Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An was our next stop on our on off bus ticket. The city is best known for its' picturesque Old City and for the millions of tailor shops around. All three of us spent some time getting suites and shirts hand tailored here for a fraction of what it would cost back home. Unfortunately we have no pictures of that whole process but take it from me we look damn good.



We ran into Jenny and Mere again here and went out on the town a couple of nights good times.

After the first bar we went to closed we went to a after hours bar called King Kong where a pathetic game of team pool was played.

Walking home with the sun coming up provided some good photo opts.
Deep in thought.

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang was a brief two day stop on our bus journey north. The beach located in the heart of the city was quite nice although weather wise we didn't luck out to much.




The one temple we visited during our brief time in Nha Trang was Long Son Pagoda and it did not disappoint. This gold Buddha and the two other large Buddha statues located were it's main attraction and pretty cool to see.







Our room bath tub provided an excellent place for me to wash all my clothes at once. The water was too hot to touch by hand and yes that is a flagpole. Traveling really makes you apprciate washing machines.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

We all arrived safe and sound in Vietnam with know problems whatsoever. Ho Chi Minh previously known as Saigon was our first stop. We mainly used the city to help plan the rest of Vietnam and get some much needed R&R but we got out and some things as well. Cu Chi tunnels which are located about an hour drive outside of the city was probably the most interesting thing to see around Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam war these tunnels were part of a much larger network that covered much of the country used by NFL guerrillas to resist American front. This is one of the entrances to the tunnel system. As you can see it's Vietnamese size.
Mark had know problem squeezing due to lack of proper nutrients on this trip.

Paul was able to squeeze in everything except his head which may or may not have a direct correlation to how dark his tan has gotten on the trip.

I didn't even attempt which i think was a wise move. I blame Mac's genes and steak.
You really wouldn't want to step on that.
Or that

Or let this swing into you.
The tunnels themselves were just like you would expect small and dark.
Mark?
We also ran in Jenny and Mere again in Ho Chi Min and went out for a few bevies at a bar called Apocalypse Now. Good times for sure.
This guy was an ex pat that was creeping on Jenny and Mere and was difficult to shake. He did however buy a couple rounds for the group. Way to take one for the team girls. Eventually he got the hint.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived in Phnom Penh circa 3:00 and headed straight to the Vietnamese embassy to score some visas. It was here that we met Jennet and Meredith. Throughout the next few posts you will come to know and love them, or feel indifferent towards them, either way. Sticking with our goal of branching out to new cultures, these two hail all the way from eastern Toronto. The land where what we know as "Bloor St." becomes "The Danforth". We decided to booze as a collective that night. I invited out my good pal Brendan MacDonald who happened to be in the neighbourhood. He brought his acquaintance Mike Boynton. They also brought their personal hire tuk-tuk driver Joe (likely not his birthname, he's vietnamese). Boozing was fun.
To introduce the characters, from left to right: Mere, Boynton, mr.cole, Jenny, Brendo.
Our guesthouse was on the edge of a lake/marsh.
View from the guesthouse restaurant.
The next day we went to check out a couple of sites related to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was a communist army that took over Cambodia by force in 1975. They forced all people living in cities to move to the country. The idea was to establish an economy based on an absurd amount of rice exports. Many men, women and children, accused of objecting to the movement were tortured and killed. The people carrying out the killings were often doing so out of fear for their own safety from the ruling party. Roughly 1/3 of the country's population (or 1.5 million) were murdered under the Khmer Rouge rule. In 1979 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. The people of Cambodia are recovering and trying to move on. We visited 2 sites: Tuol Sleng and the killing fields. Tuol Sleng was a detention and torture center and has now become a museum detailing various aspects of the Khmer Rouge rule.

Taken when the army moved into Phnom Penh.

Taken when the army was expelling city dwellers to the country.
They have erected a monument in memory of those murdered at the killing fields.
Inside are stacks upon stacks of just some of the hundreds of skulls of bodies dug up from the surrounding fields.
One of many mass grave sites. This one held 450 victims.

M

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

After Bangkok we hopped on a bus and head for a city in Cambodia called Siem Reap. Just outside of this city the Angkor ruins can be found. The ruins initially constructed in the early 12Th century by King Suryavarman II and were definitely one of the highlights for Cambodia. One of the really nice things about visiting the ruins here is that you able to climb around and walk through the various sites more so than allot of other ruins visited.

Not really sure how trees are able to grow at top ruins like this but they seemed to be everywhere which we all thought was pretty cool.


This ruin known as Bayon is probably one of the most famous within Angkor. Apparently the faces are of the King Jayavarman VII represented as Bodhisattva (translated as Wisdom-Being).

We didn't manage to take a picture of it but i think we ran into a couple doing the Amazing Race here. We'll have to check out the next season but the couple was being followed by a camera man and they had to find a specific face in the ruins. I did my best to make a cameo between this and Bollywood I am really getting my face out there.

Bangkok, Thailand

T and I flew and Paul bused into Bangkok. Having splurged an extra $40 on the flight, T and I decided to save $2 going with a cheaper hostel that night. It all balances out. Our place was on KhoaSan Rd, seen below.
With a day sans Paul, T and I decided to cruise around the Bangkok black markets. The first market turned out to be 3 blocks worth of women's clothes and fabrics. Not looking to join the Lady-boy movement, we pushed on. We headed east towards MBK, the knock-off clothing mall, hoping to hit a restaurant on the way. 4 hours later, we'd seen a massive golden buddha statue, and had yet to cross a restaurant when we hit MBK. Apparently the restaurants were congregated here. We bought some T-shirts and polos. I checked out the watches.. still haven't found the one. Boozed a bit that night. Met some lovely young local ladies, with surprisingly deep voices and firm hand-shakes. They insisted we join them in their hotel room, for some fun partying, but we were exhausted so we hit the sac.

Paul rejoined the crew the next morning. We hit the malls again the next day for some more clothes and to pick up an external hard drive to replace our previous, faltering picture storage unit (a.k.a. "Steve"). We were able to load our Ipods with flicks from one DVD stand. With that, the expected number of books I'll read fell by 80%. We hoped on a bus the next morn to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat.
M

Rai Lay, Thailand

A ferry and a longtail boat ride got us to Railay. No land access, not unlike our cottages, that's just how we roll. We got off the longtail onto the beach and decided to chill with the sunset before finding lodging.
little disc in the fading light.
It just so happened there was a 3-day festival/competition for fire-dancing and rock climbing. extreme combo. Lots of RedBull fans. The night time fire-dancing shows were inclusive with live music and food on the beach.
chillin.
The show.



Post booze shenanigans.
The next day we rented some 2 man kayaks, it was team building exercise. Unfortunately there were 5 of us. T got cut from the team.
Our kayaking venture took us to a beach with some caves. Some bigger caves, some smaller. Some filled with penis statues and some not.

That night the festival was back on. This time on the adjacent beach, separated by a treacherous scramble across rocks both slippery and jagged.. another extreme combo. we like to keep it extreme. well not really, but we try.

Following morn we put our discs to use with some Frolf along the beach. This event was made possible by Mary Young and Marieke Scholz. Marieke Scholz - picking up Mark's slack since 2006.

There's a lot of canadians in south east asia. Good representation from lawrence park too. That night we ran into about 7 from the LP area who we partied with. Just trying to branch out.

M