In case you have wondered why my daily blogging suddenly
dropped off the face of the Earth, I have just returned from 4 days in
Sihanoukville, which is in the Khaet province about 185 kilometers southwest of
Phnom Penh. I went there with Jenny and Emma; and Jenny convinced me not to
check email, Facebook, or blog the entire time I was on the trip. Being at
least mildly competitive and open to this challenge I consented and left my
computer at the Guesthouse in Phnom Penh. It was not until the last day of the
trip that I found out that Emma had been checking Facebook (and presumably
email as well) the entire weekend on her smartphone. Jenny also challenged me
to write down my thoughts using pen and paper; so, now I have the tedious task
of trying to transcribe those notes/thoughts into this blog.
Day 1 - If one’s only context of Cambodia is Phnom Penh then
that person would think that Sihanoukville is in a country other than Cambodia.
Sihanoukville is a major Cambodian port city along the Gulf of Thailand. There
are beautiful beaches all throughout Sihanoukville. We spent our time at two of
those beaches: Otres Beach and the private Sokha Beach, which is part of the
resort where we stayed our last two nights. The weekend started off with some
hitches. Because of the 4 day memorial weekend many streets were closed in
Phnom Penh. The driver we had scheduled decided to not show up and not call.
Several calls to him resulted in him just hanging up the phone
mid-conversation. We began calling other companies and finally found a great
driver, but we would be leaving about 3 hours after we had originally planned.
On the drive down, I noticed immediately a significant difference in landscape
from what I had experienced the prior weekend driving north to Siem Reap.
Rather than seeing dry, brown, unproductive fields and stagnant polluted rivers
and ponds, on the drive south I saw crystal clear water running through the river,
green, thickly forested mountainsides, and lush fields and valleys. (Seeing the
tall palm trees and lush valleys I thought how much this place reminded me of
Hawaii – specifically places on Kauai.) There were still signs of poverty, but
it was a different kind of poverty than what I saw going north.
Since we were running late, before leaving Phnom Penh Emma
called the staff at bungalow we had booked for the weekend and confirmed that
they would hold our rooms. The staff confirmed that the rooms were available
and were being held for us, but when we pulled in at 5:00 we were told that
another guest had decided to stay an extra night and so our rooms were not available.
Despite Emma’s and Jenny’s best efforts at protesting we were without a place
to stay and the sun was about to set. (I decided not to join in on the argument
for three reasons: 1) I do not speak Khmer as well as they do – and just
repeating “hello” and “thank you very much” in poorly spoken Khmer would not
have helped, 2) I was enjoying looking at the beach across the street, and 3)
There was a pool table in the “lobby” and I decided I would rather play pool
than argue. Basically, I was of no help whatsoever to our group in this
effort.) Emma went up and down the beach checking into other places to stay.
Everywhere was booked solid. So, we ended up calling a friend from Daughters,
Breanne, who was also in Sihanoukville with her husband, Jesse. It turned out
that there were two rooms available for that night where they were staying. So,
with the sun now setting we jumped into a Tuk Tuk and headed to the Don Bosco
Hotel School. This school is a really cool model of teaching students how to
run a hotel, while also giving them direct experience in running the school’s
hotel. The students learn everything from hotel administration, to cooking,
maintenance, and grounds-keeping. Despite how cool this model is and how
grateful we were to have a place to stay and to be safely in Sihanoukville it
was now evening and so any plans for getting to the beach on day one seemed far-fetched,
but we decided to make a go for it and so in the dark we piled into a Tuk Tuk:
the three of us and Breanne and Jesse; and we headed down to Otres Beach in the
dark. If you think about a movie you have seen featuring a white sand beach
spotted by grass roofed bungalows with beach chairs and hammocks gently swaying
between trees that could very well be Otres Beach. We took off our shoes and
walked in the soft white sand – the water dotted with beads of light from the
stars overhead. The waves gently and rhythmically lapped up onto the shore and
ran warm ocean water ran over our feet and then returned back to the sea. If
there was stress that any of us carried from the day it was certainly washed
away on this walk. We walked up to one of the restaurants on the beach and
stopped for dinner. At one point the power went out for just a few seconds, but
in that time we looked up at the sky and the stars were absolutely,
breathtakingly magnificent. I thought that this was kind of a metaphor for
life: the false light that man makes keeps us from fully seeing all the
magnificent glory that God has placed all around us. When we are no longer “blinded”
by man’s light we are better able to see God’s creation for what it really is.
