Our Cambodian Adventure

Being that Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday the Chinese celebrate, the kids always get a big break from school. We usually stay home and enjoy the festivities around us, but this year we decided to go to Cambodia. We have been home several days now, and we have had a hard time getting our trip blogged. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that we are just grateful to be home--literally, and have had a hard time getting back to normal life!!

Long story--(we will blog our "cliff note version" of the drama.)

Here is a little background. Cambodia is a third world country, and the poorest country in Southeast Asia. We have seen a lot of extreme poor situations traveling the world. However, nothing has compared to Cambodia. It was by far the most harsh situations we have ever witnessed. Street people everywhere, starving parents and children, countless beggars, and handfuls of land mine victims crowded the streets, begging for help from tourists like ourselves. Obviously it was difficult to see so much sadness and misery. All of us were affected and humbled.
Our itinerary was set for 7 days in Cambodia. During these 7 days, we enjoyed several different experiences in Cambodia that we will always remember. A few of these memories will be from the incredible temples we were able to visit, and some of these memories will be from humanitarian experiences.
At the end of our 7 day Cambodian adventure, we felt we had really gained a strong sense of the history of the country. We enjoyed our stay, but we were definitely more than ready to come back to our home in Shanghai (not to mention how much we missed our Preston Boy!!) Imagine our surprise when we got to the airport to catch the red-eye back to China that our flight was not even scheduled to depart from that city!! (Here is where things became unclear between our travel agent, tour director, and maybe ourselves) We would have to book a complete separate flight to another city to catch a flight back to Shanghai. The only problem was that the flights only left every two days, and being that it was Chinese New Year all flights were full!! Thanks to a level-headed Dad, he was able to first calm specific individuals in the family (no names here), and then look for alternate routes to get us home. Unfortunately the $$$ for changed routes, flights etc., started to mount, and we were forced to wait another two days to find a flight back home.
Since we had pretty much seen everything we had wanted to see in the city, we had a lot of good family bonding time. (Is that what you call it when you watch Austin Powers a half a dozen times???) Anyway, two/three days later we sucessfully boarded a plane that would take us back to the capital city. We waited several hours in the airport there, and then caught another red-eye back to Shanghai just in time for the boys to take showers and hop on the school bus. Now that is timing!!

So, how about that for drama?? And now, we present:
"The Wildes explore Cambodia."

In the beginning.......From Shanghai we took a flight directly to the capital city, Phnom Penh. Minutes after leaving the airport, we could definitely feel we were in a third world country, and very remote city. However, our hotel accomodations were great, and located right on the banks of the Mekong River.

The next day we spent in the city of Phnom Penh. We were able to visit the mansions and gardens of the King of Cambodia. Apparently he is not lacking any amounts of money like the citizens of Cambodia. He even had a special house dedicated for elephants to pick him up for parades!!




Our next tourist visit was questionable as to whether our boys were mature enough to handle the details of the genocide history. However, we quickly realized NOONE can possibly understand how awful these killings were. We took a quick tour of the genocide prison which was the most disturbing place we had ever been, and then headed down the road to the actual "killing fields". Landmine victims missing legs and arms stood outside the gates begging for handouts from tourists. Seeing these victims made us realize how recent these horrific events occurred.

Needless to say, after visiting these sites, and seeing so many innocent people had been senselessly murdered, the day spent here was undoubtedly difficult. We looked forward to heading to Siem Reap to hopefully enjoy far more uplifting tourist sites!

Our first activity was a trip to the massage parlor. This was not just a regular massage parlor, but the most unique we have seen. Hundreds of small fish feasted on the dead skin of our feet--maybe too much information??? But, wait until you try it! Our feet truly were silky smooth!

We finally had come to the main reason we planned to visit Cambodia---the temples! And YES, the Cambodian temples were as fabulous as we had been told. Ankor Wat was absolutely amazing! It was incredible to think it was built hundreds of centuries ago. We all enjoyed exploring, climbing, and examining the workmanship. Not to mention the millions of "MUST TAKE" photo spots!

As always, the salesmen--(young sales children) were eager to make sales the second we left the temples. They were so adorable we just had to buy their hats, scarves, fans, and other not necessary items. The children in Cambodia attend school four hours a day, and work various jobs the remainder of the day.

Our next visit, Angkor Thom was so interesting as there are hundreds of towers and faces carved on each of these towers. There is so much symbolism throughout the temple, it would take an entire lifetime to scratch just the surface.

