So its been a rather nitty gritty sort of truckin' this past week. I've covered a lot of ground, in some pretty sheisty modes of transport, and come out with a few pieces that need to be assembled. I've come down with two fevers, turned 23, rode on some very rocky roads, most of the time way over capacity in a tuk tuk, bus, car, bicycle, moto, boat, raft and glorified canoe; crossed into Cambodia, paid my respects at the Killing Fields, drank red wine, shot my first gun, eating 3 kilos of rambutans, and smashed my toe so bad that the skin peeled off the top and it gushed blood. (ew!)
The 22 hour journey from the north to the south of Laos wasn't a bad as projected. We connected through Vientiane and in Vientiane we got a sleeper bus to Pakse. The sleeper bus was great! It had sort of real beds withs pillows and blankets and they gave you layercake and orange smoothie drinks for free. Aside from the Lao Karaoke and Bollywood movie that took place in Brazil but was dubbed over in Lao blaring way to loud over the tv's- it was a pretty pleasant ride. We arrived in the rain and were tuk tuked over for the hour and a half journey to Champasak- a tiny little town that has only one street running through it, which the "center of town" is literally 3 fruit stands and a restaurant run out of the back of somebody's home. So we decided to rent some bicycles and ride 20 km there and back to see the ruins of some old temples at Champasak. The ride was a bit rough bc for some reason they don't believe in mountain bikes in Laos and prefer the much more inefficient, but much more stylish 70's "I'm rocking a basket and streamers" type of bicycle. The temple was cool- it had a very "legends of the hidden temple" type of feel to it, but to be honest fooling around on the bikes, jamming to my ipod was much more fun. Nothing like pedaling past cows in Lao countryside grooving to James Brown. Can I get an amen?
At 11:59 pm on May 10 I was delightfully surprised by a chocolate banana birthday pancake with a giant candle in it. Ok I wasn't really surprised, the guy in the restaurant actually tried to give it to me like 7 times because he didn't really speak english and interpreted "hide the pancake from the girl with the long brown hair until midnight" as "try as many ways as possible to give it to her hours early, even if she politely refuses 10 times" BUT its not the surprise that matters, its the thought and I was so excited to get to have 2 birthday cakes :)
Woke up at 6:30 the next day, bright and early in order to go to Si Phan Don. We loaded, and by loaded I mean squished, into a tuk tuk (that had an overpowering smell of vomit) crossed over the mekong on some floating wood that they call a raft (my favorite was the lady selling crickets on a stick with a traditional asian wicker hat that said "superman returns" written in sharpie on the side) and then were dropped off at an intersection in the middle of nothing to wait for a possible bus that should be coming by. It was over a hundred degrees outside. So we waited, and we waited and waited and waited. The bus was supposed to come every 15 minutes or so. No bus came. Instead we flagged down a tuk tuk that was even more crowded then the last ones we took, and since there was no more room left inside we had to sit/stand on the back. 3 hours later we arrived at the docks and loaded up with our massive backpacks into these tiny little canoes that rocked so hard back in forth I was pretty convinced we were going to go over. We finally arrived in Don Det, one of the four thousand islands, found a little bungalow for $2.50 with no electricity and relaxed for lunch. As wretched as the journey seems- it was actually quite comical. We were all in disbelief that we actually made it and were covered in dirt from hanging out the back. All a part of life on the road.
Deciding that the island needed exploring, we rented some more silly bikes and headed off into the rice fields. Don Det is a really beautiful little island, and the ride (although quite bumpy and painful on the bum) was really enjoyable. At night we celebrated my old age with a nice dinner and a evntually a bottle of whisky (which only costs a dollar for liter in Laos!) and went to sleep.
On the road again the next day, this time 14 hours across the border into Cambodia and down to Phnom Penh.
I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Cambodia turned out to be. It's much cheaper and much more modern then Laos and the people are much friendlier to. What trips me out is that everything here is in US dollars. All the prices are in US dollars, and at the ATMs you cant even get Cambodian reals, the ATMs only have US dollars. The only time you get reals back is when you change is less then 1 USD, you'll get it back in Cambodian reals because they dont use coins. Crazy.
Phnom Pen is a neat little city that I spent several days in. Its got a good backpacker scene going on, and lots of cheap western bars and restaurants. We hired a personal tuk tuk for the day to do a tour of the sites around the city. We started off, rather ironically, at the shooting range where I shot my first handgun...well any gun for that matter. They just hand you the gun and say "here you go, don't shoot yourself. " You can even shoot an a machine or grenade launcher if you want. Afterwards we headed off to the Killing Fields the site of a mass genocide camp during the Khmer revolution. It was really powerful and really sad. The first thing you see is a building that is stacked with thousands upon thousands of human skulls, over 10 stories high. The feeling you get is absolutely indescribable. I was literally moved to tears.
After the killing fields we headed off to S-21, a former highschool that was turned into a horrific prison for the Khmer revolution. Inside are the remains of the old cells and photo graphs of the faces of the thousands who were executed there. It was a very moving day.
After Phnom Pen we bid farewell to our Argentinian friend Emiliano and journeyed up to Battambang, where I currently am now. We only planned on staying 1 day but decided on staying two because the monsoon rained out our plans. Today we hired moto drivers to take us to see the sites outside the city. Because the roads are so terribly bad (made of dirt, massive potholes, and soggy and slippery from the monsoon) and the places so bizarrely located, its not possible to see them on your own. So we bumped along the rocky roads for hours, visiting some more old temples on the tops of mountains, (morrrree temples?!?) caves, and the kooky old school bamboo train. We stopped by a monastary that had a tree with over 300 hundred fruit bats just hanging out- it wa awesome. The moto ride was rather uncomfortable but provided priceless views of the Cambodian countryside and small villages. I did however, like the clutz I am, bust my big toe on one of the temple rocks. I thought I had just stubbed it until I looked down and was gushing blood everywhere. Within 30 seconds, a little Cambodian woman rushed over, pulled some medicated cotton balls out of her bag, cleaned and wrapped my toe and saved the day. I didn't even ask for help, she just did it instantly just because she was kind. I am very lucky to have so many guardian angels along the way.
Tomorrow we will jet off to Siem Reap to see- you guessed it, some more temples. BUT these are any old stinky temples, this is Angkor Wat, and it should be awesome.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, it was really nice to know so many people were thinking about me on the other side of the world. xoxo
Saudades Renan- only a few more weeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment