Emhoff Family Adventures

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Cambodia, Week 1

Sunday, June 14-Tuesday, June 16

Matt's dad took us to over to Seattle. We arrived at SeaTac airport around 10:30pm. The kids were still wide awake. We had a 3 hour wait at the gate for our plane, but surprisingly, the kids were well behaved and still wide awake. We finally got on the plane around 1am.

Ready to head out!

Girls with all of their goodies on the plane

Right as our plane was being pushed out onto the tarmac, Marcus turned to me and said "I think I am going to throw up!" I quickly got a barf bag for him, but he only got half of it in the bag, with the other half all down his shirt, shorts, and socks. After he filled a second bag, Becky tried to take him and the filled up bags to the bathroom, but the stewardess told her that we were preparing for take off and she had to sit down. So, the puke had to stay with us for a while until it was safe to move about the cabin. Needless to say, Marcus smelled like vomit mixed with Maple syrup for most of the 12 1/2 hour flight to Taiwan. Other than that incident (well, actually Marcus puked 3-4 more times on the flight), the flight went pretty smooth and the kids actually slept a bit. We arrived in Taipei, Taiwan around 4:20am local time and had a four hour layover. We found a Hello Kitty play area and store, which kept the kids entertained for some time.

Hello Kitty Store, Taipei, Taiwan

Even Monks love Hello Kitty

We then caught our flight out to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This flight was only 3 1/2 hours long and wasn't bad at all. Upon arriving in Phnom Penh, we got our visas and met Becky's parents outside the airport. Even before we left the airport, people were looking at the kids, especially blond hair, blue eyed Elise. People wanted to pinch her cheeks and say hi to her.

We've arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 25 hours later!

We stopped and got some pizza, then we headed over to check out one of Terry and Jennifer's projects at an orphanage. I'm glad that Terry is driving here, since the traffic is chaotic to say the least. There really are no set rules of the road and everyone and everything goes every which direction. Once we got to the apartment the kids stayed up until 7 or so and then crashed. They did very well for that long of trip.

Wednesday, June 17th:

We went over to Terry and Jennifer's office and then went over to their mission home. We met their mission President, President Moon and then Terry ordained Matt a Hight Priest since he was called into the Bishopric in our ward right before we left. We then took a tuk-tuk and went over to Wat Phom and looked around. We then went to a market and bought a bunch of fruit. We then went over and toured the Royal Palace. There was an old bald lady there that loved Elise and kept following us around and talking to her in Khmer. Terry was telling us that there are not a lot of old people in Cambodia. During the Khmer Rouge in the 1970's, most educated people were killed and thousands of others died as well. Elise seemed to be terrified. Lots of locals kept wanting to get their picture taken with our kids. We might start charging a dollar a picture to pay for the trip.

Thursday, June 18th:

We took a drive up north to check on one of Terry and Jennifer's projects. We stopped for a break in a town called Skuon, which Terry calls Spider town. At the area where we stopped, there were lots of vendors selling all kinds of things to eat: fried tarantulas, crickets, frogs, whole quail (fried of course), water beetles, you name. If it crawls, they had it. We ended up just getting some fruit, cause you know, we weren't that hungry.

We then drove on to Kompong Thom, where Terry and Jennifer are supervising a project at a high school where they are rebuilding latrines (the school currently has over 2000 students with no real working bathrooms). We then continued to drive north to a town called Sra Em and stayed the night.

Friday, June 19th:

We woke and had breakfast at a little road side restaurant. One of the ladies that worked there had a four month old baby with her. Becky got out one of the baby blankets we brought and gave it to her (we and several ladies at church made baby blankets to give away in Cambodia. We brought 85 blankets total).

We then drove up to Prasat Preah Vihear, which is an ancient temple built on top of a mountain right along the Cambodia-Thailand border. In fact, these two countries have been fighting over control of the area for years. Because of this, there is a heavy military presence all around (you can even see parts of the Thai army across the hillside). There were soldiers all around the temple. Our guide took us down close to the border. There they have a spot where you can get your picture taken with a machine gun and rocket launcher (the real deal). All around the area there are lots of landmines left over from previous conflicts, but several outside groups have slowly come in and started removing them.

We then went up and toured around the temple complex. It was actually a bit cooler and fog kept rolling in and out of the area, creating a mystical atmosphere. As we were leaving the fog eventually lifted and we were able to have a clearer vision of the whole area. When we were done we grabbed a few coconuts for the kids to drink and made our way down to Siem Reap.

Once we got into Siem Reap we looked around some of the shops and got dinner. We had the kids get a fish foot massage where the fish eat all of the dead skin off of your feet. Most of the locals enjoyed watching the kids squirm.

Saturday, June 20th:
Today we drove up into the mountains to Phnom Kulen. There we played in the several waterfalls that come down the mountain. The kids loved it and were hard to get out of the water! At one point while the kids were swimming with some of the locals, the locals started yelling. Jacob thought they were saying, "snack, snack", when what they were trying to say was snake. Everyone got out of the water until the snake swam away. Once again, lots of people wanted to have there picture taken with our kids, especially a lot of the Japanese and Chinese tourists. The Khmer people are very friendly and several times they were very helpful as we were swimming in the waterfalls. Most of them love kids and are very kind.

