random strangeness in photo form

At Angkor in Cambodia there were alot of statues where the heads and/or bodies had been cut away by treasure hunters, leaving only the feet. Where others see tragedy, I see an opportunity for a goofy photo. I also wanted to compare my foot size to an ancient warrior's. Yes, my feet were dirty. It was hotter than Hades, dusty, and I only brought sandals. I would take two or three showers a day to cool off and clean off the dust of the day's explorations.

This was a campaign poster for a guy running for political office in Bangkok. The city was PLASTERED with them, all different faces, but very distinct "types". Millions of them. It was an endless source of amusement and photo fun. I title this one "Vote for me or I'll kill you". I kind of understand that whole coup thing better after having seen what they get for government leaders.

This was a little girl and her critter (ferret? I dunno, I'm not good at critter's names) I met in Cambodia at Ta Prohm temple, Angkor. I met alot of really interesting people wandering around the temples and ruins, and they were all so friendly and willing to share experiences. Some wanted money for it and some just wanted to talk to foreigners. It was fairly easy to figure out which was which on first sight. This girl was of the second sort, but no one was averse to a little money as a thank you.

The kids in Cambodia were so playful. These guys had a great time measuring their height as compared to Rich's. When we walked into this temple, a very small one, they all RUSHED at him en masse. They had never seen a man so tall in their lives, and HAD to see who among them was tallest on the Rich Scale.
This temple was known by all the tour guides in the area as The Dollar Temple. It was the only one that the sellers of souvenirs were allowed into. They'd all run up to you screaming, "One dollar! One dollar!", and wave their items in your face. The sellers were VERY insistent and could be a nuisance, and so were not allowed into most of the sites. It's understandable as you would not be able to see anything with all the people hanging off your arms all the time. They swarmed us everywhere else outside the sites, so it was nice to have a respite in the temples.

The one little girl doing the measuring was selling packets of 10 postcards and insisted on counting them out to me in every language she could count in, which was about 7. Good little counter. So I bought her cards, cuz, hell, her counting in Russian was pretty impressive. She only knew the numbers in the many languages, but she did have some English beyond. The Cambodians are MASTER sellers and will not leave you alone until you buy something or run away. I did a little of both. There's only so many dodgy packets of postcards one can own.

This little memory of the kids playing around Rich's knees is one of my favorite ones from the whole trip. It's always the faces you see and the people you meet who stick in the memory.

more angkor pictures

As promised, more pictures. But fucking blogger doesn't seem to want to publish this, and I have been trying for, like, 9 hours now, so you may actually never see this. Which sucks. Cuz it's kind of cool, sorta.

An altar in Ta Prohm. I took alot of pictures of these. So amazing, the way the light streamed in through the ruined walls. Light banishing dark. The bright color against the grey stone. The smell of incense and aged rocks, (and in some cases, pee). It was overwhelming in every sense.

Silk cotton trees growing through the ruins of a temple. To me they looked like white ghost skeleton hands digging into the buildings. They were very pale against the rock. Destructive beauty.

My little Cambodian pal. This little girl followed me all through a temple, peeping over walls and through windows, giggling and hiding. I finally 'caught' her by taking her picture and then showing her the picture of herself in my digital camera screen. (This, by the way, is an EXCELLENT way of communicating with folks in other countries where you don't share a language. Ask to take their picture, then show it to them after you take it. Guaranteed smiles. Digital cameras rule. ) Once she saw herself, she wanted to be my model and pose for me. As you can see, she was a natural.

Another shot of the monkey. It's climbing up to the Buddha. I like the balance of man, statue and critter.

Here's the larger shot of the temple, with the Buddha face in the temple tower. This is the Bayon again. Every tower had faces in it. So cool.

We had a fairly restful weekend back here in Norway. Still fighting the jet lag a little, just shows itself in us waking up too early. I went for some brisk walks, I really love it and it ups my mood tremendously. Especially with the iPod in tow. The weather is cool and crisp, the low to mid 50's, which is such a change after SE Asia. Refreshing.......

It's interesting how safe I feel in Norway. Thailand, well Bangkok especially, feels like one of those places where if something bad happened to you, you would just disappear. So busy, so chaotic, so foreign, that you could just get swallowed up in it. No one would know who I was or speak my language, I would just be lost and swept away. It was a bit scary at times and I have actually had a few wierd dreams about it. Back here in small safe antiseptic Norway, I know I won't get run over or die of some strange tropical disease. And I can read the language so I can understand what's going on.

Some of this feeling comes from this book I read called "Forget You Had a Daughter" by Sandra Gregory. She is this British woman who stupidly agreed to carry some heroin out of Thailand, got caught and spent 11 years of a 25 year sentence in Thai and British prisons. Her story is harrowing, unsettling and at times actually painful to read. I read it on the plane back from Bangkok and oy vey, it's stuck in my head.

