Angkor Wat: Exploring the amazing, ancient ruins with my children

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by oursonnylife in adventures with kids, Cambodia, Conner, Peyton, world travel

Less than 10 km from the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia is Angkor Wat. You have seen these amazing temples in Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. Naturally we pretended to be in both the entire day.

Is that Lara Croft in her signature french braid?! Nope, definitely not her-haha! (yes I whipped up a french braid just for this Tomb Raider temple and the photo)

To get into Angkor Wat is a small fortune. $20 per adult, kids are free thankfully. If you are Cambodian you get in free also.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It was built over 900 years ago, first as a Hindu temple and later it was converted to Buddhist.

It cost $15 for a tuktuk to take you around the many temples (spread over 5km) for the entire day

2 little Indiana Joneses:)

the intricate carvings were mind blowing, considering they were done with hand tools several centuries ago

the boys thought this place was amazing and super fun, climbing and exploring

I thought the women were so beautiful in the carvings

10 bonus points if you Where’s Waldo? Conner

We went on Mother’s Day , so I wanted a photo with the boys for my present (I also got a massage-$8 here in Cambodia!-and we all went out to a fancy dinner)

my Mother’s Day photo last year with all my children, missed Trek extra on this first mother’s day with out him

workers stopping for a break for lunch

Chinese tour group

It was mindboggling to us that this was the ONLY rule sign we saw the entire day, and it was hidden randomly in one of the temples. As we were touching and climbing over 900 year old artifacts, I couldn’t help but think that some historian somewhere is having a conniption.

tee hee

I thought these Cambodian girls were so pretty, so I asked if I could take a photo with them. When I got back to the tuktuk our driver told me that they were Cambodian movie stars-pretty sure I’m famous now.

I have been keeping my eye out for the perfect Cambodian souvenir and I found it at Angkor Wat. This handsome little boy was painting the temples, and I loved his style. He had many paintings to choose from, and we picked out the perfect one.

he was teaching another little boy how to paint, which I thought was so sweet, now they both can make a creative living

I felt so full getting to meet the little artist and buy one of his works. I paid $5 for a painting

the Tomb Raider temple-Ta Prohm

no temple is complete without monkeys

the famous Angkor Wat

Conner amazed me this day and I realized they are picking up so much as we travel that I don’t even realize. We were walking and he said, “ewww it smells like bat poop in here”. A few steps later, we saw these little bats. The next temple, he said, “ewww, it smells like elephant poop in here”. And of course around the next corner-elephants. If you too are interested in being able to identify different mammal poop smells, take a trip to Asia.

my 6 year old Conner

Jarrett at the top of the temple. Children under 12 years old are not allowed, neither are women with exposed knees and shoulders, so I could not go.

these Cambodian girls thought Conner was so handsome with his long hair and followed us around awhile:)

Angkor Wat totally ROCKS!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by oursonnylife in Cambodia, world travel

≈ 13 Comments

We decided to give Cambodia a second chance and stick it out a few more weeks. We headed over to the famous and historical town of Siem Reap. The easiest way to get there is by bus. Our tickets were $11 a piece and the bus ride was about 8 hours long. It seemed reeeeaaaalllly long and we were all getting very antsy. We have taken long buses before and they did not seem so taxing, but we realized about halfway through we usually take a night bus for the long ones. We decided to make sure we never take a long day bus again-it was lamo.

our adorable little friend on the bus

every seat was filled, but everyone had a seat

one more:)

Conner and this cute little girl played a lot of the bus ride:)

from the window

the view from our hotel balcony

in front of our hotel door-Trek:)

totally random. I thought this was so cute for my creative friends. They used a bow as a curtain hanger. (I especially thought of you Jacklyn

at an icecream shop with 2 cute goofy boys:)

look who was our tuktuk for the day in Siem Reap:) Batman!

the boys were a little excited

how did this car get in Cambodia?!

my cute new bag my mom bought me in Thailand

out to lunch for some Cambodian food

and look what me and Conner found while we were waiting for our food…

eeeeeek-we were so happy:)

Peyton took a picture of me holding the little naked bundle of cuteness

his really sweet mama cooling him down with some water-it is so hot here!

we all shared some fresh mango for dessert

getting some water and snacks

We are much happier here in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Almost everyone that we have talked to, that has visited Cambodia, LOVES it. We are starting to see why. The people are always ready for a smile and a helping hand. We have a couple more weeks here to explore, and I am excited for all that we will find.

update: I just saw this post posted a little early. I also posted the results of Quinn’s fundraiser today, so if you have not read it, you can find it below:) have a great day! love ,Chelsea

Welcome to Cambodia!!!

