Dave & Sarah in Thailand!

Me being the generous sharing and caring guy that I am have now given whatever I had to Sarah. She seems to be copping with it better than me. Why is it that many of the tasty things here are wriddled with parasites?

On the bus trip she mention, we actually did hit something. Given the size of the bump, the shocked gasps from other passengers and that the bus driver started to skid then gave up and kept going, I think it was just a dog, but it felt like a big one. Someone was going to be having a feast that night (yes I can say that, they do eat dog here. Our tuk tuk driver in Cambodia told us he only has eaten dog a few times because good cuts of dog meat are expensive. Apparently black dogs taste better).

One activity Sarah has gotten me into is looking for people who wear unpractical shoes when doing tourist activities. At the temples of Angkor, beautiful ancient structures not well suited to to those with mobility issues, it was amazing how many older lady tourist on bus tours struggled over the ruins in high heals.

I have also been surprised how many people have big, expensive cameras. I was chatting to a Tunisian man on top of a temple and was looking at his camera. It weighed 4kg! And that was just with the accessories he had attached to it at the time, not to mention the back pack that was devoted to transporting this photographic Mercedes. Our total luggage weight for this trip, inc carry on was about 16kg between us. It’s not uncommon to see people traveling with 2 or 3 SLR’s around their neck either.

Anyho, apart from the bout of sugar caned related sickness I have suffered from, this has been a fun trip.

Catch you all again soon.

We are now currently in Laos we leave here to return to Thailand next Tuesday. From Tuesday on you will be able to reach us by phone again. Summary of the last week: The last two days in Siem Reap (Cambodia)- awful! As Dave came down with a stomach bug. He spent those days resting in the hotel room, while I was left to wander by myself. I seriously couldn’t travel alone- I would go insane. I think his stomach bug was a result of drinking some dodgy looking sugar cane drink with strange shaped ice recommended by our tuk tuk driver. I remember saying to him at the time, that he was going to get sick- but Dave being Dave doesn’t really like being told what to do by his over cautious and sometimes paranoid wife- so he drank it anyway. I’ve tried really hard not to tell him ‘I told you so!’.

Then we flew to Luang Prabang (Laos). This town came with high recommendations as the most beautiful town in Asia. After spending three days there I’m not sure I would say its the most beautiful but it definetly was lovely. Its very colonially- inspired, filled with cute cafes and clean markets. Its set on the banks of the Meekong RIver. We really enjoyed unwinding there. Then we went on the most awful bus ride ever to a town called Vang Vieng (halfway between Luang Prabang and Vietiane). The bus driver drove so erratically around winding mountains, we narrowly missed hitting on coming traffic, livestock and a small child. The trip took about 7 hours and I came away thinking that next time I would just fly- no matter how expensive it is! Vang Vieng has a beautiful river and picturesque mountain backdrop  but the town is horrible. So sleazy and touristy, we both cringed at choosing places to eat there. Today we arrived in Vietiane (the capital city), so far so good. There doesn’t seem that much to do here but we’re happy just being somewhere new. I think the thing that we have found the hardest about Asia (is not the squat toilets or the incessant amount of rice) but the fact there is not many free things to do. At home in Aus, we have parks and benches on sidewalks and clean beaches and free monuments etc. Here everything comes at a price, and there is only so much walking around you can do.

But so far I would rate Laos as my favourite place that I have been besides Thailand in South East Asia. As the culture here is so relaxed and friendly. It reminds us so much of Thailand. And the countryside is very beautiful, the mountains are huge and so dramatic. Its like New Zealand without the snow and the sheep.

Hope you all are having a great week!

I am loving holidays, am increasingly finding it difficult to think about coming home. We are in Cambodia at the moment and we are both having a really good time. The last 6 months has been pretty full on for us, so its really nice to stop and have a break. We started off in Phnom Penh, and spent a few days there sightseeing and just taking it easy. Cambodia is a really interesting country to visit as its a country still struggling to survive after the awful atrocities of Pol Pot’s regime. Although the war ended 30 years ago, you can still see the scars of that awful time everywhere. Visiting the Killing Fields last week was a terrifying experience. There is a huge glass tower filled with human skulls and remains of many of the victims from the war. These people were cruelly executed for no reason but for being educated. So its places like those where you are really confronted with the need for Jesus to come back and set things right. So Phnom Penh was a sad place in many ways to visit. We are now in Siem Reap and have spent the last few days visiting the temple remains at Angkor. They are amazing! Its like being stuck in an Indiana Jones movie. I’ve never seen anything like it, and they go on forever. My knees are killing from climbing steps! I slow Dave down so much on these temple adventures as I constantly feel the need to have a little rest. We leave Cambodia on Saturday and fly to Laos. But for now we are both having a lots of fun. I am loving just having some timeout to sleep in, eat ice-cream and read. I have become addicted to the Stefenie Meyer twilight series that all the teenage girls are reading. Definitely recommend them if you are a girl and your into vampires. Dave is enjoying (i think as he is not here to tell me) eating interesting Khmer foods, negotiating prices with tuk tuk drivers and exploring temples pretending to be Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Today- so embarrasing he made me film him pretending to do Tomb Raider stuff. Have to run, hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Hi All,

