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.

Mom and Noah and Kara and me.

First picture here is Al acting as Mom for a sleeping Sophie and Noah Dedert. Also, a couple Sundays ago we went out to the village (about an 1hr and a half outside of Phnom Penh) to attend a Khmer church. It truly is amazing that we could fellowship with about 175 Christians out in the "boonies" considering that approx. 96% of Cambodia is Buddhist. Tom, Hannah and Naomi Beeke came to visit us and the Dederts in Cambodia for two weeks and we were able to take a relaxing weekend with them at a resort outside of Phnom Pehn - of course, Tom tried to get Bud hooked on bird-watching. We did see many beautiful species!

Riding and Eating

Local farmer transporting his LIVE chickens to the market (Don't get too close..you may get pecked!). Also pictured here is Darryl, Tom, John and Bud ready to go for a day's dirt-bike outing. John and Henrietta came to visit from BC, Canada for a couple of weeks, and we were able to go out for dinner with them, along with Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruth who came down from China for a couple days.