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Greetings from Ta Prohm

Sunday, December 25th, 2005

Greetings from Ta Prohm

Posts to Family

Tuesday, December 20th, 2005

Since it may be awhile before we can pull together a detailed travelog, here’s a quick trip through the emails we sent home while traveling….

Subject: safe & sound in Bangkok
Date: 11/1/2005

Arrived in Bangkok all right, if tired, after about 28 hours of traveling. Very nice hotel, Rama Gardens, slept in late. Arrived Vientiane, Laos, last night and have spent the day on foot visiting temples and arranging for tomorrow’s trip by hired car & driver to Tham Lot Kong Lor cave and Sala Hin Boun hotel.
All is well so far.
Love,
Bill and Kim

Subject: dateline: Laos
Date: 11/4/2005

Having a wonderful trip so far. We are in Vang Vieng, will go kayaking tomorrow as it was a bit rainy today. Biking & cave exploring today. Staying at Xayoh Bungalows & Thavonsouk Bungalows. (On the river and away from noise of town’s bizarre “TV bars.”)

Will be deviating from our itinerary a bit, skipping Phonsavon & Plain of Jars to spend another day in Vang Vieng because it is so pretty here, similar to a Chinese painting with karst mountains and rivers. We’ll also get an extra day in Luang Prabang (which we hear is also very pretty). Will stay at Sala Prabang there.

The Sala Hin Boun bungalows in southern Laos worked out great, though we had to abandon our car & driver and go by boat almost two hours upriver to get there! (A very scenic trip with lots of local color.) During dry season you can drive all the way to the lodge, but this year has been especially rainy and the road is still out. As it was, to get to the “boat landing” we had to ford a small river and 7 dry rivers with the Toyota Corolla. Driver was not too happy, but when we returned to the boat landing two days later, he was waiting for us, to our relief. The 6 hour boat trip through the cave was exciting. Motorized long-tail plank canoe speeding through 7 km of darkness by head lamp light only!

Enjoying everything so far.
Love,
Kim and Bill

Subject: loving Laos
Date: 11/8/2005

Have arrived safely by minibus (6 hour trip over the mountains) in Luang Prabang, Laos. Beautiful French colonial former capital with many wats (temples). Tomorrow we will either take a boat to some caves or a road trip to a large waterfall. Thursday we begin a 2 day upriver boat trip to the Thai border and begin our transfer to Cambodia. Guess that means the trip is half over.

Had a fabulous day on my birthday, kayaking down the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng.
Love,
Kim and Bill

Subject: dateline: Cambodia
Date: 11/13/2005

Enjoyed the two-day boat trip on the Mekong River in Laos, except for Bill having an upset stomach and sleeping much of the second day on the river. On the water 9 1/2 hours the first day, 8 1/2 the second, overnighting in Pak Beng (Salika Guesthouse). Arrived at the Thai border just in time to clear immigration and cross the river on a motorized canoe to clear Thai immigration minutes before they closed.

Found a nice treehouse bungalow in Chiang Kong, Thailand, the Bamboo Riverfront Guesthouse, and took a bus the next morning to Chiang Rai, where we caught a plane to Bangkok and another to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we’ll be the next few days. Stayed in a REALLY nice place the first night (La Maison d’ Angkor) and moved to a less expensive closer-to-town place with a jungly courtyard and pool, La Noria Guesthouse, today. Toured the Angkor Wat temple ruins, some restored, some covered with huge trees whose roots envelope the temple walls. (Tomb Raiders filmed scenes here.)

Two more days in Siem Reap, then a boat trip, then to Phnom Penh for the River Reversing Festival and rowed longboat races.

It’s been a great trip so far.
Love,
Kim and Bill

Subject: “fast” boat to Battambang (Cambodia)
Date: 11/16/2005

Hello! (Would say it in Cambodian but we haven’t learned a word of it – everyone who deals with tourist speaks a little English.)

Spent 3 days exploring temples at Angkor Wat. The final day, Kim was hit with a fast & furious stomach upset and fever that left her whimpering. All gone now, but ’twas wretched for a while. She recovered in time to get up at 4:45 a.m. to catch a minibus to the boat landing for an 8 1/2 hour cultural immersion.

Floating villages, stilt houses, Vietnamese fishing families, flooded forest, mangrove swamps, naked kids doing backflips off boats and riverbanks as we passed. The “seriously scenic” reference in the guidebook was to the culture more than the landscape. Very entertaining. Even had a big thunderstorm.

Tomorrow we take a bus to Phnom Penh. There’s a big festival going on there now, with boat racing of large wooden boats powered by 50+ oarsmen. We have TV in our hotel (Royal) in Battambang, and about 15 of 35 channels are showing the boat racing! Two nights in Phnom Penh, then we’ll begin the long journey home.

Love, Bill and Kim

Subject: home at last
Date: 11/21/2005

Well, it took about 38 hours from “get up” in Bangkok till “go to bed” in Montana, but we finally got home late last night, at 2:30 a.m. – by bus from Bozeman, since our airport is fogged in.

The final days of our trip were great. We took a bus from Battambang to Phnom Penh, arriving in the midst of the final day of Cambodia’s biggest festival of the year, Bon Om Tuk, the River Reversing Festival. During the rainy season, the Mekong River backs up the Sap River into Tonle Sap Lake, tripling its size, and at the end of the rainy season as water levels drop the river flow reverses direction. They celebrate at the full moon time.

I had made an online reservation at a “boutique” hotel on the riverfront, Bougainvillier, which though a bit pricey at $74 was well worth every penny. Besides being a beautiful suite of rooms, nicely appointed in Oriental style (Western bathroom appliances, though!), its wall of windows and 4th story balcony overlooked all the hoopla and gave us an excellent view of the boat races, fireworks, and illuminated floats. Over 300 boats with 50-60 person crews participated. Thailand beat Cambodia in the finals, which was pretty good for Cambodia, whose team had only been pulled together 2 weeks before the festival, whereas the Thai team had over 3 months to train for the races.

The city of 1 million doubles in size during the festival as people come in from the surrounding countryside, so it was nice to be able to see all the excitement so well without having to be immersed in the throng for the whole time. We did go out and do some walking around, of course. The noise level was incredible, with loudspeakers and music and race announcers, etc.

Also, the city had all the streets around the riverfront and downtown closed to vehicles, so the bus from Battambang had to stop pretty far out of town, and we had to take alternative transportation in to the hotel: motorcycle taxis! Though they are designed to carry two passengers in addition to the driver, with all our baggage (two packs plus two day packs, plus two smaller bags of souvenirs and food), we each had to go on a separate motorcycle. No helmets, hard to hang onto anything with our hands full of luggage, but we survived the trip. Even the motos were banned from the riverfront, so we walked the last 3 blocks to the hotel.

Now that we’re home with time to reflect…this has been one of our favorite trips ever, especially Laos. Will try to put together a more detailed itinerary later…

Love,
Kim and Bill

Expense summary

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
While researching our trip to Laos and Cambodia, we had inquired of a tour company (A World Away Travels) about putting together a trip using our planned itinerary, and gasped at the cost, around 2400 USD per person for 19 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Initial Impressions

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Sabadie! Have been home for less than a week, and have some initial impressions to pass on about Laos and Cambodia. We LOVED Laos! It reminded us of what we liked about Burma (Myanmar): friendly happy people, beautiful countryside, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hello fellow travelers!

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
Sabadie! We just returned from three weeks in Laos and Cambodia and are happy to share info with fellow travelers. When we have a bit more time, we'll post our travelog here. Kim and Bill from Montana