Homeward Bound

We three at Angkor Wat

Silvia and I leave to Miami early tomorrow morning. It's a 31 hour flight stopping in Tokyo and Chicago, and and strangely enough i still arrive the same day I left... I don't get it. I also return to America just 3 days short of exactly one year since I left to Beijing in the first place.

I still have a few pictures from Cambodia and Thailand I'd like to post but those will have to wait a few more days. This final afternoon in Bangkok Ross and I will wander a little more before finishing packing and soon enough heading out to the airport. I'm excited to be out of Asia for the first time in a year... Ross will be staying Bangkok another few days before possibly returning to Vietnam and waiting out Silvia and my return to China, painting and exploring otherwise. I can't deny that I'm excited as hell to return, but I still sit nervously pondering the remainder of this vacation/return to my roots/trip back to my new home in Beijing. Where is home and what does it mean? Guess I'll find out sooner than I think. Why do I sound like a Lisa Loeb song?

Bangkok

Pics from my first excursion in Bangkok

a humongous reclining Buddha in the old city center and the surrounding temples

Angkor Trees

The temples at Angkor are hundreds of stone towers constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries by the kings of the Khmer empire. The temples, palaces, monuments, homes and other giant stone buildings were abandoned when it's builders were defeated by the invading Thais and these monuments were slowly and almost entirely reconquered by the surrounding jungles. The entire site was the world's largest preindustrial city, 8 times larger than it's closest competitor. The architecture, sculptures and sheer mass of these buildings is larger and much more vast than i could have ever imagined. Ross, Silvia and I spent 3 whole days traveling between the many sites in the complex. It's quite a sight and I was horribly sad to leave. What impressed me most was the buildings with gigantic trees still left over from the centuries when it was overrun by jungle. More often than not, these exaggerated trees are what hold the buildings together and removing them would cause the buildings to collapse. This is the one place I saw on this trip where I'm positive I'll return.

Ross and Silvia

more pictures of the biggest buildings coming soon :)

Angkor Trees continued

me :)