Chanty, Rick & the Whirlwind Trip

Chantalle and Rick arrived December 29 and left January 18. The night they arrived, we had a nice dinner at Sunway Pyramid, in a restaurant called The Rainforest Cafe (Malaysia Style). Over the next few days we visited the Batu Caves, went shopping, we visited the Bird Zoo, went shopping, we visited the Petronas Towers, went shopping, we visited the The Luna Bar, went shopping and we visited Chinatown as well. For a change of pace, we decided to go shopping.

We spent Christmas with Shelley, Jim, Jaime and Jordan, the Dales. They welcomed us with open hearts and arms. They had a beautiful Christmas Tree and we shared an awesome Christmas dinner together. Rick made Tourtiere, it was amazing. Shelley took care of the rest of the meal and she did an amazing job cooking and preparing our feast. We played some cards and we played the "Johnson" dice game. We had a blast!

Jordan, Jaime, Shelley and Jim...The Dale family.
What a fine family!

Rick, Chantalle, Amy and Jerry Lewis...what a fine family eh?

Malaysia was impressive for Chanty Rick, but our next 15 days really blew us all out of the water. We flew to Siem Reap Cambodia and stayed at the Tanei Guesthouse with pool and phenomenal service. We visited the stilted village and the floating village; we also took a canoe ride through the mangrove. We visited Ankor Wat, it is spectacular, amazing and breathtaking, not to mention moving and historical. From there we flew to Phnom Penh, enjoyed tuk tuk rides. We visited the killing fields and S21, the school house turned into a prison by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, where they tortured and killed innocent civilians in an effort to “turn Cambodia into an agricultural society”. All educated, intelligent people were killed, along with all their family members, including women, children of all ages, and grand-parents.

The Batu Caves in Malaysia, quite an awesome site.

Chanty planning our route while Rick focussed on......well...gee I don't know what the heck he was staring at! Oh....wait...there was a little wee monkey picking his nose at the next table. Was it his nose or his arse? I can't remember!

Ahhhhhhhh...Those beautiful towers!

The bird sanctuary in Malaysia. That was a great walk through a forest full of exotic birds. The colors were breath taking!

Standard procedure for us while we were in Cambodia and Thailand..tuktuk rides were a blast. We took one every time we had a chance.

Chantalle handing out school supplies to local children in Siem Reap Cambodia. The logs you see in the back are there because the water levels will eventually rise far above their heads during the rainy season. The whole town is high up, on stilts.

Chanty and Rick taking a peaceful canoe ride, there is a young girl steering at the front. She was hilarious, sassy and warm hearted. She kept us laughing.

This little fella brought me to tears. He paddled from his home- which is a big wooden room, floating on the open water- to where we parked. He was hoping to get one dollar from me. I stared into his eyes for a moment. He figured that I wasn't going to give him anything so he showed me the "peace" sign with an anxious smile.  I reached out and handed him a dollar, then I extended my hand for him to hold. He put his dirty little hand into mine and looked into my eyes as I held his hand for a moment. I gave him the thumbs up sign, which he returned to me. He watched me rubbing my eyes and he had this puzzled look on his face as if he was asking me "What's wrong?"  I was ashamed of the many times I had prayed to God for more money, more of this, more of that. I was embarrassed and humbled. I will never forget that moment and that little boy.

This is a school, on a boat, on the river. Children are dropped off every morning by boat. Their class is here on the boat. They are the sweetest children. We talked with the teacher and he allowed us to interact with the students for a little while. One little girl read to me in her native language as the others sat around and giggled. That was a very moving experience.

From there we flew to Bangkok Thailand, we saw some awesome sites such as the Buddha Temple and the Grand Palace. Angkor Wat Cambodia really nestled itself in my heart.

We also enjoyed Pat Pong street. From there we flew to our last destination, Krabi. We took a boat to Koh Lanta and attempted to rest for four days before returning home. Chanty & Rick liked it so much, they stayed in Koh Lanta for an extra four days. Amy and I returned to Subang Jaya and began our second semester. Chanty and Rick joined us for their last weekend in Malaysia. They flew home January 18th. We miss them a lot. It was awesome to have them here with us.