February / March 2005 S.E. Asia

Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia in 5 weeks! Obviously we had to pick and choose locations. In Thailand I met up with Victor, who had been traveling for four months already and Greta and Tessa who arrived a week earlier to visit friends. We all visited Bangkok, spent four days in Chaing Mai in the north and a week in the south on the Andaman Sea near Krabi. Then Vic flew home and Greta went on her way to New Zealand and Tessa and I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the ruins known as Angkor Wat. This amazing monument, one of the seven man-made wonders of the world, was a real highlight and we wished we had allocated more time here. From there we traveled back through Bangkok and on to Bali, Indonesia where we spent most of our time in the interior in Ubud but visited the beach our last two days. Moving from Buddhist to Muslim to Hindu areas we were struck by the accepting and generous nature of everyone we encountered. We saw little of the Tsunami devastation but were keenly aware of the dearth of tourists. While in Bali we met up with Cat and David, sharing a wonderful cliff side home with them for three days. Five weeks and fourteen flights later we arrived home for the beginning of spring.