Gettin' Riel in Cambodia

It has been a week since we've been able to find free time and reliable internet at the same place, but we've finally found both! We last updated in Vietnam, and now 3 countries later we're in Laos ready to explore our 5th new country! We know that our moms are eagerly awaiting the updates (thanks for the comments, we know yall are out there...)

SATURDAY, July 12:
Yet another early start, leaving on a bus by 7:15am for a 2-day tour of the Mekong Delta. 2 1/2 hours later we were in Cai Be, a small city in Vietnam on the Mekong River known for its floating markets. We were soon split into groups according to the amount we paid (aka- we were separated as usual into the cheap group! haha). We took a Vietnamese motorboat to cruise the Mekong River a while, seeing some of the markets, and making stops to see the local candy being made. Below is the rice paper being made- used for wrapping vegetable rolls, etc. We got to sample the coconut candy and the popped rice (like popped corn, crazy to see!). Then another boat ride for a bit until we stopped for lunch at a riverside village. We ate some rice and veggies, as usual and relaxed for bit. They had bicycles for us to ride, so we adventured a bit on the nearby road where we saw plenty of crops and tiny houses (nothing too scenic). We relaxed in hammocks a but while our crazy tour guide played with the pet python! Then we continued on another 45-minute boat ride to Chau Doc where we were taken to our hotel. There were 5 of us on the tour staying there, and at 6:30 we all ate dinner together in the hotel. Dinner was included in the tour, so of course it consisted of basic noodles and veggies, but good enough for us. Afterwards we took a stroll around the fairly quiet town, found internet for under 20 cents an hour, and then hungout a while with the English-speaking girl at the hotel reception who told us a lot about the area.

SUNDAY, July 13:

Rooster outside our window woke us before our tour guide even banged on our door at 6am sharp. Downstairs for breakfast in the hotel before heading our by 7am. Another day of touring the Mekong and cruising on boats before arriving in Cambodia in the afternoon! We soon boarded a boat and visited part of the floating fishing village. It was a community of houseboats which each have cages underneath them that house thousands of fish in them! Each small house has over 100,000 fish living beneath it- adding to the worst fish smell we have ever encountered. We watched as the guide threw in buckets of fish food and the fish went crazy all trying to eat- water splashing everywhere! Next was a stop at the Islamic minority village near the Cambodia-Vietnam border where we toured a Mosque and cute little kids tried to sell us freshly baked goods. Then came the time we realized that the slow-going boat we were currently touring around on was the boat we would be riding on for the next 3 hours to the Cambodia border. Moving 15 mph at the fastest, we snaked along the Mekong River passing tons of small villages along the way. The kids would run out of their houses and wave hello as we passed. We also passed ox hanging out in the river, locals bathing, family gatherings and many more cultural sites.

One of the many little kids waving to us as we passed by!

We had an hour break at the border, received two more stamps in each of our passports, and then boarded an equally slow boat with 15 other people to continue on our journey into Cambodia. At the Vietnam customs our guide had a wait a minute to get our bags x-rayed, but then came back and said, "they are sleeping, we go now." haha. So 4 hours later we got off the boat and straight into a mini-bus for another 1 1/2 bus trip, turned 2 1/2 hours since our bus broke down for a while! We made friends with some of the local kids though, and eventually another minibus came and towed us into Phnom Penh. Quite a long day, we quickly found a hotel, adjusted to the newest currency (Riel), ate dinner nearby with our Australian traveling friends, and headed back to sleep.

MONDAY, July 14:
Cambodian history is something neither of us really researched before planning our visit, but we began to unravel the tragic past. If you don't know about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide that occurred during the late 70s, please take a minute to do a little googling. We woke up this morning and headed out to learn for ourselves about the events. We arrived at the killing field (just one of hundreds in the country) by 9am and toured the mass graves just outside of Phnom Penh, where over 17,000 people died. Then a tuk tuk (moto-taxi) back into the city where we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which was the S-21 prison during the Khmer Rouge occupation. It used to be a primary school, but soon turned into a brutal prison where the most educated of citizens were murdered. The classrooms were divided into cells, and the playground was turned into a torture device. There were mugshots of each of the victims posted in the museum, and many powerful photos like the one above which shows skulls with blindfolds still around them, and wire remaining around the bones.

