A Nitnoi of Joy

A Warm Welcome - Back in the States

2007-11-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

I'm back! And I guess you have to come home sometime, so here I am, back in the States and the sorrow I feel for having my trip end is real and all my many experiences are now just memories.

Once landed, it was a perfect surprise to be greeted by my favorite sister and closest friends at the airport. The flight was quite long, launching from Bangkok to Japan, through San Francisco and finally a trails end in SLC - it was roughly 22 hours in transport. I can't say I slept much at all, and also left on no sleep, trying to enjoy my final moments in Thailand - with a massage, 11:30 pm pedicure, and all my last minute shopping. The worst thing about the flight is that the movies were rotten and I only wished I could've slept through them. I was quite tired once we touched down. But having the girls there to welcome me home was fabulous. They'd bought matching "Hello Kitty" t-shirts in honor of Asia, and I was lucky enough to get one too.

It was an incredible journey over the last 4 months. I was able to visit Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar/Burma and Malaysia. Words can't quite describe how I've felt and what I experienced. It opened my eyes to new cultures and a history lesson everywhere I went. I have an overwhelming love for the people and admire their strengths and the hope in their eyes. I saw a whole new level of poverty in several of the countries and I will forever ask the question why I was so lucky to be born here and have so much opportunity, choice and freedom?

Wrapping Up 2 Weeks With the 'Rents

2007-11-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well, after 5 rain-filled and windy days in Ko Samui on the east side, we tripped it over to the west coast of Thailand to Phuket, in hopes of finding sunshine. However, the same weather pattern seemed to be hitting all of southern Thailand and ruining every tourists search for some beachtime.

However, you have to make the most of the hand that's dealt to you, so while in Phuket, we found a lovely place to stay up on the hill with a beach view and a covered porch. This meant that we could sit outside playing cards, writing postcards or reading books and not be pelted with raindrops. Prior to our arrival in Kata Beach, we had a small argument with our minivan driver, who dropped us off on the curb and told us to walk. Haha! So we recruited a taxi driver, with a fellow Nepalese couple, and were carted to Kata. This beach was a little more remote than Patong Beach - which is where all the craziness, lady-boys, the couples of old white men with young Thai girls, cabaret shows and flashy neon street lights thrive and tourists flock. This is not so much our scene but we did head there one night for the experience and to eat an overpriced seafood meal. My dad was grateful to be strolling the streets with 2 ladies, to avoid the overly agressive women loitering at the bars. Besides the experience of walking down BangLa Road in Patong Beach, there were a few moments of sunshine. We spent a couple hours down on the beach, splashing in the waves and soaking up the sun when it occasionally peaked through the clouds. But then the rains began to fall again and with the nightly downpours, water filled the streets.

We looked at the weather report for the week and it looked like rains were in the forecast for the next 6 days, so we only spent 2 days in Phuket before booking our flight out to Bangkok.

Our time in Bangkok was short. I'm not a huge fan, although it gets better each time I go back...that's 5 times now. The highlights were shopping at the large weekend market, Chatuchak. Where my dad was such a good sport and waited around patiently while my mom and I bargained and bought silks, purses and jewelery.

Then the folks set off for a boatride up the Chao Praya River and sight seeing at Wat Pho (the reclining buddha). I met up with them later at Lumpini Park, for a little bit of greenery in our lives. We also had a delightful Thai bbq dinner, where we were waited on by a ladyboy...the he/she was quite cute!

This is where there was also an elephant parading down the street that my mom got to feed bamboo to. She was scared to get too close, but the elephant had no problem extending his trunk as far as he had to in order to slurp up the bamboo shoots.

The days with my 'rents ended on the sunny beaches of Ko Samet. This is an island just 3.5 hours south of Bangkok. It's frequented by the local Thai folk on the weekend. So we conveniently arrived on a Sunday evening to avoid the crowds. It was a lovely way to end our time together and wrap up my travel adventure as well. We stayed south on the island at Ao Thien Beach, where the ladies working at the bungalows just fell in love with my dad. They called my parents "Papa" and "Mama" and in daily convo to my father I heard "Oh, Papa...you so strong. Papa...you so handsome." My mom and I just stood by and rolled our eyes. The Thai women loved to stroke his ego and he soaked it right up.

All and all, it was a good couple weeks with the 'rentals. It's too bad the weather didn't cooperate. I had really wanted my mom to ride an elephant and for us to do a couple day tours by boat or up to waterfalls. But you can't do it all and we definitely couldn't control the weather. So we'll just have to come back, and be sure to get the 7-day forecast before we leave!

Where's the sunshine??

2007-10-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

People rave about the sun and sandy beaches of southern Thailand, so what better place for a reunion with my folks, right?! Well, unfortunately for us, the weather did not want to cooperate this time around. Our first afternoon in Ko Samui, we were able to enjoy our beach front and sip cocktails on the patio furniture. However, after that, we were pretty much indoors. Good thing we got ourselves a nice and clean beach bungalow so that we could sit on our porch and watch the rain pour down and the hellacious winds blow for the next 4 days. Who wants fun in the sun when you can play cards all day, walk the beach in your raincoat and splash in the puddles?

Check out the palms blowing below (the picture is hazy from the rain that was falling) and the rain -filled streets of Ko Samui.

We got over the hopes for sun and ended up being grateful for the moments when we just had cloudy skies and sheets of rain weren't coming down. We rented a car and toured around the island. It was an experience! The car was a piece of junk and with the rains, the water would actually splash up through the floor boards. White knuckled at the wheel, my dad battled the pools of water on the road and the fellow Thai drivers in order for us to explore the island and get out for a bit.

After 5 nights and 4 full days of enduring the rain, we decided to try our luck on the west side, where we'd heard weather was supposed to be better. So we packed our bags, said good-bye to the lovely Home Bay Resort on Mae Nam beach and caught ourselves a ferry and then a minivan to cart us over to Phuket.

Yay for the Fat Kid Treats!

2007-10-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Oh yum! Every time I've talked to family at home, I've expressed my strong wants of a warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookie. Who'd a thunk that in Thailand my wish would come true. Not only was it a delight to have my 'rents arrive, but with them, they brought me specially packaged fat kid treats!! My cute cousin Katie carefully wrapped cookies from CA (serious love behind these things - wrapped in bubble wrap even), sent them to my parents before they flew out, and were successfully delivered in one piece and ready for me to devour. On top of that, my sweet little sis threw together a Halloween package with my favorite candies and I got to munch away on those as well. So even though I've been digging the noodles and rice over here, it was a special treat to get my favorite sweeties to tide me over until my return to the States.

From KL to Ko Samui: Finally Meeting up with my Folks

2007-10-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time traveling south from Malaysia all the way to Surat Thani, on the eastern coast of Thailand. I took a 14 hour train ride in a sleeper train that was quite clean and comfortable and exceeded any expectations I had. You eventually learn in SE Asia to go in with low expectations, and then you might end up pleasantly surprised! :)

After the 14 hour train ride, passing through immigration, and hopping off at Hat Yai, I'd come to the conclusion that I wasn't going to make it to the island today. I would just plan to meet my parents in Surat Thani and we would head out to Ko Samui together. In Hat Yai, I bought another train ticket, without doing much research, and ended up on a 7 hour ride to Surat Thani (the busses and minivans are both much faster). The woman at information told me it was only 4-5 hours, and I believed her. My bad! The train ride was cheap and it was public transport and we all herded on the cars like cattle, battling for a seat. I scored myself a slab of hard, wooden bench and the A/C consisted of a large open window behind my head that not only kept the wind blowing through my hair, but also let the water spray in during the few rain showers we had on the travels north. It was a lovely ride though - the scenery out the large open windows was beautiful, hilly and green. Besides a slightly sore butt, I couldn't much complain about the travels so far.

Once landed in Surat Thani train station, turns out I was not yet in Surat Thani. So I was headed for yet another mode of transport and took a 30 min. bus ride into town. Finally arriving at my destination at 7:30 pm, after taking off the night before at 8:40 pm. I was well traveled, ready for a shower and hungry for a decent meal. Scoped out a place to stay (where my bed that night actually felt as though I was sleeping on a cement floor), found some dinner at the local food stalls and then went and talked to my buddy, Lek, who I'd arranged to pickup my parents at the airport. I was supposed to be in Ko Samui, so I told him I wanted to be a surprise for my parents in the morning. And sure enough,when he picked them up and brought them back to the office, he had played right along and they were quite surprised! It was a joyful reunion with my parents and I was happy to see them. They had traveled safely and we were looking forward to some beach time together. Unfortunately, heading out to the island by ferry that day, we were only greeted with rain showers.

