Cambodia

Cambodia began as an adventure. The border crossing from Laos was a bit of a hassle, but we did make it without paying any more money or being left anywhere other than planned. We went straight to Phnom Pehn, because that was the closest ATM and we were almost out of cash. We stayed there for a few days. We learned about the Cambodian history, which is enough to make run through most emotions within a matter of minutes. The first portion of this blog is not very pretty.

We went to S-21 Prison which was the main prison and interrogation center for the Pol Pot regime. All but 6 prisoners that went through this prison were executed, not all prisoners were adults. Thousands of children were also killed and not included in the body count of 10,500 to come through the prison. The prison used to be a school. It had large classrooms that had crudely constructed brick or wooden cells in each room, except for the "interrogation" rooms which consisted of a bare metal bed alone in the center of a room with a table next to it containing "interrogation tools". One of the buildings had pictures of all the prisoners that had come through.


This is a photo of a mass grave from "the killing fields". I cant even count how many there were in this one location, each marking the death of at least 100 people. They did not gas them, or many times even shoot them, to save bullets they cut their throats or bludgeoned them to death. In the few years during Pol Pots regime 3 million Cambodians were killed. 20,000 of these at the killing fields. Towards the end of his regime in 1978 up too 300 people a day were taken to the fields and killed.
They had constructed this memorial to pay tribute to those killed in the fields by the Pol Pot regime. The memorial was filled with all the skulls they had collected from the mass graves when they were excavated.

After the extremely tragic and disturbing education we received in Phnom Penh we headed north to Siem Reap. The Angkor Wat Temple complex is known as one of the Wonders of the World, right along side the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza. Truely this is one of the more spectacular moments of our journey.



We took three days to explore the temples. Because we were able to take our time we were able to see most of the temples without a ton of other tourists. You were much more likely to enjoy the temple and feel the piece of it by being in small crowds.



There were a few temples were the trees were taking back the land. They were incredible. They did cause the temple structures damage, so much of the time walking through the tumbled stones and half walled corridors.


Most of the carvings were worn and faded, but one temple, an hour outside the complex, had carvings in near perfect conditions. The detail was indescribable, with carvings on every stone that was used in the building.


Look closely and see if you can "find the Tony" amongst the Japanese Tour group.



Our three day journey around Siem Reap was a dusty experience on the back of the Tuk-Tuk adding to this we walked about 6 hours a day through the labyrinth of Angkor ruins. We were dirty birdies by the end of the day.


An incoming storm, unfortunately we have followed the rainy season for the last 10 months so this sight was nothing new to us. Still watching mother nature lay her blanket of moisture over the Angkor ruins was unique enough for a picture.


Its nice to enjoy the sunset with your loved one next to you and the hoards of other people taking the same picture as you. Makes you feel really special, like your the one of the only 400 people on this day to see this special moment. :)







This is Siem Reap tourist area lit up at night. It was here that we have had the best Mexican food we have had since leaving the states. Happy days. We ate there for four nights for dinner, mmm chicken chimichangas!!! Our friend Iaan enjoyed the changas with us for three nights and one lunch. Here is a kodak moment after a changan diner.

Laos

Our journey through Laos began once we said goodbye to Uncle Keiran and Nam and crossed the Mekong on a small boat. The next day we boarded a boat filled with about 150 backpackers for our 2 day trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The boat trip consisted of laying around and drinking for two days. Tough ride.

Luang Prabang was an amazing city with incredible charm. The night market was amazing, you could have easily bought one of everything from the home spun silks to the jars of whiskey with snakes and scorpians (they are supposed to add an extra bite). We ate grilled fish and chicken at the street stalls with the group of people we met on the boat.


All the bars and resturants closed by 12, but there was an "after hours" option... and that was bowling. Bare foot, drunken bowling.

We took an hour ride in a tuk tuk to the Kuang Si waterfalls. Easily the most beautiful waterfalls we have seen, and we have seen a lot.

This was the main falls, which we walked up a misty, slippery hill to see from the top. Passing through a number of smaller falls and streams, amazingly with out slipping.

There were numerous teirs and terraces, all with crystal clear pools at the bottom that begged to be swimmed in. It was chiily, but worth it.

