Jolly Old England

Hi Gang, its our third day here in England after arriving from France on Sunday. We are at a nice hotel on Hyde Park. Sorry no pics as our old hotel has no wifi. Old and charming but no wifi. One thing that is brilliant about England is the huge parks they have that take up about a third of the city. Plenty of room for people to run their dogs and just enjoy nature. Lots of rivers, bird life, rabbits, squirrels and lush vetetation. Then you pop out of the park and you are in a world class old city with all its charms. Great book stores, museums, archetecture, museums, pubs, restaurants etc. We just walkded for hours our first day in all the parks and charming city neighborhoods, then had beers and dinner with an old friend from grammar school that evening.
Did the British museum and many other classic sights yesterday and then saw a great show; Mary Poppins! Believe it or not it was fantastic! April and I both really enjoyed it. Tonight we are plannning to see the Producers and tomorrow the Rat Pack.
Very expensive here. Don't see how people can afford it. England, unlike the rest of Europe, is really booming.
The weather is cool, crisp and sunny. Sept is a great time to be here I think. Spring and Fall are always the best travel times.
We are now in the neighborhood of April's college; Goldsmith, that she will be attending this semester. Its in a neat little neighborhood just on the edge of London on the last metro stop.
Lots more to see and do here and I have only two days left! Will try to find a way to post some pics later. Hope you are all well. Cheers! Rob

Asia to Europe

Bon Jour! We arrived in Italy nine days ago from Bangkok after our all night flight and we arrived here in Paris yesterday after our 24 hour train ride from southern Italy. Sleeping in comfy beds on the train is always cool but it was a long trip!
Loved Rome. They have kept all the classic old buildings and havn't built any really modern ones so it has retained its charm. You can feel the history. We happened to be in St Peters square when the Pope gave his spiel and of course we were blown away by the Cistine chapel and the main Basilica and more.
I didn't realize that there were huge fights with the gladiators and slaves, criminals, Christians, animals etc. almost every evening in the Rome colliseum for hundreds of years. Its not quite as exciting now but there is a growing music and modern cultural scene that is flourishing. Could have stayed allot longer. Always fun to see the city with a beautiful young and bright girl on my arm too!
From Rome we took the train down to the little town of Alberabello in southern Italy to see its beauty and hang out with my friend Donato's relatives. They were really kind, introducing us to all the townspeople and all the great food and wine the place had to offer. Fun eating at their house, at their friends restaurants and bars and by the ocean. Delicious seafood and other Italian dishes. Fun seeing how the folks still live in this ancient villiage. Family, food, drink and taking life in one moment at a time.
Fortuneately April's Italian is decent, otherwise it wouldn't have been near as fun. Also they spoke a bit of Spanish and English so we all could communicate the basics. Bella bella!
After an emmotional farewell with Mino, Maria, Tina, Gino etc. we got on the long train ride up here to gay Parieee!
April was able to hook up with some of her college chums who are studying here for the semester and I made contact with a buddy that Henry and I traveled through Tibet and Nepal with last year so we will be hanging out with them for the next five days before heading to London. So far we are loving Paris. Heading out to see all the sights in a few.
Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to seeing you soon.
Aloha, Rob and April

dinner with Mino and Maria in Alberobello 

a sidewalk cafe in Rome 

an Alberobello wine cellar 

Collosseum (Colloseum?) 

April at the Trevi Fountain, Rome 

Dinner with John and Yuenyuen 

Visit to Father Joe's Mercy Centre in the Bangkok slums 

Perfomance elephants at the Fantasea show 

Patong Beach, the site of our hotel 

At the Chengdu Panda breeding center 

An outdoor mall in Chengdu 

monk-ey business (ahahahahaa) 

viscous attack monkey 

A monastery on Mt. Emeishan 

April and Henry at our Chengdu hostel 

Photo Gallery

For more FLO pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=216316537205&page=1&sort_order=0

