We woke up knowing we had only hours left in Cambodia before leaving to begin the trek back home. We had a few tasks to accomplish: Dylan needed to go pick up his custom-made suit and shoes, so he gathered his receipts and hired a tuktuk to take him around town. His suit wasn’t quite ready yet when they arrived, so he and the tuktuk driver had a chance to sit and chat a bit. The guy was Dylan’s age, and was interested in asking about his life here, his girlfriend, and how much things cost in America. When the suit [View Full Entry]

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We left the option open to wake up early today and head out to the temples before the crowds, but none of us bothered to get up early enough. Dylan was fighting a bit of a sore throat and cold, Jaz had made it clear that she wasn’t going out on any 6:00 am temple trips, and Steve and I just plain let ourselves sleep in. The weather was no different than every other day here this time of year - sunny and hot, just as we’ve become used to. Our only definite plan for the day was a half-day tour [View Full Entry]

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Today was a remarkable day for us, and I think also for 22 children from the Koh Ker school about 150 kilometers from Siem Reap. Today was our field trip to the temples with these children, who had never visited the temples or the town of Siem Reap before. Our day began as usual, enjoying a wonderful breakfast at our ridiculously luxurious hotel. (I woke having recovered from my stomach upset of the previous day, but still a bit wary of eating much.) We were waiting in the reception area when Ponheary, our guide for the day and the namesake of [View Full Entry]

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Well, I should have known better than to eat kangaroo at the Cambodian BBQ - I felt guilty eating my favorite animal - and Kangaroo Karma came back to get me. I spent the next 24 hours with an upset stomach, body aches, and a sense of complete exhaustion, so for me, today was a bit of a wash. (Everyone else was fine, I'm happy to report.) However, there couldn’t be a better place for me to feel lousy. There were plenty of things that Steve and the kids could do around town without me, and since I’ve been here already [View Full Entry]

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Today we left Luang Prabang in a driving rainstorm, huddled in the back of a covered tuktuk, marveling at the locals riding through town on their motorcycles while carrying umbrellas. Airport security consisted of shoving our luggage through a metal detector of sorts as we entered the airport, but there was no removing of shoes, no restriction on liquids, and while checking in at Lao Airlines, the airport power briefly flickered out and we had to wait for the ticket agent’s computer to re-boot. Steve stopped in at the Bangkok Airlines office to retrieve Jaz’s iPod, which she had left [View Full Entry]

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I think that the photos may speak louder than words, and I’ve almost run out of words for the moment. So here are a series of photos from our day. Steve and I got up early to see the monks of Luang Prabang make their 6:00 am walk through town to collect alms, and then we wandered back to the guesthouse through the market and the main street. A nap followed, and then breakfast, and then general hanging around, followed by lunch. We hired a tuktuk to take us 25 kilometers outside of town to the Kuang Si waterfall, where [View Full Entry]

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We let Jaz sleep late this morning while the rest of us went out for a walk to get a look at the town as it came to life. Of course, we didn’t leave until 9:00, so it had come to life hours earlier, but we’ll try for an earlier start tomorrow. We walked along the river, admiring the leftover French colonial architecture sprinkled in among the temples, finding the morning market where people shop for food, and walking all along the edge of town finding new restaurants with riverside tables and umbrellas under leafy palms and other greenery. People [View Full Entry]

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I thought our flight to Laos was at 8:00 am today, but it was really at 12:40 pm - luckily I figured this out just after waking up at 4:45 am and could tell everyone they could go back to sleep. This meant we had a much more leisurely morning than we had anticipated, but got to Laos mid-afternoon rather than late morning. No problem, though I was truly disappointed in myself for having made this error! The ride to the airport was uneventful but amusing, as Steve sat in front with the driver and made his usual attempts to chat [View Full Entry]

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Our day began around 6:00, and not long afterward, Natalie popped her head in to sing, “Good morning!” Everyone had mostly slept well, though as we had been warned, the air-conditioning on the train worked better and better throughout the night and by morning, it was 66 degrees in our compartment and we were freezing! We pulled into Bangkok at 7:30 and were heading outside to find a taxi (or two) when a Thai woman patted my arm and smiled at me excitedly, as though she knew me. I looked at her with a vague sense of familiarity, but those [View Full Entry]

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We were all bit exhausted by all the fun and adventure of the last couple of days, so decide to just take it easy on our last day in Chiang Mai before leaving on the overnight train. We were booked on two different trains - the first leaving at 4:30 and the second at 5:55 - because train tickets are hard to come by this time of year, even when booking months in advance. The guesthouse staff told us that it is usually a 15-minute taxi ride to the railway station, but because of the Songkran activity around the moat, [View Full Entry]

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