SE Asia in 500 words

Since this is a website based on snowboarding not traveling (though I am more than happy to accept funding) I’m going to keep this story short. My brother was getting married in Vietnam Mid June and I was going to New Zealand mid July so I decided to do a few layovers to see what SE Asia was like as I would probably never have the chance again. So enjoy Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.

I went from this
Climbing Sahale

To this in less than 96 hours
A sea of Mopeds

From massive glaciated mountains
The Mowich Face of Rainier from 14,000 feet

To a city with 7 million people within its limits.
Ho Chi Mihn City

And we were as white as you could be
I don't stick out

Scandinavian Gringos

While there we made sure to learn about the culture though we couldn’t understand the Language they spoke.

What are they saying?

Checked out the Jungles of Vietnam

I've been to Nam

Go ahead and drink the water

Yep the coat is waterproof

A few temples
The first of many

Got my hands dirty designing a product with Eddie Bauer

Stoked on the new pack we designed for 2016

and we even saw a horse painted like a zebra

Wait........that's not a zebra

I even saw the most elaborate wedding in my life, the Vietnamese know how to put on a show.

Complete with explosions

Congratulations John and Becky

Not a word!

After that I was on a plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Welcome to Cambodia

Where I was told I had to check out this place called Angkor Watt
My first view of Angkor Watt

It turns out it was built in the year 1200 and was abandoned by 1500 and though the main complex was built in only 30 years it is the biggest religious structure in the world.

Angkor Watt Complex

It's a pretty wild place

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Not to many mountains around here

Stunning

and checked out one Temple that had been overgrown for centuries.

I think I saw this place in Tomb Raider

There's a tree going throught your building

Yep Tomb Raider

But the highlight of Cambodia was the fact that I learned I could bribe the guards with money and Cigarettes and get into the main upper temple two hours before the main public, I did this all 3 days I was there.

Everyone has a price

I have a feeling this is about to be awesome

Sunrise

Alpenglow?

Only the holiest of places to myself

After an hour another group found out and joined me and were kind enough to take this picture

Shameless Promo

Angkor

Things were cheap and food was descent, for example I received this fish massage and a beer for 2 US Dollars

Fish Massage? Seems legit

Then I was off to Bangkok, Thailand for 5 days.

Bangkok at night

Bangkok

Where I saw hundreds of temples

Temple Number 1

Temple 2

Temple ?

Temple ?

Temple ?

Temple ?

Even saw a miniature version of Angkor Watt

Angkor Watt????

and I purchased a 10 ft tall picture of the King
WTF

Then I was off to Bali, Indonesia to visit my Good friends Avalon and Chris and to meet Chris’s girlfriend Jennifer. This was the first time in many years that I had put my feet in warm sand.

This is what warm sand fills like?

I tried to check out the temples

Temple to Starbucks

and tried to take in the culture.

Stories are better when you can understand what they are saying

It was cool to see what they did with the land.

Rice patties

My final day in SE Asia we climbed Baltur volcano and watched the sunrise over the Bali Sea.

Sunrise over Baltur and Angung

The shadow of a volcano

Steaming volcano

And before I knew it I was back on a plane heading towards a winter in New Zealand.

NEW ZEALAND!!!!!

The trip to SE Asia really showed me how spaced out we really are and how fortunate we are to have good drinking water. I also noticed that the people in Cambodia smiled a lot and everyone was happy, maybe just maybe money doesn’t buy happiness?