8,471 miles and Counting

After wrapping up in Ratanakiri on Cambodia day #27, it would've been pushing it to make another stop within my 30 day visa window, so I headed to Laos. The minibus was full of stops to pickup and drop off passengers, doubling as a parcel service as per usual. The bumpy gravel roads in an old van didn't speed things up, either. But compared to my 14 seat bus the week prior that maxed out at 27 passengers, this one was spacious. We were dropped off 100m from the border checkpoint. A gentleman with the bus company handed us paperwork to fill out, and said we had to be done in 30 minutes, so please hurry. He then asked us to pay him directly, much more than I knew I owed for a visa. I showed him a message where a friend had paid less just a few days prior, but he was having none of it. Between 8am-3pm, normal price he said, but conveniently it was just after 3pm, warranting some sort of overtime fee. He spewed some lies about him not keeping any money for himself, clearly a scam...

While it may be best known for its Angkor era ruins, poverty, and horrific history, Cambodia has pockets of stunning natural beauty unlike anything you've ever seen. My last stop in Cambodia was the pocket known as Ratanakiri Province in the northeastern corner, tucked between Laos and Vietnam. We set out on a three day jungle trek with a local guide to see it for ourselves. After a tuk tuk ride far out of the town of Ban Lung, and a river crossing on a floating wooden platform car ferry, we set off on a bright red dirt road. After four hours of hoofing it on mostly exposed paths, we arrived at our home for the next couple of nights. An 80 year old woman permanently hunched over, no doubt from years of long days bent over the rice fields, welcomed us with a mighty firm handshake. I later learned that life expectancy for men in Ratanakiri is just 39 years, and 43 years for women. She must have incredible stories. The house was a traditional wooden one on stilts. On the gr...

7-11s are everywhere in Thailand, and they are great. You can buy a "toastie"--just about any kind of sandwich you can imagine--and they will toast in a little panini press for you on the spot. The ham and cheese croissant for not even a dollar never let me down before hopping on a long bus or train ride. They have plastic wrapped cups with sugar and a coffee tea bag inside, and a hot water dispenser to make hot coffee to go. You can buy Chang, Leo, or Singah beers, but only during certain odd hours... They'll even offer to open it for you to enjoy on your walk home. Tap water is not drinkable here, but the breweries also make some good bottled water, as well as varieties owned by Coca-Cola or Pepsi Co. It's also where locals can go to pay their home electric bills in cash. You can buy top up credit for your phone in the form of a card, or from an easy to use ATM-like machine where you just enter your phone number, insert cash, and add credit from your ...

Dalat is a beautiful town in the central highlands of Vietnam. Even some locals in Saigon seemed impressed and a little bit jealous that we were going to "Little Paris." They do indeed have their own Eiffel Tower. Countless cafes overlook busy streets. A few steps in any direction will bring you to a boutique cafe that does strong, local, single-cup drip Vietnamese coffee for less than a dollar per cup. And fruit smoothies, of course. For the first time I saw local avocado, strawberries, and other non-tropical produce at market. Street vendors and restaurants alike would get their charcoal burning hot early in the day, in preparation for hot pots or fresh grilled meat. Especially for a smaller town, I saw more karaoke bars than I've seen in my life to date, and colorful buildings backed by green mountains. Plenty of tour buses made their way through town along with a steady flow of motorbikes, but it wasn't like the madness and gridlock of Ho Chi...