SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
Temperature: 31 Degrees Celsius
Track of the day: "You gotta have faith" George Michael
"It's Christmas Eve," I say to Sam as he glares at me for waking him up, "can you believe it, it doesn't feel like it." Mom, Dad, Sam, Alecs, me and Ravovine are sitting at reception waiting for Rattana to arrive. While Rattana spends everyday with us since we arrived he also works at his restaurant until midnight and sometimes later once he drops us off. This morning he is about 15 minutes late as he didn't get home until 2am and it is now merely 7:00 in the morning. Soon enough though he arrives with his wife and daughter and we pile back into the van. Rattana's wife is pregnant with a child he is hoping will be a son (we can reveal th
at he did in fact get a son named Joshua born on March 03). Ravovine's daughters went to school today and did not get to join us nor did his wife who was working at a busy market as a seamstress. The trip to Kulen Mountain, another place Alecs and I have not yet been but Mom and Dad have is much shorter and less bumpy that yesterdays haul out to Ko Ker. As we wind up a dirt road to the top of the mountain flanked by rich forest where some of the Khmer Rouge hid after Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese we come upon an elderly monk on the side of the road. The monk holds a simple pot in his arms and Buddhists give him food also known as Alms. Our driver stops beside the monk and Dad and Ravovine step out of the car to retrieve some fruit from the trunk. The driver and Rattana give some money while Dad and Rav offer the fruit. The monk cannot accept the dragonfruit which he has been given as there are too many seeds in the flesh. "If he eats the seed then he will kill future dragonfruits," Rattana explains to us, "and monks cannot kill anything". Unlike Apples there are too many seeds in a dragonfruit to pick out and this holy monk who follows the teachings of Buddha religously cannot accept this. Rav performs a quick ritual on the fruit which Rattana explains is killing the seeds. Now the monk thanks Dad and Ravovine for the generous oferrings and we continue up to the top of the mountain. Phnom Kulen is considered a hol
y mountain in Cambodia, of special religious significance to Hindus and Buddhists who come to the mountain in pilgrimage, there is a sacred hilltop site on top of the range. At the foot of this mountain is a small market where we exchange roughly $3US into tiny denominations of Riel (Cambodian currency). Along with Rattana and Ravovine we also purchase flowers to give as offerings at the top. Following our leaders we head up the many stairs in front of us where dozens of beggars sit along the sides. With each stair we hand the men, women, children, elderly, disabled and babies a single bill. The Buddhists believe that by doing good you will be rewarded and at this most sacred temple they give offerings to those less fortunate as do we. At the top we give a quick prayer, light an incense and leave flowers at the alter. The experience is quite soothing and the magnificent scenery of this hilltop temple far from the tourist trail with the vast forest before us makes for an intoxicating experience. We continue through the temple at the top and find a spiritual man sitting cross legged in a corner and we all get our fortunes told by him. Kneeling on the mat we place an old book of fortunes above our head and place a wooden stick inside the book. Handing the man back the fortune book he reads it aloud to Ravovine who translates. Dad will get something I have forgotten, Mom will get everything she wants in life, Sam will have the riches and power of the King, Alecs will always have lost things returned to him and I will have three wishes fulfilled within my life. Each fortune is accompanied by a story with a lesson. "That was one of the best things we've done on this trip," Sam says as we exit the temple, "I really like this place." Alecs buys a wooden backscratcher from a small stand and we head into a little cave/altar where he continues to scratch the local childrens backs - they giggle uncontrolably at this. Piling back into the van we head to our lunch spot at the top of a waterfall frequented by locals. This little makeshift village where we spread another picnic lunch out is something like we have only seen in movies. There are probably 5 or 6 homes, a small river runs through it wh
ere a women squats, washing her clothes and naked children run around chasing eachother without a care in the world. "Be careful," I say to Sam as we climb down some rather steep stairs to the base of the waterfall, "don't hurt yourself." This simple phrase "be careful" has become something of a joke on this trip as nearly everyday, usually several times a day, Alecs, Sam or I will hear this from Mom and Dad. "You kids are bad," Mom scolds, "you'll see, one of these day's I won't say it and you'll get hurt." We laugh and argue and laugh some more until soon enough we are at the bottom. The water at the base of the beautiful large waterfall is chilly and it takes me quite a while to join the boys in the swimming hole. Soon enough though we are swimming over to the plummeting water while Rattana and Ravovine jump off high rocks into the water. "This has been my very favorite day so far," I say to Alecs, "me too," he adds. Rav splashes around like a child and Rattana and him laugh and push and time goes by way too fast as usual. We join Mom, Rattana's wife and daughter back at a more secluded area where a smaller waterfall feeds from the main one. Pushing against 
the current Sam, Dad, Alecs and I use the force of the water as a personal waterslide and take turns going behind and under the water. Finally we agree to head back up the mountain so the driver doens't have to drive down the hill in the dark. "Are you crying," I ask Mom whose eyes are red and puffy, "no," she says between stressed breaths, "I'm laughing." Mom tells me that Ravovine has gone up the stairs already because he lost his panties. "He lost what?" I say perplexed. Mom erupts into laughter once agian, "he told me that he lost his panties and I said Rav, men don't wear panties," Mom says trying to catch her breath. She continues with the story telling us that Rav asked perplexededly why men don't wear panties, not understanding that she was talking about the word panties not the wearing of undergarments. Back at the top I goad Rav asking him what he's looking for. "I've lost my panties," he says and all of us erupt into uncontrolable fits of laughter. Mom explains to Ravovine the word for Men is underwear and he now understands why we have been teasing him. Luckily he finds his underwear wrapped in his towel and heads to the washroom to change from his swim shorts to clean pants and I suppose his panties. For dinner tonight we head to a slightly upscale French restaurant with cheesy carols
playing but a secluded family dinner. We should get a fish massage at the Night Market,"I say after we finish dinner. Everyone agrees to try this massage that Alecs and I have been raving about. We ask our drivers to drop us at the Night Market, an exciting touirist market bustling with stalls upon stalls of things we all want to buy. We lead everyon to the back where we had our first fish massage. A worker at the business wipes down our feet with a towel and we place our feet in a pool filled with small fish. Immediately the fish flock to our feet and nibble away the dead skin. "Oh this is weird," Sam says flinching as they send what feel like tiny electric shocks through our feet, "it's hard to stay still." We finally get use to the sensation and enjoy the feeling for the next 30 minutes. "Alecs you need to decorate your stocking," I say back in Mom and Dad's hotel room holding the small stocking and a glitter pen that mom brought along. Since this Christmas vacation is our present we have agreed to exchange small gifts in stockings that we are hanging in the hotel room. I open a gift from my Aunt Cindy - a small Christmas quilt that we use for the presentation of our little hotel-room Christmas. We hang the stockings from hooks in the windowsil and fill them with our wrapped presents. We end up having quite a lot of presents for one another, spilling out of the stockings, onto the window sill and the floor. Dad sets up a little projector he boug
ht back in Malaysia to my iPod and we all spread across the bed and chairs to watch "Charlie Brown's Christmas" on the wall. It's a perfect end to our Christmas in Cambodia and Sam, Alecs and I retreat to our room to await Christmas morning.
