Cambodia, what a lovely and spontatneous adventure you were! About two months ago I decided that instead of going straight from Northern Laos to Vietnam, I'd continue down Laos and cross over into Cambodia to check er out for a couple weeks. From the 4,000 Islands, I took a minibus with some other travelers to the border about 30 minutes away. There we waited as our driver got us our visas and returned to us with our stamped off passports. 

A large VIP bus pulled up and we loaded up and crossed into Cambodia!

The Cambodian immigration office:

About an hour or two into the 7-8 hour drive we pulled off into some small parking lot and were told that we'd all be taking minibuses from there to our various cities. Just as I heard this I looked out the window and saw one tightly filled with some uncomfortable-looking backpackers and I got an unsteady feeling. Even still I crawled in the back of the minibus going to Phnom Penh and watched as the rest of us crammed in for the long journey. 

Our driver was crazy. He was immediately speeding, making dangerous passes, and tailgating vehicles on dirt roads where there was 0 visibility through the dust. It made us all uncomfortable, and it didn't help that the roads were all uneven and under construction. And we kept picking up locals and squeezing them into an already full bus.

This was the our minibus, which I snapped a shot of when we were stopped to change the back tire, presumably because of the driver's continual "curb checks"

Needless to say I've never been happier to be done with a ride in my life, even though I did pass the time sharing music with a nice French guy. I shared a tuk-tuk to a hostel called Mad Monkey, which proved quickly to be the party hostel of Phnom Penh, as a staff memeber escorted me to my dorm situated up three stories, right next to the bar blaring American pop music. This also led to a steady flow of drunk kids using the bathroom in my dorm room. And maybe I would have accepted one of the many invitations to come have a drink if it wasn't for the long day, but I was happy to rest up for an exploration day!

I met up with a sweet Dutch girl I met on the bus-ride-from-hell and we ate a yummy breakfast then went exploring. We came across the heart of the city and the Royal Palace:

We wandered along the river, up a hill to a temple, through some markets, and stopped in an air-conditioned mall for lunch. I'd never appreciated A/C as much as I did in Cambodia... it had been miserably hot and next to impossible to spend more than an hour or so in before needing a pool or A/C blast.

Cambodia has so much beauty within it though and I am so happy I was able to spend some time here. And the people here seemed to be much more open and friendly to us traveler folk than in Laos. Phnom Penh is a hectic city though so I only wanted to stay a couple days here. 

One must-see place near Phnom Penh is the Killing Fields. And I almost skipped over this visit on the "ignorance is bliss" premise, but thankfully I had a change of heart. My Dutch friend and I shared a tuk-tuk there with another guy from my hostel and we spent a good two hours at the site. 

A brief history (that I am upset I never learned about in school)... A radical communist party and guerrilla army called the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975 under the rule of Pol Pot. His views to create a utopian pheasant farming society resulted in the destruction of all existing systems in Cambodia and the deaths of one quarter of the Cambodian people. (Imagine if 25% of Americans were killed in 4 years... fuck.) The army would arrest people on false accusations andmercilessly tortured and executed people by the thousands. There are killing fields located all over Cambodia from genocide during the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-79. It wasn't until my lifetime that Pol Pot and his associates were tried for the crimes committed during this time. So all of this really hit home to think how recently this all occurred. I felt humbled and respect for the Cambodian people for recovering from these events and opening up sites like the Phnom Penh Killing Fields to educate people on the horrific occurrences of the past.

I picked up an audio guide and began the heart-breaking journey throughout the site. A beautiful memorial was built for people to pay their respects to the killed.

The corpses had been cleaned and studied throurougly and were organized in the memorial by age and method of death... so so many skulls. From floor to ceiling. I have never felt such an eerie energy in one place in my life before :(

The audio tour took me around to the various places where the executioners held people, then killed them by the hundreds daily, and threw them into mass graves. These were all excavated mass graves...

The one place I lost it was a mass grave where thousands of women, children, and babies were found. The executioners killed the children against this "Killing Tree" in front of their mothers... :( This was almost too much for me, I have never concieved of such evil before and I still feel heartbroken as I reflect on it.

To complete the cultural context, we visted a school-turned-prison-turned-museum in the city of Phnom Penh. During the Khmer Rouge reign, over 20,000 people were held and tortured into false confessions at this makeshift prison, and it was their final destination before being transported to the Killing Fields. It was also heartbreaking and eye-opening to spend time here, and it gave a further perspective into the minds of the persecutors who were also victims of the Khmer Rouge in many ways. I highly encourage people to look into these events on their own, and to encourage teachers to bring the story of Cambodia's history into their cirriculum because everyone can learn from history, both the good and the bad.

