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

middle east 6/19/09: layla tov

Hi everyone,

Just a message to let you know that in case you didn't hear, Amy and I made it home safely yesterday morning. We've been pretty exhausted, so the email is coming in a bit late.

Our last few days in Israel were delightful-- we spent time with our second cousins Hanan and Noa, and met some third cousins from our paternal grandfather's side that we didn't know existed. Everyone was absurdly friendly and hospitable. Also, our aunt Edie arranged for us to see a rehearsal of Be'ersheva's Symphony Orchestra, so that was really cool. I got to meet the oboists, and I had one of them show Edie what an oboe actually was. Very cool. Mostly, we got to spend quite a bit more time seeing Tel Aviv and Yaffo, which both turned out to be really cool. They have a fun, almost Santa Monica & Venice Beach (respectively)-type feel to them.

The flight home didn't seem as long as the flight to Israel, and we slept through most of it and also chatted with our friend from birthright, Jared, who happened to be flying home the same night as us. However, tragedy struck on the shuttle bus home-- somehow, we managed to leave our camera on it, and despite some phone calls to the shuttle company, it didn't turn up. So, there won't be any pictures of Petra, and we'll have to wait for copies of our friends' pictures in Israel and Egypt. It was quite sad when we realized, but I think we're letting it go. Our sister Melanie had the best response to our loss-- she stifled laughter and said, "You guys are such losers!"

(The funny thing is, with no scrap book to focus on, I've already turned my attention to the next big trip-- Le Quad and Friends go to Asia, Summer 2010. Whee!)

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon. Thanks for reading!

Hope everyone is well,
much love,
Sara (and Amy, too)

middle east: 6/11/09: from nuweiba to be'ersheva

Hi friends and family!!

Amy here. We're in Be'ersheva right now, and Aunt Edie's neighbors were kind enough to let us use their computer to email home. The nearest internet cafe isn't within walking distance, and according to Sara's guide book, it's 50 cents per minute. Outrageous.

On Saturday, we spent the night in Nuweiba, Egypt. We spent the afternoon exploring the town, which seemed to be comprised of twenty souvenir shops (all with exactly the same things for sale), ten locals and maybe two other tourists. We had dinner that night at Dr. Shesh Kabab's restaurant and met THE Dr. Shesh Kabab himself! Shesh in the flesh! He sat with us and told us about how he had two restaurants and then enthusiastically shared with us his life story. He told us about his family and how he fought in the Yom Kippur war and served in the Egyptian army for...some amount of years. Then he and our waiter, Sammy, told us they wanted to throw us a party. They brought out drums and cheerfully sang Bedouin songs, right on the patio of the restaurant. They asked us to sing an American song, so since Sara and our friend Leah were both sick with sore throats, it was I who was elected to do a solo performance. I chose to sing "Tequila," because it was song I could think of. A strange evening, altogether, but nice. After dinner, we spent the night in huts on the beach. We stupidly decided to forgo the mosquito nets so we could feel the fan more, and woke up with about thirty bites each. Word to the wise: if your beach hut comes equipped with a mosquito net, take advantage of it. It's probably there for a reason.

Sara: After the fairly shady bus ride to Nuweiba, we opted for a taxi to the Israel border. This turned out to be a great move; it was only a few dollars more expensive and the driver (a friend of the hut-owner) brought a huge van so that we could spread out our things. Walking across the border turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than we expected-- our passports were checked about a dozen times, but all the guards were quite nice about it, and there were even some duty-free souveneir shops.

Once we crossed the border, we separated from our friend Leah and made our way to our hostel in Eilat. Amy and I didn't really have anything we needed to see there, so we decided to just spend time sleeping until we were ready to head to Jordan. A long nap in the afternoon was so luxurious we felt as if we'd rested for a week, and we decided we could take a day trip to Petra the next day.

Amy: We were able to book the day trip through Eilat Youth Hostel, so a van picked us up at (sigh) 6:30 in the morning, just outside the hostel. We crossed the border, and after two hours in Jordan we arrived at Petra. We decided to ditch our tour group, because we had lecture exhaustion; after spending two weeks listening to a tour guide explain the history of every temple, every building, every hill, just getting the preview of what was to come from our Jordanian tour guide on the bus to Petra was enough to make our eyes droop with fatigue. Petra itself was awesome. The colors of the rocks were incredible, and we got some fantastic photos of the place. We also befriended a young Bedouin girl, who gave me a necklace as a gift! After exploring Petra, we met up with the group for lunch and then headed back to Israel.

Sara: The next day, Tuesday (if we've got our days straight....) we headed to our great-aunt Edie's house. We'd been looking forward to meeting her, and she is such a sweetheart. In the day and a half we've been here, she's taken us shopping twice, and bought a necklace and bracelet for me and earrings for Amy. The only challenge, though, is that she's losing her hearing. For instance, she asked me twice, "You went to London with your orchestra, right?" I explained both times that I'd gone to London once with my school's drama department, and once with my friends. However, last night Amy and I heard her have this conversation on the phone with her son Alec....

...Aunt Edie: "Yes, yes, the girls are here. ....Amy goes to school in California." (At this, Amy and I look at each other, and Amy mouths, "Just me.") Edie continues, "and Sara....Sara plays the oboe in an orchestra." (Amy and I shrug and nod.) "Yes, she plays in the Los Angeles....in the Los Angeles Philharmonic! A great orchestra." (Amy and I look at each other in shock, and both bite our lips, desperately trying not to laugh audibly. Edie doesn't notice.) "She toured with
them in London."

