Eden is FIVE

Here are some of his favorites at 5:

Colour – blue

Toy – Dory robot fish

Fruit – Apple

TV Show – KC Undercover

Food for Lunch – pigs in a blanket

Outfit – Star Wars tee

Animal – Crocodile

Song – We Will Rock You, Queen

Best friend – Cam and Adam “The Three Musketeers”

Thing to do outside – catch bugs

Sweet treat - Marshmallows

Things to do as a family – Wet N Wild

Sport – Footy… go Eels!

Book – We’re Going  on a Croc Hunt, Laine Mitchell

What do you want to be when you grow up? A police officer

We decided to skip a birthday party this year and let Eden choose what he wanted to do all day.  He chose to go to Taronga Zoo.  Taronga Zoo is also celebrating their birthday and had a $1 entry promotion for birthdays. 

Giraffe photobomb!

For dinner, Mr M and Miss A came over for pizza, a play and ice cream cake.  Yum!

We celebrated the next day at pre-school with a mama-made cake.  I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I totally am with this one.  I am super proud of it.  I made The Mystery Machine! 

Scooby Scooby Doo, Where are you?

Zoinks!  Eden is 5!

Cambodia Day 4 & 5: Temple Touring & Homeward Bound

Day 4: Temple Touring

Today was our last full day at Angkor Wat. We had another early start (6:30am) as we were touring the furthest temples.

First stop: croissants!

Pre Rup (961)

Pre Rup means “turning the body” and refers to a traditional method of cremation in which a corpse’s outline is traced in the cinders, first in one direction and then another.  The temple may have served as an early royal crematorium. 

View from the top
(Vanna told us not to climb it but we did anyway.  He is scared of heights)

The outer villages in the rain

Bantaey Srei (967)

There are so many butterflies in Angkor

Also known as The Citadel of Women, this temple contains the most intricate carvings in Angkor.  This is a not a royal temple, built by Yajnavaraha, a Brahmin priest and counsellor of King Rajendravarman II and his brother.  While the temple is small in size compared to the other Angkor monuments, detail of the gallery walls make up for it.  

A local vendor sells crickets

As we drove back to Angkor Wat, the skies opened.  Through the plastic covering, the country-side was amazing.  I saw many children running and playing in the rain.  This was one of my favourite experiences.

As we arrived at Preah Khan, we stopped for lunch in the village before continuing our temple touring.

The noodles hit the spot

Preah Khan (late 12^th c)

The temple complex of Preah Khan (Sacred Sword) is magnificently beautiful.  Built by Jayavaran VII, who dedicated Ta Prohm temple to his mother, dedicated Preah Kham to his father.  It is one of the largest temples with a maze of corridors, fine carvings and monstrous roots taking hold of the east gate.  Due to its size, it was thought to have been a Buddhist university.

You can tour this temple from east to west or vice versa, and have a completely different experience.  Entering from the west, Buddhist images were destroyed and converted into Hindu bas reliefs under the anti-Buddhist reaction under Jayavaraman VIII (13^th c).  From the east, the images are dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.  There are many passage ways to explore.  Officers, for a small tip, showed us the hidden carving of Jayadevi, one of Jayavaraman VII’s sister-wives.

The guard shows us where jewels of diamonds and rubies were once embedded in the sister-wives' image

This shows how hidden the goddesses are

We really enjoyed touring these temples as they were less crowded and quiet.  The surrounds were lush and green.  Seeing the way nature was overtaking the temple was breathtaking and more beautiful than Ta Promh in my books!

Look!  I've exhausted the Energizer Bunny!
We were officially exhausted.

We finished the day at Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King

(late 12^th c).  While this is a popular stop on all tourist itineraries, we could of given it a miss.  The Terrace of Elephants is a 350m long viewing stand for public ceremonies.

The Terrace of the Leper King is a 7m high platform, on top which stands a nude, genderless statue.  Legend has it that at least 2 of the Angkor kings had leprosy and the statue may represent one of them.  Another theory is that the statue is of Yama, the god of death, and the Terrace housed the royal crematorium.   This was our final stop in Angkor Wat.  We were officially temple'd out!

Traffic jam!

After a club sandwich back at the hotel, we treated ourselves to a foot massage.

For dinner, I ticked off a bucket list it: The Bug Café!  We missed a few opportunities to try the tarantulas at the street markets (rain) and we didn’t trust the crickets amongst the villages in the temples.  I did a bit of research and found a café for tourist to try the local cuisine.  The café was excellent – clean and talked us through where they sourced the bugs and what to try, etc.

We opted for the Discovery Platter (insect tapas)

·         2 Wild Spring Rolls with Ants

·         1 Insect Skewer (scorpion, tarantula, waterbug)

·         1 Mediterranean Feuilletes with red Ants

·         1 Tarantula Donut

·         1 Cricket and Silk Worms Wok

Waiter, there is a large ant in my spring roll!

Eyes closed, in the gob!  I am not going to lie, we had a few squeamish moments and I don’t think I have ever drunk a beer faster.  The final verdict: tarantula was not bad and I really liked the crickets.  I couldn’t bring myself to eat the water bug; it looked too much like a cockroach.

After filling our bellies with bugs, we hit the Angkor Night Market to grab some bargains on souvenirs to bring home.

Steps: 25,315 (20km)

Day 5: Last Day!

