The travels of Justin

These photos of Angkor Wat are amazing. I’m so excited!!!

At 10:30 am, Bangkok time, the weather report was 40°C and 89% humidity. It’s now 3:30pm, and it looks like 46°C 71%.

Although we’ve unpacked and settled into our new home rather quickly, our tickets are booked and we’re set to head to Thailand and Cambodia for the rest of August. It’s still surprises me that Tina suggested Cambodia as our destination, but I’m far from disapointed. Holy cow, there’s no going back now. With threats of danger and intriegue that we still can’t imagine–actually, it’s not really important to imagine any danger, since Cambodia is in the bottom 25% of poorest countries and boasts itself as the most heavily mined country in the world. In fact, Cambodia has only re-opened for tourism since 1996. The UN, which began removing mines in 1991, estimates it would take 50-60 years to find and detonate them all. It seems crazy just to consider living under those conditions.

The real jewel of this trip is to visit the lost temples of Angkor Wat: the largest religious monument in the world. In my limited understanding, what Mecca is for Islam, Angkor Wat is for Buhddists. It is believed to have been built during the same period as the Egyptian pyramids. We’ll probably spend several days there to explore the temples. I must admit that I’ve spent so much time thinking about Angkor Wat and Cambodia, that I don’t know much about Thailand.

We had hoped to pay hommage to the Killing Fields (obligatory reference to the movie ), but time (among other reasons) will not permit us to travel to the capitol, Phenom Penn, where it all happened.

So our plan starts with us landing in Bangkok, Thailand as we (hopefully) pickup our luggage and wave our hands around trying to find someone to help some ignorant westerners get a bus to our hotel at midnight. In 32°C (88°F) with 89% humitity weather–yes, it is the rainy season–we’ll spend our first day in Bangkok trying to shake off the jet lag and get our bearings for whatever lays ahead.

I’ll give updates when I can.