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The last two days were traveling from Cambodia up to Kanchanaburi, Thailand. I love this trek. Love it.

Once we crossed the border, I saw this guy looking for Bobby Ial. I took a wild guess and asked if I was his guy. I was! Seriously though, my last name reeks havoc on asian people. It’s a really difficult one for them. It’s so cute how long it can take for them to get my last name sort of right :)

I’ve always been a fan of the 3rd class train from Bangkok out to Kanchanaburi. Dan and Kim enjoying the ride…

I’ve stayed at some of the finest places on the planet. 5 star resorts in Milan, Fiji, Thailand… Private villa in the South of France. A centuries old stone house out on Lake Lugano in Switzerland… By far, my favorite place to stay in the world is this tiny guesthouse out on the River Kwai. Here’s the sunset view from our floating rooms :)

The next day is animals day. We start out the day riding elephants around the jungle and then into the river — one of my favorite experiences to date.

Dan and Denise.

Josh, Kim, an elephant, a mahoot, and the River Kwai :)

Matt getting sprayed by his elephant. So much fun!

Later that day, we headed out to chill with some tigers! Here’s Dan manning up and getting his tiger on…

I’m just walking a tiger, is all. No big deal, right?

I’ve been going to Tiger temple every year for the last five years. I’m told by people who protest it that the tigers are drugged, that they are mistreated, that the monks don’t spend any money on developing the temple to better suit the tigers (and rather keep it for themselves)… I’m so glad to see first hand, every year, over and over again that all these claims are false. They now allow a small group of people to be present for play time after the temple closes. These tigers play fought their hearts out. It was like watching Remmy and Trouble wrestle and fetch… just with the ability to rip my arms off if they wanted :P The grounds are yet again hard to recognize at parts (due to the constant improvements). In my opinion, the facility is better for tigers than the tiger exhibits at the San Diego zoo or the Wild Animal Park — two of the world’s most famous zoos. I didn’t take but a couple photos of exercise time — I was either watching in awe or videoing. I’ll upload the video sometime soon…

The grounds at the temple are humongous. Hundreds of acres. Apart from the tigers, they have herds of cattle, water buffalo, wild boar, horses, peacocks… just tons of free roaming animals that they accept on the grounds. For one reason or another, roaming on these hundreds of acres is a camel. Such an interesting, odd, and awesome animal! He’s been there the last few times so I was glad to see him again :)

Bobby

p.s. if you want to come on next year’s RPTE, email info@bobbyearle.com with the subject “RPTE” and I’ll get you on the list f

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Wait for it (it’s a 6 image gif photo)…

Bobby

p.s. if you want to come on next year’s RPTE, email info@bobbyearle.com with the subject “RPTE” and I’ll get you on the list for more info :)

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Not only is Dan hilarious. He also took quite possibly the raddest photo ever of myself on day five. One of my absolute favorite parts of this trip is playing with elephants in the river. There’s quite literally nothing on this planet that compares to it. It’s an unbelievably moving experience for me.

That right there? Yeah. That’s my elephant.

Bobby

p.s. if you want to come on next year’s RPTE, email info@bobbyearle.com with the subject “RPTE” and I’ll get you on the list for more info :)

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So day four was amazing. We started out heading to the Tonle Sap lake villages — always a fun/fascinating thing to do. The lake villages are completely on water during the rainy season — but it’s dry season now. This means we get to walk around the lake village and see what life is like out here. It’s so incredibly interesting. Just an entirely different way to live. At one point, out in the middle of nowhere, we saw two boys around 6 years old out in their own boat. In a giant lake. Just doing whatever 6 year olds do out here, I suppose. And the best part is that we go with my close friends and guides, Mr. Sith, Mr. Marom, Mr. Don, and Mr. Sola. Seeing it with them makes the trip even more amazing.

After the Tonle Sap, we headed out to the orphanage. I’ve been visiting this orphanage since we started going to Cambodia, and it’s been awesome to see it getting better each time we visit. The moment I got out of Mr. Sith’s tuk tuk, I was bombarded by several girls saying “where’s Lindsay?!?!??!?” They were visibly bummed when I told them she wouldn’t be coming… but that was instantly remedied by telling them we had a baby and then letting them take turns with the camera saying hi to Lindsay.

All the kids are getting so good with their english. Kids I couldn’t speak with at all last year are now speaking full sentences far beyond “I am fine. How are you?” So fun speaking with kids I was never able to before :)

In the end, everyone loved the orphanage. It’s such an amazing experience. Seeing happy, little orphans who are loving life in one of the poorer countries of the world gives such a great perspective on life. The everyday problems of western life really are rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Getting reminded of that is one of the reasons I absolutely love visiting Cambodia. I leave a better person every time.

Mr. Don watching a cop and someone else playing Cambodian chess. Mr. Sith was happy to tell me that Mr. Don usually loses his money playing this game :)

I can’t say enough how much I love these two guys. Mr. Sola on the left and Mr. Don on the right.

Fish market in the middle of a GIANT lake.

Mr. Marom knows how much I love reptiles — which surprises all of my Cambodian friends (they HATE snakes). Mr. Marom took me to this crocodile farm in the middle of this village.

Courtney and Matt brought tons of lollipops to hand out :)

Cambodiagood.

Bobby

p.s. if you want to come on next year’s RPTE, email info@bobbyearle.com with the subject “RPTE” and I’ll get you on the list for more info :)

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Day 3: Yesterday was amazing. We woke up for the sunrise over Angkor, which is one of my favorite things to do on this planet, and then we just chilled out all over the ancient city of Angkor. Such an amazing spot. After that, we got a late breakfast and headed out to a new temple that I had never been to before. It’s a couple hours away. Mr. Sola told me about it and Mr. Sith added that it’s like Ta Prohm (a great temple that they know I love), but better. Beng Mealea was the temple — and some people call it “jungle temple” because the jungle has grown inside of it like crazy. The drive out there was amazing — and the temple ruins were insane.

We ended our night at Ta Prohm — an all time favorite for Angkor visitors. We somehow managed to stay after sunset without getting kicked out. A first for me. Very awesome walking around the temples so late.

Me and Dan are a lot lonelier without our wives than either of us expected. Sometimes you just need a hand to hold…

Courtney getting swarmed by monks at Angkor Wat.

Mr Sith (on the right) at Beng Mealea. The other guy was helping me try and find the cobra he saw the day before. We never found it :(

As you can see, the jungle temple is totally spectacular.

Ta Prohm. An all time favorite at Angkor…

Shooting at Angkor and the surrounding temple ruins is a photographer’s dream. So stoked I’ve done it so many times! And even more stoked that this group is loving it :)

Bobby

p.s. if you want to come on next year’s RPTE, email info@bobbyearle.com with the subject “RPTE” and I’ll get you on the list for more info :)

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