Hey, Everybody. Thanks for the great feedback on this TravelBlog. I have a new one up that I'll be using in the future. I have moved most of this content over to the new site, and I'll be adding more as soon as I move the comments and stop messing around with the javascript. I'm also thinking of digging back through my journals and scanning some photos of previous trips to create online travelogues of those trips.

Anyway, check out the new site at:

www.jaywye.com

Jason

I made it home. I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep in the last 48, so I'm well rested. The trip was good. I'll probably post some follow-up entries in the next week or so, as well as some photos. The mini-bus trip to the Cambodian border with Thailand was interesting and I should have a couple of good photos of that if nothing else. I'd also like to go back and and add an entry about my last day in Bangkok (the third day of the trip).

Thanks for reading. I'll talk to many of you in the next few days.

Jason

I'm on my way home. There's a long bus ride to the border then to Bangkok. Then there's a long series of flights, so I'll be moving for 40-some hours. I'll send out another post once I get home, which should be Saturday afternoon at your GMT - 5.00. Thanks for reading.

Adam (and any other motorcycle people who are lurking), look into the Honda Africa Twin, or the Suzuki DR 800 or DR 350. I think the two bigger ones don't get imported into the US, but the DR 350 with a bigger tank, saddle bags and a better seat might be sweet for South America. There were times the last few days when going through rough dirt and rocks or through sand, when I was glad to have a light-weight bike. It would be great to go on a trip with you. The DR 350 is supposed to be a rock-solid engine. It needs more research.

I'll see you all soon.

Jason

PS. I am in no way superstitious, but if you are never name a motorcycle "La Poderosa." Yesterday, I lost all electrical on it and had to roll-start it to get back from nowhere. An old rice farmer helped push. They had bypassed the main fuse with some strands of wire which of course came loose.

I've updated this entry and the one about Angkor, and added a bunch of photos to both of them.

I'm in Sihanoukville now. For the last couple of days, I've been cruising around the coast of Cambodia on La Poderosa.

I just got to Kampot in southern Cambodia last night and I went on a trip up to Bokor today. Bokor is an abandoned resort and casino on top of a mountain. It was built by the French during the colonial period here and abandoned as they left in 1972 due to the Khmer Rouge taking over the country. But that's not what I want to talk about.

I spent three days in Siem Reap touring the ruins of the Angkor temple complexes. Angor Wat is the most famous of these, but there are dozens of ruins in the area. Maybe my favorite part was going to Angkor Wat before the sunrise. It was my first day and I hadn't seen it in the light. Walking up to it at 5am with the stars overhead was very impressive. Walking around inside in the dark not knowing the layout of the place was exceptional. The sunset from a nearby hill was no slouch either.

This will be brief. I'm in Siem Reap, the town near Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I've been touring around ruins for a couple of days and I'm beat. Yesterday was the best day of the trip by far. The place has been amazing. I'll write about it later. Tomorrow, I'm headed back to Phnom Penh and will then take a bus or maybe a train to the coast of Cambodia, either Kampot or Sihanoukville. I'll put up a post about the last couple of days soon. I need to get better access to the Internet and relearn how to use a keyboad.

Today I was feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, everything is closed on Mondays so I wasn't able to see Uncle Ho's pickled corpse or his house or museum. I'm flying to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. I ran into an Australian named Rich and his Fiancee Kish who gave me some good info on motorbiking around the south of Cambodia, so I'm out of here.

Tonight I went to see a water puppet show. It's an old art form unique to Vietnam. It was really good. The stage is a pool with a screen behind it. The puppets are controlled by long underwater poles from behind the screen. Some of the puppets have fireworks built into them so they spit sparks and smoke. The music was really good as well with some interesting instruments.

I've been in Hanoi for two days. I'm still suffering from a minor case of Ho Chi Minh's Revenge. You've got two choices during a trip of over a couple of weeks: avoid eating or drinking anything that seems remotely dangerous and get sick after 2 weeks, or eat whatever you want and get sick after a week and a half.

Today I went to an Italian place that my guidebook suggested and the neighbor said it closed 6 years ago. I went to another Italian place that managed to make lasagna with bread in it and no sauce. It's hard with my current lack of appetite to eat the volume of Vietnamese food that I need right now.

Hanoi is a little crazy. Imagine a city of a billion people. All of them are in the streets or on the sidewalk. All of them are either offering you a ride on their motorbike, offering to sell you their motorbike, or offering to run you over with their motorbike. The sidewalks are filled with parked motorbikes, so you have to walk in the streets. Look five ways before you cross the street and keep your head on a swivel while you're crossing. Don't move quickly, stop, or change speed suddenly because then your motion is unpredictable and the river of motorbikes won't be able to change their vector to avoid yours. Nobody checks their mirrors unless they hear a horn, so everybody honks all the time.

What ever happened to the idea that it's hot in Vietnam. It's cold and damp here now. I wish I brought my long underwear and an electric blanket. Plugging an American electric blanket into the 220 volt outlets here could be heartwarming.

I've been looking into a five day motorcycle ride through the northwest, but I'm not up for it right now. I'm going to head to Halong bay on an organized two-day tour because it's beautiful there and I'm feeling lazy. After that, I'm getting out of here as soon as I can. I'll probably fly to Phnom Penh. I'll take more pictures of the craziness tomorrow.

I've made it to Hanoi on a French airplane. I flew Lao Airlines and there were no Chinese YUN-12s in sight. Maybe the last of them exploded in mid-air. I was feeling under the weather today. I definitely didn't enjoy the hour-long mini-bus trip from the airport to the City. Try explaining in Vietnamese that you might have to ask them to stop in the middle of the highway for a biological event. There were some twisted charades that caused real animation in my fellow passengers. In any case, it's the first time I've had any trouble here at all and the people were very concerned and helpful.

For the last couple of days, I've been in hotels with English language television. I'm really just now getting the scope of the devastation in Thailand and elsewhere. When I arrived, I made the somewhat arbitrary decision to go north first instead of south. It looks like once again my bread hit the floor butter side up. Thanks for all of your concern and support, I'm blown away.

Traveling from Chang Khong Thailand to Luang Prabang is a river trip on the Mekong. There are two choices: a leisurely journey of two days spent enjoying the quiet serenity of the Mekong River and wishing there was a bathroom onboard the "slow boat" or six hours spent on a "fast boat" enjoying the very loud serenity of the Mekong River while crammed into a very small space with seven other cadets going 70 km per hour wishing that the strap on your helmet wasn't broken so you didn't have to hold it onto your head the whole time. You can imagine which one I chose.