Cambodia

Greetings from Phnom Penh, Cambodia! We are sitting on a veranda overlooking a lovely monument, eating fresh fruit and watching the morning go by, it is lovely. While we loved Phu Quoc and enjoyed our last day there (scuba was fun but lacking in large fish thanks to the overfishing that is plaguing the Phu Quoc waters and making us worried for the future of that wonderful island), we are so happy to be in Cambodia! We took a ferry that looked like an airplane fuselage to the Vietnam mainland and were greeted by a frenzied mob of motorbike drivers vying for our fare. Lucky for us, we found the only tuk tuk we had seen in Vietnam and took that to the border. The border crossing went smoothly and we walked from Vietnam to Cambodia and were greeted by the friendliest border patrol men ever, a great first impression of this joyous country. After some negotiating, we loaded our sweaty selves into the only taxi in town and headed for the delightful seaside town of Kep. Upon arrival, we checked in to a guesthouse on the shore (located right next to the resort featured on the cover of last Tuesday's NY Times travel section) and walked down to the crab market for a delicious sunset feast of fresh crab and prawns in local Kampot pepper sauce. The next day we explored the city on foot then took a tuk tuk ride to the adorable riverside town of Kampot.

Our time in Kampot was laid back and lovely and made us officially fall in love with Cambodia. After speaking with several nice expats, we realized Cambodia is a place we could actually see ourselves living for a while. We snacked on divine baked goods for a great cause at the Epic Arts Cafe, which funds programs for disabled Cambodians, it was quite inspiring. The local market was a lot of fun to explore, it is 100% for locals and not geared towards tourists which was refreshing. The only thing it lacked was a fried banana stand, but somehow a little local boy sensed we were in need of friend bananas and without a word of English, led us down a street to a fried banana stand, it was miraculous. We spent our evening lounging at the Rusty Keyhole, which does in fact have the best BBQ ribs on Earth, all of the hype is true (thanks to the Canadian girls for recommending it!). Due to the fact that the road to the Bokor Hill Station was closed, we cut our stay in Kampot short to head to Phnom Penh. The taxi that showed up to take us to Phnom Penh was a 20 year old sedan with a trunk full of chocolate milk boxes that our driver lashed our backpacks on top of. 3 of crammed into the backseat with our other bags and we thought it was going to be just a mildly uncomfortable ride until we picked up a 4th passenger and it turned into an absurd ride - this is Cambodia. The drive to PP allowed for some great sightseeing in the countryside, which made our love for Cambodia grow even more.

Phnom Penh is the best city we have been to in SE Asia! We have had a glorious several days exploring the parks, the Royal Palace, the Central Market and the S21 Genocide Museum. The people, the sites and the cuisine have all been wonderful. The city is clean and bustling and lively, we really cant say enough good things about it. And there is a huge NGO scene here, which is tempting us to join and take up residence in this city. Another treat was meeting up with Thayer Mullins, fresh off the plane from Laos. The more we learn about this country and its history, the more we love and respect the people. We are excited to continue exploring Phnom Penh before heading up to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat in a few days.

Hope all is well with all of you, we wish you could be in Cambodia with us! We will blog again from Siem Reap.

xoxo,

Same Same...but Better

Hello from phenomenal Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam! We are writing to you slightly sunburned and full from a decadent dinner of grilled shrimp and pork with delicious Vietnamese seasonings - life is good! It feels like years since our last blog. Since we last wrote, we spent a grand total of 14 hours in Nha Trang before impulsively hopping on another overnight bus to get to Saigon and Ms. Caitlin Blodget. Our second overnight bus was much like the first, although we got top bunks this time and arrived at our destination at 5am (2 hours earlier than expected) to our driver blasting what sounded like Jock Jams Volume 3 (Venga Boys, Aqua, vintage Britney Spears). Bleary eyed, we took a cab to the hotel where we planned to meet Caitlin and learned that we would not be able to check into our room for several more hours so we laid out in the lobby until it was the sun was up and then set our in search of food, only to come back to the hotel and splurge on the breakfast buffet. Caitlin arrived late in the morning and we had a joyous reunion filled with US Weekly and Lauren's long awaited Vanity Fair. Since we were all exhausted from our travels, we spent most of the afternoon lounging by the rooftop pool (Thank you Pam and Dudley!!) before setting our to explore Saigon. The traffic in Saigon is mind blowing, we could watch it for hours and not get bored, but we were all surprised by how manageable the city still felt. Our second day in Saigon we moved into a guesthouse in backpackerville and did some more exploring, including a trip to the War Remnants Museum. The museum was fascinating yet depressing, it inspired us all to read more about the Vietnam War since none of us had since high school. While Saigon was a nice city, by the end of the second day we were definitely ready to leave city and hit the beach!

