ehall

Where I've been... Hi all. I know it's been a while since I last wrote. I had been flirting with the idea of doing some dive training while I was in Thailand, and after knocking out my Advanced course, decided to stick with it. I heard about a mid-sized dive shop (there are ~48 different outfits here) on Koh Tao from a girl I was traveling with in Laos a few months back and decided to give them a go for some of the shorter courses I needed to complete before I could take any pro courses. So Davy Jones Locker, or DJL, was to become my new home. Initially I stayed in a small wooden bungalow on stilts right across from the dive shop. Pretty rough, but the convenience was nice. Even with a ... read more

After Phenom Penh, we headed to Siem Reap, considered by many to be the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism and hundreds of temples dating back more than 1,000 years. New Riverside hotel is a solid choice for ~$15/d a night, including a pool out front which is a welcome relief from the intense Cambodian mid-day sun. They also offer a free tuk-tuk to the Central Market, about 800 meters down and across the river on a very boring road. Central Market was cool, once you got away from the food section - my Western nose had some trouble in the enclosed spaces. Clothes, bags, packs, bolts of fabric, DVDS, carved and other random tourist chachees. Some great little alleys of densely packed restaurants - Indian, thai, western, all 30 feet apart. A little more $ than ... read more

After a longer-than-expected stay in Luang Prabang, I had to make up time on the rest of Laos. Truthfully, it wasn't that tough as nothing else really compared. My next stop was Vientiane, the political capital of Laos. There were some nice temples and restaurants, and guesthouses were plentiful, but for a bit more than LP. A lot of construction equipment was pushing dirt around on the Mekong riverbank, and I think in a few more months they'll have a nice little park-atmosphere going on there. Not so much right now, but the view of the sunset is pretty nice. Also I want to plug a cool restaurant I found. It's a cause-organzation that takes in Lao street kids and teaches them hospitality industry - hosting, serving, culinary skills. There were a number of options along ... read more

The bus to Laos left Sapa early and was to take about 10 hours. I hadn't slept well the night before, so I figured I could catch a few hours on the ride to Laos. Boy was I wrong. I've been on rough bus rides before, but this one was comically brutal. I also had a seat behind the rear wheels which means that we got an extra spring on every bump in the road. The road was the worst I've seen, yet that will soon not be the case. On the entire journey from Sapa to the Laos border you could see a modern road under construction several hundred feet up and back on the mountain. Staggeringly large amounts of concrete had been poured to retain the terrace needed to support the road, and bridges ... read more

I know I've been quiet the last few days, but I've been in Sapa waiting for the weather to clear. Part of the downside to traveling in the rainy season - it's been solid fog for four straight days. The scenery in Sapa is reputed to be stellar, so I decided to kill the last few days in my visa and hold out for a good one. Finally today the sun broke through. And worth the wait it was. I rented a small motorcycle and took it out for a 5 hour spin on the twisting mountain roads. Incredible scenery - terraced rice paddies, indigo, and a little farther out some amazing mountain views. Some of the roads were a little muddy in spots. A big push to modernize roads is clearly evident, but there is ... read more