One of the first things I did when I got to Siem Reap was rent a bicycle. I thought it would be cool to explore the temples at my own pace under my own power. Only then did I actually look at a map. I was surprised to learn that the scale was showing miles between locations...not a few hundred yards like I thought. What I didn't know ís that Angkor is not a collection of temples built together, it was a huge thriving metropolis of over a million people back ...

Stay on the path! No, not to enlightenment...the actual path. Cambodia is one of the most "land mined" countries in the world! One thing I won't be doing here is going for a walk in the woods or some random field...there are still hundreds of thousand of mines still out there left over from the war against Pol Pot's killing regime, the Khmer Rouge. Unfortunately, it's usually children playing or farmers that happen upon them and thousands still get killed or los...

After the new year craziness of Koh Phangan, I decided to head to the the island next door...Koh Samui...to relax, rent a motorbike, and have a look around. All my friends have returned to Phuket so I am on my own again which is fine. Fortunately, while on the island, I ran into a my good friend Nui, who we met a few weeks ago in Phuket. She took me to one of the Buddhist temples and showed me around a bit which made for some cool photos. It was nice to take so...

Happy New Year from Koh Phangan Island over in the Gulf of Thailand...the part that didn't get crushed by the tsunami 3 years ago. Let's just say it right away... this was not a Thai cultural experience. Although the various "moon parties" (full-moon, half-moon, 9/16-moon, etc) that they have here have taken on a sub-culture of their own, we didn't exactly experience Thai cuisine, buddhist rituals, or anything like that. To come here for New Years means "big pa...