At any rate...

When we planned to go to Angkorwat, I'd say Carl and Viv were driving the process and I was following along to stay with them; at the time it seemed like a lot of travel and money for some cool temples. In retrospect, it was very much worth it, except we wish we'd had another day or two.

Cambodia was not at all what I'd expected. I had heard that Angkorwat was completely tourist-ridden and nearby Siem Reap overrun with junk souvenier shops. Instead, we found it a small town with nice, courteous people (plenty of shopping "opportunities", but they didn't force themselves on you like they have in other places. And the temples were ... amazing.

I didn't know this at first, but Angkorwat is actually a collection of more than 100 temples. Many of them are small, but it was pretty incredible to imagine the area hundreds of years ago without tourists and speckled with temples everywhere. Granted, most of the thousands of people who lived there didn't worship at the temples, just built them for the king. Nonetheless is was pretty cool to think about.

We started the day at the "Tomb Raider" temple. Although the day was full of fantastic sights, this ended up my favorite place, I think because of the interaction between nature and the temples. I haven't seen Tomb Raider, but I heard Viv comment that she thought the movie had been digitally engineered to show trees in and amongst the ruins - turns out, it's real! Extraordinary. We also had the luck of getting there before the multitudes of packed tour buses arrived. (We didn't try for a sunrise visit because it's rainy season and we were likely to be clouded in; instead, we got started just after 8 and still beat many of the crowds at our first stop).

We later saw the temple of happy faces - also very cool. Each spire has four faces on it, representing the Buddhist tenets of compassion, sympathy, calmess and charity. Another stop was at the king's temple, which overlooked a 125m swimming pool in which his 4,000 concubines would bathe. Every night he would climb the (ridiculously steep) stairs - on belay! - to have sex with one of them. The burdens of ruling....

How long did that chiseling take??

We finished the day at Angkorwat itself. Although very cool, don't get me wrong, it actually was less dramatic to me than some of the others. I should note that I was on the point of exhaustion though (due to poor laundry management I was down to just one very hot thick cotton t-shirt, and despite drinking 2 liters of water throughout the day, had to rest every few steps in order to make it through).

With the addition of two pleasant dinners, it was a great stop!

written by  GoBlue on July 5, 2007 from Siemreab, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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I've really enjoyed my brief visit to Cambodia. (I did have a brief moment at the airport when we flew in where I wasn't sure I'd be let into the country because my passport pages are full. The immigration/customs guy definitely paused at each page wondering where he could stamp and gave me looks. A sign that I need to go home??) The food has been surprisingly good and nice on the stomachs considering friends who pit-stopped here earlier this summer suggested that "everyone gets at least a little sick in Cambodia" and they all had; the people have been great, friendly, and helpful; and the city has thrived from tourism. The Siem Reap Airport opened a year ago, new palatial hotels are being built, and signs of improvements to infrastructure are everywhere. I guess "thrived from tourism" has good and bad connotations. For the most part, and from conversations with our Angkor guide and my airport driver, it's been a positive in raising people's standards of living and casting light on the atrocities committed by the Khmer regime under Pol Pot, but a negative in the congestion and change of ways (e.g., muting of traditions) that is has also brought.

Angkor Wat

Carl being accosted by kids

One of the many faces at Bayon

Carl making out

Almost hidden by the trees

Beware of trees and their roots...

Setting of Tomb Raider

PS – I’m not sure that Joc or Viv mentioned the interesting conversations we had with our Angkor Wat tour guide about the Khmer Rouge brutality experienced in her country in the late 70s. Suffice it to say, I am incredibly fortunate to have been born in the USA where I was never limited to one handful of rice each day, forced to marry a particular woman for breeding purposes or found my grandfather shot because he was trying to feed his family by fishing in a plentiful lake. The Khmer Rouge was an incredibly merciless regime that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the name of socialism and creating an enlightened society. Absolutely amazing what some people have had to live through. We are a blessed bunch.

written by  GoBlue on July 4, 2007 from Siemreab, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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Carl down and out??

