October 2 was a travel day. We all sort of slept in a little, then went to a brunch of very very spicy soup

then back to the house to pack up and relax

said goodbye to the puppies

and headed back to the little chiang rai airport. we sat there for awhile with bobby and the pastor, eating pineapple and jackfruit, drinking good chinese tea

bobby then had to go pack, as he was also flying out that day (back to LA). our flight to bangkok was good, and we had a little layover in the airport to eat some more and get some beer

from bangkok we then flew into vientiane. because the festival was going on (why we're here), our cab couldn't take us very far so we had to walk a ways through the crowd to our hotel

we checked into the Lao Orchid, which was nice if very impersonal, and checked out the great view from our balcony

the dark mekong river, and the smoke of grilling food and the sounds of a good party below
we head into the streets in search of the local beer, the only beer

i believe you can get other beer in laos, but you don't. you drink beer lao, and you drink lots of it. it's cheap, it's delicious, and it's everywhere. it's got to be owned by the government or something. they might even use it to water the crops. we've sampled many asian beers, and really, this is one of the best.
after beer, hungry again, we stop for a snack

things on sticks! yes!

we take our chicken feet, wings, and other unknown bits and parts back to the hotel bar

shamelessly gnawing chicken feet in the nice hotel bar

so, after 2 airplane rides and with a belly full of beer lao and chicken parts, we headed to bed to get ready for our first full day in Laos.

On Thursday, Oct, 1, we got up at 3am and packed up and headed out and caught a flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. We were met at the airport by my younger brother, Bobby Bo! and his Pastor that he stays with here. Me and Ed and Bobby dumped the backpacks at Bobby's house and headed out to breakfast

tasty noodles to start the day.
Then back to the house, to meet the puppies

and then a quick walk to the school where Bobby teaches english

the kids are all super excited to see bobby, and sad that he's going back to the states for a few weeks, and generally giggly and cute and shy. but you can tell they really like bobby a lot

one girl kept telling bobby that he needs to buy her new socks in america

after meeting the kids and a couple teachers, we went back to the house for moto-riding lessons for ed

serious stuff.

once ed had that down, we headed off into chiang rai to see the town

and stop at a cafe to use the internet

we stopped at another one of bobby's schools and met some teachers, hung out a little, and then went out to find lunch at one of bobby's favorite places

then, back out on the road through chiang rai traffic

to see the white temple outside of town

the white temple is modern, and very, very cool. interesting. beautiful. inspiring.





it's not quite done yet, this is definitely something i'd like to come back and see in a few years when it's complete.




even the toilets are classy


after that, we headed back onto the road



to rest and hang out a little with bobby before dinner at the pastor's house
the pastor lives in the dormitory of the school

the dorm is for all the hilltribe kids, their parents send them to live at the school for the term, and then during break they go back to their tribes

ed pulls in

dinner was really good, it was nice of the pastor to have us over

tom kha and rice and chicken and veggies, all very tasty
after dinner we headed to the chiang rai night market

which was clean, quiet, and so strange after all the markets we've been in. it was more like a giant, well-organized sidewalk sale. there was even 'cultural dancing'

in the past couple months bobby has gotten really good at speaking thai, and it's fun to listen to him

eventually we made our way over to the food stalls, which again, were oddly clean and organized.

and with bobby's friend sila, we sat down to some papaya salad and sticky rice

super spicy!
after all that, and our 3 am wake-up call, it was really time to head home. we had left the motos at the dorm and taken a car to the market, so after dropping ed off at the house, i was able to ride one of the motos back from the dorm to the house by myself, in the dark through the rice paddies, and it was great. back at the house, we hung out and chatted for a while, and then to bed.

On Wednesday the 30, we woke up in Bangkok, after a few hours sleep, and headed out to see the Touristy Bits. We stopped for noodles at a little stand right outside Wat Po.

while we ate, a guy pretending to work at the noodle stand told us all about how Wat Po was closed, but he knew a driver who could take us around for cheap to see some other stuff until the wat opened again, and maybe do a little shopping...? All of which we listened to and nodded our heads, and "oh really? wow"'d, ... and then finished our soup and walked into the obviously open Wat Po and ignored him. So, that was the beginning of People Lying To Us In Thailand. Very frustrating, just for the simple fact that some people seem to do it to foreigners for absolutely no reason at all. So, having come from vietnam and cambodia where people are so friendly and the rip-offs are usually only in the marketplace or in tuk tuks (and everyone has a good laugh about them).. coming here kinda put a bad taste in our mouth. Anyway. We saw the sights and did our best to ignore the jerks.












after leaving Wat Po, we ran the gauntlet of liars and walked to the grand palace

things you should know when walking to the grand palace: 1) it is open 2) you can borrow clean clothing there -for free- if you are wearing something that doesn't cover your legs or arms 3) it doesnt close for 'lunch'.





this is where they keep the emerald buddha, which is pretty important and has an interesting history

lots of murals here




then, lunchtime!

then, after a bit of wandering around the market nearby, we headed back to chinatown

where we were able to walk around without being bothered and check out all the smells and foods and market alleys for a while

if we come back to bangkok, this is where we'll be spending our time, i think

then we went back to T&K seafood for dinner, because last night was so good

snails and noodles and also some deep fried giant prawns

the kitchen at T&K's (yep, that's it:)

three or four ladies on the street cranking out enough fresh seafood to feed dozens and dozens of people.
after dinner it was back on the bts to the nana stop

where we went back to y-not to say hello and grab a beer and get better directions to Soi Cowboy (the red light district)
which we then went out and found

so we sat and had a few beers and checked it out. it's way smaller than i thought it would be, only 2 small blocks.

lots and lots of interesting people watching here though, let me tell you.

so, after a few beers, we took the bts back to On Nut and went to bed, because we had to get up at 3:00 am to catch a flight to Chiang Rai... Ug.

On Tuesday the 29, we woke up and had a lazy day in Phnom Penh. Breakfast at the hotel, followed by a trip to the Russian Market

where we got some coffee and wandered around and bought some small things. the market is quiet and nobody really bothers you and the merchandise is actually pretty good. we like this one a lot.

then we wandered around the park a little to find some snacks

we bought some pineapple from one guy and some grilled bananas from another

then we sat around and people watched for a while, before going back to the room to pack up

so we could head to the airport, and catch a flight to Bangkok

bangkok is nice because when you get out, there's a real taxi stand, where you get a ticket from a girl at the desk and you don't have to deal with fighting through taxi hagglers.
our hotel was in a quiet part of bangkok, right by the last BTS stop, On Nut

it's a nice hotel




it was already dark when we got in, but we headed out anyway. being right at the end of the BTS is pretty nice, we took it a few stops in to see the town. it's really culture shock after a few days in cambodia

looking for something to eat though, we decided to catch a taxi to chinatown

after a little walking around, we settled into the T&K Seafood restaurant right on the main drag. it was so good!

really fresh and tender squids, and some noodles, and some good beers
then ed grabbed some bugs from a passing vendor

cheap and tasty grasshoppers, just like salty chips

there aren't a lot of bars here, so we headed back onto the bts and went to the nana stop - just because that's where we noticed the most tourists getting off the bts. sure enough, there's tons of bars and hookers and bars there. after lots of walking around and little rain, we found a good place called the 'y-not' bar, which is actually run by an expat from denmark named heine - while his girls hung out with all the single customers, heine hung out and drank and talked and laughed with us long after the bar closed until about 5:00 am. heine's wife got us into a taxi and sent us on our way back to the hotel, to catch a few hours sleep before hitting the streets again.

