Visitors from Vermont!

     Before Steve and I left Vermont, we would amuse ourselves by making lists of friends and family who we thought might come to visit. So far, our only visitors from home are those who never made the list. Jaz’s friend Jeffrey came just after Christmas, and then our friend Alison and two of her children, Julian and Willa, came in late February for a couple of weeks. It was great! Let me just say that we LOVE having visitors, and we promise to do our best to show you a good time. (I hope Alison and the kids would vouch for that.)

Willa, Alison, tour guide/friend Rethy, and Julian in the rice paddy.

     Alison, Julian and Willa were fantastic guests. First, I have to thank Alison for her incredible generosity. She went through our "wish list" of things people could bring and brought practically everything on it! They came loaded with everything from Pop Tarts to art supplies, as well as sheets, deodorant, my favorite pens, Macaroni & Cheese, chocolate, magazines, books, newspapers, and a set of insulated drinking glasses I’ve been lusting after, and we are thoroughly enjoying every bit of it. We ordered some things online and had them sent to her house and she schlepped all that stuff for us too. We were overwhelmed and grateful. (She also took home Jaz’s tax returns and financial aid and college applications to mail.) We did our best to make it all worth their while by trying to show them the best that Siem Reap has to offer.

Julian and Sovann in the driveway

     It was fun to have kids in the house, and to see everything through someone else’s eyes for the first time. They were all up for doing and seeing  anything and everything. They all squeezed into our guest room without complaint. (We had to kick out our house-mate Richard while they were here, which he didn’t mind.) The kids get along with each other amazingly well – Julian is an active, animated and soccer-obsessed ten-year-old (he reminded us a lot of Skyler at that age) and Willa is a tolerant and patient older sister. Alison, who is a documentary film-maker, saw potential films everywhere she went, and made me green with envy with her iPad and iPhone and excellent camera skills. She put together a short video for the PLF to use on their website about their experience at Koh Ker, and the kids made good use of their Flip mini video cameras as well.

     I loved their spirit of adventure. They all went to school with Steve at least once to volunteer in his classroom, as well as visiting one of the PLF schools one afternoon to hang out in the library and draw with the kids. Willa sat in on an English class there, which is always an interesting experience. Alison paid for lunch for 200+ kids at the most remote PLF-sponsored school in Koh Ker, so they all spent a day driving there and then chopping vegetables and serving food to kids who desperately need a good meal whenever they can get it. They visited temples – Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm, Beanteay Srey, Koh Ker, Beng Melea, and more. They rode elephants. They went to Kulen Mountain to swim at the waterfall and we all spent a Sunday afternoon at the island in the middle of the West Baray (reservoir) lying in hammocks and watching Julian play soccer with the local kids who usually spend their day hoping to sell trinkets to tourists. We went to the Old Market, the Night Market, the supermarket, and Psar Leu (the big local market.) They visited the Silk Farm and Artisans d’Angkor. We went to Kompong Khleang fishing village and out on the Tonle Sap Lake, where Julian drove the boat for a while. We ate Burmese food, Thai food , Khmer food, familiar food, and strange unidentified food cooked along the side of the road. (Sticky rice and beans cooked in bamboo was a hit, but no one really wanted to try the frogs.) Many trips were made to the Blue Pumpkin bakery for breakfast pastries. Julian played soccer several evenings with a group of young local men. Alison and I visited several wats in town with our former-monk friend Yeum. Willa and Julian got fish massages, and Willa and Jaz and I got foot massages. Alison and the kids tolerated a very loud and long-lasting goodbye party that we hosted for our Hungarian friends before they left Siem Reap, and they spent a few afternoons enjoying the swimming pool at the hotel down the lane from us. They did it all with smiles and enthusiasm.

All-you-can-eat BBQ - you cook it yourself at your table.
It's kind of fun, but having hot coals at the table is a sweaty experience.

Willa masters the art of Cambodian BBQ

Sticky rice in bamboo - one of my local favorites,
and the kids liked it too.

Kompong Khleang - always good for interesting photos.

While all the other kids in Cambodia wave and say, "Hello!"
the kids in this village always wave and say, "Bye bye!"
I have no idea why.

Imagine this village with water up to the floorboards.

It's a fish-based economy

If you need some smoked fish, I know where you can buy some.

Julian and Sophearin

Everyone involved in our Kompong Khleang visit: Rethy, the driver of our van, the boat driver, his brother,
the two boys who help out on the boat and the girl who sold Willa a bracelet.

Yeum fills us in on the life of Buddha

A "fish massage" is always good for laughs!

Julian and his local team

I learned more about rice harvesting than I had known before

Off to the temples in Panha's tuktuk

  Most of this was made possible by our Khmer friends who facilitated, drove, translated, and guided us all. Thanks to Rithy (tour guide extraordinaire), Yeum, Panha (their regular tuktuk driver as Sovann was already booked most of the time they were here), Alin (who arranged the soccer games), Ponheary, Sophearin (the boat driver) and his crazy monk brother who stopped by one evening, and any number of others who contributed to our experiences. We are so lucky to have so many people here who are eager to help us show visitors a good time. We thanked them all with a party at 60 Road (the roadside carnival and BBQ that goes on every night on the outskirts of town) on one of their last nights. (Well, to be clear, Alison paid for dinner, so she thanked them.)

     It was sad to bring them to the airport and say goodbye. (We’ve found that living here means we have to say goodbye to people far more often than we’d like, but that may be a topic for another post.) We were saved from post-visitor depression by the fact that we left the next day for our own adventure, but now that we’re back, I still miss them having them here.

     So, who's coming next??? Book your room now, folk - the schedule is wide open!