The following pictures are from the Cambodia Album.

I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia VIA AsiaAir. I'm not kidding in saying this plane must have been an old Southwest Airlines plane. It was a fairly old 737 (727?) and smelling of gasoline and oil - but it got me.

Upon arriving at the terminal and speedily getting through immigration (I filed for an e-Visa online weeks before), I was greeted by my driver who would take me around the temples. He was actually an employee of the hotel I staying at and the car service is a great addition. The airport was about 10 miles from the city center, which only houses a few tens of thousands of people. It's a very small city filled with tourists.

The roads a generally paved for the major streets, and dirt for the smaller ones. Traffic consists of mostly older/smaller motorcycles with a few cars and trucks sprinkled amongst them. Most roads are pretty quiet except for two or three major intersections.

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Driving along the roads, I saw a lot of hotels...a lot that I wouldn't want to stay at. I started to think "oh my god, what am I getting myself into?" More often than not, I would be thankful that a hotel I'd pass wasn't mine. I very happy to see my hotel once I arrived. I stepped out of my car, and the driver got my luggage. I walked past the gate from the street onto the hotel grounds, and it was as if I was immediately transported to another country. The landscaping was very lush, nice palm trees, a little creak, and generally very pleasing - extremely different than the hotels I passed just moments before.

My hotel was really nice. Amazingly nice, granted, I paid alot for it ($45/night), it was worth it. The staff was wonderful, and the grounds were well kept. There was a restaurant on the same grounds, which was very good. I found myself eating there for most meals since it was quiet good. I did try a couple of other places and did not enjoy it.

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After getting checked in, and settled in my room, I ventured out around Siem Reap. Most of the roads were not paved, or paved but covered in a thick dust. I had my trust map with places to eat, and things to do. However, while I was roaming around for 2 hrs, I couldn't find a single street sign telling me the name of the streets. To posts, not on the building, not on the ground...nothing. So, i got completely lost. I was roaming for hours trying to find something good to eat - and most the restaurants were unpatronized, so I didn't risk it.

I eventually found some hole in the wall where a few tourists gathered, the food was edible.

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I got up at 4am the next morning to see the sunrise at Ankow Wat. This place is amazingly huge. There's three main layers. the outer walk way, then the climb to the middle temple, and then a steep climb to the main temple.

I spent a couple of hours here to look around and appreciate the size of this temple.

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The next stop was the tree roots of Ta Prohm. Here, the trees have taken over and have all but destroyed the temple. Due to preservation, most the trees have been cut back or removed. However, some trees could not be taken out for fear of finishing the destruction.

I'm some places, it's pretty scary to walk around as it looks like the stones will collapse any moment. Some sections are marked off so you shouldn't go in - although some people are stupid enough to ignore the signs and rope.

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Preah Khan is another amazing series of temples. These ruins are slightly destroyed from trees, but not nearly as much as Ta Prohm. There are many structures on the grounds of Preah Khan, most of which are traversable. Here, there are many religions reflected in the various carvings.

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Baphuon as Ankor Thom was primarily built upon sand. Over the years, the lower levers failed due to excessive rain and is causing Baphuon to literally crush itself and fall apart. The French are rebuilding, the project will take over 10 years to complete.

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Banyon at Ankor Thom is relatively small place, although by itself is rather large. Banyon is well known for it's carved faces atop towers. This king who had this built wanted those who were there to know that he was watching everyone who was there. No matter where you are, there is at least one face looking at you - usually there were always a few.

The faces were all different, and all beautiful. The size of these faces are simply amazing.

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Random pictures from around Ankor Thom

For budgetary reasons, we primarily used AirAsia for our travels around SE Asia countries. Their main hub is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As such, we had two night long layovers. The first time I was there was with the group. The second time, I was alone traveling from Cambodia to Philippines.


The airport is about a 50 minute taxi ride, or just over an hour by bus. Since there was a group of us, we decided to splurge for a taxi (about 60 ringets). I traveled alone by bus back for only 9 ringets (3USD). The bus service is handled by AirAsia and is air conditioned (very important).

