The Highlight Reel

I have been really terrible about updating my blog for the last five months or so. Total failure. But a lot of that is because in mid-January I bought one of these...



... and then spent six weeks being super excited, of course, but too sick to do much more than this:



By the time I felt like a human being again, I was out of the habit and overwhelmed at the prospect of catching up. But I'm renewing my efforts and determined to do better. So let's just hit the highlights and catch you up on what you missed.

Moganshan

Awesome weekend trip to the mountains about two/three hours out of the city. I won't name names or incriminate anyone, but it was a wild time of delicious food, drinks, all night singing and dancing, costume hats and fake mustaches, games, hiking, and all-around partying.



We stayed in this awesome cabin on the side of a big hill.















Chinese New Year

Chun jie kuai le! We decided to stick around Shanghai for the week of Chinese New Year, even though most people leave to head back to their hometowns for that time to visit family and friends, eat traditional dumplings, exchange hong baos, and the like. For us in Shanghai, it was two weeks of random loud fireworks set off in the middle of the road with no thought to personal safety, and the loudest explosions between midnight and 1 a.m.







Year of the Snake!

Irish Ball

One of the biggest ex pat balls of the year, the Irish Ball was an absolute blast.













New York

I spent most of April in New York doing some shopping, errands, and hanging out with friends. It was nice and relaxing to be in NYC for so long, especially since I know the 14-hour flight would be too uncomfortable to try again in the next few months. I had a lot of nice lunches, some casual hangouts, an actually in-person appearance at book club and TV Night,and a visit from my mom, which was great.

Museums

I've taken a couple field trips with Peter to some Shanghai Museums, including the Propaganda Museum and the Natural History Museum. They were illuminating, if for no other reason than the museums themselves are pretty outdated, so they give you a glimpse at history from another point in history. Though some of the 'facts' about race might have been best left in the past.









We Are in Super Shape

Somehow this spring has been a lot about working out. We joined some friends in a 5k walk/10k run charity event, pictured below. Just recently, Scott and Simon participated in a half-triathlon and put up excellent times in the open water swim, cycling, and run. Scott's also been rock climbing a lot and going on long cycling trips with his buddies all over Shanghai and has really gotten to know the city on two wheels. For obvious reasons I am doing less intense stuff, but I'm doing weekly prenatal yoga classes and aqua aerobics and am holding my own quite well so far.

Banlung

Photo blog post! We had a great time in Banlung. We stayed at a gorgeous resort, with its own private outdoor patio:



And an awesome semi-outdoor bathroom:



It was on a beautiful pond, and a bit of a hike to civilization, so we mostly ate at the hotel restaurant, which had an excellent mix of local cuisine and French food. And I can't conclude a blog about Cambodia without mentioning this popular appetizer, peanuts with a sort of sweet salt. Yum.



The next two days we booked what turned out to be completely private tours driving around the area and visiting small minority villages and the local gem and gold miners. It was wonderful driving through these small areas and getting a sense of how some of the most common Cambodian industries (besides fishing) actually work.



Did I mention to get to most of these villages we had to travel by boat? Well, we did. And waiting for our ride, we stopped and shared some of our afternoon snack with this little monkey.



Scott, on our boat! It was so hot out, I spent most of the ride lying down with a t-shirt covering my face so I didn't fry, so this is from one of the few moments when I'd poke my head out and appreciate the scenery.



Scott watching a demonstration by a gold miner. He was surrounded by a crowd of tiny children also looking for gold. They were mesmerized by Scott and his Vibram shoes and we had a lot of fun with them.



A photo of the center of one of the minority villages we visited. Many of these villages practice animism. The stand in the middle of the grounds is for tying up cows and oxen for sacrifices. The blood is drained and often some of the bones, especially the jawbones if I recall correctly, are used for luck, etc.



A carved totem in a minority village cemetery.



At a different minority village cemetery. Here villagers build brightly-painted structures over the graves. This one is a more recent one, built by a wealthier family.



Afternoon snack. Sweet sticky rice and banana wrapped in banana leaves. Bought at a local market with our cluster of tiny bananas. Delicious.








