Bolivia to Bolivia via Peru

17/11/09

The ferry operators are on strike. There are plans to build a bridge where they currently operate and they are understandably upset. What this means for us is that the route to Copacabana now goes through Peru. Our drive this morning took us right past Tiahuanacu, where we visited yesterday.

Our first stop was a Bolivian passport check. It was 50km from the border, just a roadblock where they checked everybody. We got off our bus, showed a bored looking soldier our passports and re-borded the bus on the other side. Further down the road was Bolivian immigration. We had to get an exit stamp, which only took fifteen minutes. The entry to Peru, however, was an impressive line. The border crossing doesn't usually get much traffic, but now gets all the tourists that go to Copacabana (which is significant). It took an hour to get through the line.

Then we discovered that our comfortable spacious bus was no longer part of our trip. Twelve of us were stuffed into a Toyota mini-van for the ride through Peru. We spent less than an hour in Peru (but it counts). The Peruvian exit stamp and re-entry into Bolivia were a breeze. Again we were herded into another mini-van for the short trip to Copacabana. What used to be a four hour trip took us about 7 hours.

On the other hand, Copacabana is beautiful. It is nestled in between two hills, right on Lake Titicaca. It is very small (less than a kilometer in any direction). Before dinner we walked up Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill) for a view of the lake at sunset. There was no visible sunset, but the views were fabulous. After dinner it started really raining, so hopefully it will stop before we head over to Isla del Sol tomorrow.

Tiahuanaco & La Paz

16-11-09


The tour picked us up from our hotel, then proceeded to drive to every other hotel in La Paz (and a drive by of the legislature and presidential palace) before heading over the pass to Tiahuanaco.

We drove by a lot of subsistence farms and women in the hills tending the cows/goats/sheep/burros. We even got to see a few people plowing with burros and cattle. It is the beginning of rtainy season, so they are getting ready to plant.

Tiahuanaco is an ancient ruin, the capital of pre-Incan (and pre-other people, but Incan is the only one I have heard of) civilisation. Tiahuanaco started around 2,000 BCE and lasted until around 1,000 CE. They captured/settled all of the land around Lake Titicaca for a long way in every direction. When the civilisation died out, some of the northern people became the Inca. Lake Titicaca is the cradle of civilisation around here.

The ruins are pretty impressive. They are large, but not very tall. They have the requisite statues and architecture and, of course, everything is aligned to the solstices. At sunrise on the summer solstice, the sun's rays come through the east gate and illuminate the alter (to the delight of 40,000 new agers).

After returning to La Paz, we headed down to Plaza Murillo, the government center we drove by this morning. It is almost a typical South American capital square. Two sides are taken up by the church, presidential palace and the legislature. In a typical capital square, the three buildings would take up three sides. It did have the requisite statue in the middle.

Next we walked up calle Jaen, which has wonderful buildings and stone paving. I suggested a stop for a drink as the architecture to beer ratio was getting a little high. The girls both had matte, so I go to try some for the first time. Apparently it usually has more leaves (this had a tea bag), but it was really good, so I'm sure I'll get more chances to see what it is really like. We wandered back to the hotel, stopping for a lot of street food. The chocolate covered blue marshmellow on a stick was the most fun, but the rest of it was good too.

Tonight we are heading out to see some music and tomorrow we head to Lake Titicaca. The usual route is closed, so we have to go through Peru. One more country!

Arrival in La Paz.

15-11-09

We left Miami at 11pm and arrived in La Paz at just before 7am. La Paz is at 3660m (~11,350 feet) and the airport is even higher. Breathing is going to be an issue. We all got through customs with no hassle and all our luggage made it, so we grabbed a taxi into the city. The drive down from the airport was instructional. I learned two things: even though everybody drives all over the place, they probably won't hit you, they will honk and shout, but the mostly won't run you down on purpose. The second thing I learned is that we are never renting a car in La Paz. A few people have suggested that we should rent a car to get around, but I don't think we'd survive.

