The Killing Fields, Prison S-21 and the Tale of a Survivor

We arrived in Phnom Penh around eight and was quickly picked up by a tuk-tuk driver. He tried insisting on having us pay $5 for the tuk-tuk drive to our hotel, but I threw out three fingers and gave him a really goofy grin as I yelled, "Three dollars!" He laughed so hard that he gave up on arguing with us and took us for three. Sweet! We got lost on our way to the hostel, but eventually we were able to get to Eighty8 Hostel. Check-in was very easy and we were led to our dorm room that had surprisingly large beds per person. We hung out downstairs until Dan, Laura, and May found us and hung out.

For the next day, Dan, Laura, May, Karolin, a German guy named Henry, and I took two tuk-tuks to go to the Killing Fields and S21. When we reached the Killing Fields, our happy moods soon evaporated. This was a large field where over 20,000 Cambodians were sent to be killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. Although the regime only lasted four years, the party effectively caused the genocide of a fourth of Cambodians. People were driven out of cities to work in the farms. Then without warning, the educated or other random citizens would be picked up and taken to a prison to be tortured and killed for crimes that they didn't commit.

I didn't take pictures of the Killing Fields and S21 because it didn't feel right to me. Walking through the fields and the halls where people were brutally tortured and killed only decades ago made me sick to my stomach. Even typing about it now leaves me with a huge lump in my throat.

In the center of the field stood a giant stupa that held the skulls, bones, and clothes of the victims that they had recovered. As you walked around, they had coverings over the mass graves that they had found -the largest holding 421 bodies. Since guns and bullets were expensive, they used farming tools or serrated palm tree bark to beat the people to death. Children and babies weren't spared as well. Next to one of the pits stood a tree where they would throw babies against to crush their skulls. The audio tour said the surrounding farmers had no idea what the field was used for. They would play national songs at night to mask the screams in the night and put chemicals on the bodies to stifle the stench.

The prison S-21 was about a 30 minute drive away from the Killing Fields. This was originally a children's school that had been converted into a prison. Inside the museum was picture after picture of the victims who came to this prison. Only seven people survived. Dan and I went into one of the buildings to look for Laura which was full of thin enclosures where they would keep the prisoners. Something about that building set something off in me and gave me a sense of raw terror and panic. I made my way out of that building as quick as I could.

On our way out, we walked by the table of a survivor. His translator and him beckoned us over, so we went to talk to him. His name was Bou Meng. He made it out of the prison because he was able to paint the perfect picture of Pol Pot. When he showed us the picture, it looked exactly like a black and white photograph. Still smiling, he pointed to a picture of his wife. Then he pointed to a painting he made of his wife being killed in front of him. I could see his face go from his cheerful smile to immeasurable sadness. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it and said thank you, then quickly left to cry my eyes out. All the tears that I had been holding back had rushed forward at an unstoppable rate. May joined me and we cried together on a park bench for a good while.

There's one thing that has stuck out in my mind from the first day of my trip when I got scammed out of $100. That day I cried in a pearl shop, feeling stupid but so incredibly lucky that they ONLY took my money. The woman at that shop told me something that I can never forget, "There are bad people in the world, but they are only 5-10% of the people here. You have to remember the rest of the people that are good. They are the people that matter." If there aren't that many bad people, then how do so many people die by their hands every day? How can I help stop these terrible people from committing these atrocities?

I've met so many people on my trip and I wholeheartedly believe that woman was right. The girl who had her purse stolen, yet she still insisted on buying me a drink after I had a hard start to the night. My taxi driver who bought me tea and dumplings when I was stressing out about not being able to access my money to pay for my three hour taxi drive. Tuk-tuk drivers who can come off as annoying when they yell for business, but they have also been some of the nicest and most helpful people I've met. Above all else, the survivor who comes back to the prison where he was tortured at for TWO YEARS, still with a smile on his face and kindness in his heart. The words that woman said to me on my first day impacted me more than she'll ever know.