An example (not in use) of one of the structures built by teens in a minority village. Somewhat controversial, but during adolescence, boys and girls build their own separate small huts for them to host visitors in the evenings, mostly visitors from neighboring villages. They sleep there until they are married.






We stopped and walked behind this gorgeous waterfall.



One of the last things we did after a hot day. We stopped at Yeak Laom, a volcanic crater lake. It was gorgeous. Warm, deep water we could leap into off of a dock. And then home for an evening of relaxation! Scott got his final oil massage of the trip, and I got a full body scrub and facial that was magical. The next day we got up and headed back to Phnom Penh, where we did some souvenir shopping and got a bunch of beautiful handmade Cambodian silk scarves from a non-profit that provides Cambodian women with work.

So that's Cambodia in 17 days! We had a blast.

Sen Monorom

Ser Monorom was a bit of a rollercoaster of odd ups and downs. So let's get started.

We had no plans and no place to stay. But it was no big deal because we expected to spend the day on a 5-6 hour car ride to Ser Monorom and then we'd just find a place and relax for the evening. Things don't always go as planned, and so were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in a sweet 3 hours at Pich Kiri, a guesthouse our driver knew. It was an amazingly budget-friendly place at $12 a night, and Scott scoped out the room and approved it. Maybe I was a little spoiled by our gorgeous resort living, but my stomach leapt into my throat when I saw that the shower was just a hose-with-a-shower-head in the middle of the room and the room was already occupied by what seemed like an entire colony of ants. I immediately started scratching phantom bug bites all over my legs and arms and made some Significant Facial Expressions at Scott. Scott, however, was feeling completely chipper and ready to seize the day, so while I faded into a dark, dark corner of my own mind, he went out and booked us an impromptu tour for the afternoon. He thought he'd booked us a car tour, so we were a tiny bit surprised when two scooters showed up. But, whatever, I was starting to feel like a good sport again, and after seeing how prevalent motorbikes are in this country, I thought it would add to the experience to putter around on one for a short while.

Well, on whole hour or so later, we arrived at our first stop, after all kinds of red dusty roads and more than a few moments of "WeeeeeeeeeWAITHOLYCRAPISTHISSAFETHISDOESNOTSEEMSAFE," but besides the numb butt and the horrifying knowledge that all the red dirt embedded in my skin would later require a long, long visit to the-bathroom-we-do-not-speak-of, it was actually quite a lot of fun! We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall, walked around a coffee plantation, saw what they call a sea of forest, rode around some beautiful mountains and explored the countryside. It was gorgeous. And seeing it in the open air of a motorbike, your body naturally sitting deep down into every sharp turn, was exhilarating.

We returned in the early evening. I took the world's most efficient shower, and we headed out to the Green House restaurant, which is an interesting place that looks like a patio and a jungle combined and clearly caters to foreign tourists looking for low-budget tours and volunteer opportunities. We had already booked our excursion for the next day, but we still enjoyed talking to the restaurant owner about the area and tour stops and hung out until we were ready to hit the hay.

December 31
You'll note that this day was December 31, and I point that out for a reason. This was the last day of 2012, and I will go on the record saying that I was not a fan of 2012. Actually, 2012 was the worst. So this was the last day of the worst year, and I was gonna ride some elephants, thankyouverymuch.

Honestly, I probably had the most comfortable night's sleep of the trip. And for those of you closely monitoring the ant story, they had almost completely disappeared overnight.

We once again jumped on the back of some motorbikes and rode out, not as far this time, to a little village consisting of a few huts and some farm animals. There were some little baby pigs running around, and a baby cow with its mom, and then four or five giant elephants just hanging out. We climbed some steps and stepped across an elephant to sit in a two-person basket on its shoulders, and off we went toward the jungle. It was not the majestic, romantic ride I was somehow imagining. You should know, if you are not sitting in the exact right position on an elephant, you are in for some pain. Every giant step rocked me dramatically into either a super hard piece of woven wood or Scott's knees. But then our mahout jumped off the elephant and told us that for the balance of the animal, it would be better if Scott climbed out of the basket and sat just behind the elephant's neck. Suddenly I was comfortable, holding on to the sides of the basket and gazing out, imagining how the height and the rhythm of the elephant's footsteps would make a king feel incredibly powerful. Meanwhile Scott spent about an hour WITH NOTHING TO HOLD ON TO, just trying to properly time it so that he could quickly wrench his torso around and grab the basket behind him whenever the Bun the elephant dipped his head down to tug on some branches. I think there was some possibility that a hospital visit could have been included in this trip.





