Cambodia and Temples of Angkor

Water. People work in it, play in it, walk across it seemingly oblivious to the fact that it's up to their shoulders, and probably spend the majority of their waking day in it. That was our first impression of Cambodia.

After we crossed the border into Cambodia and got through the tourist hell-hole of Poipet, we took a long ride into the town of Siem Reap. The flooded land on either side of us went on as far as the eye could see. It is really not an overstatement to say that, during the wet season, Cambodia is basically a huge puddle (On that note, interesting fact we just learned: Tonle Sap lake, the largest in SE Asia, is shallow enough to wade across in the dry season despit being over 100 miles long). Unfortunately as we were being transported across a pretty washed out and bumpy road, we only got one picture of this:

We've spent a few days now in the town of Siem Reap, which has been the base for exploring the ancient city of Angkor. Angkor was built in the 12th century and consists of numerous temples. The main temple of Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in the world. Built of sandstone, the level of detail on every wall, pillar and rooftop is truly staggering. The bas-relief wall carvings depict stories of ancient battles and mythology. The whole thing really is an architectural and anthopolgical marvel. We'll post some of our favorite pictures rather than try to describe any further:

Overdue First Post

Greetings all,

Let me start by saying this first post is a bit overdue and I'm sorry for the delay. There has been a lot of running around and travel so far in these first 2 weeks.

I'll try to do this chronologically:

We all arrived without incident (Me from Cincy, Forest from Seattle, and Jane from Bali), which was actually quite incredible given the number of flights collectively taken. We got into Bangkok and walked around at night. It is a very busy city and it was an extreme transition for all of us.

The next day we booked it south by train. It was a fun way to travel and see some of the countryside. Lots of natural beauty, stark mountains in the distance, rice paddies and palm plantations. Also lots of grinding poverty and corrugated steel shacks on the banks of horrendously polluted rivers.

We made our way to 2 islands in the Gulf of Thailand (Pacific Ocean). The first was Koh Tao, which was relatively small and quite touristy...but understandably so given the white sand beaches, teal water, and easily accessible coral reefs which provided great opportunities for snorkeling. In fact, there is some world-class diving here and Forest and I have been inspired to get our Scuba certifications. It can be done pretty cheaply here.

The second island we visited was called Koh Pangnan, where we found a much quieter, sleepier beach on the northeast corner and stayed in a great bungalow for three nights. We enjoyed this beach much more since it felt like we had it all to ourselves. The view of the sky at night was marvellous as we had mostly clear, cloudless nights with little to no light pollution. All this for a jaw-dropping $10 per person / night.

After about a week of travelling in the southern part of the country, we made our way back to Bangkok to meet up with Jane's group. She will be off to Chang Mai, a city in the north of Thailand, for her semester of nursing classes.

Forest and I are headed to do some ruggeder (?) adventuring in Cambodia and Vietnam, leaving tomorrow. Bangkok has been fun, lots of cool restaurants and markets, etc. But it is a big, bustling, and very polluted city, so we're excited to be on the move again to new countries and new horizions.

We (Forest and I) hope each and every person who is reading this is doing well. We'd love to read your comments. Feel free to use the 'comments' section to let us know what's going on in your respective lives. News of home is always great.

That's all for now...we'll try to post again sooner rather than later.

-Mike & Forest

Some pics:

The food has been delicious. Very similar for the most part to what we've eaten in Thai restaurants in the US:

The beach at Koh Pagnan island:

Boarding a ferry:

Forest and I at one of Bangkok's many temples:

The "Reclining Buddha", a statue of the Buddha that I'd estimate is over a hundred feet long and maybe 50 feet high. We thought the inlaid mother of pearl design on the bottom of his feet was pretty incredible. This pic does not do it justice of course: