Marble Point... A Barren Wonderland

One of my favorite memories while down on the ice, is from my time spent in the field. The week before Thanksgiving found me boarding a helicopter and taking a 45-minute flight to a remote outpost named Marble Point where I would fuel helicopters.  I stayed there for two weeks with two other people, Gavin, the Camp Manager, and Lisa, the cook and loved every minute of it!  The work was fun but more than that, the freedom I experienced there was the kind of freedom I’ve grown to expect and need in my life.  I could go anywhere! (this is a stark contrast to life in McMurdo which has a rule for just about anything you can imagine.)

View from Hjorth Hill, on the other side of Hogback Hill (left center of the picture) is Marble. The two fingers pointing out into the white (sea ice) are Gneiss Point and Marble Point (left to right).  Our camp is really closer to Gneiss Point though it gets its name from the latter.

Marble is set on one of a series of like promontories jutting out into the sea on the opposite side of the McMurdo Sound, approximately 70 miles away from Mcmurdo Station.  The camp is on a flat strip of rocky soil which decades and decades ago was in the running to become what is now McMurdo Station.  A unit-converting mistake led officials to believe the coastal waters were too shallow for large tanker vessels, so they abandoned their plan.  Instead this peaceful little site (with some of the best weather in the area.  Often the weather would be horrible in McMurdo yet sunny and calm at Marble) sandwiched between an immense and beautiful glacier and a bay normally full of seals and trapped icebergs, became a small three person fueling outpost for helicopters working in the nearby dry valleys.  The camp is made up of 4-5 buildings, 6 large 20,000gal fuel tanks, a filling station, a football sized cargo yard and four dirt landing pads.  Power is created by two large diesel generators that produce a constant background hum, that thankfully disappears from the sonic landscape when one goes on a walk over the nearby barren hills and water is produced by a giant snow melter. 

Mt. Erebus and to the right along the horizon, the Delbridge islands where i worked with seals last year (the middle one is Big Razor Back, my home for two months) and on the far right horizon the dark smudge, that's Ob. Hill where McMurdo Station is. 

Marble is a part of Antarctica’s mainland.  If you didn’t know already, McMurdo Station is actually on Ross Island.  So, while I’m not someone who gives a damn about island vs. mainland trivialities… hell if you’re down here you’re in Antarctica! it was still pretty cool to make it to the mainland.  There was something different about it.  I didn't understand what, but I did love walking around pondering the variety of weird iterations that continent had experienced.

Rocks along the sea ice edge fascinated me for they were not only shaped and eroded by the relentless winds but also by every form of water you could imagine! Frozen oceans, liquid ocean and glaciers pouring off the land!  The coal veins and fossil record proves too, perhaps precisely where I walked millions of years earlier, ancient forests thick with towering trees thrived and curious animals plodded along living a life without glaciers and frozen oceans.  The changes this continent has seen are as extreme as its current climate!

LIFE!!! GREEN STUFF!!! (well green for Antarctica) A little clump of moss I found on one of my hikes.  My how the forests have shrunk.   

Each fuelie who rotated through MP spent about two-weeks out there, during which they fueled choppers and helped around camp with odds and ends.  Gavin and I became a little obsessed with digging drainage trenches all over the place for the growing melt pools all over the place.  

December- January is really not all that cold (15-25 deg is not uncommon at all, and if the wind is calm it's t-shirt weather!).  When I would go trail running, often I’d be down to a t-shirt by the time I returned to camp.  I’m not sure how many but there were easily 10+ days when the temperature was above freezing.  

Man, I loved playing in the mud in Antarctica!!!

This does not explain the constant melting however. Even if the temperature wasn’t above freezing but rather stayed in the single digits or below, well, the sun is at such an angel and so constant that time of year that water gushes from every clump of snow and ice due to the solar gain.  24 hrs of sun melts a ton of ice... and well anything else that is frozen… (some of those things one would prefer stay frozen however).  There are very strict and specific environmental protection guidelines we live by down here… Marble Point is a small camp and so does not have a waste water treatment plant… instead we collected urine and grey water in large 55 gallon drums and solid waste is neatly placed into plastic bags and stored in an open top drum.  The SOP (standard operating procedure) for how to do this, um... effectively, was posted in the 'pooper' and provided a good chuckle every time one took a moment to sit and, well do some serious thinking.  "One is encouraged to label your bag so that your supervisor can judge and account for your productivity at the end of the season…"  Field camp humor…. 

Labels are important... notice the grill to the right?

Nice little hut for some peace and quiet 

The time of year I was at Marble Point was extremely beautiful.  I was out hiking or running nearly every day after work exploring coast lines and bays and nearby high points.  From a top Hjorth Hill one can look into the Dry Valleys, a seriously strange land absent of snow and ice except for the occasional protruding glacial tongue from an adjoining valley.  

A look into the Dry Valleys

plus me...

(Left) View from Hogback Hill looking to Hjorth Hill.  

(Right) View from Hogback looking west into a not so dry valley.

One evening I visited the feature Marble Point gets its name from and was greatly pleased to find a small colony of 30 or 40 Weddell Seals.  The wind was calm so as I sat on a short cliff overlooking the dark shadows on the ice, I could hear them breath.  Such a scene is one of extreme serenity.  I became lost for a time listening to these beautiful creatures, remembering the positive moments I spent amongst them last year.  From atop my perch, I happened to notice one of the seals had a set of tags in her flippers.  



This was enormously exciting for I was ~70 miles away from where the seals tagging project takes place.  With the help of my binoculars I was able to read her tag number which then got me even more excited because the number was within the number series we deployed last year.  So not only was this a seal from the project but potentially a seal I had contact with last year!  I was able to email a seal friend of mine who now works as a grad student on the project, about the seal and its tag number.  She was able to provide the entire known life history of the seal.  She was newly tagged last year in early November as an unknown age mother (meaning she most likely wasn’t a local but visiting the study area as a mature adult) with a pup.  I actually in early December of last year logged her information into our database during one of our several surveys of the entire study area.  This encounter became all the more special when I learned this.  We both travelled a long way to a seemingly random location and happened to find one another.  It was an interesting sort of tip of the hat to my time with these animals from the previous year.  It brought back a huge assortment of memories.  

Marble is not only a fueling station but also a gathering site of gear and waste from the surrounding Deep field camps.  They literally would fly out sling loads of human waste with helicopters to our storage yard.  Every time I saw U/G (urine/grey water) barrels on the manifest schedule for the day I’d cringe a little.  For one thing, that is a terrifying potential pee or poo bomb flying above you!  Really to see these loads fly in simply meant Gavin and I would have to move all those barrels by hand.  The field camps weren’t always the best at tightening all the caps on the barrels, which is where the sun's melting power made things messy.  Alls fine and dandy when the contents within the barrel are frozen, but when they begin to thaw, well that’s when you better make sure the lids are on tight!  To move the 400+ lb barrels I would wedge a dolly between the ground and the barrels bottom lip and then forcefully rock it towards me and onto the dolly.  It was this moment, as I forcefully rocked the barrel towards me and could hear its contents sloshing around that I’d close my eyes hoping the top would stay on and save me from a vomit (and I’m sure at a much later point, riotous laughter) inducing bath of all sorts of nasty.  One particularly productive day, Gavin and I moved over two tons of urine via a hand dolly.  Personal best… to date. 

Was this job glamorous or what!  This is actually a funny point.  My job duties ranged from fueling helos to hoofin pee but it was still awesome.  This speaks to the people I worked with, the place I was in and the truth of the old axiom, nothing like a hard days work.  Who knew moving two tons of piss could be so rewarding?  In addition to being a human excrement mover, I also helped load helicopters which involved building and hooking sling loads to the choppers.  Gavin and I would put together a sling of empty barrels or propane canisters or whatever needed transported to a remote field camp.  

Just out for a stroll with some propane...

Most of the time, the helo would land next to the load, turn off and one of us would crawl under and hook the sling to the chopper, but every now and then I got to do a hot hook.  A hot hook involves a person standing still with a gear loop and cable in a hand held high above their head and a pilot who gently maneuvers the helicopter so the gear hook hanging from its belly neatly clicks closed around the gear loop.  Often the person on the ground doesn’t even need to move their hand the pilots are so good!  



I watched Gavin do a number of these and felt pretty confident that when it cam to my turn I could do it.  I felt sure of myself and excited, but as that first chopper came in close that suredness and excitement quickly turned into terror (Lets just say, it’s a good thing there was a U/G barrel near by)  

That's me attaching the load to the belly hook.  

