Melting

Started out early with an 0800 horse back riding tour at Happy Horse Ranch. They recommended 0700 but that was a bit too early for us but I completely understand why. Between 8 and 9 the temperature felt like it tripled. There wasn't much to see since its dry season but our guide was great and it was nice to try something new. Michael has a lot of experiences with horses, he helped a girlfriends family as a stablehand in his early twenties therefore he got a brute of a horse who was ready to canter at anytime and who my poor horse was afraid of. I'm not too keen on horses and was afraid my fear would make it worse but it ended up being great. My horse was gentle and after a few minutes I felt pretty comfortable.

We spent the rest of the day running some errands. We found the post office so we could purchase some extremely overpriced postcard stamps. We didn't send any post cards from Laos because they wanted $1.50 a stamp when we paid .50 in Thailand and apparently Cambodia is no better. On the walk there we passed a random statue of a woman breastfeeding and behind it was a sign about confidential HIV testing, how those go together we're not sure. A good portion of our female friends have recently reproduced and are breastfeeding so we took a picture to show them it's really only in America that feeding your own child is taboo. There's no coverups, blankets, special boob covering contraptions found in this part of the world.

After that we changed our forward plans and then changed them again. That's the joy of planning as you go! We were going to take a 10+ hour bus to the beach and then go to Phnom Penh last since we need to get our Vietnamese visas but Michael found some information that we can get the visa cheaper and quicker at Sihanoukville (beach town). So instead we're going to stay one more day here in Siem Reap and bike to the Angkor Wat to use up the last day of our three day passes and then head to Phnom Penh for a quick two days. We haven't heard anything good about it, most people recommend going and doing a quick tour for the history of it (Khmer Rouge killing fields) and getting out since its a dirty town filled with old Western men and child prostitution. After that we'll head to the beaches where there are a few National Parks and Conservation areas that we want to see. This leg of trip has a little more planning because of the wait time on the visa and because we can only be in Vietnam 30 days but we have a flight leaving there already booked so we can't enter too early.

We spent the rest of the day trying not to melt, getting messages and Michael enjoyed .50 beers. He's still not 100%, he has an awful cough which has worked to our advantage because not as many tuk tuk drivers and sales ladies approach us :). Laughing starts a coughing fit and it seems he's always laughing.

Pic of the day:
Me on my horse Ablue
The random statue
Michael with his cheap draft, seriously who knew that a haircut could change a man

Angkor part 2

3/15/12:

Felt much better today so we headed back to see the major temples of Angkor Wat. Our tuk-tuk driver (mr ba) picked us up around 9 and we made the lovely drive up to the temple complex. I have to admit that being driven around all day for $15 is pretty nice!!!

We checked out the best of the best today: Angkor Wat, The Bayon, Angkor Thom, Terrace of the Elephants and our favorite Ta Prohm. It was hot though. Indescribably hot. We drank as much water as we could and still managed to go 8 hours without a bathroom break. This was only possible because we were constantly leaking fluid from our pores.

The temples:

Angkor Wat was amazing. There are much more beautiful temples here but the sheer size of Angkor Wat is awesome. It took us about 3 hours to get through it, though we took numerous breaks to avoid heat stroke. Oh and we didn't even get to go inside the main temple. I guess they picked today of all days to close it down for cleaning. Ugh.

The Bayon: probably in my top 4 temples here. This is the temple with all the stone heads carved on it. Its pretty tall and encompassed a very large area. Some really cool carvings all around the walls and plenty of places to get lost. Our only complaint was the smell. It seems to be a problem at many of the temples here: urine smell. I guess when nature calls nothing is sacred :(

Angkor Thom: this is just an enormous walled city with some spectacular old things to check out. The Bayon is on here as are some other popular places. The gates to get in are marvelous! Giant stone structures Just wide enough for an elephant (but the locals are able to cram an 80 passenger bus through).

Terrace of the Elephants: über-cool terrace a out 10 feet high with beautiful ornate elephants all over. The corners generally have 3 elephant heads coming out with long trunks reaching the ground.

Ta Prohm: definitely in my top 2. This I the quintessential Indiana Jones / Tomb Raider temple. The structure has been left largely as it was found last century. A jungle temple if there ever was one. Enormous trees have taken over everything and are destroying the temple. Perfect example of nature reclaiming the land. It would be so easy to spend a few hours here just getting lost in the crumbling halls and dark prasats. It also helped that we got here around 3:30'ish when the sun had started to fall and the crowds were dying down. We took a ton of pics here and did some rock climbing as well!!! Loved this temple!

We decided on a cuisine change for tonight since our dinners lately have been either pizza or fried rice. So we headed out to KFC!!! You read that right ... KFC! Had some 'real' chicken, French fries and a drink for $4.80! Oh and they had A/C!

Tomorrow we're gonna go horseback riding and maybe rent bikes. Should be a lazy day but who knows what the day will bring. Also gonna book our onward travel, probably down south I the beach somewhere.

