk to him. We loved being able to quickly chat with our families. Since our time away and especially after being at the orphanage, family means something more to us.
-Kendal

Pakbeng, with no cheng!

We were very excited to take a boat as our means of transportation rather than another bus. It was awesome as we could enjoy the sun and wind instead of broken air conditioning and a smelly bus.The boat was an old long boat with van vehicle seats as seating! So innovative! (made us think of Joe Bayda) Haha . The 9 hours up the Mekong river was beautiful with amazing landscape and many villagers fishing, washing clothes, sifting rice, and carrying on their daily lives on the riverside.
We arrived in Pakbeng, a tiny one-strip town, just after sunset, and were only there to catch the next boat in the morning to the Laos-Thailand boarder. Pakbeng was unlisted in our Lonely Planet Book and had virtually nothing about it on Trip Advisor so we knew we going somewhere small and literally off the map, but we wanted to try something different from the bus so we thought it would be a good adventure.
After we arrived we got a hotel room at the one of two hotels in town. We were low on money and needed to pull money out from the ATM before we could find some dinner. Asking locals to direct us to an ATM, we got all the same answers, "No ATM, no bank." Wait..What do you mean no ATM or bank? We laughed at first.. we have no money..
We wanted to believe the locals just didn't understand what we were asking but they did, and there was no ATM or bank. The closest one was over two hours away. Initially shocked, then a little panicked and stressed, we scrounged up whatever we could find in our bags and pockets and together came up with $6.
We had $6 to feed the two of us and it wasn't even close enough to buy us our boats tickets out of Pakbeng to the Loas-Thai boarder in the morning. Upon that realization, we were a bit stressed. What the heck were we going to do!? I considered trying to sell my iPod or something haha. A really sweet local man saw us trying to figure out what to do and suggested that we could trade our passports with the boats men and then pay them on the other end when there was an ATM. We crossed our fingers that that it was going to work and then made a plan to budget our $6 for three meals and drinking water between the two of us.
We budgeted dinner down to $1 each for some sandwiches and bought a small bunch of bananas for 30 cents. For the rest of the night we didn't know what to do. It was a really scary feeling of having almost no money. We thought it would be a good idea to make it an early night in because we wanted to conserve our energy since we didn't eat much and knew we wouldn't be for probably the next 24 hours.
It was feeling unlike any other that night. If we were broke at home we could at least hang out around the house or at a friends house. If you're hungry there will be something in the fridge or you can go to someone's house for dinner... But we were in the middle of no where with no money. In the moment we both felt a little homesick, but more incredibly grateful for our friends, family and full fridges at home. We were so lucky that we just had enough to get a room to sleep in, but if we would of had any less, we would have been sleeping outside, homeless for a night. It was incredibly eye opening to imagine how a mother or father must feel when they honestly just do not have money to feed their children. In North America, I don't know if we really have an actual grasp on this concept. Having no money. None. No loans to get by, no friends to borrow from.. Just no money anywhere. My heart broke as I really thought about that. Jeremy and I at least already ate two full meals earlier that day. And we knew we'd see food and money again the next day when we got to the ATM... But to really have absolutely no money, struggling to day to day.. It's so hard to understand that that is reality for people. Heart breaking.
In the morning we shared a really small breakfast and bought some cheap fruit and sandwiches for our lunch on the boat. Our last very 30 cents went towards a bottle of water. We were surprised with ourselves when at breakfast the table next to us left some food behind on their plates and the both of us truthfully considered eating it! We also questioned whether or not to ask the bakery how much it would be to buy some of their day old buns from them! It was very humbling, especially when we had to ask the boats men if we could pay on the other side since we had no money. They agreed upon us giving up our passports. It was such a relief to know we were on the boat and heading to the boarder, and an ATM.
-Kendal

3 days in Luang Prabang, Laos

We were excited to go to the next city Luang Prabang after hearing how much other travelers loved it. We took an overnight mini van rather than a bus, thinking it would be easier on our stomachs since Laos roads are so bad and twisty. It ended up only being Jeremy, myself and the non-english-speaking van driver who blasted his Laos tunes the entire way. We made it to Luang Prabang by 6am, found a guesthouse and crashed for some quality sleep. Our first day we just chilled and then found a local who took us in his boat down the river for sunset. We stopped at at a sand bar to sit and enjoy the sunset and our local friend just stripped down and started swimming in the river and making sand castles. We were laughing because how often can you say that your tour guide was talking to you about his country and culture while freely hanging out in his ginch with you!
That night we went out to dinner at an amazing bar called Utopia which was a garden that overlooked the river, all lit by candles, lanterns and low tables with pillows. It was beautiful and so unbelievably relaxed. It was perfect right before bed.
The next day we went out to Kuang Si waterfall where we hiked to the top and it was so beautiful. Starting with the big waterfall which ran off into roughly 4 tiers of waiting pools which ran to the bottom of the mountain. At each one tourists were able to either, use the rope swing or jump off small cliffs into the pools, swim or relax on the side by viewing from the benches.
On our final day in Luang Prabang we woke up at 5:30am to witness the everyday morning ritual of alms giving where hundreds of monks walk the streets to collect food such as fruit and rice, given to them by the locals. It was really neat to watch so many monks of all ages walking in single file, collecting food one by one. On one corner we saw an old beggar women with a box begging the monks for food, and as each of them walked passed they shared their food with her as they dropped some of their own into her box. It was really incredible to see the circle of everyone in the community taking care of each other. The locals gave to the monks and the monks gave to the poor.
Afterwards we attending a beautiful yoga class for sunrise at Utopia. We practiced our asanas on a platform that overlooked the river and with the heat of rising sun, it was so refreshing and exactly what I felt I had been needing. It was a very slow basic class and totally inspired me to get my butt in gear and start teaching.
In the afternoon we climbed to the temple on top of Mount Pho Si for a panoramic view of the city. That night we went for a traditional style Lao BBQ which jeremy and I were extremely excited to do and this being it last night made it to be perfect timing. We enjoyed grilling thinly sliced water buffalo which tasted like beef jerky, chicken and pork. While grilling all of this a soup broth was boiling around the grill. The broth consisting of veggies and Lao spices they had also given to us with the dinner set. This Lao style of BBQ is amazing and all of it tasted sooo good! Afterwards we attended night market and headed back to our hotel room where the next morning we would board a boat to pakbeng.
-jeremy and Kendal

Vang Vieng.

