Cambodia – Siem Reap
Thailand – Bangkok, Koh Nangyuan

Moving west from Phnom Penh by bus and bumpy dirt road I reached the town of Siem Reap and the famed Temples of Angkor. This is one stop on a tour of South East Asia that is not to be missed. Ancient stone temples rising out of the ever-encroaching jungle certainly spark the imagination and bring up visions of a once great culture. Built mainly between the 9th and 14th centuries, the vast complex of temples around Siem Reap cover an area the size of Los Angeles. It is estimated that the city center contained over 150,000 people at its height, if you count the surrounding villages and lesser temple areas the population was an estimated 1.5 million people; all at a time when the population of London was a mere 30,000 people. I spent three full days riding around on the back of a motor bike, roaming from temple to temple. Walking through ancient doorways and corridors, scrambling up steep crumbling steps to platforms and towers that rise above the surrounding jungle, all the time trying to imagine what inspired these people to build such monuments; what life may have been like at that time. Some of my most favorite moments were watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat, and seeing it’s reflection in the ponds built for capturing the structure in their shimmering surface at the dawn of each new day. The temple of Bayon with its imposing 54 towers decorated with over 200 giant carved faces creates a very striking presence. And Thang Prom, a wonderful crumbling temple, which for the most part has been left to the slowly destructive forces of the jungle. Banyon trees grow right out of the tops of walls with roots twisting their way down to find soil, both destroying and hold together the walls all at the same time, a wondrous sight.

After Siem Reap, I braved the bus ride to Bangkok leaving Cambodia Behind. The bus only broke down twice, once with over heating and another with a flat tire – which by many accounts was on the low side of typical. It was nice to come back to Bangkok for a few days – my fifth arrival here, everything is familiar and the town feels more like home for me now then California. Spent a few nights out on the town, having fun and saying good by to some long term friends – Chris and Sabine a German couple that I have been hanging around with ever since Vietnam. Every town I went to, I would always run into them randomly and they have become good friends. Our last night out on the town together, Chris and I drank sufficient quantities of beer to brave a trip to the bug cart. The bug cart serves up various kind fried insects for your culinary pleasures. We started with the crickets – they look least imposing if that makes any sense – you peel off the ends of the legs, kind of like shrimp, and pop the whole sucker in your mouth – chew? – taste? – wow! – they were surprisingly good – we ordered more. It’s hard to compare the taste with anything, but I would have to put them in the category of perfect drinking snack right along side beer nuts. After a few bags of crickets we moved on to sample several different kinds of grubs which were equally tasty, but I drew the line with the water beetles. They were big and you had to pull the shells off of them before you could eat em’ – even with my beer induced bravery it was a little too much for me. (more…)