Sunday, March 27, 2011

Cambodia

ALLO!
we are in Sihanoukville right now (south cambodia, on the Gulf of Thailand). We came here from Phnom Penh yesterday. Unfortunately the weather is still a bit crummy, its been pretty cloudy most of the time we have been in Cambodia (almost a week now) but still hot and still nice.
I guess from the last post we were in Southern Laos...we visited a couple of the islands there which were nice. The first was remote (i think i wrote about it) and very authentic...the second was called Don Det and was definitely a tiny little tourist hub. we only stayed there for one night though because it turned out that there was no ATM or banks anywhere on the islands because of their remoteness, so we had to use our cash to get to Siem Reap while we still had some.
Siem Reap was sweet, we stayed a couple nights there and visited Angkor Wat for sunset (hardly a sunset cause it was cloudy) but then the next morning we woke up at 5am (mad and i slept through our alarm, which we always do, but luckily our friends found us and woke us up). we made it just in time for sunrise, which was pretty amazing, even though we were absolutely exhausted. We hired a tuktuk for the day to drive us to all the different temples at Angkor Wat (they are all very spread out and in different areas). They were unreal though, it would take about 30-45 minutes to go through each one. We would upload some pictures of it but unforutnately our cameras are out of commission (ill elaborate on that in a second). Cambodia gives a very different vibe than Laos considering how close they are to eachtoher, i think the poverty level is around the same, but the people here are much different, and the begging is much more intensee than what we found in laos. Laos was much more laid back. Oh and the prostitution here is pretty wild, soooo many very old men walking around with very young cambodian girls, its really sickening. You see it everywhere, its hard to get over....Anwayys, After visiting Angkor Wat and puttering around Siem Reap for a couple days we left for Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh even gave a different vibe than Siem Reap...probably to do with all of its history, but again there is a ton of begging and it is a very bustling city. we were forwarned about being cautious with bags and scams etc as it is very common there. In PP we met up with Mad's dad's friend's fiance (haha long explanation there)...but she is Cambodian and she invited us for dinner at her house one night. She picked us up on her motorbike and then drove us to her house which was about 30 minutes from our guesthouse. Her whole familywas there for dinner (3 sisters, 3 kids, her borther, and her inlaws), where we ate a Khmer meal on the floor of their wooden house built on stilts over the river. WE really enjoyed it, she was so sweet and her family was so welcoming, and it was awesome to have a very Cambodian experience. we visited Tuol Sleng Museum (which is S-21 prison) where they kept and tortured thousands of people during PolPots Regime (Khmer Rouge). It was incredibly creepy and heartbreaking. THe next day on our way to the Killing Fields (where they killed all the people that were kept in Tuol Sleng), we were riding in a tuktuk and a guy on a motorbike drove up beside us and literally snatched Mad's purse off of her body. It was a shoulder bag and wrapped around her body and under her shoulder, and somehow this guy managed to get it over her head within a second and then drive off on his bike. We tried to follow him but the tuk tuks go sooo slow and there is always sooo much traffic. SOooo unfortunately Mad lost her camera (all her memory cards), her ipod touch (which is what we have been using for skype), and some cash. Luckily our passports were int he process of getting the vietnam Visas back at the guesthouse but its still a huge bummer considering that my camera half- broke when we were in laos so I havent been using it that much.
Now we are in Sihanoukville which is nice, lots of tourists (cause the beaches bring everyone here) but the weather isnt that great which kind of sucks. Today was decent weather. The people tyring to sell you stuf here is a bit aggressive on the beaches...its all young girls and boys (around 15 years old or so) trying to sell fruit/bracelets/sunglasses etc). One girl got really hostile with Mad today cause she claimed that Mad made a promise with her to buy some fruit from her even though she didnt...but the girl wasnt happy, she was cursing at us and stuff.
okkkiiiii time to go! will try and get some photos up soon if we can find some relatively decent ones on my broken camera (the lens broke so i cant see what i am taking pictures of and i cant use any of the settings so the pics dont turn out that well). Porbably gonna both be buying new ones whenw e get to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam within a week.
xoxo

