I spent the day at the Preak Toal bird sanctuary. (Or, more accurately, I spent the day traveling to and from the Preak Toal bird Sanctuary today.) Sara was sick, so I went alone, and alone I was: the only other visitors were a group of Cambodian university students on a science class [...]
It was a fun day, but it’s been an unpleasant evening. Sara has some nasty food poisoning–from some jackfruit she snacked on this afternoon, we think. Doesn’t look like it’ll let up any time soon.
Last-minute change of plans this morning–we took a detour to visit Beng Mealea, the “Jungle Temple,” which was only opened to tourists in 2003 (after it was cleared of land mines). Today, with the native flora encroaching into and intertwining with the half-toppled stone structures, the temple looks like something out of an Indiana [...]
The ruins of Angkor are… overwhelming. We spent the entire day exploring it by remork (cousin of the tuk-tuk), and we’ve barely scratched the surface. The thing is, we haven’t even seen the main temple yet (which is a bit like visiting Agra and not seeing the Taj Mahal first)–we’re saving that for [...]
Just arrived in Cambodia–how different from its neighbors!
I’m not sure which of today’s events is more exciting:
using our Cambodian e-visas (ugh, people with regular visas got through immigration faster than we did; though, presumably, they spent more time/effort getting their visas than we did–at least they better have!), or
the delicious french fries we had with [...]
Returned to Luang Prabang today by public bus. Tomorrow, we fly to Cambodia.
This afternoon, I finished reading Cambodia: Report From a Stricken Land, which almost made me cry–partly because Cambodia’s past 30 years have been so horrific, and partly because all of those horrors were man-made, and avoidable. I’m feeling emotional about visiting [...]
Tonight, our hosts held a Basi (bah-SEE) ceremony–funded happily by us–in honor of the new year. Several of the village residents came to enjoy the eating, singing, dancing and most importantly, the drinking. We consumed large quantities of lao-lao, a Laotian home-made rice whisky not unlike moonshine.
When they asked us to sing a [...]
Today we headed north for a two-day stay in Nong Khiaw, via a 6-hour boat ride on the scenic, blue Nam Ou river.
Our hosts in Nong Khiaw arranged the ride for us; this morning, they sent their friend to walk us from our hotel to the dock. A “gourmet homemade lunch” was to be [...]
More cinnamon buns for breakfast. (Doubled up this time–bought two. )
Had a very Seinfeldian moment. I was negotiating with a boatman for passage across the Mekong river (we wanted to take a short hike to an underground cave temple), and when all was said and done, we were paying more for the [...]
Woke up early (6am) to see the “Saffron Circuit:” the striking procession of Louang Prabang’s 500 orange-robed monks as they walk through the Old City to collect their day’s food from local residents.
But my true motivation for getting up early was the freshly baked cinnamon bun I devoured after the monks’ morning ritual. Best [...]
We got married (again) on the picturesque Mekong river today. (I would marry Sara every day if I could.)
We bade good-bye to our lovely new friends, Charlie and Chris, drove to Chiang Khong and crossed into Laos. Our first observation about the country: that the tourists here are generally much more fit and attractive than those in Thailand. (Chris and Charlie are a noteworthy exception.)
Had a long conversation with the interesting [...]
We love it here in Thaton. It’s quite cold at night (but warm during the day), so today we visited the “Monday Market,” where I bought a fleece jacket. I think it’s quite fashionable; Sara thinks it makes me look like a Vietnamese rice farmer. (Photo forthcoming.)
Today’s lunch was at the all-you-can-eat buffet at the local orchid farm.
I spent today sick in bed. Danielle and Sara spent the day sightseeing and shopping, and discovered that everyone is much nicer to them when I’m not present. (But maybe that’s because they overpaid for everything. )
Despite it feeling like “DisneyWat,” we really enjoyed seeing the mountain temple at Doi Suthep. But today’s highlight was actually the banana waffle I ate at the bottom of the temple.
We also inadvertantly pissed off a few locals today, by overpaying for the sangtheaw (small public bus) the were in. This had the [...]
