Yeah Tag Team music
In Full Effect
That's me Steve G the Brain Supreme
And my man Hoon Roll'n
We're kicking the flow we're kickin' the flow
And it goes a little somethin' like this.
On Tuesday we set out for a little vacation from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur (4 nights at the Seri Pacific Hotel, then head from KL (that's what all the cool kids call it) to Bangkok (3 nights at the Asoke Residence Sukumvit), then leave Bangkok for Yangon in Myanmar for 3 nights at the Clover City Hotel. We leave on the 22nd of July and return on the 2nd of August.
One of Phan's cousins who we met when we last visited in 2011 came over from Battambang and will be taking care of our house, but more importantly taking care of our life (Hooner) while we are away. What a great blessing, without him our little adventure wouldn't be possible. He has been staying with us the last few days getting to know Hoon and running around all over town with us. Rity
(pronounced Rit-E) is a cool dude.
We have been going out quite a bit of late, mostly to dinner, but also to a couple of establishments, like the yellow submarine, a Beatles themed bar that is 4 or 5 levels ( 1 level is a pool table, the next is a ping pong table). We are slowly discovering some good food in our area which is called Wat Bo, because of our proximity to that pagoda. When you come visit us, do not worry one bit about the food, while there are crazy crickets,frogs,snakes etc. Your more likely to eat Hawaiian Pizza and Buffalo Wings.
Lets get caught up.......
Phan has found some really fun people to have brunch with. (Brunch is a term used by people that are hung over or are on vacation and really have very little need to wake up before 10am) From left to right Shavon (Ireland) Megan (Pronounced MEEgan from Melbourne Australia), Hannah(Ireland), Phan (Cambodia, by way of Thailand and the US), Hooner (Mexico), Yvonne (Ireland again)
Sadly, by the time you read this all of these wonderful ladies will have left Siem Reap and returned home to work, continue their education, finish up med school or whatever the heck else they are doing. I don't know Shavon and Hannah too well, but they did come out to trivia to support an NGO the other night that one of our other friends works at and answered 1 question right. Who was the 7th President of Ireland?
Mary Robinson
Anyway, Phan has had a great time hanging out, going swimming, eating, shopping with these ladies and I am sure they will be missed. One of the realities here is that you get to meet amazing people from every corner of the planet, but they usually only stay for a few weeks or so. That'll take some getting used to. All of these girls are friends or family of folks that I work with, so we should be able to keep in touch and hopefully go visit some time.
This picture was taken a few nights ago on a little goodbye outing before everyone hit the road for their "Holiday" (if you say it with an English accent, its more meaningful that way)
Left to Right Collin (Colorado, U.S., he'll be missed when the new school year begins, standing up is Daphne, (The Dream of The Nineties), then Lindsay (Australia), Troy our neighbor from Richmond Virginia, Paul and Tina from Belgium and of course beautiful Phan enjoying a refreshing ginger ale in typical Phan fashion. I love her so much.
We took this one on a rooftop establishment called X-Bar, all of these young hipsters are sitting atop a full size half pipe singing CCR, heard it through the grapevine. We stayed up late enough to call my beloved sister back home and wish her a happy birthday, while she had to wait a bit longer, Phan and I were able to celebrate her thanks to the international date line.
L to R CJ (Colorado, went to Columbine high, he was a little guy when it happened, but still remembers, St, Collin, and Brandon (Alabama native that was in the Peace Corps here in Cambodia)
Enjoying 15 rounds of Bingo to support some other NGO that Daphne works for. There were a lot of us. We walked away with an apron, $5 gift certificate to get our nails done, $30 massage gift certificate. They use bottle caps for Bingo markers, so naturally that became more appealing then the actual game itself. It was bedlam, it was awesome, it was painful.
