Mother’s Day 2019

As I was reflecting on Mother’s Day and the joys of being a mom. I was Remembering the first time I held my babies, remembering every kiss, every song. Thinking about how much they’ve grown and all that we’ve been through this past year. This Mother’s Day, I hold 2 babies on earth and 2 in my heart that I know I’ll see again in Heaven. I am constantly reminded of my savior and how He was there with me through all the suffering and through the triumphs. I know God was showing me the joy through it all. Last summer, Shadrach had 2 breath holding spells which were very similar to seizures. They came out of nowhere. We didn’t know at the time if he would make it through. During the first seizure, I thought we were losing him. It didn’t feel real and at the same time it was so real and terrifying that all I could do was cry to God to save him. After the episode we had so many thoughts running through our mind.  What would his life look like now, will he keep having seizures, will he be ok, and all we could do was get down on our knees and pray. We prayed for it all. To heal him, to carry us through our suffering, to help us grasp each moment, to help us figure out the next steps, to fully trust in God, to help us with the unknown. And thankfully God did! We are beyond blessed that the Lord brought us through. Shadrach has been fine ever since. But we continually pray each day. We soak every moment because you just never know. God’s word tells us to not be anxious about tomorrow because worrying won’t add another day to our life and so we put our full trust in him. Knowing that everything happens for the good of His kingdom and that He loves us and He cares. 

A few months after that happened, Shawn and I wanted to expand our family. We were pregnant with our third but suffered a miscarriage in September. Our baby was with us for six weeks. Because of the nature of the job and living in Kazakhstan, only so much could be done here in Atyrau. I was taken care to the best of the doctors ability but we had to travel to London so that I could have a D&C to remove the remaining products that didn’t pass. It was very difficult for me, to be on a plane, going to a beautiful city that I love, only to know that it was to finally let go of my baby. I now understand and pray for every person on airplanes because you never know the reason they are traveling. You couldn’t tell from the outside by looking at me, but inside a piece of me was dying. Our hearts were broken but I was constantly reminded of how good the Father is. He loves me and He cares. A short while after that, we were pregnant again. This time nothing seemed to line up. The dates were off, I had certain symptoms but not strongly. I knew I was pregnant but we decided to wait until 8 weeks to have any test. I was able to go to my OB in the US and the pregnancy test came back positive, but an embryo couldn’t be seen yet. This meant I wasn’t the 8 weeks I thought, but only 4. So we waited. We had tests every week after that, and while the yolk sac grew slightly, no embryo could be seen. After 3 weeks of testing it was confirmed that this wasn’t a viable pregnancy. Essentially our baby didn’t develop right and my body would eventually release it. This was a much different pain and heartache than the first. All the while, we were down on our knees praying. I would have to travel to London again to have the procedure. My loving mother was able to join me. We were able to have some fun but ultimately I was there to have an appointment and set a time to move forward with the procedure . I didn’t want to decide a time and date when to do it. I felt that wasn’t what God intended. My thoughts were, my body will handle this, it knows what to do. So I was hesitant about the appointment. But my doctor in London was so supportive. She wasn’t convinced that the pregnancy wasn’t viable. She wanted to wait another 2 weeks before moving forward because then we would know for sure if the baby wasn’t growing due to the measurements you should be at a certain week. Praise God! A small miracle. It was decided that the family would join me. We were able to celebrate my 33rd birthday in London with beautiful flowers and fulfilling meals. It was a glorious day. The next day, my body did what it was supposed to. Our 4th baby, went to be with the Lord. I had so much peace and joy. I knew this world wasn’t meant for my baby. I knew God was there taking care of both of us.

I don’t know what the future holds but what keeps me going is “God is enough”. My mind knows this, I believe my heart knows this although, I have to admit sometimes it’s hard. I love being a mom, I want to be a mom to more children. Having many children was something Shawn and I agreed our life would be like. We were always one of the few couples who would gladly say we wanted at least 4 children. While others thought we were crazy, we shared a smile and joy in our hearts knowing that it would be amazing. However, our life with our 2 beautiful children is perfect. We laugh together, have adventures, adore each and every moment. We pray together as a family, we enjoy our kids and all that they do. Of course I would love more children, and am ready for however God wants to give them to us. This Mother’s Day, I held my 2 babies on earth and sent my love to my 2 in heaven. God knows my pain, and He loves me and He cares. I know my angel babies are well taken care of. They are with God, what a better place to be. They will never suffer, there is no pain or sorrow where they are and that comforts me. While my heart and flesh hurt that I will never be able to hold them here on earth, that I will never smell them, or see their sweet faces, I know Gods got them and He has me too in His sweet embrace. 

Two lyrics that currently flow through my mind are “But through it all, I remember, that He loves me and He cares and He’ll never put more on me that I can bear.” (Kirk Franklin-More than I can bear) 

And “ my brokenness brought me to you, and these wounds are a story you’ll use, I’m thankful for the scars because without them I wouldn’t know your heart, and I know they’ll always tell of who you are, so forever I’m thankful for the scars”(I am they-Scars)

I wrote all this so that my testimony can help someone. I know I wasn’t alone in my suffering. Jesus died on the cross for our suffering but that doesn’t mean he felt the pain only that time. He feels it with us when we are in pain because he lives within us. God is omnipresent, therefore with us all the time. He will never leave me or forsake me or you! (Deuteronomy 31:6)

Please continue to pray for us and if you have any prayer requests, please let us know. We want to be here for anyone that needs it, just as much as we need it. I know many women have gone through this before me and many will after. I know your heartache. I am there with you. You are not alone. This does just sometimes happen. I am praying for you and will pray for you if you are ever in a similar situation. 

It is still a joyous Mother’s Day, many things to be grateful for and praying for the ones that are grieving today. He loves you and He cares.

Answered prayers

When I thought about writing this, 2 things came to mind about why I wanted to post it. 1. I want to share my testimony as a witness to the fullness of God , His power and love 

2. I would like for all parents to be aware of how things can change in an instance, how your world can turn upside down in the next second and what to do in an emergency situation if you’ve never encountered one or if you just need a refresher to the frailty of life 

On Friday July 6, our son Shadrach, 3, had a seizure. The day went as any other day. He played outside with friends, ate good meals, drank plenty of water and went with mom and dad to the grocery store. When we returned before dinner with our friends, he began to play in the living room. As I was putting groceries away and chatting , I saw him jumping on the couch. It felt like hours had passed but in reality it was probably less than 45 seconds. I turned around and saw part of his arm waving around above the couch. That gut feeling that comes in for moms (parents ) when you know something is absolutely wrong, sunk in. I immediately ran to him, in my mind I thought he was panicking because he got stuck in between the couch cushions. But As I picked him up and yelled out his name, he was in full seizure. He had never had anything happen like that before. I yelled out to friends and my husband to call 911. My husband has had experience with seizures from watching family members have them, and he knew what to do. *In a seizure, you must lay the person flat on the floor on their side. Watch for anything in their mouth and don’t put anything in their mouth. Also note how long the seizure is, whether or not both sides of the body are moving and anything else you can remember from the seizure so you can correctly tell doctors what happened, for a proper diagnosis. His seizure lasted about 2 min and he went into postictal state (fell asleep right after.)

We went to the ER and prayed. We both prayed the whole time. Tears ran down my face as I was in deep prayer asking God to please pull him through and bring my son out of this. I know that seizures happen often to people, that people with epilepsy can love normal lives but I never thought my healthy son would have one and with no known causes. I didn’t know what to expect. Why did he have a seizure? I kept asking myself and God. I took for granted that I had a healthy son, 2 healthy children. I wasn’t prepared for anything like this to happen, my heart wasn’t prepared but when can you ever be.

The ER doctors ran several tests which included: blood and urine samples, a CT scan and EKG. While we were waiting for all these tests, Shadrach eventually came to . He wasn’t exactly himself but he was alert. He was very combative and understandably upset about being in the hospital. Between each test, I fell to my knees, face down in prayer. Asking God to bring back normal results , meaning there was no infection and that he was ok. Now, I am sharing my personal time with God not to brag but to let you and anyone out there that hasn’t experienced God, know that there is indeed a God. A God who is faithful and gave His son for us because He loved us (John 3:16). I firmly and confidently believe in the power of prayer. Shawn prayed, our parents prayed, friends and friends of friends prayed. By the end of the night the doctor said all tests came back negative and that we could go home. By midnight Shadrach was back home, eating lucky charms and ok.