We hopped a flight to Phu Quoc Island on Sunday and have been living it up here with $4 beach massages, gorgeous sunsets, delicious food and daily adventures ever since. Our first full day on Phu Quoc, we rented motorbikes and set our exploring the southern half of the island. Despite the fact that we were all motorbike virgins, the day was a great success and we got to see many beautiful sites, go to some lovely beaches and we topped the day off with finding the New Zealand ice cream shop in town (could this place get any better?!). The next day we dedicated to lounging on the beach and enjoying massages, we did a really good job with that assignment. Today we took an all day boat ride to several islands off the southern coast of Phu Quoc for some fishing and snorkeling. We had tons of fun jumping off the boat, snorkeling around some lovely reefs, lounging on deserted beaches and creeping on the cast of characters that were also on our trip - joyous. Tomorrow, Lauren and Trish are going scuba diving off the north shore of the island while Caitlin tries to catch up to their level of tan on the beach. Clearly we are having a great time! We really love Phu Quoc and feel so lucky to be here now before its tourism industry gets more built up. Sadly, we hear they are planning to put in several golf courses and turn it into a new Phuket. We really hope that doesn't actually happen. This island is still quite undeveloped, only about half of the roads are paved, and many of the locals are still living the way they have been for years and most don't speak English, which is refreshing after being in more touristy areas. The only real gripe we have is the trash, it is everywhere. The beaches and the ocean are the dump for the island, which is heartbreaking. Maybe we will move back and try to raise some environmental awareness!

We can't believe it is almost time to leave Vietnam, our whirlwind tour of this country has been a blast and we wish we could stay longer! We may or may not get to see more of the Mekong Delta on our way to Cambodia, we are working out our border crossing logistics now. However, we are quite excited to get to Cambodia, where we plan to visit Kampot, Kep, Phonm Penh and Siem Reap! We will blog when we get there and will try to post more pictures soon, although that may just have to wait until we get back to Bangkok or to Shanghai. We miss all of you and wish you could all be here with us on our adventure!

xoxo,
T, L & C

P.S. Trish would like to note that she came up with the slogan "Same Same...but better" so if you see it on some tshirts, perhaps being sold by a Vietnamese man named "Toto," you know where it came from!

Good Morning Vietnam

Good Morning Everyone! We have had quite the eventful few days in Vietnam. After flying into Hanoi from Luang Prabang we quickly discovered that Vietnam roads are full of motorbikes, cows, and kamikaze bus drivers. We were instantly exhilerated yet terrified by the streets of Hanoi. But the Backpackers Hostel we stayed at made everything okay. We got delicious food at Little Hanoi (the original not the copy-cat) and booked ourselves on a possible booze cruise to Halong Bay. The trip to Halong Bay ended up being a delight, minus the 3 hour drive there which was like a path to hell. But once we were on board and handed sombreros we knew we had booked on the right boat. Halong Bay can only be described as mystical and enchantingly beautiful. The weather is almost always hazy so the 3,000 karst islands pop out like something you would read about in a fairytale storybook. We had a fun group of characters which really contributed to the overall experience. We kayaked, spelunked, feasted, and treated ourselves to many Hanoi Vodka cocktails. After two days on the Bay and another car ride from Hell we returned to Hanoi for some divine street food and a 14 hour overnight train ride to Hoi An, which we shared with a nice smelly French couple.

