I don't know if you can really see, but in the centre of this photo on the hillside there is a block of trees that are smaller than the rest. This is a native pine planting in the DR, planted by community members, with funding from the government. Connection between community and government courtesy of Floresta.

Turns out I got bumped to business class on the second flight today, which was 3.5 hours. And I got a meal which was pretty good actually. And the flight attendant kept bringing me extra cookies. So yes I did feel pretty important. Don't worry, that's over though.

Where I'm staying is super hot. And with the cool temperatures back home so far this summer, I am out of practice. As soon as I walked into my room, sweat started to bead up on my forehead. And I was reminded of sequels of the movie, Lethal Weapon where the two protagonists keep asking themselves if they are too old for this. We, more like telling themselves.

I'm going to take a tepid shower now and then lie under a fan and hope I can sleep. 

Another smooth and relatively low stress journey to airport and check in. These are not to be taken for granted. And I got bumped to first class! Well first class on the commuter flight to JFK, so the benefits won't last long. One hour and forty eight minutes to be exact. Probably the best part will be boarding first. And I get to pretend I'm important-that should count for something I suppose. 

I exercised  my  civic duty today. That is I got on my bicycle, with the bell and the speedometer, and rode down to the local polling station located in the neighbourhood Methodist church, locked  up my bike even though there was absolutely  nobody around  (you know,  because nobody votes), and put an  X  beside the candidate of my choice. I fear I  may be becoming one of those cliches you see depicted in almost every hollywood  movie. I should have come home and mixed up a wheatgrass smoothie in my solar powered food processor to finish the day.

Here's a travel tip: when you go to the airport bring a pen and keep it handy. At some point you will get asked to fill out a form of some kind and suddenly finding a pen will be your highest priority. This morning I loaned someone a pen and waited while he wrote. Not a big deal but an aggravation all the same. So bring a pen.

This may be my shortest trip ever. A conference where I get to speak. I'm not exactly the keynote speaker though. I have exactly 10 minutes. I think it would be easier if I had more time.

todays check in time: about 40 minutes. just when i was getting used to 15 minute check in times. pearson seems to have changed their system. plus its a monday morning.

The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. Worth a visit. 

So my little journey across SE Asia is drawing to a close. All to soon really. I had worried in the beginning that it might be a disaster (in so many possible ways),  but it turned out OK. I am realizing that I don't know all that much about travelling as a tourist. Most of my travel has been for work, and far, far from tourist zones most of the time. So I'm finding that I'm not super comfortable trapped inside the tourist bubble. Where a lot of things are fake, or at the very least contrived. Even  in  one of the tourist  markets  tonight,  when I was   looking  at backpacks, the vendor confessed to me that the backpack  I  was  looking at was a knock off (Not in so many words, she said,  "This bag 100%, and this one--the one I  was looking at--99%"). 

I'm also learning that it is good to figure out what I'm hoping for out of travel. Granted part of travel is the encounter with the unexpected, but there are so many suggestions out there of things to do or see. Websites, guidebooks, hotel desk staff, taxi drivers, other travelers, everyone has a list of things that might be interesting. As a result I think it's easy to end up doing something that maybe you don't want to do all that much in the first place. What I do know is that I want to get out of the tourist bubble if at all possible. Or at least get out to the fringes of it--escaping entirely may be out of the question.

Below is my requisite photo with the country flag of a new country in my count. I suppose I took a bit of risk setting my camera down at a traffic circle, but there was no one really close by, and I figured I could beat anyone to the camera if they tried to run for it.

Saigon. I'm finally in Saigon. 

Crossing the street in Phnom Penh.  I read that this is one of the worst  places for pedestrians in SE  Asia. I'd have to say it's one of the hard places I've  been  in for walking. But on this, day 2 here,  I have started to notice some patterns that make it a bit more manageable. On day one I almost got hit a couple times. But if drivers see a pedestrian (most, not all!) they will start to drift, if they have space to the side of the road that will make it easier for the pedestrian to cross. This in some cases may mean aiming towards you, which looks like craziness, but actually opens the space in front of you to cross. I don't know if I've explained that properly, but it's like (from driver's perspective) if you aim right at a moving target, you  will definitely miss  it. This works great for scooters and motorcycles, not so great for tuk-tuks and trucks. If you were here you would see what I  mean. But on day one, not understanding this driver/pedestrian agreement, I would panic a bit and this made things worse. The point is (maybe) that there's  actually a flow  to things and it takes a bit to understand. Not that after two days I claim to understand Phnom Penh. But I like it when things start to make sense even a little bit.

