Hey, where you go?

The French call Cambodia 'Cambodge'. I think that's where the expression 'bodgy' must come from.
Cambodia's a bit different to Laos... a lot more full on. I think that when we first arrived it took us both back a bit- but now a week on, we're finding our feet. The trick seems to be to keep smiling and not take things at face value. You've got to work a bit harder to stay ahead here.
Phnom Penh seemed so full on at first, but then we hadn't been in a big city since Chiang Mai over a month ago. It's also the start of the hottest month and damn, it is hot.

Today we went to Toul Sleng Museum (S-21), which is where over 17,000 people were imprisoned and subsequently killed during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1976-79. It was a pretty grisly experience and I find it impossible to put into words the tragedy that occurred there. As a photographer I found the photographic documentation of the victims shocking, moving and numbing. The number of faces seemed never ending. There are rooms and rooms of mug shots.

We passed on the Killing Fields - where S-21 prisioners were 'smashed' and also on the shooting range. Apparently it's a popular combo apparently for tourists- you do the Museum, Killing Fields and then the shooting range where you get to fire the gun/rocket launcher of your choice.

It seems like madness to want to get your hands on a gun after seeing such brutalities up close.

That said, Phnom Penh is an interesting city and our tuk tuk driver today- Som Sang was so friendly and we had a really fun morning with him at the markets. After the museum we went to great Khmer place for lunch and really enjoyed chatting with Sang about the city and the madness of driving in Cambodia!

Long Time, No Internet

Well, we've been busy. The South of Laos and the North of Cambodia have past us by since we last posted anything and it's hard to believe we haven't had the time to sit down and write anything.

Last time we posted we'd just arrived in Vienteine and were trying to find shelter from the sun. We ended up spending a few days cruising round there on a motorbike, checking out the sights and living the (mostly charming, occasionally infuriating) lazy Laos pace of life, but mostly again, trying to survive the heat. From there we pottered slowly south through Savannaket and Pakse before spending a couple of days in beautiful Si Phan Don, where the Mekong spreads out and winds through four thousand tiny islands before it hits Cambodia.

Which is what all the backpackers do too, I suppose. We really loved Laos - nice cruisy pace, no hassles, really quiet, friendly people - but by the time we hit Si Phan Don we'd spent enough time on hot stuffy packed out local buses and were definitely ready to crash out somewhere for a few catch up days of swimming and relaxing and book-reading. (Its always about the swimming for us.) Si Phan Don was a pretty amazing place - beautiful lush surroundings and we were lucky enough to see some of the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins which might not last much longer - but the place seems to be in the process of becoming another Vang Vieng style tourist cash-in. Lots of construction everywhere on the island we stayed on but we had a lovely guesthouse with a balcony overlooking the river and a lovely family looking after us so I don't know why I'm complaining. I think they do understand that the big part of the appeal of the place is that its so quiet and slow and the fact they only have electricity from 6pm till 10pm will probably stop any Club Meds opening up for a while yet!

Then, Cambodia. And we though Laos was disorganised! Long story short (to be shouted enthusiastically): Boat hits rocks! Wait for van! Wrong border! No visas today! (we had ours sorted already), Big fight! (not us), Extra money! Big fight! (not us), Change van! New border, different road! Extra money! Change van again! Lost packs! (us this time!), To many people for van now, too bad, squeeze in! Get off van! Get on boat! Found packs! (its not a totally sad story) No more vans, you stay here tonight!

Actually as you read that story someone should be yelling Hot! Hot! Hot! at the same time trying to distract you. You really do have to take a deep breath and laugh or you'll go nuts.

A day later than we meant to we ended up for a few days in dusty Ban Lung. Again, more motorbiking (this time on some seriously dodgy dusty dusty red dirt roads) and swimming in a stunning volcanic crater lake with green jungle all around. Yeak Loam was easily a solid contender for best swimming spot of the trip, and we've done plenty of sweet swimming spots. We spent last night in Kratie and today we took another hot dusty packed local to Phnom Penh. Did I say hot? April is the hottest month of the year here so its only going to get better.

Still a bit too early to make any solid calls on Cambodia but first impressions? Hot and crazy. Terrible roads. Lots of people hassling you everywhere for moto rides, rooms, pineapples and just straight out begging. Let me wipe the sweat off my face first.

