Last Leg of the Philippines

While I was in Luplupa, I was the only guest at the Riverside Hotel excluding the night before the wedding. As a result, the family which manages the Inn did not open up the downstairs restaurant, and I just ate all my meals with the family. It was really nice to feel somewhat part of a family again and, as a result, I got to know the family quite well. Johnny, the father, had to make a trip to Tabuk, the provincial capital of Kalinga, to do some shopping and set up an email account, and asked if I wanted to come. We got there by overloaded Jeepney. Jeepneys are converted Jeeps that seat 20 people but often carry closer to 40, plus their luggage, and are the basic form of public transportation throughout the Philippines. They have also replaced the Smart Car as my dream ride, as they are so fun. The owners paint them up in bright, gaudy colours, then spray paint Superheros, dangerous animals, 'No Fear' logos, and whatever else they want on the sides. They then write funny names for the car and religious passages in various places. On the trip to Tabuk, I sat on the roof to better appreciate the view.



In Tabuk, we stayed with Johnny's relatives in a small village on the fringes which was founded when Luplupa became overpopulated. As a result, more or less the whole village was related to Johnny one way or the other. When we arrived, they asked if I liked goat, and I answered yes. We were sitting around talking, and the next thing I know they're bringing a live goat into the room, where they killed it, shaved it, and cooked it for the next couple of hours.



We returned to Luplupa the next day, and Johnny's relatives from Baguio offered to give me a ride back to Baguio with them. The next day, we left for Baguio, a trip that theoretically can take only 6 hours. It took almost ten, however, because there was a typhoon, so it was very rainy and, at one point, we had to wait for a landslide blocking the road to be cleared.



When we finally arrived in Baguio after dark and in the middle of the storm, the family insisted I stay with them, and I wasn't going to complain :-). I spent the next day meeting their very large and incredibly friendly and hospitable extended family, and then a couple of days touring around Baguio, which wasn't especially exciting.



After Baguio, I caught a bus to Subic Bay, where I stayed with one of the friends I had met in Sagada named Chris. In what seems to be a general Philippino trend, his family was also incredibly nice, and invited me to the Deboo of Chris' niece. A Deboo is a big party Philippinas have when they turn 18. At the party, they dance with 18 guys who each give her a rose, and then receive 18 candles from 18 girlfriends. This got me to thinking whether I had had 17 female friends when I was 18 whom I could have asked to dance with me (the first dancer is a relative), and I'm pretty sure the answer is no. The party was fun, and the food was good, except that it ran too late, so there was no time to eat the cake :-(.



While in Subic, I saw a surprisingly good presentation where a local tribesman explained how to make dishes, cooking pots, find water and shampoo, and prepare your food if you are stranded in the jungle. He even made me a special 'western' style cup with a cut out on the rim so my nose wouldn't get in the way while drinking from the bamboo. Perhaps most impressive was when he made fire just using a piece of bamboo and a knife in under five minutes.



The Iboy (?) tribe of the area used to train US marines to survive in the jungle, and now the camp is a major Subic Bay tourist attraction. After the camp, I went for a short jungle trek, where the guide explained the various uses of the plants in the forest, and showed me how to make a wild chicken trap. He said that the villagers joke the jungle is their supermarket, because they can get everything they need from it.



My last day in Manila I just did some shopping, packing and then hung out with two more friends from Sagada in the evening. The next day was a grueling 20 hour commute to Canada, during which I unexpectedly visited another country. I bought a bottle of duty free alcohol in Manila after confirming I could take it all the way to Canada, despite the fact I was changing planes in Tokyo. They didn't exactly lie. In Tokyo, they told me I could keep it, but only if I cleared customs and put it in my checked baggage. I didn't really have anything else to do during my four hour stopover, so I spent two hours clearing customs and then reentering the airport. So, I have also officially been to Japan for about 20 minutes.



