Three Days in Phnom Penh

Nicole writing again (yes, I think it's the first time I've done two posts in a row the whole trip). Andrew and I are in Phnom Penh now for our third and final day. Big, dirty, dangerous Phnom Penh is like the other side of the Cambodia travel coin from small, safe, clean (for SE Asia, anyway) Siem Reap. Instead of magnificent ruins, the main tourist attractions here are the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeun Ek.

Our first day here (after the surprisingly hassle-free set up of our Vietnam visa) we visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. Tuol Sleng was a high school converted to a notorious prison and interrogation center (read, torture) during the Pol Pot regime. There were quite a few graphic (controversially so) displays, but the most moving parts where the first hand accounts of prisoners, families, and captors. A notable difference from something like the holocaust museum in D.C. was that the displays portrayed the "what" without delving into any of the "why?" that you cannot help but ask.

Our second day here the excitement in Phnom Penh was Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet's visit. On our way to visit the Royal Palace we stumbled upon a street lined with scores of uniformed school children and police. The children were carefully staged to cheer and wave Cambodian and Vietnamese flags when the president's motorcade drove through to the palace for a meeting with the king. Cambodia has something of a complicated history with Vietnam and there are plenty of less enthusiastic Cambodians. Of note where 50 robed monks who stood in silence outside the Vietnamese embassy to protest the lack of religious freedom in SW Vietnam (an area which used to be Cambodian and is ethnically similar). Luckily, there were 100 riot police with AK47s and stun guns to keep things from getting out of hand.

We did make it to the Grand Palace and the National Museum that day (along with many of the school children who I guess had the day off). The museum has some wonderful artifacts from Angkor Wat and preceding periods. The almost garish National Palace takes the cake in opulence, including a life size solid gold Buddha with over 2,000 diamonds (the largest one being 25 carats). There are no pictures because we were too cheap to pay the extra $3.00 for a camera ticket.


Today we are relaxing and trying to set up some travel plans for Vietnam and China. We just had an amazing Western style lunch (I like rice, but not for EVERY meal) on the breezy and relaxing terrace pictured below.

Tomorrow we will take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. This border crossing is supposed to be easier, but wish us luck.

There are a few more pictures I'll try to post later, internet connectivity is making it hard to upload.

More Angkor

Well, I guess it is about time for me (Nicole) to write something. Andrew has been doing a great job with the blog, but I am starting to feel a little bit lazy. So, today I am giving him a break from blog writing.
Today was our third and final day in the Angkor temples, and we decided to do the 34 km "Grand Tour" loop by bike. The major temple we had not seen is on that loop and we decided that a nice bike ride away from the city would do us good. After three weeks in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei, we have really enjoyed the simple pleasure of being on a rural road lined with trees. I guess the forest scenery was nothing spectacular, but little things like hearing birds and seeing butterflies made it a nice ride. Okay, it made the first 24 kilometers a nice ride. I probably could have done without the last 10, but it did feel good to get in a workout.The temples are hard to describe and equally difficult to do justice with pictures. The sheer size and the incredible detail applied throughout is amazing. They sort of rise out of the jungle in a dramatic, stereo-typical movie set kind of way (the temple we visited today was used as a set in Tomb Raider). The temples have been the subject of massive restoration projects and I am impressed by the ability to de-jungle and then puzzle the pieces back together, especially considering all that was lost and destroyed during revolutionary craziness.
Which I suppose brings me to my first impressions of Cambodia. Food is very important to me, and the food here is amazing (rivals Thailand). Today after our long bike ride we were rewarded by an incredible Khmer dish called Amoc- you could probably call it coconut curry with peanuts and chicken, but that would not describe the amazingly complex yet complimentary flavors. We have also had amazing fresh spring rolls, pumpkin and coconut soup, and Khmer curry. We were honestly considering extending our stay here just for the cheap and incredible food.
Food aside, there is a sort of uneasy feeling here. There are the surface issues, like the fact that we were extorted by a government official before we even got into the country, the daily power outages or the stiffling heat. Only slightly farther beneath the surface are the issues of horrible poverty and the history of genocide and war. It is eerie to be in a place where such an awful episode of history occurred and to interact every day with people who experienced it. It leaves me at times not knowing exactly how to feel or act.Tomorrow we are off to Phnom Penh by bus. Supposedly VIP. . .

Angkor Wat

I forgot to mention 'nail in the coffin' of Keith Gushard's soundtrack: Wind of Change by Scorpians. I forgot because I couldn't think of the name. Nicole, however, immediately knew the song name, band name, album, and year produced. Makes you'miss the good old days of black and white concert footage. Those lyrics still ring true today do they not? Judge for yourself:

Okay, so I do have something more interesting to talk about. Angkor Wat. We chose to use free bikes offered by our hostel to get to and around the temples - sounded like an opportunity to exercise, and save money. As one would geuss, the free bikes weren't in great shape, but we both felt it was still the best way to get around. Although riding through the dust and smog of Siep Reap wasn't fun, everything after the city was beautiful. By the time we bought our passes and actually made it to Angkor Wat it was about 1130 and we were sure we'd be stuck in crowds. Instead, all the big groups were being bused back to the city for lunch with their tour group making it much more enjoyable. There were still plenty of people in the ruins, but nothing compared to the hoards we saw piling in as we left.

Angkor Wat was one of the sites we definitely wanted to see on this trip and it lived up to the hype. Truly an amazing structure and testament to Khmer Empire. Interesting, also, to learn about the Kmer becuase they're not really brought up in popular history due to having little to do with any modern society. According to one of our books, however, the city of Angkor was at 1 million people while London was still only 50,000.

It's hard to due justice in description of he temple and I don't think the pictures really capture the entire scene, either. Nicole said that the structures were more impressive than Machu Pichu. We were both really impressed with the detail of the building and bas-reliefs. After wandering through Angor Wat for a few hours we biked to nearby Bayon. The Bayon temple lies in the middle of Angkor Thom, an ancient city surrounded by 12km of stone walls. In order to enter the city we had to bike across a stone bridge lined with giant stone figures holding a naga and then another 2kms to the temple. Famous for its hundreds of smiling gods, Bayon was slightly less overwhelming in size than Angkor Wat, but still impressive in detail. The crowds really started to pile in towards sunset so we headed back to town for dinner. We've got a three day pass so there'll be plenty more time to explore. The area has an amazing group of ruins and, believe it or not, we won't be able to see it all in three days. Publishing pictures here is slow here, so there aren't as many as I'd like to post. I'll try to add more in the next few days.

Bangkok to Siem Reap

Finally left Bangkok for the last time! Good city for a few days, but we've had too much over the last month. On our last day we visited The Grand Palace - definitely the most extravagant and well maintained Wat we've seen in Thailand.

Up at 0445 this morning and caught a taxi to the bus station - arrived just in time to catch the 0600 bus to the Thai border. Fortunately, the bus was air conditioned and the seats were comfortable so we were able to relax for the first four hours of the trip. The fun really started when Nicole left her purse(passport included) on the tuk-tuk we took from the bus station to the border crossing. Luckily, in this case, we were dropped off at one of the 'guides' that worked with the tuk-tuk driver so we were able to recover the bag. Unluckily, afterwards, the guide then followed us through the entire border crossing and provided loads of "helpful and free" services like handing us the customs paper and directing us to places we already knew we needed to go by simply walking a few paces in front.

Our first impression of Cambodia jumped off to a great start when the customs officer charged us 1000 Baht instead of the $20USD as listed on the sign directly above the window - especially frustrating because we had converted money to dollars specifically for the border crossing. We then had to convert the dollars back to Baht at a horrible exchange rate, of course, and pay the fee. The first time we have been blatantly ripped off, but its tough to argue with the guy wearing a uniform and holstering a gun.

Once over the border we split a taxi with a couple from Stuttgart, Germany. We could have waited for a slightly cheaper bus, but it would have been a three hour wait and then a five hour bus ride rather than leaving immediately for a three hour taxi ride. We were immediately glad that we took the taxi after only a few minutes on possible the worst highway I've ever seen. Sure, we've seen some crap roads, but nobody tried to drive 80 km/h while dodging oncoming traffic in the middle of a dust cloud. Insane. I have to give the driver credit, though, he proved that a Camry is really all you need for some hardcore off road driving. A Camry with no suspension at that.

I also have to give credit to the Cambodian motobikers - they've really taken the art to the next level. I'm talking about livestock. We passed several scooters with over a dozen live chickens strapped to the back and a few that had full-grown, live hogs. I only wish I had my camera with me. The hogs were restrained in some kind of stretcher and mounted, on their backs, to the rear passenger seat. Occasionally they would flail about a little, but it didn't appear to phase the driver.

Topping off the jarring commute was the soundtrack. Personally, I considered it a form of psychological torture, but I think it amused Nicole. I'm pretty sure the driver picked up this tape of mostly 80's and 90's smooth rock to sooth his customers during the nail biting drive. He chose....poorly. I'm not just talking about original versions, either. Nooooo, covers of I Believe I Can Fly(R. Kelly), As Long As You Love Me (Backstreet Boys), and Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You (I don't care), . Covers so bad that even John Lennon's Imagine sounded cheesy (that takes effort). Kind of funny the first time through, but the second and third repetitions were brutal.

We survived the ride and now we're resting up before we explore Angkor Wat tomorrow. Food. Good. We ordered up some curry chicken, pumpkin soup, and fresh spring rolls - our first meal of the day so we were ready to eat! Nicole was very pleased. Tried some Angkor Beer, but nothing much to rave about there. I'll post some pictures soon.

Kowloon

I have some shocking news. This blog is mostly about food. Since returning to Hong Kong from Macau we've spent most of our time walking around the city, eating, planning the rest of our trip, and eating. Last night we walked around Kowloon with Hobart, Chellis and her parents for a couple hours and then ate some dessert at The Sweet Dynasty. The desserts here have been some of our favorite food in Hong Kong. They have mostly been a combination of fruit, jello, and tofu. The tofu pudding was really good - especially with almond. Our other favorite dessert place that we have visited at least five times is Hui Lau Shan. They serve a variety of desserts, but we always ordered the cold fruit drinks. My favorite was honey jelly(more like jello) with pomelo and mango. Nicole liked the sago in mango and coconut milk. The straws served with the beverage are almost the diameter of my thumb so you can suck up the big fruit chunks and jelly. Again, it may sound weird, but it really was delicious.We also spent a few hours at the Hong Kong History Museum in Kowloon (the penninsula just North of the Hong Kong Island). Probably the best museum that we've been to in Asia in terms of content, production, and presentation. Afterwards we met up with Chellis and Hobart for lunch and then, sadly, said goodbye. I picked up some extra pictures from them and had to post the one below. Hobart and Andrew: Men in Macau.
On our last night we walked through the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park. Lunar New Year in China is like a combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year in the States. The fair was why the area we were staying, Causeway Bay, was so crowded. We held out from going all week because it looked insane - a sea of people shuffling through the streets waving inflatable pigs (the coming year is the year of the Golden Pig). By our last night, however, we convinced ourselves that we had to experience the madness and brave the crowds. The fair was only two blocks from our hostel, but it took twenty minutes to make it to the main event. Consisting of three aisles created by rows of booths setup up to sell good luck charms, food, and inflatable plastic toys. The aisles were so crowded that traffic was only allowed in one direction. Fortunately, I guess, the booths were essentially the same and were almost impossible to reach anyways so we didn't have to worry about missing out on our very own plastic pig. We did manage to pick up some tasty peanut brittle!Our return to Bangkok on Air India wasn't really very surprising - the fight was delayed over five hours and we didn't get to the hostel until midnight. Today we've just been running errands - finishing up our fittings with the suit tailor and shipping some stuff home. We're making our final plans for entering Cambodia and should be saying our final fairwell to Thailand on Wednesday.

Macau

Teaming up with Chellis and Hobart again, the four of us spent the last two days in nearby Macau, a Portugues colong until 1999 and best known for its casinos. Touted as the New Vegas, Macau posted higher gambling revenues than Vegas for the first time in 2006. While it's not yet as flashy as Vegas, it's well on its way. We went to see a bit of the Chinese gambling world, but mostly to see the Portuguese-Chinese fusion of culture and, of course, food.After settling into our hotel we spent the rest of the evening exploring the streets and, after dinner, the casinos. Vastly different than the big city bustle of Hong Kong, Macau felt more like a busy carnival. Extravagantly lit, rediculous casios shoulder up next to ancient Portugeuse archetecture and old world cobble stone meandering streets. The architectural contrast was interesting and bizarre. Besides the buildings, food was specifically Macaunese - noodles and rice from China combined with African chicken and cheese from Portugal. Available on the streets were almond biscuits, a kind of meat-roll-up (think fruit roll-up made of meat - sounds gross but was tasty), and egg custard tarts.The casinos weren't very busy and we looked totally out of place - the standard gambler in Macau is a cleancut middle aged business man wearing a suit. Instead of free alcoholic drinks, as is common in Vegas, gamblers are served complimentary tea or coffee. Except for an occasional outburst of cheering, the rooms were quiet compared to LV standards. The only game we recognized was black jack and the minimum bid of $12USD was too steep for us cheap travelers. Instead we stuck to slot machines and people watching.The highlight of the evening was easily the water foutain show outside the Wynn casino. Water and fireballs danced to the tune of "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler (you may remember from the movie Footloose) and we laughed. Just hearing the song makes me laugh because it reminds me of watching that movie a million times as a kid, but the added dramatic effect of the water and fire show was even more hilarious.

