Merry Christmas

Mara Lou sure loves 

sweet baby Lizzie.   

And I think the feeling is mutual.  

Lizzie lights up whenever her big sister is around.

I hope you are surrounded by people you love and adore this Christmas!

Santa

 Letter in hand,

we set out to visit Mr. Claus last Saturday.  The verdict according to Lizzie:  Whatever... just another strange person holding me.   According to Samara: He's fine but the candy cane made the visit!

My verdict:  These two are scrumptious.

Happy Winter Everyone!!

Four Months Old

We sure love little Lizzie.  She is a sweetheart.  We can't believe she is four months old.  We are so glad she is part of our family.

Can you tell which side Ben was standing on?

Cambodia: Ta Keo, Banteay Srei, and Kbal Spean

Ta Keo

There are lots of temples to blog about, lots of info to record...mostly for our own records and book.  Ta Keo was built as a state temple by Jayavarman V in 968 A.D. and was dedicated in 1000 A.D.  it has five sanctuary towers arranged in a quincunx, built on the uppermost level of five-tier pyramid consisting of overlapping terraces (a step pyramid), surrounded by moat, as a symbolic depiction of Mount Meru.   Ta Keo was never completed because it was struck by lighting and considered unlucky.  We didn't go in and climb it, but you can.  

Banteay Srei

Temples were built by/for kings and teachers of kings.  If the latter, the temple was built at ground level, i.e. no big staircase.  This one was built at the same time as Ta Keo by Jayavarman V's priest and mentor, Yajnavaraha.  Banteay Srei means "citadel of the woman or citadel of beauty."

This was our "unlucky temple".  We arrived the same time as two bus loads full of tourists who thought our kids were more picture worthy than the ruins!  This temple is built of red sandstone, a medium that lends itself to intricate carvings.  It is nicknamed the "pink temple".

We traveled with three other families.  This was a fun clipboard with treasure hunts and games courtesy of Miss Jessie.  Mara loved it.

 Hiding from the tourists.  We really don't worry about this little miss being kidnapped.  Her scream is very piercing and she has NO problem letting strangers hear it if they pick her up, squeeze her cheeks, look at her the wrong way....

Kbal Speen

Kbal Speen is an Angkorian era site on the southwest slopes of Kulen Hills.  It is commonly known as the valley of a 1,000 Lingas.  There are stone carving in and around the Stung Kbal Speen River.

The hike went a little like this.  Baby falls asleep in the car seat 10 minutes before we arrive.  

Ben: "I'll stay with her.  I'm sure she'll sleep for a while"

Cheryl: thinking "Ok. See you in 20 minutes. No newborn of ours is naps more than 30 minutes."  It's sad but true.  They don't.  And I'm totally serious. 

We spent about 10 minutes getting ready to leave.  Ten minutes into the hike,  Ben meets Samara and I on the hike with Lizzie in Bjorn.  Lizzie poops.  Ben has diaper in pocket.  We change her.  She is still blazing mad.  Lizzie and I head back down.  

Then, when I was nursing her, and our friend was nursing her baby in the van along with me, people stared in at us through the windows from outside, wanted to hold the babies, and asked if they were twins.  Huh?  It was great to have another family along who was also traveling with a newborn.

Ben and Samara finish hike with the rest of the crew.  

Notice the cool carvings in the riverbed to your left.

Cambodia: Floating Village and Silk Farm

Floating Village

We spent our first day visiting the floating village located on Tonle Sap.  It is the largest freshwater lake in all of SE Asia.  The lake is unique in two ways.  The flow of the rivers feeding the lake changes direction twice a year and the lake portion expands and shrinks with the seasons.  Most of the year, the lake is around a meter deep and an area of 2,700 sq km.  However, when monsoon season approaches, the river portion, which connects to the Mekong River reverses its flow and the lake portion increases its area to 16,000 square km and its depth to nine meters, flooding nearby fields and forests and providing needed nutrients.  It is one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world.

A church in the village.  We had to leave for the airport at 4:00AM, so it made for a very long first day.  Perhaps because of that, we weren't that impressed with the floating village.  If you need to skip something this would be the thing.  

However, it was very interesting to see the countryside on the drive out to the floating village.  And we can now say we've visited Tonle Sap.  Cambodia, unfortunately, has been experiencing a lot of flooding recently.  The end of wet season is thankfully approaching. 

