Hidden treasures in Cambodia

In Cambodia we encountered another highlight of the trip. One of the world wonders, Angkor Wat, is located in a mysterious and captivating setting and does not fail to impress. True, there are massive hordes of tourists arriving every day to take in the impressive sights and not without reason. However, the grounds and the temples are so plentiful that it didn't really feel jam-packed. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that scenes for Tomb Raider were filmed here in the past. Touched by moss, rain and time, one can't help imagining what magnificent structures once stood there centuries before.

Everyone's looking for Angelina Jolie... even monks.

"The wonder, the world wonder!"

At night, Cambodia revealed its true colors. The many tourists flocked towards busy nightmarkets, restaurants and nightclubs. Not exactly the lonely traveler feeling we experienced in parts of Lao but we can't exactly claim we didn't enjoy ourselves. This also thanks to Anne, the adventurous Dutch girl we met up north. Despite the fact that we tested her patience daily with our "special" personalities, she was still traveling along with us and secretly we were all happy about that. Not in the least because we proved an excellent late night dancing crew. Besides, she happily offered to carry some souvenirs back to Europe for us. Little did she know she would end up with four bags, including a Colombian machete. True story.

Great fun with Anne! We miss her already.

Our visit to the capital Phnom Penh was marked by the atrocities of the 'Khmer Rouge' regime of the mid seventies. We don't want to ruin anybody's appetite by going into the details but the stories we heard and the mass graves we witnessed, were proof of a darker side of humanity. A side that we haven't encountered much in our travels so far.

 Seriously Anne? Seriously???

After Cambodia we headed towards Bangkok in a horrible 20 hour bus ride with non-reclining seats and severely limited legroom. We enjoyed our first day walking around as zombies and taking in some of the peculiarities of this amazing city. Busy markets with heaps of street vendors, mixed with sketchy side streets intended for shady sex tourism. The end verdict: incredible palaces, imposing temples and great nightclubs. The city has it all.

Simply beautiful: Laos

When we crossed the Thai-Lao border a few weeks ago, we stepped into something truely magical and beautiful.

We discovered a country that is blessed with its nature, with a population that is ever-smiling and it gives you a true sense of happiness when you travel through. With only clear blue skies in sight, pouring rain will surprise you almost once every day, but it's no obstacle to enjoy Lao. If it's not a rainbow spanning between the mountain hills and the fluo-green rice fields, it might just be another smile from a Lao kid cruising through by scooter. After those daily showers, playful butterflies show up again and you'll dry up before you'll stumble upon yet another guesthouse on the itinerary.

 Having fun with the Lao kids

As we were ziplining in North Laos from mountain hill to insane tree houses and vice-versa, we spotted gibbon monkeys playing below us. We also met another gibbon, Rolf, a hilarious Dutch man who popped out shots and beers from his wallet as if it was rain from the Lao sky. Regularly, we lost ourselves in a late-night bowling game, while none of us could still throw a well-aimed ball.

Ziplining the "Gibbon Experience" adventure 

If we weren't playing bowling, we were dancing in Lao-theques, a kind of night club where the music is awfully loud and the people are staring at the group of tourists dancing Michael Jackson around another meter of beer - ordered by Rolf, of course. Or having a Lao-bbq. Or motorbiking around, looking for temples, even more temples, caves and waterfalls, sweating, joking around, swearing it was the last Lao beer of the week. Luckily there was Anne, an adventurous Dutch girl (happy birthday again Anne!), who tried to keep us calm at first, but after a while joined in the madness, meanwhile extended with insane Germans. If it all sounds a little bit chaos, you should have seen the two-lane bowling games. It was a bigger mess than the big bang itself.

Cruising through Laos with Rolf & Anne

Moving further South, we got ourselves some scooters again and joined in the slow paced traffic over bumpy brown roads and that seemed the perfect way to be waved at by Lao people. Even though most of the time there is no way whatsoever to communicate with them - they mostly don't even understand the words 'water', 'rice' or 'internet' - you'll still end up with them sitting around a TV showing some very bad karaoke, with a free Big Lao beer in your hand and a few smiling people on the other side of the table. Try to imitate a carrot while ordering your dish, randomly pop out the word 'lady boy' in a by definition lost conversation or order your breakfast singing, and you'll find yourself surrounded with smiles bigger than the huge mountain of sticky rice next to your inevitable noodle soup.

It's simply beautiful. It's Laos!