Asia Update

Hi Folks,
Firstly, we are so sorry to hear about the hurricane, and continue to watch events unfold on the news.
It's been a while since our last entry. Since we left Cambodia, we were first in China, which blocks access to most blog sights as well as other information from the "free" world. This is one example of a huge downside of life in China: restricted access to information that the government doesn't want you to hear. Since life for most of the Chinese is so much better now than in the past generation, this isn't a huge social concern. The new god is money and the average citizen here is devout in pursuing it. The amount of growing wealth and consumerism in the new China almost makes the US look like a socialist state: huge shopping malls everywhere, McDonalds, KFC, construction cranes everywhere, and of course everyone with a cell phone- even the few monks that Henry and I ran into during out three-day backpacking trip up to one of China's holy mountains, Emeishan.
It was great spending time with Henry, hearing about his new life teaching English and learning Chinese in Chengdu while we trudged up the nearly 10,000 feet of the misty and lush mountain. We slept in monasteries on the way; good food and beer were always available at the many tiny restaurants along the trail, every 500 yards or so. The monks' cell phones and cable TV, combined with the poisonous snakes and ferocious monkeys we encountered on our journey made for a bizarre experience.
After coming back down the mountain we met up with April again, who was waiting at our hostel in Chengdu, shopping and hanging out in the city. We stayed one night at Henry's apartment that the University provides him during his year of teaching. He works about 3 or 4 hours a day and receives a $500/month salary.
I think it will be quite a challenge for him as he is one of the only Westerners at the University and only one of a few hundred Westerners in a city of over ten million peopls (surrounded by hundreds of millions of peasant farmers). At any rate, I'm very proud of him for taking on this challenge and I'm sure he will continue to grow from the experience.
After our eight days with Henry in China, April and I flew to Phuket island in Thailand. Unlike China, Thailand is a very easy place for the western traveller to get along; most people speak at least some English...English menus, great food, gorgeous beaches, lots of smiles, very polite people. Our hotel in Phuket was right on the beach, with a gorgeous view and friendly staff.
The tsunami hit here but not nearly as hard as many of the other Thai islands. Although much was destroyed and many died it has already been mostly cleaned up and rebuilt; the place is booming.
It will only continue to thrive as Asia's economy continues to boom and the Chinese, Koreans and others spend their new wealth at these idyllic tourist destinations along with us westerners.
We enjoyed an elephant ride in the jungle and heard the stories of how the animals bolted for the high ground right before the tsunami hit. Had fresh lobster and seafood every day to die for. We saw the "Fantasea" show one night which included 32 trained elephants, plus water buffalo, goats, chickens, acrobats, trapeze acts, dancing, singing, and magic. Incredible choreography. April and I even got to hold and feed a baby tiger...for a few seconds.
We have spent the past few days back in Bangkok. We are on the river with a nice view of the water traffic and the city beyond. Had dinner last night here at the hotel with brother John and his girlfriend; traditional Thai dancing, a buffet of fresh seafood and other Thai delivavies, along the Chao Praya river, all for about $100 for the four of us.
We spent yesterday afternoon at Father Joe's Mercy Centre in the Bangkok slums. He has been serving thousands of Thailand's poor and building the center here since the 60s. We visited some of the 200 of the orphans and abuse victims the Centre cares for, about 50 of whom were born with HIV. They are doing so much to improve and make the best of their mostly short and often painful lives. To be with these little angels is so humbling. You just have to gulp, give a smile and a hug and cry later.
His program does community outreach that continues to help thousands each day: youth soccer leagues, hospice care, HIV medical care, preschool and kindergarten for thousands of the orphaned, abused, and neglected. Amazing what father Joe and his supporters do. (If you want to know more, visit their site at www.mercycentre.org)
In a few minutes I'm headed to Lumpini park to meet John and his friends to play catch. That is, of course, if one of these monsoon storems doesn't hit, which they do now and then this time of year. Then it's a little shopping, dinner with the bro and company, and we are on the 11pm flight to Rome!
Will do our best to update the blog in a few days from there. We hope you are all doing well! Love and aloha,
Rob

Smey and April visiting the other orphanage down the street, where Maddox was adopted 

Reaksmey, Srey Touch, April, Chantha, Charia, Savuth, and Chansy in the stream by the waterfalls 

