Camboversary

Straight up now tell me do you really wanna read these forever…oh oh oh! Just kidding, just had to break the ice you know!! And what better way, than with a throw back Paula Abdul smash hit pop single!?

Now it certainly is not a secret that I am very lazy, so this 3 year Camboversary blog-o-Rama is number 1: A couple weeks late and number 2: probably not going to live up to my usual extravaganza style celebration of words and circle people. Can you sense the normality of life in Cambodia slipping in so subtlety that even these blog posts are slowly getting more and more lamo! Don’t worry though, I won’t stop writing them. I gain too much inner peace in the sheer knowledge that I am wasting your time, forcing you to read and read and read! Sorry, that’s terrible….but I am only being honest and I respect honesty! I say, who doesn’t respect honesty!? Ahhh….you sir, well pack your bags, you are no longer welcome here!!

Having a little chat with my buddy Pinh. She was such a sweetie, looking forward to meeting up soon 🙂

So I have considered reminiscing over the past couple years and sharing deep thoughts of how much my opinion has changed and how my personality has and continues to be shaped to hopefully something better than what I started with. But, meh… Instead I am going to tell you a naked falling story! Thank goodness I am not involved in this anecdote, by the way, or it probably wouldn’t be surfacing here. Anyways, it was Marcie….she had just showered and was wrapped in her towel. Abby and Marcie’s bathroom has a small step to a tiled bedroom floor. Well apparently she had not dried off her feet what so ever and as soon as her foot hit the tile, she was swept away landing flat on her butt!! Abby was in the room sitting on the bed but fortunately had her eyes closed anyways as she was saying a prayer before bed. As Marcie fell her towel of course became more of a sail revealing her true colours! All she screamed was “DON’T LOOK!!!”, followed by an obvious “slap slap BOOM BOOM” sound. Well as I said Abby’s eyes were already closed but she was holding back laughter as she wrapped up her prayer! You can only imagine the laughs that were had and the big bruise on poor bitty baby Marcie’s bottom! Lol and that’s that story…just a plain old naked falling story, but a funny one….haha “DON’T LOOK…slap, slap BOOM BOOM!”

When I started writing this I also considered going into some realities

THE FACE!! Too much!

of the gross things we see…smell…and more so lately what we hear too! Even in the comfort of our own home! ( from outside, not the toilet ya sickos). My angle on those tidbits would have been to gain sheer sympathy….but again. Naaa….I have a different story, short and sweet. A couple weeks ago my good friend Amy and her roomie Mackenzie visited. They are living in Thailand which is where we met. Anyways, Amy came out into the living room one morning, and described to me what would be one of the grossest, completely unexpected happenings of a morning ritual. She said she was brushing her teeth when her toothbrush all of the sudden completely fell apart in her mouth! So yeah, all the individually binded bristles all came apart in a sudsy mouth bath…..barf, how gross would that feel. Anyways, I laughed so hard. I suspect it was a cheap one she picked up from a hotel. That or she could use some funding for her need greating experience..lol just kidding!!

Now I could pull the old “I hate the heat” card but I will spare you. I will spare you because folks, it is time for my annual LIST OF THINGS SARAH LEARNED IN 2015 * props on the stage are shifted, quick wardrobe change and the scene is left with one single light above Sarah as she reads*

1. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know! I am talking LIFE, LANGUAGE, CULTURE….you name it. And this is some thing any one of us realizes when they put the effort towards something new or a change of any sort! So stay humble people, but keep learning too, because all the rest of these humble people know how dumb you are!!
2. TREAT YOURSELF!!!! But this goes to people who are pushing for the simplistic life already but not giving themselves a break here and there. All you other splurgers need to CALM DOWN!! Haha just kidding…..naaa, mostly I mean…take care of yourself and now and again….TREAT YOURSELF!! (PS. Yes I love that show)
3. Not that I questioned it years before, but seriously, I can not handle people snorting!!! People are obsessed with SNORTING here….people, this is so nasty. Dear World, please STOP snorting!!!
4. If it tastes like dog food, it probably is dog food. And when I say dog food…..I mean, dog in yo food foo!! Stop eating it, you will not feel well later! ( more of a lesson Abby learned but by example I learned this as well)
5. Stop worrying about it! Everything…..just stop worrying about it! ( this is an ongoing lesson in my life!)
6. Marcie never properly learned the head and shoulders, knees and toes song…….apparently it’s shoulders, elbows head….yeeeeeeah, no that’s very wrong Marcie!!!!
7. We can officially celebrate three years life in Cambodia having not pooped our pants!!! Obviously been some close calls but according to all our friends here, we are reigning champions!!!
8. Abby makes great crepes…..thus a crepe-ist! What!!! Come on it’s funny… Calm down, I don’t make these things up for nothing, it’s my job!
9. Deal with it! There are a lot bigger issues in this universe than the small and the what seems as large problems we deal with individually. Crippling yourself in sorrow is useless, so as I say, deal with it and move on.
10. Last but not least….learned a bit of patience! But I will be honest, there is a slight tiny baby chance I am still working on that one! *wink wink, nudge nudge…..high five, pinch pinch….* we’ll stop there how bout! Haha

Alright, well….that’s it for this round. You are prob finished your coffee now or your slice of sloppy meat loaf. Not sure what you kids eat while reading these days, so feel free to clean up the mess you made of your face while glancing through these make shift photos.

Ps. No extra tips….. My list exhausted my mind of all excess practical wisdom. But I will give a shout out to my buddies Dos and Steph for the awesome title idea!! Thanks guys!

Every sunday morning we walk through this guys kitchen to get to Abby’s study. Pretty different world here….

Wide Load

Papaya tree….SOOOOO MANY PAPAYAS!

The old bike and a basket gag. Not really a gag I guess….real life here

I usually don’t like featuring these guys but the color was very stiking!!

I finally found grass in Phnom Penh….. mind you it was a rather small patch and if I am not mistaken…..fake!

Marcie”s Baby Blues and Amy

Banana Shop….not too too interesting of a picture but when i got there it just stuck me as funny….SO MANY BANANAS.

Some crazy parade from the other day during a Buddhist holiday.

THIS FACE!!!!!!

My study MADE me hold her baby. I love babies, don’t get me wrong, but I do not know how to hold them comfortably.

With the girls getting one of our fav meals….Vietnamese Pankcakes!

My studies new baby!

Cambo Blue Tooth…..Can you see the phone just shoved in his helmet. I see this EVERYWHERE but finally got a shot. makes me laugh, also wonder how many people accidently coughed and lost there phone or something.

I helped butter the bricks for this wall……pat pat on my back! lol

Amy and I directing all the LDC volunteers

The construction puppies in a basket. (photo courtesy of Taeko)

Hanging out with my good friend Taeko at the construction site.

Marcie with the pup. She is always so good, took all the ticks out of its ears.

Anyone want a picture of a puppy sleeping by a bucket?? haha

ANOTHER PUPPY PICTURE!!!

Can you spot the puppy?

Look carefully across the street….glad I don’t do the wiring here!

SPOT the worker!!

Abby and I were on our way home and i knew there was something beautiful behind me….took this picture over my shoulder.

I love the saying….legs for days, maybe thats what I want. lol but ANYWAYS…when the girls showed me this GIANT pot of potatoes all i could think to say was…Potatoes for DAYS!

When you eat mandarines with little Korean kids you have to keep them entertained…..

Our territory one morning

Dogs dogs dogs……and Abby and marcie in the background. But yeah, this area had soooo many stinking dogs.

Another success of Abby’s! Glad she loves baking so much!!

Who doesn’t wanna look at food?! You….well then GET OUTTA HERE!

This guy just made me laugh, but apparently he wasn’t a happy chappy.

OK, long story short….we were eating really hot garlic sauce with Kyle and Glori and Kyle’s mouth was on fire. Glori hadn’t gotten a true taste of the heat yet so kept confidently saying wrapping it in lettuce was the key. Which wasn’t true, because later she got her bite of fire also! Was just funny…..

This is a hemroid clinic advertisement. I always shocked at how honest they are…..even look at the guys face sitting on the toilet! lol

I love seeing things like this, not because its dangerous, but because it is just so cute!

 

Beef Belt Buckets

Thailand….Soak it in

It honestly feels like I JUST updated this blog, but when I checked…its been a while.  Sorry.  But good news, I have lots of photos to share.  We recently took a trip to Thailand and stayed with friends in a town called Krabi.  Everywhere you turn there is something beautiful to look at.  What a contrast to living in Phnom Penh, where every turn you take you see someone picking their nose!   Sorry guys, I know that is gross and I have held back from bringing it up for a while, but as real as it was a couple years ago when I first moved here, the reality has remained stable! Nose pickers power through let me tell ya! Anyways, back to my original train of thought….Krabi was awesome and such a great break.  It was raining lots but it actually enhanced the trip.  We rented motos

Abby’s hand crafted poncho! LOL

there and on one occasion we were caught in a massive downpour.  We pulled over to put on our little plastic ponchos but realized we were one short for the group.  The guys working in the store we stopped in front of tried to solve the issue for us, by constructing Abby a tailored poncho made of old sign canvas. It was so hilarious.  She couldn’t bend in it, and said it was super sharp, and so unfortunately couldn’t use it.  But we all got a good laugh out of it all.

Speaking of having a good laugh, I find myself laughing AT Marcie a lot these days.  (No I am not a bully, sometimes I laugh WITH her too!) I have always known she is a conversation misinterpreter but perhaps I didn’t realize she was such a hardcore misinterpreter! In fact, “I am not even mad, I am impressed!”  For example, some friends were staying with us and after they left I just said to the girls “Kyle and Glori are my favs”….. which was immediately followed by Marcie’s questioning voice, ” Kyle and Glori are BABES?”  Lol  I mean, yeah…yes, they are but no, that’s not exactly what I said! *DISCLAIMER* I have many FAVS by the way, and yes, all you FAVS are all babes as well. Though saying I have many favs discredits the meaning so maybe what I mean is I equally enjoy the company of many friends to different

Oa Nang Beach, Thailand

degrees????? YIKES….Moving on.  The other time that cracked me up, was during a conversation I said something plain like “elevator”.  Anyways, I said “elevator” and again from the outskirts of the conversation comes Marcie’s questioning voice, “Sarah what? Beef Belt Buckets??” Are you kidding me Marcie, beef belt buckets??  It didn’t even slightly resemble “elevator” or whichever word I said. And no it wasn’t a “B” word.  I give it to her for creativity though. Seriously, has the universe known that word combo ever before?? I highly doubt it.  And I also give her credit for giving me an awesome title for this post!

