Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

view from our apartment of the hills surrounding Tanah Rata

We are in the beautiful Cameron Highlands! I added 17 pictures to this blog post, which seems excessive considering the fact that Jochem is adding our pictures to our picture gallery as we speak, but I really need pictures to do the Cameron Highlands justice.

We are staying at Father's Guest House in a small town called Tanah Rata in the midst of the Cameron Highlands. We arrived by VIP bus from Kuala Lumpur on Friday afternoon. The bus ride took just 4 hours and was incredibly comfortable, kind of like flying business class but then on a bus. In town we were awaited by a couple of employees and their minivan who took us to Father's Guest House for free.

Father's Guest House is situated up a hill just outside of the city center and is comprised of a couple of buildings - all are surrounded by a lovely collection of trees, plants and flowers. We're not staying in the main building but in the self-service apartment just a couple of blocks away. We only pay 17,50 euros for our double room per night and I think that it may be the nicest place we've stayed at during this trip so far (of course excluding our 4-star hotel in Phnom Penh). It's a very homey place. When you walk in there's a large living room and kitchen, including a bar with bar stools, a huge couch, a flatscreen TV with lots of English-speaking channels, 2 large tables with chairs, and a reading corner with books and magazines. We also have a terrace and a small balcony overlooking the hills. Our bedroom is cozy and our shared bathrooms are so spotlessly clean that I've even dared to walk barefoot in them. I consider myself to be a 'huismus' (a wonderful Dutch expression describing a homey person as a 'home sparrow' [literal translation]), so this apartment is a real find.

The apartment is not the only thing that we love here, of course. Tanah Rata is a cute little town that you can walk through in about 5 minutes, but still seems to offer anything that you could possibly want, including a Starbucks (I know - I could scarcely belief it myself!) and lots of Indian restaurants offering vegetarian noodles and roti, which, as you may remember from my last blog post, I've grown quite addicted to. The town is surrounded by rolling green hills from every side.

The weather is another thing to love about the Cameron Highlands. It's supposed to be quite rainy here, but despite a few rainy moments here and there we've had lots of blue skies and sunshine. It's not hot and it's not humid - we've had temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celcius and we've been wearing clothes likes jeans, shoes, sweatshirts and jackets. We don't need AC or even a fan - we just leave the window open while we sleep. It's incredibly nice.


enjoying the morning sun on our balcony

On Saturday we took a walk around town. We saw a Hindu temple, a mosque and a Chinese temple (which we thought was quite extraordinary, considering how small the town is). The Cameron Highlands have fertile grounds and a lot of produce is grown here. One of the funniest things that we saw were these statues of different vegetables and fruits all over town.



There are numerous hiking trails in the Cameron Highlands and we decided to go for a hike on trail # 4, just outside of town, to see the Parit Falls. We also chose this particular trail because, supposedly, this is the trail where Jim Thompson got lost on March 26, 1967. You may remember Jim Thompson - he's the rich American who was very succesful in the Thai silk trade and whose antique house we visited on our last day in Bangkok. He left Bangkok for a vacation in the Cameron Highlands, went for a pre-dinner stroll, and never came back. It's a big mystery because he was never found, so there are a lot of speculations about what really happened - perhaps he planned his own disappearance? Walking on trail # 4 nowadays, however, it's difficult to imagine how he got lost, because it seems like you'd have to try really hard to wander from the stone path. After this hike and a short walk through a Malay village nearby we went to one of the nicer hotels in the area to have a cup of tea in their English tea garden. We also bit into some homemade scones smeared with cream and homemade strawberry jam.



When we walked back into town we made another quick stop at a local cafe to try the locally grown strawberries in a different setting - Jochem had a strawberry milkshake and I opted for fresh strawberry juice. It was basically a walk & eat kind of day.



On Sunday we went on a tour organized by Father's Guest House. Our first stop were the absolutely breathtaking tea tree covered hills of Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate.





Our tour guide told us a lot of interesting facts about tea. Did you know, for example, that tea without caffeine is not technically tea at all? Nor are flavored teas like strawberry or peppermint. After we snapped hundreds of pictures we went on a tour of the tea factory. We also tasted two types of locally grown tea and had blueberry scones.

Then we made our way uphill to the biggest mountain in the Cameron Highlands at 2031 meters: Gunung Brinchang. Here we climbed a watchtower where the views were absolutely breathtaking.



