There were many people who helped us at home during our year in Cambodia.

Bryan, Whit, Trev, and James checked on our house while we were away.

Scott and Carter checked on our house and took care of our yard every month, and sometimes multiple times per month.

My mom checked our house every month AND took care of Simon while we were gone.  Simon was too old to make the trip and hung on until Annika and Phaedra made it home. It was such a relief to know he was being loved and taken care of while we were gone.

Thanks for all the prayers and the gift box from friends at church.

Thanks to my coworkers in the US who accommodated my remote work and all of my last minute requests. Working on a great team with a great manager allowed us to do some good things.   Thanks Anil, Scott, Brian, Sean and Chris.

Thanks to Rose, Jennifer, and the Cleveland’s for taking care of animals while we were gone.

Thanks for Dr. Dixon and Pelham school for all the work that allowed Annika to do virtual school.

Thanks to all of our Cambodian friends who helped us there.  So many little things that are unknown when we first got there.

Socheat, who was so unselfish with his time with us. I helped him with his website, and he refused to take any money from us throughout the entire year.  You help me, so I help you is what he told us.  It was great to give him my moto on my last day in Cambodia.

Thanks to Sahai and Srepouy for our home and all help that was given over the year.

Thanks to Jeremy, Danielle, Sam, and Vivian for taking care of Caesar for us and answering all of our where/what/how Cambodian questions.

Thanks to the Eulers for taking care of Caesar so we could make visa runs.

Thanks to Philip and Joanna for helping us get started in Phnom Penh.

Thanks to Abigail, Angela, and Theresa for welcoming us into your groups and allowing us to help along the way.

Thank you to Channy who not only taught us some Khmai, but helped us in many ways.

Thanks to Esther for translating for the girls whenever we came.

Thanks to Julia, Taylor, and Halle for giving us your time in Singapore and showing us around.

Thanks to the hundred of Cambodians that we interacted with daily and welcomed us into their country.

Thanks to the Cambodian families that would welcome us into their homes with so much generosity.

I’m know I missed some and even some people that helped that I didn’t even know about.

Thanks for all the prayers from all everyone.

From Me, Phaedra, Annika, and Caesar,

Thank you all

We left Phnom Penh at 11:00 PM on Thursday night.  I walked Caesar for about an hour and a half all around the airport, so when it was time to leave he was exhausted.  He stayed happily in his carrier under the seat for the entire 5 hour flight.  He has never stayed in his carrier for more than 10 minutes without crying and having to be comforted by having me put my hand inside and petting him.   He was awesome.  Definitely an answered prayer.

We make it to Seoul, Korea with 2-3 hour lay over.  We walk the airport for 2 hours, and Caesar gets a snack and some water.  They were at least 20 people who came up to Caesar to pet him.

Our next flight left around 10:00 AM and was a 13 hour flight.  That was the real test for him.  After an hour under the seat, he got anxious and started crying.  This happened on our trip to Cambodia, and it made everything miserable trying to constantly comfort him.  Korean Air doesn’t allow you to put the dog in your lap, even while staying in the carrier, so bending over for hours petting him to calm him down is exhausting.

While on the way to Cambodia, we had a single flight attendant who was vert strict with that rule. So for this flight, I tried anyway and I put Caesar in my lap and cover us both in a blanket. This was not very comfortable, but definitely more bearable than bending over for hours at a time with my hand in the carrier to comfort him.  We do this for almost the entire flight – 12 hours. Even while landing, he’s in my lap.  Such a huge relief when we finally get to Washington, but the flight was fine and a huge improvement.  He did great again.

The ENTIRE reason for staying in Cambodia for a month was for paper work for Caesar to enter the US.  Rabies shots, 28 day waiting period, export permits, import permits, several other vaccinations.  We get to the US and….

NO ONE LOOKED AT ANY PAPERWORK FOR CAESAR. NOTHING!

Thanks to Delta, while re-checking in our bags, I was told that the fee for Caesar did not cover our last leg of the flight.  I will handled this later with Delta, but YES it should cover the entire trip, as it did before.  At this time we have spent almost an hour and a half going through passport controls with huge lines and “Customs” (that another story), and our flight leaves in a few minutes.  Instead of paying another fee, and going back onto a plane with an un-walked, anxious Caesar, I decide I’m done.  At this point, we have been in airports or airplanes for 30+ hours.  I rent a car for an 11 hour drive home.

Two hour plane ride vs 12 hour car ride.  Sounds like a bad choice, but it was such a huge relief to not go back on a plane.  We had FREEDOM now!  

I got on airport WIFI (I had no US Cellphone plan) and sent Phaedra and email. I knew she was about to leave for Atlanta to pick us up.  I checked out cameras at the house, and saw she was still home. Through the camera, I told her to “Check your email”. Caesar and I went to get a rental car, and started the easiest 12 hour drive ever.

Home

Here is Caesar seeing Annika for the first time in a month, and barking at me.  I’m sure he is just saying thanks for all the things I did for him!

