Southeast Asia in a Nutshell

The senior woman in a small community along the Mekong River in Laos

This post is very long, but during our time in Southeast Asia we recorded a lot of our thoughts and wanted to capture them in one general "In a Nutshell" post.  The first bit is about Southeast Asia in general.  After the jump we divide it out by country.

Sara and David's Top Picks (they turned out to be the same):
Luang Prabang, Laos
Hoi An, Vietnam
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Slow Boat in Laos

In general:  We loved Southeast Asia!  Great people, beautiful countries, and fabulous food!  Very easy to get around.  English was spoken almost everywhere, even in coutnries where we expected that we might have trouble.  There is virtually no language barrier.

Food: Fantastic!  Taking cooking classes was an excellent way to learn more about the food, the Hoi An Foodie Tour was great, and our home dinners were really memorable.  Eating the local food was absolutely the way to go for us and truly turned out to be one of the highlights of our visit!  We had no stomach problems even though we ate plenty of clean-looking street food in addition to hawker stalls and restaurants.  Trip Advisor often pointed us in the right direction of great places to eat.

Money:  For the most part things were very inexpensive.  However, we were reminded by a tour guide that the restaurants are created for tourists (especially in some of the smaller areas) and so it isn't always as cheap as you might expect.  But, in our opinion, still a great deal.  Especially after New Zealand and Australia!

People: The people were great in Southeast Asia - friendly, helpful, and very welcoming for the most part.

Accommodation:  We stayed mainly at hotels in Southeast Asia.  The majority of these were booked through G Adventures and were comfortable, clean, and well-located, which is how we judge a good hotel.  There seem to be places thrughout Souteast Asia to fit any budget and any preference.  From hostels to homestays to five-star hotels (except in the small towns).  Something for everyone!    

Shopping/Bargaining: There is great shopping to be done and good deals to be had.  In most places bargaining is acceptable and even expected, especially in local markets.  We purchased very few things that we didn't bargain for.  The haggling became a bit of a game sometimes and we just had fun with it!

Internet: Everywhere and fast enough for chats on Skype (which is important for us)!  We had wi-fi in our hotels in most places we stayed, but anywhere that we didn't have internet we could find it very close by.

Laundry:  Very easy to get done for a reasonable price.   Often offered at the places we stayed, but we typically tried to find a shop close by, which was usually half the price.  Either way, for a bag full of clothes it was usually only $3 or $4.

G Adventures/Group Tours:  There were really good things about taking a group tour in Southeast Asia and other things that weren't as good.  The good outweighed the bad, so we'd definitely do it again.  We saw so many things without having to do all of the planning, which would have been very difficult  and time-consuming while traveling in other countries.  We also traveled with fun and interesting people and made friends that we hope to stay in touch with in the future.  The downside of the group tour that we were less able to get lost, explore, and just discover things on our own.  That is a highlight of travel in our eyes, so we certainly missed that for the month.

A new record

Six people on one motorbike in Sri Lanka!

And the award for Parent of the Year goes to . . . this guy carrying his five kids with him on his motorcycle.

Coming in a close second were this mother and father from Cambodia.

A child standing up on a motorbike!

Sara's Favorite

Bayon Temple

David's Favorite

Ta Prohm (the "jungle temple")

Days Two and Three at Angkor Wat

Preah Kahn

Preah Kahn

We finished up our first day at Angkor Wat exhausted and sweaty and knew that we needed a new game plan for our second day.  We decided to take advantage of the cooler morning weather by separating from our group (which was meeting at 9 am) and striking out earlier on our own.  We were lucky to find Mr. Buntey, a great tuk-tuk driver who stayed with us all day.  When we arrived at our first temple, Preah Kahn, we knew that we had made a good decision.  We had the place almost completely to ourselves.  We saw four more temples in the morning and then headed back to Siem Reap before noon for a four hour siesta that included some napping, relaxing, and Mexican food!

Mr. Buntey picked us up again just before 4 pm to head back to the temples.  We had enough time to wander through another temple before making our way to a sunset spot on the southwestern wall of Angkor Thom.  David had read about this fabulous spot that doesn't have the throngs of tourists found elsewhere.  With only one other person at our secret spot, it was a winner!

