Siem Reap, Cambodia

Before I begin, I have to say that I fell in love with Cambodia.  It is such a beautiful country and the people are so welcoming even though most are living well below the poverty line.   I had over 400 pictures from our 4 days in the country, so I'm going to split this into 4 posts. (about the city, the floating village, the temples, and the Green Gecko Project).

We arrived late in the day on the last day of 2012.  The hotel was small (39 rooms), but stunning.

If, by chance, you're planning a vacation to Cambodia I highly recommend Shinta Mani.

The first evening we were there, the owner of the hotel had a arranged a cocktail party on the rooftop bar with complimentary hors d'oeuvres and champagne.  The first part of the party was a demonstration of Bokator (Khmer martial arts) by kids from a local school (Green Gecko Project).

 After the demonstration was over, while the adults chatted, the boys took over the mats.  The staff even pulled bean bag chairs up onto the mats for the boys to play.  The spent over 30 minutes just running and jumping into the staff.  At least 5 staff members stood "guard" around the mats to make sure the boys didn't hurt themselves.

This was just a taste of what was to come for the rest of our stay in Siem Reap.  This was a very "child-friendly" place and everyone (and I mean everyone) loved the boys and wanted to touch them hug them, play with them.  The boys were good sports about it, but it got fairly overwhelming sometimes.

 Michelle enjoying some fresh coconut juice.  The very tiny bartender had it open in four whacks of the cleaver.

Siem Reap Shopping Mall

Inside the market

Local butcher

Some local wine (Snake wine)

Spice Aisle

Night Markets

Jamie, Braden and I riding around in our tuk tuk.

Singapore

A few days after Christmas we embarked on the trip of a lifetime: Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand. We were fortunate that our former nanny, Michelle, was willing and able to fly over and meet us in Singapore.  It took us a full day to get to Singapore, but the boys did great.  They were very excited to be in an airplane, so that helped.

Our airplane:

Our hotel in Singapore had this amazing Christmas tree and it was REAL!  You could smell the pine as soon as you entered the lobby.  I haven't smelled a real Christmas tree in 3 years.  I wanted to just sit in the lobby and sniff.  Oh, and it was really pretty, too.

While there we visited the Singapore Zoo and had breakfast with the orangutans.  Breakfast was a rushed, frantic affair and it was hot and humid, so not sure I'd want to do that again.  The zoo, though, was beautiful.  We only got to visit a few attractions/animals, but we got to see everything the boys wanted to see:  otters, white tigers, fish, elephants and some monkeys.

We stopped to see a Sea Lion show and at the end they offered to splash us.  I let Jamie take them up on the offer and he loved it.

In addition the shopping (OMG the shopping!), we took some time to explore a bit of the city.  We had dinner in an Indian restaurant on the Boat Quay.

Dinner options along the Quay were on display, but I passed.

The morning of the day we were leaving Ian and Michelle took the boys to a museum to see a LEGO exhibit.  It was a bit more advanced

Off to Cambodia next...

Christmas 2012

Santa, friends and family were very generous:  Here is a picture of all the presents around the tree before everyone woke up on Christmas morning.

The first present of the day was the boys slept in.  First one out of bed was Jamie at about 7:30, then Braden at 7:45 and Gavin didn't stir until about 8:15.  I'll wager that that will be the one and only time it happens for many years.

First was the stockings, filled with cars, trucks, candy and cool headlights.

After that came presents galore.  Lesson learned - all presents that require assembly should come from Santa, so they can be opened and pre-assembled.  We spent most of the day assembling various toys.  This plane was the worst, because it came with no directions.  Thank goodness for Google.  However, it took until we got back from our holiday to locate the last piece and put it on.

It also took a couple of hours to get everything open, because everyone wanted to play with their toys as they opened them.  I also think that is the last time that will happen.  Once it was over we were able to finally clean up:

The aftermath

Christmas Concert and Graduation

This is one super crazy time of year.  Hot Hot Hot days.  Getting ready for the holidays.  Summer break.  Planning vacations.  In the middle of all this we reached a milestone.  Jamie has completed Pre-School.  To celebrate all the classes came together and presented songs and stories before being awarded their diplomas.

Unfortunately, Ian was back in the States, so I was trying to operate the video camera by myself.  Which means I failed to video Puff the Magic Dragon.  :(  I finally got some of the action on video; the best was the Wombat Wobble. Jamie's class did three songs; I have no idea what the second one was called, but Jamie did a great job.

The second song:

Not sure if you can see it, but Jamie was very disappointed that his friend Cory danced with the princess that he woke up (Niccola).  He did end up dancing with two other princesses (Erin and Hannah).

He was most excited to do the Wombat Wobble with all kids in his pre-school.

Very proud of our little boy - getting his diploma:

Birthday Weekend (Gosse Bluff)

On Sunday morning, we opted to take the long way back home, so we could drive by Gosse Bluff.

Par for the course around here, more than half the journey is on unsealed road which makes for a bumpy ride.  This particular drive was made a bit more exciting by a group of camels that our little caravan of cars startled.  Of course, camels being the bright creatures they are, when they heard the cars from their safe position off the road, they immediately turned and ran ONTO the road.  Fortunately, we didn't hit any of them.  They are perfectly shaped to crush your windshield.  But we did manage to get a photo or two.

According to scientists, Gosse Bluff is what remains of an impact crater from a comet that hit the Earth about 140 million years ago.  Beautiful satellite picture is available here.

The road into the center of the crater.

However, the locals have a different explanation.  Amazing how similar the "dreamtime" story is to the scientific explanation.

The dreamtime explanation is that women were dancing among the stars and one set her baby down.  The baby fell out of the sky and crashed into the earth.  Very little of Gosse Bluff (Tnorala) is open to the public, because it is a "sorry" place.  Many years ago there was a "family" on "family" massacre so everyone left.  Now, there is no camping, fires or even hiking permitted outside the small park zone.  It is all on the honor system, though, as there are no rangers or fences.  The penalties for disregarding are hefty, so few people go outside the zone.

So tired he couldn't finish blowing up his balloon.