Andrea

June 7 – June 12, 2014 Memories Flamenco Resort, Cayo Coco, Cuba We spent 5 days in Cayo Coco this year. Cayo Coco is an island in the middle of Cuba. The island is only inhabited by 10 resorts and is an hour away from the main land (city called Morón) where the locals live. As the island is mostly undeveloped the wildlife is beautiful. The beaches are pristine. There are millions of different fish right off the beach at the resort. We spent our days between snorkelling on the bea [...]

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The Last day. Hard to believe how fast 15 days goes. The contiki tour officially ended at 6 am this morning, but a group from the tour had late flights so we stuck together to explore. We got the hotel to organize a van for us to go our to see Banteay Srei, or the Pink Lady Temple. This temple is only major temple at Angkor not built by a monarch. It is constructed of red sandstone. It was a smaller temple then the ones that we saw yesterday. I’m not sure if I would advise other travellers [...]

So today we were checking off another big bucket list item, see the sunrise at Angor Wat (which means “Temple City” or “City of Temples” in Khme)r. Angor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It was cool to see something that was made by hand in the 12th Century stand the test of time. We got up at 5am and took a bus from our hotel to the Angor Wat parking lot. From there we walked in pitch black (no stars, no city light air pollution) with only our flashlights to guide us. W [...]

We found a tour outside of Contiki to take us to a Phnom Penh morning market for breakfast. We took Tuk Tuks to the market at 6 am, and met with our new guide Duckie. She introduced us to the best Cambodian doughnuts I have ever had. I still crave them, they don’t put icing on their doughnuts they top them with hot toffee. Yum. Then we went and tried noodle salad for breakfast. Not my fave for a breakfast option but when in Cambodia. We then proceeded to jump on a plane an flew for an h [...]

Another thing to note, going through customs into Cambodia was terrifying compared to Thailand or Laos. They scanned each of our finger prints and checked if we were flagged for any travel alerts. Just be prepared. Today was also going to be another heavy history day. First stop was The Killing fields. In 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as profes [...]

Today was another driving day – so lets skip that part because I don’t remember it. We arrived at Vientiane I think around 1 or 2, and went to the Laos equivalent of Williams coffee for lunch. I point that out because after recently discovering a dish called laap, all of us were disappointed by western food. After that we went to the COPE centre to learn about the bombings that happened during the Vietnam War. Laos sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War so the Americans used La [...]

Nothing says trip of a life time, like having breakfast beside the river over looking the mountains. This was paradise. This was also going to be a big day. Our tuk tusk arrived at 9 to take us on our Cave Tubbing and Kayaking adventure and we were off! The Tuk Tuks dropped us off at the river, and we had to cross a rice field to  get to the caves. At the caves, we were all given head lamps, and a tube. We then lined up to follow the guide rope into the cave. the Cave pretty much allowed u [...]

Yet another long day of driving. Today was 6-7 hours of driving. With most roads looking like the ones in the photo above (aka lots of twists and turns up and down the mountains.) We used the time wisely and realized that you could make lots of great Laos puns. No puns a-Laos You win some you Laos some These puns a Laos-y I am at a Laos Alls fair in Laos and War OK – you get it – if you spend some time thinking about it you can come up with a lot of puns. We stopped on the top of o [...]

Day 8 was a big day. One of the optional excursions on our trip was to give alms to the monks in Luang Prabang. As a monk, you spend your day devoting yourself  to Budda, you are not allowed to cook. So in order to eat, the monks walk the streets every day at 6 am with big gold urns, looking for alms. The people of Laos give alms daily. For them it is part of their routine. They do it of the good karma it makes. The women of the family get up at 4 am to make the sticky rice for the monk [...]

So we were told that we might be able to wake up and see elephants drinking in the river if we got up early. So we bought croissants the night before, and got up at 5:50 am to see the elephants. We watched the sun rise, but still the elephants were hiding. They finally showed up at 7 am. Which was amazing – but wish I had a little more sleep. Luckily we had a boat ride to nap on. We took the boat until we arrived at the Budda Cave, also know as the Pak Ou Caves. The legend is that as lon [...]

Another big travel day. However very excited to see the rice fields in Northern Thailand. The drive from Chiang Rai to Laos was beautiful. While most of the bus was seeping off a late night, I enjoyed seeing what the far corners of Thailand were like. It something to check off the bucket list. Reaching the Thai boarder and checking into Laos was an interesting experience. We checked out of the Thai boarder, boarded a boat, and crossed the Mekong River to Loas. It took about 6 minutes [...]