Cambodian housing

Phnom Penh. Cambodians are extremely freindly and helpful. My estimate is that 90% of them live in what we would call an impovershed condition. The city is both beautiful and horrifyingly dirty. The apartment building below was right beside our hotel. Bars in the windows instead of glass (too hot) and the sidewalks assumed the role of sewers and places to leave ALL your garbage. The smell was 3-dimensional.
These houses are a 10 minute walk from downtown.

But, really, everyone was happy and curious about my green and blue eyed kids and we always felt safe and welcome.

The many faces of Bayon

This is Cody helping me choose a 'Bayon face' painting. See if you can spot the likenesses in the following images.
I 'liberated' this image from National Geographic.com It's similar to a picture I remember from a late 70's issue. But, in 2003, they cleared the vines in order to prevent further weathering and disintegration. So we didn't actually get to see it.

But we did see all of these.

There are 8 faces in this image. Can you 'see' all of them? Click to enlarge.

Angkor Wat: Part 1

We framed our Cambodia trip around two goals: Angkor Wat and time at the beach. When I was a kid, the Angkor Wat complex was a semi-mythical, other-worldly kind of place, particularly because it was scraped out of 800 year's worth of jungle growth, 200 years ago.

Abandoned and misunderstood for centuries, Angkor Wat is absolutely fascinating.

We arrived late in the afternoon, just in time for the sunset ceremony. There were about 500 other tourists on top of this temple with us.
About 25 degrees at 6:00 pm.
The warm, orange glow of the sun setting.

And the sun going down again for the day, as it has on this temple for the past 365,000 days.

This event really set the mood for two days of temple climbing and tomb raiding in plus 30 degree, blue sky days.

Scenes from the front seat

These people passed us, on their way to prepare dinner for us...
...followed by the people who had the dishes to cook and serve dinner...

...and here's dinner.

Green and Orange

Bangkok 2009

We stopped in Bangkok again on our way to Cambodia. Fascinating city: 12,000,000 people, trailing London and Paris in tourism. We took a canal tour for an hour through a very small part of the city. Here's what we saw:

As in all cultures, some people live like this...

...while others live like this.

Mt. Everest

Winter Break, 2009. Teaching and living overseas has been great. We particularly enjoy holiday breaks. Almost all of our peers are going somewhere in the next three weeks: Thailand, South Africa, Korea, Greece, Turkey, Kuala Lumpur, France, and Switzerland, and lots are going back to the States.

The group below are going to Base Camp: Everest. They are prepared to hike 7-8 hours a day, for a week, until they they get to 18,000 feet. And then hike out. In the cold. At altitude. Not our idea of a holiday.

Incomplete