Thailand (Jan 16- Feb 13)

We flew into Chiang Mai from Koh Samui (we went through Bangkok).  We stayed here for one day, and it was freezing and rained for the entire day.  Since it was raining we decided to go and watch Star Wars again, because Mom and my sister hadn't seen it.  After watching Star Wars we had dinner reservations at an awesome restaurant that served great American comfort food, mom wanted to go there since she was freezing.  Dinner was delicious, although since it was a more upscale restaurant, we felt really out of place as everyone else was dressed up.  After dinner we walked back to our hostel and went to bed because we were being picked up early the next morning to go spend a few nights in a treehouse. 

Treehouse Day 1

      We were picked up from our hostel around 8:30, the driver was a little late but when he arrived we jumped into the big van with all of our bags.  Our driver, who was wearing a fox hat, was really tall, and it looked like a funny fox was driving us.  It was about a two and a half hour drive and we stopped at a market along the way.  The market was almost empty (the prime time to go is about 5:30am), but we observed some of the meat stalls before heading out to breakfast at a nearby bakery.  After grabbing some banana bread, we drove for another hour before stoping at the Sticky Waterfall.  Amazingly, this was actually one of the coolest waterfalls of the trip, it appeared as if a ton of large rocks were stacked on top of one another.  The water was even warm.  After the waterfall we drove for another half hour until we arrived at the treehouse.  The treehouse wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we had to wait for about 15 minutes while they were cleaning it.  When it was ready we walked over a bridge that crossed a stream and then down a path for about fifteen more yards.  Our treehouse was really close to the stream, so at night you could listen to the water gurgling.  It was basically like a house on stilts, although there was one odd looking room at the very top.  It wasn't massive, but it was plenty of space for two nights.  There was one bed on the very top level, two in the middle, and one on the bottom.  After we finished hauling all of our bags inside, us kids did homework, while mom and dad sat around a fire, and my sister played with another little girl from China.  We did homework until about six, when it was time for dinner.  For dinner we had fried fish, which was fantastic, along with sweet and sour chicken, and of course, rice.  After dinner, we walked back to the treehouse.  Finally, it was bedtime.

Treehouse Day 2

      Finally we were able to sleep in.  We slept until about ten and then headed to breakfast.  For breakfast the staff served scrambled eggs, sketchy looking sausage, toast, and delicious orange juice.  After breakfast we did homework for a half hour and then biked on some of the nearby trails.  We biked to a bat cave where we saw a few bats, and then we biked for about another fifteen minutes before arriving at some red sand dunes.  These were really fun to bike on and we stayed here for about an hour before heading back to the treehouse to have lunch.  After lunch we hiked down a road for about twenty minutes to try and find a waterfall that we weren't sure existed.  When about twenty minutes had gone by, I decided to turn around because I had so much homework to catch up on.  According to the story that I was told, everyone else proceeded to become lost, and then found their way back.    Finally, when they found the treehouse again, dad made a fire, my brother and I decided to try and to try and start a fire with a stick by twisting it back and forth on top of another stick.  We tried this for two hours, but sadly never succeeded, the only thing that we took away from that endeavor was multiple blisters on each hand.  After our failed fire attempt, we did homework until dinner time.  For dinner we had chicken with sweet and sour sauce, and chicken mossoman, a traditional Thai dish.  Surprisingly, when dinner was finished, mom and dad told us kids to go and do homework for about twenty minutes.  After the twenty minutes was up they had a fire going and told us to find sticks to roast s'mores with.  We did have to improvise though because the shop didn't have everything, so we used pink march mellows and put them in between two Oreo cookies.  It was fun to get to roast s'mores again and it almost felt like we were at home.

Treehouse Day 3

      Today we had to get up earlier, because checkout time was 11am.  After packing up and having breakfast, we loaded all of our bags into a pickup truck and we rode on seats in the back.  We drove for about five minutes until we arrived at a lake.  We then loaded all of our bags into a tiny little boat and boated across the lake for about ten minutes before docking and loading our bags into a different truck.  We spent about 45 minutes in this truck before arriving at our Airbnb house that we were renting.  We thanked the driver and then hauled our bags inside.  Overall, I really liked the treehouse, it was so quiet and peaceful, and we were able to catch up on homework.  It made a great getaway place, and let us all have a chance to relax from the stress of traveling.

