While Rick’s parents were here, Rick and I celebrated our 11th anniversary and his mom and dad offered to watch the kids for the weekend if we wanted to go somewhere. They didn’t have to offer twice! We ended up heading to see the temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was a great trip, partly because it was really interesting, and partly because we had no kids with us!!! The temples at Angkor Wat are incredible, and most were built between the 9th and 11th centuries. They are amazingly well preserved, and have definitely withstood the test of time. We spent one day touring through the temples, and then a second day touring a floating village and some craftsmen’s villages. We also walked around the night market and had dinner and spent time on Pub Street each night we were there. Pub Street was very interesting….it’s full of restaurants and bars, and felt more western to us than Thailand, even though Thailand is more advanced for a third world country than Cambodia. There was a huge amount of diversity just walking around – people and food from everywhere, with English seeming to be the common language. We were also surprised to find that though there is Cambodian currency, the US dollar is preferred. As a matter of fact, if you take money out of an ATM machine, you can only get US dollars! We haven’t carried American currency in a long time now, and the vendors were always surprised if we tried to pay in Cambodian currency since we are American!
Here’s a few pictures from our weekend away! In this bath, there are pictures of Angkor Wat (Rick and me in front of the reflecting pool in front of Angkor Wat), the carvings on the temple walls (they are on all of the temples – all over them – and tell the history of Buddhism), Angkor Thom (one of the temples in the Angkor Wat complex), a little shrine set up in the temple, and a shot of the steep stairs on most temples in Cambodia (interesting little fact….Cambodians believe you must work hard and be respectful of the struggle to obtain a higher level of existence in Buddhism – thus the steep stairs up to the temple. Thais believe everyone should have an equal chance to reach higher levels, and their steps tend to be more gradual and easier to navigate!)
More pictures of Vietnam – this is all Hanoi…you’ll see Tim and Caroline trying their hand at carrying the shoulder basket thingies (they are WAY heavier than they look!), loaded with fruit and other stuff – you see them all over Hanoi. There’s also a couple of pictures of the Temple of Literature, where they kept records of their graduates back to the 11oo’s or so, all on stone tablets, and of a lady riding around on her bicycle which is just loaded down with flowers – you see bikes with this much stuff – and often a lot more – all over the place!