We opened Christmas presents around 1:00 AM on January 10, and we were all home.

 

Caesar and I are taking off now. Little guy is exhausted so he is sleeping right now.

Until next time Cambodia. You will be missed.

January 8, 2019 we all leave from Birmingham to Cambodia.  January 9, 2020, Caesar and I are on our way back.

After a month of missing my family, working full time, packing, repacking, eating a Christmas diner of chicken nachos alone, moving 3 times, 4 visits to the vet for Caesar, 4 long calls to Delta getting Caesar on the plane, realizing they didn’t do it right and starting the process over, doing a few cool things, and 1 near viscous dog attack while walking Caesar, we are leaving Cambodia today.

We leave from Phnom Penh tonight for South Korea, then Washington, then Atlanta where Phaedra will pick us up.

Caesar doesn’t like moving. It makes him nervous.

 

Found this little item in a shop half way between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

It’s been karaoke and fireworks here for the past few hours.  Caesar got a fresh new haircut today.  All of his grooming today cost $30 – cut, nail trimming, teeth brushed, etc. All of that would have cost over $200 in the US.

We got all of Caesar’s paperwork for travelling started today.

I had my third flat tire today. A parking lot attendant pointed it out to me and pointed me in the direction of a guy who could fix it.  There are guys all over the place that will set up shop on the side of the road to do minor moto repairs.  Same for most anything else as well – hair cuts, every type of food you could ask for, drinks, fruit stands, snacks, shoes, hats, toys.

He spent 20+ minutes taking the inner tube off, checking it for leaks, patching the hole with a hot press where he used fire for heat, and then checking it again.  When he was done, he said $1.  I paid him significantly more than that, but that’s what he was going to charge me.

I’ve been in Cambodia for almost 1 year – 350+ days.  I have been to these side of the road shops hundreds of times, flats fixed, motos fixed, washer fixed, bought food, snacks, lots of fruit, everything.  We have been to restaurants almost every day.  Not a single time has anyone taking advantage of me because I am a foreigner.  I read a lot online about people coming to Cambodia and getting scammed, and then they refer to it as Scambodia.  A huge number of these “scams” are when people are getting “massages” or out at 3:00 AM “just giving a someone a ride” and get their money stolen. I’m sure there are real scams that happens to some, but the overwhelming majority of Cambodians and the most kind and fair people I have ever met.

Sealing a patch with fire.

Siem Reap gets lit up for celebrations a lot – Chinese New Year, Khmai New Year, Water Festival, but nothing compared to the lights for Christmas.

My favorite girls in all of Cambodia!  We went to see Christmas lights and ice cream tonight.

We had planned on leaving Cambodia mid December, but paperwork caused me some issues with Caesar.  So we are staying at a friends place until we leave on Jan 9.
They have cats who love people and being close.

Caesar is living downstairs because the cats don’t like dogs.  So we go on lots of walks and really excited and really disappointed every day when I leave him.

This would not have happened if I didn’t have to stay a few weeks extra in Cambodia.  This made it all worth it.  I found out on Sunday that some of the girls we have spent time with here in Cambodia needed some fans.  They make a huge difference being able to sleep at night with some airflow.  I immediately wake up if the power goes off at night and there is no airflow.

I went to a store that had fans, and this was our conversation. All in my horrible Khmai, which I am very proud of. 🙂

Me: How much?
Lady: $11
Me: Do you have 10?
Lady: No discount.
Me: I want 10 fans

She then goes to get help because she didn’t believe that I wanted 10 fans, AND she then gave me a discount.  I hired a tuk tuk driver to follow me on my scooter to deliver them. He is helping put the fans together too.

I also got to teach another computer class. This time PowerPoint. Before I packed up they had asked me to come back next week.  It’s going to be hard to tell them when I can’t come back.

Here is Phaedra’s Facebook (spyware) post on their trip home.  Hopefully, mine will be smoother.

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Annika and I make our way home – Siem Reap > Shanghai > Beijing > Chicago > Birmingham – Our layover times range from 2 hrs 50 minutes to as little as 1 hr 30 minutes. Traveling is not for the faint of heart ❤️😓

We are told at check in that we will have to get our luggage from baggage claim in Shanghai. She almost sent them to Beijing first! Glad she caught it. She had the stickers on the luggage about to send them away. Whew that was close. She said we would have lost them.😳

Y’all China Eastern is serious. Annika and I were across the aisle from each other and since I had two empty seats beside me she wanted to come over there. So we were at cruising level for awhile so Annika snuck over. But since the fasten seat belt signs were on the flight attendant yelled sit down! Annika was seated before she even got the words out. She yelled at another in Chinese. Did you know you have to have seat arms down and ear plugs out if you are beginning to descend at all! 🤷‍♀️💺

