Oops!

Long time no write... my mistake...

Where to begin??

this is going to be quick and spit fire so forgive me:

Vientiane in Brief:

-Met a friend. Had dinner with him at crazy good Indian Restaurant...
-Had lunch with him at absolutely dreadful street stall.
good good cultural fun.
-doughnuts in Vientiane= 8 for $1. seriously good.
-deep fried pork dumplings= 8 for $1. seriously dangerous!
-kim chi from the grocery store in a bag = my new fave!
-really nice hostel.
-Went to the stadium... totally dead. We did a lap of the track. A complete ghost town. Slightly eerie.
-Went to the museum... closed
-day marker was hectic
-bough eclipse in the wrong language. woops!

Overall impression of Vientiane:

Rocks. Totally loved it. One of our faves.

Vang Vieng in brief brief:

-lots of partiers...
-lots of mary jane...
-lots of cocaine...
-were going to go tubing but the weather had been brutal for 4 days before getting there and the water was dangerous...
-food stalls good
-iced coffee sublime!
-left after just one day

Overall impressin of Vang Vieng:

If it was not rainy season might have given it a better review... but it was, and therefore it sucked.

Luang Prabang in Brief:

-ride was horrifying.
-thought we would die
-life flashed before our eyes
-first night was in a single bed tiny room with gross blankets.. but what can you expect when you arrive at 2 am??
-first real day MUCH better. rewarded ourselves with an 'american breakfast'... walked around to travel places... I think this was the night that we met our friends from the bus (by the way, after our bus ride of death, all who were on the bus became kindred spirits for life)
-had dinner with them at a 'laos barbeque' place. really good and lots of fun!
-next day biked up a freaking mountain.... 30 km later we realized we were idiots in 45 degree heat.
-swam in a beautiful waterfall.
-saw some awesome bears
-walked past huge buffalo
-had dinner in an alleyway buffet (YUM!)
-met up with a friend from the bus (Asher) and booked an awesome trip for the next day.
-rode an elephant!
-kayaked in rapids!
-had dinner back in alleyway
-went out for drinks and made new friends
-flew to Bangkok!

Overall Impression of Luang Prabang: Beautiful! A bit more on the pricey side, but great!

Bangkok in Brief Brief:

-There for a day to pick up passport from the embassy
-had a nice lunch and sat for like 2 hours at the restaurant just because we were so darn tired. it was nice
-went back to the backpacker ghetto to book a trip the heck outta there.
-Stu bought some awesome soccer jerseys
-En Route to Krabi!

Krabi in Brief:
-Arrived yesterday. Totally beat after a 17 hour journey.
-Got completely and totally ripped off at a stupid travel place that had a monopoly. what were we to do but cry with our longtail boat between our legs.
-lots and lots of cats and kittens
-um, totally beautiful. lots of cliffs and a really crazy nice beach
-crabs galore
-cockroach in our room!!!
-a little on the expensive side, but this is a beach town!
-our first really good pad thai

Overall impression of Krabi:

When in Krabi go to Raylei ... really very nice and good. also, don't come in wet season... siiiiiiiiigh....

Books we're reading (Auntie Jane, we should discuss some day...):

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Girl who Played with Fire

Stu has read both, I've read the first one and am part way into the 2nd (and can't wait to hunker down tonight and polish off another hundred pages! Am I turning into a nerd!?!?)

The Road to Death!

WOW!

Remember way way back when, when Stu and I were on the horrifying death trip back from Tiger Leaping Gorge in China?
THIS WAS WORSE!

What a stark contrast from my emotions early in the drive.

We were meandering up a mountain side seeing the most picturesque views I have and probably will ever see in my lifetime.
Laos is stunning.
So beautiful it hurts.
Mountain ranges that seem to go on forever, bright green rice paddies, mountain side huts with beautiful children helping each other bathe in the communal tap. Little boys

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

When we met our friends Serina and Dan from England in Xi'an they were 3/4 of the way done their South East Asia/China trip.
They took pretty much the same route we are, except for they did it backwards, ending in China for their final month.
After we went to the Terracotta Warriors with them they spent the evening in the hostel and even ate dinner there. We didn't see them for the rest of the night because they were cooped up in their room!
I was horrified!
We had a whole DAY while they were inside. I remember it clearly! Biking atop the city wall, eating at a nice restaurant, walking aimlessly through the strange city streets.
I even said to Stuart, 'Can you imagine? Dan and Serina are staying in??'