On to Siem Reap!

written by  GoBlue on July 3, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Viv's Voyage(s)
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one of the world's greatest skylines

View from my room at the YMCA ... note the Peninsula next door and the HK Air and Space Museum across the street

Victoria Harbor

a Junk lit up by the Harbor skyline

On Friday, I ran around town to do a bit more sightseeing and shopping before heading to the airport. The Star Ferry across from Kowloon to Hong Kong was a brief but memorable ride. Once I started making my way through the pedestrian walkways connecting the MTR stations, malls, and office buildings, I immediately sensed a strong police presence. Only later did I realize I couldn't have been far from Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was in town making the rounds to participate in the celebration commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

Getting Around in Hong Kong

near Hollywod Ave., Hong Kong

In true form, my United flight for home left two hours late. Once I was on the plane, I re-discovered how much fun (I think) it is to listen to the flight deck on channel 9. You can really hear some crazy things coming from your pilots. For example:

Hong Kong Ground control: "United 828, once you've completed pushback, taxi right... yada yada"
Captain: "Um, we have a little bit of a problem here. Apparently, one of the passengers is having some kind of a panic attack, so we may have to return to the gate to get him off the plane. One of the co-pilots is downstairs talking to him right now. Is there anyone behind us, or can we sit here for a few more minutes?"

(Apparently the situation resolved itself, since we didn't have to return to the gate, and there was never an announcement asking if there were any mental health professionals on board.)

13.5 hours later...

Janesville, WI air traffic control: "United 828, turn right 18 degrees and slow to 25* knots."
Captain: "Roger, right turn and slow to 25 knots. Gosh, that just about turns us into a hovercraft."
Janesville, WI air traffic control: "Well, it's because of sequencing getting into O'Hare -- there's a lot of traffic."

(*I don't really know how many knots they said, but apparently it wasn't a very fast speed for a 747.)

5 minutes later...

Captain: "Any chance we can pick up the speed here?"
Janesville ATC: "Nope. Sorry."

And there you have it. Having flown over Taiwan and Japan, crossed the international date line, eaten three bad airline meals, and completed my first ever sudoko puzzle, I landed at O'Hare around 9 pm. I'm signing off for now, until the next trip... and will be eagerly keeping up with Viv, Joc, and Carl as they continue their adventures! Thanks for reading, all.

Victoria Harbor and the Avenue of Stars

Back on American soil at ORD

2) Cold. Who gets a cold when it's 100 degrees out? Acutally it's now around 70, so perhaps it was the climate change of going from the ridiculous heat of everywhere else in this country to the moderately pleasant constant drizzle of Da Lat. That was yesterday.

3) Mountain biking mishap (he's ok though - I'll state that up front). We postponed the excursion one day to give his cold a full day of rest and recuperation, but this morning on a particularly nasty steep downhill (and did I mention muddy? Very muddy) he lept acrobatically off of his bike and in an attempt to save stressing the ankle somehow tweaked the heck out of his back. We were just about at the farthest point on the trail, so he had a limpy 2-hour walk back to the sealed road, poor fella. Yes, strike three, and Carl is in traction. (I don't actually know what that term means - in reality, he's drugged up on advil watching mindless television upstairs).

The good news is he'll make it (he's a strong one). It's also nice that yesterday we decided to give ourselves a break and upgraded to the Novitel (the 2nd nicest hotel in town), so we are relaxing in relative luxury (we even ordered room service for lunch!). The bad news is he's down for the count (we're thinking of renting a DVD player). Unfortunately we have a flight to Cambodia tomorrow, so hopefully he will have a rapid recovery - go Carl!!!