On Monday the 28, we were up early and got a good breakfast at the hotel


then our tuk tuk driver came to get us and we headed out for some sight seeing.
we went first to the prison museum
it used to be a high school, which the khmer rouge altered to fit their purposes



for a small fee you can get a tour guide, which i really recommend. ours explained what everything was and who the photos were of and what happened in this place, and also how her family and life were affected by what happened here.

going to these places is sort of like going to hiroshima. it's not the most fun you're going to have on vacation. in fact it's pretty awful at times. but it's history, and it's important, and it gives you a lot to think about



the khmer rouge were organized, and kept photographic records of prisoners both 'before' and 'after'.


From there, it's a short ride out of town to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.



the remains of about 9000 people were exhumed in the 80's, and many of the graves are still untouched. every time it rains, more and more bits of bone and clothing are revealed in the dirt walkways







There is no real count on how many people died in cambodia during this time, but the average seems to be around 1.6 million, between 1975 and 1979.

So. Then it was time to head back into town, to see what else is going on.


Wat Phnom!

right

a monk releases a bird for good luck

ed bought me one too

the base of the hill is a big clock

and there are elephants

and MONKEYS!




The Central market in Phnom Penh is surprisingly quiet, airy, cool, and clean

not at all what we expected

i like it!

we ate lunch here

giant shrimps, some beef, a little tea, all very good stuff



We also saw the National Museum

which is pretty and quiet

no photos allowed inside, but it's interesting and full of buddha images and information about the old khmer empire

Then it was to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda

which is where we found all the tourists. but it's still pretty




After all that, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest a bit before going out later for dinner. Dinner we got right around the corner from the hotel at a cute place that served good food

after dinner it was a bit of wandering around the park area with some grilled bananas, hanging out by the river with some beers, and a few more beers back at the hotel bar.

the next day we'd be on the road again, heading to thailand

On Sunday the 27 we got up early and headed across the street to Pho24 for a quick breakfast


then we went to the backpacker district to catch our bus to Phnom Penh

This was our 3rd trip on the Mekong Express, and I have to say I really like their service.


The buses are big, clean, they give you water and snacks, the rest stop lunches are good, and the assistants that go with you speak pretty good english.

so we rolled out of vietnam

and into cambodia


the border crossing is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but for the first time across it's really confusing. there's no real signs or clear organization.
when going with a bus service like the mekong express, the bus assistant takes your passport for you on the vietnam side to get stamped and processed. meanwhile you take your bags and put them through the xray machine. then you wait on the other side of the passport control until your name is called, then go through without having to talk to the guy. show your stamp to a sleepy guy at a desk by the door, and you're through the vietnam border. then, you get back on the bus for about 2 minutes and they roll over to the cambodia border.

now, in the good old days, you wouldn't even have to stop here. the bus would just keep rolling on to a lunch place and the bus assistant would show up about half an hour later with your processed passport. now, because of h1n1, you have to go through yourself. if you use evisa like we do, show it to someone in uniform and they take you to the separate evisa desk. then you go through passport control after that. then, we had to go through the 'health screening', which was an old guy with a baby ear thermometer. the ear thermometer was not cleaned or changed for each person, just sort of stabbed in our ears as we went through. back on the bus, there was a lot of cringing as everyone was wiping their hand sanitizer into their ears.
once through the border, we got to stop for lunch

we weren't really that hungry, so we just had a beer and looked at the dead bird at our table

(after noticing me take a picture, some very giggling embarrassed waiters came and took it away)
anyway. the bus ride is about 6 hours, not bad at all. at one point they put on a zach galifinakis movie, so that made me pretty happy


once in Phnom Penh, we hopped into a tuk tuk

and got to the Pavilion Hotel

i like it here

i like the private pool too

the grounds of the hotel are completely thick with plants and ferns, it's very quiet and secluded

so, checked in and ready for food, we hopped back into the tuk tuk and headed to a local place

i had my first beer lao - we wanted to compare the taste between exported and local

food was pretty good too

then we headed over to the night market

where we bummed around a little and i got a cool angkor beer shirt (i do like my angkor beer)
and then it was time for some angkor beer, so we headed to the main drag by the river, where all the tourists and backpackers and bars are, to sit in the big comfy chairs they have there and drink a few
then it was back in the tuk tuk (tuk tuk rides in phnom penh are probably my favorite anywhere)


back to the hotel

a few more beer and internetting at the bar

and a little swimming before crashing for the night

SO.
Now that we're back on a solid fast internet connection, let me go back to where we left off.
Which was somewhere near the beginning, with heading to dinner at Thiets...


we had just left Mien's wedding, and ran to the market for flowers and rambutans to bring to dinner


driving through saigon suburbs


when we got to Thiet's, the first part of dinner was ready
and the second part was cooking in the back


everybody loves banh xeo


not going to tell you whats in here.

lets just say it involves rice wine and 'medicine'.


hanging with Thiet's family was a lot of fun


we would have stayed later, but we had an early morning bus to catch to cambodia.

hello from Can Tho!
we sort of spontaneously hopped a bus out here to the mekong delta with Mien and his wife and are spending the night.
Can Tho is also the winner of "The Place That Made Me The Most Sick" award. Just read the title of this post for a clue. I'll tell you later. I don't wanna think about it right now.
we're going out to dinner soon, i think i'll be having the Plain Rice, thankyou ;)
If I don't get any pictures uploaded tonight, please check back this weekend - then I will be going through and updating everything and giving you the whole illustrated story of this trip. It's been surreal and amazing, so stay tuned.

we're back in saigon!
mien is on his way to take us to some Bia Hoi (!)
then we have a 4am wake up call (ug)
because we are going on a little impromptu road trip tomorrow
never a dull moment
for right now though it's nice to be back in the city, we've traded giant cockroaches under the bed for bats in our bathtub.
i know i know, pictures soon ;) first i need a beer or five.

Hey!
We're still in Luang Prabang. Internet is not the best, as you can tell. Soon we go to catch a flight to Hanoi then back to Saigon, where we'll be for a few more days.
Luang Prabang is very quiet, especially now that the festival is over. So, we've been relaxing and eating a lot and not doing much else. Took a sleepy boat ride. Saw some scary creatures. Ed got hit by a passing moto and has a bruise on his arm now. Nothing too exciting.
I know the internet in our hotel in Saigon works, so photos start again later tonight!

hello from luang prabang! we just bought plane tickets from a travel booker here downtown, and they were nice enough to let us use the internet for free. I'm not entirely sure if our guesthouse here has internet, so i'm dropping a little post to say hello from the Land of Tourists With Cameras.
We got up at 5am this morning to go watch the monks, and our view was pretty much blocked the whole time by fat tourists with expensive cameras getting up in the monk's faces as they passed through town. Jerks. Anyway it's nice here, very similar to Hoi An in a lot of ways.
Right now we are going to go find the market and maybe climb the big hill/mountain in town. I drank the coffee this morning (stupidstupidstupid - coffee water is *warmed*, not *boiled*) so I'm off to a bit of a rocky start. But, the immodiums are kicking in and the day is not so hot, so it should be OK. You wouldn't believe how hot vientiane was.
I'd post some pics but the mouse on this computer is all messed up. I'll see what I can do from the hotel tonight. You can see some of the pictures i uploaded in vientiane here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissastanley727

hello from laos! the internet seems to work fairly well here, and combined with the 11:30 curfew, i should be able to get caught up a little in the next couple days.

in the meantime, here's some more random out-of-order pics for you!


skulls in the killing fields, cambodia


laughing is not allowed in the prison museum, though i dont know how anyone could


city monkey, phnom penh


the grilled bananas in cambodia are salty and tasty


the reclining buddah in bangkok - it's a biggie


hanging out in thailand


we went down to soi cowboy for some beers in bangkok


at one of bobby's favorite restaurants in chiang rai thailand


me and bobby at the white temple outside chiang rai

ok, breakfast is calling me, not sure what it will be today but going to wander around the banks of the mekong here and find out.

