More Deep Thoughts from the Boiler Room

I have really enjoyed my second year teaching here in Cambodia. It has been a year of blessing in many ways for me, yet not free of challenges, of course. We have wrapped up the school year.  There were several tears on the last day, but I know that when they meet their new teacher next year, grade 2 with Miss Carson will become a distant memory.

June is here and with it the beginning of the rainy season.  Even though April and May are the hot, hot months, June through October won't seem much cooler, just more rain thrown into the mix.  How hot is hot?  How about high 90's with high humidity.  It's hot enough that a few weeks ago the temperature dropped to 93 and it felt like a crisp cool day.  This is the land of perpetual summer.  This last 'winter' (and by winter I simply mean it was the month of January) I watched several Christmas episodes of cooking shows.  It made my insides ache to see the beautiful kitchens decorated with fairy lights, with cakes coming out of the oven and warm spicy dishes bubbling on the stove. And of course the Christmas music in the background brought it all home. When you play Christmas music here and it's 95 outside and 90 in your house, there's something that's just not quite the same about it.  So I watched those Christmas episodes about three times over and my insides were stirred because I really love that. Beautiful homes, warm kitchens, dinner for guests, laughing voices around the table, etc.  I love to hostess.  I like to cook, but it's not really the cooking itself that I love; the stirring, the chopping, the mixing... It's offering the fruits of my kitchen to others.  One of my deepest forms of happiness is having people enjoy my cooking, and leave my home feeling full, warm and happy. It's my way of bringing beauty into the world.

We were sitting in a cafe the other night, staying out late because school's out and now the teachers can play.  During the course of conversation we were wondering out loud how big Cambodia is compared to the United States.  I came across this fun site called, If It Were My Home, http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/  There were some interesting statistics, such as, if Cambodia were my home instead of the U.S. I would make 95% less money and have 82% more babies.

While clicking around on this site, the opening paragraph on the homepage grabbed my attention immediately.  It stated, "The lottery of birth is responsible for much of who we are.  If you were not born in the country you were, what would your life be like?  Would you be the same person?"  It caused me to ask myself, if I were born in a different place, which parts of me would remain the same? Essentially, who am I in the deepest parts of my soul and being?

I have to admit, I was stumped.  Would my favorite color still be green if I hadn't swum in the sea green beaches of Sihanoukville?  If I had been born in Asia instead of America would I still laugh as loud as I do? Because, you know, nice Asian girls don't laugh loud and cover their mouth when they do.  Would I still love to hostess? Would I still be an introvert with occasional gregarious flare ups?  Would I still be a homebody with an adventuresome spirit?

Nature vs. nurture.  Take out the nurture and what would be left? I know there is no way to separate a person completely from the effects of their environment. But I was in deep thought.  It really made me think... What are the core aspects of my God-given soul, my uniquely formed genetics?  Which parts of me would remain the same if I were born in any other place or time? WHO AM I?

On Facebook tonight a quiz popped up on my feed right after this long discussion with my housemate, Hilly.  Guess what it said?  Can we guess who you are in 10 questions? Of course I had to take the quiz.  I was hoping the quiz would tell me that I have the gift of hospitality, and confirm my recent ruminations. 

To my disappointment, but not to my surprise, it pegged me as a male in my 20's with a flashy, gorgeous smile.  How do they come up with that because I chose chicken over beef?

Hilly is a twin, and we've had some insightful discussions on this matter.  I'll share some of my humorous musings with you...

Since hostessing is one of my deepest passions, what might this look like if I had been birthed in a different time and culture? Let's imagine for a moment...

If I were born into a nomadic people group, maybe I would invite folks into my tent for some roasted lamb and sautéed desert weeds.

If I were born and raised in rural Russia, I might offer my best bowl of borscht made from beets freshly plucked from my kitchen garden.

What about Cambodia?  I might specialize in serving up a dish of piping hot fried tarantulas or offer you dessert wrapped in banana leaves. 

All humor aside, it's been fun and interesting to toss the idea around.  So here's my question for you... WHO ARE YOU?

