Day 5 in Cambodia

Heading out for a ride!



The branch pres. and his daughter picked us up at 9:00a.m. today. I told them about a horseback riding place called "The Happy Ranch" that I'd read about in my guidebook. I'd had the concierge from the hotel call The Happy Ranch already to get the scoop and warn them that we were fixin' to ride. After driving through the red light district of Siem Reap and stopping several times to ask men with chickens where this place was; we made it!
We were all amazed to see that a mama horse had delivered her baby that morning so we got to see (and touch) a foal only a few hours old! It was amazing to see her stand for a few seconds and then fall again! We are such city dwellers that this was an awesome treat!

Check her out...Her name is "Bee." (Mom's name is Honey.)



I also soon found out that Chetana had never ridden a horse in her life so I had the kids all convince her that that would be a fun thing for her to do. I told her I would pay for her if she would come with us. She was a bit scared to try but soon relented to our begging...we weren't taking no for an answer so she really had no choice!

Chetana's First Ride:



We had an awesome ride through the back yards and front yards and side yards of all of the cows and people's homes in the area. We got to see several people showering underneath their water pumps which was. of course, a highlight of the ride. Sammy, our guide and I rode up at the front of the line...she let us trot the horses and even sent the other horses back to the ranch while Sammy, the guide and I went out trotting for a while on our own. Sammy was in heaven but you can imagine how Bailey felt. That was not pretty.
















When we got back to the ranch our guide showed the kids around a bit. She also showed them 2 baby kittens that had been born a few days before and were still in a box with their mother.

Here's the girls checking out the kitty's...



(Our ride was an a hour and a half for $20 per person.)

Chetana & Carson are hangin' after their ride.







We hit the pool again for a bit in the afternoon.




Then we headed back to our room to pack up for the airport! Goodbye Cambodia...we love you!




Cambodia Rocks!

Day 4 in Cambodia

Our friends the MacArthur's headed back to Singapore today so it was just the Daynes clan off for another Cambodian adventure today! We got picked up by Pres. Loy and daughter Chetana, as usual. Today we headed to the Silk Farm to learn how silk is made. We got to see the whole process of how the silk worms spin their cocoons all the way to the dyeing & weaving of the beautiful silk fabrics. The highlight was when Chetana ate one of the worms. They wanted us to try one but we decided to pass. No thanks! (Chetana is eating one in the photo.)



The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the BEAUTIFUL pool at our hotel! The kids ran around the whole time playing "Wipeout"; one of their new favorite TV shows. They came up with all kinds of great obstacle courses and races around the pool. We saw the biggest gecko I have ever seen by our pool!

More Day 3 in Cambodia

Can you believe I'm still writing about the same day? Blogger wouldn't let me post any more photos on the last entry so I had to start a new one!

Our last stop for the day was at a Traditional Cambodian dinner and dance show. The kids enjoyed the Khmer buffet...it's a good thing my kids are such great eaters! They liked the fried rice, french fries (since when is that Cambodian food?) and fruit. I liked the chicken curry soup - didn't eat the chicken though b/c it looked gross but the potatoes and broth were delish with some white rice mixed in...yummy! I also tried fish amok which is Cambodia's national dish; fish curry cooked in a banana leaf. It wasn't too bad. However, my favorite thing to eat is the yummy soup that Cambodians eat for breakfast and I ate it in the hotel every morning...it's just like Vietnamese pho but the Cambodian version. Basically it's a noodle soup in a broth with fresh veggies. It's soooo good!

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!