 Artisans d' Angkor

We stopped at a craftsman village.  Artisans d' Angkor was created to help the young rural population find work in their home villages by providing them with high-skilled training and a vocation from which they can earn a living.  It was created in 1998 and today it employs over 1,000 people.  This program/company has helped rural depopulation in Siem Reap surroundings.  

Silk Farm 

 Next stop-- the silk farm, which is also part of Artisans d' Angkor.  First, you have the little silk worms 

 who molt four times.  Then the worms enclose themselves in cocoons.  Each cocoon is a 'thread' of raw silk, 300 to 900 meters long. 

They boil the cocoons to prevent  them from releasing proteolytic enzymes, which cause the silk fibers to break down.  The boiling also makes the cocoons easier to unravel.  Often, the silkworm itself is eaten (Denise, I still can't believe you ate one!). 

 The thread is spun.  After which, the silk is dyed

and woven.  It's a pretty fascinating process.   I really enjoyed the visit here.  They have a nice gift shop too.

And finally you finish off the long day with a fresh big smoothie.

Prom 2010

We have the best ward activities committee and always have very unique and fun activities.  Last night, Ben and I attended Prom.

Yea, we are a pretty hot couple.  Ben is sporting a Scottish original just like he did in '96.  I picked up this beauty at the local Salvation Army.  I still can't believe anyone would ever get rid of this gem (or gems). 

Especially with sleeves like this, which can also be used as weapons.

A Pumpkin and a Pink Pony

The night before the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch, 

Pinkie Winkie, escorted by the lovely Mulan and Snow White, headed to the ex-pat neighborhood adjacent to the American school for an early trick-or-treat.  The neighborhood gets upwards of 2,000 trick-or-treaters on Halloween! 

 Afterwards, homemade root beer and a fun Halloween party at this cute friend's house.

 Off Pinkie Winkie gallops for more treats.  Her parents have sadly almost finished off her candy already.  Word is they get fewer trick-or-treaters in the US military neighborhood and that they pass out lots of chocolate bars.  We may just have to head up that way tonight....

Happy Halloween!!

Cambodia: Thoughts and Tips

We spent five days last week in beautiful and amazing Cambodia.  What a fascinating country with an incredible history--both ancient and modern.  When London was a town of 50,000, a city existed here of more than one million people.  The temples and ruins are awe inspiring.  It's hard to put into words and photos just how incredible they are.  It would have been amazing to see them a thousand of years ago at their finest.  In modern times, Cambodia has endured three decades of war and an atrocious genocide that left an estimate of up to 2.5 million people dead--1/3 of the population.  This was led by the Khmer Rouge.  Definitely worth reading up on, especially if you are like we were, knowing nothing about Cambodia.  Here is a great documentary about Angkor Wat.

 I was so impressed and touched by the people.  They are kind, industrious, and happy.  So recently they've been through worse than hell and the country is slowly rebuilding.  They still don't have much, but manage to do so much with what they have.  Many people were disabled by landmines that are still a problem  due to three decades of perpetual war.  In so many societies/cultures today disability is looked at as a reason to get handouts.  But Cambodia has programs that teach crafts from which they can earn an income.  At the temples, bands like this play great music and sell CDs to earn money.  We were waiting in the van on the popular "pub street (tourist street with alot of restaurants)" and a man approached us selling books.  I was very touched by him and bought a book.  Along with the book, he passed out a business card and a flyer telling about his little business, that he chose it instead of begging and that the business was appreciated.  Samara (thankfully) was quiet while he was there, but had her eyes fixed on him.  Afterwards, she asked, "Mom, why does that man not have any arms?" Ugh.  Tears welled up in my eyes and I wasn't sure how to explain what a cruel place the world can be.  She's too young to know about that.  The people certainly don't let their disabilities define them and I think it's inspiring.

And like the rest of SE Asia, there are awesome markets,  

 

interesting food (that's snake on top and deep-fried spiders are popular fare), 

and I'm always fascinated by how much and how many people fit on a motorbike.  We saw one motorbike with a family of six on it.  One sweet family we met from our church's local congregation makes two trips to and from church because they can't all fit on their one motorbike.  Here is where I remember to never complain again about a long air-conditioned ride on the MRT.

 

When we got home Samara said, "Mom, the people in Cambodia were always saying to you, 'Lady, lady a dollah, a dollah,' trying to get you to buy their birds and stars and scarves."  Very true!  Above are some cute girls hawking their fares.  Aren't these girls gorgeous?  It's hard to resist buying stuff from the kids but many of the adults are very pushy and relentless so beware.  We probably would have bought more had they given us a little space.  And when you are nursing your baby in the car everyone likes to come up and just stare at you for long periods of time.  A little awkward.