While our time in Vientiane was very short lived due to the limited amount of activities and things to see, we decided to make our way up about 3 hours to a small city called Vang Vieng. After hearing all the cool and exciting stuff to do there we wanted to experience this all first had right away! On our first day we got in off the bus somewhat late so we decided to just survey and see what the hot spots were in this little city. Hearing about the famous tubing here prior to coming, we somewhat had an idea of what to expect. We thought drink beers, and float down the river in your tubes. Around six or seven o'clock when we noticed mass amounts of people stumbling around the streets, with missing shoes, painted bodies and waiting at street vendors for food. We knew we were in for a treat.
Being our first night, we wanted to prepare ourselves for tubing so we decided that the next day we would have a bit more of a relaxing day, so we heeded out to the blue lagoon which was another must do here. It was about 9 km outside of town, so we decided to rent bikes to soak in the beautiful landscape and grab some exercise of course. $2 each and we found ourselves on these funny, crappy, little city street bikes while we were on horrid backcountry roads with rocks the size of watermelons. It was so hard in the blazing afternoon sun, up and down hills, we couldn't wait to jump into the cold water at the lagoon. We finally arrived at the blue lagoon where we soon discovered along with another group of people there is two blue lagoons, and this was not even close to the pictures we have seen. This one should have been called " the brown lagoon" and needless to say it was a knock off that the local directed us too and made us pay for! Having no idea where to head from there in search of the real blue lagoon, we biked back out to the main road only to find a big yellow sign saying "tourist blue lagoon" with an arrow pointing the opposite direction from the little tiny wooden sign which we followed two seconds prior. Biking for another 2 km we finally arrived to the real one.
The water was so blue, and made Kendal having cravings to eat those 25cent blue whale candies. It was a real neat place because along with the extremely clear blue water, came an enormous tree equipped with two ledges to jump from one being about 10 feet the other 20 feet high and rope swings as well. After watching people jump off this tree, Kendal and I had to do it! After jumping off the tree, swinging around and swimming with the fishes in this beautiful lagoon, we called it a day and began our bike ride to our little bungalow we rented for $6 a night.
While at dinner that night we met another Canadian couple who were our age traveling from Winnipeg. Once getting to know them a little better, we decided to meet up with them the next day for tubing. While renting our tubes, we met a guy named Shane from Australia and together we set out to the river by tuk tuk. By noon we were pulling up to our stop on a random dirt road only to hear music blaring and find just as much beer flowing as the river itself. From side to side, bars after bar, alcohol served in sand buckets, guys throwing out lines to fish you in to their bar, we were greeted at every bar with free shots of the local homemade whiskey called Lao Lao. There was beer pong, life size drinking jenga, enormous swinging zip lines into the river and a water slide that shot you off into the river, which looked awfully close to the ski jumps in Canada Olympic park....yep, we did them all. And now looking at it if sober we wouldn't have even gone near them, they are so dodgy and dangerous! We got back to the city around 7 o'clock and found ourselves to fit right in with the rest of the tubing crowd, walking around bare feet since we lost our shoes, covered in red body paint and getting food from the street vendors.
We tried to keep the night alive as went to the bucket bar for free buckets hour, but that didn't last to long as we both were just in dire need to sleep, advil, more food and water.
The next day we would be leaving to a city more up north called luang prabang where it is a lot more culture than party so maybe if there was a church there we could ask god for forgiveness on the copious amounts of alcohol consumed previously in Vang Viang.
P.s. Mac, Casey, Landon and whoever is interested in going back to this new found heaven, count me in!
-Jeremy

22 hours to Laos.

Cut right to the chase, 22 hours on bus in Asia... Never again! Unless I am either knocked unconscious or I have a Mickey of vodka and valium.
Every other bus ride we've ever taken has stopped so many times for food and bathroom breaks, so we assumed that on a 22 hour long ride, it would be no different. This was the only time we didn't stock up on snacks for the ride because we planned to just pick some up at the stops along the way. We also had been making a good attempt to stay hydrated in this heat as we were putting back great big bottles of water often. Well, we were really kicking ourselves for drinking so much water and NOT packing food because the bus stopped only twice in the entire 22 hours! No food or bathroom breaks for us!
One of the two stops was the Vietnamese and Laos border at 6 am which was the most dysfunctional border I have ever been through. They had two officers for a lineup of about 200 people, while the other customs officers sat outside and seemed to be enjoying a nice coffee and morning smoke, while we stood in line freezing!! After we finally got our departure stamps,we went get back on our bus, and it was gone. We had read that there are lots of bus scams in Vietnam that just leave you once you get to the Laos boarder, and we really thought we were now part of one. We looked and looked but there was no bus in sight. We were a little choked but were also laughing because everything of ours was on the bus. All we had was our passports and $70 in pocket. We decided that we may as well try to start walking in the direction of the Laos boarder even though we had no idea how far it was. We walked aimlessly in the fog for roughly 5km up a hill, trying to find our bus or the Laos boarder, which ever came first.
We luckily made it to the Laos boarder to happily find our bus waiting for us on the other side, but again be faced with 3 people dealing with visas and entry for another 200 person line up. After trying to wait patiently, we finally got to the front to see that Canadians had to almost pay double the price as everyone and what do ya know bam! Kendal and myself only have enough money to pay for 1 and 3 quarters of a visa. We had finally reached the boarder but just barley didn't have enough money to get into the country! Falling only about 10 dollars short, the couple beside us whom also had been from Canada, graciously gave us the remainder of what we owed, which was a huge relief. After all was said and done we had gotten into Laos without being illegal aliens to the country woohoo!
We boarded back onto the bus to finish this bus ride from hell, but we had figure out a way how pay this couple back, with absolutely no cash on us and not ATM is sight. With good ideas coming far and in between, we had one hidden treasure that was going to save us... the 50 dollars American my old man papa Tim had given to me before leaving and said to only use this when you really need it!
It was one of those experiences that at the time this was all super stressful and extremely frustrating but now we can laugh about it! Needless to say we arrived safe and sound with enough money to pay back the saviors from Canada, lunch and our tuk tuk ride to the hotel.
P.s. this blog was written with a smile on my face!
-Jeremy

