Texas Independence Day

Texas Independence Day is celebrated with food and friends. Homesick Texan blogged about the significance of March 2 saying,

March 2 is Texas Independence Day. On this day 176 years ago, a group convened at Washington-on-the-Brazos (back then simply known as Washington) to craft a declaration of independence from Mexico. From that moment, the Republic of Texas was born.

Because of its significance to Texas history, March 2 is a state holiday, a day of recognition. Now, banks don’t close and you still have to go to work, but plenty of folks gather to say howdy, share a Texas-themed meal and talk about how much they love their home. And yes, usually at these parties there’s some eating and some dancing and maybe even some singing. It’s a wonderful thing.

We certainly celebrated and it was was wonderful thing, even without a sing or dance. Our whole team tasted our Texas Independence Day celebration. Texas shaped cookies (yes, we brought a Texas shaped cookie cutter back with us), Texas state trivia, and a viewing of THE ALAMO (2004).

It's great to share a little bit of home with our friends here.

Cambodian Free Massage

In the process of booking our tour to Cambodia, the tour company asked if we'd like to transfer from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap by air or ground. We inquired about the road conditions and were assured that the road was "the best road in Cambodia." Once confirmed by a friend living in Cambodia, we made our choice.

Day Three: Six hour transfer by bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.

The road was great, at least for the first 45 minutes. Then the road took a turn and the tour guide said, "For the next 5 km you'll receive a free massage."

That "free massage" lasted for about one hour (and probably 50 km) as we bumped down the road. One side of the road was paved and the other side was dirt. Potholes covered both sides of the road. The holes were huge and provided quite the massage. We rejoiced when the tour guide said, "That's it. No more free massage."

After our massage, we snapped tons of countryside pictures: houses on stilts, water buffaloes, rice fields, fish farms, and cheap Vietnamese gasoline sold by the liter in old glass soda bottles.

Elephants in Angkor

When we asked my brother what he'd like to do in SE Asia, riding an elephant was number one on his list, a definitely must-not-leave-Asia-without-doing type of thing. I imagined an elephant ride as a cheesy stroll around the big tent of a traveling circus. The ride we took was anything but. The elephant ride turned into a trip favorite for everyone.

The ride took us from outside the ancient city guarded by walls, through the gate, and into the ancient Angkor Bayon. We first viewed the ancient ruins from the top of an elephant. Amazing! Along the way, our "driver" picked a leaf from a tree and played it like a harmonica. The ride was quite bumpy and uncomfortable, but the sights were amazing.

My brother was right! Definitely put an elephant ride in Angkor at the top of your list if you're ever traveling to Cambodia.

Anniversary in separate rooms

On February 21, 2002, we met on a Thursday evening after the Wesley Foundation's weekly event. Ten years later on February 21, 2012, we spent the night in separate hotel rooms.

You see, we spent the 10th anniversary of the day we meet traveling home from Bangkok to Harbin. It was the beginning of a long and eventful two day event.

The day began on the beach in Thailand south of Bangkok eating breakfast and taking some last minute photos of the boys on the beach wearing something other than a swimsuit. We boarded a van, traveled 3.5 hours to Bangkok's airport and waited for our flight home. We ate lunch at Burger King and Subway (the last of those we'll see until we visit to America this summer) and boarded the delayed evening flight to Shanghai.

30 minutes from Shanghai, a flight attendant told us that our plane would not be land in Shanghai because we've been diverted to Qingdao because of bad weather. Minutes later, the crew announced this to the whole cabin.

It's midnight by the time we learned the flight was cancelled and we're stranded in Qingdao. (Guess we won't be using the room we reserved in Shanghai.) During the next thirty minutes, we cleared immigration and customs, claimed our bags, used rockin' Chinese to change our flights, and waited along with everyone else for a bus to the hotel.

At the hotel, everyone jostled for room keys at the check in counter. Since we had four travelers, we're given two rooms. We spent the night apart.

After 3 hours of sleep, we're shuttled back to the airport ready to board our new flight home from Qingdao.

We arrived at our apartment in Harbin by 12:30 PM ready to sleep. This time in the same bed.

The Adjustment Bureau: Thailand Edition

We never made it to the park for our picnic as we planned. Instead, The Adjustment Bureau got a hold of us and changed our plans.

If you haven't seen the movie, check it out. The movie examines this question as summed up on IMDB, "Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes ... he is up against the agents of Fate itself - the men of The Adjustment Bureau."

While we don't believe in Fate, we do believe the Father has a plan for our lives, including a plan for each moment of every day. At times we don't understand the point of all the adjustments (things not going as we'd planned), and at other times, we see the point immediately. Today was a little of both.



So this morning as we headed out of our apartment for the planned picnic in the park, we simply couldn't leave.

1. Corbin wouldn't eat breakfast so he wandered around outside with M'Lynn.
2. Kanyon and I met M'Lynn and Corbin outside to leave, but when we did, I realized I forgot to bring the laundry downstairs and returned to the apartment to retrieve it.
3. I returned to the apartment with Corbin to give M'Lynn a break from the screaming monster child and to give Corbin a talkin' to.
4. When we returned and met Kanyon and M'Lynn outside, Kanyon declared he needed to go to the bathroom immediately.
5. I returned with Kanyon to the apartment to take care of his business before we returned outside to M'Lynn and Corbin.
6. We got inside a taxi to the grocery store to buy supplies for our picnic. The taxi picked up additional passengers and headed to their destination first, away from the grocery store but right by our laundry place. We got out to do our laundry first.
7. While we picked up/dropped off our laundry we saw some friends also in town for meetings. We chatted for a while and loaned them 300 baht to pay for their haircuts. (Was this the Father's plan all along?)
8. When we finally made it to the grocery store we bought snacks but no sandwiches for the picnic. Corbin screamed constantly so he and M'Lynn waited outside.
9. We settled for a "picnic" at an outside bakery/restaurant.
10. And now, we are all taking long naps. (Or maybe this the Father's plan all along?)

Maybe we'll go to the park tomorrow.