Angkor

Giant trees reclaim an awesome temple.

"this shit is bananas"

Angkor Wat is amazing. Even the world weary teenagers were impressed.

Simone and Jim- your kids are alive. We've put in a punishing day at ankor (Wat,Tom,bayon, Ta prohm). It is huge, hard to get your head around, beautiful, a bit fantastical and a really big deal. So many cameras pointing at the same things- I'm sure we all go home with the same gallery of shots. The Tomb raider temple is the one that grabs you-like a scary kids story where nature comes alive and comes after you. Siem reap is tres Jolie (although the main road is called beer St and you can get a foot massage whilst enjoying a gin fizz.) The kids are boganing off to feed chickens to the crocodiles at the croc farm tomorr and Michael and I will tackle a bit more of ankor to preserve australia's reputation as culture vultures.
It's all good.
Sent from my iPod

It really is excellent

Oscar - tell your mum and dad that you want to stay at the Golden Banana

Sissy goes the hand stand

Chicken Farm on the Tonle Sap River

Boat to Siem Reap

Had a once in a lifetime boat trip to Siem Reap, waking at the break of dawn to catch a 6 and a half hour ride down one of the longest rivers I've ever seen - we could of caught a 2 hour bus trip along the dusty roads of country side Cambodia ,but instead we decided to go out there and be adventurous! Along the ride Andy and I embraced the fumes of the boat engine, as we thought sitting at the back of the boat was a good idea - so wasn't. To get away from the hot sun we all went and sat under the covers of the boat, everyone was tired and hot. It was a great scene, rural Cambodia. After all that we finally arrived in Siem Reap!! Stepping off the boat we walked to get a tuk tuk, turned out that our driver wasn't there so we settled for another driver for $10. Reaching the Golden Banana was exciting for all of us exhausted fullas, we only got as far as reception - biggest dilemma, seriously. They canceled our bookings for three rooms and everyone was shitty!!! Fortunately we had Suzie to argue our way into getting A room for the kids but the 'rents' had to camp out at low key place for the night. Besides all the drama, everyone is chilling at the pool, having a great time and tonight we're going to check out the great city of Siem Reap.

Buddha in Battambang

Not far out of Battambang town we found a beautiul old temple

Battambang

it's mike...

We spent Xmas in Kampot. It's a sleepy and dusty little town - & quite charming especially at night as the little bars and restaurants open & the street stalls do a roaring trade. It's really quite pretty.

And then we left for Battambang  - which is a different story. Cambodia's 2nd biggest city it's dusty and dirty and busy. Walking out to dinner last night there was none of the twinkling fairy lights or beautifully restored buildings of Kampot. Just lots of rubbish, fat rats and diesel fumes. The kids were a bit of "why are we here???".

Dinner turned out to be great fun, catching up with Robbie Fraser. And Robbie - who'd arrived here a day earlier - had a tuk tuk driver sorted to take us out into the country side today. It was a great day.




Rural Cambodia is gorgeous.  Our drivers/guides had a good little circuit organised - rice paddies at different stages of production,  some beautiful temples, rice paper and sticky rice getting made in peoples homes.

And perhaps the least hygienic food establishment I've seen anywhere in the world - a fish paste factory that was essentially mounds of fish on a dirty,cracked concrete floor, some drying in the sun and others getting shoveled into big tubs to be salted (and maybe fermented??). Lots of flys. And all handily positioned next to a rancid drain. We'd  sampled the rice papr and sticky rice but the fish paste was too much.

.



A really nice day. Lunch and some hammock time the perfect way to end it up.

Beach at khao rang Cambodia

Merry Xmas

merry xmas from cambodia.

Two fish in a basket

Battambang

Hey robbie we'll be at the banan hotel in bbang on 27 and 28 December. Come find us we're a bit feral.
Sent from my iPod

Darby and his Xmas bike

Christmas day

Xmas day in old broken down Kampot. It's windy And dusty and the sun will give you cancer if you give it the smallest chance. It's an old French colonial town, on the river with these great French buildings that are in great disrepair-think Havana or Calcutta. Every block or so there's one that's been saved and it's full of French tourists eating baguette and coffee. You can imagine what it will look like in 20 years and what it must have looked like before. There is a haunted hill station up in the jungle and a really sad zoo that we might go and see. We're riding bikes around like the Von trapp family or something. There are hardly any old people- I think I've seen 3. Sihanoukville was sleazy and hot and crowded and too much for me- bad music, beer buckets, creepy old white men, and the water is salty and green and warm. Perfect for europeans. Found a good hotel with a great pool and stayed put. back to phnom penh tomorrow and then to battambang.