Random posts of senseless beauty.

Some photos from Angkor.

This is at the Bayon in Angkor. It was one of the few Buddhist (Hinduism being the leading religion of the time) temples built and is very different from the others. It is amazing because there are giant stone 3d faces in the towers. (Pics of those later.) As I was waiting to leave, sitting out in the causeway leading up to it, I saw a monkey amble up to the front stairs. I am really afraid of monkeys, but luckily it was far enough away that I could shoot it using zoom. Which I did. And damn if it didn't turn out cool. I love the way monkey and man mirror each other. I got a few more shots, but by then the monkey had moved on and I mostly got monkey butt shots.


I think this woman is gorgeous. Her face is so peaceful and she mirrors the Buddha so wonderfully. As you go through the ruins at all the sites at Angkor, people have set up makeshift altars where you can leave offerings for the Buddha or burn incense. This was one such altar. She was wonderful. She beckoned me in and I burned incense and she said some words over me. There are female monks in Buddhism, they wear white and shave their heads, however they are not given the exhalted treatment of the monks and are treated "as any other woman". I love this picture. One of my favorites, and one of my favorite memories as well. I got teary eyed many times on this whole trip, my spiritual side was continually challenged and awakened.


Ta Prohm. The most amazing of the sites at Angkor. Go see "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" and you will see it. The trees and the buildings have become one, and now neither can survive without the other. Incredible, the melding of nature and man. This tree was over 100 feet tall.


Cambodian commuters. We saw many trucks like this loaded to the gills with people. Not unusual at all to see 30 in one truck. Packed in like sardines, hanging over the edges. So unsafe, but people there drive pretty slow, so I guess you just hang on and no one falls out.

The shock of returning home.....

I'm back in Norway.

When I said that Norway and Thailand are diametric opposites, I do not lie. It's WIERD being back here.

But also kind of nice.

It's cool and clean and quiet. Our bed is big and soft. (Asian beds are very VERY firm and so are the pillows. No squashy down there. Oy my neck!) The water is yummylicious. The people are all tall and so very fashionable. Of course, no one talks to me here. In Thailand if they weren't talking to me they were staring at me. It's kind of nice to just be one of the masses again. I'm wearing boots and jeans again instead of sandals and skirts. I prefer sandals. Luckily, the snow is melting very quickly and is almost gone, which is a very nice surprise. I can start my walks again! Yeay! I love walking and hiking in Norway.

On the other hand, I just spent the equivalent of a Cambodian's statistical yearly income on groceries today. And I had to go to THREE different stores to find frozen chicken breasts. Seriously, what the fuck is up with that? In Thailand there are chickens running around everywhere under your feet, and here I can't find frozen chicken? (Fresh is easily available, but I like frozen so I can just pull it out of the freezer as needed.)

I called my boss about my job and it looks like the new contract with the company we were working for is being negotiated. It ended March 31 with possibility for renewal depending on the next phase of work needed. This means as of now i am out of a job but he told me to sit tight for a month or so until it gets worked out and they determine the new work load and processes. I am, apparently, his trump card employee, cuz, hey, let's face it, I am smart AND charming and a good planner. (The fortune teller at Wat Po told me so, so it's got to be true, right? Even though he also told me I need to learn when to shut up. Like, um, now maybe?)

I have tons of very beautiful Hill Tribe silver and beads I got in Chiang Mai to work with so I hope to be on a creative jewelry frenzy in the next month or two. AND I am going to pick back up at the gym. Me in my swim suit was a sad sad sight. And i need to get rid of some flab. More on that later. (Though why is it that everyone I've ever talked to got some sort of nasty tummy bug and lost tons of weight when they went to Asia, and I get the opposite? Like, I was actually forced to use Correctol once? And I've gained weight? What is wrong with me? Why do I have this iron stomach?) And no I am not posting picks of me in my swimsuit, at least, not full body shots. So just forget it.

I've also been catching up on my favorite blogs again. I am sadly behind. I probably could have gone my whole life not seeing this particular post on Badger's site, and am actually considering either a lawsuit, for the mental anguish she has caused me, or going back to Thailand and getting restung by the jellyfish so that I can get the picture burned out of my mind. Why Badger, why do you do this to me? Sure you win the battle, but why do I have to lose my mental stability by seeing this?

Anyhow, I am determined to redress this pictorial imbalance by posting pictures from my trip. Starting now. Must share beauty to balance the evil that dwells.

facts and fallacies about angkor wat

1) Angkor Wat is just one temple of MANY. Many many many. Angkor (means 'city') was actually a huge city with over 1 million people living there. There's something like 280 temples and the royal city and oh so much more.

