Thanks for kind words my friend.

I'm no water lily expert, but as far as I know there is only one kind. Here in Suriname they look exactly the same as the ones we used to eat in Cambodia......I assume the Javanese brought them here. I would say Cambodian and Suriname couldn't be more opposite outside of anything other than weather.

Not to be overly negative, but I feel Suriname has taken the worst parts of developed and developing countries, combining them in an inefficient way of life. I would compare Suriname more to a tropical Kentucky. Cambodia is motos and bicycles, here it's fast cars. Cambodians spend their free time on the sidewalk in front of their house ready for any social activity, Surinamers stay inside their homes behind electronic gates and many layers of doors.

Also the socioeconomic divide is huge here, so it's nearly impossible to maintain friendships with people in a higher class than yourself. Local spending power is the worst I've ever seen anywhere in the world. Cambodia is 10 to 20 times cheaper than here, but minimum wage there is double that of Suriname. Also, even compared to Kentucky, Suriname is about 120% more expensive.

Suriname is beautiful, but takes hundreds and thousands of dollars to see that beauty, basically not reachable by the poor. The killer for us was when realized we can't ride 4-deep on a moto here, basically killing any chance to travel as a family anywhere here.