Last call to lands I've never been to...

Gallery: Holiday in Cambodia

cl_mcdaniel — Wed, 8 Apr 2009 00:09:00 GMT

Gallery: Experience the Beauty of Laos

cl_mcdaniel — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Gallery: The Big Mango

cl_mcdaniel — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 16:34:00 GMT

Take a Walk on the WiLd Side

cl_mcdaniel — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 23:01:00 GMT

The best was saved for last!! A few days ago we made our first attempt to go to Kep and Kampot, but the bus broke down...twice! Luckily, it was right outside of Phnom Penh (we didn't make it very far)so we spent an extra night in the city after already waiting 2 hours for another bus to arrive. (we later heard that the bus DID infact arrive..only to break down AGAIN outside of Kep--glad we opted out). The next morning we made a 5 hour ride to Kep and was totally amazed!! Beautiful beautiful little town on the ocean coast surrounded by jungle. It was formally inhabited by the French, so there are abandoned burnt stone villas tucked away in the trees. The first day we arrived in the mid evening so we decided to eat at the "Reil bar" where i had the best gourmet pumpkin soup ever! We stayed at the Lida guesthouse, who was having a small party that night, so we hung out and chatted with some of the locals and a few backpackers. At night there are barely any lightposts so walking around at night is kinda scary but the stars are the most amazing i've ever seen. Along with the tropical atmosphere comes tropical bugs. HUGE beetles, praying mantis, spiders...even the ants were giant sized (and decided to nest in my backpack---hoping i got them all out) The next day we took a boat out to Koh Tun Say (aka Rabbit island) and WOW!! Isolated on a tropical island! We got bungalos on the beach surrounded by coconut trees. The locals were extremely friendly and so were their cow-herding dogs. :) The food was very good and i had my first experience with Kampot pepper (you wouldn't think pepper could taste so good) and fresh palm sugar smeared on pancakes. Spent the day trekking around the island and swimming in the salty SALTY ocean! Early the next morning we went back to Kep and stayed at Botanica which was a beautiful piece of land surrounded by gardens with little bungalos. We were able to borrow bikes and rode down to the market---it was a very long ride and my butt was very sore from the bumpy road! On the ride back we stopped at a little cafe and had jack fruit and durian ice cream. For dinner we found an amazing stone restaurant called "Eldorado" that served Hungarian food. I got Lettcho which consisted of egg, veggies, cheese and french fries--very good!! We spent so much time exploring Kep that we didn't even make it out to Kampot (heard we weren't missing much though). Now I'm back in Phnom Penh and going to the Killing Fields and museum tomorrow. I'm so glad Kep and Rabbit island were saved for the end--it was like the cherry on top of a wonderful trip!! I'll be home in a few days and I believe I'll be posting the pictures on this site (theres a photo section) although I'll send out a forward if this changes. Sorry to keep everyone waiting on the photos!

Phnom Penh..what a crazy place!

cl_mcdaniel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:16:00 GMT

This city is by far the most chaotic and grungiest place I've ever been to. Most of the buildings are pretty dilapidated--although it does give it a sense of charm. This is quite the place to take photos! And I'm a bit curious as to what the city used to look like before the French left and before the Khmer Rouge took over. I believe Cambodia used to be called "the pearl of Asia." The roads (and sidewalks) are packed with tuk tuks, bikes, cars and rickshaws. The area we're staying in is called Boang Kek (don't know if i spelled that correctly). It's a bit similar to Kho San Rd. and it's very popular with backpackers. There are tons of western restaraunts and docks to hang out on, overlooking the "green lake" (very polluted). We spent most of our time on an adventure for a "liveable" guesthouse because most of them were quiet nasty. The one previous to where we're staying now (called Same Same but Different) was probably the grungiest place so far. It had a great source of ventilation (which is very important considering how hot it has been), but the room itself resembled a small closet with plastic taped to the floor and the toliet didnt have a lid or handle to flush it..you had to use a string. A cockroach decided to leave me a gift by shedding its exoskeleton on me in the middle of the night. That was the last straw..I couldn't stay there any longer. Luckily, for the last 2 days we've been staying at a pretty nice place called Sister Number 9 that has hammocks and a pool table on the dock.

Although Phnom Penh hasn't been my favorite, it's been a great place to meet other backpackers because you have to be quite a character to come here. I was also able to use my sign language abilities and hang out with a deaf Cambodian girl named Tia. At night the bar scene is pretty popular..our favorite so far has been "Moskito" (the name was derived from the bar owner's names of his pets----a dog named Moss and a cat named Kito!!) Besides yummie fruit cocktails that were only 75 cents, the bar also had Wii!! we've been playing bowling almost every night and I'm getting surprisingly good at it! Yesterday we visited the National Museum which displayed many artifacts from Angkor Wat along with tons and tons of Buddha statues. The garden in the middle of the museum was pretty impressive although you had to pay to take pictures, so I wasn't able to get any (still on a budget ya know!) We're heading to Kampot and Kep tomorrow and then returning to Phnom Penh to see the Killing Fields and than the next day I head back to Bangkok to go back to Seoul and than home again in Chicago!!

Might as well be livin' on the sun...

cl_mcdaniel — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:12:00 GMT

Well, to pick up where I left off from the continuation of my Siem Reap journey...Aaron's birthday was on the 12th so we decided to stay at Molly Malone's, a nice hotel to take a break from the simplicity of guesthouses. Afterwards, we found an awesome guesthouse called Angkor Park, where we stayed for the rest of our time in Siem Reap. I spent most of the days going to the old/new market and browsing through the night market and crocodile bazaar later on in the day. I found an awesome bubble tea cafe where you sit on giant exercise balls (supposed to mimic bubbles) at low tables..yummie taro bubble tea!! And also found an amazing bakery/ice cream parlor called the Blue Pumpkin. Some of the traditional dishes are Lok Lak and Amok. I really enjoyed the tofu amok...coconut milk, onions, eggs, veggies (kinda similar to a curry) and served in a cup made of banana leaves.

I spent some time venturing around (although the humid and hot air makes it hard to go out during the afternoon). I visited a few photo galleries and found art installations made of guns welded together to form bugs, people, and animals. kinda cool. Also explored an amazing garden across from a swanky hotel. The first time I went it was closer to night fall and started to hear all these strange noises. I looked up and to my surprise hundreds of bats were flying out of the trees!! And I'm not talking about some dinky lil things--these suckers were huge!! :) The last day in Siem Reap I took a tuk tuk out to Angkor Wat and spent about 7 hours visiting 7 different temples. I was kinda surprised that because there is so much to see there isn't hordes of tourist groups all over the place. It's very nice because the environment was pretty quiet in some places and it was amazing to be one on one gawking at such an amazing structure. I took lots of photos, but unfortunatly (I was so mad!!) my camera decided to die at the temple I was most looking forward too...Ta Prohm..which is famous for trees growing out of the temple walls.

After about a 6 hour bus ride, in which i spent most of my time playing games with a little Cambodian girl who was sitting in front of me, we arrived in Phnom Pehn. My first impression wasn't the greatest..this place is rather scary until you get used to it. It is the capitol of Cambodia and so far I haven't seen any traffic lights or signs...so driving around here is complete chaos and making a left hand turn is suicide!! The first night we stayed in Grand View Guesthouse, which was infact like sleeping in a closet with the heat cranked to 130 degrees with very little ventilation. Worst guesthouse yet!! Today we moved to a much nicer one...but still it's very hot here!! I wish i had a swimming pool, giant ice cream tubs or something! :) Hope everyone's having great weather back at home!! We'll be staying here for the next few days and going to explore the Killing Fields, National Museum and Tuol Slang Museum before heading down to Kep and Kampot!!

To answer previous questions, SE Asia is and it isn't what I thought it would be like. To be honest, I really thought I was going to be living more rustic and having to eat crazy food--not saying it isn't there to be eaten...kangaroo, bugs, crocodile, ostrich..just I haven't been forced to do so. I didn't expect Laos to be as beautiful, mountainous and all together simply amazing!, and didn't expect Cambodia to be as crowded, but have really good food. I think I mentally prepared myself for the worst of sights and situations, and actually nothing as been so bad..except for a few causes of culture shock and a few times walking on the side of the road.

Margaritas & Quesidillas in Siem Reap!!

cl_mcdaniel — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:54:00 GMT

So, let me first start out by giving you a brief overview on bus ride(s) to get to Cambodia. haha. Leave Chiang Mai at 6:30pm, get into Bangkok at 4:30am. but wait! where can you find a guesthouse that's open at 4:30am!? So we wandered around Kho San Rd for a little bit realizing that most of the rooms at the guesthouses were full and finally decided to pay a bit more than expected for a room..but it had air-conditioning!! Our first one so far and it was so worth it! :) I spent the entire day pretty much sleeping and then had to wake up the next day at 6am to take a bus to the Cambodian border. It was a pretty smooth ride, but being jam-packed in a mini van with 10 other people for 5 hours was enough to make me jump for joy when we finally reached the border. After finishing paperwork and another hour of waiting in line we were excited to be on our way to Siem Reap. We hung out at the new bus station (which was so awesome looking, beautiful contemporary architecture) and thought we might have missed our bus cause we were waiting for so long. When a bus finally arrived we were told we couldn't get on it because that bus was for people who had orange stickers and we had white (dont ask me about the sticker ordeal because i have no idea..it was very confusing) And THEN we found out they wouldn't let Aaron on the bus because he was wearing a Siem Reap t-shirt on what is known as the scam bus. (the scam bus takes people to hotels to rip them off and because Aaron was displaying that he had been to cambodia previously, the bus driver knew he couldn't scam us and was upset). So Aaron changed his shirt, we got on the "orange sticker" bus anyways and continued on a dusty and a bit bumpy road to Siem Reap. Most of the roads have been paved recently so it wasn't as bad as it used to be. No bone rattler rides. :)

We arrived in Siem Reap around 8pm and found rooms at the Angkor Green Guesthouse which include air-con and a t.v.! wow..i haven't watched t.v. in a looong time. what a treat! For the first few days I got travel sick and was stuck in bed with a fever. I've done some wandering around. The tourist area is soo nice. Very expensive looking hotels and restaraunts, which include a lot of popular celebrity hang outs when people come to view Angkor Wat. The town caters to western folk extremely well. Almost everyone speaks English, even the currency they use is U.S. dollars (use reil (cambodian currency) as change because it doesn't go higher than a dollar). I would say Siem Reap looks like a combo of a nice resort area in Mexico and Las Vegas. hahaha. It gets very busy at night and tons of live music and traditional Cambodian dancing. The food choices are plentiful and have amazing Mexican food, as well as a cheap-o food stall market to buy traditional dishes for a dollar. Anyways, I'll be posting another update of Siem Reap after I visit Angkor Wat and the Mine Museum. We'll be here until the 20th and then off to Phnom Penn.

As for Uncle Frank's previous question...I think the best item I've packed with me on my journey is definitly my ear plugs. There has been construction by EVERY guesthouse in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and I dont think I would have been able to sleep without them. :) And the item that I couldve left home has been my gym shoes because everyone wears flip-flops all the time. well, you'll be hearing from me again shortly!!

