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Running away from Home

Trip: My Mekong Adventure

There are [26] stories from my trip: My Mekong Adventure


Raging on the river

VIETNAM | Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010 | Views [349]

We were instructed to get up at 6:00am so that we could have breakfast and be packed up by 7:00am, but the recorded voice over the loudspeaker started at 5:00am. I imagined that it was Socialist propaganda encouraging every Vietnamese within earshot ... Read more >


Down in the delta

VIETNAM | Tuesday, 6 Apr 2010 | Views [370]

As a perfect way to wrap up my Mekong adventure, I chose the river route to Vietnam. This involved taking a “tour“ through Chau Doc, but it was only two days and one night. We took a minibus about an hour and a half southwest out of Phnom Penh where ... Read more >


The humanitarian is gone

CAMBODIA | Monday, 5 Apr 2010 | Views [344]

How is this for bitchy? I decided to have breakfast at a riverside restaurant, and as soon as I sat down a young boy tried to sell me a local English-language newspaper. I could see that the price on the newspaper has been altered with ink so when he ... Read more >


The accidental humanitarian

CAMBODIA | Sunday, 4 Apr 2010 | Views [426]

The unintentional theme for today was contributing to the disabled or less fortunate in Cambodia. On my way to get a shot of Wat Phnom in the morning sun, I saw two fellows collecting money from walkers-by. I didn’t understand what the fuss was until ... Read more >


Cambodia smiles

CAMBODIA | Saturday, 3 Apr 2010 | Views [381]

I was a fool to look for kindness in a friendly conversation with a Cambodian. The kindnesses are subtle and unspoken, but they are there. It is there when I sit down at a café and someone comes to set a fan next to my table. It is there when the fellow ... Read more >


.....I never did find that landmine museum

CAMBODIA | Friday, 2 Apr 2010 | Views [495]

I was supposed to leave Siem Reap this morning, but a last-minute e-mail from my friend Kathryn sent me running to the bus ticket agency to change my date of departure. Because of a booking conflict with her hotel in Bangkok she had decided to hop on ... Read more >


Photos: Cambodia pics

CAMBODIA | Friday, 2 Apr 2010 | Photo Gallery


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Last day at Angkor Wat

CAMBODIA | Wednesday, 31 Mar 2010 | Views [473]

The Temples at Angkor--Day 3 I made it for the sunrise just to say that I have done it which is a good thing because it was cloudy this morning and that greatly decreases the dramatic effect. I was joined by about a million other tourists who dragged ... Read more >


Ta Prohm, Thommanon and the Terraces

CAMBODIA | Monday, 29 Mar 2010 | Views [569]

The Temples of Angkor--Day 2   Still didn’t catch the sunrise, although I was around before most of the tourists. I get strange looks from the groundskeepers as I pedal past, and there are a lot of them. Even in the heat they stay covered head to ... Read more >


The learning curve of the solo tour

CAMBODIA | Sunday, 28 Mar 2010 | Views [507]

The Temples of Angkor---Day 1 What can I say about Angkor Wat that has not already been said? I like riding my rental bike around the monument. That may be a new one. Seriously, the area is wonderfully level. The blacktop is in good shape. I am glad ... Read more >


Feeling cynical in Siem Reap

CAMBODIA | Saturday, 27 Mar 2010 | Views [436]

Bait and Switch, Bait and Switch….I am starting to see it everywhere. When I bought the bus ticket to Siem Reap the clerk at the desk told me that they had a sister hotel in Siem Reap. They offered $6 rooms that were as nice as the ones in Phnom Penh, ... Read more >


Has the monsoon come already?

CAMBODIA | Friday, 26 Mar 2010 | Views [396]

I got a small taste of what Phnom Penh is like in the rainy season. When I left the hotel this morning, there was just a slight drizzle and I was kicking myself for not purchasing an umbrella when I had the chance. I was determined to go see a different ... Read more >


Travel notes from Phnom Penh

CAMBODIA | Thursday, 25 Mar 2010 | Views [668] | Comments [1]

March 23, 2010 The bus ride to Phnom Penh was five hours of Cambodian karaoke and one hour of a Cambodian comedy show. We stopped at a rest area where they sold delicacies such as toasted locusts and fried spiders. I bought a cut-up pineapple for 50 ... Read more >


Greasing palms at the Laos/Cambodia border

CAMBODIA | Monday, 22 Mar 2010 | Views [630]

If it weren’t for the heat, I would close the window of my hotel room. There seems to be some kind of musical performance nearby that sounds like a combination of large drums and improvised xylophone music. I am in Kratie, Cambodia about 200km northeast ... Read more >


My Don Khong bicycle tour

LAOS | Sunday, 21 Mar 2010 | Views [389]

I felt a bit sorry for the old woman with dark sun-beaten skin and even darker teeth, and so I rented my bike from her. She was just set up in the shade on the main drag in town and she was competing with all of the guesthouses for clients. I could ... Read more >


A mishap ruins my day on Don Det

LAOS | Saturday, 20 Mar 2010 | Views [427]

So yesterday I was whining about the fact that now the landscape is so dried out. Today I am singing a different tune. I had my boat ride to Don Det. I enjoyed every minute of it, even when my bum fell asleep. When we docked, I jumped onto a rented ... Read more >


The entrepreneurs of laid-back Laos don't disappoint

LAOS | Friday, 19 Mar 2010 | Views [396]

It wasn’t a long ride from Champasak to Si Phan Don (4000 Islands), but it was difficult to watch the parched landscape go by. There was a group of twenty-somethings jabbering away in Swedish in the back seat so I listened to my ipod (thank you, Mike) ... Read more >


Keep on rollin' with the good karma

LAOS | Thursday, 18 Mar 2010 | Views [519]

I was awake ten minutes before my alarm went off at 5:00am. I didn’t know what time the sun would rise, but I figured it wouldn’t be up before 6:00. Right around the time the sky over the Mekong turned gray I climbed on my rented bicycle and pedaled ... Read more >


Made it to Champasak...where's the wat?

LAOS | Wednesday, 17 Mar 2010 | Views [436]

I am in Champasak staying in a guesthouse that is right on the river. Even after the sunset, the air is hot and motionless. The restaurant where I have my dinner keeps the fans going, but most of the lights are off. When I look at one of the lit florescent ... Read more >


Photos: Laos pics

LAOS | Tuesday, 16 Mar 2010 | Photo Gallery


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