Other than this minor tragedy, the ride was actually very fun - extremely wet and slippery, but (except for that one spot) not too steep in either direction. The bikes were decent, and the temperature perfect (got a little chilly when it started to rain; again, poor Carl walking home in the rain a day after spending the day in bed with a cold). We also had the fun coincidence of our two Irish friends booking the same ride as we did even though our attempts failed at passing them a note through their hotel telling them where we'd booked. So we had a fun group and a good adventure. Viv has a few "body illustrations" of a few of her escapades, but I will leave that to her telling - my contribution is this: it wasn't easy biking!

Now off to play paparazzi with some Vietnamese propaganda posters...fascinating...

written by  GoBlue on July 1, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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First, Dalat. It was amazingly cool compared to the rest of the country. Where everywhere else we visited was in the 90s, Dalat was in the low 70s (or maybe even upper 60s). This was a welcomed change. The other cool thing about Dalat was the architecture. There were some cafes where we ate that if we looked out onto the street corner it would feel like a little French villa—overall, the landscape was beautiful. Although we weren’t able to climb, it was still worth the trip to this mountain town.

As far as my mountain bike injury, I’m not a young pup anymore. At least that is what my body keeps telling me. The cold I had turned out to be a 24 hour deal, which is better than I can say about my back . . . I stepped off my bike on a muddy downhill in order to avoid running into Joc and as soon as my foot hit the mud it slide while I was simultaneously trying to stop the momentum of my body from going down the hill. My back didn’t like this combination too much and it seized up immediately. The seizing really did some interesting things to my posture, including pulling my right hip forward and to the right of center of my central body line. For a few days if you looked at me, it looked like I had some serious scoliosis.

So, that was Dalat from my vantage point (although close, it wasn’t just the inside of a hotel room).

written by  GoBlue on July 1, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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First, Dalat. It was amazingly cool compared to the rest of the country. Where everywhere else we visited was in the 90s, Dalat was in the low 70s (or maybe even upper 60s). This was a welcomed change. The other cool thing about Dalat was the architecture. There were some cafes where we ate that if we looked out onto the street corner it would feel like a little French villa—overall, the landscape was beautiful. Although we weren’t able to climb, it was still worth the trip to this mountain town.

As far as my mountain bike injury, I’m not a young pup anymore. At least that is what my body keeps telling me. The cold I had turned out to be a 24 hour deal, which is better than I can say about my back . . . I stepped off my bike on a muddy downhill in order to avoid running into Joc and as soon as my foot hit the mud it slide while I was simultaneously trying to stop the momentum of my body from going down the hill. My back didn’t like this combination too much and it seized up immediately. The seizing really did some interesting things to my posture, including pulling my right hip forward and to the right of center of my central body line. For a few days if you looked at me, it looked like I had some serious scoliosis.

So, that was Dalat from my vantage point (although close, it wasn’t just the inside of a hotel room).

written by  GoBlue on July 1, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit
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Yesterday, however, we did check out the golf course. For a mere $90 you can play what looks like a fairly well tended and potentially interesting course. I think we are going to try it either tomorrow or Sunday for their twighlight special (on $40). We did hit on the range though, which was a lot of fun (just knowing we were playing golf in Vietnam!).

Despite

We also visited "crazy house", which was designed in Alice in Wonderland style by the 2nd daughter of the 2nd president after Ho Chi Min. Crazy indeed.

All the beds had mirrors above them...weird. But cool for goup photos!

Vivian and i are going through the local market soon. (carl is elevating his ankle - mysterious pretty serious strain). Tomorrow we are still hoping to go mountain biking.

written by  GoBlue on June 29, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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Joc and I did an early morning hotel search as Carl continued to nurse his ankle and now a cold that's taken hold. We postponed our mountain biking trip until tomorrow in hopes that Carl will have recovered enough to partake. Four hotel visits later - one was too expensive for what it offered, another full, and another too frustrating (though a good experience!) communication-wise - we've settled in at the Novotel Da Lat. High rollers we're not, but a bit desperate, yes! Hopefully we'll be able to get some rest here as we've requested a room as far away from noise as possible. ;) Wish us luck!

written by  GoBlue on June 29, 2007 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Viv's Voyage(s)
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