Few fights, few sulks, lots of laughing at each other – and at other things of course – and lots of games of Oh Hell. There are no money worries because the cost of living here is so much lower than in NZ, we eat out at least twice a day, and our days are busy with travelling and sightseeing in a different world with people of all sorts – kind, funny, horrible, interesting, but always worthy of (my) comment. Add to this good weather, books, notebook laptop, iPods and frequent wifi, and it all makes a good recipe for a family adventure.
- Annie

The backpackers’ part of Bangkok is humming with tourists – high season and we were lucky to get rooms arriving so late in the dark. I have been waking horribly early on this holiday – often at 4 or 5 am – and as I got out my torch to check my watch when I woke I expected a similar hideous hour – but it was 8am. Our room had windows, but only technically; there was no natural light and it was pitch black. Cheap though!

Two days and we are back on the plane to Auckland. Hope the cats recognise me

- Annie

The highlight of the day is the landmine museum and orphanage on the way back.  It is privately run by a man who in his youth as a child soldier for the Kmer Rouge laid landmines and then as an older adult became an expert in defusing them.  On display is a copy of National Geographic, Jan 2011, which has a large feature article on him and this enterprise. All proceeds go to the orphanage attached to the museum (no tourists can visit, no photos of children allowed – as elsewhere in Cambodia this is strict) and we buy up bits and pieces including a new bracelet for me to replace the one Brian bought for me back in the mid 80s in Nepal which broke in 2008 in Pompeii.  This one is brass and made out of a recycled ordinance  (bombs? guns? Surely there is something symbolic here for a marriage?) – the $30US they charge is really a donation.  Very nice!

-          Annie

We took a long tuktuk ride to these temples. My (Paddy) favourite one was Ta Prohm – it reminded Ellen and me of Cair Paravel Cair in Prince Caspian when Lucy and Edmond etc came back to Narnia after 1000 years. The temple was covered in moss and really tall trees with the roots of the trees growing down through the temple’s huge building stones. The roots of the trees were immense knobbly, dragon-like claws, metres long above the earth, growing in between and over the huge blocks of sandstone into the centre of the temples to create a jungle like effect (says Ellen). This particular temple had been left alone to the elements to decay naturally and that’s why Ellen and I liked it. It was used as a location in the film Tomb Raiders.

Ellen also liked the one with 200 Buddha faces carved into the stupas (Bayon inside Angkor Thom). The faces were metres big and although some were worn away and more decayed than others, probably because of the way the wind was blowing, others were still sharp. Dad liked this one the best too. He always takes so many photos, and obsessively framing the photo perfectly means it takes him much longer than it does other people.

The Angkor temples are one of the seven man-made wonders of the world according to some lists. These were built at the same time as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

By the end (it took all day, 9 – 5) I was tired and sick of it all but Ellen was still hanging in there and we all got an ice cream.

- Patrick and Ellen

On the up side, there seems to be less smoking in Cambodia, and definitely less honking of horns – both are continuous and quite overwhelming in Vietnam and Laos. Sadly, what all three countries have in common however is endless amounts of plastic rubbish strewn on the sides of roads, in fields, on hill sides, on the sea bed ….

Something else that has kept us going: endless games of Oh Hell!, a card game vaguely resembling  500 that my grandmother taught my mother, she me, and me our kids. I know mum will be pleased to read this!
– Annie

A Cambodian charity http://www.friends-international.org/ provides training for orphan street kids as chefs, waiters, welders electricians … and manicurists (VERY big here with tourists). We eat in their restaurant, buy their goods as presents (a bit like a Trade Aid shop) and Ellen gets her nails done (all slightly crooked but lovely all the same). They have signs up reminding us that children in orphanages (numbers have increased by 60% since 2005) are not tourist attractions.

- Annie

-Brian