This experience showed me that travel shouldn't only be only about lounging on beaches and taking pictures of monuments, that the true culture of a place cannot be discounted, and the positive exists in contast of the negative, together creating the whole picture.

After a long, emotional day, I walked along the water with my friend and joined her at her hostel which had a pool—and nothing felt better than being immersed in that cool water out of the 100 degree heat.

The following day I took a bus to a cute town in western Cambodia called Battambang. I walked in the heat for a while towards my hostel, but was able to admire the local markets and children playing along the riverfront.

My hostel, called "Here Be Dragons," was one of my favorites yet. Maybe because they greeted me with a free, cold beer as I checked in. This was the view of the garden from the rooftop where I did yoga in the mornings.

The hostel's tuk-tuk driver took a few of us to witness one of the coolest natural events I'd ever seen. Every night at sundown, millions of bats fly from caves to feed for the night. We drove about 40 minutes outside of town to a cliffside road where fifty white people were standing around to view the bat cave, then our (awesome) driver told us he knew of a better, secret spot to watch this phenomenon. We drove 5 minutes more, and he led us up a short hike to a beautiful view over the Battambang landscape. And then we saw the bats. Well, we heard their screeching and smelled them first, and the smell only got stronger as they began to create an updraft from the depths of the cave.

All at once they began flowing out of the cave opening, which was only a few yard from us, and continued in a dense outpouring by the millions. Actual millions. Our driver said they continue to exit the cave over the course of 1.5 hours! So many bats! We watched them for about half an hour, as the red glowing sun set in the distance and rain sprinkled down on us from above. The bats flew in this beautiful snake-like pattern for a km before dispersing out into the night. It was the most beautiful natural phenomenon I had ever experienced.

The next day I got up and rode on an old railway system between villages that mainly operates as a tourist attraction now, known as the Bamboo Train.

Each cart is a simple bamboo platform with a lawnmower motor and two axles, which can easily be disassembled as you can see! We would have to do this if we encountered another train along the 30-minute ride, but it only took about 10 seconds to take it apart and put it back together.

Another cool thing I did in Battambang was attend the local art school circus! It blew my mind... the style of it was so mesmerizing and fun and oh were these kids talented.

There was even a basic story line to the entire show that really revealed the beauty and culture of Cambodia.

It was a good last day before heading to Siem Reap, or the Disneyland of Cambodia as my friend called it. Siem Reap is probably the most visited city in Cambodia because of the Temples of Angkor located just north of town. I knew there were many temples to see and I intended on getting a 3-day pass to see most of them, so I thought it would be valuable to my experience to gain a little background knowledge for context while exploring them. On my first night in Siem Reap, I went to the Angkor National Museum with me, myself, and I and spent hours exploring the rooms and reading about the various kings and empires that inspired the temples. I also learned about the significance of different symbols in the sculptures and carvings, as well as how both Buddhism and Hinduism play into the temples. 

On my first morning, I woke up in the 4am hour and rented a bike from my hostel to go catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat (the largest and most famous of the temples). I had heard about the crowds on the west side of the temple, so I opted for a more peaceful experience on the empty east-facing side. The sun slowly lit up my view, and after meditating for a bit under a tree, I went and sat on the steps of the temple and watched the sun start to peek through the trees.

So as many of my close friends know, April Fool's Day is my favorite holiday and I love pranking people, but that's not so easy when you're halfway around the world. But that morning (it was April 1st!) I got an idea. Next to me watching the sunrise was a couple of nice Indian guys, and I always chat with Indians I meet about India. I aksed them if they knew what April Fool's Day was and if they'd help me pull off a prank for my family and friends, which they nervously agreed to! One of them fake-proposed to me and his friend snapped away some pictures, and it was perfect! (This picture wasn't the one I used to prank everyone, but caught my fake-fiance's good sense of humor :)

By the way, Vishal, if you ever read this, THANK YOU! We fooled everyone :)

After that I was light on my feet as I explored Angkor Wat for a few hours... and took too many pictures to even post here.

I found some cool look-out spots once I fought past all the tourist jabronies.