Temperature: 31 Degrees Celsius
Track of the day: "You gotta have faith" George Michael
"It's Christmas Eve," I say to Sam as he glares at me for waking him up, "can you believe it, it doesn't feel like it." Mom, Dad, Sam, Alecs, me and Ravovine are sitting at reception waiting for Rattana to arrive. While Rattana spends everyday with us since we arrived he also works at his restaurant until midnight and sometimes later once he drops us off. This morning he is about 15 minutes late as he didn't get home until 2am and it is now merely 7:00 in the morning. Soon enough though he arrives with his wife and daughter and we pile back into the van. Rattana's wife is pregnant with a child he is hoping will be a son (we can reveal th
at he did in fact get a son named Joshua born on March 03). Ravovine's daughters went to school today and did not get to join us nor did his wife who was working at a busy market as a seamstress. The trip to Kulen Mountain, another place Alecs and I have not yet been but Mom and Dad have is much shorter and less bumpy that yesterdays haul out to Ko Ker. As we wind up a dirt road to the top of the mountain flanked by rich forest where some of the Khmer Rouge hid after Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese we come upon an elderly monk on the side of the road. The monk holds a simple pot in his arms and Buddhists give him food also known as Alms. Our driver stops beside the monk and Dad and Ravovine step out of the car to retrieve some fruit from the trunk. The driver and Rattana give some money while Dad and Rav offer the fruit. The monk cannot accept the dragonfruit which he has been given as there are too many seeds in the flesh. "If he eats the seed then he will kill future dragonfruits," Rattana explains to us, "and monks cannot kill anything". Unlike Apples there are too many seeds in a dragonfruit to pick out and this holy monk who follows the teachings of Buddha religously cannot accept this. Rav performs a quick ritual on the fruit which Rattana explains is killing the seeds. Now the monk thanks Dad and Ravovine for the generous oferrings and we continue up to the top of the mountain. Phnom Kulen is considered a hol
y mountain in Cambodia, of special religious significance to Hindus and Buddhists who come to the mountain in pilgrimage, there is a sacred hilltop site on top of the range. At the foot of this mountain is a small market where we exchange roughly $3US into tiny denominations of Riel (Cambodian currency). Along with Rattana and Ravovine we also purchase flowers to give as offerings at the top. Following our leaders we head up the many stairs in front of us where dozens of beggars sit along the sides. With each stair we hand the men, women, children, elderly, disabled and babies a single bill. The Buddhists believe that by doing good you will be rewarded and at this most sacred temple they give offerings to those less fortunate as do we. At the top we give a quick prayer, light an incense and leave flowers at the alter. The experience is quite soothing and the magnificent scenery of this hilltop temple far from the tourist trail with the vast forest before us makes for an intoxicating experience. We continue through the temple at the top and find a spiritual man sitting cross legged in a corner and we all get our fortunes told by him. Kneeling on the mat we place an old book of fortunes above our head and place a wooden stick inside the book. Handing the man back the fortune book he reads it aloud to Ravovine who translates. Dad will get something I have forgotten, Mom will get everything she wants in life, Sam will have the riches and power of the King, Alecs will always have lost things returned to him and I will have three wishes fulfilled within my life. Each fortune is accompanied by a story with a lesson. "That was one of the best things we've done on this trip," Sam says as we exit the temple, "I really like this place." Alecs buys a wooden backscratcher from a small stand and we head into a little cave/altar where he continues to scratch the local childrens backs - they giggle uncontrolably at this. Piling back into the van we head to our lunch spot at the top of a waterfall frequented by locals. This little makeshift village where we spread another picnic lunch out is something like we have only seen in movies. There are probably 5 or 6 homes, a small river runs through it wh
