Due to lack of internet and my lack of patience with said internet, I’ve combined two blogs and added the Malaysia video at the bottom. Hope it’s not blog overload for you!
You Know You’re on the World Race when… Malay edition
- The neighbors have a pet monkey on a chain.
- You take part in a Bible study in a giant bamboo hut in the middle of a rainstorm.
- Kids ministry means going swimming in a small pool down by a river and waterfall.
- Your teammate goes for a run, slips in the river and realizes afterward that there’s a huge leech on her leg.
- When you’re walking to Bible study there is one house to the right, but directly in front of you the road stops and there is utter darkness. It’s like the end of the world.
- There is no furniture and the concrete floor gets old real quick.
- There’s a squirrel in a cage right by the door!
- KFC is the fancy restaurant in town and there are zero customers because it’s “expensive”.
- You drive through a jungle/rainforest to get to church. The trees block out the sunlight and someone comments that it “looks like Jurassic Park.” Your contact casually mentions that often there are cobras under the leaves on the ground!
- You can’t afford to buy one big birthday cake for your teammate so you get one small and one medium for $1 less. (That’s 3.13 Malaysian Ringgit!)
- Your contact has never really dealt with Americans so on the way to a new village if you pass through a big town he immediately assumes you must eat fast food: McDonald’s, KFC or Burger King. There’s even a Domino’s down the street.
- You hear a large gecko growling through the ceiling tile and think it’s either a wild boar or a motorcycle getting started up.
- You travel from village to village for a week wearing the same few sets of clothes and eating few real snacks. When you show up to KFC a few days later it’s like you’ve found civilization after years in the jungle. Re-entry into America will be fun!
- You meet the world famous Taxi Evangelist: John Chew!
- You visit the Yoyo Snowhouse for ice cream and free wi-fi internet.
- You start up worship with the Hokey Pokey in the Malay language.
Cambodia Travel Day Blog
Tuesday, April 10
- 11:30pm – Finish packing, make a few phone calls and send emails.
Wednesday, April 11
- 12:00am – Decide to stay awake all night. Do finances, write receipts and check Facebook.
- 1:20am – Journal about the month.
- 2:15am – Start watching “Tangled”
- 2:35am – Decide sleep is more important than a cartoon.
- 3:30am – Wake up, wash face, gather things.
- 4:18am – Start walking to bus station
- 4:31am – at the curb with the bus man
- 5:00am – bus arrives to take us to airport
- 5:43am – reach airport
- 6:00am – 6:50am – “group check-in” (for the record, this takes infinitely more time than individual check-in.)
- 7:11am – McDonald’s sausage egg and cheese McMuffin and OJ
- 7:53am – Through security. Send emails, use internet
- 9:20am – board plane (ticket says we leave at 9:15am)
- 9:55am – take off!
- 10:25am – chicken noodle concoction for brunch?
- 11:05am – read/sleep
- 11:26am – land. Time change – 10:26am
- 11:45am – buy SIM cards for cell phone and use ATM, wait for ride.
- 12:35pm – still waiting for shuttle to hotel.
- 1:30pm – arrive at hotel. Excitement over real beds and showers!
- 2:00pm – wander out to find lunch at Chinese restaurant
- 2:45pm – 3:40pm – SLEEP!
- 4:00pm – briefing w/ our contact. Near tears because they want us to leave now as opposed to staying in the room we’ve already paid for and being able to use the sweet showers and comfortable beds!
- 5:30pm – receive grace from our new friends who allow us to come the next day at 9am as some of us have slept less than 4 hours in the last 2 days.
- 7:11-7:35pm – Watch/try to help Taryn as she orders pizza over three separate phone calls with two employees. Can’t we just have a cheese pizza with pan crust? The pepperoni really threw them for a loop…
- 8:10pm – Pizza delivered to our door J
- 9:00pm – Best sleep of my life.
