Ambling Alp

Hello again,

    We've just spent the past two weeks in Vietnam and are leaving today.
    We started off Vietnam by heading to Phu Quoc which is a little island off the south coast. The first thing that went wrong with our trip to Phu Quoc was that the express boats weren't running on the day we were heading over because of the New Year so we were stuck on a slow local fishing boat that took three hours. Afterwords we were reading Lonely Planet and it said "If you value your life do not take the slow boat." Whoops.
   Once we finally made it onto the island every hostel, hotel and guesthouse was booked because of the never-ending Chinese New Year. It took us over two hours to find a place to stay and it wasn't even near the beach. At least that night for dinner we found some great seafood in the night market.
  The next morning we found out that all the ferries back to the mainland were booked solid for the next six days so we panicked because that meant over half our stay in Vietnam would be on the god forsaken island of Phu Quoc. We called airlines, went to over five tourist agencies and none of them could get us off the island. Luckily we had a receipt for an agency we used beforehand and called them. Within ten minutes we were running back to the hotel to grab our bags and hopping on two motos which drove us an hour through the jungle to the other side where a local ferry was leaving. We made it with literally 30 seconds to spare. The plus side of the whole thing was that we got to sit with the crew in the air conditioned cabin.
  Later that night we took our first night bus to Saigon. It sucked. It was bumpy and the seats didn't fold all the way down so when we arrived at 6:00am we found the first hotel in the backpacker's area and crashed.
  Saigon was fun. We randomly bumped into our friend Jane again and went for a few beers with her and her travel buddy Alex. Three jugs of beer costed 2.50$ so that more than made up for all the money we spent on Phu Quoc. The next day we went on a day trip to the Mekong Delta. It was nice to see the way some of the locals lived but you could the tourist industry has taken away from the authenticity of it all. Whitney was feeling ill for the majority of the day so when we were offered snake/bird whiskey she declined. Cayla declined but had no excuse. (There was a dead bird floating in it- gross)
 The next day we went to the Palace where Cayla sat in "Do Not Touch" section of the President's war room chair. After that we headed to the War Remnants museum that was filled with tons of brutal information about the Vietnam War. They had old weapons, photos and air crafts that were used in the war. They had a whole floor dedicated to anti-American propaganda.
 We decided to splurge on a flight to Hoi An, saving us 24 hours on a bus so it was well worth the extra 20$. Hoi An was a quieter town full of French influence and endless tailor shops! We won't get into details but we spent the next three days supporting the local economy via custom made clothing.
  We spent a few hours one day biking out to the beach. It was really fun trying to bicycle with all the local traffic. Walking is hard enough so that was a fun challenge. The beach was gorgeous and we had a nice crab dish for 2$. That night was the lantern festival which happens on the 14th day of the lunar cycle. The whole town makes their way to the river where locals are selling small floating lanterns. Whit and I both bought some and when we found a place to let the go in the river Whitney ended up lighting hers on fire. Smooth.
 The next day we caught a flight to Hanoi in Northern Vietnam. It's freezing here (20 degrees). We booked a three day trip to Ha Long Bay which ended up being a bit of a bust. The night before we left a tourist boat sank killing 12 people so the authorities closed parts of the tour which included spending your first night on a junket. Instead we made our way to Castaway Island for two nights. It was so secluded, gorgeous scenery, tons of fun people but freezing cold! Our sleeping arrangements consisted of an open walled bungalow, little mattresses and duvets. Hurray. That night it was also Whitney's birthday. Cayla mentioned it to our tour guides and they took over from there. Whitney was brought onto the table to consume two cups filled with a mixture of 20 people's drinks followed by a trip to the bar for shots. She got off pretty easily considering the following day was an Aussie's birthday and he ended up in his "birthday suit."
 We spent the next morning playing beersbie with our tour guides and some Norwegians and in the afternoon Whit did some wake boarding.
 Today we are flying to Luang Prabang in Laos. We heard that it's amazing there with cheap oreo shakes and hot weather. We'll be making our way to two waterfalls a little outside L.P and then busing south to Vang Vieng for some tubing and possibly water rafting.We'll try to fill you guys in soon.

