Full Circle

We're back in Jakarta after a fun couple of weeks on the road in Cambodia and Thailand with a friend from Jakarta. We flew into Bangkok and then made a big clockwise loop by land through Cambodia and back up to Bangkok.

Tourism in Cambodia has really taken off. It was quite a contrast to when I was there 10 years ago and had the place to myself. It was Chinese New Year, so it was even busier than usual, making hotel rooms hard to come by and tourist attracting overrun. We watched the sun set from one of the temples at Angkor with probably 1000 other tourists all clamoring for the best spot.

We spent a couple of days around Angkor seeing the temples and taking a full-day Khmer cooking class, which was great. Then we headed to Phnom Penh, where we wandered around the markets, rode bikes to the Killing Fields and visited the museum that is housed in a former Khmer Rouge prison.

From there we checked out the southern beaches of Sihanoukville, which were surprisingly nice. We spent a few mindless days on the beach and also took a day-trip to a nearby island. It was a nice relaxing few days before heading back to Bangkok for the big frisbee tournament that was the reason for the trip in the first place.

The tournament was a lot of fun. It was a 'hat' tournament, meaning teams were picked by pulling names from a hat (or a virtual hat, in this case). There were 250 players from all over Asia. My team was made up of Malaysian, Chinese and Singaporean nationals, plus expat Dutch, Brits, Canadians and Americans living all over the place. It was a great bunch and we had a lot of fun, going 4-2 and losing in the quarter-finals.

So.... you might be wondering what's next for us. Us too. We've got some job possibilities that we're looking into here in Jakarta and may well end up staying for another year. We're staying with friends for a week or two while we contemplate our future. Will keep you up to date...

Lots of photos on our photo page at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/ThailandCambodia