Author: Tim

Graduate of the accounting school at the University of Georgia and now a real estate investor and agent. I have loved to travel since I was a kid and have dreamed of traveling full-time since then.

Crater Lake National Park

We were on the fence on which route we should take through Oregon.  Last time we came through on our way to Seattle we took the coastal route up US 1. We ultimately decided to go up through the middle of Oregon via highway 97 because we really wanted to see Crater Lake and Mount Hood. The drive was so gorgeous passing through Ponderosa pine forests with large snow capped mountains in the background.

Mount Shasta

We decided to camp at Hagelstein County Park in Klamath Falls.  The location was convenient being right off 97 and within an hour of Crater Lake National Park. Hagelstein park is large enough to fit any size rig and fairly nice as far as a park right off a highway can be. Unfortunately the spigot for water was turned off, for whatever reason. Instead you were supposed to use a fresh water spring. So unless you have a water pump system or like using water jugs to fill you tanks with somewhat questionable water, be sure to bring your own water. Good thing we always do. The park was big enough for twelve or probably even more large rigs but there were mostly tent campers and car campers. The best spot faces the pond.  It was entertaining to watch the local marmot go about his work building a nest and ducks digging head first for food. It always makes me chuckle to watch them with their butts in the air and legs kicking while they dig with their beaks underwater.

We got up the next day and drove 45 minutes to Crater Lake National Park, which was absolutely stunning. Because there was so much snow, the north and east side of the park was closed. What was nice was they had it plowed 6 miles of road of the west rim, past discovery point.  The didn’t allow cars, only hikers. So with huge snow banks on each side we got to walk to several scenic overlooks of the crater. It’s not just the crater but the surrounding mountains that really make it something special. We could even see Mt Shasta from there. Bikes really would have been the way to go but we had both of ours stolen in different parts of California over the past year unfortunately, cable cut and all. Homelessness and bike theft is a huge problem in all of California and meth is a serious problem in Modesto.  Bikes are like candy to them.

Crater Lake was formed when a volcano, the highest in Oregon at the time, exploded several thousand feet of it’s top off. The little island called Wizard island in the lake was formed later from much more subdued volcanic activity. The water is purportedly the cleanest and clearest in the world with 140 ft of visibility, that would be nice for diving. This is because the only water added to the lake is from each years snow melt. There are no rivers running into the lake. The lake maintains it’s level by seepage out of the mountain. This also happens to be one of the snowiest areas in the world, receiving 12 or 13 ft of snow a year regularly.

We went ahead and purchased an America The Beautiful Pass for $80 rather than pay the $25 to get into a mostly closed park. This pass allows you to enter pretty much any national land for free for a year including national parks, national forests, national monuments, etc. You also receive half price camping at certain nationally owned parks (which we happened to use at our next spot). For anyone who visits any national owned land regularly it’s a great value.

Zygi and Mama

Next spot, camping in the middle of nowhere southwest of Bend on a stunning boondocking spot.

  • Author: Tim
  • Editor: Victoria
  • Photographer: Victoria

Camping on the Beach at Shasta Lake

Our first boondocking spot was Beehive Point on the beautiful Lake Shasta in Northern California. I found the spot using The Days End Directory which list thousands of free or cheap camping spots, it’s awesome and only costs $10. Unfortunately you have to be a member of Escapees to purchase it, which cost $40. It’s a club for full timers but I’ve never used it for anything but the directory.

The beach is massive (even thought the water level was high!) and you can park any size rig on it.  It’s not very flat though (look at my jacks). However, there are also a couple spots more in the woods if you prefer some shade. The only problem with the area is at the campground entrance. The road is severely damaged with huge washout potholes. On the way in we hit it the wrong way and which caused many cabinets to purge their contents. Thankfully no damage was done and we would totally do it again.  From May 15 to September 15th you pay $10 a night in one of those “iron rangers”. Luckily they hadn’t put it out yet the first night so we got the first night free.

