spa.day.

The girls got out of school while i was off gallivanting in malaysia, cambodia, and thailand. They were therefore in prime form for some activities during the day. Since l. had received a pedicure set for her birthday, the three of them planned a "spa day" to which i was the number one guest. They had their bathroom all set up with supplies. It looked like this:

First up was my pedicure. I sat on the edge of the bathtub with my feet in warm scented water. Since i'd just had my nails painted, l. used her pumice stone to scrub the bottoms of my feet, and then gave me a great foot massage before slipping a pair of socks on my feet. That looked like this:

From here, i moved to the nail station where m. washed and patted my hands. After allowing me to choose lotion, she massaged my hands before applying a base coat, and top coat of nail polish. That looked like this:

After the pedi/mani, i was brought to the massage section for a full body massage. M. was again in charge, and let me tell you- her little hands have quite a lot of strength to them! When i told her she could have a future as a masseuse, she asked it she'd make a lot of money. I told her she should keep her options opened. Here she goes:

After the massage, it was on to hair and makeup. This was e.'s area of expertise. After being told that she had to keep it light (if she didn't want me washing my face before going out for the day), she settled on some neutral beige and browns. The end product was actually surprisingly well done! (The glitterish stuff in the picture was not dusted in at time of photo.) It looked like this:

The hair situation also went better than expected (despite the pulling and pinching), though i do look like a seven year old here:

All in all, spa day was a success. I'm hoping to schedule another one when i'm back in the states.

battle.of.the.wills.

Here e. is at the kitchen counter next to the bowl of noodles she insisted she wanted. She slept for a little bit before waking up crying.

my.birthday!

My travel plans were specifically scheduled with birthdays in mind- mine and the two oldest girls. Not wanting to be alone in southeast asia for my birthday, i made it back to hong kong late the night before. In the morning, i was served pancakes and my latte before spending most of the day by the pool with the girls. We took walks down to stanley market in the afternoon, and p. allowed me to choose dinner that night (roasted chicken, green beans, and a newish concoction- a tapas type dish with chorizo, potatoes, and onions. Mmmmm.). A. brought home a selection of cakes from mandarin oriental, the perfect conclusion to the meal! For my birthday present, a.'s taking me to macau for the weekend when the girls and p. are back in the states. I can't wait!

My birthday cakes!

conclusion.

My goodness, it's been far too long since i've updated this poor neglected blog! Busy, busy, busy. First of all, here's a link where you can check out my pictures from the trip. I uploaded them all to facebook, and am not inclined to spend the time posting them here, so if you're interested- check them out here. 

The rest of my trip was fantastic. After i left off with my last post, i made it to the airport and flew the one hour flight to bangkok without incident. I made it to my guesthouse and was happy to find the "boutique" review of the place was dead on. Teak floors and beams in a beautiful old building with a cute little coffee/bakery place at the entrance. Jaesun, the new friend i'd met in siem reap (and toured the temples with) had arrived in bangkok a couple of days before me, and we'd discussed meeting up for the day on monday. We managed to find each other at the train station and (along with another new friend briana), took the train 1.5 hours to ayuthaya, where we found more temple ruins, and i took an elephant ride!! Returning to bangkok by 3pm, we walked through chinatown, grabbed dinner at a noodle place, and found some markets to peruse. Briana returned to her guesthouse, and jaesun and i took the ferry up the river (snapping photos of wat arun, etc. at night), and then walked through banglamphu- the "backpacker" area. The rain (which it appears to do in the evening for a few hours) made everything feel cleaner and gave my photos a nice light. 

Tuesday morning, i got going early to see wat arun and wat pho (two more well known of the hundreds of temples). They were interesting, particularly wat pho, which contained the reclining buddha. It was HUGE. I met up with jaesun after finishing the temples and we saw the grand palace and grounds. The only word i have for this is "glittery." The amount of effort that must have gone into (and still go into) creating and maintaining these grounds is staggering. Though the admission price was steep, it was worth seeing.

One note i'd share with anyone planning to visit this area, is that it's imperative that you physically go to the ticket counter in the grand palace to confirm if they're open or closed. I was told by three completely different people that the palace was closed to tourists because of a buddhist holiday. One of these men was a tuk tuk driver (and therefore trying to get us to pay him to take us to other sights), but the other two men were wearing official palace uniforms and were still trying to pass us off to tuk tuk drivers. DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!! Everything the guidebooks tell you about scams, etc, is true. Jerks. While tuk tuk's are the way to travel in cambodia, they're to be avoided in bangkok!

After the whirlwind morning, i took a quick shower before heading to the airport for my return to hong kong. I was safely in the house by 10pm, just two hours before my birthday (in this time zone, that is).

phnom.penh.

