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Published: December 26th 2007
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Wattay Airport
Vientiane, Laos Well, we are finishing up these last blog entries from back home in San Diego. It was hard to find the time to update the blog during the final days of our trip since we bounced around from city to city. Nonetheless, for completeness, here is a synopsys of the final days of our trip.
Vientiane, Laos - December 17th to December 18th
We left Luang Prabang and headed for the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Vientaine struck me as just another prototypical Asian city. It wasn great, it wasn horrible, it just...was. We visited a few sites in Vientiane such as Wat Sisaket, Wat Ho Phra Keo, That Luang (Royal Stupa - now it used as a symbol of Laos), Patuxai (Anousavary - Victory Monument) and Wat Xieng Khouang (Budda Park) which was about 45 minutes from the city. We visited and had lunch at the restaurant by the river outside the city which was recommended by our friends in Luang Prabang. We also visited the morning market and purchased at few t-shirts. Since our hotel was at the center of city, we walked around city at night and had dinner at couple restaurants. We also visited Stevens old home
Lao Plaza Hotel
Vientiane, Laos in Vientiane and visited his cousin. On our final night, we had a chance to play tennis at National Stadium in Vientiane. It was very nice to play tennis and met the tennis people in Vientiane.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia - December 19th
Next, we landed in Phnom Penh. We didn actually stay in Phnom Penh. Instead, we scheduled our flights to include a lay-over which would give us sufficient time to visit the Toul Sleng museum. Toul Sleng was a school which the Khmer Rouge turned into a tourture camp. When the Vietnamese ousted the Khmer Rouge in 1979/1980, they turned Toul Sleng into a museum/memorial to the thousands of people tourtured and killed there. This is truely a somber, sobering place. Inside, you can still see the blood stained floors along with pictures of the victoms. I still can get some of those images out of my mind. It is amazing what people will do to fellow humans just to retain power...
Siem Reap, Cambodia - December 20th
Next we took a short flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap to tour the Angkor Wat temples. The city of Siem Reap was nothing to write home about
Wat Sisaket
Vientiane, Laos but the temples were really amazing. The scale of the place was impressive and the carvings were so detalied. Since we only had one day, we didn have time to visit all of the sites. Nonetheless, we hit the highlights including the main Angkor temples and Ta Promh - the temple made famous in Tomb Raider.
Bangkok, Thailand - December 21st to December 22nd
The last leg of our journey was in Bangkok where we planed to hit a few spots but mostly relax before taking the long flight home. We stayed at the Millenium Hilton because I had some Hilton points I needed to use. We upgraded to Executive Suite which included continental breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktails in the Excutive loung floor which overlook the city from the 31st floor. Wow - what a nice place! I wasn really expecting much out of our stay in Bangkok as Steven and I had already hit most of the highlights in our last trip to Asia. This hotel, however, turned our stay in Bangkok into a really relaxing few days. Their "Beach" pool is situated on the 4th floor overlooking a bustling river and each room has a
Wat Sisaket 2
Vientiane, Laos panaramic view of Bangkok. Great place to stay while in Bangkok!
Flight Home - December 23rd
We finally boarded our flight for the long journey home. Our trip had come to an end. I will really miss the daily sense of discovery that comes with this kind of tirp. I will also miss the beutiful beaches of southern Thailand and the gracefulness of the people throughout south east Asia. It was a great experience that Steven and I will remember for the rest of our lives. Thanks for sharing our journey with us!!!
Until next time..... Europe, South America and South Pacific (Tahiti, Australia and Bali).
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