2016 Cambodia: So Old...Yet So New

From Northern Thailand to Cambodia!
I know that most people think of Cambodia as an unknown nation, a blank space in the world. There is good reasoning for this. Until 1992 this country was scary! Civil war, genocide, starvation, land mines, unspeakable brutality and torture to human beings. This happened a mere 20 to 30 years ago.
Every single family in Cambodia has experienced tragedy and untimely death. They are a solemn people. Yet they are thriving. Tourism is bringing back prosperity and hope and happiness. Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to the famous ancient ruins of an amazingly flourishing past, is a testament to the remaking of a happy Cambodia.

Angkor Wat

This is the largest religious complex in the world, 1000 years old and one of the Seven Wonders. Built of solid stone blocks which were quarried 20 miles away and intricately carved and placed specifically to depict the sacred mountains and the history of the Khmer Dynasty. 

There are other such complexes, although smaller, which have been reclaimed by the Cambodian jungle. These have been practically untouched, unrestored and left to our imaginations. Ta Prohm is such a place. When the jungle is not kept at bay it will destroy all that is put in it's way. A seedling which sprouts in a roof tile becomes a massive tree, sending it's roots to seek soil. What once was a magnificently carved edifice becomes encased in the tree's roots and is therefore the jungle itself.

 Ta Prohm: My favorite ancient site of human endeavor

mossy, ruined, amazing

And then there are the places which make a person happy and proud. This next ancient site is recognized for it's remarkable face carvings of the tranquil and effervescent Buddha. All is well, all is good. 

Beng Melia, Cambodia (constructed 12th century)

Next Up: Cambodia and the reverse river

2016 Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand

Chiang Rai, Thailand:  home to elephants and jungle covered hilltops

One of my favorite days in Thailand was the playful interaction we had with the elephants. We got to touch them and feed them bananas and sugarcane. All tamed pachyderms have a single, lifelong human companion who cares for them and trains them. The elephant and Thai "mahout" live together and interact daily with each other for their entire lives. Each mahout's verbal queues are unique to their forever elephant friend. These animals are trained to do a variety things.  Some do hilarious tricks and then saunter over to the applauding tourists in hopes of money, which they promptly grab and hand up to the mahout. To touch an elephant is an exhilarating experience. Their skin is surprisingly rough, thick and wrinkly.  Their trunks are powerful and kinda gross.

yes! this elephant painted this picture 

Sitting atop an elephant was not as smooth as I thought. With it's lumbering walk we were often violently thrown from side to side.

Next Up: Siem Reap, Cambodia

2016 Chiang Mai/ Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Busy little city in northern Thailand, great night-market and foot massage!

After a few sweltering days in Bangkok we flew north to the mountainous region of Thailand. This is the land of jungle, cloud forests, elephants and opium. Chiang Mai is a densely populated city surrounded by rice fields and subsistent farms. For a few days we mainly explored the rural countryside and tribe villages by boat and by local truck. Crops are planted and harvested by hand. I am amazed by the substantial amount of work it takes to put rice on my plate. There is an eleven step labor intensive process that has to happen before rice is eaten. In the poorer regions this is done entirely without machinery.


We took a boat ride into the rural jungle and waved to local fishermen on the river

Rice fields

 In the city of Chiang Rai we went to a recently built temple (2004) called the White Temple. It was white, ALL WHITE. Tiny, reflective mirror tiles were liberally included in the architecture and sculptures. The thing practically glowed in the sunlight. Again the detail of the design was breathtaking and overwhelming.

wow!

The modern features of this temple complex were strange

to say the least

                                                           

Next Up: Chiang Rai/Chiang Mai

2016 Bangkok, Thailand

First stop on my excellent trip to Asia---Bangkok.

Getting to Bangkok takes a long time. I mean a really long time! And a lot of sitting. And this time some running. For the first time in my travel history I almost missed a crucial flight. Our stupid plane hit a stupid bird in Salt Lake City resulting in a 4 hour delay and by the time we got to LAX our ChinaAir flight to Taipei was already boarding! Hailey and I literally ran to the international terminal, a mile away, ran through security and then ran to the gate. Luckily the plane was super jumbo and we were the last in line of the 400 people that boarded before us. The next 14.5 hours whizzed by, with some pharmaceutical help, and the fact that it was a "red-eye". The  the next thing I know, after groggily waking up just to eat the 2 full inflight meals, we are touching down in Taiwan and ready to catch another connecting flight which would get us to Bangkok 4.5 hours later. Total travel time: 24 hours.

Once in Bangkok I noticed two distinct aspects: trashy and glorious

 On the one hand this huge city is very crude. Power lines are baffling, traffic is continuous and the driving habits are barbarous. Oh, and the street food! Everywhere!

A floating marked on one of Bangkok's many canals.

On the other hand, this city is home to temples and palaces that induce ornamental overload. So much  gold, so much sparkle. The intricacy and opulence of these structures blew my mind. Every inch upon inch of these temples are jeweled with magnificent color....just overwhelming! Within the grounds of the Royal Palace: 360 degrees of WOW!

And in another exquisite complex: The huge Reclining Golden Buddha

and the various passageways filled with sitting Buddhas

I love the diversity of Bangkok. It is real and urban. Modern yet backwards. The mass of people are hard working and continually busy selling, driving or shopping. The grand palaces and shrines draw Thai people and visitors alike, bringing out the Buddhist in all of us.

Next Post: Chiang Rai, Thailand

Our Thanksgiving

Tanner and I are on our own on Thanksgiving and since Tanner doesn't care what food tastes like, I decided to be a great mom.... Last night at midnight my work served up a free Thanksgiving dinner for it's graveyard employees (cafeteria style). I grabbed dinner, wrapped it up and served it to the boy today. Yep, it's  a "diminished effort" and a "cop-out" move. Yep, I didn't even turn on the stove today. But I DID get to spend uninterrupted time paying attention to Tanner, which is what he wants the most.

He ate everything. With poppyseed salad dressing. He dipped his pumpkin pie in the poppyseed dressing. Yes, that is so gross!


 

 Then I built the first fire of the season and the boy was so excited that he didn't move from the fireplace for at least 7 minutes!

I am so thankful for this boy! He makes me feel like I am good. He makes me feel like I make a difference in this life. He makes me peaceful even though he is a disaster. I am committed to say that the disasters in our lives make us better. Not worse.

Seriously?!

You remember that time when you walked into a situation and things were so "not right" that your mouth dropped open and you became confused? And you questioned whether your life was real or not? And you told yourself, "this sh*t doesn't even happen on TV!"
Well, last night I had a moment. I had just given sweet Tanner his sleepy meds, he was going through his nighty-night ritual of laying down by the vacuum, basking in the heat of the exhaust. He was well on his way to oblivion. So of course this was the perfect time for mom to take a nice, relaxing bath and listen to some nice, relaxing music. So I lounged blissfully for a good 40 minutes.

The house was quiet, the vacuum was turned off and Tanner was asleep. Or was he? I went to check on him while still in my towel, confident that I could just kiss him goodnight and then watch NETFLIX.   As I peered into the living room with my usual expectations I was hit with such a sight as to completely paralyze my senses. The couch was overturned. The table was on it's side. And there was Tanner, stark naked sitting in the middle of a pile of shredded cheese. There was cheese on the carpet, there was cheese in his hair, there was cheese in his lap, there was cheese in his crack and there was probably a pound of cheese in his stomach. All I know is that an empty 2 pound bag of finely shredded, mild cheddar cheese was found in the vicinity. Next to him was a gallon of orange juice in which he had  methodically stuffed bits of cheese into.  As I stood in the doorway in a speechless stupor he looked up at me and smiled sheepishly as if saying, "well, what did you expect?"

Of course it's all my fault. My job is to keep Tanner from getting into stuff and Tanner's job is to find the loopholes (me not locking the fridge). I just wonder why I always loose at this game?


This is a picture of what I expected. I was too flummoxed  to document what I found.