Another awesome shot Victoria took

The area is absolutely beautiful and only 3 miles off I-5. The lake is surrounded on all sides by mountains and apparently the fishing is really good. We saw a ton of bass boats. Another vessel popular to the area are house boats.  It’s like an RV on the lake. It’s been awhile since we’ve been camping so maybe this is recency bias but I thought it was one of the best spots we’ve ever camped at. We were literally a 100 ft or so from the lake.

When we first arrived it was beautiful but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse after that. It got chilly and there was a bit of rain. Our first day it was overcast so we decided to go for a hike. There is a look out tower at the top of Sugarloaf mountain which Victoria thought would be a 3 mile out and back based on the cheesy map the ranger gave us. Unfortunately it’s more like 10 miles out and back so unless you can hike 20 miles in a day or plan to backpack, you’re not going to make it to the top (which we didn’t, lol). Since there’s a cellular tower up there, the road was in decent shape(anything with a bit of clearance could make it.) The road is Forest Road 35N06 and if you just want to do some hiking and get a nice view of the lake there is a place to park once you drive a little past the few houses along the road.

I finally got to test out the Deuter Kid Comfort 2 I purchased used from the Backpackinglight.com forum I’m a member of.  I paid $125 (full price brand new  is $250).  Zygi seems to like it just as much as the front carrier but it has a real backpack suspension to transfer the weight to your hips as he’s a growing boy 🙂 I also ordered the sun and rain roof that goes with it for an additional $30. It helps keep him shaded, dry, or warm depending on the conditions. I’d like to get him some more “outdoors” clothing but they don’t have much of a selection at most places for a baby.

Zygi loves his new carrier

The next day we were more lucky and it was sunny and warm. We got in the lake but I wouldn’t call it swimming, we actually just wanted to wash off. The water is way too cold for two people from Savannah…We wanted to stay longer but with the weekend encroaching Victoria decided we should move on.

Next up Crater Lake, Oregon. Until then, “Buh Bye!”

Marilyn enjoying the sun

We’re headed to Alaska (+1 This Time)

I’m sure many of you probably thought we were done traveling, in fact we’re just getting started. In fact the entire time Victoria was pregnant people said “Oh you’ll be settling down now” and I thought, “You don’t know us obviously.” Victoria finished her nursing assignment a few days ago.  I was the stay at home dad/business owner.  Now I’m excited to say we are finally going to take that road trip to Alaska we’ve been talking about. I’m so glad to be on the road again, we haven’t been traveling since we went to Ecuador when Victoria was just pregnant. We’re eager to get back on the road and Victoria is happy she will be able to spend more time with Zygi while he is still a baby.

If you want to know what routes we are taking, so do we. We’ll be traveling the same way we always do. Just a general idea of where were headed, Anchorage and Fairbanks, and the next place or two that we’ll be stopping. We already bought the Milepost and will be reading it along the way. We usually drive a couple hours, 3 to 5 hours and then spend 3 to four days there. We plan to spend four months on the trip two there, two back. We’re not sure where we’ll be going when we get back but we’ve been thinking about Reno. The first place we’ll be stopping is Lake Shasta where we’ll be boondocking right on the lake for $10 a night.

Other than that any of you that aren’t friends with us on Facebook I’m going to post some pictures of Zygi and the places we’ve been Pacifica and some places around Modesto(uh…). We’ll be posting every couple days during the trip just like we always have while traveling. If you have any suggestions on where we should go or what we should see, please comment.

Our Next Adventure

Well, Victoria has just finished another contract and you all know what that means, time for our next adventure. This time our adventure is going to be just a tad different, we’re having our first child! A boy due on September 9th we’ll be calling him Timothy Zygmunt Czarkowski. The Timothy of course comes from my father and me. Zygmunt was the name of my polish grandfather who I unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet. Plus Timothy Zygmunt Czarkowski is as Polish as it gets, it rolls right off the tongue, lol.

So, as so many have asked, is this the end of TotalTravelers.com? Are you selling your RV, moving back into your home, and settling down? Absolutely not. As I write this I’m on the flight back to Savannah so we can be with family when Victoria gives birth. We’ll then spend another month or two in Savannah before heading back out to California to pick up the truck and fifth wheel.

From there we won’t know exactly where we’ll be headed but somewhere warm in the southwest is the plan, maybe Palm Springs or even better Tucson where my grandparents live.

We are also planning on going to Alaska next summer with baby in tow. We will take two months to drive there, work a two or three month assignment, and then take another two months to get back south before winter hits again. That’s the plan anyways… we’ll see what happens, lol.

So you probably won’t hear too much from us till we begin our Alaskan adventure. However I do plan to write a few posts about living full-time in a RV with an infant. It’s going to be a challenge for sure! Please wish us the best of luck.

Canoa – Beach Bumming :)

After Puerto López it was time to continue up the coast. In my head I imagined a bus that just rolls up and down the coast stopping at all the coastal towns, unfortunately that’s not how things work. We first had to catch a bus inland to Jipijapa and from there we caught a “direct” bus to Canoa. I put that in quotation marks because in reality they threw us off at their office in Santa Elena and then paid for us to take the local bus the rest of the way. Altogether it cost about $8pp and took around 4 hours. If you had a car you could get there in about 2.

As soon as we hopped off the bus a friendly local flagged us down and showed us his beach front Hostal Atardecer for $15 a night we got a private room and bath and flat screen TV but no AC. The view from the balcony was enough to convince me but Victoria wanted to check out another place. The other place was even cheaper but without the awesome view so that was an easy choice. With the sea breezes going without AC wasn’t too bad, but we are from Savannah, GA and 90 degrees with 90% is the usual 😉 I’d highly recommend the place, the only problem we had was someone nibbled on our groceries the first night we were there.


Canoa was very close to the epicenter of the earthquake here in Ecuador last April and there is still plenty of signs of it, destroyed buildings, construction, and closed businesses. I think that may have scared off some of the tourists which for me was great. It’s a great laid back beach town with only dirt roads.

It’s also great place to practice/learn to surf as it has a consistent beach break that’s not too big or too small. So if course the one day we had to rent a board(10/day) and give it a go. Victoria had no trouble standing up in the surf but wore out her knees by going from knees to standing rather than straight up. After a few hours of trying I was finally able to catch waves before they broke. Unfortunately at that point I was completely exhausted so after catching a couple I had to call it a day.

Canoa was one of my favorite towns in Ecuador. I love the mountains but nothing beats a cheap shack on a nice beach in a laid back town as far as I’m concerned. I’d put it up there with the Corn Islands in Nicaragua, Los Zacatitos in Baja California, Koh Rong in Cambodia, or Railey Beach in Thailand, my personal list of favorite beach towns.

Well that’s the end of our trip in Ecuador 🙁 I’m planning on writing a little guide/summary of Ecuador next….. hopefully it’ll happen this time unlike my article about Koh Rong, Cambodia, lol.

Salinas, EC – Time to Hit the Coast

After Vilcabamba it was finally time to hit the coast and get some sun. Unfortunately there is no direct way to the coast. We caught a 45 minute shared taxi ride to Loja for $2 pp and then caught the 8hr 10:00 direct bus to Guayaquil for $12. The Guayaquil bus station was amazing, it’s three floors, has a shopping mall and grocery store, and was as busy as the Atlanta airport. There were literally hundreds of busses, the largest bus station I’ve ever seen. Guayaquil is a port town and doesn’t have a whole lot going on for tourists other than a nice malecón from what I heard, plus a lot of areas there are known to be dangerous and a good place to get robbed. After our long bus trip we decided to get a hotel for the night and head out to the coast in the morning. You can’t catch a bus straight to Salinas, instead you must go to Santa Elena and then catch the local bus into Salinas. All that was quite easy and cost about $4 a person.

