blessed christmas.
after being : : far, but not away : : for most of this year, i still felt like i needed to be : : not far, but quite away : : this school break. as part of our traditional class trips around southeast asia (somehow meeting up in milan when we were on exchange doesn't quite count as a class trip), we headed to siem reap and phnom penh for a short trip this december.
our trips had taken us from thailand, to vietnam, and now to cambodia. there are certain similarities but in some aspects the differences were stark. experiencing a place tends to be quite personal though. for me, cambodia was really hot - it was crazy hot weather everyday even though it was supposedly winter, but yet it was still a great place to be because of the people. the people were quite possibly even warmer than their weather, and there was this overwhelming feeling of goodwill wherever we went. we heard a spontaneous life story out of every person we talked with and really felt a sense of 'they really don't cheat your money siah' from the generous helpings of ingredients in the dishes we ate everywhere and the filled to the brim fill until cannot fill bottled water. i hope to go back again soon and learn to be as helpful to the people there as they have been with us.
hrmm and i should also apologise for previously thinking that people who pronounced phnom penh as PPPh-nom penh instead of Nnom penh were odd, yuan lai that's how the locals pronounce it!
blessed christmas once again, and hope that you all are having a restful and inspired holiday season, with a power and meaningful year to come!
