January 4

My last day as "officially in charge" of the students. 

Jordan got in last night and is feeling a little under the weather so I offered to take the students to ride elephants in the jungle. Obviously I had already planned to do it but wanted to put Jordan's mind at ease;).

We left as our usual pack of bikers at 7 am for a scheduled 8 am elephant ride.

Elephants are beautiful! I've only ever seen a real on in a zoo and a circus. 

These particular animals were abused!

Two elephants and each carried 2 students. 

Pete and I stayed back on the first ride with one student and walked back into town to wait for the first group tonreconnectbwith us there. We had already witnessed the herder (known as one of the "minority" to the people in the city) beating the elephant as he walked down the trail. 

Once again we were on our bikes and moving down the dusty dirt roads toward Yeak Laom, the volcano lake. It was formed 4,000 years ago after an eruption and is 800 meters wide and 50 meters deep. The water is so clean and blue but most of all very warm and comfortable. 

Again I was the first one in, as I wanted to show the kids it was safe. But mostly because I was hot as hell and had an Oz. of road dust in my throat

Again, Beauty beyond belief!

Jan 3

Last nightingale Rattanakiri, Banlung I managed to score a deal on some motor bikes. With Nathalie and Kauneri's help the deal was $7/day.

The bikes were all delivered and were waiting with keys in them by the time we awoke. 

I was unsure about the Students riding abilities and as there advisor & mentor and therefor the safety director I decided to make a point of not suggesting they ride.

 I lost that battle when all but 2 insisted and chose to ride their own. 

The "smart ones" (as I like to call them) (Meredith & Matt!) or the two students who felt uneasy hopped on the back of our bikes and we were off to chase waterfalls and look for a herd of elephants. 

(Motobikin with my Pasenger Meredith)

The first waterfall, Cha Ung, was supposed to be the place we find the elephants.

 I had made arraingments the night before to have 2 elephants available for rides. 

But when we arrived there wasn't an elephant to be found. Of course I expected them to be hiding from us so I led the group down a trail and into the jungle. No Elephants but a kick ass waterfall! 

We all climbed underneath and a few tried to swim except Nature wouldn't allow. We packed up and headed up the trail for the motorbikes and a further search for our elephants. 

Down the dusty village road to find the jungle animals and the next waterfall.

Still no sign of our elephants as we got to the next river. However, we did find a local guy to take our deposit on a ride for Tommirow. Now we can stop chasing elephants and get on to business at hand, waterfalls! 

We found a doozy! 

A 15 minute climb down a slippery slope, across a rope bridge and down some stone carved steps put us at the most spectacular waterfall I've ever seen. 

  (Front to back: Matt, Meredith, me, Pat)

(Balancing a hug downed underwater tree)

          (Everyone under the Falls)

No Elephants but the best waterfall yet! 

January 2

Up at 430am. Today we meet the children at the school for breakfast at 630. The preschoolers start school

At 7 and eat at 730 but the grade school is at the breakfast table 630-7. Then they head to class. 

The Caramatico foundation director, Nathalie as well as the program head, Ann Caramatico are very serious about children nutrition.

This is the first primary school known in Ratatankiri to have a full scale breakfast (for every child) with meat. According to Tom, it became glaringly obvious early in the schools conception that the kids had improper nutritional intake. It immediately became imperative to the foundation that the kids would get a solid breakfast to begin each day. A usual day starts with fresh eggs and produce being delivered by the Caramatico foundation's director, Nathalie. 

She and her mother, Monie have painstakingly committed their lives to providing for the impoverished children in their community.

In addition to the 400+ children in the CFC school Monie and her family care for a dozen young orphans. 

    (One of the kids, 14yo girl, cooking their meal in monie's kitchen)

    (Monie's kitchen w a teacher & kids)

     (Monie, grandson, Nathalie, Jordan)

These kids are picked up every morning and brought to Monie's home where they are fed breakfast and then brought to school after they complete their daily chores. 

After school they are picked up, brought back to the home, prepare their own dinners and clean up. 

By 8 pm they are shuttled back (to where ever it is they live) to sleep. The next morning it happens all over again. 

Hunger and lack of education are two of the biggest problems the Cambodians have to deal with. After over 30 years of oppression and an obliterated national educational system (complements of Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge) things are beginning to change (slowly!).

Monie and her incredible family are making huge impacts on multitudes of children and their families as they help build the national education system back into gear brick by brick and one meal by one meal at a time. 

           (CFC kids eating breakfast)

(Nathalie (director) & Timn( principal) CFC)

      (CFC breakfast starting at 6 am)

For me? I've never had an opportunity to have such an integral part in something so important. 

In the US my big conversation as well as where I've spent the last decade has been developing sustainable means of building designs and energy systems. 

