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.

Mei Mei

Samara has been very protective of her "mei mei" since she was born.  In the beginning, when people would try to look at Lizzie, Samara would quickly pull the top down on the car seat or the stroller.  Even when somebody who Samara didn't know well would hold the baby, I'd see Samara's stress level rise.  She'd often ask, "Why is that lady holding Elizabeth?  Did she wash her hands?"  She tells everyone, "Her name is Elizabeth Helen.  She was upside down (meaning breach)." However, Samara spent most of first couple months, like the above photo, just observing and not too interested in handling her.  She'd hold her for 10 seconds and say, "Ok.  I'm done."

But now that Lizzie is interacting more, Samara is all over her: "Mom, she's not saying cheese! Lizzie, say cheese!"; while grabbing her legs, saying "She's kicking me mom!"; rubbing Lizzie's hand on her face, "Her nails are sharp.  She's scratching me", "she's looking at me", "she's not looking at me", etc.   I'm assuming this is why second children don't have the same 'personal space' issues as first children?!

 Mara can't wait for Lizzie to be able to play more.  I'm sure they will be best friends and worst enemies as they grow up.  We sure love these sweet faces!!

Two Months Old

Lizzie turned two months old on Tuesday.  We can't believe it's already been two months.  We had her wellness visit today.   On the way there, a gecko crawled out of her car seat and scared me to death.  I do NOT like geckos.  She is growing well and we hope she will soon be chubby like Samara was.  Poor Lizzie has had troubles with reflux and gassiness.   She's quite active and strong.   We have to watch her close on the bed.   She's already rolled over from her tummy to back and can push herself forward quite far when she is on her tummy.  She loves a good snuggle and being in the baby bjorn and moby wrap.  That makes using public transportation a little easier. :)

I found this basket on Arab Street right before she was born and had high hopes for the newborn sleeping pictures I'd get of her in it.  Since we don't make the kind of babies that stay sleep, I'll have to use it for someone else's photos.  Lizzie was happy for the first 90 seconds while I let her suck on the basket.

 But when I tried to prop her up on her arms she got angry.  And I can't blame her.  I'd be mad too if my mom put a wool hat on my head in this weather and made me sit in a basket.  Even her crying face is cute...most of the time.

And the best part about month two is the smiles!  She is so scrumptious.  I'm glad I get to spend my days and nights kissing these sweet little cheeks.  

Lizzie's three-in-one Blessing Dress

Where do the weeks go?  Lizzie was blessed over three weeks ago and I finally took a few pictures of her in the dress.   They aren't what I wanted, but blogging must go on or it will never get done.

I'd hoped to get a family picture of us in front of the chapel (since I've never posted one of our meeting house) but that morning was pretty hectic and after church is always crazy.  This was the only picture we got that day.  We were able to do the blessing before my mom left.  We are so glad she was able to be here for this.  In our church, babies are formally given a name and a blessing after they are born as declaration of sorts before putting their names on the records of the church.  Members of the church are baptized when they are eight years old.  The blessing Ben gave Elizabeth was beautiful.

The beautiful dress that a very kind and talented friend generously made for us (thanks, Sally!).  I wanted Lizzie to have a special dress that represented her being born in Asia.  Notice the little mandarin collar and buttons.

   

Darling bracelets that Ben's sweet Grandma sent.  Lizzie got her middle name 'Helen' from Ben's Grandma Clark.  Lizzie is lucky share a name with such a wonderful woman!

Oh, we love this sweet face!  She is perfection.

Enough with the spiritual and on to the comical.  Now for the real story of the dress.  Like I mentioned, I wanted her to have a special dress.   I'd been to chinatown with a friend and found a few cute styles of dresses I liked.  Tailors are everywhere here, but finding one who would make a newborn dress was tricky.  My friend found a cute older lady who said she could do it.  We settled on a style she felt she could make.  I explained what I wanted and she confirmed that she understood it was for a brand new baby.  She even promised to be quick about it so I wouldn't have to go out of the house during my confinement period to pick the dress up.  Her shop is near Ben's work so he picked it up one evening on his way home.  I told him to text me a pic and tell me how it was.  He said it was lovely but kept indicating it may be a little big for the baby.  He got home with the dress, which was very nice and well-made...

...for a five-year old.

I'm sure Ben was trying to gently prepare me, but the word 'little' in Ben-ese apparently means 'enormous'.  In fact, just for fun we had Samara put it on and she was swimming in it.  Ben wisely and intentionally forgot to tell me until we had the new dress that the little tailor lady (let's call her 'madame Foo') told him, "I make dress to fit a newborn baby to age three."  Chego?! (that's Russian for 'did you smoke crack for breakfast?)  All too often that's how it's done here.  They like to do you favors by deciding for you what you really want.  Really, it makes it worse that she actually intended a newborn to wear it when she made it.  It's hard not to giggle when we see the dress.  We've had fun thinking of how it could have been used on a newborn, a swaddle blanket? sheet for the basinet?   Wait...

...I know...she's seen this illustration and read the poem, 

   My Three White Dresses.   She was doing us a favor by making us a three-in-one dress.  The back is elastic so you could easily just add some fabric to the bottom to make it a baptism dress and then alter it somehow to be part of a wedding dress.  Brilliant!!

It would have been one thing if the dress actually did fit a three-year old.  I sent it home to my niece who is six (NOT newborn to age three size).  I should have sewn a tag in it that says "made with love especially for the Western baby (that's mandarin for 6-yr old)".