Anything Than Can Koh Rong will Koh Rong

The night bus was here, and luckily it wasn't as wild as the Knightly Express in Harry Potter. Karolin and I have our bags to the driver, then boarded the Giant Ibis bus. We were told we would be sleeping "downstairs", which confused us, then tickled us when we realized he was just trying to say the lower berth. Karolin and I shared a big "bed", which was two mats squished together. It ended up being a lot more comfortable than expected though! The bus was even complete with working wifi and charging areas. I put my earplugs in and quickly fell asleep. I woke up to everyone packing their bags as the driver was finishing the announcement we got arrived in Phnom Penh. We arrived an hour ahead of time at 5 in the morning, and had nothing to do but wait for our next bus at 8.

Soon enough, the time passed and we were back on the road to Sihanoukville. Near the end of our ride, a girl behind us got an email from her friend telling her that there was a huge storm. The boats to Koh Rong would be cancelled till Friday...and it was only Tuesday! Our moods quickly turned a bit sour. We were really looking forward to spending a few days on the sand. Plus I REALLY wanted to tan my blindingly white stomach. We pulled into Sihanoukville and it was pouring rain. Luckily, our hostel was only a 3 minute walk away. We checked in and waited for a bit for the rain to die down till going out for lunch. We walked for a few minutes and got to a Mediterranean restaurant nearby called Olive & Olive. They advertised $5 pizzas and we were tired of sliding around in our slippery sandals, so we decided it'd be good enough. The pizza was so good (and ginormous)! We were so full from all the deliciousness that it filled us up for the whole day. We went back to the hostel and I promptly fell asleep for a thousand years. The storm was pretty hectic, so we did a lot of sleeping and laying around for those three days. It probably didn't help that we were both feeling homesick and had nothing to do!

The tastiest Italian food in Asia! Om nom nom nom!

The next day, we went back to Olive & Olive. I decided if we were going to be stuck in this shitty storm, then I sure as well was going to enjoy it. We bought a bottle of white wine and talked about our adventure stories while we hung out. At one point, we saw two cows on the loose, dragging along a long rope with a stick with some greens attached to the end. It seems new friends were breaking free to join us when they heard of our awesome party! When we asked for the bill, they came back with a piece of strawberry cheesecake. It was on the house, probably because it was our second time eating there and we bought a bunch of wine! On our way out, Karolin slipped on the steps and wound up with a huge bruise. She hobbled back to the hostel while grabbing my arms so she wouldn't fall again. I spent the rest of the day looking up cute dresses on Pinterest so I could hopefully get some tailored. What an uneventful day! 

Day three was slightly more exciting. We went next door to eat Indian, but got stuck in the violent rain. We had a beer to pass the time, then ran to the Island Tourism Center down the street to book the boat to Koh Rong for the next day. We went back and watched Mean Girls on my kindle (thank God I downloaded a movie) as a couple canoodled in the dorm bed next to us. That night, we went out to Olive & Olive AGAIN where we got free tiramisu this time! Then we headed over to what had to be the most pathetic night market I've seen so far.

Our scenic view while getting the threading done.

We went to bed early so we could wake up for the ferry the next day....only to find out the boats had been cancelled! Feeling annoyed, we decided we were going to the damn beach whether or not it was raining. Luckily, it didn't rain for the rest of the day! We made our way to the beach and stopped by one of the first bars for some mango shakes. Some ladies came up to offer us threading our eyebrows, which I decided to do. I forgot how much it hurt! They suggested we do our armpits, but we told them to come back once we finished a bottle of wine.

A pack of women came back and attacked our armpits with thread. Karolin kept yelling out "This really hurts!!" as I was sipping wine and laughing through the pain. Near the beginning I said, "I thought you said tge armpits weren't painful!" and one of the ladies looked at me and quietly but solemnly said, "No pain no gain." I couldn't help but burst into a fit of giggles over that. When we were finally done, one of the men Nicki Minaj shook me down for $1 for his crappy bracelets.
At the next bar, we got lunch and another bottle of wine. Karolin took a nap while I enjoyed the atmosphere of it all. Even though we weren't at the island, it was turning into a really nice time! Eventually, we turned back to our hostel where we met two of the girls staying in our dorm room. One of them, Natalie, had her shoulder purse stolen the night before by some men on motorbikes. It seems to be a pretty common thing over here! We made plans to go out with Natalie and Miranda that night.

