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Travel overload...

I think today was the longest travel day in my personal experience - I am now in my hostel in Siem Reap after 30 hours of straight traveling, done on 3 hours of sleep. Complete mind fog.

The entire trip was really easy otherwise. Cathay Pacific had impressive economy seats and in spite of being trapped by a window I enjoyed it overall. It was weird flying so far north that day turned to night, then back south into day.

Some of the views were amazing too - check out some of the pictures of Greenland and Siberia, they make DC snowpocalypse look tame.

Hong Kong was unfortunately shrouded in mist, but it was cool to see the HUGE new airport - last time I flew into HK I remember flying between and lower than the downtown skyscrapers.

Siem Reap is intense. I got a ride on the back of a scooter to an ATM and my hostel, it was wicked! We even took some crazy back alleys on the way, to the point where I was open to the possibility of a setup.  All turned out well and my driver Sapo is going to hook me up with a sunset to sunrise tour on Tuesday.

Random thoughts:

Lots of foreigners here, especially Norwegians.

Women wearing dresses and riding on the back of scooters side saddle is hot. Good luck getting your typical American girl to do that!

The hostel is not bad! We'll see how I hold up without AC, it is WARM compared to DC.

Tomorrow I sleep in and start the exploration!

(written 2/14 @ 9:30PM via droid, all photos via droid)


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