Daft punks

On a bus to Vientiane we sat behind the weirdest girl.
It started with her singing out loud along with her ipod. Then she started cutting some dance moves in her seat. Mental. Bus ride was 4 hours long- she kept us entertained the whole way.
You meet some strange people when you move around.

Vientiane is damn hot. All we have done so far is ride a motorbike up and down to find a swimming pool. The pool was good.

That's it for now. Back to the pool.

Space Planet, Vang Vieng

Ok, so all we've heard for ever (from Mr P. Smiley) is about this little town in the middle of Laos where you go tubing. Everyone's like "Dude, you gotta go- it fuckin rocks!" (Maybe this'll clue you into the type of people who told us this.)
So we did and luckily, I survived to tell the tale.

We came here and actually kinda ruined ourselves on the first day. Spent the evening eating pizzas and drinking Beer Lao and headed to 'The Island'. A small island in the middle of the river the borders the town, which is covered in makeshift bamboo bars.
We lay in hammocks in front of a bonfire, drank from our over sized beers while Irish jigs played and felt like (Irish) pirates. It was St Patricks day, and it ended in carnage.

The next day was a write off, but the day after we headed out tubing. You hire a large tube, and get dumped in the river, which is lined with more bamboo bars and ladies yelling out "Free Lao Lao!" Music (bad, nasty Vengaboys style) is being pumped out and there are mad swings from all the bars out over the river. This is like at 11.30 am.

So we drank beers and lounged on the riverside and tubed the rapids. Toby took off like Tarzan and did every swing. We made friends with a German/Israeli couple- and Pascal pushed Toby to greater heights. "Swing longer Toby! It is a swing so you must SWING!. Embarrassingly I climbed one and then climbed back down. It may have been how intoxicated I was, but I just went weak at the knees. Shame.

As the sun was setting, we were drifting down a much quieter part of the river, which is lined by massive karst formations- huge mountainous rocks pushed out of the earth. It was very, very cool. It was beginning to get cold so fifteen of us piled into one tuk tuk- a major feat with fifteen tubes piled on the roof.

We had a great day- it was fun. However, unlike the first girl I met that day- I don't think we will be doing it for 2 weeks in a row. There seems to be some people who just can't get enough and stay in Vang Vieng for weeks just tubing. That's a bit much.

Today we hired a motorbike and went exploring some caves which was really fun. Also we went swimming in the Blue Lagoon- an amazing freshwater spring from one of the caves that was so, so blue. It was beautiful and made me realise what brought people here in the first place. It wasn't the bars. It was the beautiful ruggedness of this landscape and the friendliness of the Lao people.

Laos, wow (which rhymes, actually)

So heres a long overdue update - we've been in Laos for a week now and had a pretty incredible time. Its a very different culture and pace to Thailand - a little less touristy which is kinda refreshing but also just a lot less manic. It's an interesting mix of influences - the french colonial era, 30 years of communism and isolation from the rest of world, the 'secret war' CIA bombing throughout the 60s and current Thai pop culture have all left huge, really tangible imprints on the whole look and feel and mood and character of the place. Its a poor country with a lot of hurdles to overcome but you get the strong impression things are on the up here.

We started our trip here with a two day slow-boat ride down the Mekong River from Huay Xing to Luang Prabang. We'd heard a lot of mixed reports about doing this trip but we had a blast - the boat was basic but the trip was really relaxing and quite social and we got to watch countless villages and fishermen and water buffalo and cheeky kids cruise by while we kicked back and made a whole gang of new mates. Thankfully it seems we left behind the significant proportion of "We've got two weeks off work, lets go to somewhere cheap and get PISSED" style backpackers at the Thai border. (Not that I haven't drunk my fair share of Beerlao already, but thats not the point!)

Luang Prabang was pretty incredible too - the guidebook said it's a travel photographers dream, and sure enough Sonya went nuts on the old Minolta. The central city is all well-preserved french colonial architecture mixed with beautiful pristine old temples. Monks everywhere, palm trees, two rivers, hardly any traffic, stalls selling top class fresh baking (thanks frenchies), and in a refreshing change from the tourist junk that fills shops and stalls anywhere a backpacker might go in Thailand the whole town has a kind of boutiquey feel with classy little resturants and road stalls selling actually really nice jewellery and handcrafts. I mainly followed Sonya around while she took about 30 billion photos and one night we had an extremely bizarre night out at the local bowling alley where the locals gave us plenty of tips.

