Day 3 in Cambodia

May 11, 2009 - We met the elephants at 7:30a.m. to ride them up to Angkor Thom temple. The ride was $15 per person but Bailey & Carson were only $7.50 each. Our elephant's name was Ji Jum (Happy).








A highlight at Angkor Thom temple is the HUGE statues of faces. The faces are at the Bayon area. This area has a million nooks & crannies that kids could get lost in. We brought our walkie-talkie's and the kids had a blast playing hide-n-seek there with them.

Notice in the photos all the hiding spots. Also, look at the face in the background of Carson and Bailey's photos. The faces are all smiling. King Jayavarman VII apparently had a sense of humor! Nice to know that they were happy 1,000 years ago. Angkor Thom is a Buddhist temple.








This photo is classic of Carson coughing into his arm...he had such a bad cough while we were in Cambodia and coughed into his arm the entire trip! As soon as we got back to Singapore his cough was fine.




Preah Pithu Temple
We visited this temple in the Angkor Thom area b/c it was known for all of its elephant statues...a lot of the heads are gone from the statues so it was hard to tell they were elephants but it was a fun temple for climbing on!



Luckily, our friend Peter who is 17 was Carson's "buddy" for the trip - to make sure he didn't fall in places like this...









Ta Prohm Temple

This temple is amazing b/c trees have grown over much of the temple with their roots gripped tightly to the stones. These trees are massive and make for great photo ops.







This spot where we're standing is the actual spot where Angelina Jolie picked a jasmine flower before falling into the earth in the movie "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."



Last Temple for the day: The Great Ankgor Wat!
This is a Hindu temple that has been well maintained so it's pretty amazing. It's surrounded by a moat on all sides; built to keep out enemies 1,000's of years ago. It's the world's largest religious building.








You could spend years here studying the details on the walls and deciphering their meanings...I couldn't spend years studying it of course but SOMEONE could!




This is our last photo before leaving Angkor Wat temple. We walked quickly past all the vendors selling t-shirts and postcards. We never bought from the vendors at the temple b/c if you bought from one you'd be attacked by hundreds more...it was hard to say no to the small children selling post-cards but we were always polite and just talked to them instead of buying. Sammy was always getting annoyed with me for talking to them and telling them they were beautiful! We bought our souvenirs from the markets from ADULTS instead; as we didn't want to encourage small children to work.




The very tall section in the center is where there used to be a gold statue of the Hindu God Vishnu in it. Sammy had just learned all about Hinduism & Buddhism in her Social Studies class this year so she was able to see a lot of what she'd learned about. I'm glad she could appreciate it b/c when you're walking around dripping with sweat it's nice to have some "aha moments!" as Oprah used to say.





After a quick swim and some snacks we boarded this boat to go to...
The Floating Village!

This outing was $30 for my 3 kids and me and well worth it...it was like Waterworld; the Kevin Costner movie, except a blast from the past on water instead of a blast from the future!



School was in session as we drove past this floating school.




Everything was pretty much business as usual...swimming to get clean water; hanging out at your floating house, swimming to the small store on water; even the pigs were in a pig-pen built on the water! We all agreed that wasn't somewhere we'd want to live when the monsoon rain is beating down or lightning & thunder!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE CAMBODIA! (Day 1 & 2)

Sammy, Bailey, Carson & I spent 5 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia this last week. This trip was up there with Sumba (Indonesia) and New Zealand as one of our faves. Here are some highlights:


Hanging out with our good friends the MacArthurs! They were with us for the first 4 days.



The first photo is our initial view of Cambodia after stepping off the plane.

Our first stop in Cambodia was to a local market to buy food for 10 families who belong to our church in Siem Reap. We bought enough food to feed these families for 6 weeks. Sondra and I split the cost - $37USD each. (I spend that much on one meal for my family from Carl's Jr.) Here we are in the market waiting for the ladies to scoop up the rice.




On Sunday (Mother's Day) we went to church in Siem Reap. There were missionaries there with headphones to translate the meeting for us into English. There was no translation for the kids in primary for 2 hours though. They were awesome though and lasted in primary for the whole 2 hours...they found one girl who was visiting from Phnom Penh who could speak English. She was 4 years old and helped them understand what was going on a bit. The kids told me the only part of primary that they could really understand was "Do As I'm Doing" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."



After church we played with the kids outside with some of the bubbles we'd brought...a great way to mingle together when you can't understand each other! One of the boys we were playing with after church is wearing a Singapore American School uniform with a clip-on tie. He was so darling I wanted to eat him up right then and there! I love how he's hanging out in a tree after church.










Next we went out with Pres. Loy (branch pres.) to make our deliveries to the families. This was the highlight of our trip! We brought balls, bubbles, clothes, books and food to the kids in their villages. Carson is blowing up a ball for some of the kids.



These are some of the kids in the first village that we visited...they're showing us how they get their water...out of that well. They use a bucket to get it out and have a homemade filter to try to clean out some of the impurities.




Here's some of our group in front of a lady's house who has NOTHING but that house made from palm trees. However, she has photos on the wall of her baptism and a "temple box" with money she's saving to try to go to the temple someday.



Happy, beautiful girls who are loving their new outfits!





Livin' the simple life in Cambodia...



Sweet, yummy children are everywhere you turn in Cambodia!



This is Chetana. She is a bright, shining star in Cambodia. Her father was our driver and is the branch pres. in Siem Reap. She went everywhere with us and was our B.F.F., interpreter, tour guide, etc.



This lady has a much more modern way of getting water in her village...she has a water pump! She's helping Bailey wash off her shoes b/c she spilled bubbles on them!



We went to dinner at a restaurant called "The Blue Pumpkin." The kids got to relax while eating on these couches in the restaurant.

Easter

Easter was fun!!!
These 2 photos were AFTER church, unfortunately! It was too hot to smile or be sweet for the photo...

Spotlight On Sammy Daynes

11 years we've had with this girl so far and we are so lucky! I finally got a picture of her with her glasses on. She doesn't need them for reading, just distance. I made her put them on for an action shot anyway! Now she really looks like an author. With her intense love of the world of fiction, can't you just see her as the next J.K. Rowling?

Lady In RED - Here she is getting ready for That Dance Thing. "TDT" is for 6th graders to get together on a Friday or Saturday night and learn ballroom dance. They have a fancy dinner where they learn etiquette first and then they dance...with boys! There's always lots of good stories after TDT so Mike & I are looking forward to chaperoning it a lot next year so we can see all the drama first hand!:) We had a difficult shopping trip trying to find her a fancy dress. I don't think anyone has ever thought about importing 'tween clothing into Singapore! After a couple of hours we found the perfect dress that was only about 2 sizes too big. After some quick alterations though it was perfect! I love the photos of Sammy waiting for her ride to show up with Bailey & Lydia anxiously standing by.

As long as I'm documenting stuff about Sammy I must also mention that she just got put on the bronze honor roll at school...for getting all A's and B's this term. Do you think she's more suited for Stanford or Harvard? We're proud of you Sammy!

Now there's one last item to mention...Sammy's meeting with David Archuletta. Mike arranged this through some of his contacts here in Singapore for Sammy to meet him. He was here promoting his album CRUSH for just one day. He made an appearance at a mall, signed CD's and put on a small 3 song concert. Sammy got to meet him, with Mike, ask him a question, get one very AWFUL photo taken with him and that was pretty much it. You really need to hear the story from her.

Poor Bailey was extremely jealous since she's A LOT more starstruck over Archie than Sammy. Bailey attended the concert with her friend Kierica and their family. I've been told that she was the one leading the pack of kids up to the front of the stage to get a closer view.