Reflections on Cambodia

Our initial plan was to come to Cambodia for a few days to see Angkor Wat but since we are travelling without a timeline, those few days turned into 16 - 9 days in Siem Reap and 7 in the capital, Phnom Penh. While talking with my brother Tim on the phone, he asked the question "why do you like it there so much?" and I didn't know how to answer right away but I have given it some thought. 

Food is always a big part of travel. Khmer food is delicious, not as spicy as Thai and lots of coconut, kafir lime, and lemongrass flavours. Fish amok (fish cooked with coconut in banana leaves) is one of my favourites. There are almost no American franchises. 

A delicious Cambodian breakfast:

The ruins of Angkor were breathtakingly beautiful and it was interesting to see the ancient architectural styles repeated throughout the country, but the landscape is dry and dusty at this time of the year and very hot (38C or 100F). 

We took part in many cultural activities, like learning how to cook and eat bugs and desserts, how silk is grown and woven, and a bike ride through the countryside. 

Taking a ferry across the Mekong with our bikes:

However, it was most interesting to observe how people live, especially adapting to the extremes of wet and dry seasons, such as the fishing villages that adapt to 12m water depth changes:

To begin to understand Canbodia's culture, it was important to learn about the history, especially the horrific genocide that occurred during the Pol Pot era of the 70's when millions were killed. We visited a prison and the killing fields to help us understand these horrific events. (We discussed this first with Zac and decided he could handle this emotionally, though I think a lot of 9-year olds could not). We learned even more by talking with Cambodians who had lived through these events. One man told us about losing 6 siblings - 3 from napalm and 3 from touching previously unexploded bombs - both from the US. This also generated a lot of good conversations with Zac: "But Mom, I thought the US were the good guys?"

Bracelets tied to the fences that marked the mass grave sites:

In Phnom Penh we stayed at an AirBNB house and experienced middle-class life in the city, even getting a week-long membership at the local gym where we swam almost every day. 

Our Phnom Penh 3-bedroom home:

Zac's swimming is improving and he's learning a few tricks too:

Modern day Cambodia is a place of rapid change as they are still rebuilding and growing. Phnom Penh felt like a city under construction. There is immense poverty, but also extreme wealth - few cars on the road but numerous Rolls Royce's, and also the excesses of the Royal Palace. We also leaned about the current politics and the hopes of the younger generation for the next election in 2018. 

The Royal Palace with the city's sole sky scraper in the background:

So why did I like Cambodia?  It is a country I knew nothing about before we went but learned a lot about their culture in a short time and will watch with interest the changes to come.  This is a country Zac might return back to in 30 years and he will say, "It was so different back then". 

Reflections on travelling after one month

One month ago, Feb 7, we left home to begin our journey. We had small (carry-on sized) backpacks on each of our backs, a very vague itinerary - like approximately which country we would be in for each month, passports and bank cards to withdraw currency along the way. 

Now, after one month, we are in Cambodia, have got our travel legs and are feeling a lot more confident. Some of the things we have learned so far:

1.  Clothing:  We brought very little and it seems about right, especially when I see other travellers lugging around large packs.  I will detail what I brought in case someone is planning a trip:

-3 tshirts/blouses

-1 tank top

- 1 pair of shorts

- 1 skirt

- 1 sarong (which can be a short or long skirt, beach towel, or sun cover)

- 3 pants (1 Capri, 1 leggings, 1 light weight full length that rolls up into Capri)

-7 pairs of underwear (women's underwear doesn't take up much space)

-3 socks

-2 long sleeved tops (one for sun cover and one for warmth - which I don't need and might get rid of)

-one highly compressible warm coat (to wear on air conditioned busses and trains)

-2 pair of shoes (Teva sandals and running shoes)

-2 bathing suits

-2 hats (1 baseball and one brimmed)

-1 raincoat (so far unused)

We bought packing bags that compress all the clothes (made by Eagle Creek). They are quite sturdy and hopefully they last the whole trip. 

2. Packing for Zac: Zachary's list of clothes is pretty similar and carries all of his own clothes in his backpack along with his prized size 1 Brazuca soccer ball!  We also have a frisbee, two decks of cards, Yahtzee, and another dice game (Martian Dice). There is an endless number of games that you can play with cards and dice, (all rules on the internet) so that's all we need. 

3. Daily routine:

We've become pretty good at making a new place quickly feel like home. We unpack and "set up" right away, and seem to have developed routines so things like toothbrushes and e-device charges are all set-up in a similar way each time. Danny and Zac check out the wifi situation first thing. And we like to spend the first day exploring our surroundings and getting familiar with our new home before heading out to see the sites. Since we left Canada we have stayed in 6 different locations and they all felt like home within the first day or so. 

