PHOTOS OF MALAYSIA AND THAILAND!

For those of you who haven't checked out the photo galleries in awhile, our pics of Malaysia and Thailand have now been posted here for your viewing pleasure.

We're working on Cambodia and Vietnam. Stay tuned....

BANGKOK, THAILAND

Today Chris and I bid farewell to Vietnam and flew back to our home base in Bangkok, but as our flight wasn't until 9:30 pm, I had plenty of time this morning to do more sightseeing in Hanoi. Today it was all about Ho Chi Minh, as I visited three of his houses, his tomb, and an entire museum devoted to his influence.

I started early this morning with a trip to his mausoleum, a blocky grey marble building to the west of the Old Quarter. I got there just as it opened, and there was already a line of people (many of them veterans) waiting to pay their respects. The line moved very quickly, and we were soon ushered up the stairs and into a minimalist stone chamber with a glass coffin in the center. Guards hurried us along, so there wasn't much time to gawk, but I would say that old Ho looked pretty peaceful, if a little waxy. I wondered what he would have thought of all this posthumous attention, as he had apparently requested a simple cremation! It was all over pretty quick--we were in and out of the building in only about five minutes.

I then strolled over to the Presidential Palace grounds next door. As my brochure Ho Chi Minh's Vestige in the Presidential Palace Area states: "This relic complex has become vital memories." Um, yeah. Anyway, there are actually three historic buildings here. The first is a modest single-story house where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked from 1954 to 1958, with a separate two-car garage still containing a couple of his old jalopies. The second is an even smaller wooden house-on-stilts where he resided from 1958 to 1969, famous for symbolizing his desire to live modestly and simply in traditional Vietnamese fashion. As one guidebook points out, though, it's unclear how much time he actually spent here, as it wasn't even considered as a bombing target by the U. S. during the war. The third building in the complex is the Presidential Palace itself, a huge yellow mansion that we weren't allowed into--it's actually the former Governor's Palace from French colonial days. I'm not sure if Ho ever lived there, as I couldn't find anything about it in the literature, although I can't see him only living in the stilt house. I mean, sure, it looked cozy, but that's a bit like living in a tree fort in your backyard.

Conveniently, for those who can't get enough Ho (easy now!), the Ho Chi Minh Museum is right in back of the Palace complex. The exhibits trace his life story and contributions to the nation, and illustrate various periods with photos, quotes, artifacts, and a whole range of slightly over-the-top artistic flourishes (for example, to illustrate Ho's reaction to Fascism, there's a partial scuptural rendering of Picasso's Guernica with disembodied cubist bull heads sticking out of the walls!). Again, there seemed to be a lot of veterans around--it was a little weird to be in the midst of them as we read about "America's destructive war against the North." Interesting.

HANOI, VIETNAM

Last night I got wild and decided to fork out a whopping 20,000 dong (okay, it's like $1.25) to get all cultural and catch a performance at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. According to the brochure, water puppetry is a uniquely north Vietnamese art form that dates back to the 11th Century, and was originally performed in lakes or flooded rice paddies. Today, though, there's a special theater in Hanoi with a flooded stage where the magic takes place.

It works like this: Puppeteers hiding behind screens control various wooden marionettes using long poles that extend horizontally under the water. It's kind of hard to describe, but I have to admit, it was very entertaining. Accompanying the puppets was an ensemble of seven Vietnamese folk musicians and singers, who also provided the dialogue and sound effects. The music alone was worth the price of admission, but the puppets made it even better.

The hour-long program consisted of seventeen often humorous short vignettes with such catchy titles as "Dance of the Fairies," "Rearing Ducks and Catching Foxes," "Unicorns Play with Ball," and "Returning to the Native Land After College Graduation." (Huh?) There was also a reenactment of the legend of the big sword-stealing turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake (see yesterday's entry). The range of motion that the puppets displayed was incredible, and the show employed all kinds of ingenious special effects including smoke coming up through the water, fire-breathing and water-squirting dragons, tree-climbing foxes, and phoenixes with bobbing necks.

Today I mostly took it easy and stayed at the hotel, 1) because it's reeeally hot, 2) because for some reason most of Hanoi's attractions are closed on Mondays, and 3) because venturing out on the street involves quite a risk of being run over. I did take a short walk this afternoon, though, to visit Memorial House, a restored 19th-Century residence reborn as a museum showcasing the architecture and lifestyle of the Old Quarter as it was over 100 years ago. There's not a whole lot to it, but it's a quaint little place with some interesting little nooks and crannies.

HANOI, VIETNAM

Chris flew down to Hue City today to meet up with one of his sponsored children, so I'm hangin' by myself in Hanoi for a couple of days. So far I've stuck to the Old Quarter, where I've checked out the shops and markets, dodged a lot of motorcycles, and walked around Hoan Kiem Lake. Legend states that an ancient king encountered a giant golden turtle there which took a divine sword from him and returned it to the gods (the name Huan Kiem translates to "Restored Sword Lake").

