2012-02-08T22:29:39Z Joe & Miranda Durbin Copyright 2012, Joe & Miranda Durbin SPHPBLOG
So, we looked around Duluth and weren't having much luck. We then decided to make a drive out to Montana to visit Pat and Nancy and then continue the drive to Washington to look there. Again, we didn't have much luck, so back to Minnesota we went.

Eventually we found a place not far from Pike Lake. It's a bit farther out of town than we were hoping, but it's on 4.7 acres on a dead end road, which is great for the kitties. Right now we don't really have furniture, but it will be great once we get things set up better.

-Miranda


The house.

The kitchen. This is the only room that's really put together.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry111215-151808 2011-12-15T00:00:00Z 2011-12-15T00:00:00Z
Anyway, Sandra's flight was leaving at midnight. We decided to just head to the airport with her and hang out in the arrival area to wait until we could check in. After saying goodbye to Sandra we tried to nap, but were pretty much unsuccessful. Around 3am, we headed to the check-in counter which looked completely different than it did when Sandra had checked in. Delta completely took over the area. We waited in line to talk to a security person who asked us the normal "Who packed your bags", "Did anyone give you anything" etc etc. After we got past that, we waited in another line where we finally got to check-in and check the bags. We then walked to immigration, where we waited in line again. After that, we went to security. No line there really. I guess immigration took longer than security, so that was quick.

Once we were in the airport, we walked for a while towards our gate. Then waited in line yet again to go through more security. Here they patted everyone down and looked in our carry on bags... What would have changed from the time we went through the first security to there is beyond me. Then we waited in line to get on the plane. It took basically 2 hours.

Our first flight was 6 hours to Tokyo. Once there, we got off the plane, went through security again with our carry on bags (again, what changed since we got on the plane?) then found our gate and hopped on that plane. That flight was 9 hours. Woohoo! We were able to sleep a little on the first flight and even less on the flight from Tokyo to Portland.

Once in Portland, we had to get our bags to go through immigration and customs. No problems there. The officer was very friendly. We chatted a little about the trip while he processed stuff. Customs was no problem. He just looked at the sheet, asked if we had food and off we went to recheck the bags and find our gate. There we had a couple hours of sitting before we boarded the plane.

We arrived in Minneapolis at 5:30pm. It was a full 24 hours of traveling, arriving 12 hours after we left (because of the international date line). Mom and Papa picked us up. We stopped for dinner at Good Earth and then headed home. I don't think we're going to have too much trouble with jet lag because not really sleeping made it easy for us to sleep even though our bodies thought it was 11am, not 11pm.

We were awake again at 7:30am. So we didn't really sleep in. We're heading to the house today after running some errands. So nice to be home.

-Miranda]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110824-144540 2011-08-24T00:00:00Z 2011-08-24T00:00:00Z
Once we were done with Angkor Wat we headed into Angkor Thom, which was the ancient capital city with Bayon at the center. That temple is famous for its many towers with faces facing most of the cardinal directions. It was quite a maze as it has been changed and added to a lot since it was originally built in the 12th century.

We enjoyed the temples quite a bit and Siem Reap is a neat city to explore. Our day today was mostly a relaxing one and we're headed to Bangkok tomorrow.

-Miranda


Inside Angkor Wat.

View of Angkor Wat from the north.

Checking out the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat.

Faces of Bryon.

Bayon reflecting in the surrounding moat.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110818-053700 2011-08-18T00:00:00Z 2011-08-18T00:00:00Z
Banteay Srei was very neat. The towers are quite a bit smaller than most other temples, but the bas-relief designs are all over, essentially covering everything. They are very detailed and still well preserved. This one also has the first 'monkey guard' statues that we've seen.

After, we headed to Ta Som, Neak Prahn and Preah Kahn. Again, all very neat. Preag Kahn is pretty big and has a few trees growing on the walls and buildings, though not even close to as extensively as Ta Prohm.

On our way back to the hotel we drove by Ankor Wat and through Ankor Thom. In Ankor Thom, there are some locals with monkeys. The driver stopped, so we did buy a bag of bananas and fed the monkeys. They were climbing all over the tuk-tuk. One even jumped up on Joe's shoulder, which was amusing. I tried to use a banana to lure it off, but instead it just took it and munched on it while sitting there.

We took a day off today, but we plan on spending tomorrow seeing Ankor Wat and exploring the temples and sights of Ankor Thom, which was the ancient capital city. The little we saw in there while driving through was spectacular. It should be an interesting day tomorrow.

-Miranda


The towers of Pre Rup. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

A very detailed bas-relief at Banteay Srei. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The 'monkey guards'. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

An old dead stump on a building at Preah Kahn. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Joe with a monkey.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110816-041502 2011-08-16T00:00:00Z 2011-08-16T00:00:00Z
There are a few different ways to get around, but we chose tuk-tuk. Basically you find a tuk-tuk driver and use him for your entire trip. You just pay a set price (agreed upon before starting) for what you plan to do on that day. You also have to buy a pass to see the temples. Cambodians don't have to, just foreigners, which is hopefully going to help protect and restore the temples.

