Day 5 - Siem Reap - Luang Prabang

Today was a day for travel, so after a very relaxing head massage as a goodbye treat, we climbed into the minivan, said some sad goodbyes to Palm Village (we definitely didn't want to go!) and headed off to the airport. It's always bittersweet visiting several different countires in one trip - just as you settle into really loving one, you have to leave for another, but then the next always seems to hold its own joys, so you're still glad you came... ahh, the terrible joys of holidays. Luckily, I was able to console myself with an unexpected treat at the airport... Dairy Queen! Ahhh, banana split blizzards...



Following such a lovely reminder of home, we boarded the plane to Luang Prabang and made our way across some amazingly mountainous regions into Laos, our second destination. At first I was a little unsure as we made our way into Luang Prabang's town centre - it all seemed much more rural than we were expecting, and though I do love the sense of adventure travel provides, I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of really roughing it. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want over-the-top hotel suites and chauffeured limos, but I do enjoy the comfort of basic things like infrastructure, motored transport, etc. Luckily, once we got downtown things started to look a more promising - there's certainly a very strong French influence here, creating a strange hybrid of the European cosmopolitan atmosphere and the traditional Southeast Asian culture.



After only a few minutes, I was hooked - I love Laos!! Our hotel is lovely (all dark wood and panelling) and the town is small enough that it makes exploring on foot fairly easy and comfortable.



After dropping off our stuff in the room, we decided to head out to Main Street, our first port of call the riverside café where we sat and had a drink, marvelling at the amazing scenery and the monks who were consistently falling out of the boats as they tried to cross the river. We weren't sure whether to laugh or not, given the strong-ish current, but as their laughter floated up to where we were sitting, we decided such tumbles were probably fairly frequent, and a smile or two at their antics would probably be safe.



After a refreshing drink, we headed off to the markets! We were determined not to spend the whole time shopping (such a temptation given how beautiful and inexpensive everything is!), but, good news, our guilty resolution was unnecessary, since in Luang Prabang, much like many of the places we've visited, the markets seem to be where much of the culture is... children playing, people chatting, life swirling all around us. And these markets (Hmong night markets) were fantastic - beautiful items, beautiful people and a very friendly atmosphere. I can't believe how much I bought! Love it!

The year in photographs - day 15

One of the many reasons I had such a fantastic birthday! My wonderful friend Tracey made me this beautiful painting of some of our greatest memories together - love it!

Not to be outdone - here's the beautiful painting that Tracey's daughter, Milla, did for my birthday. Thanks Milla - it's gorgeous!!

Playing catch up!

The year in photographs - Day 14 - January 30th



The TE Building crew from work out for a goodbye/celebratory lunch - new jobs and scholarships abound - well done guys!



The year in photographs - Day 13 - January 29th



I bought these boots in the hope that they would make me more lady like - so far, not really working, but they look nice (especially with the pajamas hmm?)



The year in photographs - Day 12 - January 28th



The cookie that kept my friend Robert going through most of the PhD, known as the 'supa dunk chunk funk' - may or may not be its real name =]



The year in photographs - Day 11 - January 27th



The man with the painted toenails - some nice artistry there hmm?

We're back baby (albeit a little less data friendly)

Well, the last few days has been a pretty fun ride... thankfully my wonderful husband was able to save most of my data after the hard drives karked it, although some was lost to data heaven... *sigh* Remind me why we need computers again? Oh, that's right, so I can do fun stuff like this. Okay, the computer is officially forgiven, but I'm now off to do another back up. Not taking any chances this time around!

Service Interruption

Hi everyone, apologies for not posting a photograph of the day yesterday (or even for the next few days unfortunately). My harddrive has decided it's not a fan of the 45C heat (I can see it's point!) and has given up. Mad searches for lost data are happening as we speak, so I'll be busy with that over the next few days. More to come soon though I promise!

The year in photographs - Day 10

Happy Australia day! At 35C, the beach was the perfect way to celebrate so off we went to Aldinga, along with about 2000 others...

But today was not without its controversy, with the Australian of the Year, Mick Dodson, declaring that Australia Day (commemorating the arrival of the first fleet) should be moved to a different date, to avoid offending the Aboriginal peoples. This makes sense to me, coming from Canada, where Thanksgiving commemorates the first Europeans making it through the winter thanks to the help of the First Nations peoples, who the Europeans subsequently persecuted and killed in large part. Although I love the spirt of the day ('we love our country'), it doesn't seem right that celebrating the country has to coincide with the date when one power arrived to subjugate another....