After a bumpy hour and a half journey, we arrived at this temple which has just been recently opened to tourist. (Apparently it had just been cleared of all land mines) Exploring this temple was by far the funnest for the boys, and Dad. Our guide told us the safety of the temple was up to us, as there were no rules or cautions. (Made for an interesting visit!!)

The smallest temple, and probably the prettiest was Banteay Srei. It was discovered by the French in 1914 (which explains its architectual beauty). The carvings were gorgeous!

The last temple "Ta Prohm"was recently made famous by Angelina Jolie as she filmed her "Tombraider" movie here. The part we found most amazing was the trees were actually interlaced among the ruins and have become a support for the building. As the trees die, or possibly falls from a storm, the loosened blocks collapse from the ruins.

Outside Ankor Tomb were dozens of wild monkeys. We stopped on the roadside, bought some bananas, and made friends immediately(or at least tried to). Bracken was by far the bravest, and apparently the monkeys trusted him the most as they came very close to him to grab the food. (Shocking that Parker was the only one chased out by one disgruntled monkey ready to attack)!

After a full day of exploring various temples, we all took elephants to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset over Ankor Wat. Elephants don't make for a smooth ride, but gratefuly they safely made their way up the steep mountain in plenty of time to find a perfect spot for photos.

The next day in Cambodia will be one our family will always remember. We were able to set up a service opportunity with a local group to help teach English at a community school. Before the English lessons, we were able to visit the homes of where some of the students lived. We learned these people lived in the "Squatters", which basically meant they built a dwelling on government property and would live there until they were kicked off the property. The homes were basically either built with bamboo, or wood, and grassy roofs. The area was extremely dirty, and hundreds of children ran throughout the village. It was by far the poorest situation we as a family had ever seen, and humbled all of us. Currently the group that helped us set up the English lessons is looking to find ways to help the people in the Squatters build wells for clean water, and set up bathrooms for sanitation in the village. The people are so uneducated and poor, they cannot help themselves find cures to so many of their problems. In reality, it seems there truly are so many problems it would be impossible to even believe there would be a possibility of help. However, after learning more about ways of helping and teaching, we realized how small ways can make a huge inpact.

After visiting the Squatters, we met the students at the community school. What a fantastic time we had together!! The first activity we did with them was play musical chairs. However, our rules were when the music stopped the students would have to speak English to the person sitting in front of them. It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us. We all knew exactly how they felt trying to learn a foreign language as we have had to do this with both French and now Mandarin. Several of the students were nervous, but did a great job.

Here the students sit across from the boys to practice speaking English.

After musical chairs, we divided into groups and played "Slithers and Snakes", a version of Shoots and Ladders. Many of the boxes had the students answer questions in English for practice. Parker did a great job explaining the rules of the game to his group. The students thought all the boys were fabulous!

Bracken did a great job tutoring this man with some English skills. He told Bracken he wanted to become an accountant one day. We learned that any English skills these people learned, would double or even triple their salary. (Average Cambodian salary $70/month).

Our class picture! Hopefully the students enjoyed us, as much as we enjoyed working with them!

Another day trip Dad and the boys were able to take was to a remote fishing village. During the rainy season the water comes to the very top of the stilts the houses are built on. During the dry season, the people are able to freely wander on dry ground. The boys told of the huge amounts of fish being caught by the fisherman, and enjoyed their day as they were able to kayak through the water town.

When the boys heard there was a four-wheeling adventure available, they were on it! However, they didn't realize that it was completely different than the four-wheeling they are used to at Uncle Tyler's cabin. Gratefully, they found humor that they had to have a chaperone ride with them, and a very slow speed limit was enforced!!

Looking back on our time in Cambodia, we all gained insights that we would have never had had we not gone. It was definitely an interesting several days to say the least! Here's a few of our valuable insights:

1. Angelina Jolie is our newest found hero! She is a great example of humanitarian service, and obviously has realized the issues plaguing Southeast Asia. (Not to mention we loved visiting the temple"TombRaider" was filmed at!)----ok, maybe this is just Alison's insight!

2. Never trust your flight plans are complete just by using a travel agent. Check, Check and RE-Check the details!!

3. The most valuable insightful lesson we were reminded, was how truly blessed we are! There are so many people in the world who have trials far bigger than we can imagine. We can do so much to reach out and help them.