The sound is overwhelming.  The air punishing.  All the sudden the wind becomes violent. It picks up dirt and rocks that sting any part of you left exposed and does an impressive job of nearly knocking you over.  Your senses are lost, well all but one, the sense of impending doom! Looking up you watch a whirly spinning metallic bird of death coming closer and closer and closer…  The closer it gets the only thing you hear more loudly than chopper itself is the voice in your head, “RUN YOU IDIOT!!!!”  But amazingly you survive and the chopper takes off with the load you prepared, and flies away over the lens shaped glacier filling the horizon to the West.

Everything about Marble Point was amazing.  Though perhaps the most important opportunity I was able to take advantage of while there was getting out and hiking.  Once you pass over the nearest hill to camp the hum of the generator disappears and you gain views of Mt Erebus and bays full of icebergs ensconced in more than two meters of sea ice.  I was able to visit seal colonies and climb tall hills.  Walk the base of a glacier less than a quarter mile from my bunk listening to it crack and pop and small waterfalls trickling down its surface.  I went running and hiking and exploring with a total sense of freedom and satisfying solitude.  

In so many ways Marble Point rejuvenated me.  Before flying to Marble, the communal stress of the Thanksgiving holiday, the busy work load, my body fighting a new cold brought in by a plane of new people every other week was making me exhausted.  Within an hour of landing at Marble, my stress melted away, within a few days I felt refreshed and energized and by the time I left I was looking forward to the continued adventures to be had throughout the rest of the season in Fuels.  My experiences at Marble were of a kind that inspire works of art and side splitting laughter and dopy grins and smiles.  For me, it will remain as one of my most cherished memories of my time on the ice.  

The crew, standing in liquid water at Marble Point, Antarctica.  Lisa, me and Gavin.

Oh, and i may have made history... First to play jazz flute in a helicopter flying over the McMurdo Sound... why not.

Ice berg trapped in the sea ice.

Mummified Weddell Seal pup I found one day hiking.

Not too far from the seal was a mummified Adelie Penguin.

Wind transforms the landscape just as much as do the glaciers.  This is a ventifact (wind sculpted rock).  One of many large house sized pieces of rock you'd find all over the place but especially on top of ridges and cliffs.

A tradition: find Holy Rock, leave a note and take a drink...

Cheers.

It's begun! well... 4 months ago... um... ANTARCTICA!!!

Holy cow!   So another adventure on the ice has begun… well really it’s already under way.  It’s my blog that is just, um… rebeginning.  I’ve been down on the ice now for nearly four months!  My eyebrows just rose in amazement as I wrote that, which I assume is the opposite of what my moms eyebrows are doing as she reads this…  Well this time I’m not a scientist, or grantee or a beaker as they’re called down here (you know like the Muppet scientist Beaker… cause they’re scientists…).  I won’t be studying Weddell Seals; instead I’ll be down as a contractor for a full season (5ish months) working as a fuelie!  I’m very excited to get to see Antarctica from a different perspective and stay down here three months longer than last year! 

You’re probably wondering a few things right now: “why aren’t I working with seals anymore, what the hell’s a fuelie, why are they called beaker?”  First off, I already answered why beaker, dummy… I’ll get to why not seals sometime later, so as for ‘what the hell’s a fuelie?’  Simply put, I’m a gasman at the bottom of the world.  Now, factor in all the complications of getting fuel to Antarctica via a tanker vessel, offloading millions of gallons of fuel then managing a combustible liquid at subzero temps, dispensing it, filtering, testing, transferring… and this ‘gas man’ at the bottom of the world becomes an enormously complicated and critical job!  But for now, there’s no reason to get too much into the depth that is my job.  I’m a fuelie, which is a job that is very physical, gets me outside everyday, allows me to work with an inspiringly unique and entertaining group of good hearted souls in the fuels department; plus I get to travel all over including twice now to the mainland (think about it, wherever people go, so too must fuel and therefore little fuelie minions to worship and care for it). 

