Cambodia: Angkor WHAAAT

Nearly two months later and I’m finally blogging about Cambodia!

One thing I have learned about traveling.. It is sometimes best not to have a strict plan, because they often change… When I started traveling, my original plan was to travel with the girls then head back to Khon Kaen for a day or two after Chiang Mai to repack to have a solo traveling adventure for a week in Bali.  While in Chiang Mai, Alysha expressed great interest in traveling to Bali with me. Long story short, the girls easily talked me into going to Cambodia with them and changing my flight so Alysha could stay longer in Asia (she extended her flight date home to the states) and go to Bali with me!  Funny thing was, I had only packed for Laos and Chiang Mai, basically a weeks worth of clothes and now needed to make it all last for another month of traveling! I always knew that I am an over packer but this really made it a reality! I made it work with NO problems.. my “week” packing is really a “month” packing. I’m hoping to be a better packer in the future!

The girls and I took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then another bus to the Cambodia/Thailand border.  We had been warned by other travelers to watch out for scams in Cambodia and we were instantly ripped off at the border.  From the bus station on the Thailand side, we needed to take a tuk-tuk to the border to walk across but instead it took us to a visa station which over charged us for our Cambodia visa.  We walked across the border in the scorching heat and were directed to a “tourist bus” to take us to a bus station to get to Siam Reap, a city about three hours from the border.  Another scam.. these tourist buses over-charge westerners for bus tickets and we were warned of this in the South East Asia Lonely Planet but we didn’t have another option..  The four of us ended up splitting a cab to take us to Siam Reap.

We spent the next three days in Siam Reap, Cambodia’s most popular tourist destination and gate way to Angkor Wat,  the worlds most religious monument and one of the wonders of the world! Angkor Wat is surrounded by numerous temples and we spent our first two days exploring them.  We broke our days into halves because of the heat so the first day we went out in the morning, and the second in the afternoon.  We hired a tuk tuk for about 15 dollars a day and it took us to different temples including the temple “Tomb Raider” was filmed at. My very favorite was the Bayon, a Khmer temple decorated with 216 gigantic faces.  When we weren’t running around temples, we were eating delicious food, drinking fruit smoothies, exploring the night markets, and getting pedicures and massages for less than five dollars!

We woke up at 5 am on our last day in Siam Reap to go see Angkor Wat at sunrise.  At orientation in Bangkok six months before, Jenna and I went to the Grand Palace where they had a mini model of Angkor Wat.  When we saw it, we took a picture in front of it and decided that we would make it there while we were in Asia, and today we had! Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s pride and joy and has become their national symbol, appearing on their national flag as well as having Angkor beer.  It was built thousands of years ago in the Khmer Empire and has Buddhist and Hindu influences.  We explored the worlds greatest religious site for an hour or two, then headed back to our guesthouse to get ready for our bus ride that afternoon.  Even though it was too cloudy to see an actual sunrise, Angkor Wat was AMAZING!

Around 12 30, a janky little blue van that looked like it was about to break down pulled up in the pouring rain to take us to the bus station.  We hopped in, it reeked of mold and was a bumpy ride, picking up a few Cambodian people on the way.  We arrived at the bus “station” which was more of a dirt lot where the bus pulled up. Five hours later, we arrived in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia.  Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia and has grown to become the nation’s center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security, politics, economics, cultural heritage, and diplomacy of Cambodia.  Phnom Penh has more to offer travelers than a quick, depressing swing to the Killing Fields..  I didn’t know much about the genocide in the 1970s before coming to Cambodia, but after visiting the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, the actual torture prison where thousands of people lost their lives, I learned more about it.  We encountered a huge memorial site filled with thousands of human skulls and it was extremely surreal to realize that this genocide occurred only 30 years ago.  (For those interested in learning more about it, google).

We stayed in Phnom Pehn for three days and visited the Russian Market which has good souvenir shopping, ate tasty food, got caught in a huge rain storm while at dinner (it caused numerous of the streets to flood in about an hour and we couldn’t walk through it, we took a tuk tuk which took us around town because the streets were so flooded!), attempted to visit the royal palace THREE times and turned away each time due to strange hours and lack of appropriate attire (needed to have our shoulders covered but can’t wear a shawl, close toed shoes but nice ones), and had Easter linner (lunch/dinner.. with Sangria! The best meal I had in Cambodia!) at an AMAZING Spanish restaurant on the Mekong River.

