Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a week or two since the last post. I'm sorry, but we've been either too far away from a computer to know where one is (great feeling), staying in a place with no internet or a very broken slow computer so we can't upload anything (not great feeling). We are now in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, at an internet cafe frantically trying to upload pictures into flickr before we head north and further away from internet. Serisouly, it might be two weeks until we find decent uploading time in Chieng Mai, India. If posts are infrequent, forgive me. If you want to see pictures, though, check our flickr as I usually categorize them after I upload them. For now, I'll at least get you into Laos with us.
We're picking up in Phnom Penh, a city so unremarkable that I had to look up the name to be sure one-and-a-half weeks after being there. There was little there, but we did get to meet some nice enough people, eat some decent food, and see how Cambodians in a big city live. To me big cities are big cities and they operate at a base level more or less the same, with the surface only showing difference. For example, here are a group of guys playing with a kicking shuttlecock (I have no idea what the real name of this thing is, though I do want one. Imagine sepatakuro with a badminton-esque object.)
We did, however, get surprised by a group of monkeys while coming down from Wat Phnom, which was very cool. We were coming down at dusk, turned a corner, and suddenly found ourselves amidst a group of 20-30 monkeys. We were fascinated, of course, but all the locals out for their nightly walk or whatnot gave us the "Don't you realize how annoying those fucking monkeys are?" look that I'd give a pigeon. It was our first time for monkeys, what can I say?
Anoter very good thing we saw while there was completely happenstance. We were walking around, ready to go to the Royal Palace. It turns out that the lunch break made us wait for two hours, so we found a Wat and checked inside. It turns out that they were renovating and making wooden Buddhas for their Wat. So we got to see a group of five monks supervising a group of ten workers of all ages hammering wooden Buddhas by hand. It was pretty neat. The highlight was a treetrunk that had been sawed in half, then a seated Buddha carved out of each piece. Very nice.
Well, I don't have the time to upload lots of pictures for the rest of this, so please check flickr.
Anoter very good thing we saw while there was completely happenstance. We were walking around, ready to go to the Royal Palace. It turns out that the lunch break made us wait for two hours, so we found a Wat and checked inside. It turns out that they were renovating and making wooden Buddhas for their Wat. So we got to see a group of five monks supervising a group of ten workers of all ages hammering wooden Buddhas by hand. It was pretty neat. The highlight was a treetrunk that had been sawed in half, then a seated Buddha carved out of each piece. Very nice.
Well, I don't have the time to upload lots of pictures for the rest of this, so please check flickr.
Before heading to Phnom Penh, we debated just skipping it in lieu of Siem Reap but thought that since we were in the country, we might as well go. In retrospect we wouldn't have been too changed for just heading straight to SIem Reap, but Phnom Penh gave us a nice little intro and two days to sort my Laos visa out.
So with visa in passport we headed to SIem Reap and Angkor Wat.
We had to take a bus company called 168, which I do not like very much. I was hoping to take a better company but seeing as how no one would tell us what company they used when we asked, we trusted out luck. 168 is all that bad, but it is just not so good. We arrived at the Siem Reap bus station, conveniently located 3km outside of town. Why? I have no proof, but I am sure it is to help the tuk-tuk drivers get money. Here's my example. 168 stops 3km outside of town and they lock the gate after the bus enters. 3km outside of Siem Reap is in no way dangerous, but it makes you feel like you have to do something to get out. We were tired but stubborn, so when we asked the guy how far it was to town and he said 5km, we stupidly believed him (as we had yet to pay him and it was a touristy town, this was a stupid idea). We showed him the hostels we had looked up, which of course were all very far from where he was sure we wanted to go (they weren't and we didn't want to go to where he thought we did, but we had not paid him by then) and basically not knowing how far it was to the city center or where the hell we were, we paid him the money for the tuk-tuk that would take us to any hotel we waned after he showed us his recommendation (scam). We had wanted to ride a tuk-tuk and the guy was pretty nice, so it wasn't so bad. Naturally, it was a lot closer than he said, but the hotel he showed us was good enough, what we expected to pay, and close enough to shopping. We threw off our rucks, went to a market, bought some food and beers, then sat on the porch watching the sunset. It was pretty good. We decided to give this place one night.
Now, I might just be getting older, but a dance club two doors down that plays admittedly good hip-hop (I heard my favorite track from Chinaman) until three AM is not a plus for hotels to me. I wanted to have slept. So, the hotel was not bad, it was just that we didn't come halfway across the world to dance and get drunk. I can do that at home, thank you. We came for Angkorian ruins. With that in mind we decided to walk to the hotel we originally planned on, only to find that the hotel owner gave us a free tuk-tuk there.
So with visa in passport we headed to SIem Reap and Angkor Wat.
