The Highs and Lows…

Where to begin…???  Last week started out with an ULTIMATE high…Uncle Bob & Auntie “Cake” arrived from Pennsylvania…I (we) cannot tell you HOW excited we were to have family here, share our home, the people we know, our favorite spots, elephant rides, swimming, beaches, our tuk tuk, coffees, pedis, massages, walks, dinners…it was just down right WONDERFUL to have them here, plain and simple. 

With highs, come lows.  Since arriving in Phnom Penh, we’ve had our share of ups and downs.  Being a family again, saying good bye to Grammie & Grampie, having Daddy travel back and forth, measles, food poisoning, Riding Sambo the Elephant, meeting great people, having Uncle Bob & Auntie Cate visit, our goodies from our friends, great help and fun times…and the biggest Low…having someone rob me while I was helping the kids get into the tuktuk on a night out…So here’s the recap…

 

No bathtubs in our house, so I bought this super cool large tub for $10 while Zach was overnight at the ‘sino and my big boys were up for it!

Zachary had a “to do” list for his Uncle Bob…Russian Market (aka Night Market), swimming, Sambo and feet eating fish…we manage all, except the feet eating fish…we were there, but too many other people were sticking their tootsies in the fish tank…next time!

We headed out for a little time on the town…upon leaving, we saw a crowd of people and then two men dragging a man off of the street.  Paramedic Bob sprung into action and we postponed our trip for a bit:

Sadly, through translation, we learned the man’s brother had been shot and killed and he wanted to die, so he ran into the street.  He had no broken bones, was breathing and coherent…thru another physician who stopped to help, we also learned that unless he had any money, they wouldn’t see him at the hospital.  They got him up and moving and that was all they could do for him.  I learned later on in the night from Leak, that the Cambodian’s believe if you see something bad like that when you start your outing, you should just turn around and go home…we should have done that…but…

We had a beautiful cruise on the Mekong River.  Rob loves the water and Auntie Cake had not been on a boat in quite some time…so it was a winner for all:

 

We hit the Night Market for our guests to get some souvenirs…it was busy and a little bit later than our normal visit…but we were up for the fun.  We had a good night, got some treasures and sat down to eat some food.

I had Trevor strapped to me, was carrying my purse and holding Zachary’s hand when we left…I lifted Zachary over a short fence to allow him access to the tuk tuk and felt my purse jostle.  I  knew something was up immediately…but it’s hard to yell “THIEF” in a crowd of thousands when you aren’t positive…I kept an eye on both girls, was confused and yelling while Z was in the tuk tuk with Cate and Trevor was strapped to me…in seconds, Jimmy was leading the pack running like a banshee with Uncle Bob & Vichet following…We dropped the one girl I was following because I couldn’t see anything and I was alone at first and saw the other girl…Suffice to say, it was almost a mob scene…a circle of people around someone who stole my wallet, she was denying, I knew it happened, the other girl got away, police were called, questions were asked and we ended the night in the police station with a LOT of adrenalin running.  The entire situation was not good, the experience was horrible and there are a lot of blanks I cannot fill in…I’m even more thankful to be from a country where we have the rights we do (thank you soldiers).  I cannot say more because I don’t know what to say about it…We ended up being up a lot of the night and were called 90 minutes after we got home to say my wallet appeared outside the police station without my cell phone and my cash…so we had to wake up VERY early to pick it up, which resulted in a face like this:

 

(see…we should have known about that go home thing early in the night)

…and don’t forget about the new hammock Uncle Bob purchased and wanted to try out prior to leaving…we will not mention the hammock he laid in and broke and fell flat to the ground in one big thud…or will we?

…this event (the wallet stealer, not the hammock breaker) took up more time than it should have, Daddy was sick and had been at the Dr’s, Uncle Bob got sick, Auntie Cake had a migraine and Mama was just plain tired from going on 2 hours of sleep…and ALL on our guests LAST night in town…so, we did what any other host would do…we put the kids to bed and left them with Khamary, hit the Night Market again (keeping an eye out for the thieves), had our pencil portraits done for $3 each (YES, don’t they charge like $30 per person in Waikiki or something ridiculous like that) and toasted the night at Metro with our new mingled family ~ Cate, Bob, Me, Mr. To & Leak

We locked ourselves out of the gate, so Mr. To climbed the fence to get in…

 

…and then we just finished our visit with The Fam perfectly with a household tuk tuk outing (two people had to moto it):

…and a ride on Sambo:

      

Until next time, we will have these beautiful memories with you here with us…we hope next time isn’t too far away.