Day 11

Well, before I talk about today's big "road trip", let me say a couple more words about last night. Jim and I took a tuk-tuk down to the river to try out what we heard was the cities fastest internet cafe. We were warned that it was more expensive... a dollar an hour! Sounded OK to us! If you've been reading along you know that the cafe worked and we were able to catch up. Still haven't had luck with posting photos I'm sorry to say. And I think Jim has taken about a thousand. We'll bore you all with those later.

Anyway, once we successfully made our way back to the hotel via the tuk-tuk, we were feeling brave and gathered Brennan and Kaley to go back downtown via tuk-tuk once again to have dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant right on the river. It was really an interesting place. It was on an open balcony on the second floor, and we were greeted by a lot of young teens working there... very well groomed and cleanly dressed boys and girls who scurried like you've never seen anyone scurry before. The place was very clean, the service friendly and efficient and the food was good. We skipped the sparrow platter, though. One funny thing... Kaley ordered a ginger ale and they brought her an entire bottle of gin! We laughed and sent it back and she switched to 7 Up. We journeyed safely back to the hotel on a tuk-tuk once again and they enjoyed the rest of the evening with their new Australian Cambodian friends.

This morning we were up early to pack up and leave Phnom Penh. We travelled in two small busses - one with the teens and one with the "old folks." The trip was about 4.5 hours total. After about two hours we stopped at a rest stop. It was very interesting. Poor Kaley had to go -- and it had Asian style squat toilets. I'm really proud of how well they have done coping with such stuff. Having the other teens who have done the housebuilding before set the example really helps. While at the housebuilding the next two days we'll just have to squat behind a screen in the field... so we'd better all get used to it. Personally, I'm shooting for minor dehydration so that I don't have to go all day!

Travelling across the country was interesting. We headed south to Sihanoukville which is a coastal town on the Gulf of Thailand. We drove through very dry flat areas and hilly lush green areas. Most of the way there were huts and small villages lining the two lane paved highway. An occasional cow or oxen would wander across the road.

Sihanoukville is a very interesting town. It's the only coastal resort that Cambodia has but it hasn't been developed very well. It has a very seedy look to it. Actually it is seedy and is one of the centers of Cambodia where pedophiles come to "have a holiday." Disgusting. Driving through the little town I was getting pretty nervous. It looked pretty rough. Fortunately we drove through town and out the other side to the beach area. Our hotel, The Seaside, isn't too bad. No elevators, four stories, clean rooms. It has a reputation for not allowing sex tourists to stay here. It is across the road from the beach. You have to be careful crossing the road -- you may be hit by a wandering ox. You have to watch where you step, too.

We headed to lunch in the hotel restaurant, and while the service was slow, the food was excellent. Lots of fresh seafood. I had prawns, although a lot of people were eating squid. Yuck. After lunch the kids hit the beach. It had been raining the past few days and the sea was rough. Some of the kids got in up to their knees, but Brennan and Kaley were content to play football on the beach with some other kids.

Once again as soon as I walked on to the beach I was swarmed with children. There's something about being a big white woman that says, "Come beg from me!" These kids weren't beggars, however, they had goods to sell. They were selling sarongs, beaded bracelets, fruit, and other stuff. The amazing thing was that they spoke excellent English. They told us they needed the money to go to English school so that they could get good jobs. They must be doing well in English school because they spoke about as well as I've heard anyone speak here in Cambodia. They were very cute and charming. I told them I would buy some stuff tomorrow and they made me pinky swear with them! Squid are really big here. You can buy fresh fried or barbecued right there on the beach. No thanks.

I went to the market with some of the other parents to pick up food for our lunches. It is a seedier market than in Phnom Penh. We were each assigned an item to look for and purchase. I was assigned lettuce. I didn't do so well. I ended up with a couple of handfuls of leaf lettuce but all of the rest looked rotten. Oh well. I did buy Brennan a soccer ball to kick around on the beach for $2 and some new headsets for his mp3 for 50 cents. Strangest thing I saw was a whole section of dog grooming products. We've seen lots of dogs here, but I don't think any of them have used the grooming products lately! Saw fake designer sunglasses like we saw in NYC for $2 a pair instead of $10. Oh well. The money system is so strange here. They have their own currency, but all of the prices are given in US dollars and that's what everyone wants. But they don't use coins - so the Khmer currency is pretty much only used to replace coinage change for the US dollars. While we were at the market a monsoon like rain came up. The market is covered with tin and plastic awnings and I thought it was going to blow down. Sort of freaky. And of course there were beggars in the market.... and of course they followed me around.

Back at the hotel now the kids are running around with the other kids. There are about a dozen young teenagers, all adopted from Cambodia, and a few Australian born teens who are siblings of the Khmer adoptees. Bren and Kaley have never really had an opportunity to "hang out" with other Cambodian adoptees so this is really a neat experience for them. Brennan is worried that he is going to pick up and Australian accent. We all might. I find them hard to understand at times, but I do love the accent. The kids have already been exchanging emails and planning to keep in touch so it will be nice to have some Australian friends to perhaps visit someday!

It's still raining outside so hopefully everyone will be willing to turn in early to go to bed. We will be leaving the hotel at around 7:30 am to travel about 1.5 hours to Kompong Som and the village where we will be building houses. We hope to build 8 houses over the next two days. There are only 6 adult men in our group, about a dozen adult women, about 15 teenagers, and a couple of younger kids. Should be very interesting. The temperature isn't bad today because of the rain... hopefully tomorrow it will cooperate, too.
Hugs -
Lisa & Crew