Then our guide took us into the so-called Mossy Forrest. Our guide was like a walking encyclopedia of local flora and fauna and told us about species like the carnivorous pitcher plant. The Mossy Forrest is a very surreal piece of forest to walk in - you are covered in mist, everything around you is covered in moss, and it's hard to walk on the forest floor, which is covered in layer upon layer of rotten leaves a couple of meters deep. Lose sight of the person walking in front of you and it's easy to get lost, which happened to us twice.



Our final stop of the day was the local butterfly farm. After that we were very tired!



On Monday we went on another one of Father's Guest House tours. The whole point of this tour was to spot the rare Rafflesia flower in bloom. This flower is actually a parasitic flowering plant that produces the largest individual flower on earth. The way I understood it, it takes months for the flower to come into being from a cabbage-like form, and then blooms for just 5 to 7 days. Interestingly, if you blow inside of the flower, a smell hits you that resembles decaying flesh. To get to this flower phenomenon, we first had to drive for over an hour to get to the jungle, not always on easy terrain.



We were guided by a young man from one of the local villages in the Cameron Highlands who's spent his entire life hiking the jungle. At first he appeared quite blunt - he seemed to dislike tourists on principle (which may be understandable - a couple of Indian tourists in our group kept throwing plastic bags and bottles on the jungle floor despite numerous warnings). Our hike started easily enough.



After about 30 minutes we saw our first Rafflesia flower. Our guide then told us that there was another flower on a hill 15 minutes away. But this is a steep and extremely slippery hill, he said, and if you can't keep up with me, you can't come. We went with him, of course, and tried our best to keep up with this mountain goat of a man in the jungle's heat and humidity while wearing jeans and having forgotten our insect repellent, on a hill that seemed to be more vertical than anything else, while climbing over bamboo obstacles. I felt great though - confident and strong and fit. When the guide saw that we were the only ones who could keep up with him, I believe he finally started to like us. He helped Jochem saw a wild deer and fed me flowers that function like toothpaste for the local villagers.



After a strenuous hike, we finally found it!



Luckily we were allowed a short break on the hike back to the jeep at these waterfalls.



Our final stop on that day was an Orang Asli village, where we were allowed to try the blowpipe. If I wanted to, I could now kill you with this 'silent killer' - I was quite good at it!



The tour was really cool and proved to be a nice progression in our activities here. Despite the fact that we were exhausted afterwards, we spent hours trying to book a couple of beds in one of Singapore's many hostels that were (1) not too expensive, (2) near, if not actually in, Orchard Street, Chinatown and Little India, (3) not situated in one of the infamous party hostels, (4) not in a room with 26 (!!!) other beds and (5) not infested with bed bugs. It was a horrible process, but in the end we did succeed (or so we hope for now). Afterwards we were so sad to have to leave the next day already, that we promptly threw away our cheap bus tickets back to Kuala Lumpur and booked our room for an additional 2 days.

Yesterday and today we haven't done much of anything except run errands and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. Deepavali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is today so it's quiet in town anyway. I'm incredibly sad to be leaving this place tomorrow because it's just so lovely here. I wish I could stay, but Singapore looms and if we don't leave tomorrow we won't have any time whatsoever in Melaka, and I don't want to miss its Dutch colonal architecture and local food stalls. I've tried really hard to write a good blog post and to show relevant pictures but I still feel like I've failed in getting across just how stunning it is here. I guess you should find out for yourself.


with one of the 3 dogs at Father's Guest House

If you'd like to see even more pictures of the beautiful Cameron Highlands, check out our picture gallery here!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We waited it out for 3 days at our lovely guesthouse Ribbon Stayyz. I didn't go outside at all. Jochem was kind enough to bring me coffee for breakfast and Indian food for dinner (more on that later) and make me peanut butter and 'hagelslag' sandwiches in between.





On Tuesday, then, I finally felt well enough to venture outside, but we took it slowly and stayed in Chinatown and Little India. We mostly just walked around and looked around, because there's so much to see - Hindu temples, mosques, colonial architecture, street markets and coffee shops. It's truly a feast for the senses.