Lots of young vendors at the waterfall site 

Savath and Phearun on left; Charia and Karona on right 

Monirath, Sreyneath, Pheary, and Boseba 

The group on the beach 

Chantha, Davin, and Linna, and teacher Narith's son 

fresh shrimp on the beach 

More fun with the FLO kids

Hi Folks,
We returned yesterday from a beach trip with 51 kids and nine staff for two nights and three days. It is about a four hour drive each way from the orphanage so most of the kids had never seen the ocean before. We awoke at 6am on Sunday and the excitement around FLO (Future Light Orphanage) was intoxicating and contagious! Most of the kids could barely sleep that night and they all had their new backpacks prepared and were ready to go soon after they awoke.
All the kids and staff squeezed into three vans to make the journey. April and I followed in a relatively comfortable land cruiser along with my foster son Reaksmey and the director of a second orphanage who joined us with several of his kids. He (Mr. Pole) was quite an entertaining tour guide, showing us some of his orphanage property along the way where they are teaching the kids farming and building a beautiful farm. Good land now sells for about $500 per acre.
He had interesting stories about his days trying to survive during the Pol Pot regime having lost many of his family among the two million that died during those horrific four years.
On the lighter side, he was involved with arrangeing many adoptions including Maddox for Angelina Jolie. "Mr Bob (Billy Bob Thornton) was very funny man, he always make girl laugh and smile. All girls love Mr. Bob" He also said that Angelina was very compassionate and is very dedicated to the Cambodian people. We also visited the orphanage where they found Maddox. Hopefully the U.S. will open up adoptions with Cambodia again one day and these kids and others will be adoptable.
There are now over 12 million people in Cambodia and half are under twenty years old. Too many are orphans with no support.
Back to the beach! The name of the beach we spent our first day was...Hawaii Beach. What else? Not quite Hawaii, but lots of atmosphere! Lots of fresh seafood sold on the beach. After lots of swimming and enjoying the beach we all enjoyed huge platters of fresh shrimp and the obligatory rice.
Our hotel was about two hundred yards from the beach and each room which held four to six kids was about $10 a night. The next day was filled with beach activity and walks with a great cookout on the beach for sunset. It reminded me of what Hawaii must have been like about eighty years ago.
The kids always were busy playing group games together or swimming. All the vendors on the beach selling fresh seafood, cold beer, handicrafts and just hanging out with us provided great entertainment. The very first blossoms of a soon-to-be burgeoning tourist industry were beginning to be seen with a few Europeans, Asians and even the brave American or two.
Our last day we all headed to the mountains on our way back and spent most of the day swimming in the rivers and waterfalls followed by a big barbecue lunch for 61. It was a blast as was the whole trip. And thank goodness no one got hurt!
Three more days planned here and every day is an event! Big party on our last day. Really enjoying it and will miss all these beautiful kid as always.
Aloha for now! Rob

First few days at FLO

Today was our 3rd day at FLO, but already we feel so comfortable because of the welcoming attitude of the kids and staff. I was a bit anxious coming here, afraid that perhaps the students would resent our nationality and comparitive wealth. As anyone who has already visited will know, however, that the opposite is true: everyone in the FLO community, from students to teachers to cooks, is so kind, generous, and unassuming. They are all curious about us and where we come from, eager to practice their English skills, and wanting to know more about each of their Aloha Foster parents.
After a friendly welcome on Thursday, my dad and I settled into the guest house. Yesterday we presented the kids with their new backpacks and a few other donated items--paper, pens, shampoo, and yo-yos--as well as the individual gifts that we brought from foster parents in Hawaii. We were a little concerned about jealousy or sadness among the children who didn't receive these "special gifts," but explained that not every parent has the means or convenience of providing these extra things, and reminded them that each child is very special to their parent and often in their thoughts. When we talked to my foster brother Reak Smey about this concern, he reassured us that the kids at FLO "do not think like this; we all share everything." It does seem that every child expresses gratitude whenever he or she can, thanking us for visiting, for practicing English with them, and for any special things they enjoy because of the generosity of the foster parents.
After receiving their backpacks yesterday, the children also had the chance to go swimming in their pool, which they can only use on special occasions because they must have the water delivered (right now they collect rainwater for cooking, drinking, and bathing). Today we took everyone to the Phnom Penh waterpark. It is about 20 minutes away, and it was the first time for all of them. It rained almost constantly but still they had a great time and were giddy with excitement all day, rushing down the slides and back up again. We have some more great pictures which we'll try to post later.
Tomorrow we're taking a trip to one of Cambodia's coastal areas with 30 of the best students/hardest workers, selected by their teachers. We will post more pictures and details when we return:)

At the waterpark! 

More smiling faces