Ruined

In Melinda's latest blog post, she describes how every few nights, the WatOpotians crowd around on the dorm porch for a DVD.  Their DVD collection is quite impressive thanks to donated movies and the plethora of cheap movie shops in Phnom Penh.  Cars, Shrek, and other animated movies were great for a while but now the kids are craving more action.  Recent showings have been of the Jurassic Parks, ET, Avatar, War of the Worlds, Fantastic 4, The Goonies, and the new Karate Kid among others.  A big crowd pleaser was the Indiana Jones trilogy.  It was so popular in fact that the kids decided to make it real life.

I have written before about trips to Phnom Chisor, which they love visiting.  There are ruins to explore, monkeys, temples… everything necessary for an adventure.  On a trip last week to Phnom Chisor, some of the boys maybe went a little too far in living their Indiana Jones fantasies.  In the middle of an intense treasure hunt in the ruins, which were empty of visitors making it even more fun, they had to twist round pegs to see which one held their prize.  They twisted the first peg- nothing.  The second- nothing.  On the third and last chance to find the treasure, Meng Ty reached for the peg, twisted, and it fell off.  He broke it.  These ruins have been standing there perfectly fine for a thousand years.  The Wat Opot kids come through for 10 minutes and leave a path of destruction.  Maybe we’ll go back to Disney classics and calm down their imaginations….

Below are some pictures I've taken over the months of our trips to Phnom Chisor.

Mr. Chai

Searching for treasure

Phanya and Somnang

Phanya and Somnang

Meng Ty, the leader of the adventure

The infamous Chisor monkey

Taking a break

Srey Mao taking a rest, treasure hunting is hard work!

I'm so lucky to be playing host this and last week to two of my best friends from high school, Whitney and Laura.  We traveled a little to major stops in Cambodia; from the beaches of Sihanoukville to ancient temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.  We got to do a little ruins exploration of our own, but unlike the WatOpotians, we didn't break anything!  Here are some pictures of us at the Angkor Wat complex.

Me, Laura, and Whitney walking into Angkor Wat

The complex is filled with insanely huge trees

One of the most famous parts, the trees of Ta Prohm where Tomb Raider was filmed

We climbed to the top of one temple to get an aerial view... you can faintly see a yellow hot air balloon in the sky

Laura and my failed attempt at horsemaning.  They're filling me in on all the American pop culture I'm missing.  If you don't know of horsemaning, google it.  Some of the pictures are really funny.

Laura and her elephant friend

This little man popped out of nowhere and took us to hidden places.  And he had a great beard.

Laura, me, and Whit outside of the main Angkor Wat temple