Lunch!

Went bookshopping in the morning, then teamed up with Ruben and Wendy for lunch. They managed to make us eat all the things in the "what to eat in Singapore"-booklet, which we failed to cover yesterday.

Eventually left Ruben and Wendy behind and did the night safari in Singapore zoo. Recommended.

Back to Singapore!

Flew back to Singapore, got measurements made for a suit for lots of money (still a whole lot cheaper than at home though) and eventually teamed up with Ruben and Wendy for food, food and food.(Ruben is trying to get us to eat all foods of the "what to eat in Singapore" booklet within 48 hours. We're not complaining ;-) Walked around town for more food, tea, coffee and nice views. Got told off by a police officer for not sitting on a bench but on the handrail behind it.

Also bad news, they changed our flight back home from a 12 hour day stopover to a 14 hour night stopover. Because we already booked a flight with a 12 hour stopover we're not getting a free hotel.

Templed out.

After visiting 3 more temples in the morning, we ran out. No more temples to be seen in Angkor. Our tuctuc-driver advised us to take a boat-ride on the lake, which we did. An interesting boat-ride but for the $20 each the 1 hour trip was probably a bit expensive. The boat-trip only taking us to an overpriced restaurant made it feel even more of a scam. Still.. interesting to see how people live on boats.

More temples

Woke up really early to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Nice. At the same time this meant that we were finished looking at temples around noon. Slept most of the afternoon, then had dinner in Siem Reap. The city center looks like more fun to stay than our place. Still.. for $USD 12 the room is really nice.

Angkor

Day one of visiting temples. Slept in, booked ourself a tuctuc-driver for the next 3 days (USD $60), got access passes made for Angkor ($40 each) and set off to look at lots of temples. Really interesting, really hot and sweaty and every other step 10 childeren will jump you to try and sell you something. (Usually "only 1 dollar") Still definitely worth it.

Crossing Thailand.

Woke up in Bangkok, had a bit of trouble finding the place where we were supposed to be picked up for the next bus (arrived there at 6:50 while we were supposed to be there at 6:30) and spent an hour wondering whether we were still on time. Just as we started to consider whether we should book a place to sleep for the night, we got picked up for another bus which would take us to the Cambodian border.

After getting our visa we were told to follow a Cambodian guy, who'd take us to the other side and who first told us to get lots of Thai Baht out (which I failed to do) and then on the other side told us that we couldn't pay in Thai Baht and that we'd have to change all the Baht to Riel (the Cambodian currency) because all banks would be closed in Siem Reap for the weekend.. Fortunately we had been warned that nobody uses riel for anything so we skipped that part of the scam as well.

After a long, hot wait at the border, we got to spend 7 hours driving the last 150 kms. Eventually made it, booked into the hotel and found out that:"Yes, the non-existing ATMs in Siem Reap do actually hand out US-dollars."

Leaving Chiang Mai

In the evening our Bangkok bound bus would pick us up. Till that time we stocked up on books, fruit and other useful things. I'm now finally the proud owner of "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", Mangosteens and anti-diarrea medicine.

Managed to get picked up by the bus and spent the rest of the night bussing.

Cooking Class

Woke up and did the "chilli club cooking class". Mr. Visutt is still the brilliant teacher I remembered him to be and girlfriend and I got schooled in Thai cooking + food decoration. Still suck at the food decoration, still having trouble finishing all the food. Did survive though and eventually at dinner time set out for a look at the night market. Failed to buy anything useful.

Thailand it is.

Woke up early, crossed the border on a boat and after a little wait at a guesthouse on the Thai-side (why wake up early again?) we made our way to Chiang Mai. I spent quite a bit of time there 4 years ago but apparently most of it was spent drinking beer seeing as I can't remember seeing much of this town.

Walked a bit around town and tried booking a train out of town. Found out that that train would miss the connecting train Cambodia-wards and decided to opt for the hellish 24 hour bus-ride instead. We'll probably regret it later but at least we'll spend an extra day in Chiang Mai, which means we'll be able to do a cooking class there (which I already did 5 years ago but a bit of a brush up won't hurt, I guess.)

Spent most of the evening reading outside. Until girlfriend went to bed and I decided to walk a bit more to see if I could find more recognisable things. Really bad news... on this walk I finally found where all the hookers lived. If only I had known 5 years ago! :-(

The river continues.

Up early again, into the boat and then did basically the same as yesterday. Arrived late in the afternoon, found ourselves a guesthouse, had dinner and passed out.

Floating up the Mekong

Got up fairly early and set off for the boat-station. Here we hopped onto a slowboat, which took us slowly up the river to Pakbeng. Floating slowly upriver means staring out at scenery (mainly trees and bushes with the occasional cow, goat, fisherman and elephant.) Still good fun for the 10 hours it took to get to Pakbeng.

There our bags got dragged off the boat by a friendly local, who offered to carry them to our guesthouse. When I tried tipping him, he reacted offended by the size of the tip and demanded a tip, which was even more than the price of a room for the night. Eventually had to push him out of our bedroom and shut the door on him to get rid of him. Apart from food and a river there's not much to do in Pakbeng. Fortunately sitting in a boat for a whole day makes you sleepy.

Luang Prabang

Walked around Luang Prabang, looked at temples and got soaked in sweat. Looked at some more temples, had dinner and did some shopping at the night market.

Oh, we also managed to book the boat out towards PakBeng and Houayxai (sp?). Over the Mekong. That should take us most of the next two days.

Argh!

Today only a 200 km bus-ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. That can't be too challenging, can it? Actually, our expensive bus turned out to be fully packed with foreigners and legroom was a bit of an issue. Also, apparently it is possible to take more than 6 hours to travel 200 kilometers. (Then there was a mountain in between)

Eventually did make it though, found a guesthouse, had dinner, looked around a bit at night and then passed out in bed.