Anyways guys, things have been just moving along here in Cambodia.  If I wasn’t able to develop some sense of normality I would feel pretty unsettled.  Though I doubt not too many of you are often woke up by the garbage truck workers in the middle of the night singing at the top of their lungs as they collect the trash.  Cambodia…..Thank you! haha

Well please enjoy the photos of this, that and the other thing.  I will also leave you with this tip:

Smile…while you still have teeth 🙂

Sunrise in Takeo.

Gotta post the good pics big…or at least the pics I attempted to be artsy in! haha

And now….your beloved mosaic of photos 🙂

Abby and I heading out on our last day in Krabi at Oa Nang Beach

This is moments before we started fighting because we were so terrible as a team trying to paddle in the kayak.

Collage O Rama of some cool parts of ourThailand trip

Tiger Temple

Abby and Erika took the big hike…1237 steps to the top. It started raining when they neared the top but they still finished. My stupid knees were hurting so I only made it part way up. *shakes fist to the universe*

Three wet ding dings

Marcie the showcase rockstar and her funny non jaw protecting helmet and poncho!

Yikes, so we were driving along on our way to Oa Nang beach when we passed this sucker on the side of the road! EXTREMELY extremely poisonous. So when i picked it up i wore rubber gloves….don’t worry they were the thick kitchen kind. JOOOOOKES, I would puke and die before I went any closer! AHHHH

Just Cruisin!!! Letting the old hair blow in the wind shot! lol

There were soooo many monkeys walking along the fence line to get to another side of Railey Beach. A bit scary actually

Lets just say it was VERY sunny that day!

Cool cliffs!!!

So this was a secret shot…i know i am mean, of some pretty crazytown beach hair if i do say so myself!

This old man in a captains hat was so odd. He was doing yoga in his undies when all of the sudden he jumped up and pulled a hand stand. I tried to do one next to him…..JOKES. I just took a photo and laughed!

These boats were so interesting to me. So many photo opportunities.

This was at Railey beach.

See what I mean, these boats were just so interesting

The Lays chips in Thailand had a face on the top of the bags. Loved it!!!!

Night markets in Krabi

One of our favorite things in Thailand is their coconut ice cream! Seriously it is soooooo delicious

Cutie Kitty

Paddle Boarding at Oa Nang beach. Thought this was such a cool photo of Abby. They must be so happy to have a sister who loves taking photos. haha

Another super cool shot of Abby while we were out on the paddle boards. I had a waterproof bag so I sat on the board some and took photos.

The Marcie walking along the beach on the way back from Railey

Driving out to see the birds in Takeo, the sunset was epic for photos!

Takeo…..sooo beautiful. That’s all i have to say

So outside of Takeo we went birdwatching. Took FOREVER to get there but was super cool to see the nesting grounds. Dont’ ask me what they were but apparently we have them in Canada and later saw one outside our friends house. LOL

Working hard or hardly workin?

This was CRAZY wasp or bees nest! Look like a lizard got attacked though….gross but soooooo interesting

This was so hilarious….it was a mix of geese and ducks i think. You can sorta see their “shepherd”? of sorts on the far right.

So Abby and I got a parasite in Thailand. After days of being stuck at home and sheer boredom I started drawing on my fingers. Figured this portrayed the two of us well as to how we will feel next time we are offered street food!!!

Finally finished our bamboo painting for our living room.

I call this one…”Immediate Regret.”

Thought this was an interesting mural on the side of a building here in PP

One of the dangers of having clothes tailored in Cambo is finding the EXACT same material being used as napkins at one of the places we like to eat!

Khmer Regional 2015 with our buddy Frieda!

Attendance: People….1465, Rat…..1 Yes, near the end of the program we heard a big scream because a massive rat had been wandering around the seats! Wanna come visit me now???? ( That had never happened before, so you don’t hinder your plans)

I Know What You’re Thinking

Leeup….this little guy is so cute. He lives near the construction site of the new kingdom hall and is just sooooo beautiful!

It’s that time again! Blog time! *the crowd moans* “Yeeeeeehaw!” Haha. But it is true, it is time so stop complaining. It’s like brushing your teeth, you have to do it! *all current readers realize it ISN’T compulsory to read this blog whatsoever and is in fact nothing like brushing your teeth!*. So let’s DO THIS THING! * Again, all readers look at each other and question the obscure phrases and yelling that has already taken place.*

So thankfully our crazy arrival back to Cambodia did not carve a pattern for future events! In all truthfulness, everything has gone really smooth. It honestly has felt like we never left. Yet, so far both times I have returned to Canada, my Cambodian life seems like a dream as well. A hot…..and not a sexy hot but a sweaty hot….confusing stinky dream. *People ask themselves again why does this girl keep coming back here if it is like a terrible dream* So maybe you are asking yourself why I keep coming back to place that seems like a terrible dream!? And the answer to that is that it just keeps happening! And actually it isn’t like a terrible dream at all. I just crack jokes like that to try and make you laugh. *Two people fake laugh at this comment in the distance, but only because they are the giggling type people who are always smiling and basically laugh on command anyways!*

Scratching the bum of a pregnant tailess cow across the Mekong river this week. Dream come true eh Marc??

Since we have been here this round we have had quite a few torrential down pours leaving the ground rather saturated at times. One of these times we had gone across the Mekong River. Abby and I were looking for a woman I had spoken with previously down a long driveway. Well, she was no longer there, and a entire new home had replaced the shack that was once there. Before we were able to turn around an old man on a bike pedaled up from behind the house. When I asked if he knew the woman I was looking for he said to come with him. We walked away from the moto and he said we HAD to take it with us or it would get stolen. That is also the moment I could smell alcohol on his breath. 10:30am. No reason, just saying it was 10:30am. But hey it’s cocktail hour somewhere in the world right!? Wooooooooo *basically everyone shakes there head at the inappropriate humor except those two people again. But they don’t have a conscience* ANYWAYS we followed this guy…which as I write this sounds super dangerous, but you had to be there, and you would know it was fine. He called out to a woman who turned out to be his daughter. We talked for a bit with her which was nice and then figured we could go. As we said our farewells the old skinny man asked me for my sunglasses. The daughter slapped him and told me not to give them to him and gave me a look. I interpreted the look as a “ignore him he is drunk” kinda look. But now I wonder if it was a ” don’t give them to him, give them to ME” kinda look? Meanwhile Abby was getting the moto ready for us, but was stuck. She was the only one on the moto so to get it unstuck she cranked the accelerator. Well, while she was doing this she didn’t notice the old man helping push the moto, nor did she here me say “WAIT!” Remember I started this story off with explaining how saturated the ground was? Well we were in a bit of a mud pit, so when Abby hit the gas she literally plastered this old man with thick mud!! She turned to me completely oblivious as to what just happened and about to tell me to hop on. I looked at the old man and said a huge apology! Abby realized the mess and felt terrible and said sorry too. In many ways I was glad he was drunk because he barely looked at his clothes, looked at us and with a huge smile said “No problem! Thank you very much!” If I had no conscience like those two people that laugh at all my jokes I would have yelled “Bottoms up!” Or chanted “shots shots shots!” But thankfully my perceptive powers silenced me and we drove away. * Those two people still have no idea the depth of this humor, it’s meaning or intensity! They are joined by a few others and continue smiling, laughing and surprisingly….reading*

One day while Marcie was doing dishes I asked her if she wanted a tattoo

Self explanatory

as I wiggled the pen in my hand. I was thrilled she said yes so I asked her what it should say? She said “awesome!” *Everybody mouths to their friends…”LAME!”* And don’t worry I thought it was lame too. So I gave her a tattoo with my pen and left her to finish up. Later she was walking in the living room by our mirror and yells at me, ” POOP!!?? You didn’t write awesome you wrote POOP!!” Lol. Not an epic story but it brings joy and happiness to my life. And yes I made it seem as though I wrote a longer word!

TIP OF THE DAY
“Never yell at children. Lean in and whisper, it’s much scarier!”

*readers all agree this was a very abrupt ending and a weird tip! Especially considering the crazy amount of  pictures of kids in this post.*

 

Pretending to ride a moto together!

ANOTHER!!

And now your regular gallery I have gotten you so accustomed to!

This lady had really pretty eyes. She was a hard worker and had great PJs on!

Pet turtle anyone? Anytime I ever think of a pet turtle my parents words ring through my mind…”TURTLES CARRY DISEASE!!” lol

This is where we bought our fish named Pete. Yeah…P.P. died so now we have Pete.

Marcie and I sat on the very top of our apartment and I was playing with some settings on my camera, Lula. This one was on Dynamic Colors. oooooooOOOOOh

My attempt at catching a picture of lightning. Most nights we head on upstairs and watch the storms around us. And soak in a cool..ISH breeze.

Hard to see but this stand makes me laugh everytime. They are selling undies RIGHT next to the road. And this is a super busy road near the Independence Monument. Hilarious

Can you see the cow????

I bet you can see the cow now!!??

Scratching the bum of a pregnant tailess cow across the Mekong river this week. Dream come true eh Marc??

This woman! Soooo cute. I offered her my seat on the way back over the river on the Ferry. She kept squeezing my arm and whispering things to me. Made my day for sure! (took this pic secretly…thus the helmet in the foreground)

Random Baby……gotta have a random baby pic!

Made this for my poor sis back home in Canada who had to spend a boring painful week in the hospital. Killed me i couldn’t be there but she is on the mend! Love ya sis 🙂

See what I mean. look at little Leeup. Too much I tell ya.

Hanging out with my little buddies

Cuteness overload. Sorry to those readers who want funny commentary for every photo. Aint happening! haha

drying out the boots at the construction site.

Kids playing and singing together in front of the construction site.

Abby cutting hair for the volunteers at the site. Always such a fun day!!!

We bought a new BBQ and this is marcie trying to start a fire.

Creepy me taking pictures of people taking pictures and people getting pictures of them taken. Creepy

Banana TREE

Straw Berry Family

So after the meeting my little friend gave me this picture. It is pretty obvious she wants to be my bridesmaid for an unknown wedding I must be having. She said I am on the left and she is on the right. I mean come one….the veil, the train (thats not a tail) and the biggest give away was the banana shoes!

This baby ACTUALLY reached for me so i had to hold him. First thing he did was shut my visor on my helmet and then STARE!!!

EGGS at the market. I don’t know which bird they came from.

Bitter Melon

Three lovely ladies I met one morning!

Lock ‘N’ Load

Every single time I say my life is getting boring, something really bizzare happens. Before we left Canada I told people that I was getting bored. Now that doesn’t mean living in Canada is boring, but my personal everyday was heading towards the mundane. I kinda figured heading back to Cambodia would feel the same ol’ too, being this is my third arrival. Well, it’s time to grab a coffee and have a good read……. Because I am about to tell you exactly why our arrival can hardly be described as “same ol”!!!