After a quick visit to Vancouver, where I was pampered silly by my friends Heather and Matthew and got to see Ernest and Anna, I am now in Seattle visiting my cousins. Seattle is a very pretty city, with an excellent market and bike paths. It also has an incredible new library that would interest anyone who likes architecture, electronics, or books.



Despite assuming that North Americans are not nearly as friendly as Southeast Asians, I've met some good people. A 7-11 owner who gave me the wrong directions gave me a free slushie when I came back to use the pay phone, and another guy biked with me for 15 minutes to show me the way home when I got a bit lost on the bike paths.

Well, this is the last entry in my blog. I am still technically traveling for three and a half more weeks, but it won't be any place new for me and the main reason is to visit family and friends. I had a great trip, and no serious regrets about the choices I made while traveling. I was very lucky to be able to go on this trip, and very lucky it went so smoothly. I wouldn't say I got particularly homesick, though I am glad to be back in Canada. I also realized a lot of the highlights for me where the trekking and the natural attractions I visited, which Canada has an abundance of, but which I never visit. Maybe next time, instead of travelling halfway around the world, I'll look for nature trails closer to home...

Thanks for all the emails, and the surprising amount that told me they actually read the blog and liked it. The only reason I kept updating it relatively frequently is because you actually cared :-). I wish you all success until I see you in person again. Enjoy the summer .

Love,

Eitan

The Cordillera, Philippines

Hi everyone,

Before I begin on the Philippines, I have two more Thailand stories. The first is about the club I went to in Thailand. I forgot the best part. In Canada, when the clubs close there is a line of cabs waiting outside to take home those without rides, so we all assumed that would be the case in Thailand. It was not so. The nine of us were stranded in the sticks with no way to get back. After a few minutes, one guy leaving the club offered us a ride in his regular four door. We thanked him, but pointed out there were nine of us, but that didn't phase him at all. Since we didn't really have a choice, we all tried to pile into his car. Not everyone was tiny like me, either. Three of the guys were around 6 feet tall. We managed to get 8 of us in (two in the front plus driver, 5 in the back, 1 in the trunk), but try as we might, we could not get in the ninth. Luckily, two motorcycles came by and offered a lift to two of us, and we all made it back.

Secondly, the Khoh Son tourist district in Bangkok has stands and stands of my main clothing weakness: Decal t-shirts. Almost all of my clothes have been bought for me by my mom or Evelyn. The only real exception is a bunch of t-shirts from Value Village and other places with iron-ons that I think are funny or clever. I have so many at home that a vowed not to buy any in Bangkok. The second time I was there though, I couldn't help myself and ended up buying four :-). Oh well.

Now for the Philippines. The Philippines is a sweet place to travel. All the locals speak English, and it is relatively well developed, but lacking in foreign tourists. I would say at least three-quarters of the tourists have some connection to the Philippines; they have a Philippino significant other or parent, they work here, or they are Philippinos from a different city or country. As a result, most of the tourists I have been hanging out with have actually been locals. As an added bonus, some of them have put me up when I visit their cities.

My first day in Manilla was overwhelming. Manilla is hot, crowded, noisy, congested, and expensive, and it didn't help that I had hardly slept on my overnight flight to get there. Nika was still in the Philippines, and we made plans to leave that night for Banaue in the Cordillera, the mountain provinces of Northern Luzon. I spent the day unsuccessfully extending my visa, successfully getting an adapter, and becoming even further overwhelmed as I tried to decide what to do during my month in the Philippines. There is a ridiculous amount to see and do here, way too much for a month. I decided to beat the heat for two weeks in the Cordillera, and then head to a beachy Island after.

Nika and I caught up on the bus ride to Banaue, which was really fun, and I met her cousin Richel, who joined us. Banaue is the starting point for treks into the nearby rice terraces, which are spectacular. They were built over 2000 years ago and are cut right into the side of the mountains. They are commonly referred to as the 8th wonder of the world. The first day we did a one day walk through the most famous ones, and then left on a two day hike to some other villages and terraces the next day. Interestingly, our guide told us that foreigners often pay LESS then locals for their guides, because the local tourists don't like to bargain.



