hello cambodia!

i have been wanting to go to cambodia for years, and it always kinda got left off the schedule. but finally we are off to the land of angkor wat! i am so excited. we first flew into phnom penh.
we had a lovely dinner there, and a young man who managed to entertain us greatly while convincing me to buy three books from him. we finally had to play rock, paper, scissors to agree on a price! it was some lively bargaining, but a great start to our cambodian visit. the next morning we hit the central market, where zoe managed to convince us to buy her a huge (and i am sure, real) ruby heart necklace for six bucks.
then we explored the city for the day. stopping at all the important places...


we even went to the palace, but it was not as shiny as the one in bangkok, or so zoe said. tomorrow we are off to sihanouksville for a bit of beach and sun.

royal palace w. da johanssons

Brita och CeGe are here to do some travelling whit us. we had a few nice days in bangkok. visited some of the attractions that we had some how missed over the years.
fun days, and now a new country awaits, cambodia! eimi is very exited...
to be continued!

the grand palace and then some

after we finally figured out how to actually get in the grand palace, we went exploring. zoe was in love with how sparkly it was. the golden stupa was a real hit. she even wore her princess tiara in honor of visiting a palace.

outside the temple of the emerald buddha, which is not emerald, we dipped lotus flower in water and splashed our heads for good luck. are you listening buddha?
someone wishes her room had this much bling bling.

even thomas managed to enjoy himself.
though it seemed to be nearly as difficult for us to find our way out as it was to find our way in. good job we had the excellent navigation skills of zoe and brita.
then we hopped on a very crowded ferry bus back to banglampoo.
where we ate super yummy food and my favorite food stall.
then there was the evening stroll down khao san road to soak in all the chaos.
and since, bangkok´s night market is no longer happening, we headed back to zoe´s favorite flower market to round out our night. not bad for one day in bangkok.

brita and cege!

we celebrated their arrival by heading out to chinatown and having a look around. had to stop for some 5 baht sushi too! yum.
on the way back to the hotel we stopped by the fort park down the street and had some yummy shakes. zoe was being quite the little princess, she has seen too much top model!
then brita, cege, and zoe joined the locals for a little bit of aerobics on the pier. the guy in pink hat to the right of cege certainly had an interesting fashion sense. seemed like he was really enjoying himself.
then it was back to the hotel for some rest, cause we are off to the grand palace tomorrow!

bangkok, pre johanssons

first things first, we all survived the night bus, with flying colors, although we were all a bit tired. so it was a bit of a relaxing day. zoe and eijla were beautified...

then we took a bit of a stroll around what turned out to be buddha statue area! there were buddhas for sale of all shapes and sizes, everywhere. we thought about taking this one home and putting in the garden, but thought it might be a bit too big for a carry-on!
and we rounded out the day with a yummy bit of street food before going home an crashing...
the next day we headed back to one of our favorite markets, the weekend market. eijla helped the fare collector on the bus ride there...
then thomas and zoe checked out the map to see where we wanted to go. zoe was mostly interested in the flower sections, hmmmm, i wonder why.
on the steps outside one of the shops selling scented candles and oils, was this text. being totally obsessed with smells, i appreciated it.
there was a bit of entertainment in the shape of a katoi geisha playing electric guitar! very interesting combination.
pappa and eijla shared a shake and some snuggles on a little bit of a break.
after the market, we headed to park next door, like always for the girls to have a bit of fun. which they certainly did. we all slept well that night.
the next we went on a little adventure. first off to the camera store to see if they could repair our waterproof camera that drowned. (they could but not sure when we will get it back). then we headed to the siam area, where there are a million malls. high on our to do list, was of course eat ice cream, i think that is about #1 for zoe nearly every day!
the girls goofing around on their sugar highs from the ice cream...
a little fun walking around the siam area. check out the huge tv!
tomorrow the brita and cege are arriving, and we are looking forward to some fun with them.

krabi, on our way out of town...

all our bags are packed, we´re ready to go... good thing we have a super pappa to carry them all!
we spent our last night in krabi before heading north to bangkok. daum and rat joined us for another delicious dinner. we are going to really miss them, but we wish them both the best of luck with their dive shop.
the next day we had some hours to play before we took the night bus...

zoe, chill-laxin while waiting for the bus.
good bye krabi, hello bangkok, if we survive the night bus with two kids!

the last days of ao nang, for now anyway...

our time in ao nang has come to a close. but there a few last memories we would like to share. for instance, round the corner from where we stayed, there were bushes with purple flowers. everyday zoe did her best to be the first to spot them. and i do not know how many walks we had to take around the block to check them out.we got in a little beach time with farmor farfar as well, but not as much as we would have liked due to the girls being sick.
we spend some time with daum and rat, though they have such long work hours at the dive school.
we hopped on the mopeds one day and went exploring. aside from a batik demonstration, we checked out the spicy garden. a large beautiful garden full of all kinds of plants, dragonflies, and butterflies.

there was lots of vegetation to check out, smell, feel, enjoy.
after spicy garden there was a new beach to explore... with cool drinks...


for anita and lars last night we went to kruathara, one of favorite seafood restaurants with daum and rat. thomas, daum, and zoe checked out the offerings for the night, and picked out some yummy eats.

thanks for a great visit farmor and farfar. glad you had a safe flight home.