That strange day had arrived where you wake up super early and slightly disoriented, rush to get ready, eat, double check your room to make sure you didn’t forget anything and head off to the airport. I can honestly say everything went super smooth. All the flights were good, had fairly good movies, slept a little and hey, we weren’t starred at by any Chinese families while we slept at the Shanghai airport this time! PERK! I spent quite a bit of time working out exactly how we would get from the airport to our apartment. Normally it isn’t that big of a deal except it would be midnight and we would have to hire 2 separate tuk tuks because we had so much stuff. I wanted to make sure we had trustworthy drivers as all three of us wouldn’t be able to ride together. Now remember, all I was doing was thinking about all this because naturally I am a worrier…..not a warrior. When we actually were arranging our rides home, I could sense we were being very well taken care of. The older gentleman was very nice in arranging our Tuk tuk rides, didn’t rip is off and was genuinely helpful.

We were off….everything was going well. The drivers stayed very close to one another and they took well lit roads and we were almost home when all of the sudden one of the Tuk tuks died!
The driver chuckled as he took all the luggage from the broke down Tuk Tuk and piled it beyond belief in the second one, leaving Abby literally with one butt cheek hanging out the side for the ride home. As we knew we had to pay this guy something, even though he didn’t get us all the way I offered a large portion of the original price. Well he made us pay the whole shot. I could have argued more than I did, but I was tired and done. So, on the road again we headed and quickly realized our driver had no idea where he was going. Thankfully we have this city well mapped out in our minds and we FINALLY made it home! *sigh of relief* We were safe, it wasn’t raining and our security guard was there to help us out.

All of our luggage was moved to the bottom gate that opens to our stairwell for the apartment when we noticed the security guard making several phone calls. Long story short the landlord had put a padlock on the gate and he didn’t have the key!! I told him we would need the key…now! He is a really nice guy and he was honestly trying. At one point, he put me on the phone with an annoying man who explained that one of the keys was with the landlord who had just flown to Thailand that night!!! I told this to the girls as all three of our heads were about to burst! It was already well past midnight, my brain was hurting trying to remember a language I hadn’t spoken in months and I was trying to embrace the reality of our situation. Our security guard offered for us to stay at the guest house across the street until the other key came at 8am. It is a $10 a night DIVE and we have friends who had stayed there once who will NEVER stay again. So…no thanks. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind if we slept in his dad’s Tuk Tuk parked in front of the store….and that is what we did! To some of you this sounds C R A Z Y and why wouldn’t we get a hotel or go somewhere. Well we had around 400 lbs of luggage, all the drivers were sleeping and by this time in all honesty I knew I wasn’t going to actually sleep and I had just HAD IT! So again, the Tuk Tuk it was.

It was between 1am and 1:30am that we actually found ourselves sitting in the Tuk Tuk. Marcie fell asleep pronto and Abby was out for a while too. I stayed wide awake and watched the street. Couple random cops came and stayed on the corner for 1.5hr which was nuts but good, mind you they were really loud and possibly drunk. I saw a big fat rat in the wood pile who was also really loud and possibly drunk. I played candy crush soda and passed a level that I had been stuck on for ages sooooo, that was nice. I also pondered how often I have looked down from our apartment at night and thought how spooky it looked! And yet, there we were with all our possessions and money, hanging out in an old tuk tuk in the middle of the night. Surprisingly I wasn’t that scared!

Aaaaaaaaaand she’s out!

Anyways, hours later I could hear our security guards phone go off. He answered it and told us we get the key sooner!! Soon a young man arrived and we had the key! We opened the gate and flicked the light on for the stairwell as it was still pitch black outside. Well at least we tried, but there was no power! And not only was there no power but the entire stairwell was filled with plaster and tile chunks, thick thick dust, boxes and tools. They had decided to renovate with new tiling and windows throughout the whole stairwell. It’s ok though, we were so close to actually being IN our place that we basically ignored the frustration of trying to carry heavy awkward luggage up a completely blacked out stairwell. Actually, now that I am thinking about it I am shocked we didn’t break our ankles. Every step was uneven and dangerous as we dodged tools, scaffolding and broken tiles. Hey….at least it wasn’t through a flooded street, right!!?? ( *Wink* For those of you who remember THAT story! Haha).

The stairwell…after I made a little pathway.

So finally, we were in! I was so excited to shower and just go straight to bed! My excitement was yet again taken back a notch to more of a, Are-You-Kidding-Me sorta mood. Yeah, so I guess I just assumed the lights not working in the hallway had no connection with our apartment, but they WERE connected! Yaaaaaaay! WE didn’t have power either. No lights, no fans and obviously no air conditioning! As we stood in the very hot living room in disbelief Abby noticed a very spicy aroma! NO it wasn’t me, it was coming from one of the large Rubbermaid containers we brought! One of our giant bottles of Frank’s Red Hot sauce had broke and was sloshing around. (YES, we bring back essentials!) We were too wired to wait till the morning to see what was soaked so we did it then. I could never have guessed how much eye stinging and coughing would occur in the following moments as we tried to rinse off hot sauce to the dim light of an old iPhone flashlight app! ( the next morning proved how dim the light was….. Looks like I tried rinsing things with wind. Basically just splattered red sauce everywhere. Lol)

Basically after the blinding hot sauce experience, Cambodia decided to stop embracing us with its warm welcome. I looked at the clock and it was 5:30am. I laid on my bed and proceeded to get a whopping 2 hours of sleep!

In the end of it all I remember telling the girls how you worry and pray so much that we would make it to our apartment safe and sound, I didn’t realize I should have been more specific in that we make it INTO our apartment safe and sound. Mind you in reality we did make it safely INTO our apartment….it just took a long time.

Well folks, that’s the story. I hope you used your imagination to create more images as I don’t have many photos to post! Please feel free to comment. I always enjoy hearing feedback! It means readers exist! Haha. By the way, WordPress doesn’t spam, and you don’t have to use your full name when prompted! If that is at all helpful to you 🙂

And of course, the tip of the day:
“Only trust people who like big butts, because they cannot lie!”

Look at these two ding dongs. jokes

ALLLLLLLL the junk/luggage I protected through the night!

What are these two thinking…PTSH, sleeping in a tuk tuk!!??

THE GATE…..ARGH! *Shakes fist and foot!*

Took this another night, looking down at WHERE we were.

Round 3

The three emotional stages before leaving. Strange excitement, fear and confusion and finally acceptance.

The time has come to pack away my sweaters and scarves of Canada and prepare myself for the grubby attire of Cambodia. That’s right, amping up for round three.  By this time next week, two of my three sisters and I will be sweatin’ to the oldies aka: perspiring drops of beauty in a land flowing with milk and honey. Uhhh…at least that’s what I am going to put out into the universe. The truth is, I have a bad feeling the heat is going to shock my system so much that I look like I JUST hopped outta the shower at any given moment for the first couple weeks until I readjust. By the way, I was thinking the other day how much I annoy myself by referring to my body as a system. For future reference I think I will call it….” My Temple!” Has a good Asian vibe too.

Speaking of….”my temple”….*pauses, winks and nudges listeners* lets talk feeeeeeelings. (HEY, sit back down and finish reading this!). More specifically, let’s talk pre-Cambodia feelings. Am I a nervous wreck? No, not really. I know what to expect I guess so I am calm and collected within my temple! I am obviously not thrilled about the sweat fest I am re-entering, but I am looking

Just pretty…..that’s all

forward to my normal routine. Our time back home is really busy and I hardly feel that I get the quality time I am always hoping for with friends and family. As I am sure you would all agree though, these days, who actually has time? Life is WAY too busy! And good grief does it throw you some curve balls! I think it’s all to be expected though, in a significant way!

Anyways, so I am not nervous but I always get a little pit of my stomach feeling of knowing how much I will miss family, friends, pets, places and certain foods. So for those of you who think I enjoy coming and going out of your lives as I please…..its truthfully really difficult! Not to mention how much I detest the actual traveling from place to place! Ugh….as I write this I envision packing….blaaaaa I hate packing.

You know I used to get so excited for flights! Especially the cool feeling stepping off the plane into the new terminal and people are all starring at you. There is a slight feeling of “celebrity status” as you walk confidently past the ones seated. BUT, then you realize EVERYONE in that room is about to get on a plane or has just gotten off a plane too. So yeah, not so special. You also start to realize instead of wasting your energy on having an inner smirk, you SHOULD have checked your hair as clearly you were sleeping, hard! And let’s be honest, your teeth are feeling rather fuzzy and you prob stink….at least a little! Come on, you know it’s true! Or what about how the first time you fly and how interesting the plane is! The compartments, the adjustable head rests, mini tvs and little forks and peanuts! Now though, everything is so annoying! My legs ache, I get bloated and anxious. The forks are so little!! Mostly I think I grew up and ” my temple” got too big!! And well, no offence but travelling to Asia the flight “snacks” are…. GROSS interesting.

This is Kona and the guilt trip look he was giving us on packing day! He knew!!

By the way, have you ever noticed when you are part of a crowd, or for the sake of the illustration, on a plane, that there always has to be a designated “whistler!” Seriously, there is always someone, usually an older gentleman that feels it’s their duty to whistle a little number for everyone. I actually met someone one day that said how much they loved a good whistle! Whaaaaaa!? No, there is no way! A good whistle, are you kidding me? Let’s all hold hands and declare together once and for all, a message for those “whistlers”…..please keep your whistles in their designated area. For example the shower, a lonely stroll through an empty park or your personal vehicle. Ok….deep breath….done now! Lol

Well, I have been typing for a while now and it’s not that I have run out of things to say, I just don’t want to ramble….more! I still have to upload photos, try to write clever notes along with the photos etc etc. You know, the regular gong show on SezKAPOW! So I will leave you with what I think of as a new feature on this blog! (Lets see if I even remember to do it every time.)
A life tip!
“Just because you are leaving the country doesn’t mean you have to eat E V E R Y T H I N G! People still eat outside of Canada, as opposed to popular belief! “

*NOTICE* I actually wrote this post a week ago and ran out of time. We are in Cambodia! I am extremely excited to write the next post because I have a crazy story to share, so stay tuned! I won’t make you wait too long either 😉

ONE LAST THING….As I had told you before, I bought a new camera. I named it Lula and I hope you enjoy my photo enhanced adventures with her!  haha

This years lip sync battle was epic! I love my family and our awesome traditions!

This was our lip sync battle set up! We meant business!

The view from behind our place. Walk up here often 🙂

If you remember last year I posted about these chips….get them people! So yummy. (This was how I found them on day….a gift!)

One of our last meals! Woooooooooooohooooooo

This picture makes me laugh so much! The look on Maui’s face as she gets a bit handsy….pawsy!

This was cool, I think this may have been the first time I saw a bear stand up on its hind legs!

Pretty cool view. Smoke filled Rocky Mountains!

So many cute deer bouncing around.