Saturday, March 19, 2011

LaoLao

Sorry for the delay! Laos has been the worst with internet, everywhere we go is either so slow and not worth the money. So the update from since Luang Prabang...wow we are pretty far from there now. From Luang Prabang we bussed down to VangVieng with our canadian buds where we met Amber and Hannah. Randomly we ended up getting a room directly beside theirs (we knew what hotel they were though). VangVieng was hilarious basically all u do there is go tubing and then lounge at these "Friends Bars" where all the restaurants play episodes of either Freinds or Family Guy literally all day long. Its a trap for all the hungover people who go tubing the day before. The day after we arrived we went tubing, there was 6 of us (all canadians) so we bought red and white heart shaped sunglasses and then each person bought 'sanpans'(those asian rice hats). we made quite the impression. Tubing basically involves renting a tube and then geting a tuktuk to the top of the river where u start at the first bar (the river is lined with bars) and then you tube to the next. It was incredibly fun! Amber and Hannah left the day after the tubing and we stayed, we planned on doing one more day of tubing before heading to Vientiane but we woke up to the weather being really crappy and pouring rain so we decided to leave vangvieng. In Vientiane we only stayed one night, the 4 of us went to a french restaurant for dinner which was sooooo good and we had amazing steaks (we went all out and got wine and salads etc and our total bill was still only 50$ between 4. it was awesome. Vientiane wasnt that exciting though, the weather was still crappy (probably about 15 degrees and pouring rain). After our dinner we went bowling and without knowing it we ran into amber and hannah again! Bowled with them for a while then parted ways. They left for Hanoi the next day. From Vientiane we decided to reroute and instead of heading to Vietnam we decided to see Southern laos and what they call the 4000 islands. its a long route so we broke it up and stopped at a cave called Kong Lo and it is 7.5 km long, it was wild. we took little boats through it. We stayed one night at a guesthouse, saw the cave, then left that night for Pakse(after a 12 hr bus ride that was supposed to be 6 hrs). UGH and it was freeeeeezing while we did this. This cold front hit that area of laos i guess and we literally had to wear pants and layers and layers of tops because it was probably 5 degrees (not joking) and sooooo windy. During the night maddy and I shared one of our single beds and put 2 comforters on it. Lasted about 2 days. anyways, We arrived in Pakse after at 4am and had to find a guesthouse, which was annoying but not too bad, just super tired. The next day we took a bus to Don Khong (the biggest of the 4000 islands) which is where we are now. Its really nice and were really glad we came this route because now we arent far from Cambodia, and its super relaxing so we are just gonna chill here for a few days before crossing the border. THe islands are super quiet and its funny cause they are called the 4000 islands but we think that they count these 5 foot chunks of land emerging from the water, in that 4000, so its not like all these massive islands everywhere....just a lot of little guys! today we rented bikes and we just biked around trying to find beaches but they dont really have them on this island, its the most "authentic lao" of them all. We have hardly seen any tourists. TOmorrow we are going to DonDet which is one of the smaller islands and apparently a bit more touristy (supposed to have a beach or 2), but well see...we thought this one had beaches but it definitely doesnt!
we are having an amazing time though, Laos has been sooo awesome, hence our extending our stay here a bit and traveling more of it. were excited to hit cambodia too though!
hope all is well back home!!
xoxo
Nomads

Thursday, March 10, 2011

scared mid-zip,and our view from the Treehouse


Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday. We took a slow boat from Huay Xai which stopped over night in this weird little town called Pek Bang....greeted on the boat by hundreds of kids stealing our pringles , pops, and pillows out of our hands ahha while all the older people (still probably only 16-25) tried to recruit everyone to their hostels. Very strange little place but it was nice cause we knew alot of people on the boat that we had left Huay Xai with! After 2 days on the boat, we got to Luang Prabang and it is the cutest little city ever! It doesnt feel like asia at all (minus the Laotian people), it gives this sort of euro vibe, and the streets are sooo quaint and so pretty and the architecture is very victorian and beautiful. The city is right between 2 rivers as well so its incredibly scenic. We went to this cool bar last night called Utopia where we played the lifesize Jenga (each block has a dare on it though), it got pretty funny. the bar also had a volleyball court in it and andtons of other sweet games. Today we rented bikes (ppink and purple ones with cute little baskets haha) and biked around the city. we visited a couple temples, a market sort of out of town where there are no tourists, went to the Kings Palace, and just sorta explored. we love it, its incredible! TOnight we are going to this temple at the top of a hill to watch the sunset (its supposed to be really beautiful), then to this bar called Hive where there is some weird ethnic dancing and fashion shows or something haha. We also bought tickets to a ballet tomorrow night!
okidoki, time to go. we are trying to upload a few pictures from the Gibbon expereince but the computers here are absolute shit so even to upload a few takes about 40 minutes. We are working on it and hopefully can get some up shortly!
xox
nomes