After Phnom Pehn, we took an overnight bus back to Bangkok.  We were slightly nervous as we approached the border because Cambodia and Thailand are currently in disagreement.  They aren’t exactly one another’s biggest fans and are in fighting over a temple near the border.  It made headline news the day we left Phnom Pehn and a few people had been killed in the battle.  Luckily, this wasn’t at the border that we were crossing and the bus ride went very smoothly.. other than they turned on the lights and music at 4am which woke us up.  

All in all, Cambodia was a pleasant experience, even with the scorching heat!  Cambodia uses the US dollar so it made the conversion extremely easy for us.  Everything was very inexpensive and we could easily find lunch or dinner for three dollars a day.  However, it was still obvious that the people of Cambodia have been to hell and back and they rely a lot on tourism as a major source of income.  Many of the people in Cambodia are uneducated and it broke my heart to have small children grab my arm and ask for money.  As westerners, we were often approached and asked to buy sunglasses, books, and were countered with a “Please, miss?” when we declined.  I had a little bit of a hard time in Cambodia because I have never seen families in such a struggle and I was heartbroken when feeling like I couldn’t help them.

We made it back to Bangkok and Kianna, Alysha, and I stayed the night on Khao San Rd before our flights the next day.  Jenna went back to her town for a few days before her parents arrived to visit, Kianna had a flight to the US the next morning, and Alysha and I were flying to Bali at 6am!  Sadly, this marked the end of our adventure together, but I had such an AMAZING time with these girls! I’m so lucky I was able to explore three different countries with them, we all got along so well and it'll be a trip I’ll never forget.

Next up… BALI!

Tomb Raider!

Angkor Wat!

We made it!

Tasty icecream!

Happy Easter!

Sangria and BOMB food

Chiang Mai: Songkran!!

I’ve been back in Khon Kaen for a few weeks now and I’m still ridiculously behind blogging and posting pictures from my travels! School started full force last week, and I’m loving it! I’m working with a different Thai teacher this semester and have a new set of kindergarteners and I actually look forward to going to school! I love my teacher, students, schedule, and keeping super busy by teaching special class (tutoring) five days a week. I’ll blog more about school once I’m caught up on traveling!

After Laos, the girls and I took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, the biggest city in the North of Thailand.  Jenna and I have been planning to be in Chiang Mai for the second week in April since we arrived in Thailand. April 12 – 15^th every year is Thai New Year, Songkran, and its celebrated with a nation wide water fight. Streets are lined with thousands of people armed with buckets and water guns as well as pickup trucks filled with trash bins filled with ice water and Thais dousing anyone they can reach. Its all great fun and I had an absolute blast!  The Thais often take work off to celebrate and love having foreigners getting involved and I loved feeling like party of the Thai community.  Songkran is a fun Thai tradition and I’m so lucky I was here for this cultural experience! No where else in the world will I be able to experience a three day water fight!

We took a break from Songkran one day to go ziplining! Ziplining is something I thought I’d NEVER do because I’m sometimes afraid of heights, but I loved it!  I wasn’t even too nervous at the beginning because I felt that the rope and harness kept me pretty safe.. It was a blast!

The day before we left, we spent a whole day at an elephant camp just outside Chiang Mai. We learned commands in Thai (Yut = Stop, Qua = Right, Sigh = Left, forward, backward, slowdown, etc) and rode the elephants bareback to the river.   Freems, me and Kianna’s elephant, wasn’t always obedient and stopped a lot to munch on the plants along the trail. Elephants sure eat a lot! Once we got to the river, we swam and bathed with the elephants. Another fun day in Thailand!

Chiang Mai was absolutely amazing and one of my most favorite places I’ve ever been! It has a lot of culture, variety, and all the locals are so friendly and welcoming of foreigners! I’m hoping to go back again while I’m in Thailand.

Check out my album of pictures! :) 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1810882585884.2094738.1054560056&l=30dc981853

 

Laos: In the Tubing

Traveling Numbers

91 hours on buses (approximately)

58 days on the go

14 cities

10 modes of transportation (bus, songtell, taxi, train, motorbike, boat, tuk-tuk, plane, songtell, and horse carriage)

5 islands

4 countries (and four different currencies)

AND 1 AMAZING TRIP!

