Muddy Shorts and Party Shirts

One of the things Jeremy likes best about being in Cambodia is that he gets to play Australian Rules Football (AKA footy) again.  Most Americans don't know anything about this sport, but there's actually an amateur league that Jeremy played in when we lived in Portland, Oregon.  And there's an amateur team here in Phnom Penh.  Anyone who doesn't know footy always say "oh, that's like rugby, right?" but that would be like comparing baseball to cricket.  Yes they have some similarities, but they are actually completely different sports.  If you're really curious, you can learn more about footy at this link.  But the basics are a big field, a ball, a lot of kicking the ball in the air, and two teams of men in short shorts running around the field after the ball.

Last weekend, the Red Army footy team from China traveled down to Phnom Penh to challenge the Cambodian Eagles in a friendly match.  It started absolutely pouring one hour before the match, turning the field into a soupy mess.  Thankfully for the fans, the organizers had put up a big spectator tent with chairs, plus the rain stopped just before the opening toss up.  But that didn't help the players who slipped and slid through 60 minutes of muddy play.

Luckily, I remembered to bring my camera, and remembered to actually take pictures during the match!  When we went to Singapore for a friendly match against the Singapore Wombats, I was so absorbed in watching the match that I forgot to take any pictures at all.

This time, I was able to get a good picture of Jeremy kicking the ball.  He's number 16 with his back to the camera:

And I got this really great one of him catching the ball:

And another one of him jockeying for position on the field:

Sadly, the Chinese Red Army pulled out a victory.  But we still invited them to the after-match celebration.  The Cambodian Eagles love to wear "party shirts" to any social gathering.  A "party shirt" is a bit difficult to define.  It's kind of "you know it when you see it," with any colorful, loud, or patterned shirt usually fitting the bill.  In this photo, several of the Aussie boys are flaunting their party shirts, while I'm displaying my party skirt:

Not to be outdone, the token American players from the two teams gathered for a photo, with the Cambodian Eagles' members wearing some stunning party shirts as well:

Angkor What?

Five months into our adventure in Cambodia, Jeremy and I finally visited Angkor Wat.  What most everyone outside of Cambodia doesn't realize is that Angkor Wat is just one of over a dozen temples built between AD 800 and 1400 by the kings of Cambodia around the former capital city of Angkor.  Angkor Wat is the biggest and best-preserved, so it gets the most press, but there are many other treasures to see in a visit to the Temples of Angkor and their neighboring city Siem Reap.  But instead of gushing about how awesome and beautiful the temples are and posting photos that you could easily Google, I'll tell you about some of the more interesting and individual experiences of our visit.

While at Angkor Wat, we had the opportunity to have our fortune told.  The first step of the fortune telling was to place a small book on the top of my head and insert a stick between the pages.  Then the fortune teller read the advice written on the page chosen by my stick.  Finally he tied a red Buddhist prayer bracelet on my wrist.

Erica's fortune:  Erica will find success in all endeavors she sets her mind to

Jeremy's fortune:  If Jeremy meditates, he will attain his goals

Tricia's fortune:  Tricia will find a prince and have 1,000 children (!)

Continuing through Angkor Wat, we saw plenty of carvings of apsaras, female heavenly nymphs.  Apsaras are carved everywhere throughout the temples and Angkor Wat is said to have more than 3,000 of them.  Although it's hard to tell in the photo, these apsaras are special because the two on the left are giving big toothy grins, while most apsaras smile beguilingly with their lips closed, like the one on the right.

In addition to Angkor Wat, we went to another of the big-hitter temples called Bayon.  I had a bit of fun pretending to gaze forlornly from a tower window.  Although, based on her fortune, perhaps we should have had Tricia in the photo, pining for her prince!

On our second day of temple-touring, we pressed our luck by heading to one more temple in the late afternoon.  The skies looked very gray, but we all said "no problem, the rain will hold out."  Baphuon temple has three levels, and the drops began to fall just as we finished the climb to the top.  The light shower quickly turned into the downpour the SE Asia monsoon season is known for.  We were soaked to the bone by the time we got back to our tuk-tuk, but luckily all our cameras survived!

