This is just a tiny section of the carvings on the wall that surrounds Angkor Wat. There are over 2400 feet of them, it is truly mind blowing. This section shows people being judged and going to either heaven or hell. This is a scene from hell where the demons inflict torture on people. The figures are a shiny black from millions of fingers touching them over the centuries.

Outside of the major temples are tons of food stalls and souveneir (sp?) stands. Manning all of these are tons and tons of children. And they are renlentless in their sales tactics. First they ask you if you want to buy "cold drink." From there it quickly progresses to bracelets, 10 postcards for $2-which quickly drops to$1, scarves, books, flutes, mouth harps, etc. After many no's from me, they ask where you are from. Giving the answer, they proceed to tell you your state's capital city, population, name of the president, ending with "now you buy!" After a "no," they'll ask you the captial of Madagascar. I told them I didn't know, and they told me "Because you not know, you buy!" I eventually caved and bought some bracelets from one of the little girls. Within 5 seconds of the money exchange, a different little girl who was trying to sell me things earlier came running over saying, ÿou told me no, and now you buy from her!" all the while i'm sitting there eating my fried noodles. after a while, i got them talking about school and their families and they chilled out on the sales pitches. the little boy on the left gave his farewell to me like this. "Bye bye, nice to meet you. I go home now and my mom kill me cause you no buy." They even wanted to charge me for taking their photo.

The sun winks goodbye behind a large veil of haze. And I am ready for a shower.

One, a beautiful fully functioning Canon g10...the other, a very sexy paperweight.

So after having myself and my camera dumped into the gulf of thailand, i had to wait almost 2 weeks to get back to bangkok to shop for a new one. Unfortunately for me, my model is no longer in stock in camera shops because the newer model, the g11, came out 6 months ago. As i was narrowing down my search for the cheapest g11, i came across a nice little shop that had a g10 for sale on consignment. Instead of paying $600 for the g11, i scored with a gently used g10 for half the price. Bingo!

The following few pics are from Koh Tao. This is a lovely little island in the gulf of thailand. We ended up meeting up with some of Tara's friends from the yoga retreat she was on back in Chang Rai. We then had 5 gorgeous days of getting ceritified for open-water scuba diving and riding a quad all over the island...mostly on sandy rocky narrow "roads." More of these pics and pics from the next island, Ko Lanta, when i can get them from tara's camera as mine wasn't feeling well from too much salt water and sand ingestion.

Ahh...sunrise at the Chumpron pier. Very soon after I took this, we boarded the ferry for the final leg of the journey to Koh Tao, a 1.5 hr ride. Cake after the 9 hour bus!

This is one of the coolest things that are made in Thailand. I believe it is called a con-fi. Spelled phonetically...It is a 2.5 ft radius metal ring, with 3 to 4 feet of tissue paper attached. Running radially to the center are 3 metal wires with a flammable paper-like material suspended in the middle. They basically operate on the same priniciple as hot air balloons. What you are seeing here is stage 1. The lighting of the fuel. You are also seeing my sexy shorts. First pair i've purchased probably in 15 years.