And now, 3/4 of the way through our trip, I feel as though we are developing Dan and Serina syndrome. (However, most days we force ourselves to explore)
We are tired!
We are in desperate longing for western cuisine!
Our normal beds!
A beloved kitchen to cook in!

having said that...
We will hopefully snap out of it. We did spend the whole of today (pretty much, anyway...) exploring Vientiane.
We had AMAZING pizza at a little place that reminded Stuart of pizza he had in Italy (it was that good!)
We visited our friend that runs the internet cafe, tried hot and cold Laotian coffee.
We sipped from a coconut.
I made friends with our hotel service staff.

But I'm always tired.
No matter how much sleep I get!
and so is Stu.

I think tomorrow we're going to Vang Vieng.
It's supposed to rock.

Hopefully we'll be awake for it.

Laos-y!

We ended Thailand trip #1 (there will be two) with a 4 island snorkeling cruise off of Koh Chang

*Note: 'Koh' means island! and 'Chang' means Elephant!

and yes... there are elephants on the island!
none that we rode... but they're there!
Not wild... just hanging out.

The islands were beautiful! The water and the beach were (surprisingly) exactly what they showed us on the brochure!
Snorkeling was fun for about an hour, but truth be told, Stu and I would've been satisfied after island #1.
BUT, lying on the very front of the boat in my bikini with the sun beating down on me? There is really nothing better.
Wait, the only thing that could be better would be if I had pineapple and watermelon...
and I had pineapple.
And watermelon.

Are you jealous?

After our day long trip out on the blue blue sea, we decided to go out for Mexican! We'd been craving Mexican and talking about it for an hour...

we walked and walked and walked only to find a:

"CLOSED ON MONDAYS" sign.

It was Monday.
and it was closed.

We ended up eating great thai food though and got a spicy spicy salad from a street vendor on our way home. Yum!

Our LONGEST trip yet:

We rose at 6:30...
took a taxi at 7:30...
Got on a ferry at 8:30...
Arrived at Trat at 9:30...
waited for a bus until 11:15
rode a bus to bangkok until 6:15...
got on ANOTHER bus at 7:00 pm...

Next day:
got to the Thai border...
switched buses...
and arrived in Vientiane at 9:30 am.

VERY long journey, but here we are: Laos! Never thought we'd see the day!

Laos is aces all 'round.
Our place is nice and has breakfast included along with coffee all day and cake in the afternoon.

We had some mean Indian food for lunch and walked around the city.

Laos has the 'best coffee in the world' so iced coffee prices are out of this world!
You would not believe how many tourists are here if I told you.
You are thinking: Laos? Really? Wait, where is that? Is that a city? (at least I'm sure some of my friends are googling 'Laos' wondering where on the map it is) but out here in SE Asia, everyone is either going to Laos or talking about it.

So now that we're here, we'll probably rent bikes tomorrow and venture out. We both had a bit of a rough sleep last night so maybe we'll just take 'er easy this evening.

So nice to settle down again for 2 days in our 'new home' !

R to the izzane

Rain.
Again.

Last night I had a wonderful time with new girlfriends.
5 of us (4 girls and poor stu) went out to dinner for a couple hours and then moved on to another place for drinks (well, in stu and my case french fries because the drinks were soooo expensive) when the other place closed.
We stayed there til closing chit chatting and telling stories. Lots of fun.

Highlight of yesterday.

Especially since the rest of the day was completely dreary.
I think we took 4 trips to the 7/11.
Dreary and rainy.

Not much else to report.

I Love the Rolling Stones

I just spent way too much money on an iced americano...
but it's raining, this computer is nice, and Stuart is still sleeping.
I am looking at a guy wearing a skirt on TV in this coffee shop. Asia is HUGE for thinking crossdressers are like the funniest form of comedy.

Time to reveal something!

I had been super sick for a whole week, which is part of the reason we stayed in Bangkok so long. But, as of yesterday, miracle of miracles, I'm better!!!
I didn't want to say anything and have my mom worry because I thought it was just bad food poisoning and apparently I was right ... (or something...)

Today, and last night, really, we are in Kho Chang!

Beach town of beach towns!

Expensive, too! Can't find a proper iced coffee for under 2 dollars!
Where have all the street vendors gone???

