This trip was such a cool experience, and I almost hesitate to write this because I know I am going to forget so much of it and my writing wont do it justice. But it is probably better to write something than nothing.
We left for Cambodia Tuesday morning. At first it was confusing because when I bought the plane tickets it made it seem like it was a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Korea. When we checked into our flight online though, it said that we had a layover in Seattle. It was a little frustrating, but it wasn't so bad. So we flew to Seattle, and when we were there we had just a quick minute before our plane left, and I had never had airplane food and I was worried it was going to be inedible, so we quickly grabbed some french fries to settle our stomach for our 10.5 hour trip over to Korea.
We hopped on our plane and off we went. 10.5 hours on a plane is a long flight. I was feeling a little motion sickness, so I did pack some Dramamine. I should have packed more for the flight home, but that is a different story. The flight went well. I ended up sleeping for 3 hours (thank you Dramamine!) and watched a couple shows for the other hours. The food we were served on this flight was actually delicious. I had a mushroom ravioli type dish that was so good. I would eat that in a restaurant again. And for a mid flight snack we got Ben and Jerry's ice cream which you can't go wrong with. After hearing some of the other options from everyone on other flights I thought we lucked out pretty well.
We got into Korea smoothly and everything went pretty well. We went through security (they took my cup of pineapple from the airplane) but we got through. They had THE BEST airport ever. I think one of my favorite parts of this whole trip was the Korean Airport. We were not there too long, but on our way home I really got to start enjoying it more. We found our way to a electronic gym. It had games on the screen where you had to run around touching dots to make them go away, and some other games similar to it. It was really fun. They also had some free virtual reality games and a 3D printer. We did some of the games, but they made us both pretty motion sick. Kevin continued to be sick from the games for the rest of our next flight which was lame. But it was cool that they had it. But my favorite part was that they had a napping area. It was heaven sent. It was just a bunch of rooms with chaise chairs, but we snagged a couple together and took a little nap. After resting for a little while we headed to our next flight to Cambodia. We were both so tired and motion sick, but we were almost there. We got on the plane and slowly walked past first class (wishing that was us). We got in our seats and took off for another 5 hour flight to Cambodia. The flight went okay, the food was just alright, but there was no air conditioning in the cabin. It was so hot, and I was already sick. It made the trip ten thousand times worse.
We finally made it to Cambodia. Kevin and I were so happy to be off the airplane. We went to get our Visas and finally made it through. Unfortunately there was not very good air conditioning in the airport either, so we were still so hot and tired. We made it out of the airport in good time, and Phalla had met us at the exit. She took us to where we needed to go which I was so grateful because I wasn't quite ready to be bartering on a taxi fare when I didn't know where I was going and feeling so sick and tired. . We made it to our apartment, which looking back was pretty nice, but when you are so tired and you walk into the apartment and it is so hot because the air conditioner hasn't been on and there are no towels or toilet paper or hand soap, it might not seem so nice. After we plunked down on our rock hard bed with only one blanket and no top sheet, we fell asleep and only woke up at 3 in the morning. I will say that before I left I thought I would sleep through the night and sleep in, and just have to go to bed early, but throughout the whole trip until the last couple nights I was waking up at 3, then 4 then 5 then 6 and so on. It was weird.
The next day things looked brighter though. We went to the local grocery store, Lucky's, and got some drinking water, hand soap, toilet paper, and a little food. We even found some corn flavored candy that ended up being a hit. We met up with Shannon and Collen and Mom. Jenny, Diane, and Nicole had left the day before to go visit Angkor Wat. We went to breakfast at Mac Cafe, which was a little more American styled food (not really, but they had an omelet and smoothies) The omelet was okay, and the smoothies and juices were really good.
Shannon and Collen took us to see the Russian Market, which was just a big marketplace that sells everything. This is where we got all of our souvenirs from because it was so inexpensive. We road to the market place on a Tuk Tuk (pronounced took took). It was huge. I was expecting like an outdoor farmers market, but it was all covered by a tin roof, which made it SO hot in the middle of the day. Sweat was just running down our faces and back. But we all stayed together so we wouldn't get lost. We saw some really pretty thing, but in the end Kevin and I bought a pair of elephant pants that are so nice and breezy. They really helped with the heat of our apartment.
