North Eastern Trip

I was excited to go on this trip for several reasons: I get to travel to two different countries, i get to meet the boy from South Africa, and I get to meet with my international family!!! On Monday, December 22, I headed to the Bangkok train station. There I meet with the three other kids in my area, Flora from America, Caroline from Denmark, and Kenny from Taiwan. There we waited for the rest of the southern kids to arrive by train. At noon, we all left by bus and headed for the Thai Cambodia border. I had fun catching up with everyone. We also stopped by a market. I didn’t buy anything though. We spent the night in Thailand. The next day we rode over to the office, and walked to Cambodia. Cambodia and Thailand are very similar in weather, food, and culture, however you can see a lot more poverty. children on the streets tried to sell you anything they could, and tried to play with your heart strings. it worked with some students. It was very difficult to not give them what they wanted. and if you made eye contact with them, then it was even more difficult to not buy anything. But, if anything good comes out of children not going to school, and instead learning trying to make money b/c their parents can’t, the kids learn a lot of languages. I talked to one boy who knew a little Chinese, Korean, English, Japanese, Thai, and Khmer, as well as some songs in other languages. I think that it is very cool. 

In the van driving to Siem Reap.

One of the rotarians told me to take a picture with a license plate.
Why not?

Scott played a game with the children in a floating school

When we got to Cambodia, we traveled to Siem Reap. There we went to a floating village at the Tonle Sap lake, went to an art factory, and went swimming at the pool in the hotel. The next day was Christmas eve. We traveled to Angkor Wat temple, went to the tomb from Indiana Jones tomb raider, as well as some other ruins. It was very interesting. That night we had dinner with a traditional Cambodian dance, and celebrated Christmas. We had a secret santa. It was very fun, a nd brought us closer together. 

Painting on silk at the art factory

More from the art factory

Denting patterns into tin

Wood carving

Selfie before Angkor Wat!!

Angkor Wat ft. Carolina

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

View from Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat ft. Raul

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

part of the the tomb raider temple

Christmas!!! ft Maia and Kelly

The next day, Christmas, We went back to Laos, but to get there, we had to go through Thailand. I was in three different countries, in one day!!! Laos is very different from Thailand. There is hardly any tourism at all, and there are no commercial stores. Christmas day night, we arrived at a resort late. The next day we left to visit a village. This village was very small and had virtually no money. I found that that there was about 20 people living in one house, witch was about the size of a one car garage. It was all very dirty, there were dogs everywhere, and pigs, and it was all very unsanitary. But, the thing is, they were all happy. Going to that village helped me realized, that you don’t need everything in the world to be happy. As long as you can appreciate what you have, then you have everything. 

Going to Laos!!!

The falls ft. Alex and Kenny

After the village, we had lunch at some water falls. It was amazing!! We climbed up to the top of the falls, and it was even more stunning. After lunch we went to the hotel. That night we had our language test. I feel like I did good, but then again, my hopes were not high. 

The view from the hotel

Another view

Selfie while going to Pukadung

The next day we went back to Thailand. We drove all day, and arrived at the base of Pukadung. That night we prepared for the hike. Pukadung is a mountain. We spent four nights. 
The hike up was hell in some places, and others not bad. I had fun. I walked up with Daiki from Japan, Risa from Japan, and Scott from South Africa. We stopped a little on the way, and the view got progressively better. Once we all got to the camp site, we took a shower(with a bucket of water) and relaxed. That night, it got cold. Maybe it wasn’t that cold, and I was just used to the heat, but I was very cold. The next day we went bike riding!! We rode all over the mount. It was so fun, and the view was great. We also watched the sun set. That was not very impressive, but I think we didn’t give it enough time. That night we all spent time together just talking, and relaxing. That was nice. The next day we started the day off by going to see the sunset. It too was not very impressive, but it was impressive to see the fog lift off of the city below. Later we walked around some of the trails that you can't go on by bike. We picked up trash along the way. We walked to falls all around the top of the mountain. The falls were very cool. The next day we started the decent. I walked with Daiki and Kenny from Taiwan. I had fun talking with them. along the way we picked up trash. It was slow going, but still just as tough as going up. When we finished, I was so happy!!!

View at the third stop( there were 4 in total)

Pine trees!!!!

Shade!!

On the top

The view

Am I scaring you yet mom?

Sunset(this looks better then I remember....) 

Sun rise 

One chilly morning at breakfast ft. Alex

Come back in a few days to catch up on my past month.


~FRS