enough procrastinating, time to get down to business...

Cambodia was amazing, heartbreaking, and beautiful. I spent my last morning in Pnomh Penh at the Tuol Sleng museum, a former highschool that had been turned into a prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. I was glad to have gotten there right after it opened early in the morning, as i had the entire place to myself, and was able to take it all in bit by bit. I didn't understand a lot of what had happened before coming, and have done some reading about the genocide while travelling, but the pictures, artifacts, and being right there, really affected me. it is so important to remember.
i had hired a motorbike guy to take me to the museum, and then out to the killing fields, where there is a memorial set up on the site where the mass graves had been found. it was a fairly long and dusty ride out of town, but so much more fun zipping along on the back of a motorbike as opposed to a hot sweaty bus. it was on this little trip that i realised that for all intents and purposes moto drivers only use helmets to keep the dust out of their eyes...they have absolutely nothing to do with safety

i left Pnomh Penh that afternoon and headed down on the bus to meet Kris and James (who had left the previous afternoon) and other friends we'd met in Laos down on the beaches in Sihanoukville. We spent a couple days there, catching up, dancing on the beach and randomly ending up one night at a very bizarre Cambodian (not toursity) Karaoke disco (that's another story for another time) After a day of pouring rain (for being the dry season...we've managed to run into a fair amount of rain...global warming?)we caught the ferry to the border, and then mini-bus back to Bangkok.

we'd been having a lot of trouble figuring out how to get down to Malaysia to James uncles' house on Penang (flight tickets didn't go through, train was sold out...20 hour bus just didn't seem too appealing!)...so, the end result was James and Kris taking off the next day via bus, and me flying down a couple days later. They're travelling on to India after I head home, so I decided that my time was worth more than money (the flight was still very inexpensive) and decided to stick around Bangkok for a couple days before flying down to meet them.

I had a great time (mostly hanging out with the Ultimate Nate...to ease the minds of those of you who've warned me about wandering strange foreign cities alone ;))...took the river-taxi to chinatown, stumbled upon one of the pro-prime-minster rallies... (if you've been keeping up on your Thai news...there's been a lot of protest around corrupt activities that have come to light), fed some dirty ol' pigeons in the park (it was pretty fun, a little bit gross...i washed really well afterwards), hung out at a super-popular, super-little blues bar...overall it was a pretty packed couple of days, and i was happy i'd decided to stick around.

i was even MORE glad, when i finally got to Penang (Malaysia) and heard about what a horrible bus trip James and Kristi endured to get here...leaky air-conditioner, rain, rude passengers, border hassles...for almost 24 hours. I tried not to be too obviously pleased about my super smooth one and half hour flight.

so, now I'm in Penang, at James' Uncle's home on the hill, over looking the water, with the mountains in the background. pretty spectacular. Although it was initially a tough decision to replace Vietnam with Malaysia (it would have been too rushed to visit Vietnam this time around...next trip)...i'm certainly not complaining now, as these few days have provided rest to our travellers' bodies and wallets. James' cousin Michael had his 15th birthday, and it was nice to be a part of that family celebration, the Trifecta (us) provided drinks and dinner for our hosts. They're really great people, and we've been taking full advantage of all the free food, internet, and jacuzzi - that's right...jacuzzi :)

so, i think that finally catches us up. we'll be leaving here early Saturday morning...making our way back up into Thailand, and to the southern Islands of Koh Samui and Koh Pa Naan, hopefully meeting up with some folks we've met here and friends from back home, as a nice little treat before I get shipped off back home and the rest of my team heads to India.

Much love to you all!
sun