Being cheap, we resorted to playing cards in our hotel room with drinks from 7-11. Stay classy. We focused more on the cultural aspect of the city on our second day by visiting The Museum of Macau, Macau Museum of Art, and The Cathedral of St. Paul.On our way out of town we stopped at an arcade. Nicole and Chellis engaged in a fierce battle of Dance Dance Revolution and Hobart and I battled it out on Taiko: Drum Master.It was intense.

The Peak

We spent our second full day in Hong Kong exploring the island with Chellis. After meeting Chellis at the central MTR stop we caught a bus to Stanely Peninsula - a small town on the south part of the island. Still recovering from the MSG overdose, we aimlessly wandered through the street shops for an hour or so. We stopped for some wanton noodle soup and sat for awhile on break on the shore walk.From Stanely we took the bus back to central and walked to The Peak tram. The hill south of the city is so steep that it felt like we were lying down for parts of the tram ride. Views from the top of the peak were spectacular and we relaxed over a cup of tea while overlooking the city. Chellis left for her great grandmother's birthday banquet while we waited for nightfall to see the city lights.

Ying Banquet

After shopping for a couple hours, we met up with Chellis' cousin, Hobart, at her grandmother's house in Kowloon. They taught us how to play Mahjong - a fairly challenging game similar to gin rummy. We were supposed to be at the party by 7:30 but started receiving anxious phone calls around 6 from various relatives already at the party. Nicole and Chellis changed into their lovely evening clothes while Hobart and I remained in the same clothes we had been wearing all day.The Ying family is large - one that isn't possible in China any more due to the single child policy. Chellis' late grandfather had two wives - the first had four children and the second, Chellis' grandmother, had seven. The eleven siblings all have their own families, most of which were present that night. Chellis' parents, Bond and Eva (nice, huh?) Ying, were a generation of transition in that about half of the marriages were arranged. They were also a transitional generation because the one child policy was enacted in 1979. Most of the relatives lived in Hong Kong or outside China, however, so the policy didn't directly impact them. All told, five generations were present at the party.

Chellis grandfather was hugely successful in the bean curd industry - enough so that the family name is mentioned in one of the history museums in Hong Kong. As a result, Grandma Ying is very wealthy and influential in the area. Her 81rst birthday two years ago was actually announced on the radio because so many people were to attend. The party this year was much smaller than the 2,000 or so guests from that party, but it made it seem that much more special that we were invited.>We arrived at Yat Tung Heen, the restaurant, and were immediately offered a bowl of soup while being introduced to several relatives. Soon we were seated at our tables and the feast began. Menus were presented at the table - not as a range of choices, but a list of the twelve courses. Let me say that again: twelve courses. In the order they were served: 1) Wonton Soup 2) Roasted Whole Suckling Pig 3) Steamed Baby Lobster with Garlic 4) Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Crab Roe 5) Steamed Spotted Garoupa 6) Braised Whole Abalone with Black Mushrooms, Dried Oyster and Vegetables 7) Deep-fried Crispy Chicken with Crushed Garlic 8) Fried Glutinous Rice with Preserved Meat 9) Tossed Noodles with Ginger, Spring Onion, and Shrimp Roe in Albalone Sauce 10) Sweetened Ginger tea with Sago and Dumplings 11) Steamed Birthday Buns 12) Fresh Fruit Platter.

