time for moving on...

so we have completely fallen in love with cambodia, and especially siem reap, but the time has come to move on. the people have been great. the food tasty. the markets plentiful. the temples fascinating. the weather good, and the whiskey insanely cheap (less than 2 dollars a bottle!)
eijla was packed and ready to go before the rest of us. wish i only had to pack my toys!
asians like to cram westerners into really crowded buses, especially after promising again and again, no it will not be a mini bus, no i promise it is a big bus, and when you arrive at the border not only is it a mini bus, but one without any storage rack, so zoe and i got to share the seat with about 15 large backpacks, lucky for me zoe is so small, or i might not been able to breathe. eijla sat up front with pappa, but since they promised a big bus, i did not feel bad for them when eijla threw up all over their seats. just felt bad for thomas who got drenched in it.
and so it is back to bangkok. good bye cambodia, we will miss you, but i am pretty confident that we will be back.

a night out in siem reap

so last night we headed out for one of the famous shadow puppet shows. it was quite entertaining, but perhaps geared more towards the big chinese groups. they did however finally give us a program in english halfway through the show, so we kinda knew what was going on during the second half. zoe was mesmerized by the puppets.
thomas and the girls peeked back behind the scenes during the show to see how the whole thing worked.
then after it was out the famous night markets of siem reap. we have gone nearly every night, but mostly for the massages. 2 dollars for a half hour foot massages is nothing to pass up.

think it was a pretty exciting day for the girls and zoe was pretty crashed before we had finished browsing around, but zoe was alert and awake, i think we fell asleep before her last night!

a little daddy-daughter time...

one of the many joys of traveling for so many months a year is all the quality time we get with the girls. thomas takes full advantage of this and the girls absolutely adore him. especially since he does things like paint their little nails...

off on a butterfly adventure

zoe was dying to to go to the butterfly park, but we never found the time while brita and cege were there, but finally she got her day of wings. hired to tuk tuk and headed out. they even provided us with a guide who explained the life cycle of a buttfly. (you can imagine how many questions zoe had!). we started off at the pupa cage. where they keep all the chrysalis until the hatch, and the butterflies wings are dry enough so they can fly. we even saw a few emerge from their cocoons, it was pretty cool.
then we headed off to the where they keep all the caterpillars safe from birds and other animals so that they can turn into butterflies. they have a deal that they pay farmers to bring in the caterpillars instead of kill them. pretty cool system and it seems to work.
there were a lot of gorgeous butterflies that we had a great time observing, but very few who held still long enough for me to get a good shot of them.
here our guide and zoe are trying to show eijla a butterfly, and explain to her why she should not to touch the wings.
seemed like eijla was a having a great time.
zoe was pretty excited with getting to "hold" so many butterflies. she really did not want to leave when it was time.
our tuktuk driver took a shining to eijla and the snuggled and played while thomas tried to convince zoe and i that it was time to go...
was a beautiful time in a beautiful place filled with beautiful butterflies...
on the way home, we had to take a shot of this. yes, they are filling the gas tank, and what is that? yes that is a johnnie walker bottle. funny.
and thomas snapped this shot of me and zoe bonding over our new toy. an ipod touch. i do not know who plays with it more, zoe, eijla or me! :)!

what is that? another day of relaxing? seriously?

yeah, i know we have it rough. seriously when people say it must be difficult traveling with the girls, i think they are crazy. so we enjoyed a nice family day today, with a bit of fun in the pool. i love my water babies!

our very last day of the angkor temples

there were still a few temples, a little further out that i really wanted to see, and since brita and cege have left, i dragged the family along to the rolous group...
the first temple we headed to, preah ko, eijla was giving us the guided tour.
and she ended up being a bit of an attraction for the local kids hanging out there.
just nearby was workshops where they teach stone carving and shadow puppet (or leather silhouette carving). we stopped by and had a look, some of them were really talented. apparently they go to school part-time and apprentice part-time. but who knows all beggars and working children say they go to school, cause they know tourists will not buy from them unless they do.
then it was off to another temple, bakong this time, this one was a big one with a bit of a climb.
zoe gave me more of her top model posing...
then we headed the last temple, lolei, on my list (for this time). it was a small, nearly destroyed one, but there was a school for monks there, and they were quite the hosts.
super friendly and really wanting to practice their english.
on the way home we stopped by at an orphanage. the kids were amazing, they have nearly nothing and yet they were a joy. they loved eijla and zoe just as much as eijla and zoe loved them. we stayed for a couple of hours so they could play.
this one little boy really took a shining to thomas, he was so adorable. HIV pos and no mother or father, and still so full of life.
the kids were really an inspiration. and i think zoe really appreciated understanding how others live and lucky we are to have it so good.

shopping, shopping, and more shopping!

there are a lot of markets in cambodia, you can shop all day until you drop. with the johanssons back on the road, we took a day off from the temples to hit the markets. the girls are always a big attraction while we browse. almost wish we could send a container of stuff back from here, but we did find some cool decorations for the future greenhouse!

