Full Moon Party and Ko Tao

When it comes to partying Southern Thailand is the big brother of Mexico's Yucatan. While it doesn't really provide a cultural or historical experience or much of a backpacking experience for that matter - it can be a damn good time.

The Full Moon Party consists of 15,000 people drinking and dancing the night away on the Hat Rin beach located on the beautiful island of Ko Pha-Ngan. Buckets are the drink of choice - pint of rum and a pint of Redbull in a cute little sand pail.

Hanging out in front of the fire signs

Fire dancers twirl sticks of fire in the air and around their bodies.

The People

Sipping from a bucket

Sunset on the great diving island of Ko Tao

A well fed dog taking a siesta in a restaurant in Ko Tao

Khao San road in Bangkok

Siem Reap

Just outside of the town of Siem Reap lies the great temples of Angkor. What's crazy is that there are hundreds of temples besides the well known Angkor Wat and many of them are just as impressive in their own right. We sadly only spent a day at the temples, but we saw all the highlights.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world. It was created around 1100 AD as a funerary temple for Suryavarman II - honouring Vishnu. Due to its size and complexity there is a whole lot to see.

Fun Facts:
It is surrounded by 600 ft wide moat that stretches 1.5km by 1.3km. The outer wall measures 1025m by 800m. The blocks used to make the temple were floated down the Siem Reap River 50Km away.

Outside of the inner temple of Angkor Wat at sunrise





On top of one of Angkor Wats towers


Bayon - consists of 54 towers and 216 big faces resembling King Jayavarman VII.

Bas-relief depicting a Circus - part of the 1.2 km of bas-reliefs covering Bayon - containing over 11,000 figures.

Worker being attacked by hoards of bees outside of Ta Prohm

Part of Ta Prohm - a temple that has been swallowed by the jungle. Tomb Raider had a scene that was filmed here.

Part of Preah Khan - it bears a strange resemblance to ancient Greek architecture

The Blue Pumpkin Cocktail bar - has an extremely powerful air conditioning system and that coupled with the fact it serves up ice cream makes me give it an easy 5 stars.

Hanging out in a bar in Siem Reap - patrons can write and draw on the walls - the difficulty is finding an empty space to leave your mark.

Hopefully there are no sudden stops

Phnom Penh

Entering Cambodia



Recruiting for the Cambodian Military


A true cultural excursion and a lesson in history.


RPG launcher - for $200 you can shoot this bad boy & if you shell out another $200 on top of that you can fire it at a cow. You would have to be a very cold hearted person to disintegrate a
cow considering that many people in this country are starving.




Bryce gets jiggy with it.



The killing fields of Choeung Elk where about 17,000 men, women, and children were taken for extermination from 1975-1978. This is a picture of the Memorial Stupa , which holds the skulls of over 8,000 people killed at Choeung Elk. The fields are now a very peaceful place with a dark
history.



Executioners beat children to death against this tree, speakers in its branches would blast music to drown out the screams.


On a much lighter note - Maya, Emily, and Bryce enjoying some afternoon tea.


Security Prison 21 (S-21), Cambodia's largest detention and torture facility during the Khmer Rouge. The facility is filled with personal stories and photographs of both the victims and the torturers - it is an extremely depressing, but educational experience.


A torture room


In each room a picture of a victim of the room is hung.


The streets of Phnom Penh


Maya, Johanna, and Emily


National Museum of Cambodia- holds a massive and beautiful collection of Khmer sculptures. Underneath the roof of the museum supposedly lives the worlds largest bat population found in an artificial structure, which you can see leave in the hundreds at sunset .


Corporate safety is everywhere


A plate of some tasty Indonesian food

Saigon

Saigon - while as busy as its northern counterpart (Hanoi) - it was ten times easier manage, because the people were much more friendly and the overall atmosphere of the place was more agreeable.

You can carry anything on a moped!

This stand of dried fish produced the worst smell on earth & I almost shelled out some greenbacks to get rid of this woman and her cart of stench.


Traffic photos - just close your eyes and walk forward.



War Remnants Museum




A whole lotta choppers



Cu Chi tunnels

Bryce gets far more excited on the topic of war then myself so I'll let his words describe the experience.

"In the Cu Chi province, the underground was crisscrossed with an intricate and elaborate web of tunnels to aid Viet Cong fighters wage their guerrilla warfare against U.S. and ARVN forces. The tunnel complex itself spans an impressive 75 miles in distance and includes multiple "levels." About 100m of these tunnels were renovated and widened for tourists to crawl through, though they were still absolutely cramped. Despite the renovation, the 100m crawl was enough to stimulate for me how horrid the conditions were in reality.
The Cu Chi tunnels also included an exhibit on the booby traps that the Vietnamese devised to maim and kill U.S. soldiers. These were the most wicked looking traps that I have ever seen. All of them were cleverly concealed in the foliage or ground and featured razor sharp bamboo or steel spikes that would impale the torso or appendage of an unlucky GI. I definitely looked twice at each step that I took after that.
What impressed me was the ingenuity and tenacity of the Vietnamese people during this struggle. For instance, the steel that they used to construct those gruesome booby traps were recycled from the shrapnel of U.S. bombs. Unexploded ordinance was dismantled and used to manufacture grenades and other homemade explosive devices. The Vietnamese used whatever they could to fight against the Americans, including the remains of weapons used against them."

Even though the tunnels were widened for tourists - I had to slide on my stomach in a lot of places.

Bryce and Maya


Various painful booby traps


Where's the tunnel?


Ah!


American cannot fit into the entrance