At one point in the evening groups from each table stood up to toast Grandmother and we got up to join suit. I knew it would be another opportunity to make up for my flubbed attempt at saying happy birthday earlier in the day. I had repeated "Ying lo tai, joke lei sung yut fei lok" (Loosely translated: Ying old woman, wish you happy birthday) about 200 times throughout the day and was ready. I made my way to grandmother and we clinked glasses together. I was able to repeat "joke lei sung yut fei lok" and she smiled...I think. A couple relatives around the table heard me and clapped so I think I got it out okay. It was the same reaction Nicole got earlier in the day when she said it, so I felt redeemed.

As we were walking away from the table, two women holding each other arm and arm (who turned out to be Chellis' aunts) approached Nicole about her dress. "Very beautiful dress. Traditional Chinese style. Oh, tailor made for you in Thailand? Silk? You are so beautiful!" Being the only Caucasians in the building gathered attention, but Nicole stood out even more in her dress.The toast happened sometime around the sixth course. Each course was presented by a parade of servers rushing out from the kitchen and dividing the main dish into individual plates. Each table also had a server who ensured that our drinks were always topped off and cleared plates removed. Eating was fast and furious when food was available - a carry over from days when food was scarce and your portion size was determined by how fast you could consume.

The dining started around 9PM and continued until almost midnight. We were all very full by the end of the night and ready for bed. We both felt lucky to have experience something so special and rare in Chinese culture. The food was great and we had a lot of fun at our table. Chellis said it was fun for her, too, because it made an event that has been repeated several times seem unique. Similar to any family gathering, I suppose, they can seem mundane to those always present. An outside perspective, however, can remind you how special it is for everyone to be together.

Hong Kong

Having just spent a week in Bangkok we thought we would be ready for any big city. Hong Kong quickly proved that theory dead wrong. We started the easy travel day in Bangkok after breakfast with Chris and one of his college friends in town - an three hours flight on India Airlines. We landed at about 3 pm and made it to the bus station with little hassle. Getting around the airport and into town was, by far, the easiest experience we've had so far and several people helped us throughout the trip. In fact, a couple from New Zealand paid our bus fair to the train station - a very nice welcome to the city.

Nothing seemed out the ordinary until we debarked from the train and stepped into the most densely populated mass of people I've ever encountered. Having backpacks strapped to our backs didn't help the situation, but the shear volume of humanity was overwhelming in itself. Our hostel is located in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong island - only two stops from Central Hong Kong. We couldn't remember the name of our hostel, so it took some wandering around and more help from strangers before we finally found the building completely devoid of any kind of marking that would indicate that it was a hostel. Chellis met us at about eight and we went out for dinner and a couple drinks in the Lang Kwai Fang neighborhood. We didn't spend too much time out, though, because, Chellis was feeling the jet lag and her grandmother's birthday party was the next day (today). Instead we returned to our hostel and watched a bit of TV. None of the channels were in english, but that didn't matter because our favorite show didn't require any dialogue. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but four closed circuit video cameras are fed into one of our channels. There are two wonderfully entertaining qualities about these cameras: 1) People do not know that they are on camera in the elevator and 2) All four walls of the elevator are mirrored. Endless fun. This morning we met Chellis' grandmother at her apartment in Kowloon. Along the way we stopped at a beautiful flower market - especially lively during the Chinese New Year. We arrived at the apartment and were immediately greeted at the door by the entire extended family and asked to sit down for a snack. We had been practising how to say "happy birthday" in Cantonese since last night, but I totally froze. Nicole, however, was able to say very well while giving her our present (a silk scarf we bought in Thailand). We were offered boiled eggs in a light soup - according to Chellis it is supposed to provide us with the good fortune of having thousands of babies. Yikes....

After a few minutes we were asked to join the birthday group for Dim Sum at a local resturaunt. Chellis was surprised we were invited and we couldn't refuse! Nicole, Chellis, Grandmother, two of Grandmother's friends, and Chellis' Dad piled into a minivan drove over to the resturaunt. I'm not sure what the three women were talking about, but there was a lot of laughter among old friends.

The resturaunt was completely empty save for a small room in the back with a nicely set table and about fifteen people already sitting. The guests were all friends of Grandmother - some of which were childhood friends from her home village in mainland China. A tight nit group of Mahjong players, they were joining Grandmother for a morning snack before engaging in an all day tournament. They have all been playing each other for many many years and gamble large sums of money. Several bowls of dim sum arrived shortly after we sat down and the first feast of the day began. Being only a warm up, it was over rather quickly, but it was all delicious.