We stopped off at this nice spot near a creek for a lunch break and to let the elephants eat and rest. It turned out to be about a two and a half hour break, so fortunately we were able to fill our time talking to a very interesting Canadian filmmaker who was there with his Cambodian girlfriend and their adorable kid. Then the elephants showed up again and walked out into the river to cool off and wash the dirt off their backs. A lot of people in our group started joining them, climbing on the elephants' backs and rinsing water off of them. After a while, standing on the rocks in the river involved a bit of a frogger game with balls of elephant dung but we fortunately came out unscathed. We jumped on an elephant's back and ours playfully kept dipping its head way down into the water and shaking. And then it made a trumpeting sound, which is a deep and surprisingly loud sound that immediately reminds you that this is a huge and powerful animal. And then it started rolling a bit until finally behind me this little boy mahout goes flying off the elephant and splashing into the water. And we all sat staring at each other for a moment, because we realized there was no one guiding our elephant. One of the men laughingly said the elephant didn't like the boy, which appeared to seem true since it stopped shaking, but it didn't change the fact that now it was up to me and Scott to get the elephant out of the water by ourselves. Now. Sitting bareback on a giant animal climbing up slippery wet rocks without the supervision of an experienced mahout is...a concern. We were laughing and enjoying ourselves, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking, I can't wait until we can talk about how fun this was in past tense, when I know we didn't fall off and hurt ourselves.



Then we had a really unpleasant discovery. Scott's wallet was missing. We concluded it must have been knocked out of his back pocket while bouncing around on the elephant's head. Our mahout didn't speak English but we managed to let him know what happened and he kindly took Scott on foot back through the paths we came in on to look for it. No luck. When we got back to the guesthouse, the owner, Madame Deu, was there and by the time my scooter pulled in she had already been filled in on the story. She was so sweet she immediately could see I was distraught about the whole thing and wrapped me in such a maternal hug and sent two coconuts to our room. The next morning she had prepared some tea and donuts for us for breakfast and had pictures taken with us before hugging us goodbye and sending us on our way to our next stop, Banlung.

The Mighty Mekong

So we took a long, long drive back up to the northern part of the country to stop in Kratie (pronounced kra-CHEH, with a slightly rolled 'r'). The town is located right along the Mekong River, but otherwise it's... not particularly impressive. We arrived as it was getting dark and I thought the town seemed totally sketchy. It improves in daylight, but anyway, that is not the point of Kratie. There isn't a ton to do in the town, and all of the tourists are there primarily for the same experience--to try to spot the dwindling population of Irrawaddy dolphins. They're little and gray with flat noses and I was really anxious to see them, since I knew only 70-90 live in the Mekong and spotting them would be completely up to chance. Our hotel set us up with an excellent tuktuk driver, Soda, who happened to also be an English and French teacher at a local school. And between the hotel owner and Soda, we knew what time and where would give us the best chance for successful dolphin-spotting.

We ran into a French couple who didn't really have any luck. Us? We saw one within a minute of getting on the boat. There were a good 5 or 6 active dolphins all over the place, chasing jumping fish and coming up for air a bunch. No jumping out of the water, but we saw plenty of tops of heads and fins and backs. It turns out taking pictures of dolphins from a middle distance is kinda tricky? But we enjoyed seeing them with our eyes and had a fun time on a boat and driving through the nearby villages. Sorry I can't fully share the experience with photographs.

The view from our boat, and the little ripple in the background is a dolphin dipping back into the water.

O HAI! I didn't take this picture, but I wanted to give you an idea. Dolphins without foreheads look like happy aliens, don't they?

Soda! A little action-shot from our tuktuk ride. The hut on the right is a restaurant, I believe.

