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Published: November 22nd 2006
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BBQ on the river
Stopped for a BBQ lunch... tried some snake...tasted like fish Hello!
Hope all is good... heard Vancouver was with power for a few days... I’m guessing the weather for most of you is started to get cold! After Vang Vieng a headed to Vientiane... I did a combination Kayak and Bus trip. They drive you for 1.5 hours then you get into a Kayak. The Kayaking was pretty fun... I had my own little tippy Kayak... they are open kayaks so they fill up with water very easily... I expertly navigated the rapids without filling out! The kayaking lasted about 4 hours and after that we got on a bus for 1.5 hours the rest of the way to Vientiane. I spent three hour in the Laos capital... I used one of the few ATMs in the country then got a ride to the bus station and buy a ticket for the night bus down to Pakse. I arrived in Pakse at about 8am... I went straight to the southern bus station and bought a ticket on the songtao to Champasak. The bus didn't leave until around 10am... I had some food and watched the sellers in the market harass people. The ride was pretty funny... on the way the truck
stopped and the locals on the bus bought there groceries from venders circling the truck. Rented a bike from my guesthouse and explored the area. Went to Wat Phu which is a temple from the Angkorian period... it's build up on a mountain and has a beautiful view from the top. The next morning I head back up to Pakse... tried to organize a visa to Vietnam but it was Saturday... so no dice. Decided to head to 4000 island and figure it out later. Met a bunch of people on the songtao to the town with the pier... we decide to go to Don Det island. Got a guesthouse for $1.5 right on the Mekong with a nice Hammock... I made this my home for about 5 days. Met up with my friend Jay that night by surprise... we drank with a good group at the guesthouse... some eastern European did a swan dive off the balcony of the restaurant of our guesthouse into the Mekong! We rented bikes a couple of days and explored the island and the one next to it Don Khon... the chain on my bike broke... had to walk a couple hours to get
Ferry across the Mekong
The ferry was three old boat bolted together! it fixed. The best thing we did on the island was go for a barbeque on an isolated island... lots of food, beer and Lao Lao! Left Don Det on the 9th of November and headed to Cambodia. The border crossing is right in the middle of the jungle... has a bit of an adventure getting there. We took a minibus to Stung Trend in Cambodia... met up with a Swiss girl and hired a taxi all the way to Phnom Penh... a little expensive ($15) and little crazy but we got there 6 hours faster than the bus! Stayed on Phnom Penh for 6 days... I really like the city... we stayed at the lake in the middle of the city. The GH was right on the lake... it was very relaxing and pretty for a city. We went to S-21 musuem and the killing fields ( two sites of mass killing during the Khmer Rouge's reign in the late Seventies)... pretty sick what humans are capable of doing. We went to one of the many orphanages in Phnom Penh... four of us bought the kids food and school supplies... we spent about 6 hours playing with the kids...
The bus station
The Pakse bus station, like most station in laos also doubles as a market the kids were really cool and it was a good experience. We explore many other things in the city... National musuem, Royal palace and the russian market. We also saw a lot of Phnom Penh's night life... went to an all Cambodian night club and indulge ourselves at La Royal hotel during happy hour. I met up with my friends Mick and Conor on the last night and had a good night out. On the 15th Jay and I left Phnom Penh and headed for Siem Reap and the Angkor temples. We spent two full days exploring the many temples around Angkor... we even got up at 5am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. The temples are amazing... we didn’t even see all of them... at the end of day two they were all starting to look the same. Spent the last two days in Siem Reap just relaxing... tomorrow I’m headed off to the north of Cambodia on a moto for a couple of days to see more of the country side... should be fun!
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amy
non-member comment
still travelling vicariously thru you!
ian, everything looks and sounds amazing. glad you're loving it. take care of yourself.