Elie Opens Julie!

Our Christmas Eve is over, and it was lots of fun. Here is a video of Elie opening her present from Grandma and Grandpa. Notice the Star Wars music in the background! Nathan was thrilled with his WII game.

Nathan Receives Star Wars WII and Bionicle

Cambodia - Siem Reap

The last week of summer, we spent 5 days in Cambodia as a family. We were there primarily to tour Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, a series of Buddhist temples over 1,000 year old. The Temples were lost in the overgrown jungle for 400 years, until a French explorer found them in 1860. Work to uncover the temples has been going on ever since. If you look very, very closely at the picture above, you will see Marc, Elie and Nathan at the very top. Double click on the picture to make it much larger, and they will be easy to see.


On day two, we took a three hour horseback ride through the rice fields and eventually to another grouping of Temples. The kids got to ride on their own horse, with a helper at the ranch walking along beside them. They loved doing it by themselves.


Day three we rented ATVs and road through the dirt roads outside of town, which gave us a chance to see the small villages and farming communities. We brought candy to hand out to any kids we encountered on the ride. What’s funny, we talked a bit with these two little boys and gave them a few pieces. They unwrapped them, threw the wrappers on the ground and walked away. I was outraged, wanting to go after them and yell at them. And then I realized – no trash cans or waste removal services out here. There was no place to direct them to dispose of their trash. Different world completely.
Marc and Elie rode together the second half of this ATV trip. When we arrived back at the ATV rental location, they were both covered in mud. Elie took off her sunglasses and was like a baby raccoon - all black except the little white circles around her eyes, shaped just like her sunglasses. Marc was the same. I think he hit every puddle of mud on purpose. We had to get them towels to wipe off. Nathan and I, of course, were pristine, much to his disappointment!


We took supplies to and toured an orphanage just a few miles from Siem Reap. It was amazing – these children who have so little, but the biggest smiles and welcoming waves. Elie and Nathan got to play with them a bit and loved watching them work in their school classrooms.

Borneo with Chris & Amanda

Chris and Amanda Gay were just here for a crazy week of travel. We showed them as much of Singapore as possible in a short amount of time, before they jetted of to Chiang Mai and Bangkok for two days. Here we are having Chili Crab at Boat Quay, on the Singapore River.

Those two seriously saw it all. As soon as they cleared customs back from Thailand, they rechecked in for a trip with us to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. It was total R&R after racing around Thailand. Borneo is known for its world-class diving. We didn’t have time to dive, but did some snorkeling. Amanda and I dove down several times and collected some beautiful coral to take home. We later realized that the area has been designated a National Park and we probably committed a serious crime, but we were not discovered at customs. However the deadly stench that permeated our suitcases and everything in them was probably punishment enough.

Here we are standing in front of our hotel – the oldest in all of Kota Kinabalu. What’s hilarious – we asked that doorman to take a picture of us. He hopped right in, thinking we wanted him to be in the picture. We had to ask another guy on the street to take the picture!

Chris and Amanda got a particularly solid taste of the communication and cultural gaps here in Singapore, and we had a lot of laughs. Like when I asked if a salad had “lettuce” on it. When the guy didn’t know I kept saying “lettuce” louder and louder, as if that was going to make him understand. Finally we realized that the only thing he understood was “green leaves”. Remember that when you come to southeast Asia. And then Amanda went swimsuit shopping and asked “is there any other shop in Singapore where I could find a bathing suit?” and the saleswoman said “no.” Oh and how could I forget – the two tour guides in Thailand were named “Poon” and “Rat”. Wow.

Lynne Stein & Lauren Simmons Visit

This past month Lynne Stein and Lauren Simmons came for a week-long visit – pretty impressive given that they have six kids between them, ranging in age from 4 months to 6 years old! So first of all, thank you to the husbands and grandmothers who made their trip possible.

We totally packed in the activities and made the most of our time. They toured Little India, Chinatown and the Arab quarter. They walked the entire length of the Singapore River to take in the historical sites. They had the infamous fish reflexology treatment, which involves fish nibbling at your feet to exfoliate them. (It felt like more than a nibble – I could see their little lips and mouths going crazy.) They tried everything, including Singapore’s national dish – chilli crab. I am guessing though, that the highlight for them was walking through Tekka market where a butcher was hacking up chickens with such gusto and the biggest meat cleaver I’d ever seen, spraying us with chicken wetness. Or maybe trying on dresses in Chinatown in 100 degree heat with no dressing room, standing close to guard against any peepers. Or maybe, just maybe, lying around the American Club pool doing just about nothing.

We spent two nights in Chiang Mai – northern Thailand. We toured an elephant reserve and had an elephant ride. At one point the elephants got into the river and walked us straight down the middle. We visited some local tribes people, actually immigrants from China and Burma, including the long-neck tribe those female members wear the brass coils around their necks and the big-ear tribes people who wear the huge ornamentation in their ears – stretching the holes in their ears to the size of a golf ball.

And then my personal favourite, we stopped by a tiger refuge and got to roll around on the floor with 2 month old baby tigers. They were as playful as kittens and happy to snuggle up in our laps.