my little adventures.

A trip to Cambodia is not complete without a visit to Angkor Wat... so here it is...

I first saw Angkor Wat in a National Geographic magazine years ago, and as soon as I saw it, I wanted to go. One of the beauties of living in Hong Kong is being able to travel to tons of places easily... so I finally had my chance to come. It can now be checked of my list of places to visit, haha.
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a huge moat, which makes it seem really far away. It's an incredible sight, definitely did not disappoint.

These are images of the exterior and interior of the temple complex, but they don't do it justice. Being there is definitely an experience, the pictures only give you a tiny glimpse of what it's like.

These are images of some of the details. The walls were covered in reliefs, all telling different stories of the gods and battles and what not. Lots of the remain in good condition, with some shiny bits here and there as people rub certain areas for good luck. The walls and doorways have some of the original paint remaining, and it would be incredible to have seen it when it was built in the 12th Century. There are also many statues and buddhas, though many heads and faces were cut off to be sold in Thailand.

The adventures continue in Cambodia...

We crossed through the border and entered another world, though we didn't quite realize it at the time.

After a long day of bus rides, border hassles, and silly arguments with people wanting to scam us, we made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia and headed to our guest house. A celebration was in order, not only because we were off the bus and the bumpy roads, but because it was New Year's Eve. We found a party in full swing and celebrated the New Year.

We began our adventures in Cambodia by hiking up a mountain with our guide. As you can see, it was gorgeous... and we had the treat of learning a little about traditional Cambodian medicine along the way. The marks on our guides stomach was a traditional remedy, which they will do before going to a modern doctor... I think I'll go with the modern doctor first.

At the end of our hike was the River of 1000 Lingas. There were carvings all over, the sides of the river, even in the riverbed itself. Quite an amazing scene. The linga was a very common symbol in Khmer architecture at this time. One part of the river had a small waterfall with lots of Cambodian kids playing in it. One girl, who we named Hershey, was a little shy, but caught a crab and showed it to us.

From the river, we went to a temple, not sure on the name. But it was gorgeous, with intricate carvings all over it. It seemed like there wasn't a spot they had missed. I can't imagine the hours it would take to do all that carving. There was also some great examples of the ancient writing, sanskrit.

More images of the temples around Angkor Wat. For our first day, we took a tour to some of the surrounding temples around Angkor Wat. These were older temples and provided a good background for seeing the main complex. Again, intricately carved and beautiful, the temples and land around it.

There were lots of kids around the temples, you'll see later, so this little one wandering around was not out of the ordinary. The girl selling scarves was really fun, we had a good laugh with her and ended up buying a scarf from her. And lastly, our tour guide, who was pretty cool and quite knowledgeable... And he loved Tomb Raider (the movie) and AnGelina Golie.

Alright, here's where the adventures begin...
Jason and I planned a 2 week trip to Thailand and Cambodia over the holidays, which was a ton of fun. So here is a small sampling of our pictures and fun.

We started in Bangkok, Thailand...

...and tried some of the local cuisine. You'd make those faces too, if you were eating a bug. That was an experience we didn't feel the need to try again, strange.

Gold. I think that might be a favorite color there. Here's a few of the places we saw: the road decorated in gold; a giant gold reclining buddha; a gold Wat at the Grand Palace; and a Wat with lots of gold on and in it.

We found lots of animals in Bangkok - some alive, some pretty stiff. The birds were nice and very excited about dried corn. Jason found a new pet that didn't bite at him, like all the dogs we saw. And who doesn't love balancing elephants and stone animals with lots of teeth.

Part of the fun of traveling is trying different food, some turns out to be good, some not so good. The fresh pineapple was always a delight, the fruit smoothies became a daily addiction, while the barbecued squid did not. And who wouldn't want to drink cream soda from a bag?

Amidst our wanderings (we NEVER got lost) we found the flower market, which was quite a site. Like a little flower packing and shipping factory up and down the street. It was bright and beautiful and you could even find turtles made out of flowers.

All countries have their quirks and oddities.. so here's a few from Thailand. From top around (clockwise):
a) It's a country full of gents, but apparently you need a small mustache to qualify.
b) Who needs to spend lots of money on dentures when you can bargain on the street... I bet you could find a set for 30 baht ($1).
c) Money fish. That's gotta be worth a lot.
d) Scooters everywhere, and he makes riding a scooter look so good.
e) Tuk tuks... a good way to get around, one would think, turns out if you're white, you get to pay much more (unless you have good bartering skills and the driver's in a good mood).
f) So this little boy wasn't the best musician I've heard, but he got some money for effort.

Temples and religion seemed to be everywhere. Here are just a few of the things we saw dealing with that; some beautiful, some ironic.

A few more of the sites around Bangkok. These were taken at a variety of Wats and other buildings.

Monk bowls. The monks carry bowls to receive alms in each morning. They used to be handmade, but its cheaper to buy them from China (what a surprise...), but we decided to check out the old school way. This man and his family made bowls and he was extremely excited about Canada. He even gave us a "special price" just because I was Canadian... I bet lots of people got that special price too.

Just a few shots from one of our last nights in Bangkok. The city is beautiful at night. It's a pity though we don't have a picture of our dinner from that night. We grabbed some curry from a street vendor... it contained some very questionable meat. I'm not sure what most of it was, but what we did recognize were the chicken feet that not even the street dogs would eat. We also decided to check out some Thai kick boxing. It was just as entertaining to watch the crowd as it was the fights.

Merry Christmas! Haha, once again, a few weeks late on that, oh well. There are a few pictures of Christmas in Hong Kong. I spent Christmas Eve at Disneyland with a few friends, which helped make it feel more like Christmas (it sort of came without me realizing it). On Christmas Day, my friend Jason flew in and we spent the day with some friends here in Hong Kong, the Collins family. It was great fun, we had crowns and everything. So there you have it, Christmas in Asia.