We broke off from the group we were with in Luang Prabang and took a side trip to Phonsavan to see "the Field of Jars". The night before seeing the jars were stumbled across a group of men playing bocce ball. They invited us to play and put glasses of beer in our hand. One of the men had a microphone and drunkenly narrated the event. It was good fun, and our introduction to Laos style drinking. There is only one glass, they fill it and hand it to you, you have to finish it before anyone esle can drink. When the wives came to collect their husbands we called it a night. The next morning we began the exploration of the fields.

The scenery was beautiful, but much of the land was unusable due to unexploaded mines and bombs dropped by the US during the Vietnem War. The new sprouts in the rice paddies were shades of green that we have never seen before. The greenest green we could imagine.

The "Plain of Jars" are a unique and unexplained wonder. They have theoris about their use as burial markers but no one knows for sure what they were there for. There were hundreds of stone jars at three different sites, all in amazingly beautiful countryside. All the sites had to be cleared of the bombs to allow tourists to visit the sites and had clearly marked paths that were known to be clear. Walking through the jars was an experience we were glad we made the trip for. It is on the list to become a world herritage site. Some of the stone jars were as big as a small car, while others were big enough to put a small child in.

Along the way we stopped at a local distilery of the lao lao rice whiskey. The education was almost enough to stop us from partaking in the whiskey...almost.

We caught up with the group we had been traveling with in Vang Vieng but the photos were lost later when our unbreakable underwater camera broke when we took it underwater on our road trip. Vang Vieng was a backpacker party town with unlimited "special" menus and Friends episodes at all the bars. We rented motor bikes and rode to a nearby cave. After all of us lugging our butts up the hill in the heat and slippery mud the cave was too hot, dark, and cramped to explore properly, so we went swimming in a nearby swimming whole. On the way back we were caught in a down pour and drove through the rain. Vang Vieng is known for its river tubing, we supplemented this for the Plain of Jars. Historical for drunken tobachery I'd say in the long run it was definietly worth it. Leaving Vang Vieng we headed south to Vientiene, Laos capital city, to see about getting a visa for Cambodia. Turned out we get the visa at the boarder and didn't need to stay in the town at all. Stayed at a what seemed to be nice hotel, until at 2 in the morning we were woken by unfriendly bed bugs making a feast out of us. Then as we left they tried to charge us 13 dollars for the room instead of 3. I know that sounds like nothing, but in a country where the average wage is 20 dollars a month its rediculous. After stupid haggleing we got the price droped to 7.5o and we headed south again towards Pakse to meet up with the group. At the same time we said our good byes to Karra and Ned who were heading to China.

So with the bed bug town behind us we floated into Pakse with no problems. From there we rented motor bikes again for a three day loop through the countryside. We stopped at waterfalls, ate noodle soup at tiny food stall on the side of the road, and slept at little guesthouses we found along the way. On the second day we were caught in a downpour that lasted nearly an hour. The best part about the downpour was where we were stuck, a small snooker club. When we say small we mean 1 table surrounded by 8 locals and 9 soaked tourists and 2 snooker tables all enclosed in two rooms the big enough for just that and no more. It also just happened to be Stephanie's birthday. The day was filled with silly songs of happy birthday, laughs and Beer Laos.

After Paske we all jumped on the bus and headed south to the Four Thousand Islands. The best thing about Don Det is Don Det. No electricity after 10 pm and no worries (Bo pen yun)(spelling pending) for the hours before. Your day consisted of testing your hammock's pendulum swinging abilities and reading a good book. Our plot was the Sunset Bungalows and they hold true to their name. The nights were kicked off with natures kelidoscope and they ended with Laos Loas Whiskey Mojito smiles.

If ambition hits you at just the right time in Don Det you can rent bicycles and travel around the islands to see things like waterfalls and river dolphins. Well believe it or not Emma was cohersted onto a bike!! Here you have her trying to avoid the camera.
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have BBQ's, well kind of. The difference is that with these bbq's you get a soup, eggs and noodles. As the shirt says "Same Same but Different".

The theme song for Laos, that was sung sparatically throughout our time there by everyone we were traveling with, was the Simon and Garfunkel song "li li li" because thank you in Laos was kup chi li li. "Kup chi li li, li li li li li, kup chi li li". There were numerous verses to the song including all the terms we knew in Lao... good times. We loved Laos and could have easily spent another month there. Stephani, Miki, Kaara, Ned, Saar, Kris, Pascal(Ruud), Matthieu, Vincent and Stefan all made the experience in Laos much more fun and eventful! Thanks guys!