The fuels dept. is made up of nearly two dozen beautifully tortured souls.  They come from all walks of life and times in their lives.  The average age of our dept. would probably be in the early 30s with a few in their mid-late 20s and a few enjoying their 40s and 50s.  Most if not all love traveling around the world and pushing the boundaries of how they experience their travels, be it roller-skating across the US, biking the entire Silk Road, flying med. Evac missions in Africa, peddling a pedicab through city streets, guiding clients through the Alaskan wilderness, building cabins in the woods, creating trails in remote beautiful public spaces, working on farms or in distilleries… these people are out there in the world challenging the status quo and living life as they want.  This incredible variety in worldview and experience has made for an outstanding work environment and social life.  We tend to travel in packs around town.  We joke, you can smell us comin, because typically our clothes are mildly to severely soaked with diesel most of the time.  In fact one day in the galley (where we eat) the fire department came in with full gear and lights going.  We fuelies were sitting at a table and started to laugh joking that the fire department came because we smell.  Then I heard one of the firefighters say he couldn’t smell it… yup, turns out someone smelled fuel in the galley and called the fire department thinking it was a leak.  Nope, just some no good fuelies. 

We unabashedly enjoy one another’s company in and out of work.  Be it a long day sitting on fuel tanks or haulin hose, or filling fuel drums or throwin darts at fuelie game night, it’s usually done with smiles and crude jokes and lots of laughter.  The camaraderie and companionship felt throughout the department has made this year, my second year on the ice, so enormously enjoyable. 

I could go on… really, not just saying that.  The gush fest is genuine.  Another fuelie and I have an agreement worked out, called the duct tape patrol.  If either one of us starts to go a little overboard with how much we’re loving fuels (usually after we’ve been imbibing somewhat) we say ‘duct tape’ to the other as a code word suggesting, maybe it’d be a good idea to allow those thoughts you’ve been spewing out to anyone who’ll listen to maybe just stay locked up in the ol’ head there. I mention all this not just because I’m obviously having an awesome time but because this is such a stark contrast to my last experience on the ice.  Last season I had maybe the best job in the world.  I’m not exaggerating.  I slept in an insanely beautiful place chasing and wrestling baby and adult seals, snowmobiling in and around icebergs and glaciers… but paired with that extreme high was the most toxic work environment I’ve ever experienced in my entire life (which for those of you who know me, that’s saying a lot).  The entire reason I wanted to come back to Antarctica this year was so I could redefine my Antarctic experience.  I didn’t want my memories of Antarctica to be forever colored by those horrible experiences.  Thankfully, this year is such a complete and total opposite to last year.  It’s really hard to put to words how important this year has been for me and how grateful I am for all these goofy fuelie friends I’ve made.  Duct tape…

There is a lot to cover from the past four months.  Hell, there’s a brick ton to cover since last I had to look up my account info for this blog!  I would love to tell a few stories from my adventures capturing Sage-Grouse in the wilds of Montana and of my time in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I apologize for not updating the blog sooner, but the fact that I haven’t till now is a testament to how much freaking fun I’m having down here.  There are many stories I hope to share with you over the next month or so (I promise to of course devote some time to explain the new absurdities involved with bathroom activities on the ice).  I hope you enjoy them and thanks for reading.  Till then, go move some fuel.

Our ride to the ice.  C-17 at the sunny and warm Christchurch airport

Inside, it's pretty bare bones, but comfortable seats... ish...

View from an observation bubble in the cockpit.  That's Justin and Jen wavin.  Fulie, and solar energy tech.

This was an amazing and would quickly become rare sight.  Perhaps the last sunset for four months.  It's been nothing but 24 hr sun since the second or third week of October... man i miss stars.

McMurdo at night... weird for me to see this photo now.

Of course we need training on how to set up tents for when we go out into the field.  Here's Lisa nailin it!  Lisa has been with the fuels dept. for nearly 18 years and knows so much about our job.  She's been so much fun to work with and learn from!

Justin and Bob working on their trucker's hitch.  These training classes were good but ridiculous at the same time.  "here's how you tie a knot, set up a tent, start your stove, make a plan for how to survive since your hypathetically stuck out in a storm somewhere... while you're inside!"  Yeah, real world training :)

Ah, finally we got out of the classroom and into the real classroom.  We're learning how to profile a crack in the sea ice in order to determine whether or not it's of the appropriate thickness for vehicles to cross it.  

Oh, yeah... the penguins wanted to help us profile the crack too.

These are two of our mobile fueling vehicles.  On the left is the lovely and strong Delta Scharen and on the right is our town Gashopper.  This was a rare moment captured on film showing Delta Scharen fueling Gashopper, and Justin enjoyin the view on top.  Scharen is meant to go on snow and ice so we use her to fuel the various vehicles and buildings out on the ice and snow runways.