The taxi dropped us off in front of the Hostel Cactus. I had picked it out of the guide book so knew nothing about it. It looked okay (not good, but okay). The office wasn't open yet, so we left our luggage in the store room and headed up to the cemetery It was early Sunday morning. All the street vendors were setting up their stalls and it looked like it was going to be very busy later. I also survived my first pickpocket attempt. Somebody threw dirt on me from behind and while I was cleaning myself off, they were going to take my wallet. Fortunately, I knew about this trick, so didn't start to clean myself off until I was sure nobody was going to try anything. I did see a sullen man slip off into the crowd. The good part is that I still own everything I did before, the bad part is that my shirt is now dirty.

The cemetery is huge. It is all crypts and mausoleums. Row upon row of shrines built into the walls, with the occasional large mausoleum breaking up the pattern. The best (but not the most tactful) way to describe the crypts is that the are a lot like storage lockers. The shrines are stacked 5 or 6 high and the structures that house them are hundreds of feet wide. Some of the structures have multiple stories. There is the military section, the poor section, the rich section and a section for pretty much any income level. Some of the shrines are ornately decorated and obviously well cared for, others just have the deceased's name scratched into the concrete used to seal the crypt.

The cemetery was very busy. Visiting your dead is a big deal in Bolivia. Apparently, the crypts are recycled, many of them are currently empty and have obviously been used before. It was rainy and misty, which is the perfect way to walk around a cemetery

After the cemetery, we stopped for a street empanada, and wandered our way back to the hostel through the now bustling streets. The two-hour snooze was well appreciated. We discovered that walking down hill or across a hill (there is no flat ground) was okay, but we were really breathing hard going up hills. It may be a while before we get used to the altitude.

A few hours later we emerged (not happily) from our hostel and went wandering again. We saw the cacao museum and learned that S. Freud was the first European to try cocaine. We also learned that the mining industry runs on the cocoa leaf. The miners refuse to work without it and it increases their ability to do the back-breaking labour required. Apparently the leaf is also full of “nutrition”.

After lunch and more rest we went down to see the church. It is very ornate. The stations of the cross would be an altar in most churches. The altar is immense and very gold. There are more saints than I could shake a stick at and each one has his (they are mostly men) own prayer. It was Sunday evening so there were lots of people coming and going.

Right behind the church is the witch's market. It is quite touristy, but you can still find stalls selling herbs and traditional cauldron ingredients. We had dinner around the corner from the market. Dinner was good, but I ordered a beer that turned out to be malt liquor. After choking it down I was fortified to head out into the rain again.

We're off again.

This time Shannon and I are going to South America. We are flying in to La Paz, Bolivia and flying out of Buenos Aires three weeks later. We plan to see Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, but South America is where the best laid plans of gringos go to die, so we'll see what happens.

Right now we are packing furiously and trying to decide what we will really need. A wise man once told me to bring half the clothes and twice the money. Unfortunately, I don't have twice the money, so we'll see how that goes.

We are traveling with Carmalyn, a friend of ours from California. At least until she gets fed up with me and takes off on her own. It should be a lot of fun and i might even be able to convince her to help write a few of these.

We leave on Saturday and I'll do my best to post at least semi-regularly. We'll see what internet facilities are like in rural areas.

Epilogue

San Francisco - Boulder

We got up really early and hit the road. Yesterday I had hit the vet up for some cat Valium and once it kicked in, we had no problems until we got east of Salt Lake City. There were high winda and a lot of blowing snow. Driving the GPR (Giant Penis Replacement) was a mixed blessing. It was heavy and had good traction, but was large and didn't cut the wind very well. So I white-knuckled it to Evanston, WY, where we had a hotel waiting.

The last four nights I have slept in Sydney, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Evanston, WY. One of these things is not like the others... Guess which one.


The second day we woke up and discovered that I-80 was closed. Apparently it's not safe to drive in 60+ mph cross winds. So we booked the hotel for another night and went into downtown Evanston for lunch at the cafe. We each bought a book and spent the day reading and keeping the cat warm. That evening we went to the restaurant (across the road from the cafe). Both places had excellent food and really friendly service.