We found Jurassic Park in Vietnam.

We were warned that it was cold in northern Vietnam but we questioned, really, how bad can it be? We decided to brave it out so we could see the famous natural formations of Halong Bay and took a 19 hour sleeping bus to Hanoi. This was our longest bus ride and the it also happened to be on the roughest, most run-down bus we've seen. We laughed, felt like crying, and prayed that we would just arrive safely. We stuffed the broken air conditioning with our pillowcases and kept each other company and were entertained by our new friend beside us shooting a mickey of vodka with his Valium pills! Crazy.
When we arrived in Hanoi our questions about the weather were quickly answered as we were greeted with blowing winds, pouring rain and freezing cold. We were so excited of our hot showers in our hotel room but when we got there, it was 108 stairs (..ya, I counted) to our room which had no hot water or heat and we could see our own breath in the room. At this moment that I regretted our decision to come to Hanoi. We weren't planning on seeing cold weather on our trip so neither of us packed any decent clothing for the cold. We layered ourselves with basically all of our clothes in our backpacks to try stay warm and didn't change out of them for the 3days we were there. Thank God for dry shampoo!
Hanoi was a crazy city with insane traffic and people everywhere to turned. When the intensity got to be a bit much, we booked one night cruise on Halong Bay. We heard that it was beautiful but we were surprised at how stunning it really was. We were really lucky to board our cruise with 3 other Canadian couples, a sweet old Swiss couple, two hilarious Norwegian girls and a few Australians an a lone American. It was a really great crew of people to enjoy the great meals and other activities with. We went kayaking and explored the amazing limestone caves. After dinner, we sat off the back of the boat, drank beer, ate the vietnamese version of wagon wheels and fished for squid. Jeremy's determination paid off when he caught the biggest squid, nearly a foot in size, three hours later.
Halong Bay was completely mystical and like Jeremy explained it, it was like we were in Jurassic park. It made braving it through the cold completely worth it. It was beautiful, breathe taking and so serene and surreal.
With our time in Vietnam coming to a quick end, we had one more bowl of delicious pho before we got on another bus to Laos. Except this one, longest of them yet, 22hrs.
-Kendal

Hoi An: a charming place

We were really enjoying the beaches in Nha Trang but we knew had to keep moving. We caught an 11 hour overnight bus to an adorable small town called Hoi An. It is one of the oldest towns in Vietnam, known for its personalized tailoring shops and ancient architecture. We arrived in Hoi An really early and walked the old streets and down by the harbor as we watched the sun rise. We shared some horrible banana pancakes from a sweet old Vietnamese lady, and then went to price out a few different tailors before choosing one to give our orders too. Jeremy had two suits and few dress shirts made which all turned out fantastic! I had 4 dresses made, all from pictures that I had brought in. Later on that night we had our first fitting and initially I was extremely disappointed. But, after a few changes and 3 fittings later, I was happy with my tailor made dresses. We stayed at the most darling hotel. The people there were extremely kind and tried their bests to make us feel right at home. They often surprised us with tea, coconut scones, and fresh fruit when we got back in to the hotel from venturing around. They fed us free all-you-can-eat breakfast in the mornings which made Jeremy so happy and always made for a great start to the day!
We shipped home a big box of clothing, gifts and extra stuff from our bags we felt was not needed. We bit the bullet with the prices to ship to Canada, but it's amazing to have half full backpacks!
We enjoyed our 2 nights in Hoi An walking down the riverfront where hundreds of colorful lanterns were lit and hanging in every tree, on the lamp posts, on the bridges, and strung outside every restaurant. It looked like a movie. The lit up the night and set an unbelievably, charming atmosphere. We both loved Hoi An a lot. I could have easily spent a week there. When we checked out, the hotel gave Jeremy a tie and myself a scarf and small change purse. So sweet of them! It is so inspiring when you come across genuinely kind people, because it reminds how beautiful kindness is and makes me want to be more kind everyday...
-Kendal