Karolin and I relaxed for a bit, then decided to check out the first bar a bit earlier than the other two. It was ladies night, so we ended up getting beers for 25 cents at the place! We were looking for a place to sit and socialize when a guy walked up to us and asked us if we wanted to join him and his friends. One of his friends was practically incoherent. I wasn't sure if it was from his strong accent or because he was hammered. Trying to make polite conversation, I asked him if they served food at the bar. He said something incoherent and the gist of what I got was there were a bunch of restaurants very closely around. I said, "Oh okay, so there are none here though."

This caused him to go into a wild douchebag rant about how "You Americans have a fucking attitude problem. If it's not right there then you don't give a shit" and proceeded to go into a huge rant about how much America sucks, nobody likes America, it's full of assholes who meddle in other's problems and a bunch of other stuff. I didn't really want to start a fight (my mentality was a bit tender from the homesickness). Every time I tried to open my mouth to say he was being rude and had an biased view of America since he had never actually been there, he yelled at me about how I should be less American by not interrupting.

At the end, I icily excused myself to go cry in the bathroom. Sometimes it can be hard when every asshole you meet decided to hate you based on your nationality. I had a knock on the door, so I wiped my tears and opened the door to the guy who had initially invited us to hang out with them. I thought it was nice that he had come to check up on me...until he opened his mouth. He said, "Sorry to bother you, but do you have any MDMA?" I stared at him incredulously as I said, "...No!" then tried to give him the cold shoulder as Karolin and I talked. Eventually, he went away and Natalie and Marianne joined us.

Our war paint is on!

We quickly went to another bar called The Big Easy, which was much more fun. We all had a group hug and decided we would have an amazing night despite those creeps. And we did! The girls were really sweet and insisted on buying us drinks, which Karolin and I felt pretty bad about. We ended up getting Kamikazes and chatted for a bit before Karolin and I left to get dinner. We met up with the girls again at the bar they worked at, which was on the beach we had been hanging out at earlier. There, we met the girls, plus a cool local named Mr. Bombastic. We hung out with him the whole night, and somehow got free beers the whole time as well. At one point, he asked what was in the Kamikaze shot I had taken earlier. When he came back, he had the most horrid, strong and HUGE drink that was filled to the brim of pure alcohol. I guess I didn't stress the importance of the lime juice enough! He kept blaming me as the three of us tried to drink some so we could add more lime juice and sprite. Sorry! We ended the night with a few hours of dancing and some late night munchies.

Only two hours later, we miserably got out of bed for the early ferry ride to Koh Rong. We took motion sickness pills and did our best to not toss our cookies on the boat. Luckily, the ride was pretty smooth and we fell asleep quickly, saving us from our misery. We were soon on the island and settled down at the first restaurant we could find. At the restaurant, a cat perched himself behind me on my chair, and some dogs lazily slept around our table. We then set off again for Bong's Place -a chilled out hostel that was close by. We checked into our $10 private nap and immediately went for a nap.

The view from the island was breathtaking.

Feeling much better when we woke up, we put on our swimsuits and headed out for the beach. We set up our towels next to some dogs that would occasionally come over to lay with us. Things were pretty peaceful for the most part until a random group of dogs decided to follow a huge bull and incessantly bark at him for over an hour. The bull could have easily knocked them out with his huge horns, but instead he flopped into a body of water and tried to ignore them. At one point, the pack decided to instead go after this poor small pup, who swam into the water to escape them. A girl who had been laying near us saved him by shooing the dogs away, and the little white pup became her new best friend. It was cute to watch him wag his tail and play with her. They looked like a doggy-owner match made in heaven! Eventually the dog made his way over and enjoyed a copious amount of pets from me until we eventually left.

What a cute pup!

At dinner, we had the misfortune of sitting at a table next to some dogs getting it on at the beach. Our waiter came over at one point saying, "Hey my friends, how's it- ohh shit!!!" and walked away giggling like a schoolgirl. We had an early night and went to sleep to the sounds of the band playing rock. The next morning we woke up to find our leftover slice of pizza mysteriously gone from the box. It would seem that at some point in the night, a bird or other critter came into our room, opened the box and took it! We headed downstairs for our breakfast, then set off to have a massage. We were able to get really nice $10 massages on the beach. Realizing our ferry would leave in 15 minutes, we rushed to the ferry only to find out that the ferry was delayed for 30 minutes! We got smoothies and relaxed until it was time to go and enjoyed a much smoother ferry ride back to Sihanoukville.

I kept having to help this kid put his toy back upright whenever it fell. He was so damn cute!

Once there, we were told the only van we could catch to Phnom Penh would be leaving at 2.30, which would pick us up five minutes from then! We frantically rushed to buy sandwiches for the ride and went to the bathroom before the van picked us up. Next stop -Phnom Penh!

See you next time Koh Rong!

Turn It Down For WAT??: The Angkor Wat, Cambodia

A tuktuk picked us up from our hostel to take us to the airport for 40,000 kip. We probably got there far too early, but it gave us the chance to hang out and relax. A guy from Cameroon approached me along the way and talked to me for a little while until his flight had to leave. I don't know what it is with me and airports, but that seems to just be the place where I meet half my friends!
 
Our flight was smooth for the most part and two hours later we landed in Siem Reap. It was $30 to get our visa at the airport. A tuk-tuk driver picked us up and took us to our hostel (complimentary to staying there!), which made things much more relaxing. I was already liking our hostel! We checked in and immediately decided to extend for another day after seeing how clean and nice our hostel was. True to what we had earlier decided, we didn't leave our hostel for the next day and a half. We just wanted to relax for a bit!

Our beds were really comfortable and the other four travelers in our dorm room were really cool. The second day, I cherished reading my book by the indoor pool all day. The pool was nice, cool and refreshing to take a dip in as well. I felt like I should have been doing something outside, but I could not bring myself to care. Being always on the go can really wear you down!

Later in the day, we met a girl at our hostel who was almost raped by the manager at the Same Same Hostel in Siem Reap. She was pretty shaken up still by the whole event (as I would imagine), but thankfully she has some good friends in Siem Reap that helped her out. I felt so lucky that I've never been in a terrifying situation like that, and very now I'm very thankful that I always do a bunch of research (sometimes it seems like too much research) on each hostel I go to before I get there. So scary!

 

 New friends! We had so much fun together.

A woman named Rachel came up to our table and asked to join us. We soon found out we had both just finished teaching contracts in Korea and hit it off. So much that the three of us decided to visit Angkor Wat and the other ancient temples together the next day. We woke up at 4 in the morning for the sunrise and was met downstairs for our personal tuktuk driver for the day. The ticket booth was about 20 minutes away. We had to take pictures that were printed on our day passes for the temples, so naturally all of us looked like hot messes in the pictures. After a short drive, we fumbled through the dark to make our way into Angkor Wat -the biggest and most famous temple out of all of the ones we would see today. Avoiding the occasional vendor, we were able to find a spot at the edge of the big pond -the perfect viewing point for the sunrise. An elder woman joined us and we chatted to her about her 2 year experience in the Peace Corps. It made me almost regret my decision to teach in Korea instead -but there's plenty of time in the future to join the Peace Corps too!

The sun was up, but the clouds were out! Too bad, it would have been a beautiful view with the sun!

Despite my wondrous magic with weather (seriously, it hardly ever rains on me during wet season), the clouds blocked the sunrise. It didn't stop the experience from being beautiful though! While a large crowd stayed by the lake in hopes that the sun would appear, we decided to beat the crowd and check out the temples. Rachel bought an overpriced book about the temples (she got it for $10 and we later found someone advertising it for $5) and we attempted to brush up on the history of the temple. The temples had been created from the 8th-11th century. Around the temples there used to be full villages. However, now there is no evidence the villages ever existed. The temples had intricate carvings of deities and people among other things. Angkor Wat was as impressive as it was massive.

Some of the beautiful views of Angkor Wat. We were lucky not so many tourists were around in the early morning!

On our desperate walk out to get a sandwich, we saw a horse and its foal munching grass on the field. Naturally, I had to get a picture. As I was taking a picture of the horses with Angkor Wat in the background, the foal started walking towards me until she was right in my face! It was one of the coolest experiences petting the foal while snapping pictures with the amazing Angkor Wat in the background.

Hay gurl haaaaay.

When finished, we made a beeline for the sandwich stand and bought what had to be the best tasting sausage sandwiches I've had in the past few years -all for $1.50! We got one for our guide who tried to protest, but gave up when he realized resistance the sandwich was futile. Soon after, we were at the second temple on the small circuit tour -Banteay Kdei. This temple was probably my favorite temple out of all the ones we visited. Since we had started so early, there were no crowds and we were the only ones in sight for most of our walk through the temple. The temple was covered in greenery and moss, which made it especially beautiful. At times, it felt like we had just stumbled upon a hidden treasure!

The entrance to Banteay Kdei.

It took us FOUR tries before I was finally able to make it into the shot for this picture! I had to run pretty damn quick to make it in!

Ta Prohm was the third temple. It was also the temple featured in Tomb Raider. We read that they decided to keep it in the condition that they found it in, but we couldn't help but notice that they were doing construction for restoration on different parts of the temple. The book also told us that birds drop seeds through the forest, which is how the trees grow around and into the temple. Over the years, they have wedged their way through the bricks of the temples, becoming part of the foundation. They help keep the temples up, but also can and have destroyed entire sections of the temples if the trees fall over from a storm.

Here are some of the trees that have become part of the temple.

Ten o'clock rolled around and we were soon again hungry, so we got an early lunch before going into the fourth temple -Ta Keo. This one was cool because you could climb the steep stairs to the top! Karolin was freaking out because she hates heights, but we were able to make it to the top at the end! A Cambodian man was sitting at the top and bemusedly watching us. He told me that he makes the climb up and down the temple 6 times each day! It started to sprinkle, so we quickly climbed into the top of the temple for coverage. There, a local woman gave us incense to burn for the Buddha. We shared warm smiles and she laughed at us being a bit out of breath as we rested for a few minutes. The way down was much scarier than the climb up! In the end, I sat down and scooted myself down step by step. I looked like an idiot, but I sure as hell wasn't ready to fall!

 

These stairs were hella thin! We all rode the struggle bus on the way down.

Feeling templed out, we skipped two small temples along the way and went straight to Bayon temple -the last temple on the list. We were glad we decided to go because this one was one of the coolest!! The only drawback was the multitude of people also visiting the temple. It's grounds were filled with a bunch of huge head carvings that adorned the top of the doorways.

We got back to our hostel and brightly thanked our awesome tuktuk driver. We paid $15 for the day tour, plus a $3 tip because he was pretty cool. The girls went for naps, but I stayed up to update my blog, which took about 5 hours (I shouldn't have put off a week and a half of adventure!!). A lot of people approached me in the process to ask about tours or other things since I was seated at a computer behind all the tour information. Sometimes they looked annoyed that I was listening to music as they waited....until they realized I didn't work there! Despite this happening well over 15 times, it didn't stop me from being very amused each time!

 

Some of the heads from the last temple. 

 

Rachel, Karolin and I lookin cute at Bayon temple! 

Around 6, Karolin, Rachel, our four other dorm mates, and I headed out to the night market. Karolin and I quickly got separated from the rest of the group amidst our enthusiasm to find skirts. We looked for the group for a few minutes, then gave up and got some Indian food at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards, I was able to find my dream skirt, and a tank from a friendly vendor. Unlike some of the other vendors, he was really friendly and fun to joke with! At that moment, we ran into our dorm mates on the street and went home together.

Karolin and I had big plans to go to the temples the next day, but we both woke up feeling terrible. Karolin was especially sick due to the constant abrupt changes from the heat outside to the cool air conditioning. We decided to sleep in and miss the temples (which was a bummer, but we were pretty templed out). Feeling much better after a few hours of sleep, we got a tuktuk (with our driver from the day before) to the post office and then the Central Market. I shipped a bunch of stuff home, which was 3kg airmail to USA for $61. It was pretty brutal -especially because the US is in the most expensive zone of all countries (why am I not surprised)!

The Central Market was a bust, and we ended up walking over to the Old Market where we were last night. Around there, we got a pedicure and foot massage for $7, then delicious Mexican food down the street at Viva. At the restaurant, a scraggly cat meowed at me while I ate until I gave her some pets. She seemed harmless and clean, but maybe I should be more weary of rabies?

Who could say no to a face like that??

The Grass is Always Greener in Laos

If if couldn't be possible, the bus ride to Luang Prabang was even worse than the previous ride. Our busdriver didn't stop at all -aside from stopping on the side of the road to go to the bathroom on the roadside. When we got to Luang Prabang, it was dark and there were no tuk-tuks in sight. Karolin and I shuffled our way to the nearest store (Joma bakery, woohoo!) and they helped us find our way to our hostel. They didn't have an idea where it was because I showed them a map with street names, but they let me use their wifi and we found out it was literally a block away. Street names just aren't really a thing here (kinda like Korea). I still can't grasp the concept of not using street names to find places or send mail!!

Kounsavan Guesthouse, our hostel, was packed with other friendly backpackers. Everyone was packed into the common areas talking and playing games. We went to the Indigo Hotel (a nice looking hotel on the outskirts of the night market) for some dinner, then headed to sleep. We met Roos (our companion from Vang Vieng) the next morning to go to the Kuangsi waterfalls, where the water was supposed to be stunning (as shown by Pinterest). We found a van to take us round trip for 30,000 kip each and were off by 11.

The Kuangsi waterfalls weren't as pure blue as they normally are.

We ran into Jongmyung on our way to the waterfall and he recommended we go on the dirt path so we could see the sunbear and moonbear sanctuary. The bears were cute and so fun to watch play with each other. It was honestly the highlight of the waterfall visit for me! The water was a disappointing color after seeing all the breathtaking Pinterest pictures (darn the rainy season!), but it was still enjoyable.
 

 

Some of the steps up to the top of the waterfall.  It was a bit daunting, but really pretty!

A pretty path, but not exactly the most fun without shoes!

After admiring the waterfall, we decided to make the climb to the top. The hike ended up being much harder than anticipated! The coolest part was in the middle we were walking up some steps over the waterfall.  Not only was it beautiful, but it was nice to have the water occasionally spilling over our toes on the walk up. With wet feet, we were unable to put our shoes back on and ended up finishing the steep as hell hike barefoot. There were some tree vines hanging, and I felt like Tarzan as I used them to pull myself up the crazy hill. At last we were at the top! We waded through the mud to the stream and found: nothing of interest. Well, at least we got some exercise out of the whole thing! Climbing down the trail was a tough task, but eventually we were at the bottom contentedly eating Pain au Chocolat. We went back to the bears and hung out with them awhile until it was time to go.

 

Check out this cool bear. He does what he wants.

Karolin and I were beat and tried to take a nap in our room. Unfortunately the A/C didn't work during the day so we really ended up sweating our butts off in our bed. We gave up and ended up debating whether we should take a 10 hour, then 12 hour, then 5 hour bus to the 4,000 islands in southern Laos. Only to take a 7 hour bus across the corrupt as hell border of Laos-Thailand (all that would probably amount to $80+). OR take a 2 hour plane flight to directly Siem Reap for $160 and avoid the bullshit. We ended up deciding the time and effort (and mountains) was enough to make $160 look cheap and ended up booking a plane ticket for the 11th. At one point the internet stopped working so we tried to go directly to the airport to book the flight (since my flight in India was much cheaper at the airport). When the man told us it'd be $190 there though, we decided against it.  Luckily, the booking we tried to make earlier went through (despite the internet crashing) and we had our tickets!

Notice the bear's awkward sleeping position in the back.  That was approximately how I looked when attempting to take a nap in the stifling hot room!

Street stalls beckoned to us as we were hungry as an elephant and we had spicy noodles made for us. A local manning a fruit shake stall watched with interest (occasionally stifling a laugh) as I tried to teach Karolin how to use chopsticks. Jongmyung met us at the night markets and we walked around looking for things to bring back for our friends and family. I found some pillowcases I really liked and Jongmyung was on that saleswoman like a hawk when she told me each pillowcase was 60,000 kip. Jongmyun kept calling out: "Thirty!" at the saleswoman's every response, which made Karolin, the saleswomen around, and I to all laugh. It worked though! Minutes later, the saleswoman and I laughed, shook hands and I had two beautifully embroidered pillowcases for 60,000 kip. Jongmyun was our goodluck charm!

 

The lady looks really unhappy, but she was laughing and smiling after I took the picture!

Our next day was spent scootering around, as our hostel had a really easy renting service for scooters! We paid 140,000 kip for an automatic scooter and were on our way to find a cute clothing shop we had seen (but ultimately never found) and also to see the sights of the city. We turned down the wrong street and somehow ended up at a peaceful temple. We enjoyed wandering around the grounds and watched some monks in training play around a bit in the courtyard next to us. The temple was also home to a big Buddha, which we noticed while on our way out.

One memory that day that gave me a good laugh was when I was sitting by the side of the road waiting for Karolin. A tuktuk driver scootered by me slowly yelling, "Tuk-tuk today? Where you go?" (as all the tuk-tuk drivers love doing). He had a monk customer, but it didn't seem to deter him, so I said, "No tuk-tuks, thanks!" The monk looked to me and we both shared a knowing laugh about the persistence of the driver.

Once again we were on the road and we had accidentally come across the National Museum (which we thought was a few blocks over). The crankiest man stopped us because we weren't covered fully. I had a scarf for the temples so I was fine, but Karolin had to rent a shirt and sarong. I don't know what that guys problem was, but his foul temper drove away two French women who were trying to rent from him but were confused about the price. We decided to kill him with kindness (something ADPi taught me) and he had no choice but to check himself before he wrecked himself.

Shawled and saronged up, we got to the ticket area only to find out we were supposed to have bought tickets at the entry gate we had scootered by. Seeing the distraught looks on our face, the woman laughed and told us we could buy two of the used tickets to make things easier for us. Sweet! The palace we toured was small compared to other palaces I had seen, but it was still really nice. It didn't really explain much of Laos' history though, so Karolin and I were left to fill in the blanks for that one.

 

The National Museum was so beautiful!

Back on the bikes, we went to find a nearby textile village. Once we got there, neither of us actually wanted to get off the bike (the wind was so nice!), so we decided to continue driving through the countryside. At some point we decided to turn back and got terribly lost. Some kind Laos men at a shop were able to point us in the right direction after having a good laugh about the hopelessly lost blonde girls that rolled up to our stop. We were soon back at our hostel where we met a nice girl from Sweden who had caught the homesick bug, and Hannah once again. We hung out with them for awhile until Jongmyun met us to go to the night market. We had dinner at a sit down restaurant and soon after it began to pour rain.  This made most of the market close down, which was a bummer because we were hoping to scour the market one last time.  I had been on the hunt for a good baseball cap to wear from Laos, but the opportunity never came. Better luck in Cambodia I guess!

Checking off the Bucketlist With Beestings, Tubing and Free Shirts

In the morning, Karolin and I took a minivan for a windy, hellish five hour ride to Vang Vieng. In the end, it was worth it though! Vang Vieng was a small town surrounded by the river and green mountains. We checked into Pan's Place and got a 3 bed room with only a fan. We were worried about how we would fare that night, but it ended up being cool enough.

That night I had the most terrifying nightmare that woke me up around 3.  There was a huge storm outside, but I had to get out to the common room to calm down for an hour. I texted my sister during the hour, telling her about what happened. I couldn't help but still be freaked out as I was typing it out. I kept turning around to make sure nothing in the dream came true! I eventually went back to sleep and dreamed about the cutest brown and black puppy that I played with.

Our party rockin crew. We had so much fun!

The next day, I got ready and quickly developed a blinding migraine. I was so bummed because I thought it'd ruin the whole day, but luckily I had my medicine with me and it was gone within an hour. Score! Karolin, and two other girls at my hostel (Roos, Bell) and I set off to go tubing down the river. We found a tubing company where we paid 55,000 kip for the tubes with a 60,000 kip deposit, then we were put in a tuktuk with a Korean guy to get to the starting point.

We're ready to go!

We were greeted by a bar crew, who told us the tubing wouldn't start for another three hours.  We were pretty shocked! But it was fun to hang out and get to know each other through beer pong and card games. Karolin and I weren't very good at beer pong, but we both made the same cup. Then later I made redemption (literally the only balls I was able to sink), which eventually led us to winning the game. Sweet! Finally it was time to head out down the extremely brown, fast-flowing river (one of the drawbacks of traveling during rainy season). We were told to paddle quickly to the other side of the river to get to the first bar on the menu. Despite paddling our hearts out, we missed the first bar stop along the way due to the fast current and ended up at the second bar. Local guys threw out long lines of ropes with bottles attached at the ends into the river for people to grab onto. Thankfully everyone was able to get onto shore for this bar!

We enjoyed cool beers as we made new friends with the Korean guy from earlier, Jongmyun, and a German couple. Most people drank on the tubing trip, but it was still easy to have plenty of fun without drinking as well! Our group of seven was one of the first to jump back into the water on our way to the next bar. We couldn't help but noticing a beautiful blue stream that trickled into the murky river water. The juxtaposition was really striking!

 

The water would have been so beautiful if it wasn't so rainy!

Some Laos locals asked me for a picture with them at the third bar.  I'm not sure why I was chosen out of all the blonde-haired foreigners, but I didn't mind striking a few poses with them! There was a long stretch between the third bar and the last stop, but we relished the absence of bars and development as we lazily floated downstream. When we eventually got to the last stop, Karolin and Jongmyun missed the bank and instead the current took them down a smaller stream! I laughed a lot at their misfortune until I realized I had also been sucked into the smaller stream! I ''accidentally'' bumped Jongmyun of the tree that we were fighting each other to hold onto and we all laughed as he yelled, "You kill me! You hate Korea because you kill meeee!" as he floated downstream. Eventually, we were all able to walk back to the bank and returned out tubes before 6 pm (if you returned it later you lost part of your deposit).  We were all in such good spirits after the day -it was maybe my favorite day in Laos -but we were also exhausted!

 

Sorry guys!

Karolin and I rented a scooter the next day so we could slowly make our way to the Blue Lagoon.  Halfway across a bridge, our bridge was overtaken by a bunch of cattle! Unsure of what to do, stopped and awkwardly sat in the middle of the road until the cows moved aside for us. Despite the road being uncomfortably bumpy, the views were spectacular. The rice in the fields had a kind of vibrant green that I imagined was only possible if you used a filter on a camera. Seven of the bumpiest kilometers of my life later, we were at the Blue Lagoon.  We paid admission and made haste to jump in the water. It wasn't as blue as the name warranted, but I'm pretty sure that was because it was rainy season. The water was cool, but refreshing to swim in. The whole place was pretty touristy (a slide you paid extra for, a tree to jump off of, overpriced restaurants, and a zipline), but we still had a great time there. Karolin was too scared to jump off the big tree, but I decided to give it a try.  Once on top of the tree, I realized it was much higher up than I anticipated! There was a big crowd that cheered for everyone though, and it certainly helped me make the jump!

No filter -Laos is just THAT beautiful!

We got our fill of swiming in and then laid out beside the lagoon to dry off and talk for a while. At one point, I decided to get up and felt a stinging right below my butt then saw a bee flying away. "Karolin, I just got stung.  I''m reaaally sorry I have to ask this......but can you get the stinger out?" We spent the next few minutes with me bent over as Karolin was trying to get out the stinger.  We were very successful in attracting odd stares from people nearby...but entirely unsuccessful in our attempts to get the stinger out. To lighten the mood, I would say, "Hey, hows it going?" as people stared at the unusual situation. I awkwardly waddled back to the bike and we biked back as quickly as we could to the hostel to grab my tweasers. Lots of jokes and the beautiful scenery eased the stinging. I was embarrassed as hell, but I had to admit it was pretty funny. The stinger came out within seconds with the help of tweezers. Welp, I can check getting stung in the ass by a bee off my bucketlist.

A little stinger wouldn't ruin my day I decided, so we got dolled up and went out for some dinner. Hannah (our friend from Vientiane) had recently come to Vang Vieng so she also joined us for a drink or two. Karolin and I were on a mission that night to get some of the free tanks at the bars! Our first stop was Viva Vang Vieng Bar. That was the same bar that started the party for the tubing.  Nobody was there aside from the bartenders, so we ended up hanging out with them as we finished our two beers for the free top. At one point, one of the bartenders pulled out Connect 4 and proposed loser bought drinks. I won the first round and got a free beer! However, I lost the two rounds after that and had to pay for two shots. Karolin and I were worried about going to Sakura bar to get the shirts there. The bartenders told us not to worry because they could get just get us a few spares that they had. It was so kind of them! We stayed out for a bit to dance and socialize, then ended the night with one of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time from a stand next to the bar. I was sad that we'd be leaving the next day for Luang Prabang -we were having so much fun!

During our time chatting with the bartenders, I saw the brown and black puppy from my dreams! He was even cuter in real life as well!