Traveling and Friendship; Mondulkiri Part 3

(Yes, I'm skipping part 2 until next time. ;) ) When our friends had talked about visiting Nature Lodge in Mondulkiri, Cambodia, they mentioned it having kids most of the time. Reviews online mirrored these sentiments. This was no deterrent, rather, we preferred our children to not be the only ones and liked that they might make friends.

Friendship is different when used in a nomadic sense: you make friends quicker, get right down to what matters, and keep in contact if able. This type of friendship puts emphasis on creating as much positive change as possible while in a place, as time limits drive out room for introversion or small talk. At least, this is how I've seen it. Of course, this means one is open to more heartache: the more you love, the harder it is to leave; but at the same time it gives one a capacity for sensing what is needed in a situation and connecting quickly.

At first we didn't see any children at Nature Lodge. It wasn't until the last three days that we met some... And they, being nomadic children too, made immediate friends with our children. The kids were very excited, and the boys, who were a bit intimidated by the cows and horses around the lodge, lost their timidity in favor of playing with their new friends!

We were all sad to leave Mondulkiri, but convinced them to visit us in Phnom Penh. The kids were thrilled! We checked out several play places in the city (as there aren't parks near us), baked goodies and learned new games and ways to pronounce words with an Australian accent... (Now my son says "nin-jer" instead of ninja.)

Of course we all missed them when they left for adventures in Viet Nam... but we know how adventures work and we're  glad we made the most of the time we had. It's good to have friends around the world who broaden our perspectives of it  and who we can plan our own adventures to visit some day!

Mondulkiri, Cambodia: Part 1

The day after the school’s closing ceremony, we drove 8 hours out of the city of Phnom Penh to a village up in the mountains called Mondulkiri. (Video here.) The coffee grown in this region is our favorite from this country so far. Also found in this region of Cambodia are a muslim indigenous group called something like Chams, and speaking a language with the same name in addition to religious Arabic and Khmer. We found one of the mosques on the way to Mondulkiri. You can see the speaker sticking up for the call to prayer and the moon, an important symbol in Islam, on the towers:

While we were looking at it, an imam chased the chickens off of the porch. Even the arches had a distinctly different architecture than the Cambodian:

After a loooong day Saturday, Ezra was not excited to be sitting in the car longer. (Here we had stopped to stretch our legs and hadn’t put him back in the car seat yet.)

In Mondulkiri, it was much cooler and the air was incomparably fresher than in the city. Talia, my nature baby, and Elias ran to play in the grass as soon as we arrived!

It is interesting to be in a place where air conditioning isn’t necessary and sleeping under a mosquito net is. As Ben and I were talking one morning, we came to the conclusion that the lodge must have made a list of necessary luxuries for most western guests like: hot showers, western-style food options in the cafeteria, comfortable beds with bug protection and a toilet; and then left everything else rustic. For example, the garden bathroom has hot water and a toilet, but the pebble flooring drains out into the surrounding garden area, resulting in a lush vine covering the entire outside of the bathroom. There is no sink drain or shower drain. You can see through the plank flooring in the bedroom to the cows and horses that wander under the cabin that is up on stilts. The kids are pretty excited to have plants in the bathroom… as you can see in Elias’ commentary in the SagaUnscripted Kid Interviews of Mondulkiri video.

The kids also loved the new-to-them, interesting plants and insects! The fuzzy caterpillars you see on the tree there were cause for quite a bit of speculation regarding their toxicity or lack of it, types of butterflies they turned into and all sorts of things. Talia and Elias were also fascinated by the plants that closed when you touched them (video here.)

 When we found elephant statues in front of a big hotel in the village, the kids just had to try them out:

The beautiful Busra Waterfalls were an amazing sight, (video here) though quite dangerous as there were 500 foot drop-offs in several places without any guardrails or warning signs:

The kids were disappointed to not swim. We found another waterfall the next day… but that’s for a different post!

Cambodian International School-Year Closing Ceremony

The school year has finally come to an end. Friday Talia's class launched the rockets they made as part of their space unit for the last day of class. We mixed a tiny bit of baking soda and vinegar at home to see the reaction because she was so curious about how it was going to work. The next day they used a lot and made the rockets go almost all the way to the roof of the pavilion!

For the closing ceremony Saturday we got up at 6 to leave at 7 in a tuktuk and get to the other side of the city by 7:45. Preschool and Kindergarten productions were in the morning. Ezra wasn't too shy and did a good job following his teacher's dance cues.

Elias graduated Kindergarten! He's proud to be going to first grade. Surprisingly, he wasn't too shy and went across the stage without crying.

There was only an hour for Ben between the lower grade and upper grade ceremonies. Since we had kids in both, it made this a whole-day ordeal. To get some energy out, and because the boys did a good job, we took the kids to Urban Space, on the same side of town. The kids had a blast in the pool and playground. Then it was time to go watch Talia's ceremony.

My phone died, so I'll have to get photos from the school's Facebook page, (edited to add) but Talia did a great job. Her class sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight. She got a certificate for being the best in Social Studies in her class. It was her last day to see her amazing teacher as he's going back to the UK. He took time this year to connect with Talia and make sure any gaps from changing curriculums were covered. He took time to develop relationships with his students and Talia will miss him. Relationship is the most important part of teaching I keep finding.

Zoe did a good job through this long day. As long as I was there to hold and feed her, she was fine. She thought her brothers were hilarious and kept laughing at them. 

The program ended around 5:50 and neither boy had taken a nap. I'll let you figure out what that means... We went to pick up the rental van for our next adventure, ate supper and crashed. 

The next adventure is coming up soon...

Ben's Field Trip to Koh Kong, Near Western Border

Grade 10 at Ben's school raised a percent of the $6,000 needed to help build a school in Koh Kong Khong. They traveled with their principal and teacher to the ribbon cutting ceremony.

It was about 8 hours by bus.

The place they stayed was a floating lodge on a river! http://www.theriverlodge.net

Because the lodge is dedicated to not impacting the environment, it's a little pricey to pay for the upkeep of the canvas tents. (Principal chaperone duty paid Ben's way.)

Everything is so green in this part of Cambodia!

Here's the bedroom of the floating lodge:

The students from Ben's school did some kayaking and paddle boarding on the river. 

Students in this region have to take a boat to school because this area of Cambodia is where soldiers from the Khmer Rouge fled, preventing its development (but eating up several species like the alligators that no longer exist here)- so there aren't motorcycles here as there aren't roads. As the school has grown, there are now too many students to fit on the boat in one trip. Some have to hike part of the way along the river until the boat is empty enough to hold them. If they want to continue school past grade six, they have to take a two hour trip one way to get there. Currently the guy driving the boat is carrying the expenses of gas and upkeep, but that isn't sustainable. He's looking at charging and other options.

This was the fruit portion of breakfast: not pictured was the omelet and pancakes.

They also got to see a beautiful waterfall. The guide said all of the tourists go see the waterfall and Ben thought it would be cool if someone created a floating coffee shop to sell to the tourists and maybe have some of the proceeds pay for gas to get the kids to school.

If you visit Cambodia, these would definitely be handy!

(disclaimer: if you buy anything from the link, we might get enough for a cheap Cambodian coffee.)

It's definitely beautiful outside of the city!