We appologize that we haven't had the time to blog over the last week, we have been spending the majority of our time laying on the beach and swimming in the large pool. Here is a summary of the things that we have done since we last blogged. Mom and I took a Lao cooking class, in which we honed our mad spring-roll making skills. We met some interesting travellers from the UK, all but one of which were new doctors and we enjoyed hearing their stories. While Mom and I cooked, Dad and Curtis rented mountain bikes and toured [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back in at the 3 Nagas just before lunch today and the air-conditioned rooms were quickly put to work. Yesterday we rode the elephants for an hour in the morning. They are amazing animals and, save for the sound of their ears flapping against their bodies, they make no noise as they walk through the trees. Mom's fear of heights had here white knuckling the saddle/ bench the whole way and she kept asking us if they were tipping over. Mom loves the elephants more from the ground and we all enjoyed feeding them their banana treats after the [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we left Cambodia and I for one am already missing it like crazy already. I just found a note from one of the kids in my bag and nearly burst into tears (mom says big surprise...). Luang Prabang is like a breath of fresh air and the clean beds with real Lao silk blankets (not beach towels as they were in Cambodia) are a much welcome change. We all slept much better last night without the noise of funeral celebrations continuing on until two am with the Khumer music and a tone deaf man hogging the microphone. We definately [View Full Entry]

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Today we ventured away from our volunteering for the day. It is one of many holidays here this weekend and so we had the day off today. Savath (Sa-Vat) took us to three of the local temples so that we could see them up close instead of from the distance of the orphanage. The temples blew us away by the sheer magnitude and the intricate carvings in every stone. The ruins are often scattered for acres and go well beyond the larger structures of the temples themselves. The Stones that comprise the buildings are usually about a foot deep and [View Full Entry]

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this morning we were able to go on a water filter delivery with Trailblazer! What a ride, it was only about 25k's to the village but took about hour and a half to get there. The farms that we past had cattle that we so skinny that weren't sure how they could stand up. We felt like the 1st family as people were yelling hello's and were so excited to see us. Our driver says it was because they don't see white people riding in the back of trucks ever! With the recent rain the road was even worse than [View Full Entry]

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We have decided that mom's severe fear of frogs is what attracts them to most every restaurant that we have eaten at so far this week. If frogs don't effect your appetite, then the cats and dogs that roam free in the restaurants shouldn't either. The rest of the family doesn't seem to mind the frogs, however, we try to keep mom blissfully unaware of their presence. In spite of these things the food continues to be quite good here in Siem Reap. The volunteers had a Cambodian (khumer) bbq tonight. Clay trays on the tables hold bowls of red-hot coals, [View Full Entry]

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Todays blog is dedicated solely to our eating experience. We have been both tantilized and terrified by the food so far. There is something about walking through the Russian meat market on a hot day that turns the weak hearted away from the meat. It could also be the fact that we have seen all sorts of live/ soon-to-be-dead pigs being toted around on the back of skooters. Or the bits of chicken that we would never eat in Canada, such as bits of skin and fat with feathers still visable. It serves as one of the best diets I [View Full Entry]

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Last night we were welcomed to Cambodia by Sam our connection to Globalteer and our volunteering experience. We didn't really know what to expect from our stay here, but today we were all blown away. We started the day with a program called Trailblazers (www.thetrailblazerfoundation.org). This program works to supply the local villages with clean drinking water. The filters are a relatively easy, cost effective, low maintenance design. They are made out of concrete forms, copper piping, rock and sand. The filters are fairly labour intensive, but the work day at trailblazers ends at noon. W [View Full Entry]

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We have only been in Hoi An for about a day and a half and we are sad to be leaving tomorrow. We are wishing that we had given ourselves one more day to fit in some tours, but instead we have been drawn in by the shopping, even the boys have joined in on the fun and they don't seem to be complaining about the long days in the market. There has to be more than one hundred tailor's shops in this small town and it is chalk full of shoe shops and art stores. The boys had some [View Full Entry]

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Today Thanh (T-ang) our tour guide took us to a small weekly market. The drive took over three hours, but the scenery continues to take our breath away. Every time you turn a corner (which is often) the whole country side looks differently. We have taken about a hundred pictures and I still don't think that we could adequately capture the sights or the smells. It is difficult to describe what traveling is like here. The vehicles really follow no rules and honking is the only way of telling people to get out of the way. They tell us that accidents [View Full Entry]

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