I hunt tigers for their stripes

Nate just cut himself examining a sword. It was sitting in a rack among other swords, displayed along the road here in Luang Prabang. He tried to slide it out of the sheath and grabbed the blade with his fingers. I told him that that probably happens a lot to sword shoppers. You look like a real amateur walking out of a weapons shop dripping blood. But his obsession with weapons has been a continuing theme from northern China all the way down to here, today. First with the nun-chucks then with the swords.

But Nate what will you do with a sword?
What do you mean? Display it. Practice.
Like you would have weapons practice in your basement?
Yeah. And it would just be cool to display it. You know, in a rack.

Luang Prabang sits right on the Mekong River. The season is dry now so the river has dropped way down. We were just talking to booking agents about getting a boat west, to the Thai border. Actually, since the river has slowed the trip only takes two days. You take these long shallow boats that can’t draft more than a few inches and just kind of skim your way upstream. Should be pretty cool.

Oh and Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Happy greetings to all of our families. Nate and I will be sure to celebrate in some fashion. The climate here is not actually so far off from the northeast. During the day it actually does get pretty warm but at night its cold. Especially if you leave the windows open when your sleeping. I was almost as cold last night as when I fell asleep in Hanoi with the air conditioner on full and a sheet as my only protection.

Everyone gets horns except bikers

Phnom Penh is not exactly a jungle paradise. There are eight million people and four million motorbikes. I guess that means that someone could always give you a ride. Inversely, it seems that three of the four million are actually targeting me. Its hard to move without constant offers for motorbike? or tuk tuk? The best way to get around is by bike. You can just breeze past all the people trying to get you to buy something. Plus with a bike one can compete in the mad dash that is all the roads in the city.
During the middle of the day the streets and cafes are empty. Usually shop owners are sleeping in their hammocks and the sidewalks quiet. It doesn’t seem like the city is as big or as loud as people warned. But as soon as the sun starts to set and the temperature drops the street side restaurants, bars, and coffee spots all fill up. This is followed by a few hours of intense socializing, phone calling, and general moving of motorbikes. And it seems everyone is home snug in their mosquito nets by midnight. But dang these people get up early. With so few hours of tolerable heat you really gotta get after it while you can.
The Cambodian government has really put a lot of money into the road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Despite the excellent blacktop a bus ride still takes six hours to cover the two hundred kilometers. Siem Reap though is very nice. Lots of tropical trees, little monkeys, and delicious fruit. I think I had today what was probably the most delicious mango ever grown. Pretty lucky purchase really.
Every time you move to a new country there is always that awkward few days where you are fumbling like a blind person through the new currency. Of course the conversion factor is always a nice comfortable round number like 17,000. And especially here in Cambodia they go to extra lengths by only writing the denomination in little print on one corner.

I continue to sweat more than all of Vietnam combined

We have finally made our way to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city and let me say it's HOT as balls. I am pretty sure I have not stopped sweating for the last 34 hrs since arriving in this city. I am still waiting for my body to adjust to the climate...but for some reason I don't think its going to happen. For the previous five nights Pete and I were in the city of Mui Ne, which is a smaller city of about 80,000 that is located right on the ocean, and might have been my favorite place thus far. We found a great hotel for 12$ a night that was literally on the water! Our hotel was smashed between a few 4 star hotels these of course were a bit out of our price range, but we had no problem enjoying their luxeries such as their pools! Many tourist come here for the great kiteboarding, which can be found just about everywhere. It was a bit tempting to give it a shot, but we both decided to save our money and put it towards a diving certificate in Thailand. After waking up to rain on the 5th day we decided it was about time to move on south.

Besides Saigon being immensely hot, its a great place. It feels a bit more relaxed then other large cities in Asia. Yesterday we went to the War Reminents Museum, and I had very mixed feelings towards it. Firstly, it had photos of mostly American things taken by Americans. Don't get me wrong the photos were terrific, but the whole presentation of the exhibts seemed a bit off. It seemed like a real mish mash of different ideas and themes. They did make sure to show how Americans screwed up here, and that was also evident once more when we attended the CuChi tunnels today. These tunnels was where many Vietcong hid during the war. They showed us two different holes one in which the Vietcong actually used, then another for tourist to go through. This is required due to the slight size differential between the Vietnamese and us.

So recently we have acquired a new friend from London who has been traveling with us for the last week or so. Her name is Manmeet and she is terrific! She has added much to our conversations even though at times she finds only herself talking, especially in the early morning after a night of drinking. She has slowly learned not to take offense when we do not participate in these conversations! It has been great to have a new face to spice things up! We will have to part ways soon because she needs to meet back up with her friend in Laos, while Peter and I will continue to Cambodia then up to Laos a bit later.

While in Nha Trang we picked up a new hobbie: conconut hunting. We first must search the beach for the lowest tree, then I usually will stand with my back against the tree while Pete uses my hands for a boost and stands on my shoulders attempting to tear down as many before he comes down with them. We were also taught by a local boy how to properly tear open one of these nuts using just a stone. A very useful skill for later in life I am sure! We also celebrated Holloween in Nha Trang, and I would like to say that we both had wonderful costumes. I bicked my head with a razor and was Mr. Clean (Mr. Muscle according to the English), and Pete had his face painted as a ferocious "Tiger". It was great fun until the facepaint found its way to both of our clothes which we didn't discover until the next morning.


We are off to Cambodia in a few days and maybe I'll stop sweating by then...