Long Bus Rides and Ratanakiri

Well I have been pretty bad at posting. The Internet connections here are very slow, thus making "blogging" a bit more difficult than normal. Maybe I just lack the patience to wait for all these pictures to load, I don't know. But hopefully this post will be pretty good. We have had a lot of exciting things happen and some good stories to tell. I will have a lot of pictures, and even this really dumb video I will put up as well. 

Well we had dinner at the mission home on Sunday night with President and Sister Smedley. That was great to get to sit and catch up with them.....although the only thing they care about are my marriage plans lol Missionaries that got back after me are engaged and married already, so Sister Smedley was trying to find out what is wrong with me lol I assured her that I'm trying my best though. It's funny how President Smedley would use to have to tell us to not think about girls for two years....and now all he wants to talk about is how I need to find an eternal companion. All in due time President, all in due time. 

 Here are a couple of the last pictures from Phnom Penh....

Hey Par Avion, I found my replacement for the band while I'm gone :) I played through our set...still got it baby!

Can't keep a straight face

 

Oum Haem Savann....former branch president. A very sweet man.

Well we decided to take one of our buddies out to this place called Pizza Company. He helped us a lot while we have been here by lending us his moto, so we thought we should treat him to an American dinner. Well the news quickly spread that we were going to be there....so about fifteen minutes in this one girl from 12th branch shows up....then another, then another. It got awkward pretty quickly. We woofed down that pizza quickly and got outta there. We had to pick up the tab, but we were glad to....just to get outta there quickly :) Cambodian girls are kinda......umm......they just really want to go to America lol

The next morning we were off to Ratanakiri. This is the most indigenous place left in Cambodia. Technology has not even touched this part of the world yet. We saw some Khmer Indian tribe members with big huge holes in their ears and really crazy tattoos. After being there for a few hours we realized that we only wanted to spend one day there. There were some really beautiful things to see, but we decided to do it all in one day. We got our hands on two motos and went off. We went and saw three different waterfalls that the locals were telling us about. We went and found this isolated crater lake which was beautiful. I don't even know how to describe it. It was the most calm water you could ever imagine. A meteor crashed there millions of years ago, creating this perfectly circular lake, surrounded by tall, lush rainforest. The huge trees almost looked like guardians....protecting the lake from too many people. It was about a kilometer in diameter atop a small mountain. Just beautiful. I was trying to tell Steven how much I loved swimming and I bet him that I could swim across. I got about halfway there and got too scared of crocodiles. I was assured by the locals that there weren't any crocodiles, but I couldn't help but doubt. This little Khmer oasis just seemed like the perfect breeding ground for some huge crocs. I'm such a wuss. I lost the bet. 

How can you say there aren't crocs in there?

Here are some of the pics from the waterfalls and our adventures in Ratanakiri. This isn't a tourist destination at all so it was cool to venture off the beaten path and find these isolated places. 

Trying to stay afloat...the current was strong

This one was 30m high

This bridge was anything but sturdy lol

Free massage on the shoulders baby!!!

We also ran into a couple old friends on the road.....

K I have to preface this video a little bit. It's not funny. I thought it was pretty funny when I was doing it, but upon further review, I realized it isn't funny. I don't care though....by the time I get back to America everyone will have forgotten how dumb this video is, so it's all good.

Well on the mission I wrote a rap about fried bananas. Two days ago I woke up, walked outside, and found this nice old lady selling jeek jian. I had to buy a couple and take a picture :) This is where that rap all began lol

 Okay I have a quick story about this next picture. We got into Ratanakiri at about 10pm. That is VERY late to Cambodians and our options for a place to stay were very limited at this point. We had been in a bus for about 12 hours that day and I wasn't feeling very well either. We finally went into a hostel and asked if there were any rooms left. He sadly replied, "No, we are full." When I was walking out, I saw this cozy looking mattress shoved underneath a dirty staircase. Yes, the mattress is in an old fountain of pond of sorts. "Hey, how much does this room cost per night?" The man replied, "Just one dollar." He was obviously joking...but he didn't know that I was very much serious. We'll take it! We had a place to stay. Sketchy.....heck ya. Almost free....ya baby! What do you do when the hostel is full? You stay on the mattress underneath the creaky staircase lol

Desperation at it's finest

K I have another hilarious story. Speaking Khmer and being white is a funny combination...especially for these indigenous people that have never encountered the missionaries before. They don't quite know what to make of it. Once I start speaking Khmer I can see utter confusion just smack them in the face. It's pretty funny. Well at the crocodile crater lake place we made some friends. I pretended that I didn't speak Khmer at all and they just kinda watched us swim. There was a group of about 6 or 7 of them. I broke down and accidentally spoke Khmer. They were so excited. They were making some food and they invited Steven and I to eat with them. Cambodian eating habits are much much different than ours and it was highlighted in this dinner experience. They gave us each like two Cokes and some like seafood salad thing. After every minute or so, the kids would do a toast. They wouldn't say anything, but they would just put their cans in the center and make us do it too. It was so funny. Super awkward. Think of trying to eat dinner, and then every couple minutes getting interrupted with a toast. Steven and I were just cracking up the whole time. These people are so sweet. 

Hilarious kids...they look 14, but they were almost our age. 

After that "toasty" meal, they wanted to go swimming. We showed them some of our American moves, like backflips and cannonballs, off of the trees surrounding the water. They wanted to play a game of Tag. We were of course willing to play. This game of Tag quickly became a game of us constantly doing a head count to make sure everyone was still above water. Khmers aren't the best swimmers lol 

Well I gotta get cruising. We are catching a bus in a couple of hours and I need to go handwash my laundry. We are both doing fine. No sicknesses. I managed to cut my heel pretty badly on the moto because I fell in the rain, but I'm okay. Sidney has been giving me advice on how to avoid infection and get better....even from thousands of miles away she still helps me so much. I am getting pretty excited for Thailand, and then India. I am excited to be productive everyday. I don't like when I don't have goals and tasks to get done everyday. Traveling is fun, but a solid month of it becomes taxing a bit. India will be a whole new ballgame which I am excited for. I hope everyone is doing well back home. All is quiet on the Asian front. 

With love, 

Kory

PS: Please look at how funny Steven looks in this picture. Make sure you zoom in and look at his face lol