LAOS: After the Thai islands, I made my way to Khon Kaen and was only there for 24 hours to repack my backpack. I unpacked my island gear and packed for my upcoming week in Laos and Chiang Mai. On April 7th, I got on the 8am bus from Khon Kaen to Vientiane, Laos without any sort of guide book or definite plan. I knew I was meeting Jenna, Kianna, and Alysha in Vang Vieng (Kianna and Alysha are friends from UCSB that came to travel with Jenna on our time off), but I had no idea how to get there or anything about Laos in general. My bus went very smoothly and of course I was the only foreigner on it. It was a short ride and only took three hours to get to the border. Immigration was quick for all the other passengers but took longer for me since I have a foreign passport and needed to get the visa on arrival. The bus driver brought me my backpack while I was one of my numerous lines. I was pretty confused on what was going on, but quickly realized that my bus couldn’t/didn’t want to wait and left me at the border! Normally I would stress about this situation.. being stranded at the border of a foreign country without a Lonely Planet (backpackers bible) and no knowledge of the currency or language, but I was abnormally relaxed about it. There were numerous drivers asking where I was going and I easily spotted the scams and avoided them. I buddyed up with this older man and his wife from San Francisco, they were visiting family in Thailand. We took a tuk tuk into town for cheap and they took me to where I catch the bus to Vang Vieng. After 4 hours on windy roads on a full bus, I arrived in Vang Vieng with no knowledge of where the girls were staying, so wondered around for a bit and booked a place on the river for my first night. I grabbed some dinner at a place with a lot of foot traffic, hoping I would see the girls walk by (our Thai phones don’t work in Laos) and luckily I spotted the girls later in the evening as I was going to use the internet! We made plans to meet up the next morning to go tubing!

Vang Vieng is a backpacker town and its main street is full of guest houses, bars, restaurants, internet cafes, tour agencies, western tourists, and various stands selling “In the Tubing” tanks and Ray Band sunglasses. Inner tubing down the Nam Song River is a popular attraction amongst backpackers, the river is lined with bars selling Beer Lao and equipped with rope swings, zip lines, and large riverside decks. The girls and I did two days of tubing and it was a great time! The first day, the water was really muddy because of rain the previous day. The second day, we attempted to float down the entire river which we were told would take three hours since its dry season and the water was really low. We needed to get our floats back into town by 6pm to get our cash deposit back, so after a few hours we decided to get out and grab a tuk tuk back into town. Tubing brought us all back to our UCSB days and reminiscing about Floatopia, a party that happens the first weekend of Spring Quarter and is known for floating on rafts and other home-made or store bought floating devices. Before it got out of control and police closed down the beaches, it was much like tubing in Laos but in the Pacific Ocean and with thousands of college students. Needless to say, I enjoyed tubing in Laos!

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we spent one day in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Vientiane is right on the Thai-Laos order and situated on the Mekong River. We were only there a short time but explored some cafes and had breakfast at a delicious Scandinavian place. With its French influence, Vientiane has great food! After lunch on the 11th, the girls and I caught an overnight bus that left in the afternoon to make our way to Chiang Mai, Thailand!

(Jenna had a waterproof camera which captured some of tubing! Unfortunately, her waterproof camera wasn't mud proof and couldn't handle the river water and broke.. but she got a new one in Chiang Mai! Thanks for the pics, Jenna!)

The girls and I in matching tubing tanks!

Gauchos tubing!!!

Ko Tao and Ko Phi Phi: Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

After 7 weeks of traveling and living out of a backpack, I’m back in Khon Kaen!  School starts next Wednesday so I’ve spent the last few days re-cooping, doing laundry, catching up on my shows, posting my adventure pictures on my facebook, going into school and preparing the classroom, and attempting to update my blog!  I had an amazing time traveling and want to share my adventures but I’ve been putting off updating my blog because it seems like such a daunting task. I kept a journal on my travels so I wouldn’t forget the good stuff.. so here we go!

After Ko Phangan and the National Park, Olivia, Jess and I jet over to Ko Tao on March 22.  While at Full Moon, the girls and I were still up in the air about which island to go to next (life is SO tough!).  We had two options..  

1. Ko Samui: a big and beautiful island that’s high on New York Times’ List of 41 places to go in 2011, but very touristy and resorty.. the kind of place you’d like to go when you have money to spend, which is definitely not us right now. 

And 2. Ko Tao: turtle island, a smaller island with beautiful coral and fish, therefore attracting a lot of people interested in diving.   

We decided on Ko Tao because we had heard great things about the island from friends who didn’t do diving, and I’m so glad we made this decision!

Ko Tao! We took the ferry from Ko Phangan to Ko Tao and easily found a cheap bungalow for the three of us to share on Sairee Beach, the backpacking hub of Ko Tao.  We spent the first day exploring our surrounding area and made a mental list of all the places we wanted to eat at and the bars we wanted to check out that night. The next day was Jess’ 24^th Birthday and we had signed up to spend the day snorkeling.  The water and fish were beautiful but it began to rain and storm mid day causing dark and rough water so we ended the tour an hour early.  It rained on and off for the next three days so we tried to stay dry during the day and went out at night, including a huge mud party festival on our last night. There was a performance stage set up in a large open area that was covered in a foot deep of mud. It was messy but tons of fun!

