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 :)

Saigon floors

To conclude the series of Saigon interiors I present photographs of ... floors. Strange as it was, I fell in love with the intricate tile work and carpets in the city's older buildings. The French (the colonial overlords in Vietnam for over 100 years) are really good at integrating a strong design sense and influencing food culture.

Reunification Palace

The Reunification Palace used to be the headquarters and living space for the South Vietnamese president before the north communist forces invaded after America's departure, hence the present name . It's a very swanky place, with all the Sixty's latest trends and amenities. It was pretty weird and a little crappier than these pictures show. Good fun though :)

Below are pictures from the underground bunker. The bunker, right below the presidential mansion, consists of maybe 20 also very dated wood panel rooms with only desks and phones. some had giant communications radios, but they were otherwise completely bare and isolated feeling. The sexy red ribbon is not part of the original decor, it's there to keep out all the tourists.

Saigon Inside

some pictures of interiors in Saigon

a great corner shop restaurant

inside a hindu temple

above and below: inside some of the city's buddhist temples

the cao dai religion is a local religion that mixes hinduism, buddhism, chrsitianity, islam and some other things. it's an especially strange religion in part because the western ambassador of this religion was Victor Hugo. I dunno... so this is their largest temple in Vietnam, just outside Saigon

Random Vietnam

It's been hard to post in Vietnam, the connections aren't always reliable...or consistent. I've finally made it to Saigon, but these are photos from some of the stuff we've done in the last few days. Saigon pictures will come very soon. We all leave Saigon for the Cambodian capital on the 22nd.

Silvia and I jumping off the boat into Halong Bay (Paul's picture)

One of the many, many mixed French and Chinese/Vietnamese colonial residences throughout the country. This was in Hue, a central coastal city.

above and below: The small central highland city of Dalat offers a few fun things. That electric Buddha above is part of a big temple and pagoda. Below Paul poses in one of the corridors of the so-called "Crazy House" of Dalat. It's a hilariously Pee Wee's Playhouse style building with themed rooms. It's almost everything I've ever wanted in a home.

We slid, and ran, and jumped down the Red Sand Dunes in the beach town Mui Ne, our final stop before Saigon.

Halong Bay Caves

There are a few caves on some of the islands in Halong Bay. This is one of the caves made all pretty like a birthday cake to show throngs of tourists. The color lights make the space great! It's something between a sci-fi movie set an amazing place you'd want to throw a party.

Halong Bay

Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful natural settings I've ever been in. It's a huge complex of thousands of small islets and one of the biggest tourist attractions in Northern Vietnam. We left early in the afternoon on a small boat with 15 other tourists and went all day along and around the many rock formations. We ended the afternoon by anchoring and swimming in these really impressive waters! We later watched the sunset and spent the night on the boat. The next morning we woke up in a floating village in the site and rode around more before getting dropped off on the mainland.



Here's where we anchored, swam, and spent the night. It was too cool