Koh Tao, Phuket with Matt, Bangkok, and Coming Home!!

The bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok was awful. I waited at the border for over an hour and then another three hours on the other side to catch a minibus to the city. Arriving in Bangkok was sort of surreal seeing as how this is where I began my trip in March and would be heading for home in a week. After meeting up with Aussie Tim for a few hours on Khoasan Road, I booked my ticket down south and hopped on another bus. As I arrived to board the ferry for Koh Tao I checked my bag and noticed someone had stolen $250 from me. It must have occurred when I stored my stuff in Bangkok (all locked up mind you) and was visiting with Tim. While I could have had my laptop, iPhone, passport, and credit cards stolen as well, I was pretty upset at having my privacy violated and losing a good chunk of change so close to coming home, especially with my funds being as low as they already were. Fortunately I have wonderful, loving parents who are there for me in emergencies such as that!

Koh Tao is the diving capital of Thailand. Smaller than Koh Samui and Koh Phangnan which are located to the south, the waters around Koh Tao are warm, clear, and smooth. I really do want to dive one day and have put off more opportunities the past year than I should have but I’m sure it will happen one day. I came to Koh Tao to meet up with a girl named Mary I had met two months earlier. She grew up in Shreveport (two hours from Tyler) and then lived in Denver before coming to Thailand. With an odd connection like that, it was fun to keep in touch with her and neat to see her new diving life she had on the island. Koh Tao is a fun, beautiful place that I really wish I could have stayed for weeks and weeks. Aside from the worst scooters I’ve driven in Asia, I really enjoyed exploring this little island and discovering the small hidden beaches there awaiting us. The community of people on Koh Tao is incredible and I encourage you to head there if you are an avid diver or looking to start (check out Big Blue Diving, this place is recommended by Mary and seems very legit).

No part of me really wanted to go back to Phuket if I am being perfectly honest. But the idea of staying at a 5-star resort with Matt Kirkley was not something I was going to pass on. For those of you who don’t know Matt, we grew up playing soccer together and he now works in Muscat, Oman for Halliburton. I could literally comment on our resort, Le Meridien, forever. The shower, bed, gigantic pool, breakfast buffet, private beach, and a hundred other amenities all made for such a nice place to stay. After sleeping in glorified janitor’s closets for the past couple months, staying here with Matt was amazing. We went “mandem” (two guys on one scooter) on our 135cc hog and explored Southern Phuket. Matt kept saying how appreciative he was of me showing him around, but he really has no idea how nice that hotel was for me to stay at, incredible way to end the trip.

Heading back to Bangkok meant it was time to go home. With Ryan, Kelli, and Alex staying at Lebua, the Hangover 2 Hotel, I checked in to a hostel nearby, Saphaipae, and decided to keep doing my own thing for a few days.  The day before leaving I headed north to Ayutthaya and saw the floating markets and reclining Buddha. This is definitely not Angkor Wat, but is pretty nice for Thailand and close to Bangkok so if you have a day to kill you should check it out.

My time in Asia has been a journey to say the least! I am emotionally, physically (I lost 17 lbs), and mentally drained from traveling and being away from home. I was tested almost every day by something here and did a poor job handling stress from time to time. However, I am a believer that everything happens for a reason and that many times good things come out of difficult situations. I definitely have some great things to go back to and see how the end up so I am excited about that. Coming home I am ecstatic to see my friends and parents! The past 3 months, even more so than Costa Rica have given me such an appreciation for Denver and my good friends there. So, if anyone has a job or place for me to live then let me know!

Until my next adventure and the next page of the book (check the quote at the top of the page),
BP

 Koh Tao Beach

 View from our room at Le Meridien

 Big Buddha under construction

 Top of 'The Hangover 2 Hotel'

 

 Reclining Buddha at Ayutthaya

Cambodia

Cambodia as Ryan describes it is like the “Wild West”… anything goes. My first experience of this tiny country was on my birthday, in Phnom Penh. Much like Ed and Tim, I wanted my birthday to be remembered for something other than the standard b-day celebration. Since, Cambodia experienced one of the world’s worst genocides in the past century I wanted to go see the devastation firsthand at the Killing Fields. Located about 30 minutes north of Phnom Penh, the Killing Fields mark a location where thousands of people were massacred. Most had ties to the previous regime that had been overthrown, while others simply became victims for not having a strong enough voice to stop the violence. The Killing Fields is a somber place, but I highly recommend this visit for anyone visiting Southeast Asia. It won’t be the most scenic place you visit, but much as the Genocide Memorial was for me in Rwanda, it was very impactful and enlightening history that I feel that everyone should experience. My cultural birthday also included shooting a Russian machine gun at a firing range (before the Killing Fields thankfully), visiting a prison used during the war, getting caught up in a political parade which was incredible (check the pictures), walking by the river and Presidential Palace, and sharing a meal of Mexican Food (or a good attempt at it) for my official birthday dinner. We stayed at 88 BackpackersHostel, which has a nice heated pool, restaurant/lounge area, and cheap comfortable rooms… I definitely recommend this place.