The road was open when we returned from dinner, but it was 10pm and we didn't want to start out that late. So we got up at 4am (jet-lag can be helpful sometimes) and headed out. The winds were howling. If it was like this when the opened the road, I can't imagine what it must have been like for them to close it. I did about an 2 hours of white-knuckle driving - staring intently into a blizzard, and then let Shannon take over. About half an hour into her stint, we got out of the wind and the driving became a lot easier. We arrived in Boulder about 6 hours later, unpacked the GPR and retrieved our car from where it was parked.

The cat is very happy to be in one place and so am I. The plants are very happy to be indoors, they didn't like the two nights in the car in Wyoming. Now all we have to do is find a place to live and get me a jobby-job.

Who is coming to visit first?

Asia Trip - Day 27

Hong Kong - San Francisco

We got up early to see as much of Hong Kong as we could before we had to catch our plane. First we took a tall skinny double-decker tram to the Victoria Peak train and caught the train up Victoria Peak. The views of Hong Kong are spectacular on a cloudy day, so I can't imagine what they are like when you can see everything.

Once we finished the plummet that is the ride down from the peak, we headed over to the ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Hung Hom for the poor man's harbour tour. The views of Hong Kong from the ferry were pretty good. We got to see a lot of construction and were watching them expand the island. They just keep dumping dirt in the bay and building things on it.

Hong Kong was an exciting city and we both wanted to see more of it, but we had to catch a 3-week flight to San Francisco (the time may be subjective, but we did accomplish time travel - we arrived in San Francisco 4 hours before we left Hong Kong).

We picked up our giant penis replacement of a rental car and checked into our hotel in Oakland and promptly fell asleep. That evening Ethan invited a bunch of us over for a barbecue and we picked up the stuff we had left in his garage. Then we drove to San Jose to pick up the cat and went to bed as we have a lot of driving to do tomorrow.


This is the official end of the Asia Trip blog. There will be an epilogue describing our move to Boulder and you can see pictures of our trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/bennorman1 (I'm apparently a google slut)

Thanks for reading and we'll try to travel again soon.

Asia Trip - Day 26

Sydney - Hong Kong

This time our flight worked. We arrived in Hong Kong around three in the afternoon, checked into the Marriott (thank you points), changed and went exploring. We went to a night market on the Kowloon side where Shannon engaged in a little retail therapy. For dinner we went to the Jumbo Floating Palace restaurant. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is on a massive ship, seats about 3000 and feeds you. I have no idea what we had for dinner, but it was really good. I could tell we were in China because we had 6 servers all to ourselves and the table mistress (my name for her, probably not her official title - we couldn't afford that restaurant) who hovered over us the entire meal. Every time I took a sip of water, she would call the water boy over to fill up my glass.

We were both so exhausted that all we did after dinner was head back to the hotel to crash.

Asia Trip - Day 25

Sydney - Hong Kong

Today we got up at the crack of noon - seriously, the Ukrainian hospitality tired us out - and caught the train into downtown Sydney. It was pouring rain. People always complain about the Melbourne weather, but it was dry and sunny the whole time we were in Melbourne. Sydney was wetter than Darwin during the wet season! We caught a ferry to Watson's Bay for the fish & chips and beautiful views of the city. At least the fish & chips were good. In my experience Australia does the best fish & chips. In the US it is more like batter & chips and my UK experience was similar, but with slightly less batter. In Canada, they are good, but not as good as in Australia. It probably has something to do with proximity to an ocean, so I'll have to try Canadian ones again on a coast.

The ferry ride back was a poor man's Sydney harbour tour. We went by the opera house and the harbour bridge. They even stopped at the best spot for tourists to take pictures, so I think they're on to us.

We met Greg in the city after work and he took us home via his usual ferry route up the Parramatta river. Because it was raining so hard there were a number of impromptu waterfalls falling into the river (I believe the locals call it flooding, but the tourists call it pretty). Christina cooked us an excellent (if numerically challenged) dinner and then drove us to the airport.