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by oursonnylife in Cambodia, food wonderful food, Peyton, world travel

≈ 22 Comments

I wrote a while back that we were trying to decide what country to visit next. Many of you gave some great advice. And even though no one mentioned India, I still freakin wanted to go to India. Holy cow do I want to go. Never mind the crazy looks other travelers give me as they look at my two little boys when I mention it, and the many negative new articles on it. I just really want to get there. But I laid it aside this month, when we found $40 airline tickets to Cambodia. Which just happen to be one of the countries most travelers love and suggested for us to visit.

So here we are, in Cambodia.

Our first week was pretty rough. Thailand has sneakily become our home away from home, and we were surprised to see how much we missed it! We found ourselves at a Thai restaurant in the capital city of Cambodia and the Pad Thai was enough to make me gag. So I sought out the main dish of Cambodia-Amok. I LOVE Amok! It is a coconut curry with fish or chicken over rice-yummo. It made me warm up to Cambodia a little.

We decided to not judge Cambodia right away, and move cities. The city we flew into, Phnom Pehn, the capital, was not really our thing. It was pretty rough around the edges, and we couldn’t understand the city layout to get around easily. We thought of just jetting out of the country before we invested too much time and money, but I knew we had to see Angkor Wat before we left. So we headed to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is AWESOME!!! We love Siem Reap. It is full of delicious, cheap food, wonderful tuk tuk drivers, and amazing historical sites.

Cambodia also threw us for a loop. We were not prepared for the poverty that is here. It is affecting all of us, even the boys. The naked, dirty children, people living on the streets, tiny toddlers begging for money and food. It seems every time we turn around there is a real and urgent need. It is overwhelming deciding who and when to help. There is no end to the needs in the country.

filling out the many customs forms to get into the Cambodia

the boys 8th passport stamp

Jarrett and I both have unlocked phones, so we buy prepaid SIM cards when we arrive into a new country. We spent about $25 for wifi (for Jarrett phone) and a few hours of minutes for each of us.

exploring the city

barbers lined the streets giving cheap haircuts

our hotel in Phnom Pehn, $25 a night including breakfast

purple plumerias, I have never seen these before!

super cool carriage tuktuks in all of Cambodia. $1-2 to take you anywhere in town, $15 to hire one for the entire day

Jarrett is loving the beer of Cambodia-Angkor-50 cents for a pint! cheapest beer we have found on our travels

I am more of a margarita/pina colada girl, but for a few cents I had to try it:)

our new favorite lunch game-Checkers from our amazing Auntie

there was an indoor playplace in Phnom Pehn, which the boys of course loved

The street food in Cambodia is a lower level and pretty much unrecognizable compared to Thailand. We usually are pretty open to trying new things, but this was hard. Many people sell cooked bugs and snails, that is all they have.

all you beer lovers, you are not prepared for this-$1.50 for a pitcher of beer

Peyton’s order-Frog

he loved it!

we all did

even Conner-hehe:)

on a side note-Peyton is reading!!!

our next hotel-same price-$25 a night

after almost 2 years of travel, we were upgraded for the first time! hehe-it was so fun

the hotel was an old French house and so beautiful

it is a beautiful city, even if its a little sad

breakfast by the pool

our last day in Phnom Pehn before heading out to Siem Reap!

floating market

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by oursonnylife in adventures with kids, extended family, grandparents, Thailand, world travel

≈ 20 Comments

I have been wanting to go to the floating market in Bangkok since we arrived in Thailand almost 1 year ago. I see photos of it in all of the cities we visit and it looks so amazing. So we planned to go with my parents when they visited. I did zero research on it, just found a taxi to take us there. That turned out to be a bit of an ordeal, but it ended up working out.

The taxi driver pulled up in a small car. We had 4 adults and 2 not-so-small children. I thought, eh, how bad can it be? Wrong thought, it was 1 1/2 hours to get to the floating market in Bangkok, apparently Bangkok is really big. It was a little intense in the little car with arms and feet and butts everywhere, and it poured down rain the entire ride there, so more than once we almost turned around.

haha, cramped much?! My mom somehow managed to take this photo from the squished spot she was in beside us. Papa T was lucky to have the longest legs and get the front seat all alone.

