Christmas has come and gone, and overall, it was a really good day. Santa came, as expected, so it was a good thing we left some cookies and carrots (for the reindeer), as well as some dinosaurs to keep guard.
Sila was excited to open his many gifts: a cool snake puzzle, dinosaurs, and t-shirts from MooMoo; a few DVDs, action figurines, and an excavator truck from Santa; and books and clothes from mom and dad.
For New Year's we decided to take a little reprieve from the city and go visit a rare place in Cambodia: wooded land. For more reading on deforestation in Cambodia, click here: http://www.wildlifealliance.org/page/view/71/forests
The place? Kirirom National Forest. So we hopped on a bus and took off.
A few short hours in, the driver indicated we were to get off. Sila decided to puke about five minutes before, so as Conan was scooping puke from the seat and putting it into Sila's blanket, I was grabbing all our stuff and frantically getting off the bus. Thankfully, once we got off, we had an audience of about ten Khmers, observing our every move. Stripping Sila and putting new clothes on him? Yup, they were there. Conan wrapping all clothes and puke into the blanket? Yup, Khmers.
Finally with a smile and a sigh, we were ready to hop on two motorbikes and head down a road to the Kirirom Hillside Resort, which boasted horseback riding, spa/sauna, fitness center, pool, dinosaur park, zoo, fishing, kayaking...all for a cool $50 a night.
When we got there...well...it was Cambodian fabulous, as we like to say.
First, let me diverge: "fabulous" to us means the epitome of a culture's most kitschy things. This term first came up as we were living in Tennessee came across many people who were, well, Tennessee fabulous.
Oh, there were dinosaurs and parks and pools and a spa/sauna (but you had to tell someone when you wanted to go in so they could turn it on), as well as a zoo and other the other "fabulous" items boasted on the website. Was it all in functional quality? Not really. Was there ANYONE else at the resort? Nope. Was it weird? Yup. Was it the weirdest place we have ever been? Yup.
Despite it being slightly creepy and everything being a bit defunct and Sila puking every other day and me puking and the other thing for six straight hours and being bedridden for over a day, we had a good time but decided to call it quits a bit early and head back to PP. Ah, PP. There is no place like home....except America.
So there you go. I'll leave you with a few more pictures (of Sila, of course). Hope all is well with everyone, and if you're still with me because this is the longest blog post ever, then much love to you!
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