Sent from my iPod

More pool

This is an easy place to spend time

MC Darby (aka Notorious)

Hello all,
Wow this trip has been absolutely Sennnsssaattional!!!! So Thailand was a pretty good effort, lots of food was consumed particularly street food, paying close attention to pad Thai's.Tuk tuk's are the go, they were great for eating whilst in motion. I love Buddha!!!! Both upright and reclining derivatives. After lots of shifty Indians trying to sell us dud suits I was happy to move on to Phom Peng although the majority of what was being sold in Bangkok was good. Phom Peng was fantastic. Our hotel was splendiferous, Andy and myself enjoyed many times of bromance through activities such as playing pool, swimming pool, relaxing beside pool, eating and drinking; croissants!!!!Yeah. The time we spent reflecting upon the atrocities that where committed under Pol Pot at the Genocide museum and Killing Fields was fascinating yet overwhelming. I believe that we could all take something away from that trip, acknowledging the strength and resilience of the Cambodian people and how we may be able to apply this in our lives, overcoming the most tragic of incidences through human will power and taking the good with the bad.
Upon leaving Phom Peng we we all enjoyed the best of Cambodian pop music with hit songs such as no no no I love my Girl friend and I love yeah baby!!!!. In no time at all we were in Sihanoukville enjoying dinner on the beach with fireworks and Harry Potter (aka me with a fire stick) ;0 This place was good but a little sleazy.....Lots of old white guys.......with young Cambodian women.........drinking......going back to hotel rooms.....if you know what i mean! But yeah then we caught a boat to some islands about 2-3 hours off the mainland. Poor Andy pandy got sea sick ie convulsively vomited over the side of the boat until his stomach lining ceased to exist. That didn't change the fact that these islands were paradise with a pair lecuteóde'adorabale monkey species that chose to reside in the village. For three nights we enjoyed this paradise and Andy's sickness was cured as he and i had to share a bed for this time. Actually the bed situation was terrible( not very Bromantic) and after many a sand fly bite we were kind of happy to set sail back to Sihanoukville. That boat ride was intense. I found it extremely fun as though i was some sort of Poseidon prince who was immune to the power of the sea as the ocean tossed around the 10 tonne boat as though it was a small rodent caught in the jaws of large Neapolitan mastiff being slobbered to death with slobber. Metaphor nice!!!. So this afternoon i have been enjoying the luxury of our new hotel in Sihanoukville(still feels awkward to spell) not to mention the Le Bistre Gourmand or something or rather in French. Very nice cwwwaarrrrsssooouuuuaaaannnttt! Lots of coffee. And lots of love back to my peeps back in SSTTRRRAAAYYYAAA!!!!!! My lovable beasts Stig, Rusty and Georgia lots of hugs, and to the wise man himself my farsha, on ya champ! Enjoy your holidays because I is in heaven.

Robbie

Hey Robbie - we'll be in Battambang on the 27th, leaving on the 29th for Siem Reap - when I book a hotel I'll let you know and when you book one let us know. the wi-fi is a bit difficult for us but we can check more often from now. Sihanoukville is really sleazy - not so bad in the day time but full of old men with young women at night - sad and a bit creepy. We just went to Koh Krung - very basic, beautiful water, voracious sand flies. We just laid around for 3 days reading and playing scrabble - times tough.
Sue

Cambodia update

Heyy everyone its sissy

Razor clam

My foot meets razor clam

we left Koh Krung island- its really nice great time for relaxing. But so far during our holiday no one has been seriously sick or injured just some minor stuff- Mum got huge sand fly bites all over her legs, Andy pulled a muscle while running on the beach, Darby ripped the skin off one of his toes while doing Muay Thai, Tegan got a little bit sick in Phnom Pehn, and I stepped or a razor clam at the beach on the island and got a nice big clean cut on the arch of my foot.


