Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat

Unbelievable. This word simply describes the day that Jamie and I have had. We can honestly say that it is one of the best days of our lives. Angkor Wat Archeological Area is phenomenal. I will let the pictures tell the story. I lost count because I have deleted some, but I think my count was about 300 or so today. I honestly tried to hit the highlights only. It just happened that there were 300 of them or so.

We wanted to start our day early, so we woke up around 6:15 and was out the door by 7:15 after eating breakfast. We found this itinerary online for a 3 day trip inside Angkor and decided to follow it since we were not exactly sure what we were getting into. We decided to bike our way through today. Because our rearends were sore from the previous day, we only biked the 6 km or so to the South Gate of Angkor Thom and decided to go on foot from there. Of everyone that was in the park today, Jamie and I were probably the only ones on foot. Everyone else was biking or most were taking a tuk tuk. We decided to walk. And walk we did. The walls of Angkor Thom measure 3 km on each side, so from any outside gate was a 1.5 km walk to the center. We walked and climbed all over the temples. I could tell you about them, but I'm not sure anyone cares to read. Most of what we saw can be seen in the pictures, but the experience is perhaps one you can only appreciate if you actually walk the grounds. It is truly majestic and certainly something that cannot be found anywhere in North America.

After we saw the sites of Angkor Thom, we walked out of the Victory gate to the east and toured some more temples outside the walls. The most notable is that of Ta Phrom, which has been purposefully left unrestored for the most part. Here, the giant trees grow from the walls and dominate the temples. The pictures here will simply amaze you.

After walking in the heat, rain, steam, and humidity of southeast Asia, were were absolutely beat. We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us back the 6 km or so to the South Gate so we could retrieve our bicycles. We found a nice little cafe in Angkor to eat lunch and rest finally at 2:30. A full day already but we decided to go ahead and tour Angkor Wat.

People who come to Cambodia usually do so for Angkor Wat. It is the temple that is best known. It is truly spectacular, but there is so much more to see here. We have 2 more full days of touring. I have posted plenty of pictures of Ankor Wat and Angkor Thom. I will attempt to label them for not only your sake but ours. We have a little travel book that identifies all of these, but since I took these, I want to know which ones are which. Some may look alike to you, but I assure you, each temple has its own characteristic.

Unlike any archeological site in North America, you can actually still climb the temple walls and staircases in most parts. You could not to the tallest tower of Angkor Wat unfortunately, but you could just about anywhere else. Jamie found ourselves two of only 10 people who were climbing some areas. Signs are posted to climb at your own risk, but the risk is minimal if you pay attention and be careful.

Monkeys, wild yet extremely tame because they see tourist daily, are found in the park. The are entertaining and at one point I found myself surrounded by 10 of them after I bought some small bananas from a smal girl. She said "monkeys like bananas." It was fun, and I was able to get some pretty cool pictures of them. They would grab the bananas right out of your hand.

We decided not to stay for sunset this evening and instead biked hard back to our hotel. We were filthy due to the rain, sweat, dirt, sand, sweat, insects, sweat, sunscreen, sweat, and (did I mention sweat). We ate at a nice little restaurant just around the corner and now I'm going to attempt to upload these pictures for you.

I'm going to go ahead and upload the ones from Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. They are all from those areas and we'll put labels on them later. I'll also add another slideshow entitled Angkor Temples, which I'll also add labels to later. In Angkor Temples, you'll see Ta Phrom which will truly be a treat.

We hope you enjoy. Please comment or shoot me an email and let me know what you think. Seymore was there will us, so you'll see him pop up in the photos every now and then. He's quite the climber and all of the Japanese tourist thought he was great. When we told him his name, they just smiled, but laughed when we said he wanted to "See More."

Until tomorrow...

Cambodia - Day 3 and 4

Jamie and I relaxed on Monday morning by hanging out in our guesthouse in Phnom Penh. The weekend and lack of sleep had finally caught up to us. At 2:00, our bus to Siem Reap left and we took the 5 hour bus ride there. It wasn't bad and we saw some of the Cambodian country side. Lots of rice fields and small shacks built on stilts.

We arrived the Crown Royal hotel around 8:00 pm and decided to just eat there. I had the fish amok and Jamie had the pineapple rice chicken. We have enjoyed the fact that the real fruit shakes in Cambodia are really cheap. All are under $2.50 and most are around $1. We were pretty tired, so decided to call it an early night. We had decided we would not stay in this hotel because 1) they were slightly overcharging us and 2) the only internet was in the lobby and they charged $1 per 30 minutes. Cheap by American standards, but I have mine own.

