Sorry I haven't posted for the last few days! I was busy and very jet lagged... On Thursday when we arrived in Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia we me our friend and translator Pali. He drove us to our first hotel River 108 where we discussed our plans for the next two days in Phnom Penh. The traffic here is nuts! It takes awhile to get used to, there aren't any sides to the roads but people still sort of keep to the right sides and everyone moves in a huge mass moving into the places where there's room. But everyone is very patient and nobody is in a hurry so I've only ever seen one accident, and it wasn't even in the city. Today is Monday here and it's the last day of the Water Festival. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday all of Cambodia celebrated the Water Festival. It celebrates the reversal of the direction the Tonle Sap River flows. Families gather and have parties and in Phnom Penh in the Tonle Sap there are the Dragon Boat Races. There were about 600 dragon boats and in the biggest boats the crew was made of about 50 men. There were men's boat and womens boats but there weren't any co-ed boats because supposedly bad luck. The boats sit really low in the water and are elaborately painted, usually there's a shrine in the front. Unlike crew teams in America about half the boat stands to row and the paddles are long and very thin. The coxswain also doesn't steer too, they just keep everyone together when they're paddling. They often are dressed up in silly costumes and have dances made up to keep the rowers rhythm. They often use instruments or a brightly painted paddle to conduct the rhythm.
On the second day we were in Phnom Penh we went to Palm Tree Center. It's an orphanage where my brother's family lives. He has one brother Rith (Rit), and five first cousins Kea, David, Veasna (Vees-na), Thida (Teeda), and Litho (Lito) that live there or are part of the Palm Tree program. Pronunciations are in parentheses. He also has three sisters, Hen (Hain), Ma, and Leak (Lee-ak). His oldest sister Hen has two baby girls Liza (Lizza), and Lizo (Lizzo). His middle sister Ma also has a baby but we haven't seen her for a long time, we know she's living in Siem Reap though. Even though his brother Rith is working in Ratanakiri and his cousins David and Kea are in school in Siem Reap we got to see everyone because they went back to Palm Tree for the Water Festival and to see the dentist. David and Kea are at a French Hospitality school where they are learning how to become chefs. They have the best English out of everyone in my brother's family and are learning a little French. His youngest sister Leak is still living with Tith Horn (Teat-Horn) who used to take care of all of his sisters. My parents are disappointed that she dropped out of school. Oh and what's funny is that David and Kea were probably around 8th grade when they went to the French school and they're 18 and 20. But they didn't start school until they were about 10 or 11 so it's pretty good I guess. That night we went out to dinner with our friend Petra's brother Jerker (Yurker) and his wife Vathiny (Vat-tinny). Vathiny is in the book Red Lights, Green Lizards which is about a woman who is working to help educate Khmer (Kuhmy) doctors about preventing and treating STDs. We went to a restaurant called Serika and the food was great, we had spring rolls, vegetables in a thick sauce, and fish. For dessert we had ice cream and banana flambe which was cool when they lit it on fire.
Yesterday we took everyone as well as Pali's family out to dinner. There were about 20 people but the bill only came to about $50! We went to the food court in the Sydney Shopping Center and everyone really wanted fast food so we got food from a place called McKing. It was a combination of Burger King and McDonald's but probably healthier... We all started thumb, arm, wrist, finger, pinkie finger, etc. wrestling. I was really fun and it was funny watching Rith and Veasna, it looked like Veasna wasn't even trying! David kept poking Veasna's "arm flab"! Afterwards we went to Palm Tree's Water Festival party. There was a dance but it was all Khmer music.
Today we drove to Ratanakiri; we played the cow game where different animals or objects are assigned numeric values and the first team to get 1000 points wins. Each team is decided by which side of the car you're sitting on and you only look on that side of the road. But if the other team sees a graveyard on your side then you lose all your points. The land was beautiful, mostly rice paddies most of the way. The ride was really bumpy though because most of the roads weren't paved. The dirt was pretty deep coppery- red. Most of the houses were shacks on top of high wooden stilts so they didn't get flooded during monsoon season. They mostly had thatched roofs and were tiny. What was interesting was that there was cell phone service everywhere even though there weren't even paved roads. We would be in the middle of no where and there would be a cell phone tower! They're what holds this country together though because there isn't reliable internet or land lines or roads!
Je suis tres excite pour notre (elephant ride)! Dans cette semaine nous voulons aller (waterfalls), et le Palm Tree Center (farm) aussi! Ratanakiri est un peu ville mais le terre est tres beau! Et apres Ratanakiri nous sont rentrer a Phnom Penh pour 3-4 jours.
That's All ofr the update!
Ming :)
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