Chiang Mai = Asian California!!

cl_mcdaniel — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:28:00 GMT

Sawat-dee ka from Chiang Mai! This city is amazing and by far one of my favorite places i've been to (besides Luang Probang) It is a perfect combination of nature and city, scattered with vegetarian restaraunts (they even serve wheat grass!), yoga and reiki classes, at least 2 giant bookstores on every street, temples galore, a chilled out night life with rooftop bars (passion fruit mojito is my new fav drink), yummie street vendors and don't forget the awesome night markets and hilltribe handicrafts! When we first arrived in Chiang Mai we were staying at the banana guesthouse, but was rudely woken by the smell of gasoline coming from the room next door. I went outside to see what was going on and a man with a mask and a can of gasoline was walking out of the room. I tried to communicate (as best as i could) to what was going on and he told me it was "good." we decided to leave. hahaha. We're currently staying at the Nat G.H. which is in a perfect location right by a ton of cute shops and mouth watering places to eat. Mainly we've been veggin' out at "Aum" a vegetarian cafe that has awesome food for only a dollar an entree!! I tried Kaisow, which is a soupy dish of egg noodles, tofu, coconut milk, potatos, onions..lots of other veggies. It was awesome, but Very spicy!! For the last few days, we've been staying out late and sleeping in late, while spending afternoons at the bookstores and exploring the city. Aaron picked up some pretty awesome titles by Ken Wilber and I found a Tibetan singing brass bowl at one of the "hole in the wall" stores!! The weather here is gorgeous and the fruit smoothies have never tasted this good. I'm definitly adding Chiang Mai to my list of places to venture back to! Unfortunatly, we weren't able to stay at the monastery because of having limited time on our Thailand Visas. We have one more day here to visit the temples and do some photography before we had back to home sweet home on Kho San Road (in Bangkok..the first desination of our trip) and then heading to Siam Reap in Cambodia. Until next time....

Chillin' in Chiang Rai

cl_mcdaniel — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:49:00 GMT

Greetings everybody!! After leaving luang probang a few days ago we book a 14 hour bus ride (very dusty, very bumpy, and extremely long) to Houay Xai The bus driver said we were behind schedule so we only made three 5 minute stops--not a hold lotta time to grab some grub. Finally we arrived about 9pm and crashed out until the next morning to continue our journey. We woke up early to take a quick boat ride (literally right across the Mekong River)into Chiang Kong...back into Thailand! We grabbed a bite to eat--Aaron was very happy to be eating thai food again (he was getting sick of Pho and Laap--and took a 4 hour ride to Chiang Rai (our current location). Chaing Rai is a cute mini city located in northern Thailand. There are not many backpackers here, so it feels more like we're living with the locals!! We're staying at an awesome guesthouse called the Garden Guesthouse, which looks like a combination of nature and hippiness. Lots of random artifacts hanging around, a small cubby for reading, artwork and hammocks all over the place. each room even has a hammock inside it! very exciting! And to top it all off there is a gigantic lizard (about a foot long)with a stubby tail that lives in the shared outside bathroom which hides behind the art piece (in the bathroom) when the lights are turned out. REALLY FReaKed me out the first time! Unfortuantly, we couldn't bring Orlam with us on our continued journey, so the lizard and other interesting animals (cats with chopped off tails, purple dogs, street dogs wearing t-shirts) will have to suffice. :) The night market here is pretty neat, live music every night. There is one stage which plays traditional music and dance, while the other one is more rock 'n roll. Last night we heard a thai band covering simon and garfunkel songs!! The food at the market is pretty good---i've been eating lots of indian and lebenese food and we actually found bubble tea! I was so excited (bubble = tapioca ball). Our gueshouse is actually right next to one of the high schools so there are tons of pushcart food people all over the place to cater to the kids, selling sausages and fruit shakes. the used book stores are pretty big here as well, and contain lots of great literature for cheap prices ( you can also trade in books). Anyways, tomorrow we leave for Chiang Mai, which I'm extremely excited about because we might be staying in a Buddhist Monastery for a night or 2 and the night market is supposed to be awesome! Hope everyone is well!! thanks for all the great birthday wishes!!

