BootsnAll Travel Network



about us & our blog:

Malia & Jess are coming home! Our five month adventure has taken us through Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. You can view our most recent blog posts here on the home page or view posts by city/location, author, posts with videos, etc. by using the categories listed at right. Feel free to check out our itinerary and our latest pictures by following the links as well. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

a taste of cambodia

March 30th, 2008

check out pictures here (thanks kariena!)

after three fun-filled days in siem reap, i decided it was time to move on to see more of cambodia. i’d really enjoyed trying some of the traditional khmer (cambodian) dishes and i’d read about a cooking class in a town called battambang, which could be reached from siem reap via a six hour boat ride along the tonle sap river. the boat trip itself was rather uncomfortable, but i did make a new friend along the way.

believe it or not, my new friend kariena is from hawaii! i hadn’t seen many americans since laos, let alone someone from the same state, even the same island! kariena is originally from new mexico but has been living on oahu the past two years. i’m suprised i haven’t run into her in downtown! =) it’s always fun to travel alone, but sometimes it’s just as fun to meet up with new friends, so kareina and i both checked into a hotel in battambang and signed up for a cooking class at the smokin’ pot restaurant, then head out to explore the (very tiny!) town.

we arrived at the restaurant the following morning and met some of our other classmates for the day. the owner, vannak, was really cool and answered all of our questions, then took us on a tour of the market. the markets in cambodia are crazy! skinned frogs sitting in pools of blood (it seriously looked like a frog murder scene), fish jumping all over the ground then getting thrown back in their buckets, pig joints and sausages everywhere, along with various fresh fruits and vegetables. unlike the markets in thailand and laos, where you usually see stalls set up at the markets, everything was spread out over the ground! it was quite an experience.
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temples of angkor

March 30th, 2008

angkor wat at sunset, originally uploaded by maliayosh.

anyone who comes to cambodia comes to see angkor wat. it’s just one of those things that you cross off your to-do lists of “sights to see,” and after having been there i can definitely say it’s an amazing temple. it’s the world’s largest religious building, and it is huge! i’m definitely glad that i got to see it, but overall it was a very hot, tiring, and underwhelming day…
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fear factor

March 28th, 2008

for all of you who kept asking when i’d be trying something as weird as the stuff jess has been so bravely eating for our video blogs…

i ate a cricket!

i ate a cricket! just the head, and honestly it didn’t taste THAT bad – it really was like “chips”. but the smell grossed me out so i left it at that.

and another cambodian delicacy (that i will NOT try!)… tarantulas! yuck!!!

fried tarantulas

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heaven and hell

March 28th, 2008

cambodia so far has been a study of contradictions… i’d already grown weary of the various travel scams (this applies to southeast asia in general, not just cambodia) and i’ve come to realize that when it comes to getting yourself to your next destination, it’s best to expect the worst. and sometimes, you must stretch your definition of “the worst” because every trip beats the last. there’s the hellish bus rides (two strangers to a twin bunk?!?), minivan adventures (14 people plus huge backpacks, crammed into 11 available seats, for a 9 hour ride!?!), and your garden-variety tuk tuk drivers ready to rip you off… it’s always something!

but no matter how bad it gets, i always try to remind myself to store away those happy memories of my travels to fortify me when it comes to dealing with the bad. so far cambodia has introduced me to some of the worst, and also opened my eyes to some of the best experiences.
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4,000 islands

March 27th, 2008

i LOVE hammocks
* you can view more pictures of 4,000 islands here. *

4,000 islands is a group of islands formed in the mekong river at the southernmost tip of laos, right near the border with cambodia. from the barren town of pakse, i joined a busload of backpackers heading south to enjoy the lazy pace of life on the islands. there are two islands that made up the primary destinations for our group – one called don det (which has gained a reputation as a “party” island) and another, quieter one called don khon. the two are connected by an abandoned railway bridge and have many narrow, shady paths to wander on foot or by bicycle. in the bus, i met a group of three from switzerland, and we all decided to head to don khon together.

we piled with our bags into a longtail boat heading for don khon. because its the dry season, the river is difficult to navigate as it is much shallower than when the rain causes the water levels to rise. our driver got us stuck on a shallow embankment, requiring a few of us to get out and push til we could freely pass through the water again. on the way to the landing, i leaned over the edge of the boat, watching water buffalo wading in the shallow water, kids playing on shore, and the rows of bungalow huts that fronted the water. when we landed, we were greeted by a woman who runs a guesthouse called pan’s who showed us to two available rooms.
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language barrier

