Cambodia!!!!

I returned last Friday from nine days of adventure in Cambodia.  It only took us 24 hours to get to Cambodia from Chittagong.  We were able to spend a wonderful 18 hours in the Bangkok airport, which I can safely say, is the coldest effing airport in the world.  I'm glad I "borrowed" a blanket from the airplane, though, I am not sure how much warmer it really made me.  The worst part is you are sitting in this freezing airport and you know that on the other side of the glass its a pleasant 80 degrees.  Oh well, it was worth the sleepless night on a metal bench to get to Phnom Penh.  Katherine, Amy, and I immediately hopped on a bus to Siem Reap.  The view from the bus was amazing.  The countryside of Cambodia is lush and green.  I wanted to stop the bus all the time so that I could take pictures.  Instead I just continued to watch the cheesy karaoke video that was playing on the bus; Cambodians sure seem to love their karaoke.

 

Siem Reap is a nice town.  We spent the first day walking around, eating and, of course, doing a little light shopping, nothing too strenuous.  I liked shopping in the market there, because the shopkeepers were women and they were really friendly.  Our second day in Siem Reap we went to visit some of the Angkor temples.   If you ever have the opportunity to visit them.....DO IT.  They were so beautiful and, because it is low season, the number of tourists was minimal.  We spent the majority of the day at three temples, it was a little rough cause I didn't get much sleep the night before, but totally worth it.

The next stop on our adventure was Sihanoukville (spelling?), which is a beach town.  Not much happened there, mostly just eating and laying out at the beach.  It was beautiful, white sand, blue water, and yummy shakes.  I could have stayed forever, but due to a shortage of time I left Sihanoukville after two nights.

The last stop was Phnom Penh.  I spent my time in Phnom Penh being tourists.  I visited the national museum, the royal palace (sorta, i walked around the outside, but didn't want to pay to go in ) the killing fields and tuol sleng.  

I know this is a pretty short explanation of my trip....sorry.  I really could sum up my trip in one sentence:

Cambodia was a well-earned absolutely perfectly fantastical mix of culture, tourism, drinking and other shenanigans.  ; )

 

I'm off to bed I hope you enjoy my pics.

Costume Party and Tea Plantation Pics

Miss Me?

Phew, ok, apparently I am really bad at keeping up a blog.  Being a teacher is WAY more work than I originally thought.  Thats alright because I just finished my first term, well sorta.  I just have to give some finals and grades some stuff and then I am finished.  Thats right, I said I finished with my first term.  It is crazy to think that I have been in Bangladesh for almost four months.  INSANE.  In between lesson planning and teaching I was able to make it to a tea plantation a couple weeks ago.  The tea plantation we visited was so beautiful.  We also got to tour the factory where they process the tea.  I had no idea that there was so much involved in making tea.  I thought you just dried some leaves, stuck them in a bag and poof you had tea.  Oh no, it is much more complicated then that in case you were wondering, which I am sure you all were.  

Last weekend one of the clubs at school put on a talent show and a group of Sri Lankan students taught six teachers, myself included, a dance.  Honestly I am surprised the students didn't kick the teachers out of the group before the performance cause we were such goof offs at practice.  The roles were totally reversed and the teachers were making jokes and being distracting and the students had to keep us in line. The dance went well, I am trying to get my hands on a video of the dance so I can share my new talent with you.  I haven't been on stage in awhile, I was so nervous.  Surprising, since my job is to stand in front of people and talk.  I think the best part was the outfits the students picked out.  Temperature wise, I would compare it to being wrapped in saran wrap.  Talk about non-breathable fabric...holy crap and of course we had to switch the fans off during our dance because I am too tall and would have probably broken a hand.  

Yesterday, I went to a rock show in Chittagong.  For the most part it was high schoolers doing covers of Creed and Metallica.  I found the the covers of Creed extremely amusing since Creed is a Christian band and the concert was at Muslim hall, but I am just a dork like that.  Anywho, we went to see a friend's friend's band.  They were actually pretty good and played music that they had written.  I was really excited cause I could understand some of the words, well, I understood two Bangla words, but I am learning.  I am bound and determined to learn Bangla before I finish here.  I would feel like such a loser if I didn't learn Bangla after being here for a year and a half.

This is getting long and I am sure quite boring.  Mostly I am just looking forward to my trip to Cambodia in 5 days.  WOOHOO!!!  I am sooo very excited.  I don't really have a plan once I get there, but it doesn't matter.

Hopefully I will get some pictures of the last month posted soon, just as soon as I remember what my password is for photobucket (oops), so keep checking.  BYE.