We had lunch across the street from the market. It was just some chicken and rice, but it felt clean enough to eat at and the food was pretty good. I feel a little sad because I was SO worried about getting sick from the food or the water that I hardly could enjoy anything. The whole time I was eating the Chicken and rice I was worried about it which means I couldn't enjoy it as much, even though it actually tasted really good.
We went back to our apartment and took a little rest. I will tell you what, Jet lag is a real thing. We rested, apparently a lot. Shannon and Collen came knocking and we slept right through it. oops. We finally woke up and found out they were are Phalla's house. We went and found them and ate dinner with them there
The next day (Friday) everyone had made it to Cambodia and was back from Angkor Wat. We all decided we would go to the Cambodian museum in the morning while Phalla and Steven were getting their pictures done, then in the afternoon we would meet up with them at the Royal Palace and tour that as well.
We headed to the museum and walked around which was really quite cool. The things inside were so old. It is amazing to see things preserved so well that are so old. A lot of the statues were of Buddha and other Hindu and Buddhist gods. The middle of the museum was an outdoor garden. It was beautiful. I enjoyed being able to see the beautiful landscape. As we were leaving the museum there was a booth that was selling tickets for a live cultural dance performance that night. We ended up buying tickets and were on our way to get lunch.
We walked across the street to a little restaurant and sat down inside, which we were hoping would help since it had fans, but it turns out it was a bad idea. The restaurant it seems was breeding mosquitoes. Kevin lefts with several bites, and Nicole left with at least 15. It was crazy. But the other side of the table never got any. I think they were living in the vase that was sitting by Nicole. But the food we all ate there was delicious. I got a delicious ham and cheese on a croissant. I wasn't really feeling up to being too adventurous and needed some regular food. But it was very delicious.
After lunch we started walking to the Blue Pumpkin which is a little ice cream shop that you can eat your ice cream on lounging chairs and look out the windows at the river. Steven and Phalla had been there a couple of times and said it was cute and yummy. So as we waited for Steven and Phalla to be done with their pictures, we started walking to get ice cream. We were almost there, when all of a sudden a huge storm came in and it was raining like crazy. We finally found where it was, and to our surprise, it had closed down. So now we were stranded outside the building not knowing where to go. We found a restaurant that had a shade out front and we all hunkered down in there for a little bit.
The rain just kept on coming, and so we decided to head back to our apartment since we wouldn't be able to go to the Palace. Mom needed to get some groceries for the boat ride dinner we were going to have. So we went home and rested for a minute, then headed back for our evening boat ride with Phalla's family and our family.
The boat ride was so fun. We made PB&J's with some fruit and oreos and sat on a boat that took us around the little river. Steven and Phalla told us a story of when they first became girlfriend and boyfriend, they were sitting on this exact same boat and saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if someday we could have both of our families here on this boat with us?" And there we were. It really was one of the highlights of this trip for me.
We had to keep the trip a little shorter so we could run back to the cultural dance performance. It was pretty cool to watch. They bend their hands back really far and do movements with their fingers. It was fun to watch, but we were all exhausted and might have enjoyed it a little more if it were just a little shorter.
We went to sleep and woke up the next day (Saturday) to start all the wedding celebrations. Phalla hired hair and makeup professionals to do our makeup and hair. It was a fun experience. They put more makeup on all of us, more than we are use to anyway. But I just went with it. It was fun not to have to do my hair or makeup.
Then the engagement ceremony started. It is interesting, because for the last couple of months that Phalla and Steven were together and planning on getting married, they were not engaged technically. Not in Cambodian culture anyway. This ceremony officially marks when they got engaged. There were some brief speeches by parents and some of Stevens siblings, then there was a dance preformed by some hired Cambodian dancers. They tossed some flowers around and danced and that represented them tossing blessings at them in their marriage. It was a great engagement ceremony. They had some refreshments after. Of what I ate while in Cambodia, most of the desserts are gelatin based. And I like Jello more than the next person probably, but these refreshments and desserts we had just didn't make my taste buds sing. But there was one that was coconut flavored that wasn't too bad.
