Swimming with stars

We left Thailand excited. We had heard only good things about Cambodia from fellow travellers. Everyone seemed to love it. We couldn't wait to see it with our own eyes. We booked a direct ticket from Ko Chang to Sihanoukville. We also booked a hostel ahead, because we would be arriving after dark. In a new country we like to get used to things first instead of exploring the city at night with a map and a guidebook in your hand. And it's easier to take a taxi or a tuk-tuk directly to the chosen hostel to avoid the worst of possible touts.

Our border crossing went easy enough. We got our exit stamps out of Thailand and a guy took our backpacks into a small cart and pulled them to the Cambodian border a short walk away. He asked for a 100-baht tip and we agreed to give 20 (50 cents) each. You do not need to tip in Thailand, but we think it's okay when we agree on a service like someone taking care of our luggage for us. You carry it yourself, or you pay something. A body temperature check, visa application, passport stamps, all the usual was done within less than half an hour. We still had passport photos left, so no worries there either. In the same bus was an older German lady, who was going on about how she had been charged over double the price we had paid, and her visa fee should have been covered by the ticket already. Nevertheless she had to pay for the visa at the border. It is still unclear to us what really happened there, but the lady did not seem to be very delighted. She kept going on about how she is constantly being ripped off. She was very proud not to have tipped anyone, because she lost so much money already.

From the border we jumped into a car owned by a person in the company which was responsible for taking us to the bus station towards Sihanoukville. We stopped on the way in a corner shop and the driver told us that we could now exchange our Thai baht into Cambodian riel. "Is good to exchange now, no is possible in Sihanoukville. No take Thai baht there". Right. "Is this a bank?", we asked, amused. "Yes, yes, private bank", he answered laughing. So it was obvious that it was again another quite common scam that you hear of all the time. The older lady and an older guy in the same car went directly to the counter and handed over their money. We thought about exchanging a small amount, 400 baht, just for the way, and the rest in Sihanoukville. We gave the money and without even telling the exchange rate the lady behind the counter started to count the riels. We asked how much the we would be getting, and after seeing the numbers on the calculator we wanted our money back. It was too ridiculous even for a small amount. She threw the money back at us. The driver was watching the situation, but never said a word about us not exchanging our money. We got back in the car and it turned out that the lady and other guy had lost about a third of their money, 16-20 euros out of 50. The rest of the journey the German lady was furious and refused to tip anyone.

Our bus arrived in Sihanoukville just at sunset and we saw about ten taxi and tuk-tuk drivers running towards the bus, competing for customers. Our hostel, Footprints, was located in the furthest corner of the city on Otres beach, about 6 or 7 kilometers out of town and even further away from the bus station. We took a taxi and looking for the hostel after a while we found out that it was located on the very end of Otres beach, already named Otres 2. Not much going on over there, which is quite what we like. The hostel was amazingly cozy with great atmosphere, with a selection of movies and good food. A bit noisy because of thin walls, but very good in every other way.

 

We spent most of our time relaxing on the beautiful white sand beach and reading books on the sofas. We also went to see the city and visited the local market and explored the surroundings by foot. It's quite small and easy get around walking. We were feeling a bit nostalgic about leaving the beaches soon for a few months, so we ended up following the beach all the way back. On the way we saw the popular Serendipity beach where most tourists decide to stay. It was full with sun chairs, music, bars, jet skis and not much for people who just want peace. Otres 1 beach was a little bit more to our liking, but still felt crowded. Once again we were happy with our chosen location.

And by the way, it was no problem getting rid of our bahts in Sihanoukville. Cambodia uses both riel and US dollars. So we got some dollars in a bank with a 3% commission instead of 30%.

 

One night we attended a party on the beach organised by few of the guys staying in the same hostel. It was a surprise party for their friend whose birthday it was. They collected money from everyone who wanted to join and they managed to get about 25 people. With the money they bought cheap booze and a cake. They also borrowed speakers and music player from the hostel! We joined the party, had a drink and talked to some people. After a short while we got a tip from an English guy that he had been swimming last night in the ocean and he couldn't believe his eyes when he started swimming. Right now, the ocean was full of bioluminescent plankton that glows in the dark when you move. (Read more about what it is: http://aquaviews.net/explore-the-blue/bioluminescent-plankton-what-makes-it-glow/# )

It was quite obvious what we had to do next. We had to go for a look. We walked to the shallows and started to splash the water with our feet. And we couldn't believe what we saw! Little shiny things were clearly visible in the crashing waves and also appeared with every splash we made! We had to get into the water. Apart from the party the beach was empty, so we walked a bit further away, took off our clothes and ran into the water like kids. It got better the deeper you went. These shiny things were everywhere. It looked like we were making little stars with every movement! We lost the track of time, just swimming and playing and being unable to believe how amazing it looked! We got out of the water when we were shivering with cold and just couldn't stay any longer. That was an absolute highlight on this whole trip. We walked back to find out that the party had pretty much ended already, but the guy who had told us about it was still there. We went to shake his hand and thanked for the advice before going to bed, still smiling.

