dust in the wind...

and in my hair, lungs, all over my clothes...basically dust, everywhere! I'm in Ban Lung, Cambodia, supposedly the dust capital of the country. Ban Lung is in the northeast corner of the country and, according to Lonely Planet, "off the beaten track" for most travelers. It seems to be true, as I've only seen a few other foreigners here. My first impressions of Cambodia haven't been the most aesthetic, to say the least, but I'm getting sick and have been really tired so my thoughts in general haven't been the most optimistic. Ban Lung is a small town...here is the main road: for some reason I happened to get a picture with only a few motorbikes in it, which is rare. Add about 15 more motorbikes, 7 bicycles, 12 people walking, 3 or 4 half naked kids, and about 4 should be "white"dogs that are so dusty their fur is a rusty orange color...That's a better picture.
I've been really surprised at how dusty everything gets. We are coming up on the rainy season which will soon turn everything to mud...I can't decide what will be worse, I'll let you know.
Here are my feet after walking to the main road and around the market. They were clean three hours ago... yep, let's just say I'm really getting a chance to be a "dirty"hippie, as some of my friends like to call me. There really isn't a point in showering...haha.

We went to the market today and yesterday. I wish I could have taken pictures of everything, but I can't figure out quite yet how to take the pictures I want without being intrusive or looking too much like a tourist. I was really struck by all the garbage I saw everywhere, garbage cans don't seem to be the popular thing around here. I also loved seeing all the food on display. There were fruit and veggie stands, but my favorite were the meat stands. Chunks of meat, all out in the open, covered with flies. The best part is that the whole animal is out on display, head and feet included, just cut into chunks. The market seems to be the main hub where people gather to buy/sell, eat, and hang out. I really liked it, although I wouldn't suggest going if you are feeling nauseous.

We also rented bikes and rode to a lake. My bike was stuck in the highest gear, making hills a killer workout! I actually had to walk up a few...

Today was spent getting bus tickets sorted and just resting. Morgan and I have killer colds, making it hard to be motivated to do anything! We are headed to Kratie tomorrow, where we will try and catch a glimpse of the few remaining Irrawaddy dolphins that live in the Mekong River. It should be "splashes"of fun, haha!

one more thing...

In a previous post I was trying to tell a little bit about Laos history but wanted to get my facts straight. Here is some info, directly from Lonely Planet:

Between 1964 and 1973, the USA conducted one of the largest sustained aerial
bombardments in history, flying 580,344 missions over Laos and dropping two million tons of
bombs, costing US$2.2 million a day. Around 30% of the bombs dropped in Laos failed to
detonate, leaving the country littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO). For people all over
eastern Laos, living with this appalling legacy has become an intrinsic part of daily life.
Since the British Mines Advisory Group (MAG) began clearance work in 1994, only a tiny percentage of the quarter of a million pieces...has been removed. ...at the current rate of
clearance it will take more than 100 years to make the country safe.

Thank you, Lonely Planet, for filling me in on a piece of US related activity that I never knew happened. Funny how certain parts of our history are just "left out" so easily.

Laos Recap

I am in Cambodia now and before I attempt to do a better job sharing my experiences in Cambodia, I figured I should give a quick Laos recap since the internet and I didn't get along so well in Laos.

First of all, I must say that Laos is an amazing and beautiful country! I truly enjoyed every part of my time there. Here is what I did (in a nutshell)

We took a slowboat from Thailand into Luang Prubang, Laos. The ride took 2 days. I spent my time taking in the beautiful scenery from the boat, listening to music, and losing my money in poker games in the back of the boat.

Luang Prubang- a charming little city that has retained a lot of it's French architecture from when the French occupied Laos. We spent a week relaxing, exploring the markets, the Buddha cave, and the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen!

Vang Vieng- the drive there (4-5 hrs) was the most beautiful drive I have ever seen. The road was basically switchbacks through the mountains the whole way. Jagged limestone peaks and mountains and little villages were the scenery along the way. The mountains were so beautiful I felt like a dragon could have come flying in between them at any time. Or maybe it was a cross between the Lord of the Rings scenery and Falcor, the flying dog-thing from Neverending Story...yeah, that seems right. Anyway, Vang Vieng proved to be quite the backpacker town. Popular activities for most seemed to be tubing down the river while stopping at the various bars along the way, watching Friends at any bar on the main strip while eating from the "happy"menus, and exploring the caves in the area. The scenery was beautiful and worth the stopover, but one gets tired quickly of the shallow backpacker/meatmarket scene there. We were lucky enough to experience the New Year/Water Festival with the locals which was my favorite part of Vang Vieng.

Vientiane- The capitol of Laos. A city I would have liked to explore more of, but only was able to stay for one night. We went bowling...that says it all. In the daytime we went to the history museum and Pha That Luang. It is considered the most impressive monument in Laos. Apparently it was constructed by Indian missionaries to house a piece of Buddha's breastbone. It is beautiful and worth the trip to see.

Pakse- not usually a town people stay in for a long time, but we ended up using the town as a base for our trekking. We went to a local village and stayed at a coffee plantation. We trekked to 5 beautiful waterfalls. We also saw Wat Phu, a really really old temple in the Bolavan Plateau.

4 Thousand Islands- We stayed on the island of Don Khong for a night, a place with virtually no tourists. We rode a few hours in the back of a truck with about 20 other people and bags and bags of stuff to get there. Alexis and I biked around the island (about 20 miles). Then we went to Don Det. We each had a bungalow with a mosquito net and our own hammock. Morgan was pretty sick those few days so we took time to rest and relax in the hammocks. There is no electricity on the island after 9pm. We slept without a fan... and yes, it was hot!

