Final Countdown!

So it is ending. About 20 days left on this wonderful adventure of mine and then it will be on to America to start a new adventure.  Getting settled back home, moving in with the parents, adjusting to America, living out of a house instead of a suitcase, options on menus, driving, everyone understanding what I am saying, using English all the time… all the small things that I will have to readjust to while getting a job and starting to make some of that money! Whew. As overwhelming as that seems and will be, I am ready for it.  Well, half of me is ready, the other half is really, REALLY sad that I have to leave this lifestyle.  And yes, traveling is a lifestyle.  Wearing the same three shirts over and over, smelling, sharing bathrooms with 20 other strangers, learning to try and sleep on buses, planning your next few days, crossing borders, meeting new people constantly, being in situations where you don’t know what is going on but you need to understand.  It is a lifestyle.  It is a crazy and wonderful lifestyle that I will miss sincerely. 

But enough of that, more of what I have planned and what I have seen and done.  That is what this blog is all about: updating on my adventures.  Last I left you, I finished touring Siam Reap and the Angkor Wat temples, which are still amazing and one of the coolest things I have seen.  We headed from there to Battambang, Cambodia.  It is supposed to be the second largest city in Cambodia and I am not sure how. It was completely dead at night, not to say it wasn’t interesting or worthwhile, just not what you expect the second largest city in a country to be like.  We arrived fairly early in the day, dropped our stuff off, and walked around the city.  We basically saw everything there was to see within the city that afternoon.  The next day we booked a tuk tuk to take us around the city to the temples that were about 40 or so kilometers outside.  They were really interesting.  We went to the Killing Caves, which has a horrible background story from the Khmer Rouge.  It is such juxtaposition because the cave itself is beautiful but the history of what happened there is brutal.  We also saw a few temples around the area which were really pretty and one of them is supposedly what the main temple at Angkor Wat is modeled after.  We also drove through some rice fields and got to see a little of village life.  The kids are so friendly and they always smile and wave at you.  It is a lot of fun and really shows the happiness and simplicity in children all over the world.  Children are children no matter where you are and they all want the same things in life: to play and laugh. 

The next stop on our trip was supposed to be a fishing village outside of Phnom Penh and on the way to the border with Laos but our bus just kind of flew right by our stop and we ended up in Phnom Penh AGAIN! Ah.  While the city is great and I really do enjoy it, we have been there three times and only have planned to go there once! But it turned out for the better because we were able to book bus tickets to Don Det and the 4000 Islands in southern Laos and also arranged our visas ahead of time.  We probably should have just gotten our visas at the border but with so much conflicting information about the border crossing and visa on arrival availability, we just got it in advance.  The first night in Phnom Penh, I checked out couchsurfing.org and saw that they had a CS weekly meet up so we headed to there to meet some fellow travelers and also some people who live in Phnom Penh.  It was pretty cool and we met some interesting people who were doing short volunteer stints in Cambodia through various programs and organizations. They had some interesting view points about the city and I think it is wonderful to meet ‘expats’ because you are able to get an outsiders view of the inside. 

The next day we walked around Phnom Penh and saw more of the temples and museums in the area.  Southeast Asia is such a small area and there is such a backpackers trail that people we saw in Battambang, we met randomly again in a museum that afternoon.  This has happened repeatedly and is always fun because we are able to give and receive pointers and tips about the places we are traveling to.  It’s a great community (and another reason why I will be sad to leave). 

With our last night in Cambodia, we went out and ate dinner along the river and enjoyed the people watching that came along with it.  There really is a strange mix within Phnom Penh of locals, expats, wealthy, poor, ladyboy, and tourists culture that all works together to create a really good mix and vibe.  I did really enjoy the city, even if we only planned to go there once.

The next morning at the ungodly hour of 7, we were up and ready for our bus ride.  We were told the bus would leave at 7:30 but didn’t actually end up leaving until 9.  But it wasn’t too bad of a bus ride and we were stopping a little on the way to pick up more people.  Our first stop in Laos was Don Det which is a part of the 4000 Islands (Si Pan Don) in the very southern part.  It is part of the Mekong River and there are all of these little islands throughout.  A few of them are inhabited and some are too small to really be considered an island.  We went in low season so there were plenty of rooms available and we found a pretty affordable bungalow close to the main street.  We had to take a small boat over to the island and arrived pretty late at night.  One of the things we didn’t really take in to consideration was that Laos has an 11:00 curfew for business, including bars and restaurants.  We arrived at 9 and figured we would have time to organize ourselves.  But we ended up rushing through and found an Indian restaurant along the river that was pretty decent.

The next day we rented bikes and rode around the island, through the local area of the island and to the bridge that connected to another island.  It was a pretty decent ride.  We made plans to meet up with one of ze Germans in central Laos so we weren’t able to stay long on the island.  The next day we were on a bus up to Tha Kheak for two evenings before we met the German at the border.  The whole time the plan was to meet at the border and then go to Kong Lor Cave, which has been described as the creepiest cave you have ever seen.  German was coming from Vietnam and so we met up earlier than planned and headed to Ban Na Hin, the small city that you can base your cave adventure out of.  We spent the night there and the next morning woke up to head out to the cave.  Well our timing was HORRIBLE and we showed up in the middle of a village celebration that essentially shut down the cave.  It was really our only chance to go there and we had booked our tickets and trip for the next town already! So after all of that planning and traveling, we didn’t end up seeing the cave.  We explored the outside of it but never made it in!  Ah! So this just means that I will need to come back to Laos in the future, which I fully intend on doing because it is a wonderful country!

So night bus up to the capital, Vientiane, spent a few days sight-seeing around there, before heading to Vang Vieng, our Christmas destination! And oh my, what a Christmas it was! Vang Vieng is an interesting area.  It is basically a co-op of families that have decided by making money off of tourists and really boosting their economy and education system.  Pretty damn cool if you ask me.  We went to the tubing area for Christmas and mainly just hung around the first bar area and had a wonderful time and met lots of super cool people.  The area is a great place to meet others and just hang out and dance a bit.  We spent the next few days relaxing, tubing, people watching, and meeting people.  It was also Mr. Lee’s birthday during that time and we had a good time just tubing and relaxing.  Relaxing from what, I don’t know, but it was fun nonetheless. 

From Vang Vieng, we headed up to Luang Prabang where we would spend New Year.  We stayed at Spicy Laos Backpackers which is another hostel we have been recommended throughout our travels.  And I completely understand why, it was a great place to meet others.  We went to a waterfall on the day of New Years Eve and it was beautiful. I was a little skeptical of it at first but it turned out to be totally worth it.  So beautiful and a little bit of a hike up to the top but great view of the area. Laos is a beautiful country and I would love to come back and explore a lot more. It just looks like a place that is authentic and true to itself.  The people are so incredibly friendly and welcoming.  Beautiful people, beautiful country. 

We have been hearing about how amazing Laos is since Armenia.  We met a few backpackers that have done our trip in the opposite direction and all of them talk about the amazingness of Laos and I see why.  It’s not so much what you see or what you do but it is about the atmosphere and the people firstly and then secondly what you do and see.  I don’t know how else to describe it besides the fact that it is more of a feeling than an experience.  Hopefully that makes a little sense?

Well that is all from Laos.  Except the bus ride from Luang Prabang to the border of Thailand was by far the WORST bus I have ever taken in my entire life. It was about 17 hours of pure hell and NEVER again will I take that bus route.  And yes, I do plan on visiting Laos again. It was amazing!