And strangely enough, there actually are giant turtles in Huan Kiem (or at least there were at one time), one of which is preserved in a big glass case at Ngoc Son Temple, which sits on a small island in the middle of the lake. There's a photogenic red wooden bridge leading to the island, which I discovered makes a pleasant place to rest on a hot day.

HANOI, VIETNAM

The third day of our tour was a little anticlimactic, as it consisted almost entirely of our return to Hanoi--first via little basket-boat, then medium-sized boat, then big boat, then a van that took us back to the city. I have to say that I did enjoy the trip on the whole, although our guide was pretty useless and had an infuriating habit of talking circles around every question we asked him without ever managing to answer it. And the food could have been better. Ah well. Perhaps the most enjoyable thing for me was hanging out with Daniel and Pia, and talking with them about everything from their industrial-coating business to politics and life in Australia vs. America. Lovely people, they are.

A word of warning: I discovered tonight in Hanoi when ordering "sausage pizza" that this could very well mean Vienna sausages. Ugh.

CAT BA ISLAND, VIETNAM

On the second day of our Halong Bay tour, I awoke at 6:30 am wondering just who had turned on the vibrating bed. It took me a minute to realize that it was just our boat's engines starting up! After enjoying the effect for a little while, I eventually got up for breakfast and then said goodbye to Laura, Greg, and the Spaniards, who had only signed up for a two-day tour. Chris, Daniel, Pia and I then transferred to a smaller boat which took us to Cat Ba, the largest island in Halong Bay, and home to Cat Ba National Park. (Tragically, the theme song from the movie Cat Ballou then lodged in my head, where it kept playing in an endless loop all day long.)

Anyway, after docking there, Pia perhaps wisely decided to stay onboard while Daniel, Chris and I followed Binh onto the island for some "light trekking," which actually turned out to be two hours of pretty rough climbing across the island through steamy jungle and over razor-sharp pitted limestone rocks. Although the island is home to all kinds of birds and animals including monkeys, hornbills, and hedgehogs, we didn't see many critters besides a few giant orb spiders, a ball millipede, and lots of colorful butterflies.

About halfway through our hike we came upon a clearing and some fruit trees, which turned out to be the homestead of an elderly couple who lived in the National Park and acted as rangers of a sort, keeping an eye out for poachers. As the woman fanned us and offered refreshments (bananas, custard apples, and bitter green tea) under their tiny shelter, Binh explained that they were both veterans. As an American, it was strange to think that the providers of such warm hospitality would have been considered "the enemy" thirty years ago. As we stumbled through the hot jungle on the second half of our cross-island hike, I couldn't help thinking how miserable conditions must have been for both sides during the long years of "The American War," as it's called here.

After meeting up with the boat again, we moored next to one of the floating houses scattered throughout the bay, which in addition to housing lots of adults, kids, and dogs, apparently also serve as fresh seafood markets--each house includes floating pens beside it filled with live sea creatures, which in this case included kingfish, mantis shrimp, crabs, clams, and some rather sad-looking cuttlefish. I swam in sympathy beside my cephalopod friends for a bit before doing some more kayaking with Chris and Binh, who showed us yet another "secret" island lagoon surrounded by peaks on all sides, accessible through an opening that's only passable at low tide--the perfect pirate hideout. We then paddled around some more islands and landed on a beach where we swam some more. From the beach, I noticed that the landscape looked just like a Chinese watercolor painting, with impossibly-shaped islands in flat shades of blue fading into the distance until they merged with the sky.

Late in the afternoon, our boat headed around the island and docked at Cat Ba Town, a ramshackle fishing port that seems to be growing quickly into a flashy resort town--there are a number of brand-new hotels, restaurants, and karaoke bars there, as well as a rather showy waterfront walk complete with dancing fountain/light show. For our second night, we're staying in one of the new hotels, which I have to admit although not as unique an experience as the boat was quite a bit more comfortable. Chris and I ventured out later for dinner, where we ran into Daniel and Pia at a local restaurant. After eating together and returning to our hotel, Pia convinced them to play There's Something About Mary on the closed-circuit movie channel, which we went back to our rooms and watched.

HALONG BAY, VIETNAM

One of the most spectacular natural sights of Vietnam is Halong Bay, a picturesque archipelago of over 3,000 mountainous islands strewn across the Gulf of Tonkin, a three-and-a-half-hour drive due east of Hanoi. Lured by all the pretty postcards, Chris and I booked a three-day, two-night tour of the bay and of nearby Cat Ba Island, which began early this morning when we were picked up at our hotel by Vega Tours and taken by minibus to Halong City. Our tour group consists of Chris, myself, and nine others: Daniel and Pia, a really warm and friendly married couple of 26 years from somewhere near Adelaide, Australia; Greg and Laura, two young students from Dublin, Ireland; and five Spaniards whose names I didn't catch. We were assigned an "English-speaking" Vietnamese guide named Binh, who more accurately speaks broken English with a stutter and a slight French accent.