We are sitting in a Internet cafe together in Kanchaburi, both writing blogs about having finished. To tell you the truth, I could have easily stayed there longer. At the same time though, I am looking forward to our Holiday and seeing family and friends again.  

It was sad to say good bye to our friends back in the village. We have made some really great friends there and been so encouraged by them and their lives. It’s hard to sum up six months in a few paragraphs so I won’t try, but I can say that going and spending this time in the village will be something that I will never forget and something that will shape the rest of our lives from here on in. It’s probably the greatest thing that Sarah and I have done in our lives.

So people, if you are a christian and believe that Jesus died and rose again for you, you can do mission too. It might be in Aus or somewhere else, but you don’t have to be someone special, we certainly weren’t.

There is a rare glimpse into my emotional state for you all, look forward to seeing you soon.

P.S You will not be able to contact us by phone for the next three weeks as we will be out of range. The best way is by email.

(Photos: Dave and Me at the palace, Me trying to eat this house- it so looks like the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel)

Chiang Mai: Is beautiful! We had a lovely three days there. The train ride up and back was nice, very comfortable although there were quite a few people snoring loudly in our carriage. In Chiang Mai we hired a motorbike and drove around to lots of fun places. My favourite place was the King’s winter palace. The two photos above are taken there. This palace is on the top of a mountain and is surrounded by beautiful gardens- fantastic reading spot.

(Photos: Weird Teddy bear rice, Dave’s feet- the pinnacle of fashion!)

The weirdest thing we ate up there wasn’t weird because of what was in it but how it was presented. The rice came shaped like a teddy bear. Now you may be thinking that sounds cute, but I found it disturbing stabbing my fork into a teddy bear and eating it. Chiang Mai was also a high point in Dave’s fashion rotation. We were walking down the street and I happened to look down at his feet, and I guess the photo above says it all.

(Photos: The lovely new replacements- Katy and Michael, Squishing into a taxi, School Assembly- farewelling us and welcoming Katy and Michael)

New Volunteers: On our way back to Huay Malay we stopped overnight in Bangkok to pick up Katy and Michael. As we have mentioned in previous blogs Katy and Michael will be replacing us here. They will be staying for one year. Michael is a physiotherapist and Katy is a teacher. Its really strange as Katy and I have done a job swap. She is replacing me here, and when I return to Sydney I will be replacing her for the year teaching infants. It was great to have them finally here bubbling with enthusiasm to get started. Its really nice to know that such a special couple will be here continuing on God’s work.

Saying Goodbye: Next Wednesday we leave the village to go on our one month holiday trip before returning to Sydney mid February. We are both hate goodbyes and there feels like there has been way too many of those this year. After such an amazing 6 months we are both dreading getting back into the rat race of Sydney.

(Around the table: Lisa, Chrissy, Dave, Jit, Hannah, Steph, Anna and Jan)

Our first Christmas in  random foreign country turned out to be really nice. The day started with my alarm going off at 8:00am and me annoying Dave to wake up because its Christmas. Dave surprised me with a gift. This was a surprise as we had said no gifts for birthdays or Christmas this year as the trip in itself is a huge gift. But I’m glad he broke to rules cos I love pressies! He had brought tickets to see Coldplay perform in Sydney in March!!!!! Yay!!! We both are big fans of Coldplay just cos we listened to them lots when we were dating and ended up having ‘Yellow’ as our couple song.

