Back in Bangkok!

An interesting thing about Thai culture...
It seems that everyone we meet has an amazing plan for what our day should look like. I can't tell you how many times a day, as Jon, Jenny, and I (Kirsten, obviously) are innocently trying to... get to the grocery store, for example, someone will stop us, ask us where we're going, pull out a map, and start telling us to go to this tourist information place to buy tickets to some resort or that  market to buy such-and-such. In searching for a reasonable explanation for this behaviour, we have stumbled across two semi-viable possibilities: either Thai people have soundly stereotyped all tourists and are thus simply doing us a favour, or else the three of us have managed to walk around Bangkok with such distinctly discombobulated looks on our faces that not even the most detached of passer-bys could misinterpret it and walk away without lending a hand. As a team, we are now honing our "intelligent" look. We will keep you updated on the success of our endeavors.


All cultural lessons aside, I suppose we should give you a more informational blog about what we have been doing  the last few days.

We left Phnom Penh and went to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat for a couple of days. We did a day tour, which apparently is not nearly enough to see all the various temples of the ancient god-kings. Our tour book promised that, all skepticism aside, one can never get tired of looking at these temples. We were skeptical. However, we found a nice compromise between the book and our own expectations: the temples were incredibly impressive- massive ruins in the middle of a jungle. Had it been a little less hot, and had we actually enjoyed tourist attractions, we may have wanted to peruse all the dozens of temples available. Unfortunately, one thing that we have learned about ourselves on this trip is that we don't really enjoy spending much time visiting tourist attractions. We've succumbed to several suggestions to visit museums and palaces, etc... and have found ourselves to be perfectly content with a quick look around before heading back to the real world. Consistently, it is not the sights, but our conversations with random people that we meet on public transportation, in bars and restaurants, through our contacts, that have highlighted our time here.

We came back to Bangkok a couple of days ago. (Sorry for being so vague, but I honestly have completely lost track of dates and days. It's a very strange yet freeing sensation... I highly recommend that everyone experience it at least once.) Jon is leaving tonight to head back to the States and plunge right into work and school. One of his last requests was to stay in a nice hotel for the last  couple of nights, to relax and recuperate a little.  This was much easier said than done, and the first night we ended up trudging through the pouring rain with our huge, heavy, annoying backpacks, looking for a place to stay. We ended up taking a taxi across town and back again (for a small fortune) before finally alighting on a little hostel that wreaked, offered no guest services except AC (Praise God!), and cost twice as much as anywhere else we'd stayed... fighting bad attitudes (or maybe succumbing to them....), we decided the only way to solve the problem was to go to sleep and figure stuff out in the morning.

We did eventually sort things out... stayed last night in a very nice place and got to relax a little. Our potential contacts for the city fell through because the organization we wanted to visit was closed for the queen's birthday.

We still wanted to make good use of our time, so Jenny and I went out yesterday on a "faith walk". Essentially, we prayed that God would use us in any way He wanted, and then we went outside with no clue what we were doing. Two minutes after leaving our hotel, a tuk-tuk driver offered us a tour of the city for 60 cents. During my quiet time I had been reading our Bangkok guide book (I thought I was being negligent, but I guess God had a plan) and had come across information that said that this offer was a scam (though not a dangerous one). We decided to go with it, breathed a prayer, and got into the tuk-tuk. I know this sounds like the beginning of a crazy story... it really wasn't anything exciting enough to go into detail, though. In the end, we were able to help the tuk-tuk driver earn a little extra money, and talk for a few seconds with another guy about God. Although we have no idea how God used us on that trip, I have faith that He was with us and working through us.

Today is Jon's last day in Bangkok... we spent the afternoon in the red light district, Patpong. We walked around the block, praying for the Lord to move in the area. All the drivers and helpful people we met were very confused why we were at a night market during the day... we explained to one man that we are learning about sex trafficking and that we were praying. I don't know if anything made sense, but I hope that God uses the conversation, anyway.

I think that's all for now! Pray for Jon to have a safe trip home. Jenny and I will head to Hua Hin tomorrow to stay with a family that works with Burmese Refugees. After that we are heading home on the 20th for classes that start on the 23rd. I hope to be able to debrief some of what we've learned into a couple of blogs either while we are in Hua Hin or once I'm home.

Thank you all for your prayers! I will keep you updated.