We are early risers and so usually wake with the sun around 6:30. This is good because we can get out and do our exploring in the cooler part of the day (if you call 29C cool). We are home early afternoon after lunch and spend the afternoon swimming, reading, blogging, Facebook, napping, and planning the next day.  Zac is usually quite tired early, even falling asleep at the dinner table so we need to get him to bed, limiting our evening excursions. 

4.  Zac's Schooling

"What about school for Zac?"  This is the most common question we are asked. 

In addition to our daily experiences, we require Zac to spend at least 1 hour reading each day. He is on his fourth book - this is way more reading than he would have done at home!  (He is an excellent reader but does not enjoy it). He reads on his tablet and Danny downloaded a large selection of books before we left home. We can access the Toronto Library and can buy additional e books easily.   Zac is also supposed to be writing regular blog entries but we are a bit behind on this. 

Zac learning how to carve sandstone at Angor Wat:

We have been working on multiplication drills (using the great Spirit of Math App) and zac has made huge progress in speed and accuracy and likes seeing how the app maps his progress. This is an area that is not covered sufficiently in the Ontario curriculum with most kids not knowing their times tables quickly. I also find many opportunities during the day to create real world math problems. Zac likes math so he enjoys these - when I get him in the right mood. 

Danny is in charge of keeping zac up to speed with French so has Zac using the app DuoLingo to practice basic French daily, as well as some conversational French wherever we can fit it in. 

Zac definitely has inherited a love of technology from his Dad so the fact that this all revolves around his tablet makes learning fun for zac, plus he can do it independently which reduces (but does not eliminate) parent-child conflict. 

5.  Food

For Danny and I, the food is awesome!  For Zac however and his more limited palate, this is more of a challenge, though our recent insect and spider tasting excursion showed us that he will try new foods. He eats a fair amount of fruit but getting sufficient vegetables in him is a challenge, and he is drinking more pop than he should be. Oh well, breathe deep and keep trying to make each meal as healthy as I can. Fortunately Cambodian food is less spicy than Thai. 

Hope that answers some of the things you may have been wondering about our trip and the everyday stuff that doesn't get posted on Facebook. 

We can't believe that one month has gone by and already feel like there isn't enough time left to do all the things we want to do. Our current dilemma is whether we should go to Laos or Vietnam after Phnom Penh. Vietnam is a more logical route but this will put us in Laos in April when it will be 40C+.   Also, we may go to China earlier than planned to meet up with Danny's cousin Chao from Chicago. These are great problems to have!

First Week Abroad - Bangkok

Our first week abroad in Bangkok is coming to a close. We stayed in an apartment in Thon Buri, which is 1 "sky train" stop from the river ferries. Danny did a great job finding this place on AirBNB. It took about 5 days to get over our jet lag so it was great to have our own place so we could have breakfast at 3:00 in the morning. Our apt also had a beautiful pool, ping pong table and work out room - all of which we used extensively. 

Most of our days started with a few hours in the pool and then a few hours seeing some sights and eating (yum!) before returning home. Our first outing was to the Aquarium - while it didn't compare to either Toronto or Vancouver's aquarium, but met our objective of keeping zac awake to overcome jet lag and to enjoy the A/C. 

We are now quite comfortable with getting around the city, using either the train or ferry. We figured out how to use the "local" ferry, which is cheaper and runs more frequently than the tourist ferry. This all seemed overwhelming at first but we quickly figured it out and now feel quite comfortable getting around Bangkok. Zac was initially stressed at the uncertainty of it all but after a few successes he is starting to relish the adventure (sometimes). 

While most tourists spend their time seeing many temples, we only went to see one - Wat Pho with an impressively huge reclining Buddha. However, after one day of temples I knew zac was done with that!  

We also went surfing at the Flow House (fun!), celebrated Chinese New Year in Chinatown, and enjoyed some local parks, especially watching the Thai men play this very cool game like volleyball but using only feet. 

Food was a highlight for Danny and I but is challenging with Zac as he is a pretty picky eater and is hesitant to try Thai food. Luckily he feels right at home eating Japanese and Chinese food which are widely available. Today we had our first big success as he tried, and liked, Pad Thai.  I am hoping this is a harbinger of things to come and he will be more open to trying new food (that or starve!). I've also learned how to order food so that it is not spicy (Mai phet na kha) so that increases zac's confidence level. 

I'm really enjoying learning to speak Thai and try to use a few new words every day. It is a beautiful language, and relatively simple grammatically, but tonal so hard to pronounce. In Bangkok there are a lot of signs in English, and many people speak some English, so a few Thai phrases go a long way!

Tomorrow we are heading to Khao Sok, a national park jungle, and staying at the guest house where Paul (Susan's son) met his wife Lek. While I'm looking forward to seeing some nature, I will miss Bangkok as we have really enjoyed our time here. 

However, we will be back in Bangkok in a couple weeks en route to our next stop.