Decent beach, but quite similar to the ones in Cambodia I think!
I miss that massage was cheap in Cambodia... should've gotten one...

I realized something: When people were telling me that massages are 'SOOO cheap in Thailand!' before we left, that they were really saying 'SOOO much cheaper than Canada' not 'SOOO much cheaper than other South East Asian Countries'

Drat!

Yuck! My iced americano just came and it tastes like I'm back at Starbucks.. siigh, why do they try to westernize?? why!??!

Coffee is my favorite thing about traveling. Pretty sure if I do get a chance to write articles about SE Asia, one will entirely be dedicated to coffee.

A runner just ran by.
Running!! I miss you!!!

Even if it takes me 3 years, I have determined that Ironman training WILL start in 2010!

Speaking of which:
At one of the crazy Bangkok malls we saw the New Balance store was having a crazy sale!
70% off ALL APPAREL!
Of course, since all the malls are intensely expensive, most of the stuff was picked through.
But I did get an awesome running outfit (black and pink shorts, black tank) including the perfect sports bra, for just 30 dollars!
Non runners, you won't think it's that great, but runners, you know that a good new balance sports bra itself is upwards of 50 dollars!

Our trip here was SO LONG!
It seems like all of them are like that...
Stuart and I were reminising about our very worst journey and that was DEFINITELY from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, and I started writing an article about it just because it was so miserable that it's completely hilarious.

Let me tell you about the room we got:

First we looked with these girls from Denmark at places along the beach ('bungalow style') NOT as wonderful as you're picturing in your head.
I always had it in my head that I wanted to stay at a 'beachfront bungalow'.. but no more!

Oh so rustic...
Kho Chang is very jungely...
which means a pretty much infinate amount of mammels, reptiles, bugs, and arachnids can be found here...
that being said, most of the 'rustic bungalows' opened up to the outside, or had huge spaces under the door leading to outside... where the creatures are...

The woman at one bungalow we stopped at said when she was showing me the room "Animals can get in because it's open, but the good thing is, they can get out, too. If you're in a closed room and an animal is in there from the beginning, it's not going anywhere."
EWW!
and then she paused "It's filthy, really. Really not healthy here." (She was white, middle aged, and I'm guessing, not the owner).
We saw another place that was absolutely beautiful right by the beach... but it was 700 baht... (around 22 dollars) A little over our budget.

We saw this crappy place up by the road... at least it looked crappy from the outside.
We saw a room, a heavenly, beautiful, perfect room:
HUGE, big bed (one bed, finally!!!), big TV, wooden dresser, clean and spotless bathroom with hot water, AC, a table and chairs, and a balcony!!!

500 baht.
More like it, but we knew it was low season.

"We'll give you 400" I said.
"I can not" she said.
"We can't stay here for 500, too expensive."
"We have fan rooms for 300."
"Nope, we're taking air con. 400. For 3 nights, okay?"
"450"
"400"
"I can not. 450. Final."
By this point I think Stu was on the verge of giving up.
We were about to leave and I turned back and said,
"400. Right now. Cash for 3 nights, that's 1200 baht. Okay? 400."
"You stay 4 nights."
"We don't know if we're staying 4 nights. 3 nights, maybe 4, okay?"
"Okay, she said. 400."

VICTORY!
I'm getting good at this bartering thing!
(finally!!!)

Anyway, it's beautiful and perfect and so cheap for this island!

I'm thinking of interviewing someone down at the beach today... maybe one of the fire guys... that might be hard though.
There's these guys that did a fire performance last night on the beach that was freaking awesome.. but who knows if they speak english.
My next best bet, I think, is the expat with the 'unhealthy' bungalows.

We'll see!

The roads here are VERY steep and windey... and yesterday we were in a 'taxi' crammed with about 18 people (it was a pick up with benches in the back that moved as we drove) and three guys were hanging on the back... it was scary! and I'm pretty sure they were scared too (tourists, not locals). That driver must've made a killing though, charging us each 50 baht!

Ok, I was due for a decent update, and there it is!
ps the title has nothing to do with the update... but I do love the Rolling Stones.
I can't get no satisfaction, baby!

downtown!

Stuart and I hit downtown Bangkok
amazing!

AMAZING!

So fancy! So high class! Never seen anything like the malls of downtown.

I'm too tired to write much... but I'll write some.

