If at first you don't succeed, try China again

So we are back in China. We decided we needed one final dose of being stared at, heckled, cursed under hushed breath, ripped off, laughed at, spit on, snot-rocketed at, and did I mention ripped-off. It's really not that bad.

We are enjoying a bit of time in Southern China. We did not see any of this part of the country our first time through, so we wanted to at least get a taste. We have spent time in Nanning, Guilin, and are now in Yangshou. We're preparing for a cross-China trip back to Guilin, overnight to Shenzhen and then on to Hong Kong where we'll spend the last week or so of our trip. We are both very sad, but all good things must come to an end eventually (for Genevieve at least).

Good thing I'm going on to South Africa.

Tet (Lunar New Year)

Who knew travel during Tet would be so hard. Instead of paying the double/triple prices demanded of tourists by those Vietnamese who work during the national holiday of Tet, Philip and I decided to try a little exploring on our own. It didn't work so well...

Censorship

We're back in the land of internet restrictions, so unfortunately we are unable to look at our blog to see if it looks ok or post pictures to the blog entries. Until then you'll have to settle for reading our prose and checking the new flickr site for pictures. Adios

Border Crossings

You know you're crossing the border between 2 developing countries when the official borderline looks like this...

Cambodia, Cambodge, Kampuchea, Khmer Empire

So we survived Cambodia, even though we don't have the T-shirts to prove it (they did sell those there, though). Although we spent a mere 11 days in the country (by far our shortest stint on the trip), we feel we got a pretty good idea for the place, people, and culture. We started our trip on the Lao/Cambodia border in the N/E corner of the country a few days earlier than planned because Philip Grant and Ashley McCounaghey were making a last minute visit. We packed our bags, bought a $30 bus ticket we hoped would get us to Siem Reap the following day and set off. Needless to say, the travel experience was not first-class, but that story is for another time.

We spent 4 days in Siem Reap, the highlight, of course, being the magnficent ancient Khmer empire temples of Angkor. They are definitely a wonder of the world. Had we not forgotten to charge Genevieve and Philip's camera batteries the night before, we would have many more pictures to share. The memory of the day is etched in our mind and the sweat from our journey is still stuck on our clothes. We could only handle the heat for 1 day, but there is definitely enough sightseeing to keep you busy for much longer.

After leaving Siem Reap, the 4 of us headed to Phnom Penh for a quick 1 day jaunt to see the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda before heading south for some beach time in Sihanoukville. The beach was wonderful with the exception of the incessant barrage of touts, hawkers, and children asking for money. The most pleasant of this bunch were the well-dressed women who offered massages, nail clippings, and other beach side beauty routines. Genevieve was hexed by a 10 year old boy when she refused to give him money. Philip had his nails done multiple times while a man with a stump leg tried to solicit money from him by placing his stump on Philip's shoulder.

All in all our trip to Cambodia was enjoyable, albeit sometimes frustrating when trying to walk in peace down the street. We ended the country with a grand birthday dinner at a fancy French restaurant where we all proceeded to gorge ourselves on fois gros, red meat, cheese, wine, and other western treats and got food poisoning as our payment. Cambodia, we will miss you and look forward to returning one day to stay in your fancy hotels where moto/cyclo and tuk-tuk drivers are forbidden.

We're Switching to Flickr!

It's taken 4 months, but we've decided that the inadequacies of Zooomr have finally become unbearable. So, we've decided to suck it up, spend the $25 for a flickr pro account, and switch on over. We'll probably be able to upload all of the past photos and our photos for the last month that are missing from Zooomr in the time it would take to upload 5 pictures to Zooomr. Keep a look out for our newly organized photos (cut us some slack if its not perfect right away) at www.flickr.com/photos/adamslevin. As many of you pointed out, we should have done this from the beginning, but what can we say, we're unemployed and on a budget.

Roadtripping through North-Eastern Laos

Since arriving in Laos two weeks ago, Adam and I have been hard at work, seeing much of what is to be seen in this beautiful country known as the "land of a thousand elephants and the white parasol." We're only in the country for three weeks, so we've had an accelerated travel schedule, moving from town to town every couple days. Given Laos' lack of a well run transportation system, the process has been exhausting as most travel days start at 6:00 am with Adam and I arriving at something that resembles a bus station, and ending around 5:00 pm, when we finally arrive to our destination.

One particular journey that proved to be especially grueling occurred last week, when we decided to explore North-Eastern Laos on Route 7 which, although notorious for being a very tough trip, is one of the most beautiful and less frequented road trips in all of Laos. Our journey started in Luang Prabang, where we boarded a slow boat taxi to the river town of Nong Khiaw, and didn't end for another three days of busrides, with stops along the way. Those three days were a test of our patience....day-long boat rides are one thing, but sitting on the back of a pick up truck for two days in the freezing cold (and I mean cold! My feet were completely numb for an hour after disembarking one time) while sharing a seat with a 75 lb. rice sack, and even one time having to hike 7 km to get to the next village (yes, we were left abandoned on the side of the road) are a whole different story. Needless to say, we made it to our final destination on Route 7, Phonsavan, saw some incredibly beautiful mountain ranges and valleys along the way, and were provided with non-stop entertainment from our fellow passengers. Let me just say that people in Laos don't travel lightly, bringing what must be a good amount of their belongings on these journeys. In addition to large suitcases, we also found people boarding with giant rice sacks filled with rice and various mysterious objects (one even containing a crying puppy, which was too much to handle!), rifles and machetes, car engines, animals of all varieties, kitchens, crates of beer, and of course the occasional motorcycle. Regardless of how crowded these buses and trucks would get, there was always room to fit just one more person and their requisite packages in to the already crammed area.

We still have another week, and a number of additional bus trips, to go in Laos, so who knows what else we might end up seeing along the way.