Hieeeeee

I love the lush vegetation in th forests at certain times of the year

More trees

Taken in the evening. The forest fires were bad this summer….but the sky did look cool!

This pic was taken in Montana. But even at home I can hear the trains at night and always love the sound!

I took this picture through the nest of the tent caterpillar. With the smokey sky I thought it looked pretty coo.

Went out driving in the back of a pick up and saw these!!

No this isn’t an ad for corn flakes. This was a picture I took of my buddy Raegan during our random photo shoot! Love it! ( with her fancy pants camera)

Went to the rodeo this year. Top an you believe this crazy stuff happens just 2blocks from my house. Lol

Look closely….this guy is literally upside down!

Ahhh….the Rockies!

Yes, another pet pic! But I love my pets….this is Kona running in the field. Action testing for Lula!

The two yorkies are my relatives with our Kona on the left. Just thought it was a cute photo.

Kona is very photogenic! He always loves resting his head on things! Too funny

This is a photo taken from my back deck. The stars in Alberta are so bright! Nice work Lula!

Even though this picture isn’t gluten free….it still was worth the post!

So some big dumb moving truck went down our road and blew the telephone wire. I had to direct traffic for a while and then helped our neighbor as he reattached the wires. (He used to work for the phone company so he knew what he was doing)

My brother had let me use his phone so Marcie and I left him this crazy selfie he didn’t discover for a while! Haha

 

Mystery Break

This is how I feel most days! ( Our dog Koba. Non stop entertainment from him!)

Wooooooooooo- Eeeeeeeeee!! So THAT was a big break from blogging wouldn’t you agree!? I was actually helping you strengthen your sense of patience! So…..your welcome! I also try to build anticipation within my readers. Bit of mystery never hurt anyone. Well that’s not entirely true if your solving crime, but let’s not get too technical here.

Anyways, the real reason for the silence on Sez KAPOW is that my sisters and I have made our way back to Canada for work and a

Our second campsite after having nosy neighbors!

visit with family and friends. We will be back in Cambodia next month! Yup, round three is just around the corner. The past couple months have had their moments of course. Even our trip back was pretty interesting. Our first lay over was spent in Shenghai, China. We arrived very early in the morning and were exhausted. The airport was pretty empty, especially at the one end. There were hundreds of empty seats, so the three of us set up camp to try and sleep. Was really nice until I was woken up by an older Chinese woman and her son who had come and sat directly across from me…… starring! Literally, she sat in the seat immediately next to Abby’s feet. My first thought was, “oh wow, this airport must have got busy!” I then peered around at the hundreds of empty seats surrounding us and my very next thought was, “What on earth are they thinking!?” Followed by, ” I better write this down for my next post!”

Knife Throwing…..TOTALLY got bulls eye and NO I didn’t cheat. I am just THAT GOOD! haha (The second of the only two times my knives actually stuck! I wasn’t good at all!)

It has been very refreshing to be home for the summer. Lots of good visits with friends and family. Learning a few things too. I spent one evening throwing knives at a wooden bulls eye which was fun. What started as a quiet BBQ with friends turned into a Wild West evening of bow ‘n’ arrow shooting, fire starting and knife throwing! Felt like I was in the back of an old bar in central Mexico or somewhere pinning people’s sleeves to walls with knives and demanding answers! Well……it kinda felt like that. Haha.

At this point you might be worried about my safety! You will be happy to know I am implementing safety in many aspects of my life. For example, I learned I have to be a bit more safe when singing! Couple weeks ago while I was doing a little of this and a little of that and I was also singing a little tune in a slightly high pitched voice to myself. I ended up literally straining my left vocal chord so bad I couldn’t drink or talk for 2 hours! You can only imagine the pain I was in but how much I wanted to laugh!! My family has not let me forget how dumb that was! And I don’t blame them! It was so dumb! But let this be a lesson to us all. Extreme singing CAN be a dangerous sport, so be careful. For the less experienced extreme singers, please start off slow with maybe a light hum! And always remember, it’s all fun and games until someone pulls their vocal chord!

Third thing I have learned these days is how gross I am. Recently I opened up a bag of “loads of Ketchup” chips from Super Store. Oh my goodness, that bag hardly had a chance! It wasn’t till I was half way through inhaling the bag that I realized it tasted weird and gross. They had been expired for 7 months! I think I bought them last summer, hid them, found them and SHOULD have thrown them out, but didn’t! …..hello, my name is Sarah, I consume expired food and I am really gross!! Lol.

Well, I think it’s safe to say there isn’t much mystery left about my internet silence.

PICTURE TIME.  Well I honestly don’t have many photos to post this round.  Sorry.  Reason being, I spent a lot of time choosing a new camera and didn’t want to invest to much time in junk photos. haha Now though, I have a fancy pants new camera to astonish you with my mega picture taking skillz…..Jokes. Not likely!  At least starting next post, photos shouldn’t be so grainy! PERK!!

Thanks for reading everyone!!

This was at the Shenghai airport. See, I wasn’t exaggerating about the emptiness. Can you find Waldo…I mean Marcie??

The worst jet lag ever! My first morning I went out to the deck with my favorite coffee mug and took this pic. It basically summed up my feelings!

While I drank coffee and tried to regain energy…..these two turkeys figured they would help me out by making me even more tired!

So….outside of Calgary my truck stopped. Neither Abby or I had a phone! Was quite the experience flagging someone down off the highway. Again….long story short. Was nutzo!

Couple shots of the convention this year. So much fun to see my Cambo buddy Dani! Always so nice to attend with family and see their parts 🙂

Sandpoint Idaho…..LOVE this beach! Family Va-Ca

This isn’t an amazing shot or anything but I thought it was note worthy. Was so cool to look at!

Yes, she is just pretending. Long story short… it is a super expensive awesome hunting bow that got a little wrecked. Our friend had just bought it…and as far as I know…had to get it fixed. But beyond that…it was pretty cool!

So on our little family trip we took, Abby talked Marcie and I into going shopping at the outlets instead of going to the beach. We finally arrived to find out the outlets had been completely closed and abandoned! *SHAKES FIST*

JASPER…..Love this kitty. He is such a cutie pie. A BRAT!!!! But love him

Abby was at work and she wasn’t wearing gloves…..haha. So lovely!!

Five Good Ones

Marcie at the evening market…driving through….slowly!

I am going to level with you. I have five share-worthy stories that have very little in common with each other. So instead of creating links, or using clever smooth transitions, I am going to just spit them out one at a time! Boom boom boom! No time is better than the present so here goes, grab your coffee and enjoy 🙂

My first story is from actually from today when in a zombie-like manner I was stuffing my face with delicious popcorn and watching ” the Nanny” ( Wow, I sure don’t leave anything to the imagination do I! Is Sarah cool? Apparently not!!) Now, like any average human being, when I dropped a kernel next to me I reached to grab ‘er and pop it back in my mouth. As I did this, without looking, I realized two long DISGUSTING hairs from along the couch came attached and went directly into my mouth! BARF! So gross. So you are probably thinking we live like gross people and don’t clean…that’s the thing, we do clean! But let me tell you, those hairs were not mine and this really scares me.

Stuffing the ol’ face again!

Next story happened yesterday while Abby was driving her moto with one of our friends on the back. She had to make a left hand turn and cross traffic. (For those Aussie readers, that means we drive in the correct side of the road here) There was an older gentleman coming from the other direction with his wife on the back of his moto. He was driving quite slowly and Abby wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing, so she stopped to let him turn or just pass by before she crossed his path. As she patiently waited, she said he was not hiding the fact that he was staring at her. ( As I have mentioned before, this happens ALL the time!) Well, he could not break his stare even as he passed her, he kept his eyes glued on her to the point that his head was turned around. He must have been thrilled to see such a pretty lady and even more thrilled when he rammed into the guy ahead of him causing a little accident! Lol! And the even funnier part was what he told the guy that he hit. The girls heard him say to the guy “Sorry, I was looking at her! I thought SHE was going to hit me!”

Story number 3 happened recently when one of my friends was moving

This is the best part of the hot season!!!! MANGOS!!!

home from Cambodia, so a group of us met at the airport to see her off. While we were standing in a circle chatting, as humans tend to do.  While we were talking a man approached the circle. He made a very confident entrance to the group so we all assumed he was a friend of someones, so we opened the circle and let him in. I stood there waiting for conversation between the two “friends” to commence. Well, it never started. Someone finally said hello, but this guy never responded. He just stood there, smiling….rather oddly I should add and then turned around and left. We all asked each other who that was….no one knew. Awkward!!!

This next one cracks me up! Another friend of mine met a young Khmer guy a couple weeks ago. He asked how old she was, so she told him. He then instantly broke out in a show tunes type singing voice and repeated her age “saaaaaaaaaam moooooooo-eeeeeeeeee!” ( Sam moohie is her age in Khmer.) Talk about breaking the ice! Needless to say it was hilarious and now an official and regular catch phrase!

Okay guys, let’s end this post with a really good one. So two days ago our friend Jordan was out selling his wife’s old moto. He was negotiating the price he would sell it for when something rather odd happened. So the shop guy was trying to get him to accept less money, and his way of doing this was by saying “I’m so pooooor!” While he said this to Jordan he reached out and started to fondeling Jordan’s…..eh hm, chest!! Was this his way of trying to sweeten the deal?? Anyways, Jordan immediately slapped his hands away, though he wanted to slap the guy in the face. And shall I mention this was a brave move on this guys part, let alone for anyone as Jordan is a power lifter. THEN, the guy gets all pouty and says ” Why are you being so mean to me!?” HA! What a terrible negotiating protocol! Apparently the rest of the transaction was half normal and fairly quick. Though they charged Jordan $2.50 for the receipt and tried to take his helmet too. Lol my guess is these guys aren’t taking any entrepreneur seminars for sales tips and keeping customers, or is that a shot in the dark!?

LOL!!

Well that about wraps it up for this post! Thanks for reading everyone!  Hope you enjoy the photos and the rest of your coffee!! Saaaam Mooooo-eeeeeeee! * takes a bow and curtain closes*

Always embarrassing getting caught studying for a part at the meeting….during the part! Hehe

Do I need to explain why this is too darn cute!?

You see these pots and mini bbq type pots outside almost all the homes. Its how things get done!

ALWAYS see guys sitting on the top of trucks!!

Just another gigantic load of stuff

So this was interesting. After we drove on this mini road as the actual road was being worked on we saw a moto shoved under one of these trucks! YIKERS!!!

I just liked the way all the colors looked along the sky! That being said, i dont recommend hanging clean laundry on barbwire fences…..holes like crazy i would assume!

Out in service playing with the alley cats!

Barely caught the side shot. But it was pretty impressive. Though it did fall over just before this picture….I patiently waited for them to pick up and get going again. AND I WOULD HAVE HELPED…but it was way out of reach at the time!