Then we returned to our hotel, grabbed our stuff, and got on another boat! This time it was a short trip across the water to a small island where there are no cars. We stayed at a cool resort with private mini-villas on stilts, but even there, the only electricity supply was from a generator they turned on at 6pm. Scott told me he'd heard that the island in a lot of ways gives you an idea of what most of Cambodia must have looked like before it really developed, and that was pretty believable.

Our hut is on the far left.

We went on a short tuktuk ride around some narrow dirt roads. Most people move around on small minibikes or on wagons pulled by mini-horses or cows, so whenever they hear the sound of a motor, the children often line up by the road to see what and who is coming. They stare shyly or curiously, or they smile and wave, and depending on where they live and what the education is like, a lot of them will say "hello" or "bye-bye." They also call us French, because Khmer doesn't really use a different word for foreigner.

We jumped off at a nice spot to watch the sunset, but we soon became fidgety and Scott was frustrated with me for suggesting that he might be misunderstood if he jumps up and tries to join a man loading his wagon with bamboo branches, so we abandoned the original plan and started to walk back early. We passed a pagoda and its outbuildings, fully open and run by some young monks. The resort owner had told us we could have a look around, but we didn't want to barge in and stare at monks going about their lives, but a very young monk waved us inside the gate as we walked by, and walked us up to the pagoda, silently showed us to remove our shoes, and the three of us rolled out a mat and knelt before a giant Buddha together. Then he and his other young friend eagerly pointed out a big flock of birds flying by, which struck me, that out here in this incredibly peaceful and quiet location, a mass of birds would be a fascination for a 10 year old boy. We've seen a lot of small villages on this trip, and a lot of farmland and fishing villages (about 80% of people here are farmers), but this island is a whole other kind of place. You can feel your heart rate slowing here. At night it's so quiet you feel like you're alone. Well, except for the loud American cycling tour that was also staying at our resort.

My new friends. They don't hate me, we just had to be careful not to touch.

Also, for the record, I should mention that somewhere in the Kampot days I slowly started developing a cold of sorts. It was a throat tickle that developed into some runny nose + sneezing. On the trek up to Kratie, it turned into some sinus pressure so I ached in my face and behind my eyes. Nothing detrimental to plans, but there's a certain sort of evil in pairing the discomfort of pounding sun and constant layers of sticky sunscreen with a head cold. That's just too cruel.

Kampot Day Trip

After a relaxing Christmas, we couldn't resist taking a little trip to explore the area. We were staying right next to Bokor National Park, so we got a guy to give us the tour. Well, sorta. He didn't speak a word of English, so the tour was driving and charades. We climbed Bokor Mountain, visited a very cool abandoned French hotel, and saw a giant statue. Then we took a trek out to a pepper plantation. Kampot is known for its green, white, red, and black pepper, so we've been having some pretty peppery meals. We bought some red and white pepper for some future cooking adventures, and wandered around a bit. They also grew mangos and durian, and we made friends and chased some geese and chickens before I was attacked by some kind of speed-crawling ant colony. No harm done, but yeah, bugs are a thing here. As are chickens, pigs, dogs, and geckos, all of which wander about freely and make for smarter pedestrians than most people.

This is what it's like driving around in Cambodia. Minivans crammed with 20 people and luggage and the trunk open with people hanging out of it. An pair of cows pulling a wagon of hay stacked ten feet above the top of the wagon, with a man perched on top. Tons of motorbikes. Honking as a basic and constant form of communication. And plenty of what's pictured above.

Gho-gho-gho-ghosts!

The top of the mountain.

This mountain is guarded by a giant.

This is what a pepper plant looks like. They don't even grind up the peppercorns here. I ate one right off the plant and the rest of the day everything tasted thoroughly seasoned.

Pepper plants

The rest of the pepper plantation, including tons of other plants.

Scott once again trying to set me up with a date.

I should also mention that I have a horrible habit of bringing loads of entertainment with me on vacations and then never ever using it. We just don't plan for a lot of down time on vacation. This time, however, we had a little bit of relaxing, guilt-free free time in Kampot, and I took advantage of it. Scott wants to go for a swim in the sun? Cool, I will hide in the shade with my book. My beach read was A Storm of Swords and while it is a brick of a book I was so glad to have it with me. Also, every time I had to wander around in the heat and the sand I thought about what a cranky Danerys I would have made.