Pics:
1) Carolyn at Ta Prohm
2) Ta Prohm
3) Rejected at Angkor Wat
4) The Bayon
5) Carolyn at Angkor Wat

Sick day

Yesterday Michael woke up with a stuffy nose and ended the day with a fever so we opted to lounge today instead of spending 8 hours with a couple thousands tourists in the sweltering heat at Angkor Wat. Luckily we have some leeway with our dates in Cambodia.

We spent the day napping, researching our next steps and doing some last minute tax prep oh and the big event was that Michael got a haircut! This was the longest he's gone since I've met him, he usually gets it cut every two weeks like clockwork. We were a little nervous and even as he was getting it done I thought it was going to be a disaster but it surprisingly came out great! Did a little souvenir shopping tonight, we've bought practically nothing since we started traveling but we picked up two awesome hammocks for $6. Now we just need a place to live so we can hang them.

1) New haircut = new man!
2) This is a picture from two nights ago if you look behind Michael you will notice an unusual but common fade going on her in Cambodia...PJs! Everyone wears matching pjs as clothes. Atleast this woman is accessorizing with a hat and she's got a tame print compared to others we've seen

Angkor part 1

3/13/12:

I'm battling an awful cold, gastro and some sort of fever right now. Needless to say I'm not 100%.

With that said ... We headed out to see some of the minor temples at Angkor today. We read that you should build up to the big daddy at Angkor Wat so that's what we did. Hired a tuk-tuk for $20 for the entire day and set out for the distant Banteay Srei and then what's called the 'grand circuit.'

Before I go any further you have to understand that anything we say about this place just will not do it justice. You have to see it for yourself to understand. It really is that amazing.

Banteay Srei is around 34km north of here so we had quite a ride to get there. Our tuk-tuk is actually a scooter with a bench thing attached to the back. It's pretty comfy but slow going which was nice cause we got to take in all the scenery. Banteay Srei isn't a very large temple but the details and colors more than make up for that.

After that we headed to some other smaller temples and just tried to take it all in. Simple amazing that these temples were all built around 1000 years ago!

Angkor is fantastically beautiful and breathtaking and amazing and any other wonderful adjective you can think of. Even if Wats aren't your thing, this place is great. Our only complaint was the heat. It's like the devil himself is breathing down your neck all day. There wasn't one second we weren't completely drenched in sweat. Oh I guess another complaint is the children trying to sell stuff all over the place. They're very pushy and won't take no for an answer. One child asked us to buy a postcard and when we said no he asked us why not. Pretty bold little turd.

Had some pizza for dinner and then called it a night. We'll see how I feel tomorrow about going to the larger temples.

Pics:
1) Carolyn in our tuk-tuk.
2) Banteay Samre
3) Us in the tuk-tuk.
4) East gate of Ta Som
5) Carolyn at Banteay Samre

The long road to Siem Reap

We're in Cambodia and we love what we've seen so far. Took a boat yesterday morning followed by an 8 hour bus ride to Kratie a small town on the Mekong River. We had heard our share of horror stories about travelers taking the route from the 4000 islands straight to Siem Reap and we decided we would break it into two days since we're not rushed and it worked out well because we got to see our friends Sarah and Charles who we met on our way to Laos. We checked out Kratie got some cash, they use US dollars and riel but ATMs only give you dollars. So far it seems they use riel like change as they don't have US coins. We watched some TV in English and met our friends for a fabulous dinner .

Today stared early loading the bus by 7, the first bus had excellent AC but while yesterday we had the pleasure of watching Behind Enemy Lines in English, today we are watching Cambodian singers/karaoke mixed with a dubbed version of The Gods Must Be Crazy. Our tickets said we had a transfer at 1100 and we did! First time on time!! The whole trip took 10 hours and 51 minutes (today, 18 hours total). We arrived and were greeted by tuk-tuks who promptly told us that our hostel was far from town. I was nervous as this was my first solo attempt at accommodation planning. I guess their determination of far is different from ours because we are in a perfect location, 3 minute walk to the main strip but far enough away to not here the boom boom boom music all night.

It's so nice to return to civilization again. The people here are kind, everyone smiles and say hello and is super helpful. Michael had a lovely local treat this morning that he loved, we got $2 fish massages with a free beer tonight and our guest house owner had a plethora of information for us when we arrived today.

Pictures below:
Michael with his Krolan, it's rice, beans and coconut milk in bamboo

Been there, Don Det

3/10/12:

Another splendid, lazy day in the middle of the Mekong. I was just telling my better half how much I'm enjoying these islands. Well if you don't count the 'return of the creature' on the first night or last night when we were nearly eaten by massive mutated roaches ... Ok there's also the routine scam artists to forget and the 'toll' we had to pay just go underneath a crappy bridge. But beside all that, this place is pretty nice.

Spent the morning doing some travel planning and hanging out. Of course we were completely saturated in sweat by 11 AM. Oh I forgot to mention that we changed rooms first thing this Am. Luckily the first place we stayed at had a room available for 150,000 kip so we jumped on it. The owner of the roach zoo we stayed at last night wasn't too happy to give us our money back but finally relented after we kept pressing him. His apparent astonishment regarding the mutant roaches leads me to believe it ain't a big deal for them. Actually that shouldn't be surprising since we've seen deep dried roach served in numerous street stalls. Hold on while I vomit.