Back view of quite the load

Finally a medical information card that made room for individuals like myself…..HINT: Pen is pointing…

Wonder why my Dad don’t eat with his legs crossed at the table?

Always so nice to see ones actually taking care of their pets here! Few and far between. Mind you its hard taking care of Marcie, so I understand at times!!

And I quote ” Scissors for the cutting hair of the nostrils”. LOL!!!

uhhhh…arm covers…..AKA SLEEVES! what on earth is the world coming to!!??

WOW!!!! Where have you been all my life!?

WOW!!!!! SOOOOOOO GORGEOUS

50 cent coconut shakes!!! SO DELICIOUS

This was a nice scoopy moto too….held on by two little ropes. We were heading the same direction for a while…cringed as we went over a few speed bumps!

Had six missionaries over one afternoon for some haircuts. Abby made them sit in the corner! haha (short trimmer cord) Had such a lovely time and great conversation of course!!

Some of the things you see at the market are so beautiful and some are so scary! haha

Here….let me put a non breathable polyester cape on you for a good 20mins! lol

Abby and I went to the new hall build, which will be the 5th actual hall in Cambodia. When we first arrived there wasn’t even one yet!!! Anyways, Abby did around 10 haircuts in the tool shed/salon. It was 40’C out that day so even hotter in the shed. But it was a great experience!

Driving past the Independence Monument. One of our biggest landmarks for directions around here. haha

So how awesome is this. Take any pair of shoe or a picture and get it dupicated and tailored to your size exactly in leather for 20 bucks and up! (bottom ones are the remakes. Fit LIKE A GLOVE!) Good reason to come visit me!!

These crazy bugs…which have a name i dont remember and far too lazy to look up…are gigantic. Cambodians are really afraid of them because they of superstitions.

Abby took this photo and I had approval of Marcie to post!! But anyways, how funny are her hands! What a bratty cutie!

The sad reality of any tropical climate. The mini ants that come! We woke up one morning to this. I had already sprayed them but there were thousands…not to mention the line of them leading to the door! BLA

Sometimes I get a very strong vibe during the meetings that I am being watched!

And This Makes Fifty

Seriously, this made the entire trip. I could pet elephants all day!

Hello Readers! So believe it or not, but this is my blog’s 50th post. In some ways 50 isn’t that big of a number, especially if it’s your age!  *inner monologue “clever girl! Winning the hearts of ALL ages now baby!!” But let’s be honest, in terms of how many times I have hooped ya into listening to me….pretty certain 50 means “win” on my part!  I am a little bit surprised actually that I have maintained a regular supply of posts.  And yes, they may only come around once a month or so, but amazingly enough….they come!  I apologize that maybe my stories aren’t equally exciting every post, but I do try to keep the pictures interesting.  In all honesty the whole reason I started this blog was mostly to make an easy way for my family and friends to see my photos and to catch a glimpse of our journey here in Cambodia. By word of mouth, links and requests it has spread to many people around the world.  Actually, to be exact, this blog is followed and or has been read in 76 different countries.  Pretty crazy to me.  I often receive comments from ones who read this blog who share with me how much they enjoy the stories, photos and drawings.  I always try to reply to comments, but to all of you again, thank you very much and I am glad you enjoy my shinanangans!  I also get lots of feedback that people want to comment more but don’t like their info on display, so here’s a little hint.  If you have not commented before, I have to “ok” the comment before it becomes public. Simply mention you don’t want the comment public and I will keep it to myself 🙂

Anyways, blah blah blah. Get all those formalities over with.

This is what you get for picking your nose all the time Cambodia!!!

Let’s get into what I really have to say.  Fair warning though, I have waited a bit too long and have gotten a bit too far into the hot season to hold back my hatred towards the heat!!  I am not kidding.  When the hot season starts, you realize the change but try your best to be strong, adapt and go about your business as it seems everyone else is.  But at some point a person suddenly realizes they never actually dried off from any of the 3-5 showers they had taken that day.  They realize that only one thing can cure the inner rage against the equator’s intense boiling effect is air conditioning…a/c….air con. What ever you wanna call it.  The sad thing is the only place to get the strongest and best a/c is not from your house, but from the office supply store downtown that you have to make up fake reasons to visit to cool down.  We are talking, wandering through the loose leaf paper isles and pondering for ages over reinforcements and paper clips and leaving with a 30 cent highlighter.  I mean, who doesn’t love looking at stationary anyways, but let me tell you…..THE BEST A/C folks!!   Another cure would be a “delicious bass!” Mind you when I say delicious bass I actually mean a coconut shake! YUMMO!!! So good, love coconut shakes!  Anyways, for the record, I still believe living here is like living in a blow dryer! Just saying……terribly designed blow dryer equipped with only super hot heat setting!

 

Ancient Cambodian ruins, us, camera…..equals fun!!! SO COME VISIT!!! We will ruin something for you 🙂

Last month the girls and I made it up to Siem Reap.  Had awesome visits with great friends and of course, finally got to see Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat is a massive temple built back in the 12th century. (Brain Tip: Wat means temple.) So yeah…OLD!  It’s massive and truley just super interesting to see first hand.  Scattered around the Angkor Wat temple itself are many smaller but equally interesting temples too.  The movie Tomb Raider was filmed at Ta Prohm.  And another temple we saw was Bayon which had crazy faces carved all over it. Anyways, take a peek at the photos.  The detail and architecture are wild, especially for buildings that are truly ancient.  For those of you fishing for more detail, I will let you google the stats. And also though it took us forever to finally visit Siem reap, I feel knowing some of the culture and language made the historical impact of Angkor Wat that much more intriguing. That is something for me because I struggle to enjoy history!

Anyways, beyond the blazing temperatures we have been enduring, life has been pretty average these days.  Mind you, when I say average I mean in terms of Cambodia. So daily we still battle bizzarre traffic jams, constantly dodging all types of doo doo on the street and muddle our way through conversations in a foreign language.  Although I have noticed a rise of moto accidents at our corner these days.  They always happen at night when I am sleeping and they always send an absolute shot of adrenaline through my system.  I will save you from the graphic details of some of what goes on, but the other night was the craziest accident.  Seriously, the LOUDEST crash I have heard yet. So of course I fly outta bed in a daze, and wait 2 seconds to remember where I am.  This time when I looked out the window I saw two guys running down the street. One still had his helmet on but the guy trailing behind didn’t. They didn’t get too far before they stopped and started walking back toward the accident. Turns out the guy in the helmet was one of the two drunk idiots who smashed a garbage truck.

Take that HISTORY!!!! IN YO FACE!

Thus the loud crash.  They damaged the truck and didn’t want to pay damages, so took off running.  The garbage truck workers are required to compensate for damage to the truck, which explains why they chased down the moto drivers.  (that’s third world regulations for ya!). I don’t think anyone was hurt too bad…..this time.  Sooo crazy though.  As I mentioned before, these accidents are usually at night and thus why we normally don’t go out after dark.  Abby and Marcie never ever hear the crashes from their room, which blows my mind.  Nope, just me.  At least I am not boring the girls in the morning relating my retarded dreams anymore!

Well I hope you have enjoyed the majestic rambles of this blog’s 50th post!!  Please enjoy the photos and be sure to read all the descriptions. Not because they have intellectual benefits, but because they take forever to write and should be read! Please comment if you want to, I love the feedback 🙂

PS. This just in….So all my efforts to deliver this post to you was delayed by the one and only techno queen Abby. *insert sarcasm* So I had asked my trusty proof reader Abby to check my post before it blew up the internet.  So I knew something was wrong when she starts asking me a question that had words like “Um, What, Why” and “DELETE” in it.  Turns out she deleted my photo gallery.  I fixed it….but this is to you Abby. Endless thank yous for always proof reading my blog, but please don’t ever do that again! luv ya sis

Look in the background behind Dani and I….the cutest ever….PILLAR! And Marcie is there too!

Seriously, every morning is like a new sculpture on the top of Marcie’s head. I have been keeping track of the best ones for a long time.

This is what we literally do everyday to get our food. Often we don’t even take our helmets off when buying our veggies! ( which get cleaned very well when we get home!!!)

Just snapped this picture out of the tuk tuk on our way to Angkor Wat which you can see in the distance! So beautiful!

Those creatures have some serious hip issues!

This was taken just past the big entrance way to the main grounds. Could have spent all day on this walkway!

No major destination is complete without at least one selfie from Lamb Chops. My traveling mascot!

so……I laid on the ground and took this. Kinda odd…yet kinda cool…KINDA!

This was such a cool part of the wat. And no body else was checking it out!! PHOTO OP!!

Seriously!!! Check out this detail! Probably all done with a little chisel, an old hammer and some elbow grease!

Hello topless dancers….close your eyes!!!! Eeeeeek!

Angkor Wat vs Samson!?

Gorgeous flowers with the Wat’s MASSIVE moat in the back ground. This moat was man made and remarkably made almost perfectly! Its so huge!

Marcie could hardly contain her extreme excitement. That or is was gas.

The photos don’t do justice of course but these trees, which I knew about beforehand, blew my mind. I didn’t realize they would be so massive!

The way these MASSIVE trees grew through out the temple was amazing!

This doorway was quite short….like my geeky sister…s…LOL

These trees here at Ta Prohm are so amazing. This is where Tomb Raider was filmed.

Short doorway, check! Cool root system, check! Topless ladies, yet again…CHECK! PS I don’t promote topless ladies, they promote themselves it seems!

I love taking TACKY tourist photos. If ever you find yourself getting bored on trips, go with the theme TACKY TOURIST, which will certainly come easier for most of you I am sure! haha jab jab. Jokes

Tiny Apsara Dancer carved into the wall. Or was that Tony Danza? Whaaaa? Anyone get that reference??

WE SAW MONKEYS!!

This was our official Tuk Tuk driver in Seim Reap. Read the side of his tuk tuk. I asked him who came up with his tag lines and he had all on his own. So much fun with Vet!

Such an interesting and sorta bizzare face filled temple.

Just another pic of me trying to be funny and looking super touristy!

Some pillars and stuff. Maybe the middle thing was a BBQ….back in the day

Slightly smaller doorways than its neighbor Wat Angkor.

Look at that smile. SO FAKE looking. It also makes me think the model for this carving was thinking…teeth…no teeth??!!

Couldn’t resist the shot. This grandma and grand daughter shot was just too cute to miss!

 

 

Smooth Transitions

Helmet Selfie….The best kind of selfie if you live in Cambo. Why….helmet hair!