After the engagement party we headed home for a little while before heading over to the stake center in Phnom Penh. When we got to the stake center there were people hired for setting up the decorations and tables, which was kind of nice not to have to worry about that. We got our hair and makeup done again. My hair this time looked kind of like a Jane Austin Era type hair do, but it was still fun.
At the party you are served dinner. You have to have a full table before the catering company will serve you. Since Michael and Nicole were doing best man and brides maid type things, we didn't have a full table. We had to convince some senior missionaries to come and sit with us so they would start feeding us. It was a huge dinner. They brought out probably 10+ dishes throughout the evening. There was fish and octopus, cashews and rice, and lots of other things that I am not sure what they are. I feel proud of myself here, because since it was a catering company I felt a little more comfortable tying this food without being worried about getting sick. I tried most everything with the exception of the octopus and the desserts. I was so full and my stomach was a little queasy from trying so many new things, that the thought of eating a dessert didn't sound good.
We did some dancing, and watched Steven and Phalla dance. Late at night we finally ended up going home. It had been a successful day. It was truly the reason why we came to Cambodia, and it had been fun and such a neat experience.
The next day was Sunday. We went to church, and the missionaries were there to translate for us. Elder Shumway had been serving in the mission for a while, and he was a great translator. Church was great. It was a neat experience to be able to go to church, and it was the same as my home ward, just in a different language. There is no other church that is so consistent all over the world.
After Church we had lunch at Phalla's house. After lunch some people wanted to take a rest, but Kevin, Mike, Charity, Collen, Shannon and I felt good enough to go walk by the river. It was a nice stroll, and not too far from our houses.
At the river we saw this group of men playing a game or exercising or something. It looked similar to tug of war, but they didn't end up pulling over the other team I am not exactly sure what they were doing, but it was fun to watch. At the end of our walk we saw a cool thing. Ha ha..I am not even sure what it was, but there was a dragon staircase leading down to the river, and a golden arch way. It has a statue, so maybe some sort of worshiping place or something, but not a temple. I am not sure, but it was cool to see some Cambodian architecture.
We met back up with everyone else after our walk, and decided to ride out to a little restaurant to see some beautiful landscaping and local landscape. We grabbed our Tuk Tuks and off we went. We didn't eat at the restaurant, but it was beautiful. I wish we could have eaten there. They had individual little huts that you could order food to. Then you would relax and eat your food in the huts and swing in the hammock and walk the grounds. It was just magical. There were bench swings that you could swing on that were around the grounds. And a pond with a bridge to walk over. It had sunflowers and banana trees. It really just felt kind of magical. Kevin was taking all sorts of pictures and he wanted to start something similar to that in Utah. It would have been so cool. While we were there, and older lady was selling a fruit. She let us try some, and it was the first and only thing I ate at Cambodia that I really liked. When Phalla went to buy some, Steven reminded her that it was Sunday and we shouldn't buy things. But I wanted to tell Steven that when you are traveling, sometimes you have to buy things on Sunday. Because I really wanted more of them. The next day I looked for a stand where I could buy more, but I never saw anyone selling any.
Everyone came back to our apartment after walking the restaurant grounds, to see the view from the rooftop of our apartment. It really is a beautiful view from the rooftop. I was starting to feel a little sick from not eating in so long, so I said goodnight and went inside. Everyone was headed back to Phalla's house for dinner, but my stomach couldn't handle more foreign food, and we had some granola and milk in the apartment. Kevin decided to come back with me too, mostly so I wouldn't accidentally lock him out of the house all night, but it ended up being one of my favorite nights. We ate some dinner and snacks, and watched some Last Man Standing then went to bed. It was a nice relaxing night with my sweetheart.
Monday was the day we were headed home, but not until late. In the morning we checked out of our apartment and took our stuff to Mike and Charity's apartment since they were staying another day. We went to the Russian Market again since some of the people hadn't been there yet. Kevin bought some ties, and I bought some bracelets. It is always fun to see what is around the market place.