ere a women squats, washing her clothes and naked children run around chasing eachother without a care in the world. "Be careful," I say to Sam as we climb down some rather steep stairs to the base of the waterfall, "don't hurt yourself." This simple phrase "be careful" has become something of a joke on this trip as nearly everyday, usually several times a day, Alecs, Sam or I will hear this from Mom and Dad. "You kids are bad," Mom scolds, "you'll see, one of these day's I won't say it and you'll get hurt." We laugh and argue and laugh some more until soon enough we are at the bottom. The water at the base of the beautiful large waterfall is chilly and it takes me quite a while to join the boys in the swimming hole. Soon enough though we are swimming over to the plummeting water while Rattana and Ravovine jump off high rocks into the water. "This has been my very favorite day so far," I say to Alecs, "me too," he adds. Rav splashes around like a child and Rattana and him laugh and push and time goes by way too fast as usual. We join Mom, Rattana's wife and daughter back at a more secluded area where a smaller waterfall feeds from the main one. Pushing against 
the current Sam, Dad, Alecs and I use the force of the water as a personal waterslide and take turns going behind and under the water. Finally we agree to head back up the mountain so the driver doens't have to drive down the hill in the dark. "Are you crying," I ask Mom whose eyes are red and puffy, "no," she says between stressed breaths, "I'm laughing." Mom tells me that Ravovine has gone up the stairs already because he lost his panties. "He lost what?" I say perplexed. Mom erupts into laughter once agian, "he told me that he lost his panties and I said Rav, men don't wear panties," Mom says trying to catch her breath. She continues with the story telling us that Rav asked perplexededly why men don't wear panties, not understanding that she was talking about the word panties not the wearing of undergarments. Back at the top I goad Rav asking him what he's looking for. "I've lost my panties," he says and all of us erupt into uncontrolable fits of laughter. Mom explains to Ravovine the word for Men is underwear and he now understands why we have been teasing him. Luckily he finds his underwear wrapped in his towel and heads to the washroom to change from his swim shorts to clean pants and I suppose his panties. For dinner tonight we head to a slightly upscale French restaurant with cheesy carols
playing but a secluded family dinner. We should get a fish massage at the Night Market,"I say after we finish dinner. Everyone agrees to try this massage that Alecs and I have been raving about. We ask our drivers to drop us at the Night Market, an exciting touirist market bustling with stalls upon stalls of things we all want to buy. We lead everyon to the back where we had our first fish massage. A worker at the business wipes down our feet with a towel and we place our feet in a pool filled with small fish. Immediately the fish flock to our feet and nibble away the dead skin. "Oh this is weird," Sam says flinching as they send what feel like tiny electric shocks through our feet, "it's hard to stay still." We finally get use to the sensation and enjoy the feeling for the next 30 minutes. "Alecs you need to decorate your stocking," I say back in Mom and Dad's hotel room holding the small stocking and a glitter pen that mom brought along. Since this Christmas vacation is our present we have agreed to exchange small gifts in stockings that we are hanging in the hotel room. I open a gift from my Aunt Cindy - a small Christmas quilt that we use for the presentation of our little hotel-room Christmas. We hang the stockings from hooks in the windowsil and fill them with our wrapped presents. We end up having quite a lot of presents for one another, spilling out of the stockings, onto the window sill and the floor. Dad sets up a little projector he boug
ht back in Malaysia to my iPod and we all spread across the bed and chairs to watch "Charlie Brown's Christmas" on the wall. It's a perfect end to our Christmas in Cambodia and Sam, Alecs and I retreat to our room to await Christmas morning."Merry Christmas," Alecs says waking me up the next morning. The three of us hurridly head to Mom and Dad's room, where they are patiently waiting our arrival. There seems to be even more presents since we left last night and Dad hands out the stockings with their respective overflowing gifts. Alecs and I cannot believe the number of gifts we recieve including a load of US dollars from our family back home, heart-felt cards and much more. I recieve more items than I could shake a stick at including mascara, earings, cream, body wash, books, a hoodie, new shirts, lindt chocolate, nail polish, stationar
y, a mini camera, an Angkor Wat snowglobe, travel games, candy and a huge canvas painting of Angkor Wat that I had been eying a few days ago. Alecs recieves new socks, undershirts, a new dress shirt, soap, a new razor, eatmore chocolate bars, hot chocolate, mosquito repellant, old spice, body wash, a lifesaver book, scrabble dictionary, comic book and a pair of speakers for his computer that he had been longing for back in Malaysia. "Oh wow," Alecs says after he finds the speakers, "thank you so much Lorrie and Kevin," he says opening them up to examine the red speakers. "I knew you really wanted them," Dad says, "you kept coming back to loo