The next morning on March 26, the girls and I woke up and made it to the ferry.  Luckily it hadn’t started raining so we boarded the ferry without much thought.. the ferry needed to go from Ko Tao to Ko Samui to Ko Phangan then to the main land, so it goes around all the major islands in the Southern Gulf to pick up passengers before heading to Surat Thani, the main port on the main land.  As soon as we pulled out of the harbor, we knew this was going to be a tough ride. We hit the open water and it as rougher than rough, our boat was not only bouncing front to back but also side to side. We thought it would steady out but it continued this motion for the next three hours.  I grew incredibly anxious and began to panic grabbing the seat in front of me when the actual windows of the ferry were hitting the water due to the rocking. 30 minutes into the trip, I was convinced our boat was going to sink and I didn’t see a single life jacket.  I don’t normally get nervous on boats or seasick but it didn’t take long before I was sharing a large trash barrel with other sick passengers. The looks on other passengers’ faces were anguish and pain, and I could tell they were thinking the same thing.   I was feeling pretty crappy and accepted the fact that the boat was either going to sink or I wouldn’t survive the motion sickness so I curled up next to the luggage and piles of backpacks to try to fall asleep. The next thing I knew, we were in smooth waters and gliding to the dock at Ko Samui. I rushed back to our seats and to Olivia and Jess in tears and shaking. We were told we needed to switch ferries and take another boat to the other island that would take us to the main land.  I was terrified and couldn’t imagine being on water like that ever again and was considering staying on Ko Samui until the following day just to wait out the rocky water.  With Jess and Olivia’s help, they talked me into going on the next boat which ended up being no problem. The rest of our boat trips were smooth as could be! (I wish I had been competent enough to take a video of our boat but that was the last thing I was thinking of.. but I feel like I can't even explain how bad this boat was!)

            We found out later that our ferry was one of the last ones to leave the islands for the next week. The storm and flooding continued and put Ko Tao and Samui into natural disaster modes.  Ko Tao and Samui were hit hard with flooding and faced issues of no electricity and running water for days.  Thousands of tourists were stuck on the islands and the Thai Navy and helicopters came in to evacuate.  Although the ferry ride probably ranks high on my most miserable moments in life, I’m REALLY lucky to have gotten out of there when I did!

Ko Phi Phi: Olivia and I headed over to the other coast to visit some islands over there and our first stop was Ko Phi Phi!  I had been before with Jenna and Christmas and loved the island so I was excited to go back.   It rained most of our time there except for our last few days so we got a little beach and snorkeling time in, but I made friends with people who work on the island so we found something to do most days. I mostly wanted to stay on the island until the storm passed in fear of another rough boat ride. Ferries weren’t leaving the island everyday and many of the buses were canceled because they couldn’t drive up to Bangkok because of the flooded roads. When I left Phi Phi, my bus went through Surat Thani and actually began to fill with water because the flooding was still so high!  Much of Surat Thani still had no electricity and many people had lost their homes.  I have never first-hand seen such devastation, streets flooded, bridges collapsed, and homes washed away.  I’m really lucky that I left Ko Tao when I did and that Phi Phi wasn’t affected nearly as much on the other islands. After Phi Phi, I came back to Khon Kaen for 24 hours before heading to Laos!

Snorkeling in the rain on Ko Tao

Adorable little girl on Ko Tao

Mud Party!

Rain coming in on Ko Tao

Maya Bay for the third time in Phi Phi

Windy day on Ko Phi Phi

Flooding on the bus from Phi Phi to Bangkok!

On the Road!

Some of you may be wondering.. "where the heck is Chelsea?"

Well I haven't had time to blog about Ko Tao, Ko Phi Phi, the heavy rain and flooding in the south of Thailand, my sketchy boat experience, Laos, tubing, Chiang Mai, Songkran, nation wide water fight, adopting an elephant,ziplining, and now Cambodia, because I am still on the road! I made a very last minute decision to change my Bali flight so I could join Jenna and our friend Kianna and Alysha for a Cambodia trip! I'll be back in Khon Kaen on May 7th after Bali and will begin updating then! I'm having a BLAST!

Ang Thong Marine National Park

After full moon, us girls all went our separate ways. Some stayed to do more islands, some went to Vietnam or various other countries, and some did some Thailand traveling.  Jess, Olivia, and I decided to do some island hopping together and stayed at Ko Phangan another day to visit the Ang Thong Marine National Park.  We switched guesthouses to a place near the pier that was recommended in our lonely planet guide. It was pretty cheap for the three of us and had air-con, a television, and the most comfortable bed I've slept in in Thailand! Since we were still a little sleep deprived from full moon, it was an amazing decision on our part.

