Siem Reap, Cambodia (part 3)

We spent one of our mornings in Siem Reap exploring the ruins of Ta Prohm Temple. It was possibly one of the most amazing sites I've ever seen. Our car dropped us off at the crumbling stone gateway, beyond which was a long gravel pathway through the forest.

As you can see, at this early hour, we basically had the place to ourselves.

Siem Reap, Cambodia (part 2)

Tourists flock to Angkor Wat by the the thousands, and it is a glorious and impressive sight, of course. But for me, the real magic of Siem Reap lies in many of the other sites. There is nothing quite like the feeling of having a thousand-year-old ruin nearly to yourself, early in the morning. There is no incessant chatter of other tourists and their guides, no crowds to navigate past, no other people appearing in your photographs, just massive stones rising from the jungle that has been slowly reclaiming them for a thousand years, their intricate carvings worn by time but still astonishingly stark and beautiful. The heat and humidity of the day is not yet oppressive, just on the edge of stifling, and you can close your eyes and imagine what these temples might have looked like when they were first built, when they rose out of the jungle as a sign of power and wealth.

This is Angkor Thom, the ancient Khmer city.

Siem Reap, Cambodia (part 1)

We've traveled a lot in the last two decades, and I can honestly say that there have been very few places that truly surprised me, that exceeded my expectations in almost every way. Siem Reap, Cambodia was one of those places. 

When I was a child in the 1970s and 1980s, I only knew of Cambodia as a place where refugees came from. The Khmer Rouge and the killing fields dominated my ideas about the place, and though I knew there were amazing temples and ruins to be seen, it was difficult to get past my preconceptions.  Add to that that we'd read we were going to be there at the absolute hottest time of the year (one guidebook described the heat as "hellish"), and I wasn't sure I was really going to enjoy our time there.

But from the moment we landed at the lovely airport in Siem Reap, everything about the city was picturesque and charming. It was hot, yes, but the air-conditioned hotel van was waiting for us (with cans of cold beer) to whisk us off to the Soujourn Hotel, a lovely little boutique hotel just outside the city.

Pattaya, Thailand

On our last day in Bangkok, we headed down to Pattaya, a city on the coast, to visit a former colleague of Doug;s who lives there. It's definitely a beach town, and is a popular tourist destination. The beach was packed when we drove past. 

We went up to the top of a hill to see a lovely view of the city.

Bangkok, Thailand (part 2)

Bangkok is primarily a Buddhist country, and there are temples everywhere. There are nearly 500 temples in Bangkok alone, so obviously they are an important part of life in this city. We've visited Catholic cathedrals in Italy, Hindu Temples in India and Nepal, Shinto Shrines in Japan, and Buddhist Temples in nearly every country we've visited in Asia. And I have to say that the ones in Thailand are some of the most ornate and beautiful I've ever seen. If Italy has most of the beautiful cathedrals in the Catholic world, then surely Thailand has the most beautiful Buddhist temples.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand (part 1)

Leaving Kathmandu was nearly as difficult as arriving. The line for passport control was an hour long, and there were maybe only 20 people ahead of us. Luckily, Carter has learned to wait patiently in lines (as long as he has my phone or the iPad to play with), which made it feel much less like torture than it might otherwise. The Kathnmandu international airport is rustic, perhaps one of the most rustic I've ever seen (including Iquitos, Peru). The domestic airport was even more rustic: the baggage claim area is a hut next to the parking lot!

And so I was completely caught off-guard by the incredibly modern, glittering international airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The contrast was stunning, especially considering that it wasn't a very long flight between the two places.

Kathmandu, Nepal

When we were putting this trip together, Doug asked me if there were any places on my "bucket list" that I wanted to visit. Obviously Antarctica was one and Easter Island was another, but one that I mentioned that day was Kathmandu. It was a place that had been in my mind for a long time, and I had images of colorful flags, snow-capped mountains, yaks, and Sherpas. I had no idea what to expect or if my expectations were even realistic, but it was one of those exotic-sounding places that I really wanted to see.

For the most part, Kathmandu just looks like a city. Considering that it borders India and most of its people are Hindu, one might expect it to be similar to India, but it really isn't. The architecture, the culture, and the general feeling of being a tourist there are all completely different.

Agra, India

If I had to describe India in a single phrase, I think it would be "functional chaos." Everywhere I look, everything appears to be in a state of utter chaos, and yet, it works. I have no idea how.

Every mode of transport conceivable is used in India, everything from bicycles to pushcarts to motorbikes to motorbike taxis to bicycle rickshaws to trucks, cars, buses, ox-drawn carts, horse-drawn carts, elephants, and so on. All of these could be present on a single road at any time. Lanes are optional, and generally ignored. Horn honking is an art. Cows randomly block the road. I have no idea how people ever learn to drive here, because it looks pretty damn intimidating.

Goa, India

One of the things we decided to do this year was visit a handful of beach resort areas. Doug is not a beach person, and despite the fact that we've done so much traveling together, we've never been to a resort. When we were choosing our itinerary for this trip, there were several places that we wanted to go that are clearly beach destinations, and so we decided that we would visit some beach resorts. In all, we're spending a little more than five weeks on the beach this year. Carter and I are very excited!

Mumbai, India

The last time I was in India was 1999, and it was a trip that changed my attitude about travel. Prior to that trip, I enjoyed doing things the "hard way" when we traveled - taking public transportation, staying in local hotels, and trying all the foods I came across. In 1999, I learned that there are many places in the world where you just can't doing that without being prepared to experience some really bad things: food poisoning and robbery, among them. I have a photo of myself from that trip standing in front of the Taj Mahal, and right after that photo was taken, I threw up. In a trash can. And it only got worse from there. By the end of that trip, I'd learned that you just can't approach travel so naively.

So you can imagine that it was with a bit of trepidation that I headed into this part of the trip. Doug has spent quite a lot of time in India for business, and he's had much better luck than we had then -- but he's done it by staying in very nice hotels, arranging private transportation, and being extremely picky about what he eats. So obviously, this part of the trip would fall under the "spare no expense" category.