After finding my hotel and doing some laundry, it was only 3pm, so i had some time to see the sights. My main goals were to go to the genocide museum, and do a walk around the riverfront, visiting the palace and temples. The genocide museum was further away and opened the latest (5:30pm), so i took a tuk tuk over there, planning to do the rest in the morning.
Before i started to plan this trip, i hadn't heard of the khmer rouge or their reign of torture and murder of 25% of the cambodian population between 1975 and 1978. Even having read about it since then, i was not prepared for how hard it would be to visit this museum. In 1975, the khmer rouge took over a school, and made it into a jail/torture/killing station of sorts. This building is now the museum, and looks very similar to how it was found in 1978 when the khmer rouge were run out, containing images, items, and descriptions of the experiences from that period. I felt physically sick being there, but read every last piece of information, and didn't leave until it closed two hours later. It's amazing to realize that this happened just 34 years ago, and has had a drastic negative impact on the entire country. After that emotional visit, i decided to pass on the killing fields, having seen enough of what these people went through.
Today (the next morning), i packed my things, and set off to tour the palace before seeing the temples in the area. I'd checked the timing, and knew the palace was open to visitors until 11am, and then from 2-5. Since i will be leaving at 2pm for the airport, i planned to go there first. Unfortunately for me, they were not allowing visitors due to a visiting diplomatic group. They'd shut down the entire street, and wouldn't allow anyone to take pictures. I managed to sneak a few before they caught me, but am bummed not to have made it inside the walls. Instead, i walked up to wat phnom- one of their famous temples- before making a stop at the post office and spending some time at the market. I'm very happy with my decision to stay an extra day in siem reap (and lose one here). The tourist attractions are limited here, and can be finished quickly. The orphanage definitely was the right use of my time!
Must run now- off to bangkok!

bus.ride!

My original bus ticket from siem reap to phnom penh was for friday morning at 9:30. Since i was heading down a day late (and therefore missing a day in phnom penh), i figured i should take the 7:30am bus on saturday to make the most of my time in phnom penh. The guys at the guesthouse (where i booked and then changed my ticket) told me i'd be picked up at the guesthouse. What they didn't tell me was that i would be picked up at 7am. At 7am, i had just woken up, and was packing my stuff before heading down to breakfast. At 7:20, i went back to the room, used the bathroom, and brought my stuff down to check out. At 7:25, i gave them my key, and asked where i should wait. At 7:26, i was in a tuk tuk flying to the bus station, barely making the express bus to phnom penh.
The $10, six hour trip was more comfortable than i'd pictured. True, i'd splurged on first class which bought me air conditioning and a bathroom, but being a third world country, i'd anticipated much worse. It was rather bumpy at times, and i was awoken from my nap as my head bounced off the seat. It wasn't until we were 20 minutes away from phnom penh that the real action started. The air conditioning shut off, and the bus stopped. It became sweltering in about 30 seconds. After a few minutes, everyone got off and stood on the side of the road (which was shady, thank goodness). There was some mechanical problem, and we all watched as the literally pried a door off of the bus (must have been jammed). After 30 minutes, it was up and running, and we made it to phnom penh with a good story to tell.

house.of.peace.

I was supposed to take a bus to phnom penh this morning at 9:30, but i couldn't leave! Since i hadn't booked my room in phnom penh yet, i just switched my bus ticket to tomorrow, and booked an extra night in the guesthouse here. I did this for two reasons. One, max has been volunteering at an orphanage here for two weeks (and has another one to go) and loves it. Obviously, i couldn't skip the temples yesterday, but really wanted to go spend a day at the orphanage. Two, i love siem reap, and love that i've made two friends who are fun to hang out with. If i left for phnom penh without visiting the orphanage, only to end up doing everything by myself, i'd be really sad. So here i am- back in the guesthouse after six hours with the adorable kids at the cambodia house of peace. I'm heading back around 4:30, but needed to tie up some loose ends on the travel front, and max takes a few hours break as well. I don't think i could have made better use of my time. It was unbelievable to see how this orphanage ran, and how happy and welcoming the children were. I was in charge of teaching time to a small group. We drew an analog clock on a board, and practice telling time- five minutes past six; fifteen minutes to three, etc. It was a great experience no doubt, and we even got to eat lunch with them- a tasty chicken, rice, cilantro, etc soup. All this means is that tomorrow, i have to get up early to catch the 7:30am bus ride down to phnom penh, where i'll have to squish everything in a little more!

i.heart.siem.reap.

