Namaste

I am currently en route to Dehli from Bangkok and as was about to begin my 20 somethingth game of spider solitaire when I heard Carli’s voice (bbm) in my head...”post another blog! You last one was shit!” So I stood all the way up, reached into the overhead compartment and unlocked my laptop. But as I stare at this blank document I really have no idea what to write. The past month and a half has been a whirlwind. My last few weeks at Palm Tree were spent going to Siem Riep again (some donors took the entire orphanage) and just hanging out. We never resumed class, standard Cambodia, and because I had no structure in my days somehow they flew by and I couldn’t find any time to blog! Between the swinging, eating, working out and playing games I was just too busy! I am really really really going to miss the kids at Palm Tree. I am sure I will go back and visit them many time in the future, as most past volunteers do, and hopefully be able to keep in touch throughout their lives.

Leaving Cambodia, I traveled with Stacy’s parents to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi in Vietnam and Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand. We had a great trip and visited pagodas, wats, temples, tombs, orchid farms, floating markets and even squeezed in some elephant riding. Going from our not so luxurious Palm Tree bedroom where Stacy’s mattress was on the floor, to some of the most amazing hotels I have ever seen was much appreciated but, don’t worry, the second we split from Stacy’s parents and headed to Koh Samui (a Thai island) we were right back to our “backpacker” lifestyle. We were a little late on the booking and ended up staying at Jinta- a hotel soo far from where we wanted to be, literally the other side of the island. Also one other minor mishap, we went to Koh Samui for the Christmas Full Moon Party buutttt somehow we either missed it or it never went on. Who really knows... There may have been one Christmas Eve, the night we got there, but needless to say we did not attend any full moon party. We tried to make the best of it (it being “stuck on a beautiful, tropical island with 2 days to kill”) and went on a boat tour of the surrounding national park islands. We snorkeled, kayaked and climbed to see an amazing lagoon. Although it ended up being the exact opposite of the wild party weekend we anticipated we still had a great time and made it back to Bangkok to spend one night in a hostel, get organized and leave for India!

So now y’all are caught up. My two and a half months in Southeast Asia were more than I could have expected. I LOVED Cambodia: the people, the culture, the city. It was all great. Southeast Asia as a region is very welcoming. Just driving around the cities and will never cease to amaze me. These people live day in and day out doing the same exact thing. Many of them have homes on top of or attached to their stores, therefore never really leaving one little area. Their lives are just a circle without any really desire to leave or change it. They are content with the lives they have built for themselves, which is a really peaceful thing to witness. Opposed to always aiming for bigger and better things they just make use of what they have. I think that is really what I am going to take away from this region. I thought about it all the time in my little Cambodian town of Tuek Thla. Sometimes it is okay to just stop moving and enjoy- the future does not always have to be part of the plan and life will go on whether you anticipate every step or not.

Okay this is kind of starting to sound like I am writing another personal statement for law school so I am going to stop right now. The computer is burning my lap and making me so hot on this Air India plane filled with stewardesses in sarees I can’t even breathe. According to the little map thing on the screen in front of me we should be landing in about 22 minutes. I have to prepare myself for another whirlwind 10 days!

Miss you all! Happy New Year!

Love, Jessica

I’ll leave you with one picture...

This is me getting “coined.” In Cambodia they rub tiger balm all over and then use a cap or a coin to rub really hard until the area is all red and irritated. They think that when you are sick it helps rid the toxins from your body. I, being crazy, wanted to try it even though I wasn’t sick at all. I had those marks all over my back, arms and chest for about a week and they slowly turned more of a bruise type color and then went away. It did hurt a considerable amount but I am glad I tried it, I wanted to see what all the hype was about!