Family photo with the three-headed elephant at the Elephant Terrace at Angkor Thom. Charlie is carrying Baa, the stuffed lamb about whom he journaled throughout our trip as a school assignment. Paige and Lauren with a lady sculpture at Angkor Thom. Paige up on the top level of a temple with a long gallery roof running down to a tower. Our tour guide proved to be an expert at the nose-to-nose photo. The trick here is that the statue was a few dozen yards in the background behind Paige. Charlie went nose to nose, too. Reconstructing a part of a temple. The Cambodian government partners with several other countries on projects like this one to excavate and reconstruct parts of the temples. Although there are massive statues and towers everywhere, it's the little details that memorably catch the eye. Here, literally, we loved this elephant's eye. Our tour guide "Tina" - perhaps not her real Cambodian name - shows the Jacksons a wall-length mural telling a story from mythology. We bought post cards from this little guy in the temple. There were kids everywhere selling handicrafts and souvenirs. They worked hard and tended to have a little shtick, including rattling off the stats of the place you're from. "Oh, Washington, DC, US Capital, US population 300 million." If you politely declined and kept walking, they would call after you "If you buy, you buy from me." The temples do all kind of run together. I think this is the last one we saw on the first day. Despite being a cultural, historic landmark, the temples are surprising accessible places to take little boys. All of the climbing and discovery keeps them engaged. Lauren and Mike planned ahead with balloons for Paige's birthday. We don't usually get a chance to swim on Paige's birthday - February 2 - but we did in 90 degree Cambodia. Mike and Lauren celebrated their own way with a lady drink and an Angkor beer. If you like anything but light, flavorless lagers, Cambodia and Vietnam are not the place for you.
The name of this blog is a political statement about fatherhood. Regardless of the progress toward gender equality that has occurred over the last several decades, one stereotype persists and may be getting worse: moms are good parents and dads are incompetent boobs who sometimes babysit. Poppycock, I say. Or an excuse for dads who would like to be viewed as numskulls so that they don't have to parent their kids. Dads are parents too, and I know some who are very good at it.
I'm neither a stay-at-home dad nor do I work full time. I work part time, and I'm the primary parent for the foreseeable future. The primary competent parent, I hope it is not presumptuous to say.
2 comments:
I've enjoyed every photo. I hadn't realized it was hotter in Cambodia than in Vietnam, glad you got to swim. Keep posting, great stuff.
I looked at this before, but couldn't resist running through it again. Fun to relive those days, especially before Paige got sick!
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