Ok so we got a room at pan's (first place we stayed at) and hung out for a bit. Around 2:30 we decided to rent bikes again and go check out Don Det which is connected to our island by the bridge we had to pay to go under. After yesterday's issues with the bikes we went to another place that seemed to have better looking ones. 10,000 kip per bike and we were off. We were hesitant about the bridge in case toll-booth-Willy tried to extort us again so we peddled like we owned the island. We passed the toll booth without so much as a 'Sa-ba-dee' (hello in Lao). Success!!!!

Peddling around Don Det it was quickly apparent that it was the 'backpacker' island. I guess you could say Don Khon (our island) is the laid back, more Lao-like island while Don Det has been taken over by the backpacker scene. It wasn't bad, just different. Heaps more people and stores and tour agencies. We had some ice-cream (a luxury not seen on Don Khon) and took a dip in the river at a decent beach / ferry port.

Like I said above, lazy day. Nothing spectacular on our last day in Laos. Did I mention that part? We bought our bus ticket south into Cambodia tomorrow. Shouldn't be any trouble at all. Visa will probably cost us around $22 per person depending on how much 'tax' they charge us. Then we'll be on our way to Kratie for a day'ish before continuing on to Siem Reap.

Most importantly, a couple big birthdays this week:

- Grandpa
- Jane
- Carolyn's mom

Happy birthday!!!! We love and miss you all!!!!

Pics:
1) Mekong beach
2) random monkey we saw today
3) The Blues
4) Mrs Blue on the bridge just before sunset

Dolphins

Three days and hopefully a couple pounds lighter and I'm finally able to keep some food down, thank goodness!

Met two girls yesterday who stayed at the same guesthouse and ended up spending our sightseeing day with them. Rented some bikes and headed out to see some dolphins. There is a very rare breed of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins that hang out between the Laos/Cambodia boarder. I did a little research and read that they are mostly seen in the earlier morning or late afternoon. South East Asia's largest waterfall (by volume) is also on this island and we heard you could swim near it.

We hopped on the bikes and headed out only to turn around because the breaks on Michael's didn't work, ok round two, nope the chain on our friends bike breaks so we walk it back and get another bike. Ok now we're on our way but we are white so therefore we will pay a "bridge toll" even though we are only going under the bridge! We are not happy and our new friends seem to have all the same complaints we do about Laos and these are some well traveled woman so I don't feel so bad. Just past the toll the chain comes off our friends bike again, by the end of the day she's her own bike mechanic as it happens 9 times. We ride through the midday sun, sweat dripping from our entire bodies passing a herd of poor water buffalo that are in a field. Seriously it's an island don't you have a place near the water you can keep these guys? We arrive at the waterfall and are told we have to pay to park our bikes! Agh what fun, we walk through a makeshift shopping area where everyone is yelling at us the buy a drink and finally arrive at this huge waterfall. It looks move like an amusement park ride than a waterfall,. It's short and wide and the water is rushing down creating huge rapids. We walk a little further and find an area where we can get to the water which is much needed at this point. From there we ride to the end of the island to try and see some dolphins. For the first time in Laos we get a deal instead of getting ripped off! The signs say you can only have 3 people per boat including the driver but since we were 4 they let us go together in a slightly larger boat so we all got to split the cost. We saw about 5 of them and one even breeched pretty close to the boat. After a quick beer we head back and realize we took the long way to get there, oops.

Our friends had spring rolls the night before that they think we should try so we stop on our way back and decided we'll order dinner while we're at it. Good thing we did because it takes over an hour and half the food is wrong. We try to talk to the waitress about the inconstancy between what we ordered and what we got but its not working so we pay and go to another place for a snack.

We switched guest houses today because we only booked the first place for one night and they only had expensive rooms left and since there's no ATMs on the island we have limited cash. I noticed some animal droppings on the floor when we were there in the morning but figured its just the way things are. We didn't return to our room until after 2000 tonight and when I turned on the lights I saw a rather large cockroach scurrying under the gap in the wall and floor, oh great! We got settled and opened the bathroom door to find two bird size cockroaches ! This was going to be a long night. Michael is just as terrified of cockroaches as I am and he's also a bit of a baby about it. After some screaming from both the roaches and me he uses the sprayer to get them in a place where he can kill them. Michael is emotional distraught over the horrific episode and pouts for a while before going to sleep. He's fuming at me for my not killing them myself. We sleep with the lights on and when I got into the bathroom at 0230 there's another large friend. I decide not to wake Michael since he's already in a mood and I kill it myself. Michael wakes up during the killing and suddenly I've been redeemed. No more cold shoulder. It ended up being a long sleepless night. Michael actually had cockroaches nightmares. We're going to see about staying somewhere else tonight.

Michael in the corner pouting/ preparing his next move
Cambodia from the boat to see the dolphins
Most voluminous waterfall