We disappointed them greatly by leaving but the place we have moved, Golden Orange Hotel, is just as nice and has free Wi-Fi throughout. The bathroom is a tub/shower combo with no shower curtain and luke warm water. We'll live. It is so humid here that a warm/cool shower actually feels pretty good. After settling in our new place, we set out to find some bicycles. We found some we could rent for $2 per day. Once again, we probably overpaid for these, but it'll be ok. We are saving ourselves from paying a tuk tuk driver anytime we need to go somewhere and not walk. Driving in Siem Reap is not quite as hectic as Phnom Penh, but still no sidewalks, so you just walk in the sandy streets with the cars, motobikes, and bikes.

We went by this Butterfly Garden restaurant because it sounded nice. It was decent and there weren't many butterflies. I was told that "a butterfly has died." We saw several dead butterflies, so we weren't sure what they were talking about. We tried to go see the miniture model of Angkor Wat, which was right next to our hotel, but it was closed.

We had to wait around until 5:00 to get into the Angkor Wat Archeological Site to purchase tickets for the next 3 days and so we could get this afternoon and see the sunset. It was too cloudy for the sunset to be very beautiful, but just being there at sunset was exciting for us. We walked around the main temple of Angkor Wat for about an hour, then biked the 6 km back to our hotel.

Tomorrow will be a packed full day of Angkor temples. Be sure to check back later for a full slideshow of pictures. If you haven't already, Google Angkor Wat in the search engine on this blog and read more about this magnificent place. For those who have been to the Mayan ruins in Mexico, Angkor Wat makes Chitzen Itza look like child's play linkin logs.

International Peace One Day

For just one day a year (not sure why it can't be all year) the world observes Peace One Day. QSI Shekou is observing Peace One Day. Each teach is doing something in their classes to at least mention it and then figure out a way to observe it. After my students' writing prompt assessment, I am introducing Peace One Day, (ironically, the students know more about it than I do because it is not observed in the states) then I am showing them a couple of YouTube videos that explain it. There is also a music video. I'm posting all of them below.

Peace One Day (You Tube Video Explaining Peace One Day):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FmEIP46B-E&feature=user

Peace One Day (You Tube Video - Imagine If There Was a Day):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L_PowoTU3A&feature=user

Peace One Day (You tube Music Video - One Day One Goal):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUJXtvrtLU&feature=user

Teachers reading this might want to mention it tomorrow in your classrooms. There are a ton of materials online reached by a simple Google search. You can use my Google search if you wish to make it easier.

Jamie and I will be relaxing this weekend and watch some college football games on early Sunday morning. Not sure what we are doing Saturday. We might go to Windows of the World if the weather is nice. It is cooling down here, but still very very muggy. We haven't had a clear day of none haze/smog in over 2 weeks. They say that is the norm here. Oh well.

We have booked our hotel for Phnom Penh. I am happy about it and they act as our travel guide while we are there. We are staying at the Frangipani Villa in Phnom Penh From there, we'll take a boat/ferry to Siem Reap and stay at a guesthouse there. Then, we'll travel back to Phnom Penh for our flight back to Hong Kong. I'm really excited about going to Angkor Wat. For those who haven't done their homework on Angkor Wat, here is the wikipedia page on it... Angkor Wat.

Open House and Cambodia

QSI Shekou had their Open House last night from 7 - 9 pm. The schedule was a bit strange, but it was a pretty quick evening. I would say about one-third of the parents Jamie and I teach showed up. We didn't get to speak to all of them, but the ones that came seemed very supportive. Some were very adament about things while others were just glad their child was in school at QSI. Or week has continued and things begin to pile up around us concerning grades, Reading Tests (which we've heard of nor administered but are obviously supposed to master and give to the students), and extra-curriculuar duties. I have plunged into the middle school Student Council and had 60 students sign up to be officers. There is only enough room for 12 positions.

The picture above was taken last week and I have uploaded a new folder for stay at the bottom of the blog. I've simply titled it QSI Shekou 2008-2009 and plan to place pictures of our school, students, and activities from this year. I have already uploaded our classrooms on there. Most are without students.

