Over the past few months, it’s been an honor to get out into the provinces – often once a week, to meet people who’ve been impacted by SP projects in Cambodia, and the remarkable people who are working for SP all over the country. 80 percent of Cambodians live in rural areas…so I’ve gotten a sense of how the majority of the country lives.

I’ve experienced a bit of everything and have witnessed regular people’s lives changed by water filters, wells, schools, churches, and agricultural training.

The first week of December everything came to a climax as two videographers from Australia came to collect footage for a promotional video. I’d done all the research for the video, and now it was time to kick into full gear.

We visited five provinces in 7 days, inteviewed countless villagers, saw incredible sights and saw the impact of SP projects in many, many communities. Steve even came along one day to help out with all the camera gear and acted as the boom mike operator! It was a busy week, but well worth the effort.

The New Year is looking good too! I’ll be continuing this part time work with SP covering a variety of stories throughout the country.

Amie

But then the fever came. I felt so hot all the time – hotter than I normally feel in Cambodia. I rested and tried not to think too much about it. Then one evening, I took my temperature to confirm that I did indeed have a fever and sure enough – 39 degrees celcius. So we went to bed and somewhere in the middle of the night I woke up in chills and burning up all at the same time.

We went to the hospital the next morning.

Now this isn’t your ordinary hospital. The Royal Rattanak Hospital is a Thai thing – and it’s more like walking into a hotel than walking into a hospital. You know that hospital smell we all hate? Well instead of that, we got elevator music, drink dispensers scattered around the waiting area, leather furniture, no less than seven attendants waiting on us hand and foot, and no bad smell. It was a dream come true.

They did your typical exams then I spoke with the doctor who promptly ordered a blood test. Two hours later I got the results: Dengue Fever and Typhoid. No fun to say the least, but sometimes any news is better than not knowing at all.

It’s been over a week since that hospital visit and after an incredibly powerful round of antibiotics, tylenol and lots of sleep, I’m more or less back to normal.

A big thanks to everyone who thought about me while all of this was happening.

-Amie

But of course the best part of the day was the motorbiking itself. Just us, the wind and the wide open highway - well, kind of the wide open highway. We did have to share it with a few random cows, big trucks, and motorbikes carting all sorts of things from one small town to the next. Enroute to Phnom Udong, we passed through quintessential rural Cambodia - stilted homes over flooded paddy; cows munching on enormous hay stacks; naked kids running around by the road; roadside snack stalls and gas stations (old pop bottles filled with gasoline and diesel sold at a roadside stand).

We climbed over 100 steps to get to the top, dodging begging children and adults. This is a good place to beg, as Cambodians on a pilgrimmage to the stupas will be generous hoping for good favour in life. We prefer not giving money to encourage begging as job but we did change our minds when we saw the one legged man with the one legged monkey. The monkey was also taught to beg and although he just threw money away upon reception, it was worth the entertainment value.

After enjoying the constant breeze at the top of the hill, and the great views from the ridge, we stopped for lunch at a town that's infamous for its lounging picnic area. Imagine a bed frame with no mattress and you're getting close to what families have set up in this area. They've added weaved mats and throw pillows and hammocks for a truly relaxing dining experience.

We tried to order a rice dish with chicken in our very limited Khmer and ended up getting a whole roasted bird with a side of veggies, pig blood chunks, and liver. Ok something got lost in translation. When we thought we had carved all the meat off the roasted chicken, we were going to throw it away when some kids took it and showed us that we had actually only eaten about half the meat.

My first work trip involved going to the border town of Poipet to gather some stories from schools around the area. After being in Poipet for no more than 24 hours, fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops over a disputed piece of land further north of us. (See the linked stories to get a fuller understanding of the situation).

Even though the fighting was hundreds of kilometres away, Poipet being Poipet (a rather wild and dusty frontier town, full of trafficking and gambling, sex tourism, and constant tension between Cambodia and Thailand because the two countries have been mad at each other for centuries), exploded into full scale pandemonium.

