Boatin' in Cambodia

From Mark:

During our tuk tuk tour of Angkor area, our driver tried to convince us to book him for other tours around town. His story went something like this: "I have a friend that owns some motor bikes... I know about a secret temple 50 km away that... How about a boat ride to watch the sunset?"

Boat ride, you say? 

We were planning on doing that sort of thing at some point. We have read that it can be quite a scam though. What the heck? His price was cheaper, and he was claiming to be taking us to a different place than most tourists go to. We arranged to meet at 3pm the next day to drive out to the river. 

We didn't know where we were headed or how long it would take to get there though... We drove for 35 minutes east to a random dirt road where we turned south. We drove through the jungle past a few small villages for another 30 minutes and saw no other tourists. I was starting to get nervous. I was imagining being kidnapped or taken to a far away village to be robbed! 

The red tint on the trees were from the dirt road.

Just imagine what we looked like.

Quite the opposite actually happened. We finally ended up at a building that wanted our $20 ticket fee. Hooray! There were a few other tourists around again! We got back on the tuk-tuk and rode down a dusty and very bumpy (the driver called it "dancing") road before we got to a large row of boats. A young kid, maybe 9 years old, led us up the path to his brother's boat. We boarded and 5 of us (the tuk tuk driver, two boat men, and us) set out on our way. 

We went down stream through the most amazing village on stilts. The design of the houses and village was incredible because they are designed to sit at water level during the rainy season. The people here were going about their daily lives as we floated by taking pictures. It felt a bit strange, but I was in such amazement that I didn't care. 

The longer structure on the left was labeled a school

We finally got to Tonle Sap, the giant lake that connects Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. 

Nope, not an Instagram filter.

That's just what it looked like.

Here we sat until sunset as small boat came up to our boat to offer us refreshments and snacks. We bought something for everyone on board as a celebration of being in such a cool place. Our tuk-tuk driver insisted on taking lots of pictures of us for our blog. Turns out, we're not very good at posing. 

It was a beautiful sunset filled red, orange, and purple. The sky was blue straight above us, but grey on the horizon which made the line between the water and sky almost nonexistent. It was as if we were floating above the surface! 

As soon as the sun disappeared, we cruised back to the docks. We were in for a long, dusty, and insect-filled ride home in the dark. 

All in all, we were so glad we trusted our driver to take us out on the lake. Sometimes, a little trust goes a long way. We learned that we need to always try to make connections with locals where ever we go. They will take us to the coolest places.

Happy New Year!

Now that we have our hearing back and have gotten our nerves back under control from being scared by the barrage of fireworks, it's time to talk Chinese New Year!

Xīn nián kuài lè!! ("Shin nien quiy luh") Happy New Year! It's the most magical time of year to be in china because you get to witness the biggest celebration of ever. To the typical Shanghai resident, this would include several days off to travel back to your hometown (since most of the people in Shanghai are from other parts of China), delicious seasonal treats, pay bonuses, and FIREWORKS!! To us music teacher types, CNY signifies crunch time for a thrown-together performance in order to be included in a giant school-wide celebration run by the Mandarin staff. After all, we just finished our winter performances. What else are we going to do with two weeks of class?

...


Jessi's task for the performance was simple enough. We wouldn't want to put any pressure on the new teacher from the States. All she had to do was DESIGN AND CHOREOGRAPH THE GRAND FINALE!! Welcome to China, newbie! She was given two giant dragons that each required nine people to operate and three lion dance costumes that each require two people to operate. She teamed up with our friend John, the P.E. teacher, and together, they knocked out the most important and iconic part of the show! The kids were on top of their game and successfully maneuvered the intricate costumes on and off the stage to the delight of the crowd. As always, I was blown away, and Jessi was just glad to be done.

Picture proof:

Third graders singing.

Small children looking cute.

Chinese acrobats (not students).

Jessi and her Chinese drumline. With kids from Denmark and Norway. 

Kids with the dragon.

Lions.

He was told to look ferocious. 

Confetti of course!

Lower school Mandarin teachers. 

My part of the performance was to coordinate with Tracey, the high school band teacher, to teach and perform Feng Yang Ge, a standard crowd pleaser for CNY. The song was easy and some of the kids had performed it in the past, so we decided to have them memorize it and surround the audience for a more memorable performance. We also added six Chinese drums and a gong on stage as the center piece to really drive home the theme. The kids did great and the bosses were very pleased with the performance! Success!!