Oh, so the other day, had a good old belly laugh, when one of my buddies dropped her sunnies in a pile of poop on the street!  I DID feel bad, and maybe she wasn’t necessarily laughing as whole heartedly as I was, but that really doesn’t matter. It was just too funny and I just had to share that with you.  But anyways, speaking of sunnies and sun protection in general….my view on such things has definitely changed since moving to Cambodia.  Before coming here tanning was a summer hobby. Now, tanning is the terrible truth of everyday life.  I say this because never are you hidden from nerdy farmers tans, sandal tans that ruin the look of any other nice shoe that has different shape to it, the famous raccoon eyes tan from your sunnies or the dreaded tan moustache! So terrible!  And besides the sheer vanity of it all, being in the direct sun is just WAY more hot.  So I sadly have adopted SOME of the bizzare habits almost anyone from Asia has grown up with.  For example, I often wear a long sleeved shirt on the most piping hot days if I plan on walking around outside.  I am rarely without my umbrella!  When we are driving around and have to stop at a light, we always look for the trees and squish into the shade along with all the others hiding!  Cloudy days have become my happy days!  Now, I hope you noticed I said I that I have adopted SOME of the habits.  I am not an extremist. So you won’t see me wearing flesh toned toe socks with  my flip flops (or thongs for you Aussies).  I won’t hide under a scarf flapping in the wind on a moto.  I also don’t think I could possibly handle wearing gloves unless we were driving for a long time.  Actually, since you brought that up, we did go on a road trip recently!

Abby, Marcie and myself drove to Takeo on our motos a couple weeks ago.  Everyone warned us about how scary it was and that

This is us…all packed up and about to hit the road.

we shouldn’t do it…..BABIES!!! It wasn’t bad at all. Seriously, we were only run off the road twice and it wasn’t that bad! We even saw an elephant on the way there!  I mean we all lost the feeling in our butts for about an hour or two but if that’s the price a girl has to pay to be wicked cool…..SO BE IT! LOL  Actually at one point if we didn’t stop I was going to either cry, jump off or pee my pants! We stopped…..once! *starts handing out random high fives*

On the topic of  high fives, who would high five me in agreement that the word SLACKS is just too dumb.  RIGHT!!?? Come on people, growing up how many times did your mum comment on your jeans and call them SLACKS!  Yeah, you know its true!  Super geeky word! SLAP SLAP SLAP! *loving all these high fives*

Driver…The Marcie….Destination….already there. Takeo! PS. behind those sunnies she had tears, sore bum tears! lol

Funny story, I slapped Marcie while we were in Takeo. SHE has not learned the importance of sun protection. She drove the entire way with no sunscreen.  The gift at the end of that move was amazingly misplaced, extremely strong tan lines on her knees, chest, arms and feet! haha  She is always getting terrible sun burns despite my encouragement to care for her skin.  Oh well, not my problem. So says the older annoyed sister! Jokes.

Speaking of annoying things, can you believe I gulped down two coconut shakes right before we headed home from Takeo on the motos. The DUMBEST thing I have done lately!  They were so delish though!  Oh wait, no the dumbest thing I did was only yesterday when I piped up and started complaining about some spider veins on my ankle.  As I was complaining to Abby I was rubbing my ankles and the veins slowly disappeared.  So mid sentence I had to correct myself as the veins were actually just dirty ankles!

Segway, enjoy all the photos. They are a mash up of Takeo, random Phnom Penh stuff and also shots of when we had friends

What can I say….one of the most surprising visitors. My long time buddy Tui from way back when I used to live in Australia. Was so nice to catch up 🙂 Thanks for coming TUI. And bringing your weird friends! LOL

visit from Australia.  My good ol’ buddy Tui, from years ago when I lived on the gold coast came with his friends Thomas and Ellen. ( bro and sis)  Had a blast!!  Its amazes me how many people I have met up with from years ago in of all places…Cambodia!

This might seem random but, I should probably just mention to please feel free to use any of my “smooth transitions” for your local conversations.  They are easy and fun ways to change topics! See, reading this blog provides you with entertainment and great life hacks!……..BA HA HA

The lotus flower!

Those are powerlines!

This makes me laugh, looks like she has trees growing out of her head!

FINALLY finished this super weird painting. Seriously, the weirdest one I have done. Anyways, this is basically the only artwork you guys get this post….enjoy!

GRoSs!!!! Frozen Angry Birds Fish Cakes

This is where we get some of the yummiest little cupcakes in town. Get six for 50 cents! Or 5…depends if she wants to rip you off or not!

Tui does reflexology! BUT I NEVER GOT ONE! ARGH! lol

I just LOVE this photo so much. These kids just met Marcie and were watching some Kaleb videos. Such cuties.

The ending of a truly epic game of animal. If you haven’t played it….you are missing out. Ellen won!

All lined up like we mean business….when really we just wanted coconut shakes and cupcakes!

Abby, Tui and I after a morning across the river!

Was able to catch this fun shot of Thomas and Ellen! Awesome

Ellen, Thomas and Marcie enjoying their rice wrapped banana treats! YUMMO

This is right before we headed out on the road to Takeo…..The butt pain hadn’t started yet! haha

What the drive looked like most of the time…

This is the elephant we saw as we were driving. Not a great shot as it’s a screen shot of a video I took. Anyways, that doesn’t matter at all does it. Apparently this guy sells medicine. #black market? # keepsitinthetrunk??

This is why i don’t play Catan. I make foolish mistakes like this one and actually place a settlement here. Part way into the game I fully realized that everyone else was picking up cards everytime the dice rolled….and not me! At LEAST I got blue houses….love blue!

In Takeo we slept on the balcony under a bug net. I woke up to this precious beauty…….lol….awwwww

Our friend Glori and the chunkiest little puppy. He pooped on her! lol

Our street… so glad we don’t have a car.

Invitation work was a bit frightening…. dodging bats!

Fishermen out on the river

I always love going across the river! So much more relaxing than the city!

Mangos are in season! CHECK EM OUT

PHOTO CRED. TUI…..This lady must have just been released from the hospital.

This is the view Kyle and Glori have from their balcony. The old boat is from Vietnam. Apparently some people smuggling in wood I think. They got caught and the boats been there for a few years now.

One morning in Takeo our kind host Kyle (married to Glori) thought it might be funny to scare me. He did, and I spilt my yummy coffee all over the cushion AND my shorts! Had a good laugh and a good shower!

in the tops of these trees you can see a little girl gathering fruit!

Wide open spaces, crazy dirt roads….skirts and motos. Fun times.

Hollywood Boulevard?

LOVE the baby cows here. Just LOOK at those ears! So darn cute!

I was told I could post this if I explained that we have to put the extra ugly button up shirts on because of the dust and the sun. And because it is FUN TO SWEAT!

I would have stood at the top but i didn’t trust I wouldn’t come to my crashing finale! Also it was windy and I was wearing a skirt!

Maybe I should start a talk show called Tuk Tuk Talk. People can hide from the sun and chat with me 🙂

Abby found the yummiest recipe for GF choc chip cookies! OH MY GOODNESS. I wanted to eat them all.

The Big 2

Across the river, it is a whole different world. Love this sorta stuff. And love being away from all the cement of P.P.

Believe it or not but recently Abby and I had our 2 year Cambodian anniversary. KAPOW! My first thoughts straight away are that I hate saying anniversary anything unless it has to do with a wedding. Mind you that might not be entirely true and I could just be at complete and utter wits end with my sister and don’t want to be linked together with her by using such an intimate word like anniversary!! And yet, that also might be untrue, and I may or may not have said it solely for an “emotional roller coaster/ juicy shock factor” intro for this post. That’s what it was meant to be anyways. *sigh* Seriously, I have been trying to think how to start this blog out for a while. My poor sisters have heard an earful of me trying to figure out my….and I quote myself,  ” Two Year Blog

This poor little kitty was just waking up.

Extraordinaire!!” Already falling short as I had to start the post off with a boring lie. LOL! I guess I thought I might have felt different when the actual time rolled around. You know, more filled with excitement, experience and inspiration. Honestly, I just feel bloated! Moving on…

Well alright….2 YEAR BLOG EXTRAORDINAIRE let’s do this thing! Ok, so two years. Whoa! It is actually so crazy. For a place as unique as Cambodia is, everything seems so natural and normal to me…. But yet I still always have my camera! There will always be something nutso to photograph. The things that surprise me the most lately are probably more the things people do and say. For example I was visiting a lady a while ago when suddenly she told me to wait a moment as she slipped into her home. I waited and waited until finally I see her poke her face partially out from behind the wall, as though I might not see her. I think she was trying to hide the fact that she was using that time to slowly and awkwardly chew a banana!? When I called out to her and said good bye she thanked me soooooo much for coming! Lol not exactly sincere! Haha! Just yesterday though, I had a lady run out of her home as she saw me approach with arms wide open and said…”welcome home!!” I was surprised because she hadn’t spoken english to me before. Turns out that’s all she knew! It was too cute!

Maybe Marcie is the not so bright old lady in Speed?? Jokes 😉 I know its me.

One big thing that is different this year, is that we are doing a bit more traveling. So that means bus rides! I don’t know about everyone else, but for a large portion of my life now, every time I sit on a bus of any kind I usually start working out the different characters of the movie SPEED. Like who is the Keanu Reeves going to be and can he please sit next to me? Jokes! Mind you he doesn’t start off on the bus does he? Anyways, I mean obviously I play Sandra Bullock’s part and just totally make amazing decisions that save the entire bus! I try to avoid working out who has the gun but always wonder if the bus driver and I would develop a first names kinda friendship. In reality, I am more likely the dumb lady that tried to get off the bus because the swat team tempted her….yikes! Anyways, riding a bus in Cambodia is not much different from that movie. Minus old men yelling they are sick from the back seat and running out to the road side. That’s a cambo perk!

Last year I wrote a list for my Blogoversary and this year will be no different. So here it is the
“List of Things Sarah Learned in 2014!”
1. Cambodia still has the loudest nutso scream sneezers!! Said it a year ago and I am restating it as proven fact!  Scream sneezers are those who feel compelled to YELL their sneezes instead of just sneezing.  It cracks me up though, every time I hear one I point and tell everyone around me..”SEEEEEE….EVERYWHERE YOU GO, SCREAM SNEEZERS!!”

2. I am a world class procrastinator which means I am qualified to say …stop waiting!! Right times are created and worked towards. The only right times that appear out of thin air are the occasional photo ops! Even then you have to get the right angle!

Clearly I am ALSO a time waster….playing too much Candy Crush!

3. If something is important to you, you will find a way. If it isn’t, you will find an excuse!

4. Eat good! Makes you feel…..good! And that’s….good! Oh and don’t eat Indian food and then have a dance off with your friends because you will go home and puke! Again, proven and tested fact!

5. I really don’t admire fans. Not all the people that cheer me on…(lol) no no, I mean the fans that you plug in. I hate how they blow in my face and makes strands of my hair dance around and tickle my face! Especially when I am eating. Argh, drives me bonkers! But I also hate sitting in sweat…..so fine, I will deal with the fan, but just know I don’t like it!

