Cambodia - Siem Reap & the Angkor temples

Rather than taking a grueling twelve hour bus ride from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia, we flew. Now that there is only one month left on the trip, we are 'backpackers' in name only. We refuse to eat street food, sleep in unpleasant hotel rooms or take painfully long bus rides. Absolutely no street cred whatsoever.

The temples and palaces of Angkor era, built from the 9th century to the 14th century, are located around Siem Reap. For the first time on this trip, we bought a multi-day entrance ticket. We proudly 'did' Machu-Picchu and Petra each in one day, but there are over 100 Angkor monuments around here.

Angkor Wat:

Bayon temple with 200 carved faces. This was my favorite:

At least a third of tourists here seem to be Korean tour groups. Here are my peeps at Ta Phrom, where Tomb Raider was filmed:

We hired a tuk-tuk for two days to take us around the sights. The driver, Mr. Sotheb Ban, was not impressed with our lazy itinerary of the first day, and took us on the 'grand tour' of his own the second day. Towards the end of the second day, we didn't even get out of the tuk-tuk and took pictures as we drove by.

Gas station for motorcycles - the plastic bottles on the stand are filled with petroleum. Bill claims he will buy a scooter and use it to commute to work when we get back to the US to be more environmentally friendly:

Thailand - Chiang-Mai

Chiang-Mai is a laid-back city in northern Thailand. Being the second largest city in Thailand with a temple in what seems like every corner, it feels 'authentic', but has enough tourists and expats so that it's a convenient place for foreigners. Even the Thai movies at the movie theater have English subtitles. We watched one. It was terrible, but Bill was happy to sit in a movie theater eating pop corn and I could pretend that we were doing something 'cultural'. Definitely a win-win situation.

Thailand in general has been a very easy place to travel - clean, cheap with friendly people. Even the touts here actually go away if you say "no, thank you." Amazing. Yesterday, we flagged down a tuk-tuk and asked the driver how much the ride would be. There was a silent moment while the driver thought about how much he should charge us. Bill, impatient, yelled out "60 baht!" exactly at the same time the driver said "40." We all looked at each other, laughed and settled on 50. Nice work, Bill.

This is Wat Phra That Doi Suthep:

Sunday street market:

Bill couldn't help himself and ordered nachos at a restaurant. It was terrible:

Incidentally, the Thai food we had in Mexico was terrible too.

I wish they would decide on the presidential candidate already so we can stop watching CNN and go back to sightseeing. This is me watching the news and moisturizing:

Thailand - Ko Phi Phi (Again)

We are back in the island of Ko Phi Phi to meet up with Jeremy and his co-workers, consisting of twenty-year-old ice skaters. (So Bill is happy.) Jeremy is Bill's cousin whom we stayed with in Buenos Aires last July:

When we were in Ko Phi Phi couple of weeks ago, we hadn't like it very much. The island was too crowded, but mostly we didn't like it because we were in the midst of a huge fight that lasted forty hours. I forgot what the fight was about, but I am sure it was Bill's fault.

We like Ko Phi Phi much better this time. We are staying at a more laid-back beach and it's fun being in a big group.

*

Bill and me not fighting:

We are, however, back in the land of topless sunbathers. There's a topless girl walking on the beach, another one playing Smash Ball - it's like being in a Girls Gone Wild video. (So Bill is happy.) I am not sure why this annoys me so much. I'd like to think it has something to do with lack of respect for the culture-blah-blah, but I think I am just getting old.

We are staying in a concrete structure rather than a bamboo bungalow and yet I saw a frog and a lizard in our room, engaged in a stare-down contest. This morning, I woke up and turned my head sideways in the bed - lying next to me on the pillow was a cockroach-looking bug the size of my thumb. Bill heroically killed the bug and only squealed twice in the process.

