Dave Says:
There now follows a bunch of random mind wanderings concerning but perhaps not limited to my experiences in the country of Thailand. Although not by any means an authority on the country or its people, I shall attempt to write in a style that supposes I know more than I do. (more…)
Dave Says:
The deep, what mysteries does it hold in it’s really deep depths? Wet, it’s so very wet and salty too but somehow familiarly strange and demanding in it’s unforgiving inability to allow us to breath underwater. I, Captain Dave led team Lukacs Browne on an underwater adventure that can only be described as adventurous and wet. (more…)
Dave Says:
The defacto mode of transport for those quick jaunts around town and not so quick jaunts out of town is the tuk-tuk. They come in different shapes and configurations but basically consist of a modified moped pulling a rickshaw. It’s the sherman tank of the roadways, nothing can stop it, it just keeps heading where you want to go (you hope), often at top revs although not always top speed. No such thing as a meter, all trips are negotiated beforehand and are, confusingly, sometimes a fixed price and sometimes not. In any case and in any country, the trip is cheap. In Siem Reap, Cambodia they are just about the only transportation option for the weary traveler so I thought I’d get to know what life on a tuk-tuk is about. (more…)
Sarah says:
I desperately want to dispel those terrible rumors and impressions from message boards and guidebooks that the only reason to go to Cambodia is for Angkor Wat and a traveler should “get in and get out”. I want to scream from the mountain tops, “I LOVE CAMBODIA! GO TO CAMBODIA!”. (more…)
Sarah says:
Your traveling duo have come up with yet another humorous eating tale for you. Please recall from an earlier post Mai from the Ba Le Well who literally fed us like babies while yelling out “Vietnam Ba Le Well Good!!!” Our tale this time comes to you from Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. On our 2nd night in town we had dinner with Mark & Shirin, the lovely English couple we made friends with during our entrance into Cambodia up the Mekong where our cage-like boat was beseiged by pirate children kind of wanting to steal our bags. Nothing bonds a friendship like crossing the Cambodian border together and we went on to spend a fantastic few days with them, beginning with this dinner. (more…)
Sarah says:
We have left Vietnam, we’re now in Cambodia. Vietnam was officially our 2nd country but we never really counted Hong Kong. It was always only a stop-over. Vietnam was always #1. For an entire year people asked us where we were starting our journey and, although I was never ever able to actually picture myself there, I’d respond without hesitation. My response always conjured feelings that were at first hidden, not so hidden toward the end: disbelief, amazement, excitement, fear. I cried the night before we left because I was so scared. Now, after all that time and all those conversations we had with countless people about our trip that always began with Vietnam, it is behind us, a part of our trip that is over, we’ve seen it and smelled it and lived it. (more…)
Dave Says:
There are two ways to travel from Saigon, Vietnam into Phnom Phen, Cambodia: the easy way and the hard way. The easy way involves a five hour bus trip from one city to the next and the hard way involves a boat trip up the Mekong Delta. Of course, the eager little travel agencies in Saigon are a little economical with the truth when it comes to detailing the boat trip. It basically goes like this: bus, boat, bus, boat, bicycle, boat, hotel, boat, boat, border, boat, bus, hotel. Each stage is a little different than the last and each degenerates in quality and speed. Think of it like this: bus, boat, bu, hotel, boa, bo, BORDER, bo, b, hotel. Our thinking, and call us foolish, was to take the more scenic way to another basically third world country.The upshot is what would have been a five hour bus trip ended up being about nine hours on a bus and eleven hours on a boat. (more…)