Cambodia

Yesterday I went on a bird watch and it was crazy cool.  Me in a little boat with 1000's of birds.  I had to go thru a white knuckle ride on a boat in a storm to get there.  It was bad enough that I took no pictures and THE CAMBODIAN GUIDE GOT SEA SICK.  Waves as big as the tiny boat and rain going sideways.  It sucked.  I did get to visit a local medicine man on a floating village and sit indian style in his house while he told stories. 
 
The elephant ride at Angkor Wat was also very cool two days ago.  It will be hard for not to start every story for the next six months by saying "this reminds me when I was riding an elephant in Cambodia - you ever ride an elephant in cambodia?", so get used to it.

1st magical day was today. 

got up at 7am and saw temples at Angkor Wat all morning, they are so much better than any ruin I have ever seen.  It's almost most like they are one of the seven wonders of the world.   Saw the ones with the trees growing out of the remains.  unreal.  Di was a little sick up until now and today she is great.  Had a first meal in Cambodia that was stellar for lunch.  Took a little nap and went back to Angkor Wat's main temple for sunset.  On the way I saw two monks sitting on one of the ruins and I asked Di to take my picture with them,  She thought I would be invading, but when I asked if I could sit the one monk started talking.  We ended up missing the sunset.  He was 20 and been a monk for 8 years, this is his last year.  He loves kate Winslet and Obama.  By the end he blessed out trip, our family and we exchanged emails.  He promised to email us for the rest of his life.  It was magical to say the least.  We then went out for dinner and had an unbelievable Thai meal and a few beers (Angkor Beer- my beer, my country).  Siam Reap is just amazing.  Tomorrow we fly in the morning back to Phonon Phen for a night and they we start the trek along the Mekong Delta to Saigon. 

I really like Cambodia and cannot wait to get back to Vietnam in a few days.

It's hard to be a good Buddhist when you are an asshole American from NY

Again, I love southeast Asia.

Earl