Our first impression of Salinas was underwhelming, we had to wade across the flooded street to our beach front hostel. Then when we got to the hostel(Chescos) they were in the middle of sledgehammering walls down, which would continue every day from 8 to 5. They then showed us to our room which looked absolutely nothing like what the were advertising, plus it smelled. At this point we would have usually just left to check out another place but for whatever reason we decided to book in advance this time, which we almost never do. So…we were stuck. We got them to switch us to another room that was larger but still nothing like what we reserved, it was clean and didn’t smell at least, unfortunately that night it started to leak like a sieve from the ceiling and we had to switch rooms again. This one was decent too but we didn’t have any hot water and of course the wi-fi worked nowhere except for the lobby. Needless to say I don’t recommend the place. Their only saving grace was porch with a beautiful view looking directly out on the beach and a location central to town.

The next day we decided to go check out “La Chocolatera” the most western point of mainland Ecuador. To get there you can catch a bus to the naval base and then take a taxi the rest of the way. The point itself is incredibly beautiful and there is a trail up to an overlook where you can see the town on one side and the point on the other. There are some very nice clean tiled restrooms at the overlook, unfortunately some local teenagers decided the woman’s bathroom would be their “love shack” and were quite loud about it. So Victoria used the men’s bathroom, this drew the attention of the park rangers who checked it out and all came back cracking up. I’m sure they got a standing ovation when they finally came out, lol. There is also another mile long path that takes you to another point where there are lobos del mar(sea lions) hanging out. It was a great walk altogether and I’d highly recommended it but make sure you bring plenty of water. If the sun is out, it’s blazing hot. On the way back we just had to flag down one of the taxis dropping other people off, it cost $1.50.

The next day we decided it would be a beach day and after hanging out on the porch and having breakfast and conversation with some cool Canadians(punctuated by sledgehammering or course) we rented some chairs and an umbrella($4 for the day). The touts were out in full force as they seem to be at any popular beach in the world. Despite that it was very nice and the water was a perfect 85 degrees or so, warm enough to swim as long as you like but not so warm that you feel like you’re still sweating in the water.

There is an abundance of seafood restaurants on the strip and every one we ate at was delicious. The cost of food here was 50 to 100% more expensive than elsewhere so it was nice our hostel had a full kitchen(even if you had to dodge painters to use it).

This was obviously a popular weekend choice for Guayaquileans so we were looking forward to heading to a smaller, less touristy coastal town, up next Puerto López!

Cuenca – The Other Ecuadorean Colonial City

After Tena it was time to head back into the the Andes to the colonial town of Cuenca. The locals claim it has the charm of Quito but cleaner with less traffic and better weather and honestly I’m inclined to agree with them. To get there from Tena was a bit of an affair as there are no direct busses to Cuenca from Tena, you have to connect somewhere. As we wanted to spend the night at the layover spot we choose to return to Baños over Ambato as it sounded like the more attractive option and we knew a good place to stay right next to the bus station and you can get direct busses from either town. The ticket from Tena was $5 pp this time and then it was another $8 for the direct bus from Baños. There were several busses from Baños to Cuenca so it would be possible to do it in one day but you’re looking at anywhere from 9 to 12 hours on busses (usually without a bathroom, those Vietnamese busses seem so charming now…). Both bus rides offer stunning scenery but the on from Baños to Cuenca was particularly so. That way if you’re not into cheesy Mexican or Bollywood productions you have something to look at (I myself find them entertaining to make fun of).

It’s very possible to find a decent private room for just over $20 but Victoria decided this was the time to splurge. We ended up at the Siena Hotel for exactly $40 including taxes. For that we got what I would class it as a four star hotel right in the heart of the old town. A taxi from the bus station costs anywhere from $1.50 to $2 and traffic can be heavy at times.

The best thing to do in Cuenca is really to just wander around the old town. There are beautiful historic buildings everywhere and the central square is stunning. The Riverwalk is also very nice and borders the old town and if you stay on the old town side you don’t have to breath any exhaust(not much anyways…).

