Railay Bay, Krabi

We are enjoying a few days of beach time before heading home on Saturday.

Successful Trek

We just got back to Chiang Mai after our 3 night 4 day trek.  It was great family time. . . hiking and lots of eating.  We had a very good guide.  We rode bikes at 5:30 am to see the markets, rode elephants, had a white rapid raft ride and cooking classes. Dustin leaves tomorrow to Bangkok and then onto Malaysia, Singapore and India. Adam and Angela leave for Krabi, Thailand tomorrow a.m.  We go to Krabi on Tuesday.

Family Time in Chiang Mai

A busy 2 days. . .  Pictures will tell some of the stories. We start a 4 day trek tomorrow.

Sunday at Children's home

We had a fun day at church. . .even though we didn't understand the words.  After eating lunch with one of the homes we finished giving brief physical exsms to the 150+ kids. They really are very healthy as a total group.  Tomorrow we leave the volunteer role and become tourists again. Our sons and daughter-in-law will join us on Tuesday in Chiang Mai for "family time" fun! 

H.E.L.P. Thailand (continued)

The more we learn about the work being done here the more amazing it is. Today we visited one of the hilltribe villages from where one of the students came. She is shown in some of the pictures. There is one home in the village that is notably nicer than the others. We are told that is because the parents are being supported by children who were sold into the sex trade.  To prevent this tragedy is one of the primary goals of this program. The old woman in the pix is 92 y/o and has never been out of the village. 

H.E.L.P. Thailand Children's home

We are enjoying being a very small part of a great ministry.  In this area they have over 150 children. Total worldwide is over 700. The other name for the ministry is "Remember Nhu".  Last evening we started doing simple physical exams on the children. We got about 25 completed.  Ron did the heighth and weight and gave each one a sticker and new toothbrush.

Volunteering

We are now at the children's home . Because there are many volunteers here we are staying in a guest house nearby--so we are not suffering. There are over 150 children here. We had dinner with one of the groups last night.  They are in school during the day so we may assist with a building project.  The rice paddy view is from our guest house.

Bangkok

We stayed last night at the Alliance Guest House. We went to church this morning. . .International English speaking. Then we went to the Chatuchak weekend market. It is huge. Bangkok is so much nicer than Phenom Phen. . .cleaner and organized traffic. We had our first foot massage of this trip. The food is tasty, spicy and inexpensive.
We leave tomorrow for Chiang Mai.

Leaving Cambodia

Our flight to Bangkok left at 5:30 pm.  By 7:30 we were enjoying a very spicy Thai dinner.  I will attach a few more Phenom Phen pictures.  The ice cream price is actual US$ for only a pint. We passed on that choice.

Cambodia continues. . .

We had an interesting day yesterday. We took a Tuk Tuk to the "killing fields". . .one of 200 sites where over 3 million people of all ages were killed and buried in mass graves under the direction of Pol Pot, 1975 -1978.  Many of those we have met had family killed there or later by Khmer Rouge.

We know weather at home is intensely cold so we will not complain about our heat.

Today we had a sewing repair job done on our backpack. She worked about 1/2 hr and wanted to give change on $1.

We are writing this from a Western style Costa  Coffee overlooking the Mekong River.  WIFI is having issues at our hotel. . .Ohana hotel. The hotel is very nice.

It was time for laundry--so we left it next door at $3/kg. We laughed when we saw it hanging on the clothesline visible from our breakfast on the 5 th floor covered patio of the hotel.

More Phenom Penh Pix

It is very muggy weather. . .90 feels like 110!  Our hotel's a.c. is often our haven.

Phenom Penh photos--What would you like to eat?

This is why we are eating mostly vegetarian!

Phnom Penh

We had planned to take the bus from Siem Reap but our guide said the speed boat was much better.  We have our doubts.  The boat trip was over six hours. We continued to vibrate hours after we arrived!  This picture is not the boat we took. . .my tablet wasn't able to capture our experience.  There was lots of waving at the local kids and fishermen.  We rode mostly on top of the boat.  We are here for 3 more nights then back to Bangkok.

A Day in Siem Reap

Today was a relaxing day since we ended our bike tour yesterday.  We got up early to find a place to watch the Super Bowl--which started at 6:30 am on Monday for us. The pub was very crowded with a mostly western group.  Yea Seattle!  We wandered the rest of the day. We took a day off from eating rice. . .by choice. Not the best
Mexican food but certainly not the worst.  The lunch of tuna sandwich for Ron and vegi sandwich for Sharon hit the spot.  We were not brave enough for the "fish nibbling on your feet experience but they are all over town".  Tomorrow we take a boat to Phenom Penh.

Angkor Wat and Siem Reap

The last few days we have been riding and exploring the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.  Today was our last day of ridibg (7 total).  I will post pictures that "tell the story".  Today our roads were dusty and bumpy. Sharon had one spill. . .some scrapes but otherwise fine and was able to finish the day riding. We also went to a landmine museum. . .very informative. One estimate is that there are over 3 million mines left in Cambodia!  We stay another day here to see the city.