The next days were all so fast and all testimonies to the amazing things God can do. He moves mountains and we may not see physical landmarks move nowadays but God certainly does move them. Before I went to bed each night And after I woke up, I prayed thanking God he didn’t have another seizure. We asked our church to pray because we knew this next week would be filled with doctors appointments and more tests. Another bump in our road was that Shawn was scheduled to fly back to Kazakhstan on Wednesday just 5 days after the seizure. So let me stop for a minute to give another shout out to how awesome God is in His plans. If we had been in Kazakhstan and Shadrach had the seizure there, we would have been in a totally different situation. In Kazakhstan , we have a doctor on campus that can treat general things like colds and maybe the flu but the company will not allow anything further unless it is life-threatening (heart-attack). Therefore there is no medication or testing that would be done for a seizure. We would have been flown out on the next flight to the next big city with good medical care like London or Amsterdam and most likely it would only have been Shadrach and I. So for us to be in the United States with friends that would be able to care for our daughter while we were gone was all apart of God‘s plan. God put us in the right place at the right time because He knew what kind of care we would need to get through this. So this is how the last four days have gone, Monday we had a check up with the pediatrician for the kids regular yearly check up and the pedi said all was good. She said we needed an MRI and EEG. When we told her about Shawn’s flight, she said she would do her best to get us in as soon as possible. However , we needed to call another hospital to find out when the next available appointment was. But that most likely we wouldn’t be able to see anyone until Thursdaybecause our insurance needed to accept the claim before we could go on with the test. Shawn tried to reschedule his flight to Saturday but it was extremely expensive and we still didn’t know when the testing would be. When we were able to contact the hospital for the testing it took about an hour to rearrange schedules to find the best times to go for the testing. At first we were going to have to go to two separate locations one in Katy and one in the Woodlands , on two separate days in order for it to be done. But through it all,  I know that people were praying to God that everything would work out in His perfect time. And it did! At the end of the hour, The receptionist said let me refresh my page again to see if we have any available times and she said suddenly there was an availability on Tuesday and Wednesday to have the tests done. Then Shawn received an email saying we can reschedule your flight to Thursday for roughly $300. This is about 1/5 of the cost to fly to Kazakhstan. So this was a huge weight off our shoulders.

Again, each night we prayed and the next couple of mornings I fasted ( refrained from eating breakfast) and prayed before our test. Shadrach was such a trooper. He is truly a superhero. He was very cooperative with the doctors and did both tests amazingly. 

Everyone kept telling us, to pray that the results would come back negative. Our pastor, our friends, family, and my mother-in-law said to claim in Jesus name that his results would come back negative and that Shadrach would be OK. That this was a one time occurrence and wouldn’t happen again. Now I understood what they were saying, and I did pray this. But as Some may know, sometimes you have a shadow of a doubt that your prayers will get answered in the way you want them. We just don’t know what God’s will is. And I totally accept His will no matter the outcome but to pray that I wanted it to be the best results for us is hard to swallow. I don’t know God’s plans, I’m no where near His level to even decide what’s best. But I prayed even those these thoughts ran through my head. Will He answer this prayer as I wanted it ? I kept thinking who am I to ask God of this, I’m not worthy, I haven’t done anything that would grant me this wish. (I don’t have to actually do anything , He loves me and gives me grace and Mercy because He is God) 

But my mother-in-law said you need to claim it and BELIEVE it that God will do this and He will. And to me that meant praying without ceasing, and putting my full trust in Him that I believe who God really is : that He is faithful, that He is good and just and loving and that He will stand by his word. The Bible says in John 15: 7 “if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you would ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you.” It also says that “where two or more are gathered in my name, I am among them.“ Matthew 18:20 . And the story of the father that asked Jesus to heal his son with «seizures». It was an evil spirit that was over him causing the boy to convulse and  Become mute. “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!””

‭‭Mark‬ ‭9:23-24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ and “So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.””