Spent 2 days ago at the Canadian Embassy...
LONG time waiting, but we had a BLAST playing all sorts of card games in the waiting area. Missed playing cards and wondered why we hadn't done it in so long.
Stuart is the worlds best.
We have never had so much fun with each other as we have in Bangkok. I think this is my favorite memory with Stuart so far in our relationship.

We went and saw The A-Team yesterday at the fanciest movie theatre ever!
We both gave it 3/5.
BUT... to be fair, it was a really fun/over the top movie! I would probably see it again.
I tried to convince him to see Eclipse with me but he wouldn't :(

I bought some MAC loose eye shadow in the mall and it's SO pretty.
Mom, if you're reading this, I got some for you and Sharalin!
Even if you're not reading this... I still got you some...

I got some tank tops for about a buck each and they're so pretty!

what else...

we both have no appetite in Bangkok for some reason. Maybe it's the heat or something...

we ate at burger king in the mall. I think that might be my new favorite fast food.
I know what you all are thinking "vanessa, eating a burger?!?!"
but you try eating ethnic food day and night, night and day! A vegetarian would be crying for a whopper!

not sure what else is new.
the place we're staying is really nice.
shared bathroom though, but it's really clean and good.
our air conditioner is either freezing or doesnt work. take your pick.
BUT the beds are nice... but rock hard and the blankets are gross.
Maybe the place isn't that great after all... but it seems great somehow... probably because we've struck out with some of our other places recently.
The showers have warm water, that's a plus!

Oh, getting back to the embassy thing...
I have to renew my stinkin passport which costs an arm and a leg out here because I don't have a gaurantor. BUT it saves the hassle of having to do it back in Canada and waiting forever, right?

It has to be 6 months valid and it's only 6 months valid until august 15. soooo close, and yet, so far from the end of our trip!

I'm not homesick, but for the time being, I feel like I'm so done with traveling. I just want to stay in one spot.. I think that's part of the reason we've been in Bangkok for like 5 days... we both just have a craving to stay in one spot and settle down.
BUT
tomorrow we head for Kho Chang which is supposed to be amazing for snorkeling and scuba!

BANG! kok

LOVE it.

Our bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok was just $8... but for a reason...
SO hot... SO long... SO inefficient. BUT... we're HERE!

Spent last night wandering the infamous Kho San strip and eating street food (pad thai) in an air con McDonalds!

fun night, but we were deadly tired from the night before and from rising early for our million hour bus ride. We went to bed around 11:30 in hopes of waking at 1:30am for the world cup game.
Woke up around 2:00am and dragged our butts back out in the street where we felt sick, boiling hot, and were chairless (it was PACKED). Deliriously we headed back to our bed and decided that we'll stay up for tonight's game instead.

Today thus far...

GREAT day so far.
Woke up and had eggs and toast. Coffee SUCKS here... well, at least the coffee I had.

We split a WHOPPER of a pitcher of watermelon shake which was amazing!
Spent hours there talking about our trip so far.

Stu went back to the room (not feeling too well) and I wandered around shopping.
A guy asked me if I wanted a tattoo, so I went to his parlor out of curiosity and ran into 2 huge guys who gave me an absolutely KILLER story for the newspaper (I think I'm getting my hopes up too high...) Interviewed the guys, took pictures, exchanged info and went back to the hotel.

(The guy's story involves spending a day in a Thai prison... which is why he was in the tattoo parlor, getting 'I've been to jail in Thailand' tattooed on his forearm)

Went back out and looked for a bank that wouldn't charge us a huge fee but to no avail.

The end (so far...!)

Weary Templers

What's up Chilliwack?

This morning we left for Angkor Wat bright and early... well, it wasn't supposed to be bright, but it was getting there... and fast.

Turns out our wake-up 'sunrise' call didn't come at the time we requested....

HOWEVER it was JUST beginning when we hopped on our bikes and headed the 7km (at 5:15am no less) to Angkor Wat.

We biked as fast as we could. Half way I began to feel quite ill.

As soon as we got to Angkor Wat, the famous creme de la creme of Cambodia...
...such a source of national pride that it is displayed front and centre on their flag...

I puked. At Angkor Wat. Front entrance.

Just me, Stu, and hundreds of other tourists and sales people.

Adorable, right?

It was okay after that. Sunrise was quite nice and we got a killer deal on breakfast because EVERYONE was vying for our attention.