Sri Mahamariamman Temple


Masjid Negara

On Wednesday we took a train to the Batu Caves, a system of three caves just a couple of kilometers northwest of the city center. We walked the 272 steps to reach the Temple Cave, which was really very beautiful, but so incredibly touristy. There is trash everywhere, there are tame monkeys everywhere, and there are stupid tourists feeding the monkeys everywhere. Combined with the rain it was quite depressing. We also took a short guided tour through the Dark Cave, where we saw bats, spiders and snakes. It was quite scary because it was very dark and moist and smelly and my flashlight barely worked. It was amazing to see how big the cave was and how many animals live there.







And then, today, we took another train and then a taxi to the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia. From the information center we took a hike up a steep hill past a waterfall to the so-called Canopy Walkway, which is basically just a hanging rope bridge made of wooden planks and ladders. It was suspended 30 meters into the air and felt somewhat flimsy, so I was kind of scared, but I tried to calm down and enjoy the view, which was really extraordinary.





It seems that our time in Kuala Lumpur is at last coming to an end. I feel like we've been here forever, but it sums up to 8 days in total - 3 of which I spent being sick. In retrospect it hasn't been that bad, I guess. Our guesthouse is lovely and we've had a good time here. There are several lounge areas and every day we watch a movie on the huge TV screen with our fellow travelers. The staff are incredibly nice and helpful and the overall atmosphere is very 'gezellig'.

Kuala Lumpur, I've come to find, has a lot to offer - authentic street markets, modern shopping malls, temples, mosques and a surprising amount of greenery - in what other major metropolitan city do you find actual rainforest? What I love the most about Kuala Lumpur, however (and perhaps this doesn't surprise you), is the FOOD. I can't even begin to explain the enormous amount of cheap food stalls right outside our door. Like that time when we wanted to hide from yet another thunderstorm at the Batu Caves and found this amazing vegetarian South Indian restaurant. Or when we went to look for Chinese tea in Chinatown and found a restaurant/antique store/coffee shop where the proprietor, Mr. William Hwang, kept bringing us tea pot after tea pot, including some lemon grass tea for my 'hotness' (which I assume means that I looked like I was sweating too much in the humidity). Or what about this meal of vegetarian noodles and roti that I've had every single day for the last 6 days. I'm serious - I've had the same Indian food for dinner for almost a week. IT'S JUST THAT GOOD! I can't even begin to explain these noodles - they're like thick spaghetti, but not as long as spaghetti, and they absorb the absolutely delectable sauce of who-knows-what like a sponge, but without turning into a soppy mess. They add tofu and green vegetables and it's. just. SO. good! Jochem is getting me more as we speak. After my noodles I usually have a plate of roti. I've had roti with fresh garlic, roti with onion and eggs, but lately my favorite is a sweet roti with at least 5 knobs of butter, sugar and fresh banana. Our roti guy makes it on the spot while we watch. Jochem is getting me more of that as well.

We bought bus tickets that will take us to the Cameron Highlands tomorrow. We finally decided on our next destination in Malaysia and concluded that we wanted to see more nature. Plus, according to my Lonely Planet, it doesn't get any hotter there than 20 degrees Celcius. I'm sure that my Dutch family and friends don't understand my reasoning, but 20 degrees Celcius sounds like heaven to me right now after 7 weeks of 30 degree Celcius heat and humidity. Perhaps I'll be able to bring some noodles and roti with me on the bus?

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Let me tell you about our time in Phnom Penh!


near the Royal Palace

As you may remember, our trip to Phnom Penh was an extra trip and so we only had a couple of days in the city. If you'd really want to explore Phnom Penh in full, you'd need much more time. Phnom Penh is big, and busy, and filled to the brim with traffic jams. It's loud and obnoxious and smelly. I liked it, though. We spent our 3 days in Phnom Penh enjoying our hotel and learning about the Khmer Rouge.

I've been thinking about how to tell you about the Khmer Rouge, because I assume that, like myself, you don't know that much about it (I certainly never learned anything about Cambodian history during my 6 years of taking extensive history classes in high school and it never really came up during college either), but I don't know how! I will try anyway. Here is my cautious interpretation after all that I've read and heard and seen:

The Khmer Rouge took power on April 17, 1975 in Phnom Penh after a 5-year civil war, thereby defeating General Lon Nol, who had, in turn, taken over power from Prince Sihanouk in a military coup in 1970. The Khmer Rouge ('Red Cambodians') were led by Saloth Sar, also known as Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge was heavily influenced by Marxism, Communism and Maoism. Like so many of these 20th-century ideas, it all started innocently enough with the idea that everyone is equal. This quickly changed into: everyone SHOULD be equal, by force, if necessary. The Khmer Rouge changed Cambodia's name into Democratic Kampuchea and their goal was to transform the country into an independent and self-sufficient nation. They named the present Year Zero and destroyed everything that came before, including such temples as those that can be found at Angkor today. Everything and everyone outside of Democratic Kampuchea was seen as the enemy, especially technology, which was believed to have corrupted the people. The Khmer Rouge wanted to create a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Intellectuals were thus the enemy, even though Pol Pot and many of his highest followers had studied in France and had taught as teachers, where they learned about such ideas in the first place. Education and religion became forbidden. Intellectuals and monks were all killed. Wearing glasses was enough to dub you an intellectual. Money and currency were abolished. Everyone was forced to wear the same black uniform, as all colored clothing became forbidden. Everyone had the same haircut, as well. All major cities, such as Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, were swept clean in days after the Khmer Rouge took over power - everyone, including children, the elderly, and the sick, were forced to march to the countryside. Here city people were forced to work alongside country people in these farm cooperatives. Everyone had to work from sunrise to sunset to produce 3 times as much rice as had been normal before the Khmer Rouge had taken over, in order to repay China for the weaponry that they had given to the Khmer Rouge. While rice was transported to China, millions of Cambodians starved to death or died of dysentery, dengue fever or malaria. There were no doctors to cure anyone - all the doctors had been killed. If you were unable to be a productive member of Democratic Kampuchea, you were simply killed, since you were of no use to the Angkar (the 'Organization'). Furthermore, anyone suspected of 'crimes' against the Angkar was either immediately killed on one of the hundreds of killing fields throughout the country or brought to Tuol Sleng, a high school turned prison, for ' interrogation' (read: torture), until someone confessed to something and had named other individuals to be called in for questioning. As Pol Pot became more and more paranoid, more and more people were killed, including some of his own Party Members. The Khmer Rouge rule lasted for only 4 years, until January 7, 1979, because then the Vietnamese got involved, but it is believed that during this period between 1.5 and 3 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. 1.5 to 3 million on a population of just 7 to 8 million people, that is.

What I find to be so unbelievable about this story, is that the violence was directed at their own people. And the brutality of it all is just unbelievable. Bullets were expensive, so the majority of victims was hacked to death with axes, knifes, shovels, hammers and bamboo sticks. Sometimes people's throats were cut with sharp palm leaves, which took a while to perform. Children were simply slammed head-first into a tree. Music and political speeches were played to drown out the screaming. People were dumped in mass graves and then covered with DDT, a chemical that hid the smell, but also conveniently killed anyone still alive.

We arrived in Phnom Penh on Monday, visited the Tuol Sleng Museum on Tuesday and saw the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek on Wednesday on my 28th birthday. Reading about this, and hearing about it, and seeing it, I'm even more impressed with the Cambodian people than I already was, and I understand now why it was so important to come to these places, even if it was on my birthday. I keep thinking about our tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap who, like everyone else, was affected by the Khmer Rouge, and how he gave us a big and beautiful smile and said: "It's okay!" I'm in awe.


Security Prison 21 (S-21) at Tuol Sleng Museum


pictures of deceased victims of torture at Security Prison 21 (S-21) at Tuol Sleng Museum


mass graves at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek


the killing tree at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek


skulls inside the memorial stupa at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

It was not all about horror, though, during our stay in Phnom Penh. We also saw the Independence Monument, Wat Phnom and Psar Thmei, the Central Market (and if the raw markets of Cambodia haven't cured me from ever wanting to eat meat or fish again, I don't know what will). However, I never saw any fried tarantulas anywhere, despite searching through quite a lot of smelly Cambodian markets. I think that maybe it's a myth (for the tarantulas' sake, I hope it is).