Beautiful Beaches of Nha Trang, Vietnam

After our one day stint in Ho Ching Minh city, we boarded a train that night! Never being on a train before in my life, except for the one at Callaway Park, which is only 5 minutes long. This time I put my big boy pants on and aboard an 11 hour sleeping train to Nha Trang to finally see some beach! Not knowing what to expect I was somewhat hesitant towards it all but excited. Once boarding the train it was actually very cozy in the 4 bed cabin, we shared a room with a family who lives in Nha Trang who happened to be very very funny. So we had some in-cabin entertainment for our train ride before we all fell asleep. After arriving in Nha Trang at 5:30 am and not knowing where to go because we had no hotel booked, we went with the flow and found a average hotel for $10 a night. Luckily we could check in so early in the morning, then we went back to bed for a bit to try catch up on a bit of sleep. We woke up to a hot 32 degrees out with not a cloud in the sky. With the beach only being a 2 minutes walk from the hotel we were ecstatic so we got out there ASAP. That whole day we just enjoyed the sunshine and swam in the ocean. After the day drew to an end, we planned to go on a bit of a trip the next day to a more secluded beach. After Kendal emailed a local surfer named tippy, who happened to be from Arizona, he arranged a ride to the beach which was 30 minutes away. When we arrived, he had a pretty cool little shack going on. People were surfing, grilling their own seafood and the whole bit! Once again we swam in the ocean and Kendal got a lot of sun reading her book in the sand, to the point where she looked like a lobster. Her first big burn of the trip!
After meeting tippy, he just portrays how you should do something that you really enjoy and are really passionate about in your life. He's been running the shack for 7months ago and he's still putting more money into the place than he's getting out of it. Every time he talked with us though he was just so happy, and genuinely enthusiastic about the shack and being able to walk out his back door and grab his surfboard and go at anytime he pleases. Overall our two days in Nha Trang was just what we needed...some beach time!!!
-Jeremy

Good Morning Vietnam!

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam we tried to pack everything into one day to not waste time so we could head out to the coast faster! Luckily it was Sunday, so we began our day attending mass at the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral, then visited the museum of ancient traditional Vietnamese Medicine. Every time I learn more about traditional medicine, I'm reminded about how badly I really want to study more and one day become a doctor. In the museum, we found a wardrobe of traditional wear and had a little to much fun with it! Haha! Yup, total losers.
Afterwards we went to the War Remnants Museum, where a collection of documents, used artillery, and photos are displayed. Outside they had several retired aircrafts and tanks from the war. They had a section on the effects of the agent orange dropped by the U.S. troops. It was tough to look at the hundreds of photos of the deaths and birth defects caused by agent orange. None the less, the museum was another eye opening experience because we thought we somewhat knew our history on the Vietnam war, however, we were baffled by the facts and pictures in this museum. The exhibit was strongly portrayed from the Vietnamese prospective of the war and the images and facts were very confronting, similar to our experience of the killing fields and the s-21 prison in Cambodia. It is very sad to know that the Vietnam war is over in history, but to this day, people in Vietnam and even American war veterans are still suffering as they are living with severe agent orange defects. It really goes to show how blind a lot of us are to these events in the past, which we think has subsided... but really it's still having huge effects on people's lives today. It wasn't a fun museum to go through but it was important to see, and we felt as though we learnt a lot. Afterwards we enjoyed an amazing bowl of REAL pho, and then caught the train to our next stop!
-Jeremy & Kendal

Last Day in Cambodia

We were both sad but also excited that it was our last day in Cambodia. Sad because we really loved our time in Cambodia. We met amazing people through our volunteer program, we fell in love with the Khmer people and their culture and over the past 4 weeks, we made it our home. We were actually really sad packing up and leaving the volunteer house because it really felt like home. We were excited however because we were off to see more of Asia!
We enjoyed one last $2 hair wash and straighten, then did some final shopping at the markets. Later on that night we went out for a beautiful dinner with a group of volunteers who we became close with over the month. A few of us had been talking about eating tarantulas while in Cambodia, and since it was our last night I had too!
It was a really great last day in Cambodia, spending it with such great people. We are so lucky to have met such amazing people through IVHQ, while also having the privilege of teaching and learning so much from the kids in Cambodia! Thinking about the kids lots and already miss them tones, but we gotta look forward! Can't wait to see what Vietnam has in store for us!
-Kendal

Going away Party!

As our volunteering at the orphanage drew to a close we decided to throw a little party for all the kids. Debating on what to do for our party, Kendal and I were in quite the pickle, what do we get? Pizza? Pop? So without anymore hesitation we asked the director what he though was a good idea, his suggestion being fruit to feed the kids. We were surprised to think that the kids would be more excited about fruit than pizza!!? However with the very small budget the orphanage has to feed so many children, their daily meals are consistently rice and a vegetable broth soup. They cant afford to buy fruit, so it is a very exciting, luxurious thing for the kids to have! Now with somewhat of an idea we headed out on a fruit hunt! With 40.000 riel in our pockets which is equivalent to 10 dollars American we both enough fruit to fill 5 enormous serving trays which soon fed 50 people with left overs, with $3 left over to buy some balloons for the kids. We expected it to be mayhem and we struggled to come up with a game plan for crowd control and distribution! When we pulled up, the children were thrilled and were freaking out over the 5 trays of fruit we had with us! To our surprise, the kids were extremely helpful to set up a buffet type system. They all lined up so nicely. All the girls first, youngest to oldest and then all the boys to follow, youngest to oldest. We set up the desks in a long row, making a long table for everyone to sit around. They all waited patiently without touching their food until the last child sat down with their fruit bowl, then they joined together in prayer. It was beautiful and really showed how their are one big family. They ate their fruit so quickly, all pitched in to clean up, then we brought out the balloons. With all intention of the balloons being filled with air, some of the instigator kids attempted to fill theirs with water from the front tap. We turned in to big kids again as Kendal and myself secretly snuck to the roof top about 4 floors high, filling up balloons with water. We dropped the first one near the kids and waited for their reaction to the massive water balloons we were dropping. I expected they would run and away and yell "cha stop!" which in translation means teacher stop! But instead they were all yelling for more water balloons to be dropped on them. They all huddled under the dropping zone yelling and looking up for more. It soon got to the point where filling up water balloons consumed to much time, so we began to fill up about 4 liter buckets of water and just dumping them over and over again constantly for about 45 minutes. They kids absolutely loved it! The staff members said it was the first time that they had ever experienced a water fight! Once the water fun was over, Kendal put together a video from all the pictures and video clips taken over the 4 weeks. They all sat down in front of her and she played it for them on her iPad. They had never had a movie made for them before and they loved it! After all was said and done it was now time to say our goodbyes to everyone, dreading this day since we got here it was extremely hard! Because after teaching these kids and getting to know their quirky and fun personalities you just felt like you have only began to scratch the surface with getting to know them. With us about to leave, my main man Hoy ran upstairs and grabbed me his teddy bear and gave it to me and Kendal receiving a Barbie doll from his sister, Sravet. It's just crazy though all these kids are extremely genuine and don't think twice about their belongings they share all their clothing and toys both the two toys we were given were toys very close to these two children. As said before in a post from Kendal all they have is maybe one or two balls and a rubber band to play with! And it's just unbelievable how I think twice about sharing a bag of potato chips with someone. Each child has taught Kendal and I so many very valuable lessons about life. There are so many that we can't put our finger on every single one but we know we will keep learning from them as the days go on and we continue to digest our experiences with them.Today was extremely hard but the things that these kids have taught me are lessons I will always have and continue to carry out as much as possible through my travels and through my everyday life at home in Canada.
Thanks!
Jeremy

