Entering Laos

Our ten day trip through northern Laos began with a two day slow boat trip down the Mekong River. Each day was about 6-8 hours on the boat with one overnight stop. The boat was long and flat with relocated car seats for the lucky passengers, and hard wooden benches with occasional cushions for the late arriving ones. Not much can be said for the boat, but the scenery was nothing short of amazing. Both days the boat moved at a decent speed with the stong current of the Mekong and occasionally stopped at tiny villages along the way to pick up sacks of rice and produce or villagers. Aside from these tiny villages, we passed no development, just pristine jungle and beautiful limestone mountains. We stopped for the first night in a town called Pak Beng, filled with guesthouses, restaurants, and takeaway sandwich stands...basically a town set up for one-night visitors from the slow boat. It was a nice stopover – we had a delicious dinner and nice guesthouse, and in the morning we picked up sandwiches for the boat ride. The second day was much like the first, but we had a different boat and we found it was possible to be even less comfortable: no car seats, and no cushions! My back was very angry with me when the day was done, but once again, the scenery made up for it. We reached our final destination in the evening at a town called Louang Prabang, and we settled in to stay for a few days.

Thailand Part 2

After Cambodia, we went back to Bangkok to eventually head towards Northern Thailand. A couple days in Bangkok allowed us to see some sights and visit a tailor for custom suits, and then we were on a train north to Chiang Mai. The train was 16 hours overnight, and we had a 2^nd class sleeper. It wasn't the fastest or the most comfortable way to travel, but we arrived safely and saw some beautiful scenery along the way. Chiang Mai is a quaint artsy town and it was nice to take it slow, just walking around seeing the Buddhist temples and eating delicious northern Thai cuisine. We enjoyed traditional Thai massages for the bargain price of $5. There were great deals to be had on souvenirs and gifts at the famous night bazaar and the Sunday strolling market. The highlight was when we went on a day trip with “Flight of the Gibbon” to zipline in the rainforest jungles. It was our first ziplining experience and we loved every minute of it, but eventually, it was time to move on and embark on the next adventure....Laos!

Cambodia & the Temples of Angkor

The 2nd day in Cambodia we were revived and ready to do some exploring. We met a tuk tuk driver named David and we hired him to be our guide for the area. The first day we visited a floating village on Tonle Sap, SE Asia's largest lake. We brought pencils to the floating school and even though they try to market it to tourists, it was interesting seeing all the homes, schools, basketball courts, and restaurants all floating near the banks of the lake. The people in their homes were cooking, doing laundry, or watching TV! The kids rowed aound on what looked like those “saucers” we used to use for sledding.


The next day was devoted to temples temples temples! We visited Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Preah Kahn, Ta Som, & Ta Phrom, to name a few. This took all day - the temples are huge, some as big as towns, some are actually walled cities. They are awe inspiring, and it is amazing that they are still standing after the Khmer Rouge destroyed so many religious structures. The Temples at Angkor are a sight not to miss in SE Asia.

Cambodia was an eye-opener for us. The people of Cambodia have been through things we couldn't even imagine in our nightmares, yet they are so friendly and happy. We feel very lucky to be in our situation and were more than happy to spend our tourist dollars in this poor country.

Island Fever & Thailand Part I

Southeast Asia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  We saw amazing islands of Indonesia, but we wanted more!  On the west coast of Malaysia, the Perhentian Islands (Pulau Perhentian) were stunning.   The white sand and turquise waters were incredible, but our favorite thing was the seafood barbecues for dinner.  They had the day's catch laid out to choose, and we feasted on whole snappers, stingray filets, and marlin filets that week...and then we had southern Thailand's beaches to look forward to! 

When we started to plan our trip to Southeast Asia, the political riots in Thailand were making us wonder if we would even be able to visit the country, but as it turned out, things had settled down quite a bit by the time we were on our way to Thailand. We entered the contry from Penang, Malaysia, overland. The visa-on-arrival we received was only for 15 days, so we had to get moving. Krabi (gra-BEE) is a small town on the southwest coast (the Andaman coast), which was our first stop. We spent time in the town and met a friend, Pang, who gave us our own private cooking lesson on her famous Pad Thai! She has a restaurant called Sweet 'n' Sour with the best coffee around, so that is where we could be found every morning. Rai Ley Beach was a day trip from there, and looked like a postcard version of paradise. Turquise water, sugary white sand, surrounded by huge limestone cliffs. We had great weather and it was smiles all around.


From there, we ferried to Ko Phi Phi (go p. p., yes, have a laugh), where we took a day trip to see where The Beach was filmed. The weather was not great that day, the seas treacherous, but we made a fun day out of it anyway, between the prayers while crossing through swells twice and big as our tiny longtail boat.

Then it was a bus to the east coast (the Gulf of Thailand) where we visited Ko Samui (go sa-MOO-ee) and Ko Phangan (go pan-yan). Samui has amazing beaches as well, so no need to explain how we spent our days. Phangan is famous for its wild Full Moon Parties, but fortunately or unfortunately, we were not in the full moon, so we had the place to ourselves. By this time, our 15-day visa was almost expired, and at the risk of being fined, we had to get our butts out of the country.

Here came the epic journey: overland from Ko Phangan to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was 2 ferries to get to the mainland of Thailand, then an eight hour bus ride to Bangkok. Taxi to the bus stop at 1am, catch the 3am bus to the Thailand/Cambodia border...the border was an adventure in itself. We obtained our visas and had a final two hour taxi ride to Siem Reap, where the taxi driver made us take a tuk tuk the last few kilometers to our hotel. It took 24 hours in all, with almost no sleep. We took a day to recover, but then it was time to explore Cambodia!