That's the basic rundown of my month in Laos. There are more stories, but they are so hard to retell after a week or so. Also, I'm still working on pictures, but that is something everyone will have to be patient with. It took me about 20 minutes to upload the last 3 on my blog.

Anyway, I'm alive and well (just starting to catch a cold though). I made it to Cambodia. I think I'll have some interesting stories to share...

Be well!

laos...is amazing!

happy new year, take three

Sabadee Be Mai or Happy New Year! I can't believe I've gotten to experience three different New Year celebrations this year, all in a different country. I spent western New Year in Manila, the Lunar New year in Korea, and now the Laos New Year in Laos, which follows the Indian calendar.

The past few days have left me soaking wet. According to New Year traditions, people use water to wash their homes and selves for the new year, in hopes for a long, healthy life. People everyone have water guns and buckets out on the curb, waiting to soak people that walk or drive by. I spent all day yesterday throwing buckets of water on everyone that came by our guesthouse, it was so fun! Luckily, it's so hot that the water feels great and you dry off quickly. I climbed in a jeep with 18 other people randomly yesterday and went down to the river to join the local celebration. It was really amazing to see so many local people out celebrating. There were people everywhere, most of them soaking wet, eating food, dancing, swimming, and splashing people.

So I've been in Laos for a few weeks now. It's been hard to get blogs in because the power isn't consistent, which is frustrating when always having to rewrite a blog! I would just like to say that I think Laos is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen! The landscape is amazing, with beautiful rivers and great mountains. The people are genuinely sweet and laidback. I didn't know this before coming to Laos, but it is the most heavily bombed country on Earth! I don't have a factbook in front of me, but basically during the 60's the US military launched a hardcore attack on the country, dropping tons of bombs everywhere! Even today there are a ton of bombs that haven't gone off yet that are laying around in random spots. I will get my facts straight for sure and then finish telling the story, because I don't wanna screw it up. Anyway, the attacks and a civil war have left Laos in rough shape and it is still a very poor country. Driving through the country the poverty is evident and it makes Laos seem so untouched by society, which it really is.

Ok, I just found out the computer cafe is closing...so I will leave you with this unfinished blog, just to give you all something to read! I will write more when I can.

Be well!

hitchhiking after midnight...(don't tell my mom!)

on a lonely mountain road in Thailand is not a good idea only because nobody picks you up. Or maybe I should say, nobody drives at that hour. I think Morgan and i saw 5 vehicles pass us in the hour it took to walk home from town, and all of them were motorbikes, except for two. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that we didn't get picked up!

It has been a while since I have written. After leaving Chiang Mai, we took a bus to Pai, a small community nestled in a valley amongst mountains, in northern Thailand. The bus ride itself was a long and hot ride, but the scenery was beautiful! The curvy roads, the dropoffs, the farms and the mountains were all breathtaking! The scenery made up for the rough ride. We were headed to Pai to work on an organic farm called Tacomepai. A friend of Morgan recommended it to us so we decided to check it out. The farm turned out to be one of the highlights of my time in Thailand. The farm and the family that run it are amazing! Anyone traveling to Thailand that wants a unique experience should check it out. Sandot, the owner, is a great soul. His vision is to educate everyone about the benefits of organic farming. He does this by letting people come to stay at the farm, choosing to help out and learn what they want. He is also a huge advocate in his community, trying to teach the local people in his village how to conserve more resources and reduce waste as they live. His passion for farming, the environment, and people in general made our stay a great experience.

Everyone gets to stay in a unique bungalow. There are many to chose from. Most are made of bamboo, with the exception of two straw huts and a mud house. The bathrooms are open air- you can see the stars as you "go"- which I highly recommend! Every morning we got up at 6:30 and went to collect hay from soy beans to use for composting. After that was breakfast, then any chores we could help Sandot out with. We weeded and watered gardens, collected firewood, made soy milk, picked vegetables out of the gardens to cook with, cooked all our own meals over an open fire, and we also got to learn how to "make rice." In case you didn't realize, rice does not grow looking like the rice we see in the stores. It has to be husked, basically. I know there are machines that do it now, but we got to husk rice the old fashioned way and boy was it hard! You use your leg to pump a huge wooden log up and down on a bowl full of rice. The log eventually breaks the outer shell of the rice off and you end up with the rice we see in stores. After you are done pumping, which is a major leg workout, you separate the rice from the shells by throwing it up in the air and catching the rice in the basket while the shells fly away in the wind. It took a group of 5 of us 4 hours to do a big sack.

Besides doing farmwork, Sandot took us to the hotsprings, to a local hilltribe village and on a trek. The trek we took involved an accidental climbing of a mountain- and I'm not joking. Because we arrived late in the day to our trekking area we decided to take a more direct route, you know, like straight up the mountain! It was honestly one of the scariest things I have done. I've never really climbed anything before so I guess my lack of experience might have contributed to my fear, but at one point we were so high up at such a steep incline that you couldn't have gone down the way you came if you wanted to! Needless to say, we all made it! After eating rice steamed in bamboo and a soup made from things we picked on our hike, we slept under a beautiful blanket of stars!

After a week on the farm, we left for Laos...which is where I am now. I've been working on this blog for about a week now, but the internet connections here are sketchy so it's been taking a while. At least now I'm caught up with the Thailand part of my trip! Next blog will be about Laos. I'm also working on posting all my pics through a Snapfish account. As soon as I get enough of a connection to upload an album, I'll post the link for anyone to check out.

Be well!