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Published: February 22nd 2007
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Again, behind on keeping up with this so here's the digest:
Our last few days on Cambodia's beaches were extremely, breathtakingly, beautiful. The deserted white sand beach that we first went to in the Ream National park was just the beginning. We chose to head to Cambodia instead of Thailand beaches because our lonly planet bible described the beaches as less touristed and just as beautiful. they know what they're talking about. After the park, the next day we headed out to Bamboo Island, saw a few fish snorkeling, and checked into one of only 10 bungalows on the entire island. The water was steps aways from our porch and hammock, and seemingly calm and safe...until I went to play in the water, and smashed my hand on a small sea urchin while i tried to do a back hand spring in the water. The island cure for the thousands of little needles shoved into my hand was to bang them even further into the skin, then to pee on the affected area. Our new island friends almost peed their own pants when they tried to explain this to me. Well, we used a plastic ruler to smack against my
it's fish for dinner!
a la chef Sochet (bamboo island) hand which broke apart the needles so they will have an easier time making their way out of the skin, and i replaced the pee remedy with lime juice. All said and done i was back in the water within the hour. BUT, to avenge my left hand, the manager of the bungalows and soon our new friend Sochet headed out to the water with a spear and mask. He came back with a gigantic live still-moving deep blue sea urchin, smashed it apart, and ate the small creature inside.
we learned from sochet another lesson. As it turns out, my name in Khmer sounds like "carries SARS" and camille's name sounds like "bites noodles."
we bought fish off a boat and learned how to de-gut the silver things to barbeque later that night, skin and all. simple, deelicious.
our next stop was to check in at the malibu bunaglows back in Sihanoukville. We stayed in the pumpkin bungalow overlooking the private beach. We had crepes, pancakes, fresh fruit, and coffee for breakfast for the two days we were there. We spent our time swimming and reading a book we picked up in Siem Reap about the
BOOM!
Happy New Year's! year of the pig. Khmer Rouge regime called First They Killed My Father. At one point we were sitting on thisi beautifule beach crying because of this very real story. But, we also enoyed more beautiful sunsets and fresh fresh grilled seafood.
Rested and sunned, we headed back to Pnom Penh for one more night there. the next day we sadly woke up and flew to Bangkok. i had a 5 hour layover there, and camille hung out with me in the airline lobby. we spent the time reflecting on our trip and eating free finger foods. i dont know where the time went but before i knew it i was wiping tears from my eyes at the thought of not sharing every passing thought that went through my mind with someone no matter how stupid or insightful, or not sharing every meal, or making every decsision with someone else. I got sympathetic looks from the airline attendants at my sad eyes and found myself back in china 4 hours later.
I was greeted by four relatives whom I had never met before. Two aunts, an uncle, and my 10 yr old cousin. I came out of customs and was greeted by
yes, karaoke!
a family affair a sign with my name and smiling eager faces. It was an unexpected and very warm welcome. My chinese was a bit rusty and I a bit shy coming into the home of my never-before-met relatives, but 5 days later they really were like family with jokes and fun and comfort. We celebrated Chinese new years in a town outside of Shenzhen called Zhaoqing, where many of our other relatives live. I was really blown away by the concept of family relationships the Chinese culture has. We picked out new year's flower bouquets and orange trees together, made dumpllings from scratch, went shopping, toured the beautiful park and forest in Zhaoqing, played badmitton, sang karaoke, watched chinese new years lion dancing (which i am now addicted to and plan to look into learning how to be a lions head or butt when i get back to beiing), lit fireworks (it was chaos - like a war of color with shooting rockets coming from all directions as everyone lit their own into the sky. a bit scary and so a very exciting celebration), and then we definitely ATE. i added a few new specialty foods to my list of never-before-tried like
roar!
lion dancing snake, turtle soup, congealed goose blood and goose, and parts of a cow, pig, and chicken that were simply explained to me as "the insides." Not to worry though, none of the foods eaten were endangered and most were farm raised. I truly feel connected to my relatives there and it is a very special feeling to be able to communicate with them in chinese (even though one of my aunts was an english teacher and helped with some translation). I really look forward to and plan to continue to build my relationships with and visit them in the future.
I'm now in Hong Kong. I spent today's rainy day wandering around the city taking in the sights. I took a ride on the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak at exactly the perfect moment at dusk to see the city skyline before it became a sea of flashing lights. Hong Kong is impressive for it's combination of urban jungle and real jungle. The peak is covered in deep green foliage which meets a concrete metropolis at its base, which is then sprinkled with more green by the city's parks. It was weird and a bit lonely at first,
family dinner
jk! toy guns from the restaurant owner...i know!?? traveling on my own now without camille, but I'm staying with my friend vanessa who's giving me the insider's look at the city when she's doesn't have to work, and so far i love this place!
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