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Monday, March 26, 2012

Update

Ok.  So I guess I should probably give some sort of update as I looked back and its been over a month.  What have I been doing?  I had some problems getting my Visa due to me not bringing the correct papers.  I thought I was just renewing my visa but I guess it was like I was getting a completely new visa from scratch.  The stupid thing is I put in my application on Monday and they told me to wait.  Finally like 2 hours later they said I would need to come back in Tuesday at around 10:00 am to see if they would approve my visa.  So I went back the next day at about 9:30 and sat and waited.  Finally at about 11:30 (which is what time they close), they told me I need all this other paperwork.  A guy there that helps you with filling out the paperwork decided that I should be able to just apply for a tourist visa so we filled out the paper work quickly and tried to hand it in.  The reason we were doing this, is that it takes 4 days for the paperwork to go through and I was suppose to teach the next week.  Well since the lady all ready knew I was trying to get the other visa, she said she would not take the paperwork. I was a bit worried for a bit as I did not have any of the paperwork with me, luckily I had bought a Cambodia SIM card (which I was told that I was going to be able to buy as I was not a Cambodian citizen) for my phone (because other SIM card don't appear to work in Cambodia as neither my SaskTel or Thailand SIM for service), so I phoned home.  Luckily I am super organized, LOL not really but I had kept a folder back home marked visa so I got my parents to email a copy of everything I had sent in for first visa. So on Wednesday I finally got all the stuff in for my visa and they woman said she would have it ready for me by Friday which was good.  So I took another couple days in Phnom Penh looking around and relaxing.

On Friday afternoon, after picking up my passport, I headed on the bus to Siem Reap to check out the Angkor Wat for a day.  It was nice actually a lot better bus ride than the way to Phnom Penh as I actually had a seat.  And the really nice thing was that it was going to break up the bus ride back.  I ended renting a hotel room for $15 (well actually I booked it with the hotel that I was staying at in Phnom Penh, so there was a guy waiting at the bus stop to take me to the hotel which was really nice since I didn't get there till about 2;00am).  On Saturday, I went around Angkor Wat which I did in 1 day.  The Wat definitely could have take me days to go around but I only had the one day so I made the best of it.  The day was a bit rushed but I got to see most of the stuff around as I had a tuk tuk driver driving place to place to make it much quicker.  That night at 12:30 I got on a bus to go back and arrived at the border at around 7:00.  Going back over the border went really smooth, and the guy on the bus actually sold tickets to get back to Bangkok (I was wondering how I was going to get back to Bangkok) so this made everything quite easy to get back.

Although next time I need to get my passport renewed (which is 3 months so the end of May), I will definitely be flying because the 20 hours of travel to Phnom Penh was a bit much.  And next time I believe I will go to Laos so that is even farther away, so a plane will make it much easier.

Now since I been back at the Wat I have been doing the regular teaching the Monks in the morning and the kids in the evening.  Everything is going quite well and getting easier as far as lesson planning goes.  I signed up for a Thai Class at a University in Bangkok, so I have been going there on my days off.  The class is a bit different, as their method of teaching is by teaching as if you were a kid.  You basically just sit and watch 2 Thai people interact while the draw and show pictures.  The theory is that you should guess like a kid is going on so that in your head you can start to understand without being explained it in English.  I am learning a bit, but unfortunately I learn best by writing thing down or by doing thing so this isn't the best way for me to learn.  But I am going to give it a month (as its pretty cheap about $4 an hour) and see how it goes, if it doesn't go well, I have already found another school that teaching the traditional way of learning a new language.

What else, I am not even sure.  Time sure seems to be flying by.  Its been really nice here, averaging around 33 degrees everyday.  I got my Thai car driver's license last week and go for the driving test for my motorcycle license on Thursday.  So I have been looking around trying to decide what motorcycle I am going to buy here over the last week.  Oh, I am a bit nervous about the kids class on Wednesday as I was told last Thursday that it will be recorded and broadcasted on a local community channel to try to gain more interest in the temple's community outreach program.  Not sure how that is going to go but I guess I will know after the class, not going to stress too much about it as I will just teach as usual.

Well that enough for now. Will try to post more often as I am probably forgetting something that happened in the last month. Thanks for reading and take care.

Cambodia - Angkor Wat

I only had 1 day to go around the Angkor Wat which made it quite rushed.  It was really interesting to see and would recommend people to see it if they have the chance.  I think if I ever went back, I would hire an actual tour guide to give some explanation of what I was actual looking at.  I am not going to write much here as I do not know the names of the different buildings but thought I would share some pictures.

Monkey swing in the trees.







































Cambodia - Royal Palace

Here are some pics of the Royal Palace where the King of Cambodia lives.  Certain parts were closed off as the King was actually there when I was there.











If the flag is up, then the king is actually in the building.







Traditional Style Home









Some Flower Pictures: