southeast asia 06-07: March 2007

old capital of thailand, ayuthaya

snail cart! also, maybe it was slow.

giant head! we went back through thailand and visited the old capital, north of bangkok. we rode bikes around the ruins one day. this giant head made me homesick and reminded me of my giant headed pal, tina, a little.

buddha head overgrown with spooky tree roots.

does it look like joren's about to take off his wedding ring and hurl it into space? yeah, i thought so.

monk bowls turned into a barbell! pump it up, monks!

this is how you buy a pop here. in a sack. just like the porkchops. awesome! anything in a sack makes it better.

kid in a bucket (wash)

same kid in different bucket (rinse)

cambodia par-tay

so long, suckers!

we had to wait in line to cross the cambodian border back into thailand behind about a hundred of these jokers with carts. it put everybody in the refugee spirit.

there was a wedding party having their photos taken at angkor wat. their dresses AND their hair were rentals.

we knocked on the door but there didn't seem to be a party going on. a beer and some pringles sounded good, too.

this was a memorial to the people who died during the pol pot regime 1975-1979 (the killing fields). estimates are anywhere between 1.5 - 3 million out of a population of 7 million people. our driver was a little kid when it happened. he remembers hiding underground most nights in his village and hearing the gun shots.

more falling down stuff

see? falling down.

buddha legs

i guess someone perfected this move before i came along.

at the end of a SIZZLER of a day.

i didn't have the heart to tell these cambodian monkeys that thai monkeys totally kick their ass

joren saves angkor wat

joren sits down to check the restoration plans (it kept him busy for quite awhile)

he's pointing to the "crumbly-ness" of it

wat urchins.

they were SUPPOSED to be selling postcards, but were just playing with sticks and some berries off a tree. lazy kids.

wat crouching...

everybody's doing it!

uh huh. of course it's to this way. read the sign.

angkor what?

we went to cambodia to see angkor wat (an enormous temple complex), built in the 12th century. after being grown over and hidden by the jungle for hundreds of years, it was rediscovered in the early 20th century and is cambodia's claim to fame. besides having the WORST ROADS EVER. also, tomb raider was filmed there.

relief-a-rific

hidey holes a-plenty

crazy-ass statue park

we visited this super out of the way, very strange statue park. kind of like the garden of eden (in central Kansas)... the creator's corpse is under a glass dome AND decorated with blinky christmas lights.