Scared to Say Goodbye

The night before our going away party, I was feeling really nervous and anxious about saying goodbye to the children. Thinking about having to leave their precious smiles, and not having for sure contact with them to check in on them and see how their doing made me feel so worried. I, at least made the decision to come and volunteer, knowing that there would be a goodbye at the end. I chose that. But the kids don't chose to have volunteers file through their orphanage months after months. Then they get attached and then the volunteers leave. Its not fair to them and it scares how it mentally affects them now and how it will in the future. That made it really hard. I felt so guilty.
Then running through my head was the question about what would happen to them in the future? How would the future volunteers treat them? Would they graduate? Would the beautiful girls be educated and protected from getting lured into the horrifying sex trade? Would they be street vendors? Tuktuk drivers? Or would they find finding to go to university? How would the future treat them? The unknown really bothered me. And none of them have email, Facebook, or telephones, which really made the goodbye seem like a true goodbye... Not a "see you later" or "we'll keep in touch" but truly a goodbye, without ever knowing if I'll ever see or hear from them again. These were all the negative things that made me cry, on the other hand I was crying because these kids really opened a new part of my heart..
What really touched my heart was how amazing each of these kids are, yet they don't even know it. Really, truly amazing kids. Some of their parents have died, others have been given them up, abandoned in the middle after a nasty divorce, or given to the orphanage because their parents can't afford them. They have nothing for themselves, sharing everything they have with the 45 other kids. We could all say that they've all been dealt some of the worst cards in life, but not for one second do they look at it that way. That is what I absolutely admire about each and everyone of them! Never do they feel sorry for themselves about the way their life is or they way it has so far played out. They never feel sorry for themselves. There are so many reasons why they are all so amazing. There is no way I could express my thanks to them for all they have done for me. They have completely opened my eyes and my heart to what it means to love, what it means to be thankful and what it means to have a family. They've taught me the importance of laughter, the power of a smile and the beauty of personality. Through them I've learned to remember to be playful and forgive eachother quickly. I will never be able to repay them for what they've done for me. I pray for them everyday and trust that God will take care of them. I already miss them. -Kendal

No expectation weekend to Battambang = Great Success!

As like any other weekend we embarked on another Cambodian adventure away from Phenom Pehn. Only this time the destination being Battambang! Leaving with a group of 5 people we all had no idea what to expect in this city nor had we put any expectations on the short weekend trip. When purchasing the bus tickets we were told it was a 5 hour destination which we esoterically laughed about because with some experience now we tacked on another 4 hours which overall the bus ride was around 8 hours. Arriving very late in Battambang we decided to just grab some shut eye on the friday night, this time though we were treated to a very nice hotel room for 20 dollars a night! Waking up on Saturday morning around 8:30 already felt great no plans made and had no clue what to do! After breakfast we worked our way down to the lobby where we met a tuk tuk driver who was extremely enthusiastic and offered us a day tour of Battambang for $25 we couldn't help but say yes to Pou. First stop was the bamboo train about 40 minutes outside the city. Arriving to the train we were extremely excited because this was one thing we had come across at home prior to the trip over YouTube. After a boarding the bed of bamboo bound together which for some reason was called a train we really got a taste of how fast it can really go! Riding for about 15 minutes we suddenly came to a stop only to get off the bed of bamboo and disassemble our train so that the one in front of us, coming the other way could pass. Not thinking there were any rules to anything here we soon found out, that the more people you have on your car the better because you don't have to get off and dissemble if you have more than the other cart. After Reassembling our cart we soon arrived a little village where we met a older gentlemen who happened to be extremely clever. He was bilingual he spoke French, Cambodian and English learning all this through his training in the army. After returning from the bamboo train we arrived a small temple which happened to be on a fricken mountain! Let me tell you coming down the stairs and going up the stairs really made me feel like Jim Carrey in his first Ace Ventura movie! All I needed was a slinky! While recovering from our massive hike a part of our tour was a winery where all 5 of us enjoyed a lovely wine sampler which than soon turned into a bottle which was only $15 for freshly produced wine! Not being much of a wine drinker the 4 girls finished it up. Getting caught up in our conversations and laughing so hard with each other the time flew by and soon it wasn't 5:30 anymore it was 8:30 that Saturday being Angelica's birthday we decided to let her choose a place to go eat, after looking through the lonely planet book of suggestions she chose riverside. Peau drove us there in a hurry because he was very tired and wanted to get some shut eye, meanwhile we are pulling up the sign looked like it was about to fall off and the resteraunt looked like a run down building on stilts which was about to fall over,as the say though "never judge a book by its cover" walking up the stairs and seeing the venue was fantastic nothing but a few dimmed lights and the sound of the river right under us most beautiful place to eat in my opinion so far, relaxing and quiet after a long day! After a nice dinner we soon returned to our hotel room for one more night with the sights now set on the trip back to the volunteer house in Phenom Pehn and this time the bus was actually only 5 hours!
Thanks for all your support and interest by following!
-Jeremy

Choeung Ek Killing Fields

This entry is disturbing and graphic, but we want to share with you as much of our experience as possible.. We had an audio guide which taught about the sight, providing us with some details as well as personal stories recorded by survivors.

After being tortured at S-21 Prison, the Khmer Rouge brought the Cambodian people 7km outside the city to be executed. Blindfolded and taken by truckloads only in the night, the Khmer Rouge lied to the innocent, tricking them by telling them they were going home so there would be no resistance from any of the them along the way. Upon arrival all names were recorded for documentation. A large tree, situated in the middle of the grounds had speakers hung from it which blasted revolutionary music of the Khmer Rouge to drown out the cries of those who were being brutally beaten to their death so the truckloads of the living had no idea of what was about to happen to them. The music also helped to hide the truth of what was happening in the grounds for it lead outsiders to believe that there was simply a party meeting being held.
The mass graves were ditches dug approximately 5 meters deep and 10 feet in diameter. The majority of those who arrived at the Killing fields were directed to kneel at the edge of these where they we beaten with cheap killing tools such as garden hoes, machetes, pieces of sugar palm tree bark with razor sharp edges, and bamboo sticks. Their thraots were slit to silence their cries, then they were beaten until they fell into the ditch, either being knocked unconscious or dead, meaning many were buried alive. They couldn't kill them through a quick bullet because they were too expensive. Among the dozens of ditches, the most horrifying was the large "killing tree" that was used to kill babies as they were held by their legs and beaten against the tree. There are photos,taken by the Vietnamese when they invaded, of brains, hair and teeth embedded in the bark of the tree. We looked down to notice there are still children's teeth that have surfaced around the base of the tree. Beside the tree was a square pit where the remains of 166 naked women were discovered with their babies near to them. These women were stripped naked, raped, beat to death then tossed into the pit. Their dead babies were also thrown in with them. Why did they kill the children? Whenever the Khmer Rouge captured, tortured and killed anyone, they would kill their entire family as well so that "there is no one left in the future looking for revenge." The Khmer Rouge used this infamous quote, "pull up the grass, dig up the roots," as part of their movement.
Bone fragments, teeth, and scraps of clothing still scatter the grounds. When you look down, it is not something you have to look hard for to see.. they clearly lay in the dirt.
As we walked the grounds and listened to the audio stories, I wanted to cry but did not. Instead I was sick to my stomach. There were times I had to completely stop and sit, yes, to try wrap my head around what I was seeing and hearing, but also to try hold down the puke. The final stop in the tour was a memorial stupa (both buddist and muslim inspired) which houses 17 levels of skulls, and bones that were excavated during investigation. In that moment of looking up at each levels full of human remains, I couldn't handle it and broke down to tears. How does this happen? Why does this happen? Why them? Why? Questions that won't ever be answered.

Over 9,000 victims have been found at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields and many remains still surface every rainy season. They known more bodies lie within the grounds but they have stopped searching for them. They want to let them rest at peace in respect to what they went through.

Something unspeakably sad, and painful to see, yet important to be aware, educated and learn. Important to be there and feel whatever is was that each of us were feeling.

If this world is this horribly sick and twisted, it also means that oppositely, this world is this unbelievably great. It is explained in the science by The Law of Opposites. It states that every out must have an in, every in an out, every left must have a right, every right a left, in order to be so judged. In the balance, every low swing must have a high swing, and vicversa. Every force must have an equal but opposite.

We have to show gratitude and remember those who suffered something we can't even comprehend. Some lost their lives, their parents, their children, their relatives, their friends, for the sake of mankind knowing happiness. God bless their souls.

"This is the way you brush your teeth!"

We were so excited when our dentist at home donated us enough children's toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste for all the kids at the orphanage. I remember wondering what the day would be like, what the kids would be like, what Cambodia would be like, ect. I can clearly remember the anxious excitement and couldn't wait to give them out to the kids!
We made our daily lesson plan around learning how to brush our teeth. We reviewed and learned words such as, teeth, gums, lips, tongue, cheeks, smile, dentist, cavity, ect. We created special steps to follow when brushing your teeth and a checklist of all the thing you'll need. The kids were stoked about their new brushes, but our dentist was right about the toothpaste, they just wanted to eat it. It was really hard to actually get them to brush and not just eat it off the brush then ask for more! We we shocked that when they spit, the water from their mouths was black. We knew that oral hygiene was non existent here as we could tell from all their rotted teeth but we didn't expect to see that! In all, it was so much fun learning to brush teeth and it has now become a daily routine for the children. Hopefully the following volunteers keep it up. :)
-Kendal