And I was so happy to have some background context for the experience thanks to the museum visit! This carving was at the center of the "Churning of the Sea of Milk" to "produce the nectar of immortality"... haha yeah just look it up

From there I was going to visit some more temples, but it was already so hot, I would have to bike a lot more, and I was getting hangry, so I saddled up and rode back to town for what was possibly the best (Western-esque) meal I had in Asia. My friend in Battambang recommended Sister Shrey Cafe, and I was so happy she did (maybe I ate there three days in a row..). I refreshed myself with a pineapple/watermelon juice and this crazy breakfast salad with bacon and sauteed mushrooms. YUM. I also picked up this book at their book exchange shelf and it has been a great read so far.

Back at the hostel I met some sweet ladies who were down to visit the temples for the next couple days, so we became a little temple-goin' trio.

For sunset, we went to a farther removed temple know as the "Lady Temple" and admired its intricacy.

We walked around and found a nice viewpoint for the sunset. We hung out here and chatted with some local guys who lived just to the left of this picture and they were incredibly nice and smiley.

Right after the sun went down, we walked down a path to another viewpoint and saw a beautiful full moon rising. Such immense beauty here!

After a quick shower, I checked my messages and had planned to meet up with a couple Oregon Ducks who happened to be in the same town! They were on Pub Street, which is pretty self-explanatory, so we met up for some adult beverages. Audrey was on holiday from her job at a school in Chiang Mai, and John is living in Taiwan for a couple years and was having a quick visit to the mainland.

Audrey, John, and I shared some buckets, reminisced on Oregon days, talked travel life, and danced in the street with a local Cambodian girl (who showed EVERYONE up with her moves)!

I couldn't stay out too late because I was waking up early to catch another sunrise. The temple trio decided to tuktuk to a less-crowded temple for the sunrise, and it was just as beautiful,

and only slightly crowded :)

-Phnom Bakheng-

We hiked back down and rode through the South Gate of Angkor Thom, just north of Angkor Wat.

The Bayon Temple at the center of Angkor Thom was one of my favorites because it was so fun to explore around in. It is known for the massive face carvings at the top, looking out North, East, South, and West.

Namaste y'all

We also adventured around Ta Prohm, or the Tomb Raiders Temple for obvious reasons. I loved this one because the trees were absolutely dominating. Happy early Earth Day!

This tree is somehow growing on top of this building... Pretty impressive to see nature taking back its space. And it gives you a good sense of how long ago these temples were actually constructed.

Tomb Raiders!

Even though the temple-going was expensive and touristy and hot, it was really one of those must-see places to visit in my life and I experienced so many moments of sheer awe at each one I saw. Siem Reap was my last stop in Cambodia, then I caught a flight to Bangkok and waited with so much excitement for Bridget's arrival!!

My time in Laos has already come and gone somehow, and oh was it perfect! The last week I spent in the beautiful country I explored down to the southernmost point in Laos to an amazing landscape known as Si Phan Don, or The 4,000 Islands. The Mekong River opens up in this area creating thousands of channels and therefore thousands of islands. Since my arrival in Laos, I'd been following the Mekong all the way down and this was my last hurrah with this beautiful river.

I first took a bus from Thakek to my overnight stop, Pakse, where I shared a tuk-tuk to a hostel with a German backpacker who I met at Green Climber's Home. When we got there, they only had a double room left, and we both said we didn't mind sharing it, so I was sharing a room with a guy I had just met! Kind of an interesting experience... "Nice to meet you, want to have a sleepover?" haha but we were totally respectful of each other's space and we were just content to be saving a few bucks by splitting the room.

The next morning we took a minivan to Ban Naka Sang where we boarded a ferry (or, small wooden boat) and headed to into the river. Most of the 4,000 islands aren't even inhabited, some of them have small villages on them, and there are really only two or three that travelers go to. The two closest to the Cambodian border are Don Det and Don Khon. Don Det is known more as the backpackers hub, where the streets are lined with restaurants, bars, travel agencies, bungalows, and plenty of relaxed-looking backpackers.

I opted to check out Don Khon first, which is known to be less populated and more chilled out overall. I found a nice bungalow overlooking the river with my own bed and bathroom and deck and hammock!

This was honestly a turning point in my travels because there's only so many nights in a row you can wake up in a room full of strangers, sharing space and bathrooms and constantly keeping your valuables in check. It was a huge pleasure to just throw everything out on my personal king-sized bed (more perks of traveling alone) and to go to the bathroom with the door open and to have space to do yoga and to wake up by myself... I realized the first morning I woke up there that it was the first time since India that I woke up alone in my own personal room. That's insane... I went two months waking up to other people. It took me until here to realize the effect this had on me, and I appreciated the personal space so much.

