Pacific Specifics

June 27 th , 2018 I haven’t written much lately. I’ve been trying to just experience things. To live in the moment. I have felt more connected to my moment, and to Ron, and to myself. But very distant from everyone and everything else. The pollution is bad today in Hanoi, and I wore myself out yesterday. I found a website that talks about the air pollution here, and it’s been good so far, until today. Today the level is at the point that people shouldn’t even eat at an outside restaurant. We already ran to a coffee shop. Plenty of people outside in that bad air. Me, I want to rest.  Yesterday was another epic day. Arriving in Hanoi, in Vietnam was epic. Life is so epic in Southeast Asia. We were separated on the last day of Cambodia. The flight wasn’t until later in the evening. Ron spent the day on a motorbike tour, and I just relaxed at the hotel. I’m good at relaxing. I’m good with staying out of the heat for a while. He went out and had a great adventure complete ...

Better late than never?  Here's some pictures and a couple thousand words worth of shots. Angkor Wat outer hallway. Ankgor Wat, one of many extra buildings in the compound. Ron has an amazing camera. Climbing the steep stairs is a total workout, even more so in the intense heat. Another Ankor, I should post the day of so I can remember the names. A lot of these temples were damaged and put back together. Not all of them are all put back together. This was "stepping inside the picture" for me. A place where the trees took over the walls. This is the year of the monkey. (Even if it's the year of the dog for the Chinese) This baby monkey was totally adorable in every way. A monkey with a mohawk! There were plenty of friendly ones at Ankgor Bayon, where these other pictures are. (We went there twice. Get the 3 day pass, I'm telling you it's so worth it). It wasn't creepy, it was interesting. And it brought o...

We travel like crazy. As in chaotic and sporadic. As in, on a wing and a prayer. We decided to take a trip, to make some more memories, to see some more of the world. We looked at different countries and many options. The information stream and the appealing options were multiplying every day. I finally told Ron to pick a place. To surprise me. He picked Southeast Asia. I had previously said Malaysia looked good, and he picked the part of Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Tickets bought, and we were leaving in 3 weeks! And we were staying for 3 months! We arrived on the island of Borneo (planned to stay there for 4 weeks), and after the first week we decided to go to the island of Java next, Indonesia. We bought those tickets and booked that hotel. We planned for 10 days. Once we arrived, we started talking seriously about where to go next. We wanted to go to Cambodia, and it required a layover in Kuala Lumpur. So we said: hey, how about a 6 day layover? We bought those tickets and...

Travel can be a magical kind of adventure to strange and new places. People like me take dozens of pictures to find the best ones for sharing with friends and family. Keep the magic alive, right? Oh my, look at that ancient ruin. Look at that centuries old temple. Look at me, posing on some steps. But to be fair, it’s not all fun and games. If you want to see the temples in person, be prepared to be overwhelmed by history and heat. The heat even more so than the history. Finally I said to my husband: take a picture of what it’s really like! Take a picture of me sitting here with my purse, my umbrella, my hand fan, and my whatever else. Feeling like I’m sitting on a frying pan, not with the cheesy smile for all the Good Shots. Feeling like I would give my kingdom for an ice cold lemonade and a chair in the shade. Travel can be a delightful wonder of new foods to try. Every curry dish is a little bit different, and it’s fantastic. Back home there were few surprises. Cook th...

Last night in Kuala Lumpur. I love this city. I could live here. June 5 th , 2018 Day 6 in Kuala. Day 1 in Sihanoukville. Last day in Malaysia. First day in Cambodia. (June 6th on my official calendar. Sometimes it's a challenge for me to try and orientate myself to certain standards of time and space. You know what I mean? Sometimes I question why it must be 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, but the days of the month are arbitrary, and a year is 365 of these days, but not cleanly divided by 73, or 5) The next morning this guy who brought us from the airport, took us back. He was so friendly. He told us that when we went to visit my friend the day before, we were a short distance from the sea shore. If only we had known. Such a friendly guy, he invited us to breakfast. That just doesn’t happen in the U.S. We went through the middle steps of The Process of flying internationally. We had already explored ideas. Done some research. Bought plane tickets and the hotel. Packed...

                            This image was everywhere. An original sultan, or something? Borobudur is outstanding! If you get a chance, go there! And dress up for some perfect photo op moments.                         This is not my picture, but it shows most of the Prambanan complex.       Crazy streets in Yogyakarta. There are more mopeds than cars. This is one part of a parking lot.                       They call this the water castle. It was very interesting. I think it cost us $3 to go in. Both Prambanan and Borobudur temples were covered with carved stone. I am not sure if this example is from the Hindu temples, or the Buddhist one. But it's all awfully incredible. Flying over the island of Java to Kuala Lumpur, there w...

Batu cave is actually I think 5 (or 6?) caves in the same area. I need a new word for this place, this day. How about stupefying! When you get off the train you don't have to walk very far. This is the first interesting thing that catches your eye. See the monk at the bottom of the statue? Big statue, but a bigger one is around the corner. We were too hot and tired to explore this part of the place on the way back. Walk a hundred feet or so and turn the corner and you see this! Directly behind it is a waterfall as you walk the stairs. A picture from Dark Cave. They told us about the centipedes and then we saw one. It was bigger than I had imagined. Totally creep factor. We saw spiders, a rat, and 2 of these guys. And the bats were just starting to wake up and screech. I loved it. This picture below is when you climb the stairs, catch your breath, and walk through a huge cave. Then there are these other stairs that you see here, which go into a partia...