2015 Favorite Pictures

It is a bit late for a summary of 2015 but I decided to post a few of my favorite pictures from 2015. This is just a really brief summary of my last year. I don't think it was a very productive year of travel only visiting 2 countries that I had not been to before and I stayed in a number of places for a longer period of time.

My first stop in 2015 was in Southeast Asia again and I headed from Thailand straight to Laos. I traveled from the south of Laos up the country on the east side of the Mekong looking across the river at places I traveled to in 2014 and looked across the river at Laos.



This is from the the site around Wat Phu in Champasak Laos. It is a site from the Khmer Empire and in the style of Angkor in Cambodia.



This photo is from the area known as the 4000 islands which are just a bunch of islands in the middle of the Mekong river. Other than a day renting a bike and riding to a waterfall I did not do a lot other than being lazy while in this part of Laos.



I rented a motorbike when I was in Thakhek Laos and this is a photo of the area not that far outside of the city. I did a previous post with a couple of videos I took while riding around.



From Laos I went back into Thailand and spent almost 2 months there but the only new place for me was Pai and this pictures is from there. I rented a motorbike here as well but it was only about 3 dollars a day and did not do well with my weight and the steep roads around this area. I think they also clear a lot of the fields by burning them and the area had a haze so my pictures are not very good, even the ones of the fires.



I spent about 4 days in Cambodia in the middle of my 2 months in Thailand. You can only stay in Thailand for 30 days without getting a visa so this flight was really just to extend my time in Thailand. The flights were cheaper to Siem Reap than Phnom Phen so that is where I went. I am a bit ashamed to say I did not even visit any of the Angkor sites this time. I booked a hotel with a pool and spent most of my time here while in Cambodia. I did really enjoy my time here and felt like I should have really spent more time here.



The above pictures are all of the Bagan area or Myanmar. Myanmar was a new country for me and I really enjoyed riding an electric motorbike around all the pagodas. I was asked to have my picture taken a number of times when walking around the different pagodas and enjoyed this group picture. I would recommend if you visit this area that you only agree to pictures in shady areas. You can't wear footwear at the pagodas and my feet were on fire at one pagoda after 4 or five pictures.



I broke up the ride from Bagan to Yangon by spending a night in a couple of different towns in between. This picture is from one of those stops Pyay Myanmar.



After about 4 months in Southeast Asia I spent some time in the US visiting family and then returned to Europe where I spent the summer and a bit of the fall. I had only been in Bucharest Romania so spent a bit of time seeing a bit more of the country. This pictures is of Peleș Castle near Sinaia Romania.



I went from Romania to Moldova and the 3 pictures above are from the capital of this small country Chisinau and Moldova was my second new country for 2015.



This picture is of The Residence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. I spent almost a month in the Ukraine but only visited Chernivtsi and Kiev this time in the country.



I spent almost the whole month of September in Istanbul, Turkey. I did not do a great deal but really enjoyed taking ferries back and forth between Asia and Europe. I decided my title for the month of September would be "Intercontinental Cruise King" and the above pictures were taken on one of his majesty's many voyages.

I spent the remainder or 2015 with my family in the US and took a bit of time off from the road.