IN LOVE!!!

Trip Start Jun 13, 2005
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Trip End Jul 27, 2005


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Friday, July 1, 2005

Last night we checkec into our new guest house, AMAZING!!! The people who run it are insanely kind... they even invited us to have dinner with them. Everyone here is so genuinely nice. Beth and i just spent our first full day exploring the Angkor temples here in Siem Riep. We hired a driver that we knew from our bus company for 10$ and he drove us to all of the far off temples, and around the big loop to get a general overview. We cruised around two temples on foot for a couple hours... i found myslelf completely lost in my thoughts. One of the temples, the furthest mountain temple, was completely deserted save for us, billions of butterflies (this would scare the crap out of my sister who is absolutely petrified of butterflies... like, thinks they have teeth or something), and two young monks. We climbed the insane steep steps to the top, and i just sort of found a spot and was happy to simply exist, i didnt feel the need to DO anything. What a pleasant feeling... the spirituality is so deeply enmeshed in this place that you can't help but let it wash over and through you. You dont need to be religious, or dogmatic, or place an overly simplified deffinition on something that inherently is undefinable. Eastern spirituality is really something that i connect with, not that i would ever make the lofty claim that i could lead a truly Bhuddist life... lets be honest here, but there is a certain sense of self and connection to something greater and larger than self that really makes sense to me on so many levels. Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
 I feel that an attempt to integrate the teachings of eastern spirituality into everyday life brings nothing but serenity to myself and, in turn, allows me to be the type of person who is adding possitively to a balanced sense of the world and with the people i interact with. Anywho, thats enough ranting for the moment, back to our adventures. Our driver drove us back to our guest house, and we walked to grab some pizza at Ecstacy Pizza, our favorite pizza joint, where we ate yesterday. They of course remembered us and were so excited to talk to us again. We just called home for the first time since the day we arrived in Bangkok, i think mom was rather happy to hear my voice... though the 30 second delay made the conversatin rather comical for the guy who's phone i was using to listen. He probably thought i was borderline short-bus... you know, slow-mo. Anywho, we are inside right now... waiting out the daily ran, monsoon season and all. And since we have 3 day passes we will rent bikes for the next two days and muck around on our own around the temples. We're also making plans to get down to Pnom Phen and on to Ho CHi Minh, Vietnam. At this point it seems riverboat will be our best option to Pnom Phen and then bus to Ho Chi Minh. Weve already got our visas, so all is well. It will be really difficult to tear myself away from this place though. We also went over our budget last night, were half way through our trip, and thus far have spent only $100 on lodging, and about the same or a bit less on food. So we are well within our budget, and hopefully will have the chance to splurge on some cool stuff when we get back to bangkok. On top of John, Berryl and Megan in China, my good friend and old RA Ameen just told me he's got a buddy in Singapore we might be able to meet up with, but were not sure if well have time/money for singapore, well have to wait and see. Ive also been informed by my mom that Murray (our new scruffy poogle puppy we got when i was out in Rancho Mirage), is being trained these next two weeks, mom and murray will be doing the canine therapy thing at hospitals... this makes me so happy! Ive got to run, but will update again shortly. Love to all!
lily
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nathanp
nathanp on Jul 1, 2005 at 02:11PM

More Inspiration
Reading your stories, I get butterflies in my belly. I see everything you are doing. the people, the colors, the steps. Oh the steps. I am still out of breath. The bus ride and the Elephants. I am seeing a movie in your future. Keep it coming, I need this vacation.


Nathan

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