To get to From Laos to Cambodia is a simple, yet surprisingly daunting task. Although the Laos-Cambodia border is not as scam ridden as the boarder Cambodia shares with Thailand or Vietnam, the scams are still there, as always. First, the passport service scam asks to help you across the border by taking your passport to get the exit stamp for you, usually asking for an extra 3-10$…we snuck by that one. The next, the exit stamp fee scam has the Laos border officials asking for a 2$ “overtime fee” (at 11am on a Monday…) to exit the country. Once the rest of our bus happily and ignorantly paid, we were stuck paying too. Next, the “health quarantine” is the first thing you see as you approach Cambodia. Apparently it costs 1$ if you don't have a copy of your vaccination card, but it's also free if you casually walk by. I would have stopped if they asked me to, but they just charged whatever tourists stopped at their booth first. As you can see in the picture below, the area is not intuitive. After walking around in circles for several minutes we realized we needed to literally walk across the invisible border and ask around until we hit the visa office. Officials are banking on the fact that tourists get tripped up in the area and fork out whatever extra “fee” is asked for by someone in uniform. Finally, after a quick and easy visa on arrival, we jumped in the bus, insisting on the bus with AC that we paid for and not the 3.5 wheeled van off to the side that they reserve for overflow. Four hours later, we landed in Siem Reap and started our adventures.

The first morning (and every day after that) we were up at 4:30 AM to beat the sunrise. We began our Angkor tour by paying $20 for a tuk-tuk escourt all day. Unlike Bangkok and much of Thailand, I actually trusted my tuk-tuk driver here, and I was stoked to find out he spoke English well and could shine a little light on the history of the area. We went to a lot of places on the first day, as we did the “short” circuit of temples. To start, we watched the sunrise at Phnom Bakheng, a temple on the only hill in Angkor. The tourist numbers were small and the view was gorgeous. After this, we went to Bayon, Baphon, Preah Palilay, Tep Pranam, the Terraces, Preah Pithu, the Twin Temples, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei, and of course, Angkor Wat. Bayon Temple, the Temple of Faces, was Danielle's favorite of the day. The towers of the temple are covered in carved faces, (over 200 in the whole complex) giving the temple a very unique style. My favorite was Ta Prohm, or Tombraider Temple. This temple is very over grown, and the huge 200+ year old trees, reminds us that nature will be here even after we are long gone. Finally, Ankor Wat was, as promised, huge, impressive, awe-inspiring, and packed to the gills with tourists.

That day, at the second to last temple, I twisted my ankle. Apparently this is extremely common because 10% of the folks in our hostel were limping with ankle wraps. Since I was injured, we took the next day off and enjoyed AC and hot pot for dinner.

Given the injury, we splurged and got another tuk-tuk for our second day exploring the ancient city. The start of the day, we caught the sunrise at Pre Rup, which was even better and less crowded than the first sunrise. After that, we visited Banteay Srei, which is a beautiful temple an hour away that is apparently so intricate that many scholars believe it had to have been designed by a woman. Luckily, we arrived early, because as we left dozens of Chinese tourist busses began unloading through the temple. As we maintained pace to stay ahead of the crowd, we visited Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, and East Mabon. Learning from our mistakes the previous day, we brought our own lunch to avoid the outrageous cost for fried rice, and sat back with some tea as we talked about the government with the locals. For dinner that night we caved and bought pizza and ice cream. Real cheese and imported crusts quickly reassured us that we made the right decision.

The last day we went cheap, rented some surprisingly smooth bikes for 2$ each, and headed out for the sunrise as always. Today, however, we started by embracing the crowds and headed to Angkor Wat for the sunrise that gets even the sleepiest people up at 4:30am for its beauty. It was worth it. Although the left reflecting pool was packed to the gills, the right was not too crowded and we had a great view of the sunrise, the temple, and the reflection with only a few hawkers around.

After Angkor, we wanted to hit all the temples that we hadn't been to yet. We theorized that if it's not part of the typical short or grand circuit, maybe no one takes the time to visit. We visited brick temple, Bayon (again), Krol Romeas, and Banteay Prai. The last two were completely isolated, and we were free to photograph and screw around as we pleased. Next, we searched for the botanical gardens, which were a bust, and then we unintentionally mountain biked through the park on our shabby 1980's cruisers (equipped with baskets). After much delay and a few close calls with trees and sand, we finally found out last stop, Ta Nai Temple, which was awesome and fairly empty, as promised. After we finally found the road again, we headed back to relax in the AC. Before we left for Malaysia the next day, we treated ourselves to one more round of hot pot, and a beer with a friend Danielle hadn't seen since elementary school.

Siem Reap was incredible, and anyone making there way to Cambodia shouldn't miss it. Now on to Malaysian Borneo!

