Photos from First Two Days!

Here are the photos from the night I arrived and the picnic the next day. The temple was beautiful where we picniced, but just wait for the Angkor Wat photos.

At the airport in Bangkok, reading Siddhartha for the upteenth time, with my Thai snacks which I spent way too much money on, but enjoyed nonetheless.

Our tiny plan to Siem Reap- we took a bus out on the tarmac to it.

My first photo of Siem Reap, along the river close to my lodge.

First sighting of our picnic spot. (Not in the pond, obviously)





You can't really see, but there are huge pink and white lotuses blooming. Mental note to get a new camera. I think Bina took a good photo of them, I'll get it from her later.

Walking to the picnic spot.

Active minefield next to where we were hiking.

First sight of an ancient temple in Cambodia!

No tourist know about this temple, its about 1 1/2 hrs from town.

Bina!

Tree growing over the old stones.

Part of the temple complex, and one of the guys sitting on the pile of stones.

Part of the temple.

View from this ant infested ruin that I climbed and perched on.


Me right before I had the brilliant (or stupid) idea to climb the ruin.

View from the ledge I climbd. Is much further down than it looks here.

View of the pagoda from the ruin.

Inside the pagoda. There were little monk boys too.


Children at the picnic.

Another view from that ruin I climbed.

Some more of the temple complex.

The drive home was miraculous and shining.

Red sand road- this was the ONLY place it was smooth and not full of huge water-filled ruts.

A typical Khmer household.

Driving home.

The kittens that live outside my window.
I took a bazillion photos of them.

The Floating Village

Well, I will give a brief account of the floating village, but, like Angkor, it will be so much better with photos. I will probably go over to my friend's house tomorrow evening and upload the photos up to now.
We left at 8 am yesterday, and traveled in the back of a work truck over, surprise, worse roads than on sunday for about 2 hours, and then we got into a boat with a sputtering motor and a mismatching set of wooden chairs, and chugged down the river to the "lake" where the village is- another 2 hours. Yesterday was the hottest day I've yet experienced here. We arrived in the floating village- all of the houses are raised way up on stilts, and everyone uses small wooden boats to get from one house to the next. There is a pagoda and restaurant at the edge of the town, where we stopped and had some iced coffee before I was bundled off with two of the Khmer workers to go check a few of the water filters, while Brian and Ben sat in a meeting with the town officials. So, we climed on to a boat made mostly of ancient wooden slats, in which you had to sit perfectly still or the whole thing would flip over, and the guys rowed from house to house, joking with me (one of them spoke so so english, the other spoke very little) and teaching me a few words in Khmer like, its a little hot, its REALLY hot, and the names of flowers, etc. So now I can say the basic things like yes and no, please and thank you, as well as talk a bit about the weather. It went from being reasonably warm to the sun beating down on us in the afternoon, in our little wooden boat, but the peoples houses were surprisingly cool. We went into about four households, where we were welcomed and chatted with (well, I was grinned at and chatted about) and I watched the two guys clean the filters and explain to the families how to use them properly. The people of the village pull up buckets of water from the lake, which is the colour of mud (or poo, whichever gives you a better visual), and use it for everything- washing, cooking, drinking. And of course they go to the bathroom in the lake, so the water often makes them really sick. So the filters were donated by someone. and a few of the households opted to have them, and Brian's organisation, the Trailblazer Foundation, set up the filters for them. They filter the lake water, and it's amazing the difference it makes- the colour of the filtered water is completely clear, and when we took in samples to the lab yesterday afternoon, the results were very good as well. So after the trip back, I was exausted and curled up to watch the television in the common room for a while, made some cool friends, and ate some pancakes for dinner.
There is so much more to describe about the village, as well as the temples, so when I upload the photos I will describe the actual experiences with them.
Today I am not feeling very well, I'm wondering if the heat got to me yesterday, as I am feeling a little feverish and have a slight cough, and can't keep much in my stomach. But I think this is probably due to the heat- today is quite hot as well, so I am taking it easy today, I slept a lot and I'm going to relax and drink iced coffee and not go outside the town. Hopefully will be feeling better tomorrow!

By the way, no, I didn't go to the echo chamber, but funny you should mention, me and Bina were talking about that last night- she had seen it on the amazing race as well, and had never heard of the echo chamber until then either!

The Temples

Well, my friends, there's not a lot I can say in this update without the photos. I have to find a place where I can download them from my camera.
Oh my god. I saw Angkor Wat, I saw Bayon, I saw a temple half eaten by the most gigantic white tree roots I have ever seen. I've seen and clamoured and climbed over and through cities thousands of years old, lost, rediscovered, and glorious. There are very few words- I spent most of the day in silent awe. I had a lovely driver who took me all around for 5 or 6 hours to 4 or 5 different complexes on the back of a motorbike, and I just went out to dinner with some nice Swedish people from my lodge, and this day has been magnificent. Stunning. I'm dusty and tired and full of old stone and history.
I will try tomorrow to find a place to upload the photos, and there are many, many photos. I had new batteries when i started, and ran out right at the end of the trip.
Until tomorrow, my friends.

Cambodia ahoy!

I have arrived in Cambodia! What an adventure, already! I've been here a day and a half now, and life never fails to look out for me and send me amazing signs. Here's the lowdown so far:
I got to Narita airport saturday morning, to which I traveled in style, with my own seat and window on the train (I missed the cheap train), and when I arrived in Narita I realised that I didn't have my eticket- only my invoice for the purchase. So, after about 30 minutes of panicking and asking the help desk what to do (they were freaked out because i didnt have my eticket and sent me in circles) and calling Rio asking her to check my email, I just went to the JAL boarding pass machine, slapped my passport on it, and got my boarding pass to Bangkok, no problem. Doh. So I got the flight to Thailand, and was SO excited, because JAL is such a nice airline and there was a free meal and wine and yuzu juice and a selection of 10 or so movies to choose from, so I had a really nice flight to Bangkok. Then as we got close to Bangkok I couldn't stop staring out the window- what a beautiful country, I've never seen the ocean so grey and brilliant! So the after getting off the plane, I started to worry because I didn't have my boarding pass for my flight to Siem Reap, so I walked to the gate (Bangkok airport is HUGE, I walked in a straight line for about 20 minutes to reach my gate).. But, turns out, this is totally normal, not having a boarding pass when transferring, and just went and had one printed no problem. Then, the flight to Siem Reap left an hour late, and I was s'posed to meet this girl Bina at a bar in Siem Reap an hour and a half after landing, so I was worried I'd be late and not able to meet her. But, it turns out, the flight that it says on the ticket is 1 hour and 20 minutes, is actually only a THIRTY minute flight, so we landed on time and I got through immigration and the non existant customs(literally, I still have my declaration form, don't know what to do with it). By this time, it was a a bit after 7 and totally dark, and I went out and caught, for the first time in my life, a moto (motorcycle/dirt bike thing) into town. I spent 20 minutes hanging on to the back of the bike for dear life, drinking it the sights and the people and the chaos, and praying we wouldn't be killed (we had a few close calls, almost ran over a bicycle!) and putting up with the guy trying to heckle me into letting him be my driver for the next few days. He was really put off when I finally gave him 2 extra dollars and told him I absolutely did not need a driver, but he was nice in the end.

Part 2: The beginning of the Cambodia experience
So I dropped my stuff off in my room at the guesthouse, which has a really beautiful outdoor bar/restaurant area, and whose staff are really nice, and then took another moto to the old market area to meet Bina. I eventually found the bar where we were supposed to meet, and she appeared a few minutes later with her friend Brian. We bar hopped for about 4 hours and ate fish tacos and had a great time, and met up with her boyfriend Stu, and then Stu gave me a ride back to my guesthouse. They are the kindest people! Brian offered to take me with him tuesday to the floating village, because he works for an NPO dealing with water filtration, and is going out to do some filter work tuesday morning. So not only do I get to see the village for free (normally you have to hire a boat), but I also get to see some of what the volunteers and NPOs are doing here for the public health!
Today, I went walked down to the old market by myself, and did a little shopping- bought a beautiful green scarf and a few little odds and ends. Its so cheap here but I have to be careful and not whittle away all of my money! They do have some beautiful fabric and bags and stuff though, along with all the normal cheesy stuff. Apparently there's a silk factory up the road, which I might take a tour of in a few days, and actually get to see them weave the silk. So there are a lot of beautiful silks here. And, I'm learning how to haggle, a skill which I'm sure will be useful in India! I'm still a bit shy about it, but I'm getting a backbone- slowly but surely.
Then I went back to the guesthouse for some breakfast, and had a pineapple shake and a huge bowl of fruit- mangos, dragonfruit, pineapple, bananas, apples, watermelon, and yoghurt and honey! I couldn't believe my eyes and ate the whole thing, which made my stomach a little unhappy. Then Bina picked me up, and we met up with a bunch of other ex-pats living here and went on this hour journey over the worst washed out dirt road I've ever seen (we had to use the four wheel drive in the jeep), and I road in a jeep and Bina and a bunch of others took their motos, and went out to this temple in the jungle that not many tourists know about, and had this huge lovely picnic and explored the temple (I climbed some ruins and almost got stuck in terror at being so high on a rock ledge). There were land mine fields that hadn't been finished being de-mined yet and were roped off, a bit scary. We gave the rest of the food leftovers to the poor local kids, and came back to town just before dark.
Tomorrow I have plans to start at like 6am and hire a moto and spend the entire day exploring Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples!
I have tons of photos already, but I can't upload them here so I'll try to post some in the next few days.
This is the most strange, exciting, trying experience I've had traveling yet, and I'm tired and sweaty and hot and so so dirty and covered in dust, and it is absolutely wonderful.

Rest of the road trip photos!

I found Oniishi!

We love foot onsen!
Hot tea and food thats not corn or donuts=happy travelers
Cursed green lake of Kanna.
VERY green lake.

Maria tries to leave me on the bridge.

But comes back to take a photo.
We stood in that waterfall, which is actually a lot bigger than it looks in this photo.
Only in Japan is this a two lane road. I call it a deathtrap.

Niigata Trip

Well, here, finally, are the photos from my bizarre last minute adventure across the island, from Tokyo to Niigata. The story goes a bit like this: One hot summer day, two girls named Maria and Corinne got together to go to the beach, but when they checked the weather, it seemed the coast was due for rain. By this time, it was getting on in the afternoon, so they decided going to the beach maybe wasn't the best idea. But they knew they had to get out of Tokyo, or suffer a slow death by suffication from dirty humid air. So, in a stroke of genious, they piled their money together, bought the biggest box of donuts the world had ever seen, and rented a car. Then, with no particular destination in mind, nothing but two ears of corn, a box of donuts, a lighter, 4 beers, a roll of toilet paper, and still in their swimsuits, they started heading west, through the countryside of Gunma, where they saw fireworks from the side of the highway. They then stopped for a shenanigan or two at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, to have the best coffee ever spewed forth from a vending machine, and play the guitar to seedy looking folk in the parking lot. They then journeyed forth out of Gunma, into the mountains of Niigata, where it seemed like a good idea to find the deserted spot in the middle of the mountains where Fuji Rock had been held a few weeks before, and camp in the car there. Well, after an interesting escapade down a gravel "road", a nice spot was found next to a river, and the two girls decided it would be fun to light a fire. After an hour and a half, a roll of toilet paper, most of the lighter fluid, a pile of driftwood, and half a notebooks worth of paper, a small fire was finally crackling merrily. Then the stargazing and beer drinking and corn roasting ensued. By fantastic cosmic coincidence, there was a beautiful meteor shower just at this moment. After the magicalness, the girls climbed into the car to try and get some rest, so they could awake by sunrise (4am) the next morning and make the most of their day of true freedom. After a chilly night where they realised that they had no clothes but their swimsuits and pullover dresses, and two light blankets, they awoke the next morning to find that they had been surrounded by monkeys in the night. Dozens and dozens of monkeys. Ah yes, and there was a hornet that managed to follow them through most of the day, since Maria was deathly allergic to hornets. After washing in the stream and escaping the horde of monkeys, the two girls got back in the car, and wandered through the mountains, went to a muddy foot-onsen on the side of the road, and meandered back to Gunma, where they found a bright green, apparently cursed lake (according to the locals, who told us "sure, its safe to swim in, just kind of deep. Oh, but we don't ever swim in it, because its cursed." Thanks, guys.) saw lots of poisonous snakes and signs warning them about the poisonous snakes which they couldn't read, stood in a waterfall, ate breakfast at a diner where a pimp with a really tacky visor and his hoe and her whole family and two random schoolgirls were all eating together in the booth across from them, finally got their swim when they jumped half naked in this beautiful clear river out the back of an onsen, realised they could see naked men walking around on their little porch area out the back of the onsen, and the men could see them!, got stared at by the naked men, then covered their tattoos not very discreetly and went into the onsen, had a lovely bath, visited the local jinja in Corinne's old hometown in Oniishi (towns in Gunma have supremely weird names), and then ate some soba noodles at a tiny local noodle house, then hauled ass back to Tokyo just in time to fill the car's tank and return it 3 MINUTES before the deadline. Then we woke up. The end. Photos:

Corn.

Rest stop guitar playing.
I suck at lighting fires! They should teach useful skills in girlscouts!
... Monkeys
Monkey up a tree!

What the hell is this? Leftovers from Fuji Rock.



...and it gets weirder.
peace.
Niigata is beautiful.
Foot onsen!

More photos from UK and Ireland

Here are the rest of the photos, from Belfast and Edinburgh!

Ara outside the city hall at Belfast (it took me a million tries to get one of Ara while still in mid jump, he was getting really irritated while I made him jump up and down like a nutcase trying to get the photo)

Downtown Belfast

The spitting stone in Edinburgh

Part of Edinburgh University
The inside of the Elephant House!

View from by the castle in Edinburgh

I took this wandering around the university
Church!
More photos from the university area
You may wonder why I chose to take a photo of this particular building, which is not so special at first glance. This is the office of the creative writing dept at Edinburgh. I look at this picture whenever I feel lazy to remember what I'm working for.

Greyfriar's Bobby!
Another church
Me'n Grant the day I left. I'm nice and bedraggled in the rain, like a proper vagabond scarf brigader.