Phnom Penh, Cambodia

On a quiet Sunday afternoon , I was able to visit the Royal Palace which is actually a series of seven structures.
Below is the main structure

Another building on the royal grounds

The Silver Pagoda is also within the Royal Palace grounds

This was my driver, Janta, who spoke little English but communicated well and shared his expert knowledge of the city.

Janta showed me the market place

Along the way,  we passed a food stand or two.

We visited pagodas and saw a family watching a girl having her fortune told by a monk.

She kept this holy book on her head while the monk chanted and when he was finished he opened the book to a certain page which predicted her fortune.

A very representative photo of the Buddha .

These temple guardians ensured evil spirits would not enter the pagoda grounds.

These same guardians ensured that foreigners would pay before entering.

The Prince Sihanouk Monument in the foreground and the Freedom Monument in the background.

Bangkok, Thailand

We were in Bangkok for my work when we heard our daughter Ally and granddaughter Bella would join us for the weekend .  It was great news and a great weekend.

We did most of our travel around Bangkok by the BST or the Bangkok Sky Train

The Sky trains are colorfully painted and contain ads for movies and soft drinks. One ad for Coca Cola was so realistic and so deliciously cold,  I had to buy a coke after getting down from the platform.

To get to the river where our tour of the canals and a famous temple was we took a van instead of the train.

There is little crime in this area because Super Girl patrols the streets.

Besides,  people are too busy eating at sidewalk stands to even think of trouble.

There are stands flanking both sides of the lane. How can they eat so much and stay so thin?

Monks walk with their "begging bowl" into which people put either food or money.

Our destination was Wat Arun.  "Wat" stands for temple and "Arun" stands for dawn. This is the Temple of the Dawn.  Buddhists believe that when a person dies his / her soul goes to this temple to await rebirth.  Perhaps you were  here once.

At the entrance to every temple, there are guardians both sculptured and human.

Wat Arun is a series of structures. The picture to the right is one of the Thai king.

Symbols and statue of the Buddha are everywhere.

Inside the temple.

A beautiful princess.

We started our "klong" or canal tour from a dock at the temple.

Smaller temples dotted the route .

We really enjoyed the klong tour.

It was late in the afternoon so there was only one floating vendor. Earlier in the day, there were vendors selling drinks, flowers and fruit.

The canals in Bangkok are extensive .

These buildings mark the end of the canal as it feeds into the river.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar (U.B.)

I had been to Ulaanbaatar in February of 2004 where it was 20 degrees below zero. This time, May, it was 60 degrees above.  The day I arrived, many of the young people were wearing shorts and tee shirts due to the summer like weather.

The Great Khan - Chinggis Khan. ( The Mongolians prefer this spelling )  Chinggis lived from approximately 1162 - 1227.  His armies conquered Asia and at one point they were at the gates of Vienna, anticipating that Europe would soon be their next conquest.

The gateway to the Khan monument.

The great man himself.

Somehow the monument looks better in this photo.

Inside the monument are two museums and displays such as this.  The boot, as they proudly point out, is the largest boot in the world. Also shown is the Khan's horse whip.

For Mongols, finding a horse whip was the sign of great luck, Chinggis  found such a whip before his first great battle and as they say the rest was history.

Right below the monument was a gher camp. The gher is the Mongol traditional house, actually a large tent. It could be broken down and put on the back of a mule or horse to allow the ancient Mongols to continue their nomad ways.

These camps are used by the many tourists who have recently "discovered" Mongolia.  I met a couple,  in their late sixties,  part of a two bus convoy of folks in their late sixties, , who would stay at three different gher camps over their two week stay in different parts of the country.

Many Mongolians, outside the city,  now live in actual houses but still keep a gher next to the house.

Not all tourists were ready for the two week immersion trip into Mongolian culture. Like me, this guy was there for a day trip.

These tourists were on their way to the monument also and stopped to take photos.

Inside the city, Mongolians live in apartment houses and condos.  There are many new and  beautiful buildings in UB but I did not get a chance to photo in the newer part of the city. The reason: terrible traffic jams  that can turn a fifteen minute trip into a forty-five minute one.  Many new cars and new road construction to handle the increase cause  the problem.

Beijing, China

We had been to Beijing before and had seen the major tourist attractions. But. one Saturday, we decided to join ten thousand Chinese and foreign tourists at the Forbidden City and Tiananman Square.

The entrance to the Forbidden City is lovely but nowhere near the grandeur inside the city itself.

Here is a foreign tourist who has just realized how many people "ten thousand people"  are who then opted to stay on the outside of the attractions.

Like all communist capital cities, Beijing had a huge square where parades and power displays could take place. But unlike other countries, the square was constructed in the mid 1600's and later, 1950, expanded to be used for government events.

We walked the streets of an old type neighborhood known as a hutong. The area has narrow streets and lanes where people have lived for centuries.

The entrance to the neighborhood.

The rickshaw was a popular way to get around town.  Many were used by the tourists but we noticed the local folks using them also.

In the middle of this particular hutong was a lake with paddle boats.

My favorite sign : no cars, no motorbikes, no rickshaws.  Unfortunately, it was only for one street leaving the rest of the streets open to crazy motorbike riders, in a hurry rickshaw drivers and cars too big for the street.

Home away from home : our favorite hotel.

The Marriott Hotel

In addition to famous markets -the Pearl Market and the Silk Market is this one where you can buy pearls, silks, watches, clothes at reduced prices.  Usually, the merchant starts off high and the tourist offers half that price which they readily take.   Medi would offer 10 % and start to walk away.   A shop owners, putting our purchase in the bag,  told me "Your wife is an excellent bargainer but she breaks my heart with her small offer."

A hotel guest and heart breaker returns to the  hotel,  satisfied with her travels and her shopping.