Controversy aside, woo hoo, go Australia! Gotta say, I'm loving this dual citizenship thing - I get to party this way twice a year! And now, my birthday is followed directly by a holiday - life is good!

The year in photographs - Day 9

Today marked the start of my 31st year on this planet, and thanks to these two beautiful girls, my lovely husband and other wonderful friends, it was a fantastic start to what's shaping up as a very adventurous year. The spoiling came fast and furious with a trip to the circus (seriously, the way some people can bend, they must have been born without bones), two beautiful paintings, and then out to dinner at a great Mexican place - yummy! So the next obvious question...who do I have to negotiate with to make it my birthday everyday?

The year in photographs - Day 8

A beautiful day spent down at the river - loving South Australia!

The year in photographs - Day 7

My very cute little puppy looking completely unimpressed as I wake her to take this shot!

Day 4 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Happy birthday Milla! Today started bright and early with two little voices whispering 'softly' to each other about the likelihood that Jodie was awake, tip-toeing past repeatedly and giggling all the while, until finally I cracked and admitted I was, indeed, awake. How could I resist? Milla's birthday celebrations were waiting to begin! After a fun treasure hunt all around our bamboo room, Milla sat down to open her many presents (lucky girl!), and then we were off to see Siem Reap, the town!

Because our forays into Siem Reap had only consisted of temple visits thus far, I wasn't sure what to expect, but town was great! It was incredibly busy, with people roaming around every free inch, and making our way into the markets, we were suddenly engulfed by the masses, drawn into an endless sea of goods and faces. Some of these goods were, unfortunately, not particularly appealing - the squirming fish, raw chicken and broom handles certainly didn't get my vote, but the dresses, silks, wall hangings and bags were gorgeous! Needless to say, I bought far too much (a very gluttonous, although satisfying feeling). The people at the market were lovely, calling out friendly greetings as we passed. Making eye contact often proved dangerous however, an easy smile quickly turning into a call to buy and the pressure is enormous. Still, we managed to dust off our bartering skills and get away with some real bargains.

After taking in all the markets had to offer, we decided it was time to head off in search of a restaurant for Milla's celebratory birthday dinner. Eventually we found our way to Cool Corner Bar, a restaurant serving both Western and Khmer dishes - perfect! Although I'm sad to see our influence so heavily in a country whose own traditions are so beautiful, there is a certain kind of charm to the Cambodian take on Western 'ambience'...

Then, having refreshed ourselves for a bit, we made our way off to the night markets, wandering down the well lit streets between tuk-tuks, masses of people, and small animals runing to and fro. We detoured briefly at a very Western ice cream parlour (closest we could get to birthday cake) and then wandered down a very well lit street, sight-seeing and shopping as we went. All in all, a great day. I would love to see more of Siem Reap, but tomorrow we're off to Laos. Ah well, we'll just have to come back for another visit very soon!

The year in photographs - Day 6

Sam trying on one of the many swimsuits that caught our eye during our shopping expedition tonight - what do we think? *grin*

The year in photographs - Day 5

And finally, after eight years of darkness, a new dawn of hope... I couldn't be in Washington in person, but this man definitely has to be the photo of the day (even via the television screen).

Day 3 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Today was an early start! We were up before the crack of dawn, at 4:30am to be exact (although there is some conjecture that it was actually 4am due to some watch discrepancies - at any given moment the time was proclaimed to be on the hour, the half hour after, the half hour before, or the next hour according to the clock at the resort, Tracey's watch, Milla's watch and my own) - anyway, point is, it was EARLY!! So, into the pitch black we trundled in our tuk-tuk, driving over pot-holed roads and bouncing around like popcorn, all in order to see Angor Wat at sunrise.

After climbing out of the tuk-tuk we headed up to the gates and the sea of smiling security guards, although the smiles slipped a little as we fought to prove that Milla was in fact nine years old (apparently she looks like Tracey's thirty year old sister). Still, even though she's taller this time around, the people of Southeast Asia still love Milla, the women at security giving her a cuddle as we waited.

Then, suddenly, we were in, stumbling around in the 5am blackness, experiencing distinct feelings of torch-envy (flashlight-envy for the Canadians) as tour after tour went past, their path well-lit by the guides. After a few comments like 'wow, I bet this is stunning when you can actually see it' and 'now, was that furry animal that just ran past a cat or a rat?', we decided it would be best to follow the tours which all seemed to be congregating in one spot over by the lake. As it turned out, this led to prime viewing of the sunrise over the temple (see? sometimes it does pay to follow the crowd Mom!). Words just can't do it justice...the whole thing was breathtaking...

