in Paris??

Okay, I feel like I'm in Paris at the moment, but more about that in a bit...

I'm on my own now and things are still going very well. The morning after the last post we took an early morning shuttle to the border (felt like we were being smuggled as it was almost literally the back of a pickup truck an hour before sunrise) and then a boat into Cambodia to a small town on the coast called Sihoukville. No doubt it will be an up and coming resort town, but for now it's still a town in the making. We got a nice place with a wicked wide and winding teak staircase up to the second floor and a tuk-tuk (half cab, half scooter, half ATV - ooops, that doesn't add up, does it?) driver that hung out with us for much of our stay (he no doubt gets big comissions when he brings us to restaurants, etc.). We hung out on the beaches, ate good food, rented scooters and caused troubles. Mr. McGeehan and I shared a scooter and he nearly killed me taking a high speed turn onto a gravel road (didn't know it was gravel until well into the turn) and wisely decided he was going to fast for the turn and went into a lockup and skidded to the edge of the road. He drove slower after that... Other highligts were meeting 3 Canadian girls and going out to a dance club where we were the only farangs (foreigners). The local girls would come over and dance with the girls and the local boys would come over and dance with Sam and I... very strange!! All in all, quite a poor town, though some folks from the club left in a decked out Hummer - probably 10,000 times the average annual income.

Next to Phnom Penh (via the bus) for a few days and nights... PP is the capital of Cambodia, but nothing like the neighbouring Thailand... more a slower, less affluent capital. There were some fun bars and had a good time, but only spent 2 days here as we had high expectations for the next destination.

Next and final destination in Cambodia was Siem Reap / Angkor Wat. SR is the city and Angkor Wat are a bunch of old Wats (aka temples). Each one is incredible and there are literally dozens scattered around over many kilometers of roads and trails. We rented 2 tuk-tuks for the first day and they drive you around to ruins and wait for you while you go wander through the ruins, climb the Wats, etc. The 2nd day we did similar but we rented electric bikes and toured about on our own. Siem Reap is also quite nice with a miniature Ko San Road (bar/restaraunt strip in Bangkok). We had some really good food here and were big spenders and split a bottle of wine. This was also my last night with the gang as the next day everyone left early in the AM to catch the sunrise and Angkor Wat while I jumped on a plane to Vietiane in Laos.

So now we get to the Paris thing... Vietiane is the capital of the former French colony and as such, has an Arc de Triumphe, a Chanse D'Elysee, and more bakeries selling pastries than I've seen in the past year. There are also loads of Wats and walks along the Mekong and I think I walked 20 km during the heat of the day (yes, I didn't really know where I was for much of the walk, but I also didn't try to figure it out that much). I met a Quebecois guy during the day and then an American girl from Sacramento in the evening and we went out and partied it up. Alas, I was only in Vietiane for 1 afternoon, 1 night and 1 morning as this was technically a stop-over on the flight to Luang Praubang.

So I'm just finishing up my 2nd day in LP and having a great time. Met another Canadian last night and we hung out and then did a slow boat trip today to some caves and a couple towns up the Mekong River. A nice relaxing day. I'll give more details on LP in a couple days, but right now I've exceeded my writing time, a Beerlaos is calling my name, and I must make it to the bookstore to exchange the 3 books I have read since I have no more :(

Hope all is well back home. I seem to get very few emails so either people:

A. are not reading my blog

B. find my blog completely impersonal and aren't enthused to reply or email in response

C. have forgotten about me after only 3 weeks

D. all of the above

:)