here, there, everywhere

One of my favorite temples at Angkor Wat; it was a good two hour motorcycle ride away from Siem Reap over pebbly red dirt roads, and you get to climb over and through the ruins a lot more than at most other temples. I couldn't walk after spending four hours rattling up there and back from Siem Reap but it was so worth it.

Hoi An moon flanked by riverside lanterns for my dad, who asked for something Hoi An-esque :-)

A lotus at the Silver Pavillion in Phnom Pehn

So sorry to be on radio silence lately; I am happily back in Hanoi and even more happily back from a totally uneventful stay at the Hanoi French Hospital, where I was checked in after stupidly waiting around to get a problem with my eyes checked, which turned out to be an acute case of uvetis, which can cause blindness and which the doctor was concerned could be a symptom of myraid other diseases, which is why I got to spend two days sitting around in a fetching hospital gown with an IV in my arm, undergoing various tests. I feel pretty silly about the whole thing, especially since it screwed up plans for the next two weeks, but probably shouldn't complain, as I can still, you know, see and stuff. And I got to take home my chest x-rays, so hey, wall art for when I finally find an apartment here.

A slight break from the endless temple ruins to post some photos of the floating village of Chong Kneas, which is exactly what it sounds like - a sprawl of houseboats that set up anchor in various places in the river depending on the time of year.






My favorite boat by far: a floating basketball court.





Kids walking home from school on the riverbanks.

My new favorite sales pitch, from a girl who looked about eight or nine who trailed me out of the temple: "Excuse me, where are you from? The capital of the United States is Washington D.C. - which state do you live in? The capital of New York state is Albany. There are fifty states in the USA including Hawaii, which is a bunch of islands far away. Your first president was George Washington but your president now is George Bush. Nobody likes him. Wanna buy some postcards?"

There are monkeys ambling unconcernedly down the red dust roads leading to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temple complexes; Angkor Wat actually refers to a far vaster network of ancient temples and ruins that sprawl around the eponymous temple, so two days of early-morning exploration hasn't even begun to scratch the surface, and its possible to visit the temples by any combination of elephant, hot-air balloon, tour bus or bike/cyclo/moto. I opted for a motorcycle with a friendly, English-speaking driver, though the allure of this faded somewhat after spending several hours rattling down rocky, dusty, unpaved roads to more distant ruins (when I got back to my hotel and took a blessedly cold shower, the water ran red with dust that had caked on my face and arms.)

At any rate, here are a few photos from the first day (I found an internet cafe that accepts my USB card!); as always, more to follow.




The smiling faces of the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom.



One of my favorite places so far - Ta Prom, a ruined temple reclaimed by the jungle.



Angkor Wat resident.

In Siem Reap, which is hot and dusty and filled with men perched on their motorcycle taxis waving 'moto, hey lady, moto! where are you going?' wherever you go. I spent both yesterday and this morning making use of my 3-day visitor's pass to the Angkor Wat temple complex, which has been a hot, dry, thirsty and staggeringly awesome experience (this is the part where I wish I could just upload a photo and let that do the describing for me so I don't fall back on words like 'awesome,' which I'm fully aware I've also used to express enthusiasm for the full gamut from morning coffee to America's Next Top Model episodes). April is the hottest month here, and while I wish I had the stamina to be wandering from temple to temple till dark, I've had to wimp out after only a few hours both time (today the heat was mitigated some by being on the back of a motorcycle for a good three hours over bumpy, unpaved red dust roads, so at least there was a breeze even if now I can't walk). Fortunately, Siem Reap itself is a well-established tourist town where it's easy to guiltily distract yourself from building character, with its hamburger stands, internet cafes, cheap foot massage parlors and, best of all - a real bookstore, where the books are all alphabetized and everything. I was so happy to find new books I almost cried, especially after finding a copy of Haruki Murakami's newest book for $5. It's literally a copy of the actual book (though it's bound and looks virtually indistinguishable), which always makes me feel slightly dirty and which seems to be a phenomenon unique to Cambodia and Vietnam - in Laos, I bought an airplane ticket from a man who looked shocked to find out that my Lonely Planet was a cheap Vietnamese copy ('they're bad').

Last day in Laos; I spent the morning climbing through the 10th century Khmer ruins of Wat Phu in Champasack, which were almost entirely empty save a few monks and some women selling incense and cans of oddly addictive, syrupy coconut juice (one of them stopped me on my way out and tied an orange thread around my wrist for luck). Getting there and back - via bus, makeshift ferry, tuk-tuk, random motorcycle from a friendly guest house where I asked for directions - wasn't particularly difficult but it took awhile, which made the temple ruins feel even more isolated. I want to write more, but am on a keyboard where it's really difficult to use the letter "e" (weird excuse, I know, but it would drive you crazy too) and so will leave you with too many photos and will update from Cambodia!

 

Teenage monks and friends pick their way past a pavilion of phallic symbols.

The ferry from Ban Muang to Champasack was two small boats lashed together with some planks on top. I saw similar makeshift catamarans ferrying cars and motorcycles across the river.

A few photos of the night stalls in Luang Prabang; our boat into the city landed right before dark, so the laid-back night market and food stalls were my first impression of the city. I only had the chance to eat at one place in this alley (a vegetarian 'all you can stuff on your plate' buffet for 5000 kip (roughly = 75 cents) but it was delicious.



Barbeque



A fruit stand on the fringe of the market.

A few photos of some of Luang Prabang's many wats; I'm in Vientienne now, where the street signs still say Rue and Quai, and where it's so hot I keep ducking into cafes and internet shops just to get out of the sun. Lately getting photos online has been near-impossible, so photo posts are going to be a bit out of date (which is annoying when you're neurotic like me), possibly until I get back to Hanoi in about a week and a half or so.