Most of our time, however, was spent at the Juliana Hotel. Since I didn't need anything, I asked for what I really wanted, which was a stay at a luxury hotel. Jochem picked out a beautiful hotel including a swimming pool and room service, where I enjoyed things like AC, a bathtub and a separate toilet (no more wet toilets after showering!). It was very nice.


the birthday girl in her bathtub in her beautiful hotel room at the Juliana Hotel

And then, on Thursday, we flew to Kuala Lumpur. I must admit that we feel kind of lost in this city and in this country. Unlike in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, we have absolutely no idea what we want to do here. We are in southern Malaysia so I don't feel like traveling to northern Malaysia because we only have 2 weeks here before heading to Singapore and then Bali. Borneo is inconvenient because we'd have to pay for yet another flight, which doesn't seem smart considering our budget and how much more expensive it is here than in the rest of South East Asia. We are thinking about visiting the Cameron Highlands, Taman Negara, Port Dickson, Cape Rachado Forest Reserve and/or Melaka, but have absolutely no concrete plans whatsoever.

We did a little bit of sightseeing in Kuala Lumpur by visiting the Petronas Towers, by enjoying the view from Menara Kuala Lumpur, or the Kuala Lumpur Tower, and by hiking the nature trails through Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, but most of our time has been spent at the Suria KLCC Shopping Complex. Does this sound strange? Let me explain.


Menara Kuala Lumpur


Petronas Towers


Suria KLCC Shopping Complex

We aren't the kind of people who like to hang out in malls. In fact, I hate malls myself. We haven't done a lot of shopping here at all, despite the obligatory deodorant purchase and a blue Swatch watch that I got myself for my birthday (if I HAVE to wear a watch to tell time, I might as well wear one I actually like, plus: my fake CK was falling apart). We did see the movie What's Your Number? at the Tanjung Golden Village and we ate and drank a lot. The truth is, despite how much I love the food here, sometimes I get a little bored with yet another plate of rice or noodles. The fact that I prefer to eat vegetarian doesn't make matters any easier, since there isn't as much choice in vegetarian dishes as you might think (the people here LOVE their meat and fish). So I was politically incorrectly happy to enjoy things like latte from Starbucks, cupcakes from Bisou and eggs with hollandaise sauce at Dome. I can't tell you how much I miss butter! On my birthday I kept thinking about the fresh pasta and chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake I would've made for my family and friends. Better luck next year?

And then something happened that has had me stuck in our guesthouse for 2 days already now. Although I'm not 100% sure, I think that I've been attacked by BED BUGS! We were staying at one of those cheap guesthouses in Chinatown and after our second night, when I woke up scratching my back, I was completely covered in bug bites. And because I have a crazy skin condition, my entire body was quickly turning into one, big, bright-red, heated, thick, lump of flesh. Imagine an English person who's spent too much time in the sun without sunscreen and who's now bright-red. Then add a thickening of the skin and a nice collection of bug bites. That's what I look like right now.

We quickly rushed to the nearest hospital where the itchiness almost killed me (nice to be in hot and humid weather, by the way, when you suffer from a skin condition such as mine). The doctor gave me a shot of anti-histamine (which I didn't even know existed - nice!) in the right buttock and also prescribed me 2 different sets of pills and a cream. I'm happy for the treatment but know from experience that when my skin is this bad, it takes days to feel relief. So we moved to a new guesthouse that, for now, seems to be free from bed bugs, and we've been hiding here for 2 days already. I feel better, but not well, and I don't even want to think about going outside when I can't even wear a bra yet because it hurts too much. I suppose that this is part of the backpacker experience, but couldn't I have gotten a nice food poisoning instead? Jochem wasn't bitten at all, by the way, which is just so unfair. But he keeps getting me Starbucks and Indian naan and spicy noodles, so I really can't complain.

So, that's where I am right now - sitting behind a computer at our new guesthouse, waiting it out. Stay tuned!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

It's Saturday night and we've been in Siem Reap for 5 days now. I like it here! We were in the countryside for a week, but it seemed longer, and now I'm quite happy to be back in a city again where the tourists are abundant, the English language is ever-present and the showers are hot. It's funny - I used to really love traveling to cities, but during the last couple of years I've really come to enjoy traveling into nature, as well. When I read my Lonely Planet, tales about places off the so-called 'beaten track' are never far way. One gets the impression that this must be where all the cool/hip travelers are going. Soon being one of these travelers off the beaten track becomes something of a holy grail. Well, it took me just one week of rural existence to be glad to be back in 'civilization.' It reminds me of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love where she explains that just when you're ready to accept this new definition of who YOU are, something happens to show you just how little you knew about yourself. It also makes me think of what Anna told me before we left - something about 'running into yourself' as we say in the Dutch language. That girl knows me well.

