Phomn(enal) Penh

After being quickly herded to a small moto-pulled cart called a tuk-tuk, we set off into the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. During rush hour, with countless motorcycles, bikes, tuk-tuks, and cars going every which way (a meticulous science, a feat of magic to navigate), it is hard to believe this city was largely uninhabited during the reign of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979). The Khmer Rouge was only officially in power for just under four years, yet during this time nearly a quarter of the population was killed. We learned about the genocide when we visited Tuol Sleng, the former Khmer Rouge prison that now serves as a museum to the genocide, and the killing fields, which is a site of mass graves a little outside the city. Below is a photo from Tuol Sleng, of the individual cells built to contain prisoners who would later be interrogated, tortured, and/or killed.

This is one of many many stark portraits of Cambodians murdered during this time.

The Killing Fields was a heavy place; it holds a very tragic history. Many Cambodians were murdered in this field, around 30 years ago, but now it seems disconcertingly calm and quiet. These skulls, behind this glass, are part of a monument to honor the many lost in the genocide.

Sinchai Gave Us Crabs!

This man, the amazing Sinchai, planned our days with a succession of delightful adventures, involving lagoons in caves and an unsuccessful du-gong (manatee) quest. He also gave us crabs,

in exchange for a sign we painted for him.

Learning to recharge joy, we opened up new spaces between moonrises and luscious deeply inspiring sunsets in this remote Thai fishing village.

Warm water lapped at our doorstep on a deserted beach while moonlight bathed singing fisherman hard at work.

We were told the village of Chao Mai, a fishing village and port of Thai sea gypsies, contained many secrets, mysteries, and stories. However, the man who told us this excused himself to converse with other people and then we failed to find him again. So what can we do but believe him about the secret mystery stuff?

Penang Ping Ping Ping

A long busride took us to Penang, an island in the NW of Malaysia that was a convergence of 3 different cultures: Chinese, Malay, and Indian.



This meant of course such good food. The shops - blacksmiths, restaurants, junk shops - were tucked into dark pockets of the old colonial buildings that crookedly lined the windy streets.

Colourful Times at SMK Tengku Mahmud, Besut

We are teachers!
The "Each One, Teach One" lesson plan: we did blind contour portraits with the kids and then had them write about different things they wanted to learn and teach. The exercise was about acknowledging all the knowledge you want to gather, and have the power to share.

We gather with Puan Ramlah, in our baju kurungs, to celebrate the joys of middle school empowerment.

Jubilant artists jump with excitement about the finished mural: The Promise Tree...which encourages viewers to make environmentally friendly decisions.

Perhentian Islands

Ellie-less but generally happy, especially after Ramlah, Ellie's mentor at her school fed us a Hari Raya feast of cookies soup heaven, we headed out on a boat to magical islands that were definitely paradise, but also made us question who decided white sands and blue waters and palm trees were paradise, as opposed to maybe a hot spring in the Sierras, your own backyard,or a Swedish granite beach. Some dude wanting to sell tourist packages to stressed out white folks?

Nonetheless we frolicked like mermaid kids with black tipped sharks, movement inspiring jelly fish, hella frantic frenzied fish, vaginal 80's color coated clams, stunning coral reefs and a bad ass turtle.

Kicking it in Kuala Lumpur

After some thrilling times in Kuala Lumpur, being metropolitan and living it up in a sweet apartment of a new friend (well, new to 4/5ths of us) with great views of the city,


We embarked on an elephant mystery date with some other new friends. It became traumatic at a haunted waterfall, but we stuck it out and pushed on through.

our friend aie, sounds like eye, showed us around the batu caves and tolerated our singing all songs with i in the title and lyrics. we learned proper toliet etiquitte with the help of funny signs.

Singapore Story

Singapore was the site of our glorious reunion, and the entire city-state glimmered empathetically.

Singapore deliberately sparkles into your eyes. Performances lurk with glittering precision in specific spaces. This was intensified by the fact that our time there overlapped with the first ever Formula One night races and so there was additional excitement plotted to please tourist eyes.

our adopted texan parents, geralyne and rick, housed us for a night, took us out to eat, and took us for a day out at the singapore bird park.

Learning to find our feet in this long journey together!

Meet Choowea

Over a year ago, 5 energetic and curious creatures dreamed up an adventure in South East Asia. From different spaces on the globe, we gathered Sept. 24th and are now in the process of realizing our 2.5 month dream journey.

With an improvisational travel style

we hope to deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world,
balance deep sadness with hopeful joy,
remain open and curious to daily miracles,
lay stones for future collaborations,
see our responsibility as privileged Americans more widely,
practice evolving feminisms,
make reverberating connections with humans and places,
stay conscious and responsible travelers whenever possible,
and be blown away by the many ways of giving and receiving love!

YIP YIP YIP