The places on the map are:
A. Bangkok, Thailand
B. Ayutthaya, Thailand
C. Chiang Mai, Thailand
D. Pai, Thailand
E. Mae Sai, Thailand
F. Tachileik, Myanmar
G. Chiang Khong, Thailand
H. Luang Prabang, Laos
I. Vientiane, Laos
J. Kong Lor Cave, Laos
K. Don Det, 4000 Islands, Laos
L. Hue, Vietnam
M. Hoi An, Vietnam
N. Nha Trang, Vietnam
O. Dalat, Vietnam
P. Ho Lak, Vietnam
Q. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
R. Phnom Penh, Cambodia
S. Kampot, Cambodia
T. Siem Reap, Cambodia
U. Bangkok, Thailand
V. Koh Phangan, Thailand
W. Koh Tao, Thailand
X. Bangkok, Thailand
View Larger Map
And there it is. Today marks the 2 month mark of my trip, as I complete the loop in Bangkok. And two months was definitely not enough time to properly do the loop, so I'll have to come back... Anyway I have a bit less than 3 weeks left, and it is going to be spent in North Vietnam, with a quick stop in Singapore and a flight home from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, just cause it was the cheapest flight home I could find in Southeast Asia. I'll save most of Malaysia for another trip.
Ok on to what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks. Angkor has a lot of pictures, but I don't have to say much about it, and I pretty much left my camera packed away for the Thai islands, as I spent most of the time in and around the ocean. So this will actually be a bit of a short blog, as I don't have too many pictures.
On to Angkor...
Angkor is the capital city of the ancient Khmer empire, which at one point extended into modern day Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The Khmer empire flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, with its height in the 12th century, when Angkor was the largest city in the world, with a population of over a million people. The ancient city, which is now a complex system of ruins, is about a half hour drive north of Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is a thriving tourist town mostly based around the steady stream of people coming to see Angkor.
We woke up at 5 am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, which is supposed to be amazing.
So did all these other people.
But it was super cloudy, so the sunrise consisted of a gradual transition from dark grey to light grey, not so spectacular. Still the towering temple of Angkor Wat was still pretty impressive, especially considering that this gigantic structure, the world's largest single religious monument, was built almost a millennium ago.
Inside Angkor Wat.
The scale is huge.
Outline against the sky.
The obligatory Angkor Wat photo. I think we're still half asleep...
Exploring.
The Bayon, a temple inside the larger structure of Angkor Thom.
The Bayon contains 216 giant stone faces, said to represent Jayavarma VII, the Khmer king who had the temple built.
More temples. The whole complex of ruins was huge, over 1000 square kilometers, the largest preindustrial city in the world's history.
Many temples were merged with trees and nature.
Bird's eye.
Ruins.
No matter where you go in Angkor, you're being watched...
Elephants.
Ta Prohm. This is also called the Tomb Raider temple, as many scenes from The Angeline Jolie movie were filmed here.
Climbing through the ruins.
More Ta Prohm.
Exploring.
So many tourists... One thing about Angkor that was disappointing was the swarms of tourists everywhere, in what is supposed to be low season. It added a slightly sour taste to the whole thing.
My favorite part of the temples, climbing around on the ruins. Until the Cambodian guides yell at you to get down, that is.
The ruins at Angkor were absolutely amazing. That being said, Arni and I were slightly disappointed. I had heard all summer about how incredible Angkor was, and that it was the eight wonder of the world, the highlight of SE Asia, etc. To me it just didn't stand up to the other ancient ruins. In the last few years I have been lucky enough to get to see the ruins of Athens, Rome, and the Pyramids. All of these had the wow factor, they were jaw dropping. Angkor was beautiful and magnificent, but just didn't have the wow factor for me. Maybe it was because I went so early and wasn't in the right mood/energy level to explore, maybe it was the throngs of camera-weilding tourists, maybe it was getting yelled at not to climb on the rocks, but I finished the day feeling slightly let down. That being said, I would absolutely recommend anyone to pay Angkor a visit, it is well worth it. Just keep in mind it might not be the eight wonder of the world.
Siem Reap is the tourist capital of Cambodia, as evidence by the main road in town, "Pub Street," which is full of backpackers.
The classic Siem Reap bar, "Angkor What?"
After Siem Reap, we took a night bus to Bangkok, where we spent a quick day because I have to get another new passport. Because my temporary one only had 5 pages, which I already used up... After that we took the night train/ferry to Koh Phangan, for the infamous full moon party. The full moon party is an all-night beach party held every month during the full moon, a raucous night full of intoxicated westerners doing stupid things on Haad Rin, a beautiful beach on the coast of the island.