Seam Reap, Cambodia

Thursday night we boarded the night sleeper bus which departed at 1230am, now without any idea what the "night sleeper bus" was, we soon found out it was a normal grey hound bus with bunk beds in it. Trying to be as optimistic as possible we said to ourselves and each other this won't be that bad by the time we wake up we will be in Siem Reap. Walking onto the bus though the quarters and the isles were extremely tiny! Walking all the way to the back of the bus to find out our bed are on the top with no bars on the side to help prevent us from falling off the bed during the ride! Needless to say we all made it safe to Siem Reap with only about 2 hours sleep. Not wanting to waste our first day sleeping Kendal came up with a great idea to rent bikes for $1 to use as transportation around the small city. So while riding our bikes we came across a small shop filled with lotions, oils and different sorts of tea all made from a small backyard! It was called senteurs d'angkor. It was an arts and crafts shop which only used the resources produced from Cambodia to manufacture their products. We watched the whole assembly line for these products palm leaf weaved baskets and fresh ground up coffee mixed with herbs and spices such as lemongrass and cinnamon. After leaving the little factory we decided to grab some lunch at a local pub, the sign listed "WE DO NOT SERVE cat, rat, dog, monkey or worm!" so we figured it was a good place to go! Later we took a Tuktuk out to the floating villages where we caught a boat and were taken around to see how the people of these villages live completely on the water.. Their house, schools, markets, everything built on boats or floating bamboo bundles. It was really interesting to see but also so touristy that it made for a very uncomfortable time because it seemed like everyone was trying to scam you. Women in boats were coming around with their children who had snakes wrapped around their necks and tried to get you to pay for pictures with them. Our tour guide tried to take us to the market to buy food, books and pencils for the children at the floating orphanage, however boats and boats of tourist were docking at the orphanage doing the exact same thing. It really put a bad taste in our mouths and we just wanted to get out of there ASAP. That wasn't an issue though when we turned down our boat driver and guide when they told us to tip them (who just smoked and drank beer the entire time) as they drove like maniacs taking us back to shore and didn't say one word to us or help us off their boat! Haha! We did however enjoy a beautiful sunset in the tuktuk on our way back to town.
They next day we got up at 4am to make it to the temples before sunrise. It was amazing watching the sun come up over the Angkor Wat temples (also the 8th wonder of the world!) We spent the rest of the day seeing the ancient city of temples and even the temples where the movie tomb raider was filmed. For sunset, we hiked to the top of a valley hill and watch the sun set over the lush forest. That night was we went out for an amazing dinner and watched traditional Khmer dance. Afterwards we strolled the night markets and had a beer while we kicked back and stuck our feet into a tank of dead-skin-eating fish who cleaned our feet up for us perfectly! we retired to our nasty lime green hostel for $3.50 a night and slept like babies.
In the morning we shared a nice breakfast, hit the markets again and then got on the most ghetto supposed to 4 hour bus ride which turned into a 7 hour bus ride back to phnom penh.
Jeremy & Kendal

Daily Recap

1. Pouring rain in the morning, so we scratched our lesson plan and decided to have a movie day. Moved the desks and tables aside, set up and old tv and watched the aristocats!
2. Got hit by a moto.. Ya it hurt! Haha just walking down the side of the street and had my arm clipped by a moto's mirror. It spun me right around and they just kept driving! Haha
3. Took the older girls at the orphanage to the salon to get their hair washed, cut and styled. They cried for real when I told them that I wanted to take them. They are so sweet and their appreciation was so great! It was very heart warming.
-Kendal

Ignorance is bliss... but it's not right.

Later we had our regular $1 hair wash, and did a rooftop workout with our trx band and yoga mat. After, I decided to take 20minutes to meditate and just be with myself for a little bit. As I sat there in stillness, tears began to stream down my face. I began digesting all the experiences I had had in my first 2 weeks, and they all started to become really real to me. When you're in the moment, experiencing and seeing difficult things with the poverty and poor in the country, you somewhat have to try brush it off and separate yourself from you.

When there are countless children, begging you for money, trying to sell you braclets or books...
When you see the shacks and slums that the people are living in and you literally can't handle the smell of the horrid sewage which surrounds their tin homes...
When you are combing and picking the lice out of the children's hair, knowing that they have no mom or dad to love them, hold them, or tell them how proud they are of them...
...You have no choice but to try pull yourself away and try not to think about it.

As I sat there I began to digest the realness of it all and I felt pain. I sat there and just tried to be with it. I felt stomach sick, angry, sad and scared for the lives and future realities of the children of the country, especially my kiddies at the orphanage.
Then I thought to myself, how they hell did we become so selfish!? It's sickening. It's bullshit. Children, people, they actually have nothing.. Nothing. And, my previous concept of 'nothing' was so distorted from what I've now learned what 'nothing' really is.
And in that I really realized, I am SO selfish! It's really messed up. I think about myself, I get worked up over the stupidest, most pointless stuff! And all for what!? The world has such bigger problems. Explosively bigger than any of my problems. I felt upset, confused, ashamed and awakened.

Eventually my tears stopped, my heart rate slowed down, and I found myself humming the children's song " he's got the whole world in his hands."
-Kendal

New House for the Orphanage!

We came into the orphanage in the morning to find the director teaching the children a lesson on how to clean as he was also making a game plan with them on how they were going to tackle cleaning their new house. The older kids, myself, the director and another volunteer walked a few blocks to their new house to prepare it for moving day. Jeremy was super kind and stayed home with the younger children. MOC (the orphanage) recently received a new sponsor which granted them more money to put towards rent, allowing them to move into a new, larger house and hopefully expand their program. Currently MOC has 45 children and together they all share 2 bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys and they all share 1 bathroom!! Together everyone either carried either a broom, dust pan, mop, bucket, rags or detergent to the new place. It was so cute! It looked like the Cambodian version of the chimney sweepers off the movie Mary Poppins!

When we arrived, none of the kids has yet seen the inside of the place. As we waited for the doors to be unlocked and opened, the buzz in the air and excitement of the children was so fun! When they got inside they were screaming and jumping up and down just like it was Christmas morning, if not better! They're reaction reminded me of the same reactions people have on Extreme Home Makeover! They ran through the entire house the same way, some crying, others laughing... except the only difference was their house was empty, with nothing in it, and they still couldn't believe this was going to be their house. As they ran through each floor they discovered that there wasn't just one bathroom, but FOUR! The bathroom were each shared between two rooms, with each room having their own entry into it. They lost their minds over this! We all joined hands in a line and ran through one room, through the bathroom, into the next room, and back again in a circle over and over again! There is nothing better then seeing children be sooooo excited and happy! This was definitely a pearl'd moment! After they somewhat calmed down, everyone got straight to work and the place was cleaned in no time. No fighting, arguing, or uneven work loads. The cooperation between the kids was astounding! Almost better than a group of adults I'd say!
The next day everything was packed up and moved and now they are unpacking and settling into their new home.
-Kendal

You are my Sunshine!

