"Matt, the monkeys are not going to attack us..."

So, clearly it's been way too long since we blogged here. Our access has been troublesome, so we have some real catching up to do. But before that, a story.... We are in India now, having a wonderful time with our dear friends Steffen and Grace. After three days in Delhi, we moved on to the wonderful little town of Bundi, where this adventure takes place.

Bundi is a picturesque little town, full of blue houses, many temples and lots of cows, pigs and dogs wandering the colorful (and odorous) streets. It also has an amazing hillside palace and fort that is only partially restored, and therefore great for real exploration. Our first day in town we took a fabulous wander through the palace (we were almost the only ones there), soaking up all the history and architecture. We also met many of the non-human inhabitants of the town - the monkeys that are everywhere. Day one, they were cute and fun to watch.

Day two.... We headed up to the top of the hill, and the unrenovated fort - which, it turns out, is really monkey-land. I'll let you enjoy the story in Andy's voice, with his journal entry for the day:

"Today, we were attacked by monkeys! Grace was also sick. We all decided it was a good day for her to be sick. She is pretty scared of monkeys. We were up in the ruins of the palace, up in the high ruins. Up until then, we hadn't had any problem with the monkeys. We were going to head in a different direction. There were a couple of monkeys making us a little bit nervous. We had all made it past the two monkeys, but they were still eyeing us. Steffen went back to scare them off with a stick. The first sign of danger was when the monkeys began to growl. All of a sudden I heard Steffen start to yell. At first I thought that Steffen was trying to scare the monkeys away. When I looked up, one of the monkeys was gone, and Steffen was slowly backing up. That was when I got worried and started to walk away. All of a sudden the other monkey also began to chase Steffen. He began to scream bloody murder. The last thing I saw was a monkey jump at Steffen from the roof of a building. Matt was already halfway out of the puny doorway. I raced out after him. I remember watching my mom come out after me. I had my slingshot, and grabbed a rock and loaded my slingshot. I heard Steffen yell again. I aimed my slingshot at the doorway. Matt started to cry because he thought Steffen and my dad were getting eaten by monkeys. Then, out came my dad (bleeding on his face), and Steffen, who closed the door behind them. We all breathed a sigh of relief. We then proceeded to walk down the hill. We were then caught in a migration of approximately 100 monkeys coming up the hill. That was very nerve wracking. After being chased by monkeys, we very scared. We finally made it through. It was a wild experience." From Andy's journal - Jan. 26, 2008

Some editorial comments from the father and a few important asides to fill out the details:

Steffen might argue with some of the details, but as we know, eyewitness accounts can often differ. The blood on me... When the monkeys screamed at Steffen, I assumed that would be it, and then they would run off. I turned to see they were not leaving at all, and Steffen was moving quickly down my way. Chrissie and the boys were safely making their escape, so I jumped down a bit, and turned to see how Steffen was faring (of course, ready to stand by his side in battle, if necessary). At this point, Steffen jumped down, swinging his stick to keep the monkeys at bay, and also effectively kept me at bay by hitting me with his monkey stick. I am healing up just fine.

Chrissie's prediction-reputation with her boys, however, will take much longer to heal than my face. Just prior to the real adventure starting, Chrissie-the-mother shared that she was not interested in exploration of the unchartered fort (monkey) territory that we seemed to be wandering into. A moment after that, she reassured Matt with the line that titles this blog - "Don't worry Matt, the monkeys are not going to attack us." Shortly after those words are out of her mouth, we are set upon. Here's a bit from Matt's journal to explain...

"I screamed and pushed Andy out of my way and jumped through the hole we had gotten in through. Andy poised his slingshot to hit a monkey. My mom and dad and Steffen made it through alright. We called Mom a jinx because she said earlier that the monkeys would not attack. In Yellowstone, she said we would not see a bear, and we saw a bear [ed. note: the bear sighting came approximately 3 minutes after Chrissie's reassuring statement]. In South Africa, she said we would not see a snake and a snake reared up at us and flattened its neck and swayed[ed note: again... appr. 3 minutes time between mother's reassuring comments and the event she assured would not happen]." From Matt's journal - Jan. 26, 2008.

As you can see, Chrissie's animal assurance credibility has taken a serious blow here. So, there's the monkey adventure - funny now, not then...

There are many other updates we should give, but we'll try to summarize a bit, since many of you have a life outside of our blog.

Our second week in Cambodia was great. Chrissie and the boys had a great time at the beach, and I had a great adventure out to Rattanakiri on a school leaders training trip with John Morefield. I picked up an interesting little bug out in the wilds of rural northeast Cambodia that I think I've finally gotten rid of, but that just makes the trip more interesting.

We survived our time apart, and then headed out to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. As I have said many times, pictures can't capture the feel of these amazing temple complexes - some of which are 1000 years old, but we'll show you some anyway. We made friends with some of the local Khmer girls selling us things, one of whom said "save one of your boys for me...." Our big adventure in the midst of the temples was renting electric bikes for a day. We had to ride about 25 kilometers total that day. The temples are about 7km from our guest house (through the busy and crazy streets of Siem Reap), and are then spread out on a 17km or so route. Let's just say no one died, and that the e-bikes are very fun when they have electricity, but don't work so well when you just have to pedal.