k at them when we were walking around the electronics store in Kuala Lumpur." I spread out my massive painting to look at it in all it's glory while trying on my new shirts, hoodie and jewellery. Everyone else finds their treasures and begins fidelling, reading, trying things on and just admiring before we have to prepare to meet Rav and Rattana. As we stand on the balcony outside we watch a commotion below as the staff run a relay race around the pool during their Christmas Party. Under a shower head they must peel and eat a banana then race to a lounge chair and dip their head in coloured water, continuing onto a bowl of flour and then run around the pool to the finish line. Roars of laughter can probably be heard from blocks away - it's great fun. "Merry Christmas," Rav says after we finish breakfast. Rav has brough gifts for us all each with a great deal of thought and charectar put into them. We thank him profusely and await Rattana's arrival. Today we are visiting an orphanage just outside Siem Reap and are heading to the market to pick up supplies first. "So what did you guys end up buying?" I ask Mom and Dad outside the city. "50kg of rice, 2 volleballs and 2 nets, those feather hackeysacks they like, school notebooks, pencils and candy," Mom tells us pointing to the 
myriad of bags in their tuk-tuk. We follow Rav. who knew of this newly established orphanage and enter into the small compound. The children are expecting us and have obviously had a quick lesson in English. "Hello my name is Ek, what is your name?" a young boy asks me as I hop out of the tuk tuk. "My name is Meaghan, how are you?" I reply shaking his hand. "I am well, thank you for visiting us." Nearly every child approaches us and introduces him or herself. The adults greet us and happily take the rice away to the smallest of kitchens and then distribute the notebooks and pencils to each child. The older kids immediately setup the volleyball nets and then they eagerly line up to recieve their new school s
upplies from the teacher. A little girl no more than five grabs my hand and guides me around the compound showing me all the posters and classrooms, where they eat and play and sleep. It's a rewarding experience to be with all these smiling kids and a humbling one aswell. A small vegetable patch grows in front of the small classroom and Rav explains much of their food comes from this. After spending quite some time talking to the children, getting to know the area and understanding more about their lives we bid them farewell and the children run beside the tuk-tuk's waving goodbye until we can no longer see them. Rav. finds us a nice relaxing place for a Christmas lunch equipped with some excelent Mango Shakes. We stop at another t
emple with awe impressive views before heading back to the city. "Stop at Swensen's Ice Cream near the old Market," Mom says to Ravovine, "we want to take you and Rattana out." Mom has been talking about Swensen's ice cream for weeks now, claiming it is to die for. This is actually a strange statement coming from someone who normally does no
t enjoy sweet foods so we all agree it must be good. Sure enough this is an ice cream store like no other, complete with a full menu of just ice cream. We sit down and peruse the offerings, Alecs orders five scoops of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup, whip cream, wafers and a cherry. Sam and I agree to try something we have never seen before - an ice cream fondue. We choose nine different favours of ice cream from mango to gr
een tea, peanut butter, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake and so one. The food arrives and everyone eagerly digs in. Our fondu comes with melon balls, wafers, cookies, whip cream, a pot of chocolate, brownies, banana's and of course 9 scoops of ice cream. By the time we are finished are stomachs feel about a mile in front of us and we can barely move from having eaten so much. Alecs rubs his belly feeling the same way having eaten all 5 scho
ops of his ice cream alone. It has been a Christmas to remember, I think this will be our first and only one away from home but it was certainly a memorable one. It has been two of our best days of the trip so far but it just doesn't feel like Christmas away from home. Tomorrow is our last day in Cambodia and each and every one of us feel sick just thinking about it. Alecs and I fell in love with this country in March, Mom and Dad two years ago and Sam has now too fallen in love.