After the museum we rested some and treated ourselves to some wonderful milkshakes nearby, as it was ridiculously hot outside. We then went through the Russian Markets for an hour or so and bargained for souvenirs that we would soon be cramming into our over-stuffed packs. Next we took a tuk tuk to the National Museum where there was rows of ancient statues and ruins. Completely ignoring their significance, we enjoyed taking funny pictures amongst them (but mom, I promise we learned a lot, too). We then headed to the river front and through some interesting local markets, and finally settled into a cafe for a cool drink and some much-needed people watching. A bit later we headed to dinner on River Street to what Lonely Planet claims the "best Mexican food in Indochina"... after a burrito, guacamole and chips we have to agree that it's the best we've found so far! Then a tuk tuk back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

TUESDAY, July 15:
Down in the hotel lobby by 6:30am for our bus to Siem Reap- we have a long way to go in just 3 1/2 weeks, so it seems like we are changing cities at least every-other day now. A fairly decent bus with A.C. is all we can ask for, so we had a smooth 6-hour ride. Along the way we stopped at a small market where they had grilled spiders! Behind those cooked ones was a Styrofoam cooler covered with a cloth where live ones were hanging out! We arrived in Siem Reap at 1pm and a tuk tuk agreed to take us around to find a good hotel. After visiting a couple we finally settled into one and then head out to see the nearby market. Definitely a backpacker town, there were lots of fun hangouts and places to visit. We bought some more souvenirs at the market and then rested in a cafe. After a couple rounds of pool, then across the street to have a pasta dinner, we headed back to the hotel.

WEDNESDAY, July 16:

4am is an hour neither of have seen in quite a while, but sunrise at Angkor is suppose to be the best, so we braved the early hour. We had agreed with a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 4:40am where we road about 30 minutes in the silent darkness to Angkor Wat. Angkor is the group of ancient ruins outside Siem Reap which you can see from the picture was worth waking early to see. As we arrived the sky began to show color and we hurried amongst the growing crowd to watch the sunrise. Purples, blues, and reds appeared over Angkor Wat as we both took plenty of pictures. After exploring there a while we had our driver, Sham, take us to breakfast at one of the food stalls near Angkor Thom. Outside Angkor Wat we even saw a wild monkey running around! A strong coffee for Jennifer and foreign cola for Chris kept us going as we ventured into Bayon, within Angkor Thom. With hundreds of faces carved into the stone, this was Jennifer's favorite. We then visited the temple of the Leper King, Preah Khan, Thommanon, and Chau Say Tevoda. We wandered through each, exploring their uniqueness and beauty. Then Shaum drove us to Ta Keo, where we climbed stairs as steep as a ladder and rested on top, enjoying the view. We also saw our Australian friends from the Mekong tour, who we've managed to run into every day since we left the tour! Here is Chris and our Aussie mates tackling the the huge stairs.

Then our final temple to visit was Ta Prohm, the temple from the movie "Tomb Raiders." This was Chris' favorite, with trees growing out of the temple it was quit a sight to see. We luckily hit all the ones on our agenda right as it started to pour, so we headed back in the tuk tuk to Siem Reap where we arrived to our hotel by 2:30pm. Quite a long day since we had such an early start, so we took the afternoon off to rest up. Dinner of pho down the street and then our hotel played the movie "The Killing Fields" for us on their outside patio (mosquite central) where we learned even more about the Cambodian past.

THURSDAY, July 17:
Down in the hotel waiting for our next bus by 7am, but as usual they didn't pick us up until 8am, and even then the bus didn't leave until 8:30am. I wish the leaving time was the worst part, but in addition it turned out to be non-AC, and no under-bus storage- so the bags were all piled high behind the back row (leaving no visibility) and the remaining bags stacked in the aisles. As we began on the journey we found out that the road was somewhat paved, but mostly just compact dirt, making for quite a dust storm in the bus with all the windows open. But the journey is half the fun, right? So we survived that 6-hour leg, barely. Jennifer had no idea that a spray-on dirt tan was included in the ticket, she was almost as dark as Chris when she hoped off that bus. But Jennifer of course took the opportunity to take fun pictures on-the-go through her open, dust-filled window. We then crossed the border at Poi Pet into Thailand and waited for our who group to get through customs before getting on another 5 1/2 bus to Bangkok. Luckily this leg of the trip we had a better bus- a Little Mermaid bus!? Jennifer's Disney princess! Not sure why most of the buses in Thailand are cartoon-themed, but as long as they aren't dirt-themed, we're happy with them. Arriving at 10pm in Bangkok we walked to find a guesthouse nearby, and then wandered the streets a bit, exploring a night market. We both enjoyed pad thai dinner on the street- something Jennifer has been eagerly awaiting! As we sat at a cafe and people-watched a bit a baby elephant came walking by! A picture op for tourists of course, but we couldn't help but get excited. Then Jennifer indulged in another street vendor treat- crepes with chocolate and banana, yum! We then had a chance to check internet and call home before heading to bed by 1am.

FRIDAY, July 18th:
Leaving the hotel by 9am we booked yet another bus ticket for tonight to head north into Laos. Only having one full day in Bangkok (with more time possibly as we head back south) we wanted to fit in as much as possible... First we walked by the big palace in the Ko Ratanakosin area but in order to conserve time/money we opted to visit a small temple, Wat Pho, nearby instead. We managed to be in Bangkok on a big public holiday so many things were closed or prices were raised. Inside Wat Pho was Thailand's biggest reclining Budda, quite a sight to see! And then further inside the complex was a temple where we saw all the monks entering and receiving offereings to Budda. We wandered the streets for a bit, exploring the street vendors and food stalls as we went. We walked through Chinatown some, and then found our way to the river where we took a express boat to Central Bangkok. We ate at Lonely Planet recommendation "Muslim Restaurant" and then after walking a bit took another express boat back to Banglamphu, where we were staying. We rested a bit, checked internet, and headed to catch our next bus by 7pm... which of course didn't leave till just after 8pm. But the double-decker bus, which blasted AC and wasn't completely full was quite a treat after our recent bus experiences. Another night on a bus...
SATURDAY, July 19:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! Arriving at the Laos border around 8am, it took about an hour for our bus to go through customs. We were very on top of the game already having gotten our visas in Hong Kong- everyone else had to wait in long lines to get theirs! Just a 30 minute bus ride later and we were in Vientiane, Laos- our home for the night. We found a guesthouse for just about $5 a night for the both of us- one of the cheapest prices of the trip- and then splurged at a air-conditioned bakery nearby that had delicious western food and nice coffee for about $4 each (we guess it all evens out in the end). We sat there for a couple hours enjoying the atmosphere, figuring out our plan for Laos, updating journals, and appreciating seats that throwing us about while flying down a road. Around 2pm we set off to see the sights around Vientiane. We used our good bargaining skills to find a tuk tuk to take us to some must-see spots. First we visited Pha That Luang, an important Laos monument which appears on most Kip bills (our newest currency). After wandering around a bit we then took our tuk tuk to Patuxai, an Arc de Triomphe replica built from cement given to Laos from America for the construction of a new airport (referred to as the "vertical runway"). We climbed to the top to enjoy the view of the city and appreciate the architecture. Now we have come back into town and found an internet cafe where we have spent way too much time updating this!

For those of you still reading- or even still scrolling through pictures at this point- thank you! We appreciate your time and thank you in advance for commenting so we don't feel like we're writing to ourselves in Asia. Really, you are too sweet to comment. Also, we thought we'd mention that we may still be wearing the same clothes seen in the last 2 days of pictures, don't judge us. On a better note, our clean laundry is awaiting us in the hotel as we speak! Off to change out of our matching outfits.

Bus to Vang Vieng, Laos in the morning! Much love to all our friends and family!