Holiday in Cambodia

So! at last i can tell about cambodia. i needed to leave thailand for a visa extension and decided to make it worth my while by visiting Angkor Wat in cambodia. you might want to wikipedia the place for a thorough over view if you're not at all familiar.

anyway, i was only there a few days, the first was a tuk tuk tour, and on the second i rented a bike. buses from bangkok to the town closes to angkor cost about 10 bucks and took about 6 hours. cambodia is definitely much more poor than thailand. and more corrupt also, as i found out at the border when the police were hassling me for money (to which i stubbornly argued for about 20 minutes until they yet me pass without paying.) there were a lot more beggars but the people were just as nice and helpful.






this whole place was a huge city with hospitals, schools, etc. its just that the only structures built with materials that would last were the religious buildings. the rest disappeared over time...




my guest house. 5 us dollars. they love the dollar there. their own currency is very inflated, its 4,000 riels to the dollar. so big stuff is done with dollars and change is given in riels








all man made water works diverted from a nearby river




day long tuk tuk tour to the far off temples. 15 bucks


the face of shiva. the civilization went back and fourth between hunduism and buddhism, both brought over from india. these being of course mixed with local religious traditions...





























very intricate carvings everywhere











no idea









the rough stones were used for the outer walls


























ant tunnel





















steep















there were a lot of rice fields everywhere



























i took a walk a ways off the trails and was still discovering stones

















this bug is insanely noisy







a ton of these guys lining a lot of the entrances



most without heads

















it looks a bit unstable but its lasted this long...











there were a lot of these huuuuge trees that were positioned on top of the buildings with its roots extending sometimes more than 15 feet down to the ground. i dont know how it works.











one of several openings to the huge center cpmplex






































the floating moss stuff was thick enough to hold my shoe















rode my bike a few miles in the dark to catch the sunrise



























































































ant trail - 4 wide



weird right

.

soon enough

as in a few days i'll put the rest of the stuff up from thailand, cambodia, and vietnam. then in time i'll add stuff from switzerland, although it wont be in such large amounts...


if you're curious: fc.edu

so much to know, so little time

i've got about a million pictures and videos to share but i imagine it'll be at least a while before i get them up... i finished my massage classes and spent three days with my step-mothers family in a small town about 5 hours out of bangkok (phimai, if you've followed the blog). i drove for hours and hours all over the place on a vespa type thing and saw all kinds of really cool, rural-like scenes (and all without a single crash). i also got to spend one day helping work. it was a type of small scale fish harvest where a pond was drained and we ran around slipping trying to grab up all the fish still working around in the mud. plus some.


after that i went on a three day meditation retreat (which was thankfully entirely free since i had about 15 bucks in my account at the time). it was all in english and pretty rad. in total, about 16 hours of meditaion, some extremely interesting dharma talks given by a very expirienced buddhist monk, and a lot of vegetarian food (although monks and people on these types of retreats dont eat after 12 in the afternoon (and yet we stayed up until 10:30 every night and woke at 5).


now im back in bangkok, wrapping things up. im sure after a few days in switzerland i'll be able to find some time to finish posting all the things from thailand. maybe 10 or so days...

out of date update

basically, after i got back from vietnam i moved closer to my massage school and have been attending for about ten straight days. its super rad. its an advanced course so im learning how to cure all types of ailments, mostly headache / muscle strain type stuff.

there are only 3 other students (all international since the class is in english) but the room we work in is filled with mostly thai students. the theory part was interesting with a different teacher each of the three days, two doctors and one master massage lady (the class was pretty expensive by thai standards). the location is amazing, right next to wat phao (just look it up). at lunch i hang out with the students (france, japan, iran) or go to wat phao and watch kids play soccer. some morings i go to this outdoor group stretch thing inside the wat phao complex. its awesome.

in the evenings i'll hang out with some thai friends i've met, or some other people from my massage class, or just go exploring or skating. theres so much more to do in the next 9 days before i leave...















"there's hospital just across the river." was the reply to any hesitation in eating all the different herbs given to us to try.