Yesterday was buuuuusy. Got up around 7 and grabbed breakfast downstairs before heading out to see the temples. I'd reserved a tuk tuk driver the day before, but was kind of bummed to be doing it myself since i'd have to foot the entire $15 bill myself (for an entire day out and about!). When i went back to the room to put sunscreen on, i ran into one of my roommates who, it turned out, was also doing the temples. She's from korea and will be travleing for a total of 10 days or so- much like me. We decided to go together which made it much more enjoyable. She'd already seen two of the ones we saw (she bought the 3-day pass), so knew enough about them to share. We started at 9am and went to angkor wat first. This definitely has the most impressive appearance from the front, and though it was interesting inside, it was not my favorite. From there we went to angkor thom where we saw bayon, baphoun, phimeanakas, terrace of the elephants, and terrace of the leeper king. These were all impressive, but bayon moved up to my top pick. Then to others including ta keo, ta prohm, banteay kdei, and pre rup, before heading to phnom bakheng for sunset. My favorite was undoubtedly ta prohm, which some of you may recognize from that angeleina jolie movie, tob raider (i never saw it, but will have to now). This temple was not cleared out, and apparently looks like the rest of them did when they were discovered. There are trees, and not little ones either, growing from the tops of buildings with roots wrapped all around the stones. It was one of the few times i've felt speechless. Amazing.
We got back to the guesthouse around 7, and met my other new friend max (from montreal) for our trip to the night market. She and i had talked to some guy who had a "fish massage" the night before, and was raving about it. We decided to do the same. For $3, you get to stick your feet into a pool filled with little fish. They proceed to suck on your feet and eat the dead skin and dirt, making them much cleaner and smoother. This was the weirdest thing i've done. It was super ticklish at first, but quickly became strangely enjoyable. We were only supposed to have 15 mins, but we were in there for almost and hour (during which time we convinced countless others to join us!). After our massage, we walked through the night market, picking up a few items to bring back with us, before grabbing a late dinner at a street stand nearby. Tired.

(I'll be uploading pictures when i get back to hong kong. These computers clearly have viruses, and it was reported that someone uploaded his pictures only to have everything erased. Boo!)

kuala.lumpur.to.siem.reap

As i write this, i'm sitting in the computer room at my siem reap home. I arrived about an hour ago (it's 10:40am right now) and thought i'd check in before heading out for the day. Since i haven't really written much from kuala lumpur, here's a quick summary of what i did:

I got to kl late monday afternoon, found my guesthouse in the rain, dropped off my stuff, and headed out again. I stayed on the border of chinatown near the central market since i needed to get to kl sentral (the main transport hub) early this morning. So, i walked through chinatown and all their street stalls (where i seriously considered buying a "real" tiffany's necklace just for fun, but didn't), then went poking around in central market which is inside (and air conditioned!). They have a bunch of batik fabrics, artsy stuff, and some food places. I also ate dinner there- a bowl of thai curry noddle soup. Tasty. Tuesday morning i got up early and took the "T" four stops to KLCC where i stood in line for tickets to the petronas towers skybridge. I got one for the 3:15 time slot, so had six hours to "kill" until then. I had briefly considered finding my own way around, but after talking to an australian woman while in line, decided to pay the 38RM (about $11) for the "hop on, hop off" bus. Six of these buses follow a 2 hour loop through all the major tourist attractions and other hotel areas and you can hop on and off as you please. There are also headsets that allow you to get info about the area you're in. This was the perfect solution for me as it allowed me to see many areas that i wouldn't have otherwise made it to (lake/orchid gardens, butterfly/bird parks, national palace, etc.) I also went up the kl tower- though it was hazy because of the heat and humidity. On my way back to the petronas towers, i started talking with another woman waiting for the bus. Turns out she's a photographer and has been traveling all over the place since october. She happened to have her journal with her and was able to give me names of places to visit, eat at, and stay in for the rest of my trip! Fantastic! The trip up to the skybridge was great (and free!) and showed a 3D movie first that explained the history of the towers. While up there, it started to thunder and i could clearly see bolts of lightening shoot down to buildings. Crazy! After some more putzing around (and dinner), i went to bed early since my flight was at 7am, with a 1 hour bus trip to the airport- which meant i needed to leave the guesthouse by 3:30am. Ya.

So that's it so far. You'll all have to wait for pictures since i don't want to upload them from random computers. Now i'm off to walk around town a bit. Bye!

k.l.

I'm in kuala lumpur! Got here around 5pm, dumped my stuff in my room, and spent the next 4.5 hours walking around. Let me tell you...it's HOT here. I thought hong kong was bad, but this is ridiculous. The good news is that by my calculations, i should lose about 10 lbs in sweat over the next week.