We had to take a bus company called 168, which I do not like very much. I was hoping to take a better company but seeing as how no one would tell us what company they used when we asked, we trusted out luck. 168 is all that bad, but it is just not so good. We arrived at the Siem Reap bus station, conveniently located 3km outside of town. Why? I have no proof, but I am sure it is to help the tuk-tuk drivers get money. Here's my example. 168 stops 3km outside of town and they lock the gate after the bus enters. 3km outside of Siem Reap is in no way dangerous, but it makes you feel like you have to do something to get out. We were tired but stubborn, so when we asked the guy how far it was to town and he said 5km, we stupidly believed him (as we had yet to pay him and it was a touristy town, this was a stupid idea). We showed him the hostels we had looked up, which of course were all very far from where he was sure we wanted to go (they weren't and we didn't want to go to where he thought we did, but we had not paid him by then) and basically not knowing how far it was to the city center or where the hell we were, we paid him the money for the tuk-tuk that would take us to any hotel we waned after he showed us his recommendation (scam). We had wanted to ride a tuk-tuk and the guy was pretty nice, so it wasn't so bad. Naturally, it was a lot closer than he said, but the hotel he showed us was good enough, what we expected to pay, and close enough to shopping. We threw off our rucks, went to a market, bought some food and beers, then sat on the porch watching the sunset. It was pretty good. We decided to give this place one night.
Now, I might just be getting older, but a dance club two doors down that plays admittedly good hip-hop (I heard my favorite track from Chinaman) until three AM is not a plus for hotels to me. I wanted to have slept. So, the hotel was not bad, it was just that we didn't come halfway across the world to dance and get drunk. I can do that at home, thank you. We came for Angkorian ruins. With that in mind we decided to walk to the hotel we originally planned on, only to find that the hotel owner gave us a free tuk-tuk there.
Boy I am glad that we changed. Look at the relaxation space we had. WE used it the first day to do jsut that: relax. We read and lounged and loungd and lounged. Siem Reap is thankfully really small, so we could walk anywhere with ease, even a very nice grocery store to get supplies for breakfast and whatnot.
The second day was also my birthday and for it we did absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. We spent the day reading, then Shiz went out to go get bread, coming back with beers, a birthday brownie, and my birthday preset: a spider. While the CHinese hardly eat insects, we have saw spiders and a couple other bugs not infrequently in Cambodia. I wouldn't say they were ubiquitous, but they arent THAT hard to find. So spider we ate! My camera is sadly not good for uplaoding pictures now, so we don't have the good pictures, but this was it.
The second day was also my birthday and for it we did absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. We spent the day reading, then Shiz went out to go get bread, coming back with beers, a birthday brownie, and my birthday preset: a spider. While the CHinese hardly eat insects, we have saw spiders and a couple other bugs not infrequently in Cambodia. I wouldn't say they were ubiquitous, but they arent THAT hard to find. So spider we ate! My camera is sadly not good for uplaoding pictures now, so we don't have the good pictures, but this was it.
My wife is awesome. We each had a leg and it actually wasn't bad. The taste and texture were better than I though, but the worst part was shutting off the part of your mind saying: "this is spider. This is spider." Mixed in with some peanut butter on a piece of bread, it was actually doable. Though, when we had a body and four legs that we weren't going to eat and thinking "what the hell" I popped the whole spider in and started to chew, the voice wn hands down. I had to spit the thing out and was relieved I didn't swallow it when I saw the yellow globes from the sac. BUt hell, I can say I tried at least and it seemed such a shame to waste the chance.
So, that was my birthday.
The next day we headed out to the Angkor complex for our three days of sunsets, temples, and sunrises. We decided the going to Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Prhom on the first day might make the seond and thrid less impressive, so we decided to biek around the Western area. We mistimed the sunrise by 30 minutes, so we just decided to head out. Shiz's bike broke in an immediatedly unfixable way, thugh luckily it was right next to Angkor Wat. Not wanting to spoil, we walked to Bayon and saw some relly fascinating scultpures and temples. It is such an impressive place that even two days later we stopped our bikes on the way home to look at it.
So, that was my birthday.
The next day we headed out to the Angkor complex for our three days of sunsets, temples, and sunrises. We decided the going to Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Prhom on the first day might make the seond and thrid less impressive, so we decided to biek around the Western area. We mistimed the sunrise by 30 minutes, so we just decided to head out. Shiz's bike broke in an immediatedly unfixable way, thugh luckily it was right next to Angkor Wat. Not wanting to spoil, we walked to Bayon and saw some relly fascinating scultpures and temples. It is such an impressive place that even two days later we stopped our bikes on the way home to look at it.
