theboonedoggle

Cambodia is like a good movie plot. As my mother would quote, it's a 'celebration of the triumph of the human spirit". ;) Hard to believe that in my own lifetime this place saw the wholesale slaughter of one-fourth of its population under the Khmer Rouge. The people here are warm and kind, resilient, and quick to return a smile. We spent only a week in Cambodia; it's not a very large country, and one can (and we nearly did) drive from one border to another in a single day. But in that week we experienced among the most interesting scenery and amazing sights of our trip. We spent our first two nights in Phnom Penh, the capital city. Arriving late our first night, we were dropped off in one of the more touristed areas of the city, which didn't bother us so much as it afforded us a rare opportunity to savor a tidy pair of gin-and-tonics and a close approximation of Mexican food. Fear not, a "close approximation" is the closest we've come in our travels t...

Sabai-dee, Its no surprise that our time in Laos has been absolutely amazing - almost everyone we have talked to, who has traveled the Indochina area, told us that Laos was their favorite by far. Laos is a small country (landlocked by Thailand, China, Vietnam and Cambodia) and life here is quiet and easy going. Right now we are in Vientiane, the capital, and we still can't get over how small and quiet this town is. If you are looking for nice country in Asia to relax in - this is it. The people here couldn't be nicer, the food is delicious, there are fresh fruit shake stands ($0.50) on every corner, beautiful rivers, breathtaking limestone mountains and a ton of colorful culture. We crossed over from North Vietnam into Laos about 2 weeks ago on a comfy little bus, and by that I mean one of the worst bus rides on our whole trip (our bus rides in India, Nepal and Africa had nothing on this one). Half of this small bus was filled with rice sacks, forcing 30 people to share space m...

A number of people we have met in our travels warned us against Vietnam. In fact, I don't think we heard a single word of praise from any of them. We came expecting bad attitudes, high prices, and downright thievery... and we leave now having experienced warm hospitality, cheap prices, and an abundance of generosity. While Vietnam is not nearly at the top of the list of places we have visited, we have really enjoyed our short time here, made even better by the presence of David and Jason, who joined us for the last ten days. After another multi-day transit we arrived in Vietnam early enough in the day to catch a six-hour combo of buses into the Mekong delta, where we spent a few days exploring the numerous waterways and floating markets around the town of Can Tho. *** This was our first taste of Vietnamese food, and our first night in the country we enjoyed crusty french-bread sandwiches, heavily-herbed noodles, and strawberry and avocado shakes, all delicious. The avocado shak...

Meat. I think vegetarians are in denial. Those who have been vegetarians for years are simply very good at lying to themselves about just how good a bloody-rare Fillet Mignon tastes going down. Either that, or they're self-loathing masochists... because meat is good. Meat, is right. And in no other place is a people more in touch with their true feelings about carcass than the good citizens of the Philippine islands. There may very well be a connection here to the fact that Filipinos are also very happy . By the time we left Indonesia, we both were a walking bag of bones, and sorely in need of some nutrients. So we have spent the last two weeks stuffing our faces with some of the best food of our trip. Filipinos love pork, and they eat it all, from ribs to skin to entrails -they even make some interesting dishes from chopped-up pig's head. This is a land of plenty, and the first place we have visited where they serve up meals in American-sized portions. And it's w...

In the time we have been traveling (7 months now!), we each have found little places here and there which we simply can't be bothered to tear ourselves away from. Unfortunately, they have never been the same places; I love the isolated beaches, and Tatyana has a thing for comfy little towns... But for the first time, we both found such simple contentment in one little spot, it was really quite difficult to leave. And now, I can't seem to get it out of my head... Our introduction to Sulawesi, as you know from the previous entry, was not a pleasant one. The loss of our camera, itself, was no big deal... the loss of the pictures was a devastation for Tatyana, who loves her pictures. Once we got past it (with the help of quite a few "anger beers"), we were able to get on with enjoying what is one of the coolest places we've been to yet. Sulawesi, if one looks it up, resembles a giant octopus in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago. No place on the island is more t...

Selamat, A month in Thailand and Malaysia was just what we needed to recover from two months of hard travel through Nepal and India. But towards the end we were itching to get back off the beaten path. So, we decided to scratch Java and Bali and head for Borneo and Sulawesi. Kalimantan is Indonesia's part of Borneo Island which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei. So we took a cheap flight to Malaysia's Sabah area and crossed over by boat. This area is absolutely stunning and while our guidebook says that about 80% of forest has been cut down over the last 20 years, the island is still filled with thick and lush forests. The country has benefited a lot from logging and palm oil and while people are well off, infrastructure here is still very poor - for instance there is no way to get from the east coast to the west by car and on even the major highways (a narrow dirt road through the forest) it can take more than 4 hrs to go 50 kilometers. While the Dayak people live pretty mode...

Love this place! As a whole, some of the nicest people we've come across on this entire trip; right up there with Malawians. A lot of tourists skip Malaysia, which was great for us. The really amazing spots have not been completely ruined by tourism and it has afforded us a few weeks of general solitude. The other foreigners we come across here tend to be the sort of 'travelers' we like: those who seek out the more remote locations in an attempt to avoid the crowds; those who will eat nothing but bread and ketchup for weeks to save up just enough scratch for a really good dive; those who will wear their underwear inside-out and backwards before they dare waste precious soap on a wash... people like ME. Our first stop in Malaysia was the Perhentian Islands. Amazingly beautiful! Hands down, the clearest water I have ever been in. Tourism exists here, but not much, so the islands and the coral around them are still generally pristine. We spent five days swimming, snorkeling, r...