temple time: cambodia

just when i thought i had written all the major posts about asia, i discovered that i neglected the time we spent in cambodia.

so, back to asia we go.

after our island time on phu quoc, we flew to siem reap, cambodia.

country #4 of our summer asian adventure.

away from the cooler breezes of the water, we found ourselves back in the summertime heat.

we had arranged airport pickup with our hotel and a tuktuk driver waited for us. a tuktuk with your luggage is an odd experience. we were thankful our luggage actually stayed in the tuktuk with us for the 30 minute ride back to the hotel.

we stayed just outside of the main part of town and it worked out pretty well. the staff was amazing and worked very hard to take care of us.

they arranged a tuktuk driver to take us around to the temples the following day. our leaving was delayed a bit by a flat tire and having to go and buy our tickets before going to the temple. we fretted about missing the sunrise. getting up at 4 am after a 1 am bedtime only to miss the sunrise would have sucked. majorly.

when we finally arrived at angkor wat we really had no idea where the best place to wait would be. we decided to remain outside the complex where plenty of others were waiting. this turned out to be okay and we were able to capture several images with the reflection of the towers in the water.

once the sun rose we wandered inside and looked around a bit. it's quite large and on our own everything felt a bit repetitive. so perhaps using a guide would have been a good idea, if only to point us to the most important historical pieces and to focus our attention.

we completed the 'big' tour that day, without returning to our hotel for breakfast. we spent a couple hours wandering around the various temples. i enjoyed them a lot, but it was so hot and the temples do start to look the same. given the heat, i wouldn't have wanted to be stuck with a guide who felt it necessary to show us many details. there is little shade and a lot of steps. for this reason, we didn't stay too long and attempted to move quickly around the temples.

this blog post does a much better job showing the individual temples and sharing info about them than i could. so click away if you are interested in specifics.

on our second full day we took a bike tour through the cambodian countryside. again it was hot. and the bikes were not comfortable. but we did see some cool stuff, our favorite being the basketweaver we met. we got to watch her work and do a little weaving on one of her projects.

those bottles...hold gasoline.
welcome to a gas station in siem reap.

there were still some temples to see, so on the following day we headed out on the 'little' tour of temples. we hadn't seen the tomb raider temple (a la angelina jolie/lara croft) and that was on the must see list. it was the same story as the first day. hot. so we quickly moved through the various temples. i even blew off our driver's attempt to give us a little information when we stopped at the first temple. we wanted to be fast and stay out of the heat.

despite the heat, cambodia was lovely.

it's a shame that many of the temples have fallen into disrepair. there is some evidence that maybe they're working on it a bit. however, with millions of tourists climbing about the temples every year one has to wonder how much longer the structures will survive.

we stayed here. i recommend it!

the front desk team was adorable and helped us make a plan to get our gel nails refilled. (despite the fact that around the world you can get gel nails done, usually by an asian woman, we found it quite difficult to find a place in asia to fill the gel nails.)

we ate here. and here. both were really great. two of our favorite meals in asia.

i'm hungry just looking at this picture

we also ate here. also solid. and a nice relief from asian cuisine.


traveler's tips:

we completed our cambodian visas online in advance of arriving. we printed them out and were able to skip the line at immigration and go straight to passport control. i would recommend this to other travelers as well.

if you intend to spend multiple days at the temples, go ahead and buy the three day pass in advance. the tickets are valid from 5 pm the day before.

it appears that prices are going up in february 2017.

this post is linked up with weekend travel inspiration.

lazy days in luang prabang

After several bustling days in Thailand, Caitlin and I headed to Laos.

On tiny Laos Airlines.

On the once a day flight from Chiang Mai.

overlooking the area around Luang Prabang

We landed in Luang Prabang and were hustled into a shared taxi van off to our Villa Ban Lakkham, our home for three nights.

Like the rest of Asia, Laos was HOT.

But unlike so much of Asia, Luang Prabang was so laid back, with little for the "have to do" list.

Which was awesome.

loving the innovative planters.
#usewhatyouhave

It was so green and lush in Luang Prabang. And everyone was so friendly. And adorable.

We relaxed and wandered the town.

bamboo bridge.
we did not cross it...

We shopped. We ate. We lounged at local cafes. (Utopia does actually exist here!)

#truedat

#child labor
If you can't sell your wares, maybe your child can guilt the tourists into it. 

We watched the monks walk the street to collect alms.