Grant and Danielle

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As we arrived in Pakse we expected lots of tuk tuks to be hassling us for expensive rides into town. Instead, we found ourselves in an empty busstation with only two people, a dirty man with a mohawk and a man with a Russian assult rifle on his back. They told us (in a non threatening way) the only place to sleep was the adjacent hotel and that no tuk-tuks ran at this hour. We were stuck, so we decided to listen to the man with the gun.

The next morning we were able to take a tuk-tuk into town, and we found a much cheaper hostel. We also found our new favorite restaurant, a place called Daolin. For a fair price, we were eating real bacon for the first time in 3 months.

The first day was spent wandering the city. We walked to monuments, temples, markets, book stores, museums and food stands. Wikitravel teased us with promises of cheap burgers and ice cream, but it was a sham. That night we met up with a few new friends, played games, and drank beer. No one told us all the hostels lock up at 11, so when we got back home at 12, we thought we were sleeping outside. Luckily we were “those people”, and a sleepy, grumpy, hotel owner opened the door for us. “Do you know what time we close?” he growled. “I do now?”

Pakse is apparently the second biggest city in Laos, although it doesn't feel like it. The city isn't crowded and the traffic is almost non-existent. There isn't much tourism there, and we found that this was part of the charm.

We made an effort to take more photos of the locals while we're we here.

The second day, we got on the road and visited Wat Phu, a gorgeous temple near the town of Champasak. This ancient temple was originally built before 1000CE as a Hindu temple, but over the years it blended with Buddhism, and about 500 years ago, it became a primarily Buddhist temple with Hindu influence. We found the temple, besides beautiful and impressive, interesting. The blend of Hinduism and Buddhism is very unique, especially from a westernern religious perspective.

That night we finished some blog posts and enjoyed more food as temporary regulars at Daolin.

Finally, off to Don Khong for our first volenteer opportunity. Wish us luck.

Thanks for reading,

Grant and Danielle

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First up was Nha Trang. We had 7 hours between bus rides so we walked to an ancient, 600 year old Cham temple. The temple was interesting, but slightly belittled by the six gift shops on the temple grounds and it's location in the middle of a city with high rises well above its little hill.

The charm of Nha Trang came from a friendly local Easy Rider tour guide who sparked a conversation with us at a cofee shop. After the standard topics, he let us in on his view of the government, the facade of success put in front of tourists, the corruption keeping shops in and out of business and people in and out of jobs. Despite fractured English, this guy was a wealth of information from a local perspective. Thank you, [name removed].

After snagging a copy of East of Eden by Steinbeck from a mobile bookstore (shoutout to Aaron), we were off to Hoi An.

Hoi An is probably the quaintest city I've ever seen. Boats are wooden and colourful, storefronts are paneled and old fashion, and the streets are small with bright lanterns. Despite a continuous drizzle, the walk around the small town was refreshing and delicious as we snacked on fresh donuts and ate a local favorite called Cao Lau. Apparently it can only be made here because it requires a special noodle to be cooked in a water that can only come from a specific local well. I don't care if any of that matters, because it was legit. So good.

Since it was raining, we kept to indoor activities: cafes, Bahn Mi Queen, chicken rice, 10¢ beers, blind massages, and shop tours. All good and sometimes interesting.

After two days stuck indoors, however, I wanted to explode with all the stored energy I possessed. My god, I would hate to be an indoor cat. Once we got to Hue, we found things that guaranteed at least 8 miles of walking / day.

First we went to the Imperial City. A citadel built in 1804-ish. The outer layer of the wall surrounds half the current city. Within that is an old, ancient fortified castle, and within the citadel is the forbidden purple city. The old emperor's fort came complete with 5 temples, a lake, a garden, and a separate area for housing his mother and wife.

That night we had a nice meal on the river front and hung out with the family running our homestay. Southern Vietnamese say Northern Vietnamese people are colder and less friendly. I guess we aren't far enough north yet.

The next day, we ventured through the country by motor bike, in the rain to an old temple, a gorgeous cemetery, and two dramatically large emporer tombs. From one story, it seemed as though the emperors during the 1800s were simply French puppets, so they had time to build these awesome tombs and live there as a quick get away from politics. After seeing them, I'd like to go back for a get away too.

We started coming down with a bad cold at this point so we limped on the bus to Phong Nha that night and loaded ourselves with Advil, vitamin C, and B12, hoping for greener pastures. First time I've been home sick so far. There's nothing like a warm bed and not having to worry about travel when you're sick.

See you in Phong Nha for caves and hikes.

Cheers,

Grant and Danielle

P.S. How to get over a cold in 24 hours: Advil, Vit C, B12, copious amounts of super spicy pho, and even more hot, ginger-lime tea.

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The first stop we made in the city was at an establishment called 100 Roofs Cafe. There we ordered an artichoke tea (delicious), but most importantly, wandered through an eccentric maze of various art pieces, staircases, dank rooms, and thresholds hardly big enough for me to get through. It was a labyrinth of the owner's mind and was overwhelming to get through at times. See pic below for an example of what was covering the walls.

After about a half hour of meandering around the cafe, we finally made it to the rooftop garden. We gulped fresh air and celebrated our success of finding the top.

