Vacation Recap {5}- Cambodia Part 4

My last Cambodia update

So we took a little adventure to a...... I'm not real sure what you call it..... shooting range? 

It was slightly scary.....

and all that I could think is how mad my sweet dad would be that I was there  ; ) (don't worry dad, I survived!) 

Almost all of these are functioning weapons except the bazookas. 

Sweet Hannah has the hardest time making mean/intense scary faces.... I mean, it is totally out of her nature, so we'll let her stick with these. 

Sooooo, why did we take this excursion? These boys were DYING to go pay hundreds of dollars to go shoot things that they would never be able to in most other places. There original plan was to shoot RPG's- thankfully that wasn't an option that day. 

So instead they shot lots of different automatic guns and it was seriously one of the more scary things I have experienced. 

You just really don't expect to hear a machine gun in real life unless you are in the military.... at least I don't. 

I (of course) have lots and lots of videos.... that I can't get to upload in less than 6 hours. Seriously- still waiting for some advice out there...

Here she is again- no she really isn't sweetly trying to give the gun a kiss.... this is her intense face. 

Don't worry- the bazooka (that is what it is called right??) was empty. 

Other Cambodia highlights....

The food

It was really good! The local food was a lot like Thai food

Joseph ordered snake, kangaroo, alligator and grilled at the table. 

The before

There were also LOTS of really good western restaurants. I loved this one! 

......where they just wanted to let you know that a cosmopolitan was made famous by Carrie. So random! I don't know why I find it so amusing. 

I thought this chicken avocado sandwich looked wonderful.

I LOVE the markets there

They weren't very big, but they had really fun stuff. 

I'm a fan of SOME of the wood carvings..... the ones without faces or animals.

I really like the one with flowers in the middle of this picture. 

SCARVES galore! I think I bought at least 6 scarves on vacation. Ridiculous. 

I love these fun little ball lights. 

There were lots of bags and wallets made out of fish bags that were super fun. 

So that was Cambodia!

It was such an adventure. I seriously asked myself multiple times daily if this is really my life. Who gets to do this!? I am seriously so thankful that I do and so want to take advantage of any opportunity like this that I have. So fun. 

Up next- Koh Lanta. I'm not going to post too many pics, but I'll link to the facebook album I put up that you can look at (even if you aren't on facebook) with more pics. 

Joyfully adventurous, 

Vacation Recap {4}- Cambodia Part 3

More of Cambodia here.....

During the Revolution there during the 1970's, the Rouge went through most of the temples and beheaded the Buddhas there. 

A very interesting thing to see. 

So the statues that we did see with heads caught my eye.

Even though the temples are all very much tourist attractions, many people still stop to offer money, food, and incense to the Buddhas with heads. 

This is the south gate to a huge part of the temple system- the west gate looks exactly the same except most of the statues on that side don't have heads. I'm not sure why this side still had their's and the other didn't. 

Our transportation for our time in Cambodia was a "Tuk Tuk." A motorcycle with a little carriage on the back. Hannah, Brook and I got to be good buddies with our driver, Mr. Sola.... or as his TukTuk said, "Mr. Sola Power." So clever. 

It is by far my new favorite means of transportation. You stay cool, it is very scenic, and I {miraculously} didn't get motion sick at all. I could have just ridden around in it all day and been content doing nothing else. 

Our drivers took us to their favorite places to eat along the way and would come join us which I thoroughly enjoyed. They were all really funny. Getting to know them was definitely a highlight of my time in Cambodia. 

We love Mr. Sola! 

Their game of tag carried over into the TukTuk ride. The drivers thought it was hilarious. 

Another highlight was playing with/riding the elephants

Isn't it just so cute!?

My feelings towards elephants haven't changed much in the last couple of years- I still think they are super cute, but those trunks are too unpredictable so I have to keep a safe distance.... as seen here....

My dear friend Hannah on the other hand LOVES elephants and got up close and personal with them. "Ellouise" - as she named her- got lots of hugs and kisses. 

and Bananas!

Here we are on our elephant ride....

Brook, Ryan & Joseph weren't far behind.

Those were a few more highlights from Cambodia- one more to go, then on to Koh Lanta! 

Joyfully transported,

Vacation Recap {3}- Cambodia Part 2

The "Main Attraction" in Cambodia is definitely the series of Temples in Angkor there.... the "8th Wonder of the World" if you will.... think Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones. They are pretty cool, very mysterious, and really old... and with that, pretty darn impressive. 

We spent the better part of 3 days exploring them. There are tons of them, and we definitely didn't cover them all. They came in all different colors, shapes, and sizes....

Some were steep with lots of stairs to climb......

....and places to climb all over them that you keep thinking surely isn't allowed- but it is.  

Some are long and skinny, and keep going on forever. 

The most famous ones are the ones with trees growing in/around/through/on top of them. 

I have no idea how in the world this happened- but there were a few where HUGE trees have grown up, around and through them. Pretty crazy. 

My favorite was definitely "Bayon". It is HUGE and really intricate. 

Unfortunately it was the last one we went to on the longest, hottest day there so I was pretty over it all and ready to be done for the day. 

The MOST famous and largest is definitely Angkor Wat.

We got up at 4:45 to go watch the sunrise over it. 

It was pretty- but I'm still not sure that anything is worth waking up that early for. 

Once the sun was up, we went in and explored. 

It was different than most of the others, and had much more of a Roman-ish feel to it on the inside. It's pretty impressive. 

So that's just a little glimpse of the temples...... I have about 500 more pictures if you're that interested. 

They were all really cool, but I definitely think that I have had my fix and now seen my fair share of them. 

Don't worry- there is still more of Cambodia to come.....

{I have a TON of  fun video that I want to upload, but can't figure out the best way to.... I thought Vimeo was the way to go, but each one says it will take 6+ hours..... any advice?} 

Joyfully Templed Out,