Suzie filling some fuel drums at the 'pass.'  Early season the weather can be brutal!  Cold and extremely windy!  Though weather doesn't matter for a fuelie.  We are out there when the rest of the folks aren't, cause fuel has to move!

Myself, Hannah, Brian and Jeff out at the ice Runway watching a C-17 land and take off.  We were there in case it needed fuel which it didn't that day.

Out of a hike, Justin stepping into the warmup shack.  

Enjoyin a mid hike break and breakdance session!

Fuelie family at Christmas

Fulie Family remembering David Bowie... see what i mean :) nothin but fun!

Last Weeks in NZ and First Weeks in Cambodia

The traveling is going great!  I am currently in Siem Reap, Cambodia taking a few hour respite from the sounds and smells of the city, from the ever hopeful calls from Tuk Tuk drivers, the dazed stumbling gait of pale and sun-burnt tourists, and the amazing energy and chaos that makes this place so incredible.  As always, so many more stories worth mentioning and truly devoting single blog entries to have framed and filled my travels so far but damnit! i'm traveling in Cambodia and would rather be out there making a new memory and crazy experience than spending too long describing all the amazing things that have happened so far.  Sooo... here again is a quick-ish update of photos and brief sentence stories.  

Let's finish off New Zealand.

May not look like much, but this was actually my camp for 4-5 days while enjoying a wonderful folk festival in Dunedin called Whare Flat Folk Festival (pronounced 'Faredy Flat...' It's a Mauri word apparently).  Thats my bivy sac and pack in between the trees.  The fest was fantastic!  The music was not always life changing, but more what I loved about it was the incredible sense of community and kindness everyone had towards one another.  I met so many interesting people... 

Some very interesting...

and really just enjoyed sitting around listening to people who loved to create music for 8-10 hours a day.  There's something I think as professional musicians we sometimes loose or loose site of as we chug along in our musical lives that this festival helped me rediscover.  That is the simple love of creating music.  We can often get caught up in the game, in the hustle of finding the next gig, the stress of supporting yourself with music, of getting burnt out on music that pays but doesn't grow one's soul... that we forget why we do it.  At this festival all i saw were people who loved the music they were making.  It wasn't always the best music, of the highest quality, in tune, in time... but damn! you could see and hear and sense the joy with which so many performers performed!

I particularly enjoyed "Sessions at the Bar with Peter."  During a two hour break from performances right before dinner, a handful of people would gather by the bar and sing folk songs beer in hand.  It was incredible!  I joined in not knowing a single song (usually humming harmonies) but so enjoyed all the amazing stories told in the numerous verses of the songs and just singing with other people, I went every day.  Often laughter would outweigh the singing during particularly risque verses... well at least I was laughing loudly anyway.  The people were so very kind and friendly during this session in particular and at the entire festival.  I made many musical friends over a song and a beer.  

Also met my beard... papa i guess.  This is Peter.  Great guy and has an encyclopedic memory of folk tunes!

These nice folks are from the band Oslo Brown, one of the awesome bands at the fest.  Had a great time meeting them and discussing all sorts of things from seals to birds to life changes and touring as a band.  Check em out!

Well, so after bringing in the New Year by Barn Dancing at the folk fest it was time to move on... to this ugly place.  This was a coast line surrounding Dunedin.  We went there to look for Albatross, blue penguins and seals.  Saw all but the Albatross.

Also got to see a Sea Lion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  this little guy was taking a nap... actually thought he was dead for a few moments... just a heavy sleeper.

After Dunedin I began heading north.  NZ has so many goofy and curious little spots one needs to see, so along the way north I explored a few such spots.  This weird rock formation of dinosaur egg-like looking boulders at Shag Point (just south of the more famous Moeraki Boulders beach) was one of them.  Totally weird and awesome!

   

more famous Moeraki boulders at Moeraki beach... super weird and interesting but way more people.  Shag Point was completely deserted and awesome!

Oh, and all this time, I've been traveling around NZ via hitchhiking.  At the folk fest I met a fellow traveler who was also heading north so we decided to join forces.  This is Sonia.  This is also us after 4 hours of trying for a ride and so just being goofy.  We were actually never picked up that night despite our ukulele concerts dancing and weird poses as shown above.  Luckily Sonia had a phone that worked and we were able to call a campsite not too far away which thankfully had a spot and were able to pick us up... the joys of hitching... never really know what will happen.

