More Chiang Mai, November 2009

Here you can see some of the shots from our adventure day....lots of elephants (Nancy told us she wouldn't be riding any elephants....looks like she was wrong!) and rafting! The kids got a big kick out of the elephants!

Angkor Wat, November 2009

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 of Cambodia, November 2009

And yet some more pictures. These ones are of the temple where Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie) was filmed – the vines are amazing! There’s also some pictures of the floating village we saw. People live in little boats and huts right on the water (during the wet season) – one boat might house a family of 6, a dog or two, and maybe a couple chickens! Lots of tourists come through here, so you also see little boats cruising around selling fruits, snacks, drinks, and souvenirs…..and drawing attention with their little tiny girl hanging out on a boat with a big snake around her neck! Yep, saw this more than once – creepy!

A Mish Mash, November 2009

We’ve been plenty busy since I last posted, and I’ll post about our trips, etc. in other posts. But overall, November was just a busy month. It was full of soccer games every Saturday, visitors (Dennis and Nancy,) birthdays and anniversaries (me and Nate, then my and Rick’s 11th anniversary), Thanksgiving, and travel. Here’s a few pictures of highlights of the month. Leah is doing the chicken dance in her picture, taken at the Elementary School games. Nate is all painted up as Batman and hanging with the stuffed dog, TimTam, that each kid takes home from school for a couple of days, Tim & Caroline & Leah and showing off their painted faces (there was some kind of promotional fair where they had free face painting, balloons, etc. – the kids loved it!), there’s shot of me with my friends Jamie and Kathy when we went out to lunch for my birthday, and finally there’s one Thanksgiving shot – we had dinner at our neighbor’s house but I did the turkey and how else do you get a 15 lb cooked turkey down the street but by wagon?!?!?!

Soccer Season! November 2009

Soccer season has begun, and we have three kids who are all playing soccer for the first time ever, on three different teams, of course! Saturday mornings are now devoted to soccer games. We generally have at least two games overlapping, so Rick and I spend our time switching places back and forth so that we can both watch everyone play! All three kids are really enjoying soccer, but Leah is our little underdog….she decided at the last minute to play, and now she’s a little animal out there! J She really gets into playing, and even scored a goal for her team during their first game! Yay, Leah! Even Nate gets into the spirit (he really wants to play on a team but won’t be old enough until next year) and claps his hands and cheers, wears his ISB soccer shirt, and kicks around the ball whenever he has the chance!

Exploring the Khlongs! November 2009

Rick’s company is pretty much the only one in Thailand that gives a day off for Loy Kratong, which worked fine for us since it gave he and I the chance to do something we’ve wanted to do for awhile. We headed downtown to Bangkok and took a tour in a long boat of the canals (khlongs in Thai) off the Chao Phraya river. It was really fascinating – people live up and down the khlongs, right on the water. They are a major form of transportation, complete with a few traffic lights, street (khlong?) signs, and locks that allow the long boats and small traffic off the Chao Phraya river to safely enter the khlongs. There is so much poverty evident, but you also see people smiling, socializing, attending the many temples along the khlongs, and basically just living their lives in a much simpler manner than we are accustomed to!

In these pictures there is a neat Chinese style temple, a spirit house next to a falling down house/hut (spirit houses are at the corner of almost every piece of property here – the Thais leave offerings at them to keep the evil spirits away from the main house!), some cute Thai school boys taking a break from studying, and a lady in what is basically a canoe, selling her wares along the khlong!

Exploring the Khlongs! November 2009

In this batch of pictures there is a man cleaning his day’s fish catch on the side of the khlong, an old man sitting under cover of a really ramshackle little hut (you have to look for him – he’s to the right of the picture), a shot from the seat of our long boat looking straight out, a picture of a long boat on the Chao Phraya river (the water was super choppy and rough on the river – a crazy ride!), and a shot of the Grand Palace from the river – very pretty, and even prettier when you are walking around the grounds of it!