We met up with Steffen and Grace in Delhi, India, on Jan 21, (it is wonderful to have them along) and had three full days there. We wandered far and wide, got 3-day passes for the Delhi Metro and took the great city in. The markets of Old Delhi were intense, and my favorite part of the time there (though I don't think all would concur with me on that). Our monkey adventure was part of our 3 days in Bundi. The people of the town were wonderfully welcoming and friendly, and the boys even got in on a wee bit of a cricket match.

We are now hanging out in a fabulous guest house in Udaipur - a gorgeous city with palace on the lake, and surrounding hills. The guest house is a sizable place but we have all the rooms, so have the place to ourselves. There's a big yard (huge bonus) so room for us to play soccer (Steffen and I need a rematch with the boys after losing yesterday afternoon) and have shuttlecock (a sort of hand-worthy version of badmitton and hackey-sack combined that we picked up in Cambodia) tournaments.

We head to Bangalore (and our great friends, the Hanstad family!) on Wednesday. From here on, we should have more regular internet, so won't have such blogging gaps. We continue to have a ball, and still all like each other, so that is good news.

phnom penh...

Sunset behind the Royal Palace, from the Tonle Sap River, photo by Matt Drape...
(we'll add more photos when we're on a faster computer...)

Chrissie and I are currently on a "date" here at our favorite Phnom Penh internet cafe, while Andy and Matt are off adventuring with Kathy Morefield. Kathy wanted some boy help in finding a birthday present for a seven-year-old friend of hers, and she liked the idea of helping us have a little couple-time. We promise that it will not all be spent here, though we are sitting next to each other, which is nice.

Phnom Penh has been wonderful. It is an amazing and complex place, fraught with challenges and contradictions, and full of delightful and dear people. While there is much tragedy in the history here, and many obstacles lying to better things for most of the people, there is a sweet spirit in the midst of it all.



We have been adventuring widely here, and will try to cover some of the highlights:



-We have spent great time with our dear friends John and Kathy Morefield. John (former Seattle principal, and professor @ UW) is working with the Cambodian Ministry of Education doing principal/leadership development. Kathy is teaching ESL at the University and more informally to smaller groups. They are taking great care of us, and it has been a joy to reconnect. We have visited a number of projects with Kathy that serve children affected by AIDS (either directly themselves, of having parents suffering...).

-We have been able to connect with a Cambodian friend, Min Sor, who is the country director for an education NGO, Room to Read. Yesterday we joined him and his family for a wonderful and very traditional Khmer meal. It was delicious, and all the dishes were new to us - quite an eating adventure.


-We spent a good bit of time this past week exploring the difficult history of Cambodia and the time of the Khmer Rouge. We traveled out to the Killing Fields - Choeung Ek, and visited the Tuol Sleng Prison here in town. While there were many "killing fields" during the Khmer Rouge's genocide, Choeung Ek was the primary execution site, where people were taken from Tuol Sleng prison here in Phnom Penh. It is very painful to witness what took place, but it is also a powerful testament to the human ability to survive, and the stories speak to the important work that still lies ahead for the people of Cambodia. If you want to delve more deeply into the stories yourself, visit two very powerful websites - Document Center of Cambodia (http://www.dccam.org/ - a research and documentation project), or "Beauty and Darkness: Cambodia, the Odyssey of the Khmer People" at www.mekong.net/Cambodia.


-We have also visited numerous temples and fascinating cultural sites, like the Royal Palace and National Museum. There is such a rich history beyond the Khmer Rouge, and that history has survived, despite the KR efforts. We took an evening boat ride with the Morefields. Phnom Penh sits on the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers - quite an amazing site - so we floated down the Tonle Sap, and then motored up the Mekong a bit.


-We visited the Psar Tuol Tom Pong Market (also called the Russian Market) and found lots of great deals in the hilariously cramped, stuffy and busy little aisles. Our wandering through the food section connected us to a wondrous diversity of sights and smells - some good, some not so. We saw many chickens that looked quite a bit like our little rubber traveling companion, as well as live turtles, eels, crabs and many different fish. Fascinating.



The wonderful thing about living in South Seattle, is that it represents so many different parts of the world, and there are many things we see here that remind us of home. We like that. There are also many great projects in the midst of the city that we have had a chance to connect to, one in particular called "Friends", which is a training program extraordinaire for helping street youth move off the streets (with New Horizon connections!). They run a number of training restaurants (similar to the Fare Start project in Seattle), and we have enjoyed some incredible food there. Their tacos will make an updated version of Andy and Matt's favorite foods of the trip.

Tomorrow (Monday), I am headed out to rural northeast Cambodia (Ratanakiri) with John as he heads out there for the week with his Cambodian colleagues to do a training with principals in the province. Chrissie and the boys are headed the opposite direction, and going to the beach at Sihanoukville while I'm gone. On Wednesday evening we'll reconnect and then on Thursday we head northwest to Siem Reap, and the amazing temples of Angkor Wat. We'll keep you posted!