After a month of work and fun, we finally made it back to Angkor Wat. Most of our group hadn't been so we did a highlight tour of some of the more popular temples. We have plenty more to explore there and it was a great time. We took 1 tuk tuk and 2 motos. I got to drive a moto out there, it was pretty fun, by the end of the day though, I was pretty saddle sore. Convinced Phan to ride with me between temples, so that was fun. Not pictured are Phans MC Hammer pants that she had to buy, because her shorts were too short to enter the top of Angkor Wat.
STAN
So the boys from work have found it too laborious to keep repeating the words Steve and Phan when asking if we are going to dinner or if we'll be hanging out or if we want to go to the market, so they have come up with the clever mash-up of STAN. Instead of having to utter three syllables they have cut it down to just one.
Hooner-
the other night we were meeting some friends for pizza, buy 1 get the 2nd one for $1. So our friends had a visitor in town and I walked up and they introduced me. I had Hoon in his back pack and they said and this is Hooner, their friend extends his hand to Phan and in all seriousness says' Hello Hooner, its nice to meet you.'Haha
Got a bank account
I guess they have some infrastructure problems in Cambodia, so their internet security isn't as robust as one might like, they gave me a small device that generates a code every 3 minutes or something that I need in order to access my info online. Pretty Snazzy!
Drove a moped-sorry Brad
Wow, Summer School flew by. We have been on a whirl wind adventure with plenty of places to go and too many adult beverages to consume. Things so far at work are fantastic. I am in a really good place and things couldn't be better. We have the next three weeks off, so it'll be nice to talk to my teaching buddies back home as they prepare to return to work this week at ye olde SUHSD. Shout out to Pablo for starting his gig at THE DRO. He's a Coug, nbd.
BTW, Dave got a slingbox for us, so now we can watch good ol cox cable, from the comfort of our third world country. Its pretty cool being able to see local news and the Pads, first game I watched they gave up 3 runs in the 1st, which is a death sentence. Its really funny though because their phone settings have caller ID appear on the TV screen so I am able to see who is calling them too. I can't wait for Dave to DVR something other than Master Chef, but I'll take what I can get. I watched sportscenter and nfl network the other night for hours, thanks Dave!
One of Phan's cousins who we met when we last visited in 2011 came over from Battambang and will be taking care of our house, but more importantly taking care of our life (Hooner) while we are away. What a great blessing, without him our little adventure wouldn't be possible. He has been staying with us the last few days getting to know Hoon and running around all over town with us. Rity
(pronounced Rit-E) is a cool dude.
We have been going out quite a bit of late, mostly to dinner, but also to a couple of establishments, like the yellow submarine, a Beatles themed bar that is 4 or 5 levels ( 1 level is a pool table, the next is a ping pong table). We are slowly discovering some good food in our area which is called Wat Bo, because of our proximity to that pagoda. When you come visit us, do not worry one bit about the food, while there are crazy crickets,frogs,snakes etc. Your more likely to eat Hawaiian Pizza and Buffalo Wings.
Lets get caught up.......
Sadly, by the time you read this all of these wonderful ladies will have left Siem Reap and returned home to work, continue their education, finish up med school or whatever the heck else they are doing. I don't know Shavon and Hannah too well, but they did come out to trivia to support an NGO the other night that one of our other friends works at and answered 1 question right. Who was the 7th President of Ireland?
Mary Robinson
Anyway, Phan has had a great time hanging out, going swimming, eating, shopping with these ladies and I am sure they will be missed. One of the realities here is that you get to meet amazing people from every corner of the planet, but they usually only stay for a few weeks or so. That'll take some getting used to. All of these girls are friends or family of folks that I work with, so we should be able to keep in touch and hopefully go visit some time.
Left to Right Collin (Colorado, U.S., he'll be missed when the new school year begins, standing up is Daphne, (The Dream of The Nineties), then Lindsay (Australia), Troy our neighbor from Richmond Virginia, Paul and Tina from Belgium and of course beautiful Phan enjoying a refreshing ginger ale in typical Phan fashion. I love her so much.
