We left Bolivia with our bags on our backs & tears in our eyes. Our life in South America was at an end, we were excited for Asia, but anxious emotions were rising up in anticipation for what the next 7 days would be like. 7 days from Bolivia to Cambodia. 1 week of sitting on buses, squeezed into mini vans, hauling our packs, barely eating any real food, dragging through customs & airport securities, sleeping on planes & airports, & not sleeping at all. The first half of our travel week was new & exciting & the last half was a sleepless jet-lagged blur of 1 flight blending into another & barely remembering how we got from one place to the next. Our journey, as I can recall it, was a difficult one but one that I would do over again in a heartbeat just to arrive in this gorgeous part of the Lord’s creation called Cambodia.
Monday, January 1, 2018
4:30 AM: Alarm clock wakes us up for the last time at our home in El Alto, Bolivia.
5:30 AM: Last minute cleaning & bags must be packed & ready to go in the living room.
6 AM: Mini van picks us up. We load up our large packs & can manage to claustrophobically squeeze just 7 of us in surrounded & suffocating between the bags. The other 7 have to catch the cable cars down to the city.
7 AM: We meet up with the rest of our squad of 50 at the bus station in La Paz, Bolivia. I eat one PB/Honey sandwich for breakfast.
8 AM: Load packs & people onto bus & begin the drive to Peru.
11 AM: Exit the bus to cross by ferryboat over Lake Titikaka.
12 PM: Once across, load back onto bus that was brought across by a separate ferry. Lunch consists of about 12 small cookies.
1 PM: Bus stops at another station & informs us we need to transfer on to a different bus which we were not told ahead of time. Half of our squad is able to jump last-minute onto a new bus while the other half of the squad found a couple mini bus taxis to squeeze into.
1:30 PM: Exit the bus to begin the border crossing & customs process from Bolivia to Peru.
2 PM: Walk across the border into Peru & head to customs.
2:30 PM: Half the squad gets back on the bus to continue the drive. The other half waits at customs to flag down a second bus.
4:30 PM: Arrive at bus station in Puno, Peru. Load packs & 20 World Racers into mini van.
5 PM: Arrive at hostel in Puno, Peru.
6 PM: ‘Hangrily’ search the city for something to eat for dinner.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Rest day at Puno hostel for the squad (Thank you Jesus!).
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
3 PM: Leave hostel & walk a few blocks through the city to our bus. Load packs onto bus & begin drive to the airport.
4 PM: Arrive at Puno airport & wait until airline desks open to check in.
7 PM: Airline desk opens & check-in begins.
8:30 PM: Entire squad is through check-in & security & reports to gate. I eat a small deli sandwich bought at kiosk in airport for dinner.
9:30 PM: Scheduled departure time. Plane is late.
10:15 PM: Boarding begins. We walk outside, across runway & up a flight of stairs to board the plane.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
12 AM: Plane arrives in Lima, Peru.
12:30 AM: Through baggage claim & searched airport for a “quiet” spot to sleep for the night. South Americans usually stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning so everything in the airport stays open all night & there isn’t a quiet spot in the entire place.
1 AM: Sleeping pads are blown up & laid out in hallway of airport. We lie down & start to fall asleep until a staff member informs us we need to move for them to clean the floors. We sleepily stumble with sleeping bags in hand down the hall towards the other end of the airport.
1:30 AM: Finally settle down for the night & fall asleep without interruption.
6 AM: Alarm clock wakes us up.
7 AM: Report downstairs to meet up with entire squad for check-in.
8 AM: Squad is through security & buys coffee & quick breakfast.
9 AM: Report to gate for boarding.
10 AM: Plane departs for Miami, Florida. Small meal is served on plane.
4 PM: Plane arrives in Miami. We report to customs.
5 PM: Squad gets through customs & heads to baggage claim.
5:30 PM: Jon & I catch a shuttle to our hotel.
6 PM: Arrive in hotel room & take advantage of a real shower with hot water & great water pressure & the opportunity to actually be able to flush toilet paper again!
8 PM: Bed time (in a real bed!).
Friday, January 5, 2018:
2:30 AM: Alarm clock wakes us up.
3 AM: We catch a shuttle back to airport.
3:15 AM: Meet up with squad at airport.
5 AM: Delta desks open up & check-in begins.
6:15 AM: Squad gets through check-in & security & reports to gate for boarding. I eat a 6-inch breakfast sub.
7:15 AM: Plane departs for Atlanta, Georgia.
9:15 AM: Arrive in Atlanta. I eat a blueberry bagel.
11:15 AM: Scheduled departure time. Plane is delayed one hour.
11:30 AM: I take advantage of the extra time & call my family one last time for the month.
12:15 PM: Depart for Seoul, South Korea. This was a 16 hour flight filled with movie watching, light sleeping, back aches, knee aches, butt aches, sleeping pill confusion, jet lag, & lots of bathroom visits.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
6 PM (South Korea time, 14 hours ahead of Atlanta): Arrive in South Korea. Squad frantically runs to next gate.
6:30 PM: Next flight is delayed for us to have an extra 30 minutes to get through another security point & onto plane.
7 PM: Board plane & depart on 6-hour flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
11 PM (Cambodia time, 2 hours behind South Korea): Arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia!
11:30 PM: Head through customs & to baggage claim.
Sunday, January 7, 2018
1 AM: Load packs onto bus & head to hostel in Phnom Penh.
1:30 AM: Arrive at hostel.
2 AM: Bed time in large room of 20 bunk beds with our team & 2 other teams.
6 AM: Alarm clock wakes us up.
7 AM: Our Cambodian ministry host, Dara, picks us up in mini van & our team loads our packs & bodies in & begins the drive to our Cambodian village.
9 AM: We stop for breakfast (our first Cambodian meal!) at an outdoor roadside restaurant. The waiter approached us and said, “I have one thing available: noodle soup.” We were exhausted & hungry & would have eaten absolutely anything but what he brought us was absolutely delicious: it was real, authentic Pho (an Asian soup of rice noodles, broth, bean sprouts, & beef).
9:45 AM: Load back into van.
1:30 PM: We stop for lunch at another roadside restaurant where we were brought a bowl of rice and platters of chicken parts, spicy sauces, & other mysterious meats.
2:15 PM: Back in the van!
6 PM: We finally arrive in the Svaychek Village of Cambodia where we are greeted with smiling adults & children & are shown around our new home at the local church here.
We started in one half of the globe & 7 days later ended up on the other side of the world. Our bodies were throbbing from long hours of constant sitting up straight, our knees ached in a way I’ve never felt before from being bent for so long, our feet had swelled up so much that it hurt to bend our toes, we actually laid down to sleep 3 times in 1 week, our diet consisted of snack foods & sodium packed airplane meals, we slept in restless clumps of 3-4 hours at a time, we dragged ourselves through the week with prayer, coffee, Z-Quill, & our excitement to arrive in Asia. After all of this & already spending a week in Cambodia since then, I have to say that our long travel experience was absolutely worth every minute because of how incredibly amazing our time here has been so far. Stay tuned for updates on our Cambodian experience & until then, please keep our team in your prayers as we witness & evangelize to the people in this country who are predominately Buddhist & are desperately searching for the truth in finding peace & joy.
Click the link below to watch a video of a glimpse into what our travel time looked like!