6. It’s embarrassing to admit, but deep down inside I think vegetable costumes are hilarious. I once saw a commercial that had a normal old asparagus guy checking his mail when an unmarked vehicle came and kidnapped him. Soooo dumb and hardly makes sense, but so funny.

See what I mean!? Veggie costumes are ridiculous and funny!

7. No one is perfect. So there is no reason to be super sensitive because you aren’t perfect either.

8. Periwinkle is a horrible color. The way it looks and sounds, don’t like it.

9. I like taking care of things. Not important things like babies, but cute little things like our little beta fish named P.P. ( Our family has always named our pets after places, so this little fish was no exception. P.P is short for Phnom Penh) I am also great at ” Taking care of Business….Everyday!!” Haha random musical interlude!

10. The biggest thing I learned was to stop being anxious! We have been told this for centuries, but thankfully this year I think it has reached my heart!! I do my best today and go to bed knowing I will do my best tomorrow!

Evolution of the Circle people. Believe it or not the beloved Circle People were years of evolution….sorta! LOL For a long time i used to draw Bean People that jiggled all the time. Basically I got really lazy and thought circles would be the easiest way to reenact scenes that happened to me. I LOVE expression and figured why not focus on the face and throw TONS of feeling into the character.   At first they didn’t have too much detail, and even today…not too much detail. I love simplicity. (that is what lazy artists tell you! LOL)

Well….looks like I should probably wrap things up. * Sits back and waits for an inspirational light beam to appear above me* Hmm, well the light beam never appeared. Sorry guys, I will just have to wing it.  THANK you so much for following Abby, Marcie and I on this journey.  I hope that I have encouraged, not scared you to reach out for similar experiences!  Moving to a place that genuinely needs help, for as long as I am able to help anyways, has been life changing!  And yeah, everyday isn’t marshmellows and panda bears, some days are more like old beans and rabid monkeys.  Is that a metaphor? Anyways, as I mentioned before……one day at a time. And as my Dad always says, ” One day closer to Paradise!”

So my good ol’ buddy Erika married an artist, Aaron. We figured we might combine our talents and came up with this little number!!!

Gets really dusty on them roads right there eh!!!

yes i have demon eyes but this is the only picture we got and its worth sharing. Can you SEE how much luggage we had. This is after we arrived in Battambang and rented a moto.

I just imagine someone in the background always yelling out , ” THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM!”

River Boats

The country side is just so beautiful here!

Abby and the Marcie make amazing Lebanese food!!!

Lebanese food calls for youtube salsa dance lessons!!!

Can you see these guys! SCARY

Oh my goodness my life search is over! I wanna meet the commercial photographer for this magnificent can too. Whoah…egg on beef hash! Dreams really do come true!….Sorry, just barfed in my mouth a little!

Anyone care to join me in a capsule of death?

On the ferry headed across the river 🙂

No beatin’ around the bush here!!

So…Abby got herself a decent bruise and we were on one hand glad it wasn’t a cast, but treated it as if it were. By the way we had just watched Batman, thus the epic quote!!

Soooo, a little while ago, Abby was looking at my photos and found this one. She asked me how I got it. I said I took it when we were bringing our microwave home on the moto. I got in trouble because I was being wreckless. oops! hehe

How cute is P.P.!!?? We are happy to have this little guy. Plus he is so pretty! At first we couldn’t stop laughing at his name, but now it totally suits him!

I almost went up to her and asked her where I could get a hoodie just like that. Classic spelling errors. Seriously, who proof reads this stuff!!??

How cute was this guy. He was so well taken care of and sweet as anything. So refreshing to see here as usually animals aren’t maintained at all. His name was Pillow.

Was in this apartment complex and just found it so interesting to look at. Terrible place to hang your clothes to dry of course, but interesting.

There are some places I force myself to endure…..and like this one, places I don’t. Prob get stabbed by a needle or attacked by a rat!! YIKERS

This poor little kitty was just waking up. Always makes me wanna take care of all the animals here.

See and this is why I keep a camera on my person at all times! I had been wanting to get a good shot of the ol’ washing machine on the moto for a while. So crazy cause this one had two guys! YEEEEHAW

Walking to one of my studies 🙂

Helmet…check. Sunnies….you bet. Medical facemask because pollution is so bad….ARGH!!!! FINE, YES!!!

With our buddies Aaron and Erika on the bamboo train in Battambang. Was fun. Basically a rickety slat platform and a lawnmower motor. Hold on to your butts!!

Not exactly clear, but you can see and feel the great excitment enjoyed by those that come to visit us!!! LOL Isn’t that right Erika and Aaron!!??

We did it. Managed to fit 6 people and a ton of luggage into one tuk tuk. After a long crazy bus ride, this wasn’t too shabby!

 

Putting Out The Vibe

My favorite converstations!

Since I have returned to Cambodia, there seems to be a different vibe in the air.  Let me clarify.  Now when I say VIBE, I am unfortunately not referring to the smell in the air.  The amazing aroma pockets surrounding open sewer streets or busy fish market areas has remained the same, still reeks!  When I say VIBE, I am also NOT referring to the melodious tunes tenderly engaging my ears. No indeed!  Phnom Penh continues to flourish in its lavish early morning ground shaking weddings and funeral ceremonies.  It also continues to have tents set up in front of stores with bizzare pulsing house music that is meant to draw the customers.  No, when I say VIBE it means none of those things.  Vibes are difficult to describe, but I have a feeling the VIBE change I am currently feeling is mostly due to the presence of my younger sister Marcie.  And true, I know what you are thinking.  If Marcie is the VIBE, then surely there are some major aroma changes, and yeah, true true.  Mostly though, I think the attention is off me and now I can sit back and laugh at her experiencing and learning about this country.  Kinda nice actually.

Here is an example to show you what I mean. Now as scary as this sounds I am about to describe Marcie’s first moto accident.  If you live here, accidents are a fact of life. Thankfully they are usually VERY VERY small.  Because there are so many

Out in service with “the Marcie.”

people driving, you are never going that fast.  We also don’t really go out at night where the bad accidents happen.  Ok, now that I have hopefully calmed the hearts of those of you who worry….on with the show! SO, Marcie was driving our moto through a very busy, slow moving intersection.  She had our friend on the back who will remain nameless. Actually, let’s call our friend Princess Sparkles. Far easier to tell a story with names than saying, ” nameless friend.” So, Princess Sparkles and Marcie were carefully making their way across the 5-way intersection. As they were making a nice safe left turn, some chick figured she should pass them on the left and rammed into them. This caused the moto to tip over onto it’s side. From the ground Marcie looked up to see the chick, or for the sake of story telling, Trudy, look back at the girls, while still comfortably sitting on her own moto. Trudy must have gathered the girls were ok, which they were, and took off. Meanwhile, Princess Sparkly Pants jumped up asking Marcie over and over again, “Are you okay, are you okay??” She then went into forklift-mode and shoved her arms under Marcie’s arm pits, thinking she could lift Marcie completely up to her feet with the moto still on her. Due to the excitement of it all, Marcie went into yelling-mode telling Princess Sparkleton she is NOT helping the situation at all! Irritated and quite embarrassed Marcie stood up. While she was in the process of standing up, she had stepped on the bottom of her skirt which in turn caused a full on mooning towards all those who had focused their attention on the two foreigners on the ground. I realize I have taken liberties here in calling it a full on mooning, because she was wearing underwear. BUTT, I mean but, to any onlooker that is how it would have appeared as Marcie was sporting her fleshy toned granny undies! If it couldn’t already get any worse, the first thought in her mind was not…”pull my skirt up”, no, it was, ” I think I just peed myself!” THEN…she DID pull her skirt up right after that!! Marcie and Princess Sparkly were then able to get the moto up, board and take flight. Thankfully the two were unharmed physically. Mind you I can’t say the same for their pride and dignity!

*Misplaced footnote* Marcie did not actually pee her panties, it was a false alarm.

There was a time when Marcie thought her fleshy-toned undies would never betray her!

I truly couldn’t have asked for a better younger sister.  Mind you, I am sure it wouldn’t hurt her to offer me a few more foot massages here and there. But despite that, she is great.  She is one of the few people in my life that can provide me with good stories that require no fancy writing skills on my part to come across completely ridiculous. Nope, I couldn’t make these things up. Thanks Marcie!! Thanks for being so clumsy and hilarious. Loving this new VIBE you brought to Cambodia!

We don’t mess around here in P.P. We get things done when things need a getting done. We had to take the microwave back to be repaired.

We were on the ferrie across the river taking pictures and stuff when I realized that my sunnies totally just about got dumped in the Mekong. Can’t fake that kind of fear!! lol

Hmm….pretty sure this is a god of sorts riding a rat!

This little girlly wouldn’t leave Marcie alone until she was picked up. Then, she wouldn’t let Marcie put her down. Such a stinker! hehe

Our friend Timothy and his wife Lacey came for a visit from Thailand. He is an amazing artist. He was showing me some watercolor techniques which immediately made me want to start doing watercolor!!

This is the beautiful picture he whipped up for me! He has an etsy shop you can check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/thebarkwing He is always adding so keep checking!!

Beautiful people I get to talk to! Such a privledge!

Across the river with friends.

Even the Khmer know how reek stench durian is. It is a fruit here that is terrible. People say if you can get past the smell it isn’t so bad. I can’t get past the smell!

Had to get our new shelf home some how!!! One of our buddies Misty held on as Abby drove the moto.

Look at the cheeky look the little guy was giving me.

This is a requested selfie…and thus why I try not to do too many selfies….haha

Then Marcie and I thought it would be funny to combine two idiots into one photo! Lol

Our new Kingdom hall’s dedication

If you look closely you can see two people stuffed in the back of this van too!!

Abby vs Cambodia

The Road

So I am breaking free of my regular posting format to share one particular story. I feel it deserves it’s own attention, free of the bells and whistles I attach to my normal posts that are entirely meant to “trick” you into reading this nonsense. Now, with an opening statement like that….. Let’s do this thing! * insert several air karate kicks. *

It was an average Tuesday morning. We had all headed across the Mekong river to try to meet people in the rural territory. The roads are very dusty and cracked over there, scattered with locals delivering produce, moving cattle or kids riding bikes that are, 4 out of 5 times, way to big for them in the most unsafe possible way!

I wish I was exaggerating!

There was six of us all together and we had broken off into pairs. Marcie and Abby were together when they were approached by a guy. He immediately wanted a tract so Abby gave him one. She had a folder in her hands that he persistently kept tapping. It was filled with more Khmer literature along with her personal copies in English. As soon as she peeled the folder open, the guy reached in and grabbed two brochures and started to run. Now normally if someone took two brochures in a quick “thief-like”

This is a cow. Moo Moo

manner it would be of no real consequence and make for a funny little story that may or may not be mentioned in this blog. But these brochures were not just any brochures. They were Abby’s personal English copies that contained hours and hours of study, translation, and notes. If you are in a foreign language group you know how precious these items are! As you will soon find out, she apparently wasn’t ready to let them go so easily.