Nika had to go back to Manilla to catch her flight, so the next day I left for Sagada. I found a sweet hotel in Sagada called 'the Greenhouse', run by a wonderful women named Atte Nora (Atte is a sign of respect). The first two days I was there were a weekend, so the hotel was full, and I went on a walk to Echo valley and a waterfall with other guests. Sagada is known for its hanging coffins, as the local tradition is to place the coffins of the dead in caves, preferably high off the ground. We saw a few of these as we toured.



The next day I went with other tourists on one of the highlights of my trip, the 'cave-connection' tour, which is a four hour underground spelunking expedition where you go in one cave and out another. It involved, climbing, rappelling, wading, and swimming, all by lantern light. After the weekend, it was just me and one couple, who had been living in the hotel for two weeks already, who were around.



I spent another 4 days in Sagada just doing day trips to other sights with the couple and with Nora, who didn't have to much to do. The best one was to a nearby big waterfall, which also involved a walk through rice paddies. Sagada is very high up, so the foliage looks a lot like Canada. The cool thing is that the pine trees are next to rice paddies, which you obviously never see in Canada.



Around this time, I decided to just spend the rest of my time in the Cordillera and Northern Luzon, and forgot about going to a different Island. So I decided to go further North to a more remote village called Luplupa in Kalinga province. There wasn't much to do there, and I hardly did anything that the guidebook did mention, yet I stayed for a week :-). I just really enjoyed relaxing. The first day I did a trek to nearby villages led by Victor, the Barangay (village) chief. I think he smoked too much dope over the years with tourists, so he wasn't the best guide I've had. However, because he's been chief for over 30 years, everyone knows him, so it was cool meeting and greeting everyone we passed. Apparently, most of the 'tourists' nowadays are really marijuana dealers, so I was constantly asked how many kilos I wanted to buy.



I also was finally offered a food I couldn't bring myself to even try. Normally, I'll eat anything offered to me, partly out of curiousity, partly to say I did it, and partly because I don't want to be insulting by turning down food. However, at one village, I was offered pieces of boiled pig's face and skin, which is more or less globs of fat with the hair still on it. Luckily, Victor bailed me out by saying I was vegetarian.

The next day in Luplupa there was a wedding, which was a lot of fun. I also saw many tatooed old ladies. Traditionally, married women were supposed to cover their arms in bracelets. Just in case they weren't wearing bracelets, they tatooed bracelets on their arms so they would never be bare. As a result, many of the older generation still have them.



After that, I more or less hung out. The Riverside Inn family felt bad for me because I was alone, so they made sure someone was always visiting me to keep me company, or showing me around to a nearby Barangay. I was supposed to go on a two day trek into the jungle with a hunter named Gill and sleep in a cave, but the weather was really bad, so we had to turn back on the first day. There was also a peace pact celebration with a neighbouring village, but I was sick, so missed most of that.



That's all I have the energy to write about now, so you'll have to wait a week for the rest. Lastly, you have all likely heard about the deadly cyclone that hit Myanmar a couple of weeks ago. If any of you were thinking of donating, but were afraid the money would not go to the right place, I recommend HOPE international as a good NGO to donate too. They are the ones I worked with a bit in Cambodia, so I can vouch for there quality, or you can research them on their website. You can go to http://www.hope-international.com/ to donate or to find out more.

Thailand

I visited Thailand in two segments, both about a week each. I didn't write about it before because Thailand has sort of been my recuperating zone, where I arrange visas, flight tickets, grad applications, and did blog entries. I also responded to the emails that piled up while I was in Burma and Cambodia, where the internet quality is lacking. We also slowed down our pace, and I think I spent 10 of my 14 days in Thialand just in Bangkok. As a result, not only did it feel like I was not doing much, but I also didn't have the energy to write about it.

