Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ah, Siem Reap. What a funny and wonderful place you are. 

We arrived in the city late on our first night, so we were able to see the city in all it's lit-up splendour. It's kind of like a mini-Vegas in some parts, with large tacky hotels lining the airport road and lights strung up everywhere. 

We stayed at the Golden Banana Hotel, which is def not a backpacker place. It has an amazing pool and gorgeous trees everywhere - again, I was spoiled! Ah, what a life. 

Pub Street

On our way to pub street, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant called xxx for the best (and only) Mexican food I have had in a loooong while, along with $1.50 daiquiris. Amazeballs. 

We then hit up pub street and all of it's fabulousness. We stopped at a place for $1 draft beers that had a Filipino Journey cover band. So good. 

We ended up at the infamous Temple bar, and I soon joined the crowd dancing on the street. There was a huge group of flamboyant Cambodian guys who had dances to all of the pop hits, so we all followed along (or at least tried to) in rows behind them. So much fun! 

Night Market

There is obvi a huge night market here, complete with a neon sign and flashing arrows pointing you in the right direction. It has the same loverly touristy souvenirs along with some knock-off purses and head phones. 

The city itself is huge and has a good energy to it. The prices seem a bit more than in Laos - for example, my dorm is $6 a night instead of the usual $4 - but you can still find some good street food (curry, noodle soup, etc) for $2. 

There are tons of more high-end western hotels and restaurants for those who are craving a taste from home as well! 

I stayed at a cool place called Downtown Siem Reap Hostel, which even had a pool(!) and regularly had live bands playing. 

Someone pointed out an awesome running path next to the river as well, which has cool sculptures and parks along the route. 

Overall, Siem Reap is a bustling city with a good vibe and a great party scene. Can definitely understand how people get stuck here! 

If you are here on the weekend, you MUST check out the Khmer Circus and the concert at the children's hospital - I misse out on this, but heard amazing things about both!

Vientiane, Laos

After our tubing experience, we decided it was time to move on from Vang Vieng. We caught a bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. 

Our first night we met a Lao man who spoke impeccable French at dinner. We asked him what he would recommend doing in the city, and his answer was pretty straightforward: 'c'est pas extraordinaire, it's nothing special'. Wow, you're really selling the place. 

Turns out there really are things to do in Vientiane:

Wat Sisaket

Located in the center of the tourist area, right across from the Royal Palace, Wat Sisaket is a unique temple in the sense that it has hundreds, if not thousands, of little sconces covering the walls inside. 

Inside these little books are pairs of little metal Buddhas. Tres cool. 

Wat That Luang

Seen as the most important monument in Laos, That Luang is located a bit on the outskirts of town. 

It is a huge area, with gorgeous gardens all around. 

The big golden stupa is said to house a hair or a bone of Buddha himself. Pretty legit. 

There is also a grand building that has Laotian paintings on display, with another couple of temples that you can check out. 

We even found a reclining Buddha statue! So cool. 

COPE Rehabilitation Center

We checked out the COPE center to learn a bit more about the rehabilitation available for Lao people who have the unfortunate occurrence of encountering UXO. 

We watched another informational movie on the USA 'secret war' with Laos. 

I didn't realize this, but prosthetic limbs actually wear out in about 2 years. 

Again, it was pretty emotional to learn about the devastating after-effects of war, and some first-hand accounts from parents who have list their children to UXO, due in part to the fact that most hospitals around Laos don't have the oxygen or blood  necessary to save them. 

If ever you wanted to donate to a cause, definitely check this place out!

National Museum 

The National Museum has information and artefacts from ancient Laos history right up to modern day. 

It gets a bit patriotic and biased around the civil war and the USA 'secret war', saying a lot of thins like 'the gun used by comrade so-and-so to bring down the US imperialist planes carrying guns for their puppets'. No joke. 

Either way, it was informative, although it closes promptly at 4 - we know because they turned off the lights at 3:45 and then chase us out at 3:58. They are serious about their closing times. 

Lots of guns on display. 

I saw the most unfortunate entry in the signature book. So disrespectful, although...slightly right on the biased part. 

Arc de Triumphe 

It's not much of a destination, but there is a big concrete replica of the Arc de Triumphe. 