Our whirlwind trip has come to a close.  We finished with in-room Khmer massages before heading to the airport and we were homeward bound (me to BKK then Sydney and Sue staying on for her next course in Bangkok)!  What a fantastic experience and so much fun with one of my favourite colleagues.  Now that I know how easy it is to “hop” from Bangkok, I might start planning for 2017...

Random but on the free shuttle DMK - BKK
I saw the famous elephant shaped building!

Cambodia Day 3: Temple Touring

Early morning in Siem Reap

This morning we had a 4:45am pick-up for sunrise at Angkor Wat.  Sunrise or mid-morning Angkor Wat Central Complex is a magnificent site.

Sunrise is best watched at the end of the 475m sandstone causeway from in front of the pools.  As the sun rose, Angkor village was coming to life, horses were grazing the fields and monks were leaving the monastery for the day.

Sunrise selfie

When the temple opened, we made our way in starting along the south side.  The walls show intricately carved with bas-relief scenes as far as you can see.

One of the long galleries

Example of the intricate carvings

From there we made our way to explore the 3^rd level and were in the first group to ascend 11m into Bakan, the principle sanctuary of Angkor Wat and the uppermost point of the world’s largest religious temple.

Cats of Angkor

1 of the 4 shrines

On descent, we explored the 2^nd level and received blessings by a monk (perfect start for my first day in my 37^th year!)

There is no escaping the heat.  At 6:15AM, it was already 28c so before the sun reached its peak, , we returned to the hotel for a swim and Khmer massage (included). 

Swim in the moat?  Or the hotel pool?

Our patio to the pool

The massage was a dry massage and not as painful as a traditional Thai one.  Thank goodness!  Last time I had a Thai massage, I was in pain for a week.

After our massages, we had our Khmer set lunch which was surprisingly good.  The problem was the heat (open restaurant).  It’s too hot to eat.

We spent our afternoon exploring more temples.  The streets of Siem Reap were much more lively.

Looks safe

Hi kids!

Ta Prohm or Tomb Raider Temple (late 12^th c)

I have a confession: I only saw Tomb Raider about 2 weeks ago!)   Ta Prohm was chosen by Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient to be left in its “natural state” of discovery in the 19^th century.  We were excited to take some fun Tomb Raider photos but funny story, I got lost.  And I mean seriously lost.  As in an hour visit became 2 hours until I found my way out.  Our driver was close to panic stations and coming in after me. 

To be fair, the guide books all warn of the complexity of the temple.  I didn’t read the guidebook though.  I wandered in and was lost in the beauty of the intertwined trees when I looked up and found myself alone.  I re-entered the galleries and found myself in a different enclosure.  On top of that, Ta Prohm the East side of the temple has now been cleared for visitor entry.  So yes, I found myself at the West side entry before I realised my mistake.  As Sue was waiting for me, another family had separated and lost their way too!  Once they reunited, she took it as a sign that I would find my way out too.  After that, Vanna made us have an SOS plan.

Baphoun (11^th c)

Baphoun is known as the world’s largest puzzle.  It was the centre of EFEO restoration when civil war erupted and efforts were paused for a quarter of a century.  When conservation work was restarted in 1995, they had to put 300,000 stones back in place.  This was completed in 2011.

The elevated causeway leads to the 3^rd tiered temple mountain, now standing at 34m tall. 

Channeling my inner Lara Croft

We wanted to try the tuk-tuk hamock too

Pretty comfortable

Bayon (12^th c)

This temple and our experience here was my highlight of our trip.  The temple itself is breathtaking.  As you work your way through the inner galleries, we found a religious ceremony taking place in the pitch dark. 

Young monks are also present, giving tourist chase.  One was happy to play a game of hide & seek with my camera.  He would peek around corridors and small doorways so I could catch him in a smile.

This is truly what travel is about – experiences like this.  It’s worth every penny.

I had to do one of these!
(Please excuse the hot sweaty mess I am!)

Today’s Observations:

•          I don’t think I have ever been hotter.  We obeyed dressing guidelines for a sacred site so were in tee-shirts and long skirts/ pants.  Most of the time, the Rangers were quite strict with these guidelines.  We only found a few slide through but they did not escape locals’ harsh comments.  We stopped getting in front of the camera because we looked like hot messes.  Literally.      
•          Due to the heat and the walking our patience was wearing thin for a certain demographic of fellow sightseers (I am sure you can guess!)  They were obnoxious and loud. And smoked even though this was forbidden!  The rangers seem to have given up trying to get them to follow rules too.
•          The temples are surprising complex.  I am a bit of an ant (as in put a leaf down and I get thrown off) but man, an hour of tunneling and tunneling!
•          While I am not afraid of height, I AM unsteady of my feet on even ground so I had to take extra precautions when navigating the steep steps.  Vanna did not like watching us ascending.

Back in Siem Reap, we passed a local market

Moving our luggage by tuk-tuk

Tonight, we moved to a guesthouse found through AirBnB.  It was my first time using AirBnB; it wasn’t a true experience but that’s okay.  The guesthouse was nice with a few quirks.  It was in a great location with a fantastic patisserie (Le Pain de Coeur) a few doors down and was walking distance to Angkor Night Markets.  It rained quite heavily so we opted for an early night.

Steps count: 25,474 (19.92km)