Once the day had cooled even a tiny bit, we headed back into town to wander the markets in Siem Reap. We had our eyes on a few things to take home to our families, so we got busy trying to shop. As it turns out, we are two of the world’s worst shoppers. Even [...]
After a whole day of sitting on gender neutral bicycle seats in unbearably hot, humid weather, my rear was too raw to sit down comfortably and there was no way I was getting back on that terrible bike seat for another whole day. Running non-stop on our whirlwind tour was catching up to us and [...]
Our elephant encounter left us all smiles despite the fact that we really weren’t feeling any better, so we hastened our speed and spent some time climbing the Bayon in the shadowy afternoon light. Although the heat of the day was finally fading, the rocks of the temple were still radiating the stored heat from below [...]
The first thing many people think of when they think Southeast Asia is elephants. While they are much more prevalent in Laos and Thailand, they seem to be part of everyday life. They help with agriculture, transportation, logging (unfortunately), and anything else that an animal as common as a horse in the states might be [...]
Having done Ta Prohm justice, we were back on the road again, but the cool morning was rapidly turning into a blazing hot afternoon. There’s a reason there are so many people selling cold drinks near the temples and we were buying them like crazy. As we pedaled, not toward anything in particular, we stopped frequently [...]
Upon planning our trip, something was prominently missing: bicycles. Our time in Vietnam included some of the most rugged, hostile terrain we have ever seen, cycling just wasn’t a realistic option. Cambodia, however, is flat. Bicycle rentals are also seriously cheap (a high-end mountain bike will cost $5 or $6 per day, while entry level [...]
Vietnam Airlines turned out to be nicer than any of the planes we generally board when we fly domestically and we had to laugh a little bit about the fact that 3rd world airlines are nicer than any run in the United States. We were fed a full meal on the 90 minute flight and before we [...]
As we walked through the old quarter with our friends, a light rain began to fall. Our first instinct was to stop and find some breakfast while we waited for Flamingo Travel to open but we had a hard time finding an open cafe. The only open restaurant seemed targeted toward tourists and as such [...]
It was sad to say our final,difficult goodbye to our bikes upon leaving them on the loading platform; we’d had such a great adventure on our scooters in Vietnam! Without our own wheels our mobility was limited so we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the local park in Lao Cai. We [...]
Pulling out of our lovely Lai Chau hotel, we weren’t exactly sure what our last day on the motorbikes would bring us. We knew that we were heading straight into Sapa, one of the most touristy places in Vietnam and had heard reports of constant barrages of sales pitches and overcharging tourists. Since our last [...]
Once on the road again, conditions quickly deteriorated into loose gravel, and then into large rocks. After riding about 20 minutes over really rough terrain, the conditions were not improving. Having already gone through several fairly deep mud puddles and been rattled to pieces, we suspected that we might have taken a wrong turn and [...]
Morning couldn’t come fast enough, though I slept well enough in the safety of our net-shelter. The bird had quieted overnight and was nowhere to be heard. We strapped our bags onto our bikes with the rubber straps provided to us, fueled up at a nearby petrol station, and hit the road. We were glad [...]