Our tuktuk driver dropped us off for a little looksy on our way back from That Luang (and obvi tried charging us more). 

Vientiane Cuisine

As per usual, there was also some great food to be had in the Lao capital. 

The best ice cream I've had in Asia so far at a little place next to Joma cafe (the one near the Presidential Palace). 

Amazing passion fruit juice. I've notice most things are garnished with mint in Laos...loves it!

An amazing hibiscus and lime daiquiri at Makphet, which is an awesome restaurant that trains street kids to work in the hospitality industry. We went for the 50% off happy hour (5:30-7:00) since the menu was slightly on the expensive side. 

Cutest dogs getting a bath. 

Overall, Vientiane is a bit of a sleepy town with not much in the way of activities, but there are still places to see nonetheless. 

It is a great stop-off point between the north and south of Laos, and has many buses available to go to straight to Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia. 

I'm headed south now to Pakse to get in some trekking and hopefully have a little break from the crazy backpacker route. 

A la prochaine!

Temple Tour in Chiang Mai, Thailand

We decided to take it easy on our first day in Chiang Mai and get some stuff organized for the next couple of days here. We wanted to make sure that the elephant training school we booked with had humane practices and were legit, and we wanted to see what other activities there were in the area. 

We 'slept in' and naturally woke up at 8am, had breaky, booked our activities (we settled on a cooking course excursion and Eddy's elephant training school) and then headed out to do our own little guided tour of the temples in the old city in Chiang Mai from a map we found in the Lonely Planet (essentially every backpackers bible - you can see people pouring over then everywhere). 

As per usual, we got lost almost instantly. I'm usually good with maps, but all the street names are so similar here...I know - excuses, excuses. We ended up passing by an institute for blind masseuses and decided what the heck - lets get another massage. 

It was the first time that we were asked to wear robes, and our masseuses were lead to our mats. It was actually really enjoyable. My lady was a bit gentler than usual, loved it! 

Same same but different 

Only $5 for an hour massage. I can deal with that ;) 

After loosening up a bit, we got ourselves oriented and saw Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang temples. I honestly felt a bit wat-ed out, but I am always amazed as soon as we go inside. 

Temple attire 

They are amazingly ornate, stunning to see. 

Wat Chedi Luang had an older section that was half crumbling, with huge golden Buddhas at the top. So gorgeous! 

It was getting pretty late in the afternoon, so we grabbed a red truck taxi - the cheapest option here, tuktuks are a total ripoff - to go to Wat Doi Suthep. They kept asking for 500 baht (around $17) for two people and I didn't believe them. Once we heard it about 20 times, we gave in. 

Turns out the temple is situated quite far outside of the old city and on the top of a mountain. I get why it's that price now ;) 

It was such a lovely drive up the mountain with lush jungle on either side. It smelled amazingly fresh too. Reminded me of the forests at home in a strange and beautiful way :) 

Wat Doi Suthep was truly magnificent. You pass by vendors at the entrance (obvi) and then walk up around 300 steps to the Wat. The inside is gorgeous as well, with a huge golden stupa in the middle. 

The views of the old city from the lookout is also pretty cool. Chiang Mai is quite a forested city. 

After watching the sunset, we got dropped off on Nimmahaeman Rd on the west side of the moat of the old city, which is supposedly the trendy area for college kids to hang out and go clubbing. 

A real-life Momster 

There were tons of cool shops and restaurants packed with university students. We ended up going to another Burmese restaurant and got chicken curry and pennywort salad - so delicious!! There was a Thai soap opera playing and we were entranced - it is amazing how you can understand those shows without even knowing the language. So good. 

We then checked out Monkey Club, which was supposed to be a fun hang out place and dance club. There was a band playing, which always started off their songs upbeat but then turned them into slow songs. We were going to leave since it was kind of putting us to sleep but then we started chatting with some other tourists and noticed the other side of the bar was rocking with a dj so we decided to go start a dance party. 

We were having fun when all of. Sudden the same band got on stage. We thought the fun times would soon end, but they played super upbeat rock and pop songs, so good!! We got some of the Thai people to start dancing and it turned out to be a fun night. We all clambered into tuktuks as the club was closing and snuck into our hostel. Gotta love dorm living ;)