It’s kind of boring here in Bangkok. I’ve been here since Sunday (today is Tue) and I’ve got one more night here before I leave for Cambodia. After Myanmar I wanted to take some time to just get myself “centered” before heading out again. The last couple of days I’ve been walking around the city, going to different districts and retracing some of the places that I went to two years ago. The city is large and the streets are really difficult to distinguish from one another, so I’ve probably spent an equal amount of time just being lost as I have been going to any particular place. No worries though, lost can be a great way to find new things.

I’ve been planning my trip to Angkor Wat and the more time I spend reading up about the journey, the more nervous I become. It seems every article about the says it is the worst places that tourists get ripped off. They talk about people being dropped off miles from nowhere, taken to hotels that they didn’t want to be taken to, and other stories about bribes having to be paid, and being lied to about where to get a visa. I think I’ll be okay, mainly because I’m older, male, and I have a pretty good idea of how the process should work. Who knows though, those words could come back to haunt me, and my next entry will be how I had to walk 30 miles with both packs on to the next bus station. Really though, if I get ripped off a little it’s not that much of a concern, and it certainly won’t be the first time, or even the last that it happens.

I’m thinking after Angkor Wat, or Siem Reap (the city next to Angkor Wat) I’ll head to Phnom Penh for a few days. I’m interested in seeing what the city is like and learning more about the killing fields. I can still remember bits and pieces from the news back in the seventies, so it will be good to see it in person.

Other than that I’ve scheduled another tour to Singapore. The last tour was so much fun I thought that I might as well do it again, and this one was a good fit, time-wise. I leave July 23 from Bangkok, and end in Singapore Aug 6. That leaves me almost two weeks for Cambodia. After the tour is finished there are few options that I’m starting to plan. Right now the most likely is going to be Singapore to Jakarta to Hong Kong to Taiwan to Philippines. I don’t know for sure though what I’ll be doing, just thinking that those cities or countries are doable. I really want to see Hong Kong and Taiwan this trip, so I’m pretty sure I’m going there.

About the only thing of interest that has happened to me is that I was walking along a canal when I saw a head above the water cruising along. I wasn’t really sure what it was, but my first thought was that it was a snake, and a big snake by the size of the head. I stopped to take a photo of it as it kind of bumped up against the wall. Just then a rat started running away, it then stopped and ran back to where it started. Stupid rat, it was then eaten. During this part I still didn’t know what kind of animal it was, but eventually I did see legs, so it was a big lizard.