You can’t. Suck it up.

Back in the US, motorbikes and scooters are only used as transportation for 1-2 people. But it seems like people in Southeast Asia have realized more of their full potential.

So, what can you put on a motorbike?

A family of 3 and all their groceries,

several bicycles,

A whole bunch of pillows and blankets,

And yes, even a family of five. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you’re not overly concerned with things like safety!

We’ve seen ancient ruins in Mexico, Peru, and China - but there’s just something about the temples at Angkor. It’s a photographer’s paradise, and we could have easily spent weeks exploring it all.

Here are some of the highlights:

Angkor Wat

Probably the most popular, this site was under construction when we visited and the main temple was closed, but it was still cool.

All the intricate carvings and little details were amazing

and some of the carvings had curious wear patterns:

Angkor Thom

A huge, sprawling complex that appears to have been rebuilt stone by stone, like a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle.

We saw elephants here, both in stone and in real life.

Ta Prohm

The famous “Tomb Raider” temple, and one of the most photogenic sites, was a favorite.

Banteay Sreay

A smaller site with intricate carvings, dubbed “The Lady Temple” because it’s made from pinkish sandstone.

Beng Mealea

This way-out-of-the-way site was probably our favorite. Unlike the others, you’re allowed to crawl over nearly every inch of this ruined temple complex, summoning your inner Tomb Raider.

The kids loved it - so did we!

There’s lots more photos on our Flickr page, so be sure to check them out.

Or better yet, come see this place for yourself - it’s worth the trip!

We’ve encountered our share of street vendors and other hustlers in various parts of the world, but they’ve mostly been adults. In Cambodia, hustling tourists seems to be the primary activity for kids, too.

Some of them try to work the sympathy angle, while others have more sophisticated tactics. Nearly all of them speak surprisingly good English. These kids are pretty well-versed in American trivia, too.

Here’s how a typical interaction goes:

Kid: “Hello, Mister, you want postcard? (or guidebook, or bracelet, or whatever)
Me: (smiling politely) “No, thank you!”
Kid: “Excuse me, where you from?”
Me: “the United States”
Kid: “Where?”
Me: “America”
Kid: “Oh, America! Capital is Washington, DC. Largest State is Alaska. Largest City New York. What state you from?”
Me: “Texas”
Kid: “Texas? Capital of Texas….(long pause)….Your President’s name Obama. He has 2 daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama. His wife name Michelle Obama. You buy postcard?”
Me: “no thanks!”
Kid: “You know what the population of America is?”
Me: “No.”
Kid: “303 million, 824 thousand, 640 minus 4. You know why minus 4?”
Me: “umm….”
Kid: “Because you 4 are here! You buy postcard now? I give you good price…”
Me: “I already have enough postcards”
Kid: “These are different. Have a look…One dollar for all.”
Me: “I don’t need any more postcards, thanks.”
Kid: “I have bracelet, too. You buy for your daughters…”
Me: “I’m sorry…”
(suddenly another tourist couple walks by.)
Kid: (to other tourists) “Hey Mister, where you from? Australia? Capital is Sydney…”
(I make hasty exit)

It’s amusing, annoying, and uncomfortable. You’ll be mobbed by half a dozen of these “vendors” before your tuk-tuk even stops at a temple - and they’ll be waiting for you when you come back out, too. They’re all selling the exact same crap, and there’s at least 7 of them for every tourist.

After a few days it stopped bothering me so much. Although the cynic in me wants to believe it’s all an act, deep down I know that most of these kids are just trying to feed themselves and their families.

I try to help out every now and then, especially when the kid is selling something I actually need or want, like a cold drink or central air conditioning - but there’s only so much you can buy. Within 2 days I already had all the postcards & bracelets I wanted.

But the temples and ruins of Angkor are well worth enduring these throngs of budding capitalists, as you’ll see in the next couple of posts.

I didn’t do my homework on this place - about all I knew was it had some cool temples and we needed malaria pills. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be one of the highlights of our trip! But apparently Cambodia is full of surprises.

The first surprise came at the ATM, which gave out US Dollars! I’d almost forgotten what they looked like. And since everything here is priced in dollars, I got  a 1-week holiday from currency conversions. Sweet!

The next surprise: Cambodia had the best pizza we tasted on the trip. Really, it was great - and not just because cannabis is available as a topping, either. (”Happy Herb” - get it?)

We tried some of the local cuisine here, too. On our first day we bought some snails of this guy’s bike on Pub Street.

Even Hannah had a go:

They weren’t that great, so we decided to pass on the roadside crickets.

We ate in restaurants, too - one of our favorites was the Dead Fish Tower, a funky multilevel place with eclectic decor.

I was intrigued by the warning to the right of the restroom sign:

Why so dangerous? Because it’s on the other side of the crocodile pit, that’s why!

They weren’t very active, until the girls threw them a few dead fish.

Then they got animated!

We decided to splurge here and got 2 rooms at the Kool Hotel - one for Danielle & I, one for the girls. It was nice to be able to spread out again, and we enjoyed the pool, too.