Jeremy, Tricia, and I thoroughly enjoyed our temple experience.  But to be perfectly honest, Angkor Wat was not my favorite!  I'll end this post with photos from my three favorite temples:

Banteay Srei:

Preah Khan: 

Bayon: 

Buddha Park

I'm backtracking a bit on the chronology of the blog to write more about Laos.  Besides the beautiful waterfall where I broke my finger, another highlight of the trip was Buddha Park.  While other members of our group stayed with our tour guide to hit the prime shopping boutiques of Vientiane, a small group of us hired a van and driver to go to Buddha Park.  Although we could have taken a public bus or hailed a tuk tuk (an open-air motorized rickshaw), it turned out to be prescient to have the van.  Because the road there was BuMpY!  It brought Jeremy and me back to our time in Kenya, bouncing around in a safari jeep on rutted roads.  The driver claimed that the government purposefully didn't fix that road because of the number of vehicle fatalities that used to occur when drivers sped down the smooth asphalt.  Perhaps...

After being thoroughly jostled, we arrived at Buddha Park.  The park was created in the late 1950s by monk Luang Phu Bunlua Sulilat as a way of sharing his philosophy of life and interpretation of the cosmos.  Buddha Park is actually an inaccurate name since the park includes statues of both Buddhist and Hindu images.

Upon entering, the first structure that caught our eye was the pumpkin tower.  

Jeremy entered the pumpkin tower through the mouth of the demon head.

Inside the mouth was Hell and from there, Jeremy climbed ladders and stairs through Earth to reach Heaven on top.  I learned that on Wikipedia.  Walking through it myself, I had no idea I was transcending the levels of the universe; I was only aware that the entire interior was hellish with cobwebs and steep stairs.  But the top did offer a heavenly view of all the quirky statues of the park.

Back on the ground, we couldn't resist taking silly pictures with the statues.  

Taking a Break in Laos

Two weeks ago, Jeremy and I took a trip to Laos.  A highlight of the trip was our afternoon at Kuangsi Waterfall Park.  After a morning spent visiting Buddhist temples, we appreciated the switch from manmade to natural beauty.  

We spent some time trekking up to the actual falls, then stripped down to our bathing suits to take advantage of the natural pools of the river.  An entertaining addition to one of the pools was a rope swing, from which adventurous swimmers could jump from a tree into the cool waters.  Jeremy demonstrated the cannonball approach.  I went for the less graceful split-leg pencil.

Upon surfacing from my jump, I noticed some strain in my finger.  In the process of letting go/slipping from the rope, my middle finger had a run-in with a knot in the rope.  I flexed my fingers, felt discomfort more than actual pain, and continued enjoying the pool.  If I had hurt my hand, there wasn't much I could do about it at that moment, so I might as well enjoy the water while I could!  

As the day continued, however, the discomfort did change to pain, and was joined by swelling and bruising.  Once we got back to Phnom Penh, I visited the Embassy medical unit, and eventually got an x-ray that confirmed the source of the problem: a fracture.

Due to Phnom Penh's lack of medical facilities to deal with broken bones, I was sent to Bangkok for treatment.  During my consultation with the surgeon, he recommended outpatient surgery under local anesthesia to implant a plate in my finger.  Sounded good to me, so this morning I showed up at the hospital for surgery.  Realizing that I would be awake through the procedure and having absolutely no desire to see any of it, I brought my sleep mask with me and put it over my eyes as soon as I laid down in the operating room.  Immediately I wished I had brought my Ipod, because even though I couldn't see, I could still hear everything going on around me and had nothing to distract me from drawing my own conclusions of what was happening.  I'm telling you...it is very disconcerting to be aware of the doctor pulling, pushing, and prodding away, even though I couldn't feel any pain.  In a desperate attempt to think of anything besides what the doc was doing to my finger, I mentally counted from 1 to 100 in Khmer (the Cambodian language), sang song lyrics, reviewed what I could see/do in Bangkok before I leave, etc.  I was also thankful that I don't know a word of Thai and couldn't understand the staff talking to each other in the operating room.  Relief flooded in when doctor said "all finished."

Despite the oddness of surgery under local anesthesia, I was impressed with the professionalism and customer service of everyone at the hospital.  I especially love that some of the nurses still wear cute, white nurse's caps!

Oh goodie...more carrots for dinner

Last week, I did something I don't think I've ever done before.  I went on a diet!  But this was no ordinary diet of simply limiting carbs and sugars.  I went on a raw food cleanse combined with daily workouts with a professional trainer.  

The cleanse was organized by a local cafe in Phnom Penh that specializes in healthy, organic, vegan, and raw food.  Each day, I received a box with my meals for the day.  Inside were six small containers that held all the food I was allowed to consume for the entire day.  Other than the contents of that box, I was permitted to drink water, and that was it!  

Breakfast: Raw banana and flax crepe with almond butter and fresh fruit.  Watermelon and mint juice.