Hoi An is another UNESCO World Heritage Site like Luang Prabang and we enjoyed it to the fullest. Hoi An is famous for its tailors and we took full advantage of their services. We each had two winter coats made to our measurements for "Cheap Cheap" and they look like something out of a J.Crew catalog ("Same Same...But Different" as they say in Southeast Asia). We are so pleased that we want to come back with the actual catalog and have everything copied for a fraction of the price. Not too sound too fatty but the food is amazing and Hoi An's specialities are just as good as we had heard. We feasted at the Blue Dragon, which not only has scrumptious grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves, but also gives a portion of their proceeds to programs for street kids. By happy coincidence we were in town the night of the Full Moon which meant we enjoyed a Lantern Festival on the river. Lucky us. Our second day in Hoi An we rented bikes and cruised down to a secluded beach and enjoyed our first dip in the South China Sea. We picked up our jackets which, we can't wait to show off back in the States, and boarded a bus that took us around the block and put us on another bus (typical Asia) which was our overnight bus/chariot to Nha Trang. The bus consisted of rows of three bunk beds across with pods for our feet. To give you a mental image, neither of us could fully stretch our legs and it felt like we were lying in dentist chairs. As characters of all different kinds packed into the bus we handled the situation by cracking open some beers, munching on some Ritz crackers and Oreos and peanut butter, and setting up shop in the aisle with our cards. We were continuously interrupted with new guests but halfway into the 12 hour tumultuous bus ride we picked up a permanent "aisle mate," an adorable Vietnamese boy who literally slept in the aisle in between us. We were nice enough to give our blankets to him to use as a pillow instead of the water bottle he was currently using. Still wasn't a comfortable ride for any of us, but we made it in one piece, although Lauren wasn't sure she would be able to wake Trish out of her drug-induced slumber. We are now in Nha Trang "the Cancun of Vietnam" and going to take a nap on the beach before we book ourselves on a night train to Saigon, and more importantly, to Ms. Caitlin Blodget.

All in all Vietnam is wonderful and we can't wait to spend the second leg of our journey here with Caitlin. We plan to treat ourselves to a few days on Phu Quoc Island before exploring the Mekong Delta and heading to Cambodia. Now time for breakfast and beach naps.

Xoxo,
T&L

We love Laos

Greetings from Laos! As we are sitting here on our last day in Luang Prabang before flying to Vietnam, we are so sad to be leaving this glorious country and have more to blog about than the our extremely slow internet connection will allow. We have had a fabulous weeks worth of activities since our last post. Tubing in Vang Vieng was an adventure that left us bruise and battered to this day, but also gave us some friends and fun stories. The whiskey buckets were potent, the rope swings and ziplines were deadly but delightful and the slide was terrifying and terrific at the same time. The evening after was well spent cozied up in a local restaurant watching Friends DVDs and sipping on some much needed water. Our time in Vang Vieng was quite enjoyable, however, 2 days was sufficient and we were quite excited to head to Luang Prabang.

The 6 hour drive to Luang Prabang is worth coming to Laos for in itself. We need to come back so we can do it on a motorbike and not crammed in the back of a minibus with a large Japanese fellow who took sleeping pills and was bobble heading into Trish's shoulder the whole ride. We wish we could have taken 1000s of photos from the drive, but our attempts to take pictures while zipping around the hairpin turns was futile. Take our word for it, it was beautiful. Better yet, come to Laos and experience it for yourselves, you won't regret it.

Luang Prabang is the most charming and lovely town we have encountered yet on our journey. Thankfully, it is a UNESCO World Herritage site, so it should stay this pleasant for a long time. The people, the food, the ambiance, the scenery...all divine. This city is a little slice of heaven and perfect for lathargic afternoons spent wandering the low key markets, stalking monks and playing cards while feasting on baguettes and Beer Lao. We really tried to do a litle bit of it all in LP since it is such a culturally rich city so we toured some temples and even got up at sunrise to give food to the monks, even though the experience left us $20 poorer after being swindled by a lovely Lao lady who sold us the sticky rice and bananas to hand out, it was still worth it. We bumped into a few other travelers we have met along the way and we all took a tuk tuk to a large waterfall 30km outside of town to frolic in the pools and watch large Frenchmen do belly flops, it was delightful. We wanted to go to the other waterfall that we had seen pictures of and looked like heaven, but we were told there was no water and when we did get there at the end of our 2 day trek, we saw that they werent lying, it was only a trickle. Just another reason to come back to Laos!

