When we last left off, Wes and I were taking a day off so that he could recover from too much white man in the sun time. We did this by going on a night snorkeling adventure at the barrier reef just off of Caye Caulker. As luck would have it, the group of 4 that booked with us were nowhere to be found, and it was just Wes and I and our guide. We took a tiny boat out about 10 minutes, and anchored at a buoy just inside of the breakers. Here we got our warnings: watch out for sea urchins - they're active at night and ultra prickly. Don't shine the light on parrotfish - they sleep against the reef at night, and the light will scare them, often causing them to ram ... read more

After an uneventful flight from Jakarta, Wes and I returned to Bangkok. We caught a cab to Liv's apartment (the driver definitely sped up the meter - it generally costs 150 B and we paid 400!). It was heavenly to have an apartment with a comfortable bed and a shower to crash at. We washed up and napped, waiting for Liv and David to get back from work before venturing out for anything other than lunch. That night the four of us went out to the Sukhomvit district and enjoyed a feast of Middle Eastern food followed by drinks at a swanky bar. It was a lot of fun, and good to see our friends. Tuesday we slept in again, then headed to Carrefour for breakfast. From there we ventured to Rambothodi Hospital so Wes could ... read more

Let's see. When last I left off, we were passing the time in Lovina bar, enjoying some Bintang and the sunset. It was easily the prettiest sunset we saw in Indonesia, so I've included a picture here. Around 6:30 we harassed our waitress for our bill, and made our way back back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We learned that the tourist agent who had booked our bus to Probolinggo was frantically searching for us. Apparently the 7 pm bus actually left at 6:45 and they were waiting on us to leave. We raced to the bus, enduring a scolding from the driver (she actually hit Wes!) and settled into our seats for the 7 1/2 hour ride to Probolinggo on the island of Java. A half hour into our ride we made ... read more

We arrived in Denpasar around 9 am and headed straight to Ubud. Ronn, a Warm Heart friend, was already there, so we asked to go to the Swan Inn where he was staying. Our driver couldn't find it, but we were quickly exposed to some Balinese hospitality, as a stranger offered to walk us down a side street to the guesthouse. We managed to get the room next to Ronn's and ran into him on our way out to search for food. The three of us wandered down Monkey Forest Rd. to find lunch, continuing downhill until we found a price we were happy with. This landed us at Sagittarius Cafe, where we feasted on Indonesian dishes. Wes and Ronn tried the local rice wine, and forced themselves to drink a small bottle. I have to ... read more

The last few days have been spent wandering the temples of Angkor and the streets of Siem Reap. On Monday afternoon we went to Angkor Thom, the old Royal City. It is not very far from Angkor Wat, and contains a few temples of its own. We spent most of the afternoon wandering around Bayon, the most famous temple at the complex. Bayon's most famous feature is an array of towers that have faces carved into all four sides. We could climb as high as the third level, and got to see them up close. Even after hundreds of years of weathering, the sculptures are still impressive. The temple also included dozens more bas relief panels to view, although some were closed for restoration. The Japanese and Germans have dozens of restoration projects around Angkor, and ... read more