Monday 16 February 2015

Tucson, AZ

I'm still working on editing the close to 2000 photos I shot during the trip, almost all with my new camera.  I had an accident with the old one (Canon 35X optical zoom) on my second day in Hong Kong.  With not enough time to have it fixed, I was able to purchase a newer model (with 60X optical zoom) at a very good price. 

Saturday 7 February 2105

Siem Reap, Cambodia

I have arranged two tours today:  first a four-hour tour this morning to Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia; then after a good afternoon nap, a three-hour Street Food Tasting Tour in the markets of Siem Reap.

The morning begins, like it did yesterday, with a brief tuk-tuk ride to meet the other tourists and board a bus.  But today there are only four other folk, including three from yesterday's tour.  So instead of a bus, we all just stay in our tuk-tuks (I get to ride with the tour guide) for the trip to the lake and return.  The first 20 minutes are bumpy but not too uncomfortable, since we are on a paved national road until our first stop:  a roadside stand selling snacks--beetles, grasshoppers, moth larvae, and other Cambodian favorites. Even with the proper etiquette instructions from our guide, I simply forgo the treats on offer.  The four other travellers, much younger and braver than I, sample and seem to enjoy what they taste.  

Cambodian Snack Food

  

My Personal Tuk-Tuk

After this stop, we return to the tuk-tuks for an hour's ride on unpaved dirt roads, riddled with potholes and other obsturctions.  Rather than a mild massage while travelling, this is an all-out teeth-rattling, butt-crushing, head-banging journey.  Did I mention that it is also very scenic:  rice fields, farm houses, water buffalo and other local animals.  That is, it is scenic whenever I have the courage to open my eyes. When we reach the boat landing, I ask the tour guide if we are going back on a different route (at least hoping), but, indeed, we have to return on the same route on the same tuk-tuks.  At least the driver is good, trying to miss some of the bumps, and even losing his helmet in the process.

After this, the 30-minute ride on a small wooden motor boat is kind of anti-climatic.  But the breezes are cool and the water smooth.  We stop at a shop in a small village composed of stilt-houses rising out of the water.  Because this is the dry season, the water in the lake is at its lowest ebb and smallest volume; it practically doubles in size during the wet season (June-November).

I enjoy lunch in the quiet of the hotel restaurant, since I will be out on the streets for dinner, followed by a nap before being picked up in another tuk-tuk at 6pm for the Street Food Tour.  But that will have to wait for the next extry.