Sunrise is a time of day but in the villages is starts HOURS before the event. First the dogs barking, then the roosters join in, followed by the people. No need to set the alarm today! As we are going through our daily ritual of gathering clothes, filling bottles and bladders with water and Gatorade, Bunna and Mambo start packing up their gear. In all the preparation we miss the commotion as Bunna is unrolling his belt that he'd placed next to his pillow and is greeted with a wonderful little surprise in the form of a small scorpion! The sting delivered, the little monster promptly became goo on the underside of Bunna's boot! Very surprised to hear of all this, Nathalie immediately goes into first aide mode and whips out the kit we drag everywhere. ... read more

Day 1 After an absurdly long drive to the Laos border....sort of the original starting point but not really when looking at our schedule, we finally arrive at the gates, pour out of the vehicle and scurry to get ready... A couple of quick pictures and off and running...One the of the first sights we come across is a small boy carrying the jug of water you see in the picture. His home could be the one shown. Point is, this is why you have helped and donated. Your help could possibly keep kids in school instead of carrying water. THANK YOU! Further along the run, Nathalie thinks she is either having her first hot flash, of epic proportion, or has her core body temperature gauge on overdrive, as sweat seems to be literally pouring down ... read more

Running the Mekong, well once we get there.... On to Hong Kong.... 4 hours of sleep off the bat and then well, movies, music and what ever else. I mean what are we supposed to do at 35,000 feet in a metal cigar tube? According to the Entertainment Center, there are over 100 movies, 350 TV shows, 888 CDs, 22 radio channels and over 70 video games! So, first movie watched, Takers, then a play list made for the i-pod and plenty of time to think about the coming 48 hours. No sense of thinking any further, even though I (Jeff) have gone there often. Looking at the route and the map (we've been told by some to get a better map because our route does not show on any maps till day 5 or 6)...would ... read more

Right, the kids are all off to their respective places as of this morning and we are missing them already! A wonderful holiday and all!!! So here we are, two days from departure. Still packing, or at least thinking about it. Training, well, too late for that. Attempting to kick colds and bronchitis before we start this silliness....25 hours of flying and then on January 6th we arrive Phnom Penh, hopefully gathering all our baggage and then off to the Eureka Villas in the care of our friend Hen. Certainly a beer around the pool and then we will head to the market to gather last minute items/gear (a big mat for the mid day sleep and two containers for filtering/storing the water we will use along the way). Maybe a few fried critters for the ... read more

February 9 Yesterday was a travel day for the most part. The trip from Kampot to Sihanoukville in a minibus was certainly the most civilized trip to date. Not a single hair raising pass and the very annoying Cambodian turn signal, the horn was only heard a few times. Best part was there were only 6 of us including the driver and his helper. We know from past experience that the preferred number of occupants is closer to 18! We stayed in Sihanoukville only long enough to get supplies and catch the boat to Koh Ru. The island is about an hour from the boarding area, mostly because of the full beyond any what any reasonable naval occupant loading capacity factor … cambodia has its own buyoancy rules and besides you have four guys copping the ... read more