The Weisses take the Bodes

Summer vacation occurred in 3 parts. This is the 2^nd time this year I was able to take a longer trip away from my site as English Teachers only have April and August (or longer if you work at a high school) as prolonged periods of time without school. I took an unexpected trip back to America; unexpected in that when I started my service, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t return for the 27 months I committed to serving for. Then, a wedding of my dear friends persuaded me to take a quick 10 day jaunt to the Bay Area. It was a brief taste of what life might be like when I return, especially when it came to trying to explain life as a PCV in Cambodia. Many warned me that 10 days was far too short and that I was crazy for attempting such a trip bookended by 30 hour travel days, but time slowed down as I enjoyed time with friends, family, dogs, food, etc. I turned around with all members of the Weiss family in tow, minus dogs, to begin the “Weissbodes/Thaiwei” vacation. These became the hashtags (a way of categorizing pictures) for my sister and my need to contribute daily to our instagram feeds. Sidenote: I was exposed to the pretty neat technology of the instagram app while I was home and became a bit addicted (@samwisegamjee, if you want to follow me).

Maya and Alex tying the knot

From day 1, the Weisses were gung ho to try bizarre foods, tough it out in the heat and avoid afternoon naps so we could get as much touristing in as possible. Jet lag was ignored as we began our trip learning about Khmer Rouge tragedies and a somewhat treacherous half-day bike ride from Phnom Penh to the Silk Islands across the river. A few days later, we took a 24 hour trip to my Cambodian home in Prey Veng where they took Khmer forms of transportation (vans with very little air-conditioning packed to the gills with bodies) to meet my Khmer family. They ate crickets, which they thoroughly enjoyed, ongui-langed with the family and at the coffee shop in the market, and ate cow-climbs-the-mountain (goo lang phnom, Khmer BBQ) together. After saying goodbye to my town and my host family, we arrived in Phnom Penh ready to take Khmer wedding photos. Mom, Lex and I underwent 2 hour makeovers that had us looking like drag queens to produce these gems. Dad only had to get dressed for this one in a blue suit and flipper-like shoes; I was disappointed there was no make-up or hair doing for him, however, he did feel like a rap star with all the bling. The next day we headed north to one of my favorite places in Cambodia, Battambang. We enjoyed the bamboo train (think Disneyland’s Indiana Jones ride through the rice fields ending in a gift shop of children peddling animals made from grass), Phnom Sampeau where millions or billions of bats flew out of a cave for one straight hour in a swirling ribbon over the rice fields, and the amazing Phare Ponleuk Circus (featuring Khmer Heath Ledger from A Knight’s Tale). One 8 hour boat trip later, we were in Siem Reap for a 3 day tour of Angkor Wat, nearby temples , Phnom Kulen (linga mania) and last but not least the Cambodian Cultural Village. This was in actuality Disneyland for Asian tourists which meant our guide was surprised we had interest in going there. Surrounded by Chinese, Khmer and Korean tourists, we enjoyed the dances and campy performances that were meant to depict different cultures and regions of Cambodia. There was also a stupendous wax museum of Cambodian figures through the ages and live animals found in Cambodia (probably endangered) that the visitors were happy to feed their cookies and crackers to. To speak for the Weisses, we were exhausted from early mornings and non-stop travel, and we were all ready for vacation in Phuket, Thailand. I believe they got a taste of the real deal in Cambodia in only 10 days and my job as tour guide was finished.

Families meet for Khmer BBQ

Bats! at Phnom Sampeau, Battambang

Boat ride to Siem Reap

"The Happiness Family" at the Cambodian Cultural Village

Landing in Bangkok was a bit of culture shock for my parents as they saw the abundance of American food chains and shopping possibilities in the airport alone. Our arrival in Phuket was no different as our taxi drove down the highway and we passed large scale developments and many malls. Finally arriving at our modest resort on a quiet bay, we could all breathe a little easier. We quickly found out that our resort had a detox center offering daily yoga and a kitchen with plenty of raw food, so basically we were back in Berkeley. Lex, the master tour planner, found some excellent tours for our few days that would take us away from the seedier, backpackery and Russian parts of the island. We went on an excellent tour of old town Phuket with Chaya (Heritage Walking Tours) who took us to places no tourists tend to end up. We visited a pagoda during the time offerings were given, a Taoist temple, a mansion popular for wedding photo shoots, saw Phuket town from high up above, Lex fed monkeys (who also tried eating a box of tacks a motorist left in their bike), Mom and Dad tried about 10 different Thai dishes that they really enjoyed, a sea gypsy village and the architecture and shops of the Portuguese influenced old town. I learned that Phuket is one of the most expensive places to live in Thailand (more so than Bangkok), and that Thailand is truly a melting pot akin to the United States. Thailand is a relatively new country whose inhabitants come from neighboring countries, which helps to explain the diversity in their appearance. This contrasts sharply to Cambodia, a place with ethnic homogeneity, and explains why foreigners aren’t quite as intriguing in Thailand as they are in Cambodia. Chaya also explained how strongly Buddhist beliefs are engrained into Thai culture. She explained that people are free to do what they want and express themselves because judgment is withheld. This fits with the experiences I’ve had in Thailand thus far, and contrast to my experiences in Cambodia which is also a majority Buddhist country, but I do not see as much Buddhism embodied in everyday culture here. This might also be a result of living in a post-conflict society where the importance of religion was diminished for a period of time. In other words, Thailand is a much more comfortable place to be different, as a foreigner or a Thai person. We ended the trip on an afternoon to nighttime sea canoe trip. Upon mention of “John Gray’s Sea Canoe”, any local spoke of how amazing this trip was and the man who created it. However, he is too busy being an “entreumaneur” (check his website) to attend most of the trips. His excellent Thai staff showed us a good time, made great Thai food on a boat, canoed us safely through openings that almost scraped my nose when lying down and told us of the nature surrounding us. Our final day in Phuket consisted of a quick stand up paddle boarding sesh on the calm bay with a view of the giant sitting Buddha on the hill (Dad used his board as a kayak preferring the seated approach), further exploration of Phuket town (and the lack of public transportation on the island), and we headed to the big city of Bangkok that evening. I was only able to enjoy a day there before I had to join mid-service training in Phnom Penh, but true to the Weiss traveling fashion, we jammed a lot into that last day. We started by roaming the mazes of Chatuchak Market, where I ate as much as I could starting with coconut ice cream for breakfast, continued to a tea room and sampled some of the fine Bangkokian malls, followed by Jim Thompson’s house, an American who built a really nice Thai/Western fusion house and knew a lot about Thai silk.

**More pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_wise/sets/ or on my Instagram (@samwisegamjee)**

I sadly said goodbye to the Weisses to get back to the PC life as it is true what PCVs told me: once you see your family during your service your homesickness surfaces and intensifies. I’m also not sure when we’ll have the opportunity to all take a couple weeks to travel somewhere far away all together again. Being adults means no more summer vacation as we used to have it. Until then, we’ll just have to think of the shellacked versions of ourselves you see below:

Us at Angkor Wat!

Coming up soon: I’ve been here longer than a year, crazy! And other thoughts about that. Featuring: projects galore!