2) You know when you think of Angkor Wat and it's all about hacking thru the jungle and finding this immense lonely place of romantic solitude and it's just you and the ancient ruins and the trees and the monks and you can be all Indiana Jones and shit? Try it tihis way instead: It's you and the ttrees and the ruins and ONE MILLION FRIGGING KOREANS ALL GETTING IN YOUR GODDAMN WAY AND CRAWLING ALL OVER THE TEMPLES RUINING EVERY SHOT YOU TRY TO GET. Angkor is the new Disneyland of ancient sites. ANd we hit it directly on the Cambodian new Year celebration and so the Cambodians ALL go out there to celebrate and have picnics...so it was crowded beyond belief. Trafffic jams, masses of people everywhere, mayhem and madness. We did have a few magical moments of solitude and wonder (mostly when the tour groups were having their lunches at the hottest time fo the day, so we traded sweat for peace), but 85% off the time we were just trying to get around the damn crowds.

3) If you've ever traveled in a country where people follow you around trying to sell you stuff...Cambodia is the absolute worst for people hollering, following and bargaining with you even if you don't want the stuff. I know how rock stars feel now.
"Lady! Lady! Cold water! You want travel guide! Travel guide only 7 dollar! Ok Ok for you 5! Postcard postcard 10 postcard one dollar! Buy ladyyy! Buy! OK, you remember me, you buy from me when you leave!I come find you when you leaave."
They start it from the second the car parks (sometimes before, as they are at the windows) until you get into the temple. Non stop and they come running from hundreds of feet away. This was made more intense by the fact that Rich is very tall and noticeable and I am quite white and I guess I look like a shopper.... Luckily the sellers are not allowed in most temples, but they swarm you when you come inn and out. And the ones selling postcards are almost always little kids. And no one knows what no means.
We bought what we could, to help out as they are so desperately poor, but seriously, how many really badly done sets of postcards can you buy? Everything cost one dollar, leading to Angkor being called "The Dollar Store" by many who visit. There was also a temple where they did allow the kids in to sell, and our tour guide called it the Dollar Temple. Very hard to look at temples when kids hang on your knees and pull at you trying to sell you things, so I am glad that they are not allowed in to most of the sites now. I am not saying the kids weren't for the most part cute and charming and friendly, but we were there to see the sites and it is hard to see things when you are afraid of stepping on a child......

All that aside, it was phenomenal. The ruins are immense and majestic and everything you would think they would be. The ruins just blow your mind that they were built 1000 years ago (roughly the same time as Westminster abbey and places off that ilk)
It was hot. Once I saw a monkey, which I did actually get pictures of so hooray for me!

It was a whirlwind trip, that is for sure. Left Bangkok at 7 am (up at 4) arrived Siem Reap at 8 on Saturay. At a temple by 10:30, toured most of the day. Collapsed. Up at 5 am Sunday (Easter)for the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Toured until 1pm,, back for nap and lunch then back out from 3 to 7pm. Up early Monday, toured from 8 to 1 then rested packed and back to Bangkok by 8pm. Whew.

Now it's Tuesday and Rich is waiting impatieently to see some stuff here in Bangkok so I gotta get showering. I promise I will post myriad pictures when I get back to Oslo...Thursday morning early early.

Oh and Karla May...the jelly fish sting was not that bad, really. Kind of wierd, but not bad. Luckily mine was very minor. Gone by the next morning. Considering what you have done in your life, you'd be fine. Oh, and i have EATEN an eel, so no worrries there, either.

and in other late breaking, bored and blogging on a Sunday, news.....

Plans are firming up for the trip to Thailand. (Unlike, I might add, my ass, which has lost none of its Wonder Bread softness and whiteness...)

Plans are made to go to the following places:

Bangkok (home base).
Chaing Mai (I have no idea WHAT to expect)
Krabi Beach (White sands! blue skies! blue water!)
Luang Prabang, Laos (which blows my mind)
and....(drumroll please)

ANGKOR FUCKING WAT.....

Angkor Wat, people! ANGKOR WAT! Only in my top five of places I must visit in my life time. (The other two left...Taj Mahal and Maccu Piccu. I've already taken care of the Nile and Morocco. My list of five is now down to two. Holy crapping crapness.) It's been a dream of mine to go there since I was a kid reading those Time Life books about mysterious places and forgotten cultures. (Amazing, really, how much those books influenced me and my sense of adventure.) One of those places that I thought about the same way I thought about Mars...it exists, but I'll never see it.

And now I will. See it. Angkor Wat.

Holy shit in a sidecar. I might be shedding some tears of excitement, gratitude and just plain holy-shitting-ness right now. In fact, I'm verklempt. Let me give you a topic.....