While I was MIA

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. --Lao Tzu 

These past few days, I've been extra busy with schoolwork, constantly lethargic, and unusually slow in Mandarin.  Symptoms of illness? Pollution?  Cultural fatigue?  Quite the contrary!  Just recovering from a week-long trip over the International Labor Day holiday to Southeast Asia during which I got enough mosquito bites to develop a tiger balm addiction, marveled at ancient temples under the backdrop of a rising sun, consumed gallons of tropical fruit shakes, swung from a rope under a waterfall, and watched Asiatic bears fight.  It was the perfect adrenaline injection after a few weeks of a routine school schedule beginning to feel a bit mundane.

Trip started out in Phnom Penh and we hit the cuisine running :9

Choeng Ek Killing Fields

Tuol Sleng Detention Center

Bused over to Siem Reap and woke up at the crack of dawn for Angkor Watt.

Lots of hangriness and moping around on our trip but well worth the inside jokes made.

The first of an infinite number of tropical fruit shakes.

Unexpected detours to Bangkok make the best reunions!  Here is the travel gang with Tanaj (right), an old Thai friend.

Hopped on an overnight train from Bangkok to Vientiane and then a quick flight to Luang Prabang where we paid 5000kip to cross this bamboo bridge, 

enjoyed many meals, fruit shakes, and awry bike rides  along the beautiful Mekong River, 

camwhored and swung from ropes by the Kouang Si water falls, 

and watched fighting Asiatic bears do what they do best.

I don't wanna ever leave!! :O

A blog post will never do this trip justice but, as we learned, it's about the journey.  ;)  Coming back from Southeast Asia, I was in a bit of a post-travel trance met with the urgency of an essay deadline and midterms to study for.  Regardless, leaving Beijing for a bit renewed my eagerness to study Chinese and make the most of the remaining time I have to spend in China.  (Hopefully that also entails being a more consistent blogger.)  Going to SEA also further developed a sense of awe at the vastness of the world which I think most people experience when abroad.  And to think, a 9 day trip across three countries is really only a slight graze against ages of history and layers of cultural meaning which make a place what it is.  It was a good dose of perspective for my lives both in Beijing and the US.  Soon to come, a return to Hong Kong for the next wedding in the family!  Hitting the books til then.