We also stumbled upon a flower park which was pretty enough to walk through, but we couldn't help finding a tad creepy due to the lack of people. Oh, and the weirdo Viet-Mickey statues. Lay off the dope Micky!

One of the highlights of the time we spent there was eating traditional meats at a self-BBQ restaurant.We ordered chicken, beef, frog, goat, crocodile, and ……chicken feet! Our waiter kept asking us if we actually meant to order what we had said…pointing at his feet and waving his arms around like a chicken to get the point across that it was actually chicken feet. Once we had the dish in front of us he watched us grill it, and helped us out after we burnt the first one. He and some friends then stuck around to watch us eat it. It wasn't bad…although there is zero meat on it whatsoever. I think our friend Anna's face says it all. Our group closed the place down, and the waiters gave us each a couple shots of rice wine on the house at the end of it all. I think they liked us.

We also decided to hike up to Lang Biang mountain – 2 miles up a paved road and 1.5 miles out and 600m up a dirt trail. The view was completely worth the steep climb up the mountain. We enjoyed victory Oreos and bahn mis at the top with some locals, and then trekked down a random side trail to avoid pavement. One huge descent later, we found ourselves in a scene that reminded us of home.

The next day was full of pagodas and views. We even found a maze depicting hell at the bottom of one of them. We also visited the Crazy House, a sister establishment to the 100 Roofs Cafe. Apparently a couple built both of them. It was as strange as the former place we visited. We even spotted a vine lady having too good of a time with herself in public.

The final day in Da Lat was spent motorbiking from the main city through a few towns to visit a waterfall. The view of the fall was nice, but the ride there was killer.

After, we are off to travel north. As always, thanks for reading!

D & G

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We made it! After a 9 hour layover in the dead of night and many long hours on two separate flights we arrived in Bangkok on Thursday morning.  Getting to the hostel was an adventure on its own.  The traffic within the city is absolutely wild.  I had to bite my tongue as we sat in a taxi and wove around cars, motorcycles, and ‘tuk tuks’ which is like a carriage, although powered with a small motor.  We sped into oncoming traffic many times.  Although, crazy enough, there are few accidents here.  Not a car has a single scratch on it that I have seen.  I think LA folks have a bit to learn about city driving.

We have crammed so much into the three days we have spent here, so I will go through a few of the notable activities.

We visited The Grand Palace, which is a series of Buddhist temples and buildings that the king and various political figures still use today.  The aesthetic detail of the temples was unreal, both inside and out.  Figurines, mosaics, timelines painted on the walls, and shrines were all over the grounds and incorporated within the architecture.  Brilliant colors surrounded us as we learned more about the religion and politics of this country

.

After this we were hungry so we tried to find an authentic place to eat lunch.  We spied a kitchen on the bottom story of a massive building.  There were many people in uniforms milling around the building, but we didn’t think anything of it.  We walked down and tried to find a menu, or even prepared dishes in the kitchen (which is never in a different room than the dining area) we could point at and order from.  The chef looked at us funny and started laughing as we looked around and tried to figure out how to communicate what we wanted.  That is about the time we noticed that people were talking to each other through a steel fence.  It looked like we had found the Bangkok jail.  Everyone was laughing at this point, including us so we waved goodbye and found a normal restaurant to eat at, one that served to those not incarcerated.

Our Saturday evening was a little unconventional; we decided to participate in a guided meditation led by a Buddhist monk.  He spoke about Buddhism, the body and mind (body and mind, body and mind), and the world as he saw it.  He then showed us how to practice meditation while sitting and standing.  We meditated for an hour, which was a lot harder than I previously thought.  I fell asleep a couple of times while sitting and meditating…oops.  Each time the half hour began, the monk would leave the room, then return when it was time to switch methods.  At the end of the time, he revealed to us that he had been watching us the entire time through a camera mounted at the front of the class.  He laughed, and pointed out a few people who had given up on the pose half-way through.  All in all it was a great experience and has me interested in exercising my mind this way in the future.

We also took a Thai cooking course which has been my favorite activity by far.  We made 8 separate dishes, including a hummus made of pumpkin that was delicious! In between the 7th dish (papaya salad) and the dessert (mango sticky rice) we learned a traditional Thai style of dancing.  Hopefully we can go back to the states and recreate the awesome dishes we enjoyed.  My favorite is an Indian inspired dish called Massaman Curry.  The runner up was the Pad Thai, which had much more complex flavors than what is served in the west. (Papaya salad in the photo)

As I am writing this, we are sitting in the hostel lobby listening to the rain falling among the hum of different languages being spoken by people from all different places.  Lucky for us 95% of the folks we have met speak English, although I feel pretty lame that this is the only language I can speak.  Many are traveling by themselves, most have begun their adventures in Bangkok, and, all have been some of the nicest people I have ever spoken with.  I could definitely get used to this.

Until next time.  Thanks for reading!

Danielle

Yum

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