Unlike my morning of vomiting on a boat and paying too much money to take a nap, my bus ride turned it all around. I got picked up in a van and then taken to a bus, which took us to a bus. They assigned me a seat next to a British guy, and we started talking. His name is Aaron, he's traveling for a while, he's an artist who makes really cool things, and I told him he should start selling notebooks. We spent the beginning of the ride chatting and showing each other pictures of our dogs and making fun of the dramatic Cambodian music videos playing in the front of the bus. Then, out of nowhere, they started playing Apocalypto. Which is super appropriate for a bus. I asked Aaron, “what does the ... read more

The bus to Siem Reap picked us up on time. At 7am Diana, Hayley, and I piled into a van to begin our 7 hour journey (only 7 hours!). The van drove us a few minutes into the center of town where it stopped and waited for other people for an hour. That was fun. The ride itself was mostly uneventful, as far as Southeast Asian bus rides go. We stopped every few minutes to let people on or off. Sometimes we were squeezed in 4 to a 3-person seat. I was sitting next to a really smelly Slovenian man. A little Cambodian girl sitting on her mom's lap got sick all over the van, her mom, and the person next to her (who they seemed to know, at least). We had to stop to take ... read more

Ken and I walked into the bus station in Vientiane to get on our sleeper bus to the 4000 Islands, also known as Si Phan Don. Ken had gotten his ticket from a different place than I had. We ended up trading with people to get seats next to each other because I had movies and snacks. We heard the bus was leaving at 7. It was 6:50. The guy at the counter told us the bus was leaving in 10 minutes, once the last people arrive. Whatever that means. The guys on the bus said 8:00. We had no idea what time the bus was leaving. We found some Brazilians taking the same bus as us and got noodles with veggies, which turned out to be delicious. We decided to just get on the bus ... read more

The morning we crossed the border, we had to get up wicked early. The Mekong River was completely covered in fog, and it was a chilly morning. Everyone was really excited for the slow boat because fog always provides a wonderful view. We piled into a tuk-tuk that took us to the Thai border, which was easy enough. Hand them your things, get a stamp, and then pay 20 baht (which very few of us even had left) and take the bus over the Friendship Bridge to the Laos border. We got to the Laos border and filled out immigration cards and waited in line to hand over our passports and photos. The way we got them back was by clumping around a window while a woman held up each passport. You craned your neck, and ... read more

I flew into Bangkok on December 17. Why do I remember the date so vividly, you may ask? Why, only because it was the PREMIERE OF STAR WARS IN THAILAND. Sylvan and I had booked accommodation back in Vietnam, and he was supposed to arrive around 2:00. I arrived in the morning and took a taxi to the guesthouse, which was run by a really sweet Thai woman named Joy (aww). I set down my bag and then got to my first priority: finding the nearest cinema. Thankfully, it was only two stops away on the sky train, so I went and got tickets for the 4:10 showing so that it would give Sylvan a little lee-way, should his bus be late. I got some Thai noodles for really cheap at a very sketchy restaurant (as ... read more