On the way to the coast we drove past miles of green rice fields, punctuated by several large factories and a few of those big red communist-propaganda billboards featuring smiling industrious families, emphatic slogans, and lots of hammers and sickles. On arrival at the port of Halong City, we then boarded a big wooden boat which took us into the bay and through the maze of islands.

It really was an incredible view from the top deck as our boat motored past all those high limestone peaks, which eerily emerged from the fog one by one (for some reason, since we arrived in Vietnam yesterday there's been a misty haze over everything). The rock formations are apparently some of the world's most dramatic examples of karst topography, where limestone mountains have been eroded into strange shapes by centuries of rain and wave action (you may have seen pictures of similar mountains in Guilin, China, and Krabi, Thailand).

In addition to making the bay look like one big Roger Dean painting, all this erosion has created a number of impressive caves and grottoes on the islands. Our first stop was to visit one of these: Hang Sung Sot, or as our guide referred to it, "Surprising Cave." The "surprising" part refers to the fact that from a rather modest opening in the side of a hill, the cave opens up into three absolutely gi-normous chambers that would make Batman green with envy. In them are all sorts of stalagtites, stalagmites and other cave formations, many resembling statues of people and animals, and illuminated with colored lights. Our guide pointed out Buddhas, lions, dragons, a turtle, and well, a giant...um....okay, a giant penis. Surprising, indeed....

After touring the caverns, we then got back into the boat and again negotiated the labyrinth of islands, finally anchoring in a quiet cove among many other tour boats for the remainder of the day. We were then provided with two-man kayaks, and Chris and I paddled around a couple of the islands and through a tunnel into a "hidden" lagoon, which was pretty cool. We then paddled to nearby Titop Island, which features a tiny beach and an observation pagoda at its very peak, and climbed the gazillion or so stone steps to the top. The view from the summit was pretty incredible, I have to admit, although I must have lost a gallon or more of sweat in the climb. We then swam for a bit in the bay, which cooled things down a bit.

Back on the big boat, we then had dinner, which for some reason wasn't nearly enough food for our table! Guess we worked up an appetite with all that kayaking. Anyway, after dinner Daniel and Pia were gracious enough to share their chocolate biscuits and a big pomelo they had bought earlier in the day with Greg, Laura, Chris, and myself, and we had a good time hanging out and talking while we watched the squid boats troll the bay.

HANOI, VIETNAM

We arrived in Vietnam's capital this afternoon to find baguettes for sale everywhere and lots of little trendy cafe's playing Acid Jazz and chillout music--just like in Cambodia. All I can say is: Thank God for French colonialism!

Chris and I are staying at a small hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, a maze-like warren of narrow, crowded streets with virtually impassible sidewalks. Each street supposedly carries the Vietnamese name for the type of shops traditionally found along it: Silk Street, Basket Street, etc. I'm sure the names are no longer strictly accurate--I doubt seriously that there's an "Electronic Home Keyboard Street," although I walked past one this morning that seemed to sell only those.

Although Hanoi is a big city, there don't appear to be any skyscrapers here. Many of the houses, though, seem to be built very high but ridiculously narrow, making the city look a little bit like a cross between Amsterdam and Whoville. Adding to the Seussian effect are all sorts of strange colors and psychotic gingerbread detailing, ostentatious columns and balconies, etc. This sort of treatment usually only applies to the narrow facades of the buildings, while the sides are often windowless grey slabs of concrete, looking like they've been sheared off by some huge buzz saw. Very strange. I was told that the reason the houses are so thin and tall is that each household is usually allotted only 90 square meters of property...so they just build upward.

The other notable feature of Vietnam is its infamous traffic. As the U. S. State Department warns: "Nationwide, drivers do not follow basic traffic principles, vehicles do not yield right of way, and there is little adherence to traffic laws or enforcement by traffic police." From what I've seen so far, this does seem to be a frighteningly accurate description of Hanoi, although I will say that it somehow all seems to work for its residents. They're not shy about honking their horns, either--the State Department says they do this "for no apparent reason," although it seems to me to be a rather effective (and amusing) form of constant communication between vehicles.

The most challenging thing as a pedestrian (besides dodging motorbikes driving ON the sidewalk) is crossing a major street, which I soon learned one does NOT do by waiting for a break in the traffic (there are none), but by actually walking out into the street, staring down the dozens of motorbikes, cyclos, cars and trucks heading straight for you, and praying that they choose to swerve around you. I don't think I'm quite used to this yet....

BANGKOK, THAILAND

It was really great getting to spend quality time with family, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. So here I am in Bangkok again! Lord, this city is starting to get on my nerves.

Anyway, for the past few days Chris and I have been getting our act together for traveling to Vietnam. A number of people have warned us that out of all the SE Asian countries, it's the worst to travel around in, that sellers there can be really pushy and aggressive, and that scam artists try to rip you off left and right. Great. It should be an interesting adventure, at any rate. Stay tuned....

Oh, I went to a local dentist yesterday for a checkup and cleaning, and also had a cavity filled. It cost me about $30.

