Phnom Penh

Angkor Wat at sunset

Angkor Wat at sunrise with the moon

Preah Khan

Terrace of the Leper King - Angkor Thom

Hello there! I have still had horrible luck finding a computer that will let me upload all our photos. But this one at least recognizes our portable hard drive....so I just wanted to finally post a few shots from the temples of Angkor. There are a few pics in the Picasa, but not the best ones yet because I'm slowly working in order. The best is yet to come!

We just arrived into the capital of Phnom Penh tonight after a long and sweaty bus trip from the town of Battambang. The first order of business here is to get our visas for visiting Vietnam. Then we plan on exploring some of Cambodia's awful and sad history by visiting the Killing Fields and a now-museum that served as a location for much of the bloodshed in the 70s. It won't exactly be fun, but it is an important part of our journey through this country.

Thinking it would be a great way to see some of Cambodia's floating villages and some wildlife, we took a boat trip yesterday from Siem Reap to Battambang. We thought it would be a reasonably large boat, as the picture on the ticket showed, and would only take 3-6 hours. What a joke! The boat was tiny, wet, cramped, about as stable as a tightrope, and jam-packed with people - mostly tourists who were as confused as we were. It was a good eight hours before we crawled out at Battambang. Thus we have revised our definition of "uncomfortable".

The SE Asia Weight Loss Plan

Wellllll - maybe you have been wondering why we haven't updated the blog with incredible pictures from Angkor Wat and Siem Reap (the nearby town). We have, actually, been trying quite hard the past few days to do just that but Cambodia's internet connection is a pathetic attempt at something like the internet 10 years ago in the USA... dismal. We are lucky to even find a decent connection! We cannot get, however, a single computer to work with our little hard drive that we store our photos on and thus, no temple photos yet. This may have to wait until Vietnam but maybe we will get lucky in the next week.
Stories from the land of temples....Jay and I tried these yummy fruit shakes (that we have been drinking all across SE Asia for months now) at Angkor Wat when we got thirsty from all the walking and WOWing we were doing. They were cold and good. And laced with something so potent that we both ended up in our bedroom for days married to the toilet. That's right folks - the SE Asia weight loss plan. Yee haw. I don't recommend it. Lucky for us, we got 2 days in at the temples before the midnight strike of the shake. Sadly, we missed the third day of the pass we paid for and did not get to see some of the off-the-beaten-track temples and the land mine museum. Instead we saw the lovely architecture of the aging bathroom - amazing and intricate linoleum floors, mold in the corners, sink falling off the wall, little line of ants parading around, and the plastic showerhead dripping slowly! It was like a tour of a temple! Throne of Julie and Jay, circa 2008. Enough joking, we have recovered now - thanks to a smart doctor back in the states that gave us a prescription that said "FRUIT SHAKE ANTIDOTE". What'll they come up with next?

But here is the happy story....The temples were, indeed, like nothing I have ever seen before. The place was surrounded with this aura of magic and history. We watched sunset AND sunrise at Angkor Wat. When the sky slowly came to life in the morning, it shed golden pink hues onto Angkor Wat and the temple towers just glowed in profound beauty! These are the moments in my life that I will cherish forever. We had the temple almost all to ourselves in the morning, compared to the previous evening when it was very crowded. So we took the time to revisit the bas-reliefs that surround the central towers of the temple. These walls have amazing stone-carved artwork that tell some historical tales from the era as well as some stories from Hindu epics like the Ramayana. And some extend for about 180 feet!! Other temples we visited had huge mysterious stone faces on all four sides of the towers and one temple had ~35 towers! We felt like someone was always watching us. And sometimes we felt like actors in Indiana Jones as we explored mossy-green temples that were falling apart from the weight of the giant trees growing on the top of the stone walls or roofs with huge buttress roots snaking down the stone to the ground. It was even a riot to get surrounded by all the cute Cambodian kids trying to sell you their crafts...."where you from?... oh America?! Capital is Washington D.C. you buy my postcards I talk to you first. One dollar. Don't buy from her, buy from me, I talk to you first. You have coin for my collection?" The whole place was fun, wonderful, exciting, fascinating and truly deserving of its world heritage status.

Bumpy road to Cambodia

We finally made it to Cambodia! It was, literally, a very bumpy ride from Thailand (word has it that an airline with a monopoly on service from Bangkok to Siem Reap pays off the Cambodian government to slow road building) - but a beautiful ride nonetheless...rice paddies and coconut trees galore. And if you were wondering where we had disappeared to, well, we got into Cambodia a few days later than expected due to unexpected travel sickness woes. All is well on that front now, and we are ready to explore the amazing ruins of Angkor Wat! We decided to buy a three-day pass to the ruins, which should give us ample time to explore the most famous sites as well as some of the lesser known ruins. We are heading over this afternoon to start exploring, with plans to stay until sunset tonight.
Haven't heard of Angkor Wat? Well well, it is a world heritage site of huge historical importance dating back to the 12th century, and supposedly the largest religious structure in the world. When London was a tiny town, Angkor was a sprawling empire whose power spread from Burma to Vietnam! Amazing to think of that.
Here's some more info if you're interested....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

Our last day in Thailand was great because we met up with our friend Ralph (from URI, and yes, this is the same Ralph we met up with in NZ). He was heading north to Chiang Mai that night, so we were only able to spend a few hours together. It didn't matter to us because we were just thrilled to see another familar face this far away from home. Ralph will be heading south in Vietnam when we are going to be heading north, so we are hoping to meet up again over there. Aside from that grand meeting, we spent the rest of the day driving in cabs all over the city trying to find the relocated Cambodian Embassy. It is well-known that the immigration officials at the border are super corrupt and will overcharge you for your visa. So we decided to get our visa in advance at the embassy in Bangkok to avoid the corrupt officials. Guess what we got!?? A corrupt official! So we paid for the cab fare AND the extra money to just get the visa, because what else could we do at that point? Erghhhhh.

Old cities and elephants

Right now we're in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, an old city surrounded by a square moat and remnants of a wall. On the way up here from Bangkok we stopped at two other cities rich in history, also both protected by walls and/or rivers--first Ayutthaya, then Sukhothai. The cities were all founded around 700-800 years ago as different Thai kingdoms became larger and more powerful. Ayutthaya has some impressive temples, both old and new, and is still a busy town where two (or three?) rivers intersect. Sukhothai, further north, is just a small town nowadays, and the impressive old walled city is a historical park about 12km outside the new city. All of the ruins demonstrated the skilled masonry of these old kingdoms. They used small red bricks to build the foundations of their monuments, then covered them with mortar to make them smooth. Many of the monuments were built either before or just as Buddhism began to spread throughout the region, so many were built first as Hindu temples, then "retrofitted" for Buddhism. Some temples had sitting Buddha statues encircling the entire wall. And of course there were plenty of enormous sitting or standing Buddhas almost everywhere. This all gets very confusing because as soon as you think you have seen the largest sitting Buddha in Thailand, you are corrected at the next temple when in fact you just saw the largest bronze sitting Buddha image, but this one is even bigger and made out of stucco. Ditto for standing and reclining Buddhas. In all cases, each image and temple is really unique and beautiful. There is so much symbolism everywhere that is easily lost on a westerner, so Julie and I feel we need to study up a bit since we will be in Buddhist countries for a while longer.

The other notable thing we did was a trip to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center which is about an hour from Chiang Mai. In Thailand, elephants are really treasured and they used to to be indispensible for jobs like logging. These days, heavy machinery has put them and their owner/trainers (called mahouts) out of work, so tourism is really all that's left to keep the tradition alive. Mahouts are usually father-son pairs because the elephant would otherwise outlive a single mahout. We saw some demonstrations of their talents, which in addition to lifting and dragging heavy logs included painting and playing musical instruments (probably not a traditional role, but neat all the same). Then we went for a short elephant ride, with the mahout sitting on the animals head and telling it what to do with verbal commands and gentle kicks and jabs to the ears and neck. The mahout also sang some tunes. Julie and i sat behind on top of a little bench seat and I wouldn't call it a gentle ride but boy was Julie in heaven.