y, a mini camera, an Angkor Wat snowglobe, travel games, candy and a huge canvas painting of Angkor Wat that I had been eying a few days ago. Alecs recieves new socks, undershirts, a new dress shirt, soap, a new razor, eatmore chocolate bars, hot chocolate, mosquito repellant, old spice, body wash, a lifesaver book, scrabble dictionary, comic book and a pair of speakers for his computer that he had been longing for back in Malaysia. "Oh wow," Alecs says after he finds the speakers, "thank you so much Lorrie and Kevin," he says opening them up to examine the red speakers. "I knew you really wanted them," Dad says, "you kept coming back to loo
k at them when we were walking around the electronics store in Kuala Lumpur." I spread out my massive painting to look at it in all it's glory while trying on my new shirts, hoodie and jewellery. Everyone else finds their treasures and begins fidelling, reading, trying things on and just admiring before we have to prepare to meet Rav and Rattana. As we stand on the balcony outside we watch a commotion below as the staff run a relay race around the pool during their Christmas Party. Under a shower head they must peel and eat a banana then race to a lounge chair and dip their head in coloured water, continuing onto a bowl of flour and then run around the pool to the finish line. Roars of laughter can probably be heard from blocks away - it's great fun. "Merry Christmas," Rav says after we finish breakfast. Rav has brough gifts for us all each with a great deal of thought and charectar put into them. We thank him profusely and await Rattana's arrival. Today we are visiting an orphanage just outside Siem Reap and are heading to the market to pick up supplies first. "So what did you guys end up buying?" I ask Mom and Dad outside the city. "50kg of rice, 2 volleballs and 2 nets, those feather hackeysacks they like, school notebooks, pencils and candy," Mom tells us pointing to the 
myriad of bags in their tuk-tuk. We follow Rav. who knew of this newly established orphanage and enter into the small compound. The children are expecting us and have obviously had a quick lesson in English. "Hello my name is Ek, what is your name?" a young boy asks me as I hop out of the tuk tuk. "My name is Meaghan, how are you?" I reply shaking his hand. "I am well, thank you for visiting us." Nearly every child approaches us and introduces him or herself. The adults greet us and happily take the rice away to the smallest of kitchens and then distribute the notebooks and pencils to each child. The older kids immediately setup the volleyball nets and then they eagerly line up to recieve their new school s
upplies from the teacher. A little girl no more than five grabs my hand and guides me around the compound showing me all the posters and classrooms, where they eat and play and sleep. It's a rewarding experience to be with all these smiling kids and a humbling one aswell. A small vegetable patch grows in front of the small classroom and Rav explains much of their food comes from this. After spending quite some time talking to the children, getting to know the area and understanding more about their lives we bid them farewell and the children run beside the tuk-tuk's waving goodbye until we can no longer see them. Rav. finds us a nice relaxing place for a Christmas lunch equipped with some excelent Mango Shakes. We stop at another t
emple with awe impressive views before heading back to the city. "Stop at Swensen's Ice Cream near the old Market," Mom says to Ravovine, "we want to take you and Rattana out." Mom has been talking about Swensen's ice cream for weeks now, claiming it is to die for. This is actually a strange statement coming from someone who normally does no
t enjoy sweet foods so we all agree it must be good. Sure enough this is an ice cream store like no other, complete with a full menu of just ice cream. We sit down and peruse the offerings, Alecs orders five scoops of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup, whip cream, wafers and a cherry. Sam and I agree to try something we have never seen before - an ice cream fondue. We choose nine different favours of ice cream from mango to gr
een tea, peanut butter, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake and so one. The food arrives and everyone eagerly digs in. Our fondu comes with melon balls, wafers, cookies, whip cream, a pot of chocolate, brownies, banana's and of course 9 scoops of ice cream. By the time we are finished are stomachs feel about a mile in front of us and we can barely move from having eaten so much. Alecs rubs his belly feeling the same way having eaten all 5 scho
ops of his ice cream alone. It has been a Christmas to remember, I think this will be our first and only one away from home but it was certainly a memorable one. It has been two of our best days of the trip so far but it just doesn't feel like Christmas away from home. Tomorrow is our last day in Cambodia and each and every one of us feel sick just thinking about it. Alecs and I fell in love with this country in March, Mom and Dad two years ago and Sam has now too fallen in love.Until next time so long,
Alecs and Meg in Siem Reap
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