The sunset view from the hammock was pretty unbeatable, and I got to witness a new work of art in the sky and reflecting off the river every single night. 

I met up a few times with another guy I ran into from Green Climber's Home (we're all basically this one big international climbing family now) who was staying with a couple German and Dutch travelers. We would go swimming in the river or eat $1 noodle soup from a woman on the path or drink beer over some card games. If anyone is interested in some new fun card games, ask me about Shithead or Camps! Endless entertainment.

Being on Don Khon was where I felt most immersed in the Laos culture. Every day I either walked or biked through villages of local families and animals and school children, and I saw kids of all ages operating vehicles that I would have been forbidden to at their age, but anything goes in Laos!

 

Oh I had to snap a picture of one of these for my dad... all over Laos I've been seeing people operating these carts with a motor (and usually just one wheel) way out in front, and of course hauling a ridiculous amount of goods or live animals on the back. Pretty cool that this was really the only kind of motorized vehicle I saw on the islands besides motorbikes, made for a pretty peaceful stay.

My most ambitious endeavor was biking around the entire island starting early in the morning, with one heavy, stiff, small, crappy bike. But we really bonded over the rough terrain and the TLC I had to give'r putting her rusty chain back on every 500 yards or so. 

It was a worthy adventure, as I got to a big, long waterfall (which probably had a name) and my Chacos helped me crawl around some rocks and cool off in the water. 

Back on the bike, I headed south only to encounter this...

I swear it looked even steeper in real life. I felt determined to push forward, so I (ambitiously) hiked down the ravine somewhere to the left of this and hike back out, clumsily lunking my bike along.

But it was worth it because the trail took me to the south of the island where there is a beautiful view of the Mekong and, on the other side, Cambodia! I treated myself to a coconut and some shade.

The viewpoint was over an old French loading dock, where ships now launch with tourists to see the rare, nose-less Irrawaddy dolphins.

I rode on, and on, and on, and eventually found a sandy beach and swimming area. Then I rode some more, cooled off with a watermelon shake, and clocked a lot of hammock time the rest of the day.

The next few days I rented a taller, lighter, and overall nicer bike to get me between the islands. I spent the last few days in 4,000 islands at a chilled out hostel on the sunset side of Don Det.

Sunset from the swimming hole next to the hostel:

My German/Dutch buddies told me about a little restaurant on the other side of Don Det run by the crazy Mama Piang! She took goood care of us :)

She also owns an eagle which lives under the restaurant so that was pretty neat.

Mama and Papa own a small boat and Papa offered to take us on an adventure for an evening. We went to a nearby island and walked through villages to... you'll never guess it... a waterfall!

 Another unnamed beautiful waterfall :)

Here's Papa, looking out over us pups as we swam above the falls.

And some burning countryside... tis the season?

Then Papa was hungry so we stopped at a small hut and had some noodle soup (ever heard of Pho?) and I played with some Lao babies (typical). Then we found some bike-water-pump-contraption... they do things in very interesting ways over hrr.

We boarded back on the boat and Papa took us upriver for a while past other islands and homes and temples and boats (some of which were being operated by children, of course).

The Laos life is a laidback one!

We finally pulled over in the middle of the river on this island with rows of cucumber plants and a small hut where a few people were cleaning and bagging fresh cukes. They even gave us some, and they were SO good... Fresh and river-grown! Kop jai lai lai!

We went for one last swim of the day, jumping off the boat and drinking beerlao with the locals. Floating there, looking back at the mesmerizing sunset, colorful clouds, and moon overhead... it was one of those magical I-want-to-keep-this-with-me-forever moments.

On my last evening, I biked over to the Li Phi Waterfall—biggest in SE Asia! It is way bigger than my camera could even capure, and it was such a beautiful sight to see, hear, and feel. 

I had some yummy curry for dinner with a friend I met in Pai, Thailand! It's always so surreal to continually run into people I've met from other places along my travels, makes the world feel that much smaller.

I woke up bright and early to catch a "ferry" over to the mainland where I'd be heading to Cambodia!

And of course I befriended some small Lao kiddos at the bus station who were fascinated by my phone's front camera...

It's taking all of my self-control to not adopt a little Asian baby right now! 

That sums up my time in Laos, more to come on Cambodia soon! 😊