Rustic living in Nong Kiaw & Muang Noi

cl_mcdaniel — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:10:00 GMT

We left civilization and ventured into the villages of Nong Kiaw and Muang Noi. Nong Kiaw is a peaceful sleepy little village tucked into the mountains and overlooking the Ou River. We stayed in a simple bungalo and had my first experience living with squat toliets (and Im so glad to be back to western style ones :) We spent nights chilling on the deck in the hammocks looking out onto the mountains and a clear sky filled with stars. The sunsets are amazing and the guesthouse we stayed in was actually called the sunrise guesthouse (across the street was sunset guesthouse) The food was decent--although there was one restaurant with great prices and great Lao dishes. I spent my birthday travelling back through Nong Kio and ate dinner at Deen's Indian Place--which has been the best indian food i've had in Laos so far. For dessert we ordered Nam Van Seung which is a traditional Laos dish of bananas, tapioca, beans and coconut milk--it was so yummie! Afterwards we rented a room at a local hangout called the cinema and watched a movie. Muang Noi was the other village we visited inbetween going back and forth from Nong Kiaw. It was only accessible by boat and the town itself had only one main road! Electricity only ran from 7-10pm and the bungaloos we rented were extremely simple with an outdoor bathroom, but overlooking the river and plenty of water buffalo. It was kinda a scary place with no street lights and lots of street dogs fighting and took some time getting used to, but we ended up staying for 3 days. We also acquired a cute puppy, Aaron named "Orlam," who followed us around and slept by the bungalo doors at night. Anyways, we're back in Luang Probang and are making our way back into Thailand for a visa run and possibly going to islands south of Thailand before entering Cambodia. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Updates From Luang Probang

cl_mcdaniel — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:57:00 GMT

The internet connection isn't that great here and sometimes the page takes a long time to load--i was actually in Luang Probang in my last entry but didn't have time to write about what was going on. :) It's such a beautiful little town I didn't want to leave it out of my entries! We went to a Buddhist lecture at the Spicy Lao Backpackers Guesthouse and visited many art and silk galleries. Everything is a little bit pricy, but well worth it. The restaurants mostly cater towards western cuisine, but the Lao coffee is outstanding and have push carts that sell sandwiches, fruit shakes and pad thai ranging from 50 cents to a dollar! The night market takes up almost the entire main road and sells crafts from Hmong Villages. The market is set up every day at 5 and ends around 9, but its pretty amazing to see the town come alive and shut down almost every night. I was also able to get my hands on a camera battery charger at the chinese market---thanks so much for the info on that uncle frank! The charger was only $7, while a camera battery would have been $80!!--lucklie i didn't need another battery!! So yes, I've been taking tons of gorgeous shots!! Can't wait to load them on the page!

Bonjour from the Luang Probang!!

cl_mcdaniel — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 14:39:00 GMT

Before another 8 hour bus ride to Luang Probang we were in Phonsavon which was a more rural sketchy town, but had little interesting perks along the way. We visited 3 different sites of the Plain of Jars and the views from the top of the hill where they were located was breath-taking, although the ride there was horrible. Imagine a car with no shocks, packed with sweaty people, down the most twisted bumpy ride i've ever gone down. Aaron said get used to it cause the roads in cambodia are going to be even worse! blah! anyways, in Phonsavon we saw a documentary called "Bombies" about the secret war in Laos during the mid 60's and the remains of the cluster bombs still highly effecting Laos villages and farmers. (if further interested theres a group called "M.A.G." which does the clean up from the bombs--i believe they have a website) We also visited a mulberry farm which made wine, tea and naturally dyed and produced beautiful silk scarves! The markets in Phonsavon were a bit overwhelming. A lot of caged animals, fish in tubs, died animals laid out for selling, fresh fruits and veggies--custard apples are amazing! After staying there for about a week we were starting to get bored with the place (everything closes early and theres no street lights--so walking around at night was out of the question) We're currently in Luang Probang which i deemed "my home away from home" i'm absolutly in love with it! Great french food, french architecture, lit up night markets selling hill tribe jewlery and clothing, cute little alley ways, temples, gardens, book stores...More details later. Hope everyone's doing great! Namaste!!

