Sunday, April17, 10:00 am
On Friday, April 1 we left Thailand after spending six
months there. It was not nearly as hard as leaving Tak. Tak was our home for so
long. Southern Thailand felt so far removed from what life was like in the
north. It was much more touristy, and expensive. However, the beaches were some
of the most beautiful that I had seen, and I had a blast island hopping with
the Molly and the friends that I had made throughout the year. In order to get
to Laos, we flew from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur and then from Kuala Lumper to
Vientiane. We got into Kuala Lumpur around 10:00 pm and our flight to Vientiane
was at 6:00 am the next day, so we found a cozy spot to sleep in the airport.
It was an adventure but we made it through the night! Who knew that airplane
covers for osprey backpacks could double as sleeping bags.
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| Airport floors aren't that comfy |
Vientiane
Upon landing in Vientiane we split a cab ride with some
other travelers from the airport to the city center. We paid around $2 each. I
had read that Laos was more expensive than other southeast Asian countries but
actually found it to be much cheaper than southern Thailand. Once we were
checked into our hostel we rented bicycles and had a blast cycling around the
city. We stopped in a park for lunch before heading to Thot Luang. That night
we had an amazing traditional Lao dinner that included chicken laap, a local
soup with “Mekong fish”, fried morning glory, a garlic/chili dipping paste, and
of course sticky rice. The next day we walked all over the city, and attended
the COPE visitor center. There we learned about the ongoing UXO problem in the
country. UXO stands for unexploded ordnance and refers to undetonated bombs
left over from bombings during the Vietnam war. To this day many people each
year die, and many more are injured from these left over explosives. COPE works
to outfit patients with prosthetics and spread awareness about the issue. You
can learn more about it at their website here. After two days wandering the
streets of Vientiane we were ready to head north to Vang Vieng.
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| Thot Luang |
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| Beer Lao in Laos |
Vang Vieng is a little town situated among small mountains
with limestone karsts jutting out of the ground every so often. It is a
beautiful setting, but is filled with many more tourists than locals, kind of
like Pai was in Thailand. It used to be an even bigger tourist destination
because of the reputation of its tubing party scene on the Nam Song River that
meanders through the beautiful region. The partying got out of control a few
years ago and has since been ratcheted down to a much safer activity. We
enjoyed tubing on our second day in town. We got to meet up with some friends
who happened to be passing through at the same time, and had a blast floating
down the river for a few hours. The next morning Molly and I took a hot air balloon
ride over Vang Vieng for sunrise. It was a stunning view and a simply amazing venture.
Riding in a hot air balloon is something I had always wanted to do, and the
relatively low prices in Laos made it much more manageable to experience.
One word of caution for anyone who plans to visit Vang
Vieng: it is the area with the most petty crimes in Laos. Molly and I had money
stolen that was hidden in a bag in a locked room in a guesthouse. We later
learned that some guesthouses will book activities for people and then go
searching for money in their rooms. They take only a small portion of what is
there in hopes that the guests won’t realize the money is missing until they
have moved on in their travels. It was definitely a wake up call to Molly and
me that we need to be more careful. Despite the theft, I really enjoyed my time
in Vang Vieng’s beautiful countryside.
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang was my favorite place that we visited in Laos.
It was a quaint city situated along the Mekong and a few other rivers. The
first day we got there in the afternoon, and after some downtime, headed down
by the Mekong for dinner. As we were waiting for our food a freak wind storm
came out of nowhere. Us along with the restaurants other guests were forced to
take shelter from falling tree fruits and debris in a nearby guesthouse. A nice Chinese man started passing around a bottle of Jack Daniels for people and said "this was supposed to last our whole trip, but maybe we finish tonight". After
waiting for about a half hour, and having a little whisky, it was safe to go out again. It was crazy walking
around after the storm had passed: the night market in the city center was in
shambles as wind storms are incredibly rare in Luang Prabang. We grabbed some
food at an indoor restaurant before turning in for the night. The next day we
visited Kuang Si Waterfall. It was beautiful, and reminded me a bit of Thi Lor
Suh on a smaller scale.
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| Luang Prabang night market |
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| Dinner by the Mekong |
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| Straight outta Luang Prabang |
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| Enjoying rice wine after a "hard day on the farm" |
That night Scott, one of the friends we met up with in Laos, and I went to a traditional Lao storytelling theater. We learned some of the local folk tales and heard music from the khene. I noticed some overlap with Indian stories I heard when I was young and enjoyed learning a bit more about the Lao culture.
Next we headed down to Siam Reap in northern Cambodia. The
obvious highlight of this leg of the trip was seeing Angkor Wat, Bayong, and Ta
Prohm (the temple used to film the first Tomb Raider movie). We woke up at 4:30
am to get tickets to the temples for the day and drive to Angkor Wat for
sunrise. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us all around the
ancient complex. Our driver Chiney was awesome, answered so many of our
questions and was so patient taking us around the complex all day. By the time
we were done we had spent eight hours exploring the ruins and had walked over
ten miles. It was a busy day to say the least, but the ruins there are worth
travelling around the world to see.
Angkor Wat:
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| Sunrise |
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| The back gate |
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| Ancient swimming pool |
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| Party like it's 1399 |
Ta Prohm:
Other than the ruins there was not a ton to do in Siem Reap.
After three days there we took a night bus, with lay flat beds, all the way to
Phnom Penh. It was an awesome way to make the seven hour journey.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh was quite different from the other cities we have
been to on this trip. It was much dirtier than we were accustomed to and seemed
a bit more aggressive of a city. We only spent one day there, and decided to
pay our respects to the genocide that Cambodia experienced by visiting the
monument at Choeung Ek, more commonly referred to as “the killing fields”. From
the mid to late seventies over a quarter of Cambodia’s population was murdered
under the communist dictator Pol Pot’s rule. There were hundreds of these
execution sites throughout the country. It was somber, heartbreaking and moving
to learn about what had happened at that place only 30 years ago. I could not
imagine what it would be like to lose about 3 of every eight people you know in
the span of only a few years. It was not an easy place to visit but I am glad
that we took the time to learn about what happened throughout Cambodia in those
dark times.
Currently, we are in spending almost a week in Bali. So far
it is beautiful and we are having a blast. Time is moving too fast though, and it’s
crazy to think that already a week from today we will be in India. Thanks for
reading!
loved your hat you were wearing in the rice fields!
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