One of my favorite memories and experiences from the folk fest was meeting these two people.  This is Sibylla and Beth, sisters and the band The Little Stevies.  They were simply awesome!  Their music was fun and playful, serious and contemplative, creative and simple.  Plus they're also great people.  It also turned out that they were touring NZ for a week or two and that their itinerary nearly exactly matched mine, so for the first time in my life I followed a band!  I honestly felt a bit weird about it, but man i enjoyed hearing their music so much it didn't matter.  You know that feeling of joy and I don't know, a kind of excited relaxed sensation that happens when you listen to an album you just love?  Well I got to experience that live for four shows!  Damn fun time!    

A return to a wonderful beach camp spot north of Kaikura.  This was one of my favorite places I camped in all of NZ.  The first time was with Eric and Katie (miss those guys. randomly ran into them over christmas in Hokitika on the west coast of the south island.  they left for home on the 6th of jan. and sounded like they had all sorts of adventures along the way) and here I returned with Sonia for another relaxing night accompanied by the gentle sound of the ocean breaking on a rock beach only 100 ft away.  

Morning at the beach... ugly i know.

The beach was a quick stop as we continued north towards wine country.  As my time in NZ was quickly coming to an end I decided while hitchhiking is amazingly fun and has presented some unforgettable memories and experiences, it's also at times unreliable.  So to speed things up and more importantly to allow for easier access to remote off the beaten path curiosities I rented a car.  First back roads stop:The Sawcut Gorge slot canyon.  Ton of fun and great cold swimming holes along the few mile hike up river to the canyon.

Ahhh.... wine country.

Six wineries... all free, all amazing, so many more to try one day.

After 'wine-in' it up in Marlborough country and enjoying another little stevies show at the Dharma Bums Shed, one of the coolest music venues I've ever been to, perhaps my favorite memory of NZ and a future story to tell for sure, Sonia and I headed to Nelson Lakes for a day of hiking and swimming and fighting sand flies.  Man i hate those things.  Way worse than mosquitoes.

Our last Little Stevies concert.  It was at the Mussel Inn in Takaka.  A cool and weird little town with unreal beaches and beautiful things everywhere!

Some of those beautiful beaches... well a tidal cave at Wharariki Beach (again another Mauri word pronounced Farariki) full of beautiful crustaceans and all sorts of sea life... sometimes a sleeping seal

Some caves were deep enough you actually needed a headlamp.  Freakin awesome!

Said beach... notice the um... ZERO PEOPLE!!!!  Unbelievable morning spent exploring tidal pools and caves and watching fur seals lazily scratch themselves.

Fur seal sign

This was a hike in the Able Tasman National Park.  This day and the day before spent at Wharariki beach have absolutely converted me to a beach person... well, remote mountainous beaches...

Kickass beach and rocks!

And of course my mate, xavi and I enjoying the beach.

A few days after the beaches Sonia and I split ways as she was continuing her adventure north to the North island and I was headed south again to eventually fly out of Christchurch for Cambodia.  Along the way I decided to enjoy a little bit of caving.  This was perhaps the most fun thing I did in all of NZ.  Never have I experienced absolute darkness like i did in this cave.  A wonderfully cold river cut through the limestone turning and twisting underground for nearly a mile.  There were amazing moments of serenity and peace, joy and laughter, extreme excitement and extreme panic and terror especially when I would hear rapids in the dark ahead of me.  My imagination transformed these sounds into a raging torrent, a fatal flash flood moments away from swallowing me and bouncing me off the cave walls like a tiny pebble in fast moving stream.  of course that didn't happen... those moments were usually followed by bouts of hearty nervous laughter. 

Man I loved it!

Castle Rock area.  apparently where parts of Narnia were filmed...  This was my last day in NZ.  I spent the eve. enjoying performances at the Buskers Festival in christchurhch and then the next day I jumped on a plane to a world I had yet to experience, Cambodia.  NZ was such a fun and beautiful and easy place to travel.  I will absolutely return one day.  

Of course my first night in Cambodia I find a break dance school competition outside...