oh wait i got a few choice photos to upload:


ed at the cambodia border. i'll post about the bus service later, and the border crossing. it's really easy.


our private pool in cambodia


the killing fields outside of phnom penh. there are actually hundreds of killing fields in cambodia. this is just the largest site. that memorial is entirely filled top to bottom with human skulls.


this morning bobby bo gave us driving lessons and we're tooling around town on motos now. WHEEEEE


ed outside bobby's house - the locals think he looks hilarious. so do i.

hello from chiang rai!
sitting in an internet cafe with ed, sipping a latte and relaxing, after our morning lessons in SE Asia motorbike riding.
we left bangkok around 4am, and got to chiang rai around 8am
today and half of tomorrow is for hanging out with my brother bobby bo
internet connection in cafe is, of course, not strong enough for flickr. sorry blog-fans, it's been a bit of a rough one here, but what can you do when you're in the middle of the rice paddies.
chiang rai is sleepy and quiet, very nice after our marathon buzz through bangkok

holy hookers! we're in bangkok!

ok, just a quick note before i sleep (which i haven't done much in the past few days)


dinner at thiets was awesome

lots of good treats

then, as i mentioned, we left vietnam and rolled into cambodia

which was great

then we flew to bangkok

where we've been eating a lot of fun things
and we havent stopped moving since we showed up here.

speaking of which, i gotta go get my 3 hours sleep before the flight to chiang rai.

i promise to fill in all the details of the above stuff soon. just never spent any time in this hotel on the internet, bangkok never sleeps.

xo

I don't love the internet connections in cambodia, but I <3 cambodia.
I have no flickr so no photos today. Boo.
But, here is a quick run-down of what we have been up to, until I can get some photos. The photos are good, can't wait to show you.

We went to dinner at Thiet's house, he put on a big spread of Hot Vit Lon, Hot Cut Lon, Banh Xeo, some rice soup, etc. Hung out with his in-laws and Nam, laughed a lot, had a good time

Then we woke up and caught the morning bus to cambodia.

We're in Phnom Penh, and love it. I'm really glad we decided to do another run-through of this city after last year, because I really enjoy everything here and it's a great place to see and hang out. I'll talk more about it later - it's peaceful and calm and friendly and smells great and the food is awesome and everything is colorful. And, we're staying in the best hotel in the world.

So far we've come into town, met a great driver, ate a lot, swam in our private pool, visited the: Prison Museum, Killing Fields, Central Market, Wat Phnom, National Museum, Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda.

Right now I'm sitting by the pool, drinking an Angkor, checking the internets on the lollypop, and resting.
Tomorrow we have some more time in the city to hang out, then we're off to Bangkok.

Mien got married!

last night we went to the first of Mien's wedding parties

there was a lot of entertainment and singing and dancing - most of which i got on video.





then we were treated to a six-course meal, which was amazing.
and then, everyone left. immediately. the reception lasted exactly 2 hours and as soon as everyone finished the meal the place emptied faster than you can say "Một hai ba, yo"

so, we went to hein and bobs with the rest of our evening


this morning

we headed out of the hotel and stayed in our own neighborhood

because there is a Pho24 right across the street from our hotel. normally we never eat in chain restaurants or places like this... but this stuff is seriously good so we had to get a least 1 bowl. also, being right across the street is super convenient for breakfast (thinking about it for tomorrow also... :)

then we wandered around the area to sort of walk off that giant bowl of delicious

i wont start blabbing about it now, but saigon is changing. a lot. and quickly.

after our walk we came back to the hotel, changed, and then hopped in a very nicely provided Phonak van which took us through the rain


out of town


to phonak to pick up a bunch of other people

(witness my crappy back-seat photography!)

and to mien's wedding, pt 2.

there are 2 wedding days - one for each family.

