Today: 95 degrees (35)
Heat Index: 107 degrees

Last night at 7:30 pm: 91 degrees
Heat Index: 101 degrees

Gotta love it!

Tales of the Heart...

Many years ago on a warm (at least that's what they say, but really it is all relative) summer day two young and crazy adolescents vowed to love one another until the cold hand of death would tear them apart. They swore before God and a cloud of hot witnesses that their love would surpass the love of so many others who abandoned ship at the mere rising of the waves or potential flooding in the basement. They promised to love passionately through health and sickness, plenty and want, joy or sorrow. They left the gathering inspired to go forth to the world spreading little petals of love to all they encountered. What a fairy tale they had! The first two years were truly a wedded bliss-contrary to what so many had warned. Feeling comfortable in their love they took this bliss to a new level and went to worlds unknown to many who loved them. They went off on this adventure planning to spread more petals. But alas, as all fairy tales go (can we really read a story without a conflict), deep and dark evil awaited them. They arrived in this new place with smiles on their faces-they frolicked in the rain and puddles for many months. They laughed at the heat until it was too much, and then they cried. But it was all as one! They would not be parted-what a thought! It came on very slowly...so slowly she did not even notice it. Oh, silly her! If she looks back now she can see the seeds-but what can she do? A man needs his fun-this is unarguable. And the woman allows it-and she is fine with that. But oh, must she love and adore and comfort and nourish in this situation? Choices, my friend, there are choices we make and we must account for them. And this was his choice...this is self-inflicted WHILE SMILING. It was not as if something terrible prevented him from preventing this. No! With his own free-will he did this. And now he looks for pity with that silly little smile on his face. He expects a nice little healing session where she rubs soothing lotion on the wounds and brings cold water for his parched lips. He expects so much from her disapproving eyes. But must she change her stance? Must she uncross her arms, soften the eyes and change the positioning of the lips? If she caves in-will he try it again? Does she ban the evil bike?

So I ask you my friends, what should she do? Does this really fall under the canopy of those vows?!?!?!

The parting moment at Angkor Wat...apparently this is best time to take the picture-I suppose there is something to be said for actually having the correct sort of camera while taking the picture as well. In order to really be amazed, you need to go.

The moat to enter.
The first view.

The writings on the wall-wait, I am half asleep here, these are obviously not writings-bas reliefs is what I meant to say. They go around the whole temple. These artists must have had some serious job security at the time.

That's right, a hallway. (Note: The stones on the ground are uneven a) because this place is a thousand years old and b) the city of Siem Reap does not have a plan water usage. As the spiffy new hotels go up, the ground and history sinks down. This is going to prove to be a serious problem if something doesn't change.

Here is the temple that was left for nature to take over. The trees grow anywhere and many of the stones are crumbling down. This is the tree used in the movie Tomb Raider...at least I think it was...they all start to look the same after awhile!

Another temple. The story behind this one is that this temple would have been bigger than Angkor Wat but it was never finished. The reason for this is unknown, but some have said it was because the king died. Another story involves something with the amount of lightning strikes the workers experienced during construction.

The Bayon temple has a (a number of faces that skips my mind right now..53? 54?) lot of stone faces. They, funny enough, represent not only the god the temple was built for, but also the king in charge of building it. Hmmm...

This is back to the temple that was left to nature. I know, the pics should be together but apparently when you delete something on this blogspot thing the edit/undo button does not work. This was not a happy lesson I learned today.

Some monks outside Ankor Wat.

Temple after temple...it was along day. We hiked up a "hill" to find another ruin and a great view of Ankor Wat.

Here is a little guy we met sitting by the river.

Here are some pics of the soccer teams that we coached. We only had a few games but the students had fun anyway!

This is the wonderful and lovely Le Royal Hotel here in Phnom Penh. We could never afford to stay here but we do go there and pretend we are rich and famous. This is the elephant bar and the highlight is that there is carpet (please note picture above). I could sit here for hours and read my book in the corner. They have couches that are almost like the comfy ones back in the states. There is this wonderful smiley man who plays a real piano at night. He sways back and forth to his soft 80s music and smiles away!

Three lovely ladies kickin' it after a long day of...probably Russian Market!

Some random bats at the Tuol Sleng museum. I thought they were marks on the wall until I looked a little closer. It was the middle of the day but the whole family was out!

Here's the gang at the pizza place the night they left. We had a great time but it seems like it just flew by.

This is on the road to The Killing Fields. We did a bit of off-roading on the way.

Here is mom styling it with her double layered goggles. They really enjoyed riding in the tuk-tuk.

And here is mom on Deary with Bud driving. This is our road and those lovely piles of rocks have been sitting there for a few months. Every once in awhile the "county" will spend the day driving up and down the road with the rollers and other fancy machinery that they have. They always seem to miss the piles of rocks. Somehow nothing every comes out of their driving except a road that is a little smoother. But really, how much can you smooth rocks? This is quite a step up from the beginning of the year. The potholes are gone and it makes it quite a nice driving experience. Mom liked driving on the back of the motos. Dad said she was not allowed to ride an elephant for safety reasons...I think he would have made the list a little longer if he saw everything she traveled in:)

Here is the entrance to Wat Phnom.

Here is a guy doing the daily "releasing of birds" ceremony. There is something symbolic about it, but I can't remember it. They just reach right in and grab these nasty birds and then throw them in the air. I think it must be a daily capture and release type thing.


And I hope you can all see the obvious connection with Wat Phnom here. This image took about 8 minutes to load, and then alas, I realized it was the wrong one...so you get the delightful experience of staring at our faces.

Noah having a great day!

Bud and his mom at the Sokha.

Noah having a great day!

Bud and his mom at the Sokha.

We've been hanging around a lot lately. Bud and I aren't really sure how school is going because we have been vacationing so much! Just kidding! We are having fun though with all the visiting relatives.

The beach is nice and clean at this resort because they have beach cleaners who come around a few times a day raking and brooming(?) the beach. They also clean out the water by going through it with the nets.

Mom got to do a lot of reading. This is one of the few places you can go in Cambodia and have just the sounds of nature surrounding you!

I think this is the only five star resort in Cambodia. They were setting up for the buffet at night-which was delicious!!

Mom ordered fish one night. She got fish. Luckily, she could not see much of it because the lights went out in the restaurant as soon as we got

our food. I guess that is a positive way of looking at no electricity. (This was not at the resort...although we lost some power there too!)

Here are a few pics of the countryside as we made our way to and from The Killing Fields.

The boys were outside the gates looking for a little money. Their English was very good so we could easily understand them.

The cow picture is pretty common here. You always need to watch out for the cows!

Here are some market pics for those of you interested in flowers.

And for the more adventurous type...we have the fried bugs...

...and if you would like delivery, you can just wait for the broom to come past your house-it's the same idea as the ice cream man, just different products.

Dad, did you buy travel insurance for that girl in the green? Ashley decided to take the moto out for a boot! Alright, alright, she only went around the block and yes, we will put a helmet on her next time.

Snails for sale! Get your fresh (maybe) hot (it's hot here) snails for sale!

Here is the electric company busy at work here in Cambodia. No need to shut down the road when you are trying to fix the light...just hope that no one hits you!

Mom is learning how to use the internet cafe.