My photos are pretty sparse for Cambodia so far.  It's just hard to sort through all the photos and stories that accompany them.  I've also been trying to just experience what I'm seeing and not get too caught up with taking pictures of everything...  One feeling I guess that I experienced when I arrived in Cambodia, one a photo can't show, was one of returning home.  There is a strange and weird chaos that saturates life in South East Asia which for me was profoundly reminiscent of Nepal and India.  The Tuk Tuk ride from the airport calmed me as my driver barely missed cars and motorcycles, dodged mopeds who decided to drive against traffic, people pushing giant carts in a busy crowded street, old and young walking through the street slowly and peacefully despite the waves of mechanized (albeit slow moving) chaos 'zipping' past them.  Sitting in the back of that tuk tuk watching this all take place simply brought a smile to my lips and a sigh from my lungs.  I can't wait to continue my exploration of this wonderful part of the world.  

And this beautiful lady is Tiffany.  I conned her into traveling with me for a month.  We were trying to decide where to go when she mentioned she still has family in Cambodia and has never visited.  Well, so that was all I needed and why we're now here in this beautiful country.  It's been an awesome time so far with nearly four weeks still to go.  

Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.

Main boulevard and National Monument in Phnom Penh

So I mentioned I'm a beach person now right.  We spent three days in Sihnoukville on Otres Beach and one day on the island of Koh Rong being super lazy beachin, drinking, eating and swimming in literally bathtub-warm ocean water!

Boats... i... love... boats!

Tiffany was captured (despite what this photo shows) by this adorable little girl at our guesthouse in Otres Beach.  The guesthouse by the way was was called "Everythang" to give you an idea of the place.  Tiffany was pulled around by this cute little girl all night, the two of them playing goofy games and laughing constantly.  Wish the pictures were better... when i have better means of accessing photos one day i'll put up the not so fuzzy ones.  

A game of forced hide and seek.  

Our bungalow... why not.

Out for a day of snorkeling, fishing, swimming, drinking, swimming, drinking, and diving with phosphorescent plankton! you know... thursday.

Sunset and our ride back to our bamboo shack.  Only way to the boat... swim:)

While the beach was awesome, it also was just full of people who I felt didn't give a crap about being in Cambodia, they just wanted to be on a beach where the food and drinks were relatively cheap.  Little kids and adults walked up and down the beach peddling bracelets and hair removal and sunglasses and boat rides...  Really for the kids, this is a form of child 'slavery' is perhaps too strong a word, but buying into that system just perpetuates and makes more permanent the child's roll in a family's income.  I watched many lazy westeners support this system.  It was heart breaking.  The kids were smart and funny and knew a ton of english.  Tiffany and I spoke with many of them when they would try to get us to buy something.  This was a beginning really of becoming more aware of the desperate poverty that is the foundation Cambodia rests on.  ah, that's a topic for another day i think...  We happily left the beach for what turned out to be a miserable day of travel.  Our boat from the island was late, which almost made us miss our bus, and then our bus what should have been a ten hour ride (long already) became an exhausting 15 hour bus ride to Siem Reap.  We eventually made it to our hostel at 3am.  It was a hard push but worth it as Tiffany wanted to spend her birthday in Siem Reap among the temples.  After a few hours of sleep we set off to explore the famed temples of Siem Reap and have continued to do that over the past few days.  Nothin but temples, temples, temples.

This is the Ta Prom, the Tomb Raider Temple, well where some of Tomb Raider was filmed anyway... didn't see it.  Excuse the turned photo... drag of working on a blog in internet cafes.  We enjoyed sunrise at Angkor Wat yesterday and many other temples.  These structures are otherworldy.  More on temples to come.

Well, so I have way more photos, way more stories, but here's just a taste, a glimpse, an idea of whats been happening on the road.  I loved my time in NZ and met some amazing people and saw indescribably beautiful things and places.  Cambodia has been incredible so far.  We're spending a few more days here in Siem Reap to enjoy as many temples as we can, perhaps a floating village or two and hopefully on thursday we will be flying to Myanmar to visit a friend of mine I met on a rooftop in a tiny camel town in the deserts of India last year and explore a relatively newly opened country to outsiders.  After that, well, back to Cambodia for a few more adventures before Tiffany goes home, then I'll spend about a week in Vietnam before I bring this journey temporarily to a close and head back to PA.  Lots going on, but loving it all... even the inevitable discomforts one always experiences in foreign places.