 

Sabaidee!

The bus journey to Luang Namtha in Laos was everything but boring. Crossing the borders of China and Laos, frequent stops for local tourists and crowds of money changers made the trip interesting. As soon as we arrived in Luang Namtha we quickly saw that from now on we won't be the only white faces for a long time. So many tourists everywhere! For the first time in 6 months we joined the stream of thousands of tourists travelling north or south in Laos. And after a comment of a tourist who came to this place to "escape the crowds" we knew it won't get better further south.

Soon we started to enjoy the upsides of tourism, restaurants with English menus, English speaking locals, masses of guesthouses and hostels. "Sabaidee!", the greeting in Lao language together with a huge smile quickly made us feel very welcome in the new country. We were also happy to finally be able to exchange tips and stories with other travellers, too rare were those occasions so far.

One day we rented a motorbike and explored the area around the town, it was a beautiful day! The main reason that brought us to Luang Namtha though was the rainforest, the "Nam Tha national protected area" in particular which is supposed to be home to clouded leopards, tigers, elephants and birds. The main attraction for other travellers were the minority villages though. We checked out some travel agencies and searched for a tour WITHOUT visits or overnight stays in those villages. Harder than expected. We finally signed up for a 2 day, 1 night trekking tour. First we had to sign a form that released the agency, the town and the state of any responsibility. After arguing for about an hour we were allowed to exclude certain parts of the form. Not a good start.

We left the next day in the morning with a tuk-tuk. We drove for about an hour and stopped finally in a village next to a school. Our arrival made the round and soon we were surrounded by kids, curious but still a bit shy. They watched us fixing the backpacks for a last time, then we set off through the village and off into the surrounding rice fields. We walked quite a long time along a hill, rice fields beneath us and thick forest above. After a steep climb up a mountain we finally reached the rainforest or what they call rainforest. On this walk Anni asked the guide, an unexperienced, young receptionist (yes, that was his real job) what kind of animals we'll see over the next two days. "Animals? No animals. There are no animals." After that comment we were absolutely disappointed. There was no rainforest as we knew it from the Amazon (incomparable as we know by now) and no animals. The guide barely spoke english even if they said he will speak, there was barely enough vegetarian food for Anni even if they said there will be and his explanations were limited to comments like "there's a mushroom" or "look, bamboo". The overnight stop was in a house at a river, very nice setup but the house was in bad condition, no place to sit down, not enough material to fix the mosquito nets and no foam mattresses even if they said there will be. So we didn't see animals (except a green pit viper), we didn't eat good and we slept really bad. After all it was a big disappointment for us, we wouldn't do it again but everyone else seemed to enjoy it so we guess we were just spoiled by the amazing Amazon.

We then left for Luang Prabang in a minivan. 8 hours through the mountains with a driver that seemed to be in his own imaginary race, it wasn't fun. In Luang Prabang we found a hostel along the main road but a bit outside the main centre. We didn't do much mostly due to the incredible high temperatures and to stomach problems we were both suffering from after a day in town. Also is Luang Prabang quite expensive so we strolled around the town, visited a temple and read a lot. It is a very nice place with temples on every corner but also very touristy and therefore higher prices for everything. The main attraction for all the tourists is probably the night market. A whole street is closed from the evening on and hosts hundreds of tents with women selling everything a package tourist might want as a souvenir. Apart from useless dust collecting items they also sell all sorts of clothes, tea, coffee, bags and paintings.

Despite our original plan to skip it we then went to Vang Vieng. THE place in South East Asia they say. We heard more people telling us to stay away than encouraging us to go there. It's the place that was famous for the "tubing", to get drunk, high, and then float down the river in a black rubber tube. WAS famous. Now all the bars that were supplying the "tubers" with extra alcohol spiced up with opium and magic mushrooms on their journey had to close, their bars ripped down after over 20 tourists died in 2011. Now there's still a lot of party going on in town but now in town and not on the river as before. Also the tubing didn't stop and it's actually a nice idea if you do it with a clear head. There were some people leaving the river with their tube once in a while and not in masses like we saw on pictures, how it used to be. We stayed in a bungalow across the river for 40'000 kip/night (4€) and really enjoyed this place! It is famous for a reason and that reason is the beautiful landscape. The river, karst peaks, thick forest, everything green, it was a place to relax for us.

Next and last stop in Laos (for the moment) was Vientiane, the capital. It's relatively small for a capital and we liked it there. It was just unbelievably hot! Even just sitting in the shade made us sweat like never before. But we had a mission and that was to get 2 months visas for Thailand, our next destination. Together with an English friend we met on the bus we walked to the Thai consulate and applied for the visa. The next day we could already go back to pick the passports up and yes, we had the visa! It didn't say for how many days though and we couldn't get specific information about that. I asked a lady working there and she said that depends on the immigration officer on the border... So we hoped for the best.