Well you have already guessed it, the great chase was thus born! Abby and Marcie both started running after this guy. Quickly Abby realized extra baggage had to be dropped in order to catch him. They stopped running, Abby grabbed two Khmer brochures to trade, left her bag with Marcie and started running again. She ran like the wind she did, even though she was dealing with unbearable heat, bumpy roads and wearing crocs. ( yes crocs….hey it’s flash flood poopy streets Cambodia we’re talking here). Being this was Abby’s first real heroic crime scene chase down the adrenal was pumping. She later described to me that she felt much like Lara Croft chasing down the bad guy! It was very compelling!! Marcie had, let’s just say, an ever so slightly different description. Barely able to hold back the laughter, Marcie enjoys calling what she saw the absolute slowest chase she has ever seen! She only wishes she had filmed it. It was watching two people run a bit, then walk a bit, then run a bit….you get the pattern. The guy would look back to see if Abby was running or walking and then he would follow suit! And I will be honest, all this Lara Croft talk wasn’t fooling me either. We were talking about Abby, the same girl that gets pulled outta the water by life guards thinking she is drowning, when in fact she is, again in her mind, swimming like a mermaid! Her running really isn’t much better. Anyways, when she in fact did get closer to the “thief”‘ he started swinging his metal lunch tin at her. That’s when she decided to bid farewell to her precious brochures!

You can imagine how this entire scenario must have looked to the other residents in the village. It was hardly unnoticeable! So after Abby finally gave up, two older woman gave her a seat to sit. She had tears in her eyes because something had flown into her eye while she was running, so fast (hehe) and clearly tired. They told Abby the guy was crazy, (whaaaaaaa!? Crazy!? SHOCK lol) and that they would retrieve the brochures. Unfortunately he locked himself in his house when they approached.

Shortly after the rest of us were updated with what had happened and decided we needed a little break. While we were sitting, a young man came and told us the crazy guy was his uncle and he would go get the brochures! After a very tense 15 minutes he returned to us, brochures in hand!!! Everyone that had gathered started cheering and clapping. Even though all of Abby’s sticky notes had been taken out, she was relieved to get her brochures back. We later found out that the same thing had happened to one of our other friends as well.  It ended up being a different guy,……which is a relief there are more than one of these dudes out there, right!? Thank goodness! Abby asked our friend if she chased after her thief too, which of course she said no.

All in all it turned out to be quite the adventure filled morning. Not only did we learn we should be wearing runners/ tennis shoes across the river, but we learned something about our family. Just like the time I punched the homeless guy after he grabbed my butt, and now the time Abby chased down a thief, but didn’t catch him….we now know we are not he type to shrink back! “HERE I AM, SEND ME!”

PS. I realize now that my “format” as mentioned earlier, hasn’t actually changed much. You just don’t get the same amount of photos this round!  But no fear, plenty to come and more stories too!!  Remember to comment, love the feedback 🙂

Forgot to mention there is plenty of cow poop on the road too. Mind you that was slightly implied, but even Abby forgot to look out!! lol

 

If I Could Live in a Bubble

“What’s the mystery?” That’s the mystery!!

By a show of hands, who here enjoys a little something called “personal space”? You know, personal space,  that invisible yet very real force field that surrounds us all. Whenever anything or anyone with it’s own capacity to move, eat, sleep or toot passes that force field doing any number of those things, a small alarm is sounded in our minds. Now let me see those hands!! Good good….. Ok, now, for those of you with firm intentions on coming here for a visit, please keep in mind that personal space invasions will become a part of your daily activities. Whether it’s the fishy breath burping oldie goldies getting nice and close to your face, little kids spinning crabs at the end of a string by your legs, or the very random extremely dreaded drip. The drip is an unknown substance falling from the buildings onto any number of places on your head. And by the way, yes, specifically your head, but any of the many places and parts that create your head. Drips never come installed with warning mechanisms, they are always juicy and are never right before you are heading home for a shower. Thank goodness right!? Wait a second Sarah….do I sense sarcasm??!!

Now since we are on the topic of personal space invasions, it brings up the matter of personal belongings. Here in Asia, helmets are a very personal piece in your life. At least mine is to me. We go everywhere together! Best friends! My helmet gives me protection and instant above average style, whereas I give my helmet the opportunity to flatten my humidity- frizzed hair into a new creation every time. Win win! So you can start to understand why SHARING helmets isn’t exactly customary. And of course it’s well worth reminding you that we enjoy a year round Sweat Fest here in Camp Bloat-ya. Even among family, it’s not exactly a common practice, let alone hygenic!

So with that in mind you might sympathize with me, when, at the very hottest part of the day and after a long morning in the sun,

Marcie’s helmet…the one she was SUPPOSED to use. And if you look close…a photo bomber!

I caught someone else wearing MY helmet. My younger sister Marcie and I had just come back from a quick stop at a store and I was getting ready to hop back onto the moto. My heart sank for a brief second when I couldn’t see my helmet at first glance. Was it stolen? Stealing helmets is a favorite sport for many here. But no, to my utter dispair I see Marcie rocking my precious blue helmet! Marcie, who might I add, is still acclimatizing and constantly complaining about her head sweating! “Ahhhh, get my helmet off, ewwww” is basically what my verbal reaction was. Along with trying to pull it off her head myself. Of course she had already done the strap up so it hardly budged and merely added to her uncontrollable laughter. Don’t get me wrong, I love her laugh and it’s extremely contagious. But, in this instance, it strictly meant the helmet remained on her head even longer, soaking in all that goodness. Of course, she found HER respective helmet and slipped it on as I had the slow, hardly tolerable task of putting the now saturated helmet on my head! NOT exactly my favorite sisterly moment as of yet!

Marcie, Abby and a bunch of other people I know riding the ferry across the river! Good times 🙂

I will say, at least I know Marcie. What about helmet sharing with strangers? Our friend Jordan told us how the other day he was in a store and through the window he saw the store parking guard holding Jordan’s helmet above his head while starring Jordan down. Looking him right in the eye Jordan clearly indicated to put the helmet down! After a battle of glances and slow motion threats of lowering the helmet, the guard went for it and quickly pulled the helmet completely on. By that time Jordan had just made it to the door in time to yell at him to take it off. The guy did so and I believe just cowardly sat in the corner. Confused and unfortunately really grossed out, Jordan had to use that helmet to get himself home. Like I said, at least I knew Marcie but still…..what’s going on here people!?

Speaking of “what’s going on here”, beyond the scary helmet sharing everything is going really well.  We have been back for over a month already…wow time flies… and have thrown ourselves back into as much language learning as our brains can handle for the moment.  Lots of fun people here which is nice because if you are going to live in a bizzare city like Phnom Penh,  you might as well have some friends to laugh with about it!  As usual I have a good mix of photos to share.  In which you may notice my latest trend, black and white or sepia colored!   Either way feel free to browse….but remember you break it YOU BUY IT!!  Cash only by the way…

A lot of Phnom Penh has stairwells. Dark, dirty stairwells that seem to all have at least 4 if not more levels. “Exercise, exercise those thunder theighs!” Haha used to sing that as a kid.

Up the dark stairwells you find places like this on every floor. This is the front entrance.

This is the back end of the ferry as we head over the Mekong for the morning.

This is the moto Marcie and I bought. I thought this is funny because it shows what I I have to deal with. The first photo is my reaction to Abby complaining about having to take the photo and the right one is my best try at looking happy after a short sharing of angry sister eyes. Ps. Check out the photo bomber!! Lol

GETCHA BANANAS, GET”EM FRESH AND GET EM HERE!!!

There seems to be a never ending supply of stupid notepad sayings. This one says “Rilakkuma. Everyday feels happy. I like a Rainbow.”

This note pad is tricky to read but it says..”Dreamlang. That girl over there looks like she’s in Dreamland.” I love that the LARGE print Dreamland is the one they totally chose to not spell check. PS not that i don’t make spelling errors in what i publish but seriously people!!!

A confusing notepad cover…? Such a beautiful PINK work truck and all this nonsense about love!

So this photo has absolutely nothing to do with Cambodia. This chunky monkey is our dog back in Canada. His name is Koba….he just makes me laugh!!

Oh this guy, he was so funny. He was a shoe repairman walking through the neighborhoods looking for customers. He took a little break to watch one of the JW.ORG videos. He had such a huge smile and kept saying..” NUNG EYE” which basically means he agrees!

I was in the building across from Abby and above so I secretly snapped a sniper shot of her showing a video from JW.ORG

“Underwear is like knowledge, invisible but very important!” So across the river at a dusty little store was this display…couldn’t have said it better myself!

Dani and Jordan has a little demo at the meeting. They have helped us make Cambodia more an actual home in so many ways! Love these guys!

This is across the river but the only way to get where we needed required this road. If you look close you can see us in the front scaling the fence….unlike the brave one in the middle of the lake!

Yup,,,, another cartoon. Our friend was sick so I drew this for her. 🙂

So this concept came after I had a conversation with Marcie and we both figured it would be funny to draw a bunch of characters that would make terrible Ninjas. So far only have this cupcake dude.

So quick story. You might remember cartoons I have drawn before of the kitty upstairs named Sophie. The other day she got loose for the first time outside the building. She often goes up on the roof but never in the alley. I immediately thought of the famous Aladdin scene with the magic carpet ride and had to document my thoughts! Lol

This just makes no sense but complete sense and thus equals FUNNY

SO!! Some of you might remember the story I wrote last year of trekking through the flooded streets of Phnom Penh with Dani. While I was relating the story I jokingly said how I saw a rat like this guy…..became a joke and so like usual, had to document it!

Our friend Misty and I at the end of a morning. We were getting slap happy and apparent’ thought pretending to pick my nose would work for the photo!

This next group of photos is PROOF Cambodian kids are just tooooo darn cute!!  I love to take every opportunity to talk to them.  Mind you they are usually correcting my Khmer, but that’s a good thing!! haha

SOMEBODY is pretty happy to have a new booklet!!

These two were giving me the double peace signs the entire time i was drinking my coconut. Was pretty cute tho!

I love how universal it is for kids to fall asleep in the most random of places. Including butcher shops!!!!

I think I might be repeating myself over and over to talk about how cute Khmer kids are, BUT THEY ARE!!!!!

Don’t get much cuter than those big beautiful eyes!!!

These kids were in an alley spinning crabs at the end of strings. In order to give the poor crabs a rest I showed the some pictures of animals and taught them who created them.

Marcie took this picture. When I saw it I told her ” OH she is SO cute!!” But was informed that it was actually a little boy in a pink shirt. LOL made me laugh.