They didn’t need to say it.  I read it all over their faces.  It was the day we sat down together to polish up the plans for our trip to SE Asia.  “We are going to see Angkor Wat —  a Hindu temple complex surrounded by a moat, built in the 12^th Century by the King of Khmer.   Early explorers had come back with great stories about it, but nobody could get there to verify it, so nobody much believed them.”

“How did it get lost?”somebody asked.  “Swallowed up by the Jungles,” I said in my spooky voice. (I always like to dazzle them with scary historical embellishments.)

“Will we see Siamese cats in Siam?”  they digressed.   (I took a deep breath.)  “Nope – Siam is no longer.  It’s now called Thailand.  But we’re talking about the lost temple complex of Angkor Wat, sometimes known as the Seventh Wonder of the World.”  They weren’t dazzled yet, so I pulled out a few fun facts to try to get them in the mood for some AWE:

In 1860, Henri Mouhot, an explorer, had heard about a great Khmer temple lost in the jungles and was actually looking for beautiful birds when he came upon the temple.   Before cameras, explorers had only three ways to convey their discoveries:

Bring ‘em home, draw them or tell about them.

Even though others had found this complex earlier, there was no way to ‘bring it home’ and if they didn’t have skills to draw the thing or tell about it, well, few would believe the discoverers’ stories about what they saw.

Henri took his time to etch drawings of the temple complex and once the Western world saw his drawings and read his descriptions, Henri was set for a page in Wikipedia as the ‘finder of the lost temple.’    Others had beaten him, but Henri brought skills to the party!”

“What about the Siamese Cats?” (I took another deep breath). “No cats here I don’t think – but lots of strange looking monkeys!”

The lesson here is about using what you’ve got:  Drawings are good, but  if you are trying to lure them to SE Asia, spooky temples and monkeys are a pretty sure bet.

Dawn

For the past three years, I have begged you to take a family trip.  Don’t you hate people that find something wonderful in their life and dog you until you do it?  Unless you are in the ‘planning stages of an adventure,’ I have failed.  So I’m trying a new tactic called “Just a Peak.”

Worse case is that you build your trivia knowledge without the total IQ putdown of Alex Trebek of Jeopardy. But best case is you will be tempted to go see for yourself.

We share so many funky photos with our Facebook friends, this blog will give you a little more background about our adventures which could potentially one day be your own adventures.

What looks like a Cambodian Root Canal is actually the lost temple complex of Angkor Wat. How long was it lost?  Who took it??  How was it found?   Round trip tickets start at $670, but don’t book yet because there is so much more on the way.    But it doesn’t cost a thing to start planning next year’s trip with your family.

Talk Friday!

Dawn

“America!  The land of the free and the home of the brave.”

That is my country!  I am free and I am brave.  And both of those facts hit home when we were headed north crossing the Bulgarian Border. Ron and I were driving a rental car with a German tag, which for some reason aroused suspicion.    As we approached the border, we followed the traffic circle just as we thought we should.  Turns out, we did it wrong and ended up cutting in line.  Now in America, aside from a few stray fingers, you can apologize and laugh it off.  At the Bulgarian border, not so much.

The border guard, angry dude that he was, rushed over to the passenger side of the car.  I rolled down my window and he began screaming.  SCREAMING!   “Turks!  Turks!”    I used my form of international sign language for ‘don’t worry, be happy!’ putting my fingers on the sides of my cheeks and pulling out a smile.  Apparently he didn’t understand my reference or appreciate my effort to bring a little levity into the situation.

The guard hauled back and through the open window, cold-cocked me!  I was stunned. He broke my glasses and my temple was bleeding.  The action that usually follows ‘stunned’ for me is ‘fight’, and in a swift motion I reached out, ripped off his tie and shouted “Americans, Americans!” and whipped out my passport.

When you are on foreign turf, neither word —  Abracadabbra nor Shazam — work as well as the magic word: Americans!   Suddenly there was the guard with a host of superior ‘big shots’ preparing to give us a ‘bloodless escort’ to the front of the line.  They coddled us and apologized profusely.  I gladly returned the guard’s tie and we went on our way.

Thank you America!   Because I belong to the land of the free, I can be brave.  But don’t underestimate the value of a smile.  Just don’t bring it to the Bulgarian border crossing.

Dawn