Our first Christmas in Cambodia.

As most of you know, we decided to go to the beach for Christmas. This was our first trip out of Phnom Penh other than to go to the Zoo on Saturday, Dec 22nd. The countryside was very pretty with hills and lots of trees. Rice fields lined the highway. It is harvest time here so there is much work being done in the fields. I will send pictures of that on a later email.
We got to Sihanoukville at around noon on Monday, Christmas Eve. We drove around and found a place to stay since we didn't totally trust the looks of places online (all of you that have been to the Alpen Hutte for a ski trip understand exactly what I mean!)
The first picture is the view as we ate our Christmas dinner. The 2nd is Rich and Rebekah waiting for dinner to come. By about 10 am everyday, we were at the beach. We just laid around on the beach, swam, slept, worked on language, read, cross stitched, ate wonderful food and did it all again. We would stay and watch the sunset set each evening before headed back to the hotel. Men, women and children would walk down the beach selling food, bracelets, books, pictures painted by children, manicures, pedicures, massages, etc.
As for the food, lots of fruit - pineapples, oranges,
mangos, papaya, sawlmaw (rambutans), bananas
etc. Then there is the seafood. In the last pictures, Rich and Rebekah are eating squid kabobs. They are grilled by ladies who carry their grills in baskets suspended by a pole that they carry on their shoulder. So they walk while they grill all day. The squid were very hot (oven hot) and very juice. They were really quite good. We were very pleased. Also, we ate lobster. I will try to send a picture later, but they were small and had some kind of coating. Then they opened them up and sprinkled a pepper mix on top and squeezed lime on them. They were delicious. For 6 of them, it costs $2.25.

We certainly missed our boys for Christmas, but we decided this was the way to do Christmas...lay on the beach all day on lounge chairs under umbrellas, eat great food, see God's beautiful creation and just relax. If that sounds good to you, come next Christmas and we will treat you to the most relaxing Christmas ever!
We do hope you all enjoyed your families and are as blessed and refreshed as we are. God's creation never ceases to amaze me. He truly made the world beautiful for us.
You are in our thoughts and prayers. Ronda

Comments

JamesG3 said…
Great pictures, and it sounds like you had a great time. God bless ya every one! $2.25 for six lobsters? Wow.

I know what you mean about hotels. We had to stay at a Ramada in Tulsa once for the Workshop. We're still in therapy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
December 27, 2007 at 8:17 PM
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