Oh--and yesterday we did a Thai cooking class. Learned to make a bunch of dishes like red and green curries, tom yam soup, chicken with basil, papaya salad, pad thai, spring rolls, and mango with sticky rice for dessert. Making curry paste was really neat but where are we ever going to find all of the stuff that goes in it back home? It won't be easy. We learned about crucial Thai ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil, a special kind of ginger, and chillies, of course. Best of all we got to chow on everything we made, lunch and dinner!

UNH in Bangkok and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

What fun we have had the past few days in Bangkok. We met up with my old advisor from UNH, Dr. Larry Harris, and his former PhD student/now professor at Chulalongkorn University, Dr. Suchana Apple Chavanich. Larry was over in Bangkok to work with Apple on various projects and it just worked out that we were in Bangkok the same time as Larry! So the other night we headed over to the Dept. of Marine Science at CU and met up with them for dinner and long chats about coral reefs and overfishing, among other things. It was great to see familiar faces again and so fun to eat at a Thai restaurant with Apple because she could explain the menu to us! She could also explain the language to us and answer all the questions I had about Thai customs. A very informative night!

On a different note - for people that don't know me - Larry Harris has had a HUGE influence on my life. His invertebrate zoology class inspired me to see beyond the whales and turtles to a whole new world of things without backbones - and what a sweet world it is! The neat thing about Larry is that he has influenced countless marine biology undergrads in a similar fashion. I believe there are many great scientists out there in this world. Larry is one of these, but he is also an amazing teacher. That is a rare and exceptional quality. I think UNH undergraduates taking his invert class will continue to be corrupted into loving nudibranchs until he retires.

On a totally different note - today we visited an icon of Thailand. The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. This market is about 2 hours west of Bangkok and is visited by hoards of tourists as a day trip from the big city. We wanted to avoid the big crowds, so we spent the night in the town and got up at an ungodly hour to see the market as it really is.....beautiful old women dressed in indigo shirts and wide-brimmed straw hats paddling long wooden canoes piled high with exotic fruits. I didn't think we would see that iconic image because tourism has influenced the market to the point that most vendors target the travellers with souvenirs rather than fruit. But I was pleasantly surprised to see exactly what I hoped for - the women, the fruit, the morning light. It was an unforgettable moment in my life.

Today is Buddha day!

I have a delightful little story to tell that has injured my pride (and I say mine because Julie claims she was a skeptic early on) but it's just too funny not to share.