Many times it has rained on our travel plans these past months of travel, and we have never turned around, and we have never been disappointed. So we trucked on, and after the looong drive, we arrived at a small dock where the guys told us it would be $300 for us all to take a 1 hour boat ride to the market! Waaaah? Seriously, I thought it would be free or like $10.

I was pretty bummed, I really wanted to go, but $300 for a wooden long boat that takes about $5 worth of gas is a joke. We were about to leave and called our taxi guy to pick us up. He asked how much we would pay. We talked and decided we would pay $100 for all 6 of us. Still way too much, but we were already there and did I mention I really wanted to go? They accepted the $100, making me feel sorry for anyone who ever paid $300.

As far as I am concerned it was totally worth $100. It was amazing, and is one of the top things we have done on our travels.

The driver stopped off at a Coconut sugar farm where we got to try freshly made coconut sugar.

The boat ride was about 90 minutes of slowly meandering down the river between other boats and little shops. If you wanted to buy something you just told the driver and he would dock the boat and you could buy food, drinks, or stuff right there in the boat.

We stopped to buy fresh fruit a couple of times. There were even boats going around with sodas and cold beer. Peyton spotted one lady across the river that he wanted to buy mangoes from. I saw a lady closer and asked her. I turned around to an upset little Peyton. He said the other lady was crying and he had really wanted to buy her mangoes. We quickly waved her down and she rowed backwards to our boat, where thoughtful Peyton happily bought her mangoes:)

that’s the lady in the plaid shirt behind

were you ready for this old lady cuteness?!

my paper and wooden umbrella I bought at the market:)

If you are ever in Bangkok, the floating market is amazing, you have to go!

to Bangkok by ferry and train

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by oursonnylife in extended family, grandparents, Thailand, world travel

≈ 14 Comments

After 6 amazing days on the island, we said good-bye to our beach shack and headed to the big city. The last time we were in Bangkok we had Trek with us, so I was a little nervous to see how I would feel about it.

10 months ago in Bangkok with my little Trek

We have accumulated quite a few belongings on our travels. 4 suitcases, 3 bags, 2 boxes, and a guitar. I occasionally ship things to my parent’s house to store, like Trek’s things, and the boys’ drawings and clothes that are too little, but too special to give away (I am a big boob). I shipped the 2 big boxes ahead to Bangkok through the Thai post office. They were 30lbs a piece and only cost $8 bucks each! We have no idea what our plans for the future are right now, we are considering many options. But we did know we only wanted to go to Cambodia with one suitcase, so we could travel lightly. We are storing the rest of our things in Bangkok Self Storage for the time being. They had a great backpack/luggage storage plan.

We could have flown to Bangkok from a nearby island, but we wanted my parents to experience Thai train travel. It is our favorite form of travel, and Conner wants to live on a train:) We knew they were coming early enough, so we were able to plan ahead and book a 1st class car. We have always wanted to try 1st class, but they sell out fast and we have never booked early enough. There are 2 beds and one sink in each private car, they cost $80 for 2 people to go from Suratthani to Bangkok (about 12 hours).

rock-paper-scissors waiting for the ferry to take us from Koh Phangan to Suratthani

my parents at the Suratthani train station

Conner falls asleep every time at the train station!

the 1st class train car corridor

it was super tiny

and there were some weirdos roaming the halls

mine and Conner’s room

since ours was beside Jarrett and Peyton’s car, we were able to open up the middle divider and hang out together

best way to travel, snuggling and playing games

the boys brushing their teeth in the morning

and then acting like monkeys:)

happy to be moving on to a new adventure

sweet brothers hanging out together

Bangkok train station

our traveling family, ready to offload some stuff in Bangkok so we could travel with one bag!

it took us about 2 seconds to find the donut shop, a little longer than it takes me to sniff out a Starbucks

My parents treated us to a fancy hotel in Bangkok-it was seriously a HUGE treat! We were all freaking out, this is what $100 a night gets you in Bangkok-a super fancy hotel in the best part of town.

a bathtub! jump for joy!

The plan since my parents booked their plane tickets months ago, was to go see Iron Man 3. We headed to the mall as soon as we settled into the hotel.