In addition to the prescribed food, those of us on the program had daily workout sessions with a trainer.  These were like no other workouts ever.  One day included 100 pushups plus 100 bench presses plus 100 bicep curls.  I have never been so sore as last week.  For two days, it hurt every time I fully straightened my arms!

Lunch: Raw lasagne with spinach and cashew nut spread.  Raw apple pie with spiced walnut base.

Although other participants in the program said they felt invigorated and full of energy (liars), I felt drained.  By Tuesday, I could barely stay up past 9:00 and by Wednesday my brain felt slow.  My boss laughed as he watched me come up to our office door and pause while I had to think of the combination to open it.  Bear in mind this is a door and combination that I use dozens of times a day!  

Actually, my boss was pretty much laughing at me and my raw food cleanse all week.  And perhaps he was right to laugh.  Although these pictures showcase some of the better offerings, several meals I choked down solely because those were the only calories I was gonna get!  And despite the hype of the program, I only lost two pounds.

Dinner: Raw pad Thai with sweet potato, carrot, and homemade raw peanut sauce with a spirulina, coconut, mint, and chia seed protein bar.

But I didn't do the program to lose weight.  I was hoping for a kickstart to make some healthier changes.  And it certainly helped me rethink portion size and if I really should eat that entire pizza for lunch when half will do me just fine.  Plus the workouts showed that I can push my body further than I ever thought possible.  

In Cambodia, they celebrate New Year's in mid-April.  So here's to a new year ahead recommitted to a healthier, stronger, fitter me!  But please, no more carrot salads for dinner!

Singaporean Weekend

Last weekend, Jeremy and I visited Singapore.  It's fascinating that just a two-hour flight from messy, chaotic Phnom Penh is orderly, clean Singapore.  One Singaporean image that really struck me was looking down on the road from my hotel room and seeing all the cars stopped neatly in their lanes with adequate stopping distance between them...quite different from the "shove into any available space" roads of Phnom Penh!

We spent the first day walking around the Singapore River waterfront and surrounding areas.  We enjoyed many of the unique buildings and sculptures of the city, including these photos below.  I especially liked walking along the waterfront quays which were teeming with restaurants of every possible cuisine and people celebrating the end of the work week.

Our primary reason for being in Singapore occupied the second day.  Jeremy's Australian Rules Football team had traveled to Singapore to play in a tournament.  Although Jeremy joined the team within weeks of our arrival in Phnom Penh, he hadn't played an actual game since 2010, so he was a bit nervous.  But, as always, he played very well and scored a goal in the 2nd game, helping his team finish in a draw.

After the tournament finished, we gathered for a gala dinner to celebrate the Singapore team's 20th anniversary.  We spent the evening being entertained by Aussies' undeniable talent for making fun of themselves and everything else with eyesight or earshot!

The next day, it was back to Phnom Penh.  But not before I took advantage of the mega-shopping malls of Singapore to get some clothes shopping done!  Hey, a girl's gotta take advantage when opportunity strikes!

Royal Palace

On Saturday, Jeremy and I visited the Royal Palace.  Cambodia has had a monarchy for the majority of its history.  The exception was a 2-decade stretch beginning in 1970 when the king was overthrown in a coup, the Khmer Rouge reigned, the Vietnamese invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge, and the UN stepped in to broker peace among all sides.  The king returned to the throne in 1993, although his position is now the ceremonial head of state, with the prime minister running the country as the head of government.

The Royal Palace remains the official residence of the king and occupies a full city block in the heart of central Phnom Penh.  Our first task was to find the tourist entrance.  A local approached us as we were walking around the exterior wall and told us the palace was closed for the holiday weekend.  (Cambodia was celebrating its New Years.)  But we persisted and found the ticket booth open for business.  The local was just trying to deter us in the hopes that we would enlist him as our tour guide for other sights of the city.  How nice!

Once inside, we passed through a peaceful garden walkway with various statues.  It seemed the perfect spot to stop for a photo.

Emerging from the walkway, our first sight was the impressive Throne Hall.  The exterior overshadowed the interior, which we could not enter, but could view through the open windows.

The centerpiece of any tourist's visit to the Royal Palace is the Silver Pagoda.  It is the only building on the compound that tourists can enter, although no photos are allowed inside.  The pagoda floor is made of silver, hence it's name.  Inside is a Buddhist shrine, with both an emerald Buddha and a gold Buddha bejeweled with diamonds.  No lack of wealth on display here!

Surrounding the Silver Pagoda were several other structures, including this memorial shrine to King Norodom.

We were just able to see everything before the guards shooed us out for closing time.  Then we went in search of a cold drink to cool off!