There are also a number of museums to visit, we choose the Museo del Banco Central which is exactly what it sounds like The Central Bank of Ecuador Museum. There was of course an exhibit on the history of Ecuadorian money from prehistoric times up till they moved to the dollar. In addition to this they also display modern art and archeological findings. Out back was the best part though, there are the huge ruins of an old Incan City along with beautiful gardens and a menagerie. My personal favorite though as a general cheap skate was that it was all entirely free. After coming from South East Asia where they charge you for pretty much every attraction it’s been great that here in Ecuador most sights are either free or very cheap.

An interesting fact that most people won’t be aware of is that the “Panama hat” was actually an Ecuadorian invention with Cuenca as the heart of the production. The “Panama hat” got it’s name because FDR was seen wearing one while viewing the Panama canal and they became fashionable after that. Now if this was Asia they would have been selling them on every corner but that wasn’t the case, they were only sold in fancy stores meant for tourists as far as I could tell. We ended up both getting hats for around $50 and they were even able to roll them up and put them in a box for easy transit. $50 is a fortune here but they are high quality and hand made, although I’m sure with further research they could be found cheaper.

One last thing anyone should do while in Cuenca is to check out the Mercado Municipal for lunch. There are all kinds of delicious food and drinks severed here extremely cheaply. We had to try some of the whole roasted pig of course and it was just as delicious as it sounds. A portion big enough for two can be had for $3 to $4. We also tried a bowl of chicken noodle soup for the extravagant cost of $0.75. To finish it all off we had a mora(blackberry) shake for a $1. It was a solid 30 Oz and I’m sure would have cost $7 in the States.

Victoria and I both agreed that Cuenca was one of the few towns we’ve visited that would could see spending an extended amount of time in. The architecture is beautiful, the old town is great for wandering around, the food was good, the weather fair, and most important of all…the hotel and mobile internet we’re both great. Plus you could drink the tap water here, a first for me outside the country. After a visiting the two big Andean towns of Quito and Cuenca our next stop was going to be the small town of Vilcabamba with a population of only 4800 but a popular spot with both expats and tourists for it’s stunning mountain scenary.

Baños (de Agua Santa) An Andean Mountain Town

After the capital city it was time to head to the great outdoors in the little town of Baños in the Andes Mountains. We caught the local trolley bus from Old town to the bus station for $0.25 each rather than a taxi for $15 and would recommend it. From the there we caught the bus to Baños which took around 3 hours after all of the stopping to pick up and drop off random people. After the underhanded compliments in the Lonely Planet: Ecuador I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the town. They said the mountain scenery was spectacular but that the town was basically a concrete block tourist trap. I personally found it quite charming if a little touristy, but with the tourism comes easy cheap tours, accommodations, and a healthy variety of food to choose from.

We stayed at Hostal:Nomada and I would highly recommend it. It ended up costing $24 a night after taxes and included a flat screen tv, private bath, access to a kitchen, and free tea, coffee, and water. The hosts were friendly but only spoke spanish. We met people from all over Europe but I’m not sure that we ran into another American there(It’s interesting listening to French, Italian, and German people all speaking Spanish). I will also say that there seemed to be an abundance of Italians having a good time on both Tuesday and Saturday night and that the walls seem paper thin making it rather annoying to sleep(We’re old folks these days, at least I am).

First up on the tourist hit list was Casa del Arbol, a place where a number of award winning pictures have been taken, one of which Victoria saw on a Facebook group and had been dying to see ever since. It’s about 40 minutes outside of Baños and there are numerous ways to get there: bike, hike, bus, tour, or taxi. The first two are only for masocists, it’s about 15 miles…all up hill. You can catch a taxi there and back for around $20 or catch the local bus for a $1 each way. That was an easy decsion, we took the bus. If you really want to hike or bike I would suggest what we did, take the bus up and then hike or bike back. After the 40 minute ride up through the stunning mountain scenery you arrive at Casa del Arbol and after a short walk and wait your turn to get your once in a lifetime pictures. It was only $1 to get in and in addition to the swings they had the tree house(of course) , some ziplines, and a few other photo oppourtunites. We saw some people with bikes when we got up there and thought it would be a good idea to rent them. Unfortunately they only rent them in Baños and you have to bring them up with you. We settled with walking down which took about two and a half hours and was a great way to get away from everyone, we only saw a couple other people the entire way other than the few cars and buses headed to Casa del Arbol. After walking for a ways on the road you can hit a trail at Bellavista that runs straight into town. It was a great hike with stunning views of the town and valley. We both felt pretty tired afterwards and I couldn’t imagine if we had tried to hike or bike up it.