That’s when we decided to evacuate – cause you just never know. There were a lot of rumours – one being that Thailand had canons poised to bomb National Highway 5 and that Cambodia was aiming it’s own artillery at the Thai casinos near the border.

It was all rather dramatic. Every second person was on their cell phone (Cambodians are extremely well connected – there’s no point even reading the news because it’s at least an hour behind what Cambodians have learned from some friend somewhere around the country). And as the rumours started to fly, complete chaos ensued. The dusty town was one swirling dust storm as families started to load onto motorbikes – mom and kids clutching suitcases and holding on for dear life. Long lines at gas stations and complete chaos in the streets as vehicles packed to their roofs weaved their way out of the city on National Highway 5 – yes, the one rumored to get bombed.

It felt comical in some ways – the pandemonium, the chaos, the cars, the people, and the rumors – especially the rumors. Yes, it is easy to spook Cambodians. Chances are, we didn’t need to leave Poipet, and would have been completely safe the whole time – but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

It wasn’t an easy process…so for all you Canadians on home soil – GO VOTE, and don’t take for granted the ease of walking down the street, showing ID and marking the ballot. Here’s what we had to do:

1. Find the Canadian embassy in Phnom Penh. Ok, not hard so far. Get registration form.

2. Fax registration form to Canada for special ballot registration. For this we needed photo ID with address on it (ie. Driver’s licence). To make a long story short, we didn’t have this ID up to date. Steve used an old photocopy of a cancelled licence and Amie used a valid one but with an old address. So we ended up getting registered in districts that we haven’t lived in for a while. Who knows if our votes will actually get counted in the end. The fax we found (likely from the 80s) was so slow that it cost us $8US, which is half a month’s rent for a local.

3. Get our special voting kits – we can’t believed it actually worked out that the embassy actually received our special voting kits cause the whole process of faxing everything was just too sketchy. So…another trip to the embassy – this time a ½ hour bike ride away on the other side of the city. The special ballots just had a blank line where we were supposed to write our chosen candidate’s name. They just happened to not have the candidate list available that day. Great! We decided to check the internet but it was apparently down at the embassy for the day. We were sent next door to the Australian embassy. Just our luck, the guest computer was broken and the embassy rep could barely speak english. So we had to spend another ½ hour looking for an internet café.

4. We marked our ballots, and each stuffed it into the inner envelope, then into the outer envelope, then into the mailing envelope. Easy! Ready to send!

Really though, all the envelopes and all, we’re thankful that the country we call home is democratic and that our votes were guaranteed to be anonymous…not something that happens in Cambodia which is one of the most corrupt in the world. Insane experience. But important too. By casting our ballots for the Canadian elections, we felt we were somehow making a small difference in the world – and not taking democracy for granted.

That is until we got back into the city on the 29th, and couldn't get a hold of our landlady for the life of us. True, it was a national holiday - but a deal's a deal right! Apparently not. By the time 6pm rolled around and we still hadn't heard from Dat, our landlady, we finally booked ourselves into a hotel room and felt absolutely and completely sorry for ourselves.

We slept the night near the riverside just thankful that we weren't lugging our backpacks around with us anymore. Then we slept.

When we woke up the next morning, our hundreds of calls the day before paid off. Our landlady was on holidays, but her dad was able to swing by to let us in. Steve pulled our bags into the house the Cambodian way - hoist everything up over the balcony - and try not to hit any powerlines.

The place was a mess, and the landlady still had half of their earthly possessions in our spare bedroom. But...at least we could move in to our room and the rest of the house.

So we went shopping for cleaning supplies and a broom, and got busy. Three hours later, the years of fingerprints, spiderwebs and cooking grease were virtually gone and we were much happier to be in Cambodia. We cheered our efforts by buying bicycles and Gin and Tonics and a mars bar. Alas there are some comforts in Cambodia!

The 2 and a half hour journey found us travelling down endless bumpy roads with cleared and uncleared landmine fields to the left and right at all times. This area was the final Khmer Rouge standoff and was heavily mined by both sides. Amie was lucky enough to get a motorcycle leg burn. You know the one from the exhaust pipe? It seems inevitable sooner or later. People just look at the bandage location and either laugh or say “ahh.. I hate it when that happens.”