The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur

2007-10-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting adventure trying to navigate around this country with the Malaysian holidays in full force. Although I planned for a 10:00 a.m. bus to Kuala Lumpur from the Highlands, I was stuck on the 4:30 and due to traffic on the roads with the whole country migrating to family and friends for Hari Raya, I didn't get to KL until 10:30 pm. I was really glad that Fletch, an English boy, decided to accompany me on the journey - as I was the only white girl on the bus, and 1 of 3 females. An overcrowded bus of Malay men gawking at you isn't always the most comfortable situation for 6 hours. Once in KL, we had to find ourselves a place to rest our heads. Options were limited and after scoping out 4 sketchy places, we ended up at a crazy little place called Wheeler's just a block off Chinatown. The one thing it had going for it was a rooftop bar with a view, to add a sliver of ambiance to the less than appealing accomodations thrown at us for the night. It was definitely a evening to snuggle close to my sleep sheet and protect me from the questionable sheets below me.

A main draw in KL are the Petronas Towers, which allow only a limited number of people up them per day. So Fletch and I were up at 6:15, on a train at 6:45 and standing in line with all the other tourists at 7:15. Turns out, they don't actually issue the tickets till 9:00, so it was a long 1 hour and 45 minute wait for us. Luckily, we had a couple of chatty Malay tour guides in front of us who were happy to tell us all about their country and the sites to see in KL. Eventually, we got our tickets and rode the elevator to the 41st floor of the towers and walked the sky bridge that connects the two towers. It gave us quite a view of the city - slightly smoggy I do believe.

After the tours, I had to get down to business and find myself some transportation north. I talked to several travel agents who weren't willing to help me because I was too late to book a flight (procrastination is my middle name) and they didn't arrange bus or train travel. So I went straight to the source and figured an overnight train would be my best bet. Once at the train station, I totally lucked out and got the last seat in an A/C sleeper train. Phew! It would have been a long 14 hour ride on a hard bench seat and the warm air blowing in through the open windows on the car. It did not take me all the way to Surat Thani, but it got me to Hat Yai - the border town in Thailand, and then I'd have to figure out next steps from there.

So really, it was just a brief 24 hours in KL and I'd like to go back to Malaysia. Before heading off to my train, the Dutchies arrived (they'd stayed an extra day in Cameron Highlands). We grabbed a drink together on the Wheeler's rooftop and said farewell. They were so great! I was nearing the end of my adventure and they were just beginning, so I gave them some tips on the hot spots...which mainly consisted of recommendations on places to eat in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos!

Strolling through the Cameron Highlands

2007-10-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

With the interesting travel delays and disruptions due to Ramadan and Hari Raya, the group that I've met up with convinced me to head over to the Cameron Highlands with them. Actually, this was my only option, because the company would only take us on their holiday because there were enough of us to fill a minivan and make it a worthwhile trip for them moneywise, to haul all 8 of us to the highlands. It was actually kindof nice...like we had our own public transportation. So we said good-bye to our tropical paradise and headed out, by boat first, to the mainland and loaded up the minivan.

Well, because of the traffic on the roads from the holiday and the rain that was pouring down, our trip took longer than anticipated. We rolled into Tanah Rata (one of the towns among the Cameron Highlands) and were taken straight to the Daniel Lodge, which only had dorm rooms available. I haven't done the dorm thing yet, because I like knowing my valuables are locked up in a room, but since this was our only option, I had to say go for it. So, there was a row of like 10 beds and we all just picked one and called it home for the next 2 nights. Even though I was indoors, I felt as though I was camping, given the mattress was thinner than my thermarest I use when sleeping in a tent, and above us was a large blue and white plastic tarp to catch any rain that came through the cracks in the wooden roof. Plus, the guy that checked us in said to be sure and throw away any food we had because the mice would be sure to come and get it if we left it in our bags. Haha! This was quite the switch from my princess days at Railay Beach with Lani.

Basically, when you come to the Cameron Highlands, it's green and hilly and people are interested in seeing the tea plantations, strawberry farms and doing some mountain hikes. It's a cooler climate and it was beautiful! We spent the next day on quite the adventure. We decided to take a public bus up the road near the strawberry farm and tea plantation. Well, we thought we were on the 11:30 bus, but we just sat, and sat, and sat some more. At about 12:30, all of a sudden another bus pulled up and we had to switch over. Well, it was already overcrowded, and we didn't get seats, so we were stuck standing in the back as we weaved through the traffic up the road. And actually, the traffic jam was horrendous! Again, the craziness of everywhere we were traveling to was all a result of the holiday. The people were traveling to and from to visit family, friends, and have a few days off of work. Our bus driver would not tolerate waiting in line, so he was pulling off road and into the other lane with oncoming traffic to pass it all up. It was a crazy experience. Had anything like this happened in the States, quite literally risking each of the passengers lives, his license would've been yanked in a second! Only in SE Asia I tell you!

Anyway, we ended up hopping off the bus and doing a hike into the Boh Tea Plantation. The green terraced hills were lovely and once we got to the tea shop, we all sipped on some tea as well. It was a little bit like Starbucks, the line was out the door, but it was still a tasty little treat to enjoy, harvested right off the lands surrounding us. To the right is part of the crew, Fletch, Ed, Jeroen, Lonneca, Randy and myself.

After tea, we tried to take a shortcut to the road and got lost. We had to turn around and hike back out the way we'd come. When we finally reached the main road, it was beginning to get dark, but the area is famous for strawberries as well and I had to see the strawberry farm. Luckily, it was right off the main road. We wandered around briefly and then to make the trip complete, I purchased a 100% strawberry ice lolly (that's what the English call a popsicle). Quite delish! And rather than catching the crazy bus back into town, we opted to walk. However, somewhere along the way it started to pour down rain, and we were still 6 km from town. We flagged a cab and the 6 of us piled in (see below). The cabby really didn't have a problem with an overcrowded taxi, just as long as we all payed our way. It was quite a crazy day of transportation issues and wandering through the tea trees.

Malaysia Border Crossing and the Pehrentian Islands

2007-10-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

As you know, unfortunately, I've lost my travel partner to the States and I have now hit the road solo. Because of our time being cut short in Myanmar, I had to cross a border to avoid my Thai visa expiring before returning home. So, I headed south to Malaysia...and the border crossing was an experience. No service actually takes you across the border, so you get taken to the border by an overcrowded minivan and then you hop out and walk across the Thai/Malay border, expected to sort things out on the other side. Fortunately, there were 2 other travelers headed to the Pehrentian Islands as well, so we were able to share a taxi to Kuala Besut. But first, we had to find a bank to get the currency, since there were no ATMs or banks in the town we were headed to or on the islands. Not knowing how expensive things would be, and not knowing the exchange rate of US dollar to Ringit, trying to guestimate how much cash to pull out was more than I wanted to think about after a long 10 hrs sitting cramped in the back of a minivan. But I sorted things out and we eventually made it to Kuala Besut, but not early enough to catch a boat to the Pehrentians, which meant we stuck it out a night in this 1-hotel, 1-restaurant town.

The next morning was interesting as well. Because of the largest Muslim holidays, Hari Raya and Ramadan falling on the 13th and 14th of October, me even trying to travel anywhere on those dates was out of the question. Who knew?! So, I spent the morning frustrated and concerned about how I'd head north back into Thailand to meet my parents by the 18th. The bus I wanted to take to Kuala Lumpur was booked up until the 23rd of October. Seems a little ridiculous, huh? For 10 days, there was no bus I could get on to get me out of here. So being unable to make any sort of travel plans, I just decided to head out to the Islands and cross my fingers that things would work out...somehow.

Once out at sea, can I just say how absolutely incredible the Pehrentian Islands were! It was like I'd entered a tropical paradise.

There was nothing to do but be a beach bum, go snorkeling, and play volleyball and frisbee on the beach. And I totally lucked out and met a fantastic group of people. There were 4 Dutchies, 1 German, 2 Spaniards, 2 English and I actually found a fellow American guy who had been traveling for 8 months. It's been a super fun group and we refer to ourselves as the 'United Nations' - y'know, kinda bringing all countries together or something. And our snorkeling trip was incredible!! It is the clearest water I've ever been in and visibility is top quality. We saw sea turtles, little sharks, colorful coral, and all sorts of fishies. (the snorkeling pic below is with Lonneca from Holland)

After a full day on the beach and a round of volleyball, each evening we would catch up for dinner, which consisted of a delicious fish bbq on the beach - from the catch of the day - and then there was only 1 small bar on the island to mingle and hang out at. (this pic is with 3 English girls, Carly, Nicola and Monica and a Canadian, Jane - who I just met that night. We had a fun time dancing barefoot in the sand).

