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Just to say we arrived home eventually. It was a long 12 hours for the final part of our journey. The cold weather was abit of a shock but we have adjusted now.
Took these photos from the plan. I have always wanted to get photos of the himalaya mountain range so I was delighted with these...
I am now back on my normal blog life at its best chaotic

Last day at the beach

It was so lovely today. We spent the whole day at Sokha Beach (private one) It has lots of shade and was very quiet. The only down side was drinks were very expensive (which we found out yesterday) so today we brought our own.

Phoebe and myself went into town to get lunch from a bakery we found that does homemade bread and cakes....oh so nice! Also they have a craft shop so we did a spot of shopping. It was nice to buy things which were made by people who you knew were going to get some benefit from the sale.

When we got back the sun was quite hot, too hot to play in so I made a little camp under the trees for the younger two to play in but they all enjoyed playing. We found things on the beach. I had bought some tin chests when we went shopping and the boys enjoyed burying these for treasure.






This evening Colin and myself got to go out as Colin's sister babysat for us. We went to the beach and sat in a comfy chair right in front of the waves, listening to chilled out music and eating fab BBQ food. Such a nice way to end our beach stay.

We are on our way back to Phnom Penh tomorrow and then back to England so this might be the last post. See you soon!

[Rachel]

Onto Sihanouk Ville ...

Sunday was great. We were at church in the morning and the kids were much more settled. It was a really great time despite quite a few people being away for Chinese New Year. After church we spent the afternoon with Steve & Midge before heading back to the hotel to do the last minute packing for our trip down to Sihanouk Ville.

The coach was comfortable and had air con. It also had a toilet ... 3/4 height one ... I'll explain that we get back :-) However, it was about 4h30m with 4 very bored children ... we were so glad when we finally reach Sihanouk Ville ... especially as for the last 1h or so, the driver was obviously having trouble finding any gears in the gearbox!

Originally we had booked into a small guesthouse but then Steve & Midge told us when they went there 4 weeks ago it was awful because of a hotel being built next door. So, at their recommendation, we 'upgraded' to a rather posh hotel ... feel a bit out of place to be honest.

Yesterday afternoon, after some lunch, we went down to the local beach as soon as poss ... it was nice but we were pestered by people trying to sell stuff ... And then disaster ... my wallet was taken out of Rachel's bag :-( ... once this had sunk in I told the beach bar we were in front of and went to an internet cafe on the beach (yes, they do have them) and looked up all the numbers I needed to call ... but when I got back to Rachel to my amazement she was holding my wallet. Some lads at a nearby beach bar, who keep an eye out for pickpockets, had seen it happen ... and managed to find out that we were the owners. It was SO amazing to see how God is looking after us :-)

Today, monday, we went back to the same beach (with less money with us) but got pestered again. So, in the afternoon we went to the private beach of a *really* posh hotel and paid just $2 to use the beach ... it was *lovely*. Pictures soon ...

I think I've said enough now ... hadn't had time to do lots of blogging so made up for it tonight.

And thanks to all of you who have put comments ... keep them coming.

Cheers,

[Colin]

Cooking

Yesterday Rachel, Phoebe, Jamie and Aunty Kath went on a Khumer cooking course. We decided to do the half day so we learnt to cook 2 dishes. The first one was a started called bannana flower sausages. This involved beating the spices in a morter which Phoebe and jamie enjoyed and then more bashing to make the meat into a kind of mince. It tasted gorgeous.

The next dish was Fish Amok which is the traditional dish of Cambodia. We had to make little banana leave bowls to steam our food in. when it was cooked we ate it on a covered terrace by the very peaceful Mekong River. *Delightful*

The rest of the day was taken up with packing...Colin took the children to Pencil which is a local play area. After about an hour and a half I had a phonecall to say Ewan had cut his head (last week Jamie had cut his head on the bedside table) But thanks to Liz Teo I had learnt the trick of instant stitching using their hair.. and of course in case anyone is worried lots of antiseptic cleansing! So both boys have had their heads patched. Im sure there is an A&E but there are some you just dont go to ... makes me grateful for my GP and Frimley A&E.

Tomorrow we are up early and off to the beach to see another part of Cambodia and to have a bit of a rest after such a busy two weeks.

[Rachel]

Picture Gallery II

Royal Palace:





National Museum:



Chinese Dragon:



Cambodia:

Busy busy busy

It's been really busy since our last posting ... and I've only got 10 minutes on a really slow PC to do this one!

In brief, we have been to the National Museum and visited another school. Rachel and Phoebe and Jamie saw some Chinese dragons in the street this afternoon. Tonight, we are going to see traditional dancing.

Gotta go - tuk tuk ready.