For lunch we went back to our local breakfast place, and took Phalla's family out for lunch since they had been cooking so much for us. And it was Phalla's Mom's birthday. So we got her a couple of presents to celebrate.
That night Kevin had some work to do and Collen, Shannon, Mom, and Diane were headed to the airport to catch their flight that left before ours did, so we went to the airport with the so Kevin could use the airport Internet. Unfortunately we got there and the Korean Airlines that we were flying out on didn't open their check in lane until late, so we couldn't get through to go hang out with everyone else. So we stayed behind in the food court, and the Internet didn't work very well so Kevin couldn't do much work anyway. We ate Blue Pumpkin Ice Cream since we didn't get it earlier, and ribs and fries. We finally were able to make it into the airport. They took our bags and checked them, even though I think we would have rather taken them with us. But they didn't even give us the option.
We finally left Cambodia around 11 PM. We flew all night on such an uncomfortable flight, and we got to Korea around 6 AM. I had misplaced the paper boarding passes, and mixed mine and Kevin's up a couple of times because I was SO TIRED. I don't do well without sleep. It is the most frustrated I have ever seen Kevin be at me. Kevin doesn't do super well without sleep either. I felt grateful that we were in the Korean Airport that had the Nap Zone. We went straight there, and the whole way I was praying that there would be some open chairs for us to sleep on. A miracle occurred and we found two right next to each other. We immediately fell asleep and I slept until 10 or so.
When I finally woke up, we left out seats so someone else in need of a nap could use them, and we went and found a spot where Kevin could finally get some work done. I left Kevin there and went and explored the airport. It is a great airport. They have a little cultural center, and we had like 7 more hours to go, so I went and looked at all of the cool things they had. And they also had a craft that forigners could make and take. It changes, but when I was there it was a little miniature desk that you got to put the gold handles on. And I found a robot that could give you directions to where you need to go. It would actually take you there if you followed it. It was pretty awesome.
We ate lunch, and I went and got some Korean treats to bring back to my mom, then we hung out a little longer. Before we left, we grabbed a hamburger to split and it was delicious. I was never more in love with American food as I was in that instance. We ended up taking so long we had to run through the airport to make our flight to Seattle. We finally got there and settled into our 10.5 hour flight.
The flight went reasonably well. It is a long time on an airplane, but we made it through. We got to Seattle and had to go through security again since we were entering the country. When we were leaving Cambodia the airport guy who took our suitcases said they would be in Salt Lake when we got there, so we just went through security and past the suitcase pickup, but then Kevin had a thought that we should go check if our suitcases are actually there. I was so worried about missing our next flight because it was going to leave in 30 minutes, so I stood in line and went through, while Kevin checked on our suitcases. I know that the Holy Ghost must have told Kevin to go check because they ended up being there. He put them through security and came and found me. He is the best. I feel so grateful for him.
We made our plane and took off. The trip from Seattle is pretty short, but we were so tired, and coming into Salt Lake there was a lot of turbulence. As we were in the middle of landing, I leaned over to Kevin and told him I was about to throw up. I was feeling so sick. This airplane didn't have any throwup bags in the front pocket, and so Kevin being the awesome husband that he is, opened his backpack and said I could throw up in there since we couldn't get out of our seats since we were landing. I saw the giant bag of starburst we had brought with us that was in Kevin's backpack and I dumped them all out. Then I quickly proceeded to throw up in the starburst bag. It was pretty quiet, and I closed it right after I threw up, so I don't think too many people saw that I threw up. 1 minute later we had landed, and we got off the airplane and I felt much better.
We grabbed our bags and David was there waiting to pick us up. I feel so grateful to Shantel and David. They watched our kids for a whole week, and they took us and picked us up from the airport, and let us sleep in and take naps while we were adjusting from the Jet lag again. They are just the very best. We made it back to their house and the kids had made a big welcome home sign for us. It was so good to see them, but I don't think they even missed us at all. They just welcomed us home and didn't want to leave Shantel's house.
I feel grateful we were able to go and see Cambodia and meet Phalla's family. I am grateful that Phalla met Steven and that they could get married. And now I am grateful to be home with my family.
