Greetings loved ones. We’re back but not better than ever as we are sadly lacking the third member of the gal squad, Katherine Salembier. Thomas and Wiley did a less than good job updating you all so we are swooping in to save the day. This one is for you, Kate, our fallen soldier.
We started our day at the Frang (for those of you who don’t remember or simply haven’t read our blog posts (shame on you), the Frang is what we call the Frangipani Hotel),where we ate a delicious breakfast of the carb-only variety. Then we moved our bags into two rooms for easy access later on, and then set off on a stroll to the local Buddhist “campus.” On the campus, there was schooling, affordable housing, libraries, and meditation and prayer centers. One pretty swaggy thing about this campus was that it was completely plastic free (WE STAN. get on it U.S.A.). After exploring the campus a bit, we sat down with Untac, and he told us some pretty wacky ghost stories about the time he lived as a temple boy on a Buddhist campus. The gist of it was a Dumbledore-looking ghost guy (he didn’t say this, but the description matched the character) appeared to him while he was sleeping and whispered the number 74, and then, the next day, Untac won the lottery using the number 74. Next up, we headed into the Pagoda for some learning about Buddhism led by two monks (one of whom was our age), and flawlessly translated by our fearless leader Untac. After that, we received a water blessing and participated in a meditation. To close off our time on the campus, we did a debrief of our entire trip which was bittersweet to the max. Then we walked to lunch at a local authentic restaurant called Khmer Kitchen. After lunch, we set out on a market challenge. It was basically a scavenger hunt that prompted us to engage in conversation with shop owners. Our group of Maya, Kate, Lena, and Martin made friends with one particular shop owner, who then helped us out for the rest of the challenge. Our group came in second, but Untac and Tana rewarded us all with gelato (Maya would like you to know that Dragonfruit gelato is where it’s at). Following our gelato excursion, Untac (who casually happens to be the 2012 national champion of the Cambodia National Barista competition) took us to a coffee shop to try some yummy Cambodian beans. Then we headed back to the hotel for a final shower, a little bit of a rest, and the tail end of a Powerpuff Girls marathon. Then we headed to dinner (Maya would like you to know that it was her personal favorite meal of the trip, and Lena would like to praise the curry which includes but is not limited to the curry at our final restaurant). After that it was a tearful goodbye as we released Kate to her family (Womp, womp, womp). We slowly and begrudgingly trudged toward the bus (which, we remind you, we have named Sheila). When we got to the airport, we said our final goodbyes to Untac and Tana (sad(so sad)). Once at the gate, we set out on a mission to acquire Lena a Dairy Queen Blizzard. The only problem was, as we were informed once we got to the counter, that the boys had already taken all the Blizzards. We were soon after informed of some other bad news; our flight had been delayed. But alas, there is some good in the world, and our flight got undelayed (Hoorah). We hopped aboard, fell asleep, and here we are now in the Shanghai airport with nothing better to do than to provide you with extensive detail about our last day in Cambodia. It’s been an extremely solid one. Thank you for tuning in. Peace and love, Maya and Lena (and Kate in spirit).
