Temple Tantrum!!!

Dave went to get a haircut, so I'm having some major computer uploading time...Here are some photos from temple trampling about a month ago. We spent three days exploring a handful of the 200+ temples around Siem Reap.

Shiva or Vishnu in Angkor Wat. A cleansing ceremony with a female my age was taking place...not sure the details.

The infamous Angkor Wat. Am I a tourist or "Wat?" Funny, eh? This is the first time that the top portion of the temple has been closed to the public with massive reconstruction going on...bummer. I guess we couldn't pretend to be gods and look over the empire. Maybe next time!

This was actually a Buddha in a temple/pagoda/caves outside of Battambang. It was literally larger than an 18 wheeler on the top of a hill. They were collecting money to build a bigger one...I guess all practicing religion is the same. The huge church, temple, Buddha, shrine isn't big enough. We need more money to build a bigger one. Just doesn't quite make sense in my opinion!


Honestly, I can't remember the name of this temple. I should know it, as this is a famous shot which has appeared in all the huge magazines, including National Geographic. The temple is known for the massive, invasive roots, which are reclaiming the stone as it's own and digesting it back into the jungle. All I remember is that I had a fever that day and Dave guided me/dragged me around.

Bayon. My favorite temple to date. Lots of heads. More heads. Most peacefully smiling as they protect their surrounding lands.

Attempting to look as peaceful. I didn't pull it off. I'm still practicing.

Cambodian Life

Here are some shots from the last couple of months of life in and around Siem Reap:

The first mall in Siem Reap caught on fire last week...it is a block away from Jed's bar, The Warehouse. Something with faulty wires. It was a wake up call in consumerism outpacing safety systems...and the bottom line is that it is cheaper without safety protocol in place. Picture a couple hundreds Khmers squashed together alongside the firetruck with police shooting at the third story windows to create holes for the water to go in to the flaming, smoking building. Meanwhile the trucks run out of water, so they have to leave the scene to go across town to refill with water, as fire hydrants don't exist. There are police, military, security present, all telling the crowds to do slightly different things...an no one listens. Thy pull out cell phones to take photos and call friends. It is THE PLACE to be tonight.

Truth be told this shot is in Kampot at an overpriced restaurant along the river with a happy hour...which made it price worthy. Super cool chair...as you can see! Onions!!! Onions are considered another veggies. I ordered a salad that had just as many onions as lettuce or cucumbers. They are sweet and strong and leave you smelling of onions for days afterwards...it's a way of life. I have succumbed to the onions!

Again, truth be told, not in Siem Reap, but in Phnom Penh at the Central Market with crazy architecture. Pricier than other markets, so we just went to check out the place.


Ok, I'm not really sure where this is. I haven't done a great job including photos of me on the blog, so I'm trying to play catch up. I think it's along the river in Phnom Penh...maybe it's Battambang...neither here nor there. I'm smiling and that's what matters!

I am one with the "tree." - a huge Christmas tree made out of zip ties at Hotel de la Paix-the premier boutique hotel in town. We were at an art opening/fashion show...an experience to say the least.

Fruit, fruit and more fruit. Stalls and stalls of them. Fresh, cheap, delicious, beautiful,...

A shot from a traditional puppet show. They puppets are made from water buffalo hide, with a screen in front of a huge fire from burning coconut shells.

Another shot of the fashion/art show. I was dressed to impress with a black dress and fake suede flip flops with four fake diamonds on each. The bar in the background changes colors. Very hip! Cheers!

A very Merry Malaria Christmas

Happy Holidays!
After the best meal in months at the re-opening of a French restaurant on Christmas Eve I awoke in the middle of the night with itchy legs and feet. Although we had a mosquito coil burning beneath our table and lingering in our toes, I counted 42 mosquito bites the next day. Tiger balm quickly became my closest friend, providing a cool, burning, soothing sensation. The 100% Deet has also re-entered my life in a new kind of way. Dave had no bites. This is my life.
So my friends, thankfully malaria is almost nonexistent in Siem Reap province...and if I get it, it will be while I indulged in Lamb chop with olive sauce, pumpkin and potato mash, green beans and a white wine.
Wishing everyone a healthy, peaceful, relaxing holiday season.

