Its day 1.5 or what seems like day 4. I left my apartment in New York City on Thursday morning at 6:45am. South African airways suggest you arrive 3 hours early no matter what! OK then… I check in and sit and wait until my plane takes off about 15 minutes late. Amazing! What is more amazing is that the guy sitting next to me is early 30’s (if I had to guess). A cross between Jake Gyllenhaal (eye’s) and Brad Pitt’s chiseled face. OYE. Of the 15 hour flight, we spoke about 8 hours of the time. He works with some Italian photographer and he is always on call to do international shoots. Can I have his job please? Besides the 3 kids surrounding us, the flight wasn’t all that bad. Upon arrival at Johannesburg ... read more

We arrived at 5:30am. There were hundreds of people standing around and waiting; waiting for the sun to rise over these mysterious temples. It happened slowly while the cameras started flashing. I paced and walked 10 feet every minute to get new angles and new colors of the sun rising. I thought it was phenomenal. I took the time to breathe and smile. I listened to some Americans complain how this was so overrated, yet it was still happening… the sunrise. I just kept walking. After about 20 minutes, the experience was over. I met with my group and our local tour guide. Most of the masses leave by 6am to go back to their 5 star resorts to go back to sleep. We headed into the massive structure. I tuned out our guide as he ... read more

After leaving Phnom Penh, we arrived in Siem Reap. The first stop was the floating villages. This is a huge and undesirable wake up call. The people who live in these villages simply bathe, swim, crap, wash plates, etc. in the same murky water. There were many children and babies living in these shacks of homes. As we were on a boat, smaller boats would come whizzing by and a child would jump onto our boat (while in motion) with soda cans and such. It was crazy! A child protective service clearly doesn’t exist in these areas. The first girl must have been no older than 7 taking the leap on our moving boat. The father just paced behind us until she was done. Sadly, I was the only one to give her $1. Everyone else ... read more

It was a moving and informative day. We arrived in Vientiane which is the capital of Laos. Our first stop was COPE which stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise. Perhaps I am either totally ignorant or didn’t pay attention in history class, but I had NO idea that the Americans dropped 260 million explosives (carried inside what is known as cluster bombs) on Laos’ soil in the 1970’s. Of the 260 million explosives, about 80 million is still unaccounted for. Since the mid 1970’s (end of the Indochina war) these explosives (which look a bit like metal grenades) have been found all over the country. Unfortunately, they detonate and have killed 1,000’s of people… For the people that do survive, they mainly have lost limbs. Some lose multiple limbs which becomes hard to live without ... read more