‭‭Mark‬ ‭9:29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ 

 So I quote these Scriptures because I had to believe that it was possible. And so I did. I threw myself into that prayer and knowing God‘s love. And I felt his peace , I felt his presence with me and I just left it alone. I did what I needed to do . We took him to the doctor, I took care of my son but I left it up to God. And now a week later, all tests have come back negative! Shadrach is fine, there is no activity of seizures or epileptic type of behavior. Now there’s still a chance he could have another seizure. But there is a chance that anyone could have a seizure at any time. But the most amazing thing to me is that God was glorified through all of this. We said it over and over, that we know God loves us, that He would be glorified through this situation, that no matter the outcome we would still praise God. I can’t even Catch my breath when I think about the answer to our prayer that God has given us. The power of prayer, the confidence that I now have in  prayer. I thought that I had it before but I never really felt it. I never really felt it in my heart that, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, 100% that God was going to answer my prayer In the way that I wanted. I don’t want to sound arrogant or in anyway selfish with my prayer and my testimony and I know that even if it had went the other way , my faith was tested so much that it became stronger and that I would’ve still praised God for who He was. It wouldn’t matter if Shadrach had seizures and was epileptic , God was with me. He is still with us . He is going to help me get through every battle that comes up, just like He did with the first one. And so what I want everyone to know and realize is that tomorrow is not promised. A couple of scriptures come to mind I’d like to leave you with, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:34‬ ‭ESV‬‬

And as I’ve stated before John 15:7 and John 3:16. 

This life is temporary, we don’t know what tomorrow brings but we can trust in God that He has an amazing plan for us today. Hug your babies a little tighter, kiss them more than you did yesterday, be aware when you are near them, but also pray without ceasing that God would stand in the gap when you can’t be there because He will . God protects them and will always take care of them no matter what. Please continue to pray for Shadrach. I pray for all families that deal with illness in themselves and in their children. I know your pain and even if God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want, he answers them with His best will. I will say it is well with my soul. 

Beautiful songs that helped me through this: Even if by MercyMeand Thy will be done by Hillary Scott

Lasting Impressions

As our time here in Bangkok draws to a close, I have some things I've been meaning to say that have been difficult to get out. I want to write about the things I will miss, mostly the people here that have made life in BKK such a wonderful experience for us.

First, I will deeply miss Kristy and Kaden. I don't think I've told you enough Kristy but I am so thankful for having you in my life this past year. We shared one of the greatest moments a woman will go through in her life. This experience is usually shared between a mother and daughter or sisters but because we found ourselves in BkK without our mothers we leaned on each other. I don't have any sisters so I thank you for being mine through this. It's amazing to me, that if you'd have asked me a year ago if I could have my first baby in Thailand I'd think you were crazy but with your strength, Kristy, and Gods grace I did! And how wonderful it has been to watch our babies grow up with each other. I will miss my daughters first friend and I will miss you sister.

I will also miss Marloes. You were the girl that arrived at the same time I did and we stuck it out together. I will always remember you as being the girl who was down for anything. You always went dancing with me at Australian Pub, even when I was trying to dance with my big pregnant belly! You dressed up at Halloween with me even though you don't celebrate and we were the only ones in costume that night! Oh I will truly miss your honesty and sense of humor. I love you babe!

Sarah, I am thankful God put you in my life. I have never really had a friend like you. I wasn't a girls girl, but I feel with you I grew into that. You were the first girl that came over to cook dinner for me and watch my baby while I slept. I never had a person(besides family) be so kind to me in a moment of vulnerability like that. And then you continued to show your kindness by babysitting just so Shawn and I could watch a movie. You are a very sweet woman and I thank you for that. It was wonderful going to church with you. You make me want to be a better Christian woman and I am forever grateful for that.

I will also miss AWC. Amy was the first person to introduce me to this world. I think she could sense my fear of the unknown and so she met with me privately to talk before I wandered into the notorious Monday coffee. I will never forget that Amy, thank you. AWC introduced me to women like Kristen, Kayla, Judy, Yvonne, Nev and Sara (just to name a few). I have had the pleasure of knowing these amazing women and hope to see you in the states or with the company. I was also introduced to so many women from all walks of life. I enjoyed learning your stories and always felt welcomed when I was around you. Thank you for being my family and always caring for me throughout my pregnancy.

 

Kristen and Sara, it has been so amazing to meet women from the same hometown, in the same company and living at the same hotel! Kristen thank you for welcoming me to Bangkok and Sara thank you for sending me off. I hope to see y'all back in Texas!