HONG KONG, CHINA

For our last day together, Mom, Mike and I spent the morning at the Hong Kong Museum of History, which despite its name is actually in Kowloon. It rather ambitiously attempts to cover the region's evolution from over 400 million years ago to the present day, and actually does a pretty good job, given that huge time frame! Naturally, the exhibits focus most closely on the past several hundred years, with a lot of interesting information about the Opium Wars, the island's cession to Britain, and the Japanese occupation during World War II.

After that, we headed to the Star Ferry Terminal, where we paid a ridiculously small fee (something like a quarter) to take a ferry across the harbor to central Hong Kong (we did so mainly for the view of the city as we crossed the harbor). Once there, we caught a cab to Times Square, which unlike its American namesake, is just a high-end shopping mall where Mike attempted to find some good deals on electronics--no luck on that front, though.

Later in the afternoon, we attempted to relive HK's colonial days by having High Tea at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was quite pleasant, especially for the restaurant's fantastic view of the city through huge glass windows. Having not quite stuffed ourselves silly, we then had dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Heaven On Earth, which in my opinion didn't quite live up to its name (in heaven you shouldn't have to watch out for bones in your chicken!), although all in all I guess it was pretty good.

HONG KONG, CHINA

Mom, Mike and I spent most of today at Ocean Park, the city's premier theme park/oceanarium (a la Sea World), set high in the hills of Hong Kong island. To get there, we had to brave long lines of tourists (unfortunately, it's summer holidays for the kids) before even catching the bus that took us to the park. Once there, mom opted for a wheelchair, which was a good idea for her because the whole place consists of steep hilly paths crowded with tourists--but a bit challenging for Mike and me pushing her around, because the whole place consists of steep hilly paths crowded with tourists! At any rate, we did get to skip to the head of the line at some of the exhibits, which was sweet.

We decided to skip the thrill rides (which didn't look all that thrilling) and instead checked out the seals and sea lions at "Pacific Pier," got completely disoriented in the "Sea Jelly Spectacular," which features lots of jellyfish tanks in a very dark hall of mirrors (I ran into walls several times), and had lunch in yet another Hong Kong restaurant with a fantastic view of the bay. We then watched divers feed the creatures at "Atoll Reef,"a giant reef tank which features lots of really mammoth fishes--stingrays, eagle rays, sawfish, leopard and reef sharks, barramundi, giant groupers, etc.--before taking a skyride gondola down to the lower part of the park, where we observed their two giant pandas, An An and Jia Jia, munching on bamboo. Heh. Pandas are funny.

All of that made for a pretty exhausting day, but of course we couldn't miss the complimentary evening cocktails at our hotel. Mmm, cocktails. Afterwards, we walked to the "Avenue of Stars" again; this time to see the nightly sound and light show where the buildings of the city are lit up with lasers and spotlights and whatnot. Very sci-fi. On the promenade, Mom and Mike were surprised to run into a bunch of people from their mainland China tour group. Small world, eh? Then we headed to dinner at an Indian restaurant featuring live music and some pretty bitchin' chicken tikka masala.

HONG KONG, CHINA

Today is Mike's birthday, dontcha know. Which of course means: Shopping for electronics! So the three of us set out this morning for a street market specializing in all kinds of stuff you plug in, including phones, stereos, speakers, and various audio cables--a big open-air Radio Shack, basically. Anyway, he didn't find any suitable birthday gifts there, so we headed to the nearby "Ladies' Market," where mom picked up a couple of silk scarves (not for Mike!). I helped her haggle.

At the birthday boy's suggestion, we then hit one of HK's major tourist draws, the Peak Tram. It's a very steep incline railway, in operation since the 1880s, that shuttles people up to the top of Victoria Peak. At the top there are shops and restaurants, and a great panoramic view down on the city and harbor. After having lunch and taking some snaps, we then headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.

Later, we had complimentary cocktails in the hotel bar, and then took a cab to an uber-trendy high-rise restaurant called Aqua that Mike had chosen for his birthday dinner. Tragedy struck early in the evening, though, when Mike immediately realized that his cell phone was missing. He quickly deduced that it must have fallen out of his pocket in the taxi when he paid the driver--D'oh!! Unfortunately, there was no way for us to track down the cab, and since his phone didn't work in Hong Kong, he couldn't call it to notify anyone that it was his. Kind of a bummer to deal with during your birthday dinner, eh?

Anyway, the food was good, and the view of the city skyline from our table was amazing. During dinner I gave Mike one of his birthday presents--a baby cobra preserved in a bottle of whiskey that I picked up in Laos (no one should be without one)--and later bought him a Faye Wong DVD at the HMV down the street.

HONG KONG, CHINA

That's right; I've taken a little detour from our Southeast Asian tour in order to meet up with my mom and brother for four days in Hong Kong--they've just completed a two-week tour of mainland China.

