Along the Mekong

You know it's a relaxed journey when the boat driver is not only steering with his feet on the wheel, but reading a book at the same time. The Mekong Delta may be the place where Vietnam grows most of it's rice (and Vietnam trails only Thailand in global rice exports, so that's no small feat) but you wouldn't have known it from the pace of our boat tour through the area.

The trip started in Cambodia and ended in Vietnam, but even the border crossing was relaxed: we pulled up in our tiny boat and grabbed lunch in the no man's land restaurant while we waited for everything to be ready. There was the small matter of one girl having the wrong visa, but even that problem disappeared with a $5 bill.

Last Day in Cambodia

Every country is different. Really. I'm not making this up.

After this last day of wandering around in Phnom Penh, here are a few off-beat things I'll remember about Cambodia:

1) They use US dollars. When I got my first handful of greenbacks out of the ATM, I thought they must be fake. The width felt wrong. The texture felt wrong. Were these money? (I think I've been out of the US a little too long.) But they were real and people really use them all the time. It's 4,000 riels to the dollar, and everyone wants to deal with small numbers, so they use riels for change and dollars for the big stuff. (Yes. That's my educated analysis of the Cambodian economy.)

No Smiling

Rather than no smoking signs around the Tuol Sleng Museum, there are no smiling signs, or at least, that's what they look like. But there is no need for a reminder not to smile here. As Security Prison 21, this former high school was the place where approximately 17,000 inmates met torture and death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s.

I spent the morning wandering past countless photos of the inmates and guards, which the Kmher Rouge took as part of its fastidious record keeping. Most striking was that the photos of the two groups were so similar. In fact, many of the guards later became inmates. Many were just children. Everyone was Cambodian.

Angkor Wat

A local tuk tuk driver saw me riding a bike around in the Temples of Angkor and laughed. "Tomorrow, I drive you?" he asked. "No thanks," I said. "But it's a long way." I wiped a few tablespoons of sweat from my brow, "Nope."

It was awesome. I've been to plenty of temples in China and now Thailand, enough to know that I prefer John Muir's cathedrals to brick and mortar buildings. But the Temples of Angkor, the crown jewel of Cambodia, are more than buildings. When was the last time you got a workout in church? This was an adventure.

Cruising through the vast grounds, I had to marvel at the scale of this place. Every one of the many temples I visited would have been a site worth seeing on it's own.

Chiangmai Continues

Tigers on Tuesday
"No eat him! No eat her!" the tiger trainer kept saying as Eric and I petted 19-month-old Sunflower, a full-sized tiger. At times I would look up and realize that, as I petted one tiger, there were two others within springing distance.

Of course, there was something unnatural about the harmlessness of these animals. If petting "tame" tigers in a center is safe and ethical, why don't people do it more often? I'm not sure, but tigers are magnificent creatures and I'm glad that I got the chance to get so close to them--and even more glad that they didn't eat me.

But petting the tigers wasn't even the highlight of the day. Oh no. That came later, when Eric and I spent a lazy evening listening to live music, sipping drinks, and chatting.

Elephants!

I'm always afraid to trust the people I meet when I'm traveling. Does the seemingly nice lady who comes up to me on the street really want to help, or is she just looking to sell me something? Will the "great deal" actually turn out to be a sham? Traveling though Thailand, I've been amazed to see how many people actually do want to help and really are just being friendly.

That's the way I felt about elephants. They're big! They're heavy! When the first one came bounding up to me this morning, I was cautious. But, within the first five minutes of Eric's and my Mahout (elephant rider) training course, I knew those guys just wanted to have fun. And eat bananas. Lots and lots of bananas.

Banjos in Thailand

One thing I've seen a lot of living in Asia: markets. I've seen regular Chinese markets, tourist markets, a high altitude Himalayan market, Muslim markets, livestock markets--I wasn't expecting that much from Bangkok's weekend extravaganza.

But Lonely Planet wasn't kidding when it said this was one of the largest markets in the world. The massive map showed stalls selling food, clothes, animals, animal feed, and even a tiny square marked "cock fighting." Eric and I thought we had seen most of it, only to check the map and realize that our hours of wandering had covered less than a third of the market's area.

And this market was different from other markets I've seen in Asia. Yeah, it had some fake purses, but there was also artwork, fresh smoothies, and cool T-shirts. Toursity or not, I was impressed.