After returning from the weekend trip it was a very tiring and long Monday! Non the less though was another great day in phenom pehn. The orphanage today was extremely laid back even more than usual, reason being that at 9am this morning 13 children piled onto a tuk tuk and went to the dentist. After returning from lunch though it was really weird there were no kids at the school and it was very quiet kind of scary because we had though something went wrong! After only realizing that the children got quite a bit of teeth pulled at the dentist so they were just sleeping upstairs all drugged up and sleeping! Without being able to do lesson because of this we decided to try lighten up their day by teaching them a new song! " you are my sunshine". The kids picked up on the song very fast and really loved singing this song, and they kept on singing for an hour it was a lot of fun. After getting back to our room Kendal started to feel sick, so while she took a nap to help her feel better I grabbed a 1 dollar tuk tuk to the local gym! Looked very nice from the outside with a pool and bar. When walking into the gym though they had a heap of beautiful cardio machines... But the weight machine lacking to be updated. Every time I went to pull weight on the machines it was if I was going to pull the whole machine down with it! I am surprised that there was no forms to be filled out before using this hahaha. Over all today was a very laid back and relaxing Monday not much else went on other than teaching/playing withthe kids and attending the local gym! Thanks for following!
Jeremy out!

Weekend trip to Mondulkiri

After a very long 12 hour ride, with 27 other volunteers packed into a small bus, we arrived in the eastern Cambodian province of Mondulkiri. It is a province known for its landscape and tribes that still live the traditions of their culture. Our accommodation for the 2 nights was a cute bungalow with paper thin walls that allowed you to listen to the nature sounds all night. It was a breath of fresh air being out in the forested region rather than the dirty, polluted city. We began our day as we headed out to a tribal village (one that still uses elephants as a means of transportation!). We learned about the elephants and familiarized ourselves with them before we got on them and trekked with them through jungle. We trekked for 40 minutes, sitting on a small wooden plank inside a homemade bamboo basket on top of the elephant. Soo uncomfortable! When we arrived at the waterfall with the elephants, we ate lunch while the elephants also went back into the jungle for a lunch break of their own. Afterwards we played in the waterfalls all afternoon! Our vibrams came in so handy! Later the elephants joined us in the water for a wash! It was a little scary at first having these massive animals coming in the water with you! I feel proud that I was the first of the group to brave up and get up close and personal with them! Haha After I warmed up though, I was having so much fun and I couldn't believe I was actually swimming and playing with elephants, in the waterfalls, in Cambodia!! After that, we chose not to ride the elephants home, and we took the hike threw the jungle instead. We ended up getting ourselves lost and we ended up an hour later in another random village! Seriously by the grace of God we made it back to our bus safely. After that we drove to a coffee bean farm and had the most amazing coffee as we laid in hammocks and enjoyed the view of the jungle . Then, they took us to the top of a hill to watch the sunset. Right then and there, I felt like it had been a perfect day... But nope, it wasn't finished yet. We shared a traditional Khmer meal, sitting in a large circle on a mat, eating in a bamboo hut. Afterwards they had a tribal dance performance that the villagers put on for us! We joined to dance with them around the fire then left back to our place for the night. We planned to head straight to bed after a long day, but once we were offered to share homemade wine that some of our tour guides brought back from the village, we couldn't pass it up! Packed into a big clay vase, a mix of rice, guava and random plant herbs made a mean, potent wine! We sipped it from bamboo straws and chilled out with some other volunteers, and our tour guides. While walking back to our bungalow, we had stopped to sit under the stars because they were so bright and clear in the night sky. We could see mars and Venus and Jeremy spotted a shooting star. As we sat there, I thanked God for blessing me with an amazing day that I was able to share with my best friend. It the most perfect way to end a perfect day. I can't imagine how it could have been any better besides having my friends and family there to expirence the day with me.
-Kenni xo

Expensive day in Cambodia

Today started off just like yesterday... get up, wash our face wash, brush our teeth after we eat breakfast of course. When we got to the orphanage it was a bit more relaxed now that we were no longer new to the children. They all said the same thing as yesterday, "hello, how are you?" "I am fine." Today the lesson was learning and reviewing our abcs. Everyone was so excited to show and impress us with how fast they could ramble off their alphabet. It is unbelievable how quickly the children pick up on new learnings. Obviously some were struggling more than others with their alphabet and they are all at different levels of understanding! A boy named Hoy, is probably the brightest of the bunch! He's extremely clever! At 10 years old he made his own addition and multiplication chart in his little note book and was showing me how to do my times tables and addition! It's exciting as well as saddening at the same time because seeing children like Hoy, who has so much potential, only receive a few hours of education a day and won't have the funds to carry on into university.
We've been told,that here in Cambodia teachers are paid very little. Most times the teachers demand that the children pay them more out of their own personal pockets, and if they can't afford it, the teachers refuse to teach them. It's not long afterwards that the kids usually drop out of school. It is sad and disheartening as the continuation of the cycle of poverty.
After school was done, we were so dirty from playing with the kids in the heat, we thought we'd treat ourselves to a hair wash at the salon on the corner. An hour head massage, hair wash, face wash and face massage for $1. Kendal had a hair wash, hour head massage and her hair straightened for $2! Later we went down to riverside for a bit, however I must say it was quite pricy though ..... $0.75 for a pint of beer and Kendal had an enormous banana split for $2.50
-Jeremy