If You Think It's A Leech...

6 month honeymoon suite or prison cell?  You decide...

Laos makes good use of their horrible past.  A stark reminder of wartime.

One of the most uncomfortable, dusty, exhaust filled rides we have been on.  Some travel buddies in the background.  This was in the back of a super sized pick-up with benches running the length of the bed along the sides and then one in the middle, as well.  Packed 'em in, though!  The more the merrier.

Our dusty "bus" ride brought us to southern Laos and an area called the 4000 Islands.  Sand protuberances in the Mekong delta.  Some no bigger than a car, but others, like the island we stayed on were quite big - miles long.  It was great to do fresh water island chillin'.

From Laos to Siem Reap.  The Angkor Wat ruins were quite amazing.

Prom shot!  We met up in Siem Reap with our friends Bryce and Nikki, who flew in for a long weekend from Hong Kong.  This was a really cool temple called the Bayon.  Lots of faces, watching our every move...

Nature has had it's way with this famous temple - Tha Phrom (?)

A little rewind to our Mekong island life chillin'.  In full effect, here.

Wow-ee!  This Cambodian was not alone.  Another guy was right behind him.  The back is a bed and the front wooden piece was a piano or something.  We frequently see 5 people on a moped. 

These little boys near Siem Reap (we did a day trip bike ride to the country with Bryce and Nikki) were stoked to show off their masks. 

No pregnant women, please!

My favorite brand.

Those are mopeds! 

This was a really nice high school senior that took us to a Buddhist temple that was in a cave that was under this limestone rock formation.  He took me up and over to this sweet lookout.  The interesting part of the cave was that in the middle of the formation, the roof had fallen in and it opened up to the sky.  Really cool spot in southern Cambodia near the town of Kompot.

Life in Buddhist hell (with a strong Hindu influence).  This was in one of the temples by the cave.  Lots of pictures for illiterate lay people.  Very similar to the pictography found in cathedrals.

The next few shots were taken at the haunting remains of an old French Provincial hotel/casino/town that is called Bokor Hill Station.  Built in 1925, this foggy complex was a getaway spot to escape the heat of Phnom Pehn for the rich French colonialists.  An amazing view of the ocean with the jungle dropping sharply behind the casino from a sheer cliff.  This same cliff was were the Khmer Rouge dumped bodies of execution victims in the late 1970's.  The hotel became a prison.  It's latest fame was the site of the final scene of a movie called "City of Ghosts".  Now the Chinese have big plans to redevelop the spot.  A new casino is in the works and a proposal for a 1000 building town.  But it's a National Park.  No problem, the Chinese investment firm is pay rolling the park rangers and bribing their way to owning as much of Cambodia as possible. 

The debonair look in the old casino.

Watch out for that last step, it's a real lulu!

Kira modelling her new lilac colored poncho on an old guestroom balcony.

The French planned the town with a casino, a church (seen here) and a post office.

Khmer grafitti.

A door in the old French colonial town of Kampot.  The fading, sagging provincial architecture is very interesting.  The good news is that Kampot is rebuilding as a backpackers site, so if the Chinese don't destroy the trekking options, the town should continue to rebuild. 

Almost grabbed ahold of this one for balance jumping a puddle.

Nice water buffalo!

We arrived in the one road town of Chi Phat after a long day of travel.  We had only slept 5 hours the night before and were getting up at 6 to prepare for a 3 day mountain bike trek.  We expected to be in bed early and sleep like babies as the sounds of small town Cambodia lulled us into slumber.  A community organization that plans the treks assigned us to our guesthouse.  Several minutes after unloading our stuff in the room, the woman running the place came and told us to please join her and the village to celebrate the Khmer New Year.  We were shocked because the new year was over 3 days before.  We were even more shocked when we saw the wall of sound.  Even more shocked when they kept blasting the same 5 songs over and over again.  Good thing the whole village lost power at 11:00.

Our mountain bike trek crossed a bunch of great swimming holes and beautiful waterfalls. 

Kira blazing down the trail with our guide Peng slowly taking the lead.  I don't know how he did it, but I have never seen anyone ride a mountain bike as slow as Peng could.  Hard work biking that slow.

Kira on a homemade ladder to a recently discovered burial site from an ancient Khmer civilization.  The bodies were buried in jars or small tree hollowed coffins and then placed up in the cliffs of the jungle.

Kira cooling off at lunch.  We ate breakfast at 8 and then slogged over some really overgrown and grueling terrain.  By 1:30 or two we were wiped out and starving!  This water spot was just what we needed.  We just wish we knew that lunch was a place, not a time.  If Peng would have biked faster...

The coffins, some still holding the remains.

Kira raging through the bamboo forest of the Cardamom Mountains.

This beautiful butterfly flew in for some of my lunch leftovers.

Our second night - tarp up due to impending rain.  We weren't totally sure of our guides tarp hanging skills.  It looked a little shaky, so fortunately it didn't rain for long.

Kira and Peng in our military hammocks - complete with mosquito nets.

O'Malu falls - this great spot was what we looked at from our tarp covered camp spot.  Curious of the Khmer origins of the name O'Malu.

Chi Phat traffic jam.

Our final group shot with our two leaders.  It was a real challenge to get this shot done by our guide, Sok's (the guide on the left) little brother.  He got the job done, though. 

Hello from Bangkok!

We are here for a third time, wrapping things up and getting ready to switch gears to the Himalayan wonderland of Nepal.  We are really excited to move on after some great travels around SE Asia.  From Nepal we will move into India for our final month.  Increased difficulty level to close things out.  And we thought it was hot in Cambodia!

So here are some pictures that I thought everyone might enjoy.  Check them out.  The pictures and captions will tell the story. 

P.S. The title came from our new found forest friends.  Leeches!  We both got lots and lots of leeches.  My philosophy was that if you felt something and your brain told you, "I think that might be a leech..." then 98% chance that it was a leech.  They are pretty gross parasites.  Days later they still itch.  And the open sore thing is a little gross.  But the sound of Kira squealing like a little girl each time she had a leech was really worth it.  Plus, with my botfly exposure of the past (32 and counting), having external parasites is no big whoop.