Despite this, I have enjoyed Thailand. I think I had the wrong opinion of it going in, and as a result, did not give it a chance. I was worried about scams, annoying hordes of tourists, and survining Bangkok itself. Like anywhere else, there are scams, and there are also large number of, in my opinion, the 'wrong' kind of tourist; the type who think because they are on vacation, and because they are relatively rich compared to the locals, they can act like A-holes to the locals, walk around the business district with no shirt, etc. However, there are lots of great tourists to hang out with in Thailand too. As for Bangkok, I actually found it quite relaxing. It has a great public transit system, including a fun taxi-boat system and modern sky-train. I just ahd to ask for the routes at my hotel, and double check every time I switched lines with at least two locals :-). In the tourist area, you can also get delicious and cheap street food and fruit shakes. Plus, there are message parlours everywhere. In retrospect, I should have planned to spend more time in Thailand. Oh well, I gues I'll just have to go back.

While in Bangkok the first time, we visited the Royal Palace, which is very well-kept and beautiful, and has great murals all over its walls. We also visited Thailand's biggest reclining Buddha, which impressed me immensly at the time, but after seeing two larger ones in Myanmar, its not such a big deal :-). We visited a lovely night-market, which has a beer garden frequented mostly by locals, who go for the free Thai-pop shows.

We left Bangkok for Canchanaburri (probably spelt wrong) eventually. It is a quiet little town where we rented a bungalow that floated on the water. I stayed there two and a half days, and Nika for a week I think. It is know as the sight of the 'death railway', made famous by the movie 'the bridge over the river Quai', which runs through Cabchanaburri. The Death railway, which the Japanese built to bring supplies from Thailand ti Burma during WWII was constructed under extremely harsh conditions by POWs and forced local labour. Its building let to thousands of deaths. There was a great museum there that taught us all about the death railway. We also thought it appropriate to smile for a picture when visiting the famous bridge.

The highlight of Canchanaburri for me was the great waterfall nearby. It had 9 different levels, lots of spots to swim, some rocks you could slide down like a waterslide, and a disturbing number of fish whick nibbled at my toes as soon as they entered the water. It was a great place to relax and swim in the March heat of Thailand.

The next time I was in Thailand, I met up the first day with Eva, the German girl I had met in Burma. We made plans to leave for Suhkothai the next day, but I backed out because it is 7 hours away and I had to return to Bangkok to catch a flight in 4 days, and didn't want to be worried all the time about getting back. Instead, we visited the 'golden mountain' in Bangkok, which offers nice views and a park-like setting with lots of shrines and gravesites, and a nearby temple with very interesting architechture and a name I forget. Even left the next day for Chang Mai, and I returned to the National Museum for a free guided tour the next morning. The English tourguide didn't show up, so I joined the French group, and I think I did alright in understanding.

I am now in Ayuthaya (spelled wrong also), Thailand. A world heritage sight, it was the former capital of Thailand until the Burmese did a great job of sacking it, leaving a few minor ruins. They are nice, but after visiting Angkor and Bagan, I am kind of a ruin snob, and don't find them very impressive. I have been hanging out with 5 English guys and two german girls who are more into the partying than the sight seeing, which is a change for me. Last night, after a bar, we went to a Thai club where our group was the only foreigners. There was no real dance floor; the dance area had tables all through it with groups sitting at them, and then occasionally getting up to dance around the table.

Tommorow I have to figure out how to get back to Bangkok in time for my flight, and then I'm off to the Philippines, where I may see Nika again for a couple of days...