The next day it was time for some whitewater rafting which we hadn’t done since our maiden journey out to Washington. The Pastaza river is divided into two sections, the upper and the lower, and the guides decided the day of where you are going based on rainfall the night before. The upper has rapids up to 4+ when the conditions are right(they were:) and the lower has class 3 rapids. The company provided everything including lunch and wetsuits. Unfortunately the wetsuits are only overalls and it was raining and of course being up in the mountains the water is quite cold and with class 4 rapids, you get soaked(plus…..we’re southerners). We ended up wearing our rain coats and we’re warm enough while our boat mates looked a bit chill. It was a short(1 hour) but exhilarating ride and for $30 was an absolute steal. It also included all the pictures and videos from the saftey kayaker which was a nice change from the States where they gouge you for them. Be sure to check with your hotel/hostel, some people got deals where it was only $25. Another tip for those not familiar with rafting, try to get in the smallest boat, with the fewest people, and ride in the front for the best ride 😉 Also be sure to check out the rest of the videos and pictures from the rafting at the bottom of the article.

The next day even though we were sore we decided to rent bikes and ride the Ruta de la Cascadas(The waterfall route) which is basically just the road to Puyos, a town in the Amazon basin. It’s mostly downhill and then you can catch the local bus or truck back. Most people stop in Rio Verde but it is possible to ride all the way to Puyos. The route is aptly named, it seems like everytime you look up there is another huge amazing waterfall. The is also plenty of opptunites to hike, zipline, bridge jump, or ride cable cars across the gorge on the way. We passed on everything but a bit of hiking at Palion del Diablo (Devil’s Cauldron) and some hiking and swimming below a waterfall at Machay. That was about 15 miles and took most of the day with a nice lunch break towards the end. I got some delicious heart clogging fried pork called Fritada that I’d highly recommend trying and Victoria had some refreshing fresh lime and strawberry juice. I’d recommend doing it on a weekday as there was a lot of traffic on Saturday.

We had grand plans of going to one of the local hotsprings afterwards but again were too tired and just wanted to relax. Unfortunately the next day Victoria woke up with some stomach issues(It couldn’t have been the food as we both ate the same things and I felt fine) so we sat around and watched TV. The next day she felt better but was still weak from not being able to eat anything, so we stayed another night. Then finally she was feeling better so we hoped a bus to the Amazonian town of Tena.

 

Our Next Adventure – Ecuador!

So Victoria officially has finished another assignment and you all know what that means, it’s time to hit the road again. We originally had planned to outfit my Montero as an “expedition vehicle”  with a roof top tent and refrigerator and all that and then drive it across the US and then all the way down Baja again. Only this time we were going to leave it there and fly back to the fifth wheel and then after her next assignment we’d fly down, pick it up, and head into mainland Mexico via the ferry and continue south. Then we’d rinse and repeat down through Central America and then maybe put it on a boat and tour South America too. Unfortunately these grandiose plans were interrupted when shortly after we decided all this Hurricane Matthew hit the east coast and dropped a tree on my Montero I had been storing at my parents home in Savannah, Ga.

We briefly considered buying another truck and a cheap camper as a replacement but ultimately decided we didn’t feel like dealing with all that(Maybe next time?). So instead we just looked to Kayak.com to see where we could fly cheaply. We’d been to Asia recently so Victoria scrapped Indonesia, we considered Spain and Greece but it’s winter there too (and we’re tired of the cold already), and then we saw Ecuador. It’s the same time zone as the east coast so that’s convenient, they speak spanish and so do I now, it’s on the equator so it’s always warm(Ecuador means equator in spanish), it seemed perfect .

