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Leavin’ on a jet plane…

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I always get a bit nostalgic when it comes time to switch continents. The truth is I love both my homes and in Cambodia I miss the calm of my Truckee house, and the girls in my Truckee office, but when in Truckee I miss my staff and friends in Cambodia and the constant adventures that happen while living in Southeast Asia. With Saturday and our flight home approaching fast I pulled some of my favorite moments from the last eight months, it made me realize…we’ve been busy!

October:
We left snow covered ground in Truckee and headed back to the tropics. The kids were more than happy to get back in the swing of tuk tuk’s and chicken feet:

October Back to Cambodia

October Eating Chicken Feet at a Wedding

November:
Couper turned two along with Sabai and we had a great visit from my parents. I also had a busy and rewarding trip to Laos to visit hotels, try out some new tours and visit the JWOC language school. I ended that trip with a visit to Bangkok where I went to a Salsa competition (as a spectator):

November Birthday Cake

November Visiting Luang Prabang and the JWOC school

December:
A busy month at the B&B, but Brandon and I managed to sneak in a trip to the farm in Koh Ker and Callie was in her first (we imagine of many) performance:

December, Romantic trip to Koh Ker

December At the school Christmas Party

January:
A busy month for JWOC with a documentary being filmed on clean water in Cambodia. I hopped over for a weekend in LA for a Nikaya Trade Show and we enjoyed a family night at Angkor Wat. The month ended with a fun mother son and nanny trip to Phnom Penh:

January Working on A Drop in the Bucket

January Nikaya trade show in LA

January Night Tour At Angkor Wat

January Phnom Penh with Couper and Mom

February:
We had a new class of scholarship students at JWOC, our biggest class ever, but I had to take a trip to Bangkok to bid a fond farewell to Thailand Director Waew:

February Working with a new class of JWOC scholarship students

February In Bangkok for Waew's goodbye party

March:
Narla graduated! and we took a much-needed family vacation to the beach enjoying Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Krabi and ending with some time in Bangkok:

March Narla graduates

March Thailand Beaches

March McDonalds in Bangkok

April:
After celebrating the Khmer New Year Callie and I decided to head North to Chiang Mai where we tried out a new elephant experience and some new hotels, a great mother daughter trip for us:

April New Years BBQ dinner

April In the tuk tuk in Chiang Mai

April Mahout Training in Chiang Mai

May:
This month has been a blur, we delivered sewing machines to the prison for our new program for Nikaya, we did a spur of the moment trip to Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh for Mother’s Day and we have the Grand Opening of the new JWOC Center this Saturday!

May Delivering sewing machines to the prison

May Mother's Day trip to Sihanoukville

This doesn’t even touch on the amazing guests and volunteers we had and the huge leaps the kids have made in school and swimming and just growing up in general. It’s been a fun time and I am looking forward to summer in the states and then back for more soon!… Read more »

Overnight bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville

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We took the new overnight bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville to check it out and to get to the beach for Mother’s Day. I didn’t even get my camera out of the bag so…

* I don’t have a photo of Brandon getting the second to last row and Callie and I getting two seats in the back row with chairs that didn’t recline!
* I don’t have a photo of the scary war movie they played, though Couper can tell you about it
* I don’t have a photo of Brandon taking the last Ambien
* I don’t have a photo of me managing to find half an Ambien and saying a little prayer that it would do the trick
* I don’t have a photo of the Ambien taking effect and me trying to lie down next to Callie on two seats
* I don’t have a photo of the bus braking and Callie and I falling off the two seats
* I don’t have a photo of Couper freaking out in the middle of the night probably because of the scary war movie and Brandon and I having to trade places because he wanted his mommy
* I don’t have a photo of Callie rolling off Brandon’s knee and onto the floor
* I don’t have a photo of Brandon and I quickly changing back with me picking a screaming Callie off the floor on my way
* I don’t have a photo of the dirty looks we got from our fellow bus travelers
* I don’t have a photo of all of us arriving bleary eyed in Sihanoukville
* I don’t have a photo of us sleeping most of Mother’s Day because we were so tired from the bus ride

Yea, I don’t have those photos.

Travelers Information: The new “luxury” bus runs daily from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville departing at 8pm and arriving at 6am. There is a “bathroom” on the bus and it is $16 per person. You can buy bus tickets at World Express Travel near the Old Market, ask for Sophea and ask to not be in the back row.… Read more »

He is rubber, I am glue…

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They bounce off him, and stick on you!

This is how dad travels:

Dad on the bus

This is how mom travels:

Mom on the bs

Our trip to Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh was fun, but I am done with buses for a while, you can only be a human pillow/jungle gym/trampoline/punching bag and napkin for so many hours!… Read more »

My Mini Mahout

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Today Callie and I participated in the Patara Elephant Farm Elephant Owner For A Day. Now I have to admit I had my reservations about taking a three-year-old to go and learn how to bathe, ride and care for an elephant, they have big feet. It turns out she may be small is size, but not in attitude and she made me so proud with how brave, careful and interested she was. Here are some photos of the day. I will be writing more soon about elephants in Northern Thailand and Patara Elephant Farm, but for now, here are some photos of my little girl doing her thing:

The lessons from elephants as told by Khun Pat:

1. Walk like an elephant: be careful where you place your feet. Elephants are in no rush and they look where their feet are going so they can walk up and down very steep hills without misstep.

2. Eat like an elephant: elephants don’t die from heart disease or cancer, they die when their teeth wear out. Eat fruits and vegetables and take care of your body.

4. Live like an elephant: the strong family bonds of elephants run deep and they all care for each other as a family group.

introductions

different-perspective

cleaning-up-an-elephant

brushing-her-elephant

bath-time

climbing-aboard

my-mini-mahout

on-her-way… Read more »

Umbrella Art

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**A quick note: I wrote a post two days ago saying that if it was me I wouldn’t cancel Thailand travel. Well it must have inspired me because Callie and I got on a plane and we are now in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a few days with plans to take the train to Bangkok this weekend. Not only is it a fun adventure, but I am hearing and seeing the state of Thailand for myself so I can report back. So far, so good:)**

The umbrella factories of Chiang Mai are one of my favorite places to visit in Southeast Asia and now we have kids I am once again reminded how magic they are!

The umbrella factories started as a village industry to equip monks with summer umbrellas. As my guide explained, the monks would spend months inside so when they came out it was important they weren’t getting too many rays on their rather tender skin. As locals saw the beautiful umbrellas shading the monks bald heads they sought out the umbrella villages and slowly the umbrellas became decoration in restaurants, homes and hotels.

Today the umbrella villages are a tourist attraction and while there are definitely the required tourists shops that I know most people strive to avoid on vacation, the artists that work here are well worth a visit. For about 100 baht they will draw a myriad of small paintings on shirts, pants, luggage, camera cases? I have had small elephants drawn on many a bag and this visit Callie and I bought some shirts and she chose the artwork for Gavin, Couper, Srey Nut and herself.

When we got back from the umbrella factory Callie couldn’t wait to get her crayons and start coloring, she explained that she was drawing an elephant like on the umbrellas. She also can’t wait to give her presents to her friends. We visit museums and temples a lot in our travel, but I love to see when art truly comes to life for my kids.

Here are some photos from our visit to the umbrella factory:

umbrellas-ready-for-painting
Umbrellas ready for painting
the-final-products
The final products
watching-gavins-shirt-being-painted
Watching Gavin's shirt being painted
callie-and-her-personally-designed-shirt-with-the-artist
Callie and peronally designed shirt with the artist
… Read more »