Cambodia day 2 - Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is the ruins made famous by the Tomb Raider movie. It was a lot busier than the first temple we visited but our guide managed to steer us around the worst of it and knew all the angles to get the best shots with less people in them.

 

It is amazing the way the access to the temples is pretty much unrestricted, a great joy for Toby who loves running over all the ruins and climbing up the big piles of rocks.

I was quite impressed by the odd shape of the rocks making the wall, looks like a lot of work! Like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Ta Prohm is the one with all the trees growing over the temple. Our guide was a bit sad about all the restoration work going on, he likes them better unrenovated. I can relate to that after going to Angor Wat later in the week (the most restored, with no trees!), but I am also glad they are restored and stable enough to walk through (with a bit of scaffolding supporting parts of it).

Check out the carving above - much speculation about what a dinosaur doing....how long ago were these temples built? or is it a rhino or a buffalo with some decoration. I was super excited to see this having read about it in my research but Toby, despite being a dinosaur fan wasn't that impressed.

Dino above in a row of carvings.

Toby was usually super excited at the start of a temple but by about halfway through lost a bit of enthusiasm. As happened above, at one of the most popular tourist photo hot spots, he's hiding out underneath.

Below is some of the restoration work going on, was funny to see a crane in the middle of the jungle, you have to walk about 500m to get to the beginning of the temple complex from the main road.

Can't get enough of these trees.

Sunset cruise Angor Thom moat

What better way to finish the day than a river cruise with G&T or soft drink and nibbles. On the moat around Angor Thom. A very relaxing first evening.

Cambodia Day 1

Day 1 and we arrived early but had no temple viewing till later in the day. Toby and I made use if the 3 pools with multiple swims in each, it was like hanging out with goldilocks trying to find the perfect pool. After a dip, we headed into town and Pub street for lunch. The food is AMAZING. And of course it's fun to ride in a tuk tuk.

Later in we headed out to our first temple, Banteay Srei, described by our guide as "pretty average, I've seen better". We, on the other hand had not. It was mind blowing. You could climb over everything and Toby loved it. temple is from late 12th century, originally Buddhist but later Hindu and so most of the Buddhas had been scrubbed out.

It was a magical place and not too busy in the late afternoon. A great introduction to a temple before our sunset boat ride.

New 34- new country Cambodia

Yes that's right, a new country counts twice, due to all the research and a bit of bravery required to travel new places, esp with a 5 year old. Mind you the hardest part was probably getting to Cambodia. We were met at the airport by our guide and taken to our UNBELIEVABLE hotel, Navutu Dreams. We have a Grand Tourer room, big enough for a family of 5.

The biggest room I've ever stayed in.

Not to mention the THREE POOLS and delicious food. dinner was amazing. Amazing local food and Italian food due to the Italian owners. What a great combo. Great relaxing place to stay, a little out of town. There are lots of hotels on the main road to the temples with coaches pulled up outside but our hotel a lot quieter and surrounded by rice paddies, farms and some houses.

New 33: new country - Malaysia

Tony at airport playing skylanders on iPad. I watched three movies during the day flight, heavenly. We flew AirAsia which was unbelievably cheap. Per Bought some meals which were yum I thought and had a relaxing flight. We were the minority group on the airline and in the  low cost kl airport but it was the smoothest fastest entry to a country ever. No arrival cards, no visas. Easy.

Here was dinner after checking into the Tune hotel, which is a couple of hundred metres from terminal due to our early flight the next morning,  a microwaved meal. Tastiest one I've ever had, wish they were as good at home!!

The room was tiny, but convenient place to stay over and comfy enough.

Arriving in Siem Reap. In KL and Siem Reap, things were very relaxed for an International airport, just walk down the stairs and onto the Tarmac.

Four parties in four days

I am absolutely exhausted. Four parties in four days. Man, I'm not built for this anymore. Thursday Night, Daycare party complete with disco and GELATO stand (included in price). I saw Jake get at least 3 icecreams. there were probably more.

 

Above is Friday night around 9.45pm when the kids started a little show for us at the Station St 5th annual Christmas party. The best yet!! although survival of Sat arvo was tough with the kids having woken up at 5.30am even after being to bed kinda late the two nights before.

 

Saturday was a bowling kids party and Sunday we finished off with Connah getting his eyebrows burnt at a pool party for a 6 year old. It was awesome. there was pizza for lunch, cake, lots of pool noodles and almost 30 degrees of beautiful Sydney weather. Oh, and we got to go to a new pool (last time we tried it was closed). this is actually our closest local pool and it's a cracker. we'll be back.

 

I think I need a holiday. Oh yeah, only 4 more sleeps till departure.

New 32 - New digital photography course

A digital photography course in the rocks. It was a 4 hour walking tour with Click.Walk.Learn Photography tour which I tried to talk myself out of (too busy, going away soon etc etc) but Connah pushed me to do it and boy am I glad I did. It was phenomenal.

 

I did a 6 week course about 8 years ago and I learnt way more in 4.5 hours than I ever did on a 6 week technical course. Practical, easy to understand, heaps of tips and heaps of reviewing of our photos and great notes. what's not to love, if you're in Sydney do one. Oh, and if you're not convinced it includes a stop for coffee and cake.

The photos above and below only came about through suggestions from Christine who led the course but even though she suggested the plants as a photo, we all took completely different views of them. Loads of fun. And my way of seeing the world in permanently altered, TV shots even look different.

Just in time for my holidays....hope I snap some good shots there.

Slowly slowly

 

Things are progressing slowly here but much research is going on and guess who has a new passport...Toby and I. Which is lucky since Toby, Nana and I are off to visit two new countries on Thursday. Whoo hooo. Didn't think I'd fit any new countries in this year but a couple of months ago, I was getting pretty tired at work and realised I'd only been having week holidays for the last 18 months and was getting pretty tired so decided to pop an extra holiday in.
Yay!!!

School banking

Definately the son of a banker. He's running the program! He knows way more than me. I'm actually the back up plan as Connah is taking the lead on this one. Certainly is a new experience doing school banking, you even enter them all in on the website after and put the each of the coins in different bags. Sadly school has started by then so Jake doesn't get to help with that bit.