I tried to hold in my laughter for a split second longer, then covered my mouth with my hands and ran to the back bedroom and burst out laughing. Amy joined me a few seconds later, and I think we both laughed until we cried. Part of me feels like my life is a bit more complicated now (I begged Alex's sister Panina to explain that I was not, in fact, in the L.A. Phil) but the other part of me just can't stop laughing.

In other words, life is grand.

Much love,
Sara and Amy

middle east 6/6/09: greetings from nuweiba, egypt

Hi everyone,

Sara: The Lonely Planet implied that Nuweiba was somewhat 'off the beaten track' and until now, I thought of places like....Nice, France, perhaps....as being off the beaten track. But after being here for four hours, we've seen precisely three other vacationers, and maybe nine townspeople. My interpretation has changed somewhat.

On the other hand, it feels very African and third-world-ish, so that's kind of cool. Lots of camels and goats wandering around. We're sleeping in these huts literally right on the beach, and we can see the mountains of Saudi Arabia right across the Red Sea. We're only here for about 24 hours, so for now, we're enjoying the sun and we'll hopefully get in some good snorkeling this afternoon.

On a more exciting note, we're writing after spending about 3 days in Cairo. Woot! Cairo was very cool, though I'm a bit relieved to have some downtime, now. There's so much energy in that city! It was difficult to hide our 'tourist' status there (Leah is blonde, for instance) so whenever we went out, there was a sort of caucophonous symphony of dozens of Egyptians saying, "hello hello!" and "Welcome to Egypt!" (or occasionally, "Welcome to Alaska!")

Cairo traffic is notoriously insane, but I think we all kind of loved it. Some of you might have seen my facebook status that I'd been hit by a bicycle. I totally had the green walking man, but to be fair, I was a bit distracted. Elisa said that my experience was "authentic." (I think the cat with one eye that tried to steal my shwarma at the hostel was authentic, too.) But basically, with the traffic-- all things to the Cairo driver are merely suggestions. Painted lane indicators? Signals? Speed limits? Pedestrians? All things to keep loosely in mind. It was hysterical. I think our average life expectencies probably dropped about five years each time we got in a cab.
__

Amy: One of the highlights of Cairo was going to the Egyptian Museum, which was walking distance from our hostel. None of the exhibits were very organized. The lighting was poor. Most of the rooms were way too hot. But it was still, somehow, incredible. We visited King Tut's tomb, and gazed and the beautiful jewelery, most of which I decided I would still wear, even today. Jared said "I think the museum would really benefit by making the experience more interactive and having mummies jump out from behind corners," and that made us all laugh. It's mind-boggling to think about how good the Egyptians were at preservation... everything from the ancient city, to the ancient pyramids, down to the very bodies of ancient Egyptians, have survived centuries. It's downright crazy.
__
Sara: There were definitely aspects of Egypt that felt like they were out of an entirely different century, or even an entirely different millenia. The elevator at the hostel was straight out of the early 1900's, and SO cool. Basically, picture the elevator in the movie Titanic-- you know, metal bars for doors, and a lever indicating which floor to go to. This is a start. Now, let's add that the elevator fit perhaps five people in a pinch, and imagine that the setting is the
entryway for the Tower of Terror or perhaps the Haunted Mansion-- dusty, dimly lit. Now add that the elevator itself had small wooden doors with glass windows, and these wooden doors needed to be fully shut for the elevator to go-- in other words, you could be between floors, open the doors, and the elevator would stop. Add all this to
the fact that there wasn't really an enclosed elevator chute, more just a stairwell with an interior rail surrounding it. This was our elevator, and it broke down about twice daily.

Meanwhile, Khan al-Khalili (the marketplace) could have been from a different millenium, and reminded me strongly of the scene at the marketplace in Aladdin. We happened to go on the 4th, the day Obama spoke at Cairo University, and the following conversation ensued with basically every salesman in the market:

Merchant: "Where you from?"
Us: "America."
Merchant: "Oh! Obama..." *excited mix of Arabic and English*
Us: *cheerful* "Obama!"

Needless to say, he's quite popular here, and I think he's probably part of the reason most of the locals we've met have seemed thrilled to meet us. I imagine this is kind of what being a celebrity feels like.
__

Amy: We woke up early--really early--yesterday morning to catch a cab and head over to the pyramids. They were only about twenty minutes away from the hostel we were staying at, and we arrived before the ticket stands were even open. To pass the time until 8:30 rolled around, we explored the area a little bit and stumbled upon a
golf course. I don't like golfing, but I would have LOVED to have played a round or two there. The pyramids were tall in the near background, and it was way cleaner than pretty much anywhere else in Cairo. After taking pictures of us pretending to putt, we walked over to the entrance of the pyramids. We decided to have a horse-drawn carriage tour, which turned out to be a fabulous idea! Our guide even let us climb up one of the pyramids...we were only allowed to venture up a few stones, but it was totally cool nonetheless. I got a profile shot of myself "kissing" the Sphinx and Sara and I took another picture that looks like both of our hands are touching the tip of one of the pyramids. Because of the morning light, the shadows cast by the pyramids gave us some amazing photographs. We spent a total of an hour there, which was completely satisfying, and then we made a beeline to McDonald's. Silly American tourists and their comfort food...

Shockingly, our stomachs have been handling the food in Egypt just swimmingly (knock on wood), thanks to good advice from Sam and Audrey: Don't eat food that isn't cooked. Felafels have been my own personal cooked food of choice. I think I've already had about ten of them, and this is only day four in Egypt. They're so delish!

Hope everyone's doing well back at home,
Amy and Sara

*photos in this entry are courtesy of Elisa Law.