Sometime in May this year, a friend and I got on a plane to Siem Reap for a five day vacation. I left my kids behind in my husband's able hands. I've never been anywhere much, and I felt I really needed this breather, with just someone unencumbered by the demands of living a partly-slaving life with children, a spouse, and a day job. Whinnie is the best one there is. It was a good decision all in all. The place reminded me a lot of my Vietnam trip some ten years ago, ancient in its edifice and teeming with history. To me it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, or both. Every place is bound to have a past, and soon enough, a future. 

Siem Reap, a province in Cambodia, and gateway to the famed Angkor Wat temples, was as remote and exotic as I would want a place to be, with people just as gentle and almost untouched by the contraptions of a modern world. Here are some images I took of the place, but this is a work in progress,  and I need to find time to organize the hundreds of photos I've taken. I will keep adding images in the next few days. Needless to say, Cambodia is now etched in my mind, for life.

my travel and best bud, whilma

all smiles at the Angkor Wat entrance

អរគុណច្រើន. Thank you, Cambodia.

I  wish I knew how to make those cool templates of varying sizes that professional photographers use in their blogs, but I have yet to figure out how it's done. With my tenacity, I will. Positive of that. On the afternoon of last New Year's eve, while contemplating what to cook for dinner, I snuck out with my camera as Sophia was quietly playing alone in the yard with bubbles. It was easy breezy getting her photos that way, not conscious of me, and having her own fun. Which reminds me, that I must think of something else new and novel to preoccupy her next time. Make that Every Time. Sometimes the tricks you thought could make her forget she's being photographed become old very suddenly. I'm dreaming up of capturing her with a bunch of pastel balloons, in a beautiful flowy dress, on a grassfield in an insanely sun-drenched afternoon, with an abundance of light flares to boot. Tall order, I know. But yeah, getting there....