Andy and Matts' bests and worsts food and drink from around the world (so far)

Here are Andy and Matt's highs and lows of eating and drinking around the world.

Drinks:

Bests

South African cream soda... it's green (only good thing about it)!

Thailand's drinks in a bag... ice in a bag, comes in licorice and bubblegum flavors. Mom likes the ice tea in a bag. Dad enjoys the straight coffee in a bag, with ice, poured in using a strainer to keep out the chunks of coffee.

Cambodia's lime juice... very refreshing. Add sugar water, or pucker up.

Khmer Restaurant's milkshakes... best so far out of the United States.

Worsts

South African cream soda... tastes really gross.

Food:

Bests

Amman Marriott's Sports Bar burger... really good burger, you also get to watch soccer on a very large screen.

Amman Marriott's Sports Bar nachos... comes with everything you don't need (even if you just ask for cheese, chicken, and chips). It also includes a big screen showing soccer.

Old City Jerusalem New York Deli burger... good plain old burger.

Thailand's pad thai... very good.

Cambodia's sweet and sour chicken... we didn't know that something non deep-fried could taste so good.

Worsts

South Africa's burgers... tastes like meatloaf on a bun. If it doesn't, it will be under-cooked.

Out of World bacon... it is just ham!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goede Hoep Bed and Breakfasts' scrambled eggs... not really worst in the world, but the cook bragged about her totally "delicious" scrambled eggs. She gets the award for runniest eggs in the world.

Written by: Andrew Drape, Narrated by: Matthew Drape and Andrew Drape

catching up

We've covered some ground since our last Jerusalem blog, and are now happily hanging out with our friend, Katie Thorleifson, in Bangkok, Thailand.  Katie is a former Hawthorne Elem. teacher, now teaching at an international school here in Bangkok.  She is very graciously putting us up (or putting up with us...) in her wonderful apartment for the weekend, and serving as tour guide extraordinaire.  The boys are thoroughly enjoying her cats, but I'm not sure the feeling is mutual.

Here's a bit of an update on the past week:

Nazareth - wonderful and beautiful.  We spent 3 nights at a great guest house, Fauzi Azar, run by an Israeli couple who are both committed backpackers/trekkers/outdoors people, as well as committed to reconciliation work and making their spot a place where Israeli Arabs and Jews and folks from all over can connect.  It's a beautiful old home set on the hillside of Nazareth.  We met a great guy there, a Mennonite from Pennsylvania named Dave, who is working at the guest house as well as for Mennonite Central Committee - but his other project is something called Jesus Trail.  The Jesus Trail is a hiking/trekking route through the Galilee region of northern Israel, a very beautiful and rugged area worthy of lots of time spent outdoors.  Check it out at jesustrail.com (quote from the website - "The Jesus Trail offers an alternative for travelers and pilgrims to experience the steps of Jesus in a way that is authentic, adventurous and educational.").  

   Our grand adventure on New Year's Eve day was taking the bus out to Tiberias (about an hour away on the Sea of Galilee) where we rented bikes, and biked 40km up to the Mount of Beatitudes and Capernaum (including the ruins of Peter's house and the spot on the lake where Jesus conferred upon Peter leadership of the church).  It was quite cool, but also hilly (the climb up to the Mt. of B was a serious workout), on a busy road, and Matt's bike was a bit of a bust.  We rewarded ourselves with a big dinner at an Italian restaurant in Tiberias (I had the St. Peter's Fish, appropriately) and then bought lots of snacks for our looming New Year's celebration.  We welcomed the new year in Nazareth on the deck at Fauzi Azar, with snacks galore and lots of fireworks.

   New Year's Day we taxi-bussed our way the 2 hours from Nazareth to Tel Aviv, which was quite a feat since I was sure our emphysema-ridden driver, who was smoking his way along, was going to keel over at the wheel before we made it.  I had my plan for simultaneously administering CPR while navigating the bus to a safe halt.  Fortunately, Mr. Driver managed to wheeze, cough and smoke his way to Tel Aviv without event.  We wandered Tel Aviv that evening, watching the sun set over the Mediterranean and visiting the local laundry, so as not to offend our fellow passengers on our flight to Bangkok the next day.  We didn't leave until the next night (Wednesday), so we had a nice, mellow day of wandering Tel Aviv, and even taking in our first movie theater of the trip with a viewing of "3:10 to Yuma", not exactly family friendly (our options were limited), but a rollicking jaunt through the gun-battles, with Hebrew subtitles.

   We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday (Jan. 3) afternoon, to our friend Katie's hearty and hospitable welcome.  We had a wonderful day wandering Bangkok yesterday, with more in store today and tomorrow, before we head to Cambodia on Monday.  We taxied, trained and boated our way about town, visiting some temples and eating good food (and drinking good things like Thai iced coffee and liquid red licorice, though my street treat was chicken satay... see photo above).

  

   We have had some unintended adventures with United over our 'round the world tickets on our last and coming flights, but I think it's worked out - if not... that will be a future blog.

   We'll try to give you a more thorough Bangkok run-down before we leave here Monday.

Peace and Joy!