KatrinaJames

After finally getting to Siem Reap in Cambodia I spent two days exploring the temples of Angkor Wat. Although the 40 degree heat was almost too much to bear it was worth it for the breath-taking sunrise and sunset over the temples, and to contemplate how these extremely ornate buildings were constructed and used. Equally as impressive at the temples themselves are the trees that have taken them over - in many cases the trees extensive roots seemed to be holding up the temple walls. We hired a mototaxi driver for two days to take us around the temples which proved to be a very wise move, some crazy people seemed to be cycling! The number of different temples is impressive, but my favourite was the Bayon temple, which has hundreds (literally) of faces carved into ... read more

The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April, although in reality it goes on for about a week. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The main celebration is to soak everyone in the vicinity with as much water as possible and to then cover them in mud. Being utterly mature I of course headed out straight away with a water pistol my friend got for me and joined in the fun, only stopping periodically to stock up on Thai lager or admire bullet holes in the walls of the buildings from the protests the other day. We even managed to lay our hands on a rediculous amount of the mud stuff they were covering everyone with and got ... read more

Today I visited Hiroshima, a city that manufactures Mazda cars, has one of the world's best symphony orchestras and some of the best sports teams in Japan. But Hiroshima is also a city which is only known in the west for being the first place in the world to suffer an atomic bomb when one was detonated 600m above the city at 8:15am on the 6 August 1945. During World War II Hiroshima was the main base for Japanese troops and as a result there was a huge need for military housing and buildings. There were no men in the area available to demolish buildings and use the materials to build new ones, so instead, by 1945, the city was full of children at 'work camps' - doing heavy work on building sites from around 6 ... read more

What better to complete a trip to Japan than a bit of penis pandemonium? As luck would have it I was just passing through Kawasaki when they were celebrating their annual Kanamara Matsuri festival, when a gigantic bright pink iron penis is carried from a shrine through the streets with locals and visitors dancing after it! This is a true newspaper report of the event from Japan's english language paper: "Also, for people a bit peckish, there’s the usual fare of noodles and nibbles on offer, although for those particularly partial, a pecker or even a pussy may also be purchased. The former, on the whole, is a firm favourite! "An event that, along with phallic food, is a festival with the focus very much on fun and a fair amount of fornication. "The morning’s penis-based ... read more

One of my first stops in Japan was in Jigokudani monkey park, north of Tokyo just outside Nagano. There is a lot of snow in the area and the monkeys get really cold - fortunately for them there are also a lot of hot springs and they like to warm up by soaking in the hot pools in the valley they inhabit. Here are some adorable pictures of them. ... read more