We returned home exhausted, but grateful we could visit such a neat place.  Samara got to share a room with her cute friend while we were there and did great.  Samara told us on the way home that she did NOT want to sleep alone when we got back.  She meant what she said.

Here is some helpful info for those planning a trip there while it's fresh in my mind.

Fees

Everything is in USD.  You can even get USD at the ATMs. Bring lots of $1s and small bills to buy trinkets and tip.  You will get USD in change as well, unless your change is less than a dollar.

$25 Visa on arrival at the airport, bring a passport photo

$20 exit fee at airport, $13 for kids, infants free

$20 One-day temple pass $40 for three days (doesn't have to be used consecutively) or $60 for week 

Hotels

Paradise Angkor Villa  We stayed here and really liked it.  They have affordable 4- and 5-bedroom villas if you have a large family or that you can split with another family.  The other two hotels come highly recommended from friends who stayed there.

Bopha Angkor

Steung Siem Reap

Restaurants

We either ate at the following or they were recommend to us.  Definitely try the local khmer cuisine.  It is very flavorful and sort of a mix between Thai and Vietnamese.

Blue Pumpkin--Fantastic ice cream for $1.50 a scoop!  Great pastries too.

Red Piano

Khmer Kitchen

Pizza Company--Delivers to your hotel

Sugar Palm--Got my favorite dish of the trip here, Khmer fish salad

Butterfly Garden

Driver and Guide Info

We arranged everything through a lovely girl named Chetana.  The driver is $40/day for a van and you can book a great tour guide, Lee for $25/day.  We were thrilled with them.  You can arrange to do a service project through them as well.  They are all from the local LDS branch.  You can get tuk-tuks, vans, and guides when you get there too. 

Cambodia: The Six-dollah massage

We told our tour guide how amazed we were when we saw that our hotel offered an hour massages for $15.  He said that it was only $6 at the massage places in the city and said they'd take us to a great place.  We took Friday off from visiting the temples.  In the morning, off the girls went while the kiddos played with their papas.  When our driver pulled up here we were a wee bit concerned.  The place looked a little too much like one you'd expect offered massages for $6.  We were a bit worried that the construction noise would not facilitate a relaxing atmosphere. Once inside, we were all put in one room that was peachish and somewhat resembled a prison.  We sported some matching western-sized tees and PJ pants.   After some challenges communicating, our three masseuses came ready for stretching and pulling and slapping.  They moved right to the beat of the construction noise.  It was my first thai-style massage and I loved it.  We all felt limber and relaxed afterwards and were glad we stayed.

It's never boring traveling in SE Asia and we'll be chuckling about this for a long time!

Navaratri

I had the chance to get out of the house after bedtime several weeks ago to go on a night tour of the Indian festival, Navaratri.

First stop, an Indian Buffet.  We have grown to love Indian food since moving to Singapore.  Samara begs for Briyani rice several times a week.  The food and company were great and we even got a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen's Tandoori oven.

Nothing better than hot Naan bread!

Tandoori chicken.  Tandoori ovens reach up to 480 C/900 F--that's hot!  A friend who was checking out the oven with me, had a recipe for this chicken but was told it would never be the same because it was the temperature of the oven that gives it the special taste.

 Navaratri literally means "nine nights". Navaratri represents the celebration of the Goddess Durga--the manifestation of Deity in the form of Shakti.  Navaratri is divided into sets of three days to adore three different aspects of the supreme goddess or goddesses.

First three days:
The goddess is separated as a spiritual force called "Durga", also known as Kali, in order to destroy all our impurities.

Second three days:
The Mother is adored as a giver of spiritual wealth, Lakshmi, who is considered to have the power of bestowing on her devotees inexhaustible wealth, as she is the goddess of wealth.

Final three days:
The final set of three days is spent in worshipping the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. In order to have all-round success in life, believers seek the blessings of all three aspects of the divine femininity, hence the nine nights of worship.

The mother goddess is said to appear in nine forms, and each one is worshipped for a day. These nine forms signify various traits that the goddess influences her faithful devotees.

There was music and 

lots of beautiful dancing.

This woman was the teacher for all the other girls.  She was incredible.  She was so expressive and completely captivated my attention.  

And I loved this little girl.  She twirled and twirled and was having a glorious time. She outlasted me and was probably still twirling when my head hit the pillow.