blessed in battambong [christo & erica visit cambodia]

last month we were so blessed to round off our visitor hat-trick with a fabulous visit with our dear friends christo & erica. we loved showing them a bit of our life here, a bit of cambodia, & most enjoyed our long conversations & philosophical musings with these old friends (over philosophical gin & tonics to relieve us from the crazy, crazy heat!).

[in battambong ridin' that bamboo train - in the middle of terrific storm no less. this memory is etched.]

[always safety first when traveling with the talstras. always.]

[*our tour guide, mr. tin tin, showed us around battambong - to a mountain temple, cambodia's only winery, ridiculously cool fruit bats, the ruins of an ancient temple, and a rice noodle enterprise out of a family's home. but i think we will all remember him best for the time he took to share with us the story of his family & what happend to them during the khmer rouge regime. his stories of watching his immediate family die, one by one, told through the eyes of 10-year old boy really moved us. & his story of resilience & strength as he rebuilt his life showed hope emerging from all that tragedy. if you've ever in battambong, mr. tin tin is highly recommended.]

[by the rivers of battambong]

[fun with cocoons, at the silk farm in siem reap]

[daniel + buddha]

[* yea, we got matching shirts & wore them on the same day]

*pictures by the de klerks

island temple [no one here but us chickens]

"There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time- or even knew selflessness or courage or literature - but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less."

-Annie Dillard, For the Time Being