Courtesy of Chinese New Year, we were given a wonderful, 5-week long break between first and second semester. I could write for pages and pages about my travels, but instead, here’s my top-ten most-awesome/exciting/interesting from my trip to the USA, Beijing, Vietnam, and Cambodia. (But basically just Vietnam and Cambodia) There are so, SO many incredible things that didn't make it into the top ten...such is life.
A) Going home was too fantastic to be included in the top ten. Seeing family and friends was beyond incredible, and I am SO thankful I got to spend 2 ½ weeks back in the 425. Despite being sick and not giving Beast Mode the ball, it was a practically perfect trip home.
1. COFFEE. If you know me, you won’t be surprised that a good cup o’ joe won the top spot on my list. Any place with good coffee can win over my heart in an instant, and so I fell head over heels for Vietnam and Cambodia. Delicious iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk was served literally everywhere, every time of day. Want to rent a motorbike? Pick up a coffee while you’re there. Going to clean your laundry? Yup, there’s coffee there too. Knock-off Northface factory? Why, the whole street’s packed with people drinking coffee. It was pretty much like Disneyland for coffee-lovers. Or, perhaps, heaven.
A) Going home was too fantastic to be included in the top ten. Seeing family and friends was beyond incredible, and I am SO thankful I got to spend 2 ½ weeks back in the 425. Despite being sick and not giving Beast Mode the ball, it was a practically perfect trip home.
1. COFFEE. If you know me, you won’t be surprised that a good cup o’ joe won the top spot on my list. Any place with good coffee can win over my heart in an instant, and so I fell head over heels for Vietnam and Cambodia. Delicious iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk was served literally everywhere, every time of day. Want to rent a motorbike? Pick up a coffee while you’re there. Going to clean your laundry? Yup, there’s coffee there too. Knock-off Northface factory? Why, the whole street’s packed with people drinking coffee. It was pretty much like Disneyland for coffee-lovers. Or, perhaps, heaven.
2. ANGKOR. Angkor, most known for its largest temple, Angkor Wat, exceeded all expectations. With a jungle and savannah full of temples and old buildings from the complex, gorgeous views of mysterious buildings lay around every corner. There were ruins carved with intricate designs waiting to be climbed on and temples that had been captured by the jungle (think Tomb Raiders and Indiana Jones, both of which were filmed here). Every building was just waiting to be explored, leaving us feeling like adventurers in uncharted territory.
3. THE PEOPLE. This would definitely make it farther up on my list if I was more capable of communicating with the people I met! The people in both Vietnam and Cambodia were incredibly kind, thoughtful, caring, welcoming people. Even with every museum we visited pointing out the terrible, terrible things the USA did during the Vietnam War, we were surprised to find that we never once faced any anti-American sentiments. As we kept saying, “If I were them, I would hate us!” However, there was never once an ounce of hate, just smiling faces.
4. SCHOOL PRISON. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is certainly not on my list as the most ‘awesome,’ but rather as the most powerful. This school-turned Khmer Rouge prison-turned museum (more information here) was a haunting look into the very recent past. I’ve tried 20 times over to write about our experience there, but for now, I’ll just have to settle on the picture below, with Jinbi Primary School (My school in Dayao) on the left, and the Chao Ponhea Yat School on the right. It was beyond disturbing how much the school complex resembled my own. Perhaps the words will come to me eventually….until then, I am thankful to be working in a community where school is a safe and (mostly) valued place.
5. STUDENTS. Perhaps because we have spent the last 7 months teaching and were subconsciously on the lookout for elementary children, or perhaps because they really were everywhere, we met fascinating children with amazing English most everywhere we went. We gathered that many of the students attended school for half a day, and then sold souvenirs to tourists the other half. English is highly emphasized in school, because for them, it is truly a survival skill. Most the children were incredibly happy to chat with us about their lives, and many tried out their best salesmen techniques on us. Our favorite: “Rock, paper, scissors. I win, you buy!”
6. STREET FOOD. I’m now convinced that Vietnam is the street food capital of the world. Two favorites were Banh Mi Thit (baguettes stuffed with pate, all sorts of spicy peppers, delicious sauce, and various types of meat served wrapped in newspaper) and Pho (noodle soup). There was also all sorts of tropical food (fresh coconut jell-o still in the coconut, anyone?) and dozens of other delicious meals. Yum.
7. CU CHI TUNNELS It’s crazy to imagine people ever lived here! It was amazing to enter these intricate tunnels from small holes hidden beneath leaves and crawl through the tiny passageways toward large meeting halls and dining rooms. Never have I felt more adventurous than when we ended up a few minutes behind the group (we had stopped to chat with the guide) and had to crawl through a teeny, pitch-black tunnel by ourselves while trying to scare off the bat that kept flying at my face!
8. HANOI There was just something about this city that makes you fall in love with it. I don’t know if it was the winding Old Quarter, the charm of plastic stools set up as street food cafes, or the crazy, perfectly choreographed flow of motorcycles, but I would go back to Hanoi in a heartbeat.
9. BOAT TO CAMBODIA Is there anything better than a real-life Jungle Cruise? Taking a boat to Cambodia from Vietnam made for a fantastic morning as we whizzed past shaky houses on stilts and boys taking their cows for a swim. We hopped off the boat twice for customs, once on the Vietnam side and once on the Cambodian side, where officials were sitting at a table in the courtyard, drinking coffee and stamping visas. Very secure, indeed.
10. HISTORY Every place we went was full of a recent history of wars and recovery. I’ve traveled to places where there is war and has been war, but never somewhere that had begun the route to recovery so recently. It was incredible to see people who have found beauty, positivity, and inspiration in their history. The signs of war and genocide were everywhere, but you never would have guessed that the wonderful people we met had experienced such pain. As Mother Teresa once said, “Peace begins with a smile.” If that is truly the case, peace has definitely found its way into Vietnam and Cambodia.