All the temples were built during the Angkor period, which was the 9th to 13th centuries. For our first day we six temples; Lolei, Preah Ko, Bakong (previous three are part of the Roluos Group), Ta Prohm, Banteay and Prasat Kravan. The temples in the Roluos Group were relatively small, but pretty interesting. Ta Prohm has a number of trees growing on top of the walls and buildings, giving it a bit of an 'Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider' look. This is a large and pretty popular temple. Banteay Kdei was similar, just a little smaller.

It was a bit hot, especially when the sun was out, but the temples were amazing, especially the carvings and bas-reliefs that are left. You could spend hours just wandering and checking examining those. So many are different, especially over each of the doors on the towers.

Our favorite of the first day was probably Ta Prohm, though all were awe inspiring.

-Miranda

A link to a map of the temples if you're curious.
http://www.palmasplace.com/images/maptemples.jpg


Preah Ko. Lions guard most entrances and stairways in the temples.

Bakong. This is a brick tower.

One entrance of Ta Prohm.

Ta Prohm

Banteay Kdei]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110815-054636 2011-08-15T00:00:00Z 2011-08-15T00:00:00Z
Tuol Sleng (S21) used to be a school, but since all schools were closed, it was turned into a prison. The Khmer Rouge brought prisoners here they wanted to interrogate. Interrogation involved a number of forms of torture. They also kept meticulous records, including photos of every prisoner and even photos of the tortured. The space has now become a museum which was horrific to walk through. Some rooms just had photos of all the prisoners. One building showed where prisoners were kept in small skinny rooms. Some of the buildings didn't have separate 'cells'. One room could be crowded with 30-40 people simply lying on the floor. These buildings also had barbed wire over the walkway/balcony area in order to prevent prisoners from trying to commit suicide.

Once the interrogation was done, most of the prisoners were stuffed into a truck and shipped 14km outside of town to Choeung Ek, now known as "The Killing Fields". Officers, men, women, children and babies were all killed here. Many by simply beatings because they didn't want to "waste precious bullets". Mass graves were found, the largest containing 450 bodies. One just had women and children in it.

In 1989 a memorial stupa was built for those killed. It has 17 tiers and contained the bones and ragged clothes from those found in the mass graves. How many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge is up for debate, but most numbers we saw mentioned almost 2 million.

The day was very sobering. Especially since there are still so many people alive that survived it or were greatly affected by what happened.

Sorry for the depressing blog post, but I felt it important to mention the history. It was something I was relatively ignorant of before this trip.

-Miranda


One room that contained wood cells.

View through the barbed wire to other buildings at S21.

The memorial stupa used to house the bones.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110813-051541 2011-08-13T00:00:00Z 2011-08-13T00:00:00Z
Today we walked to the Grand Palace to be told by every single tuk-tuk driver "Grand Palace not open. Opens at 2 o'clock. You want to go to killing fields?" Saying 'no' to them barely dissuades, so, needless to say, it got a bit old. We did find some place to kill some time though. There was a national museum that was interesting and we had lunch at a Mediterranean place that was very good.

The Grand Palace was pretty impressive. The Silver Pagoda is a temple that has silver tiles on the floor (most of which are now covered with a carpet to prevent people from walking on them) and a Buddha that has 2000 diamonds on it. No photos were allowed inside though.

-Miranda


The Grand Palace.

Neat thing that I don't know the name of.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110811-052138 2011-08-11T00:00:00Z 2011-08-11T00:00:00Z
When we arrived on the island, the river was definitely high. When we left, it had risen quite a bit more. Definitely interesting to see the difference over just two nights.

We left after two nights on the island to head into Cambodia. The bus company we used had us fill out the forms for the visa and arrival before getting on the bus, then we paid them and gave them our passports. Once we arrived at the border, everyone piled out of the bus, we walked across the border and waited there for the bus and the guy with our passports. Sort of weird, but then an immigration officer did come on the bus to compare our passports with us, which was a little more reassuring.

We arrived in Kratie in the afternoon and found a place to stay without too much trouble. While Joe walked around to figure out the town and possible places to eat, Sandra and I took a tuk-tuk to where you can get a boat to see Irrawaddy Dolphins. They are an endangered freshwater dolphin found in the Mekong. The tuk-tuk ride was neat since we were mostly on a relatively small road going through a village. The boat ride was also very nice, though the Mekong is gigantic! It would be interesting to be here again in the dry season to see the difference.

Once we got back, we found dinner, which, right as we were finding a place, wind was kicking up pretty insanely. After sitting at a place, it started down pouring. Everyone ended up a little cramped in the restaurant since they had to move some tables and chairs away from the edges to keep from getting soaked. Fortunately, it was done raining by the time we were done with dinner.