We took this one on a rooftop establishment called X-Bar, all of these young hipsters are sitting atop a full size half pipe singing CCR, heard it through the grapevine. We stayed up late enough to call my beloved sister back home and wish her a happy birthday, while she had to wait a bit longer, Phan and I were able to celebrate her thanks to the international date line.
Enjoying 15 rounds of Bingo to support some other NGO that Daphne works for. There were a lot of us. We walked away with an apron, $5 gift certificate to get our nails done, $30 massage gift certificate. They use bottle caps for Bingo markers, so naturally that became more appealing then the actual game itself. It was bedlam, it was awesome, it was painful.
After a month of work and fun, we finally made it back to Angkor Wat. Most of our group hadn't been so we did a highlight tour of some of the more popular temples. We have plenty more to explore there and it was a great time. We took 1 tuk tuk and 2 motos. I got to drive a moto out there, it was pretty fun, by the end of the day though, I was pretty saddle sore. Convinced Phan to ride with me between temples, so that was fun. Not pictured are Phans MC Hammer pants that she had to buy, because her shorts were too short to enter the top of Angkor Wat.
STAN
So the boys from work have found it too laborious to keep repeating the words Steve and Phan when asking if we are going to dinner or if we'll be hanging out or if we want to go to the market, so they have come up with the clever mash-up of STAN. Instead of having to utter three syllables they have cut it down to just one.
Hooner-
the other night we were meeting some friends for pizza, buy 1 get the 2nd one for $1. So our friends had a visitor in town and I walked up and they introduced me. I had Hoon in his back pack and they said and this is Hooner, their friend extends his hand to Phan and in all seriousness says' Hello Hooner, its nice to meet you.'Haha
Got a bank account
I guess they have some infrastructure problems in Cambodia, so their internet security isn't as robust as one might like, they gave me a small device that generates a code every 3 minutes or something that I need in order to access my info online. Pretty Snazzy!
Drove a moped-sorry Brad
Favorite Picture from my runs, er jogs this week
Went rock WALL climbing. That was hard stuff. Apparently, you don't just climb the stupid wall, there are certain paths you can take where your only allowed to use certain grips, this ups the degree of difficulty quite a bit.
While I was waiting my turn this seemingly nice kitty noticed Hooner and straight up attacked him, I pull Hoon out of the way and the little psycho kitty knicks him with his claw, Hoons screaming bloddy murder, I pick him up and that damn cat climbs up my leg and buries his claws into my arm trying to get at Hoon. I kinda throw him off with my shoulder and he starts coming at me again.
It was at this point that I had a decision to make, continue my strategy of solid defense or go on the offensive against this crazy feline assassin. I hated to do it, but as little kitty came at me again, I had to boot him, he flew a good 10 or 15 feet. Hoon was freaking out, I was bleeding, but that cat didn't want any part of us after that. Punk!
Hoon,clearly shaken at rock climbing
Wow, Summer School flew by. We have been on a whirl wind adventure with plenty of places to go and too many adult beverages to consume. Things so far at work are fantastic. I am in a really good place and things couldn't be better. We have the next three weeks off, so it'll be nice to talk to my teaching buddies back home as they prepare to return to work this week at ye olde SUHSD. Shout out to Pablo for starting his gig at THE DRO. He's a Coug, nbd.
BTW, Dave got a slingbox for us, so now we can watch good ol cox cable, from the comfort of our third world country. Its pretty cool being able to see local news and the Pads, first game I watched they gave up 3 runs in the 1st, which is a death sentence. Its really funny though because their phone settings have caller ID appear on the TV screen so I am able to see who is calling them too. I can't wait for Dave to DVR something other than Master Chef, but I'll take what I can get. I watched sportscenter and nfl network the other night for hours, thanks Dave!
Whomp, There It Is
Tune in next time for Pictures from our adventures and hopefully some funny stories of life on the road.
