As someone who was born and raised in the states, I don't think I ever got a sense for how big the world was until I lived in China. This trip again was a reminder of all the people around the world that are from so many different places.
Aaron and I put together a list of all the people we shared conversations with on the buses, planes, and anywhere else we went to on our trip:
Spain
Sweden
Holland
Nebraska
Texas
Australia
Switzerland
Belgium
France
Canada
Uk
Italy
Chile
Columbia
Russia
Venezuela
Brazil
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Overnight in Shenzhen airport
The flight to Shenzhen went alright. It was delayed an hour which wasn't a big deal.
When I got on my plane, people were sitting in my seat and they asked me if I could sit one row up so they could sit together. I'm kind of glad that happened because I sat next to two guys, Ron and Max, from HK that went on almost the EXACT trip I just went on.
They were in Siem Reip the same time and they went to the 4000 islands as well.
It was interesting swapping stories and traveling lessons that we learned on our trips.
I got to Shenzhen at midnight and I immediately went to figure out a place to sleep for the night. There was a corner in Terminal B that I set up camp.
I watched some tv for an hour and was hoping to go on Reddit and Facebook but completely forgot about the great fire wall of China. I was about to fall asleep at 2am but then a cop tapped my shoulder and told me I couldn't sleep in the terminal.
He rounded up 10 people around me and made us go to Mcdonalds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep because people don't know how to shut up.
My alarm went off at 5:20, with enough time to go to the ticket desk, get checked in early and grab breakfast.
There were A TON of people in line already. I waited an hour in line and then the lady turned me away because I was too early.
I came back at 8:30 and they finally checked my bag in.
Right now I'm at the gate, flight should be about 3 hours and I'll get to hang around shanghai airport for 4 hours before my 13 hr flight home.
When I got on my plane, people were sitting in my seat and they asked me if I could sit one row up so they could sit together. I'm kind of glad that happened because I sat next to two guys, Ron and Max, from HK that went on almost the EXACT trip I just went on.
They were in Siem Reip the same time and they went to the 4000 islands as well.
It was interesting swapping stories and traveling lessons that we learned on our trips.
I got to Shenzhen at midnight and I immediately went to figure out a place to sleep for the night. There was a corner in Terminal B that I set up camp.
I watched some tv for an hour and was hoping to go on Reddit and Facebook but completely forgot about the great fire wall of China. I was about to fall asleep at 2am but then a cop tapped my shoulder and told me I couldn't sleep in the terminal.
He rounded up 10 people around me and made us go to Mcdonalds.
I got about 2 hours of sleep because people don't know how to shut up.
My alarm went off at 5:20, with enough time to go to the ticket desk, get checked in early and grab breakfast.
There were A TON of people in line already. I waited an hour in line and then the lady turned me away because I was too early.
I came back at 8:30 and they finally checked my bag in.
Right now I'm at the gate, flight should be about 3 hours and I'll get to hang around shanghai airport for 4 hours before my 13 hr flight home.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
At Bangkok Airport
My bag was checked in at 21.1 kg. I was worried that they would charge me extra because the max was 20kg. I got through security but they took out my almost empty tube of tooth paste and my 1/4 full bottle of soap because "they didn't meet standards". Now I'm going to have to go 2 days without toothpaste and soap unless I buy it at the dumb airport store for 3x the price.
I'm completely out of Thai money and it's dinner time. I'm hoping I can hold out until Shenzhen because I can exchange the 200 HKD worth of money there to grab something to eat. I'll get there at 11pm so hopefully something will be open.
I'm not really looking forward to sleeping in the Shenzhen Airport.
Here's my travel itinerary for the next 2 days:
Bangkok (BKK)
Thu 29 Dec (7:10PM)
Shenzhen (SZX)
Thu 29 Dec (10:50PM)
=============================================
Shenzhen
Fri 30 Dec (9:55am)
Shanghai
Fri 30 Dec (12:15pm)
=============================================
Shanghai
Fri 30 Dec (4:55pm)
Newark, NJ
Fri 30 Dec (6:20pm)
=============================================
Newark, NJ
Fri 30 Dec (8:50pm)
Minneapolis, MN
Fri 30 Dec (11pm)
Trip craziness
It's been a crazy day today. I haven't blogged for a while and I can't check where I left off because I'm on a bus riding back to Bangkok.
Yesterday, before we checked out of the Naga Hotel, the owner asked us if we wanted to buy bus tickets from him to get back to Bangkok. We said sure, paid $9 each and then he said someone will come pick us up at the Downtown Siem reip hostel which is where we were staying next.
This morning we waited and there was a guy that drove up and asked for our tickets. We weren't given tickets by Naga and he called the bus company and they said we were given tickets and took them therefore we couldn't get new tickets. In a flurry of frustration and a short amount of time, we didn't have a choice and had to re buy the bus tickets.Lesson learned, when traveling, ask and keep all transportation tickets.
The entire trip should have taken 10 hours. We left Siem reip, Cambodia at 8:30, got to the Cambodia/Thai border and that took over 2 hours to get though.
We went from a tour bus to getting split up into small mini busses. It's 6pm right now and we're still driving.
We stopped breifly just now and there was a lady selling fried chicken at the gas station. I bought some and now i'm slightly regretting my decision because I'm feeling really greasy and gross inside...
Yesterday, before we checked out of the Naga Hotel, the owner asked us if we wanted to buy bus tickets from him to get back to Bangkok. We said sure, paid $9 each and then he said someone will come pick us up at the Downtown Siem reip hostel which is where we were staying next.