The Golden Rock and back to Yangon

From Bago, I decided on a day trip by motorcycle to visit Kchychtio (which is definitely spelled wrong), a.k.a the Golden rock stupa. I went by day trip to ensure I would reach Yangon in time to celebrate the Passover Seder with the country's minuscule Jewish community of 8 families, all living in the capital. We left Bago at 4:30 AM for the three hour moto ride, and arrived around 8 at the base camp. The Golden Rock is at the top of a mountain, and hangs precariously off the side of a cliff. It looks as though, with a good push, it will tumble down the mountain. Luckily, a hair from the head of the Buddha holds it in place. After taking a pick-up most of the way and then climbing the steep last 45 minutes, I arrived at the top. The rock really is quite something to behold. I don't understand how it has been standing for so long. unfortunately, I only took vertical pictures of it and don't know how to flip them on this blog :-).






On the way down, I had a seat right in the middle of the back of the pick-up, which was painful, but super fun. There are about 8 rows of six people sitting on wood boards crammed like sardines in the truck on the way down. It is probably goos we were so tightly packed, otherwise, with nothing to hold onto, I might have gone flying out. It was like going down a tame roller coaster, but with your hands in the air and nor restraints whatsoever.

The next morning, I booked a ticket for the 2 hour long 11:30 train to Yangon. They wouldn't let me on the train because I was a tourist, and instead made me take the very late 1 PM train which got to Yangon at 6:30. I rushed immediately to the synagogue to see if I could find out about the Seder, but no one was around, which was very disappointing. I went back to the Shul for services the next morning, and found out that there hadn't been a Seder anyway (and there weren't any services).

I spent the last couple of days going to the markets and back to the Shwedagon pagoda, and talking to locals who kept stopping me on the street. I will soon leave for a couple days to visit the nearby ruins of Ayathaya, and then on to the Philippines, my last foreign stop. My South East Asia adventure is almost finished!

The Tingyan Water Festival in Mandalay

We arrived in Mandalay on the second day of the five day Burmese water festival called Tingyan. It was so fun!! Basically, there are people standing everywhere with buckets of water to drench you, especially if you are a tourist (or a women, but I don't want to get into that right now). On the main roads surrounding the Mandalay palace there are stages set up with dancers and Burmese pop govers of Western music playing. From the stages, people with hoses splash all the men dancing beneath and the motos and pick-ups cruising tghe strip. By this point, Myanmar was brutally hot, with average temperatures of 40 celcius in the afternoon. As a result, being drench all day was quite a relief for me.

Unfortunately, me and my other tourist friends all got stoack problems from something on the boat. For Michael and Eva, this meant they didn't leave their rooms for a few days, and I got off the easiest. The afternoon we arrived, me and Daniel went to check out the partying, and some local guys our age insisted we join them on their motos. We then spent the next couple hours driving 5 minutes, getting of at a stage, dancing for five minutes, and then driving to the next stage. In the evening, we met them again to watch a soccer game, but I was feeling too sick so had to leave early.




The next day, we had made plans to visit the Ancient capital cities surrounding Mandaly by taxi. Unfortunately, I was the only one in any condition to go, though I shouldn't have gone anyway and felt pretty sick the whole time. The highlight for me was the first stop, the Paliek Snake temple. It became famous when the three original snakes that lived there died, and shortly after three huge, and friendly new ones slithered out of the woods to replace them. The interesting part was not so much the snakes themselves, but the hordes of local tourists and their excitement at getting to bathe and feed the snakes. One of the other highlights was the longest teak wood bridge in the world, at Amarapura, which was swarming with local tourists celebrating Tingyan. Many were doing so in cafes located in the water.



The third day, I met a local women my age named Chan Mye Thu, who I had originally met in Yangon and wanted to show me around. I told her I was too sick to go, but she looked so dissapointed I went anyway, which worked out well because I was fine once we left. We rode around with her cousins and visited some of the sites of Mandalay as well as the Tingyan celebrations. Tingyan was damppened, unfortunately, because after dancing a bit some jerk tried to grab Chan and kiss her, so we left.




I left Mandalay ny overnight bus, which was the only non-plane transportation I took between cities that did not break down or arrive late. Instead, it arrived really early, which was worse because I got to Bago at 4 in the morning. After sleeping awhile, a did a day tour of the Myriad of Buddha images and religious sites in the town, including the highest stupa and largest reclining Buddha in the country, and maybe the world?