So, we've been enjoying Siem Reap a lot. It took us a quite a while (and two different tuk-tuk drivers) to find a place to stay to our liking, but now we're staying at the Jasmin Lodge and we like it here. On our first full day in Siem Reap we found a great tuk-tuk driver (who's been driving us around for 4 days now) who took us to the War Museum, Wat Thmei (where there is a stupa filled with bones and skulls of Khmer Rouge victims) and the Cambodian Cultural Village - a kind of Madurodam (sorry, no English equivalent) meets Disneyland. Afterwards we had dinner at a very romantic restaurant called Madame Butterfly, which sounds like a whorehouse, but is actually a lovely garden restaurant with both Cambodian and French cuisine. Here we indulged in such things as chocolate mousse and lemon tart, things I haven't had in a very long time.

On Thursday, then, we embarked on our biggest challenge yet: exploring the temples of Angkor. The # 1 reason why this was so hard? I had to get up at 4 AM to be at Angkor Wat for sunrise. 4 AM, without coffee or breakfast. I feel bad for the poor little Cambodian children approaching me that morning, asking me whether I felt like buying a scarf/a packet of postcards/a painting. That is the annoying thing about Angkor - there are so many tourists and so many Cambodians who want to sell things to you. I tried to be a good tourist by being polite and by remembering that they're only trying to survive, but they can be very persistent and sometimes you just want to say: "Please, just let me watch these temples in peace!" But it must be said that, of course, overall, the experience was wonderful. Angkor is breathtakingly amazing. I won't bore you with the names, histories and stories of all the temples that we saw (and there were many), so here is an impression in pictures of our three long (sunny!) days at the temples of Angkor:


en route to Kbal Spean ('River of a Thousand Lingas')


Phnom Bakheng


Kbal Spean ('River of a Thousand Lingas')


This is embarassing, but I actually don't remember what temple this was!


Angkok Wat at sunrise


Angkor Wat


Bayon


Ditto - I don't remember. There are MANY temples at Angkor.


en route to our guesthouse after a long day at the temples of Angkor

Tomorrow we have the day off, so to speak. I've hiked up and down so many ancient temples that my poor legs need a break. Perhaps we'll visit a swimming pool because it's been even hotter here than normal. And then now for some news: we won't be going back to Bangkok after all. We're staying in Cambodia! Let me explain: I just finished reading a very impressive memoir written by Loung Ung called First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (a book which I highly recommend whether you ever plan to travel to Cambodia or not) and it's gotten me very interested in Khmer Rouge history. I asked our tuk-tuk driver about it, who lost his sister and her father-in-law to the Khmer Rouge violence, and he smiled and said: "It's okay!" The strenth and resilience of the Cambodian people makes my jaw drop (and surely makes me forget for a while about my silly little concerns about what I want to do with the rest of my life). So yesterday I said to Jochem: I want to go to Phnom Penh to see the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek! And so today we changed our bus tickets from Bangkok to Phnom Penh. We leave on Monday morning. We also booked a flight with Malaysia Airlines from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, because we didn't feel like traveling all the way back from southern Cambodia to northern Cambodia, to Bangkok, to southern Thailand and, finally, to northern Malaysia via a ferry ride from the Thai mainland to a Malaysian island. This is easier. And all because of a book. Funny, isn't it?

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Southern Laos

Yesterday Jochem and I arrived in Kratie in northern Cambodia, so I feel that it's time to wrap up southern Laos. After a lazy start during the first 3 weeks of our world trip, we really got moving!

First, we flew from Luang Prabang to Pakse on Monday morning.


relief after having survived our flight in the teeny, tiny airplane

Then we booked a couple of day trips in the area. On Tuesday we visited the Bolaven Plateau. We and 3 fellow travelers had a great guide who spent all day with us teaching us about local life. We saw a tea plantation, a coffee plantation, 3 waterfalls, a local market, a local elementary school and a couple of villages. Although the trip was fascinating, it was also quite sad. People live in incredible poverty here. The environment is quite dirty with lots of trash and the constant rain and, hence, mud turns everything into a dirty mess. What I liked most about this trip were the few minutes that we were able to talk to some local women through our guide. They wanted to know how old we were, whether we were married, if men have to pay for the honor of marrying women, and whether we have such white skins because we have clean water to shower with. One young woman was breastfeeding her 6-month-old baby while smoking from what can only be described as a huge homemade bamboo bong.


