Surprise! I spent most of April traveling in SE Asia with my dad on a Viking cruise, painting the whole time. Mom and dad are world travelers (They are going to Africa twice this year!), but mom doesn’t do well in heat and if there is humidity, forget it, so I was called up as a substitute-a hard life, huh? 😆 We went to Cambodia, Bangkok in Thailand, all over Vietnam and finally to Hong Kong. It was an incredible adventure full of crazy traffic, golden Buddhas, and an endless buffet of mysterious but delicious food and I can’t wait to show you it!
However! A few current event things to update you on! I will be at Forest to Frame, a big plein air painting event at the Finch Arboretum this Saturday, 10-4.
I am also teaching two classes next Saturday on the 23rd. One from 11-1 at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture where we will be painting the Spokesman Tower which you can sign up for here and a plein air adventure painting at the Dishman Hills from 2-5, which will involve minimal hiking as I intend to sit down and paint as soon as I see a beautiful flower. 🤣 You can sign up for the Dishman Hills painting class by going to my shop on my website or just click HERE. The Dishman Hills class is part of my plein air painting season this summer with Katie Frey so you can also purchase our class bundle for 6 painting sessions in the shop and come to classes with both us for $27.50 per class if you think you’d like to paint outside with us more than once or twice this summer! Sign up Here.
Ok, now back to the Adventures in SE Asia!
This is the map of our route. We did the trip extension where we visited Angkor Wat (without the boat because it is inland) for a few days before flying to Bangkok to explore the city and then get on the Viking Venus!
I started my journey off flying from GEG to SEATAC to join dad and then we fly to the Narita airport in Tokyo which had a lovely rest area decorated with tons of fake flowers. We traveled for approximately 30 hours together.
We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand and barely spent the night (about 4 hours of sleep) before we had to get up and go to the airport again to fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia in a TINY prop plane that looked like it was from the 70’s. We were EXHAUSTED and jet lagged but also souped up on coffee. They appreciate the caffeinated drinks here and we appreciated that about them!
Our first restaurant in Cambodia was a sign of what was to come-gold statuary, patterned floors and food served on banana leaves.
We stayed at the beautiful Park Hyatt in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was decorated in beautiful statues and many bouquets of lotus blooms with their petals folded in a variety of ways.
To my great entertainment, the inside of our tour bus in Cambodia had brocade valances and curtains, complete with tassels and all of the seats were covered in eyelet fabric slip covers.
This is the famous temple at Angkor Wat that is probably what most people think of when they picture Angkor Wat in their minds. Angkor Wat is actually a HUGE temple complex (the largest in the world) with many different temples spread out across the landscape, but this is the famous one. We arrived in the predawn darkness using our phones to light our way as we crossed a moat/stream to join the crowd of other people watching the sun rise behind the temple and the pink of the sky reflect in the ponds in the foreground. It was utterly magical.
Inside the temple near one of the towers.
As magical as our experience at the main temple was, Dad and I both agreed that our favorite was the Angkor Tom temple, which is famous for the many trees and vining fig plants that grow out of the ruins. It is incredibly atmospheric and cinematic (in fact, it was featured in the Angela Jolie version of Tomb Raider!) and frankly they can’t remove the trees without severely damaging the buildings that do still stand because they have been intertwined for 300 years!
Our guide, Sophea, lived near this particular temple and as child, it was his playground. What a magical place this must have been for a child!
ATMOSPHERIC!
Somewhat derelict in a very atmospheric and attractive way!
We visited a local family that made rice noodles and got to see the whole process (entirely people powered in 86 degree temperatures with excessive humidity-oof!) as they ground, boiled, pounded and kneaded the rice into a dough that was then cut into noodles, boiled and served to us in a very fresh and lime-y flavored dish. I was impressed that they worked with a ball of rice dough that was about the size of a soccer ball!
We also visited a local Buddhist temple and talked with the monks. I think we tourists were rather surprised that they were all quite young-college aged if they were American. It was interesting to ask them about what inspired them to become monks. Education was a big part of the decision along with a desire to learn about how to do good in the world. I was almost knee to knee with this gentleman as I drew him so I was glad that he told me he liked the drawing when it was done!
OK, stayed tuned for the rest of Cambodia, time on the boat and our journey to Vietnam up next!