Sihanoukville: still waiting for my debit card

So Danielle and I are still in Sihanoukville waiting for my debit card...hopefully this wont be true in another week. Its a fairly good place to be stuck as we pretty much just spend our days at the beach and out nights out on the town...or like tonight going to bed at 9 because I am so exhausted. This is Cambodia's main beach resort which is good and bad. Good in that there are tons of awesomely comfy chairs on the beach and people bringing you food and drink whenever. Bad because people selling stuff on the beach and just generally bugging you never stops. I was trying to take a nap and a woman came over and just started giving me a message and only after about 4 minutes of me insisting I would not be paying for this and I did not want a message did she leave. There are lots of kids selling bracelets and whatnot and some of them are cute and funny while others are super rude and annoying. The beach can be a bit dirty some days too which is a bummer.
The party scene seems to be the same as any other backpacker party place where people just drink tons of red bull and stay out all night. The red bull here is like straight speed and is actually illegal in America. Needless to say pretty much everyone is super pumped up and chatty until about 5 am. The first weekend were were here was Khmere New Year which I thought would just be one fun night like our New Year...it was a full three nights and I did not feel well at the end. The tradition is that people just run around all day dumping baby powder and water on people. Quite fun the first day and then makes you want to strangle small children when you are hungover and soaking. On Saturday we went on a booze cruise that one of the foreign bars was putting on which was quite fun. Got to make lots of new friends. When I meet people not from America I generally just tell them I am from New York because it is such a pain to try an explain Vermont to people and no one really cares anyway. So I met some girl and told here I was from New York and she goes, "Every American I meet is from New York! You guys must all travel so much!" I didn't have the heart to tell her that not only was I lying but at least half of the other people probably were too.
After all the excitement of the New Year we needed some r and r so we went to an island about 2 hours away by boat. The island (Koh Rung) has no electricity except generators between 6 and 10. The beaches are completely white and the water is crystal clear. Pretty much what you imagine when you imagine a perfect beach. The Australian guy who owned the guesthouse we were in would go fishing every day and then let you select your fish for him to grill. We have had some of the best seafood here its all so fresh and they cook it amazingly. Unlike the kids in Sihanoukville who are always trying to get you to give them money the kids on the island weren't selling anything and just wanted to play with you. It was super cute. One little kid came up to me at night when I was listening to my ipod and just snuggled up to me and put one of the headphones in his ear. He didn't say anything to me and just sat there for like 15 min before running away. It was adorable. There were also lots of puppies.

Hoi An sunrise

dont know how to rotate but...Nin Bin Vietnam

Hiked up all of those

Riiice

Amazing street crab in Hanoi, Danielle's first!

Luang Prabang on the Mekong

creepy

Night Market in Luang Prabang

Just as amazing as this looks

Phnom Penh

Tuk Tuk???

Genocide Musem

Kep fresh crab dinner

Ate 4 amazing crabs

Danielle made some friends

Seafood that was caught that day fresh on the grill

Beach was lovely

Tonights sunset

Debbie Downer

So Danielle and I have made it to Cambodia! Two days in Phnom Penh and now relaxing by the beach in Kip. Minor downer is that I lost my debit card in Laos...luckily Mascoma and my mother are super helpful so assuming the Cambodian mail service doesn't totally suck I should be all set in a few days. Other major downer was our genocide day in Phnom Penh. Started off light with a school that was turned into a prison in Phnom Penh and then hit up some lovely Killing Fields. Pretty intense day but it had to be done. Our first stop, S-21 as it was known has been turned into a museum that is quite large and quite exhausting both emotionally and physically. Its where they kept, tortured and interrogated prisoners until they were all eventually sent to be killed. It seems they left the prison quickly when the Vietnamese invaded as they found 14 bodies beaten and dead in their cells. There graves are now in the center of 3 buildings. The museum had some interesting information besides leaving most of the rooms as they were found. In particular every prisoner was photographed as the entered the prison and many after being killed or tortured. Made for some very upsetting viewing. The museum could definitely do with considerable more money and more information regarding the prison and the Khmere Rouge regime. The Killing Fields were absolutely horrible but came with an incredibily informative and well done audio guide. It included many personal accounts as well as a confession of guilt and sorrow from the head of S-21 prison. Not only is there a stupa with 17 shelves of skulls and bones but as you walk you will still come across pieces of bone, teeth and scraps of clothing. Needless to say it was an extremely exhausting and sad day but something that we definitely needed to see. I think one of the saddest things I saw as I was leaving S-21 was a boy about 12 sitting between his parents sobbing. I can only imagine that it was his first contact with that kind of evil and it must have been a huge shock.

On a more lighter note we spent the day swimming in beautifully warm water and getting nice and sunburned on the beach. For dinner we went to an area that specializes in crab. We had grilled crab and watched them picked them out of the traps right in front of us! It was delicious. Tomorrow we will spend the day on an island about 7 km from here. From there it is on to some more beaches and then Ankor Watt!

Made It Out of Vang Vieng Alive!!

Our last stop in Laos was Vang Vieng where everyone seems to be focused on getting drunk, doing drugs and having sex with strangers (I only did two out of the three). Anyhoo pretty much the deal is that people go tubing on the Mekong and there are tons of bars along the river to stop at on your way. At night there is an island in the middle of the river with lots more bars. The river is super low right now so we didn't rent tubes but just swam/ walked between the bars. At each bar there are Laos guys who will through a rope to you and pull you across the river at an alarming pace. At each bar when you arrive you are presented with a niffty friendship bracelet and a shot of Laos whiskey. There is lots of load music, various games and rope swings. The people that work at most of the bars are foreign and then get free alcohol and housing and there job requirements seem to consist of getting people to drink with them, also draw all over people with paint and markers which I was tricked into my first day but then avoided like the plague my second day. At the bars that open on the island at night in addition to their drink menus there are also drug menus and you can help yourself to weed, opium, shrooms or whippits (for those not in the know nitrus oxide/the drug Demi Moore ODed on). Definitely saw some pretty gross behavior but since I'm such a classy lady I had an excellent and fairly safe time. Its pretty bizarre that places like this spring up in every country but pretty entertaining for a few days.
Needless to say after four days I was definitely ready to head out and we are spending our last days in Laos in the capital, Vientiane.