Read elsewhere about the actual visit to Prasat Preah Vihear temple. This is all about back country travel, which is usually as memorable as the destination. For the return journey, we decided to cut costs after hearing from a German traveller that as we thought, the moto drivers were all lying and there were in fact public pick-ups running to and from. So we sat in the small town of Sa Em (near the temple), waiting for such a ride. Unfortunately, after 4 hours of sitting at the town’s only intersection, there was to our luck, no pick-ups. Presently, what did come by was a military truck bound for Siam Reap picking up anyone who dared to ride. Since there were only 30 people squished in the back, we decided that 2 more wouldn’t hurt. But, it did hurt.

For the next tense 4 hours we squatted in the back of this military truck and felt every bump through the metal. There was some comfort in the fact that everyone groaned in unison after the nasty ones. Surprisingly, no one was flung out of the back despite getting up to a foot of air on the more notable bumps. One crazy military guy actually slept for ¾ of the trip. A couple of times I thought he had died when he didn’t react to his head slamming down on the metal after a huge bump. But at the end of the trip he hopped up without concussion and without noticing people had sat on him for most of the trip. We finally made it to Siam Reap via Anlong Veng and after massaging our wounded stiff limbs, we noted that Asians do not show red dirt very well. They were quick to point out how filthy we barangs (foreigners) looked though.

-steve-

The temple site has been disputed for years. Because of its location, both Thailand and Cambodia think its theirs (even though the UN determined it was Cambodia’s way back in 1962). Thailand – not to get the short end of the stick - has bulldozed a huge highway right up to the temple steps making it incredibly easy to saturate the site with Thai tourists. The Cambodian side isn’t so lucky. Dirt roads (as Steve has explained elsewhere) are the only way to get up the mountain and it’s a freaking long journey from anywhere remotely close to civilization!

After the UNESCO announcement, Thailand got a bit jealous and protesters and the military set up shop near the entrance. Cambodia got a little annoyed back and sent in their own troops to guard the national pride. They also closed the gate to Thailand and won’t let anyone in from the Thai side. If that weren’t enough, the army has strung at least ½ a kilometre of barbed wire around the entrance and around the edges to make sure no rogue or sneaky Thai gets in.

Usually, tourists from the Cambodian side (who’ve gone through something resembling a living hell to get to the temple) have to share the experience with tourists from the Thai side who’ve driven up to the steps in air conditioned express busses.

For us, there were no Thai tourists – one of the reasons we went at this time in the first place - but there were hundreds of army men. We got to share our experience with army medics, cooks, and soldiers, and tried to take pictures of the temples without getting a soldier bathing, army tents and other equipment in the shots.

We took a day trip out to Bangkok’s sliver of coast. It’s not the white sand beaches of the south, but it was still cool none the less. We ordered Tom Yom soup – usually a pretty safe bet in Thailand, and got all sorts of sea creatures in soup. We were brave that day.

-amie

We were in Portugal because of the architecture and street signs and in Vegas because of the craziest looking casinos including the under construction vegas-style everlasting huge exploding volcano. We were in China because our ordered dinners translated from the chinese menu were "noodles with shrimp's dumping" and "cheese and egg sandwich with managed".

Here, the excess of Vegas meets Asian kitsch. It’s truly a bizarre experience. The ingenuity and capacity of the Chinese seriously astounds me. And most of this incredible development and growth has happened between 2002 and now. I wish the City of Calgary could operate the same way with contstruction of the LRT and the Ring Road.

And it all culminates in The Grand Lisboa. It’s an architectural wonder. I can't believe someone had the vision for it in the first place, and then actually pulled it off. The building looks like a, well a whale spurt, if you can imagine it. Fans of metal and glass reach up towards the heavens. A bulb of flashing lights and mirrors and glass billowing out of the bottom of the hotel is the casino.

