It was an early morning for me. I woke up at 6:30 and just couldn’t get back to sleep. About 7:00 I decided to throw on my Thai pants and head outside by the pool to text the kids and Marilee. I read and responded to a few texts with info about Hayden and then decided to see if I could FaceTime Ryan. It was so good to talk to him about everything. He has had a great attitude and is feeling very blessed with the roommates and friends that he has and the support, faith, and love that they are showing to each other. An apartment of girls in their ward made them dinner last night (he was just sitting down to eat it when I FaceTimed) so they wouldn’t have to worry about it with everything going on. So nice! I’ve been overcome the last few days with the experience that they are having as they serve and are being served. I was up for two hours before anybody else came out. I was able to study the Scriptures as well. My stomach didn’t feel great (one of the only times the whole trip) and so I headed back to bed about 9:00 and tried to sleep. Chris and friends ate breakfast together one last time and packed up. I felt better when I woke up.

We left the villa and pool to go to the airport, via 7-Eleven on the way. Terri and Missy wanted to buy all kinds of Thai junk food. We drove to a gas station to fill up our rental cars and as we approached, the workers waved us away saying ‘no gas’. Then we tried another, and another. Three gas stations without any gas!! We were laughing. Luckily the fourth one had gas. We filled up and then headed to the airport, dropped off our rental cars and headed in.

Terri, Missy and I had fun wandering the shops finding cute elephant statues, mango soap and darling coin purses. We flew from Phuket to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. They gave us yellow stickers to wear as we boarded, and in the Bangkok airport a crew of workers looked for our yellow stickers to usher us in the right direction. Chris was pretty sure his yellow sticker was good luck and decided he wanted to never take it off.

We arrived in Siem Reap at 6:50pm and it was already dark by the time we got through passport purchasing ($30) and customs. We found a willing driving and crammed into a van with some luggage sitting on our laps. Doug and Chris squished into the front seat. Luckily our Cambodian driver didn’t take up much room at all. We were glued to the front window on our drive from the airport to our Courtyard Marriott. Apparently the middle lines separating directions of traffic are only a suggestion. Our driver drove right in the middle until another car came our way and then he’d move over, only to move right back to the middle again. We looked at each other with wide eyes. We clearly rode down the Main Street of Siem Reap. Bright colored lights decorated the streets, parks and bridges — some because of the coming Chinese New Year which the Cambodian people celebrate. So many scooters, so many Tuk tuk’s, and such crazy traffic. There is absolutely zero right of way and it’s pure chaos. Lots of dogs. Lots of small store fronts, lots of food stands, and surprisingly lots of large hotels. It was so fascinating.

The Courtyard Marriott was so nice! And because of Brian we were greeted at the door with cold hand towels and dishes of black rice ice cream when we checked in, which was pretty great!

After receiving our luggage up at our rooms and checking out Brian and Terri’s suite, we headed up to the roof, ordered some fried rice and goat cheese salad and listened to the live band play. Great atmosphere. Excited to be here!

Arrival to Siem Reap, Cambodia