The International Lunch is this weekend. It is a HUGE event at QSI as parents and students come dressed in their home country's dress. I will take a ton of pictures. The faculty must make a native meal. I believe Jamie is going to take Texas caviar which she is renaming Southern cavier. I'll get the recipe for you of what all is in it. It is a chip dip of some sort and it is awesome. Some other Americans are bringing Beenie Weenies, Rice Crispy Treats, and I'm sure Hot Dogs. We also must dress "American." I think Jamie is going to wear her tailgating attire. I'm not sure what I'll do yet. If you have any suggestions, I will entertain them. I guess I could go as an Appalachian American. Some may refer to this as "hillbilly."

We've officially booked our flight for Cambodia at the end of the month. More details to come on this later and my new camera can't wait to go. We'll be flying to Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia) via a red-eye flight from Hong Kong and Bangkok. We'll then take either an 8 hour bus ride to Siem Reap or take a 4 hour boat ride to Siem Reap. We would fly, but the tickets from Hong Kong are already running us a fortune. The main spectacle of the trip will be Angkor Wat. I'll be posting some information concerning this wonderful place, because everyone I have talked to hasn't even heard of it. I'll invite you to do some research on your own. A simple Wikipedia search would be the best bet. Here, I'll do it for you: Angkor Wat. Gorgeous isn't it!

I'll share more information with you later on our specific details of the trip. We hope to make it to the end of the month. We are putting in about 10 - 12 hours days of constant non-stop work here. Typical teacher hours and typical first of the year teacher duties.

Enough for now. Let me know if you have any questions. I've received a couple of emails about our newspaper article in the Daily Post Athenian. We'd like to thank Richard Edwards for the wonderful article and opportunity to share our story. Also thanks to my parents for sending us an electronic version of the story.

Have a great Wednesday America!

My New Pin!

Check it out! A co-worker from Tennessee gave this to me today. For those flag illiterate, it is a lapel pen of the Tennessee state flag and the Chinese flag. Apparently, Phil Bredeson, Governor of Tennessee, came to China, and this was one of the gifts they distributed. I'm going to wear it daily and with pride and will wear it when I return home for summer. I'm really excited about it, as you can tell.

We are winding down our first week with the students and getting into a routine. We will receive our passports and year work visas tomorrow, so we will be able to go into Hong Kong. We are both excited about going to Hong Kong. For me, I just want to see the city. For Jamie, she is excited about going to an English bookstore. Please pray that she will not spend all of our money on English books.

The students continue to amaze me at their ability and eagerness to learn. They are so well behaved and are truly a delight to teach. I have started my Mock Trial "specials" class, and it is going fairly well. They are amazed at the American legal system, although I'm not sure they understand their own legal system. Nonetheless, we are putting Roy L. Kingsman on trial for agitating Humpty Dumpty enough that he fell off of the wall. Of course, all of the King's horses and all of the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I'll let you know how my students decided the fate of Roy L. Kingsman.

I have a percentage of the students who are attending QSI Shekou this year. There are 47 nationalities represented. The nationalities break down as follows:

27% Korean
16% USA
11% European Union (8 countries)
9% Brazil
9% Japan
7% Taiwan
6% Hong Kong

For those looking for Chinese students, the school is not allowed to enroll Chinese nationals. Not sure why, but I'll ask. Why so many Koreans? Well, aparently, the Koreans are the builders of the world now, so they are moving all over the world to build factories, high rises, and other buildings. The Korean students are very well behaved and are excellent at Math. They are eager to learn English, and I will often get responses on their papers that mention they can't wait until the master or perfect the English language. Many also want to "make their parents' proud." How many American students would write that down as one of their "3 wishes."

Thanks for those who have been posting comments. I really enjoy reading them and the emails you send. It keeps me closer to home. Feel free to drop me an email anytime. If you really want to correspond, you'll download Skype on your computer. We can then correspond for free. Google Talk is also a way to do this, but I've never used it. Let me know if you get Skype and I'll add you to my contacts. It is quite amazing to watch via webcam and listen to someone 7000 miles away.

Long post but I've slacked lately as I've gotten busy with school. Things will settle down a little bit. We are 100% positive we want to go to Cambodia for our first break. We will be flying into the capital, Phnom Penh, and then taking a boat across a lake to Siem Reap. From Siem Reap, we'll be able to see the world's largest religious temple of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was the capital and center of the Khymer Empire of Southeast Asia. It was only uncovered in 1861. Truly amazing! I will take more pictures than I can snap and will share all of them until Google shuts me down. I'll keep you posted. We won't go until the end of September, but I'm down right giddy thinking about it. How many people do you know have been do Cambodia?

Have a great day America! College football starts Thursday night! GO VOLS!!!