June 30th, 2011
Day 3 of Angkor Wat touring
First things first–this is how the bears were set by the cleaning staff when we came back yesterday : ) I am pretty sure they were playing with our bears…
OK–onto more serious things…
Fabulous fabulous thing to see! So glad we came to Cambodia…I know the kids had a really good time too. Makes our North American history seem so young…we walked in buildings as old as 1200 years old…some built in 800 AD. Not sure at all how they constructed these massive structures out of stones chipped put of a mountain a hundred kilometers away. And everything has a story…nothing was done for random decoration…
We were up and at breakfast at 6:40am. After a frenzied search for BK’s temple pass which I was in charge of and had let flutter into a bag…we were off. Started the day with a small temple…
Guessing the kids have a picture of this one too!! hahaha
Just thought I would include one picture somewhere that did not have me standing in front blocking the view ; )
Then we went to see Tonle Sap. Which is a fresh water lake that floods the area for a couple months every year, then recedes. There is a village (called the floating village) that is built in the area that floods. So for a few months a year their houses are in the lake and for the rest, they live on the bank of what seems like a river. Everything is high up on stilts. Very high stilts. We went into the village and saw how the people really live. WOW! Amazing simple lives–but the children are so happy and carefree. PICTURES FORTHCOMING
I went into the school house where it looked like there 4 classrooms. It would appear that only 2 teachers showed up that day…so the kids were pretty much running amok. I bought them 2 bundles of notebooks (I grew up calling them scribblers). There were too any children to give each one a book. So I gave them to the teacher (who did show up today) to distribute. I just could not have handled the little faces of the ones who did not get one. The teacher was gracious and the class stood up and said something to me in Khmer and then thank you in English. It was a humbling moment when I think about how many kids in North America take our free education for granted and often squander opportunities.
We saw 2 more temples…
Then we had lunch.
So here is a great story! Not sure if I have mentioned this or not…but Russ is quite the adventurous eater. He puts me to shame….anyway…he sees fried frog legs with khmer spice as a menu option. He is thinking to try it! I say go for it…I will take a picture and will definitely have to blog about it. After some discussion with Troy about what it might taste like…he decides to go for it. After all it is only $4. Yes you read that right!!
So here are the pix…after he reported that it truly did just taste like a little chicken wing…we all tried one (Troy first, then BK, then me the last hold out!). So not sure how I feel about the poor little legless frogs trying to get around Cambodia…but can’t be any worse than the poor wingless chickens trying to fly around America!
We caught our flight back to Thailand and landed safely back in the land of smiles around 4:45pm.
Our trusty friend, Mr. Sawang was there to greet us. We had made the call to him the night prior to see if he would come and get us and take us to Kanchanaburi. On the phone…pretty sure he had no idea who we were. This was confirmed when he picked us up and said he did not recognize us on the phone…but that is just who the Thai people are…if a random stranger calls…they will come. It was about a three hour drive to Kanchanaburi, so we settled into Mr. Sawang’s mini van and watched Toy Story 3. Very cute movie…it was dark and rainy so we did not miss anything out the windows.
Checked into the Sabai@Kan…happy with this selection of hotel.
http://www.sabaiatkan.com/
Wandered down the street in search of supper…found a small place…not overly happy with the food. It was OK other than the chicken had small bits of bone i n it…which was weird. I did have Tom Kha Gai for you Jackie!! It was very tasty : )
Off to bed and we are NOT going to set the alarm for the morning–just have to be up for breakfast by 10am : )
L