Bagan and Katha, Myanmar

From Kalaw, I tooke the ten hour bus to Bagan. The only hitch was 45 minutes in the bus broke down, and we had to wait 4 hours by the side of the road for them to fix it, so got into Bagan a bit late :-). Bagan is famous for the thousands of ancient temples built there. They are not as impressive, large, or intricate as Angkor in Cambodia, but the sheer number of them in such a small area is staggering. Furthermore, the area is very flat with few tall trees, so if you climb up on a higher temple, the views of the plain are great. I spent two and a half days temple hopping, and one morning making a trip to Mount Poppa, a nearby sacred spot with a temple on the top. It is a shrine to a female Nat (spirit) who wished herself to appear like an Ogre so as not to be observed while praying to the Buddha.



There are also many local tourists who come to Bagan, including this group of monks, who asked ME, (no tht eother way around) to take a picture with them. I fit in well with my red shirt :-).



I wanted to catch a train on a certain day in order to catch a certain ferry, so to save some time, I flew from Bagan to Mandalay. The problem is the taxi ride from the airport into town costs $18. Luckily, a asked a young looking guy if he wanted to split a cab. He said no, he had a driver waiting for me, but they could drop me off at the train station no charge :-). Unfortunately, the train was sold out at the station, so I had to spend the night in Mandalay and take the train the next day. That afternoon, I met another guy from Toronto who also just finished an economics in Ottawa (creepy, no?), and a German brother and sister who were also thinking of going upriver, and I told them my plan and they decided to join me. The plan was to take the train tp Taba, the short busride to Katha, and then the ferry back. We bought our train tickets seperately, however, so I had sitting class, while they had sleeper, and shared their car with a Burmese man who spoke very little English.

After the train, which left two hours late, got moving, I went to join them in their car, where the Burman and his friends had already ordered them all beers, and proceeded to try to get us drink for 8 hours while getting drunk themselves. Due to the heat and fear of dehydration, however, I more or less refrained. The Burmese man loved me, however, because I said hello and no thank you in Bamar. For about twenty minutes, he stated that I spoke Burman, to which I replied only a little, accompanied by showing 'a little' with my fingers. He would then laugh, tell me I was his son, and repeat the staement. When I left to go to sleep in my chair, he told me he would think about me every day and told me his phone number. Back at my seat, I was surprised to find a monk already sleeping in it. What do you do when a monk takes your seat? While I was standing there pondering my dilemma, however, some other people on the car woke up the monk for me and got him to move. I aso learned that, even though trains move, it doesn't mean mice don't live on them. As soon as it got dark, tens of mice ran back and forth along the floor.

We arrrived at Taba around 2:30, hopped on the bus, which broke down for an hour, and arrived in Katha at 4 Am. The only guesthouse with beds was the worst place I have stayed so far. It did not have walls that reached the ceiling or a mattress, never mind a bathroom, AC, or breakfast. What was worse, knowing that he was the only game in town, the owner charged us 7 dollars each, which normally gets you all of the above in Burma. I was furious and walked out to find a place on the beach, but then returned because I didn't want to get any locals in trouble for illegally letting a foreigner stay on their property.

Because I had missed the train the day before, I only spent 12 hours in Katha, but there wasn't much to do, so it wasn't so bad. What was cool was that while in Katha I wa reading 'Burmese Days' by George Orwell, which he wrote while stationed in Katha, and which takes place in the town. I did a short sightseeing tour of the places mentioned in the book.

At four, we got on the two night ferry back to Mandalay, which was one of the highlights of the trip. We bought deck class tickets and plastic mats, so slept on the deck under the stars at night and strung up hammocks to block the son in the afternoon. We basically just read, played carsds, and hung out with the locals. My German friend Daniel said "Its like an all inclusive cruise!! All we're missing is a pool and an actual room."






