Bangkok to Southern Thailand

Leaving Bangkok I started heading south along the coast. The coast in Thailand is a bit odd because there is so much of it, with so many nice beaches, but apparently everyone loves to congregate at all the same ones. On the second day out of Bangkok, this was the beach that I was at, where I had lunch for $1:

The same day I was in Hua Hin by dinner time and this was the beach:

The restaurants have their menus posted right at the edge of the water and most entrees were going for $10. It's been very odd shifting in and out of resort and tourist areas along the coast. There haven't been too many historic sights, and it's been mostly relaxing, with some fairly boring riding. The roads are flat and the weather is hot. It's very much like south Florida all over again except the food is better, cheaper, and there are a few more hills.. I've eaten lots of amazing fried rice and lots of amazing curry. While almost every dish has some spice in it, so far nothing has been incredibly spicy. To be fair though, I have eaten at a lot of buffet style places where I can point at food and avoid eating the dishes that have hundreds of peppers in them. But on the other hand I have been disappointed a few times when asking for food and I've been warned about it being spicy only to find out that it's just a step above mild (and I'm generally a spicy food wuss).

Buddha with a view:

In Chumphon I had my entry stamp extended so I could stay in Thailand. The lady at the office was trying to convince me to go to Ranong, take the boat to Burma, then come back to get another 30 day entry stamp, but as I didn't need another month and I can't just hop over to Burma without a visa, I paid for a 7 day extension which was the most they would offer. Oddly enough, looking at the wording on the stamp it basically says that I applied for a longer extension and was denied, but they'll let me stay an extra week anyway (I assume to give me time to leave the country).

Moving south, there are still plenty of Wats, but they're starting to thin out to make way for the mosques. I'm also seeing more women covering their heads and faces. Apparently this will continue into Malaysia.

Leaving Surat Thani I met a Dutch cyclist who was on his first day of riding on a 6 week tour through southeast Asia and we rode together for a while before he turned to take the ferry to the island with the full moon party. It was a bit interesting to talk to someone just starting out when I'm close to finishing.

When I was in Nakhon Si Thammarat they were doing a 4 day long festival which seemed to center around hundreds of people doing circles around the most famous Wat in the city while carrying long yellow ribbons.

Apparently the prevailing wind in this part of Thailand comes from the south/southeast, so I have been fighting that since I left Bangkok. Tomorrow I will be in Malaysia and I still haven't been able to find a map, so it'll be more memorizing, guessing, and dead reckoning which hasn't failed me so far, so we'll see how it goes.

Siam Riep to Bangkok, Sukothai, and back

And on to Thailand.

Leaving Siem Reap, I stopped in Sisophon where I happened to wander into the same guesthouse where another american cyclist, Josh, was staying. Apparently we had both been in Dalat, Saigon, and Siem Reap at about the same time. I rode with him for the next few days and we stayed with a Thai guy north of Bangkok whom Josh had met earlier before leaving Thailand to do a loop around Southeast Asia.

I spent a few days in Bangkok, which includes the royal palace, and a bunch of wats

The best part about Bangkok and the rest of Thailand is that people generally don't honk, and actually drive better than many Americans. I couldn't believe my ears at first. I could almost believe I'm not in Asia anymore.

Leaving Bangkok I went north to Ayutthaya, which also has tons of Wats.

It's also home to the famous Buddha head in a tree:

Then it was a few days to Sukothai, which has even more wats, but these ones have more Buddhas in them.

And just north of Sukothai is Si Satchanalai park, which has even more wats. I thought this park was a lot nicer because there were less people, less tour groups, and it had more trees. Also it hasn't been as heavily restored.

Since the ride north hadn't been too interesting I decided to take a bus back to Bangkok rather than ride the same road twice, so I'm now about to head south towards Malaysia. Also, as of yesterday, I have been outside the US for one year. I ate a big mac in honor of the occasion.

Saigon to Siem Reap

Cambodia!

The terrain is mostly the same as in Vietnam: rice, standing water, flat, hot and humid. There are however a few differences. To start, almost all the houses are on stilts:

Like in China, there are gates everywhere, except they look like this:

Also there are a lot of temples designed like this:

Cartoony looking Nagas and Buddhas everywhere

Essentially Cambodia is full of the same style of art, over and over:

Then we have Phnom Penh. The best difference between it and Saigon are that the people actually drive like reasonable human beings (except the bus drivers). Red lights are mostly obeyed and honking is mostly kept to a minimum. There are also Tuk Tuks everywhere.

While in Phnom Penh I went to visit some khmer rouge sites such as s-21 the school turned into a prison

as well as the killing fields, where most people from s-21 were executed

From there it was a few days to Siem Reap, mostly through terrain like this:

Angkor, the home of over a thousand temples and according to wikipedia over 2 million tourists a year (and so so many of them in large tour groups).

Interesting bits included the gates of Angkor Thom

The Bayon in Angkor Thom

Neak Pean

Ta Som

Banteay Srei

And of course Angkor Wat

The weirdest thing about Cambodia so far is that dollars are often preferred over the local Riel, but no one has any coins. This makes for some weird transactions when you're mixing two separate currencies, or you pay in dollars only to receive Riel as change.

Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City

After waiting a few days to get my Visa extended in Hoi An, I made my way west to the mountains and jungles of Vietnam to try to escape the ever present standing water and high humidity, though with little success. Nothing too exciting has happened since then. Still great food, terrible drivers, and no real places to camp (though partially because I was worried about UXO).

I started with My Son, which was a fairly unimpressive set of ruins, but it's supposed to be one of the best examples of that type of architecture:

The highlands of Vietnam are at least more interesting than the flatland by the coast

But the towns dotting the area don't have much more than the odd war memorial (usually accompanied by a Russian or Chinese tank)

The only major stop was Da Lat, which was having a cultural festival so the whole town was decorated with flowers, and it was also incredibly crowded.

After that it was on to Ho Chi Minh City, which has a number of interesting museums with lots of propaganda, and american tanks.

I also spent new years eve there, where they set off fireworks over the river. However, most of the riverfront is blocked off, so millions of people are all crammed into a small space, and people all take their motorcycles and just park them in the middle of the road, particularly on the bridges.