a muddy Bolaven Plateau


a misty Bolaven Plateau

On Wednesday we took a boat to Champasak to see Laos' second UNESCO World Heritage site (after the city center of Luang Prabang): the Khmer-era ruins of Wat Phu Champasak. These ruins are situated a little outside of Champasak in a green valley. The Wat Phu itself is on a hill and from this hill you have a beautiful view over the valley and Champasak all the way to the Mekong river. The ruins are covered in green moss as if nature has reclaimed some territory. The Wat Phu is said to have been a blueprint for Angkor Wat, but what makes What Phu special is its intricate water network. It was a beautiful sight and I'm glad that we took the trouble to visit it. Another special thing about that day was the fact that we were both able to wear our jeans because it's been decidedly cooler around Pakse than it was in Luang Prabang.


rain, also, at Wat Phu Champasak


I loved this beautiful, 'organic', staircase at Wat Phu Champasak

On Thursday, then, we took a bus to Si Phan Don, also known as Four Thousand Islands. Si Phan Don is a collection of islands in the Mekong river in southern Laos. It is said to be one of the most beautiful places in Laos - red-earthed islands with green rice fields and surrounded by turquoise waters. I should've known that it was too good to be true, because this is the kind of weather that we experienced while there:



Now, a word on the rainy season. I'd like to think that I'm quite smart. I know that it's the rainy season and that the Mekong has been brown ever since I first saw it. But one always hopes that, for some inexplicable reason, just as one is arriving somewhere, the weather is suddenly beautiful. This belief is not completely fueled by naivité - we did have nothing but sunshine in Luang Prabang, after all, rainy season or not. But, alas, we had no such luck in Si Phan Don.

When we arrived on Thursday we heard from our proprietor at the River Garden Guesthouse that there had just been a flood and that we were the first tourists in days. We tried to walk downtown to find an internet café on the island that we were staying at, Don Det, but it took us hours to dredge through the mud. It was almost exactly the same situation as at the waterfalls of Tat Kuang Si, except that I wasn't in the mood. The worst part was walking back, in pitch darkness by now (no streetlights on idyllic islands), with a thunderstorm overhead. I was ready to leave the place and so we arranged to leave a day earlier than planned.

On Friday we rented a bike to explore Don Khon, another island connected to Don Det by bridge. There was no rain while we biked through green rice paddies to a deserted beach where we finally enjoyed a couple of sun-kissed moments: playing with some local children, bathing a water buffalo, and swimming in the Mekong river.


You can't tell from this picture, but I'm getting seriously burned here!


I offered one of these girls (who kept following me and staring and smiling at me) a couple of chips from our bag. She pressed her palms together at her chest, made a deep bow, and then quickly snatched the entire bag from my hands and ran away to her friends, with whom she shared the contents. It was magical!


This grateful water buffalo actually turned onto her other side, as if to say: "Now this side, please!" Naturally, I happily obliged. I can never keep myself away from animals, no matter what my mind and common sense say is best.


swimming with clothes on in the Mekong river

If I had to say anything final about Si Phan Don, it would be: Go, but go in the dry season. Going in the rainy season is like going to coastal Spain in the winter - empty, abandoned and quite depressing. The whole point of going to a place like this is to enjoy the weather and the natural surroundings - something that is very hard to do when it is almost always raining and there is nothing else to do but read at your guesthouse. All of Laos (heck! all of South East Asia!) is probably best appreciated in fine weather, but even when the weather is horrible, you can still see the potential that it has - you can still see what a beautiful country it is. Or maybe it just all depends on how many umbrellas and ponchos you're willing to drag along. All I can say is that I loved Laos and that I love South East Asia, but that it is quite hard to travel during the rainy season. I could do with some sandy beaches and blue seas by now!

And now we are in Cambodia. We arrived here yesterday by bus. Kratie is a small town on the Mekong river that offers delectable vegetarian noodles but not much else, it seems. The weather is sunny again, though (but perhaps I should mention that I think I hear a thunderstorm coming as we speak). We decided to make a stop here on our way to Siem Reap for 2 reasons: to see the endangered freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins, also known as Mekong river dolphins, and to participate in the Mekong Discovery Trail.

