Motorbike Sir?

Well I am back in Bangkok. When I left this town a good 3 months ago, this was the last place I thought I would come back to. But now that I have been here a week, I am glad that I did.

My first impressions of Bangkok back in July were a bit mixed. I loved the food, the people, and the energy of the place but I agreed to a certain extent with some of the common complaints noted by most travelers – the noise, pollution, traffic, and urban sprawl were a bit out of control. When I look upon the city now, with eyes that have seen a fair bit of SE Asia, I find the city amazing. I think that when many travelers first get to Bangkok, it is not what they came to this part of the world to find. I think they come here to see a non-western lifestyle coupled with amazing scenery, whether that be a small hill-tribe village or a pristine, white-sand beach. Without taking time to thoroughly explore the city (as probably most travelers don’t, choosing instead to limit themselves to the backpacker zone of Kao Sahn Road), they miss out on some interesting stuff. I am not trying to be condescending of other travel styles or itineraries (with a time limit I would probably roll out of town as soon as my plane landed), I just wish more people would give Bangkok a chance.
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First here is a brief recount of my visit to Angkor:

Our first day, Darren and I hired out moto drivers to take us to a temple about 60 km away called Beng Mealea, which is not apart of the normal temple circuit. Beng Mealea was a great introduction to the temples here. Because it is so far away from Siam Reap, it gets almost no visitors. It is also completely swallowed by the jungle, with a good portion of the temple structures having collapsed. Trees grow out of rocks and visitors are allowed to climb around at will. All around us birds and insects made a considerable racket as I nearly walked through a massive spider web with a five inch spider relaxing in the center. Another time I saw a three foot snake slither away as I approached. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died after taking 5 pictures, so I only got a few shots.
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One of the more popular destinations in SE Asia is the temples of Angkor in Siam Reap. From the 9th – 12th centuries, a sizable civilization flourished in Cambodia which at its height, controlled parts of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. For the past four days, I have been exploring some of the temples in the area. I must say that this place has lived up to its reputation – I have been completely amazed.

Over the course of 4 days, I took around 300 pictures with my digital camera, what follows are some of the better ones. A moto driver told me today that there are 270 temples dating from the Angkor period, I visited around 20 that are in different states of deterioration. Some of the better preserved temples, such as Angkor Wat, are great to see, but some of my favorite temples were the ones that had been consumed by the jungle. For those of you who saw Tomb Raider, portions of the movie were filmed in some of the temples here.

I checked out the temples with an American from Idaho, Darren, who was just as into the temples as I was. We saw some great things, I hope you enjoy the pics.

Bayon Temple
Me at the Bayon
Gate to Angkor Thom
Relaxing in between temple visits
Tree roots
Tree at Ta Prom
Massive tree
Roots emerge from walls
Wall carvings
Another wall carving
Dragon Carving
Incredible tree
Temple guardians
Angkor Wat courtyard
Angkor Wat at sunset from across the moat
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat reflection at sunset
Silouette at Angkor Wat
A great sunset to end my visit

I would write more, but the internet cafe is kicking me out. I will try to post tomorrow.

Neil

Sorry again for the lapse in postings, but I have been at the beach down here in Sihanoukville (affectionately known as Snookyville) where the days are lazy and the nights hazy. The beach scene is pretty chill compared to what I saw in Koh Tao in Thailand and the various beaches in Vietnam. One thing that is great is that here you get the amazing SE Asia sunsets – in Vietnam I had to make do with amazing sunrises – meaning I don’t have to get up early/stay up all night to see some great stuff from Mother Nature. I am staying at a beach shack run by a high school student named Chivas and his family. He plays some great music and we have had some good parties (I helped him organize a full moon party last week). I am staying at the shack because accommodation is free. Chivas figures that if you stay there, you spend enough on food and drinks to make up for it. It is great because I have another $3-5 to spend on entertainment.
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As I was walking towards the guesthouse that I intended to stay at on the lake tonight here in Phnom Penh, I came across a large crowd gathered in the middle of the street. I use the word ‘street’ in a very generous way, as many of the side streets here in Cambodia are a clay-mud surface punctuated by water filled potholes. In the middle of the crowd, a police officer was shouting at a teenage girl who was cowering behind a middle-aged man. It seemed that the policeman wanted her to get on his motorbike, though she was trying in vain to avoid going anywhere near it. Finally the policeman grabbed the girl by the hair and attempted to pull her towards to motorbike. She resisted with all her strength for a few seconds before the policeman turned, hit her in the head, and kicked her in the stomach. She fell to the ground and into the arms of some spectators.
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Or, to our western tounges, the Mekong Delta. So much . . . water.

I left Saigon with two Germans I had met in Mui Ne determined not to see the Mekong Delta how most tourists see it – on an organized tour. I have had my fair share of tours in Vietnam, and most of them have been OK at best. Travelling doesn’t seem like much of an adventure when you are sitting in the back of a bus looking out the window at the ‘natives’ as you roll through town. Everything is arranged for you, from your meals (which are usually not that good) to your accomadation.
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Sorry for another lapse in posting. I have had a bit of writers block, or maybe laziness…I’m not sure. After leaving Jungle Beach, I had a crazy night in Nah Trang with a few Brits. After a few too many buckets at the Sailing Club we commandeered a few cyclos and raced them up and down the main street. I managed to flip one of these over by turning too fast and getting a bit of a scrape on my hand, but nothing to be concerned about. They cyclo driver was not too pleased, and demanded 50,000 dong for damages to his cyclo. I could see no visible damage, so I handed him 10,000 and walked away.
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Hello all.

I am sorry for the lapse in postings as of late, but I have spent the past 5 days at Jungle Beach, far away from modern communication and defiantly the best spot I’ve been on my trip.

I wound up there by chance really. In Na Trang, I ran into three French travelers (two sisters, Marie and Julie, and their cousin, Nicolas) who happened to be staying at the same hotel as I was. They invited me to come to Jungle Beach with them and I gladly accepted (all they had to say was that it had primitive accommodation and a private beach).
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My dad sent me this the other day. I hope Garrison doesn’t mind me posting this…

We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
By Garrison Keillor

In These Times, August 26, 2004

How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?
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The past few days I have been exploring the sights and sounds of Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam. The city is not too big and the traffic is a bit more managable than Hanoi though there isn’t much to do outside of sightseeing.
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