Thursday, February 19, 2015

Cambodia Transportation

Last month I had a very unique opportunity to travel to Cambodia. My hope in this blog post is to share an overview of what I experienced in transportation in another country. I’m not going to talk about air travel but I would recommend flying Eva airlines after my experience.

The first full day we spent in Cambodia I rode in a new type of transportation for me; Tuk Tuk. Say it just like it sounds; Tuk Tuk. Let me try to explain what a Tuk Tuk is. It’s basically a motorcycle with a trailer on the back. The Cambodian people are so intuitive to think of adding a tow hitch to the back of a moto and then creating a cart, with seating, where you can drive people around.

Now, I’m not going to say its the most comfortable form of transportation. Its almost like a small couch on wheels, there is a little give but you’re still aware that you’re not in a luxury car. While riding in a Tuk Tuk you have a great view of what’s going on around you. You get a full view of the whole city, streets, people, shops and what’s coming up. You can even choose to sit in a way where you get to see what’s behind you! Another positive is, this type of transportation is inexpensive.

The downside to riding in a Tuk Tuk is the fact that you get a little dusty. You’re in an open air cart so you’re not protected from the elements. Now, there is a roof so you avoid getting sunburnt while riding. When sitting in traffic you also have all the smog rising up around you from the other vehicles in your presence.

Even though I didn’t ride a motorcycle there are tons of them in Cambodia. They are really all over the place. I was shocked to see how many motorcycles there are in the country. I’m told it didn’t used to be that way, that people use to ride bikes throughout the country. I saw a few people riding bikes but not many. Also, there are cars but we only took those to and from the airport.

Check out this video to get a better look at transportation about Cambodia.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Cambodia 2015 Overview

Last month I had a very unique opportunity to travel to Cambodia. My hope in this blog post is to share an overview of my experience and then I’m going to write separate posts to go into more detail on other parts of the trip.

Almost eight months ago my Lead Pastor invited me to go to Cambodia with him. He had already been to the country four times and this would be his fifth trip. The goal of the trip would be to teach the book of Revelation of 80-100 pastors. We partnered with Paul Nuth, one of our missions partners, who is originally from Cambodia.

(Left to Right: Neal, Paul and Mark)
This was my first trip to Asia and it was a great experience to see this beautiful country. In another blog post I’m going to talk about some of the sights we saw and what we learned about the post communist country.

It was a long flight! We spent over 17 hours in planes and almost 5 hours in airports just to get there. The transportation was a new experience for me upon arriving in the country. In another post I’ll go more in detail on Tuk Tuk’s and the thousands of moto’s driving around.

Obviously anytime you travel there is going to be good food and bad food. Thankfully I love Asian food and would consider myself to be a semi-adventurous eater. I really enjoyed some, ok most, of the food we had to eat. If you ever visit Phnom Penh I want to give you a few places you must try while there!

Finally the thing that makes a country isn’t the transportation, food or sights. The thing that makes a country so great, like Cambodia, is the people. I met some of the most caring people who had smiles on their faces despite all the loss they encountered under the communist reign of Pol Pot. I want to take more time to just share about some of the men and women who impacted my life on the trip.

Well, I know this is a short post to prep you for what’s coming on the Cambodia update front but now you know what you to look forward to!