We spent 2 days trekking through the Laos mountainside and jungle with an intrepid and joyous Lao guide named Kai (pronounced "Guy"). He was charismatic, knowledgable, funny and spoke amazing English due to the fact that he is in his 3rd year of university studying to become an English teacher - adorable! We both had crushes, but Trish was tempted to get native, unfortunately he had to go to class when we got back to town and he counldn't go out to dinner with us. The trek took us through several villages and we got to see how the majority of Laos people live which was really facinating. The villages are extremely rural, only reachable by foot or driving for an hour on dirt roads. The villagers were beyond friendly and the kids couldn't have been cuter. We were able to communicate with them without knowing the language because they just wanted to play around like any other children. Things got real when we came upon a blazing fire set by villagers to get the land ready for planting that totally blocked our path. We were stuck for an hour on a mountainside path no wider than a foot across watching the fire spread towards us and being told that it was "under control" even though we counld not figure out how that was possible. Once Kai deemed it safe for us to continue, we found ourselves walking over smoldering ashes and Kai even had to spit water on some leftover flames, what a fearless leader! When we asked what would have happened if we had been closer when they set the fire, he just laughed - this is Laos. By the time we got to the final village of the day we were beyond exhausted and dirtier than we've been all trip. We went over rivers, through the jungle, over mountains and through fire so you can imagine how good we smelled and looked. We spent the night in the village, sleeping on mats in our own little hut. The villagers were again very welcoming and fun to interact with. We watched the kids play a vicious flip flop hurling version of bocce and shared books that we brought from an amazing Laos run organization called Big Brother Mouse, look out for a fundraiser for them when we get home! The second day we set out sans shower or clean clothes (we packed really light for the trek) and ventured off to 2 more villages and then took a boat ride to the waterless waterfall. All in all, our 2 day trek was an amazing experience and we are so glad we got to see that part of Laos and learn so much from our swoon worthy guide, Kai. He has an aunt in San Francisco so even though he has never left Luang Prabang, we are hoping to get him over for a visit.

We are flying to Hanoi in a couple of hours (Vietnam Airlines, not Laos Airlines so Trish wont die of an anxiety attack) and are excited for Vietnam and meeting up with Caitlin, but sad to be leaving this wonderful country. There is so much more to see here, we hope to get back again soon. We will blog again from Vietnam, let us know if you have any tips for while we are there. We are also looking for some new card games to play so send any of those suggestions along as well.

xoxo,
T&L

Ta ta Thailand, Sabai dii Laos!

Greetings from Vang Vieng, Laos! We made it to this joyous country after 3 buses, 2 tuk tuks, 1 plane and 1 over night train and we couldn't be happier to be here. Before we get into our love affair with this lovely little country, we want to give our final meditations on Thailand:

1)Thailand makes us smile! The Thais people are some of the kindest and friendliest we have ever met and they literally brought smiles to our faces everyday, our cheeks still hurt.

2)We still crave and love thai food even after eating it for a month straight.

3)The kids were too cute, we wanted to steal them all, it was tough to leave them behind.

4)We are so happy that we volunteered in Thailand because having the interaction with the locals and getting to know one town really well made Thailand that much more special to us. We miss Khao Lak and all of the people that made it so great for us! However, we were not all that sad to leave the scantily clad German tourists.

Now onto Laos! It took us 24 straight hours of travel to get here even though it neighbors Thailand, but the journey was worth it. Laos is so quaint and lovely. We spent our first day and night in the capital, Vientiane, which is the smallest capital city in SE Asia and the vibe is very laid back. It was refreshing not to see any McDonalds or Starbucks which are commonplace in Bangkok. Once we crossed the border, we cracked open our first Beer Laos (they are as good as they are hyped to be), hopped into a tuk tuk with several Lao and Thai women who we befriended and fielded marriage proposals from (they all wanted us to be their daughter in laws), and headed into the city. Once in Vientiane, we walked around the city, enjoyed some delicious sandwiches, got massages and watched the sun go down over the Mekong River. It didn't suck.

