When we arrived in Bangkok after our flight from Hanoi, we were excited and relieved to be back in Thailand, where everything is just a little bit easier than the rest of SE Asia. There are at least three bright and shiny 7-11 stores on every Bangkok street, and even the smallest of Thai towns has its very own 7-11. It's great being able to buy water, deodorant, snacks and other important stuff at set prices and not leave a store with the distinct feeling you are getting ripped off. Our love for 7-11 is on par with Harold and Kumar's obsession with White Castle ;) But anyway... Bangkok For our return trip to Bangkok, we chose a hotel a bit further from the touristy areas of Sukhumvit and Banglamphu, our former haunts. We booked the ... read more

We've been enjoying a very comfortable and easy stay in Vietnam. The hotels are super cheap ($10-15 for nice rooms with satellite TV) and the food is also much cheaper than in Laos or Cambodia (though not necessarily tastier). We've been taking the touristy "open tour" buses that leave from the center of one town and drop you off in the heart of the next. Almost door to door service for a couple of dollars, and relatively reliable too (they actually arrive on time and don't circle the town for an hour, looking for extra fares). Vietnam is seriously easy to travel around, though admittedly we are staying on the backpacker trail. With only a 14 day visa, it's hard to do much exploring off the beaten track. We're a bit behind on the blog, so ... read more

After taking in the sobering Khmer Rouge sites in Phnom Penh, we were in need of some R&R and headed for Sihanoukville, a popular beach town on Cambodia's southern coast. The Lonely Planet paints Sihanoukville as an untouched paradise that is on the verge of being developed. We soon discovered that in the year or two since the guidebook went to print, Sihanoukville has embarked on intense development and is getting further and further from its image as a small, laid back beach town... it is already a major resort destination and its public beaches are dwindling by the day. While Sihanoukville wasn't totally what we expected, we had a great (and relaxing) time there and ended up staying for a full week. After spending a day or two in town, we started to notice that ... read more

We booked a flight from southern Laos to Siem Reap, Cambodia since we just couldn't deal with the prospect of a long, winding overland journey across the border. We had a great experience in Laos, but we invested so much energy into every day activities (e.g. finding food, lodging and transport) that we were totally exhausted after 17 days! The airport in Pakse, Laos, was tiny, with just 2 flights leaving that day and minimal security (you have to check your firearms, but that seems to be the only security restriction). Our Bangkok Airways flight was a quick 50 minutes on a new plane, and when we got to the Siem Reap airport, we didn't even have to bribe the officials $1 each (standard for the overland crossing). However, they somehow managed to misplace Leslie's luggage-- ... read more

When we arrived in Vientiane (the capital and largest city in Laos, still only 300,000 people) in the early evening we found that every hotel and guesthouse around was booked solid. As it got dark we got a little nervous because the only place we had found was a windowless cell of a room that stank of urine and was absolutely filthy. Finally, we stumbled upon a very nice guesthouse for about $24 a night that had a room free (and HBO. Bonus!). We became very comfortable and ended up staying for 4 nights. There were a bunch of European-style restaurants so we managed to find tasty pizza and gorged ourselves! We are down to our junior high weights... the backpacker chic look. We got to Vientiane during the annual "That Luang Festival," which consisted of ... read more