GPS and web based maps sure take the guesswork out of travel. It almost feels like cheating. But if I really thought it was cheating I wouldn't use it. It means you can arrive in a city you don't know and know where the bus terminal is, where your hotel is, where the main landmarks are. This makes you much less vulnerable to aggressive cab drivers or touts. On the downside it takes out some of the mystery of discovery. Then there's always the possibility of losing your phone.

This was my transportation for past couple days. It was definitely a good way to get around in spite of the uncoolness factor. For 3 USD perday (apparently cheaper elsewhere) I could go whereever I wanted whenever I wanted. This was very much in keeping with my free picture taking mode. Turns out Siem Reap is on some kind of wetland/floodplain so its pretty flat and a bicycle can get by on just one gear. Plus the much needed exercise. I got lucky there too because it hasn't been overly hot--maybe mid 20's so cycling was a pleasure. The wetland/floodplain is important I think for another reason. I was wondering on the plane, looking down at such a large flat area criss crossed by rivers, canals, marshes and rice paddy, if the geology of the area was in any way related to the civilization that emerged. This morning it hit me: sand. Alluvial plains like this region are likely over time to produce sandstone and sandstone is easily quarried, blocked and sculpted. All of the structures at Angkor Wat just happen to be made out of sandstone.

I don't know which of the 250 photos I took today to post. And I really tried to limit my picture taking today. If this or any other shot looks vaguely familiar it's probably because you've seen something similar in a movie, most notably Lara Croft Tomb Raider. This is the eastern gate of Angkor Thom which was a palace city built more or less 1000 years ago by the Khmer king. There is tons of info out there on this place so I'll let you do your own research if you care. I think any time humans put one block on top of another and they're still standing after 1000 years, it's pretty impressive. If those blocks can also communicate something about the people who set them up that makes it even more amazing. 

I wish I could tell you that this is Angkor Wat. A mystical temple ruins hidden deep in the jungles of the Mekong delta that few western eyes have seen. Well that last part may be sort of true. The place is crawling with tourists but at least today I'd say 75% or more were from Japan, China, and Korea. In any case I had to work to get this shot with no people.

Tonight I will be at Angkor Wat if all goes well. I guess if I did have a bucket list, Angkor Wat would be on it. At least I've talked about going there for a long time.

I was dropped off at my hotel by our local staff and once I checked in I realized that I am totally on my own. For all the travelling I've done, I rarely have time completely to myself. I'm usually with my colleagues, or travelling with friends or something. I think this may be a be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenario. I've always wondered what it would be like to just wander with out agenda, with just my backpack and camera stopping where I  want, when I want. Not worried about collecting this bit of data, or having to observe that set of activities. All that stuff is well and good, but now for a few days I join the ranks of the world travelers. I'll see how it goes.

If you speak to google translate it will speak back to you in Thai. And it seems like 3 quarters of the time its pretty close to the meaning. I don't know whether to be happy or sad about this. It sure makes communicating easier where there's no common language but it may in a very near future make language learning less important. And to me there's a joy in learning language that will be lost.

I came to the sad realization sometime in the past 24 hours or so that one of my greatest skills is opening and closing my luggage. Yes, I've done that a lot. And when I'm at the security check watching people fumble with their stuff I actually think to myself, "amateurs".  Which makes it even sadder somehow. It's just a big part of the job, the whole getting-from-A-to-B-with-the-least-amount-of-hassle thing. I'm just trying to figure out if it's something you can put on a resume.

My latest yyz check in time 10 minutes. not bad. security check was pretty fast. main factor was distance to gate. i thought maybe today would be another weather delay day and it was a bit. Flight was half hour slow for de-icing but nothing like what folks were experiencing earlier this week. I have to be honest though, this is one of the first times I've been happy to get out of the cold for a while.

The ice storm over the weekend wreaked havoc with travel and cut power to thousands of homes...but so beautiful!