These are a few of our favorite things

During our time in the US, one question kept surfacing: "What's your favorite place so far?"

As I said when asked, it's really a hard one to answer. How can you compare wandering the stone ruins of Angkor Wat to sipping wine among South African vineyards? Both are really quite lovely.

While I struggle to name one favorite place, I think I can name my top five places (or things we did). So here's my attempt:

1) Early morning at Ta Prohm
Surrounding Angkor Wat are hundreds of related temples, all built during the 9th, 10th or 11th Century. Of all we visited, Ta Prohm was my favorite. The way the forest grows over the walls of the temple, mixing organic and stone, is really something to behold. Plus we got there early in the morning when the light was just right and the crowds were thin.

2) On safari in Botswana
We took three safaris in Africa and they were all great experiences. Yet our safari in Botswana was my favorite for a few reasons: First, it was a wilderness safari (and Wilderness Safari), which meant we camped in the wilds (sans fence) and saw few other people. The food was great, the animals abundant and the camping made everything a bit more real and exciting. There is nothing like seeing a black mamba right outside your tent or elephants scratching themselves on a tree just feet away to get your heart racing a bit.

3) Quaffing and dining in Franschoek
The wine country of South Africa was really our official honeymoon, where we ate epic meals, drank prodigious quantities of cheap and tasty wine and slept among down duvets. And while Stellenbosch, with its quaint streets and corner cafes was a nice spot, I loved the scenery and food of Franschoek. In particular, our meals at Rubens and Le Petite Ferme stand as two of the best of my life.

4) Kicking back in Luang Prabang
Despite the intestinal distress I suffered in Laos, I loved Luang Prabang. There was a feel to the town - a combination of the scenery, smells, smiles and setting - that makes it a world-class special place. With great restaurants (even if the hygiene in the kitchen might be lacking a bit), plentiful coffee and a very relaxed pace, LP is a place to hang for a few days. And the town is full of monks, monasteries, wats and stupas, imparting an ethereal feeling to even the most banal activity. It's hard to explain sitting at an internet cafe reading email while the monk next to you - garbed in bright orange robes - downloads White Snake and other butt-rock onto the computer. LP is a gem, and it's on the River Kahn (ok, Khan) to boot.

5) Poolside at the Peninsula
What's not to like about an Olympic-sized infinity pool along the Chao Praya River in Bangkok, where the city's heat is easily forgotten under the shade of a teak palapa with a cool Singha in hand? What made it so amazing, besides the free ice cream cones and attendants who remembered my name, was that only meters away from the chaos of Bangkok's central river highway, we were in an oasis of cool calm. The boat traffic, even the roar of the longtails' huge engines, became something interesting to watch. But it no longer rattled my nerves. Peace among chaos. I loved it.

So at this moment in time, with push coming to shove, these were five of my favorite things about the trip so far. Yet even as I write this, I am riven with doubt. What about coffee at my favorite cafe in Saigon? Or watching the zebra being stalked and killed on the Serengeti? Or riding quad bikes on the sand dunes of Namibia? Or? This list could go on and on. So, I submit these five as a good representative sample.

For the full list, a long night of beer drinking will be required.