LAST DAY

Well y'all, today is the day. We're about to make our journey home! Today grandma and I weren't feeling well so we stayed in for most of the morning/afternoon and are feeling better now! 

A really random, really cool thing happened today too! Grandma and I met a friend of a friend. Her name is Melinda and she knows Denise Cummings. When she found out we were going to Cambodia she told grandma about her friend who lives here. So she's been trying to get in contact with Melinda while we've been in Phnom Penh and finally did today! She runs a children's home about 2 hours outside Phnom Penh. Their focus is children with HIV/AIDS but they don't turn anyone away. She's a mom to about 50 kids. Cambodia no longer does adoptions so they just raise the children in the home. She told us so many great stories about the children. She's doing such a cool thing! Check out her website at www.watopot.org. We were able to go to dinner at a place one of her kids opened. He's now 24 and owns his own restaurant! It was really cool to see him and hear some of his story. We ate some gr8 food and went back to the hotel. 

I'm already all packed so we're just lounging around until we leave around 9:30 for the airport! Hopefully these travels will be as smooth as they were coming here! I am definitely excited and ready to be home! :) plane leaves at midnight tonight! 

••Lauren••

R&R

Warning: this post may not be as exciting as previous posts. 

Today we didn't do much! We woke up, ate breakfast, and left around 10 to go to the Russian market. This was a lot smaller and A LOT hotter than the central market we went to. We didn't have a guide today so we took tuk tuks to get there. But we were able to get some more things and walk around a little. After the market we went to the hotel my grandma, Sherry, and Clare stayed at when they adopted Clare. They reminisced in the memories of Clare being a baby. We came back to the hotel around 11:30 because it was getting unbearably hot and muggy. Ate lunch at the hotel. Lounged around. Later in the afternoon grandma and I got a massage by the pool! It was soooo wonderful. Thinking about going with my mom when I get home. :) I came back to the room, showered up, and went to the mall which is right around the corner with grandma, Sherry, Clare, and Tony. We ate dinner there and went to their grocery store. They had so many crazy things like salmon flavored chips and spicy lobster flavored Pringles. Grandma and I got a few fun things. 

Christmas tree selfie in the mall. 

One family left tonight to go back home so we all spent some time together at the bar this evening. They're the ones that planned the events and set up this trip. It really has been wonderful and we are all so so so very thankful for the time Teri and Luree put in to planning this trip. Sad to see them leave. 

I only took two pictures today. I think that's a record. 

Buuuuut that means we leave tomorrow!! I'm ready to be home and see the fam. (And the snow if there's any left). I'm not really sure what tomorrow will look like but I'll try to put up a last post tomorrow before we head to the airport. Thanks to those of you reading! I hope you've enjoyed it :) 

••Lauren••

Coming up with titles for my posts is probably the hardest thing about this blog..

Today we met a woman who survived the Pot Pol regime and the killing fields. She is 83 and absolutely beautiful. She still has such a lively spirit and loves meeting new people. She's been a dancer since she was a baby and has even danced for the king. Her daughter was with her too. Our guide translated for us so we got to hear a little bit of her story. 

Her and her daughter. 

Showing off her dance moves

They both sang together and it was incredible. She is such a strong woman and has survived so much. Lucky we were able to meet her this morning. 

Next we went to the central market here in Phnom Penh. We went to a lot of markets in Siem Reap because they were a little safer there. Our guide took us to this one. Grandma and I haven't really done a ton of shopping this week so we kind of splurged a little today. Grandma got some spices and our guide helped her pick some out. 

Oh! We also ate crickets. 

And Tony and David ate a spider. 

Today was the Buddist day and people release birds on this day to symbolize releasing their life. Grandma and I bought some birds and released them! One of them pecked at my thumb..

Haha a good picture was kind of hard to get. 

We had a great lunch and Iahly took some selfies on my phone

#typical14yearold :)

These next couple of days we'll have a lot of time to relax and today we had the afternoon off. (PTL). I read a little then grandma and I took naps. We woke up, got ready for dinner, and went to a restaurant that helps kids who don't have good living situations. The kids can come work at the restaurant and learn how to be a server or bus boy. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't get anything but we ordered some more spiders and people ate em! Including grandma. 

She said they were pretty good! We don't have a tour guide tomorrow or Tuesday so we're kind of on our own. Good thing we love tuk tuks and have some things we still want to see! It also means down time (which means a little more boring blog posts) which we have not gotten a lot of this past week and a half. 2 more days here then we start the journey back home. 

••Lauren••

ZOO DAY

Guys. Today we went to the best zoo probably in the whole world. We got there at about 10 am and left around 3:30. It was so gr8. This zoo is actually an organization that protects the wildlife. It's called Wildlife Alliance. They take animals out of dangerous situations and 80-90% of the animals they take in get released back to the wild. There are some animals that stay there permanently because either they have too much damage psychologically to survive again in the wild, they are too accustomed to humans to survive in the wild, or they were born at the zoo and wouldn't survive in the wild. We heard a lot of stories about the animals being abused in their earlier living situation. It really is a cool organization and our two tour guides were very sweet. One of them is from Australia and the other is from Canada. So the first thing we did was see some elephants.

The one with the tusks is a male and the other is a female. They were both being abused in the wild because they started eating crops (because people started to feed them human food then they realized the crops were the same thing). This led to the locals being unhappy because they sold the crops to make money. They actually would pour battery acid on the female's head to get her to stop. Thankfully though she was able to get rescued by Wildlife Alliance. 

We then saw another elephant named Lucky and she's very tamed. We were able to feed Lucky and later go on a walk. And boy, what an experience! It was definitely a highlight of the trip. 

After we fed Lucky, we went to meet another elephant who had a foot cut off by a trap. The organization was able to get connected with a prothstetic company and after a lot of begging, agreed to make a leg for this elephant. We were able to see them change the prothstetic and we learned about their positive training methods. 

You can see he has one on and the one in front is the one he'll change in to. 

You can see where he lost his foot.

And here's the fresh one! They change it twice a day since it gets sweaty in there and some leaves get stuck. 

We had a private tour with our guides so these are things not a lot of other people get to do. We toured around the other parts of the zoo to see tigers, monkeys, leapords, bears, and some other animals that are native to Cambodia. After this we ate lunch. There are some vendors in the middle of the zoo, kind of like a Cambodian food court. Our guides ordered us food and we sat down and relaxed in hammocks while we ate. There was a breeze and a lot of local children running around. It was wonderful. 

Yummmmmm

These were also the only bathrooms that were available throughout the zoo

And you dump water in there to flush.. Quite an experience. 

So next was our walk with Lucky! We saw some otters and other monkeys on the way to her enclosure. Of course I had to take some selfies with an elephant (and Iahly).

She is so gorgeous. 

Then we were able to play with some monkeys!! We went into their enclosure and they climbed all over us. OMG it was great. We were told a lot of rules before we went in though. We took off bracelets, headbands, watches, earrings, and anything else they can steal. We were told not to show our teeth, scream, or laugh because that's a sign of aggression. This was probably the hardest part because when monkeys are climbing and jumping all over you it's hard not to let out a little squeal and smile. There were 3 monkeys in the enclosure but one was very young so she stayed out of the fun. The other two were very playful and spent most of the time running around on us and fighting with each other. We had some fruit to feed them too to distract them from the things we still had on like glasses or hair ties. 

I think today was definitely grandma's favorite day and definitely one of mine. So we left the park after this at around 3:30 and it's a little over an hour back to our hotel. 

We had a chance to shower and rest for about an hour then we went to a very delicious restaurant! I ordered the crab fried rice. My meal had eyes

Haha it was soooo good. We laughed a lot about the day, looked through funny monkey pictures, and enjoyed the evening. Another absolutely fantastic day in Cambodia. :) 

••Lauren••

Khmer Cooking

Today we learned how to cook! We led the hotel around 8:00 and went to the place where they taught us to take some Khmer food. We went to the market first to learn about the ingredients and see where the locals get their food. 

Grandma and I got these little things made of sticky rice and I think sugar on top. It kind of tasted like kettle corn. It was good! We also saw this super cute baby:

^^so precious. We went back to learn how to make banana salad, fish amock, and a sweet potato & tapioca dessert. We chopped things and sliced things and mixed things. It was such a great experience! And the food turned out to be delicious!! We also got a packet with tons of Khmer recipes! 

Ingredients 

Finished fish amock

Dessert and fruit 

Amock and salad

Yum :)

So we were there until about 1. We left at 1:30 to head to the airport to back to Phnom Penh. Our plane left at 3:30, arrived at 4:15, and we got to our hotel at 6:00 because of the traffic. We went to a shadow puppet/dance show tonight with traditional and modern dance. It was actually pretty impressive. The dances and music were very beautiful. 

Another great day! Going to the zoo all day tomorrow! :)

••Lauren••

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy new year y'all! One very very important thing I forgot to add about last night was that grandma and I got to call mom and Eric and ken and talk to them! So special. Miss you all! 

So today in Cambodia is a Holy day. People aren't required to work and the streets weren't so busy. We started off our day later than the past two (PTL) at 8:00. Our first stop was a "floating" village. Since we're in the dry season the houses aren't actually floating right now. They're all on stilts and on the river so when all the rain comes they basically have to travel by boat. This experience was amazing though. All the houses looked so cool together. And we had the opportunity to walk through the village! (This was not apart of the original plan). While we were in the boat a lady came beside us in her boat. She was selling various snacks, books, and pencils. Grandma bought some books and pencils for the school kids in the village. We handed them out to the kids and man, what an amazing experience. They all come running up to you wanting some paper and a pencil. Some send their younger siblings to do the work. 

To me, this is what traveling is about. Getting to see how "normal" people live their lives in that country. We were able to walk throughout a typical village where people barely had any money, food, or clothing. It was just such a cool experience. They formal schools didn't have class today since it was a holy day. But there was kind of a make shift classroom underneath a roof with some benches. The kids were learning English and were able to practice with us Americans. I met this beautiful girl 

And I can't remember her name because it's just so hard here. But her English was great and she was asking me all kinds of different questions. 

So amazing. And the most incredible thing is that God knows these precious children by name. He knows the whole village by name. How absolutely incredible. So that was just the morning!

We ate at a place that was near the river and of course they had great food. We haven't really been to place where we experienced bad food. After this we went to a couple shops, a silver shop and an antique shop.

Then we went to the silk farm! We learned how they raise the worms, how they produce silk (from mulberry tree leaves), how they spin the silk, and how they make beautiful things out of the silk. It was all very interesting and it inspired me to start a silk farm of my own. I mean, it can't be that hard right? 

There are dead worms inside of those.. Also the white stuff is silk. 

Spinning the silk off of the cacoons. 

Now weaving it! Very beautiful. (Mom this can be your job). :)

After looking in the shop for a bit, grandma and I decided to get some ice cream. Yummmmmm. We thought Ken and Eric might be a little jealous so we had to take a picture. 

We headed home after this, went to a restaurant we went to a couple days ago for dinner, then headed back to the hotel. We had to pack up all our stuff tonight because our plane leaves to go back to Phenom Penh tomorrow! Hard to believe the aren't in Cambodia for much longer! 

••Lauren••