Siem Reap

Friday Februay 26^th 2010, Nancy here,

We leave in just one week, I can hardly believe that time has gone so fast!!!!!

We are still in Cambodia the town of Siem Reap. It has been 31 to 35 degrees every day as well as being humid. After the sun goes down at about 6, the breeze is beautiful but the temperature feels about the same.

We have been to the amazing Angkor Wat 2 times so far and Brian is there now too

( time number 3). It isn’t far from the town – and you can buy passes from1 day up to seven days. Kids under 12 are free but poor old Maeve is so tall no one believed us, and we had to show her passport at each separate site! Even then they looked at us suspiciously!.

The enourmous site that is the Angkor also has some of the last remnants of a tropical monsoon forest. Many of the trees here are 400 to 500 years old. Some may be older. Despite all of the hardship and civil war no one touched this forest. Something of a miracle when the rest of the countries vegetation has been decimated for firewood and other things.

Last night we took a tuk –tuk (a little covered carriage pulled by a motorcycle) out to Ankgor to watch the sunset and to see the monuments in the evening light. We four and a friend we met squeezed on the tuk tuk and out we went, the friend got stuck in the temple somehow avoiding the security guards . Eventually she emerged and we were almost the last ones out of the complex , she was thrilled to have been stuck there because she got to see the moon rise!?

Yesterday we discovered a wonderful little spot that was reviving the lost art of Khmer traditional textiles. The knowledge has almost been completely lost due to the fact that almost anyone old enough to know it was killed in the many years of war oand genocide here. A Japanese man came here and individually searched villages for the old women who had experience with the art. He has an amazing spot here that trains and supports anyone wishing to learn the spinning, weaving, and dyeing skills! I could have stayed there all day.

Tommorrow we fly back to HCMC-leaving the peaceful pace of this country behind. The people are very friendly and full of smiles even the super persistent (ie pestery) kids trying to sell postcards!

Will write soon xoxoxo I hope snow is all finished by the time we get there!!!!!