The locals loved our cameras, juggling shows, card games, music, and post cards, and we had a great time with them. Michael, the Torontonian (to add to the creepiness, my middle name is Michael) had UNO, and some of our new friends figured it out by watching and joined us, which was very entertaining. We were all pretty sad to say goodbye when we got to Mandalay.

Yangon and Inle Lake, Burma

I am back in Bangkok today after 4 weeks in Burma, and will break up the posts so I don't go crazy trying to write about my amazing four weeks. I just got back from watching Rambo IV, which I purposely didn't watch before leaving so I wouldn't scare myself. I don't recommend it, its not a very good movie, even if you consider it just for the action.

To get to Burma, you must fly; tourists cannot enter overland. I arrived in Yangon and spent the first day walking around the city. They people in Burma are so friendly!! I had to keep stopping because people would ask "excuse my brother, where you from?", and it would begin a conversation. It was also eerie seeing so few tourists around. I would literally walk for hours and not see anyone. At some of the 'sights', and at the hotel you would see the tourists, but in between there was no one. Their tourist industry has really taken a hit since the demonstrations last September. I met up with a local woman my mother had met when she visited named Phyothaya, and her daughter Chan Chan. They are lovely people, and took me to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred religious site in Burma. It was incredible. It is so beautiful and is surrounded by other pagodas, shrines, and temples. After dark, you can see the diamonds at the top glittering and changing colour depending on the light. I ended up going back there again on my last day.



I left Yangon pretty quickly, and flew to Heho airstrip, which is kinda in the middle of nowhere. From their, I took a pickup with locals followed by a moto to reach Inle Lake, and stayed at the best guesthouse of my trip so far, Queen Inn. For seven bucks I had a huge room, hot water, and all you can eat breakfast and dinner. Inle lake itself is beautiful. It is famous for its floating villages and gardens. The gardens are staked to the bottom of the lake with bamboo poles and fertilized with lake bottom dredged up by the farmers. The inhabitants are also famous because they often row with one hand and one foot so as not to tire as easily and to get a better view of rocks in the shallow lake. It also has a very colourful market where I saw many diffrerent ethnicities trading their wares.





From Inle, I did a four day trek to a town called Kalaw. It was another great opportunity to see georgeous views and meet villagers, though it got a bit lonely with no other westerner to talk to in the evenings. The highlight for me was spending one night sleeping in a monastery. Waking up to the sound of novice monks chanting beats any alarm clock I've heard.

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

The river trip from Buttumbang to Siem Reip was long, but fun. It started with a death-defying ride in the back of a pick-up, along with 15 other passengers along dirt roads, fields, and small dips. It was probably the highlight of the trip. The boat started out super slow, because of the water levels, but eventually picked up speed as we passed through riverside villages, fishing areas, and beautiful scenery.



Angkor Wat is amazing. I don't know how to describe it. Even with the blistering heat, and the hordes of tourists and Hawkers, the scope and size and detail of the temples is unbelievable. I dont know what else to say about them, really, hopefully the pictures will help. Or you could go read what my mom wrote in January, 2007 in this same blog: http://waldmansworldwidewoyage.blogspot.com/2007/01/siem-reap-cambodia.html









In Siem Riep, I also did a great cooking course, where I learned how to make Mango salad and Amok fish. Interestingly, I have also seen five of the people from the class here in Bangkok, where I am now.

A couple last tidbits about Cambodia. There are four kinds of roads in Cambodia according to the locals" dusty, muddy, bumpy, and slippery. The sides of the roads are all covered in 'Cambodian snow' meaning anything within ten metres of the road is red with dust, uncluding all plants and houses. They also often travel with huge groups in a vehicle, as shown in this picture:



Sorry about this small post, but it took along time to load all thes pictures, and I'm tired. I am leaving for Burma soon, so will not be able to add anything for a month probably. Enjoy the end of the school year if you're still doing that, and I'll update you later.