Nintendo!

After last week's budget-chicken, where I told Nicktor that I'd get a Nintendo DS if he'd get one. There's now a new addition to the Selmer and Maaike househ0ld. I'm still trying to work out whether now having a DS means I won or I lost. Our collection of games is still limited to two (which might either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it) but both have received quite a bit of gameplay already.

Mario-kart DS just needs to be played so that hopefully eventually I'll be able to spank Lorraine's behind from one somewhere in the near future, while Mario & Luigi (partners in time) needs to be played because it's the other game in our household and because, while it started off dead boring for the first 3 hours, it's slowly starting to pick up its pace. Yes, there's also Sonic but that one's more a Maaike thing.

Owning a DS also makes for a great excuse to take the train into work. Somehow playing while driving is still not on my skills list. Now can Zelda and the new Lego Star wars please get released?

Still alive

Hi all, got told off by Ellen, Lorraine and girlfriend for considering ending this blog. So... that must mean that I do have readers ;-) I'd better get back into writing interesting stuff soon then. Sadly tonight I'm too busy to write because somehow I ended up buying a Nintendo DS. I blame Lorraine and Nicktor's eager-ness to join in.

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.

Floating...

Had break-fast, jumped on a songthaew and got taken 15 kilometers up the road for some caving, some trekking and eventually some tubing back home. The caves were really cool, 1 with a big Buddha shrine, one with really sharp, slippery rocks and one which we swam into floating on inflated car tubes.

After lunch we trekked back to the main road, caught a car back a bit and then jumped into the river to float back to Vang Vieng. Floating on a river is quite relaxing, especially with all the beer-bars with flying foxes surrounding the river. Eventually made an arse off myself falling out of a flying fox and made my way back to Vang Vieng for food and internet.

Another day, another road

After seeing enough of Vientiane, we decided to move on to the next place. 150 kms of travel took about 6 hours. Eventually we made it though, checked into a guesthouse and walked around town (which consists of 2 streets), after which we had dinner in a restaurant showing simpsons-episodes (somehow it seemed a better choice than the place which was showing Friends). Tomorrow we're going trekking caving and tubing.

Vientiane

Spent the day walking through Vientiane, checking out temples, bookshops and other things to do. A nice, small city but also somewhat warm. Had food and beers on the riverside at night.

Another bus, Vientiane this time.

Seeing as Savannaket wasn't the most exciting place ever we took the first bus out in the morning. Actually, we skipped that one, it left at 6:40 but the 8:15 bus did the trick as well and seeing as Vientiane was only 400 kms further up the road, how long can it take?

The answer: Apparently 10 hours. Locals have to get on and off the bus all the time, the bus-driver needs a break every 2 hours, etc. A tuctuc-ride later we found our hotel in Vientiane then had a drink and some food at the river and passed out early.

Savannaket

Got up at 5:30, got in the bus and landed in Savannaket at 4 in the afternoon. This envolved several busses, and while at the first stop they told us:"No, you're not supposed to enter the bus to Savannaket all other tourists just entered", at the Lao border they made us enter that bus after all.

Not much happening in Savannaket, except for a torrential rainstorm for which we had to take shelter under some random person's house. Had dinner, sat outside, walked around for a bit and then went to bed.