Borneo: Rain forests and islands

I've been falling down on my blogging job.  Not that things haven't been happening around here. We've traveled to Mondulkiri, went to a festival of Khmer cuisine and attended a Khmer wedding.  Maybe I'll get around to writing about those things, but today is all about our recent trip to Borneo.

We had a week off from teaching due to Khmer New Year.  We had planned this trip more than a year in advance due to a fabulous deal on plane tickets.

Borneo is a large island just southeast of Cambodia.  Three different countries make up the island of Borneo: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.  We visited Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia.

Here's a map of our travel route:

Kuching is the capital of Sarawak.  The name Kuching is thought to derive from a word in Malay that means cat.  There are numerous kitschy cat statues around town.

This is a fun city to walk around.  There is a promenade that runs around the waterfront.  One of the first things you notice is the large legislative building across the river.

Figuring out how to get around and see things yourself was a lot cheaper than going with a tour.  We found a bus station and headed for a nearby orangutan sanctuary.

Okay, that's not the bus we took. Ours was more modern and air conditioned, but there were plenty of these around!

At the Semengoh Orangutan Rehab Center, these guys are slowly being introduced back into the wild.

Here comes a big fella.

They go through orangutan kindergarten and primary until they graduate and are ready to be released.

It's so entertaining to watch them climb and swing.

One of the things I really liked about Kuching is it's old colonial architecture, of which I have become a big fan.

This is the courthouse complex.

 This building housed the textile museum.

Many shops had interesting shutters or doors on the upper level.

Other things to see around town include a few Chinese temples,

A pink and gold mosque,

and Jackie Chan strolling around the riverfront mingling with the locals.

Another day we went to Bako National Park.  You had to take a boat to get there.

We didn't know it was a such a dangerous place...

Can you see the surprise underneath? We saw this little one on the way in, and on our way out we saw the behind end of a proboscis monkey.

We hiked through steamy jungles.  There's a nice path here, but much of the trail was tangled roots.

Pitcher plants were everywhere along the trail.

Here's an enormous one!

And we have come to the end of the trail: a beach and the South China Sea awaits us.

They said no swimming because there were crocs, rays and jellyfish.  But after a hot sweaty hike, who could resist?  Definitely not us!

The shoreline was stunning from above.

The dip in the ocean made the hike back a little easier to bear under the hot equatorial sun.

On the bus ride home we made friends with some young rambunctious girls at one of the stops.

Of course we visited a local market while in Kuching.  I love posting market pictures for the folks back home.  This reminds me of synchronized swimming in a grotesque sort of way.

Lots of cookies at the baker's stall.

What a super smile.  He's frying up fish fingers.  Malaysians are so friendly and kind.

Layer cake is sold everywhere in Sarawak.  We made sure we had a supply every morning to enjoy with our coffee.  Mmm, I miss it already.

The city was full of cute little nooks and crannies.

One last sunset on the river before we headed up to Kota Kinabalu.

Our next stop was Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah.  I'm sad to say that we flew right over Brunei without stopping in for a visit.  I would have loved to have seen the Sultan's palace.

One of the first things we did was go island hopping.  There are several islands not very far off the main island.

I guess the boat drivers need some entertainment after doing this day after day.  We had a boat race.  Notice who's ahead...

The water was incredibly beautiful and teeming with fish.

 Manukan was the first island we visited.  Small and beautiful.  This fish swim all around you and one even nibbled my fingers.

Sapi was my favorite island.  To see and swim in water like this does something to your soul.

We walked around the island to find a more private stretch of beach...

 ..and came upon a monitor lizard (a smaller cousin to the Komodo.)  I looked it up later and found out that they are only partially venomous.  We didn't stick around to find out.  The aquamarine waters were summoning us.

I was a bit toasty pink at the end of the day in spite of several applications of super-strength sunblock.  I did the math at the end of the day:  

white girl + equator = sunburn

This day we visited Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Boreo.

We didn't climb the peak ourselves, but hiked around the base,

and took some guided walks to learn about the local flora.  We didn't see it on our trip, but Borneo is also home to the rafflesia flower, an enormous stinky flower.  It can grow up to one meter across and smells like rotting flesh.  Yummy.