Here is where the fun begins. When we went to the boarding gate, there was no plane at the other end of the walkway and I knew we were screwed. Due to the weather, our plane had been diverted to Melbourne. Cathay Pacific was very good about it. They booked us on the next plane out, put us up in a hotel for the night and even bought us breakfast. The taxi to the hotel was quite an adventure. Our hotel was 3 blocks from the airport and our driver had never heard of it. You could see it once we left the taxi stand. He also managed to run over the sidewalk (on a straight bit, not around a curve) and almost kill somebody in separate incidents on a three block trip. I was expecting to die using public transportation somewhere on this trip, but not in Australia.

Asia Trip - Day 24

Melbourne - Sydney

After taking an hour to check out of the hotel (Seriously, I was third in line and it took 40 minutes to get to the desk. I couldn't figure out what was taking so long until it took me 20 minutes to check out and all I had to do was sign the credit card slip) we had to hurry to catch our plane. We arrived just before the last call to check in for our flight, so got to Sydney on time.

Christina and Greg picked us up at the airport. One of the nicest things about visiting a country where you have friends is airport rides. In Cambodia and Thailand, we got screwed on almost every airport trip, but in Australia we were either met by friends or had a rental car waiting, sometimes both. We had a quick drive past their future apartment and crashed at their place.

We went out to dinner with some of their friends to a dumpling place. All we ate was pork wrapped in dough. It was fantastic.

Asia Trip - Day 23

Melbourne

Today is Walks & Gin's wedding day. The wedding is at 5pm so we checked into the hotel and had a rest. Then we got all dressed up and caught the shuttle bus to the winery for the wedding. We arrived a little early, so we thought we'd sample the wares. Very nice.

The wedding was fabulous. Everybody looked great and everything that was supposed to happen did. And, thankfully since we were sitting outside in the sun, the ceremony was short.

The reception went off! There were a few guys there that I hadn't seen in years and it was great to catch up.

Asia Trip - Day 22

Melbourne

We arrived very early in the morning, got a rental car and drove into the city. Since we arrived at Walks' around 7am, we went and had breakfast for an hour before waking him up. We picked up our good clothes from his place and headed out to see Tam & Rog (of our UK Trip fame, who are back in Melbourne). We just hung out with them for the day and caught up. It was great.

In the evening we headed into the city to have a drink with a bunch of Shannon's friends.

Asia Trip - Day 21

Litchfield NP - Darwin


We drove to Litchfiled park to see the magnetic termite mounds. The fact that it had safe swimming holes had nothing to do with anything (that's me you can barely see swimming between the waterfalls).


The termites build their mounds in a North-South alignment to maximize their exposure to the morning and afternoon sun. With many of them in a field, it looks like a graveyard.

Our next stop was Tolmar Falls. We saw a massive waterfall from a lookout point on the other side of the canyon. Next we saw Wangi Falls. It is a large double waterfall. Usually you can go swimming there, but during the wet season, it floods below the falls and crocs can access the pool.

After we enjoyed the termites and two waterfalls, Shannon let me go swimming. There are two pools open this time of year. The first one we went in is called Florence Falls. There are two waterfalls, side by each dropping into a large pool. There were a lot of people, however, they mostly stayed in the shallows, so there was lots of room to swim up under the waterfalls. Even though the falls weren't as large as the others we'd seen, it still caused quite a current and gave you a good battering as you swam under. When Shannon finally dragged me from the water, we went to the Buley Rockholes. These are circular pools caused by shallow rapids. Somehow we managed to have them all to ourselves for an hour.

Walking back to the car dried me off and then we were on the road back to Darwin for Bec's birthday. After a good party, we headed to the airport for our overnight flight to Melbourne. I have yet to convince my charming wife that an overnight flight does not count as a rest day.