On our third morning we had just enough time for one more sunrise before leaving on a bus for Bangkok.  Crazy, I know, but it was so worth it.  Possibly my favorite memory from Angkor Wat!  We chose one of our favorite temples, the "jungle temple" of Ta Prohm, and arrived just as the sky was showing the first glimmers of twilight.  We were the only ones there and it was as if the temple was all ours  You really felt the mystery and majesty (and spookiness) of the place.  What it must have felt like years ago!

If you plan a trip to Angkor Wat, here are our tips to get the most out of the experience:

• On the first morning, go to Angkor Wat temple for sunrise.  Watching the sun rise behind the temple is breathtaking and really gets you ready for that first magical day of exploring!
• Avoid the heat!  If you are there in the hot season, go early to the temples, siesta in the afternoon, and go back in the evening for another temple and sunset.  The temples are less crowded early in the mornings and late in the afternoons, and the temperatures much more bearable.
• If you want to avoid the crowds, watch sunset on the southwestern wall of Angkor Thom.  You can find a map and description here.
• Pick your favorite temple and go for a second visit at sunrise.  You can explore it all alone and take fantastic photos in the morning light!

Ta Prohm at dawn

Day One at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Young monk at Angkor Wat

Bayon Temple

Ta Prohm "Jungle" Temple

"Dinosaur" Carving at Ta Prohm

Sunrise at Angkor Wat was spectacular and it was the perfect start to our first day exploring the temples.  We made it to five temples during the day, which meant sunrise with the group, back to the hotel for breakfast, and then back out for more until about 4:30PM.  A very long day that had us moving pretty quickly, sweating a lot, and drinking as much water as possible in the 100 degree heat.  Angkor Wat is one of those places that is even better than you imagined.

Good Morning from Angkor Wat

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Crickets

Today we tried crickets.  Why?  I'm not sure.  Why not I guess!  The weirdest food either of us has eaten.  More weird foods to come, I bet.

Verdict
Sara: Crunchy, not terrible until I started wondering what kind of dirty place the cricket came from.
David: Tasted like the garlic they were fried in.  I didn't go back for seconds like a couple of others.

David about to eat a cricket!

S-21

The outside of one of the prison buildings at S-21

S-21 was one of about 80 prisons throughout Cambodia during the period of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.  It is located in the heart of Phnom Penh in what used to be a secondary school.  Portraits, taken of every prisoner upon arrival, lined many of the former classrooms.  You could feel the fear and sadness in their eyes.  Virtually no one made it out of S-21 alive.

From a place of learning to a place of endless torture.  When their will was finally broken, prisoners confessed to crimes they didn't commit and were blindfolded, shackled and taken to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.  They arrived to the sounds of music being played on loudspeakers, which masked the moans of everyone being killed. 

The terrors we learned about are unfathomable.  Two million people were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime.  Life was so unfair to these innocent people.  We encourage everyone to learn more about this terrible period of Cambodian history.

Pictures of victims at S-21

Phnom Penh

Sara in a cyclo in Phnom Penh

David has been keeping a list of every unique form of transportation we take on this trip.  Our first night in Phnom Penh we got to add a new one - the cyclo. 

It is much too hot to be on a cyclo during the day - temperatures are in the 100s here and it's very dry.  But at night things cool down and it is a perfect time to see the city light up.  Phnom Penh lacks traffic patterns and the cyclos lack lights.  A funny combination which kept us on the edge of our seats the whole time. To make things more interesting, my driver was a little nutty and liked to yell at all the passing cars that he turned out in front of (and they told us that Cambodians are very peaceful folks...).

Phnom Penh is a nice city and bigger than I expected.  It is also dirtier than I expected, moreso than any city in Vietnam.  The vast difference between rich and poor is immediately evident.  We saw hundreds of Lexus and Range Rovers on the same streets where many people slept.

Overall, it was a nice city with great markets and was a good place to spend a few days.

~Sara

Wat Phnom

Sunset from our hotel balcony in Phnom Penh