Chad Things

I made it to Cambodia. My 5th Country on my RTW tour, after Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. So far we’ve only checked out western Cambodia, Siam Reap, and Angkor Wat – the largest religous structure in the world. Angkor Wat is actually one of many temples in the region, but also the name of the park housing all the temples. One of the others, Ta Prohm, was used in the filming of Tomb Raider. I definitely like Angkor Wat the best, its columns, hundreds of door frames, carvings, and sheer size – big enough to get lost in. But Ta Prohm was more interesting due to the jungle immediately surrounding it – trees are literally gorwing out and on the walls. At moments the tourists become overwhelming, you can barely walk, and at other moments you might not see any. Shayna was here in 2003 and would see only 30 people in all of Angkor Wat, whereas now you’re lukcy if you see less than 300 at any given time of day.

The town of Siam Reap is quite nice and more modern than expected – 10 years ago it was nothing more than huts and dirt roads, and now has dozens of high-end hotels, plenty more of the cheaper guest houses, western and cambodian bars and restaraunts, 24-hr ATMs, internet, at least 2 free wi-fi cafes (i’m at one called Figo right now), and markets where you can buy everything from mopends to rice, fish, shirts, and jewelry.

After Siam Reap we plan to head to Battambang and then the capital, Phnom Penh. Perhaps a detour to some Cambodian beaches, then its to the land of Vietnam for a month, then Laos, then back to Thailand.

BTW, I updated my Round the World Itinerary to arrive back in the USA at the end of July, instead of end of June.

Here I am, traveling for seven weeks. That’s the longest I’ve ever been traveling without a home, and altho i’m not really homesick, i definitely notice a difference in the way i look at things. I lost some excitement, and i have more desire to chill. It’s only natural it would happen sometime, and it here it is.

Before this, the longest was 6 weeks in Europe in 1995. I went with my college buddies, and by the 5th week we were all like .. no more churches, no more castles, no more museums. Just a place to sit. Thats kinda how i feel now. However, Shayna just joined me last week, and she’s all siked to be traveling. Her energy in contrast with mine made it obvious to me that i do feel different than i did when i first left SF.

Specifically i want to slow things down more, spend more time thinking, reading, writing, exercising, and chilling. Normally traveling for me is see this, do that, most days full of action. Most days i love it. But these days i’m not loving it more.. just tolerating it. The other thing that sux is that i don’t get to regularly exercise. When i was a wee young lad, that didn’t matter, but as an old man, i get grumpy when my body is not taken care of. I can still drink and dance. In fact, that was some of my best moments in Bangkok – drinking, dancing, meeting people. No sightseeing. Just chilling and having fun. But here I am in Cambodia, seeing Angkor Wat, one of the coolest things ever, and i’m not too excited. So from here on out, i’m gonna switch up my game plan and start planning in more chill time.

So looking forward, we got a couple weeks in Cambodia, about a month in vietnam, 2-3 weeks in Laos, than back to thailand. Shayna goes home, and i head to India in june for about a month. Then a couple weeks in europe (maybe), then home by end of July. I hope to go from tolerating most days back to really loving them. I’m sure i will.