#rainydays

We did venture out of town to visit the KuangSi waterfalls, but we'll have to wait for Caitlin to share some pics from her GoPro. I didn't take my camera. We knew that everything would get wet and there wouldn't be storage to keep any extra stuff safe.

Just outside of town, this was fairly common. Rubble and a food stall. 

We learned about the tradition of Laos weaving and Hmong handicrafts. Check out Ock Pop Tok and Passa Paa. I bought soooooo much stuff.

This work was amazing, but a little beyond my budget.

a local residence

We helped the local economy with all the purchases we made.

Gorgeous designs from Passa Paa. 

Found this on our first night in town and decided we wouldn't bargain with anyone.
We'd pay what they were asking. 

life in Luang Prabang

And then we met an American named Michael.

His story to come in a separate post because it led to our most favorite experience of our trip.

Traveler tips:

While in Luang Prabang, we ate here, here (more than once!), and here. And some other places too, which apparently were less than memorable. : P

We stayed at Villa Ban Lakkham, linked above. Taxi service at the airport was shared. Grab a ticket from the desk. Price was quoted then, but I can't remember when we paid.

Visas for Laos were done at the airport. We waited in one long line to hand over the forms we received on the airplane, a photo and to pay. I think it was $36 (USD). Totally random amount. Then you wait some more for your visa to be put in your passport. After you get your passport back, you wait in another line to go through passport control and have your passport stamped.

1st stop: bangkok.

Caitlin and I arrived in Bangkok after two 6.5 hour flights. Being used to longer flights made these pretty easy to handle. We watched movies, read books and slept. #nbd

We spent our first two nights in Asia at the Aloft Bangkok in the Sukhumvit area. The street is very busy and we found it difficult to tackle the simple task of walking down the street. 

And Caitlin saw a rat. #urbanliving

The next day our jet lagged sightseeing included the temple, Wat Pho, and the Grand Palace. 

#goldoverload

Wat Pho is also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It is one of the oldest temples, dating back to the 16th century.

The Grand Palace was long home to various Kings and houses the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The details of the temples was quite incredible, but after a bit, I found it all somewhat repetitive.

Perhaps it was the jet lag.

Or the heat.

Which was quite intense.

To put it mildly.

We were sweating each and every day of this trip.

You are sure to hear about this problem repeatedly.

I thought the grammatical mistake in this sign was quite amusing.

We found it quite manageable to get around Bangkok with the two train lines that run through the city. Both of our hotels were near a stop and that made things easier as well. Though I'm sure we overpaid on a tuk tuk or two, but seems like that was bound to happen a couple of times.

At the end of our trip we were back in Bangkok to round out our four weeks in Asia.

This time we stayed at the Four Points Bangkok Sukhumvit. Still in the same area as the previous hotel, but with a street that was walkable. I was a much happier camper.

We were able to walk to a breakfast place nearby that we loved.

So much so that we went twice.

We learned how to fold a lotus flower.

We also took a trip out to the famed Chatuchak Market.

Not pictured below.

It's one of the world's largest weekend markets.

I suspect you could find something one weekend and not find it again the next.

I bought some dresses for under $3 USD.

And a scarf, and a kimono style shirt and I don't even remember what else!

There was so much to see.

Bangkok has so much to offer I'm sure we only managed to see a small bit.

We did, of course, manage to get to Starbucks once. Or twice. 

We took a food tour when we were back in Bangkok, at the end of the trip. It was a Midnight Food Tour, so it was also a good opportunity to see Bangkok all lit up. 

We made several stops during the tour. The first stop had spicy papaya salad, fried catfish with peanuts and a green papaya dressing, and a soup that was far too spicy for my poor mouth. Our tour guide thought we were terribly wimpy. 

We also stopped here for some amazing pad thai. It is supposedly some of Bangkok's best and I would find it hard to disagree. It was pretty awesome IMHO, but there are varying opinions out there. 

I had never seen pad thai actually encased in an egg, but it was awesome!

A stop for fried noodles here was amazing. I have no idea what the name of this place is since I've only seen it in Thai, but I loved the bowl of noodles and egg I ate here. You could choose to have the egg scrambled or just sunny side up, which is what I went with. (The guide originally described this option as "raw", which did horrify me a bit until I saw the egg was actually cooked and just the yolk was runny. Phew!)

We watched as they cooked in the back alley and I feared the cooking conditions would convince me not to eat, but, nonetheless, the results bowl was delicious. 

Ah, Bangkok, I hope to be back again. There's so much more to explore!

Have you been to Bangkok? What are your favorite parts of the city?