Asia Trip - Day 20

Kakadu - Katherine

Our cruise set out from a different point than usual due to the very high water level. Their usual spot was underwater, which seemed to be the theme for the trip. We cruised from billabong to billabong through channels that only have water during the wet season. We saw lots of underwater walkways and railings that are lookouts of hikes during the dry season.

The scenery was wonderful, very lush and green. All the plants have to adapt to being dry 3 months of the year and under water for three months. They have developed great ways of coping. Some float, some have snorkels and others have roots that expand and contract depending on the water level. We saw lots of birds, including a sea eagle. Just as our guide was apologizing for not finding us a croc, we spotted a big one (~3m).

After the Yellow Water cruise, we headed down to Katherine Gorge for another cruise (photo). We arrived just in time to get on the last boat of the day. The gorge is made of sandstone and is very pretty. Sandstone splits at right angles, so from the air, the whole area looks like a checkerboard (or a mango that has been sliced and turned inside out for eating - if you don't know what I mean get Shannon to prepare a mango for you sometime). This means that every turn in the river is 90 degrees and you can see the smaller ravine out each of the other sides. Because it was wet season, the waterfalls were raging.

On the drive back from Katherine we had a blowout. There was a 4" cut in the side of the tire. Luckily we had a full spare instead of a donut, so we changed it and went on our way.

We spent the night in Adelaide River, not for it's charm, but for its proximity to the park that we are visiting tomorrow.

Asia Trip - Day 19

Kakadu NP

This morning we left Darwin, headed south to Kakadu NP. Kakadu is on of Australia's most important parks. It is a UNESCO world heritage sight for both natural beauty and cultural importance. However, before we got to the park, we got on a crocodile viewing boat. We were in the Adelaide river in a small boat, so close to the water that you could stick your hand in the water - we were warned not to try that!

We saw a lot of crocs (all saltwater). Our guide, Brownie, would tie a pork chop on a string to the end of a pole and get the crocs to jump out of the water for it. They can really come along way out of the water. We also learned a bunch about croc anatomy, physiology and behaviour. Brownie would also throw smaller chunks of meat to the whistling kites (raptors). It always amazes me how good they are at catching.

We entered the park and drove about 3/4 of the way across to Jabira, the main town in the park. We had lunch and saw the visitor's center, where we found out that one of the places we wanted to go was closed for the wet season. So we went on a different hike up to a lookout point and on another loop to see aboriginal rock art. The views were spectacular, you could see all along the escarpment that seperates the park from Arnhem land. The art was also very interesting. They have a great representation of the lightning god. The walks were fun, but incredibly hot and humid, so we were ready for the pool when we arrived at Yellow Water.

The pool was pretty warm, but the beer was cold, so it all worked out. Now all we have to do is book our wildlife cruise for tomorrow and get some dinner.

During dinner a massive thunderstorm came through the hotel. We sat under the canopy and enjoye dour wine while watching the lightening storm.

Asia Trip - Day 18

Darwin

Today we hung out with Bec and Chris and their new baby Ruby (and, of course, Bec's mum).

Ruby is 5 weeks old, very tiny and adorable.

It was great to catch up with them as we hadn't seen each other in over 5 years. There was a lot to talk about - did I mention the baby?

Asia Trip - Day 17

Echuca - Melbourne - Darwin

We drove back to melbourne this morning, stopping at a few pubs for lunch. Back in Melbourne a few of us went with Walks to the GN, where he was having a get together for the mates who couldn't make it to Echuca.

I met Shannon again at the GN and one of her friends, Jacinta, was nice enough to drive us to the airport for our flight to Darwin.

As we boarded the plane, we ran into Bec (the girl we are going to visit)'s mum. We knew that she was going to be there, but we didn't know when she was flying up. So Chris (Bec's husband) met us at the airport as he was there to pick up his mother-in-law. which was good as we'd never been to Darwin before and had no idea where our hotel was. He was kind enough to take us there.

Asia Trip - Day 16

Echuca

I woke up at noon exhausted. Apparently the combination of jet-lag and alcohol will do that to you.

A bunch more blokes met us in Echuca, so about 30 of us in all descended on the Moama bowls club for a pleasant afternoon of bowls.

