Krabi, Thailand

After several weeks of traveling Southeast Asia, I decided what better way to relax then go to the beach. I headed south to Krabi, Thailand. Ah, yet another absolutely beautiful place. You must simply come for a visit!

The first night there, there was a rock climbing and fire contest. Which was pretty cool. There were live bands and Job 2 Do performed. What? You don't know who Job 2 Do is??? He is only like the top Thai Reggae performer. HA. It was pretty sweet.

The next day consisted of lounging at the beach, getting sunburn (not on purpose) and watching the sun go down over the water (It never gets old, I love sunsets).
So the next day I ventured over to the rocks. Yay, rock climbing. WOW. Now why have I never done that before? It was a lot of fun. I attempted 5 climbs and completed 3 (meaning I got to the top of 3). Hey not bad for my first time out there! So that's me, all the way to the right. There are lots more pictures in the slideshow below.

And well after that I pretty much relaxed on the beach for the rest of the my days. Lazy bum! On the last day me and a few people I had met took a longtail boat to a couple islands and went snorkeling. Then I headed back to Bangkok. So now I am here, packing up for another trip...I am heading to Bali, Indonesia and then Malaysia for a few weeks! Yahoo!

Angkor Wat

We started at 5:30am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. The sun was suppose to come up from behind the temple, and reflect itself in the ponds below but it was a bit cloudy and rainy...so no glorious sunrise for us. It was breathtaking regardless. And standing there was pretty tranquil. Oh man what a sight. So amazing. So beautiful!!! Angkor was built in the 12th century as Cambodia's ancient capital, one of the man-made wonders of the world.

Since we were up so early we ventured to several other wats. We had a tuk-tuk driver for the day and Mr Thou took us wherever we wanted to go. We headed to Angkor Thom, the faces of Bayon. There are 54 towers with four faces each, totaling 216 faces. Can you see the faces in the stones? You should be able to see two of them---one right above me and one side profile. Look straight above where I am standing...you should see a nose. Can you see it?

Ta Prohm is where we ended our day...it is best known as the temple where huge trees have been left intertwined with stonework. Another gorgeous site!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The day we got into Siem Reap was the Khmer New Year. We attempted to ask around to find out what the holiday entailed (fireworks? waterguns? dancing?)...we asked three different people...needless to say we didn't find out much...oh Asia! At 1am there was dancing and throwing of baby powder....that I missed as I was sleeping in bed.
The next day we headed to the floating village (not to be mistaken for the floating market in Thailand- this is completely different). The floating village is on the Tonle Sap Lake (Great Lake) and there are about 200-300 houses built out of wooden platform and old boats. During the Monsoon months, this is the largest lake in Southeast Asia. There are several thousand people who live on the lake. The village is completely self sufficient and has its own floating school, grocery store, clinic, place to play basketball (imagine a big cage), and police station. What was interesting was that going to the bathroom, drinking, bathing, washing dishes, and fishing were all from the same source- the lake. It is definitely one of those places you question the way we live when there are so many others that live their peaceful little happy lives like this.

That evening we headed for the hills...Bakheng Hill. We set out to see the sunset, however it was a bust...it was rainy and cloudy. Typically you can see Angkor Wat from the hill but it was too overcast for us. The steep stairs we had to climb to the top were a trip....remember that ole saying...what goes up must come down! OYE!

Hmmm what else...oh yes, I tasted frog legs...coated in curry...everyone says they taste like chicken...now I love me some chicken and no, nope I don't see the correlation.

Phonm Penh, Cambodia

I will be honest I didn't know anything about the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, Tuol Sleng (S-21), The Killing Fields and such before I arrived in Cambodia....Oh wow did I get a history lesson. I want to know more. I look forward to borrowing books from the library...oh good lord really??? Excited about learning??? history??? borrowing books...who am I??? But really if you don't know anything about Tuol Sleng (S-21), and/or The Killing Fields I highly suggest you do a quick google search. There is too much to even try to explain.
We went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 prison camp). It was formerly Tuol Svay Prey High School before it was taken over by Pol Pot's forces. Here is where Cambodians were detained and tortured before being marched 15 kilometers away to Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields). At Toul Sleng Genocide Museum we got a tour guide for the afternoon so we could learn more about what exactly we were seeing (there were torture devices, photos of hundreds of victims, and the small little jail cells).

The next day we ventured to The Killing Fields. This was one of the hardest things for me to see. There was a stupa filled with over 8000 skulls of the victims they dug up from the mass graves. Not only that but seeing clothes littered around and our guide informed us that there are still bones below us and if we looked closely we could see some. Did you know that during the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 Cambodia lost about 1/3 of their population?

