🐬 Celebrating Dolphinhood With Fellow Hivers 🥳 Paramaribo, Suriname

I finally did it, dolphinhood status achieved on the Hive blockchain, and a fellow Hiver took the family and I out for a Suriname adventure.

Big thanks to @faustofraser for giving us some much needed exploration beyond our neighborhood. I've set you as 15% beneficiary on this post as a small way of giving thanks.

🗣️ A Meeting Of Hivers 🐝

I recently met a few of Suriname's only Hivers in person, @faustofraser and @leilafrangie, and although my dolphinization is not the reason Fausto took us on an adventure, it is a bizarre coincidence if you believe in that sort of thing.

^{@faustofraser and @sreypov listening to something boring I probably said}

Having lived and/or been stuck in Paramaribo for over a year, we can count the times we've been outside our neighborhood on one hand. Suriname is just too expensive for us, and we've lost all of our savings.

We expected to make more connections and friends in the time we've been here, but the first people to truly reach out, come to our house and hang out with us like normal human beings were folks we met on Hive, how ironic is that?

🐟 Dolphinization Notification = Elation 🐬

The universe never ceases to surprise me, and it wasn't long after I received a dolphin notification from @hivebuzz that Fausto randomly arranged a family outing.

For some reason, I was confused about how many vesting shares/HP it took to dolphinize, but somehow I thought it was roughly 10,000HP + some change. It has only been a few years since I remember seeing the redfish to whale chart on Steemit, so my memory of the numbers was a bit foggy.

All this time I thought 5,000HP was going to be the halfway point to dolphinhood, so this surprise was very welcome.

🎒 An Adventure Planned 🚗

Fausto already knew from our blogs that we haven't had many chances to explore Suriname. This kind Hiver took it upon himself to swing by yesterday and take us on an unforgettable adventure.

^{^{@faustofraser is a photographer, so I gave him by Canon SX530 HS to check out, and he snapped this gem of Monkey-B before setting off}}

Fausto had seen our edible creations on Hive, and even though we haven't shared a Pad Thai recipe yet, Fausto specifically asked if we could make Pad Thai, and of course we said yes.

The biggest problem during Suriname's economic crisis has been access to goods. We had been trying to obtain peanuts and tamarind for over a month without any luck, so half our adventure would be attempting to source Pad Thai ingredients.

We hit the road, and as usual we were all feeling carsick within 5 minutes, as automobiles haven't been a big part of our lives. Luckily Monkey-B survived long enough to reach our first destination.

👩‍🌾 The Derde Rijweg 🛣️

We headed towards a big market on Derde Rijweg, but it wasn't open, so we doubled back to see if we couldn't score something from a strip of roadside vendors near the closed market.

^{@KidSisters and @Sreypov making a purchase of herbs}

The search for tamarind and peanuts didn't start off too lucky, and we saw much less variety than we are used to in Cambodia, but scored a couple bags of tamarind early on.

^{a pensive Monkey B}

^{buy, buy, buy, prices are lower here}

Peanuts took much longer, and we only found a few bags hiding behind a jar at one of the last sellers on the road, what a lucky score.

We also bought our first jackfruit outside of Cambodia, something we used to eat everyday, but now a once-a-year treat due to the high fruit prices of Suriname.

👩‍🌾 Monkey Detour 🛣️

While walking along the roadside, we saw a few locals ladies feeding bananas to some monkeys on the edge of the forest. I was able to snap a quick photo before the monkeys darted back into the forest with their bananas.

^{a reminder we are in the Amazon, no matter how urban things may seem}

Not willing to so easily part with some of our fruit like the Surinamers, we couldn't lure the monkeys back out of the forest empty-handed, so we headed on to the next adventure.

🕉️ Tirat Sthaan Rameswaram 🛕

Next stop was a Hindu temple on the edge of the sea, the Tirat Sthaan Rameswaram, seemingly dedicatedto Shiva, but there were a wide mix of deities there, even a Buddha and Hanuman.

^{might save this @KidSisters squat for the the #popasquat challenge over at ASEAN Hive Community}

The @KidSisters, although from a Buddhist background, used to watch the Little Krishna cartoon series a bit in Cambodia, so are fascinated with Hindu religious tales and characters.

^{@Sreypov snapping Hanuman}

^{Monkey-B loves pictures with new things}

We wandered the grounds a bit, looked at the distant sea, admired some crabs and Hindu deities a little more, then hit the road again.

^{Shiva with trishula}

^{the main gate to the temple complex}

^{move over Jamaica and Aruba - have you seen Suriname's mud and quicksand beaches?}

🛣️ Weg Naar Zee 🌊

Our last stop was the "Weg Naar Zee," or way to the sea, a road that ends at the sea, and also a site for open-are Hindu cremations.

^{two little fish with eyes above the water}

^{muddy crabs not camera shy at all}

^{rushing blackwater headed towards the sea}

It was really cool to see where the river meets the sea, and the vast expanse of mud Suriname has in place of beaches.

^{the end of the world in Suriname, and the sea on the distant horizon}

It was so great to get out and see some new places. We miss our daily adventures in Cambodia, something that now we can now only afford every 3-4 months.

We are thankful that Hive delivered us some real physical friends to interact with, and some really cool ones at that. @faustofraser, you have gone above and beyond my friend, thanks for the adventure.

🙏 THANKS FOR READING 🙏

If you enjoyed this post, please upvote and reblog.

^{SPECIAL THANKS TO @JOSHMAN FOR HELPING ME REACH DOLPHINHOOD BY SETTING ME AS THE BENEFICIARY ON MANY POSTS.}

^Dad

^Mom

^Srey-Yuu

^{Monkey B}

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^{WE PROUDLY SUPPORT}

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