Right now we're in Phonsavan in the northeast - one of the areas most heavily hit in the CIA bombings of the 60s (Obviously they left Luang Prabang alone - the US-loyal King lived there). The legacy of that campaign is unbelievable - the massive amount of unexploded cluster bombs still leaves whole farming regions unusable (or more realistically extremely dangerous to work) and everyone we've met here has a brother or a cousin or a friend who has died accidently or lost a limb or two. It's quite stunning what a huge part of people's everyday lives it still is - bomb shells are used everywhere as house foundations, fireplaces and fenceposts, the market is full of tools made from melted down bombs and the hills are pock-marked with enourmous craters. We did a tour today of the Plain of Jars - hills covered in giant iron-age stone pots of unknown origin - which was incredible - but I think I was more blown away by all the remnants of that war everywhere, and our guide was more than happy to tell us all about it.

Crystal healing- 250 B

Wow. We found the epicentre of the enlightened hippy, dreads are cool, thai pants and leather moccasins, silver beads in the hair fashion capital of Thailand.
It's called Pai.
Pai is a tiny little town by a river about 3 stomach churning hours NW of Chiang Mai. It's primarily an artistic getaway for both Thai and Farang muscians and artists. However it's become a bit of a mecca for the 'alternative' traveller.

It's something that Toby and I find pretty funny- when some of the westerners completely adopt the full-on, all-out, no holds barred Thai Backpacker Fashion. I mean, it's obvious you're going to end up buying local clothes and be influenced by the culture- but there's a particular 'look' that certainly isn't Thai, it's a weird bastardised western hippy version of an 'aware' backpacker. Most of them seem so far up their own arses, they'd never see the humour in it.

We did met some nice people though! There's a cool nightlife- some great little bars. We spent a few evenings set up with Changs and Thai whiskey on foldout beds by a campfire at our local bar the Buffalo Exchange. Groovy old Thai rockers serenaded us with lots of classics- Dylan, the Stones, Clapton.

We also took a cooking class and learned how to make a mean Thai green curry and a few other favourites. It was really fun- except that I kinda lost my appetite as I had just started a course of anti-malaria tablets and felt a bit queasy.

Spent a lot of time at our guesthouse by the river, relaxing in hammocks, reading on our balcony, swimming at the hot springs, riding the motorbike around town and being lazy. The saying in Pai is "Do Nothing in Pai". So we did.

Actually, the anti-malarials have kinda kicked the ground out from underneath me, and it's taken a few days (and some anti-nausea tablets) to get settled. Seems ok now though..def don't want malaria, so will persist... left Pai this morning, in Chiang Rai tonight and we head to Laos tomorrow.

Oh (Chiang) Mai Goodness

We hit Chiang Mai with high hopes. Everything we'd heard and read about the place seemed right up our alley - lots of culture, good food, easy to get around and a relaxed pace - and a few minor hiccups aside we had an awesome three days. I was a little sick but we hired a motorbike and I braved the crazy city traffic techniques (red = go, orange = go, green = go fast) and managed to see a whole lot of sights in and around the city while Sonya bought up half the silver jewellery in the province.

We did markets and bazaars and temples and bridges and even the rambling, shambolic Chiang Mai zoo (great to see Pandas but the rest of the place was pretty run down) and enjoyed the colourful and friendly characters we met. Chiang Mai is touristy but in a much more relaxed, less in your face than Bangkok , and with the bike it wasn't hard to get off the tourist track and see more of the real city, like the amazing Wororot day market. The people were wonderfully friendly and a common recurring conversation was whether we'd been to Bangkok and whether we liked Chiang Mai more ("Yes, yes, of course"). I couldn't help but make the comparison with the way Wellingtonians feel about Auckland, and the exact same things Melburnians say about Sydney. Maybe Sonya and I are culturally hardwired to love the second biggest city in any country. What's the second biggest city in Holland?

Like I said, I was a bit sick but it was a perfect place to relax and refresh - its a cheap place in indulge yourself and we could easily afford a nice place with a pool. While I recharged by the pool Sonya got a nice haircut to match all her new silver and last night we even splashed out for a relaxing massage. Luxury.