Stuart and I accomplished what they say can not be done: we saw (almost) the entire small circuit AND big circuit in ONE, count it, ONE day on bikes!

Mind you, it was long... it was a COOKER... but it was actually pretty fun!

The roads going from temple to temple are lined with huge shady trees and if you're lucky, monkeys!

We were lucky!! We saw a whole monkey colony hanging out on the sides of the street!
And when Stu looked up... what did he see?
An ADORABLE baby kitten in a small tree.
It was the cutest picture.
Little kitten up a little tree, surrounded by little monkeys.
Everything's better in minature.
Well.. not EVERYTHING, but at least furry animals.

The temples were pretty sweet.
I mean, they're a wonder of the world so they'd better be sweet!
I think it was cooler than stone henge.
It cost a LOT to get in... but our bikes were a buck a pop so I think we were okay.

We ended up getting an illegal tour guide for $1 for a little while to show us around Bayon. It was fun but totally weird because everytime he saw a Cambodian he walked way ahead of us like he wasn't with us so he wouldn't get busted.
But the real tour guides were like $10 and this guy knew his stuff so we were okay.

At the end of our tour with him Stuart and I were mauled by red ants. They bite hard!

Next:

Our lunchtime goal was to get iced coffee four for a dollar. I told Stu he was crazy and that three for a dollar would even be amazing.

We got to the stalls (which we heard were quite pricey) and women everywhere were BEGGING us to eat at their stall.

They argued with one another (not even us!) making the price lower and lower and lower... it was then that Stuart moved in with his proposal: 4 iced coffee's for 1 dollar.

BAM!

We got our meals for $1.00 and four iced coffee's for a dollar! Cést trés impressive, non?

We spent the remainder of our time there talking to a little girl who I ended up interviewing. (I MAY have a little gig with the Langley Advance writing travel stories... MAY, don't spread it around)
After interviewing her I got pictures of her alone, with me, her family, etc.
She sells flutes in one of the stalls, her sister persuades people to come to the stalls, her mom cooks, and her dad owns it.
We talked about their house, their family life, what they do for fun, how much they work, her aspirations, etc.
Then Stu and I went to her school and I talked to a teacher there about the school, poverty, etc. Took pictures of him and some students and the school.

It was totally fun!

We powered through the rest of the temples, but I have to say, the part that was the most fun for me was the biking around. It was beautiful. The second best: all the trees that were growing over the stones of the temple with their roots drooping over. It looked awesome!

Took some pictures and had a full full day...

I think we were there for about 14 hours.

Worth it? I think so. Looking back it was loads of fun and pretty spectacular.

The Siem Reaper

Blah, it's soooo hot.
My head pealed yesterday! I looked like I had a skin disease!
Better now.

Yesterday we did a whole lot of biking around and exploring downtown Siem Reap!
It's a fun little town... all tourists...
markets by day... markets by night...
food from Khmer to Pizza to Mexican to French
Things cost significantly more here and that can be attributed to it's booming tourism.
It's not even high season right now and the place is PACKED with whitey's.

Not my favorite place, but then again, we haven't seen it's draw yet: angkor wat.

Yesterday we had mexican for lunch. Margaritas and tacos.
Great tacos.
Sad, sad margaritas.

Wandered around the markets and bought fans. (I know, right?! But it was SO HOT!)

Went back to our beautiful air con room to wait out the heat of the day.
We were going to watch the sun set at Angkor Wat... but we were too late...
We had to go to a bank first but we couldn't find one close by... the sun was getting lower and lower and Angkor was a 7 km bikeride from where we were. siiigh.

BUT we made up for it by having an AMAZING pizza at ''Pizza Company" Something we hadn't done since our Pizza Hut splurge in China.

They had a salad bar (over priced) and you were only allowed to fill up this little dinky bowl. Stuart and I decided to make it our mission to jam as much as we could, and stack as high as we could.
It was fun... but then the manager came and said "You are two people?" and I defensively and nervously said "No!'I'm eating this myself!"
... but he wasn't busting us, just moving us to a smaller table, fewf!

Biked around for a little bit, walked for a little bit, then chatted with our bike rental lady (who is HILARIOUS) before heading home to watch the game (which was on at 1:30)
Needless to say, I fell asleep before 12.

The End!

2 pictures... because it's soooo slow

Shanghai... very early i the morning (hence the messy hair and fake looking smiles)

Angkor What??