Sunday, June 21st:
Today we went to church in Siem Reap. One of the missionaries translated. They actually have translation capabilities in the chapel, so all of us got to have headphones on during church. The kids said it was fun in Primary, but a little chaotic.

After church we drove out to a silk farm and took a tour there. It was amazing to see how much work it takes to make even a small scarf by hand.

From there we drove out to part of the Tonle Sap, which is a huge lake that runs from Phnom Penh all the way to Siem Reap. Since the wet season is just starting, the lake was low. We found a health clinic out there (that was built by the U.S) and dropped off some baby blankets. There were no babies there today, but the attendant said they do have lots of babies. Next door to the clinic was a floating school that was sitting dry dock until the wet season.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Arizona and Utah, 2015

After making the drive down to St. George, Utah, we visited the St. George Temple. It was already 87 degrees outside, which felt really hot since we were just coming from 35 degree weather. We stayed the night with our friends the Lees and then kept heading south.

St. George Utah Temple

Our next stop was Pipe Spring National Monument in Arizona. Pipe Spring was an old Mormon Cattle Ranch in the middle of nowhere. The main house is set up more like a fort to protect the settlers from the native population. It is set up right next to Pipe Spring. There are channels that divert the water underneath the floors of the house, which kept the bottom floor rooms cool enough to store cheese and butter.

Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona

We then made our way around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (which was still closed due to snow) and crossed the Colorado River at Navajo Bridge. Navajo Bridge is close to Lee’s Ferry, where all of the rafters put in to go through the Grand Canyon.
Fortunately we decided to visit the Grand Canyon during a period of mild weather. Last time we were here it was over 105 degrees. This time though it was a nice 68 degrees. We stopped at the Watchtower and then went over and hiked part of the Bright Angel Trail. We had to keep reminding the kids that however far down we go into the canyon, we have to hike back up, especially since some of them started running down the trail. Unfortunately Elise and her little legs couldn’t do the whole hike back up and instead rode on her personal mule (also known as dad).

Navajo Bridge

The Watchtower, Grand Canyon National Park

Inside the Watchtower

Hiking down the Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon National Park

What? We have to hike up?

Bright Angel Trail

Grand Canyon National Park

We camped just south of the Park in Kaibab National Forest. We found a nice quiet spot with no one around (which is quite different just 10 miles north in the park). The temperature dropped below freezing at night and a whole pack of coyotes seemed to be huddled around us. Every hour or so one would start howling, then another, then another, until there were at least a dozen or so howling around us in all direction and in very close proximity to our tent. It was actually very peaceful and haunting at the same time.

In the morning we stopped and walked around at Mather Point and then started heading out of the park. We made our way up to Page, Arizona and stopped at Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.
Next we drove the 47-mile Cottonwood Canyon Road that runs from just west of Page up to Bryce Canyon. This was a drive that I had always wanted to do and I am glad that we did. The BLM office said that it was mainly for high-clearance vehicles, but we were able to drive it in the minivan (we even had a Toyota Camry pass us going the opposite direction, though he probably bottomed up/high-centered on a section a few miles up the road). The road passes through a remote section of Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument. We stopped at Cottonwood Gulch and took a short hike. We then drove to Grosvenor Arch right around Sunset. We found a campsite on the side of a ridge all by ourselves.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona

Cottonwood Canyon Road, Utah

The minvan on the Cottonwood Canyon Road

Hiking through Cottonwood Narrows

Arch in the Making (Siena at the bottom gives you a comparison to the size)

Hill is steeper than it looks and with loose dirt on the road we almost didn't make it up.

Grosvenor Arch

Gourmet Chef Becky

Campsite all to ourselves

We woke up and drove over to Escalante, Utah to drive down the Hole in the Rock Road. The BLM office in Escalante said that the road had some sections of wash board. What they should have said is that most of it is really bad wash board with some short smooth sections. The wash board wasn’t bad if you
drove about 40 mph and floated over the bumps. But, if you slowed down below about 30 it sounded like every bolt in the cars was wiggling loose. We drove about 25 miles down the road to Coyote Gulch. From there we hiked down to Peek A Boo and Spooky Gulches. Becky and I have done this hike before and it is one of my all-time favorites. We started out with Peek A Boo Gulch. There is an initial 10 foot climb in, then you wind through the gulch as it get narrower.

Entrance to Peek a Boo Gulch

Climbing into Peek a Boo

Elise

Marcus

Jacob

Helping mom through a hole

Once we made it through, I thought I remembered how to find the back way over to Spooky Gulch. Well, after about 12 years I completely forgot where it was and ended up walking back in forth for almost an hour looking for it. To make things worse, we ran into another family there that were looking for Spooky and I told them I knew the way. So, after leading 15 or so people through the desert (luckily it was only about 75 degrees), we finally found the entrance to Spooky Gulch. Spooky is different than Peek A Boo in that the walls have tiny bumps all over them (or as the kids called them, zits). Also, Spooky gets very tight in spots; so tight you can barely make it through. In a few sections it is so narrow inside that very little light shine in making it a little scary inside (hence the name Spooky). Once we made it out, we hiked back up to the cars and made the long drive back to Salt Lake City.