Phnom Penh, Cambodia: National Museum

December 20, 2010

We hit the National Museum in Phnom Penh, filled with statues depicting Hindu and Buddhist gods. Turns out the entire art history of Cambodia is organized as pre-Angkor Wat, Angkor Wat, or Post-Angkor Wat years. Angkor Wat, that I blogged about previously, is Cambodia's biggest, most phenomenal set of temples in the jungle, and is like the arrival of Jesus Christ for them, with all time demarcated as before, during, and after Christ.

I included some of my favorite Cambodian symbolic statues above, including the "linga." Linga is a phallic symbol that is ALL OVER Cambodian temples. It's all about big penises and fertility for those Hindu and Buddhist lovers here.

After our 3am wakeup for our early flight to Phnom Penh, we fell exhausted into the museum courtyard lounge chairs.

Welcome to Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Sex Travelers Not Allowed

December 20, 2010

We arrived at our hotel in the capital of Cambodia to the welcome of sex travelers not welcome on the door of our hotel, the Blue Lime. Griffin's reaction to the sign was loudly reading it then yelling: "EWWWWW!"

Looks like it's time for that "talk."

We didn't understand why there was so much silent fuss made when we arrived at the small, boutique hotel in the heart of town. It took a while and many phone calls for the staff to let us know that our travel agent had booked us at a hotel that didn't allow anyone under the age of 16. The hotel felt bad, though, since it'd be tough to get a decent hotel so late in the day, so Ken brokered our stay, promising quiet children.

The next morning, Boom put on his superman costume, whipped around his cape, and flew down the stairs, loudly announcing his presence, expecting the typical Asian gushing response to his cuteness. All he got was a loud SHHHHH! from the front desk staff who then returned to our breakfast table to ask for more quiet from Boom. We looked around at the other breakfasting adult-only crowd to see that they were more silent than Buddhist monks sworn to silence at a monastery.

We made a break for the door, hopped in the first tuk-tuk we saw, and shrieked our way with joy to the Royal Palace playground.

Christmas in Malaysia

Christmas in this Muslim country is just plain over the top. Much bigger than in the U.S., ironically. The malls here are the center of life in Kuala Lumpur, and they have Christmas decorations as early as November 1. There’s no waiting for the first day after Thanksgiving, like back in the U.S. And, when they decorate the malls, the decorations reach 6 floors high, with fake snow falling and Santas abound.

I’m not sure why there’s such a love of Christmas here. Partly, I think it’s because Malaysia is getting hip to the Christmas boost in sales, since they’re fresh to consumerism here. Their relationship with Santa isn’t quite the same, though. A friend just found a picture of a black Santa here.

The kids' classes had big Christmas celebrations thrown with gusto by all the parents, regardless of what nation or religion they came from, although there were some Muslim-Christian rumblings in another class where a Muslim room mother hadn't collected money from parents for a Christmas gift for the teachers, leaving the Western parents flummoxed over how to proceed with a gift without raising tensions.

We had our own early Christmas celebration, before leaving for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I took Boom to get a tree, and he sobbed when he couldn’t get the huge tree he was used to since it was too expensive, but he perked up when he saw a white, sparkly faux fir and spiced it up with a snowy penguin to snuggle under it. We decorated it in the 90 degree heat. On our early Christmas morning, meaning on December 19, the kids ripped through their gifts, saying it was almost as good a Christmas as at Nanny and Papa's house (their Christmas and holiday love was sorely missed by me too!). We ended it with a fire boat lego building session which landed it in the bath along with a Christmas brunch.