We also sent once more clothes and souvenirs home, we decided to travel in "flip-flop countries" from now on so we got rid of some warm clothes we still carried around. Then we booked a bus straight to Chiang Rai in north Thailand but it soon turned out that it wasn't just a direct bus. First it was a huge kind of tuk-tuk that was overloaded with tourists to the bus terminal. There we then sat, waiting for the connecting bus with just a ticket to Udon Thani (we hoped) but nothing more. We didn't know which bus to take, where we were going now and how we could get on the next bus from Udon Thani to Chiang Rai. I've been to Thailand before and had these situations there before and it was never a problem, we still were nervous. Happily we met Peter, an older traveller from the states who had a note from the agency that said "Udon Thani, man with red shirt with number 16". That was already much more than we had! It all went well in the end. Got the bus to Udon Thani, crossed both borders without problems, and did find the guy in a red shirt and the number 16, holding tickets for all of us! The bus left 2.5 hours too late and the "first class" we booked looked like a random bus in Bolivia but all was good now. Soon we all fell silent, the bus noisily rattling us into sleep, everything so familiar to all the bus travels we've done before.

 

Highlight after highlight after highlight

After spending the night in Cobacabana it was time to hop on the bus. Jungle had been an absolute highlight and yet we were heading towards the next. It did not take long until we were at the Peruvian border, queueing to get another stamp in the passport. Border crossing turned out to be fairly easy, whole bus stayed together because of pickpockets and the short walk we had to take from Bolivian immigration office to the Peruvian one. Well organised and easy, and we had time to exchange the few pesitos we had into nuevo soles. When border formalities were over and done with, we hopped back into bus for an hour or so to switch buses in Puno. Puno is the main city from which to explore Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian side, but because we had already seen the lake, we kept going directly to Cusco.  

What was supposed to be a nine hour drive turned out to be twelve hours. Our plan to arrive during daylight failed, as usual. Not many times buses have been on schedule yet... Happy to arrive, we took our heavy backpacks loaded with jumpers, blankets and warm clothes and took a taxi to the hostel. Quick dinner and straight to bed.

Cusco is a nice city absolutely full of Inca ruins. There is a lot to do if you are interested in that sort of thing. We spent days just exploring he city, impressed by the architechture and skills of the Incas. We also visited a chocolate museum and spent time just sitting at the main plaza.

Like everyone else who comes to Cusco, we wanted to visit Machu Picchu, which has been a dream of mine since I heard of its existence. So we booked a bunch of tickets. First we took a bus to Ollantaytambo, about one and a half hours from Cusco, and stayed there for one night. Ollantaytambo is a cute little village on the way to Machu Picchu. We decided to go there, because we wanted to see as many ruins as we could fit in our budget and schedule without doing a tour. The ruins there were quite impressive, and we had a fun day climbing up and down the stairs and terraces, trying to guess the purpose of the buildings.

From Ollantaytambo we kept going to Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu. We heard that most tourists take the train from Cusco and arrive to Machu Picchu around 10am. We wanted to avoid the crowds the best we could, so we stayed in Aguas Calientes instead, planning to take the first bus at 5:30 am going up the hill to the ruins. When we woke up and got out of the hostel at 5:20, we noticed that about five hundred other tourists and backpackers had the same idea. The queue from the bus station was a few hundred metres already, and the end of it was right outside our hostel door! Luckily there are lots of buses, and they leave as soon as they are full, so it took us 20 minutes the most to get to the bus and the same time to reach the gates of Machu Picchu, so we got there well before sunrise like we planned.

We entered the gates inside the area, and first thing we did was climb up a hill to enjoy the view of the first rays of morning light hitting the ruins while having breakfast. Food at Machu Picchu is so expensive that we had decided to bring sandwiches and water despite all the forbidden-signs around the place. Good decision, since we planned to have a full day there. So we sat there a while and then headed for a guided tour that was included in the tickets. We spent almost two hours following the tour guide around the lost city until we got sick of the amount of other people and decided to get away from the crowds to have lunch and to climb up an Inca road to the Sun Gate, located up the hill providing another great view of the ruins. A nice walk, although the constant sunshine made it a bit harder than expected... We decided to relax at the much less crowded Sun Gate and wait for the biggest crowds to return back to the train before walking back to the main site. When we got back, we had glowing red sunburns all over, but still we decided to keep exploring the ruins in peace and quiet. So we walked around until the last buses started to leave towards Aguas Calientes, where we spent another night before heading back to Cusco.

Happy to have seen Machu Picchu but a bit bored of the altitude and the cold we still had almost a week in Cusco. We then decided to book another tour. Being sick of carrying full backpacks we decided to send some of our stuff home. After all, we were heading towards the warmer temperatures now.