When we get to Shanghai and after we load our 4 big suitcases (each about 51 lbs / 24 kg) plus our two carry-ons onto carts (thankfully they are free), we look for the correct check in counter. It’s early in the morning so we just kinda guess and hope we are in the correct line. Finally a couple of checkin agents arrive. I didn’t have to know Mandarin to know that even the Chinese in line with us were anxious and angry. We finally have our turn and run to get into security line to find our terminal/gate when the out of breath checkin agent pulls us out of line saying something is wrong with our checked baggage. 😰

He takes us to a room where another guy has mine and Annika’s suitcases with the wheels (not the giant duffel bags). He searches mine for I don’t know what. Zips it up and goes to Annika’s where he pulls out a knife Rickey bought her in Cambodia. He asks what is the purpose of it. Huh? We said it was a gift. So they decide to put it back and open mine again . Still not sure what they were thinking was there. 👮‍♂️😱

The gate agent thankfully escorted us through the priority security line, then a long distance via moving sidewalks and monorail where finally they were holding the plane for us! He ran with us the whole way.🏃🏻‍♂️🚝

We get to do the same thing in Beijing except this time we had to load everything on a shuttle bus and go travel at least 20 min to a whole other airport terminal location. We got to see some snow! ❄️Again I’m trying to figure out the time because we are cutting it close again! At least the carts are free again.🚌

We get to do it in Chicago of course again and go through customs. So we are looking where to go check in for Birmingham. Two people told us we would have to take another shuttle bus to another terminal. Yes it is cold again. 💨We weren’t dressed for all the cold, windy, snowy weather. Nice people did help us load and unload this time. Annika said because they were people who celebrated Christmas. 🎄When we arrived the carts weren’t free there was however. They wanted $6 a cart. We were right by the door and I could see the counter so I just dragged two duffel bags (50+lbs/24kg each) and rolled a suitcase of similar weight while Annika navigated three rollered suitcases (1 big and 2 smaller) plus we have backpacks. We got our work outs this trip!

When we got in we couldn’t get any assistance. The checkin lady said to scan our boarding pass (we already had our BHAM pass). It tried to charge us $568! I finally got her attention for help. (Again we don’t have much time and I have no idea how close we were to the gate). She said oh they already have the checked tags and she took them. So we ran to our gate and it was time for boarding but United being United the pilot was an hour late.👨‍✈️

When we arrived in Birmingham, we rented one cart for $5 and went to get our rental car Rickey had prepaid for us. But they said we had to have the physical credit card which we did not have. Cancellation fee would be $50 so naturally I spoke to a manager on their phone (we only had our Cambodian phone service). The manager waived the fee and reimbursed the prepay. But then when I went to rent another they noticed my driver’s license had expired and wouldn’t rent to us. Sure am glad we didn’t fly into Nashville and plan to drive like we did last time!🛬🙄

I called my daughter Jessica from their phone to see if she could come get us. She and her fiance’ came about an hour later.🚙

We made it home through the rush hour traffic. Rickey was going to open the garage door remotely since I didn’t have my house key. He did that when we came home in the summer. He couldn’t for some reason so I found a way in. Thankfully he could disarm the alarm so the police wouldn’t come. When I came in I heard an alarm but it was our old system so I unplugged that. I tried to turn on an outside light and I heard a loud pop and then smoke from switch and no light. While they were getting in suitcases I turned on the heat and a few minutes later our smoke alarm went off! This is all in the first 15 minutes yall ! But hey we are home safe and I would say sound but we are going on 30 something stress filled (physical and mental) hours without sleep!😴😣

These are just first world inconveniences.
– So glad we didn’t miss any flights!
– We had nice people sit beside us on all our flights.
– We knew our luggage made it to each connection because hello! we retrieved it ourselves and checked it on each connection!😊

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Today, Phaedra and Annika left to go home.  There were some minor issues getting paperwork for Caesar, but we will be home in about 3 weeks.

This is one of the parts of Cambodia that I will miss the most.  The day to day parts of life.  This is the family that brings a food cart to the street we live on.  There are about 8 carts on our street.  It’s the best grilled chicken I’ve ever had anywhere.  They are there every night from about 5 – 10 pm.  The mom cooks the rice, noodles, and crab. The dad grills. The daughters help take food to the customers sitting along the road. I get to practice some of the little Khmai that I know. Here, I am sitting on the side of the road waiting for my order.

Phaedra’s last meal in Cambodia.

I haven’t seen pull tabs in the US for 30 years.  They are pretty common in Cambodia.  A lot of companies put prizes on the tabs.

Annika got some new ridiculous earrings today.

On Sunday, Annika and I ran in some races at Angkor Wat. I “ran” the half marathon around Angkor Wat and through Angkor Thom. Annika ran in the 5K. She got second place female overall.

She got a few prizes along with 500,000 Reil (125 USD) and a ridiculous amount of energy drinks.  10 cases of Wurkz energy drink.

Annika’s 240 energy drinks. We couldn’t carry all of these back on the scooter, so we only took a few cases.  We gave 1 case away before we got back to the scooter and gave some others away as well.

 

Some pictures around Angkor Wat we took while previewing the course.