Kampot and Kep

Our awesomely-amazing junglrific-hillside bungalow

View from bungalow

French Colonial town of Kampot

Cruising...or maybe we were lost and almost at the Vietnam border?!

4. Kampot-Inland to a smaller colonial town that still had French Colonial Vibe ... I like to call this FCV-charred French colonial building from the Khmer Rouge, an abundant amount of French tourists and lots of baguettes. Dave loves the bookstore. I was ready to go when we arrived.

5. Kep-I love. Mountains and ocean and small and deserted feeling. But, really I liked it for two reasons: 1.-We stayed at a gorgeous bungalow with stone and delicious food and a fresh bakery and fruit trees and an ocean breeze that never ended and ocean views that were everywhere.

2. We were finally out of a city and got to get back to the country. Fresh crab. Fresh fruit. Friendly farmers. The world famous Kampot Pepper. Rice whiskey. Enough lychees to feed an army.

Coast Bound-sparkling waters in ocean and toilet

Sunset with fighing boats and locals playing in the water.

Lobster? Six for two dollars??

Rows and rows of bars, restaurants, chairs, umbrellas, ...

Steamed squid with noodles and me hanging in the background with a tourquoise bikini.

3. After a three hour bus ride on a limousine bus (which is a standard grayhouse style bus), we arrived in Sihounikville. Shit hit the fan with our first night. Our overpriced "boutique hotel" was actually just an overpriced guesthouse run by Americans who were expanding their business by adding a second level. We were told construction would start at mid-day...7am is not mid-day.
Our first meal out to the trendy, touristy, college-feeling town was to The Mexican, which was filled only with foreigners. Three hours after eating fried rice I began a 36 hour throw-up fest with a toilet at the supposed-boutique hotel that stopped flushing. Putrid. Gross. Wretched.
We would have left the next day, but I was in no shape to travel, so we quickly checked out of our hotel and headed to a large, Khmer run hotel ... think Days-Inn, but not. Same same, but different.
After a day and night in bed, in and out of sleep, watching old American movied from the 80's on cable and withering into a hollow, shell of a person, we finally made it to the white sand beaches and clear aqua water of the Thai Bay.
Now, my friends, the beach was a totally different creature...kind of like an ageless frat party ... in a beautiful old house that gets trashed by night. You can buy EVERYTHING on the be beach...sex, a massage, pot, cigarettes, squid, bracelets, alcohal, water, pedicure, manicure, wax, shells, wind-up toy mice, food, bathing suits, shorts, hats, towels, noodles, sun-glasses, fruit, lobster...all from women and girls carrying around their market items in flat baskets on their heads or buckets hanging from a bamboo pole on their shoulders.
It was a creature. I got a pedicure which was worth it because all the women know each other so they all sit around you and chat with each other. It is the closest way of being a part of their world...occasionally intergecting with questions that are discussed at length in Khmer and answered in short, broken English.
The water is somehow sacred and wholesome compared to the fullmoon parties. I swam in the warm water and black and white striped fish nibbled on my white flesh. I swam and swam and loved every minute of it!

The Capital City

Rooms and rooms full of photos of all the victims captured, tortured and killed in a high school-turned prison during the Khmer Rouge

2. Phnom Penh: Large, large and large. Lots of people of all color and nationality...both working their and as tourists. It was nice to see less of a divide between locals and expats. Phnom Penh has a middle class along with extensive history. We did some "sight-seeing" of the plight of the Khmer Rouge and had amazing pomegranite martinis at a shi-shi bar with red silk pillows that made you want to have a pillow fight.
We also hit up the Russian Market as we were out of clean clothes and had to experience the cramped sea of stalls with brandname clothes, such as Daisy Fuentes, Gap, and Abercrombie and Fitch. The garment factories are all outside of Phnom Penh so you pay what it actually took to make...and most of them are stollen by workers to make a few extra bucks in the market, as weekly incomes average about $5.

