Aaron's method of travel attracts a lot of attention... a few locals have even asked if he has a bomb in his briefcase.

A park full of monkeys is pretty much the best park I've ever seen. (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

This is the memorial for the mass grave site. It housed the shelves of human skulls that you can see below in the previously posted photo.

It is difficult to understand what happened to this country 30 yearsago and why. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Ledby Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for an estimated 1.5-3million deaths in Cambodia. Today we visited a "Killing Field" wherethousands of people were executed. They executed educated people asthey wanted a population of peasants who wouldn't question thegovernment.The Killing Fields were horrifying. There is a monument for the massgraves with nearly 9,000 skulls in it. As you walk along the pathwaysbetween the exhibits there are human bones and teeth coming up throughthe ground.A tree on the grounds was used to execute young children and babies bygrabbing their feet and whipping their heads against the trees. Theskulls in the exhibit have cracks from axes and bamboo as they didn'twant to waste bullets on people. Many people were buried alive.Pol Pot made people relocate to the countryside as he wanted to purifythe Cambodian people for comunism. He executed doctors, lawyers, andother educated people. The schools, hospitals, and museums weredestroyed.In 1979 Vietnam helped remove Pol Pot from power. Afterwards the USsupported the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. They refused to recognizeCambodia as a country (through the UN) which made things verydifficult as the new government was fighting a civil war with theKhmer Rouge, still being led by Pol Pot. It is amazing that thepeople in this country do not have more resentment for the US,Thailand, and other countries that supported this terrible regime.

Gas stations in Cambodia are quite interesting. The most common outside the city is a stand with 1 liter glass Pepsi bottles filled with gasoline. Gas is about $4 per gallon which is relatively cheap by world standards, although it is a lot of money for most Cambodians.

The first night we arrived in Phnom Penh with no idea where to go. We decided to follow the guide book and head for the backpacker ghetto along Boeung Kak Lake. That was a big mistake. The several rooms we looked at were full of mozzies and incredibly dirty. Rumor is that the area is going to be bulldozed soon and the places have just been run into the ground. There is not reason to stay or visit this area in PP.

We decided to splurge a bit (compared to what we typically pay) and go for something nice. We moved to the Tonle Sap Riverfront and found a great place for $20 a night. Our room is on the 5th floor and the balcony has a wonderful view.

We read about the Foreign Correspondent's Club down the street and checked it out last night. It is a beautiful restaurant on the 2nd floor overlooking the Tonle Sap. We stayed for the 2 hour happy hour and about an hour extra. The place is great for people watching as it serves as a primary meeting place for news correspondents in the area.

The food in Cambodia is nothing compared to Thailand. Most of the dishes are rather bland and they use a mild chili sauce to spice things up. (it is quite bland as well) The street stalls are nothing like Thailand and we've only found 1 that we liked.

I don't know what to say about this photo but I had to post it.

Phnom Penh is described in the LP guidebook as a city of deep contrast between rich and poor. It is the capital of a country that has undergone tremendous hardship over the past 30 years and it shows. There is a lot of beauty in this city and a lot of things that are difficult to look at. A moto ride down the street will fill your nose with all sorts of smells and very few of them are good.

There is a large and visible population of foreigners in this town and many of them live here. There are a lot of aid organizations as well as international banks who are investing in Cambodia hoping to make a profit. There are some very wealthy Cambodians who stand out as they drive Lexus SUVs and other luxury vehicles down streets full of carts being pushed by hand.

We had a camera duel and it looks like I win because Aaron's photo is still stuck inside a roll of film in his bag... This picture is looking down a corridor inside a temple at Angkor Wat.

Homes on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Siem Reap is not an impressive city. Angkor Wat is surrounded by expensive hotels where the workers make just $1 per day. The economy is based almost entirely on tourism and the wealth gap is very disturbing. There is one street that is blocked off to locals to keep them from harrassing the tourists at expensive western style bars and restaurants. It is quite sad. One day in Siem Reap (including Angkor) was plenty for me.

We hopped on a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Arriving at the bus station is total chaos. Men swarm you with bus tickets and the price quickly dropped to $3 for the 6 hour journey... we were quoted $15 by our tuk-tuk driver the day before. The tourist areas in Cambodia are full of people trying to get as much money as possible from you. There is no such thing as a straight answer.

The bus was old and packed full. We were the only westerners (with the exception of one guy sitting up front) and we sat in the back. Some rows had 3 or 4 people sharing two seats. The seats are small and rarely does the reclining mechanism work.

The top image is of a rice field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The bottom image is a look out our hotel room window towards the back of the building. There is a lot of contrast in the city between rich and poor and the areas surrounding the hotels are no exception.

We spent a day visiting Angkor Wat near Siem Reap, Cambodia. The ruins there are very impressive. We hired a driver for the day and he took us to 5 of the main temples. These ruins were landmarks in a civilization of more than 1 million people. Click on the link if you don't know much about it.

Angkor is only half as old as the Coloisseum, and maybe not as impressive as the ruins you would find in Italy or Greece, however it is incredible. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world (according the guiness book) and the trees growing up from some of the structures look like something out of a fairy tale.

I do have better pictures, however, it is difficult to sort through the 100+ photos I took that day on this very slow computer.. I'm sure I'll find some more time to post the good ones in the future.

Travelling from Thailand to Cambodia is nothing short of an adventure. The road from Popeit, Cambodia to Siem Reap is notorious for being one of the worst border crossings in Asia. We just happened to do it when it was worse than ever.