Once at the city, we checked into our hotels. I spent the extra $5 and was in a much nicer hotel (sorry guys). We met up shortly afterwards and grabbed a bite to eat.

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After dinner, we walked around the town snapping random shots. While waiting for the gang outside a 7-Eleven, I saw a group of people. I asked them "If you had 17 hours in Kuala Lumpur, what would you do?" I thought that would be the best way to figure out what to see in the short time. They suggested the Menara Tower (pictured on left). I also asked about some clubs, and they suggested "Club Liquid". I talked to the group, and we headed for Menara Tower.

Of course, on the way there, we took a few moments to take some random photos.

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The Menara tower is a nice looking structure at night, however, the magic is being inside at the top of the structure. Once inside, and perched inside the observation deck, there are amazing views to be had - especially that of the Petronas Towers.

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Perhaps the most amazing club in SE for me was club Liquid. The energy there was amazingly good. The people were friendly, chatty, and not into themselves. They also didn't push themselves onto you like Thailand (Bangkok or Phuket).

The club very nicely appointed - almost bordering posh. However, the people there were very nice and non-snobbish. They were nicely dressed, and conservative. There were two dance floors. A larger one upstairs was more typical big club like, great lights and good sound. They played a great mix of high energy dance music which is English/American diva type dance tunes. It was great to dance and sing along too.

Down stairs had a few seperate areas. The was a nice bar around which has bar stools all around. This is was in it's own separate area that was semi walled off from other areas. There was another large space that had places to sit on sofa like seating. Next to this was a smaller dance floor (think Faces raised area). They played 90's/early 00's dance tunes (think Madonna, Cher, Vengaboys).

On this floor, there was a nice large patio area to relax and get some fresh air.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures from this, but here are a few.

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I'll try to post pictures and full descriptions of my travels through SE Asia. In this series, I'll be referencing the Thailand 2007 pictures; you can go there for plenty more pictures.

Leaving sacramento Friday afternoon on Amtrak. Just outside of Sacramento, we propel rapidly at 70MPH towards SF Bay area, with my ultimate Amtrak destination being Richmond. From there, I'll transfer to BART for SFO Airport, and ultimately end up on a hotel shuttle bound for the first of many hotels of the trip. Having nothing to do near SFO, I head out to the City and head for Club Dragon. I bounce around here for a few hours, and head home early - just before midnight so I can catch BART back to SFO. The next morning, I meet up with Albert and Robert and head into the City for breakfast and relax before our flight; which leaves at 4pm.

On Saturday afternoon, our Boeing 747-400/Combi (half the plane is for people, and the back half is purely for cargo) took off into the pacific ocean, chasing the sun. Despite out valiant efforts, inevitably, we couldn't keep up. It took us 14 hours to travel from 4:30pm to 10:30pm. The sunset lasted a couple of hours, instead of mere minutes. The twilight lasted even longer. For that night, the evening sun was never ending. I sat next to Robart and Albert, while Chris, Alex, and Dave sat a few rows ahead of us.

After our temporary house landed in Taipei, Taiwan, at 10:30PM. We dashed to the next gate to catch out flight to Bangkok, Thailand - only to find out that that plane would be delayed for 4 hours. Another plane which was to connected to Bangkok, Thailand, with us was delayed for four hours from Las Angeles (those darn SoCal People). After a few rounds of UNO, and web surfing using Chris's laptop, we finally board our 737 head for Bangkok. A quick hour flight later, 45 minute taxi ride, I finally walk into my hotel in Bangkok at around 5am.

Twenty-four hours from our departure from San Francisco Airport, and nearly eight thousand miles later, we landed in Bangkok International Airport.

I checked into my hotel at 6am, took a shower, had breakfast - and began to wonder the SMOGGY streets of downtown Bangkok. Let this be a reminder - if you ever think think Sacramento has smog issues, wait until breath some foggy lookin air here in BKK - it's not fog.

The traffic is really bad in Bangkok. To be fair, traffic was pretty much bad everywhere by Malaysia - where it was slightly more tame. It was really hard to to figure out when to cross the street at first as paint on the street we not followed, not to mention that the traffic signals seemed to be a mere suggestion to the drivers. Please see my earlier post about Thailand for more details about the traffic and other events that happened in Thailand.