Following a dip in the pool, we went out for dinner, and had a quiet dignified celebration of Australia Day.

Asia Trip - Day 15

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne around 10 in the morning and were picked up at the airport by Walks. We went back to his place for a little laundry and some running around. The shower and shave were nice after the overnight flight.

In the early afternoon, the lads started showing up for the buck's weekend. Around 3pm, we left a worried-looking fiance behind and headed up to Echuca. There were a few pubs on the way, so it took us a while to get there, but once we arrived, we had a grand old time.

Asia Trip - Day 14

Bangkok

This morning we slept in. It was wonderful. Around noon we checked out, left our stuff with the hotel and went templing. First we went to Wat Arun, the enormous temple of the dawn. Then on to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, who is massive (~40m long). Next came the Grand Palace, home of the emerald Buddha and a lot of cool architecture. Finally we ended with the giant swing and the Golden Mount, a temple on a hill with great views of Bangkok.

Back at our hotel, we got our stuff, had one last swim, changed and headed for the airport for our overnight flight to Melbourne.

Asia Trip - Day 13

Bangkok

This morning we headed over to Khao San road to start our tour to the tiger temple. We got to the departure point early, so had a liesurely breakfast in the cafe across the way. As our 10am departure time went flying by, a girl from the travel agency put us in a taxi and took us over to the mini-bus depot, where she proceeded to buy us passage on a bus with a bunch of people not going where we wanted to go. The first stop on our "tour" was the bridge on the river Kwai (of movie fame). We met the rest of our tour there. They had been waiting for us for an hour so we only had a few minutes at the bridge. Then on to the tiger temple. Our first stop was the tiger canyon, where you got to pet a live tiger. For 1000B you get to have a tiger's head in your lap. There was one monk who was moving the tiger and he was none too gentle. After petting quite a few tigers, we headed up to the temple and then walked around the compound looking at the rest of the animals. They had peacocks, horses, buffalo, deer and lots of cats. I guess that they are techinally Siamese cats as they live in Siam, but they look like normal barn cats to me.

When we got back to Bangkok we made our own way to the dinner cruise. It was a lot of fun, there is a lot of cool stuff to see from the river. The food was good too. They have a fifty page menu, but not everything is available every night, so ordering is a challenge. The fried fish balls were really good.

Asia Trip – Day 12

Phnom Penh – Bangkok

Everything I organized for today worked. Of course, what I organized was our trip to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. Once I figure out how everything works, we leave the country.

The flight to Bangkok was uneventful – it was only 45 minutes. Getting a taxi to our hotel was another matter. None of the drivers want to use the meters. The cheapest quote we got was 700B (~23 $US) plus tolls. Other quotes were in the thousands. Our actual fare, once we found a driver willing to use the meter was, including tolls, under 400B.

Our hotel is fantastic. We are staying at the Bangkok Marriott. Shannon used some of her points. I didn’t think I missed hot showers with all the heat in Cambodia, but the first one I took lasted 20 minutes. And there is a pool – I really like the pool.

Since it was still early in the afternoon, we went sight seeing. We saw a wat (temple) with examples of the different styles of Buddhas from different places and eras. We also walked past the Dusit palace and the democracy monument on our way to Khao San rd. Khao San rd is the backpacker area of Bangkok. Lots of guesthouses and massage parlours.

After looking around, we went back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner cruise. Unfortunately, due to bad concierge advice (he told us that a one hour cab ride would only take 20 minutes) and a worse cab driver (he took us in the wrong direction until we’d missed our reservations and then was full of advice on “better” restaurants – we eventually just got out) we didn’t get dinner that night. The walk home was interesting. We weren’t in the nicest part of town, but it wasn’t dangerous. It was blue-collar Thais who didn’t see a lot of tourists in their area going about their business.

Asia Trip – Day 11

Siem Reap – Phnom Penh

Our 6am bus to our 7am boat ride arrived at 7am, so the day didn’t start well. Once we got to the boat, however, things started to look up. I found a seat inside and Shannon chose to sit on the roof. The scenery along the river was gorgeous and the boat was fast and air-conditioned.