And then, how can you stay on a tropical island and not watch the sun come up one morning?! So I pulled an all-nighter to watch the sunrise on the ocean - which was beautiful. And then the real highlight came with the fact that 2 of the locals fed us their celebration food they had prepared for Hari Raya. It was incredible! It's food that they prepare special, only once a year, and since I'd expressed my hunger (surprise, surprise), we snuck into a kitchen in one of the chalets and they brought out part of their special holiday feast to share with us. Although I'm not 100% sure what I ate...some sort of meat dish and rice wrapped in a banana leaf, it was tasty!

It all seemed so surreal. Here I sat at a table, looking out on the palm trees and sandy beach, watching the sun peak through the clouds and paint the sky, and eating Malay food, prepared special for the once a year holiday, with 2 Malay men, 2 English girls and a German guy. It's quite fun to think about the types of experiences and memories that can be made when traveling.

Considering I wasn't even planning on coming to Malaysia, I'd say the Pehrentians were quite an enjoyable part of this trip so far.

Total Princesses at Railay Beach

2007-10-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we went ahead and spoiled ourselves with our recent days at Railay Beach. It was the end of Lani's trip and we'd just suffered through sickness in Myanmar, so we figured we deserved to be princesses for a few days in southern Thailand. We splurged on a nice hotel, with AC, television and a pool with an incredible view at the base of rock cliffs and green palm trees surrounding us. The weather was only so-so, with occasional patches of sunshine and then intermittent rain showers. We basically spent our days relaxing - between the pool and the beach, which is just what we needed at the end of Lani's travels and to help us mend from our illnesses.

We did a day trip to Ko Phi Phi Island, which was beautiful, but our weather was poor. I'd say the island is still in repair-mode from the tsunami, and I can't imagine how nice it must have looked before the water damage and such. But there were definitely tourists still visiting and it is on the mend. Our morning was spent in the pouring down rain, and then the waves were too high on Phi Phi Le Island to see Maya Bay, which is where "The Beach" was filmed. But we did do some snorkeling and we had a lot of fun seeing the colorful coral and swimming amongst the fishies.

And then our time together on the Southern Thailand islands was all coming to an end. On our last night together, we sat on the beach and watched the sunset - wuite romantic, huh? It was really the fitting way to end our trip, since we have been quite the cute couple for the last 3 months. :)

And then it was a sad day the next morning knowing that I was losing my travel buddy. We caught a boat together to Krabi town and then I left Lani waiting for her minivan and I hopped in a little truck, which they call the public bus, and rode into Krabi alone. I sorted out a place to stay for only $3/night - it was pretty much a prison cell with painted walls. And then I did some research amongst the travel agencies to figure out how I was going to get across the border into Malaysia.

Our Time in Myanmar - Cut Short

2007-10-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

As most of you have probably seen on the news, Myanmar is in disarray right now with the monks protesting in the streets and the outbreaks of violence by the "government." But Lani and I had already forged the path into the country before the violent uprisings started and we luckily left Yangon/Rangoon the day that actual deaths occurred. However, our time in the country was still cut short and it will be a place I have to return to one day to fully understand, appreciate and explore. With my brief experience, I did fall in love with the people. The men all stroll the streets in serongs and to be more beautiful, the women wear paint on their faces. When walking down the streets, everyone just stares at you and I've felt a little bit like a freak and a celebrity at the same time. So regardless of the endless gawking, they are absolutely lovely and given their hopeless situation with the government, I am more than impressed to see the wide smiles on their faces and what appears to be, happiness.

The rest of the country however, leaves a little bit to be desired. The roads are rough; the taxis are in terrible condition (we're talking cracker boxes with their doors falling off, that need to be jump started, and may just kill in the middle of an intersection); the streets are filled with potholes (you gotta stare at your feet when walking to avoid a broken ankle); their isn't money for power to light the streets at night so it feels quite strange even going out after dark. But I guess these are the interesting things that make traveling an experience.

As for our time in Myanmar, we spent a day and a half in Yangon, wandering the streets and visiting the Schwedagon Pagoda. That is where the thousands of monks gathered in the afternoon to protest, so we tried to avoid too much time in the area. We hopped a miserably long and hot 19 hour bus ride north to Inle Lake, Lani got hit with nausea and when we arrived in Inle, she spent the next 2 days in bed. The day she got better, I decided it was my turn to be sick. And fortunatetly for me, we'd decided to only take a 12 hour bus ride that day to Mandalay. And given the fact that Myanmar is like taking a major step back in time, the bus was extremely unpleasant and I was unable to get comfortable with my body aching and alternating between the chills and a fever. We arrived in Mandalay early in the morning and I spent the next 3 days in bed. Lani did a little exploring by herself, but given the fact that both of us had been weakened by sickness and the country can be challenging to get through, we decided it was best to book a quick flight to Bangkok and head to a doctor, where conditions would be better.

On a more positive note, like I said, the people in Myanmar are incredible! We had such good experiences interacting with them and I'm happy we got a small glimpse into their culture. My boat trip on Inle Lake was beautiful and I fell in love with our boatmen, Myasa and Meento, who were the cutest father-son duo I've ever met.

Meento is only 12 years old and was just as much a captain as his dad. And when Lani was feeling better, she wanted to hit the lake up as well, so I went again to accompany her and we had the same guides. And this time, we were lucky enough to have Myasa take us to his home - which was such a special experience to be welcomed into this family's home and meet his wife and children and share a cup of tea, sitting cross legged on a bamboo mat on their floor. The children loved having pictures taken of themselves and this experience with the family was definitely the highlight for me during my brief Myanmar experience!

Do Nothing in Pai

2007-09-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, this sleepy, little, hippie town in Northern Thailand shared some similarities with The Haight, and it was nice to have a little piece of San Fran with me for a few days. The town called Pai, is a place for one to chill and relax, if you want to. Mozy down the streets, sit by a swimming pool, hang out at the bars or grab some baked goods (which we of course did daily), take a stroll across the river to the green hills and visit the local artists at night who set up shop on the streets with all their handy crafts for us to ooohh and aahhh over. The tag line for this town is: Do Nothing in Pai. We did a pretty good job of not doing much, but we did spend a day on the Pai River rafting with a fun girl from Connecticut, Brittney, and two crazy Spaniards, Raul and Sebastian. Turns out, the men were supposed to be the strong oarsmen of the trip, however, due to their hangovers from the night before, us 3 girls really were the power behind the boat. Good thing the rapids were small, or we would've flipped for sure!

We spent the night in Mae Hong Son, another small mountain town about 2.5 hrs from Pai. The next day we rented a moto (Lani and I were feeling adventurous) and motored our way through the hills to reach Pau Sua Waterfalls. These were probably the prettiest falls we've seen yet in SE Asia, so we were glad we risked our lives on the moto. Just kidding - Lani is a very safe driver, and I was a very still passenger. Then, it was back to Pai on an extremely, curvy road (at least 45 degree angle turns) that we had to stomach, stuck in the back of a full minivan. You couldn't even try to sleep because the driver took the curves so quickly that you had to hold onto the seat to avoid sloshing onto your neighbor. And who was the smart girl who decided to eat a creme-filled powdered donut before hopping in the van? Oh, that's me, that's me!! I was glad when the ride was over and we were back in peaceful little Pai.

We had a couple more days in Pai. We had one rough night as Katie diagnosed Lani with worms. It was fairly traumatic for her as she feels she was tortured in a previous life by worms and slugs...the thought of her feeding them inside of her was not a fun one. We got meds the next day and made sure to wash all our laundry and she seemed to be in better spirits - becoming one with them, more or less. The rest was all thumbs up. Katie and Lani spent a day with the elephants, while I got in touch with my inner chi and spent a day doing a yoga course. There was a beautiful eco-friendly pool on the hillside that I hit up to catch a few rays.

And we of course, had to go out one night with the rafting crew - including our guide, Jacko. It was a super fun night bouncing around to a few bars and dancing with our friends from Spain and the river guides.

So although they say you can "do nothing in Pai," I'd like to think we did a little something and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I got to ride an elephant!

2007-09-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yay for Chiang Mai and my elephant ride! For all of this trip so far, I've been holding out for an elephant ride and we finally did it. It was quite fun. Our elephant was a female, so she was small - but that doesn't mean she wasn't the cutest little elephant of all the pack. Check out the pix!