The seond day we resumed our path on the Western Baray, getting horribly lost and ending up riding a very circitous route to the North-westy. Oddly enough, this is trip is one of Shizuka and my favortie's from the Angkor area. We biked serious dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, most of the time only pretty sure that we weren't going in the wrong direction and would have to turn back. I particularly loved the moment when we rode past some old lady on her bicycle and, realizing who passed her on what, cakcled with delight and between laughs saying something in the spectrum from "Keep going, you're doing great!" to "What the hell are you doing? Admit that you're lost and get a tuk-tuk like the rest of them!" I think she meant something towards the latter.
Either way, we had a great time, seeing lots of friendly people, all waving and saying hello. Closer to the ruins, we stopped for lunch and met a lady studying that was eager to practice her English. After an hour or so of nice chatting, we exchanged contact info and took a picture, so that we could always remember what a fucking lumbering giant I am in Asia.
Either way, we had a great time, seeing lots of friendly people, all waving and saying hello. Closer to the ruins, we stopped for lunch and met a lady studying that was eager to practice her English. After an hour or so of nice chatting, we exchanged contact info and took a picture, so that we could always remember what a fucking lumbering giant I am in Asia.
The last day was the Angkor Express. We did an Angkor Wat sunrise, checked out the temple, rode around abit checking out other things we either wanted to see again or that we had missed earlier, saw Pha Throm, then did the Angkor Wat sunset. It was good, picturesque, and really worth it.
My Lonley Planet guide said that it is hard to temple out at Angkor Wat, but we found that after three twelve-hour days of constant temples, we felt good enough on them. If we had a tuk-tuk, then maybe we would have felt differently; we surely want to go to some of the further Angkor ruins someday. In the end, though, we had three good days of being up to our temples in temples, plus a bicycle ride through the country that I would recommend to anyone. SIem Reap was a nice little town, though we did stay out of the pub area. We got some hammocks that will last us for years for $5 total (yes, two hammocks for $5.) and some memories that will last longer (cheesey enough yet?) If you get the chance to come out here, do it. Lots of people visit from Thailand and Thialnd periodically has no visa fee times. LIke now. If you come out, let us know. We have so much more to say about this area and we talked about so much while we were out here, that I don't know where to start. So I just won't Ask us about it someday.
My Lonley Planet guide said that it is hard to temple out at Angkor Wat, but we found that after three twelve-hour days of constant temples, we felt good enough on them. If we had a tuk-tuk, then maybe we would have felt differently; we surely want to go to some of the further Angkor ruins someday. In the end, though, we had three good days of being up to our temples in temples, plus a bicycle ride through the country that I would recommend to anyone. SIem Reap was a nice little town, though we did stay out of the pub area. We got some hammocks that will last us for years for $5 total (yes, two hammocks for $5.) and some memories that will last longer (cheesey enough yet?) If you get the chance to come out here, do it. Lots of people visit from Thailand and Thialnd periodically has no visa fee times. LIke now. If you come out, let us know. We have so much more to say about this area and we talked about so much while we were out here, that I don't know where to start. So I just won't Ask us about it someday.
So with Angkor and Siem Reap behind us, we headed to Kratie for a non-big-city place, one that also had dolphins. Once we got there we met enoguh people to figure out that the dolphin watching wasn't really so good, so we headed out for the Lao border. I mentioned ealier that we were pretty nervous about Shiz's non-visa being a goldmine for corruption, but it turns out that it was no problem. The Cambodian officials asked us for $1 per visa for no reason, but when we asked them why they just gave us back our visas and let us through for free (as it shoudl be). The Laos gaurds insisted that since we came on a Saturday that we needed to pay $2 each, and when we asked them about it expalining that the Embassy told us different and we wuold like to know why, they just ignored us, confident that we would pay eventually because we needed their little stamp. No one would just explain why and so they just said nothing to us until we forked over the money. I had mine stamped before this, so we only had to pay for Shiz's, so we got throuh the borders paying $2 when they would have asked for $6. Pretty good.
Well,my time in this cafe is about up. If computer gods smile down upon us, then more updates will come with lots of pictures. Sorry if its a hassle, but if you want pictures, check flickr. There's lots more we need to update and sort there, as well. Hope all is well with you. I'm off to read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, whic is excellent if you have never read it.
Also, scientists might have found dark matter, though VERY probable:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50960/title/Experiment_detects_particles_of_dark_matter%2C_maybe
and some neat stuff about a possible star forming:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/51454/title/Stay_tuned_New_star_coming_in_1_million_years
Well,my time in this cafe is about up. If computer gods smile down upon us, then more updates will come with lots of pictures. Sorry if its a hassle, but if you want pictures, check flickr. There's lots more we need to update and sort there, as well. Hope all is well with you. I'm off to read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, whic is excellent if you have never read it.
Also, scientists might have found dark matter, though VERY probable:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50960/title/Experiment_detects_particles_of_dark_matter%2C_maybe
and some neat stuff about a possible star forming:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/51454/title/Stay_tuned_New_star_coming_in_1_million_years