Paradise, Buddah, Jet Lag and Finding Home

A LOT has happened since we left Kili...

From the mountain we flew to the most beautiful place on earth. The only way to describe Zanzibar is breathtakingly idyllic. I am not talented enough to paint a word picture of how amazingly beautiful and tranquil it is and I wish everyone I know could see it! This speck off the coast of Tanzania has absolutely crystal blue waters, white glistening beaches, no electricity, ... oh yes, that's right. The electricity has been off on the island since December (not sure what happened), but since they only just got electricity in the mid-90's no one really seems to mind or be in a big hurry to fix it. If we had just come from some place modern we might have cared, but since we have been roughing it on Kilimanjaro for a week we were fine without blow dryers and just thrilled to lay on the beach all day with a semi-cold beverage. Which is just about all we did.

One afternoon we managed to get off our lounge chairs to go snorkeling off the coast of Mnemba (you can see it behind us), a private island in the Zanzibar archipelago that the locals tell us Bill Gates owns, but it's sort of a mystery. We weren't allowed on the island - there is a $300 charge just to hang out there during the day - but we snorkeled the coral reef just off the coast in the Mnemba Atoll. Amazing! The Zebra Fish swim right in your face! I wonder if they are blind or fearless? We saw some huge see slugs, but didn't find any turtles even though it is turtle season that they come out. Dwan found a huge sting ray, an eel, some really cool shells and kept picking up the bright blue star fish. Not to worry, we did not destroy nature and the guides made us throw all the shells back in line with the outdoor adventure motto: "Take only memories and leave only footprints." We did however take home some serious farmers tans from our shortie wet suits, but that is all and we are proud of it.

Leaving Africa we reminisced about all the friends we made and unbelievable experiences. We still can't believe that we were just on top of Kilimanjaro! So surreal.

Last stop Cambodia...well sort of. This past week we've spent visiting our dear friend Bonnie in Phnom Penh. Setting off from Zanzibar we unexpectedly embarked on the longest travel day ever. A ferry, a taxi, a plane to Qatar, missed connection, re-routed to Dubai, a packed 3:30am flight to Bangkok to catch our original flight to Phnom Penh and hop in a tuk-tuk. Oh well, hakuna matata.

Here she is with Chea, one of her many tuk-tuk driver pal's, who we got to know pretty well as we tuk'd around the city. Bonnie is doing work helping girls recover after they have been rescued from sex trafficking... she is amazing. The work she is doing is so heavy, yet she has a smile for everyone, energy to show us around town and let us all sleep in her bed. She's awesome.

On our first day in town she hooked us up with her friend Borei for a Khmai lesson - Sueah Sudai! (Hello!) Now we can count to 100 (moy, pbee, bayee, boo-un, prahm...), say please (som) and thank you (ah kuhn) and are ready for the market (psah)! Bonnie made us so comfortable that in just a just a few days Phnom Penh seems like home.

We also did some intense visits to a Khmer Rouge prison and the Killing Fields. The Khmer Rouge genocide made the bustling Phnom Penh a complete ghost town in 1975 and the impact is still an open wound in Cambodia. Our tour guides lost parents and siblings and remember vividly the work camps and prisons they experienced as children. They are shell shocked as they tell us about their experience. Bonnie's roommate Hadely is a volunteer lawyer working on the victims trials...30 years later. Better late than never, but the restitution seems long overdue for these hurting people. There is so much need for healing in this country. This is Dwan in the Tuol Sleng Prison - a High School turned maximum security prision in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge took photos of all the prisoners and kept immaculate records of their activities. It's gut wrenching to see all their faces, there are thousands of photos on display.

For my last 2 days on the "World Tour" we shot up to Siem Reap to visit the temples of Angkor (another UNESCO World Heritage site and the 8th Wonder of the World). Interesting day...Dwan ate a HUGE tarantula at a road side stand where our bus made a pit stop. YUM! We got to Angkor in time to enjoy the sun set over the temples with thousands of Chinese tourists in town to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year. Then we took a load off after a long day with a relaxing foot soak in a baby pool full of tiny piranha's that ate all the dead skin off our feet. Top that off with an authentic Khmer mean complete with dancing and an amazing massage that cost only $4. How do you beat a day like that?! We brilliantly decided to wake up at 4:30am to see the sunrise over the Angkor Wat (that's a shot of us catching the sunrise over the moat). Totally worth the sleep deprivation, it was so beautiful AND awesome to get up before the blistering sun had us sweating buckets.

A day at the temples...

Just exploring. The sign says "Jasa" which must mean "Welcome, come explore in here!"

Hadley getting some face time with one of the 216 faces of Bayon Temple.

Dwan Horn is Lara Croft at Ta Prohm the Tomb Raider temple.

Bonnie's doing her part to restore the Buddah heads. (The Khmer Rouge took the heads off of all the Buddah's in the 300+ temples in Angkor in their attempts to "cleanse" the country and start their utopian society.)

Now it's time to say goodbye...the girls are headed back to Phnom Pehn and I stay in Siem Reap to catch my first of 5 flights en route to Boston. So sad to leave my traveling pal as Dwan waves from a tuk-tuk headed to the bus station. She is staying on in Southeast Asia to continue exploring Vietnam, maybe Laos and Thailand.

The tour is over for me, but I guess I'm ready to be back in the states and process everything amazing that I've experienced in the past 3 months. It's all been pretty unbelievable. I have a few hours to hit the silk stands in Siem Reap before I start the long journey home.

Travel day 1: Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn to Bangkok then an overnight layover (had an amazing Thai massage in my hotel room - that's just how I roll).

Travel day 2: Happy Valentines Day & Chinese New Year! 6:30am flight from Bangkok to Tokyo to San Francisco to Boston. 34 hours of traveling in 1 day...not sure how that works, I guess I traveled through time.

Sorry we've been such bad bloggers, but we will keep telling stories and sharing photos. We love that you all want to be a part of our adventures!

XOXO from Boston,

Tara

(Beautiful downtown Boston, Bay Village)