More than half a million people drive Moto's in Phnom Penh. With Phnom Penh's population at just over 2 million people, and with often more than one person on a Moto- it seems as if everyone is on the streets! Weaving in and out of traffic, being a Moto driver requires concentration, skill and cunning. Even more talent is required to take loads- people paying fairs on motodops; exquisitely dressed women going to weddings; furniture and dishes; pigs wrapped in Sugar Cane...You negotiate the road next to tow carts with sacks of flour or loads of bricks. Huge SUV's from the Government, ambassadors or the head of an NGO speed past a Moto with an adult and 2 children under 5 years old. 12 year old boys driving their friends past elephants in the street. At ... read more

My tour through the Temples of Angkor ended with a sunrise trip to Ta Phrom. The most photographed and sought after temple next to Angkor Wat, I hoped to get there before the other tourists, and thanks to my awesome tour guide and Tuk Tuk driver I made it in time! Ta Phrom didn't fail to disappoint. The guidebooks say you feel like an Archaeologist from the 19th century when you visit Ta Phrom, where the jungle was not removed from the ruins. It was a bit strange to think of how much history, hard work and mystical energy contained in the temples was simply swallowed up by the forest. When the forest is removed and the temples are restored, you get a glimpse of the mind blowing artistry and engineering. When you don't remove the ... read more

After settling down a bit in Phnom Penh, the city became familiar. It was more developed than I had imagined, and the people were the friendliest I had ever encountered- especially if you know a few words of Khmer! My vocabulary was expanding- numbers 1-10, "Hello", "Goodbye", "Little Brother", "Big Sister", "Big Man", "how much", "I have", "left", "right"... With the major attractions from my sister's itinerary out of the way, events Off The Beaten Track were all that was left. This included a trip to the city dumps, where the hardest working people in the world endure the worst of conditions to make something from nothing. My sister brought 15 or so vitamin fortified fruit drinks to give to the children, while I was armed with bags of candy. After a 15 minute drive through ... read more

A Scuba Diving entry without underwater pictures? Yes, that's unfortunately, what we have here. I seemed to have completely forgotten my underwater camera(a Reefmaster Mini). Arriving to the dive shop I knew something was missing, but it certainly wasnt people! It was a very busy and crowded morning, with many different groups leaving at once. An intense multi-day Rescue Diver course, snorkelers and day divers. Soon we were loaded on the back of a truck with a wire cage, apparently a popular taxi along the Thai Coast? The drive was an hour away, passing many portraits of the King, a few large trees and conversations of dive stories, bars and work. Finally arriving, I remembered a stink in the air. Yes, it was the sour and rich smell of a fishing village. On the plus side ... read more

It was early November in California, and still snow had not fallen on the "Snowy Range". The Sierra Nevada is spectacular for one principal reason- at higher elevations it is almost entirely composed of glacially carved granite. Hundreds of ancient volcanos left behind quite a treasure, for as their liquid magma chambers froze into place- granite was formed. But this granite was trapped underneath thousands of meters of overlaying rock, unavailable to the terrestrial eye. Millions of years of erosion took over-rain, wind and snow removed thousands of meters of rock above the granite, glaciers carved the peaks and lakes, flowering plants and endemic trees grew to the limits of the highest peaks. This is the Sierra Nevada we see today, the salt-and-pepper granite peaks lighting on fire from the setting sun, framed by special trees ... read more