Country Bound-Battembang

Here's a short recap of our travels around Cambodia:

1. A seven hour boat trip on the "fast" boat to Battembang, the second largest city in Cambodia. Dave gets violently ill after our first meal and I venture out at the late hour of 8:30pm to find crackers and soda for soothing of the stomach. The city is completely closed down and the outing is earily quiet and at times feels like I stepped into a deserted city. I finally come to a little shop open due to stocking shelves at night. Most of what I buy is old and stale and makes a sick stomach feel even sicker.
The next morning we discovered that the only cafe in town to serve non-Khmer breakfast (instant noodle soup) is run by missionaries.
We do some temple and pagoda sauntering outside of town on a rented motorbike and then get the hell out of dodge on the bus the next day to Phnom Penh, the capital.

Cambodia in a Drive By

Happy December! I would make this longer, but my blogging patience is in my hair follicles at the moment; so, where we go:
Cambodia in the last three weeks from November 12-December 1st:
1. Dave has lots of shoots for AsiaLife Magazine. It gives us places to review as far as food, drink, atmosphere. Elephants to visit, a chinsy four-wheeling tour around the country-side, Mr. Fish...little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet and give the best defoliant-smooth-baby-booty-skin EVER. It's supposedly the biggest rave in NYC...thousands of dollars for such a posh treatment. Still to come, Happy Horse Ranch (yes, we are in Cambodia...ah, the tourist market), pain-balling, silk farm, ... This is the most work he's ever done in country, which has left me slightly insane trying to save attractions to see with Dave later, and not being the consumer I am trying to find things to do besides buy, buy, buy. So, on my time, I have created an ulcer in my stomach by becoming addicted to lime juice. Ok, not really, but I think the culprit to my stomach ailments have literally been my passion for the citrus of this country, most notably the lime juice, which up until yesterday I would drink three times a day.
2. Away from AsiaLife, we've eaten lots of fried noodles, fried rice, pork, Nescafe, minibanas, yogurt (until I realized that my lactose intolerace didn't like the yogurt over here ... so much for "natural" probiotics in this body. We have a membership at a houty toity hotel to exercise and swim in the pool, which is the only saving grace of working out. The unairconditioned "gym" is a sauna with some weights, two treadmills, a stationary bike and a dusty yoga mat. I LOVE THE GYM AND THE POOL!!!!!!
3. Our ventured out to the country have left my ass numb and my ability to ride on the back of the dirtbike with "look ma, no hands." It's safe, let go. This land is flat, rice patties abound, a couple of small "mountains" that look like a small solo breast on the horizon. City life is cityish...lots of attempting to fit into too-small shorts at the market, with a fitting room being the young sales women holding up a piece of cloth smaller than a towel. No one seems to care, so I don't either. After about 20 pairs, I finally found one that fit...adorned with zippers, holes, loops and other bedazzles of the Cambodian female fashion world. A photo of fashion will sure to follow soon! We're off to the temples!

Four Days of Bangkok Madness

Super city Bangkok…NYC on steroids…steroids that never got detected and just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. After 26 hours of traveling…arriving totally delirious at 11pm Bangkok-time, we fitfully slept to awake to the bustling, consumer center, diesel plagued city that is Bangkok. Our four days of transition to Asia were centered around feeling like throwing up, not sleeping, being exhausted and amazed at the fashion glamour … of which I was obviously not a part of in my shorts, tank and chacos. If I was going to fit in I needed little glitzy slip-on heals…preferably NOT black, but maybe fire engine red or gold, a skirt with a blouse.

Our tourist explorations took us to the Emerald Buddha, which was recently adorned with a coat by the king for the cold season. I’ve never seen so much colored, shimmery glass in one spot before. Amazingly beautiful or tacky, depending on how you look at it. Next tourist stop was one of the largest malls via the sky train. We splurged by watching the James Bond movie in luxery…reclining, tan leather lazy boys, a thick silk blanket and the coldest air-con in the city. If you wanted, you could have bar service too…

Needless to say, our sight seeing was limited, but I was not sad to leave Bangkok after four days. The twelve lanes of traffic that snailed along in the heat was intense. We had one cab driver refuse to take us across town as the 7 mile drive would take an almost two hours…so off we go. We’ll be back in January for last minute shopping and to pay the reclining Buddha our regards.