Trip to Cambodia: The Kingdom of Wonder

Let me just start off saying Cambodia was amazing!
It was unlike any trip I have ever taken full of spiritual
highs, wonderful people, crazy traffic and driving rules
(or the lack thereof?), history, interesting architecture,
missionaries (elders and senior couples), unique food
(some tasty and some not so much), ants in suitcases
(more to the story later), once in a lifetime experiences,
and getting to spend a whole week with my younger
brother and parents. What a trip!

So this post kicks off the first day of the trip
when we arrived in Cambodia after about 20 hours
of flying (plus 5 more for me). These are all pictures
that I took (I'll get pictures from Marc and Mom when
I go home next week for Christmas) so sit back, relax,
and enjoy the wonders of Cambodia.

Below is the reason this trip was made.
Marc spent the last 2 years serving a
very successful mission (I should know as I
met quite a few people on our visit and you
could tell he was loved by all--missionaries,
investigators and members alike) and we were
there to pick him up, but not before spending a
whirlwind trip traveling across the country to
the different areas where he had served.

This picture is at the Phnom Pehn Airport
parking lot after we got our bags all loaded
into the car. He is still the same old Marc.

This was the hotel we stayed at for 3 of the 7 nights
on our trip, the first night and the last two (as we
would be doing a lot of traveling around the country
as you will see). It was a pretty nice and it was across
the street from the U.S. Embassy.

After getting to take a shower and clean up (we arrived
in Cambodia around 10am), we hopped in a gongbay
(or tuk tuk as they are more commonly called) and
started our first day around the city.

Here is mom and Marc looking so excited to be
in the gongbay (or at least mom is).

The gongbay was a great way to see the city and
I got pretty good at capturing pictures as we
were moving. A lot of these pictures were taken
as Marc took us around to see the mission home,
one of the church buildings, and run some errands.

Lots of people ride motorbikes in Cambodia.
There are people who have cars, but motorbikes
were definitely the most common mode of transportation.

Chinese and Cambodian flags. Apparently in Phnom
Pehn there is a decent sized Chinese population.

One of many temples (or wats) that we saw.
At least I think it is a temple. I mostly think the
architecture is interesting.

Front gate to the mission home/office.
Marc spent the last several months of his
mission as one of the mission office secretaries.

This is the front room of the office. These chairs
are a nice example of the amazing wood carvings
that can be found throughout Cambodia.

Dad decided he needed to test it out.
Too bad a chair like that would be too expensive
to ship to Arizona, as well as crack in the dry
AZ climate, is what my dad is thinking here.

After meeting with some of the missionaries as well
as the mission president, it was back out to the streets
of Phnom Pehn. This building here is Central Market.
We would come back here later in the week to shop.

Marc had to make a stop at a cellphone store to
buy a new battery for the mission cell phone that
he would use for the week. Later he would discover
he needed to buy more minutes for the phone as well.

This is our gongbay driver (well for the first day).

Marc, or should a say Elder Jones, as we drive
past Central Market again.

Included in our day's agenda was seeing one
of the meeting houses in the city. If you couldn't tell,
Dad is blowing his nose as he was getting over a cold.

Khmer sure is a beautifully written language.

Views from the church balcony.

The doors of the church buildings were very
beautiful. Those Cambodians sure are masters
of wood carving.

Our bishop's office plaque doesn't look as cool as this one.

Back in the gongbay, I captured this lovely
picture of Marc and myself. Not the best
picture of me, but I love the look on Marc's
face as it pretty much sums up his character.

More pictures of riding through the city.

A sitting Buddha from behind.

This is the king of Cambodia, along with his dad.

Notice the Lexus in this picture. Surprisingly Lexus
was a pretty popular brand here, after Toyota. The
other strange fact was that they have the name of the
brand (or sometimes the model) on the side of the
car in very large lettering.

After a long day (the parents and I were getting
pretty tired by this point) of going around the city
and visiting a tailor to get a suit made for Marc,
we went back to the mission office for Marc to
have his exit interview with the president.

After the interview, President and his wife took us
to dinner along with some of the office elders and a
new senior couple who had just arrived in Cambodia
the day before. Along the way to the Phnom Pehn Hotel,
where we would have dinner, I got this picture of a crane
of a truck no more than a foot from the car window. Like
I said, crazy traffic and driving in Cambodia.

The rest of the evening was pretty lackluster as
I was just trying my hardest to stay awake at dinner
(which I pretty much managed). The food was interesting
and in no way was my favorite meal, but I blame the lack
of interest in dinner to all the flying and need for sleep.

So there you have it, the first day in Cambodia.
Stay tuned as there is plenty more pictures to be
seen and adventures to read about.