Xox Cay and Whit
(We added a few pics to our last post as well)

Mekong Delta boat ride

Hoi An

Castaway Island + Whit

Pyramid attempt on beach

Floating villages in Ha Long Bay

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

Hi Everyone!
It's been a week and a half or so since we updated you so here we go!

   It was really sad to say goodbye to Siem Reap and the amazing people we met there, but it was time to move on. We arrived late in the evening to Phom Pehn and could already tell we weren't going to like it there. It reminded us of Buenos Aires- really big, lots of garbage and noisy! We checked into a dingy guesthouse and started counting down the hours until we got to check out
  On Tuesday morning we woke up early and took a Tuk Tuk to the Killing Fields just outside the city. It was a lesson in history but on the flip side, really quite depressing. As we walked around the fields there were many mass graves, the biggest one of which had over 450 bodies excavated from it. There were also many different types of mass graves: some with headless bodies, others for infants, children and women. The worst was the "killing tree" where the Kmer Rouge would hold infants by their ankles and swing them against the tree and discard their bodies into a mass grave next to it. In many areas you walk there are still clothes, bones, and teeth from the victims surfacing through the ground that are uncovered by the rain.
 The people have created a 17 tier building to house all the skulls, bones and clothing they uncovered in the 1980 excavation.
  On our way back into the city our driver asked us if we wanted to stop at an orphanage and see some of the children there so we stopped at a market and bought 50 kg of rice and a volleyball for them. When we pulled in all the kids came running at us smiling and waving. The lady who runs the orphanage gave us a tour of everything. On our tour we acquired a following of all the younger children. They all want to hold your hand and connect with you....we were told they all long for that because they have no one to care for them they way a mother or father would. Their living conditions are very poor. Many of them sleep in one big room with only a small rug to lay on. The kitchen consisted of two big cauldrons, a dirt floor and tin roof. There is no power and their classrooms and library are completely empty with the exception of a few desks and a chalkboard. They're desperate for volunteers which made it harder for us to leave knowing so little of our time could help them so much!
  That afternoon we went to the S-21 Museum which was an old high school the Khmer Rouge made into a prison and torcher chambers. It's hard to believe that a genocide could have occurred so recently and no one stepped in to stop it! While it was a depressing day, it was an eye-opening experience and well-worth seeing.
  On Wednesday ( Feb 2) we arrived Sihanoukville, a town on the South Coast.. It's gorgeous here although a little over run by tourists. We had a hard time finding somewhere to stay as it was Chinese New Years but finally managed to find a place for the ridiculous price of 29$ (For those that don't know you can usually find a nice place for 8-15$).
After checking in, we met an American traveling on her own, and we went and grabbed some dinner on the beach. The beaches are lined with cheap restaurants and tons of people. Forgetting that it was Chinese New Year we thought we were getting shot at when the first round of fireworks went off right next to us. Yes people, you can set fireworks off anywhere and anytime here....
