Siem Reap

Is in Cambodia for those of you who don't know. It's the place you
stay if you want to see Angkor Wat and the other temple complexes. The
town itself is a bit of a tourist hell. It was not nearly so bad when
my girlfriend was here 4 years ago.

Some of the areas that were open four years ago are closed now,
including the third tier of Angkor Wat.

This is our last day and then it's off to remote islands in Thailand.

The food here is ok, but not as good as Vietnam or Thailand. Though we
did have an excellent brick oven pizza last night.

Ho Chi Minh City

Is what used to be Saigon. In general Vietnam was a much nicer place
than some other visitors had reported, that goes for HCMC as well.
Among other things we went to the War Remnants Musem. Which catalogs
Americas war crimes in Vietnam.

The food was good and the people were friendly. We spent a half an
hour with some college students practicing English. It's the first
time it wasn't a scam.

Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

So, North Vietnam. The weather has been great along with the food. The
trip to Ha Long Bay was beautiful. It's super touristy, but what can
you do. Many of the cool destinations are.

Today it's hanging out and more street food. Hopefully none of it will
seek revenge. Tonight: Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

Shanghai'd in Bangkok

After more than a mo th of avoided tourist scams. We were finally
taken in. We were steps away from the Grand Palace when this guy steps
out from behind a guard shack. We were looking confused and had just
had a couple of other guys try to "help" us. This dude told us the
palace was closed for lunch and that we should go see some other
sights and come back. The long and short of it is we wasted a couple
hours while various peole tried to get us to buy things from vacations
to jewelry while being driven around in a tuk tuk. At least all we
lost was money.

Scams lime this work so well in Thailand because 90% of the people you
meet are trying to be helpful.

Mmmm, Thailand!

Let's see tasty food for a day for two with a one hour Thai massage
thrown in costs...$17. Life sure is difficult here. I don't how how we
cope. One more day in Bangkok and then to Vietnam for a week and few
days in Cambodia. Then back the islands in Thailand. I'm glad foe
seeing Mongolia and China, but I'm much happier here. I suppose the
fact that my girlfriend is here may have something to do with it, but
it's better here.

I'm a Bad, Bad, Bad Internationally Traveling Food Eater

I spend about two weeks in China and managed not to have tea at a tea house.  No Dim Sum in Hong Kong.  I did eat lots of mutton in Mongolia (like I had a choice), and various street food in China to include deep fried scorpions.  My last day in Hong Kong I ate at KFC (for the first time in years) and McDonald's.  That tide, I believe has changed.  There are to primary contributing factors.  Thai food kicks ass, the girlfriend, who will be here in minutes, yes minutes, will insist. 

Counting the Hours!

My girlfriend will be here by around midnight.  I arrived in Thailand today, so far it's pretty cool.  I've only been here a handful of hours and already had a couple of conversations with complete strangers who were not trying to rip me off.  Tic toc, tic toc.....we've not seen each other in a month and will spend the next month in South East Asia together.

HAPPY!

Hong Kong

Was too short.  I really like Hong Kong, it's familiar, it's multicultural and there's no shortage of things to do.  I stayed in Kowloon, in TST at the Chung King Mansions, which is an experience in itself.  Went up to Victoria Peak via tram, rode all over on the metro and took a ferry ride too.  It's the most expensive stop on my trip, but it was fun. 

Shanghai...

Is not my favorite place in China. I grow weary of the offers of pot,
hash, girls and watches. There are a lot more "practice english" scams
here as well.
(Whoops, I hit send before I was done and can't edit in China)
I did eat excellent street food and the Shanghai museum kicked ass. It's a world class museum. The bronze, ceramic and special gold exhibits were wonderful.

Damn, I'm Organized...

So, I have organized a train trip, two plane trips and two hostel bookings to get me to Bangkok on 10/15.  It's the most organizing I've done at once on the whole trip.  The train trip was handled at a local ticket window the plan to Shenzhen was arranged by the hostel I'm at now, it's cheaper flying there then to HK.  I was going to take a train, but it would only give me 24 hours in HK, the trains run every other day from Shanghai.  The plane ride to Bangkok was done via internet. 

 

So, I'm one night, one overnight train ride, then three nights, one plan ride, then two nights and one plane ride from seeing my girlfriend! 

 

Today is a day of rest. 

 

I might try to upload some photos.  If I get around to it I'll post a link.

 

 

Out of Mongolia, Back in China

The rest of the gobi trip was mainly lots of driving. Though we did
ride Mongolian horses for 30 minutes on the last day. Then it was 30
hours by train, back to Beijing.

My girlfriend booked me a night at the Grand Hyatt in Beijing! Best
after Mongolian adventure present ever! It has the best pool I've
ever seen in a hotel and a nifgt of comfort and privacy was spot on.

I'm in Xi'an now, here for one more night. Then off to Shanghai for a
few days.

Yesterday I went up on top of the city wall and rented a bike. It's
the only intact fully surrounding city wall in the world. It's 13.7 km
long. 3/4 of the way through it started raining. It's probably the
only safe, relaxing bike ride in any city in china. Was much fun.

Today I went out to see the Terracotta warriors! Holy fucking shit!
That first emporer dude was out of his freaking mind. And aren't we
glad... They have 3 pits, turned museums that have thousands of life
size warriors in them. It's a you have to see it kind of thing. Though
I did buy the newly updated picture book. They find new cool stuff all
the time. Talk about an archeologist's wet dream.

Apparently there are more amazing things hurried out there including
an underground city that's a model of China. Complete with mercury
rivers the emperor's tomb floats arround on, visiting his country.

In fairness, he was smart as well as crazy. Did lots off good stuff.
Esablished common caligraphy, money, weights and measures.

Another week and I'll meet up with my girlfriend in Bangkok! Hi
sweetheart!