Nicole, Chellis, and I are walking aound the town right now(picture at the top of the page) - taking a break before the party resumes from dinner around 8 pm. Apparently that's when the real eating takes place....another rough day of gorging on wonderful food. Life is tough.

McRice Burger

We've been in Bangkok, again, since Monday and met up with Chris on Tuesday. Although we haven't seen as much of the city as we initially hoped, we've been able to visit a couple sites and hang out with Chris and his friends from the Peace Corps. It's been fun meeting the other volunteers and hearing them talk about their time in the service. Surprisingly, it sounds a little bit like listening to people in the Navy talking to each other. A lot of acronyms and inside jokes about the culture and lifestyle of living in a foreign place. The only tourist location we've really made it to was the Bangkok National Museum. Definitely the best museum we've been in Thailand or Laos - the museum has seven enormous buildings, each with a different focus area. We spent most of the time in the history building.All three of us also did some suit shopping yesterday. Nicole and I met a guy outside the museum who recommended a temple that we should visit and a suit shop. I don't know if it was an elaborate scheme or what, but we also met a guy at the temple who knew about the suit shop and told us about how great it was. The suits were nice and the price was reasonable, though, so if it was a scheme we didn't really care. We were both fitted for suits and a few shirts. I've never had a tailor made suit and I'm looking forward to having a jacket that fits both my shoulders and my waist. Usually a suit that fits my shoulders looks rediculous barrel shapped through the body. Someday, we think, we'll use them for job interviews, but neither of us can remember what jobs are.After we finished our fitting, we met up with Chris at the shop he was at. On the way we stopped for a legendary McRice burger. A chicken patty just like the states, but the bun was made of rice instead of bread. I can't stand fast food, but I felt like this was a reasonable exception - part of the cultural experience. It was delicious...Nic was not impressed.

Chris went to a shop that one of his friends, Tom, recommended. Tom had been there all day helping other volunteers decide whether to get full leg lining, one pocket or two, stitching on the lapel, etc. Chris is also hoping to use his new suit for a job interview in the not so distant future.
After suit shopping we headed out for some bowling with a group of PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) at one of the shopping centers. I think Nicole ended up with the best score of the three of us, but the highlight of the night was a spontaneous Isan style dance party by the PCV's - shown below.
This week has been pretty laid back - a good rest stop before heading to Hong Kong to meet up with Chellis for her grandmothers birthday and the Chinese New Year. We can't wait!

National Palace Museum

After saying goodbye to Audrey and Terrance in Taipei we had a day and a half to see a few sights on our own. The first night we visited the Taiwan Storyland, an underground town where it is supposed to still look like 1965. After an interesting visit there I went to the Shilin night market with an English girl I met in the hostel (Andrew was mercifully saved from more shopping-related activities). It was an excellent place for people watching and observing some unique fashions. I didn't buy anything, but I did enjoy the spectacle.We had almost a full day before our flight back to Bangkok the next day, so we decided to visit the famous National Palace Museum. There were artifacts all the way from the Neolithic age up to the final Q'ing dynasty. Archaeologist was one of longer lasting of the 20 or so professions I considered in college, and I loved wandering though the museum. It was incredible to see a beautifully carved cup or jade necklace or whatever and to think about the people who used it. . . and to still be able to appreciate its artistry 6,000 years later. There were some incredible pieces- my favorites were the elegant ceramics and jade. Andrew liked the calligraphy (I did not realize the extent to which calligraphy is not just a form of writing but a work of art).

We both also thought that these concentric ivory balls carved inside of each other where incredible. Seven concentric Ivory spheres were carved out of a single piece of ivory. The video below is a bit cheesy, but gives you an idea of what it looks like. The amount of work and attention to detail to create this piece is hard to imagine.

I found it pretty hilarious that among all this beauty one of the most famous and popular exhibits is the Meat-shaped stone, a masterfully rendered agate reproduction of a chunk of stewed pork (there is an even more famous jade head of bok choy cabbage with bugs on it).We are back in Bangkok now and plan to meet up with Chris in a few hours. This is our third time to Bangkok, but the other times we have just been traveling through. We are really looking forward to hanging out with Chris and getting a chance to see the city a little before we head to Hong Kong on Sunday.