Here I was in northern Cambodia with a group of university engineering students to design and build a potable water storage and solar pumping system for the school, as well as break ground on the kinder/nursery school (first one in Ratanakiri Provence. Forget about sustainable energy use. These guys don't even have electricity or running water let alone one meal a day. 

Are these trips fun? Hmmm?

              

Of course! But the trips themselves would be no more fulfilling or sustainable than solar panels on the White House without giving some back along the way. 

I feel truly blessed to have met all of you in Banlung, Ritanakiri. 

Thank you greatly for allowing me the honor to share some of my knowledge and time. 

Well Monie being Monie was not going to allow a whole day of work without some play (Nature!).

 After we had completed our day at the CFC school we were immediately shuffled into 3 SUVs and carted (along with a 6 course picnic lunch!) to a destination East of Banlung (closer to the Vietnam border). After traveling through jungles and rubber tree ranches for close to an hour we, along with my engineering students and 4 out of 5 of Monie's children (plus all their kids and husbands) 

We landed at one of the most awesome waterfalls I'd seen to date. 

Monie and her daughters laid out a half dozen straw knit mats as blankets and began dishing out a resort style lunch for 23. 

                       ( Cool Cuzes )

              ( my adopted family)

    (Students: Lucy, Meredith, Patrick)

Swimming, photos, river yoga & a few beers followed  before we were once again all packed into the 3 cars and mobile.

                        (Local flava)

 (Picnic grubbin Cambodian(Monie) style

             (Cambodian Shower)

  

                    (River yoga)

On the way back we all stopped by a new hotel just completed on the hilltop overlooking Banlung where we swam in the infinity pool, ordered a margarita and discussed our day. Not a bad model for a business meeting (Partners?).

When all's said and done....

Just another day at the office;)!

First full day in Nam

First thing this morning (630am) the hotelier was pounding on our room door. I jumped to find him in the hallway holding our passports and the key to my bike. 

Last night when we arrived he needed our passports to take to the police. 

It's a Viet law that all hotels and guest houses need to bring passports to the local police station and register there guests as soon as they book in. 

I could have waited til 730-8 for he damn thing but it got me up and rolling early. 

We hit the streets (on our bikes of course) and met Dani.

        Having Coffee with Dani

 He brought us to the Yamaha dealer and we dropped our bikes, got into his bicycle Tuk Tuk and went to the market for Coffee (best coffee in the universe is Vietnam!). Then we walked the market, ate pineapple, bread and numerous street eats. 

            Master pineapple cutter!

                     So delicious

                    Fish granola!

                     Dried shrimps

                      Shrooms;)

As we were walking through the live fish section

                  Yummy  Frogs 

 I was enticed toward a small salon situated between a fresh frog store and one selling live snakes and fish.

      Fresh live snakes (taste like snake!)

Cuz suggested pedicures! 

 I've only had one in my life, not to mention these toes have been in 4 southeast Asian towns in a month, so my dogs were barkin! 

   The entire crew took part in these feet

       Making friends is super easy here

     (My new salon family in Chau Doc)

By the time I was outa the place my hair was cut, a straight razor (blade) shave and a pedi. Cost? $2. Oh and that included a drink!

We headed on foot (w Dani alongside) to get our newly tuned bikes from the dealer. 

Great tour guide when visiting Chua Doc

                           FYI

The timing belts, fuel filters and some bulbs were replaced and the cost for both bikes, 40 bucks! 

We decided to roll by Mr California's resturaunt on the way out if town and see if we could get some if that (guarantee) $ out of him. 

                     Me Cali

Quick stop there scored us $20 and great directions toward Vihn Long (our next Mekong Delta stop. 

             Mr. California's place

The ride was unreal. Rice paddies, small bustling towns, ferry ride across a river. Stunning views as we traveled with the Mekong as our sidecar. 

           Riding along the Mekong

    Ferrying across the Mekong w bikes

  Paddy ridin rice paddies on his riceburner

                   Getting close 

We arrived into Vihn Long just before 6 pm and immediately grabbed a guest house for $12/ nt. 

     This place w amazing view of the river

After we washed the gross street grime off our face & hands we went across the street and sat at a seafood cafe on the banks of the river. We embarked on one of the most delicious meals I've Ever had. 

Bar-B-Q Fish, clams (in month watering red sauce, smelts on scours, oysters and beer! 

         Oysters bar- b-qed w peanuts

Friggin incredible for 12 bucks ( total for both of us;). 

Home in bed now at 9 planning the ride for tomorrow. 

Not sure why everyone doesn't do this?

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!

Time for work

I needed a drink after seeing the killing Fields. The Tuk Tuk driver was waiting for us as we exited the museum area. Pete and I had separated earlier, more, I think, due to the privacy one needs in order to handle such an abominable experience than anything else. 

      (Memorial structure at Killing fields)

We had to find our Tuk Tuk driver and finally found him hammock bound in the shade of a bar. Check out his ball cap. That's why I picked him even though he had no clue who the Pgillies were;). 

On the ride back towards town we were both quiet. 

           O.          (Our tailgating Tuk Tuk dude)

We did decide however to head toward the Grand Palace area so I could get a tequila and have a chance to breathe. We were dropped in a backpacker area of town which had plenty of bars (with happy hours signs) and restaurants. We decided on a pizza shop which advertised margaritas for $1.50/ea. 

                     (Happy Food)

As the owner placed the perfect margarita on the perfectly placed sidewalk table, Pete and I chose a veggie pie. 

The gentleman asked, "you want Happy pizza?".

 We both responded "yes!".  

A happy pizza apparently comes with a kick. 

No, not extra veggies or even hot pepper. A happy Pie is a canabis pie! 

After a refill on my tequila beverage and a few Kind words with the proprietor and his staff, we were on our way in a Tuk Tuk to the other side of town to retrieve our passports and our Vietnam & Laos - multi-entry visas. The agency was closing and we were to pick them up by 6. 

We only had another 5-6 hours before the students would be arriving to the hotel. 

I had helped to arraigned a private mini-taxi-bus to pick us up in the morning. We are to depart our hotel at 10 am and be in  Ban lung, a 8+ hour drive northeast by dinner.

 The director of the NGO had big plans for our group to celebrate New Year's Eve & wanted us there early enough to organize. 

Problem was, the happy Pie was kicking in!

 With passports and new visas in our hands, we spent the next 4 hours walking down the dark dusty streets of Phnom Penh looking for anything we could justify eating to satisfy our insatiable munchies.

                  (Got shaves)

 Ice Cream? No, not a big seller, ice cream in the back neighboorhoods. Bakery, Yes! We bought $20 worth of cakes, cookies and sweets. 

Wtf was in the pizza sauce? We was stoned, immaculate!

 We ultimately got a good noodle dish at a sidewalk gourmet and foggily found ourselves back in the hotel room (with umpteen bags of baked goods. 

There were only a couple of hours left before I expected a call from the front desk to inform me that my students had arrived.

 I decided that it was imperative that I lay down and take a power nap before I have to greet a professor and 11 engineering students with the intention to lay out tomorrow morning's schedule. 

I woke at 12:50 am to the phone ringing. "Your group has arrived, sir", the pretty foreign voice announced. 

Wow! "I'm wasted", I thought out loud. I threw on a shirt and floated down the 4th floor hallway to the elevator.  

As the doors parted I found myself staring at a dozen 20+ year olds with barely a feeling between my ears. 

I think I said something like, "High! Wassup guys?!". All I could think of is "God, please let me make it back to my room before someone notices how F'd up I am". 

Don't ask me how it happened but somehow after a mumbled/fumbled and potentially stumbled attempt to communicate with my fellow professor, who had arrived with the group, I was back in my bed hoping to make up for whatever embarrassing items I displayed with my new tour group in the morning. 

It was just a normal looking pizza! But boy did it have a Kind punch!

Who's in charge? Oh ya me!

Morning came Waaay too early! The first thought I had after opening my heavy eye lids was "I lived!". The 2nd thought was fear with a touch of panic!  

I was still stoned! Super friggin stoned!!!

Obvious to me at this point there was a lot more "Happy" in that Pie than I expected. 

I showered, hoping to take the edge off while smacking  some life back into my  ass and headed down to breakfast, secretly hoping that last night's arrival party was all still sound asleep. 

I levitated into the dining room to find my cousin sitting at the table alone (thank god) eating a watermelon with a look of absolute glee, like a lion devouring an antelope.

 I knew at that moment my inherant  pizza pie intoxication was not just a result of low tolerance yet a sign of the potency of "happy" provided by our chef in last evenings Italian kitchen. 

I sat down across from my cousin and immediately confirmed with a look in the eye that I was not the only space cake in the cafeteria. 

I was able to get through breakfast, meet and discuss today's bus ride with a few students and get my bag down to the front desk in time to say goodbye to the Phnom Penh group and load my ass as well as cool cuz into our van by 10 am. 

The ride north was interesting and filled with the sound of horns. Our van horn that is. I think we had the fastest van taxi in Cambodia. He simply laid on his horn with pedal to the metal and drove. Weaving in and out of traffic and leaving a cloud of road dust in our wake.

The roads were rather sketchy and actually turned to dirt numerous times before returning to blacktop once again. 

