336: CAVES AND SUNSETS

The Pak Ou Caves are packed with thousands of little Buddha statues. Too bad it was so far away - it was a 2 hour boat ride from Luang Prabang.

This Buddha has a red nose

At the end of the day, I climbed up Mount Phu Si to watch the sunset over Luang Prabang.

335: WATERFALLS

Kuang Si Falls.

The question is, why was I wearing pants in this picture?! It was hot, I hate pants, and it wasn't even a wat (temple) day!

334: ISLAND LIFE

Life in Don Daeng: Watching the locals work the rice fields, trying not to scare the water buffalo, hanging out on the beach, eating grilled bananas, having kids (and parents, and grandparents) wave and shout "sabai dee!" (hello) from the window as I walked past their houses. 

Walking the water buffalo

It was HOT...I don't know how they could wear sweaters

Landing in Luang Prabang

Our flight to  Luang Prabang left 45 minutes ahead of schedule, which I hear happens often for the last flight of the day because the Lao crew members like to go home early!

333: HOMESTAY

Driving my tractor-cart into the sunset

The island of Don Daeng was where I really felt like I had to rough it.

We started off with the funniest ferry ride I have ever taken. Basically the ferry was made of a platform attached to two fishing boats, and with 6 plastic chairs on top for the people to sit on. The chairs weren't even attached to the boat!

Cute little children followed us as we walked around the village. They would pick some flowers, run over to me and give me the flowers and smile, then run back to the gardens to pick even more flowers! I had a mini bouquet of flowers after a few minutes.

I loved the little boy holding his carrot!

Instead of a hotel, we had a homestay for the night with a local family. This meant very rustic accommodations - no aircon, no running water, squat toilet in the outhouse, etc. We had spent the early afternoon climbing the ruins of Wat Phu, and combine that with 40 degree weather well into the night with no shower (due to lack of running water) - imagine how dirty, sweaty, and sticky I felt!

We had an amazing home cooked dinner, some of the best food I had on my trip (but I suspect it was flavored with MSG). That night, as I crawled underneath the mosquito net into bed, I was surprised by a never ending supply of BUGS all over the mattress!

Our mattress and mosquito net

Jen and I spent about half an hour killing the bugs, with Jen spraying each bug with DEET and me squishing the bugs using toilet paper. I think we were keeping our roommate awake due to our squealing, because after awhile, she said, "If I were you, I would roll up those blankets into sausages and put them on the foot of the bed, since that's where the bugs are coming from. Then you should sleep." We took her advice and rolled up our blankets into sausages, but it wasn't very much help.  There were still more and more bugs coming in. I just ended up using the blankets to squish even more bugs. We eventually had to give up because we were never going to kill every single bug on our bed.  I had a hard time falling asleep because I kept imagining the bugs crawling all over my body.

I woke up in the middle of the night and it was freezing. My first thought was that I should use the blankets that the homestay family had provided for us, but then I remembered all the squished bugs that were now attached to the blanket. Then I thought I could grab a sweater from my backpack, but then I remembered the giant spiders and grasshoppers that I had seen in the room before going to bed and were now lurking in the dark. I turned on the flashlight and found a squished bug on my hand and I tried to scratch it off, but I couldn't get it off my hand. I scratched and scratched, but there was no way I could get it off. I gave up, grabbed a thin long sleeved shirt from my tote bag (which was thankfully under the mosquito net) and fell back into my Gravol-induced sleep.

I suppose I am not made for living in the outdoors. I woke up with little ant (?) bites all over my legs, but it's better than the surprise that one of the other girls got in the middle of the night. She woke up to a cockroach crawling up her pants!

Would I go back to Don Daeng? Yes...if I could stay in the hotel down the street from my homestay!

332: WELCOME TO KHONG ISLAND

I LOVED LOVED LOVED Laos. Let's just say that the trick for me to love a place is to have low expectations. I didn't think much of Sicily before I went there last year, and I ended up loving it. The same goes for the country of Laos.  Before I left, I was incredibly excited for Cambodia and felt neutral about going to Laos, but now that I am back home I would say that I would definitely want to go back if I had the opportunity to do so.

The moment we crossed the border from Cambodia to Laos, it felt like we were in a richer country because of the better roads and toilets. I had always assumed that Laos was poorer than Cambodia, but it is actually the opposite. The Lao locals seem better off than their Cambodian counterparts, and I think it could be because it is a Communist country.

The south of Laos is known to be one of the most laid-back places in the world, and we spent the afternoon cycling around Don Khong, one of the 4000 islands in the area. Our $1 bikes were heavy, and the breaks didn't work, but it was such a joy to bike around the countryside and watch people work on the fields. Satellite dishes are the thing to have in this country - everyone, even those living in little wooden shacks, has one!

We had drinks at a restaurant as we watched the sun set over the Mekong River. My drink of choice? Oishi green tea! I drank that green tea almost every day of my trip.

We left before the sun dipped below the horizon, but we underestimated the time it would take to go back to our guesthouse. As we rode back, it started getting harder and harder to see all the potholes on the road - there were no lights on the street!