See the King Kong shape?

We decided to do a boat tour of the Ang Thong Marine National Park.  Its between the two islands of Ko Phangan and Ko Samui and is made up of 42 islands.  Most of the islands are close to one another and are different sizes and shapes.  Most of them are covered with tropical forests and named after their distinguishing geography, a kind of descriptive appellation, such as 'Sleeping Cow Island' and 'Three Pillars Island'.  Caves, hidden lagoons and white sand beaches are there to be explored and snorkeling among the shallow coral gardens is popular amongst the day tours.  Ang Thong National Marine Park is famous for its natural beauty and all of the islands are uninhabited and undeveloped except for one. This island, Ko Paluay, is inhabited by sea-gypsies who still earn a living from fishing. 

Our tour we chose was little more expensive than we would have liked (1600 baht), but it included the park fee, snorkeling, a buffet lunch, and a boat tour of the various highlights. The weather was pretty good, partly cloudy, and we were able to enjoy the snorkeling and time on the water. While the rest of the group kayaked, the girls and I decided to do some cave exploring.  On the big island where we had lunch, we found a sign and rope path to climb to a cave with a shape of a lotus flower inside.  It was a little more challenging to do since we were in our bikinis, beach cover ups, and sandals and we were sweating profusely when we reached it, but it was pretty cool! We also went to Ko Mae Ko (Mother Island). Here, an emerald seawater lake in the middle of the island is encircled on all sides by limestone cliffs, but linked by an underground tunnel connecting with the sea. It was beautiful!

That night, the girls and I decided to try to budget for dinner so we went to the local night market.  And it was AMAZING! Jess, Olivia, and I had a challenging time deciding on one thing to eat. We all ended up getting smoothies, egg rolls, and Jess and I split pad thai and a banana, chocolate, coconut rotti (pancake). Needless to say, it was delicious and probably my best night market experience in Thailand so far. After that, we went back to our guesthouse and went into a food coma, plus we had to wake up for the next leg of the adventure.. Ko Tao! 

The cave!

Yummy smoothies!

Tasty rotti!!!

Ko Phangan: FULL MOON!

I'm back in Khon Kaen for 24 hours and heading to Laos tomorrow morning! I have spent the last 2 weeks down at the islands and had an amazing time! I'll update as much as possible but may need to save the last two islands for when I'm back!

I started my 2 months summer break with a bang.. a Full Moon Party! Full Moon is very popular and a must-do amongst the backpacking community. Its basically an all-night beach party that takes place on Haad Rin beach on the island of Ko Phangan on the night of every full moon.  The beach is filled with people drinking buckets, body paint, various bars and different stages of music ranging from R&B, drum and bass, house, dance, reggae, and top 40.  The party draws a crowd of 20,000 - 30,000 every full moon and is ranked high on lists of the worlds most popular beach parties and lasts until the next afternoon.  Naturally, me and 10 English teachers decided that we had to do experience it!

Jess and I made the 25 hour trek of two buses and a ferry ride to get to the island the day before the party.  We were the first of our friends to arrive and were greeted with some drizzle which escalated to rain.  We crossed our fingers and hoped it wouldn't rain the night of the full moon.  Slowly throughout the day, the rest of the group arrived making the final count 15ish girls all staying at the same bungalow guesthouse. We had two to a guesthouse so needless to say, we took over the Triangle Lodge.  We decided to stay at a beach about 10 minutes outside of Haad Rin because it was quieter and our belongings were safer there, we had heard of a lot of theft and noise at other guesthouses near the party.  The night of the full moon was rain free and we were all armed in neon colors wearing clothing we wouldn't mind getting neon paint on.  We all piled into a songtell and were driven up and down the windy roads to the party.  Although we weren't all able to stay together as a group the entire night since there were too many of us, we were constantly bumping into someone we knew even amongst the thousands of people. I was able to meet up with my friend B.C. from UCSB, she is living here in Thailand working for her dad in Hua Hin.  The girls and I spent the evening dancing, meeting people from all over the world, snacking on some rotti, watching fire jump rope, and enjoying the full moon scene.  A group of girls and I were out until 9am and grabbed breakfast on the way home and spent the rest of the day napping on the beach to catch up on sleep! It reminded me a lot of Halloweens at UCSB, but all in all, it was definitely a fun experience!

Chelsea and Chelsea!

Jumping for joy, Full Moon sunrise!