 We left the island today and had a long 2 and a half hour boat ride, waves splashing everywhere making us really wet and cold and it was really rocky the whole way there. Andy got sick on the boat almost straight away and vomited most of the way back. We are now in Sihanoukville in a really nice hotel with a thirty metre long pool- living the dream. We are having a great time
miss you all very much
Sissy xxx

Pier at dusk

Cooking lesson in Phnom Penh

Heyy everyone
Its our last day in Phnom Penh (sadly). We leave at two pm for a long four hour bus ride to Sihanoukville. But before we left me and mum had a cooking class. Our cooking instructor, Hayne, took us( me mum and six other people) to this great market and he showed us around. For lunch we made vegetarian spring rolls and a really nice fish Amok ( curry). He showed us how to roll the spring rolls properly and then we deep fried and ate them. For the Amok we had to shape banana leaves into a cup, add the fish and the paste and then steamed them. It was
delicious. Some people stayed for the whole day and cooked some desserts but we couldn't. Me and mum might have another class soon.
Miss you guys
We are having a great time
Till next time
Sissy xxx
Ps Anna how are the dogs

The disco Tuk Tuk

A hilarious ride through the saturday night traffic. Lots of the mini cabs are decorated - this one with disco lights and loud music.

Boys get flogged at Muy Thai training

The Russian market

Teenagers survey the scene from the Foreign Correspondents Club

Phnom penh is young. Cambodia feels young- lots of bars and cafes and groovy litle shops. And pigs on spits and people asleep everywhere and monks and whole families on bikes. Watched a guy get hammered by a motor bike from the balcony of the foreign corresponds club- no coppers- the rider picked his bike up and got on with it and the pedestrian got taken to hospital. Tegans right about the prison- it was harrowing And left us all a bit shell shocked. Had a good crack at the knockoff stalls at the Russian market and the boys are acquainted with rules of the local pool tables and the girls have indulged in a Phnom Penn pedicure. Michael and I are drinking gin and tonics all over town. Robbie and Gazza I highly recommend. The lefranlesuite hotel-its frankly too good for us but we're here anyway laying up in these really groovy rooms eating French breakfasts by the pool. it's insane and I never want it to stop. And try too book Sihanoukville and islands now- it's hard to get a room.

Way Pho boat pier Bangkok

Phnom penh

Having an amazing time here in Cambodia! No one has been seriously sick or lost any limbs - we're doing good! Went to the 'killing fields' & the S-21 prison this morning and it was honestly the saddest thing I've experienced, it is truly sad what the Khmer people went through at the hands of their own people.
The food here in Cambodia and Thailand is great and the heat is bearable- seriously am considering living here :)
Ahh well hope everything is okay at home and hope you all aren't missing us too much !

Till next time
Tee

the teenagers really liked bangkok

Made it

all here, safe in sunny bangkok. Adults hammered the plane bar and noone got any sleep. Arguing with reception at 2.30am trying to get into our rooms, and sitting up on Khao San rd at 3.30am eating pad thai. There is a competition on for the most pad thai of the trip - Andy and Darby lead. Big Buddha, tuk tuks and a rooftop pool today - looking for a night market for dinner. Did I say the weather is lovely.

Robbie talked the boys out of buying prohibited weapons at the 2nd hand market and Tegan is keeping them out of tatoo parlours. Sissy is casing the street food.

Kids all having siesta - will get them to blog tomorrow.

Today's the day!

The plan for the day...
Tegan & Aunty Robbie fly out early this arvo.
Next  me, sue & kids get our flight.
And then later tonight we'll all meet at the Rambuttri Village Hotel at Khaosan.


In years gone by the plane flight was always a bit of a chore. But now - perhaps its age or just a symptom of how hard the year has been - I'm looking forward to it..."Steward - a gin & tonic please!

Teenagers survey the Phnom Penn nightlife

We really need a holiday..

The Lindsay-tull's (that's Sue, michael, andy & sissy ) are off to bangkok & then cambodia for xmas. And we've got some extra teenagers - tegan and darby.

So me + sue - and four teenagers in bangkok and cambodia.

Should be a breeze...