So today I took a two-hour flight from Bangkok on China Airlines (their food sucks, BTW) and met mom and Mike at the supermodern Hong Kong airport. We then took the Airport Express Train to Kowloon (the part of the city just across the harbor from Hong Kong island) and caught a free shuttle bus to the Kowloon Hotel where we'll be staying. I have to say, after seven months of cheap backpacker hostels, it's quite a welcome change to be sharing a posh suite on the 18th floor, with an amazing bird's-eye view of the city, and all sorts of perks like a free breakfast buffet, big fluffy towels, and complimentary cocktails! Ah, the high life--I could definitely get used to this....

After dinner at the hotel and some catching up, mom stayed in while Mike and I walked the block or so to the harborfront to check out the Hong Kong skyline, which might very well be the most spectacular of any city I've seen so far. Hundreds of tall high-rise buildings stair-step from the harbor up into the high hills behind the city, and at night are all lit up in different colors, many of them flashing changing patterns which reflect in the harbor. It's quite impressive.

The waterfront promenade we walked along was the "Avenue of Stars," Hong Kong's answer to Hollywood Boulevard, which features the names of famous Chinese film stars in the pavement, along with their gold stars and in some cases, handprints. There were a lot of names I didn't know, of course, but I did recognize some big names like Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, and of course Bruce Lee. There's also a cool larger-than-life bronze statue of Bruce Lee there in full badass Kung-Fu stance, which of course we had to take pictures of.

BANGKOK, THAILAND

Well, after taking the bus from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh on Friday ('cause it's much cheaper to fly from PP) and returning to Bangkok yesterday, now I'm a little bummed. I was really looking forward to meeting up with my good friend Bill Moore from Washington, D.C., who was supposed to stop in Bangkok today on his way to Laos. Unfortunately, he had to cancel his flight due to the British airline terror threat, which made his Heathrow connection most likely impossible. (Hopefully he'll be able to reschedule soon and we can still meet up somewhere in Asia....)

Man, terrorists suck.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

It's our last day at Angkor, and there are still dozens of temples we haven't even seen! I guess it would take a week or more to visit every one of them, and much longer to fully explore them all. To be honest, I would have been perfectly happy returning to some of the temples we've already visited--Angkor Wat, the Bayon, and Ta Prohm, especially. But instead, Chris and I decided to go a little farther afield today to visit two sites some distance from Angkor: Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean.

Banteay Srei is a small temple about 20 kilometers north of Angkor. It's built on a much smaller scale than most of the temples there, so it didn't take long to walk around and see it all. But unlike the other temples we've seen, virtually every surface of the structures is covered with intricate bas-relief carvings and decorations, most of which are still in pretty good shape. Its small size and delicate ornamentation has led to the legend that the temple must have been designed and built by a woman (it wasn't). It was quite beautiful, though, regardless.

After walking around Banteay Srei for about a half-hour, we then braced ourselves for a jarring one-hour tuk-tuk ride over deeply rutted dirt roads north to Kbal Spean, the "River of a Thousand Lingas." What's a linga, you ask? Well, it's a stone... um... phallic symbol that was worshipped by some of the ancient Khmers. There are lots of them scattered around the temples at Angkor, but what makes this site unique is that there are scores of them carved into the riverbed itself. The idea was that the lingas would "bless" the water as it flowed over them in the mountain stream and into the river that leads to Angkor. The site, which wasn't even discovered until 1968(!) is a good 40-minute hike up a mountain trail. We made sure not to stray from the path, as there are still land mines in the area. Yikes.

In addition to the lingas, there are images of Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma carved into the river rocks, as well as figures of animals, including a frog and a crocodile. Many of the carvings were hard to see at first, as they blend into the color and shape of the boulders, and some are partially submerged in the river. Unfortunately, like many of the sculptures at Angkor, some of the figures at Kbal Spean have been defaced in recent years by "poachers" who have hacked off the heads (and sometimes the entire carvings) in order to sell them on the black market. It's a real travesty, because of course it totally ruins the sculptures. Still, despite some missing pieces, it remains a beautiful place in a peaceful natural setting. Adding to the scenery is a nice waterfall just below some of the carvings that's apparently become popular with the locals for swimming and picnicking.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

Another day at Angkor, another round of temples--this time we decided to follow the "grand tour" circuit, which covers a larger area and includes more sites than the "small tour" we took yesterday. And like yesterday, it was hot as blazes. Chris and I were soaked with sweat before we entered the first temple, and by the end of the day our legs were aching from walking up and down lots of steep stone staircases. Still, it was worth it for the sights, which again were really impressive. Here's a brief rundown of the places we visited:

Preah Khan: A huge temple of countless long passages and doorways (watch your step!) which once housed an entire Buddhist university. At the entrance are a couple of imposing garuda statues (mythical half-bird, half-human creatures).

Neak Pean: This is an interesting cross-shaped arrangement of five square ponds (now dry). At the center of the large pond in the middle is a circular island with a tall sanctuary tower. At one time, water could be poured from the central pond into channels that would flow into the four smaller ponds through spouts in the shape of four heads: a man's, a lion's, a horse's, and an elephant's. Walking around the place, I was really wishing they had restored this to create a swimming pool, as I really could have used a cool-down.