As for the two of us? We stayed in the old quarter, surrounded by bakeries, sweets shops, and Portuguese-styled buildings, in a colonial era hostel.

What a place.

-amie-

The most notable trips were hiking in Waterton Lakes National Park and hiking into Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, BC.

Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park is only accessable on foot and helocopter. We opted for the former and had to work hard to fit the trip into 4 days. We ended up hiking around 80km in 4 days (a record 28.5km on day 1) over mountain ranges and through beautiful meadows. Besides great times and conversation with Matt + Jocelyn, it was great to eat and socialize with other hikers at the campsites. Everyone has something in common after hiking into the park. The conversations usually revolved around the weather or the current visibility and view of Mt. Assiniboine. 80km definitely took a toll on our bodies but nevertheless, we still played a full week of ultimate starting the day after we got back.

In Waterton we hiked with Cody + Nicole and camped at Goat Lake. We had the campsite to ourselves - right next to a pristine alpine lake. Again, an inspiring experience with inspiring company. The hike to Avion Ridge among the red rock mountains is like nothing else in the Rockies!

-steve-

Soaking up time with friends and family. Enjoying the Rockies (read more about some of our very fun hiking adventures in Summer 2008). Spending time on the prairies. Packing our stuff up and moving the first load out to Wakaw, SK. Sitting in Calgary parks with friends bbq-ing and playing scrabble. Going to weddings. And, enjoying the sights and sounds of Calgary.

It's been a good summer - with every weekend booked up. As we prepare to leave for Southeast Asia, I don't think we'd want it any other way.

-Amie

-steve-

-steve-

Then a sidetrip to the Mauritania border (did anyone else have no idea Mauritania even existed?) followed by a great dinner and mango cake. A great way to turn 26.

The last days in Senegal were a blurr. Highlights: Goree Island - the point of no return for close to 3 million Africans during the Atlantic slave trade. A somber experience to say the least, but remarkable to share in the suffering and grieve the horrors committed in our collective human history.

Now once again it's time for real life. Back to work on Wednesday. Back to Canada. Back to the grind.

This evening when I was routinely washing the day's clothes in the sink I must have been a little rough because the sink collapsed and shattered on the ground. Looking back I actually have no idea how it didn't collapse on my bare feet. The sink and attached pipes were replaced by a stream of water that shot out so powerful it knocked me off my feet. I tried my best to shove a cloth in the hole but it was just too strong. I got my finger in there but it was pretty painful because of the pressure. I forgot to mention that I was also naked because I was of course, washing the clothes I had on for the day. This made it very difficult to call to the guy I was rooming with since he was already really suspicious that something wild was going on in the bathroom. I didn't want him to take off since we were saving good money sharing a room.

It took me forever to get my board shorts on with one arm. That drawstring and velcro is cumbersome enough with two free hands. I did eventually get them on though and opened the bathroom door. My room mate definitely knew something was going on since plenty of water had already leaked under the bathroom door. Eventually the guesthouse staff got the water off and plugged the hole properly. Well, kind of properly - they just shoved in the cloth I was trying to work in before. Then came the argument of how much I had to pay for the sink. The staff said it was $30 US. But of course everything is bargainable so I drove it hard down to $10 and we were all square and smiles again.

-steve-

But in this land of dust and dryness, there are blasts of color. The women wear the most gorgeous colors. Head scarves frame the beautiful faces of men and women. Mango and other fruit trees burst green out of the dry, parched ground. What a beautiful country.

I have been in Krabi area for a couple days now. I am really not supposed to be having this much fun and relaxation but the cheap flight that I got made me fly 3 days earlier than I had planned. I wasn't going to just sit in Bangkok before going to Cambodia was I? In my defense I headed to somewhere familiar. That way I wouldn't be tempted to run around sight seeing. Good thing too - I am just relaxing and walking around between fruit shakes and panang curry stops. I really should eat something different but I can't.