When we got to Phnom Penh, we found a little backpackers mecca. It was small, with about 50 guesthouses packed into a 6-block radius. Intersperced were countless restaurants (selling happy pizza), internet cafes and travel agents. It even had a mosque and a lake.

We went to a bank machine and it gave me a $100 bill. A bill that size is practically useless unless I want to buy a car. It’s like walking into a corner store with a million dollar bill and trying to buy gum. The best part of the banking experience was that the bank was beside the Royal Cambodian Airlines office. Their mascot is a chicken (probably a rooster). Either way I don’t have a lot of confidence in an airline whose mascot can’t fly.

We watched the sun set over the lake from the rooftop bar of our hotel. Then we went and had dinner at the Flying Elephant Café. Happy pizza is an extra dollar.

Asia Trip – Day 10

Siem Reap

This morning we took a tuk-tuk almost 50km north of town to see the river of 1000 lingas and an animal park. A linga is a traditional phallic symbol of fertility and water is considered “holyish” if it flows over a linga. After 1.5 hours in a tuk-tuk and a 30 minute hike up a hill, we got to see well over 1000 lingas carved into the riverbed rocks. There were also carvings of Buddha and other gods and a very nice waterfall. After the hike back down, we had a fantastic lunch at a side of the road restaurant and went to the animal park. It was closed. The sign said open every day, but it was closed, so I guess today wasn’t an every day.

We stopped at a few more temples on the way back into town. We also stopped at a stand where they made coconut sugar. It is the same process as making maple sugar, but they start with coconut palm sap.

We had dinner at the dead fish tower café. It looks like an old converted barn. It has about 14 different levels, none more than 10 square meters, each with 2-3 tables. They gave the impressions of floating islands of dinner, or the exercise room at the chimp enclosure. Upon further reflection it is probably representative of the different levels of Buddhist nirvana and I am going to pay for the chimp comment.

Asia Trip – Day 9

Siem Reap

Today was hard core temple day. We started off at 5am and watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat and then commenced the tour of the building. It is amazing. It took 37 years to build and was never completely finished. There are a few places where the carvings are only roughed out and other places where the borders just stop half way up a column. Most of the Buddhas were headless because, during the civil war, their heads were chopped off and taken to Thailand (They are not big fans of Siam here).

After breakfast, we went to another temple, then another, and another. We hit 10 temples in all. The temple: beer ratio took quite a hit. Some of the highlights included the Bayon temple, where Buddha looked out from all four sides of every tower; the elephant terrace, for obvious reasons; and Ta Phrom, where they filmed Tomb Raider. After we were templed out, we came back to town to do a little shopping. My sister-in-law just shuddered as I wrote that line – I have a habit of bringing back large impractical gifts that she has to look at. Does my brother really need a 4-foot wooden dancing Vishnu? Of course he does.

After a much needed beer break, where we chatted up some Aussies (not the hardest thing to do), we are back at the hotel. All we have to do tonight is get dinner and do a little internet.

Asia Trip – Day 8

Kompong Cham – Siem Reap

This morning we had the best bus ride ever. The bus left on time and even arrived a little bit early. It was also air conditioned. I know bus companies in developed nations that can’t do that. The company was called the GST Bus Company, so we finally got something good out of the GST (Canadian joke – and not even a good one).

We arrived in Siem Reap in the early afternoon and thought that since we have a few hours of daylight left, we’d see some temples. We went to three temples before Shannon let me stop for a beer. I think the temple : beer ratio should be 2:1, but she was excited, so she snuck an extra one in. The temples were everything you’d expect from an ancient Cambodian temple; they were falling down, had fantastic carvings and architecture, and were hidden in the jungle.

In the evening we watched the sun set over Angkor Wat from a temple on a mountain overlooking the city, and after dinner, we went shopping at the night market. I bought a traveling Buddha as a mascot for the rest of the trip.