Afterwards we headed to the largest clock in all of Cambodia, Wat Phonm (in which the city was named after) and saw a bunch of monkeys!!!

Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. First order of business upon our arrival was to find some good Pho. We didn't have to go far, our guesthouse had a great little pho stand. Mmmm. After our bellies were full we headed off to the War Remnants Museum. The museum had several exhibits...including graphic photographs, effects of Agent Orange, and the use of napalm and phosphorus bombs.

The next day we took a day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat. There were trap doors leading to the tunnels that were camouflaged and undetectable and they were tiny. TINY. There were also booby traps with bamboo spikes and several bomb craters.

On our way to the airport to catch a flight to Cambodia we had the worlds worst (or angriest) driver. I seriously thought we were going to crash. Not only did he have some serious road rage with another car he never took his finger off the horn...Honk honk honk...honk honk honk. I felt my stomach in my throat a couple of times. I couldn't tell if me wincing at the near collisions was a thrill for him or what? May I remind you that traffic in Vietnam is INSANE. Insane!!!

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

After of few days of hectic Hanoi we decided to escape the city and head for the bay...Ha Long Bay to be exact. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a bay full of beautiful limestone islands. We took a 3 hour bus ride east to the bay and got on a cute boat for our overnight tour.

Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. We got to go wandering through one. We also got to kayak around for a short period however it was a bit scary with these huge ships so close around us. We also docked and went up the to the top of one of the islands to get a better view. What a site! Finally we anchored and was nestled in between several islands for the night.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Goooooooooooooooooood Morning Vietnam!!! I have been waiting a looong time to do that! HA ;)

What a BIG difference than Laos. Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam) is jam packed full of people and motorbikes (about 4 million bikes)! Hello big city!!! Hanoi is known for the sights, sounds, and smells. And Pho (beef noodle soup) mmmmm.

Our first night in we wandered a bit trying to find the place to eat the hotel recommended to us. Little did we know it would give Lauren gastroenteritis(???). That hindered our sightseeing abilities a bit. We did get a chance to walk to Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of the old quarter...which was a nice calm place in the middle of a crazy insane city. When I say crazy and insane I am mostly speaking of the traffic. I once again can not begin to explain the horn blaring sounds or the near collision accidents I heard and saw. I had some serious anxiety crossing the streets. I had to dodge motorbikes all the time.

The next day we headed for the Temple of Literature (Vietnam's first university). This ancient Confucian sanctuary is now considered one of Hanoi's finest historical sites (Wikipedia).


That night, we still had not become too familiar with the area so we walked around a bit and found what we thought was a little cafe for dinner. Little did we know how awful this place would be. I ordered vegetable fried rice. Harmless right? WRONG. First bite in, I felt something crunchy, I took it out and saw a fingernail...no nope not a human fingernail...a bird of sorts and it was still attached to something. Completely grossed out (EWE) we paid our bill and walked out the door. We came to the conclusion it was a chicken's nail based on our second dinner of the night...when we ordered "chicken swings" and the nails were still attached. GROSS I KNOW! I should have known better, seeing that this is a country that eats dog.

Vientiane, Laos

The capital city of Laos has a population of about 300,000 Vientianne is not full of must see sights but it has a few. First up we went to Patuxai which is Vientianne's Arc de Triomphe...it was built to commemorate the Lao people that died in previous wars.

The next day we headed out of the city to Buddha park. In order to head the 25km southeast we had to take a local bus. The bus was 5000 kip (mind you its 8500 kip to one US dollar) so we got there cheap cheap. Buddha park is as the name suggests a park full of Buddha sculptures. This one (below) was massive and we got to snake inside it to the top...see me and Lauren up there?

And finally we made it to the most important national monument in Laos. Pha That Luang. Legend has it that enclosed there is a bone of the beloved Buddha.

Besides the sights there was Lao beer dark that was deliciously drank, there were fish eyes eaten (not by me), and massages had...ah vacation!

Vang Vieng, Laos

I can not even begin to describe the beauty that I saw on my way to Vang Vieng from Luang Prabang. The 6 hour bus ride was stunning, gorgeous, breathtaking, and absolutely nothing I have ever seen before. The landscape and scenery were unbelievable. The small little villages we drove through were indescribable!

Vang Vieng on the other hand was just a little pop-up backpackers stopover town. Every bar, restaurant, and such was either playing an episode of Friends, Family Guy or a movie...odd I say. One of the main attractions of the town is to go innertubing down the river...I did not partake. We ended up only staying the night and headed out early afternoon for the capital city, Vientiane.