March 19th, 2008

overall i haven’t had much of a problem getting around not speaking the language in hong kong or thailand, but here in laos things are tricky sometimes! lao and thai are very similar, and most lao people understand thai, which is good because i learned quite a bit of thai in the last few weeks. and often here, i’m mistaken for lao because a majority of the tourists i’ve met are french and very fair-skinned, so a lot of times locals start off speaking to me in lao and i have to tell them that i don’t understand. often though, i find myself mixing the two up, and sometimes i’m just at a loss without a phrasebook, or even sometimes with it!

as most people will tell you, a smile and trying out a few words will often elicit a friendly response in return, often in english, and if all else fails you can always try sign language. but this yesterday i found myself in a position where was so frustrated that i gave up! (and i HATE giving up!)
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point A to point B

March 16th, 2008

the variety of ways to travel in southeast asia are enough to give even the seasoned traveler a huge headache! but sometimes figuring out the best way to get from point A to point B can be fun! and sometimes it changes your entire itinerary!

i arrived in the capital of laos, vientiane, a few days ago after a 3-hour ride on a so called “VIP” bus from vang vieng that felt more like a sauna on wheels. there were only tourists/backpackers crammed into the bus, leading me to believe we’d all been ripped off. (if you see NO locals on the transport option you’ve chosen, that’s a serious red flag in terms of how much you paid!) and besides being relatively expensive (i guess i can’t really call $6 expensive, can i?) it was just sooo hot. they said it had A/C but i don’t think it even worked. luckily i only had a duffel bag with me – i’ve been traveling with just a small bag for the last 6 weeks, leaving my suitcase in bangkok – so i was able to keep it on the ground near my seat. the luggage holds underneath the bus were crammed to capacity with huge backpacks and occasionally a few suitcases. there were STILL more packs crammed into the aisles of the bus so that to get out at our rest stop, i had to climb over about 7 or 8 of them just to get to the front of the bus!
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snapshots of memory

March 15th, 2008

i’ve been taking so many photos on this trip, but i’m starting to realize that sometimes not having my camera at the moment that i see something happening isn’t the tragedy that i thought. in fact, my memory card picked up a virus at an internet cafe and i lost a majority of my pictures temporarily, i was freaking out! they were able to recover them for me and burn them to disk (and most i’ve put up on flickr already), but it made me realize even more just how much i depend on my camera…

but so much happens in between the shutter clicks anyway… a few examples:

– watching a cow (with cowbell and all!) chase chickens on the side of the mekong

– on the drive to vientiane, we sped through rural villages and i caught a glimpse of a little boy sitting up in a tree, watching us fly past

– passing by a small store and seeing a mother inside (the shopowner?) with her child on the floor, singing songs to her and just oblivious to anything else… you could just see the love on her face!

– waking up in the morning to take a stroll around the neighborhoods of luang prabang and stepping backwards into a sewer ditch trying to get this shot! in between giggles, an old lady helped me use her hose to wash off my smelly feet. haha
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slow boat to luang prabang

March 13th, 2008

yesterday morning we woke up early and drove about an hour on bumpy, unpaved mountain roads again until we finally arrived at the banks of the mekong. the slow boat coming from the huay xai border crossing was due to arrive in an hour so we killed time playing with the stray dogs, tasting beef jerky and snacks from the vendors set up at the landing, and talking with our tour guides and other locals waiting for the boat to luang prabang. i had fun trying this REALLY sour fruit (i think it might be a type of cherry?) that you dip in a plate of salt and sugar then pop in your mouth.

these tasted like REALLY sour cherries

the boat ride wasn’t quite as uncomfortable as i thought it would be. we were warned that the wooden seats are pretty uncomfortable (especially after six hours!) and so we used little cushions to sit on to try to make it more bearable. i contorted myself into a little fetal position to try to take a nap, but that was pretty rough on the rock hard benches, so i ended up doing sudoku puzzles and taking pictures of the scenery to pass the time.
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ngok ngok!

March 12th, 2008

beer lao!, originally uploaded by maliayosh.

ngok ngok means “cheers!” in laotian. we learned this over beer lao bottles and homemade rice whisky with our tour guides in hongsa, laos. i also learned the hard way that the combination is a sure way to a mean hangover in the morning…

but hangover aside, the night we spent in the tiny town of hongsa en route to the mekong river was one of those real, honest times when you feel less like a tourist and more like a houseguest. it’s these kind of moments that really make me so happy that i’m able to take this trip and to really interact with the people i’ve met along the way.

i booked a two day package in chiang mai that would take me to the northern laotian town of luang prabang along the mekong river. the small group in the tour included two girls traveling together from ireland, and michelle and claus, both from denmark, but each traveling solo. the ride from chiang mai to the border was somewhat uneventful, but as the ride went on we were hot, and as comfortable as you can be when sitting all day in a minivan traveling at warp speed around some major curves and hills! but that was a piece of cake compared to what awaited us on the laotian side of the border!
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