Amazing Angkor Wat, lake people, Cambodian history and finally, beaches!

I tackled Angkor Wat in a day on the bike, even though it meant cycling out to the temple site at 4:30 in the morning through the jungle in complete darkness. By 4 pm I had seen everything I wanted to see and I wasn't even going in a rush. I had "prepared" by watching Tomb Raider the day before and this temple overgrown by massive trees was my absolute highlight!

I was equally impressed by the floating villages on Tonlé Sap lake. I booked the ferry down to Battambang and was not at all expecting such an interesting trip (the main attraction of the boat ride is supposedly bird watching - I found the people watching much more engaging, they happily let you look into their living rooms from the passing boat!)

Whole towns are floating on this massive lake which is changing its level by 12 m during the year. Since fishing season was on we could see them moving massive bamboo constructions with fisher nets up and down, it was truly fascinating.

Battambang itself is not really touristy, it certainly felt more "real" than Siem Reap. I spent an afternoon with 2 street kids, which was quite an experience. For 1 day I hired a motorbike guide, Tha, (he can be found at the Chaya hotel), who showed me around the area. He was a really nice guy and very knowledgeable. His family had suffered tragic losses through the Khmer regime in the 70ies and he could still remember being in a refugee camp at the Thai border when he was little. We visited the Killing Caves, where thousands of people, including children and babies, were killed by being thrown down into the caves. The atmosphere felt oppressive down there, they still have not even recovered all the bones.

We closed the day with the spectacle of the bat cave - a cave, where every evening for about 1 hour, you can witness a stream of bats exiting the cave. Locals say there are millions of bats.

With some extra days to spend before flying down to Kuala Lumpur I decided to visit the island of Koh Chang again. I'd been there 10 years ago and would not have recognized the place anymore. Lonely Beach is far from being lonely - the village transforms into a wild party zone by night. Their full moon party was not too bad at all. After 2 nights I had enough and went to Long Beach by motorbike, which might some day become the next Lonely Beach, once they build a road there. At the moment you need to be fearless and/or very skillful on the motorbike (I was neither but miraculously I survived).

Christmas in Kuala Lumpur, except they don't really celebrate Christmas here, but with the hot and humid temperatures I won't really get into Christmas mood anyway!

CAMBODIA - KOH CHANG PHOTOALBUM

Laos II

Within the last 2 weeks I had the 2 worst bus journeys ever, the first one was 4 hours of agony on a bumpy road, trapped on the back bench of a beaten up minivan from Oudomxay to Nong Khiaw (with the mandatory several puking-out-of-the-window Laotians you'll have on every bustrip).

It wasn't the luckiest part of the trip: boat traffic to Luang Prabang was suspended - so no chance to see this famous stretch of the Nam Khan river from the boat. The only boat trip I did in the end was to Muang Gnoi, 1 hour upriver from Nong Khiaw. Nevertheless, it was very picturesque, Nong Khiaw is a nice chilled-out village (no cars), but unfortunately it started to rain and got really chilly at night. Next morning I heard all trekking tours to the surrounding limestone mountains were cancelled because of dangerously slippery paths and leeches. I was not tempted to venture out by myself.

So the only thing to do was to take a bus to Luang Prabang, the lovely French-colonial capital of the province. And there were lots of treats to have in this town: Lao massages, food in all variations (even though I saw some pretty gross things at the local market - check out the pics), and my favorite: the fish spa! Also plenty of Wats (temples) and the traditional ceremony of the alms-giving to the monks at 6 a.m.

Next stop: party town Vang Vieng. Was fun, met nice people, saw caves, swam in lagoon, went on tube & kayak and had more Lao and LaoLao than was good for me. So next leg: down south to tranquil 4000 islands for some recovery.

Spent the next couple of days exploring the island of Don Det and Don Khon and another day of rather demanding but fun kayaking, saw an excessive amount of waterfalls (impressively big ones, though) and even some of the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins.

Next was traumatic bus journey number 2: to Cambodia, more precisely to Siem Reap (the town of the famous Angkor Wat temples). Excessively bumpy roads, overbooked bus, 20 hours instead of 15, only 1 short break for food, deep-freezing air-condition, plus I got rather ill, so no fun at all. So now, after 2 days of recovery and changing all my travel plans I will finally undertake the big temple project tomorrow, until I'm "templed-out", as they say.

***NEW PHOTO ALBUM ***

From Bangkok into Laos

The 7-hour stopover in Amman was nevertheless enjoyable because I had my very personal tourist guide from the Royal Jordanian airline to take me out for a delicious dinner and a night-cruise through the city (don't ask how that came about :)

Bangkok - boiling hot, permanent traffic jam, only 1 out of 15 taxi drivers we stopped agreed to turn on the meter... But nice guest house directly at the river, only to be reached by wooden walking bridges.

My destination was Laos, however, so after a night on a luxurious VIP bus, with every possible comfort except for the non-stop snoring Thai in the row in front of me, I arrived at the Mekong river and crossed the border by boat.

I managed to secure a space in the amazing Gibbon Experience, the most exhilarating zip-lining I've ever done. Cables between 400 and 600 m, you're 60 m above the jungle, flying in a speed that makes your ears tingle! What was almost more amazing: the oldest of our group was an 83-year-old Swedish gentleman.

Next stop: Muang Sing near the Chinese border. Visit of Akha villages, the hill tribes of the region. Hardly any tourists there, some villages get foreign visitors about once a month. People did not really seem to be interested in us, or maybe they were shy. Lots of poverty in a picturesque setting, kind of like India. Certainly interesting was the visit in the Whiskey village, where they produce the national drink: rice whiskey or "Lao-Lao". It actually tastes like hazelnut schnapps and is now my next favorite drink after Beerlao (amazingly good beer!).

Stopover today in Oudomxay, another unpronouncable town, to continue to Nong Khiaw tomorrow - a picturesque village in the limestone mountains.

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