Besides our elephant ride, we did some bamboo rafting, which consisted of sticking about 9 or 10 pieces of bamboo together and heading down the river. It also means a guaranteed wet butt.

We had several days in Chiang Mai and didn't really do much. Got massages, wandered the city, hit the markets and spent too much money on jewelery from local artists...Katie was one heck of a bargainer (yes, we joined back up with our buddy Katie), sat by a pool, and tried to avoid being completely disgusted by the large population of old, white men, who come here specifically to get a little, oh, you know.

Gibbons and Leeches and Mud, Oh My!

2007-09-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

We just spent 3-days in the world of rainforest and mud in search of Gibbons (a type of monkey). We did a trip called the Gibbon Experience (GE) and any traveler we'd met that had done the GE just raved about it, so I think Lani and I went in with slightly high expectations. We were a group of 8 people. I wouldn't say we came our completely disappointed, just glad that the trip was over.

Our group consisted of 3 Brits, 1 Kroatian, 1 South African guy (who should've stayed home - he had such an ego it was incredible!), and the 2 "dirty American girls." Because it's rainy season here, we had to trek in to the first tree house for 8 hours, through mud and rain and up slippery hills and through quite literally, mierda, for about an hour of the hike. And when you have animal feces squashing between your toes, and haven't eaten for 8 hours, I would say I probably wasn't the happiest camper. And then once we arrived at the first treehouse, it was not a place to comfortably rest our heads. The sheets hadn't been changed from the previous guests and Lani and I spent a long night trying not to move a muscle, as we slept in our clothes, covered head to toe to avoid any contact with the bedding, and quite awake as each little sound in the jungle kept us on edge. I was grateful for the morning when the guide zipped in at 6:00 a.m. and we got the show on the road. On a more positive note, it was quite amazing to wake-up in a treehouse, 150 meters above ground, and as far as I could see were green trees and the fog settling on the mountains, with the sound of Gibbons singing as my alarm clock.

We spent the day zipping around on these cables, suspended from tree to tree. You zip high above the tree canopy and it is quite an amazing vista. Once I got over the initial scare of being suspended on a cable, more than 100 m above ground, it was quite a fun day. It was kinda like we were the monkeys, and we had a great day swinging from the trees.

When we weren't zipping around, we were hiking again, in more leech-infested mud. In fact, over the course of the trip I got 2 leech bites. Yuck! I screamed like a total girl and the guide had to flick the blood-sucking beast off of me (I might be over dramatizing the event, but seriously). Proof of the blood below (near my heal) to document my first leech bite ever in my life!

For the second night in the rainforest, we switched treehouses. It was much cleaner and well kept.

The only real issues we had this second evening was that the horse bringing the food never came. So for dinner and breakfast at the treehouse, we had a tasty batch of sticky rice and boiled potatoes. Luckily, Lani and I had brought Oreo's in our backpacks and they were a delicious night cap on the evening. And our other adventure this night was the fact that we had 2 incredibly large, hairy spiders crawl around our bedding area. We had to wake up our Brittish friend, Flip, to kill both of them. They were huge! I guess we were in the jungle, but seriously, the creepy-crawlies that I was confronted with over 3 days was almost more than I could handle.

The next morning we said good-bye to our treehouse and the Gibbons, that we never saw, and hiked out to the village. We were supposed to have another 4 hours hiking out, but since it hadn't rained in the valley the last 2 days, they had sent in a jeep to pick us up and I was quite extatic to hop in the back of that baby and ride up the muddy hills, rather than walk them.

Back in the border town of Huay Xai, a shower was the first priority! Then we had dinner with the 3 Brits along the Mekong River and watched the sky change colors as the sun set over the mountains. It was our last night in lovely Laos. The next day we would cross the river to Thailand and head to Chiang Mai.

Luang Prabang and 2 Days on the Mekong

2007-09-15T05:18:00.001-07:00

We spent about 4 days in Luang Prabang (LPB), and in true Laos style, didn't really do much. The Mekong River rolls right alongside the town and there is a fabulous night market with local artisans that we strolled by nightly - and may have done a little shopping too!

LPB was a great place for us to walk around town, enjoy some baked goods at the delicious JoMa Cafe and try to find a little piece of nightlife. Although when the whole town closes down at 11:00, it's hard to really find anything happening in the streets. This sign cracked me up - and it's totally how all of Laos operates.

We did wake-up one morning at 5:15 a.m. in order to see the locals giving alms to the monks. It was quite the thing to see. About 200 monks, dressed in vibrant orange and yellow robes, walking in single file, their faces expressionless, and the people squatted on the sides of the streets to grab handfuls of sticky rice or bananas to place into their little tin containers.

That was the same day we set out for a 2-day boat trip on the Mekong River to get us to the border of Thailand. It was quite a relaxing journey and we lucked out to not have an overcrowded boat - Lani and I got 2 cushioned seats each. We felt lucky! It was a nice way to get through Laos, much preferred over the windy roads by bus. However, it did rain the majority of the trip - and we're not talking a slight drizzle, we're talking a serious downpour! Luckily they had plastic tarps that they could drape over the windows so that the water didn't rush in.

Then we arrived in the border town of Huay Xai and checked in with the Gibbon Experience office. It's rainy season, so who knows how the next 3 days are going to treat us...it could be quite the mucky walk for hours on end, all in search of the monkeys.

Plain of Jars in Phonsavan

2007-09-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this was one of those times where I found myself wondering if one can be proud to be an American? We just visited a town called Phonsavan, and saw the destruction caused by the US in one of the largest sustained aerial bombings in history. During the Vietnam War, en route back to the base in Thailand, they dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos and around 30% of the bombs failed to detonate. As a result, the country is littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO) and the UXOs are the worst in Xieng Khuang province, which is where Phonsavan is located. It's extremely sad and devastating because peoples countryside is contaminated and there are deaths occurring still, years later, as a result of the bombs that didn't go off. And when you're on a tour, and you say you're from America, and the guide just laughs and shakes his head, you really have to wonder what we were thinking years back. It would be different if the US were actually funding any type of program to try and clear the areas, but the only signs posted were from New Zealand Aid and the Brittish Mines Advisory Group (MAG).

Anyway, it was a short day and a half in Phonsavan. You really only go there for the Plain of Jars tour. There are 3 major jar sites - and nobody really knows much about them. They are these rock jarlike-shaped remains scattered on the ground that archaeologists suspect were used as stone coffins or urns. It was an ok little day tour - and we got to tromp around in some rain and mud along the way.

We dragged Katie along with us to Phonsavan. It's been fun having a third friend to accompany Lani and I's two-some.

Lazy Days in Laos

2007-09-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

After a days journey by bus, which was really gorgeous, we made it to Vang Vieng. The area is green and covered in mountains, and only one paved road weaves through the countryside between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. It made for a lovely bus ride. As we rolled into town, the sun was setting over the jagged rocky mountains and the cloud cover and little river passing through made for quite the picturesque moment. It's so peaceful and quiet and underdeveloped and the landscape is just incredible. And when we hopped off the bus, there weren't 700 moto and tuk-tuk drivers all up in our face to take us away to their "cheap, cheap" guesthouse. It was a welcomed relief and I was reminded that I just pretty much love Laos! We strolled the street to find a little hotel room in the middle of town (which means it was on 1 of 2 main streets that make up all 10 blocks of this little place).

The next morning we went tubing down the river. It was delightful! We met up with a girl from England, Katie, and two Dutch boys, Roger and Martin. The 5 of us floated the river together, hopping off at the riverside bars for drinks (Beer Lao seems to be the beverage of choice for many) and some good times on the rope swing.

Tubing filled our day and then it was a relaxing evening spent strolling down the 2 main tourist streets. We grabbed some grub, and then came upon a true fat kid treat that Lani and I just couldn't pass up. There are these little banana pancake stands that the locals set up on every corner. They whip up little banana crepes and you can put any topping on them that you'd like: chocolate, coconut, peanut, sugar, honey, lemon, condensed milk, etc. (JCJ, you'd be in crepe heaven!) It's a fat kid treat if I've ever seen one - and Lani and I ended up eating one nightly!

Another piece of Vang Vieng is the fact that "Friends" is played in every single restaurant lining the streets. I didn't even know what I was missing out on when the show was on in the States for years on end. Fortunately for me, the pouring down, rainy days in Vang Vieng allowed me to get all caught up on re-runs. I know, this is probably not the best activity to really experience the culture of Laos, but the restaurants were totally set up lounge style with pillows and cushions - just calling out to me to grab a pillow, lay down and relax, sip on a fruit shake and escape from the rain showers. Plus, unfortunately Lani got sick with some ear troubles during our stay in Vang Vieng, so we had to keep our activity levels low.