[Colin]

Quiz

I thought it would be fun to do a quiz to see if you could guess what things you can find in Cambodia. Email your answers to: saunders.familyoffunandchaos@googlemail.com and I will buy a prize for the first set of correct answers. So, can you find the following in Cambodia:

1. McDonalds
2. Gap (genuine)
3. Rubbish truck
4. Apples
5. Cornettos
6. Tesco
7. Kenco Coffee
8. Kellogg's Cornflakes
9. Korma
10.Christmas Tree

Royal Palace

We got up early and were all at the palace at 8am. (that was the hard bit!) it is behind these big walls which were painted a pale yellow. Every where you look there are beautiful carved features. On the edges of windows, around doors, along the roofs. When we walked into the garden, it was beautifully kept and manicured. Ewan was disappointed bc he wanted to look at a big lake in the grounds but it was in a restricted area.

We went to look at the throne room first. All the wall were painted so beautifully that from a distance it looked like wall paper. The ceilings were painted too with scenes.

We were not allowed to photograph inside the throne room but have pictures from the guide book. There were lots of smaller but just as beautifully decorated buildings. We didn't look at all of them and some we were not allowed in.

The next place we went too in the palace grounds was the Silver Pagoda which is a Buddhist Temple the floor was made of silver tiles. Most of them were covered by carpets so they would not be damaged but the ones we could see were carved with gorgeous patterns. there was also a statue covered with jewels.

Jamie's favourite bit was looking at the fish in a pool!

[Rachel]

Sorry, ran out of time to put up some photos ... WILL do tomorrow.

[Colin]

{New Things Today}

* Walked to the Supermarket and only had one person as me if I needed a Taxi....people just dont walk here they hop on their moto (small motor bike ) and drive. So if they see someone walking especially a madang (foreign person) there is a trail of people shouting moto you want mote. I think they have got the message that I like to walk!!

* Got well and truly stuck in a traffic jam! It was completely gridlocked. All the roads in Phnom Penh are in a grid so there are LOADs of cross rads. The big ones have traffic lights which most people pay attention to but all the rest every one just drives across even if something is coming the other way. Today everyone had just driven across the cross road and got totally stuck. Even the motos had trouble getting through. Finally someone moved and it all shifted.

* Saw about twenty people standing in a line along the road holing what looked like bare trees...thought this was a bit strange until I realised that they were blossom trees. All the chinese celebrate chinese new year by decorating a blossom tree..bit like our christmas tree vendors along the roads.

* found an ice lolly shop...its taken a week!!

* Saw loads of red chinese lanterns

* Found that not every thing which the guide book said was there was actually there....one restuarant we were searching for turned out to have been demolished an a hole was left where it should have been!! Then a play area which was supposed to be at a supermarket... wasnt a play area....but when we drove away and looked was actually ousde on ther other side of the building!! Such is live in Cambodia very unpredictable!!

I will get Colin to post some pictures tomorrow as it is late and we are getting up early to visit the Royal Palace tomorrow!

A busy weekend

Saturday - Rachel and the kids went to a large indoor play area to let the "puppies" run off some steam while Colin went to a meeting at the church. For lunch we went the 'Asian Tiger' restaurant across the road from the guest house ... Lucia got on really well with the owner:


Sunday - In the morning we went to the church. It was obviously very different - about 30 people instead of 300 ... and in 2 languages. Most talking is translated so we could follow it ok. The songs would be sung in Khmer and then English or v/v. In the afternoon Rachel finally found a coffee shop that met her high standards (and it cost as much as Costa Coffee!)


A few more pictures for you...

People carrier, Khmer style:


Sugar beat delivery:


[Colin]

Shops, Weddings and Schools

This week we have just been getting used to life here. Next week we will be doing a lot more investigations into schools, houses and our job.

Today has been very hot. we went out to look at a school which was nice. It was good for the children have some space to run around as there are NO parks with play areas. Actually there is not very much for children to do but everyone is very friendly. We are looking into some cafe and supermarkets which have play areas.



The other thing I have not located is a shop selling ice-lolly...oh do we need to find that!! The shops in our block are funny. we have about 10 mobile phone shops, nearly as many internet places, pharmaceutics, dental, opticians but you have to walk about 10mins to the supermarket...and cross a very scary main road!

Opposite the internet shop I am in now there is a wedding party. This will go on for a few days. They have set up a marquee in the road and it is draped with very bright nylon material so it looks silky and is decorated with plastic flowers. There are lots of table and chairs all decorated very carefully. The most noticeable thing is the VERY LOUD traditional music playing. I am told this will go on until tomorrow possibly through the night!! Will let you know tomorrow if we got any sleep!!!





[Rachel]