FINALLY

It was a harrowing journey, but at last we have arrived: Siem Reap.

Yesterday we were on a bus to PP for 5 hours (no bathroom) and made bi-hourly stops to squatter toilets. What a pleasure!

We got off the bus to find that we'd missed our next bus by 15 minutes. Thanks driver. thanks a lot!

There was another coming in 45 minutes so Stu found an internet cafe while I chased down (literally chased down, he was biking down a busy street) an iced coffee vendor. (Iced coffee makes everything better).

Our next bus was supposed to take between 5 and 6 hours and ended up taking more like 7 and a half.

When we arrived it was late. The sky was dark and the mosquitos were buzzing.

A tuk tuk driver took us to some place. I don't know what the name is, but he gets commission to take people here and that's where we are now.
Our room was the grossest room we've ever stayed in last night.

Dead bugs on the bed
Pillows that literally crunched (what caused the texture? no idea)
The walls looked like they were rotting
The share bathrooms had interesting hairs on their wet floors

Way over priced. Four dollars?! Are you KIDDING?!

The place we stayed in Sihinukville had 2 big beds, private bathroom, and was clean with a TV for 4 bucks!

Anyway, tonight they're moving us to an.... AIR CON ROOM! It's way more expensive and in their actual hotel!

(the place we stayed was some concrete building BY the hotel. Mom, I can just see you cringing)

Anyway, today off to explore Siem Reap.
Tomorrow, off to Angkor Wat!

Caught by the Po Po

Stuart and I got busted by the police yesterday.
It was kind of scary!
They pulled us over into these bushes and there were like 5 of them.
We had rented a motorbike and the popo said we needed a Cambodian license.
We obviously didn't have one.
They tried to make us fork over $50...
we ended up giving them 7.5
Stupid motorbike! Stupid police! Stupid no license!

BAM!

Oh mosquitos, won't you leave me alone?!

KEP!

There once lived a lazy beach town far far away...
a town where no one got off the bus except for Stuart, me and two old ladies.
A town where there are only 3 tuk tuk drivers.
A town where monkeys roam free.
A town where nearly every guest house is wildly overpriced even in low season.
This town is a town where Stuart and I ate fresh crab and watched the sun set at a crappy little shack and did not get sick.
A town where skinny black dogs sat beside us and begged for scraps.
Where our sink leaked.
Where there were rules in our room prohibiting sexual activity.

A town that we had to get out of...
FAST!

Rabbit Island!

We got a killer deal on a boat trip to Rabbit Island (about 5 km from Kep).
So, after cramming the boat with supplies for the Island restaurants and a few locals, along with 6 tourists, we took off (sloowly) on a wooden boat that putted us to the magical beach.
BEAUTIFUL and quite secluded, we spent about 7 hours lazing around. Had breakfast, lunch, and a nice swim.
Very picturesque.
Very worth it.
We met some guy from Australia who said he was going to move to Cambodia for a while (you meet such hippi's traveling, I'm telling you!) but I tried to convince him to live in Vietnam and told him it was cheaper.

The boat ride home was unreal...
thought I would die.
the water was HUGELY choppy and the boat was, well, a little Cambodian putt putt boat.
I even wore one of their nasty life jackets!

That night we got on a bus and headed for my new favorite place in the world: Sihanouke Ville

HERE's where all the hippi's go to retire from hippi-ing!

First night we stayed in a crummy place with an annoying rip offing owner, and I don't even wanna TALK about it. haha.
BUT
now we're at a decent place with pillows that don't feel like you're sleeping on 10 pairs of socks.

the beaches are sick.
the people are awesome.

It's rainy season so that kind of bites.
but to be fair, yesterday was perfectly sunny and we spent practically the whole day at the beach burning ourselves to a crisp... walking to downtown (a little further than we thought!)... and watching the sunset back at the beach with dinners of noodles, chicken, rice, calamari and deep fried shrimp. YUM!!!

I met this CRAZY lady yesterday and drank some funky Cambodian whiskey with her out of a plastic water bottle... we chased it with some sour vegetable with spicy powder. it was DEADLY! and hilarious... because the crazy woman was hilarious...

Tried to watch the soccer game in the evening... but I fell asleep after Deutchland's first goal... but it was a good goal.. right?! So I'm okay with that.

Today it's rainy (hence all the writing).

Happy Independence Day to all you Yankees out there!