Day 2 - We knew that Otres Beach was beautiful and so after
checking out of Don Bosco we put on our bathing suits and headed back to Otres
Beach. There has only been one other time (Belize) when I have had the
privilege of swimming in ocean water as beautiful as what we experienced at Otres.
It is clean and the perfect temperature. The beach has soft, white sand and it
is a long beach. I think I was in the water at Otres from about 11:00 until
5:00 all the time except when we stopped for lunch and when we took a long
walk. Tom, an Australian who works for an NGO in Phnom Penh and is engaged to
Jenny’s housemate, Heather, joined us in the mid-afternoon and he brought Mark,
a friend (“mate”) of his from Australia. About mid-afternoon we decided that we should
re-enter responsible living and find lodging for the evening. We knew that we
were going to have dinner that night at a place called “The Deck” at the Sokha
Beach Resort. Emma said that she had eaten there before and it was the best
dinner she had ever had in Cambodia. So, we decided to check into room
availability Sokha Beach Resort. Fortunately, they did have two rooms available
for us.
I don’t know how to describe the Sokha Beach Resort except
to say that it is the by far the best hotel room I have ever had in my life.
Our rooms were built on stilts over a private lagoon. The rooms are terraced
with three levels: 1) The top level featuring a bathroom with soft 12x36 tiles
set into a bed of white stones, one traditional shower and a second “open”
shower that rains from bamboo structure, a kitchen area, and a desk that runs
almost the entire width of the room. 2) On both sides of the desk there are
stairs leading down to the bed – a super comfortable king size bed under a 15
foot canopy. At the foot of the bed there is a large tub set sideways so that
the bather can see out to the lagoon or watch a large screen flat panel
television that is mounted high on the bottom tier. 3) The bottom tear has a
sitting area to watch television, look out at the lagoon, or to go through the French
doors to the porch that has a table, chairs, and chaise lounges. The Japanese
style robe was the most comfortable robe I can remember wearing.
We had dinner at The Deck and Emma was right. This was the
best meal I have ever had in Cambodia. There was not one single disappointing
meal the whole weekend though!
Day 3 After breakfast we began the morning with an “informal”
worship service on the porch of my hotel room. The three of us sang, prayed,
shared Scripture verses that had been impacting our lives recently, and Emma
played a song that had really touched her deeply. I was reminded that church is
not a building or an institution; it is a body of people who love God. So, we
did, in fact, have church on Sunday and I loved that worship service. Following
church, we went to the Dolphin pool at Sokha. The Dolphin pool is the best pool
I have ever been in and the first time I have had lunch at a swim up bar. We
had so much fun there – laughing, playing, swimming all morning; and then going
to the beach in the afternoon (and the Sokha Beach is probably even nicer,
certainly cleaner, than Otres); and massages in the evening. Now, I neglected
to mention earlier that one thing I learned on this trip is that Jenny has a
huge sweet tooth (even more than I do). At The Deck she skipped ordering a main
course and instead ordered two desserts. She discovered a love for one of those
desserts called Chocolate Tart (one of her new nicknames – her other one is “Little
Mojito”). This dessert sits in a crunchy
cookie crust, is filled with rich dark chocolate, a molten chocolate and
honeycomb center, and it comes with a side of white mocha ice cream. After
dinner and into the next day Jenny made it repeatedly clear that no matter what
else we did on Day 4 we had to return to The Deck for another Chocolate Tart. After
almost every meal we had Jenny would leave the restaurant jumping high into the
air, dancing, or skipping. In watching Jenny and Emma this weekend I thought of
the beautiful symmetry they both have of being at once mature, wise, deeply
thoughtful people and in an instant being so full of joy that they burst into
spontaneous dancing and/or laughter. I think of the passage when Jesus says
that we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven like a little child. Both Emma (aka
Emma with the legs, and Sauvignon Blanc) and Little Mojito live life with the
kind of energy, passion, full-on commitment, and unfettered joy that I believe
Jesus was referring to.
So, as you can see, this was a different kind of Cambodia experience than what I have been having the first three weeks. It was rich with laughter, love, rest, deepening friendships, bathing in God's creation. I don't feel like I did much this past weekend to serve others (perhaps this occurred in ways unknown to me), but I certainly grew and felt God's love deeply.
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| Jenny and Emma at Otres Beach |
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| Two Desserts = One Entree |
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| The Hotel suites at Sokha |
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| Church at Sokha |
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| Swim up to lunch at Dolphin Pool |
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| Joyful hearts |
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| All this sun made me grow |
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| Sunset at Sokha Beach |
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| One of Jenny's Happy Dances following breakfast |
