Whattup, y'all! Shouts out to my people making their rounds in SE Asia. Shouts out to my peeps back home. I love you all!

Hayden wanted to have a (drunken) contest to see who could fashion the best bush-dress. Who gets the vote?

All right, all right, all right...I am in a much better mood now (not that I was in a bad one before, just not as good) having arrived via aeroplane in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's surpririsingly clean and beautiful capital city. The last three days were spent in Ban Lung, a small dusty bunghole of a village in the Ratakanari province of NE Cambodia. I say damn, homey, I have never inhaled so much dust in my life over the course of three days. Every chance I would get in the bathroom, I would give myself a thorough nasal "douche," sucking water from my cupped hands up into my sinuses and then violently blowing out strings of dark, dust-infused mucus. Nasty, I know, but I don't want that shit up in there!

I walk this lonely path...to the beer garden.

A nice place to chill near the largest waterfall in SE Asia.

As usual, I am going to rewind a couple weeks to where I left off in Vientiane. We took about a ten hour bus ride down to Pakse, and then immediately hired another bus to take us to the backpackers' island of Don Det. Of course, the second bus was shit and had to break down halfway through the trip, but eventually we arrived to our intended destination. Man, I tell you, that region is stunning! Simply marveous. As I had mentioned in a previous entry, Don Det is a southern island in an area called Si Phan Don (4,000 Islands). During the dry season (now), the Mekong River subsides several meters, exposing thousands of "islands" alongside the large ones that remain year-round. The whole place is lush and green, and the river is teeming with aquatic life, inculding several species of fish, mollusks, shrimp, crab, and insects. It was a welcome change from the drier areas I had previously experienced in Nothern Thailand and Central Laos.

I rented a traditional Loa canoe in order to explore the area. I didn't get to far as these things are hard to control and the river flows every-which-way, but the scenery was still lovely.

I did manage to make it to one other island via canoe. Not much there besides fire ants and huts like this one.

This little bastard is not as cute as he looks (the monkey, damn it, not me!)

See? Bad monkey!

Don Det itslelf is none-to-large, with few amenities. Accomodation at present is limited to bungalows, though as the popularity of the isalnd increases, this may inevitably change over the next few years. We stayed in a great little place with only four bungalows on the west (sunset) side of the island. The queerest thing of all was the menu at our restaurant. Got a hangover? No problem! Have the "Hangover Bruch." Let's see...eggs, toast, jam, fruit, 500 mg paracetomol, 10 mg Valium, Pepsi...but of course, the perfect cure for a night of hard drinking! Also available in "happy." Other oddities on the menu include roasted elephant ($65 USD), joints, spliffs, and yes, Lao bridesmaids and a best man available for a meager $25 USD each. Anything's possible in SE Asia!

Ben of Jersey...wil ya hurry it up and get out of the way so I can get a shot of the region?

The Lao National Men's Volleyball team. Game on?

I spent much of the time particpating in outdoor activities (duh) including a day of rock climbing (well, sort of), canoing, and tubing. Also, there were two very impressive waterfalls nearby that I got to visit, soaking my body in the lovely pools nearby after marvelling at the grandeur of the falls. I engaged in plenty of exercise and got to pass on some of my wisdom on the subject to a bright, receptive young man by the name of Ben Davies, from the island of Jersey in England. Ben, who I met in Pai, seemed quite eager to develop a strong, functonal physique, and I was quite eager to oblige by showing him one path. We even went through one of my favorite CrossFit routines, "Chelsea," at our bungalow's restaurant. Joining us for this session was one crazy mofo named Hayden, one-half of a whacky duo (the other half being Stu, another wicked fellow whose origin in my life is definitely a story on it's own) that I spent some time with on Don Det. Folks at home, would you like to give Chelsea a shot? All you need is a pull-up bar (or tree branch, beam, monkey bars, etc.), clock, and cajones to go through with it. The exericises are simple-- you do 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats (adjust the numbers based on your fitness levels; they are there to give you an idea of proper ratios). Every minute, on the minute, you bast through these. 20 minutes is the minimum I shoot for, but 30 is damn impressive. Just give it a shot.

5 minutes into Chelsea...damn I usually only last 2 with a woman. Bunk!

The pig makes you big, brah! You do know that pork is rich in creatine monohydrate, right? Too bad this one was mostly fat and little meat!

Nightfall eventually brought most visitors to the campfire, where drinking and singing ensued.

Stu and his awesome ponytail. He's the first guy I've met to start his day at 7:00 AM with Valium washed down with a bottle of whiskey (not habitually, it just happened once so far, I think...I hope). I came back from a boat trip that day and obliged his request to hold his hand as he sat completely out of it on the beach.

Well, after so many days on the island, I was eager to get to Cambodia. From the border, we hired a SPEEDboat to take us down the Mekong to Stung Treng, the first sort of travel hub you'll reach from Laos. Five of us decided to take a trip off the beaten path to Ban Lung the dust-pit I described earlier. The only real highlight here was a volcanic lake, not unlike Crater Lake in Oregon, where we could laze around for a day and swim in the warm, crystal water. This has got to be the cleanest lake I have ever seen! Once again we had a nice, semi-intense workout, which I am feeling today (this was yesterday) accompanied by plenty of swimming.

Ben, Seamus, myself, and Stefano...bring the dust!

The lake that lured us to Ban Lung.

Khmer youth. I am extremely impressed at the physical fitness of the people in SE Asia. A combination of active lifestyle and clean diet produces this...simpe formula, no? Hey, Western world, wake up!

Since the trip to Ban Lung (via taxi) was so hellish, we decided to fly out of Ban Lung to Phnom Penh for a mere $50. It takes two days to get here by auto anyway, so the amount of money spent overall is about the same, plus the comfort level is significantly increased.

Hey, it looks safe enough, right?

So, here I am, sitting in an internet cafe along the river. I really am impressed at the cleanliness of this city. It's hard to believe that it went through so much pain not so long ago. I am eager to visit a couple museums tomorrow to educate me further on the atrocities committed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. I'll make sure to take plenty of photos and post them before I head out of here to my next destinition (either Sihanoukville or Siem Reap). I also intend on visiting the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda...I won't reveal anything about it yet, I'd prefer to do this through photographs. Duty calls...thank you once again for reading. Curtis, you're my manz, homey. I got something special for you in Laos. Peace out to all y'all bad mamma-jammas following along with me!!! Let's keep it real.

You can buy a bird and free it to acquire good karma. But damn, lady, that scowl is scaring me!

The Royal Palace...tomorrow, I will enter its realm.

My new favorite accent to listen to is Italian. Thanks Stefano! We'll be kicking it on that beach in Italy in a couple years fo' sho'!

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King Jr.