This is the only picture of my travel buddy and I together.

The peak is shrouded in clouds.  It was wondrously, gloriously cool up here.

The sunsets in Borneo were spectacular.

I really enjoyed Borneo.  It was safe, clean and beautiful and Malaysians were so kind and friendly.  Borneo is home to all kinds of unique flora and fauna, so if you're a nature enthusiast, it's a must for you.  For me, island hopping was the highlight.  That sea green water, aquamarine lagoons clear as crystal... mmm.  Need I say more?

Teaching in southeast Asia definitely has it's benefits, and awesome travel destinations a short flight away is definitely one of them.

Next on the bucket list.... Vietnam, maybe Laos and at the very top.... the Maldives.

From Market to Kitchen: A Tale of Chai Tea

We had a few things to pick up at the market.  Both my lenses were constantly popping out of my sunglasses, so that was on the list for me. Rebecca wanted to pick up a travel book on Borneo for our upcoming trip this April.

Off to the market we went one late Saturday morning. Not all open air markets are the same here in Cambodia.  Some are dark, dingy and nauseating.  Others can be bright, bustling and interesting.  And today's trip was just that.

The highlight for me?  Squid on a stick. I've seen a whole fish or a few frogs on a stick but never a large squid.  Isn't it fun? Can you imagine walking around a county fair in the U.S. noshing on one of these?

Rebecca was a good sport about holding this up for its photo shoot.  She's a vegetarian, but she sacrificed for the sake of the blog.

There's always lots of fish of all varieties.

I never get tired of looking at all the beautiful textiles they sell here.  Scarves make great gifts for folks back home.

Also on the list was fresh coconut milk.  The stuff you can only get in a can in the U.S. We've seen them make it in the markets before, so we were keeping our eyes peeled for the coconut milk-maker.  As it turns out, no one sold fresh coconut milk so we had to do a jog around town.  We found one very close to home and school actually.  Right next door to Mr. Sato's family shop!

We knew we were in the right place when we saw a stack of these unattractive brown beauties.

We ordered up two kilos of coconut milk. (Yes kilos. Even though it's liquid you order it in kilos not liters). The man gave them a thwack and a crack and broke open these bristly nuggets.  

He dumped the water into a bucket then began to grind the white flesh out of each one.

Here's an up-close of his grinding machine.

After scraping every last bit of glistening white flesh out with his grinder, this is what it looked like.

The shredded coconut is then placed in this coconut milking machine. I'm sure there's a technical term in Khmer for it, but since I'll probably never know what that is I'm going to use my own name.  I like the coco-cow.

The milk came out in a bucket below, just as if farmer John was milking the coconuts himself!

We ended up with an enormous amount of coconut milk for $4. What does one do with heaps of freshly extracted coconut milk?

This brings me to the purpose of this post.  Why was fresh coconut milk on the list?  To make this warm cup of homemade spiced chai tea, of course.

I simmered a big pot of black tea, cinnamon, anise, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and orange zest.

After that steeped and stewed for a bit, I strained out all those goodies and added brown sugar, a drizzle of honey and a splash of vanilla.

Fill your favorite mug halfway with the spicy dark chai.  Then top with your choice of milk, mine being market-fresh coconut milk.

Enjoy.

Then imagine as you gaze into the spicy depths:

It's the holiday season and I'm warm from a fireplace, not because of my close proximity to the equator.

I'm at a ski lodge in the alps enjoying this deep, warm spicy beverage in between runs.

I'm in India tasting authentic chai... Rudyard Kipling... The Jungle Book. My childhood.  Children, school.  

Oh yes, I am a teacher of small children here in Cambodia.  It's all coming back now.

This is the recipe I used, if you'd like to make it at home.  It will be fantastic, even if you don't have fresh coconut milk.  I shared some with a colleague who's from India. She loved it.  We shared with the kitchen staff who were preparing lunch and others who came trickling into the kitchen. Everyone liked it, so I'm sure you will too.

Happy sipping!