So why travel to Thailand and Cambodia?

Pre-trip, the honest answer was that it was affordable. Like, very affordable. Living, eating, transportation, the whole thing. It was followed closely by food. I eat Thai food at least once a week at home so one can only imagine the absolute dream of having access to it anytime, anywhere and once again, for an exceptionally cheap price.

While I was able to maximize my wallet and my stomach, what I came back with was something deeper that goes beyond a budget and foodieism.

Here are some things that I learned and observed along with a few pictures to accompany it.

The Buddhism Religion

It’s always been fascinating to see how much influence religion can have on the imprint of a society. During my travels in Europe, Central America and even here in the USA, the exposure I had gotten was always around the Christian and Catholic faith. Coming to Southeast Asia opened up my horizons on a religion that I had only heard of but not necessarily experienced.

It was interesting learning about the history, how it’s affected their rulers, architecture and decisions as well as the daily practices that happen within the temple itself.

And again, it was just so new. Beyond the facts itself of what Buddhism’s beliefs are, how long it’s been around, etc. what I came back home with was just a deeper conviction to love people. People from different backgrounds, religions, even if their practice is a bit different then mine as a follower of Christ.

Villages, Kids and Life’s Deepest Questions

Who am I? What’s my purpose in life?

I’m sure we’ve all asked (and re-asked) these questions to ourselves.

How we find those answers might be a result of what we believe in, our upbringings, our current/past social environments, and I’m sure a combination of a bunch of other things.

We had an incredible opportunity in Chiang Mai to go on a 3 day trek through the jungle and stay overnight with some of the village tribes. It was like something out of a movie when I first saw the sweeping valley that they lived in. The children running around barefoot in the dirt, the water buffalo that was bathing in the water, and the houses that was supported on wooden stilts.

This was it! Farming, agriculture, cooking, raising kids, repeat, boom.

How simple it was to be able to answer what we often consider incredibly complex questions! What’s my purpose? Who am I?

I’ve found that having more choices in life, whether it’s our food, career choices, the clothes we buy tends to lead to more stress. But what a paradox it is when we flip that question around. What if you don’t have any choices? Wouldn’t that also lead to more stress?  If you could swap your lives with these villagers right now, would you?

Probably not right? I presume the answer lies in something more vague, like ‘it depends’ as well as other things like just being thankful for what you have. (more on that later).

Somewhat unrelated but I loved observing the children here in these villages.

Maybe it was a sense of nostalgia when we associated play with interacting with our environment. That’s a branch? Awesome, let’s drag it across the dirt as fast as we can to make noises and dirt rise from it…fun! That’s a hill? Let’s see who can run (or sometimes roll) down it without falling…fun! Aka, no iPhone/tablet needed.

I also couldn’t help but think about the expectations that these kids have. Yes they have school but a majority of them will stay here in the villages to help their parents and tribe survive. No pressure to ace their SAT’s, to get into UC Berkeley, to get a high paying job that will provide for themselves and enough for their retirement at 65.

Yeah it can be easy to feel envious for the simplicity of their lives but only to an extent right? Again if we applied the same scenario of swapping our childhood with theirs, would you have?

Cambodia – A Bittersweet Experience

When we landed in Cambodia we knew we were in for some level of culture shock. The  Siem Reap airport had 5 other airplanes on the ground and nothing but jungle trees surrounding it.

Our first few days around the Angkor Wat temples, floating villages and night markets  was enchanting but it was one short visit to the nearby War Museum that really flipped things around for Noelle and I.

There, our tour guide educated us about the Khmer Rouge, how it still affects the politics and people today and the grim futuristic outlook of tomorrow. (I’d highly encourage you to learn more about the Khmer Rouge if you’re reading this).

It broke my heart and I remember leaving just not knowing what to do with myself.

Naturally, my first response was to ask, “How can I help? What can I do?” There’s got to be some level of hope and optimism even in the worst situations like these right? But as I dug more and more into the corruption and how history has only repeated itself time and time again, I was left with only one thing: prayer.

In all its hopelessness, how encouraging is it to know that our simplest act of prayer can be the catalyst for something bigger.

How comforting it is to know that God hears our prayers and has the biggest heart for a hurting nation. Even amongst all the evil that’s reigned before and even now, that there is always hope in Him.

Last Thoughts

Returning from 2nd/3rd world countries like Cuba, Nicaragua and now Cambodia always leaves me with a newfound appreciation for my life.  But there’s also a spectrum when it comes to these things isn’t there?

On one end, one can be too passive and not take advantage of all the incredible opportunities they are SO blessed to have. “Ah, things are good enough, why change?”

On the other end, especially here in the Bay Area where things are so privileged, wealthy and dare I use the word, entitled, it can fall on the other end where things are never enough. “Ah, there’s always more money to be earned. A bigger house to be purchased. A grander job title to seek after.” etc.

The answer’s probably different for everyone but just some interesting food for thought.

To close, I’d encourage you reader to travel. Travel far and wide and consider visiting areas that challenge who you are and what you were made to do.

I strongly believe that our capacity to love increases when we’re able to expand our curiosity about one another, be empathetically openminded and be willing to have dialogue about our differences.

That’s it for now, cheerios!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AL