Laos and the last leg

Considering the amount of mishaps we faced in Laos, it's a true testament to how awesome it is that we not only enjoyed it, it may have been our favorite destination of the trip. Our plane was delayed, so we had to be rushed from flight to flight to make sure we made our next flight. We made it, but our luggage did not.

We only had a day in Vientienne before we were to hea

d to Vang Vieng for the river adventures and nature. We rented bikes and rode around the city. Actually, even though it's the capital, you can't even call it a city. It was a cute little town. We saw the largest golden stupa (not sure on the name, That Dam, a couple temples, and a large arch inspired by the Arc d'Triomphe. It was a great way to see the area.

The next day we left for Vang Vieng where we had planned to spend one day touring the river and caves, and then another day with elephants or something else depending on what was available. Well, good thing we didn't have our heart set on something specific because we woke up one day and Kelly's eye had swelled up to the point where she couldn't open it anymore. Luckily this place is used to tourists and after a short walk and wait, she had some meds to try to bring her eyelid back to normal. We think it was a spider-bite, but can't even really be 100% sure on that. So we spent that day in town, watching Friends and hanging out at the local eateries. They all seem to play Friends or have the customers pick out movies from their vast collections of counterfeit DVDs.

Once Kelly's eye healed, we went on a cave exploring and kayaking tour. We went in these innertubes through a cave that is half filled with water in low tide. It was really cool and something I never thought I'd be doing before the semester started. I got my fortune told again, hoping for better luck. After getting it translated by our guide, it was pretty bad actually. My first fortune in Thailand was all about bad luck and possible legal cases, but this one he wouldn't even translate all the way. He pretty much said, "well...it says you'll graduate/do well in school...other than that, well...why bother?" And this is why you shouldn't get your fortune told when you're life is going well. It'll never be good. After this, we went kayaking down the river, making a pit stop at one of the waterfront bars. There's a strip of bars in the middle of the river and it was just so "spring break" with all the young aussies/americans drinking in their swimsuits and swinging off a rope into the river and going down massive water slides. It was a lot of fun, even though I was kind of nauseaous from who knows what at the time.

All too soon, it was time to start the long journey to Vientienne, to Bangkok, to Hong Kong, and then ultimately home. Luckily they found our luggage just in time for us to leave, so it was only a minor inconvenience. The bus ride to Bangkok was the most horrible transit ever, with a "sleeper bus" that was just seats and no beds and absolute no leg room. Spent a day in Bangkok just exploring Koh San Road and the seedier side of the city we missed with Kelly's family around. Then we caught a flight back to HK and I spent one final night in LKF with Kelly and her friend Paul.

The past 6 months were among the best of my life. Thrown from my comfort zone, having to do everything on my own (at least at first anyway, until I made some great friends that will last a lifetime, despite the distance). I feel like I grew up a lot in these 6 months. And while my bank account may take years to recover, it was worth every penny for these memories, friends, and photos.

Thanks for reading, and sticking around this long to read it since I was way delayed in updating. I hope you enjoyed it, because I LOVED living it. :)

Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (The Best New Years Party of my life)

The trip to Koh Samui was long and trying - practically 24 hours to get from Bangkok to the island including all forms of transportation from train, to bus, to boat. Exhausting! It was nice to finally get in and be able to laze on the beach. Although our hostel was HORRIBLE and the worst I've ever been in. Sketch area, water that usually ran cold if it even ran at all, and a lazy landlord guy that never did anything. Most of Koh Samui was spent relaxing on a beach. We met up with a couple CUHK kids while there. It was a nice, relaxing way to pass a few days. I know this whole trip has been a vacation, but traveling at break neck speed to see anything and everything in the areas we travelled to can get exhausting. So this was a true vacation - nothing to see, nothing to do, but laze about and relax. It was nice.

After a couple days on the beach, we caught an afternoon ferry to Koh Phagnan for the craziest New Years Eve party, possibly ever. The crowd of around 50,000 people was filled with mostly Aussies, some Americans/Canadians, and all ranging from late teens to late twenties. There were a few older people there, and you could tell they live a verryyy different lifestyle than I could ever imagine. For example, we talked with this guy "Dr. Price" who bought a medical license, many happy endings, and pills while on vacation in Thailand. There were a number of these shadier characters, but the majority were Aussie college kids on xmas holiday. Perfect crowd for an amazing NYE party that raged all through the night.

There was a row of booths, each selling their own version of a bucket with soda, red bull, and alcohol. The creator of Red Bull (an original Thai product apparently) is one of the richest men in the country and I think it's because of this night alone. The beach had

bars, which were barely more than huts with music at times, spanned the entire length of the beach. They each had their own style, music, and crowd. We ended up spending most of the night in a beach bar that played everything from rock staples to modern hits. Up and down the beach they also had people doing body paint and fire dancers and fire jump rope and just many other things that could lead to lots of bodily harm. It's no wonder the town is filled with an emergency health clinics. The night was spent bar hopping and watching other people do stupid things. An awesome party. At midnight, there wasn't much of an indicator that it was the new year, just a few fireworks spread out here and there. I think by that point, everyone was too far gone to really care. At some point in the night, we went to crash on a quieter side of the island since the next ferry out was in the morning and we didn't want to waste our money on a room we would hardly use. It was not a very restful sleep, but it worked well enough in a pinch. The next morning around 8am, we decided to head back to the party to see the damage. There were still a couple bars full of people raging! It was madness. There's no way those people were going on just those buckets, Red Bull is not that strong. Left the next afternoon to get back to Koh Samui and that was a miserable, choppy trip. We came back to our crappy room to find that the water had been running the entire time so the whole place smelled damp. Not a great place to return to after such an unbelievable night.

Really, no words can fully sum up that experience. And there aren't even photos to help since I didn't want to risk my camera.

The last night in Koh Samui was spent with the few Aussie guys we had befriended on the island. We also met up with Mark from CUHK. Spent the night drinking and the guys bought a ton of fireworks. It was a lot fun and fitting farewell for the island. We stayed up til our early morning flight to our last major destination - LAOS!

Christmas in Asia and the rest of Bangkok...

Christmas! Odd, non-traditional xmas in Bangkok. We got a Thai massage, which was amazing. Definitely the best massage I have ever had. We also saw Madagascar 2 at the only IMAX in Thailand. It was a huuuge screen and so much cheaper than seeing a regular movie back in the states. It was also the first time the Burgess family had seen an IMAX movie since apparently they don't have those in Australia yet? Crazy. I take for granted that I live within driving distance of like 5 IMAX screens.

The next day was the start of the real sightseeing. Early start to go to the

Bridge over the rvier Kwai and the Tiger Temple. The cemetary was so sad - all the Commonwealth soldiers and those POWs who died building the Death Railway. The museum was small, but still effective and sad. On the other side of the bridge, we ran into a sad

elephant chained to a tree for tourists to feed. It seemed like it was being kept as a pet by locals. We fed it and it seemed to be happy enough, but sadly this was my only experience with elephants in all of Asia. We just ran out of time and didn't properly plan for it to get done. Oh well, another reason for me to go back someday!

The tiger temple was really cool, though I highly doubt those tigers aren't drugged. No way they're just naturally that sleepy and calm.

The next day we went to the ancient capital of Ayuthaya.

It was interesting to see such ancient ruins mixed right in with the modern city that has grown around it. Angkor Wat was isolated and you felt like you had stepped back in time since nothing modern has encroached upon it except the people. This was very different, right next to the ruins was a modern street and school. There were so many Wats in SE Asia though, I'm kind of over it.

The last day in Bangkok was spent at the floating markets. They're organized chaos, with the rivers filled to the brim with boats of people in transit and people with goods. It was so touristy, but there were also some locals doing their personal shopping so it seemed pretty legitimate. We walked around the markets and tried some great food like spring rolls, chinese

buns, and banana fritters (all of which were made on small boats on the river). I also got a cute purse for only $3 thanks to my honed bargaining skills.

After that, Kelly and I did a lot of shopping in the local mall. So weird to see a real mall just have tables, booths, and stores, all selling obviously counterfeit goods. There are no laws here about that, I guess.

We caught our sleeper train to Koh Samui! It was a different set up than the China/Vietnam ones - no private rooms, chairs that fold out to beds, and food served to you. It wasn't the best first impression, but it ended up being really comfortable. Plus, we were right next to a really cute family w/ 3 young boys who kept things entertaining. They played hide & seek with us and kept calling someone on their phone to try to speak english with us. It was adorable! Definitely helped to pass the time on what ended up being a nearly 24 hour journey to get to Koh Samui and the best New Years Eve party of my life.

Bangkok on my Birthday

The early morning cab ride at 5:30am was made worse by the late night birthday drinking, plus we were still drunk when the ride started and then subsequently hungover for the rest of the journey. It was on the bumpiest road ever, which apparently can't get better because the airlines are preventing and slowing the development as much as possible so people have to fly between Bangkok and Siem Reap so they can make more money. Poipet border town was a dodgy hole and I'm pretty sure we paid to much for our bus to Bangkok, but whatever, we just wanted to get to BK as soon as possible. We got ot the Princess hotel where Kelly's family was staying, and letting me stay there with them, and HOLY COW IT WAS AMAZING. Rooftop pool, spa, bar, and just suck luxury! We checked in them went bowling to celebrate my 22nd birthday. So much fun! We tried to stay up until Kelly's family came in, but between the late night and horrible journey, I passed out too early.

The next day, Kelly's family came and we were all pretty exhausted so we just saw the Grand Palace.

It was amazing and so impressively beautiful. It's incredible how well-maintained they were after so many centuries. They were so different from everything else in Asia, a nice change of pace after all the Chinese temples we'd seen in China, HK, and even Vietnam.

The walls were so ornate, covered in gold, and never the same as another. Kelly's parents weren't hip to dangers of Asia and trying to get ripped off around every corner. It's a good thing Kelly and I had already gone through the trenches (aka Vietnam) so we were more prepared.

Cambodia: Siem Reap

The bus ride was looong but filled with Cambodian movies - pretty interesting mythology based fables. The other 3 tourists on the buss were all American s who were teaching English in Aisa for a few years. They loved it and said they were having the time of their lives exploring Asia and teaching children. Siem Reap is seriously just a town built because of its proximity to Angkor Wat. The city was such a contrast - poor huts on stilts on the river and the resorts for the tourists right next to them. The only thing to do there is Angkor Wat, so we went for the sunset from the ruins. It was beautiful but covered in tourists. They charge $20/day for tourists and have it free for Cambodians, which I think is fair and what they should do, but many locals use this free admission to sell their wares just outside the temples. Kind of annoying to have to deal with people pestering you to buy crap I don't need when I'm just trying to look at the temples. But seeing how tourism is their main source of income, it's necessary.

We woke up early the next day for a day full of temples. Beautiful ancient ruins, so old that massive trees have overtaken them at points. While the temples were beautiful, it was trying to navigate through all the vendors. At one of the temples, a couple kids came over and bombarded us with facts about the US and Australia and gave us bracelets. When we refused to buy anything, they cursed Kelly with "I give you bad luck forever!" After countless temples, we crashed and then go dinner and buckets to celebrate my birthday! Mexican food, 1 bucket of margarita, 2 buckets of Angkor Sunset (and a free shirt!), 2 tequila shots (free birthday shots!), and a cocktail and then it was midnight. The bar played the bi

rthday

song for me and then we had to peace out to get sleep for our long journey the next day. Over all, a great birthday night! And a great time in Cambodia. A beautiful country with such a sad story.