Monday, March 7, 2011

Gibbon Experience

Just got back from the Gibbon Experience in Northern Laos. It was INCREDIBLE!!! The trip started with a 3 hr ride in the back of pickup towards the national park. Pretty bumpy and uncomfortable ride but still fun. From the first village we hiked for a couple hrs before hitting a waterfall where we got to swim and hang out for a bit before continuing our walk. From there we walked to our first ziplines which ultimately led into our first treehouse. It was awesome!! you literally zip IN and OUT of the treehouse onto these landings. The first night our treehouse was 30m above ground (i think) and then the second night the treehouse was 40m high. They were sooooooooooo cool! THe first night was the most dramatic haha since everyone isnt used to the whole "jungle" atmosphere. The night came and within minutes we spotted several HUGE spiders just hanging out above each of our beds. Later on as we were playing cards we were then greeted by a rat that was trying to get into our garbage...the rat caused some serious uproar haha. The second night wasnt as dramatic, still bugs and weird creatures and spiders but we were more adapted by that point. The days were always really calm, all we did was hike and zip line around...the ziplines going overtop huge valleys and up to i think 600m long! they were sooooo cool and so fun! The second day everyone was wiped from walking so mucha nd sleeping so badly (cause of all the weird sounds and animals running around your head in the night) so we all napped midday and it was the BEST nap ever. SOooo quiet, just the sounds of birds and crickets, with this nice little breeeze. it was great! Our group was awesome too, (thank god), it was 8 people - 2 canadian guys (from kelwona), 2 brits, and 2 frenchies, and then us. All around our age too whcih worked well especially during the nights because everyone was so afraid! all in all, we LOVED it and it waas 100% worth the cost! OH, we didnt see any gibbons though unforuntaly! we saw some monkeys, snakes, and then all the weird night creatures that emerged haha.
we are heading to Luang Prabang tomorrow by slowboat. It takes 2 days (stopps one night in a little town) then continues on the next day. All the people we did the Gibbon experience with are doing it as well so were all going together!
okidoki. Nomies out.
xoxox

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Chiang Mai

We are finally in CHiang Mai! took us about 2 days to finally get here (its pretty high north and we were way down south). The journey started with a 2 hr boat ride from Koh Phangan to SUrat Thani (mainland) where we caugh a bus to go to BKK...that was 12 hrs...after that bus we arrived at BKK at 5am and had to wait till 830am to leave by train for CHiang Mai. After that it was another 12 hrs. We got to Chiang Mai at 930pm and found a hostel. This morning we switched to a hsotel we liked better and is cheaper, its called Malak Guest House. We really really like Chiang Mai, it is a lot quieter than BKK and has more of a thai feeling than the islands (which are incerdibly touristy), its also quite a bit cheaper. TOday we rented bicycles and biked around the little markets, alleyways, and visited several temples. At one of the temples, there was something called a Monk Chat which we had read about. the point is to go and sit with monks and ask them questions (and they ask you) to help better their english. It was funny causeour designated monks' name was "Chat". He was 22 and he was very good at speaking english. We wer wanting to upload a bunch of pictures from our hostel (casue the computers are free) but turns out they are incredibly slow and they have blocked the usb access so that people cant download antyhging onto the computers. Oh well! we will try somewhere else maybe later. tomorrow we aer going on a day trip to do anelephant trek, bamboo rafting, visiting a few tribal villages (long neck villages they aer called, where people put large rings over their necks so that overtime their neck becomes quite elongated). Should be cool! we are going to try and leave for Laos on the4th or 5th, and then hopefully do the Gibbon Experience in Bokeo Province(we are just waiting to hear back from them). anyways, thats all folks!
xox
Nomes