Christmas and New Years 2008

We made sure to be back home in time for Christmas week. Singapore got us in the mood and Marie had decorated the house before we left for SEA so when we got home we could jump right in. It was a busy week with three different parties - one of which was ours - and preparations for the arrival of the big guy. Christmas Eve, which was always a big deal for us in the states, was spent at our good friends house. They had a big crowd of people.

Christmas morning was the usual fun. Aunt Ce-Ce came the night before and stayed the night. Marie made a great brunch casserole and steak and eggs. We played with the new Wii Fit and some other good stuff. As you can see from Sarah's reaction it was good morning. BTW - this was Sarah's first year being in on the secret. Needless to say she reveled in the fact that she now "knows" and Jack is still a believer.

New Year's Eve was very subduded this year. Between kids and us getting older we came up lame. We were in bed by 10. However New Years Day was crackin' lackin' from a Saudi persepctive. Take a look at this picture.

This my friends, would be pork and saurkraut mixed with kielbasa. Here this is a big, big, pig treat. It was sooooooooooo damn good. All we needed was some good beer to go with it. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Merry Christmas - a month late - from us!!

Ras Tanura Phillies

Jack played pee wee baseball this year in RT. It was quite a challenge coaching this crew. Most had never played ball before. They know cricket but not baseball. In the end they all played really well. Jack was far and away the best player on the team. In fact he will move up to the next division a year early next year. No more coach pitch. Time to play with the big boys. I was the pee wee coordinator so I got to pick the names for the teams. Obviously I made sure our name was something I could wear with pride. Unlike a couple of years ago when he played for and I coached the stinking Yankees. Aww it was horrible having to wear that hat. BTW notice that Jack and his friend Trevor are trying to look like tough guys. I will have you know it was everything he could do not to bust our laughing. Tough guy is not in Jacks vocab.

Winter Solstice

I attempt to go for a jog every morning or every other morning. I usually get up around 5:45 and then run along the beach for 30 minutes or more. I have done morning runs for a long time. I like getting it behind me for the day. That being said I have seen some really cool things running early in the morning. When we lived in Wyncote I would get up and run on the Cheltenham High School track. There was this huge red tail hawk that would sit on the fence just a few feet from me and watch me run around. One morning on that same track I was literally stopped dead in my tracks as the Leonid meteor shower took place above me. It was amazing. Of course a run on the beach of the Outer Banks of North Carolina or running at sunrise on the path along the Wissahickon Creek is equally as cool. Here is an old picture of the covered bridge back the crick as we locals call it.

Here I have the sunsets over the gulf. Dec. 21st is the shortest day of the year. The sun rises here closest to the shore line. In the summer the sun rise is directly out over the water. I am usually stretching after my run when the sun comes up. On the 21st I was treated to an exceptionally clear morning. There is usually a haze and you won't see the sun until it has actually been up for a few minutes. I could tell this was going to be a good one so I ran the short distance home and grabbed my camera. I am glad I did. You can see the super tankers loading up with Saudi oil in a couple of the pics. Enjoy the sunrise.

Time to go home

We left Cambodia on the 17th of December. It is normally a 2 1/2 hour flight from Siem Reap to Singapore. However even though the Thailand situation had resolved itself by this time the ripple effects were going to be felt in the travel industry for a few weeks more. Because our flight through Bangkok had been cancelled we now had to fly for 8 hours instead of 2.

Technology is so cool. I spent the night of the 16th sitting in the hotel lobby where I could pick up a wireless signal on the laptop. I plugged in my ear buds and used my skype account to call Expedia and rearrange our travel details. Here I am sitting in the middle of no where Cambodia with a laptop in my lap that is not connected to anything making a call to the states that cost me next to nothing. Too cool.

We would now have to fly from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Ouy. But once again our kids were travel studs and before we knew it we were back in Singapore where we would spend two nights before heading home.

I really like Singapore. Great food, clean, very into Christmas. Unfortunately I did not have an adaptor to charge the camera here so no pics by me. I will just steal some off the net and use them as mine. On our first night we were very tired from the long trip that day so we went back to our Satay place. It was just as good as the first time. We left there and went home to bed.

The next day, Dec. 18th, was our one full day in Singapore. We had four things planned for the day. Singapore is big time into Christmas. They spend big bucks to decorate the city. The main road through town, Orchard Road, is decked out from one end to the next. At night the lights are amazing. We were going to use mass transit to get around. Once we figured out how to use it it was a piece of cake. Clean and very efficient. We took the train down to the main shopping area along Orchard road to buy tickets for a night time bus tour of the lights. We then did a little shopping. Singapore seems to be one large mall. Since it is an island that specializes in finance and produces nothing everything must be shipped in. Like Hawaii it is expensive. Very expensive. In the end the kids shopped in Toys R Us. That was all the shopping we were going to do on Orchard Road.