Trekking around Sapa Town

2007-09-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

What a way to end our days in Vietnam! We took a night train - my first sleeper train ever - up to the hills of Sapa, which is in NW Vietnam. It was beautiful and green with terraced hillsides, much like Dalat. And it also rained on us, much like Dalat. But it wasn't quite as cold - so that was nice. We got in early morning and really wanted to do a 2-day trek and stay with a family in a village, but we weren't sure if we'd still be able to book that on the same day. We lucked out though and had an hour to repack our bags, change our clothes and grab some b-fast before joining 2 other people and a guide for a muddy mountain stroll.

As it had been raining on us for part of the morning, the trail was super slippery. One of the guys in our group, Michael, spent the majority of the hike on his butt. Lucky for us, part of what the village people do here is send their children out to walk along with the tourists, in hopes that we will buy something from them at the end of the hike. I had the 2 sweetest girls, Ti and Mo, walk with me for hours and hold my hand and try to keep me from slipping. They had a pretty good success rate. However, at one point, I did slip and I took both of them down with me. Everyone laughed - it was quite funny. I kept apologizing to them, but I don't think it was the first time it had happened to them on the trail with a clumsy tourist. And sure enough, I wanted to buy something from them at the end of our hike. I walked away with an overpriced silver bracelet, that the silver is already chipping off of and a wallet that'll make a good souvenir for one lucky person!

Anyway, our guide, Hi, led us down the trail and we ended up hiking about 13 km when we finally arrived at the homestay for the night in Ban Ho Village. Now, this family operates with no modern day conveniences, except for a tv, which every family seems to have, no matter how poor you might seem. It's quite impressive to see how their world works. We cooked over an open fire and did dishes in the corner on their cement floor. Lani and I helped make spring rolls that night. Hi wasn't so impressed with our rolling capabilities - but anyone that knows me, knows I'm not a cook. So this was a great start for me!

We ate like kings and queens with more food than anyone would ever really eat (yes, it was even too much for Lani and I). However, we had no problem popping in like 8 fried spring rolls each. After dinner, we helped them wash dishes, we sang around the fire and then we had a dance party. The loud music must've been heard across the entire village, because all of a sudden, all the boys in the area were standing on the cement patio wanting to join in on the fun. It just took a couple minutes for them to stop being shy and then they were out on the dance floor turning tricks and doing their own little break-dance moves.

On the second day, we went to a waterfall. It was nice and refreshing!

When we returned from the waterfall, we said good-bye to our host family of 4 generations and started up the trail again. Luckily, it wasn't raining on us this time. But it sure made my legs hurt walking up hill...just another reminder of how out of shape I've gotten on this trip. I'll be sore for days! But it was such a cool experience to be hiking through the hills and staying with a village family. Sapa and the surrounding area was a high point of our adventure in Vietnam. A nice way to close the Vitenam chapter.

Setting Sail in Ha Long Bay

2007-08-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Words can't describe what a cool experience our 3-day boat trip on Ha Long Bay was. We went with Vega Travel (after an afternoon of research) and were so pleased with our guide and the tour and everything we were able to see. Our "junk"- which is what they call the style of boat we were on, was nice and clean, and our room was pretty good sized. Y'see, we'd heard horror stories about dirty boats, lost passports and luggage, and junks filled with more passengers than capacity. So we felt really lucky when we had a group size of 8 the first day, and then it was just down to 4 of us for the remaining 2 days. Doing a 3-day trip on Ha Long Bay was great advice we had received from a traveler we met in Hoi An.

The first day we took a minibus to Ha Long City - about 4 hours. Then we hopped on our vessel and weaved our way out of the junk jam to the open bay. It was overcast the first day, which was a disappointment, but it was still beautiful. We explored some caves, did some kayaking, jumped off the boat deck and swam in the water. We had a tasty dinner and then decided to play some cards with our English friends, Chris and Mark. We taught the boys how to play "Somethings Gotta Give" and they were huge fans! And if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I won! It was such a peaceful evening, sitting out on the deck of the boat, trying to see the stars peak through the clouds and looking at the lights reflecting off the fellow junks on the water. Before retiring to my cabin, I had to pinch myself because sometimes I just can't believe this is real!

The second day was pretty much all to ourselves. The 2 Spanish couples returned to Ha Long City, and we went on with our English friends and our good little guide, Ba. We went into a different bay, Lan Ha. This was our guide's favorite place because we could escape from all the other people. We went on a hike through Cat Ba National Park - and it poured rain on us. We went through a couple's little home in the park. They are the first people I've ever met allowed to live in a National Park - but apparently, they were there long before it was declared a protected area. The man had gone to the market that day, which consisted of an hour hike to the water and then a 3-hr boat trip. Quite the trek to get to the market, huh? We finished our hike, had some lunch, the sun came out, we did some kayaking and then motored away to Cat Ba Island.

We had the afternoon and evening to ourselves on the Island - free to wander around, grab some dinner, explore the uneventful nightlife that the town had to offer. Lani and I tried to hit the discoteca, but it turns out that nobody really goes there on a Saturday night. They were playing techno anyway, which explains why the dance floor was empty! :)

The next day we drove through the National Park and then we were back on a junk and headed into Ha Long City. Fortunately, we got another few hours on the boat, looking at the scenery and the sun actually came out. It was quite a beautiful trip and we totally lucked out with a fantastic guide - who really was a true delight! (Below is Captain Ba himself)

Shop Till You Drop in Hoi An

2007-08-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, for two girls who aren't overly obsessed with new clothes and shoes, we sure went crazy in Hoi An. You can't really pass up a tailor-made suit, or leather boots, or a new dress, or...ok, I'll stop. All I know is that we had to factor in an extra day to make sure we made it to all our fittings and that our clothes were finished and ready to be shipped.

Hoi An is infiltrated with tailor shops, and all the prices are competitive, so it was extremely difficult to decide where to go. The first day we spent researching, collecting business cards and talking prices and fabric quality. And then at night we prioritized the business cards and mapped out our day. The first couple days were filled with us ping-ponging from one shop to another. Eventually we got smarter and planned our fittings for the afternoon so that we could go to the beach in the morning or sit by the pool at our hotel. So in between shopping, which did consume the majority of our time, we were able to pedal out to the beach and bask in the sun and enjoy a beautiful ocean view. We did have some pool time too and really enjoyed wandering the colorful, cobbled streets of Hoi An as well. And of course, we found time to eat A LOT! Hoi An has incredible food, typical to the area. There is a shrimp wonton dish called 'White Rose' that was quite good. We were also huge fans of 'Cao Lau' (a pork and noodle dish), and actually found ourselves eating it more than once a day. But it was so good, and such a good price (like $0.70), that it just couldn't be passed up. And when were we going to be back to Hoi An to eat this food again?!

During our stay in Hoi An and also the last couple days of Nha Trang, we met a classy couple from England, Andy and Marie, who we got to spend several days with. So it was fun to hang out with them, do a little shopping, go to the beach, and grab treats in the evening together and stroll along the riverside. The town would light red lanterns at night that reflected off the river and made for quite a lovely evening on the water. We needed low key after Nha Trang, and Hoi An was the perfect little town to explore by foot, do some damage on the credit card, enjoy a little beach time in the mornings and then prepare for a downpour in the afternoon while trying on clothes in various shops. Our tailor of choice was Trang at KHOI. She did a fabulous job on our clothes and then had the postmen come to us at her shop to pack up our boxes.

I sent a 14 kg box home, by sea (yikes! check that scale below!).

So hopefully, in the next 3-4 months my package will come floating to the doorstep. That is, if these boys actually made it to the post office on that moto bike - quite a load between Lani and I. Cross your fingers for me that the box arrives by Christmas!

Sleepless Nights in Nha Trang

2007-08-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

They say you can get "stuck in a rut" in Nha Trang...and our 6 block radius of fun did end up holding us there for about 5 days...when we'd originally planned for 2. I can't really explain it, but we met so many travelers who just ended up staying in Nha Trang - and we became, for only a brief chunk of time, part of this "locals" group. It was fabulous! We did the same thing each night with the same people at the same bars, danced to the same music, watched the same sunrise, and laid on the same beach each day to catch up on some sleep. The first night we were there, we strolled down the street and bumped into who seemed to be the local celebrity, Bin. He was promoting his pub, Red Apple, and encouraging us to go for a drink. Little did we know that our one drink would lead us to stay in Nha Trang, and cross two of our other coastal destinations off the itinerary. We had such a good time meeting people, that it became what we had to do for the next few nights. The first night, we retired early (about 2 a.m.) as we had already signed up for a 4-island boat trip in the morning, and didn't want to be out too late and risk getting sea sick on the boat.