Some information on Angkor Wat (as your official tour guide for this blog) - it is the world's largest religious monument, the symbol of the Khmer Kingdom at its peak, and the heart and soul of all Khmer people apparently. The temple itself is more than one square kilometre and is surrounded by water. The walls of the temples are covered by carvings depicting stories and characters from Ramayana and historical wars. All in all - awesome!

We then headed off to Angkor Thom, via Bayon, or the four-face towers, which apparently stands for the four qualities of Nirvana - compassion, humility...and two others that I sadly cannot remember - something deep though certainly =] Making our way to Angkor Thom we decided to ditch the tuk-tuk and opted for a slightly different mode of transport...

I was unsure about the elephant riding at first, but after feeding them turned out to be such a blast (bananas surprisingly) , and Tracey and Milla did a lot of fast talking about bravery, adventure, and missing out on the fun, I decided to suck it up and on we climbed. It was fantastic! Like riding a very tall, very wobbly horse =] Our destination, Angkor Thom, was amazing, a sea of faces carved into stone. And there we met a very friendly police officer who decided to double as a tour guide and took us on a personal tour of the temple, telling us about the symbolism of the different carvings, religious symbols, and signs of war (one bullet hole was particularly striking). He also took some great pictures!

During the afternoon we took in a few more temples (much like the Louvre, the majesty started to wear off sadly, perhaps there's simply a human threshold for awe-inspiring sights so that once crossed, the individual is simply unable to work up any kind eye-widening wonder...), then finished off our day with Ta Prohm, one of the few temples that hasn't been restored and is slowly being reclaimed by the jungle (you may recognise it from Tomb Raider...)

All in all, an amazing day! The temples were breathtaking and gave a real sense of peace (when we weren't being followed by aggressive market sellers going 'Lady, lady, you buy? you buy?' that is). The only downside to the day was when we lost our tuk-tuk driver - he had been amazing all day - no matter how far afield we wandered, he always managed to find us again just when we needed him but at the very last temple, we had to hunt. Not really a huge problem, but the hour of walking in, out and around the temple, in the rain that started falling about five minutes into our search was just not a great way to end the day. Finally we found him though and it was back to the resort after nine and a half hours of temple exploring. So now, time for a bit of relaxation and getting ready for the big day - tomorrow is Milla's birthday!

The year in photographs - Day 4

A study in Tracey and Jodie

The year in photographs - Day 3

The sky, as it appears on a 37C day... oh winter, where art thou?

Day 2 - Singapore - Cambodia

Today we set off bright and early to the first official stop in our fantastic holiday - Cambodia! The lovely taxi driver from last night kindly agreed to take us to the airport this morning so we were treated to another unofficial tour as we drove. I have to admit, I'm still not the biggest fan of Singapore, but I was looking forward to making the best of it by scoping out some bargains at the newly built Terminal 3 of the airport, a terminal that puts many, many others to shame. Unfortunately there was no time before our flight out, but we've got a long layover on the way back so we should find a few minutes to have a look around.




The flight to Siem Reap went very well - no turbulence and very friendly staff, although we weren't quite game to ask if we could pinch the empty seats up in first class. I wonder what they would have said! Landing in Siem Reap was by far the best part of the journey though. Everywhere I've been in the world, the airports are always only slight variations on the large concrete theme - no life, no individuality, no warmth. Not so in Siem Reap. Here the building resembled a temple and inside, somehow everything felt very serene, a strange feeling for an aiport. The picture below doesn't quite do it justice, but you get the idea...





In keeping with the theme of welcoming simiplicity, happily, customs was a breeze, and as we walked out of the building, there stood a man holding a sign with our names on it (met at the airport by a driver - luxury!). The drive from the airport to Siem Reap was a quiet one though, as we drove past large, opulent hotels situated right next to poor, ramshackle huts. Apparently the tourism boom has been useful in terms of employment, but has sent property prices through the roof, and no surprise, pay rates have not kept up. The poverty was difficult to see and, as always, I wish we could just re-distribute the world's wealth appropriately, but I acknowledge that my holiday journal is not the place to whip out my soapbox, and I recognise the hint of hypocrisy since I was there on a luxurious holiday, so I'll leave the ranting there, promise.


Arriving at our resort, Palm Village, was fantastic! The entire place is made of natural materials and set in the midst of a leafy jungle, creating a very peaceful and welcoming atmosphere. The staff were also incredibly friendly and the pool was great (most of the day was spent there, enjoying our first chance to really relax). The room, well, nothing short of bamboo heaven... all in all, a great first day in Siem Reap!