From here on, I'll comment briefly on pictures.

My room while in in BKK.	Some random pictures of houses while on the boat ride to Chinatown.	Walking through Chinatown - a motorbike tries to get through a crowded walkwayy.
Madness in Chinatown. Very busy area.	Some shopping at the night market just down the street from my hotel.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.
From the Grand Palace in BKK.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.	Me infront of a big statue at the Grand Palace in BKK.
Model of Ankor Wat which is in Cambodia - I'll post pictures from there too.	Me having fun at the Grand Palace in BKK.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.
Neat statues all around the Grand Palace in BKK.	The guards at the GP don't move at all. They are cute too.

I have a few more pictures for Wat Pho (largest reclining buddha in Thailand as well as from Phuket Island. I'll try to get those uploaded soon when I upload the Malaysia and Cambodia pictures.

Uploading photos is painfully slow here. I have a lot more, but it hurts to upload. Here ya go:

It's true, I'm offically tired of hearing "Tuk-Tuk?", "Taxi?", "(Thai) Massage?". No, I don't want a fucking Tuk-Tuk, no more fucking massages, and if I need a taxi, I'll flag one down.

It seems, that every 10 steps I take, I'm asked if I want a taxi, a tuk-tuk, or a massge of some sort. Okay, I get it, I'm a white guy in Asia, that doesn't mean I want every taxi and tuk-tuk driver to ask me if I need a ride, or every asian guy and girl (or those in between) infront of massage parlors to ask me if I want a massage. If I want it I'll seek it. One more thing, sorry, I've given all my change, no I'm not giving you bills. I understand that the countries here do not have and social support, but I can only contribute so much.

This surfeit of tuk-tuks, taxi's, and massage houses, and beggers has made me become jaded. Today, I realized that I have also been approached by genuine people that are just socializing, but more often than not (usually all), they want something. They have a cause, a need, or want you to patron some store, restuarant, or bar. It's still very hard for me to determine what people's intentions are when I'm approached or beckoned as 99% desire a certain course of action on my part.

Now, onto the genuine people. The other day I met a nice group of people. One guy was from Cleveland Ohio, the other two were locals. We chatted for a good three hours about various topics - all very nice guys. They invited me to a select party at the world trade center in Manila on Friday, and I'm looking forward to that. It offically starts at 6pm, but like all night life in Manila, it doesn't really start until 11pm - gives me time to take a nap after dinner.

I'm started getting a cold, so I've not been to active in Manila. I've increased my water intake as well as vitamins - so, it's been okay so far however we'll see what tomorrow is in store for me. The weather is not fun here - alternating sun with rain. It's about 85 degrees, at 100% humidity - feels like i'm in a sauna all day long. I've taken 3 showers by 7pm. :-) Thank goodness the wash and fold people only charge $0.25 a pound for washing, drying and folding my laundry.

I've taken alot of pictures, but I don't lug around the equipment required to upload pictures.

In store for Manila: Intramoras (sp?), Makati, some random island cruise someone was tellin me about, and lots of sleep and chillin out.

Going to keep this short. I managed to upload a few pictures, but due to the earthquake recently in the area, internet is painfully slow (think 56k modem). As such, I only uploaded a couple of photos.

Here's a nice of me next to Thailands largest reclining budda. Seeing this in person is very impressive. This is at Wat Pho, Bangkok.

That same day - two tired dogs taking a nap. Yes, they are real dogs.

My money shot from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I go back for one more night in a couple of nights, I'll hopefully get some better night time angles and maybe even a day time shot.

Someone couldn't hold the camera steady - even after taking 4 shots, this is the least blurry. It's okay Robert, we know you were looking at some candy.

That's all for now. The images are not geocoded, I can only do that once I get home.

As they say, time flies when you're having fun. I had a blast in BKK, depsite the jet lag, and the crazy food (more on that in a bit). First off, the traffic is CRAZY. I know that I already mentioned that before, but it's nutz! I've learned you can cross the street even when all the traffic is going, and it's busy - that's about the only way to cross the street as people don't follow the signals very well. You look for a slight break in the cars from the first lane, and try to time your walking as the cars go by - you only have to get half way across. Crossing infront of and between a group of motorcycles is the easiest (thankfully there are more motorbikes than cars in BKK), as they simply go around you like a school of fish. It's quiet amazing actually.

