CAMBODIA

After waking up at 4 am Saturday morning to make a 6:30 am flight to Cambodia, we made it to Siem Reap by 8 am! Since we couldn't check into our hotel yet, we dropped off our bags and decided to hire a "tuk-tuk" for the day (pricetag of $15) and tour the temples of Angkor Wat...amazing...somehow Southeast Asia keeps topping itself!

The temples around Siem Reap (and there are over 100) were built by the Khmer empire in the early 12th century as mostly Hindu religious sites. They are often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world (but maybe that's just here in Cambodia?) and until the mid-60s were hidden in thick jungle and buried among land mines. The whole Angkor area has quite an Indiana Jones feel (supposedly inspired the movie's set design) and the Ta Prohm temple was the location of Angelina Jolie's film, Tomb Raider -- she's quite the legend around here. Ironically, when we visited Ta Prohm yesterday, a whole section was marked off because they were shooting a German documentary film there!

Here are a few pictures of our temple trekking...more to come I'm sure!



And one of Ta Prohm...set of Tomb Raider (below).

And here was a steep mountain temple that we climbed in honor of Addie's 5th birthday (only a week away!). She hiked up the mountain and then braved the steep steps of the temple -- with a little help from daddy. Abe was sound asleep and enjoyed the view from the backpack carrier the whole way! :)


And one to make you laugh. This guy told us his name was Obama...not so sure the White House would be so proud?