What was even worse though, was that we started getting bombarded by bugs. They splattered against our bodies as we rode our bicycles -  I ended up getting them in my eyes, my nose, my ears, my mouth, and all over my skin. The bug in my eye was the worst. I could feel it in there for the longest time before it eventually got absorbed into my body...

By the time I got back to my room, I was covered in bug juice. I even had bugs down my shirt!

331: SEARCHING FOR DOLPHINS

Looking for Irrawaddy freshwater dolphins on the Mekong River by Kratie. It was successful but not satisfying, since the dolphins didn't come very close to our boats.

The boat launch was about half an hour away from the town, so we hopped on the back of some motorbikes and zoomed off along the countryside to get to the dolphins. The moto ride was fun - I loved passing the oxen on the street and all the children waving hello at us.

Me with my 22 year old moto driver

330: HORRIFIC PAST

A tiny cell (0.8 x 2 m) at Tuol Sleng prison, formerly a high school.

More than two out of the population of eight million in Cambodia died during the genocide under the four year rule of the Khmer Rouge. Their leader, Pol Pot, was a Cambodian Hitler, who declared 1975 as Year Zero. Right now, 50% of the current population is under the age of 25, because so many of the older generation were killed.  Doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, and any other professionals were all executed for being educated. Even people whose only crimes were having glasses, pale skin, or uncallused hands - they were also tortured and murdered, for appearing educated.

It sickens me to know that today, some of the former Khmer Rouge officials are working in positions of power in the Cambodian government. This is because the people in this country are too afraid to speak out, because they have endured so much death and sorrow in these recent years. Almost all Cambodians have relatives who were killed under the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and so now, all they want is some peace.

Barbed wire to prevent prisoners from jumping and committing suicide

I literally felt like I was going to throw up as my tour guide (who grew up under the Khmer Rouge regime) described all the gory details of how they tortured prisoners.

The Choeung Ek Killing Fields, one of many Killing Fields across the country, is where about 17 000 people were executed. From time to time, the heavy rains will wash away the top layer of soil, revealing even more bones and clothing of the dead.

(No, they weren't actually walking through the mass grave)

Bullets were too precious to be used, so people were bludgeoned to death instead. This is the tree against which they used to smash babies' bodies...

 

I cannot even imagine how it must feel for a Cambodian to come face to face with a former Khmer Rouge official. In the words of my guide, "I met one, and I really wanted to kill him. But I knew I would get into trouble, and I have a family. If I killed him, I would not be able to support my family, and how would they eat without me?" 

329: AT THE FLOATING VILLAGE

Seeing all the begging children and amputees can really break your heart...

At first I thought this boy was holding up his fingers to pose for the cameras, but then looking at his pained face made me realize he was probably asking for two dollars from us.

We had so many locals rowing after us, asking for money. Some didn't even have real boats, just styrofoam boxes.

On the lighter note, here I am holding a Cambodian delicacy - a greasy deep fried tarantula!

328: ANGKOR GALORE

We had a 4:30 am wake up call to witness the sun rising over the Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious structure. I have been waiting for this day for years - it's always been my dream to visit the Angkor Wat.

At the temple of Bayon, I met my first monks. The moment they saw us, they took out their cameras and cellphones and asked for photos. They were just as excited to take pictures with us as we were to take pictures with them! I loved that.

Many faces of Bayon

Ta Prohm, aka. Tomb Raider temple, was left as it was found by the French explorers - overgrown with trees.

327: ON THE ROAD

An eight hour drive from Bangkok, Thailand, to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Border crossing into the Kingdom of Cambodia

Silk

326: A NIGHT IN BANGKOK

We finally arrived in Bangkok!

Inside a psychedelic tuktuk

325: DELAYS

The first snowfall for vancouver happened on the night of my flight, and we ended up being delayed by 2 hours and therefore missed our connecting flight to bangkok. We got a later flight (5 hours later than originally booked) and I've been spending my time eating and blogging at the hong kong airport. Everything is in chinese...even the blogger site on my phone has turned into chinese!

I have a newfound appreciation for gravol...i haven't slept for so long in awhile! All I did during my 13 hour flight was take gravol, sleep, wake up for food, take more gravol, sleep, eat, sleep, eat etc. I was only awake long enough to watch Inception, and we landed before I could even finish the movie.

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322-324: FAIL

I've been busy the past few days with working, packing, and resting. I am popping lots of vitamin C and Cold-fx to get rid of this cold, because I am leaving for Cambodia and Laos tonight. I haven't been in the mood to take pictures the past few days, so here is one from the late summer, when the weather was still nice and balmy.

I am heading to 40 degree weather with thunderstorms in the forecast, so let's hope that it's not so wet that I won't even be able to take my camera out of my bag...

See you in two weeks!

321: HIGHWAY DRIVING

Driving to White Rock.

320: GRAY

Horrible weather today - it was one of those days where you just want to stay inside and drink hot chocolate as the rain pounds against the windows. It had stopped raining by the time I had my lunch break though, so I went out to the beach. The sky was still very overcast, but there was a tiny sliver of bright yellow and orange near the horizon since it was close to sunset. It looked like the houses across the water were on fire.

319: TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Christmas is coming...

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