apart from some changes to the dancing and singing entertainment, the 2 events are pretty much identical

we got to hang out with ly!

which was fun, haven't seen her since switzerland.

again we feast

our table mates, and the tables around us, were a lot of fun.

this is the sort of party where our beer-experience pays off

because around these guys the glasses are instantly refilled, and when they say "YO" you'd better empty it again

everyone is super friendly, the food and the karaoke were fantastic, and our ability to kill countless glasses of saigon red beer made for a great time

but again, 2 hours, bang, done. a big crowd of people crossed the street to go to the other karaoke bar where we were, but we got back to saigon to change and get ready and go to benh tanh market to buy flowers and rambutans

because we had a very, very good dinner to get to.

ok that's all for now, it's 12am and i've got a morning bus to catch to phnom penh.

Ok! I got flickr working and a belly full of pho and coffee, ready to blog again :)

The last thing I showed was breakfast with Mien yesterday. After breakfast we headed over to the Benh Tanh market to get ed some jeans ($15 for levis 501) and some new sunglasses

i like looking at all the fruit stands in the markets


Then Mien took off, because he had to go get married, and Ed and I headed over to the backpacker district to see about our bus tickets



vietnam reminds us of stefan sometimes ;)


we got our bus tickets from the meekong express - we took them last year to phnom penh too

we're taking the 8:30 on sunday, tickets are $12 each to phnom penh

once we had our tickets we sat down at the santa cafe (the backpacker area is really touristy, as the name implies) and killed some 333's and people watched

i got some new "ray ban's" from a lady on the street


then we walked around some more

we haven't bought any durian (the fruit being sold above) yet, but we will soon. ug. but, gotta try it eventually.

lunch was bun cha at a nice place sort of off the beaten path
then we headed back to the hotel to get changed for mien's wedding
i'll have pictures of that soon, and whenever we hit a better internet connection for uploading, some great videos.

right this second i'm resting in the room before heading out for mien's wedding part II

travel blog headquarters.
i'm using our new dell inspiron mini (we call it the lollypop, because of those dang commercials) - and it's pretty sweet. i wonder if we can get a dell sponsorship for our blog. ;)

so, flickr, our photo-hosting thing, is being dumb and i can't upload any pictures tonight.
i'll try again tomorrow, i'm jetlagging pretty good :)
today was good, lots of walking and a vietnamese wedding and tons of food and beer. and we bought our bus tickets for cambodia.
goodnight!

let's start at the beginning!

airplane food.

we flew JAL, which while not as great as it was 2 years ago, is still pretty nice.
as nice as a couple flights totaling 22 hours can be.

we laid over in Narita, Tokyo, and of course had two bowls of tasty ramen

which was one of the reasons we chose the flight with the tokyo layover

then beers in the airport at Kirin City bar


we got to the hotel at around 10:30 pm

we're staying at the Indochine Hotel in Dist.1, a block from our favorite bar. Apart from the bats crapping in our bathtub (really), it's a very nice place.

Our friend Mien was waiting for us at the hotel when we showed up, and after dumping the backpacks we all hopped in a taxi to go eat



fans of last year's blog will remember Hot Vit Lon - also called Balut. This is Hot Vit Lon fried and served a couple different ways. Excellent with a 333 on ice


food served with safety pins = awesome


we ate clams, giant snails, little snails, more duck eggs, soup, it was a huge meal. and we had a lot of 333.

we had a great time with Mien


then, crashed at the hotel in jet-lag exhaustion.

this morning, Mien called us up and asked if we had breakfast yet... nope! so off we went again

PHO. one of those things you just crave constantly once you've had it. this was great, we ate on the side of the road by benh tanh

this is a great place for breakfast.

although not really designed for ed... still good though

so.. yea, we've been pretty much just eating since we got here.
I have more stuff that we did today to post, but right now we are going to go see if our favorite bar is open, and then tonight is Mien's wedding...

more later!!