After Songkran I came down with a cold but that didn't stop me from enjoying my adventure home.  Mom came out to join me for my trip to Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. 

We started our adventure in Siem Reap, Cambodia where we wanted to see Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century and is a series of temples which are dedicated to a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism.  We started at Angkor Thom, the main temple, and walked around for a couple hours.  Then we went to Bayon, which has about 200 large faces decorating the towers.  Our final stop was Ta Phrom, which was my favorite temple (and I'm pretty sure it was mom's too).  Ta Phrom has been left pretty much un-restored, there are a bunch of trees growing through and over the buildings.  It was a perfect end to out Angkor trip.

Walking into Ankor Thom

On the way to Bayon

One of the faces of Bayon

Ta Prohm

We had two more days left in Siam Reap so we spent the second day shopping and visiting an artisan village.  For our last day we decided to have a spa day at the hotel, mostly because we wanted to be pampered and lazy.

Our driver in Siem Reap.  He was a blast

Sunrise from our balcony

To get to Phnom Penh we took the 'express' bus, which was supposed to take 5-6 hours.  Somehow our bus wound up being the local bus, which ment it stopped about a million times.  We also had the joy of the bus breaking down and delaying us for an hour while we waited for a new bus.  The icing on the bus ride cake was that for the last hour or so we went 'off-roading' down a dirt road.  It took us 10 hours to get to Phnom Penh!

We only had two days in Phnom Penh, which was enough for us to do what we wanted.  On our first day we went out to the killing fields.  It was surreal...and chilling.    It was also surprising to learn and see that they are still finding clothing and bones from the victims even today.

 

Clothing still half buried

 

On our last day we decided that we needed a happy day so we went to the Royal Palace/Silver Pagoda.  The palace was very nice but it reminded me a lot of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, which I think is more interesting.  We spent 2 hours walking around before we went back to the hotel to pack.  Then we were off to the airport to head off to Vietnam.

The Royal Palace

 

The Silver Pagoda

 

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After my week at the elephant camp I headed back to Chiang Mai to celebrate my 3rd Songkran :D  I love the Thai New Year/Water War.  Overnight the city transforms from super peaceful and relaxing into an insane water throwing extravaganza.  From around 10am until 7 or 8pm it's a non-stop no holds barred water war!  There is so much water being thrown around that the streets literally turn into rivers.  It's a great festival that went on for 4 days this year, and there were a number of awesome people walking around in costumes this year.

(Note: I was going to put the pictures in some sort of order but after fighting with the new blogger set up for about an hour I'm too tired/frustrated and honestly don't really care anymore.  Enjoy the pics from this year! )

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