Chiang Mai:

      After our terrific time at the treehouse we took a shuttle bus to Chiang Mai.  Our house in Chiang Mai was huge, it even had a pool table, and I had my own room.  The first night we were in Chiang Mai we met up with a lady named Noot and her family, we knew them through some friends that we worked with in Young Life.  We went to a Northern Thai restaurant that was delicious.  Since the restaurant was not touristy, it was really cheap.  The next day we did homework all day long, and then went out to eat, my brothers had so much homework that they actually stayed back to do it.  It was really nice to spend a night with just mom dad and my sister, as we don't get much alone time together. 

      On Wednesday we went biking, I really wanted to rent road bikes because I have never ridden one, but they didn't have a size that fit my youngest brother so we rode mountain bikes.  We rode up a hill for about two hours trying to find the mountain bike park (it was supposed to be up there) until one of my brothers tired out.  When we turned around it only took us five minutes to get to the bottom, which made our last two hours seem worthless. 

      The next day we were picked up at 7am by a tour company called Elephant Discovery.  We drove for two hours through beautiful countryside until we arrived at the tour site.  We were planning on spending all day with the elephants, and would have the chance to feed, bathe, and ride them.  We started off by simply giving them bamboo.  Afterwards the tour operator gave us a briefing on what we would do, elephant commands, and how their tour company was better than the other ones because they helped the local village.  For the first half hour we played with the elephants in the water and gave them a bath.  We would say "mellow" and they would lay down in the water.  Then we would throw buckets of water onto them and scrub them with brushes.  When they were finally clean, we made them get up and walked them up to a clearing where the guide taught us how to mount them.  There was one elephant who was even trained to lift you up on his trunk and then let you walk on his head.  Once the entire group had mounted, we rode the elephants down the road.  Our group rode the elephants for a total of about two hours, but we had a half hour break in the middle to eat lunch.  After lunch, and before riding again we had a photo shoot where we would climb on the elephants and do different poses.  While riding the elephants back to the clearing, my brother's elephant took down an entire tree with his trunk.  Elephants are so strong.  When we arrived at the clearing, we dismounted the elephants and some local ladies tried to sell us souvenirs.  One of the things that they were selling was local tribal shirts.  Mom really wanted one, but didn't like any of their colors.  She decided that the liked the one that the elephant care taker was wearing the best, and so she bought it off his back, for just less than $10usd.  After saying goodbye to the elephants, we began the long drive back to Chang Mai.  When we arrived at our house, we thanked the driver and walked into the house.  It was about 6pm and it had been a long day. 

      The next day we did school, but the day after that Noot gave us a tour of the city.  We started off at a buddhist temple.  She explained the story of the lord buddha, the buddhist religion to us, and the cycle that they supposedly go through, it was really cool to get to hear her side of things from a Christian perspective. 

      On Saturday morning, we met up with some friends from our church.  We met them at about 11am and then went out to eat.  They had two cars, one that they used, and another one that they rented out and let other people use.  It was really cool to get to ride in these vehicles because they were purchased by Speed the Light, an organization that my youth group in Minnesota supports.  It was cool to get to actually see how much our giving is doing.  We drove for about two hours, until we arrived at our guest house that we were going to be staying at.  We dropped our bags off inside our room and then drove to the missionary's house.  We talked for a bit and the they told us that when you are in the mission field the missionary kids (MK's) call them Uncle and Aunt, so we started calling them that too.  Uncle P knew how to ride unicycles and so he promised to teach us over the next week while we were here.  He is also really great at card tricks, and so he taught me a few tricks.  For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant and had about five orders of chicken wings, along with a traditional soup, and sweet and sour chicken. 

      The next day we put up new sinks in our friend's bathroom, just hung out, and then went back to our guest house to do school in the afternoon.  Our friends have been serving in Thailand for around five years, although they just moved to Lampang a year ago, and so they are still trying to get involved in the community.  That night we went to a park where many of the local Thai people come to play soccer, badminton, basketball, or work out.  Our friends come here at least twice every week and are simply trying to get to know the locals and become involved in the community.  We played soccer with some of the Thai people, and it felt so amazing to touch a ball again.  The next day we did a walk around the university.  That night we went to walking street, which was the local market.  We looked at the different things that the people were selling and we also had what could potentially be the world's best Carmel Corn.       

        Our friends also do a "large group" at their house, I played guitar for them and then their friend led the discussion.  She has been in Thailand for seven years and is fluent in Thai.  While we were here, it was Aunt R's birthday, her birthday was on Thursday, but we celebrated on Wednesday.  Lampang is known for its ceramics, and they have many different ceramic factories.  Our Aunt and Uncle's friend took us on a tour of two of them and showed us how they make different items.  Lampang's signature symbol is a rooster, and so this is on almost all of their ceramics.  All of the ceramics are ridiculously cheap, handmade ceramic plates are under a dollar. 