The year in photographs - Day 2

Today begins a new chapter in the story of my cooking career... apparently I have been missing out on the wonder that is a slow cooker, so a friend has very kindly agreed to lend us hers so we can now truely start to live as God intended... with roast that's falling off the bone! =] I'll let you know how we go...

Intermittent dedication

Well, my promise to write to this blog everyday has obviously failed miserably (unless on some alternate universe a year and a half can be considered a 'day'), but as always, I am inspired by my friend Lisa, the most dedicated and interesting blogger I know, so after a jaunt over to her site tonight, I am once again back on the bandwagon, and this time, with two points of inspiration.

The first is entitled 'A year in photographs' and as you can probably imagine, involves taking at least one photo every day to commemorate the things going on in your life over the space of 365 days. Now, the obvious problem here is that it is January 17th rather than January 1st, but rather than consider that a loss, I will instead pretend it is a purposeful attempt to buck convention, and so, my year will run from January 17th, 2009 to January 17th, 2010. Now, this requires a very HIGH level of dedication - one post everyday for a year. But, as the thesis draws to a close, I think some kind of commitment to creativity is probably a good thing, and will hopefully help me maintain some level of sanity, after I have finished reading the same sentence seventeen times in a row and edited not even a word.

The second source of inspiration comes from my late 2008 overseas trip with the girls (Tracey and Milla); once again I will be posting the journal I kept while away - we added Cambodia and Laos to the itinerary this time around so it should make for interesting reading.

So, without further ado...

The year in photographs - Day 1

Unfortunately, this first day has not been the most eventful, although it does give an accurate indication of what I've been up to, not only today, but over the past few weeks... working on the thesis and looking at my cutie puppies when I think I can't take anymore. Remind me again who thought the thesis was a good idea? =]

Day 1 - Singapore

Well, it's official! The trip has finally begun! It seems like we've been counting down the days forever now, and then suddenly, it's time to go. Everything began again at the Adelaide Airport, with Tracey and Milla waiting to herald our arrival by jumping out with wide grins as Martyn and I stepped off the elevator. Apparently they had inadvertently managed to scare a few strangers with this excited welcome before they spotted us - I'm guessing they won't be up for the position of airport ambassadors anytime soon, although if there are points for enthusiasm, they may be in with a chance *grin*.

Note: imagine a picture of the girls at the airport here, sadly lost to data heaven due to the faulty memory card I was given as an extra when I purchased my camera...thanks Teds Camerahouse!

After saying goodbye to Martyn and Marc (the lovely boys who happily escort us to the airport each time we go away), we were off. As always, Singapore Airlines was a joy to fly with - warm face cloths, blankets, service with a smile - it was heaven. Well, as heavenly as a long metal tube packed to the gills with an uncomfortable human mass can be of course.

After a fairly uneventful flight (well, except for the turbulence right before landing, during which Milla insisted on singing 'Roller coaster, roller coaster, heading for the wall...SMASH!' over and over again, much to my delight), we made our way out into Singapore, a place that has thus far failed to impress during any of the numerous stop-overs I've experienced there. I'm fairly sure this isn't due to any sort of traveller snobbiness on my part - usually just point me in the direction of something novel and I'm happy, but the visual monoculture of Singapore is, well, disturbing - it's just soooo clean and orderly. I need some chaos, something to prove to me that humans actually live there. Thankfully, although I was still not overly charmed this time around, the place finally managed to instill a small glimmer of hope...

Let me explain.

When booking our hotel, we had unwittingly chosen the seedy part of town - Singapore's equivalent of Hindley Street for my Australian friends, Hollis Street for my Canadian friends...nice sense of continuity there hmm? It seems everywhere has a seedy side. But because this was Singapore, even the seediest of places is still fairly safe and clean, so rather than feeling nervous, we headed out in an air of excitment, and joy of joys, were treated to the very lively side of Singapore - colour, atmosphere, music, laughter, it was all there.

It began with a very friendly taxi driver who gave us a bit of a tour of the sights on the way to our hotel, telling us the different histories, housing arrangements and neighbourhoods, and continued with our arrival at The Fragrance Hotel (slightly scary name admittedly) - $105 a night for the equivalent of a slightly luxurious jail cell. Then, in the space of only an hour we managed to spot thirteen feral cats, be served by one rude lady and two lovely men, eat the spiciest fried rice known to man, send Tracey to heaven on a bowl of noodle soup, meander through a market, buy some cushion covers, see more 'short shorts' than has been seen in one place since the 1960s, and get hit on by two fairly questionable men - one of whom blew me a kiss.

Eventful hmm? Well done Singapore.

And now, as I write this, we have arrived back at the hotel, ready to fly to Siem Reap tomorrow and officially start our holiday! Can't wait!!