-Miranda


Joe bowling.

Road on Don Det.

Huge Mekong. It actually goes past what you can see on the other side.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110810-045215 2011-08-10T00:00:00Z 2011-08-10T00:00:00Z
We got to the trail to the cave only to find that we had to pay 10,000 kip per person and walk through muddy rice field. Sandra decided to not come with, so just Joe and I went. It was so muddy! The guy we paid was ahead of us a ways and at a place where the trail branches off, he motioned for us to follow him. Once we got to the cave he gave us headlamps... We started thinking that maybe we inadvertently paid for a guide and that there technically wasn't any entrance fee. Oh well. Though, it wasn't a good sign that the 'guide' took his pants off before going in the cave. Early on we were up to mid-thigh in water, then climbed up a rickety bamboo ladder. The cave was pretty neat, though muddy. Once we got to a spot where he said the water was basically belly deep, we told him we'd go back. We got back to the stream that was not far from the entrance of the cave and he says "money for guide?". Whoops. Of course Joe only had 50,000 kip bills, which was a bit much considering he didn't actually do that much. Oh well. That's still only a few dollars, so I'm sure we made his day.

After lunch, we got on the bus and arrived in Vientiane without issue. We found a place to stay and had yummy sushi for dinner. We didn't do much while there. It's the capitol city of Laos, but definitely not what you would normally picture for the capitol city of a country. Not crazy busy and not super huge. Sandra spent the afternoon by herself while Joe and I walked around checking out nearby sights.

The next day was our scheduled day to leave, but since we were taking the night/sleeper bus it wasn't going to be until at least 7pm. We took a tuk tuk to Pha That Luang, which. The buildings were impressive, though we weren't able to go inside because we happened to go during the lunch hour which is when it was closed. The rest of the day we just hung out in cafes.

Once it was time, we caught our ride to the bus station, eventually found our bus. These buses have upper and lower beds, two people on each side, though it's relatively skinny. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to try sleeping by someone I didn't know. We made our way into the bus after some confusion as to where our bags were supposed to go and found out we were to sleep in the very back, on the top, which is technically supposed to have 5 people in it.... Fortunately, there was only one lady there and no one else came. We all did sleep some. More than we probably would have on a bus where we had just normal seats.

We're now in Pakse and working on finding some place to stay, though it's still pretty early, so who knows if we'll be able to get a room, but hopefully we'll at least have some place to store our bags.

Oh, I finally updated our 'current location' also.

-Miranda


Walking through the muddy rice paddy.

Pha That Luang

This was in the hotel where we were staying. I like the wireless router sitting on top.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110805-215605 2011-08-06T00:00:00Z 2011-08-06T00:00:00Z
At one point we stopped and they were pulling tools out. That was only about half an hour or so of delay and we were on our way again. We were stopped again at a relatively recent mud slide. There was a van stuck in the mud. A bunch of locals eventually pushed it out. The bus let people that were behind us go. We watched a few trucks and a van go through without a problem. However, instead of the bus going, a van on the other side went... With not even close to enough speed, he, of course, came to a stop and was stuck in the mud. His van sat there for basically 20 minutes with barely anyone helping to push it out or get it unstuck. Sure, he tried driving backwards only to slide deeper into the mud, but that's about it despite quite a few tourists standing around. Finally, Joe went out there and eventually started yelling push! After just 5 minutes the van was out of the mud.

The bus driver was smart enough not to let anyone else ahead of us this time. We made it through without a problem and continued on our way. We made it to Vang Vieng only a couple hours later than planned.

Since we've been here it's mostly been raining... This is the 'party' town of Laos. The main thing to do here is tubing. Along the river are bars playing loud music and they have rickety slides or swings to use to get back into the water. Anyway, we decided to do a one day trek our first full day. It sprinkled on and off all day, but we did a cave hike. The trails to the caves were incredibly muddy. The caves were big and limestone. Some formations were pretty neat, but it was mostly black from old candles and torches and from people touching them. There were Buddha statues in each of the caves.

The coolest one was the water cave. We got into an inner tube then pulled ourselves along a rope into a cave. It didn't go super far, but it was still neat. I took some video that, if it turned out, I'll try to get up later.

The last thing we did was tube down the river. The bar section was pretty annoying. Not many people, fortunately, but it was nice to get past that to the quiet section. Since then, it's mostly been raining and we've just wandered around town or hung out in the hotel room. Nothing too exciting.

-Miranda


Peanuts we bought when the bus was stranded the first time. They were a lot softer than the ones that have been dried.

The van stuck in the mud with all the tourists standing around.

Some amazing scenery on the way in. These huge limestone pinnacles are everywhere.]]> http://www.mirandajoe.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry110802-070015 2011-08-02T00:00:00Z 2011-08-02T00:00:00Z