and we found a mexican restuarant here in town that serves delicious frozen margaritas. i am beginning to thin siem reap is paradise, too bad there is not any diving here!

last day of temples with the johanssons

so the 0530 sunrise was a bit early for the girls and thomas, so they took a day off to spend at the pool and have a little pappa daughter time. brita, cege, and i headed off in the tuktuk to watch the sunrise over angkor wat with about a million other people. it was beautiful, but yeah, well, i prefer the eeriness of being in the temples by ourselves (or at least not with huge groups of loud chinese).
then we headed off to preah khan, which ended up being one of my favorite temples. lots of corridors and amazing carvings, on our way in were were serenaded by a boy who, honestly most likely does not go to school, though they all pointed out that today was saturday!
my attempt a self portrait of sorts down one of the corridors...
preah khan was full of these beautiful figures as well as alot of trees doing their best to take over. it gave the place an amazing atmosphere...
then there was this little old monk lady. she was just so sweet and adorable, i could just feel the joy of life all around here. she sat near the middle of the temple and seemed like she just belonged there.
we visited a couple more temples, including ta som. more of the bayon faces which i find so fascinating. i wish i had taken this shot from a better angle but this tree grew up around the entrance creating a very impressive entry with the bayon face tower just behind it...
banteay samre ended up being an interesting temple as well (okay i admit it, they all were), so many carvings of so many crazy scenes, but what struck me here as i snapped this shot, is how much this temples mean to people now. the love with which these ladies touched the wall was, well, touching...
after the temples we met up with thomas and the girls to go out for a little traditional kmer dancing and dinner. zoe loved all the flowers, glitter, and dresses, but thought that the dancing was a bit too slow for her liking. i only had the itouch with so the pics are not too great. but you get the idea.

at the end of the show they invited people up on stage to take pics with them. cege did not hear the announcement and started screaming at the silly chinese tourists to get off the stage. it was so funny. but the girls got up and ran around. one of the girls thought eilja was going to fall off of the stage at one point and tried to run after her, but was a bit hard with headdress and outfit. poor girl she looked terrified!
and tomorrow the johanssons are back off to bangkok, they will be missed, but it has been a great trip. thanks for sharing it with us!

the girls getting into the groove...

with all the carvings of dancers in the temples the girls wanted to join in.

then in the evening when we all had massages, zoe wanted to join in, but it was more of a tickle fest than a massage

day two of the angkor temples

day two was no less impressive. we started out the day at the angkor wat temple, the most famous of the temples. wall after wall of amazing stone carvings from 1000 years ago, even eijla was impressed.
though zoe found her puppy a bit more interesting, she did enjoy the temples, though commenting that they weren´t that pretty because they were only one color!
brita and cege were often found cruising their book for information. it just makes more sense to read about it while you are actually there. i have to agree with them.
zoe insisted puppy get a foto in the famous angkor wat as well.
thomas, zoe, and eijla taking a break in one of the windows looking out into the center courtyard and main temple of angkor wat.
i have no idea why these people where at the temple, or what they were doing in traditional dress, maybe we missed a show, or perhaps they pop up everyday to earn some money taking fotos with the tourists, but zoe wanted a pic with them. so i threw in my dollar as well.

eijla was a little more shy of them. perhaps the masks, but from a distance she thought they were very interesting.
while taking this picture, a couple came up to us and told us that we had gorgeous children, i have agree.
when it was time to climb up in the center temple of angkor wat. they told us that children under 12 were not allowed, so i snapped a shot of my little drama queen as i left her behind and climbed the stairs.
i thought the signs showing the possibility of the visit were too funny. i am glad there was a possibility of a visit!
little hold the camera and take a shot of my self in front of the center temple tower.
brita and zoe cruising the gallery of 1000 buddhas on our way out. that horrible pol pot removed most of their heads.
last chance for another group shot before leaving angkor wat and heading to more temples.
catching up on reading about bayon, the temple with all the crazy heads, before heading in...

us with some of the crazy heads. the carvings on this temple were incredible. definitely one of my favorites of the trip.
people are crazy about taking pics of the girls, this monk wanted a pic with them, but they would not cooperate unless pappa was with.
if a banana looks too perfect to be true, than most likely it is, eller hur?
the girls dancing amongst the faces of bayon.


and it is off to another temple, eijla taking the lead. this time to bapuon. the kmer rouge destroyed all paper concerning the restoration of this temple so it ended up being the world´s largest jigsaw puzzle. much the temple was actually closed as they are still working on the restoration.
the battles between the crazy bayon trees and these stone buildings have left some incredible shaped tree trunks.
we managed to get quite a few more temples in today. we headed out to east mebon for a bit.

and then it was onto pre rup for the sunset.

zoe and some local girls entertained themselves blowing bubbles while waiting.
and it was worth the wait. a lovely sunset in amazing surroundings. not a bad way to end the day!