4.23.2005
exactly 10 days i haven't touched my blog.
well, we were kinda stuck in a crossing town in southern Laos, Pakse. Had a great room there in a super comfy hotel. Pakse itself was boring (no kidding), except that the market place (which had burn down once last year) that looked like a modern mall....and funny thing was all the vender preferred to sell stuff outside of this modern-looking market. I liked the little town, very breezy and French colonial style houses and wide road and absoluly NOBODY (maybe it's just me, emptiness just felt great when you travel all asia...And when we walked along the Mekong river, for moments i thought i was home again.
After 5 days of wandering in Paske, we started to try heading to the Cambodia border. Before actually reaching the border town, we decided to go Si Phan Don (four thousand island) along the Mekong river, another beautiful place that attract tourists. There we stayed a Don Khong (big island) for two nights. In fact, we have missed out a lot there since Ryan has been sick there and had a fever for the entire stay. I went out alone renting a bike one afternoon only to discover that si phan don deserved more time to realize its beauty. Too bad, that was our last day in Laos, and i was kinda taking care of Ryan, and he was busying sick (and getting better).
So we crossed the border the next day in the small border town near si phan don, suprisingly everything went pretty smoothly than we've expected it to be. Nothing, none of the crossing border nightmare that we heard from other traverlers (about the rip-offs mainly) actually happened on us. There, in half a day, we were in two countries, Laos and Cambodia.
Cambodia feels every different, aside from HOT. my first impression of Cambodia was actually that it reminds so much of Myanmar, dusty, gloomy and poor. Maybe those stopover downs gave the wrong impression, that was always how i felt about a county, the border towns.
So finally, after many boat rides (slow and FAST/speed) and after 12 hours (maybe more) of tuk-tuk, taxi and bus rides, we are finally here in Siem Reap TODAY! Siem Reap looks just like another tourist town, a little dusty, a little too hot, but my first impression of this ancient city is wonderful and i look forward to exploring more of Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), the heart of the South East Asia for the next few days.
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