       Our last day we spent with our friends.  We drove to Chiang Mai to catch our flight to Bangkok, before leaving Uncle P gave me a set of cards so that I could practice my magic tricks.  We went out to eat with them for the last time and the place that we went to was so delicious.  I ordered an egg sandwich on a bagel and an egg and bacon burrito.  When we drove to the airport Uncle P was explaining to us, that since the parking lots are so tiny, there are not enough parking spaces for everyone.  So if there is not an open space, you will simply park your car behind one that is in a space already, and leave it in neutral.  If the person who you are blocking needs to get out, they have to push your car out of the was so that they can get theirs out.  When we walked into the airport, we learned that our flight was really delayed, and so they moved us to an earlier one so that we could catch our flight out of Bangkok.  We had plenty of time, but in Bangkok and Doha, we would have about fifteen minutes to catch our next flight.  After praying for our friends, and having them pray for us we said our goodbyes and headed through security.  

Cambodia (December 20-January 6)

      The last day of our stay in Bangkok we took a bus to Cambodia (because dad thought it would be fun).  It actually didn't end up being all that terrible, it was eight hours but we had plenty of space and the bus was quite luxurious.  We stopped twice for a bathroom break, and once for lunch.  When we arrived it was about 9pm and we were all exhausted.  We booked one big family size room in the hotel, but when we showed up they announced that there was a mistake and that the family rooms weren't going to be available until tomorrow morning.  They did compensate though by giving us two free massages.  We had a quick dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then slept.  The next morning we slept in and then moved all of our stuff into the family room.  We all agreed that we could have survived in the two rooms, but the family room worked much better.  For lunch we had our tuk tuk driver, who came with the room, take us to a restaurant for lunch where we were meeting Dareth and Thida Ly (the missionaries) who we planned on helping.  Mom and Dad discussed with them the agenda for the week, and how we were planning to help them (I couldn't hear a thing because I was on the far end of the table).  After Mom and Dad were done talking, we headed back to the hotel.  At the hotel there was a really amazing swimming pool, so we spent the afternoon in the pool and doing homework. 

      Amazingly, both Dareth and Thida have incredible stories, both of them lived through the Killing Fields, grew up in the States, and then came back to Cambodia.  They have two different projects, the Dream Center and the floating school.  The floating school was the first project that they started.  This is a school in a really poor floating village, without this school, the kids in this village would have no way to become educated.  The next project that they started was called the Dream Center.  When the children graduated from the floating school, they would move to the Dream Center to live.  The kids who lived at the Dream Center were between the ages of thirteen all the way up to college kids.  They would come here to go to high school, which was across the street from the Dream Center.

      We spent most of our time at the Dream Center.  Our first day at the Dream Center we spent about an hour and a half there. As the adults talked, us kids played basketball with the students.  While mom and dad were talking, they met John and Pam Pries.  They are missionaries from Oregon, who had moved out to Cambodia to help Dareth and Thida.  We actually spent most of our time with the Pries', because the Lys went on vacation.  While we were at the Dream Center, we taught English for a week, and Mom taught an art class, other than that we just hung out and played with the kids.  Teaching English class was a blast and basically all that we did was ask the kids very simple questions.  We would ask them questions like, "What is your favorite color, what is your favorite food," questions like that.  The kids favorite question to ask was, "Do you have a special?"  Their English was basic, but great when compared to our Khmer (pronounced Camai).  English class was an hour, and we would normally hold three or four a day, because half of the kids at the Dream Center went to school in the morning, and the other half went at night.  Two other days, mom taught an amazing art class, this was a huge hit and most of the kids showed up.  Mom taught the kids how to draw people, a road with mountains, and Starry Starry Night by Van Gogh.  They loved it.  While we were at the Dream Center, we bought another basketball for the kids and taught them how to play lightning.

      During our time in Cambodia we went to the floating school twice.  It was about an hour and a half drive from our hotel and the road was really bumpy.  When we arrived at the water's edge, we jumped in a boat and rode for about twenty minutes until we arrived at the floating school.  The first time we went Thida gave us a tour.  The second time, we went with John and taught a Bible study.  We acted out the story of Joseph and when we were finished we had a mummy wrapping competition.  The kids loved it and were laughing so hard as they wrapped each other up.  After the kids started leaving I noticed that they took all the toilet paper with them.  This really struck me because they are so poor that even an everyday item like toilet paper is considered luxurious for them. 