One of those stupid things, the fire jump rope.
Which almost always ends in a burnt leg. I heard a rumor that the many medical clinics on Haad Rin actually pay the rope holders to try to burn westerners so they have to pay for treatment at the clinic. And I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. This is one part of the festivities that I did not participate in.
The rest of the festivities, however, I participated in wholeheartedly, including wearing bright neon clothing, getting covered in neon body paint, drinking heavily, and dancing like an idiot until the sun came up.
And I did all this along with about 20,000 other people.
It was a pretty good time.
The full moon, the cause of celebration, spent most of the night hidden behind dense clouds.
The Belieber squad photo, taken by a drunk girl who couldn't figure out the zoom feature of a camera.
I actually ran in to a few friends at the party. Terry, pictured here enjoying the drum and bass, is a friend I travelled through Laos with. And Vineeta, shown here looking confused, was a friend I met in Pai, and randomly ran into in the middle of the party. Vineeta actually travelled with us for the next week after the party too, as we both wanted to do similar diving stuff on Koh Tao, but we'll get to that...
Many beachside bars sold laughing gas during the party, shown being enjoyed here.
But the primary fuel for the party was buckets, which are pretty much what they sound like. One of the buckets of alcohol, red bull, and soda cost around 150 baht, or 5 dollars.
Different bucket shops along the beach.
This guy had a little too much fun, and I thought he might be dead until he looked up just as I took the picture.
The amazing sunset from our bungalow on the beach on Koh Phangan.
After partying it up in Koh Phangan/recovering for 3 days, we went to Koh Tao, the diving capital of Southeast Asia. Koh Tao is one of the cheapest and best places in the world to learn how to scuba dive, and has some amazing dive sites. The island is very small, and almost entirely consists of tourists, dive shops, and beaches.
Vineeta and I already had our Open Water certifications, so we took an advance course, while Arni got certified. All in all, I did 8 dives in 3 days, and am now an SSI Advanced Diver. Included in the dives were a night dive, where all I could see was what was in the small circle of my flashlight, which was a bit scary at first but once I got under was awesome. I also did a pair of 30 m (100 ft) deep dives, including one at a wreck of the HTMS Sattakut, an American warship that fought in the battle of Iwo Jima during WWII. The wreck was incredible, and exploring such a huge man made object, strangely placed in nature, was an incredible experience. And it was very bizarre. At one point I was floating, looking through a door of the ship, thinking about what it was like to live on the ship, when I saw an approaching flashlight. For a split second I expected to see a sailor walking through the hall, before I saw the diver floating through it and remembered that I was underwater.
A picture of the boat before it was sunk intentionally at Koh Tao.
One of the guns under water. (I didn't take this picture)
I also did a UV night dive, which was definitely the most surreal experience I have ever had. During a UV night dive, you bring a deep blue light instead of a normal flashlight, and then you wear a blue filter over your goggles so you cannot see much of the light from your flashlight. But many coral, and some fish, absorb the blue light and reemit the light in different neon colors, which is all that the diver sees. It was an amazing alien world of glowing neon corals and fish, and was completely unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was like I went down the rabbit hole to Alice in Wonderland, and everything I knew about the world no longer applied. I had no concept of time or space, and had no clue that we had only gone down 8 m and dove for about an hour. It was really trippy. But it was amazing, and my favorite of my 8 dives.
So now I'm kinda a dive buff, and I've added another good reason to travel the world more, so I can dive the world's best dive sites. Not that I needed another reason to travel.
This guy was hanging out on our bungalow, in almost this exact position, for 3 straight days. I think he was catching flies or something. Anyway he became part of our crew and we would say whats up every time we woke up or came home and he was still chilling there.
The shot from the bottom. He always got a little wary when I would get this close, but we left him alone so I think he was cool with us.
Well that ended up being a bit longer than expected, but that's ok. I'm currently back in Bangkok, have a new double sized passport, for all the traveling I plan on doing in the future, and am waiting for our flight to Hanoi in the morning. Then we are meeting up with my parents and sister, and Arni's mother, for a few days, then exploring North Vietnam for about two weeks. Also Bender is coming out for 2 weeks, for those of you who know Bender, so our crew will expand a bit before I have to go home.
I'm getting down the home stretch of the trip, so probably only a couple of blogs left. Until the next one,
Sawadee krap
No comments:
Post a Comment