One of the classic stories of one of the travelers we met was a guy named Jason who is actually from Berkeley and was just traveling through Vietnam for 3.5 weeks. Well, that was 6 months ago, and he still hasn't left Nha Trang. In fact, he's just renewed his visa for another 6 months, and really has no plans of going back to the States any time soon. He told Lani and I that Nha Trang is his rut. Haha, I'd say!

Anyway, to make 5 long days short. We did a day out on the boat island hopping - and that was quite a fun time. Our tour guide, Dat, was a cheeseball - but I guess that was to be expected.

We ate fabulous and fresh lobster at one of the street-side restaurants at night. They grilled it right there on the bbq for us, and it was so tasty. It was huge! I think we're probably complete lobster snobs after that experience.

And then it was the same-same. Our nights out began. At Red Apple Bar we'd mingle with fellow travelers, play Jenga or Connect Four, shoot some pool and/or do a little dancing. Our friend, Bin, was always busy on the corner gathering more people to come on in for good times. Next, we'd head to Why Not? Bar and our nights were the same. We danced till dawn, went for street food at 4:30 a.m., where we'd sit in the streets at little plastic tables and on stools that kindergarten kids would sit in back home. Then we'd watch the streets fill with locals as they marched to the sea for early morning aerobics (and I mean early, because it was still dark outside), and then we'd watch the sun rise over the ocean. Not too shabby of a place to get "stuck in a rut" we decided.

The Easy Riders of Dalat

2007-08-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

Oh wow - what an amazing place Dalat was! It was the first time that Lani and I have actually been cold during this trip. It rained on us each day, and we bundled up in our fleece, gortex jackets and tennis shoes.

We stayed in Dalat for about 2.5 days. The first day we just strolled around the city and did some cafe hopping. The clouds were low on the mountains and the rain was on and off, so we couldn't fully see the surrounding mountains, green trees, and hillsides scattered with colored houses and villas that get raved about here. They call it the French Alps of Vietnam, and I could see why...and could've seen better if the clouds would have ever lifted during our stay.

The other full day in Dalat, we took a tour with the Easy Riders. The story behind these fellas, is that they're veterans of the area - been touring for about 15-18 years, and they call themselves the "genuine" or "distinguished" Easy Riders - as the popularity has picked up and there is a younger crew of drivers trying to be like them and lead similar tours. You know the good ones by their grey hair, Uncle Tom (Lani's driver) told us. Basically, our day was amazing, and it didn't rain too badly. We jumped on the back of a moto and toured the countryside and surrounding areas and villages of Dalat for about 8 hrs. There were coffee plantations forever and local produce was being grown on the hillsides as far as the eye could see. We visited a big, fat, white buddha on the hill and saw some waterfalls. We wandered through a minority village - where they still very much live off the land and operate day-to-day without any modern day conveniences. The children there were adorable - they followed us down the muddy road just saying "hello, hello."

We also saw how silk gets made - the entire process - which includes the basket weaving of bamboo to hold the silk worms. We looked inside a family's home in a village where the children were busily working on building the bamboo baskets for their after-school activity. We saw a lot and Titi and Uncle Tom shared all they knew with us. We had such a great day on the back of the motos, cruising through the countryside of Dalat - and only got rained on briefly (hence the sweet rain ponchos). It sure beat seeing the scenery through a bus window.

The next day we were up early and headed out of the rainy hills of Dalat to the sandy beaches of Nha Trang.

Highlights of Ho Chi Minh City

2007-08-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

We have successfully crossed the border and are enjoying our time in Vietnam. We spent about 4 days in Ho Chi Minh City - a couple days touring and a couple days shopping. I could already tell quite a difference between Cambodia and Vietnam. HCMC is developed with a much more stable economy - you don't see quite as much poverty in the streets.

While in HCMC:

1) You ever heard of Pho??? Well it's a beef noodle soup that is available on every single street corner - everywhere you look, you've got a Pho stand. It's super cheap, and Lani and I are eating it daily. We're going to have Pho coming out our eyeballs by the time we leave this country in a few weeks.

2) MOTOS GALORE! I have never seen so many moto bikes in my life. We could stand on the street corners for hours just to watch the chaos. And have these people ever heard of helmets?

3) We went to the Cao Dai temple - and these religious followers worship 4 times a day, 7 days a week. (My 3 hrs on Sunday doesn't seem so bad!)

4) We toured the Cu Chi tunnels - which were used by the Viet Cong (Vietnam Communists) during the Vietnam War. They let tourists climb through 100 meters of one of the tunnels, which they have already widened so that the Westerner-size body can even fit through. And I must say, I was anxiously awaiting the end of that tunnel. It was so dark inside...and such a small crawl space - I can't even imagine how they used to climb through the tunnels holding a gun and a torch to light the way.

5) We did a day tour to the Mekong Delta. It was just ok. Since we'd already done so much on the waters of Cambodia and seen the villages and how people live off the land - it wasn't something new and we felt too funneled from one place to the next as a tourist group. However, there was some delightful coconut candy that we indulged in - so we got ourselves some fat kid treats to make the trip more worthwhile. Yum yum!

6) We went out dancing with our English and New Zealand buddies - the 2nd floor of GO2 Bar treated us right until 4:00 a.m.

7) Spent some time shopping at the Ben Than market. In fact, we broke down and bought an extra bag to carry around our goods...we plan to ship a package home once we've had a few suits/dresses/clothes tailored in Hoi An.

8) We got ourselves a Vietnamese mani and pedi for the steep price of $5.00. :) It seems like a steal of a deal, but I did walk away with a battle wound...the woman made several of my toes bleed!

Before leaving Cambodia...

2007-08-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

I do believe Lani and I spent a little over 2.5 weeks in Cambodia, and we enjoyed most of it. For all it's worth, I figure Phnom Penh can just fall into the Earth and we'd all be ok. But the rest of Cambodia was beautiful and we were quite pleased with where we were able to go and the sites we saw. A few country memories include: our "relaxed" beach time in S-ville with the constant nagging of impoverished children to buy their bracelets; the mice on my pillow at our cheap hostel; the 7-people piled high on motos; the plentiful amount of moto drivers and tuk-tuk drivers constantly shouting out "madam or hey lady"; our cooking class, dancing with the locals at a wedding celebration, and the colorful monks who strolled the streets. We enjoyed the rice paddy fields and seeing how the village people live off the lands, while we motored slowly by in our boat. The cute little children running around naked and living and laughing in the muddy river that rolls by (or under) their homes. It was saddening and discouraging to see the poverty and hear the stories of broken families caused by the Khmer Rouge. But I'm grateful that I was able to come here and become more educated on what took place just over 30 years ago. It really helped me understand the current status of Cambodia, and it makes me hope the best for the people and their country. They are beautiful and kind...and I really can't say enough about the adorable little children and their smiling faces.

Before saying good-bye to Cambodia, we spent a couple more days following my Siem Reap post. We stopped overnight in Kompong Thom to visit the Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex. Feeling slightly templed-out, these small structures didn't really compare to what we'd just surrounded ourselves with for days with Angkor Wat. We hopped a bus the next day, for yet, one more night in Phnom Penh. Although we sincerely disliked this city, it certainly did end up being our home base while traveling in Cambodia. We stayed at a quaint little family run place - the TAT Guesthouse - where the children were playing on the floor with their toys, the mom was in the kitchen cooking, Grandma was sewing, and the Old Man was sitting shirtless watching the tube, while the nephew, son or uncle carried our bags up the three flights of rickety stairs to our room. It was a fine place to stay on our last night in the country - giving us a good-old family feeling. In fact, I started to get sick this night and when we arrived home at midnight, the young girl whipped me up a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. You don't get that service everywhere!

On our last night, we had to do a Cambodian bbq - which consisted of A LOT of butter and us trying to cook our own food with chopsticks (Lani has imporved tremendously). Our waiter stood by closely to help us out along the way.

Now we close the chapter on Cambodia and we are off to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in the morning. I know Lani pulled together a list of Cambodian memories, so check out her blog: www.getjealous.com/lkalemba

Temple Time in Siem Reap

2007-08-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, you may or may not know, but Siem Reap is famous for Angkor Wat and it's neighboring temples. So basically, we spent the last couple of days seeing temples. However, before our sight seeing, we rolled into town on a Saturday, so we decided to have a night out on the town. We hit up Bar Street - which is a street lined with restaurants, bars and a couple dance floors. It's apparently where you find the social scene in Siem Reap - a street thriving off of tourism and catering to the Westerners. We actualy bumped into our friend, Sam, and made a new friend, Patrick from LA, and the four of us did a little dancing at Temple Bar. It ended up being a late night, considering we were meeting our tour guide at 8:00 a.m. But hey, you're only young once!