Ta Som: A small temple of three concentric enclosures; nothing too special, although there are a couple of big faces and a fig tree spilling over one of the outer walls.

East Mebon: This wide, square temple is set impressively high on a raised platform--it's so tall because originally it was an island in the middle of a large moat. There are cool elephant sculptures facing outward from each corner of it, and from the top there's a nice view of the surrounding rice paddies.

Pre Rup: Even taller than the last one, this mountainous structure once was the state temple at the center of a city. We arrived here just before sunset, which apparently is the right time to visit, because there were dozens of people camped out at the top facing westward (and just as many souvenir-sellers hawking T-shirts, guidebooks, and beer). Sure enough, it made for a good sunset spot, as it's above the surrounding trees, and the light from the setting sun made the brick towers glow a luminous orange.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

The reason people come to Siem Reap is to see Cambodia's most famous landmarks, the temples at Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 A.D. The temples, which number over 100, are widely considered to be one of mankind's greatest architectural achievements, and make up the largest collection of religious structures in the world. Many of them had been forgotten for centuries and covered over by jungle, and were only "discovered" by westerners in the 1800s.

This morning, at the ungodly hour of 5 am, we hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day and set out to see as many of them as we could. We started so early in order to get a sunrise view of the largest and most famous temple: Angkor Wat. It's a huge stone pyramid on several levels surrounded by a massive moat, with five large towers at its center (symbolizing the five peaks of Mt. Meru, home of the Hindu gods), with a long stone causeway leading up to it. It really is a spectacular place, especially at daybreak, when the towers and the morning sky reflect in the two lotus ponds in front of the temple. After taking some photos of the towers, I spent some time exploring the inner courtyards, then walked along the incredible bas-relief sculptures that cover the four outer galleries. Most of these show events from Hindu epics--the most famous scene is the "Churning of the Sea of Milk," depicting the gods and demons in a tug-of-war, pulling on a giant naga (many-headed serpent) that in turn moves a mountain, stirring the cosmic sea to create the elixir of immortality.

After an hour or so at Angkor Wat, our driver then dropped us off a various other sites on the "small tour" of Angkor, a circuit that includes the most famous temples in the area. We saw so much that I can't properly describe them all, but here at least are their names and a few distinguishing characteristics:

Angkor Thom: Not a temple per se, but an entire walled city of nine square kilometers that includes several major temple sites, three of which are listed below. There are four large gates in the wall; we entered through the South Gate, which features a giant face on each side and an avenue of statues lining the road leading up to it.

The Bayon: This was the state temple of king Jayavarman VII, and is famous for being "the temple with all the faces." There are 37 towers in the temple, all featuring huge enigmatically-smiling faces staring out from several sides, which are thought to represent a combination of the king's features and those of the Buddha himself. It was a little eerie to walk around the temple ruins, because wherever I stood, I was being stared at, usually from several directions! For that reason, this was one of my favorites--and maybe also because it reminds me of Disney's Jungle Cruise, which replicates these same stone faces.

Baphuon: A five-tiered pyramid set within a long enclosure, partially ruined, and at one time probably pretty impressive. An interesting story here: The French had set out to restore this temple back in the '60s, and had proceeded to more or less completely dismantle it stone by stone in order to shore up the collapsing inner foundation. Of course, they numbered all the stones and created maps of where they went so they all could be put back together properly. But when the Khmer Rouge took over the government in the '70s, they destroyed the records which showed which stone went where! So now it's basically the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle, and they're still in the process of figuring out how to put it all back together. There are thousands of numbered blocks strewn all around the grounds of the temple, which truthfully still looks like a big mess.

Phimeanakas: This was the royal palace of Suryavarman I. Like most of the temples in the area, it was at one time the center of its own city, but since only the temples were constructed of stone, none of the other city buildings have survived.

The Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King: These are two long terraces with carvings on their side, and were the foundations for royal reception pavilions. The Elephant Terrace features dozens of cool sculptures of (what else?) elephants.

After a full morning of climbing temples in the brutal heat, Chris and I opted to head back into town for lunch and to rest for a few hours at our hotel before we could even think of continuing. Around 3 pm, we headed back to Angkor (only about 10 minutes from our guesthouse) and finished the "small tour," stopping at:

Prasat Kravan: A 10th-century temple consisting of five brick sanctuaries in a row, with unique brick bas-relief sculptures of Hindu gods inside each.

Banteay Kdei: A large temple consisting of a series of enclosures, mostly ruined.

Srah Srang: Translated as "Royal Bath," or as our driver called it, "the king's swimming pool," this is a large rectangular man-made lake with a stone landing stage at the west end.

Ta Keo: A "temple mountain" construction of five high sandstone towers, abandoned before it was finished.

