Northern Cambodia - Southern Laos

Where to start? It's been so long since we updated the blog that I can't even remember everything that has happened since. But I'll give it a go...

From Phnom Penh we took a bus to Cambodia's second town, Battambang. It's a sleepy little town, nice enough but not a lot to do there. Our reason for spending a night there was that we wanted to catch a boat to Siem Reap the next morning. The boat ride was great; we sailed down a little river and waved to the locals who were fishing, washing, and swimming in the river. Just before Siem Reap we went through the "flooded forest" where big trees were growing in the middle of the lake. Weird but impressive.



Siem Reap was always going to be about the temples of Angkor Wat. The area of the temples is huge (apparently the largest religious site in the world), and there are temples that are overgrown with jungle, temples that have been restored, temples that are in ruins, temples on hills, and so on and so on... We spent three days in Siem Reap, which was just enough to see all the main temples but not to get completely templed out.



After Siem Reap we stopped in a couple of provincial towns in northern Cambodia before crossing the border to Laos. The border crossing was pretty relaxed; a couple of guys in a wooden hut asking for bribes. For a dollar we managed to buy all the necessary stamps on our passports and we were heading to Don Det in the 4000 Islands in southern Laos.



Don Det was great for a couple of days of relaxing. There are no temples or other must-visit cultural sites on the island, so we just stayed in hammocks most of the day, then went to watch the sunset over the Mekong river, had a couple of drinks and slept some more. Brilliant!



On our way from Don Det to Vientiane we stopped in Pakse and did a waterfall tour around the area. The tour took us to three different waterfalls; Tad Fan, Tad Lo, and Tad Something Else.



The next stop was in Tha Khaek and went to see a 7 km long cave that has a river running through it. We went to the pitch black cave with small motor boats and drove in darkness with just the guide's torch to help us navigate. Luckily our guides knew the place like their own pockets and we found the way easily, but when you are a few kilometers into a cave that is completely dark, in a small leaky boat you get a little nervous. It turned out to be an amazing experience anyway.



Now we are celebrating Christmas in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It's a nice place, and we have some friends that we met earlier in our travels to celebrate with, so I think it will be a nice Christmas. Different, but nice!



Merry Christmas to everyone!