The next morning, we met our guide, Rith, who spent the day with us in the hot-hot sun, wandering the temple grounds and teaching us all about the structures and the Buddhist and Hindu carvings on the walls, that contribute to making these temples so intricate and beautiful. Having a guide was essential - it helped give more meaning to everything - rather than just an old building on the side of the road. It was a full day though. We started with the gates at Angkor Thom, went on to Bayon, where there are 216 faces carved to form this temple - plus detailed carvings on the walls to display the way of life of Cambodians in the 12th Century. It took us several hours just exploring the grounds and hearing all about the carvings.

We went on to Ta Prohm, which is the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. I liked this one a lot because much of the stone has begun to crumble and the large roots of trees were growing over the temple walls.

And then of course, near the end of our day, we explored the famous Angkor Wat. It was beautiful and impressive and quite the spectacular structure to see. However, after a day in the heat and battling thousands of tourists for the "best" photo opp, it was all I could do to pay attention to our guide - telling us more about the carvings of gods and demons, immortality and re-births. And did I mention that two of the five towers are currently under construction - just our luck, huh?! Look at those sweet green construction tarps in the pic below. :)

So we wrapped up our day touring temples and we spent the next day just hanging out in Siem Reap. We ate some tasty pastries at the Blue Pumpkin (yum yum!) and did some shopping at the local markets - Cambodia has great silk! On our third day in Siem Reap, we got up at 4:30 a.m. to venture out to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We took breakfast with us in our bags so that while all the other tourists went back into town for breaky, we could tour Angkor Wat by ourselves (more or less) and take the type of pix we'd been hoping for. It was nice - we wrote in our journals and ate breakfast in the morning sunlight, with Angkor Wat as our backdrop. Does it get much better than that?!

Battambang to Siem Reap, By Boat

2007-08-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

This boat ride, from Battambang to Siem Reap, is so far one of the highlights of the trip. It was beautiful...and ended up being an hour shorter than we'd expected, which is nice when you're sitting on the rooftop of a boat for 7 hours, completely exposed to the sun. Plus, let us all be grateful for technology these days - as our little iPods and our sweet dance moves made the trip go by even faster.

Would you check out the width of that river? That little helper out front had to get out a paddle at times to push us off the side banks. In fact, we're lucky it's wet season, because we've heard that in dry season, the trip can take up to 12-15 hours and passengers have had to help push the boat up the river and tromp through the mud. Glad that wasn't us! Also, whenever we would come around a bend in the river, we'd have to honk the horn, for fear that we might run into the locals on their little paddle boats...and there just wouldn't be room enough for the both of us!

Anyway, the best part about it was just seeing all the agricultural lands and the way people really live out in the country. There were several floating villages that we passed through. Apparently, these people couldn't afford to buy land, so they built their "homes" on the water. The structures are built up on stilts so that the water sits below, and then they use boats to transport themselves from here to there. Or, they've just built themselves a boat - that's covered - and then it's their home and their transportation. Crafty, huh?!

Along the route, we had to drop a few people off, which meant that our boat driver would just honk the horn, and someone from the riverbank would come paddling out and pick up their mom/sister/uncle/friend. It was great! And there were several women that we dropped off who unloaded bags full of fresh produce and goodies. It was as if one woman each week made a trip into Battambang to shop for the community. It was quite cool.

Throughout the ride, I was also just in shock with the color of the water - check it out below, pretty brown, huh? Well, this is the water they use to wash their clothes in, to bathe in, to wash their food in...and if you look closely, you can see 2 little heads popping up in the water...all the children (no matter what age) are playing in the water all day long. They love it - and don't even think twice about it's murky color.

As the boat pulled into the docking station, we were all absolutely swarmed with tuk-tuk and moto drivers, just pleading with every passenger to be their mode of transport. They are so aggressive and excited, and so in-your-face, that it's sometimes hard for me to have patience with them. Luckily, our hotel from Battambang had arranged our transport and Mr. Kha sat waiting for us with a sign reading our names. We stepped off the boat with ease, through the floods of drivers and shouting, hopped in the back of his tuk-tuk and bumped down the road to Siem Reap.

It was a day for me to note how extremely fortunate I am to have a roof over my head, the ease of transportation and clean water at my access. There were several homes/huts lining the roadway into town that we saw families of 5 or 6 living in. Their bodies are piled amongst each other on the hardwood floor or kicking it in a hammock - but these people's entire homes are seriously the size of an office cubicle or a small bedroom. I left the day and the river impressed with how they live their day to day - it's quite incredible, and quite different from how I grew up - that's for sure!

A Khmer-Style Cooking Class

2007-07-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Our adventures in Battambang continued the next day (after eating bat) with a Khmer-style cooking class at Smokin' Pot restaurant. There were 10 of us taking the course and our morning started with a stroll through the local market - which colorfully displays fresh produce, but also makes you sick from the smells of live fish still flopping around and the large chunks of red meat hanging in the heat with flies swarming near-by. This was all part of the cooking-course adventure, as our chef/instructor chatted with the locals to barter prices and give us an informative run-down of all the ingredients we would be working with.

Back at the kitchen, we made three typical Khmer dishes: Fish Amok, Beef Loc-Lac and Chicken with Banana Flower soup. We each had our own little frying pan and ingredients - and he showed us what to do, and then we all did it. It ended up being way more food than this girl could eat. But I must say, for someone who doesn't cook regularly, I was quite impressed with the end result. And, included in the price of the course, we all got to take home a cookbook! It might collect dust on the shelves when I get back, but it's a fun little souvenir, and when feeling ambitious, I might just whip up a dish back in SF - that is, if I can find all the ingredients the recipes call for (highly unlikely)!

That was our morning/early afternoon in Battambang. The rest of the day we lazily strolled the streets and spent some time catching up on our journals and reading books. We repeated our dinner restaurant - the White Rose. It was so tasty the night before and super cheap - that we thought another night of $0.50 fruit shakes and a noodle dish would hit the spot. We were right! The next day we were heading to Siem Reap - on what is claimed to be the "most scenic boat ride" in Cambodia. It's about 8 hours on a boat and we'll be sitting up top to enjoy the views, so cross your fingers for a good cloud cover so I don't get too sunburned.

Ever eaten bat before...I didn't think so!

2007-07-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

In the riverside town of Battambang - the second largest city in Cambodia - Lani and I found ourselves in a small, local restaurant, ingesting bat with our fellow Cambodian moto drivers. They were all smiles, while we, well...we choked it down. In actuality, it tasted a bit like crunchy liver. Not too much taste - just definitely not something I'd choose to eat regularly. It was all about the experience, which consisted of the whole little bat body coming to the table in one piece, and we had to take off it's head and legs. Animal cruelty...possibly. But hey, when in Cambodia, do as the Cambodians do.

A Kampot Wedding and Waterfalls

2007-07-29T08:13:00.001-07:00

So it's been a few days since I last wrote, but I guess that's just because I'm too busy having so much fun! Lani and I have been shaking and moving our way through Cambodia, and since leaving our sunny days at the beaches of S-ville, we ventured SE to Kampot. Along the bus ride there, we picked up two blokes from England - Sam and Chris - who we actually ended up spending the next couple days with. It worked out well because we were all going to Kampot to explore Bokor National Park (there is not much else to do in the place), and we ended up booking a day-tour trip together. However, before discussing our national park day, let me just tell you that we hit the jackpot on our first evening in Kampot, by joining the locals at a wedding celebration. Basically, we left our hotel rooms because of the horrendous musical (if that's what you can call it) sounds that were flooding through our windows. We couldn't sleep anyway, so we figured we'd go check out what was making such a ruckus. As we stood staring, a sweet Cambodian girl with a beautiful pink, decorative prom dress strolled out to the 4 foreigners and invited us to join in the festivities. What a treat! We danced typical Cambodian style, which consisted of a 2-step, sometimes 4 if we were changing things up, in a circle around a table, and lots of funky hand movements. We did this for a little over 2 hours. We were sweating bullets underneath this circus-like tent and were totally swarmed by gnats, due to the large light that hung above the table we were prancing around. But it was such a cool experience - totally what you live for when you're traveling and trying to be a part of the culture, in some shape or form. It will be quite a night to remember. Interacting with the locals, laughing and dancing, and the little 4-year olds drinking warm beer from a straw. Quite a memory!