I will also miss my driver, Khun Natani (or as Shawn and I call him, Not-to-night!). No matter the hell I gave him he was always ready to take me wherever I needed to go. He was a very sweet man to us and our baby. So I will thank him forever.

Lastly, I will miss everything that is Bangkok. We have done so much here. Traveled to many countries, learned about many cultures, knocked some of the wonders of the world off our list. We've also played with tigers, elephants and monkeys. We've accomplished many of our goals and the best of all we are returning home with our first child. I'd say that we had the adventure of a lifetime here. And I take with me the memories, knowing that I have grown into a better person and now that I've grabbed a tiger by the tail and had a baby in a foreign country, I AM Fearless! So here's to the next chapter in our lives! Cheers!

 

Back on track: October

Ok so Shawn and I have fallen way off on keeping up with our blog. So I am going to do a little summary of somethings we have done:

October: Shawn turned 27! We celebrated with Marloes and Goof at a Creole restaurant called Bourbon St. He had cheesecake and we had a great time.

We also found out the most amazing news.. We are having a baby girl! We will welcome Shanel Marie Davis into this world sometime in February. Everyday watching and feeling her grow inside my body has been a blessing. We are truly grateful for this miracle that God has granted us.

We also took a trip to Bali. Shawn had to work in Indonesia for the week so I met him for the weekend. Being pregnant makes it really hard to travel sometimes. Getting dizzy at the airports and feeling way too hot at the beaches isn't fun, but it was a great trip. We really liked Bali. We stayed at a  nice beach where Shawn tried surfing and played volleyball.

 

 

Then our friends, Rachel and Andres (Mendez) came to visit. We took them to Koh Samet, a beautiful, white, soft sand beach. I also was their tour guide taking them to the temples, malls and around Bangkok. We had a great time and were so glad that we could share this experience with our friends.

 

Finally we enjoyed Halloween in Bangkok. I wasn't going to miss out on Halloween just because we were across the world. So it was an adventure trying to find the costumes we wanted but we succeeded. We also convinced our friends to dress up and they were scary! We had a great time dancing while the rest of Bangkok kept staring!

 

 

 

5 things I will miss

We recently went back to the US for a 2 week visit. It was a joyous time to see family and friends. We were also pleased to announce that we are going to have our first child due in February! Being back was an amazing experience and a perfect transition after being in Bangkok for 3 months. As soon as we arrived and throughout our whole visit we realized some things we were missing. I am going to summarize 5 things that we were so grateful to have and will desperately miss.

1. Open Skies: Being in Bangkok, all you see is skyscrapers, sky trains and muggy clouds. In Bangkok, you usually don't see tall trees reaching out for the sun, or precious clouds floating by. When we first drove away from the airport, we both noticed it but didn't realize what we were looking at. It wasn't until we hit downtown Houston and noticed the skyline as if for the first time, that we knew it was because we could see the skyline while driving. Maybe it is like this in Bangkok, and maybe it was just the beauty of being back home that we could appreciate it more. But open skies are one thing we will miss in Texas.

2. Open Roads: Along with seeing open skies while driving, it was a blessing to see open roads too. In Bangkok, there is always traffic. I feel like we can't go 10 seconds without our driver stopping short. Go, stop, go, stop. This is also partly because he's not a very good driver but the traffic doesn't help. Driving along Hwy 59 and through I-10 to Austin, it was just beautiful. The scenery was a sight
for sore eyes. Living somewhere else, really makes you appreciate how it looks back home.

3. Fast Food: The fast food back home is always delicous! It was great eating Whataburger, Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut, Peter Piper's, Taco Cabana, and Bill Miller's. From this list you can tell that we added a few pounds!

4. Comfort of Parent's home: There is nothing like coming home to a welcoming family. Our parents were so thrilled to have us home and we were equally excited to be back. Even though we don't live with our parents, being at their house just filled our hearts with joy and comfort. It was especially great for me to lay in my mother's bed. Oh how comfortable!

5. Comfort of home cooked meals: Besides seeing family in person and feeling their love, the one thing I will miss most is home cooked meals. Not only did family cook for us but our friends were generous enough to do the same. We had home made spaghetti, chicken enchiladas, rice, beans, calabaza, tacos, carne con arroz, bbq, and potato salad. Yum!!! It was all so delicous and the best food we've had anywhere on the planet.