Ta Prohm: This was probably my favorite temple, as it was chosen to be left in its "natural" state. In other words, it hasn't been renovated at all, and it appears much as it did when it was rediscovered by 19th-century explorers, with impressively large silk-cotton and strangler fig trees growing through its mossy ruins. Adding to its wild atmosphere were large flocks of squawking parrots in the trees, making all kinds of jungle-movie noises. Oh, and speaking of jungle movies, scenes from the movie Tomb Raider were filmed here. (Also that movie about the two tiger cubs, but who saw that?)

Whew, them's a lot of temples! And we had purchased three-day park passes, so I'm sure we'll be seeing a few more. It was really tiring exploring all of the above today, but I have to say it was worth it--they are all stunningly beautiful, even the ones that are in ruins. And each temple is completely different from the others, so it seemes like there was always something new and interesting to see.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

Today we traveled by a so-called "fast boat" from Phnom Penh north to Siem Reap along the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. Actually, it's sort of a combination lake/river that during the rainy season expands to five times its normal size and, bizarrely, reverses direction! At times along our six-hour journey it was fairly narrow river, but at other times, you could barely see the shore on either side. It was a nice sunny day, which made for a fairly pleasant ride--for part of the trip, I sat on the roof of the boat, where a number of people were sunbathing as they watched the water buffaloes pass by. Most of our journey was through rural areas, with lots of small farms and houses on stilts, but as we neared Siem Reap, we passed through an entire "water village" of houseboats, which was kind of neat.

On arrival, we caught a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse, the Shadow of Angkor, which I had picked out of the Lonely Planet guide. It's in the Psar Chaa area of Siem Reap, near the old market, and across from the small river that runs through town.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

This morning Chris and I made another obligatory stop on what a woman we met in Fiji half-jokingly referred to as the "Southeast Asian tour of death and destruction": Namely, the Killing Fields of Cheung Ek,15 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, and one of Cambodia's most famous (or infamous) tourist attractions. This is the place where over 17,000 civilians were killed by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime (1975-79), many of them transported here after being held and tortured at Tuol Sleng (see yesterday's entry). It was made famous in the film The Killing Fields, which if you haven't seen, you should run right out to Blockbuster and rent right now. That's okay, I'll wait.....

Anyway, as you might imagine, it's a rather disturbing place. At the entrance to the site is a 17-story monument to the victims, featuring glass walls that hold 8,000 human skulls exhumed from some of the mass graves. Chilling, to be sure, but not as much as the mass graves themselves, dozens of partially filled-in pits covered with grass and marked with signs detailing the number of bodies found in each (usually in the hundreds). One of the most disturbing moments was when I noticed that there were pieces of human bone, teeth, and bits of clothing poking up through the dirt everywhere, including the paths we were walking on! There are so many remains here that it's impossible to account for all of them, and in fact many of the mass graves haven't been exhumed, and are being left as-is. At any rate, all the exposed bones brought home the fact that this was the location of a very real, and very recent, horror.

After paying our respects to the dead, we headed back into town and had our tuk-tuk driver drop us off at the National Museum, a smart-looking red building consisting of four open-air galleries surrounding a central courtyard of palm trees and lotus ponds. Most of the treasures contained in the galleries are sculptures and small stone and metal artifacts from Cambodia's long history, including many from the famed Angkor period. Lots of Buddhas and Shivas, elephants and such.

Chris and I then walked a block or so to have lunch at a cool tapas eatery called Friends, which has a really interesting concept: It's a restaurant that hires former street kids and trains them for the service industry as servers and chefs. The kids, mostly young teens, were really professional, and the food was great--we stuffed ourselves on a whole slew of tasty dishes including honey garlic meatballs, roasted chicken with mangoes, and sweet potato fries with curry mayonnaise. Really good stuff!

Our third attraction of the day (not counting the restaurant) was Cambodia's Royal Palace, which in a lot of ways is similar to Thailand's Royal Palace--from the courtyards, murals, and ornate halls right down to their own version of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha! This palace is beautiful in its own right, though, and perhaps its most outstanding feature is the so-called Silver Pagoda, which is covered in silver floor tiles and lined with cases holding hundreds of small Buddha sculptures.

Cambodia Fun Facts:

• Money is a little confusing here, because they use both the Cambodian riel and the American dollar. A lot of times you pay for things in dollars, and they give you change in riel (apparently they don't use American coins, just bills). But one place gave me my change in Thai baht!
• Almost every car in Cambodia is either a Corolla or a Camry. I feel right at home here! :-)

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

Today began very early (4 am) with another early-morning trip to Bangkok International Airport, another cheapie Air Asia flight, and another country added to the roster! Our flight this morning to Cambodia's capital only took about an hour, and on arrival, Chris and I were immediately herded onto the back of two motorcycle taxis (motos) for our ride into town.

I have to say, seeing Phnom Pehn from the back of a motorbike was certainly an entertaining experience, if at times a little hair-raising! At first I was excited to see that they actually drive on the right-hand side here, but I soon realized that this is more of a suggestion than an actual rule--in practice it's anything goes, with hundreds of people on motorcycles, bicycles, tuk-tuks, cars, and trucks darting every which way, regardless of supposed rights-of-way and indeed, traffic signals! Fun stuff.

