Hello from Cambodia! This is Emma again, and I am writing from a internet cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We arrived a few nights ago after 2 extremely long days of bus travel, including a pretty smooth border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia. We are all enjoying a free afternoon, and are mostly trying to stay cool in this heat. It is currently 98 degrees here, and we have not ceased being sweaty since we got to this new country. We are all adjusting to the new vibe and heat of Cambodia, and we are happy to have ended our time in Thailand with an unexpected perfect night.
Since I last wrote, we traveled from Sukothai to Korat by bus, stopping for the night to take a break from traveling. As many people say, some things happen for a reason, and it was definitely fate that brought us to Korat on the night of March 23rd. Once we had checked into our hotel for the night, we ventured out into the new city, and happened upon the most amazing festival. Stretching on for what seemed like miles in the city center was a yearly celebration in honor of the town’s founder and his wife. Packed with every kind of food stall you can imagine, brightly colored games and rides, and rows and rows of locals selling merchandise, we were in awe when we came upon it. We spent hours there, eating delicious meat sticks, traditional Thai dishes and homemade desserts; walking among the tents selling pillows, clothing, snacks and many other items; and watching the parade that included floats, live singing and traditional dancing. We were among the only foreigners there, a big change from Chiang Mai, and we were warmed by the sweet smiles and friendly nature given to us by the locals there. Music and fireworks echoed through the city air all night long, and we could not have had a better last experience in Thailand.
After all thoroughly enjoying ourselves at the festival, we met back together for a special evening planned by our wonderful leaders. The 8 of us students were told to intentionally join the leaders on the rooftop of our hotel (don’t worry parents, it was very safe up there!), where we found them gathered around a ring of candles on the ground. Quietly we gathered in a circle and were instructed to close our eyes. Then, through a guided meditation, Julia and Topher took us on a journey back through our time in Thailand. This is what they read to us among the city lights and flickering candles on a rooftop in Thailand:
Imagine you grow wings and fly back in time to your home and the days when you first got the call to travel, when the Carpe Diem opportunity came into being, and you decided to take the leap into the unknown. Embarking on this journey, you feel yourself challenged in multiple ways with the new life before you, straddling the edge of the person you were before this trip and the person you could become.
Imagine yourself meeting the group for the first time, be it awkward hellos at the airport or an overwhelming group onslaught in Thailand. Picture yourself in Chiang Mai, settling in to the Mojto Garden where we collapsed after an epic journey around the world. Imagine yourself on the scavenger hunt on your own without the group for the first time. What was this like for you? What challenged you? What surprised you?
Now imagine yourself wandering through the courtyard at Mojito reflecting on your intention and gratitude, then moving into a candlelit room and sharing your weight, your hope.
Now check in with yourself. Where are you in relation to your edge? Are you feeling challenged? Are you growing in relation to the goals and intentions you set for yourself?
Picture yourself nervously arriving at your homestay and watching the van pull away. Your first awkward attempts at communication. Being left alone with a family you do not know that more often than not, does not understand you nor you them. Can you remember the strange unrecognizable food that was placed before you? Picture yourself sitting in the open aired classroom for two full weeks of language class. Bring yourself back to the first experience in a monastery with Phenom, surrounded by strangers dressed in white and sitting uncomfortably for hours on end. Bring back the moment you said goodbye to your families and the final eve we released hot paper lanterns into the black night.
Now check in with yourself. Where are you in relation to your edge? Are you feeling challenged? Are you growing in relation to the goals and intentions you set for yourself?
Bring yourself back to the moment you strapped on your pack and began following Mr. Susin uphill in the broiling heat, waking freezing cold in the pitch dark at 4 am, riding homemade bamboo rafts down the river, falling, and rowing, and balancing the unsteady raft. Picture the evening we sat together under the bright starry night while Topher and Mr. Susin sang over a crackling fire and we sang along into the smoke and calm evening air.
Now check in with yourself. Where are you in relation to your edge? Are you feeling challenged? Are you growing in relation to the goals and intentions you set for yourself?
Imagine yourself back on the windy, nauseating songtoew ride and arriving at the orphanage. The feeling of rice husks and clay between your toes. Dutsy, dry aching muscles. Swimming in a filthy stagnant river. Jim and Tin’s endless affection and haunting past.
Now check in with yourself. Where are you in relation to your edge? Are you feeling challenged? Are you growing in relation to the goals and intentions you set for yourself?
Go back, sitting in the pagoda with our amazing ex monk, ex movie star, the beloved Australian, Laurie, and learning about the monastery torn in two between Cambodia and Burma, the lives destroyed in between. Inhabit your weary bones as you rose in the dark at 5 am and shuffled down to morning chanting wrapped in a blanket. Meditating for hours on end and learning about the haunted history of the young novice monks. The day of silence, sealed in your own skin, your own mind.
Bring yourself back to the first time you were sick
The first time you had an argument with someone.
When you felt homesick.
If you got lost, or did something that scared you.
The first time you opened up and let yourself be vulnerable to other members of our group.
Now take a moment to imagine your greatest struggle, your greatest feeling of accomplishment, and your strongest feelings of gratitude for another member of the group.
Bring yourself up to this week. Feeling pure, beautiful, cooling rain for the first time while biking through long-ago deserted pillars of brick and resting Buddhas. Lying together and reading, listening to horrible atrocities against women, learning about realities beyond your own individual life. Riding for nine hours on a cramped bus ride, beginning the day with no ticket in hand and figuring it out as we go. Our final night in Thailand with a surprise enchanting festival, endless rows of delicious food, fireworks exploding into the night, a celebration for Korat and for us, ending this era in our trip, moving on tomorrow to a different country, a different home.
Imagine tomorrow, next week, next month. The next seven weeks ahead. Think about your goals and intentions. Check in with yourself. How will you be challenged? How will you grow in relation to your goals and intentions? Picture yourself on the precipice of where you have been and where we are going.
As you begin to slowly come back to this space, focus on the candles flickering in front of you, the light you being and that which you want to create.
When you feel ready, we invite you to share one challenge or struggle so far in our journey, one accomplishment, one goal moving forward, and one feeling of gratitude you have for someone in our group or someone we have met along the way.
Hearing these words was powerful. It brought us back through each defining moment on this trip so far, right up to that very moment on that rooftop. When Julia and Topher had finished reading that in their lulling voices, we began to open up and share our feelings. We spoke about our struggles and accomplishments, our goals and appreciations. It was a small ceremony to celebrate something big; an ending and a beginning. We finished the night with what we call “hug club”, in which everyone hugs each and every member of the group, and felt full and alive when fireworks burst in the air above us just as we wrapped up the evening. We saw it only as the world smiling on us. Showing us that we were meant to be there, among the festivities and joy, on our final night in Thailand. That we are meant to be here, on this journey, together. We left Thailand the next morning with a bittersweet farewell. We have come to love the warm smiles and soft spoken attitude of the Thai people, the simplicity of the Thai money system and the cheap and delicious food bought on the sides of city streets. We still continue to say Thai words here and are adjusting to the transition to a new place and the next chapter of this grand adventure, and we are ready to take Cambodia by storm as we do with everything. We will continue to enjoy each and every moment.