Phnom Penh is not exactly the most happening city but the beaches of Sihanoukville are much more suited for that, specifically Otres Beach. About 7km outside of the main town, which is significantly noisier and more crowded, Otres Beach is truly one of the last untouched places I’ve visited here in Asia. A long dirt road full of bungalows, restaurants, and tiny beachside bars all made from bamboo and wood make for quite a serene environment.  At $3/night for our own single room and probably some of the best food I’ve had in Asia, Moonlight Rock Resort was the perfect place to stay and relax for several days.

Anyone that knows me well knows I prefer to be alone the majority of the day. Despite Ryan’s pleadings and my multiple attempts earlier in the trip to go off on my own, I finally made the decision to take off solo. Leaving early one morning, I took a bus to Kep, a quiet seaside village about 120km from Sihanoukville. I stayed in the Treehouse Bungalows which were slightly worse than advertised and tried some crab at the famous “crab market,” which again was a little disappointing. My two-hour long bike ride around the island and sitting up listening to the rain pour down at night more than made up for everything else though and gave me the peace and solitude I had been seeking all trip.

The reason most people visit Cambodia is Angkor Wat. I can give you a pretty extensive history on the place if you are ever interested, but the abridged version is this: Angkor Wat is a large archeological area in Northwestern Cambodia where the ruins of a bizarre mix of Hindu and Buddhist temples lie. The sheer size and age of the structures (most dating back to 1200AD) are what impressed me most about this place. Fortunately, I managed to find three entertaining English guys to spend the day and tuk tuk around the sites with. One thing you don’t get when traveling in a group all the time is the random people and small groups you’d come across traveling alone. I feel very fortunate for being able to spend the day with Dario (my appointed ringleader of this crew) and his mates. I did my best to capture Angkor Wat with my iPhone but it really is one of those places that you can’t truly photograph.

By the time you read this I’ll be back in the U.S., however, I am committed to finishing up my blog on the rest of my trip. So come back for one more post highlighting me meeting up with friends in Thailand and preparing for home to come!

Sunset at Angkor Wat

My Month in Nam'

Vietnam definitely caught me at the right time. After traveling off and (mostly) on for the past 10 months I definitely hit that lull. Missing people and life back home more than my desire to see the world around me left me with a huge amount of anxiety. I have done a lot in Vietnam this past month and am going to leave out a lot of details for the sake of time. Vietnam culture is pretty intense, reminds me somewhat of India.. you can’t seem to escape it but with more Western influence in the South. Vietnam is similar to the rest of SE Asia but more independent and obviously affected by years of fighting and a struggle for identity, which at times makes the people slightly more abrasive and unpredictable.   

After having our plans of taking the bus across the border from Laos and train up to Hanoi fall through we found a sleeper bus straight there and boarded late at night in Phonsavan. After an uneventful, but long, border crossing we made it to Hanoi, “the scooter capital of the world” as I like referred to it (at least until I got to Saigon that is!). Hanoi is a city rich in culture and about as crowded a place as I can remember. Not that there are so many people necessarily but the scooters and narrow roads leave you feeling quite claustrophobic.  Kelli’s birthday was May 7^th so we properly celebrated it while joining up with Tim (Aussie) and Alex (Canadian) who we met in Laos and our buddy Ed (from Denver) who will be with us until the end of May. We stayed at Hanoi Backpackers, which I highly recommend if you are looking to meet fellow backpackers and enjoy the city. Some of my highlights of Hanoi were the prison, or Hanoi Hilton as it is referred to, the Vietnam War Museum, a seedy but amazingly cheap water park (just $6!), the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (where the flying communist flags eerily waved overhead), and of course the Lake which we walked by daily.

Our first of two 3-day excursions took us to Halong Bay. Located about 4 hours east of Hanoi, Halong Bay is a series of islands with stark rock formations and blue waters, not to mention tons of boats carrying tourists! Our boat trip was organized through the hostel and was really quite fun but overpriced. We sea-kayaked to explore a cave, dove into the water off the top of our boat, went to a private island where I rock climbed, went water tubing, and played on the beach.  Although Halong Bay was beautiful it was also a bit polluted at the same time. Glancing 30 yards in the distance you see the beautiful landscape of the protruding rock and blue water but looking directly below, you find dirtier than expected water and jellyfish all over.  All in all, it was a good trip that I give 3.5 stars out of 5.0.

