angkor wat & phnom penh

*note: you should be able to magnify any of these photos by clicking on them.

Hi all,

First of all, hooray! We made it to Vietnam without one single scam, and found a nice three-bed room for $5 each per night right near the center of town. Definitely liking Vietnam so far (although I'm excited to get out of the city tomorrow-- we're planning on doing a day trip to the Mekong Delta.)

Which, of course, means that we've left Cambodia, which on the whole I liked a lot more than I expected to. Lonely Planet made it out to seem like a pretty scary place, and it wasn't, really-- I actually felt quite safe, from the people at least (the traffic is more dangerous.) The main issue was the possibility of bag snatchers in Phnom Penh, so we just had to be careful not to take our purses out at night. not so bad:-)

As I alluded to in my last entry, we spent Saturday visiting the temples at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is about twenty minutes from Siem Reap, and traditionally hires moto (motorcycle) or tuk-tuk (basically a motorcycle pulled golf-cart type thing) for the day, since the Angkor Wat area is way too big to see on foot. The guesthouse tuk-tuk driver offered us a decent rate ($15 total to drive us for the day), so we accepted and arrived at Angkor Wat at about 6:30 a.m., and spent the morning seeing Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, some smaller temples, and Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is pretty much the coolest because it's all covered with trees growing on it-- Lonely Planet describes it as being caught up in a "dynamic wrestling match with nature." We spent lots of time walking and climbing, so despite the cool ruins we were actually quite exhausted by about noon. We decided to go back to our guesthouse in Siem Reap (about 20 minutes away by tuk-tuk) for lunch and a nap, and return for sunset.



Our tuk-tuk driver and a few other people had told us that the best place to see sunset was the best place to see the sunset was Phnom Bakheng, so up the mountain we went. As Lonely Planet had warned us, it was a bit of a circus for sunset. Also, once we reached the temple, we discovered that climbing it meant going up a very, very steep set of stairs with steps about wide enough to fit the balls of our feet. But, when in RomeCambodia...




Angkor Wat closes around 6 p.m., so we got back to the guesthouse and decided to go swimming before dinner. We ended up meeting several other backpackers and going out to dinner with them, and during dinner it finally rained for the first time this trip! Even at 8 p.m., it was a great relief from the heat. After dinner we headed back (well, us girls did...the group of guys we met stayed out to watch the soccer game on TV) and watched the thunder and lightning from the balcony. Pretty cool.

We had pretty much wrapped things up in Siem Reap, so on Sunday we made our way to Phnom Penh. The day was pretty uneventful, save for some highly entertaining Cambodian karaoke during the bus ride. The music videos were basically daytime soap operas were turned into music videos that looked like 7th grade glamour shots with delicate macarena-type dancing and Khmer writing lighting up across the bottom so that the Cambodians on the bus could sing along (which they did.) Pretty amazing, even if it did loop the same 30 minutes of video about ten times. We finally made it to Phnom Penh around 7 p.m. in the rain, so we quickly found a tuk-tuk driver to take us to our guesthouse and were perfectly content to spend the night in.

Monday was our only day in Phnom Penh, so it was busy but went smoothly. We left early to get our visas for Vietnam at the embassy (a pleasantly simple process, as it turns out) and then walked to the Tuol Sleng Museum to learn about the massacre in the 1970s under Khmer Rouge. The building had been a schoolhouse before the war, but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a torture prison.

After seeing the museum, we picked up our visas from the embassy and had lunch (veggies and noodles for about 75 cents) before taking a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields, which were about as uplifting as they sound. I find I never seem to have words after seeing places like Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. We watched a documentary that interviewed a woman whose son and daughter had both been killed under Khmer Rouge, and she said, "I'm seventy years old so I should understand some things. I don't understand this. I understand how a husband and a wife love each other, or how a mother and a child love each other. I don't understand this." I'm not sure there's anything more that can be said.

Finally, today, we boarded a direct bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon.) There was a little bit more Cambodian karaoke, and then there were about five hours of Mr. Bean so I opted for gazing out the window (the Cambodian countryside is much more fascinating than one might expect) and listening to my ipod. We just got into Saigon a couple hours ago, but we wasted no time tracking down yummy pho... although it was a bit on the theoretically expensive end at about 90 cents. We'll have to do some better searching in the alleyways in the next couple days.

until next time, much love:-)
-sara

siem reap

Hey all,

It's an odd time for a blog update (for me, anyway), but the internet seems to come and go here so I'll post now while I can!

Since writing last, we've made it to Cambodia. Woohoo! I like it here much more than I expected to, though the journey here wasn't exactly one of our finer moments-- we spent the whole day taking careful precautions to avoid getting scammed into paying $35 for the theoretically $20 Cambodian visa, but we didn't quite pull it off. I'll get to that in a bit.

Anyway, our second morning is Bangkok was great. We were just jet-lagged enough to wake up around sunrise, so we had a pretty full morning filled with lots of yummy street food (like Thai tea in a bag), and saw the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.



We decided to take a train to the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border, and we made sure to have American cash so that we could try to sidestep a few of the major scams (being overcharged for visas, and being taken to a mediocre guesthouse by bus companies) The train ride was beautiful, but we messed up on our way off the train when a tuk-tuk driver asked if we wanted to go to the border. (Moral: never let a tuk-tuk driver choose you.) Long story short, we accidentally ended up at a travel agency instead of the border, and we ended up getting caught up in both scams. BOOOOOO. It was arranged that a taxi would take us from Poipet to Siem Reap (the town near Angkor Wat), which was fine, but that the agency would reserve a guesthouse for us. We arrived, exhausted, at the "No Problem Villa" guesthouse around 9 p.m. It looked reasonable, so we checked in. Thankfully though, I read reviews online before we went to bed, and learned that it had bed bugs. ICK. We covered ourselves with deet and survived the night with only a couple of bites.

