Temples, temples and more temples

Entrance to Angkor Thom

In an attempt to put some of the conspiracy theories to rest, I've finally found an internet cafe where I could upload a few pictures. Of course, my connection here is slower than Ben working arithmatic, so I won't be posting too many just yet.
We've had an ambitious couple of days of temple viewing. We started Monday with Angkor Thom and the temples within -- Bayon, Bapuon, the Elephant and Leper King Terrraces -- then moved on to Angkor Wat. Tuesday we finished off Angkor Wat and also saw Bakheng and Ta Prohm. The temples are spectacular. Any human being interested in the world outside their own home should see them at some point in their life.
Jenn, Brad, Meg and Eric at the Elephant Terrace
Angkor Wat is amazing in its size and scope. Almost every surface is covered with carvings depicting elements of the Hindu and Buddhist religions. Ta Prohm is simply beautiful. For centuries the jungle has been working to swallow the ruins there. For good or bad, the Angkor preservation folks have built wooden paths throughout the Ta Prohm complex, making it more accessible and thus more crowded.
Meg at Ta Prohm
Alright, time for breakfast and more temples. Today we'll hit Bateay Srei and perhaps the Roluos complex.
Enjoy.

Seam Reap

Cambodia is beautiful from the air. As we were flying in to Seam Reap yesterday we had a nice view of the area around Tonle Sap, the huge freshwater lake that takes up a large chunk of the northwest of the country. Everything was lush and green, almost uninhabited until we got closer to the city.

A couple of guys from the hotel were waiting with tuk-tuks to take us into the city. The local variant of the tuk-tuk is a motor scooter with a covered trailer that sort of looks like an old rickshaw on the back. Two to four people can comfortably ride in one if a couple don't mind facing backward, but I swear we saw about a dozen Khmer hanging off of one on the way in from the airport.

We decided to keep things mellow for a bit -- 2 days of solid travel will do that to you. We did walk down to Psar Chas, the old market, and wandered about for a bit. The place is dark and cramped. Crammed full of vendors selling everything from t-shirts and photocopied guidebooks to large chunks of dead animal.

After that, we took a tuk-tuk up to the Grand Hotel d'Angkor in the city center to get tickets for dinner and a traditional Khmer dance tonight. We wandered around the Royal Gardens. the whole area smelled of incense and rang with music from the Temple of Preah Ang Chek and Preah Ang Chom and the Shrine to Ya Tep nearby. We couldn't get to close because it was prayer time and the places were packed with people, but we'll be going back.

Today we'll be starting in on the big temples outside the city -- Bayon and Angkor, I believe.

Still no pictures yet, but I swear I'm shooting them.

Today we'll be starting in on the temples -- Bayon and Angkor, I believe. Gotta run.

Enjoy.

Bangkok

We've made it to Bangkok without to much incident. Meg's flight from SFO down to LA was delayed a couple hours, so I got to spend some time hanging out in LAX. Not as nice as I remember it being. Of course, when I was younger all it took to impress me was some Haggen Dazs. Now it's just sort of old, dirty and under renovation everywhere you look.

Lucie and Richie picked us up and took us to a seafood restaurant down in Newport Beach. Good food, outdoor seating on a beautiful day and a chance to catch up with friends. Very nice.

We got back to the airport around 7:00 and met up with Brad and Jenn a little while later. The check in line was massive and the airline only seemed to have a couple people working at any given time, so it took forever. We did manage to take in a college student from Florida though. She got into the line at the same time as us, but in a state of total panic. She thought she was late getting there had had problems with her rental car, and this was her first time travelling alone, let alone to a foreign country alone.

Our flight was delayed a bit. We could never figure out why, because all of the announcements were unintelligible. The flight, once we finally got on board, wasn't quite as bad as I thought. Though 17 hours is a very long time to spend in a plane. The seats were just uncomfortable enough to wake you up after a couple hours of dozing, but they fed us three times (Meg and Jenn had requested vegetarian food, so they took that to mean Brad and I wanted veg as well), and there were video games and movies in the seat back sets to pass the remaining time.

So now we're here at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, hanging out in the posh Bangkok Airways lounge waiting for the flight to Seam Reap. The airport here is a definite improvement over LA. Clean, beautiful spaces, very wide open, with the exposed skeleton that seems to be in vogue these days. We've got a couple of hours until the next flight (Yay! more time on the plane) so we might do a little exploring. I'll post pictures when I can (no exposed USB ports on this machine).

Enjoy.

Ready to go!

Bags are packed and by the door. House is clean (mostly). I'm ready to go.
The taxi shows up at 7:45 a.m. to take me to the airport — the beginning of our five week Asian adventure.

Tomorrow I fly to LA to meet up with Meg where we'll spend the afternoon with friends. Then it's back to LAX, find Brad and Jenn (our old pals from Columbus) and onto a non-stop flight to Bangkok. We arrive Sunday morning and our Philly friends, Phil and Maya, will catch up with us that afternoon. Because traveling half way around the world isn't quite enough time on a plane, we'll hop a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, later that afternoon.

Things will start to slow down then. We'll spend a few days in the Siem Reap/Angkor Wat area touring the temple complexes in the area. From there we'll head to the capital, Phnom Penh. There we'll visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, more wats and see the Silver Pagoda.

After Phnom Penh, the itinerary becomes a little more vague. The plan is to head up the Mekong toward Kratie, home of the Irrawadi Dolphins, then up into Laos with the eventual goal of Vientiane, or maybe Louangphrabang. There might be a trip to Sihanoukville on the Cambodian coast before the Mekong trip, but we'll see.

After Laos it will probably be time to find a beach with good diving and tasty beverages near at hand.

We'll be back in the States just in time for the Labor Day.

Folks have been asking for updates along the way so, in what may be an exercise in naive futility, I'll be attempting to keep a record of the trip here. I can't promise updates everyday, but I'll post as frequently as possible and include pictures when possible.

Enjoy.