First weekend of feeling like it could be a home!

The other weekend was a 3 day weekend to celebrate fiesta- each city/town has a fiesta for their respective Patron Saint. Ours is baby Jesus- our St. Nino. Don't ask how long it took for me to figure that one out! So, we kicked things off by our efforts to widen the social circle outside of CRS folks- by inviting my old friends from MOROTO! to dinner! It was a blast! So fun to be able to host friends, have good conversation- and COOK! We even watched parts of the Christmas Panto from Moroto last year- the Jack and the Karamoja Beans show. Wira and his wife Silla came here for work with Samaritan's Purse. The next day Idalia and I joined in with CRS staff in the fiesta parade. It was incredible. So many groups with wild costumes and of course bands and dance routines. CRS walked as part of the NGO contingent invited to participate. The next day I took advantage of our self-drive and packed up a group of staff and Silla and Wira for an adventure to the caves- a national park 40 minutes away for an adventure exploring our really amazing surroundings (pictures to come).

Idalia, roommate, Wira and Silva in our dining room

3 bean salad and Amy&Julie Sidmore's pasta salad

Cupcakes from K Patisserie in town!

Yes, I work in a country where I can get this!

Parade costumes

Some CRS staff

Picture taken from CRS colleague's second floor patio

Really lucky and blessed to have Idalia as my roomie and partner in crime here in the Philippines. We are giving it our best shot :)

Cambodia Day 2 of Temple Tours

Day two kicked off in a big way! The Tuk-tuk driver and guide picked me up and announced that we would go on a greater adventure- heading out of the temples in the Small or Large loop and instead heading out of town to a Temple in the countryside. Sounded great to me! Off we went puttering our way through the villages. We ended the day visiting looping around to the other side of town to one of the infamous floating villages located on Tonle Sap Lake-"a combined lake and river system, the Tonle Sap is not only Cambodia's most intriguing natural feature and its greatest natural resource, it is also the largest lake in Southeast Asia. This floodplain, with its rich biodiversity."

Sign outside Temple 2

Cute kids- decorating with nuts and leaves outside of temple

more serpents

This temple was all in ruins

And surrounded by forest

Exploring like I do. . . journal entry goes like this , "the temples were cool, not literally, my wick-away shirt did nothing! But thankfully I'd found a fan in the night market."

guide being cute

Spirit house- for the gods living in the trees

Gasoline

countryside, dry season rice field

Tractor!

Modern temple

More coming. . . 

Cambodia, Day 1 of Temples Continued!

Sorry folks these are kinda out of order, but you get the idea! You go through the Victory  Gate of Faces and then explore this amazing Temple which has trees all around it

Roots growing like a snake!

From there we hiked to the coolest temple (I thought)- the Bayon Temple, withe 49 towers, and another 5 towers at the gates, each of which have the same 4 faces representing the virtues.

Can you see the face just barely?

Check out the fish :)

 Men in village having a chicken/cock fight!Even wayyyyy back then!

And then, my friends, it was time to get my tired self to new hotel for nap! Good thing the new hotel came with a free massage! :) Yes please! Had a big lunch, nap, massage, and then happy hour overlooking the pool from my front porch!

Went to night market for dinner- had a great rooftop view of the market scene with a margarita (ok 2) and slept in the next day before setting off for day 2 of tours!