Then we hurried off to church, arriving late at around 9:10am (church service was to start at 9:00am), to find that Thais are never in a rush to start anything. Church didn’t end up starting till half an hour later! Christmas here has it a very different vibe. Thailand is a buddhist country so there is no public holiday for Christmas, people still work and a lot of schools still operate. But it was really fantastic to see how many people turned up for church. We then sat through a service operated in Karen and Thai, with a sermon, musical items, hymn singing and prayers. This was followed by a lunch of pork curry. (Dave can tell you all about the pg slaughtering that happened the previous day). We then spent a few hours chatting to friends and family back home. We miss you guys heaps! Which was really nice. I then kept up the Adams traditional of falling asleep Christmas arvo (Dad A would be proud), while Dave went and played sport with the village kids.

At night we had an Australian Christmas at Jan and Jit’s house. It was amazing! Jan and Jit are being visited at the moment by their lovely daughter Anna and her equally lovely friends Steph, Chrissy, Lisa and Hannah. So the night was very fun, lots of food and laughs. Jan pulled out all the stops and made the most incredible feast of roast meat, roast vegetables, gravy, pudding and Christmas cake. I am so going to enrol in a cooking course when I get home, as my cooking repertoire involves an array of packet mixes and frozen meals. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas aswell!

Christmas is such a fun time. Here it is such a huge celebration, every church and organisation has its own Chrismas events and concerts.

On Saturday we ran games for the hostel next to our house. There are 70 kids there, and so we had lots of fun playing with them games like pass the parcel, octopus, chain tag, relays, tug o war etc. Then at night they performed items for us. It was a really fun day! But tiring as its hard enough to control 70 kids, let alone when your Thai is pretty poor. Explaining the rules of octopus was insane!  

Click here to download a clip of tug-o-war and pass the parcel action VIDEO CLIP (Winamp media file i think..)

On Sunday we visited a house church in another village which was having its Christmas service. This church usually has 20-30 ppl each week, but on Sunday there was over 300 ppl. And the church gave everyone lunch! (I’m never going to complain again about cooking for night church at toony!). Even though we cant understand very much of what is said at these events, its still such a fantastic experience going along and seeing people so excited about Jesus.

Our first Christmas away from home is not going to be lonely at all, as there are so many wonderful people around looking after us. On Christmas day we have church in the morning, then lunch at church, dinner with Jan and Jit and a concert at church at night. So we are really looking forward to it!

We also have a new pet. You’re probably thinking is this isn’t a good idea, considering our track record with fish. Well, this pet kind of adopted us. Our neighbour Lea, has 5 cats, well when she went back to the Philippines she gave them all away. One of her cats called Siam was not happy about this and decided to stalk me and Dave. So we gave in and started to feed it, we both don’t really like cats, but its pretty hard to ignore one that follows you everywhere.

On the 1st of January we head up to Chiang Mai for 3 days, then go home via Bangkok to pick up the new volunteers Katy and Michael. So this Christmas time is full of action packed fun.

As Sarah said in her last blog, I have spent the past week travelling with a group from the church here to a fairly remote jungle village. It was a really fun and adventurous time.

To get to this village it took us 2.5 days to drive 100km down a poorly maintained 4WD road. We were the first car down the last 50km of it since the rainy season, so much time was spent clearing the road of fallen trees and bamboo, or getting the car out of the mud. 

Click here to download vid of 4WD action 4WD ADVENTURE .

From the end of the road it then took us 7 hours to walk to the village. We started walking at 2:30pm and got to the village at 9:30pm. The walk was through thick jungle and included several river crossings, non existant paths in some parts and crossing the boader and walking through Burma for a couple of hours (one of the most heavily land mined countries in the world).

A little history on the village we went to. About 20 years ago, the church here sent a family to live there to teach them about the bible. They had to leave after 3 years, leaving a very small group of Christian’s. Earlier this year the Church were again able to return to the village to find that the believers were still going strong and that the church had grown a little. Now the head religious people in the village are interested in Christianity. The general community there believe in one god, and have a system of rules roughly along the lines of the 10 commandments (inc no drinking, gambling or drugs). They have holy places and objects and their belief system is their own, not followed by other people groups. Village has about 500-600 people and is a Karen Village.    

It was surreal to arrive at the village, after crossing very remote country to get there, we found a fairly large village, electricity and coke! We headed straight to Christrmas celebration being run by the local believers (about 30) with help from other outside churches. We saw about 400 people there in attendance, listening to performances by the Christians and joining in with some of their own.

The next day we were invited by the religious head man to share the gospel and what we believe with him. I thought we were just going to his house but it was an event attended by at least half the village at the holy place. They were happy to sit and listen to the gospel all afternoon and agreed with some of it.