We traveled up the Mekong with amazing views of the rice paddies and river delta for hundreds of miles. 

After the 9 1/2 hour trip ended we arrived into Ban Lung. It was just long enough to pass through with a wave to some locals.

 The van arrived to Ma Monie's home just after 7 pm. The entire Family poured into the dirt road to meet us and carry our bags into the house. Ma Monie came out of the darkness in the front yard sweetly yelling. "My son Patreec. Where is my son Patreec?".

 Monie and I had only been emailing each other for a couple of days but had spoken a half dozen times in the van on the way up.

 The driver would get a phone call and hand the phone to me. "Are you on your way Patreec?", she would ask. 

The next call came a short time later,  "where do you want the driver to stop for lunch Patreec?".  

Or  just a random call to see where we were and to tell me how excited she was to be having us for their family new year party. 

Monie's whole family was ecstatic for our arrival. A dozen or more kids filtered into the street to greet us as we came out of the van. All smiles and a bunch of hugs and handshakes. 

We were lead into the open air house. 

        (outdoor dining/party room)

The home was huge. Wooden framed with old thick timber and posts holding it high from the ground. The humongous kitchen is the nucleus of the lower level.

       (Monies dining room/ feastville!)

             (Ma Monie and me)

 No doors or windows enclosed the lower  floor. A couple of rooms wrapped the kitchen with the bathroom, traditionally set in the back yard. 

        (14 yo girl who Monie cares for)

We were immediately handed cans of beer as plates of unbelievably delicious food started appearing on tables. 

A few plates of steaming pork stuffed squid bites flowed into my range.  We were all directed to sit at the long wooden table outside & in the front courtyard. 

The party was to follow but the food flowed like a Hollywood Hills red carpet catered event.  I loaded my guy with amazing grub. The pizza from the night before was finally (almost) completely out of my system. I was ready to rock in the New Year with our new friends. 

Many beers, glassedof Chivas Regal, red wines and (I think it was 

) Jameson I was on my matress in bed. I shared a bed with CC(cool cuz) and a room with 4 other students, one on the porch. We all had mosquito nets and the sleep was sweet! Of course morning arrived way to early but it was a looooong day.

Killing Fields

I've never witnessed a genocide first hand, or for that matter second or any hand. Being in Cambodia, I did not under any circumstance consider it was something I would want to see any part of my journey. 

My girlfriend was here last year and showed me pictures.  I couldn't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to go to such a place. Why look at that nasty, evil shit, viewing skulls and bones when there is so much more that this beautiful country affords a visitor.

Today was a different matter all together. 

I am staying at a hotel which is walking distance from a children's school that was turned into a prison/torchure chamber (S21) in the mid 70s. 

On April 17, 1976 the Kymer Rouge entered the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and began to change life for the local Cambodian people forever. 

It would be 3 years & 8 months before anything good would happen again in Cambodia.

The Kymer Rouge was headed by a despot named Pol Pot. He was a ruthless recluse of a man who went to a Euro university and never quite graduated, believed to have failed out. 

Over the next 3 years Pol Pot and his possie of murderous henchmen ruled over the Cambodian people causing a terrorist wave of death and torchure in their wake.

On the heals of the American-Vietnam war and unbeknownst to the entire world at the time, Pol Pot was able to convince some followers and bribe/enslave enough countryside people to create his army. This military force turned out to be a well organized regime of kidnappers, rapists and murderers. They terrorized the Cambodian population until 1979 when North Vietnam forces, feeling strong after kicking our asses, marched in and over threw Pol Pot's forces. When they sent him running southwest toward Thailand they left behind a land of broken people not to mention decades of pain and suffering. The Kymer Rouge in just 3 short years were responsible for the extermination of 25% of the population! 

Mass graves like the ones discovered in the killing fields mare the countryside as well as the inner cities. 

Pol Pot wasn't brought to justice until many years later, serving less than a year in prison for war crimes before his death. This murderius piece if shit lived a life of a King into his eighties. 

Yes, yesterday was a hard day but I believe a day to acknowledge as an important part of my history. All said and done I'm glad I was able to experience this. After the  anger I initially felt had set in a scarey thought of sad reality allowed me to understand that none of us are above these unthinkable deeds. We may think we are but we are human. 

Thou shall not kill. Of course! Ya but stand me in front of a man that hurt my family. Someone who torchured or killed someone I love. That's when you can't predict the direction of an emotion in a physical sense. That's when anger, fear or just plain justice gets a meaning which is self defined. 

As I stood in front of hundred of mass graves, thousands of skulls and bone fragments I found myself wishing that Pol Pot was standing before me. In that moment I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't make him pay with his life immediately.

It was some time before I could control my feelings and I was craving a drink.