My favorite place so far in SE Asia was Sapa. I truly could write forever on the views of rice fields in the mountains, interacting with the local tribes, and playing with precious children we met along the way. However, I will focus on just one woman that touched my group and made my trip there. Standing at about 4’9,” Churchill, as she goes by to us Westerners, immediately caught my eye. Dressed in her traditional navy blue robe and flat black hat she approached Tim and I while we were withdrawing money from an ATM, a clever place I thought to catch us with our hands full of cash as she was trying to sell her hand sewn bags and other items to us. Like many Hmong women in her village Churchill worked in the rice fields for years but whenever she became proficient enough with the English language started taking the 18 mile round trip trek into Sapa every day to make money for her family (which we were told was just $50 a year). At first we tried to ignore Churchill but her infectious smile and ever present “I’ll  follow you forever” phrase eventually snagged us. Our group decided to do a 2-day trek from Sapa to various villages and stay in the homes with the local people and many Hmong women followed us, in an attempt to hopefully build a rapport with one of us and sell something. I, being cheap as I am, had made up my mind that if I bought from anyone it would be Churchill. So, after the two days passed I came back and bought one of Churchill’s bracelets gave her some snacks and food I bought from the market; she seemed very appreciative. The following day we decided to rent motorbikes and ride through the villages ourselves for Ed’s birthday (a little ‘man-day’ if you will). Wanting someone to guide us we decided to take Churchill and I being the smallest took her on the back of my scooter up down the winding rocky roads with her right behind me all the way. What a brilliant day of planting rice with local farmers, exploring a cave with our tiny elderly friend, and experiencing as much culture as one could in a day. Sapa to me was more than just a beautiful place. It was even more than just the pure authentic culture I finally had been longing to experience on this trip. In Churchill I saw a joy for life and openness with us foreigners that I had yet to see.  Initially, she wanted to make a sell to us but after days spent befriending her she appeared so much more excited to share her life with us.  In the end Churchill made about $40 off our group I’d say and ate meals in restaurants overlooking the valley in places she had only dreamed about.  If you are ever in Sapa perhaps you will find this new found friend of mine.

We took a sleeper bus back to Hanoi and then began making our way down south to Saigon. Compared to Sapa and Halong Bay the trips along the way really do seem fairly uneventful. The format for traveling south is to purchase an open bus ticket with a certain number of stops and then check-in for the bus on the day you are ready to take off to the next tourist town. Our first stop was Hue, a small city in Central Vietnam best known for the Citadel it has there.  We rented motorbikes and explored the town for just one day and also got our first taste of the beach in about 6 weeks. Next up was Hoi An, a popular place to purchase tailored suits and jackets, also with nice beaches and a really fun old town city center. I finally started exercising again here and went for a couple of runs. Anyone that knows me knows my commitment to mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It really is remarkable what not exercising for 2 months did to my mind. Thanks to superior Preast genetics, I never deal with gaining weight or looking any different when I travel, but mentally and emotionally I was beat after two months of it. Needless to say, I’m approaching normal again and stoked about summertime in Denver!. Our final stop before Saigon was Nha Trang, a beautiful coastal city 10 hours to the North. Here we went to an amusement/arcade/aquarium/water park that was one of the most fun things I’ve done on this trip. A day (or two for some of my group) of scuba diving and snorkeling, and another day exploring the city by bike made Nha Trang my favorite stop.

After all the time on the road it was nice to finally reach Saigon. The largest city in Vietnam and quite literally the “scooter capital of the world.” (I wish it was possible to effectively describe the madness there!). We went to the Cu Chi tunnels up north our first and visited a large Cao Dai temple. I really enjoy war history and exploring other religions so Vietnam has been the perfect place for me on this trip. We also celebrated Tim’s birthday whose falls just a few days before mine (out of our group of six, five of us have May or June birthdays!). I’d feel bad if I didn’t mention the Lofi Inn Saigon, our hostel. It is just getting started up under Vietnam management and was a ‘pretty neat’ place to stay, check out their website/Facebook page and see if you can find any pictures of me! I wish we had more time in Saigon but with Ed leaving on the 31^st and expiring Visas we had to get moving towards Cambodia.

For the entirety of Vietnam it has been Ryan, Kelli, Ed, Tim, Alex and a few others and as always the people I have met along the way truly have made this trip. I am sad to be ending my travels for a while but am ready to come home and see my friends and family. Bringing back normalcy into my life is such a desire of mine right now, just 3 weeks left!

Adios,
Bryan

 Bridge in Hanoi

Communist Flags in Hanoi

 Halong Bay

 Trekking in Sapa

Our trekking guide Lee

 Tim climbing on a water buffalo

 Churchill and I

 Hmong Women

Red Zao women with Ed

Planting Rice

 The girls in traditional clothing

Temples in Nha Trang

 

 Cu chi tunnel hiding spot

 People praying at the temple

Best/Worst Menu Ever

You be the judge... best or worst menu ever made.  I personally can say it is my favorite menu that I have ever read!

