One last night in SE Asia – it’s been great!
Well, it’s been a long time since my last post. Internet access is pretty difficult in some places and I guess I’ve been a little lazy as well. I’m in Cambodia now, and will be leaving for India tomorrow night. I have to say I’m a little apprehensive about India – I’m only there for 5 days, and I have no clue what to do there, except I’m pretty sure it’s going to strain my patience. SE Asia has been everything I hoped for. Since my last post I’ve traveled through Northern Thailand, Laos, and the last few days have been visiting the famous Khmer temples and Killing Fields of Cambodia. I had an awesome birthday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I met a great girl from Burma and we visited some hot springs together. The next day I took a bus north to Chiang Saen to visit a Thai friend I met on the bus. We toured the ancient temples there on his motorbike, I had my 2nd birthday party at a restaurant on the Mekong River, and visited the Golden Triangle. The next day I took a harrowing 6 hour speedboat ride down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, a beautiful French town in Laos. The scenery there was awesome – spectacular limestone karst formations and a lot of provincial charm. I continued by bus south to Vang Vieng, which was even more unbelievable. The main attraction there is tubing down the river, and stopping at the numerous riverside bars for BeerLao and whiskey shots, with incredible rope swings, slides. and zipline rides all along the way – kind of decadent, but very relaxing and fun. Took an overnight bus to Vientiene, the capitol of Laos, then flew to Siem Reap, the site of the 8th wonder of the world, Angkor Wat. The temples here date from the height of the Khmer empire, around 1,00 years ago. AW is the largest seperate building in the world, with a height greater than Notre Dame. There were many temples and sights, including the pink temple (Banteay Srei), and the tree-strangled temples of Ta Prohm. Today was a more somber day – I visited the War Museum, which contains relics of the Cambodian War (approx. 1970 – 1990) during which the Khmer Rouge killed about 3 million people for the sins of not supporting the communist regime of Pol Pot. My guide had lost an eye, leg, had multiple land mine shrapnel injuries, seen the murder of his entire family by the Khmer Rouge, and lost his wife in 2000 to a land mine. I’ve heard many opinions about the American complicity in this sad affair, but he did not seem to blame the US (although I have my doubts). Anyway, I then visited the Killing Fields here (there are much larger ones in Phnom Pehn), where some of the bones of people killed by the Khmer Rouge during the genocide were kept at a temple. I find it amazing that people who have suffered so much can be so happy, but I think I would have to live here a long time to understand it. Anyway it’s been a great trip here in SE Asia, and I will definitely be returning, but for now I have to keep moving along. Will try to send more posts, but this site is difficult to manage from the computers I access, and appears to be running out of space. Check back in a week – will be in Africa then- hopefully preparing to go up Kilimanjaro. Also look at my Facebook site, which I update more frequently (my Iphone is really easy to use compared to these old PC’s)
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