On our way to the US embassy yesterday (yes, take two), Julie stopped to take a photo of one of the many beautiful wats, Buddhist temples, scattered around the city. This guy comes walking along chuckling to us as he ducks under Julie's camera. Just your typical friendly Thai guy, he starts chatting it up with us, asking us where we're from, how long we're here, etc, etc. We just got into town the other day and, no, we haven't seen many of the sights yet, but we're planning on some sight seeing later. Oh well, today is the day he says! Did you see on the TV last night that since it's Buddha Day, the government is waving entrance fees to the local temples that normally charge? NO? Oh, well, you should definitely take advantage of the holiday today. So he marked on our handy tourist map all the places we could go today for no fee, plus the opening hours and everything. Man, this guy was so helpful and friendly! But wait---because of the holiday, the local tuk-tuk (a three-wheel taxi with a motorbike engine) drivers get a fuel voucher that allows them to charge only 20 baht for 1-2 hours. 20 baht!! What a deal!! But, only use the government licensed tuk-tuks with the yellow number plate. Hey---you don't speak Thai, do you? Well, I can talk to the driver for you! So we went to the side of the road and the guy hailed a tuk-tuk with a yellow number plate. Julie said, "I think this is a scam". But I verified with the driver, only 20 baht, right? Yes, yes, only 20 baht, I take you to Lucky Buddha temple, etc, etc. Well alright then, we'll see. We went to the first temple, and I asked a guy selling caged birds if it was really Buddha Day. I think he said yes but on the other hand the only english he probably knew was "lucky bird 90 baht". Then at the next temple, which was the shabby Lucky Buddha temple, everyone there spoke good english, just like our trusty tuk-tuk driver and our buddy who told us about the deal. They knew about Buddha Day. But wait a minute...we were just in Malaysia over Buddha's birthday. Ahhh, of course, but it is a lunar thing, this is the next phase. Hmmmm...at this point it was all smelling quite fishy...or is that the food stall over there? Anyway, we got back in the tuk-tuk, and the driver said that now we'll go and get his fuel voucher. When we pulled up to a tailor shop and the driver said we had to go in so he could get his voucher. No way man! Well, we were much more polite, and said, no thanks we would rather just go to the Golden Mount because we need to get to the US embassy before 2. Only 10 minute, no problem! No, really, we're all set. Frustrated, the driver sped us off to the Golden Mount. He tried explaining once more that going into the tailor shop would get him the voucher, but we said no thanks and hopped out. Then he sped away, and we were very happy to go up to the Golden Mount, take our time, and hope not to see him again on the way down. We didn't, and we even had time to complete our mission! Took a cab to the embassy and got more pages for Julie's passport. So, although we...ok, I...fell for the most notorious Bangkok tourist scam in the book, in the end my gullibility paid off and we got a free tuk-tuk tour of Bangkok! Today we saw a sign that said DO NOT TRUST STRANGERS OFFERING TUK TUK, LUCKY BUDDHA, OR BOAT TRIP. Damn! What a sucker!

Today we saw some nice sights including the reclining Buddha (Wat Pho, pictured) as well as the old Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddhas (actually made out of jade).

Ko Tao

Legends involving great diving and snorkeling around the island of Ko Tao surfaced during our research and we got hooked on the idea of going. Plus we have numerous friends who suggested this island to us as a "must see" on our trip....so we went! The only sad part was that the cost of getting there was so high, we had to say no to diving in order to meet our budget. BUT - snorkeling is free and, gosh darn it, so is walking. So we did a fair amount of both, in addition to lazing on our bungalow's deck and watching sunsets. Highlights of the snorkeling days included a beautiful black and white nudibranch (one of my favorite invertebrates in the world) and getting surrounded by a huge school of juvenile fish - perhaps barracuda? Walking was also fun - I'll quote Jay so you can get an idea of what it is like to walk around islands in Thailand... "the amount of sweat that I've shed during this trip is probably equal to the amount of sweat I've shed in my entire life before the trip." Ahhh yes - we tend to look like we went to the sauna instead of the beach by the time we get back from any walk. But we have fun anyway!

Now we are in Bangkok and we are actually enjoying this insane city! We went to the Myanmar Embassy today to try and get our tourists visas for our planned visit in August. They changed the rules, of course, and now you can only apply for a visa one month before your visit. Ugh. We wanted to buy our flights now, but we refuse to buy them until we know we have the visas (they tend to turn people down for random reasons). So, we will just have to hope we can still afford the flight one month before our planned trip! After leaving that embassy we thought we could still accomplish something, so we headed off to the US Embassy to have more pages added to my passport. After a long and hot walk we arrived, excited to chat with some Americans, only to find out they stop dealing with passports after 2pm. Shafted! What ever happened to 9-5 workdays? I guess in Thailand they figured they would be more like the Thais! In either case, we got nothing done - but we enjoyed our water taxi views of the city and think we got a better feel of this place. Want to know the best part about Bangkok so far? There is a cart outside our hotel selling sweet sticky rice with mango and coconut milk for 20 baht (that's 63 cents folks) and I am in heaven.
Go Obama!!!