Thank goodness those two weeks are over. Time for more fireworks and Cambodia! Did I mention lately that our jobs are amazing!

Ps. A side note about firework...
On any random street in Shanghai during CNY you will be able to see a show almost equivalent to an American city's fireworks display, but without safety standards. We were in our new favorite hangout playing cards when a local man decided to light off a group of shells. The street was about 4 meters, sorry, 12 feet across, and there were cars and pedestrians everywhere. As he lit it and walked away, the block of fireworks fell over and pointed itself into a small closet of a convenience store. The first shell blasted into the shop and narrowly missed four customers. They casually walked out as the shell exploded in a burst of blue and purple! The next man tried to redirect the fireworks again, but instead pointed it directly at us! Thankfully we were behind glass. The shell hit the window of the cafe hard and exploded in red. The man tried again to redirect the still exploding fireworks, but pointed it straight down the street at a taxi and a police car! The rest of the shells (5 or so) nailed the taxi and exploded somewhere down the street. When all was said and done, the street was filled with smoke, and the cars and pedestrians, including the cop, simply went about their business. Amazing! I will definitely be living out some childhood dreams next year during CNY.

Anyone want to join?

SNOW!!

You knew I wanted snow and sent some in our direction!! You're too kind!

On Sunday, we had the ultimate "Do Nothing" day: No leaving the house and definitely staying in our PJs. Internet putzing galore.

For some reason, I decide to check my phone for the weather and see this:

WHAT?! Snow??!

A peek out of the window reveals snow whipping sideways...

And flurries attacking us!

Oh how frightful!

Especially waking up to this on Monday morning:

Boy, it was icy though! I slipped on the ice on the three steps out of my apartment building's front door.  No harm. Mark also saw a car upside-down on his way to work that morning. 

That afternoon we were gifted with even more snow:

First day back to school after a break (the 13th day of school since December 20th), and there's snow to entertain kids that never ever see it. 

Holy cow, were they a handful and a half!

But guess what I heard all day from kiddo after kiddo.

.

.

.

.

"Don't let the snow stop!" - words straight from our winter production.

Aren't they darling???

Siem Reap Street View

A collection of pictures from our time of what the city looks like.

That's just a hotel in the background...

All different types of rice!

If you can't read that, it says "The Best Mexican Food in Asia!" 

Sadly, we did not eat there. :o)

This is four directions of traffic going on their merry way; 

a lovely mix of car, bike, motorcycle, and tuk-tuk.

Souvenirs, anyone?

Angkor a la carte

Carte as in "tuk tuk," though despite what you hear from drivers every five steps, the correct local word is "remouk."

Ok, so after our 23 miles rear-end torture, I mean "bike ride," through the temples the other day, we decided our day two would be with a tuk tuk. Our goal was to get there early enough to get a good spot for the sunrise. So leaving at 4:45 am, and with the help of our fast driver, we stationed ourselves at the edge one of the pools outside of Angkor Wat.











You think that looks peaceful?? Not! I almost got more trampled here than at a rock concert.





Escaping the crowd and bodily harm, we go inside Angkor Wat and get in line to see the temple. The gal in front of us was from Portland, and we chatted while we shuffled to the front. Once there, we were told that scarves don't count as clothing, so my tank top and her shorts weren't appropriate. Gah! I send Mark with the camera again while the girl and I go pout on the side. While we're there sitting, a different park employee commented that we could just trade articles of clothing. Ding! I didn't care about going up and in since Mark was there taking pictures, but the girl was traveling solo. A quick wrap of the scarves, a yoink off of my skirt, and Portland girl has a lovely new outfit! I sat enjoying the shade and waited for Mark and the girl to come back.

A funny side story, but here's what Mark saw:




The water on the right edge is where we spent our sunrise.



After another quick change, we waved goodbye to the girl and jumped in the tuk tuk to take us to Ta Prohm, also known as the Tomb Raider temple since that's where part of it was filmed.














While it was very cool to see all of the trees taking over, there was a lot of construction/restoration going on, as well huge crowds. Worth a look, but prepare yourself!

Next, to Pre Rup...







Final stop was Bayon, temple of a million faces. Can you see them all?























We called it quits after this stop due to temple fatigue and being out for 8 hours.

Nap time!

Zzzzzz