We're back in Koh Lanta after a brief trip to Krabi town to pick up Lauren, our honored guest (and Leslie's sister). It's been fun having another traveler to hang out with-- we were getting pretty tired of hearing our same stories over and over again! ;) We've been having some silly experiences since the three of us got together... must be something in the Koch genes that makes crazy things happen! Or it could just be that we're in Thailand, always good for some laughs... After a laid-back New Year's spent drinking Singhas and watching fireworks on Khlong Dao beach, [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Looking for a change of pace, we booked an overnight train from Hue to Hanoi instead of taking the (easier and cheaper) tourist bus. We've been burned by transportation in SE Asia before, so we were a bit skeptical of the train and feared we might end up sleeping on a hay sack in a car full of chickens. However, since Vietnam isn't Laos, this was not the case! The beds were a good size, the sheets were clean and the train was pretty quiet. We did get slightly screwed, but by other Western backpackers, not the system... a group of [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Our 10 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City went by quickly and relatively comfortably (we were assigned the dreaded back row seats but fortunately were able to move, since the bus wasn't full). The Sapaco bus dropped us off right in the center of the backpacker area (Pham Ngu Lao neighborhood) and there were hundreds of budget hotels within walking distance. We checked out several and settled on a generic $15 room with AC and satellite TV, mostly because we were too exhausted to look around any more. We've become obsessed with hotel-shopping; it's our new [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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We left Siem Reap feeling like all the reports about aggressive touts and street kids were totally over-exaggerated; we were barely bothered by any touts, just the usual (ignorable) shout-outs by tuk tuk drivers. But when we got to Phnom Penh, we realized the true scope of the problem. Beggars and vendors alike, of all ages and (dis)abilities, hang out in the tourist areas and make their rounds through the outdoor cafes, stopping at each table. They have a more aggressive sales pitch here than we've seen before; if you say "no thanks", they ask "why not?", try to extract a [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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We've finally found a fast internet connection in Siem Reap, and it turns out it's at our hotel. Woop woop! So we've uploaded the rest of our Laos photos, including some shots of the Elephant Tower experience in Ban Na. Just to fill you in on the rest of our Lao trip: We planned on picking up a bus or sawngthaew from Ban Na to Na Hin, which is the gateway to the limestone caves at Tham Kong Lo. (Confused by the Lao names yet?). A sawngthaew, which is basically a pick up truck with a bench in the back, stopped [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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