After a few days, we were delighted to be joined again by our new friends the Perrys, and a Swedish family taking the long way back from South Africa. Hannah & Olivia’s room became party central for the 7 kids.

The preferred mode of transportation here is the tuk-tuk, and it’s not the same as the Bangkok version - more like a carriage pulled behind a motorbike.

Pictured with the girls here is Mr. Savin, who became our official driver for the whole week, taking us almost everywhere we went (for about the price of one round-trip cab ride in Tahiti).

But as much as we enjoyed our hotel and the city itself, the real attractions here are the famous temples - and they really were awesome. Stay tuned…

Hey everyone!

Mom & Dad are finally letting me write my own blog posts, so here’s something I like to call “Hannah’s Haikus”:

Full Moon Festival

sailing by moonlight
watching lanterns floating by
it feels magical

Dinner

what’s this on my plate?
I’m organ intolerant
and not hungry now.

more to come…

for some reason, this tour desk in Phuket didn’t seem to be getting much business.

I wish we had come here sooner - Ao Nang Beach at Krabi was sooo much better than Phuket!

The trash-free beach was much more beautiful, with calmer waves. We found a great, affordable resort called Ao Nang Orchid, with awesome views and a great pool, too.

But our favorite place to hang out was at the end of the beach, where a collection of massage huts offer their customers free shaded chairs, water toys and fresh fruit.

Our official hangout was hut #10.

The massages were great, only slightly more expensive than those in Bangkok, and they were so nice to Hannah & Olivia.

I think the girls are starting to get too used to spa treatments!

The pretty bay is dotted with lots of other islands and beaches you can visit on boat trips, but we were just too comfortable to bother exploring them. Maybe next time…

The best part of our stay here was getting to spend some time with another traveling family from the States. Sean & Kathleen Perry also sold all their stuff and took off last February to travel through Southeast Asia with their kids, Canyon & Stella, who are the about the same age as Hannah & Olivia. You can find out more about them on their blog.

I know the girls enjoyed having an English-speaking playmate for once, and it was nice for us, too! And as it turned out, the Perrys were planning to visit Cambodia about the same time as we were!

I was really excited to visit the famous beaches of Phuket, to see how they compared to all those Caribbean beaches we’d seen last year. We arrived at the start of the rainy season, which I knew would be a trade-off: the weather and sea conditions might not be the best, but the hotel prices were half that of the high season.

But when we arrived at Kamala Beach, I wasn’t prepared for it to look like this:

Such a pity, this place would be absolutely amazing if it weren’t for all the trash. A lot of it seemed to be washing in from the ocean from who-knows-where, but the entire island seems to have no regard at all for waste disposal. I saw locals tossing trash all over the place.

Oh well, at least it was cheap and uncrowded, and it was nice to be out of the big cities for a change. We spent several days lounging around here enjoying the quiet and the tasty, cheap food.

Our first hotel was Deng’s Resort, a quiet place with good A/C, a pool and decent wifi - and it was the cheapest place we’ve stayed since Aguas Calientes.

Still, after a few days we were ready for a nicer environment, so I moved us to the much swankier Marriott Resort. If you can’t have a good beach, you might as well find a killer pool!

Eventually, we moved on, deciding to give Thailand beaches another chance in Krabi.

I’d like to think that all this traveling has made me a more savvy traveler, able to dodge the scams and tourist traps in all these places.

I’d be wrong, though.

In Bangkok, we fell prey to the one of the most well-known tourist scams in the city: we got kidnapped by a tuk-tuk driver.

Here’s how the scam works:

A guy approaches you on the street - OK, actually if you go anywhere near the Grand Palace hundreds of people will approach you. And by approach, I mean badger you to buy something. Or lie to you about the temples being closed today - whatever.

Some of these guys take a different approach, offering some tips on visiting the temples, and maybe suggesting a few “can’t-miss” places you weren’t planning to go. He then offers to negotiate a deal with one of the tuk-tuk drivers to take you to all the sights for a really low price.

If you get on the tuk-tuk, it’ll be the last thing you do that day.

OK, I’m exaggerating a bit. I knew about this scam in advance: the tuk-tuk driver will try to make a few side-trips to some shops along the way, for which he receives coupons for free gasoline. When I called these guys on that, they promised there would be only one shopping stop involved, and we wouldn’t have to buy anything.

But we were all kinda tired at that point, and I thought a little tuk-tuk ride would be fun (or at least interesting), so against my better judgement we went for the ride.

What a ride it was: the driver proceeded to take us everywhere but the temples and buddhas we wanted to see. Instead, we went to shop after shop, offering jewelry, art, suits and everything else we don’t need.

I thought about running, but had no idea where we we were. After the 3rd stop I started trying to bribe the driver to just take us back to the river dock, but he only seemed interested in the gas coupons.

He was awfully friendly about the whole thing, and seemed very happy with his stupid little pieces of paper. After an hour or two, he finally let us go - but by then the temples were starting to close.

We could’ve come back another day to see the sights we missed, but decided it wasn’t worth wading through all the scam artists and pushy vendors again.

In fact, we were starting to get a little tired of the city in general - time to head south and check out some of Thailand’s famous beaches!