New Orleans

I found my very own sign right on Bourbon Street!

Me on the rowboat in the mangrove forest

Melissa, Harmony and Bruce on a row boat

Fishing Village

On our way to the fishing village

Roy, Me, Melissa, Bruce and Tyler

Angkor Wat

Buddah

Me and a Buddah in our hotel

Fishing day

on the fishing boat

Sunset on the beach

Beautiful sunset

Tyler trying some Mekong whiskey

Denise's Happy Place

Beautiful spot on a beautiful beach - full tummy and a 50 cent beer. Heaven.

Coffee

This is my coffee to go. No paper cups so you get it in a plastic bag with a straw stuck in.... interesting.

Peace

How cute is this kid??? If I could have fit him in my carry on, he'd be here with me today.

Tyler and his dad with Harmony and Peace

Snack time

Here's the lucky cricket and spider

Home again, home again....

Home safe and sound although a little tired. Trip home was uneventful...just long. Got home yesterday around 3 PM and struggled to stay awake till 7 when I passed out cold till our alarm went off this morning. This weekend I'll upload some pics to the blog with some stories around them, so stay posted!! :)

Departure day

Well, I haven't been as good about posting here as I intended to be, but there was far too much to do and see to sit in here and type it all up. I'll add details once I'm home and can post pictures. Yesterday we did the most unique thing. We rented a boat and toured through a 'floating village'. People live out on the lake over the water on houses built on very long stilts - they swim or boat everywhere they need to go - even their livestock floated on little islands of reeds. Can't wait to see how the pictures turn out.

Heading to the airport in about an hour to begin our long journey back home. I'm torn. I'd love to stay a little longer, but another part of me can't wait to be in my own bed again (yea for american mattresses!!) My health is still very good so as long as jet-lag isn't terrible, Tyler and I will be at work on Thursday morning. How depressing is that??? So - see many of you very soon. I promise to upload pictures as soon as I can. :)

Sunday Afternoon

Today has been an exciting day. This morning was the 13th annual Angkor Wat Half-Marathon and Tyler's cousin Melissa (my age) ran in the 21K race (13.1 miles). She came in first place among the women!! I knew she would do well, but I was so happy to see her coming down the lane knowing no other woman had passed the finish line yet! Tonight is a party to celebrate Neang's 30th birthday so we're also celebrating Melissa's win. I purchased some Cambodian style clothing at the market yesterday so I'm going to wear my new outfit tonight. We'll see how that goes over. No hair dryers here - so my hairs been a bit frizzy, but I'll see if I can't do something about that for tonight.

Belated birthday greetings to my big brother Terry. It was yesterday but I didn't get online in time to send him an email. Happy birthday Guh.

Saturday Morning

Yesterday we drove 2 hours along a very bumpy road to see a very unique temple. It's shaped like a step pyramid - much like those in Mexico and even, oddly, much like the Step Pyramid in Egypt. It even had a wall complex around it like the step pyramid in Egypt. Strange. So, of course I was excited by that. There are no other temples like that one in all of Cambodia. These ruins were also interesting because they have not been restored. There are plants and trees growing in and around them and you had the feeling that you were the first person there in centuries.

Today I am heading to the market with Neang to do some shopping. Then we'll go get some massages. Fully body massage for an hour and a half costs only $3. I'm in!! :) This afternoon, Tyler's cousin Harmony (8) has a big soccer (football) match so we'll go watch that later today. Today will be our first "recovery" day. We've been running around non-stop since we got here. It'll be nice to just be domestic today.

Tyler and I have tried tons of different beers. I've liked them all so far. I've taken a picture of each can so we've documented our beverage journey. I can't post any pictures from here as the device I bought has a USB plug but the computer here only has parallel. Oh well.

Okay - time to head to the market. Enjoy your Friday night! :)

It's Thursday here

...but it's only Wednesday night at home. We're back in Siem Reap now and getting ready to head out to see the massive temple, Ankor Wat. We're going to go by Tuk-Tuk which is a little taxi - pulled by bicycle or moto. They seat about 4 so we'll have to take 2 or 3, there are 9 of us total. We have been seeing so much!! We went fishing the other day and started laughing when I noticed there seemed to be no rods on the boat. Sure enough, the 'captain' (called Boo - which means 'uncle' - it's what you call anyone older than you - kinda a sign of respect. Women are 'Om' meaning "Aunt") pulled out empty water bottles with Fishing line wrapped around them. We just had to bait the hook and drop the line and then if something bit, we had to pull the string in by hand. We caught about 15 or so and grilled them up on a little island and had them for lunch. Doesn't get any fresher than that.

No other strange foods yet. Lots of noodles and rice. Every place we had breakfast had at least fried rice to offer - the other day I had noodle soup for breakfast (Pho Soup for all of you noodle bowl fans!) It's what they traditionally eat for breakfast so I had at it!! Neang - Tyler's Cambodian Aunt - said that I am really embracing the culture. She doesn't know how much I love Pho Soup!!! :) Stopped at KFC for lunch yesterday :) It was kinda nasty actually. Seems they really like dark meat here so all of the chicken is dark. A little too greasy for me too.

Had my breakfast this morning with Uncle Bruce's parakeet sitting on the table trying to eat my peanut butter. It's a different world. :) I'll write more later!

I'm alive!

This place is incredible!! I don't have much time right now, so I can't write much but I finally found a computer and wanted to post. I'm currently at the beach on the Gulf of Thailand. It's lovely! Food is good. I DID eat a cricket (more like 5 or 6 of them) they were GOOD!!! Shocking, huh? Tyler had a spider. Didn't seem thrilled with it. Eating tons of exotic (to us) fruit daily like Cactus Fruit, Persimmons and Tamerind. Had lotus flower seeds and sticky rice. Everything is really good and no tummy issues yet. Saw Phenom Phen (capital city) and the Killing Fields. Did a little shopping and some laying around on the beach yesterday. Going on a fishing trip today. I'll post more when I get back to Tyler's uncle's house. Can't do much from this hotel computer. Hope all is well at home. I'm sitting in my bathing suit now - it's probably about 75 degrees here now. Bye for now!