On my way to Krabi they wouldn't stop playing stupid movies on our foreigner bus. I tried to sleep but kept getting woken up. One time I woke up while they were playing jackass 2 which is really a waste of time movie. But there was this one part where they are boxing in convenience stores and one guy has to get stitches for a head gash because he got bonked too hard. Stupidest thing ever. I went back to sleep. Ironically, not even 2 hours after I was off the bus, I was reading a map and walking down the sidewalk when I ran right into a low hanging tree branch. I almost fell over and died from the shock! And when I came to, I had the exact same stupid jackass 2 gash in my head! But I am in no place to get stitches. I just spent all morning dabbing blood away hoping it'd heal by itself.

-steve-

Paris is definitely a city to be visited and explored with a loved one, but going solo, I've made the most of it with my other colleagues and volunteers on this trip, checking out the Eiffel Tower, Le Champs Elysees and L'Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Gorgeous city and a beautiful day! Couldn't ask for a better way to spend a 10 hour layover.

-Amie

The next morning is a lot better. It always takes a good sleep before realizing that it's not unbearably foreign here. Everything from last night had changed too. Someone cleaned the streets of garbage, the rats went into hiding, and there was a real woman at reception. Also, I was reminded that I am not a wandering traveller this time. I have a mission. I am job hunting in South East Asia. And off to one of the poorest and devestating of them all: Cambodia. Not much has changed in Bangkok since I was here 6 years ago. If the same is true in Cambodia, I'll question why I was even considering working there.

But that's all for next week. I have a couple days to chill out in Thailand first. I may as well head for the southern paradise!

-steve-

We spent a lot of time at the beach boogy-boarding and snorkeling. Our goal with boogy-boarding was to find waves that had tremendous power to hurl you forward but not quite enough to kill you if you caught it wrong - we tried out both types. The goal for snorkeling was to see a turtle and it just so happens that the day we split up from the Koops to do separate activities was the day that Ryan was holding the back of a sea turtle. Nevertheless, we ended up having a great adventure on that day searching for lost irrigation mountain tunnels deep in the jungle.

Supposedly several years ago someone had the great idea of irrigating a drier portion of the island by using water from a wetter area. The only problem was the mountain range in the middle. No problem - just blast a mile long tunnel under the mountain to connect the two! Apparently this solution worked for some time but was eventually abandoned. The majority of this endeavor involves finding the tunnel entrance. It takes about two hours of jungle-trail hiking to find them and several other attempters have provided detours off the main hunting trail. Some brainiac even decided to leave green flagging on the correct trail as well as other branches to throw people off. Fortunately after several detours, we located the tunnel entrance and prepared to walk through. It ended up taking us the best part of an hour to walk through all the tunnels. This was partly due to the length but also due to the fact that the tunnels (being irrigation ducts) were filled with a foot of water. This was quite a lot since the tunnels were 6 feet high and wide at the best spots. A magical destination awaits at the tunnels exit - waterfalls, lush ranges and cliffs, and peaceful untouched nature.

Another of my favorite activities was swimming in waterfall pools. We weren't necessarly trying to swim in that many but there were several times where we were hiking and hot and there they were! The Hanakapiai and Wailua waterfalls were excellent (despite the frigid waters) but I think our favorite spot was Kipu falls. Picture 20ft cliffs surrounding a small waterfall and pool with no rocks at the base. This allowed for jumping off the waterfall as well as using a rope swing that the local kids hung up in a tree. We thought we were getting good at the rope swing (20 ft drop) until a local kid climbed the tree another 10ft and jumped off the tree into the water. A novice landing at that height could keep you in pain for a while. Although Ryan performed the same feat by landing on his sunburnt back after performing a beautiful 1 and 1/2 flip off the rope swing.

We also had the pleasure of attending a Hawaiian Luau (local dancing/feast) where Ryan and I stole the show with our Hawaiian dancing on stage. On second thought, we were second to a young Japanese fellow who was forced to dance (red-faced) with a Hawaiian girl. This spectacle was hilarious but it was even funnier that he recorded the rest of the show with a video camera in each hand.