Adding to the fun was the fact that during the entire ride our moto drivers were constantly trying to take us somewhere we didn't want to go! I had already told my driver to take us to Boeng Kak, a lakefront area featuring a number of budget guesthouses built on stilts over the lake, but he repeatedly tried to talk me out of it, saying that 1) it's much nicer elsewhere, 2) the lake is flooding, and 3) the area is swarming with mosquitoes. None of which are true, by the way--he was just trying to get us to stay somewhere that offered him a commission! Sheesh. Anyway, in the end we stood firm and made it to our lakeside guesthouse by noon.

After lunch, Chris decided to stay in and rest, while I opted to take another moto across town to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum--sounds cheery, I know, but given the bloody nature of Cambodia's recent history, I thought I should pay a visit. The location is actually an old high school that was used by Pol Pot's regime as a Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture facility. Almost all of the thousands of suspected "traitors to the revolution" that passed through Tuol Sleng--men, women, and children--were then sent to the nearby "killing fields" for extermination (if they hadn't already died at Tuol Sleng).

It was really chilling to walk through classrooms that had been converted into torture chambers. Many were now empty except for the rusty iron beds that the prisoners were strapped to, and the shackles that restrained them. On the walls were photographs of the rooms as they were found by the Vietnamese when they liberated Tuol Sleng, with horrifically tortured corpses splayed out across the beds--the victims that were found dead in these rooms are now buried in the courtyard. Other rooms of the museum displayed some of the thousands of photographs of prisoners taken during their processing, and written accounts of people who had lost loved ones at Tuol Sleng.

After that sobering experience, I could really use a bit of a cheering-up. Luckily, Chris and I had eaten lunch at The Lazy Gecko, a local English restaurant run by Australians that's apparently also very community-service-oriented. Every Saturday night they provide free transportation to a local orphanage, where the kids perform traditional Khmer dances and serve dinner to visitors (who presumably donate some money in return). It sounded like just the ticket, so we piled in the van and headed there, along with an Australian guy named "Skinny" who's been living here for a few months.

As Chris has detailed in his journal, the kids at the orphanage were great--very happy, polite, fun, and friendly, and most of them spoke English really well, too. (Just like in Annie!) The traditional music and dance performances were really quite impressive, the food wasn't bad, and the "after party" hip-hop dancing with the kids was a lot of fun, too. I will say that I'm not sure how appropriate "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas is for ten-year-olds, but what the heck. Hangin' with the orphans--now that's a Saturday night!

Oh, and after we got back to the guesthouse, Chris bought a pirated DVD of Poseidon (only $3!), which we watched on his laptop. Mmm, cheesy!

BANGKOK, THAILAND

Books I've read in the past three weeks:

Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould: A (mostly) interesting collection of essays about science, or more accurately, scientists and their various discoveries, with an emphasis on the prejudices that shaped their views. Gould delights in dismantling well-held myths about these famous figures (DaVinci, Darwin, etc.) and their revelations, but sometimes comes across as a nitpicker who's trying a little too hard to prove his points.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon: A fantastic (and short!) novel narrated by an autistic-savant English teen who sets out to solve the mystery of his neighbor's dog's murder. It won the 2003 Whitbread "Book of the Year" prize, and rightly so.

Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee: Okay, this one isn't one of his best. Clarke was obviously trying to write a "fast-paced modern thriller," rather than his usual high-concept sci-fi novel, and it comes off like an old episode of Miami Vice, complete with '80s cliches and cheesy dialogue. Actually, the one interesting thing about this book for me is that it's set in South Florida, so there are all kinds of familiar references (including a minor character who plays football for the Gators. Go Gators!).

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner: Faulkner is an American genius, and a brilliant writer. And there's some really great stuff in this collection of short stories. That being said, sometimes I wanted to throw this book into the Gulf of Thailand, because his prose can be virtually impenetrable at times. (Then again, maybe I'm just a little slow.) Also, it would have been really helpful if he included a family tree of all the characters, since there's a lot of them, they're all related, and the book spans a good hundred or so years!

BANGKOK, THAILAND

Thanks for all the get-well wishes, people! I'm feeling much better now, although it's taking awhile to fully regain my appetite. At any rate, it's not SARS or Bird Flu or Malaria or Dengue Fever, so stop worrying, mom! :-) Oh, and Chris is recovering too--he came down with a milder version of what I had (and about 10 other people we talked to on our street in Chiang Mai had contracted the same bug as well!).

Anyway, now we're back in beautiful Bangers, getting a lot of trip-planning business out of the way before heading to our next destination: Cambodia. We've managed to obtain visas for China and India with the help of a travel agency, and are now in the process of changing the dates on some of the airline tickets we've already purchased. (Fun stuff, I know.) On Tuesday we said goodbye to Kyle, who had to fly back to his home in Hawaii and his life as a surfer dude. It was a lot of fun traveling with him for a few weeks--I'll miss ya, man!