We were truly blessed to have the opportunity to go back home. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends. We are thankful for all the love and support of family and friends. We will miss seeing and hugging you. And we will see you, God willing, big baby belly, in Decemeber!

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Saturday, Shawn and I went to Wat Muang. After the long 2 hour drive, we saw a Giant Monk and then the Giant Buddha letting us know we had arrived. We were a little disappointed to know that there was no guide to tell us about the statues we were going to see. We had researched this place on Somethingjam.com, a coworker of Shawn's website. Jam said that parents bring their children here to scare them and teach them not to do bad things or go against the Buddhist principles. There are 10 precepts Buddhists believe and must follow:

1. ..harming living beings.
2. ...taking things not freely given.
3. ...sexual misconduct.
4. ...false speech.
5. ...intoxicating drinks and drugs causing heedlessness.
6. ...taking untimely meals.
7. ...dancing, singing, music and watching grotesque mime.
8. ...use of garlands, perfumes and personal adornment.
9. ...use of high seats.
10. ...accepting gold or silver.

Therefore "according to Buddhist belief, depending on what kind of sin one commits while still alive (whether it be murder, adultery, etc) that person will receive the same or worse punishment back when they have passed on in hell before being reincarnated into the next life" (Sasi Aiumtamboon). Because Shawn and I had no idea what the statues meant, we made up some of our own stories based on the principles and what we thought. We saw statues depicting adultery, false speech, stealing, intoxication, and harming living beings (animals). Here are some pictures of the ones we guessed at:

Adulters forced to climb spikes naked

Liars tongues being rolled out

They harmed animals and so now the animals are torturing them

Thieves hands being cut off

After viewing these scenarios we also saw one of the largest Buddha's measuring 302 ft. Somethingjam.com said that if you touch the hand it is good luck, so we tried and I have to admit that I was scared I wasn't going to be able to do it but I did! So did Shawn! We had a great day.

Angkor Wat: Not just another temple

So this weekend was our weekend to travel. We could both feel the travel fatigue getting the best of us since we weren’t really that excited about this trip. But, we already had the tickets and we decided to make the best of it. After seeing so many amazing temples in Bangkok, we were fairly doubtful that Siem Reap, Cambodia and Angkor Wat had much new to offer. Boy were we wrong! Cambodia proved to be an altogether different experience and I’m certainly glad we went.

This trip was trippy right off the bad. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours and when the flight did arrive we had to catch a bus to get on it. Then we found out that we were seats 1a and 1b but we weren’t first class or anything. To top it all off, the airplane had exposed propellers like a crop duster and had cartoon fish drawn all over it. Needless to say we were a little apprehensive about the flight.

Our Plane to/from Cambodia

When we landed safely in Siem Reap (Thank God), we were surprised at how small the airport was and how few people were arriving compared to other tourists destinations we’ve been to.  Going through immigration was an adventure, since the immigration officials were sketchy. One guy asked Angel 3 times if she was from Mexico, and the other asked me for a tip on the down low. The nice surprise was that most all Cambodians speak English and take dollars, which feels like a foreign currency by now. The adventure continued as we were expecting a car to pick us up only to find out that there was a little guy name Bullfrog with a tuk-tuk who would take us to the hotel. After all was said and done, we were just happy to go to the hotel and get some shut eye.

Saturday was the day for us to go to Angkor Wat. We got up later than we wanted, jumped in our tuk tuk with our driver and our guide and made the 15 km or so trek. Even though Cambodians do speak English, it was hard to understand a lot of words because they pronounce “th” with a “shr” or a “fr” and they accent letters where Americans usually pronounce them longer. So “three dollars” sounded like “free dollars” and “meters” sounded like “mater”. But right from the start, both the driver and the tour guide were very polite and professional and hard working. I always have a special appreciation for people who do their jobs well without complaining.

The first impressions of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples upon arriving was that there were quite a few tourists and it looked like all the temples were growing inside a jungle. Surrounding the whole area is a moat that I think is 4 km by 4 km and 3 meters deep. It’s a good way to prevent enemies from attacking you, that’s for sure. We were immediately treated to some monkeys and chickens that were cute. The downside was that almost immediately there were little kids trying to sell us postcards and little souvenirs. And these kids were relentless. They followed me one time for about 30 minutes and repeatedly told me to give them a dollar for what they were selling.