  After an impromptu decision we booked a trip to Koh Rung, a small island two hours off the coast, with our new friend Lo. On the boat ride over we met another Canadian named Josh who also happened to be from the Vancouver area. It seems like every Canadian we've met on our travels is from BC...side note- we ran into Jane Griffel who we went to UBC with on the beach here as well. SMALL WORLD. Anyway back to our island adventure. We checked into our "resort" called Monkey Island. There is no power on the island so our straw and bamboo bungalows consisted of two beds and mosquito nets. There are generators that run from 6pm-1am giving you a little big of power in case you need to charge anything but otherwise life is pretty basic. Turns out you don't need much when you have a bungalow and hammock 20 feet from the ocean.
 It was gorgeous there. White sand beaches stretching for many kilometers and almost no people to be found. On our side of the beach there were three "resorts" that had maybe 15 bungalows each and a small fishing village of locals. Many of the children are excited to see Westerners and love to run and play in the sand with you.   The first night we were there, we waited until the power went out at midnight, then we all went for an algae swim in the ocean.  It was incredible, every time you moved, all the algae lit up!
  On the second day we heard you could trek through the jungle and get to the resort and fishing village on the other side of the island in an hour or two, so seven of us set off on what we thought would be a relaxing afternoon. WRONG. Half way through our hike we got lost in the jungle where we were warned about cobras, spiders and other scary creatures. We started to make our own path down and came across many cliff like areas where we had to use the vines and branches of trees to lower us down. It was blistering hot and most of us only had flip flops on so you can imagine how happy we were at this point.
  About a half hour later we managed to find the beach on the other side of the island. A man there told us it was 7km of beach to get to the other resort and from there you can hire a local fishing boat back to the other side of the island. When we had walked about 4 km we stopped to swim and cool off. Here we found a few coconuts and empty glass bottles we used for coconut bowling and throwing around like a football. Throughout our whole walk back we had the entire beach to the seven of us. It was amazing and completely made up for getting lost in the jungle.
 By our first night there, we found out that paradise can be a little scary at night.  As soon as it got dark, there were always huge spiders in our bungalow, which made it a little hard to relax and get to sleep. To give you an idea of their size, they were about as big as the palm of your hand. We named one Charlotte hoping it would make it easier for us to sleep at night....we also used beer and tequila sunrises as sleeping aids. They worked a little better :)
  After four fantastic days on the island, it was time to head back to the mainland.  It was really windy and choppy that day, so the boat ride took a few hours.  Because it was so windy, none of us noticed the hot sun as we layed on the top of the boat, so we all got a little burnt haha.  It's sad saying goodbye to our new friends, but we're off to Phu Quoc island (Vietnam) tomorrow for a new leg of our adventure!
We'll post pictures when we have more time!  If you want to know what it looks like here, just think of a typical paradise island, and that's pretty much where we are haha.