The Box In The Garage

So, Tanner broke the big screen TV again.....got mad, threw the remote control at the screen.. blah, blah, blah. You know, the usual. The TV has a shatter mark, kind of like a bullet hole in a plate glass window. I told him he would have to wait a long time for a new one. Well I got a new one at my convenience, and put the box (with the new TV inside it) in the garage and waited for a sufficient time to pass. I wanted to punish him, to make him yearn for a brand new, undamaged jewel to replace the spider webbed TV that he has been looking at for the last month. Unfortunately, he spied the box sitting in the garage. Then he went out and sat in front of the box for two hours. Two Hours! Just looking at it, pointing at it, admiring it. He has done this several times.
But, I will also add, that Tanner has thrown the remote control at the broken TV again...recently.... several times... So the new TV is still in a safe place: in it's styrofoam packing, boxed up, in the garage, waiting to be installed. Each time he throws something at the existing, sad TV I tell him it will be another week before I set up the new one. It might be around Christmas....

Shaving Tanner

  

 After seven days Tanner's baby face starts to feel rough. There are course, strawberry blond whiskers which accumulate quite densely on his chin. He gets sideburns. He gets cheek hair. It is all very unsettling for me, especially since I have to shave him. I never imagined putting shaving cream on his face, slowly bringing a razor around his pointy chin and down his little neck, feeling the drag of the blades gliding over his tender skin. I don't want to knick him but he is so wiggly. I softly whisper in his ear while the razor rounds the corners of his face just to keep him still. But then he jerks away and I slice a bit of his ear or the underside of his chin. He barely feels it, but I do.

Let The Work Begin

Serve breakfast at 6:30, bus the dishes. Wash the tables then put the dishes back. Sweep up.  Clean 5 bathrooms, wash some windows, empty a bunch of trash cans. Vacuum a hallway. Nap, Nap, Nap

Help grandpa carry in the large quantity of food from the trusty Subaru. Then start wrapping the sandwiches. Drink a Mountain Dew. Cut up a ton of lettuce, fill up a bunch of pitchers with milk.
Maybe crack a hundred eggs for tomorrow. Carry enough food for 65 hungry people through the lobby and into the luxurious dining room/mtg room/work room. Pack it all back. Clean up while eating ice cream.

 learning from the Sandwich Jedi: 140 sandwiches in a half hour

2016 Chateau Apres Lodge "The New Generation"---Hailey   ??? $ per hour

1980 Chateau Apres Lodge " The Middle Generation---Wendy and Jason with paychecks $2.00 per hour!

Passing The Torch

We all did it when we were young. We cleaned the Lodge. Every summer. We fed those damn geology students and cleaned up after them for fifty years straight. Thousands upon thousands of sandwiches. A million bathrooms, years of our lives spent vacuuming. Dishes, when stacked, would reach the moon. Mops and brooms so old and worn that they disintegrated in our little hands. Those were great times!
Now I have passed the tradition on to my own daughter. Except she gets the privilege that I was never offered. She gets to LIVE in the attic! She gets to spend the night in the strangely built, peculiar smelling, dingy and sweltering 4th floor of the Chateau. Alone.

This is the haunted hallway she must walk down in order to get to the toilet..far far away

This is the newly non-updated bathroom with a sink which no longer has the ability to provide water

And this is the little room to which Hailey calls home sweet home

Bubbly

 Tanner rarely gets to drink soda. Recently, while my back was turned, he snuck a big bottle of Pepsi from the fridge and just started chugging away. I think he was startled by the carbonation!

I'm So High Right Now!

Each night I give Tanner his Medications. They help him sleep, they help him not be so crazy. There is a stretch of time when he vacillates between being drugged and being asleep. His eyes start getting glassy and he just lays there contemplating things. Today he was thinking about his hand and how cool it is.

A Mountain of Medical Terms

Now that school is over for the year Hailey wanted to give me a visual example of her accomplishments this year. She brought out index cards of every medical term she has learned and memorized. She wanted to burn them but I assured her that her knowledge is still quite inadequate.