After getting our tickets for the night tour we hopped the train to the other end of town to go to one more Asian style market. The Bugis Street Market looked similar to what we saw in Vietnam and Cambodia but in the end it was much more touristy. The prices were double what we saw else where and the people were a bit less willing to bargain. We did not stay long before we were back on the train and heading back to our hotel for a break.

After an hour or so of rest we were ready to head out to The Raffles Hotel. This place is super uppity. It was in this hotel bar that they invented the Singapore Sling. Apparently no trip to Singapore is complete without stopping in for a drink. The setting is impressive. The drinks were girly. The price was ridiculous. Two Singapore Slings, two Shirley Temples and an orange juice - $84!!! But we can say we did it. Here is a picture of The Raffles and the drink.

After our expensive happy hour we hopped the train again and headed back to Orchard Road to grab some food and then take our bus tour. We would need to be in bed early as our flight in the morning was at 9am. By the time we made it back to Orchard Road it was too late to eat so we walked around and took in the Christmas atmosphere. I was really nice. It was getting us into the Christmas mood just in time to head back home for Christmas week. The bus tour was nice. Here is a picture of Orchard Road at night.

And that was it. What a trip. We made it back to Saudi after a full day of travel which included a 6 hour layover in Sri Lanka. It was good to be back home after almost three weeks. To sleep in our own beds and to see friends. But that was a trip we will never forget. I am grateful to have this blog as a means to go back and look at everything we did. And now on to Christmas!

Angkor at Sunrise

This morning we were up at 5:30am kids and all to head to Angkor to watch the sunrise. This is a fairly popular thing to do. We figured there would be a handful of people there. Boy were we wrong. There were hundreds of people there by the time we arrived and we thought we were early. Here is a picture of everyone waiting to get that perfect shot.

Unfortunately it never really came. The sunrise was a bit obscured by clouds. This was the best I could do.

At one point I was taking pictures and I noticed people looking my way and taking pictures. I was quite flattered yet not surprised as I often get confused for Tom Cruise. I heard a scraping noise behind me and turned to see a whole pack of monkey's walking along the wall about 10 feet behind me. They are know to be nasty so I slowly backed up and then took some shots. Stupid monkey ended up mooning me.


After we left Angkor for the last time we headed to a temple that we saw as we drove from one site to another the day before. It stuck out to us because it was empty. No tourists. And it was big. We all wanted to climb to the top. So off we went. One thing I forgot. I am afraid of heights. I made it up about 13 of these super narrow steps and then froze. I didn't think I was going to get back down. I finally did and then had to endure taunts from Marie's brother and Dad as they made it to the top with ease. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Sarah went shooting up to the top. Jack and I had no choice but to follow. So without looking down we made it to the top. That was the easy part coming down would be difficult. When I say I am afraid of heights I am not exagerating. I am scared to death. Here I am at the top of 13 steps being a wuss boy. You tell by my posture that I am petrified. Here were are at the top. Jack on the way left. Me peeking over the middle and Sarah on the right. I was too freaked out to let them go to the windows near the edge. This temple was very cool.

While at Ta Keo Temple Anna met up with three little Cambodian girls. They were so cute. Their mother looked after the Buddha at the temple. They really hit it off.
We spent the afternoon messing around town and going for a swim. All in all Cambodia was everything I had hoped it would be. I would highly recommend Siem Reap. Now we are off to Singapore for two nights before heading back to Saudi.

Angkor Part II

Tuesday December 16th

We left Angkor and had our driver take us to the next complex called Banyon. This one is know for all of the huge faces that adorn the temple. We saw our first monkeys along the road to Banyon. Never seen wild monkey's before. These temples all reminded me of something from the Disney movie The Jungle Book.

I'm trying to give you a sense of how big these structures are. In this pic Jack is about 1/3 of the way up the temple.Our last stop of the day was to a place called Ta Prohm. Unlike the other sites this place is a total ruin. Hardly any of it has been rebuilt. It is know for the trees that have grown up all around the structure. They filled part of the Angelina Jolie film Laura Kroft Tomb Raider here. I kept looking for her but could not find her. It was really pretty cool. Unfortunately the kids were hitting a wall. It was hot. Anna fell asleep and Jack complained. Anyway I liked it!!





As we walked out of the temple you had to go through the jungle. The noise from the bugs was deafening. Take a listen.



This picture basically sums up how Jack felt at this point. I think it was time to get out of the heat and back to the hotel for a late lunch. Tomorrow we will rise early to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat and then go see one more lesser known complex.