With the children at the Orphanage

7km of beach and only us on Koh Rong

New Soul

So it's been a little while since we've updated you, so there's lots to fill you in on!
  While Whitney was away for almost a week doing homecare trips to villages all over Cambodia, Cayla was living a rough life by the pool.  Just kidding, she spent most her days wandering the vast temples of Ankgor.  Whitney got back in time for the weekend, just as Erin, Quade, and Gal (a fellow traveler from Isreal) arrived from Vietnam.  We spent a few 8 hour days with them climbing around the temples, our favorites being Ta Prohm (where we pretended to be Lara Croft in Tomb Raider), Preh Khan (because we hired an 8-year old boy and he was the best guide we've ever had, and who also sang "you know you want me"), and Bayon (with all the crazy faces).  At the temples, there's always locals trying to make a living by selleing souvenirs to the visitor, and it's always a struggle saying no to the kids.  One day, this small girl was off playing with her friends, and her mom approached us to sell goods, but when that didn't work she called over the girl who came reluclantly up to Quade.  Clearly all of the kids have been taught selling techniques... this girl, who couldn't have been more than 3, proceded to count to ten in 3 different languages, and then husstled him to buy her postcards.  It's shocking to think about what 3 year old kids are doing in Canada, while 3 year olds in Cambodia already have a full-time job.
  Most of our evenings with Erin and company consisted of drinking $2 jugs of beer, eating super cheap Khmer food, and exchanging funny travel stories.  We also hiked up to Bekeng to watch the sunset with a cold Anchor beer.  We bargained hard to get 5/$3 haha.  Cayla met Kosol, a tuk tuk driver, that we hired for all of our temple days.  We managed to fit 5 of us in one tuk tuk for $15 bucks (for the entire day)... it's amazing what you can do to save money when traveling.
  One night after checking out the night market, we decided to get a massage at "Dr. Fish".  Basically you stick your feet in a giant tub of water full of fish that instantly start nibbling the dead skin off your feet.  We paid for 20 minutes, but barely lasted 3 because it is so ticklish.  They really liked Cayla's feet, and Whitney was pretty much in a hysterical laughing fit the entire time.  Needless to say, we attracted quite a crowd of onlookers.
  The markets are amazing, and you can find almost anything at a ridiculous price.  Cayla splurged on a Cartier watch for 11 bucks, as well as a North Face backpack.  We're having a hard time not buying everything, considering it's our first leg and our backpacks are already full.  We also learned that local markets offer something besides shopping - "boom boom", which I don't think needs any explaning.  It's quite funny sitting in town for breakfast, and watching numerous tuk tuks drive up with a foreign man who is dropping off a boom boom lady.
  Last night after our farewell dinner with Erin, Quade, and Gal, we went looking for a tuk tuk to give us a ride home.  It was late and we had a few beers in our system, so when we came across 2 keen moto drivers, we decided that for $1, it was a pretty good deal.  Who knew our first moto ride would turn out to be such a gongshow.  Our drivers were racing each other, talking to us instead of watching the road, and at the end we hit a roadblock for moto drivers not wearing helmets.  Whitney's was in the clear, but when she looked back over her shoulder, all she saw was Cayla's driver getting smoked in the head with a police baton as he drove through the roadblock helmetless.  It really looked like Cayla was the one on the receiving end haha.  
  When Whitney finishes her volunteering at the end of the week, we will spend a few last days in Siem Reap soaking up some sun, taking a cooking class, and checking out the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake.  Then we'll head to Phnom Pehn and Sihanoukville before heading off to Vietnam.  Apparently there's no facebook in Vietnam, so if you're trying to get a hold of us, use email or the blog!
Song of the week - New Soul

Dr. Fish massage

Tomb Raider

Our guide (he picked the pose

Erin, Cay, Whit at Angkor

Dog Days are Over

Hey all,

So Cayla finally arrived in Cambodia yesterday (Sat) and found Whitney lounging around the pool. Later that night the Kroll family and honorary family member Cayla went to Ankor Wat and hiked up to Bekeng to watch the sunset. It was fun besides the fact that there were 100 tourist trying to climb up the most narrow and steep stairs we've ever been on. After that we had Cayla's first typical Khmer meal which was lots of rice and then curries, fish and some other goods.Yumm.
Today (Sunday) we woke up super early and headed to Beng Malea which was about an hour away from Siem Reap. It was a really cool ruin to see. There weren't many tourists and we hired a local to take us climbing through all the different parts of the temple but Susan proved to be a much better  guide. She explained that land mines had only been removed two years prior and vigilently made sure we watched our heads while ducking through door ways. She also hung on a branch pretending to be a monkey. Enough said.
On the way back to town, we found out that our driver, Mr. Lorri, parents were killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide back in the 70s. It's crazy when you look around at all the people here you rarely see anyone over the age of 40. We did however see an old lady on the back of a motorcycle with her IV attached to a branch hopefully heading towards a nearby hospital. We decided poverty can make you pretty inventive and resourceful.
We spent the afternoon taking advantage of our last nice hotel experience, pool included, before Ed and Sue left and we had to hit up the dingy hostels. After a long hard day we went back into town and had dinner on Sue's last night. After copious amounts of food and a few margaritas we were all feeling a little tipsy....especially Sue who hit herself in the face. How you ask? There is no explanation but it was by far the highlight of the day.
It was fun getting a chance to drive out into more rural areas to see how the real Cambodian lifestyle is. Needless to say we're happy that we had electricity, running water, paved roads and food.
We miss everybody and will update you guys soon!
Ps- in case you didn't catch it our song of the day is Dog Days are Over!

 (Bang Malea)