*

Bill snorkeling:

Monkeys eating bananas at the very originally-named Monkey Beach:

This is Bill getting a haircut at Krabi, the last town we were at. I will never understand Bill's choice of hair salons - he passed up a perfectly normal looking barber shop and walked into this one that not only cut hair, but sold wedding dresses, tea, dried fruit and took wedding pictures:

Thailand - Krabi

Hoping to see something 'cultural', I dragged Bill away from the beaches into the mainland town of Krabi for couple nights. We took a songthaew (truck with seats in the back) to Wat (Temple) Tam Sua.

In the songthaew:

Wat Tam Sua:

As recommended by the guidebook, we climbed up 1272 of steep stairs to the top of a cliff for the view and the Buddha statute.

The view:

The Buddha statute:

I didn't think it was worth the hike up. This is me about to pass out from all that exercise in the heat:

Bill at a street food stall - all restaurants, from the expensive ones to the street ones like this, have at least four condiments on the table for the four fundamental Thai tastes: spiciness (crushed chilly peppers), sourness (vinegar), saltiness (fish sauce or soy sauce) and sweetness (white sugar):

Thailand - Ko Hai and Ko Mook

Looking for even more island-paradise-ness, we took a boat down to Ko Hai in the very southern part of Thailand. The island of Ko Hai doesn't even have a road - the only thing there is a beach with some hotels on it. It's like Cast Away with air conditioning.
*

The beach there is great - white sands, crystal clear water that stays shallow forever, and corals with different kinds of tropical fishes for snorkeling. The speck in the picture is Bill and he is still walking!:

It seems visitors to this part of Thailand are mostly Scandinavians (everyone is blond). We are having a hard time locating English books in thehotel book exchange. The only English book I could find was 'Disahamma - Mankind's Pathway Dhamma' in which 'the author describes how a householder can grow the Buddha nature within himself and finally attain nirvana.' I miss TV.

*

Bill is half way through my old copy of 'The Devil Wears Prada' and is glad that he doesn't work in fashion:

These are longtail boats used to ferry people between the islands:

On one ride, the boat engine stopped suddenly when we were in the middle of the sea. I almost put on the life jacket that I was sitting on, but realized that it was just the captain turning off the engine so he could answer his cell phone. Make that Cast Away with air con and cellphone reception.

This is the island of Ko Mook:

Thailand - Ko Lanta

Finally! We found the quiet, peaceful island paradise for the over-thirty crowd that we were looking for. No shame in going to bed at 9:30pm here:

We have been very lazy - doing nothing else other than sleeping, eating and going to be beach. Loving the cheap Thai food - shrimp has replaced chicken in our diet. This is the restaurant at our hotel:

Getting massages on the beach for $8/hour:

The trials and tribulations of Bill's day -

He doesn't quite fit into the hammock:

He has to chase a stray cat out of the beach bungalow:

He is afraid of mosquitos:

Thailand - Phuket & Ko Phi Phi

Phuket:

After a long, bleak, tearful month apart, Bill and I reunited in the island of Phuket. Yay! Bill almost immediately started complaining about how much space my stuff was taking up in the small hotel room. The past month is not looking so bleak after all.

Phuket has miles of beautiful beaches. But they are filled with unsightly topless sunbathers. Public Announcement - please, no topless sunbathing in Asia, and absolutely no topless sunbathing anywhere once gravity has started taking its toll.

Another unsightly aspect of Phuket is its 'go go bars' and seemingly temporary financial couplings seen at breakfast tables (Mosaiced to protect identity):

Waiting for my grilled octopus at the night market:

Ko Phi Phi:

We left Phuket and took a boat to Ko Phi Phi, very popular with backpackers. Despite my aversion of beach huts (see Tulum, Mexico post), it seems to be the popular type of backpacker lodging in Thailand. This is our beach hut:

The drunk British boys in the next beach hut left their boom box on and locked the door when they went out for the night. So we had to listen to Justin Timberlake into the wee hours of the morning as we silently chanted 'die, batteries, die!'

Ah, the joy of backpacking (yes, I am struggling to get back into 'backpacker' mode):