I won’t go into all the details of each temple since some folks may actually want to visit themselves. But we went to three temples; the Bayon temple, the Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider), and of course Angkor Wat. Each temple was amazing in its own way. One of the things that was evident right away was that the recent floods of Cambodia and the years and years of tourist activity had taken a huge toll on the temples. Most parts of each temple were closed because they were falling down or had fallen down.  But in a rare sign of cooperation amongst many countries, multiple countries had volunteered to sponsor the rebuilding of certain parts of the temple. The engineer in me was happy to be able to see how all the pieces were going to fit back together.  The Tomb Raider temple was beautiful with several little spots to duck in and get good pictures.  Also, the trees were growing inside the sandstone and causing the temple to fall. The temple rebuilders also took a poll; people couldn’t decide whether to cut down the trees to save the temple or to leave the trees since they have been there for centuries as well and have just as much right to stand. I tend to agree with the people who say leave the trees, because there are thousands of temples but very few with marvelous trees the size of the trees in Ta Prohm. We also found a neat little spot where you could make a loud Echo when you hit yourself on the chest at a certain spot (on your heart). The tour guide wasn’t really able to explain why, and although I’m sure there’s an official scientific definition, I’m just so amazed by all of these little details that people were able to come up with over a thousand years ago, purposely or not purposely.

After visiting the Banyon temple and the tomb raider temple, we were starving from all the walking and decided to take a lunch break. It was a good thing too, because just before we got in the tuk tuk it started pouring raining. The weather was pretty scary but thank God we were tucked safely away in the tuk tuk. I felt pretty bad for our driver who just had a pancho to cover him while he drove through the pouring rain and lightning. I’m sure we were all pretty relieved when we pulled up to lunch. After eating a delicious lunch, I was especially grateful to our driver and tour guide b/c they decided to take us to the outskirts of the park instead of having us eat lunch in the more jam packed area. We didn’t see either of them at all during our meal though, and I’m thinking there’s some law or code that prevents them from eating with the tourists. Kinda sucks though, b/c I hate the idea of people thinking they are beneath me. Anywho, the rain chilled out over lunch and we were ready to see the main attraction, Angkor Wat, the not so seventh wonder of the world.

Our visit to Angkor Wat

There is so much that is amazing about the temple, but one of the more amazing things is that it holds so much history and so much of the beliefs of the people. Like the temple at the Great Palace in Thailand, it holds multiple (hundreds) episodes of a story about King Rhama fighting against the demon God for the hand of his lover. This version was a bit different from the Thai version, but the art and the inscriptions were just as incredible if not better. Again, I was taken aback by the fact that someone did this a thousand years ago with the most limited technology. Those people knew something about hard work and attention to detail! Our tour guide also shared with us a very personal story of the reason that Buddhists in Cambodia drink their parents’ bones when they pass away! He had lost his father only a few months ago and we could see the love was very real as he explained how important the ritual is to show respect to his parents. Even though we probably won’t be taking it up, I can certainly appreciate his point of view and respect the importance of his parents to him.

As we wrapped up our tour of Angkor Wat, it started to pour down raining again. We hurried to our tuk tuk just before we got completely soaked and headed back towards the hotel. Good timing once again! The rest of the trip went by very quickly.   It was weird that when we turned the tv on in our hotel “America, the Story of Us” was playing and we couldn’t help but watch it. After getting some cheap delicious food from the hotel and lounging around till about 10pm, we called another tuk tuk and headed over to Pub street, a one block version of 6^th street. We had a late dinner at a place called Red Piano, which turned out to have good priced, good tasting, western food. (Also made famous by Angelina Jolie.) I decided to be brave and try a “fishy” foot massage where all the fish attack your feet and eat at the dead skin and other particles. Needless to say they were having a field day on my feet.  To close out the night, we partied at “Angkor What?” and Temple Bar for about 40 mins and then took it to the house.

Sunday we did some shopping (i.e. got hustled), had some cheap ice cream, and then road to the airport to the drum of even more rain. Cambodia was certainly an unforgettable experience, in both good and bad ways.