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
To this in less than 96 hours
From massive glaciated mountains
To a city with 7 million people within its limits.
And we were as white as you could be
While there we made sure to learn about the culture though we couldn’t understand the Language they spoke.
Checked out the Jungles of Vietnam
A few temples
Got my hands dirty designing a product with Eddie Bauer
and we even saw a horse painted like a zebra
I even saw the most elaborate wedding in my life, the Vietnamese know how to put on a show.
Congratulations John and Becky
After that I was on a plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Where I was told I had to check out this place called 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.
and checked out one Temple that had been overgrown for centuries.
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.
After an hour another group found out and joined me and were kind enough to take this picture
Things were cheap and food was descent, for example I received this fish massage and a beer for 2 US Dollars
Then I was off to Bangkok, Thailand for 5 days.
Where I saw hundreds of temples
Even saw a miniature version of Angkor Watt
and I purchased a 10 ft tall picture of the King
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.
I tried to check out the temples
and tried to take in the culture.
It was cool to see what they did with the land.
My final day in SE Asia we climbed Baltur volcano and watched the sunrise over the Bali Sea.
And before I knew it I was back on a plane heading towards a winter in 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?