We started with a 6 hour bus ride from Bangkok to the border. A tuk tuk took us to the border of Cambodia where border officials ripped us off. (just $5 each and there is really nothing you can do about it)

Crossing the border is total chaos as you are completely surrounded by people trying to get you in their taxi. Popeit is a border town that makes Tijuana look like Beverly Hills. After searching around a bit we realized that there is some sort of mafia that controls the taxis. (as we read in our guide book) We couldn't get anybody to negotiate with us as there were guys following us around telling other drivers that they couldn't deal with us. We needed a taxi to take us to Siem Reap which is about 100 miles away. There is no bus service and the only way to get there directly is a taxi. (the bus service stopped because the road is completely flooded) It is possible to take a taxi to another town, then take a boat... however, we wanted to get there that night. We had no idea what was in store for us.

We met a guy from Amsterdam who seemed to be the only other westerner in the town. We split a taxi for $66 that was to take us to Siem Reap. The taxi drove us for about 2 hours down the worst road I have ever seen. The potholes were deep and it was amazing that a sedan could even navigate it. I have never seen anything like it.

We finally arrived in a small town where our driver made us switch to a truck equipped with a snorkel (a device that allows a vehicle to drive in deep water). The POS truck was our only option so we had to hop in.

We road in the truck for 7 hours. The road was in fact flooded and we passed dozens of vehicles stranded in water up to our chest. Our truck got stuck several times and we had to get out and push it through the water. We couldn't believe what we were experiencing. It was absolutely an incredible journey.

The entire journey was in total darkness. We frequently had to stop and our driver paid people to walk in front of the truck to feel out the road (in the water). A picture above shows our driver checking out the deep water ahead. I couldn't get any pictures of the very deep water or the trucks stuck in the water as I had to keep my camera in my dry bag... I also had to be ready to jump out and push when needed. At one point the water inside the truck had covered the tape player in the dash. We had to pay a tractor to pull us with a chain through the deepest crossing.

I am rambling about the journey and words will never do it justice. I'll try to explain it to you all when I get home and I will fail. It was quite an experience and one I will never forget.

Anybody who has been to Thailand knows about the frog ladies at the markets. For the past week we've been wondering who actually buys the little wooden frogs. The women who sell them stroke them with a wooden dowl which makes a frog like sound. Last night we arrived in Chiang Mai and went to the night market where I couldn't resist buying one. Aaron soon followed.

I thought I had made a post about our 4 day car trip through Northern Thailand, however, the post must have been lost. We rented a jeep-like vehicle in Chiang Mai and took a 4 day/3 night trip through Pai, Mae Hong Son, and Mae Chaem. The vehicle allowed us to stop wherever we wanted.. it was great cruising by the standard mini-bus stops where all of the tourists eat and finding other street markets with some great food.

The entire drive weaved its way through mountains with waterfalls and hot springs. We visited the tallest waterfall in the Chiang Mai Province that was over 100 meters tall. We had the waterfalls all to ourselves as there wasn't a single person around.

Pai was a major let-down. I heard great things but I didn't see much I liked. It was full of western tourists, western style restaurants, and hippies. The food was bland, the bars were no different than what you find back home, and the live music we heard was awful. There were few street stalls which made it tough to eat since we basically live off street stalls (the food there is much better than the restaurants) We got out of Pai early the next day and drove to Mae Hong Son. My previous posts talk about our time there.

The road trip was great. We saw a lot of stuff you can't see taking mini-buses or packaged tours. Next time I'd like to take a motorcycle instead.

The power went out in Mae Chang and the total darkness was great for some long exposure shots. I took this single exposure shot of Aaron using a 60 second exposure and a headlamp. He used a headlamp to "paint" himself into the picture, then shut if off and move to a different spot and repeat the process. The image is a single exposure shots that was not edited at all.

Shortly after nightfall we arrived in the small village of Mae Chaem. Mae Chaem doesn't see many westerners as it isn't mentioned in any of the main guide books. We stopped by this restaurant where they only served one item, table bbq. Shortly after this woman set up the bbq some young kids came to our table and taught us how to cook the food. We had bbq'd pork, liver, fish, and vegetables. The outside rim of the bbq is made to hold broth for cooking the vegetables. The locals were very happy to see us and they offered us some beer and asked about where we were from. One man asked for my email address as he said he would like to practice his English. He said he wants to e-mail me everyday... I just laughed.

We turned off the main road we had planned to follow back to Chiang Mai in search of adventure. Neither of our guidebooks had anything about this road so we figured it would be a lot of fun. The scenery was incredible as we slowly made our way through small mountain villages and past truckloads of farmers. The farmers often cheered and yelled at us with huge smiles on their faces. We learned that very few tourists ever travel through this area. It was a great experience.

There are groves of bamboo like this one all over. It is amazing how tall it can grow and how strong it is. Bamboo scaffolding is a common site in the city and in the remote villages.

The beauty of having a car is that you can stop anywhere you want. We stopped at the home and restaurant of Mr. Songvit Siangarom on the road from Mae Hong Son to Mae Chaem. He is a retired banker who wanted to escape the city life in Bangkok and now lives here with his wife. His wife cooked us a wonderful lunch and Mr. Siangarom showed us his garden and guesthouse he was building. He was also very proud of his guest book with signatures from all over the world.