These are the lotus flowers we saw on our way to the floating village!!!!!!



I am home! It feels wonderful to have all the comforts. Our bed! Water out of the tap. A shower. Clean clothes. Heidi! Jet lag is amazing. I thought because our schedule had us coming home at right before bedtime that maybe we'd be lucky, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I've been ok in the mornings, but then by about noon I start to feel pretty washed out. I can close my eyes at any point and take a cat nap. I'm staying awake so I don't prolong the effects, but yesterday I couldn't help it. Then right before bedtime, I'm a bit peppy again. At 1:30am I wake up ready to go. Then I force myself to go back to sleep until the morning. Steve is up at 4:30am reading. I read on the internet that it takes a day for every time change you go through. That would be twelve days. We'll see. Worth it though.

Today is the last day of our trip.There are roosters crowing, a nice sound. We hop on a plane at midnight and get home Sunday night at 5:00PM. We are planning a bit of a lazy day, and hope to get one more massage before we go. Massage here is incredibly cheap and prevalent. We've been offered massage for as cheap as a dollar. "Madame, massage, one dollar." I have mixed feelings about coming home. I'm excited and a bit sad to leave. The thrill of a new adventure everyday is pretty hard to leave. But, I'm excited to think about being home and having all my home comforts! I don't think I can end this blog just yet. There are too many things to share still.

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what a floating village was like after my brief exposure. Today Stave and I decided to see more than the ancient temples to get a sense of what its like in Cambodia. Our "tuk-tuk" driver, Pe took us through the city to the other side and to the Mekong River and then out to a lake. We saw the homes the locals live in on the way. The are roofs and a few walls. There are hammocks for sleeping. You see people in them inside the dwellings, and just outside by the side of the road. From our balcony I watched a young man get dressed, a woman do the dishes and a child sleep in a hammock. No outside walls. The front of the dwelling was a business. People are riding motorcycles or bicycles. Children are dressed in white shirts and navy blue skirts or pants. I've seen many on bikes. Not uncommon to see two to a bike. I saw four once. On our way to the river and lake I saw a mother riding a bike and her baby standing up in front of her. There appears to be a sense of calm and balance in their mannerisms. I know I am romanticizing what I see. I see such basic living. It seems less complicated and more real. Agrarian society where the people are working to farm and fish and feed their families and earn a living. I've seen many women washing dishes in big pots on the side of the road and in their dwellings. The boat we rode in had the same form as the boats we've seen so far. Long and made of wood and very rustic. Our guide took us by children swimming in the river and small boats going here and there. Some were fishermen, some were women and children carrying their goods to sell. Being naked is no big deal for the young. They jump in and out of the water and hang out in the heat. When we approached the floating village I was struck by the distance between the homes. They are all quite separate from each other. One floating building is the market. Our guide took us there to buy ramen noodles for the orphaned school children and to buy pencils and books. We did and then actually delivered them. There is a floating school. It has a kitchen. I was lucky enough to be able to photograph the class and children. I took endless photos today. But, my heart sank at the poverty I saw. There is great need. Our guide also took us to see the alligator tank. A tourist attraction. As we land there, there are two boats with mothers and children in them. The children have huge snakes as pets and are asking a dollar to take their photo. A few of the children were floating in huge pots with paddles and snakes in with them. It was a sight to see. It is low season and the water is muddy and dirty looking. In high season it is blue water and cleaner he reports. But it is too high for them to be in, so they move their homes and go live in the mountain area. I really can't imagine it. Shoes are off a great deal of the time. Children often had no shoes on and you could see they had leather feet for climbing and running etc. Some of the temples had very steep steps. The steepness was symbolic to how hard it is to journey up closer to God. These kids practically ran up and down. When I get a chance to download the pictures, I'll post them.

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The ruins of Angkor were left untouched for several centuries. The trees grew all around and into them. Today we got to see just how beautiful this is. It is a visit back in time. A one point Angkor Thom had 1 million people living there. Some of these structures are as old as 880 AD.

Dinner tonight was at a dance theatre. We saw their native dances and costumes which are very much like the carvings at Angkor.

Couldn't end the day without a fish massage!

Angkor is huge! We toured Angkor Wat yesterday and the size of it is really beyond belief. There are massive pieces of rock that had to be brought in either by elephant or by barge. You can tell the difference in these by the holes drilled into the rock dragged by elephant. the bas relief is stunning and there are great long "galleries" of it. The stories are Hindu mythology, Buddhist mythology and history lessons.

In the afternoon we saw the temple at Angkor Thom. We couldn't see it all in the three hours we were there. There are adorable children selling bracelets, postcards, etc. They also make great guides.

Everything costs one dollar. Last night we went into the night market. Everywhere there is massage, fish foot massage, restaurants, vendors selling silk scarves, etc. Very lively and thrilling. They have Tiger Beer! It is good. The people are wonderful. Big smiles greet you when you make contact. Our "tuk tuk" driver is named "Pe" and Pe is always available when we go anywhere. The hotel set him up for us. He drives at a marvelously slow pace and is very kind.

Bangkok Airlines took us to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Only a short flight. Coming in I looked for houses and saw small clusters of homes built over the water. Once we were almost landing there was a city of about 60,000. Our taxi driver told us 80% of the people are farmers and fishermen. The main street was covered in hotels, one right after another. We are staying at the Shining Angkor Hotel. We took a tuk tuk out to the ancient religious city. We climbed up a mountain at sunset and to Phnom Bakheng. It is beautiful. At the start of our climb up the path we saw an elephant leaving with a seat of people on his back. Once we got back down we saw quite a few. Dinner in town on "Pub Street." Very western couple of blocks with restaurants and bars. I ate curry and sweet and sour chicken. It was very good! After dinner we got our feet cleaned in a tank of fish. They nibbled at our feet for a good twenty minutes. Wonderful.