We spent some time the island of Oahu before and after staying on Kauai, engaging in a range of activities which included driving around the whole island, visiting Pearl Harbour, driving into a crater, joining an anti-war march through Honolulu, and visiting the Dole plantation for fresh pineapple ice cream.

-steve-

It was a grueling task to make it up to the top of the pass with cross country skis. We found later that the trail was more suited to alpine touring equipment. It was dark by the time we made it to the top of the pass but the moon was full and the temperature hadn't dropped too low yet. Rob continued to complain about his toes but he eventually forgot about them. The trail was now long gone and we were following the GPS to our destination. Downhill proved to be a lot easier until we hit a forest. By this time our bodies were totally taxed and we were mentally and physically exhausted. We still had just over 1km to go and it was very difficult to navigate through the forest. We constantly tripped over branches in our skis but there was no way we could continue on foot either - the snow was 4 feet deep! Rob broke a ski pole trying to brace himself from a fall. That was an unfortunate setback. Using sheer willpower, we made it to within half a kilometer of the shelter (or at least where the GPS said it would be). By this time we were nearly in tears from physical and emotional draining. We couldn't climb the last hill to the cabin so we set off crawling through the snow. We had contemplated whether or not we were going to freeze to death on the mountain side several times until finally Rob let out a scream - he had seen the cabin!

But this was only the start of the craziness. We got into the cabin and made a fire as quickly as possible. Then a chilling event that I will not soon forget occurred. Rob took his feet out of his ski boots and they were rock hard frozen. His toes were stuck together with ice. I didn't know at the time what warming method was the best for a time like this. I ended up putting his toes against my thighs to slowly warm them up. In hindsight, the best thing to do with frozen body parts is to put them in room temperature water and warm them up as quick as possible. Within and hour Rob's feet were warm but the feeling had not returned. It was after midnight so we went to bed. I had trouble sleeping. I was constantly wondering what state Rob's feet would be in the morning - would they be black? would they have feeling? Rob didn't sleep much because agonizing pain started to come from his feet within a couple hours of warming.

The next morning Rob's toes and heels were purple. He still didn't have much feeling and one thing was for sure - we weren't going to be able to ski out. We only had 3 poles between the two of us and there was no way Rob was going to fit his bloated purple feet into ski boots. It was painful even to stand. Worse that all this, we were uncertain of the severity concerning the frostbite which was now very evident.

I noticed that there was a topographic map on the wall. Not too far from the shelter there was a Warden's cabin. I set off after making some breakfast on the wood stove. As I predicted, the cabin was boarded up and vacant. But I was desperate for help so I looked for a way to break in. I got a rock and started to bang on the front door lock which secured a bar across the door. To my surprise, the bolt that held the lock in place wasn't installed very good and I eventually loosened the bolt that held the lock mechanism in place. The bar across the door swung free and I could open the door and enter the Warden's cabin.

It was dark inside but I did notice some old radio equipment in the corner of the cabin. It wasn't functional because there was no power to the cabin. I had noticed earlier that there were solar panels outside the cabin so there had to be some battery power somewhere. I found a panel near the door and flipped a switch. Success! The radio had power! The equipment looked old and dusty though. Nevertheless, I fiddled with the knobs and tried to send distress messages over all the channels that I could. I didn't know then but they barely even use the single side band VHF equipment that I was meddling with. A lady in some far off office heard a little blurp coming from a system that she usually didn't pay much attention to. Miraculously, she turned it up and heard my cries for help. I was soon talking back and forth with some park wardens. I explained the situation to them and to my surprised, they were quick to dispatch a rescue helicopter. At first I was scared that I had gone too far. I hoped that the situation was severe enough to justify braking and entering as well as helicopter dispatch. Soon I knew the choice was right. The rescuers said Rob had second degree frostbite which meant we were flying straight to the Banff hospital.

That's pretty much the end of the story. We were swept away off the mountain. Eventually we got Rob back to Regina for one of his university final exams. But I am writing this 2 days after the rescue so only time will tell which tissue is alive and which will not recover. The doctor was positive and suggested he will recover without the loss of any toes.

-steve-