Let me also say - Thai Massages are amazing!! I had a 2 hour massge by a nice young women, and let me tell you - she knew what she was doing. I've learned to get someone that is a little bit bigger (not too heavy) - they can apply more strength as well as more weight when they are nearly walking on you.

I only managed to go out dancing one night in Bangkok - and let me tell you - it was a blast. The club I went to was 3 stories tall, and rather large. I met some really nice people too. On an interesting note - you can buy a bottle of liquir, and just drink from that the whole night - it's much cheaper. :-) Course, it's best to share with friends. A gang of people took me into their group and we hung out at the club and afterwards. Four of the people were locals, and the other three were all traveling as well. They helped my pick out some food from a street vendor, and it turned out to be pretty decent meal...for $0.85, plus $0.02 for the napkins. :) After our meal, the seven of us went to another club called God, this was around 3am. I stayed there until around 5am and walked home the 3 blocks to my hotel.

On my last day there, I managed to see The Grand Palace, and Wat Pho - both very interesting. I took a LOT of pictures, however, I'm still not able to upload VIA USB yet. Hopefully Malaysia will have better luck. Anyways, The Grand Palace was very interesting with all the temples and such. Over at Wat Pho, another set of buddist temples - one of them housing the Thailands largest laying budda - was also a learning school for kids as well as a famous Thai massage school. It was neat to see the kids in the playgound around the temples, and in their small class setting. It was as if the temple grounds were removed the chaotic confines of Bangkok.

Also on my last day in BKK, I started to get a little sick in my stomach - must have had something bad to eat - I think it was in China town. Anyways, I've been mostly bed ridden here in Phuket - so I haven't done a whole bunch. I did manage to walk the length of the beach and see some hot people (literally and figuratively). There are lots of sunburns walking around - looks painful. I went swimming for a long while in the ocean - it's very warm.

Today, i decided to start my 3 day treatment of travelers sickness pills - and let me tell you - even after one pill, I'm significantly better. I ate my entire lunch today. And I'm already starting to feel hungry for dinner; I haven't been eating much. If it kills me, I'm going to go out tonight in Phuket. There are several bars/clubs/pool halls in the area of my hotel - all within a foot ball stadium sized area - my hotel being right smack dab in the middle (yes i wear ear plugs at night - as my room starts thumping to music around 10pm).

Time for dinner, and then I'm heading out with another group of locals I met earlier in the day. People are soo friendly here, and like to chat. If you avoid the crazy places, it's very relaxed and mellow here. Very slow paced - best to never be in a hurry.

I may not have time to write from Malaysia, but I'll try my best in Siem Reap, Cambodia - at the very latest, from Manila.

On Saturday afternoon, our Boeing 747-400 took off into the pacific ocean, chasing the sun. Despite out valant efforts, inevitably, we couldn't keep up. It took us 14 hours to travel from 4:30pm to 10:30pm. The sunset lasted a couple of hours, instead of mear minutes. The twilight lasted even longer. For that night, the evening sun was never ending.

Finally, our home in the sky landed in Taipei at 10:30. We dashed to the next gate to catch out flight to Bangkok, Thailand - only to find out that that plane would be delayed for 4 hours. After a few rounds of Uno, we borded our plan.

Twenty four hours from our departure from San Francisco Airport, and nearly eight thousand miles later, we landed in Bangkok International Airport.

I managed to catch a few moments of shut eye. I checked into my hotel at 6am, took a shower, had breakfast - and began to wonder the SMOGGY streets of downtown Bangkok. Let this be a reminder - if you ever think think Sacramento has smog issues, wait until breath some foggy lookin air here in BKK - it's not fog.

I've taken a few pictures. I'll be geocoding them, however, I won't be able to do that until I get home. I'll try to upload some in the next few days once I find a better internet shop that allows USB connections.

For now - have a good day from tomorrow.

-Mitch