Yesterday we took a minibus 3 hours north of Vientiane to Vang Vieng, a chilled out riverside backpacker hub known for tubing down the river and drinking lots of lao lao. Vang Vieng is also known for the fact that all of the bars and restaurants play Friends dvds all day, everyday. We aren't sure why or how they got this obsession with the Central Perk bunch, but we must admit it was nice to lay back on a comfy bed of pillows and watch a few episodes. We rented bikes and ventured into the beautiful countryside which is dominated by amazing karst cliffs, it is one of the prettiest places we have seen yet. We attempted to find some caves but in the end just rode through several cow pastures and decided not to pay locals to see their "caves" because we weren't sure if they actually existed. Today we plan to go tubing, the Vang Vieng specialty, which involves floating down the river in inner tubes, stopping at various riverside bars for free whiskey shots and Beer Lao, and hurling ourselves off of numerous rope swings. We are quite excited. We should also mention that Vang Vieng is a "happy" town with many "happy" shakes, pastries etc. on the menus, but due to our tight schedule, we do not plan to indulge. Tomorrow or perhaps Tuesday we will head north again to Louang Prabang where we plan to do a home stay in a local village and do some trekking and check out the waterfalls as well as explore the city itself. Should be wonderful!

Time to get ready to hit the river, we will blog again from Louang Prabang. We miss you all and hope you are all doing well.

xoxo,
T&L

Buckets and Beach Classes

Hello again everyone! We just returned from Koh Phi Phi and as usual are exhausted from taking the cheapest travel options available. Last week we had a little change in our teaching schedule. With an abundance of volunteers for the schools we looked around to see where else our services might be needed. Surprisingly we didn't need to look much further than our favorite beach bars. So we trotted on down to the beach with a paper that had thai writing on it stating our FREE english teaching services. We ended the day with four groups of eager new students, including bartenders and masseuses. The next day we returned with a pink plastic briefcase (We will be sure to include a photo of it soon) that was full of homemade language flashcards. Our day was exhausting but glorious and hilarious. Our beach students are just as eager and fun as the kids at the schools. Bonus is that they give us free food, drink, and hand massages while we teach. Pretty sweet gig. We were jazzed to semi understand some thai spoken by our student Joy's adorable son. Very impressive. We had to say goodbye to two of our beloved fellow volunteers, Sarah and Barbara. We sent them off with a fun night of eating and dancing and lantern lighting. It is now safe to say that no matter how hard we try we will never be as sassy as Barbara. We will miss the ladies but are sure we will see them again in the future.

This past weekend we ventured out of Khao Lak by bus and boat to Koh Phi Phi Island. We met up with our fabulous Canadian friends who had already checked out the aggressive bucket situation and found the best street food vendors. The first hour on Phi Phi was distressing to say the least as it was more difficult to find accommodations than we had anticipated and Lauren had low blood sugar and we were both taken aback by how touristy the island was. Kind of felt like Nassau Spring Break 2003. But once we had found our beautiful beach bungalow and gotten some pad thai in our systems we were good to go. We spent Friday night gallivanting around the island, slurping buckets, dancing with underage European boys, and eating copious amount of street food, including chicken legs that HAD to be bought at 3 am, and Nutella Banana Pancakes with a touch of Peanut Butter. Yummmmmm!!! The highlight of the night was when we left our friend Jamie alone for an hour and when we found him again he had a fresh tattoo on his chest. Clearly it was a night to remember and now that Jamie has Bruce tattooed on his chest he will never forget it and neither will we (Parents we did not come home with tattoos in case you were wondering......). Saturday the six of us hired a longboat with a cowboy hat wearing driver to go beach-hopping and snorkeling. Our first stop was Monkey Beach which was obviously covered in monkeys and we watched some girl get a little too close to the monkeys and, after getting bit, probably walked away with rabies.... Glad we didn't try to pet them!! The highlight of the outing was going to Maya Bay, otherwise known as "The Beach" from the film of the same title. We snorkeled, sunbathed, and floated in the gorgeous waters. It was truly breathtaking and we enjoyed every second of it. Saturday night we were all worn out so we feasted on the most delicious massaman curry at Papaya (You must eat there if you go to Phi Phi, huge yummy portions). The restaurant was amazing once we got over the cats sleeping in the food and drink refrigerator!!! T.I.T (This is Thailand. Then we curled up with buckets of popcorn and candy to watch bootleg 30 cent DVDs and surprisingly we were able to go to bed early despite the fact that our bungalow was literally shaking from the beach party next door. All in all an epic weekend and we can't wait to meet up with our Canadian friends again, either in North or South America.