      One day we visited the Ankor Wat temple complex, this was so amazing, and the drawings were incredible.  We were up there at sunrise so that we could watch the sun come up over the temple, and it was well worth it.  The drawings on the wall at Ankor Wat seem to stretch on forever, and they were carved into solid stone.  Ankor Wat is an amazing temple.  

      Since we were in Cambodia during Christmas, we went out to dinner for Christmas and Christmas Eve.  For Christmas Eve, we went out to a Thai restaurant with the Pries.  We even had fried ants.  Christmas dinner we went to a newly opened place right by the hotel.  We all ordered the set menu and it was delicious.  The waiter thought that my sister's name was salami!!!  One of our family traditions is fondue on Christmas night.  Somehow Mom managed to find a Swiss restaurant that did fondue.  The food was awesome, and it was really cool to continue our tradition halfway across the world. 

      All-in-all, I really enjoyed Cambodia and would list it in the top three countries of the entire trip so far.  The work that Dareth and Thida have done is nothing short of amazing, and because we were here longer we were able to actually connect with some of the kids at the Dream Center, which was really fun.  I was really inspired by coming to Cambodia and would like to come back some day

Bangkok (December 15-20)

Bangkok is a fascinating city with friendly locals, lots to do, and many ancient ruins.  When we first arrived it was about 8pm and after getting SIM cards we went to grab a taxi.  We all piled our bags in the trunk of a four door taxi.  They were hanging out the back and only secured by one bungee cord, we just hoped that they wouldn't fall out.  Our apartment was great, although the beds were rock solid.  One thing that we noticed was that in all of the bathrooms there was a hose and a drain on the floor, this is because in Southeast Asia most restrooms do not have toilet paper (we stocked up on it in Australia).  The purpose of this is that you are supposed to spray your rear end when you are finished to clean it.  It's been affectionately dubbed "The bum gun," and because of this most restrooms are soaked when you walk in.  When we woke up at 12pm, we walked down the street to the supermarket, which had a bakery in it.  We each picked out doughnuts for about 5 cents each.  They were so cheap.  Sadly, the first thing that we did in Bangkok was look for a bus stop, this was because we were going to take a bus on Monday to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  All of the reviews said that the bus stop was hard to find and so we wanted to know where it was so that we didn't miss it last minute.  After finding the bus stop, we went to a movie theater to inquire if we could get tickets to Star Wars.  It turned out that the movie theater was in a mall and the mall turned out to be potentially the coolest mall ever.  Amazingly, it had tons of luxury and sports cars, it also had guitar shops, and a shop with hover boards that you could test. 

We were able to get tickets to Star Wars and booked that for Monday. 

     After the mall we went to the Asiatic Market, which was on the river front.  Here we had dinner at a fantastic Japanese restaurant.  It was delicious.  Afterwards, we went and looked at all of the different shops and looked for a foot massage.  The one we chose was no normal foot massage, our feet were massaged by fish called Doctor fish, they would eat all of the dead skin off of our feet.  This tickled a lot but was really fun. 

When we made it back to to the train station, we took the train back to the apartment.  Dad decided that since it would be faster, we should walk through the sketchy swamp which was inhabited by small huts.  We ended up making it back without any incidents but it was sketchy.  We then just went to bed for the night.  While we were in Bangkok Dad's feet were really bothering him and so he decided to try the Bangkok hospital and see if they could find anything out.  Finally, someone figured out what was going on, and it turned out that he has arthritis in his toes, elbows, and knees.  Most of the time in Bangkok he spent at the hospital. 

      On Monday we went to a place called Kidzania.  The whole point of Kidzania was that the adults were not allowed and the kids got to be adults.  It was an entire town with individual buildings, but it was all kids.  The staff gave us 50 kidzos (kids money) and we could either spend that money or keep it.  You could also make more money by doing different jobs, for example, my brother and I went to the sports stadium to play soccer, when the game was over we received 8 kidzos for playing.  There were also many other jobs including, photographer, musician, doctor, secret agent, gas station worker, McDonalds worker, and rock climber.  It was a great idea.  It was  geared toward slightly younger kids though.  After going to Kidzania we went and saw Star Wars in IMAX.  This was so cool and the movie was amazing, although I won't say anything for those of you who haven't watched it yet.  We also went to the temple, which was really cool, but crowded with tourists.  One of the buildings was covered in gold tile and another one had a budda made of jade inside of it.  Bangkok was a really cool city, riding public transportation was fun, it was awesome to see Star Wars, and the Asiatic market was fantastic.