Most people I’ve told don’t seem to know where Ecuador even is. It is a small country in South America on the Pacific coast in between Colombia and Peru. For a small country it has a huge variety in landscapes from the colonial towns of Quito(the second highest capital in the world) and Cuenca, to the Andes mountains, the Amazon rainforest, the Pacific coast, cloud forests, and the world famous Galapagos Islands(we won’t be visiting them as it would cost as much as the rest of the trip combined!).

We’ll be traveling for a little over five weeks and that should give us enough time to view a good part of the country. We’ll be backpacking as usual and getting around mostly by bus. As usual we’ve made zero reservations other than we’ll be flying into Quito on the 6th of January and back out on the 14th of February. We will be making a reservations at some point for our first night in Quito but other than that we’ll be winging it. We have a general plan to hit spend a few nights in Quito, head down into the Amazon, travel down the spine of the Andes, cut over to the coast and work our way back up, and then back to Quito and home. Something like below.

First we’re headed home for the holidays for two weeks. I had to get something up as we were interviewed by a friend of mine for a podcast called “Breaking The Chains”(I’ll post a link when it goes live) about people who live a bit outside the norms(us?) and I didn’t want any new visitors to think we’re too morbid with the first post being about the tragedy of Pol Pot’s rule in Cambodia. Stay tuned, I might even get around to posting about Koh Rong, the last place we went in Cambodia and an absolutely stunning island.

The mighty temples of Angkor Wat – Siem Reap, Cambodia

We flew Laos Air and were very happy with the service and snacks, certainly better than a short haul flight in the States. Both airports were tiny but the visa and immigration for both leaving Laos and entering Cambodia was very efficient.

The town of Siem Reap reminded me of Khoa San Road in Bangkok, Thailand, packed with drunken tourists, touts, and people trying to sell you drugs or prostitutes in the street (a first since Thailand years ago,though still not as open and prevalent as in Thailand where it is defacto legal. There is certainly prostitution in Vietnam and Laos but it is very hush-hush as I didn’t hear a word of it). I suppose in a country rife with corruption and a flood of tourists all over the world to the town to visit the temples this kind of crap is inevitable. Needless to say, we had nothing to do with it. We were here to see temples dammit!

The next day we arranged for an all day tuktuk ride around the short loop($15) which includes the most famous temples. We bought only a one day pass($20) although they sell three day and seven day passes also(there are dozens and dozens of temples in the surrounding area). I like beautiful temples as much as the next guy but a full day of them is more than enough for me, plus Victoria’s knee was still sore so one day was all she could take. I should also mention that the USD is the defacto currency in Cambodia, everything is paid in it even the atms spit it out. The only thing the riel is used for is for change less than a dollar because there are no US coins. It’s a strange system but stems from a fear of money caused by the horrible rule of Pol Pot (more about that nut bag in the next post).

What follows is just a listing of the few temples we were able to see and a short description of each (followed of course by our photos), there is so much written about these temples that there is no way a short summary can do them justice. The first temple we visited was Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious building and a place that regularly competes with the likes of Machu Pinch and Petra as the eight wonder of the world. From there we passed into the city of Angkor Thom which is surrounded by a 8 meter high wall that is 12 km square, which is then surrounded by a 100m wide moat. It is estimated at it’s height the city held 1 million inhabitants, the most populous city of the 13th century! Within Angkor Thom is Bayon,  which is famous for it’s 54 towers decorated with 216 enormous smiling heads. From there we headed to Ta Prohm, where all those stunning pictures of a dilapidated temple overgrown by the ever encroaching jungle are taken(They actually now maintain the trees and temple to halt any further deterioration). In addition to these we also saw Ta Keo, Ta Nei, Preah Khan, and some other small temples. That was plenty for my temple fix but there are dozens and dozens more in the surrounding area, enough that some see very few visitors each day.

After seeing the highest of highs the Khmers reached with Angkor Wat it was time to move on to Phenom Phen and see and hear about the lowest of lows under the rule of the Khmer Rouge.