Soon enough the end of February rolled round and I was discharged by neurosurgeons, chiropractors and GPs and cleared by the insurance company to get cover and fly back to Cambodia. Being honest it was a bit nerve wracking and I wasn't sure how things would work out, but with life, work and cats all based out in Cambodia it was time to go back and try to make it work.
The previous 7 months had been really tough, physically and emotionally with some pretty dark and painful days and I remain truly grateful to the family, friends, house and cat sitters, and doctors / admin staff who supported me through that time.
"When you are up in life, your friends get to know who you are. When you are down in life, you get to know who your friends are. There will be many people who will be great to be around when times are easy. Instead take note of the people who remain in your life when times are hard. The friends that are willing to sacrifice their time and resources to help. They are your real friends. A real friend s one who walks in when the rest of the word walks out." - unknown
[And it always seems to be at the times in life when you don't need friendships testing and to find out who is really there that you do find out.]
"When you are up in life, your friends get to know who you are. When you are down in life, you get to know who your friends are. There will be many people who will be great to be around when times are easy. Instead take note of the people who remain in your life when times are hard. The friends that are willing to sacrifice their time and resources to help. They are your real friends. A real friend s one who walks in when the rest of the word walks out." - unknown
[And it always seems to be at the times in life when you don't need friendships testing and to find out who is really there that you do find out.]
The flights were about 17 hours, which is pretty good to go all that way, but the jetlag was fairly horrific. I got to the flat to discover one cat had managed to climb out of the window and I promptly fell down the stairs in a panic tying to find him - not a great start, especially with a more than delicate back. It took a few days of feeling all over the place to settle in again but soon things were routine, I got used to working back in the office and caught up with everyone and it was great to see friends and get back into Siem Reap life.
It was nice to settle back in at home and spend some time with the cats again and get more of a social life back.
"Time spent with cats is never wasted." - Sigmund Freud
In the first couple of weeks a few of us arranged a trip to Phnom Kulen to see the big Buddha Lingas and waterfall I love it here.
The big reclining Buddha.
Some smaller Buddhas
Near the Buddha was a small tame monkey running around. To be clear, I am totally against taking wild animals as pets, and often report monkeys that are on chains or being used for tourist attractions to the authorities, several of which have now been rescued. This is the only monkey I've ever seen that was well treated, healthy and as 'well adjusted' as a monkey out of the wild could be. The people with it didn't have it on a chain and weren't using it as an attraction and were really bonded and showed great affection to one another. The monkey came up to two of us out of the group for a little play and a groom and hopped off when he had had enough. In a country where animals can be treated pretty badly sometimes, this monkey was doing ok - though it was still a real shame he was not in the wild - would have been interested to hear his story and see if a better life could be found for him though. The people looking after him were day tourists too, so no point in reporting it. Lets hope he is having a good life and a better situation for him has been found now.
"If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?" - Steven Wright
Reminded me very much of when I lived in Namibia, super nice to have a monkey cuddle.
Next we headed down to the thousand lingas in the riverbed, each bump (like the pavements to help people with sight difficulty by the road in the UK) is a linga, there are also other carvings in the riverbed, which I think are Hindu.
Next we headed on to the waterfall itself. Our driver, also a friend, wasnt too keen on the actual driving at this point as his hammock had gone up, but we managed to get him back to work and down to the waterfalls. The hammock was about to go up again, but somehow I persuaded him into the falls and we had a good swim and got right under the falls itself, great fun!
Upper falls.
Lower falls.
There are some fish that give you a nibble in here too and its nice and deep for a decent swim, with no mosquitos - I love it here!
There were lots of monks visiting on this day, all having fun too.
A few weeks later we headed to one of the smaller red brick temples for sunset- Pre Rup. I had never seen inside this temple before, so it was a good opportunity. After 5pm or 5.30pm its free to get into the temples, so we headed straight up after work.
We had some fun looking around and posing...
...and wouldn't leave at kicking out time until the poor (good humored and kind) guard had taken a photo of us with everyone's cameras from a couple of different angles - poor fella.
We headed to town next for diner and a few drinks. Nice to be getting back into life here.
"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun." - Charles R. Swindoll
The big reclining Buddha.
Some smaller Buddhas
Near the Buddha was a small tame monkey running around. To be clear, I am totally against taking wild animals as pets, and often report monkeys that are on chains or being used for tourist attractions to the authorities, several of which have now been rescued. This is the only monkey I've ever seen that was well treated, healthy and as 'well adjusted' as a monkey out of the wild could be. The people with it didn't have it on a chain and weren't using it as an attraction and were really bonded and showed great affection to one another. The monkey came up to two of us out of the group for a little play and a groom and hopped off when he had had enough. In a country where animals can be treated pretty badly sometimes, this monkey was doing ok - though it was still a real shame he was not in the wild - would have been interested to hear his story and see if a better life could be found for him though. The people looking after him were day tourists too, so no point in reporting it. Lets hope he is having a good life and a better situation for him has been found now.
"If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?" - Steven Wright
Reminded me very much of when I lived in Namibia, super nice to have a monkey cuddle.
Next we headed down to the thousand lingas in the riverbed, each bump (like the pavements to help people with sight difficulty by the road in the UK) is a linga, there are also other carvings in the riverbed, which I think are Hindu.
Next we headed on to the waterfall itself. Our driver, also a friend, wasnt too keen on the actual driving at this point as his hammock had gone up, but we managed to get him back to work and down to the waterfalls. The hammock was about to go up again, but somehow I persuaded him into the falls and we had a good swim and got right under the falls itself, great fun!
Upper falls.
Lower falls.
There are some fish that give you a nibble in here too and its nice and deep for a decent swim, with no mosquitos - I love it here!
There were lots of monks visiting on this day, all having fun too.
"I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less." - Dalai Lama
Its a nice alternate for sunset.
We had some fun looking around and posing...
We headed to town next for diner and a few drinks. Nice to be getting back into life here.
"I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun." - Charles R. Swindoll
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