Laos

One country was continually brought up more than any others in SE Asia while traveling through Thailand and that was Laos. So, you can imagine our excitement and curiosity about going there.  To get from Pai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos it took two buses (4 and 6 hours each) and a two-day slow boat that included spending a night at the border and one at a riverside village within Laos (and me sharing a full-sized bed one night with a random Dutch guy I had never spoken to in my life).

Luang Prabang - Probably one of my favorite towns I have been to. Luang Prabang sits along the Mekong River and is a very religious place. Laos was colonized by the French so you quickly notice the influence in the architecture and food which was wondeful. We visited Buddhist temples and fed the monks their daily alms in the morning. While the act was fun and meaningful (they only receive what portions of food they are given in the early morning around 5:30AM by the local town people; which consists of sticky rice, bananas and crackers) the women who scammed us into buying their food put a damper on the experience.  The night market, food, temples, and bowling alley (weird right?) are definitely my highlights of Luang Prabang.  However, the waterfalls there are perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen and the #1 reason I think you should visit yourself.  Check out those pictures below, they're 'pretty neat'!

Vang Vieng - This is easily the most infamous place in SE Asia outside of possibly the Full Moon Party. Backpackers descend upon this quiet Laotian town to tube down the river going from bar to bar jumping off rope swings, zip-lining, and giant slides.  The town itself is full of restaurants all literally serving close to 1,000 different menu items while playing Family Guy and Friends on flat screen TV's.  Personally, I thought Vang Vieng was in one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen. We are one of the few groups that actually tubed the entire river and three days there was plenty for me as it definitely got old.

Phonsavan - The capital of Laos is Vientiene and we had heard many things about it which all in all summed up to "this is the worst place in all of Asia."  With that knowledge and knowing we had to get visas in advance for Vietnam, we opted out of going there and to the 4,000 islands in Southern Laos.  Instead we headed back to Luang Prabang for a night and then east towards Vietnam.  Along the way to Hanoi we were set to stop for a night or two in Phonsavan. I was pretty excited to go there, as this was my idea.  Phonsavan is full of culture and history since it was one of the most heavily bombed places during the Vietnam War.  I went to two different war memorials, the Plain of Jars, and two different museums about the active bombs surrounding the area. I learned in one of the museums that the U.S. dropped more bombs on Laos than any other country in history (2 millions tons and over 80 million bombs) and that hundreds of people still die and are injured each year from UXOs (unexploded bombs).  I am not often ashamed to be an American but hearing all of this new information to me was one of those times. Feeling guilty, I bought a postcard from the gift store as my "donation" though I wish I had been able to give more. I could go on a rant with my new found knowledge on the subject but I'll refrain and you can research for yourself if you care.

In Vietnam now... more to come soon!  I'll also be putting up additional photos on Facebook so check them out there if you want.

French architecture in Luang Prabang

 Children feeding the monks

  

Kuang Si Falls in Luang Prabang

View of Vang Vieng

Grazing field in Phonsavan

Vietnam War Memorial

Elephants, Waterfalls, and Hippies

After almost 24 hours on two bus from Phuket to Bangkok then north, we arrived in Chiang Mai.  The day we got there it was 104 so needless to say we suffered in the heat.  We met a guy named Mike from Lakewood, CO, which was pretty amazing considering Ryan is from there and it turned out he went to High School with Ryan’s younger brother Sean.  Chiang Mai is known for elephants, temples, and the best place to celebrate Sangkran but since it had just ended and was excruciatingly hot,  we decided to make the trek over to Pai where we could do all of the same things.

Pai, in my opinion, was every bit as good as advertised.  A small hippie town with surrounding mountains and a river running through the middle, it truly is a place to experience some of the best art, food, and music that Thailand has to offer.  We stayed at the DarlingView Point Bungalows which sit up on the hills overlooking the town and I highly recommend staying there.  It may not be the most pristine place you will ever stay but with scooters only costing $3/day it is a great location and one of the few “community hostel” experiences that we’ve had thus far on our trip.  Some of the highlights from Pai included riding elephants, sliding down a waterfall, hiking up to another through the jungle, and visiting a very large cave (which also included an amazing 3 hour scooter drive).  We spent a good chunk of time in Pai and I was definitely bummed to leave but excited about my upcoming trip to Laos.  After saying goodbye to Mike we boarded a minivan that will take us to the Thailand/Laos border.

More to come from Laos soon!

-BP

The three of us on the elephantFishing in the river

 

Cruising on the scooter

At the viewpoint