We can't believe that only a month ago we were indulging in Maher's divine lasagna at our going-away Family Dinner and have now been in Thailand for almost a month!!! It will be weird saying goodbye to Khao Lak and the beaches but we are very excited to venture north to Laos. If anyone has any must-do tips for Laos please let us know ASAP. We will post pics this week and try to do another blog before we leave. Hope all is well and we miss you all!!!
xoxo
T&L

Cooking and climbing

Hello and happy belated Valentines Day! Since our last post we have become Thai chefs and rad rock climbers. Last week we taught everyday and continued to absolutely love it, the kids just couldn't be more fun! We took a Thai cooking class at the restaurant/bar we frequent and had so much fun learning the Thai culinary arts. Goi, our teacher, took us to the local market to buy all of the ingredients, it was quite an experience. The market has everything from dragonfruit to fresh shrimp paste to pig faces and whole chickens with the heads and feet still attached. We learned how to make red curry with chicken and pineapple, pad thai, papaya salad, spring rolls and bananas in coconut milk. It was a sumptuous feast and we had to teach through food comas after. It was like Thanksgiving. Since we are accustomed to sharing 1 dish per meal, each having our own 5 dishes was a bit overwhelming, but joyous! Now we can't wait to hit up the Asian markets in SF and show off our skills at a family dinner, get excited!

This weekend we headed out of Khao Lak for a weekend on the beaches off of Krabi. We stayed on Ton Sai and also visited Pranang and Railay. The landscape was totally surreal, pictures do no justice. There is just something so cool about limestone cliffs meeting the turquoise water. All of the beaches are only accessible by longtail boats and there are no cars in the little beach towns, it's such a treat. Getting there on Friday was a bit of an ordeal because there were strong winds and rough seas and obese Germans in our little boat and we thought we were going to tip several times, but luckily we made it unscathed. Ton Sai is a total trip. It is a rock climbing haven, most of the people live there for months on end and climb everyday and party every night. The beach bars reeked of reggae and reefer in a good way and the people were beyond chilled. It was one of the first places we met any Americans and it was chock full of Canadians, 4 of which we befriended on the beach and spent Valentines Day dinner with at a lovely Indian restaurant called Tali Leaf, a must visit spot for anyone who finds themselves in Ton Sai. We also treated ourselves to oil massages on Valentines Day, much more relaxing than the traditional Thai massages we experienced last time. This morning we got up bright and early and went climbing. It was totally different climbing on limestone versus what we are used to in the Northeast, each route was so unique. Our arms still feel like jello, but it was a lot of fun and we look forward to returning for some more climbing in the future, maybe after we hit the rock gyms for a bit back home and we will bring all of you climbing fanatics with us!

After 1 longtail boat and 3 buses today for a total of $10 and 5 hours, we are glad to be home and filled up on a dollars worth of our favorite street noodles. This week we plan to be super thrifty and solely survive off of pb & js and street food to save up for our final weekend in Thailand which will be spent on the beaches of Koh Phi Phi. If you need to visualize what that will be like, rent the epic film "The Beach." Hopefully the weird video game drug sequence will not factor in.

Hope all is well back home! Keep us posted on your lives and try to come visit us! We have both been able to get some pics up on facebook so be sure to check them out, more to come soon.

xoxo
T&L