We were also able to witness the baptism of 2 new believers and the dedication of a block of land for a new church. The man who lived in the village 20 years ago came on the trip with us and it was great for him to see the seeds planted 20 years ago had grown.

Participating in praise and worship with the Christians at night was great fun and they were keen to hear as much teaching as possible. The church is growing slowly hear thanks to the faith God has given the local believers and the evangelists from outside Church’s God has provided.

We also went to the boader police school in the village, where they were happy for the Christians to run a program with the kids as be as open about Christianity as they wanted (this is a real break through for a Thai government department)

Click here to download vid of random events along the way Village Action

On the way back home (which was a much easier trip), we were able to join another remote church for their Christmas celebrations. Again, a church of about 40 believers, but over 100 people from the village attended and heard the gospel.

All in all it was a great trip and an experience i was really glad I had. We did over 30 river crossings in the trip. At one point, the 4WD i was in lost its breaks going down a very steep hill. The driver was able to send us an embankment to stop (we were meters from 10 of us being sent over the edge of a mountain to our death, praise be to God for saving us). A little tired of eating dried fish at the end of it and happy to not be sleeping on the ground anymore.

Praise be to God!

(pick my bag from the locals)

This week Dave and a group of others from Huay Malay (including Jan and Jit) have headed off deep into the jungle. They are visiting a remote Karen-Burmese village called ‘Le dong cook’. The aim is to encourage the believers there and to do some evangelism. But to get to the village is an adventure in itself. First you have to drive for one day down a rocky path that could be loosely classified as a ‘road’. Then it is a one day hike which includes mountains and river crossings. You maybe wondering why I haven’t gone along as well. I guess if you know me, you would have surmised that I’m not really a bush trekking kind of girl. Not that I have anything against people who love that stuff, but I think its important to know your limitations. So I thought it was best for everyone involved that I stayed and looked after things here. I’m not sure how he is going as there is no mobile reception in the real jungle, but I assume he is alive and having a great time.

School this week anyway, is a bustle of activity as December is packed full of special celebrations and concerts. One of the great things about being here in December is being able to witness the selfless love and generosity of people here. Every night groups of people from the local churches walk around in the cold singing carols. The villagers give donations of food or money to the carollers. This food and money is then used to feed the entire village on Christmas day. People here really take Jesus words seriously when he said to love your neighbour as yourself. I feel very challenged as a spoilt westerner, who always has a sore stomach on Christmas from eating too much and never really thinks about seriously sharing it with others.

Its become really cold here all of sudden, I couldn’t sleep last night because of it and today walking around in Havana thongs my toes feel like ice-blocks. Its strange weather because it really isn’t that cold but because its been so hot and humid for so long, it really feels cold! . My latest aussie food cravings- vegemite, bbq anything, salad, toasted sandwich, mash potato with gravy, chicken snitzel (not really australian). Dave just craves lamb, as they dont sell lamb meat here, pork is the popular choice followed by chicken, beef is also sold but it is quite tough to eat. But at the same time I am getting quite used to the rice diet, its very filling and its nice eating a hot meal at lunch aswell as dinner. Anyway, now I am just rambling so I think I will go, hope you are all going well!

Thought I would let you in on a story about how stupid I am and how God answers prayer even about trivial things.

We decided that after New Years we would travel to Chiang Mai as we have not seen there yet and we have holidays. Train seemed like the best way to get there so we purchased about $160 worth of train tickets. The train tickets are non refundable and have no name associated with them.

In one of my rare moments of house cleaning, I became confused by the task and threw the tickets in the bin (we did not know that this is what had happened to them till after they were found). After three days of searching the house, garbage pit and other places we might have taken them, we gave up.

We prayed that God would help us find them and so did our faithful cook Mue Mue. Mue Mue took it upon herself to continue the search for our tickets even though we had given up. She asked the laundry lady if she may have seen near the garbage pit. The laundry lady ( and guest preacher at the local church last week) said there is a man who collects recyclables from the garbage. After finding out where he lived, Mue Mue , the laundry lady and Mue Mues friend went to this mans house and searched through his piles of recycling (we did not know they had planned to do this till after they had done it). After a little searching they found the tickets and called to tell us the good news.

So, God does answer prayers, even for the small things. We thought they had gone, but Mue Mue kept at the search knowing God would help her.

Praise be to God who can create the universe and find train tickets