Jackie wanted to rent a motorcycle, and I said okay, but I have standards that need to be upheld. I'll only agree to rent a motorcycle if it's very powerful and comes with a classy helmet. I have an image to protect. We were stopped twice by the local police, who attempted to extort me for cash. I pretended I didn't understand both times. Eventually both of them got frustrated and decided it wasn't worth their time. I've been a victim of attempted extortion in Southeast Asia enough times to know you just have to be stubborn and obstructive enough that the guy will move on to easier prey.

Feral dogs need love too.

This was a common occurence. We always had to be on the lookout for cows, pigs, dogs, ducks, chickens, small children, large children, mid-sized children, and cats.

It was very hot.

A small village near Pakse.

The whole time I was standing there what I really wanted was to get down there and swim in the pool at the bottom.

10.5

We met an interesting group of people and hung out with them for awhile. As we were sitting near the waterfalls drinking a beer a couple of elephants randomly wandered up for a drink of water. One of them tried to take my shirt, but Jackie proved to be stronger than the elephant.

Several ladies competed vocally with each other to get us to buy their weavings.

This is the most infamous of the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The monks pictured eat one meal a day, and are standing in line to receive their daily donation of a portion of rice. Behind them is a memorial to the millions of Cambodians killed under Pol Pot's regime; it contains skulls and other bones stacked all the way to the roof.

I thought this lady had an interesting face.

A testament to the horror that was the fate of between 2–3 million Cambodians at the hands of their own leaders.

This is the prison S-21. We walked through almost every single room, where there were extremely graphic photos depicting the most unspeakable acts a person can commit against another person.

There's Jackie walking around the grounds.

This was the level of detail everywhere. Angkor Wat alone contains an unimaginable amount of stone and artistry, but considering all the other temples, cities, and other complexes built by the same Khmer empire, it's impossible to imagine the amount of labor and skill involved in their construction and maintenance.

We both got nasty cases of food poisoning that messed us up for about 5 days. I had the honor of barfing on the largest temple in the world.

After Phnom Penh we took the 7-hour bus to Siem Reap, home of Angkor. We decided to get up at 4am to be at the temple of Angkor Wat for the dual purpose of getting the good morning light, and to avoid the crowds. I was rather discouraged when we were confronted with this scene. But it turns out that everyone wanted to get shots of the temple with the sun rising behind it, but no one apparently thought it worthwhile to go to the far side and capture the light actually falling on the temple.

It was nice light. And no tourists. Two of my favorite things!

Jackie putting her best face on things.

This is Angkor Thom, an ancient Khmer city a couple of kilometers from Angkor Wat.

Jackie bought a hat to protect her shoulders from getting sunburned. Probably should have tried it on first. — with Jackie Jones.

One of the things that made Angkor so visually interesting to me was the seamless integration of things made by man with things that were made by God.

This is Ta Prohm, famous for the large trees growing directly through the ruins. In the beginning the trees helped bolster the inegrity of the stone structures, but over the centuries the trees became their downfall by forcing roots through small crevasses in the stone and eventually reducing them to rubble.

There are many other sites to see at Angkor, but we were still suffering from food poisoning, and try as we might we couldn't muster up the will to explore further. We'd budgeted 5 days in Siem Reap, but we essentially laid around for three of those days. Here's Jackie putting her best foot forward again.

As far as traffic goes, ANYTHING goes in Southeast Asia.

We flew from Siem Reap back to Laos. We rented another motorbike in Luang Prabang and decided to visit some rather famous waterfalls about 30km away. In the jungle I found this amazing spider.

Kuang Si falls.

This is Pub Street in Siem Reap, home of pints of beer that cost $.50. The unspeakable tragedy is that because I was still sick I wasn't able to drink any of it. Instead I watched from the sidelines as other people drank all my 50-cent beer.

These are some of the views between Luang Prabang, Laos, and Vang Vieng, Laos.

One of the things I'd been looking forward to the most about this trip was the supposedly amazing drive from Luang Prabang, Laos, to Vang Vieng, Laos, which took about 6 hours. You can ride a bus for pretty cheap, but I knew there would be scenes I'd want to photograph, so we hired a driver to take us (still relatively cheap). The drive was not disappointing. This bathroom at a rest area along the way was very considerately designed, I thought.