Way behind..

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After leaving Phnom Pehn I headed south to Shianoukville. Its a small beach city in the very south of Cambodia, that travelers say is how Thailand used to be before tourism took over. out the window on the the 4 hour bus ride we were shown the real Cambodia. Vast rice paddies and lotus flower farms. As we crept closer to the coast the rolling hills took over until we decended the last one and found ourselves there. I hopped on the back of a motorcycle and headed to the guesthouse. the most popular area for travelers was buzzing with people adn there ended up being a big group of us that had met along the way down Vietnam adn reconnected there.

For the most part we explored the city, i had my first win (and loss) at a casino and finished recovering from a pretty horrific food poisining experience. I found it completely amazing how even though i left home alone with little to no intention of traveling with anyone else i have yet to be alone more then a couple days in a row. Now our group consisted of 3 iris, 5english, 1 scotish and 2 aussies.. never a dull moment to say the least!

One deffinate highlight of my time in Southeast Asia was the day we all rented motorbikes to check out the surrounding beaches and then the waterfalls. the beaches were pristine. miles and miles with no one to be seen, white sand, big surf, it was so beautiful. The waterfalls were up a 7km long pothole filled dirt road. it was worth the treck up there but we fled pretty fast as a huge black cloud was threatning our exit from the park (the dirt road would have flooded in about 5 mins of a Cambodian rain storm.

After that "the gang" as we had started to call our group left for Siem Reap. The famous city that serves as the closest city to Angkor wat. one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. I spent 2 days inside the compound. the area is so vast and the temples so spread out that you have to hire a tuk-tuk (3 wheeled taxi) for the day to take you around. The main temples were breathtaking and some had strangler fig trees ripping them apart. They were used in a couple movies as sets as well, such as Tomb rader adn Indiana Jones...

After spending a couple days in Siem Reap we all headed back to Bangkok. Borders are always interesting in asia.. it took us over 2 hours to get back into Thailand. Our gang grew to over 20 after Bangkok with 6 girls from Ireland coming out to meet there friends who were already traveling with us, plus a few more stragglers. I enjoyed this part of traveling so much. We all made our way down to Koa Samui an island in the south of Thailand. i survived another 14 hour overnight bus ride with a 2 hour ferry at the end. We found some beach bungalows and with very little effort settled into a beach bum life.

After a couple days we moved on to an island just north called Koa Panyang.
Koa Panyang is home to the world famous Fullmoon party. it has become so popular that they have added more parties durring the month. there is now a blackmoon party as well as a halfmoon and a pool party...none of them compare to the size of the fullmoon party but now the entire islands economy is based off these parties.

20,000 people,a jumprope that is set to fire (for the stupid and/or drunk), more alcohol served in beach pails then you can imagine and glow in the dark paint on everyone and everywhere, it makes for a memorable night.

After that crazy busy island some of us went off to Koa Tao, famous for its hundres of scubadiving schools.
On the ferry on the way over we found ourselves in the middle of the first of a 5 day tropical storm. the 2m swells got the best of most of the travelers. I was so thankful that i dont get seasick...

of the 3 islands i visited in Thailand Koa tao was the only one that actually felt like one. it was laid back and easy going. our first night there we attended a show featuring the amazing Ladyboys of the island. Pretty much a drag show i found that i had to keep reminding myself that these were infact men. so much fun.

The time came only 2 days later when i had to leave the group and venture off on my own back up to Bangkok to catch a flight. The Ferry ride back over to the mainland was twice as bad as the way to Koa Tao... i was glad to not have any more ferry rides for a while..

i Caught the bus from the other side and arrived in Bangkok at 3am. Spent the next day going to a couple temples such as Wat Po and exploring the market. The following evening it was off to New Delhi. I felt in a wierd way i was going home, maybe because it was the first fimiliar arrival.

The next morning a friend met me in Delhi who has come to do the first 6 weeks here with me. 2 days later we headed up to West Bengal. Not to far out of a town called Bagdogra we started 3 weeks of volunteer work at Jesu Ashram. Its a Hospital for the poorest of the poor. this is a brief summery:


Day 5 today.

we get up at 630 every morning for breakfast and i head to the General Ward.
I start with going around to all 100 beds, making them for the patents who are unable. then i bath 6 girls who have quite severe mental disabilities (they have become some of my favoirite people in the hospice... always smiling, they live there permently].

after the bathing i do the daily wound dressings. Usualy they are bone terberculosis patients or diabetic ones, large.. more like HUGE deep wounds that take months to heal.

there is one woman in the general ward with a 4 week old BEAUTIFUL baby boy. they are both healthy, and the mum is just recovering from a c-section. the thing is that the mum does not want the baby because the father has left them and there is no one else to help out. the sisters (nuns) that i work with are working on finding a solution, but after sitting with the baby in my arms and the mother beside me i found it to be an overwhelminly sad situation...

Father Milledge is doing so well. he has taken us on many outings to see near by convents and schools that he used to work at or run. they have been very enjoyable outtings usualy with more tea then i could ever drink...

Another Father (Basil) took us to see the tea plantations a little farther north then here. we had a tour of the factory and then went to the village in the middle where all the workers live. Father Basil used to be the parish priest in the area so everyone knew who he was and we were invited into one of the families homes for tea. it was really really awesome to see the life style they have there, goats, chickens, cows and all...

in 2 days there will be 5 or 6 amputations to our patients happening at a near by hospital and they will have their recovery in my ward... that will be a new lesson, dressing amputees....

the hospital takes in all who needs the help. there are 4 buildings. The main one has the general ward with no less then 150 beds. next in the Teberculosis ward with about the same number of patients, the Leprosy ward which houses 100 beds and the HIV ward with 20. they are currently building a new building to accomidate the spread of HIV in the area..

yesterday we went to help out at the Leprosy clinic in a near by village. the patents come once a month for medication as well as a check up with the doctor. i was able to sit with the doctor and go through each case.. it was so interesting....

i love it here so inspiring. and there is no doubt that i will be back one day to help as a fully certified nurse.

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