We were unable to charter a boat on Don Khon in Si Phan Don to see Irrawaddy dolphins, so today we got up at 6 AM for the sixth day in a row to travel to Kampi, from where we took a beautiful boat ride over the Mekong river and saw, up close, Mekong river dolphins.


spotting Irrawaddy dolphins in Kampi

Tomorrow we want to take a ferry to the island of Koh Trong. There we want to hire bikes in order to bike 9 kilometers of the Mekong Discovery Trail. The trail actually encompasses 190 kilometers of walking and cycling trails linking Kratie with Stung Treng in northern Cambodia and with the Lao border, but such endeavors leave no room for noodle eating. 9 kilometers it is then.

And then on Tuesday we're off to our next stop: the temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap!

Jochem has been having some troubles uploading new pictures into our picture gallery, but keeps trying and seems determined to make it work, so keep checking out our pictures here!

Luang Prabang, Laos

[I tried to post this blog yesterday from Luang Prabang, but, like everything else in Laos, the internet was so incredibly slow that I finally gave up. Hence this blog is coming to you from Pakse instead.]

Our time in Luang Prabang has come to and end. We spent 6 days amidst the French villas and Buddhist temples of this UNESCO World Heritage town, but I must say that we didn't really 'do' a lot. We visited 1 museum. We saw 1 temple. We hiked hundreds of steps up Phu Si, a beautiful green hill in the middle of the peninsula that is Luang Prabang, to enjoy the view. We saw a waterfall and a couple of caves. Moreover, we enjoyed the amazing weather - no rain, blue skies, lots of sunshine and 30 degrees Celcius. Naturally, a lot of food and coffee was involved. Our hotel room (hot water! AC! a TV with HBO showing movies 24/7!) also made it easier to just stay in, especially considering the amazing Lao take-out place next door.


Royal Palace Museum


view over Luang Prabang from Phu Si


view over the Mekong river from Phu Si


Buddha's "stop arguing" posture (with myself, maybe?) @ Phu Si


monks' robes @ Wat Xieng Thong

While we stayed in town Tuesday through Friday, we took trips to the surrounding areas during the weekend.

On Saturday we made a trip to the waterfalls at Tat Kuang Si. Funny story: due to the rainy season we were supposed to turn left on the trail, but, never having been told this tale, we decided to head right. The result was a 2-hour long hike through ankle-deep mud. This just goes to show you how easily the monsoon can be forgotten after a couple of sunny days. I can just imagine the faces of the countless taxi drivers who drive us, dumb tourists, to these waterfalls every day, never knowing what hit them until one foot stands on a nest of ants while one hand desperately holds a tree for support only to find out that said tree is covered in another type, yet-to-be-identified, bug (that was a special moment). It is impossible to return from this trip without being completely covered in mud. Unprepared like your typical tourist, we wore flip-flops (because there are blue pools at the bottom of the waterfalls where you can swim, don't you know?!), that we quickly had to carry because we got stuck in the mud. Jochem was bitten by leeches 3 times (for some reason, I was spared from this particular feast). So there we are, covered in mud, backpack on back, flip-flops in hand, on all fours, trying not to fall face-first into the leech-infested mud. It was AWESOME!


Tat Kuang Si


Tat Kuang Si

On Sunday our taxi driver drove us to the Mekong river on a very long and bumpy road to a place where we could charter a longtail boat to bring us to the caves at Pak Ou. These caves house thousands of Buddha images and were really extraordinary, if a bit creepy. I enjoyed the views from our boat the most, though.


Pak Ou


Pak Ou

And now here we are in Pakse in southern Laos after a 2-hour flight with Lao Airlines in the world's smallest plane (not really, but small planes freak me out, no matter how many bright flowers are printed on the sides). Pakse itself is not a really nice city - it is clearly not as developed as Luang Prabang and even quite dirty, with trash all over the streets. It's cloudy and rainy here as well, which makes me miss Luang Prabang even more. We don't plan to stay here for long, but to only use it as a base for some trips to the coffee-growing region of the Bolaven Plateau and the Khmer-era ruins at Wat Phu Champasak. Hopefully we'll be able to go to Si Phan Don on Thursday then, but who knows how long we'll stay on those islands with this weather. But if it rains too much we can always leave early and head for our next stop: Cambodia!

I'm not sure when I'll be able/willing to write again, because it always takes a lot of time and effort and in Laos, especially, it can take hours. But know that I'm thinking of you here.

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!