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Published: February 10th 2007
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tuuuubing
vang vieng almost two weeks gone by already?!
here's what i've been up to:
LAOS:
LuangNamTha: our first introduction to Laos was beautiful. After three weeks of waking up before the sun rose and constantly moving, it was nice to stop for a second. We ate a delicious meal at an eco-friendly hotel (fried river moss, soup, and our first of many fruit shakes). We rode bikes to explore the surrounding towns and were invitied to drink, eat, and dance at a local wedding just before we got back on our bikes to catch the most beautiful sunset reflected by wet rice paddies.
LuangPrabang: fell in love with this quaint city and ended up spending 4 days here, two of which we srpung for a beutiful hotel on the river. We shopped at the night market lit by rows of soft lit light bulbs, lazed in a cafe/library/bookstore/community establishment with ginger tea, on a cold day we headed to the local sauna at the red cross where hot steam fused with laos herbs warmed us up, hung out with a very chill girl from switzerland (new country to add to my list!), explored the area on a day-long bike
ride to an elephant park and water fall with an amerian guy with a lot of energy, learned about laos and how to say cheers (nuk nok!) with our new laos friends from a local restaurant, and had a lot of french baguette sandwiches.
VangVieng: o what an interesting place, this place of beautiful mountains, caves, and rivers, then contrasted with guesthouses and bars blasting old friends episodes, simpsons, and movies to tv or otherwise zoned out travelers. We managed a motorbike on dirt roads, pushed past the tiny fear of exploring a pitch black cave with a single flashlight, found a hidden swiming spot, had a most delicious mulberry coconut shake at an organic community farm, learned so much more about my new favorit sport rock climbing, and floted down the river on giant inner tubes, stopping along the way at bars and restaurants lining the river with the biggest funnest rope swings i've ever splashed into the water from! Wefound our way to our first bungalow with a porch and hammock, but not before spending the previous night sleeping outside in the guesthouse's restaurant because they were booked! (it was a full moon, stars were beautiful, and
tired of buses...
we kayaked from vang vieng to vientienne with our guide and friend G we were right next to the river. a little cold but an experience).
Vientienne: wore myself out from the previous month of traveling. laid low for the day but only after a richly delicious french dinner of roqufort mousse, frog's legs, and steak with herbs du provence.
CAMBODIA:
Siem Reap: so far, the city with the greatest contrast between tourist industry luxury (beautiful restaurants along Pub Street lit with candles, draped with tapestries, and all boasting Cambodian dance shows with drink specials) and developing country poverty (begging children, amputees, and street corners filled with tuck tucks all vyeing/ hassling you for business). Two extremes and i quickly learned about the many tragedies and dificulties this country has suffered. We had Cambodian Amok for dinner (similar to a Thai-curry dish) served in banana leaves. The next day we were back to our old ways and up before the sun to see it rise at Angkor Wat - a site I was not expecting it was beautiful! (after we got past the groups of tourists who also had the same idea). We educated ourselves on the bas reliefs throughout the wat, climbed the steep stairs representing the difficult climb
as they say in laos...
nuk nok! (vientienne, avec la cuisine francaise) to heaven, and saw the power of nature as massive tree roots pushed through the ancient structures.
Battambang: up early again and this time for a roundabout way to get to Pnom Penh. We got on ao boat to Battambang, to ride on the river that is the source of much of Cambodia's seafood and rice. We saw floating villages, fishermen, poor villages with smiling children and a taste for Cambodia with our limited time. But, the dry season means little water, and once it got too shallow we got out and 22 people with 22 big backpacks filled one pick-up truck on the bumpy road to Battambang. I sat on the edge of the truck bed and only stayed in by clutching camille's hand. We all made it in one piece and found a comraderie in the back of the truck with the other travelers as our butts were bruised by the pot holes. The landscape was flat and dry, cracked at times, with dry rice fields, brown wooden and thatched huts, and gold and white wats. We got a shared taxi to Pnom Penh with four other cambodian men.
Pnom Penh: up early and to the
Amok, yUM!
in Siem Reap S.21 museum, a high school converted into a interrogation and killing prison during the Khmer Rouge seisure of the capital city. We walked through the museum with a guide, through holding cells, interrogation rooms with iron shackles, and documented pictures of those internned at the prison. Our guide herself was forced to leave Pnom Penh during the regime. Her daughter did not make it, and again I am constantly remided of the difficulties this country has so recently faced.
Sihanoukville: after some decompression from the sadness of the museum, we were on a bus to Sihanoukville, the beach city on the Gulf of Thailand. We found a restaurant with quiant ambience and a crazy french cook who used a local green pepper (like table pepper) from the Kampot provence, nothing like i've had before, on steak, and a shrimp and calamari bake. Today we explored the Ream National Reserve on boat, which took us to a beautiful deserted white sand beach with clear warm water. After lunch I hung stayed behind from the tour to hang out with a few of the local kids who taught me how to make the toy helicopter out of palm leaves I was
so intrigued with. On the boat ride back I put camille's binoculars to work as i started to realize i liked bird watching!? ahh!
Tomorrow we're off to explore a nearby and very unpopulated island, snorkel, beach, and stay a night in a bungalow there. Two more nights back in Sihanoukville and then retrun to Pnom Penh to catch a flight to Shenzhen, China through Bangkok.
At the last leg of this trip, and things are coming to an end fast, but determined to make the most of it! I promise pictures soon - there are a lot of great ones!
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juliet
non-member comment
miss you
I am so absolutely amazed. Its wonderful to peruse your journal, I'm so happy to know just a few places you saw. I'm sitting in a library in the cold or rural ohio dreaming of Laos and the places you've seen!