We checked out promptly at about 6:30 a.m. the next morning and made our way to the Shadow of Angkor guesthouse, whch turned out to have a swimming pool. SO GOOD. I've never been so happy to find an unheated pool in the shade-- after a full hour in it we were actually a little bit cold! So, so happy.

By the time we finished swimming it was still only about 11 a.m., so we had tons of time to explore Siem Reap. We had a lunchtime feast at a super yummy Khmer restaurant for about $3 each, wandered the marketplace, then decided it was time for a massage-- not as glamourous as it sounds, necessarily, but worthwhile. In Cambodia, there is a business called Seeing Hands that gives blind people an opportunity to work as masseuses for $5 per hour. The location was in the main part of town, but up a quite poor alleyway that looked basically like what you see in infomercials for sponsoring Cambodian children. The people there (blind and otherwise) were all sweet and friendly, so it felt very safe, but sad. I can see why people disagree on how long one "should" or "needs to " stay in Cambodia on a trip like ours. There is enough time to see the sights in just 3 or 4 days, but I certainly think there would be value in spending more time with the people here. I've heard the same is true, though, in many of these countries-- so I'm looking forward to slowing down later in the trip.

Since it was likely to be our only day in town, we decided to just walk around and enjoy the town at sunset before heading to the night market, which was lovely. By the way, I've been spending way too much money in the marketplaces, but I'm having a really hard time turning down deals like three scarves for four dollars. But, we're only four days into our trip, so I suspect I'll develop better willpower (out of budget necessity, if nothing else) soon.











I suppose that's it for now. We're actually in the middle of "seeing Angkor Wat" day, but we had seen the major temples by noon so we decided to come home for lunch and a nap and return for sunset. Sooo, I will talk about Angkor Wat next time.


Love,
Sara

sawat dee ka from bangkok

Hey all!

We made it to Bangkok. Phew! And it is pretty exciting. And HOT. And humid. When we first landed I thought it wasn't as big a deal as I'd heard (I'm fond of warm weather, generally) but after walking around all day with feet swollen from the flights and humidity, I have to admit...it is hot.

The twenty hours of flight went totally smoothly-- definite thumbs up for China Air all around, especially on the food (three meals were served, and the chicken like, gourmet.) Our layover in Taiwan was brief and pretty uneventful, but we did take pictures with funny smurf type people:




We finally landed in BKK at 10:00 a.m. local time (8 p.m. back in CA). We looked at a couple guesthouses and ended up finding a good deal ($10 a night each) at a cute guesthouse called Erawan, a couple blocks from Khao San Road and next to the river. It's great because it's out of the way from the craziness of Khao San (lots of noise, tourists, and touts) but also near lots of wats (temples) and the palace and stuff.

After checking in to our fabulously air conditioned room, we set off exploring. We saw the temple in between our guesthouse and Khao San (at right) and then got a foot "massage" while waiting to meet up with Punky:




which, by the way, tickled a lot. But helped with the whole swollen feet thing.

After the feet-eating fish, we met up with Punky at 4:00 at the Ronald McDonald on Khao San. It was so exciting to see her! She showed us around and introduced us to a bunch of yummy new foods, including several fruits that I didn't know existed. I especially liked the mangosteen-- no idea what the correct spelling is, but it looks like a maroon tomato, peels like an orange, and tastes like a cross between a mango and a pear. We ended up having a bit of an adventure looking for a local hangout that Punky liked (we kept getting lost in some sort of little village area) but luckily the Thai people are ridiculously friendly and helpful, and eventually we were able to relax on the river.

aaand then jet lag kicked in, and by 7:00 we found ourselves itching to go back to the hostel and settle down. So, here we are...and it is so totally time for bed. phew!

good night, and loads of love,
Sara

south-east asia 6/18/10: here we go!

Hey friends and familia!

The travel addiction continues, and this year I'll be spending summer in south-east Asia. Woohoo! Asia 2010 has been in the works for just over two years now, and it's evolved a lot-- Asia seemed a lot smaller before I started looking at maps, for instance. It was also originally conceived as a Le Quad trip, but in the end it turned out we'd be having different adventures this particular summer, Sisterhood-of-the-Traveling-Pants style (though thankfully, we will not be attempting to ship pants back and forth between California, New York, the Middle East and the South-East Asia mainland.)

Instead, SE Asia will be a three-part trip:
~June 21-July 22: Thailand (1-2 days after landing on June 23-- our flight takes a couple days), Cambodia (4ish days), Vietnam (10ish days), Laos (8ish days) and back to Thailand with camp friends "Fonze" aka Katie and "Jeff" aka Rachel. ...for the record, I go by "Sonata" in this crowd.
~July 23-August 2: Thailand (at least, mostly, probably) with camp friend "Punky" (Kim), who is living in Bangkok.
~August 3-August 18: Myanmar (and a day in Thailand on each end) with my fabulous sistahloo, Amy.

This update is going up a little earlier than usual and a little later than planned because I am in the midst of a roughly 5-day period of absolute craziness that has been planned in detail since about October: I'm a bridesmaid in my friend-since-second-grade Kimberly's wedding (bachelorette party! rehearsal! wedding on Sunday!), my littlest sister Melanie graduated from Rosemont Junior High today (yay Mel!), and late Monday night I fly out. phew! Luckily, my flight leaves so late on Monday that it's technically Tuesday, so I'll have the day to pack and (hopefully) recuperate.

So, despite my great love for all of you folks, I am heading to bed for a couple precious hours of REM cycles and stuff. So, until sometime around June 21-23...

much love,
Sara