Travel Update

Well I really thought I would be better about keeping up with my blog while were traveling, but when I only get on the computer for about 5 minutes once every couple of days it's kind of hard. I can update from my iPod (as I'm doing right now) but that's even hard to find the time to do.

Anyway, things have been going great. Since I last wrote I've been to 5 cities in 3 countries. From Vang Vieng we took the bus down to Viantiane, the tiny capital of Laos (only 200,000 people). We had planned to bus from there all the way down through Laos making some stops in some towns and then crossing the border into Cambodia. But that was going to mean close to 30 hours total bus time so we took the easy way out and flew. We flew into Phnom Pehn (the capital of Cambodia) which we probably wouldn't have made it to otherwise. From there we bused over to Siem Reap, best known for those little temples that are nearby (Angkor Wat). We traveled from Siem Reap to Battambang, a Cambodian town that came highly recommended although I'm not sure why. Finally, just yesterday, we walked across the border into Thailand and arrived in Bangkok late last night. Phew, what a journey over the last couple of weeks!

Here are some highlights:
• Riding bikes all around Viantiane and visiting Pha That Luang, the giant golden stupa that is Laos' pride and joy.
• Visiting the horribly sad Killing Fields and S21, leftovers from Cambodia's dark history of Khmer Rouge. I learned so much and feel a little cheated that it was something that I never heard mentioned in history class.
• Seeing the brighter side of Phnom Pehn at the beautiful Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.
• Three days exploring Angkor Wat including two sunsets and a sunrise. Absolutely amazing. We saw the "Tomb Raider" temple and I wanted to pretend that I was Angelina Jolie but Jason just laughed at me.
• A wonderful cooking class in Battambang (the only thing we really liked there). We shopped in the local market, made Khmer curry from scratch, ate three delicious meals and learned about our instructor's life growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand.

Coming from Laos and Cambodia, Thailand was quite a culture shock. Immediately after crossing the border there were four lane highways, giant superstores, modern hospitals, McDonalds and 7-11, etc. And that was before we even saw Bangkok. (I'm pretty sure there isn't even a single American fast food restaurant in all of Laos). Bangkok is a big modern city much unlike anything we've been to in SE Asia so far.

I had heard nothing but negative things about Bangkok before coming here. We only planned to stay to see a few sites around the city. But I am pleasantly surprised to find that I actually like it here. The area that were staying in (Khao San Road) is incredibly touristy but kind of nice. There are great restaurants and bars and street food and shopping everywhere you turn. And today we visited the Grand Palace and another temple that were absolutely amazing. It would be worth it to come up Bangkok just for those.

The plan from here is to visit a town called Kanchanburi and then head down to the islands for some quality beach time. Only problem is that we need to get our 15 day visa extended which may turn out to be more expensive of a problem than we anticipated.....