Sa-bai dee from Vang Vieng!!

cl_mcdaniel — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:36:00 GMT

After getting sick on a 4 hour bus from Vientienne--I finally made it to the breath-taking town of Vang Vieng. From our hotel room you can see the karsts and jungle in one direction and mountains in the other. There are wobbly bamboo bridges leading to "Smile Island" where there are plenty of bars, bonfires and little huts blaring music. We're kind of avoiding the area--too many drunk backpackers, although there are tons of hammocks to chill out and have a drink overlooking the river. The mojitos here are the best I've ever had. There are "tv bars" all over the place, which are all playing either the Simpsons or Friends and each local restaurant/bar is playing Bob Marley music. One night we tried to stay in the more local part of the town, but unfortuantly at our guesthouse someone broke into our room and stole our ipods and electronic equipment. Luckily, I had my camera on me, as well as all my important papers, money, etc. But because my camera cord was stolen, I have to find a place to recharge my camera so pictures might not be posted for a while :( So far, we've been taking it easy and really enjoying the scenary. The food is really yummy, we ate at the Organic Farm and had some incredible spring rolls and Pad Thai, along with Mulberry wine. There are lots of Indian food places, and lots of street vendors selling "pancakes" which are kind of similar to crepes and really good sandwiches. Becuase of the French influence in Vang Vieng, there is alot of little cafes, French food and architecture. We dont have enough money in our budget to go tubing, but we did climb one of the hills to excess a cave (which was a little disappointing considering we were charged) and into the jungle (staying along the path of course). It's quite a different experience to be walking through the more rural areas and seeing families picking rice and hanging out in small wooden shacks, yet people seem very happy and friendly. I haven't seen any monkeys, although there are plenty of giant beetles and dogs and cats everywhere...as well as chickens and cows. Tomorrow we are taking an 8 hour bus ride to Phansovan, where the Plain of Jars is located, staying there for a few days and moving onto Luang Probang.

Lost in a dream

cl_mcdaniel — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:53:00 GMT

In the past few days it's been so crazy! After leaving Bangkok we took a short bus ride to Nongkhai and it was amazing! So peaceful and vegetarian places everywhere. There's a hotel called the Mutmee where we hung out in the most surreal atmosphere looking out into the Meekong river. Many shopping areas, although its a pretty small town. Afterwards, we flew to Udon Thani and took a bus to Ventienne. I experienced the biggest culture shock ever and took quite a bit of getting used to. Now, i feel like im at home and have never felt more calm and complete. There's too many little details to express and i dont feel like words would be sufficient to even begin to explain how gorgeous this place is. Hope everything is well back in the states! I leave for Vang vieng tomorrow. :) P.S.--dont really have an itenerary--just kind of being spur of the moment--i honestly dont even know what day it is or sometimes even the time and it makes me soooo relaxed. i feel like im on a vacation from reality. Oo--and yes, i tried the mango sticky rice and am obsessed!

Greetings from the big mango!!

cl_mcdaniel — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 22:15:00 GMT

After a 22 hour plane ride, we finally arrived exhausted and excited in Bangkok. The weather here is perfect and the food is delicious!! We're staying in a super cheap hotel--only like 6 bucks a night and it's simple but clean and overlooks beautiful temples. The sunrise this morning overlooking everything was beautiful! The area we're hanging out in resembles a hippie scene filled with art, street stalls, and other backpackers--alot of people are really laid back and lounge around for most of the day. Most of the cafes are mostly outside blasting early 2000 music. lol. i was told music comes here to die. >_< I've been shopping around a bit and came upon a sign that read "crafts by the deaf" and it was really exciting to communicate with the deaf Thai girl who painted scenic pictures of Thailand. I'm thinking about purchasing one. It really makes me appreciate ASL even more because although it's a different in each country, gesturing can go a long way! Anyways, I will be staying in Bangkok for the rest of the week (hopefully taking a Thai cooking class soon) and taking a bus to Laos where we will be stopping in random towns along the ride.