The next day we were off to Bokor National Park by 4-wheel drive vehicle - which really consisted of an old, rickety Nissan truck, where customers actually sat in the back of the truck bed. The truck bed was fixed up with 2 pieces of hardwood for seats and a metal bar/railing in the center of the truck bed for the passengers to hold on to. Well, it would've been fine for maybe an hour - but they forgot to mention that it was a 2.5 hr trip up the mountain. And since it's wet season here, the roads are pretty washed out and made for quite the bumpy ride. This picture only gives you a brief display of the road we traveled.

Anyway, other than the bumpy ride and sore butt for days following, it was a good day. We even did a short hike to some waterfalls - but since it's wet season, the water was flowing too quickly for us to jump in and swim.

The day's tour ended with a sunset cruise along the river. I wouldn't call this so much a cruise, as it was a crowded riverboat making it's way down the river. But it was beautiful - and it's really neat to see the Cambodian people's grass huts/homes built along the water and the children laughing and playing in the water. And it ended up being a pretty nice sunset as well, with a cloudy sky, palm trees and a winding river to take us back into Kampot.

Since our previous evenings adventure couldn't really be topped, and since we'd spent all day in the sun exploring the park and bumping our way down the road less travelled, we called it an early night. Plus, we had a 7:30 a.m. departure by bus the next morning to Phnom Penh (PP). It's funny, although neither Lani or I are big fans of PP, it seems to be our home base and central launching pad for our other Cambodian travels.

Beach time, anyone?

2007-07-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well the last 4 days of our lives have been spent in Sihanoukville (we call it S-ville because we can't begin to pronounce it correctly). The town is in SW Cambodia along the Gulf of Thailand. And we have been total beach bums!! It's been fabulous just chilling on the lounge beds, playing on the white sands beach, and swimming in bath tub temperature waters. The only downside, Cambodia is very poor, and you cannot escape the beggers and children who want to sell you things. They stroll the beach all day and make you pinky promise that "if you buy later, you buy from me, ya?" And apparently, I have this sign that says I want to be touched, because they all leave Lani alone, while I get my arms caressed or my feet touched in passing. Weird! So although it's beautiful here and we've really enjoyed our time, it's not your typical relaxing day at the beach. We're on guard, as only one of us can go into the water at a time, while the other keeps an eye on the bags.

In fact, just last night, we made a few Cambodian friends at our restaurant. One of which just "stumbled" upon a Vietnam Lonely Planet book. He tried to sell it to us - we didn't need it. But there was a postcard inside, and he gave it to us as a "gift." Turns out, about 20 minutes later, a customer in the restaurant was looking for his Vietnam LP book that he'd just set at the bar. We were in shock! And felt slightly sheepish as we handed him over the postcard that he was looking for as well. How were we to know that the postcard was stolen...and from someone who was currently dining in the restaurant. And I don't think its done out of maliciousness, but their actions just define the current state of their situations here. They need to eat, they need to live, and this is how they've learned best to do it. This country is definitely the most poverty-stricken place I've been to so far in my life, and it's a lot to take in and try to understand.

On a different note, we really did have a wonderful evening last night. We had fresh grilled Baracuda and Chicken Akon (a typical Khmer dish) and sat right on the beach for our dinner. There were light thunder storms and lightning over the water, which lit up the sky. Food service is quite slow here, so we took some cards to play while we waited for our food. This was such a great idea because it ended up attracting about 4-5 Cambodian boys to our table who wanted to learn how to play, or to teach us how to play their games. Besides some game playing, we were both told our fortunes with the cards (there is someone here who loves me and I am very happy in Cambodia), and we were also taught how to count to 10 in Cambodian - which Lani and I have now successfully mastered! We played cards with them until around 11:00, when the rain began to fall and push us off the beach into the bamboo hut/bar. We met a little guy (he was actually 19 - but looked about 12 - and was just a nitnoi breakable thing) who wanted to show us some dance moves, so we hit the dance floor with him. It was a fun time! And of course, even with the rain outside, we were still sweating like crazy. Anyway, come to find out, he lives here and works at that restaurant and just sleeps upstairs above it, with all the other staff. I don't know when anyone who works at the beach shacks in S-ville sleep because the bar was busy and is open late, and then by 7 a.m., they are out on the beach setting up lounge beds and recruiting people to their place. It's such a totally different lifestyle - and this is the off-season for this beach town.

Anyway, we're off to Kampot - which is a 2 hour bus ride East from here and the road is not paved - so it's sure to be a delightful trip. We will be venturing to Bokor National Park, which is supposed to have some pretty beautiful waterfalls. We hear technology ain't great down there, so it may be a few days before I'm back in touch. So until then, know that all is well, Lani and I are having a great time, and the adventure continues...

Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields

2007-07-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well, so now we are in Cambodia. And it is a totally different scene than Thailand. It is a very, very poor country and there is a lack of jobs and the majority of people just stand/sit idle in the streets - or sleep in the streets, just waiting for another day to pass. The children are taught to beg - in English - and it totally breaks your heart. However, we have been instructed not to purchase things from them or give them money, as it just perpetuates the problem and keeps the children from school. So needless to say, our arrival into the Phnom Penh airport was greeted with taxis, tuktuk drivers and motos, all up in our faces to take us into the city for the "cheapest" price. The constant begging and poverty of Cambodia is overwhelming and begins to wear on you eventually - and I have only been in this country for 5 days thus far.

So, we could only take one day in Phnom Penh at this time. We went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda...which is yet, another Buddha for our enjoyment. :) We also went out to the Killing Fields - which upon entrance you see a large white structure with over 8000 skulls, serving as a memorial to the approximately 17,000 men, women and children who were executed in PP by the Khmer Rouge just 30ish years ago. It's quite disturbing to me that just 30 years ago something like this happened here. There is a museum in PP that will educate us about it, and Lani and I plan to go back there, as it will likely help us understand Cambodia's past and present.

We did have a drink at the FCC (per Veronica and Liz's recommendations - nice tip!). I drank coconut milk out of a coconut shell - my first time - and watched a sunset over the river and the impressive flow of traffic below. I don't know how they do it, but between cars, motos and tuktuks, they seem to make it work - going opposite directions on the same side of the road and people just take a stroll out on the street and the vehicles will go around you. It's quite a scene that I can't really describe.

The next day we were off to Sihanoukville - which is a small beach town on the SW coast of Cambodia. It was only a 4 hr bus ride and there's no real adventurous stories to tell about that yet - though I'm sure our bus travels will bring something to write home about soon. We're still here in S-ville and plan to enjoy our 3rd day on the beach. I'll let you know how the suntan is coming along...

Bangkok in a week

2007-07-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

We made it! Lani and I successfully reunited in Bangkok and we haven't stopped sweating since our arrival. I know that I am slow to post, so I will make this short and sweet and try to encapsulate the major points. We spent a couple days in Bangkok - lots of traffic, horn honking and cement buildings to give it a real BIG city feel. We played tourists one day with a boat trip on the Chao Praya river (which is on the western side of Bangkok) and saw Wat Pho - the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand and visited the Grand Palace/Emerald Buddha. There's a lot of Buddha going on in the lives of Lani and I these days.

We did a quick weekend trip up to Kanchanaburi which is famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a nice town - an escape from the city and madness. Not to mention, you can't really complain about a $5/hour foot massage now, can you? Also in this cute little town we dined out on the floating restaurants, which was quite an experience. We ordered "chicken" coconut soup. Turns out chicken translates into squid, scallops, shrimp, and several other sea creatures. Oh well, the food is all a part of the experience.

As most of you know, Lani and I aren't too keen on planning. We are not really planning this trip, just letting it take us where the wind blows. Well because of that, we couldn't get a flight out of Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia until Wed. Therefore, we had a full day left in Bangkok and we decided to go to Ayutaya - which is the old capital of Thailand and pretty much just has a lot of ruins - as the temples/structures were destroyed during a Burmese invasion. It's in the "1000 Places to see before you die" book, so we just had to go. When we got back, we realized that it really made no sense to even go to sleep that night, since we had to catch a bus to the airport at 4 a.m. So, it was our first night of going big, and let me tell you, we weren't so impressed. Here, on the main backpacker/tourist street called Khoa San Rd, the bars/dance clubs closed at 1:30. What?! We were utterly disappointed with the night scene here, but since we'd run into a few Irish fellows, they took us down the street for some drinks and pool - which did end up successfully biding our time until 3 a.m.

And that pretty much captures our first week of travel...and did I mention, we're still sweating?!