David and Lili's World Tour

THAILAND and CAMBODIA

September 2014 - Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Thailand

Arriving from Indonesia, we only spent two nights in Malaysia, and we took zero photos. Of course Malaysia offers much of interest, but we were in a hurry to meet our friend Embe to embark on a much bigger adventure...

We stopped at Rai Leh in southern Thailand for a few days (amazing scenery!), met Embe in Bangkok, then we went straight to Cambodia. This was not our big adventure, but we just love the ancient temples of Angkor, so this was a worthy detour. Ten years ago, visiting Angkor seemed like an adventure (with bad roads and land mines, but no ATM machines and no tuk-tuks), but now the town of Siem Reap feels like Disneyland. For many Khmer people, all this development means increased prosperity, and they seem happier than ever. For us however, the increased tourism means crowded temples with roped-off areas where we used to explore freely in peace and quiet. The trick is to avoid these crowds (by bicycle) to enjoy Angkor's amazing works of art and engineering, crumbling relics from a time when humanity's grandest monuments were built not for banks, but for magical spirits. We bicycled almost 200 kilometers. We also befriended lovely Cambodians.

Back to Thailand (but not for long)... We stopped only at Sukothai, Thailand's first capital and another great archaeological site. Our big adventure starts now! ... We plan to cross the border from Myanmar overland into India, a border that just recently opened after being closed since World War Two. Stay tuned... We love Thailand, but we are excited to get on to Myanmar and India...

Regarding the recent military coup d'état in Thailand, everything seems normal (mostly). The people are still smiling (mostly), but we get a sense that something is not quite right, maybe because their economic boom has slowed to a crawl, maybe because the population explosion has created too many people, maybe because unbearably hot places are getting even hotter, and maybe because they are angry that their military threw out their elected government. It's hard to say, but the Thai food is still the best in the region, and the Thai religion (Buddhism) still promotes a positive and peaceful attitude.

Cambodia:

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