This morning we waited and there was a guy that drove up and asked for our tickets. We weren't given tickets by Naga and he called the bus company and they said we were given tickets and took them therefore we couldn't get new tickets. In a flurry of frustration and a short amount of time, we didn't have a choice and had to re buy the bus tickets.Lesson learned, when traveling, ask and keep all transportation tickets.
The entire trip should have taken 10 hours. We left Siem reip, Cambodia at 8:30, got to the Cambodia/Thai border and that took over 2 hours to get though.
We went from a tour bus to getting split up into small mini busses. It's 6pm right now and we're still driving.
We stopped breifly just now and there was a lady selling fried chicken at the gas station. I bought some and now i'm slightly regretting my decision because I'm feeling really greasy and gross inside...
Cambodia
Today was pretty nice, Lahti and I went to check out Angkhor Wat, these ruins in Cambodia that are supposed to be one of the wonders of the world.
Cost $20 for a day pass and we paid $12 to have a personal tuk tuk driver take us to each of the ruins.
There is one part that is like a temple and another one where trees are growing through the ruins.
We moved out of the Naga hotel, the random hotel we stayed at after being dropped off in front of it at 2am last night. We moved to the downtown Siem Reip hotel which is run by a British guy named Mark. Super nice person, this place is quite clean but still not as good as the smile society back in Bangkok.
Tonight we're going to walk the night market and see if we can buy some stuff to bring home.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Worst bus ride ever
Ok so yesterday when I said that the bus ride was going to be 14 hours. I was slightly exaggerating.
We woke up about 30 min before we were supposed to get on the boat to get back to the mainland. No time to get breakfast because that usually takes 2 hours to make.
Boat ride was about 30 min and we got to shore at 8:45. We got our tickets and did our paperwork for the Cambodian visa and handed the guy at the bus stop our passports and $30 each without really knowing when we were going to get them back.
Bus came at 9:30. We crammed into a tour bus full of people and were dropped off at the Lao/Cambodian border at about 10:30. Bus dropped us off, we crossed the border without our passports with hope that it would be there when we got to cambodia.
There were more than 30 people on our bus and we were forced to wait in between borders at a restaurant that was basically a tent with a wood fire.
An hour passed, the guy that had our passports gave them back with the cambodian visa inside. He wasn't clear when we were going to get back on the bus so we ordered some fried rice at the restaurant and waited.
4 hours later a bus finally comes at 3:30. We cram back on and I didn't think of getting some snacks to take on the bus. I had to force the driver to stop the bus on the side of the road because I don't think I've ever had to pee that badly before in my entire life.
We finally stopped in a town around 9pm and everyone was starving. There was a bus next to our bus and we were being told to get on it. I said "food food bus?" and they said no time, 1 min to get on the bus. I might add that this bus was already half full of people and was blaring Cambodian karaoke on the speakers. I gave an old guy from spain my seat and I was half standing, half crouching for about 4 hours.
Hungry, tired, horrible cambodian music blaring in my ears...everyone wanted off the bus.
Finally got to Angkor Wat at 2am and got a hostel while the total trip was about 17 hours, we got in the room and apparently you have to pay an additional $5 for hot water and we didn't have a sink.
We woke up about 30 min before we were supposed to get on the boat to get back to the mainland. No time to get breakfast because that usually takes 2 hours to make.
Boat ride was about 30 min and we got to shore at 8:45. We got our tickets and did our paperwork for the Cambodian visa and handed the guy at the bus stop our passports and $30 each without really knowing when we were going to get them back.
Bus came at 9:30. We crammed into a tour bus full of people and were dropped off at the Lao/Cambodian border at about 10:30. Bus dropped us off, we crossed the border without our passports with hope that it would be there when we got to cambodia.
There were more than 30 people on our bus and we were forced to wait in between borders at a restaurant that was basically a tent with a wood fire.
An hour passed, the guy that had our passports gave them back with the cambodian visa inside. He wasn't clear when we were going to get back on the bus so we ordered some fried rice at the restaurant and waited.
4 hours later a bus finally comes at 3:30. We cram back on and I didn't think of getting some snacks to take on the bus. I had to force the driver to stop the bus on the side of the road because I don't think I've ever had to pee that badly before in my entire life.
We finally stopped in a town around 9pm and everyone was starving. There was a bus next to our bus and we were being told to get on it. I said "food food bus?" and they said no time, 1 min to get on the bus. I might add that this bus was already half full of people and was blaring Cambodian karaoke on the speakers. I gave an old guy from spain my seat and I was half standing, half crouching for about 4 hours.
Hungry, tired, horrible cambodian music blaring in my ears...everyone wanted off the bus.
Finally got to Angkor Wat at 2am and got a hostel while the total trip was about 17 hours, we got in the room and apparently you have to pay an additional $5 for hot water and we didn't have a sink.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Dolphin Watching
We went to go see river dolphins today! Technically they are called Irrawaddy river dolphins.
Rented bikes for about $1 for the entire day and had to ride across the entire island which was about 45 min bike ride. A guy got us on his boat for $10 and we rode out into the river. At first we didn't see anything for about 10 min and started getting discouraged. The driver moved a little bit and then we heard some clicks and the sound of dolphins shooting water out of their blow holes.
It was pretty cool seeing them but they were really far away, probably 300 yards from the boat. I snapped some cool pics.
I would definitely recommend seeing them around sunset, makes a huge difference in the scenery too but we had to rush back into town because it was getting dark fast.
We are leaving Laos tomorrow morning for Cambodia, it'll be a 14 hour bus ride across the border and into a town I don't know how to spell so it will be a while until I post something else.
Oh I almost forgot, it's christmas today! Totally didn't feel like christmas at all because it was about 85 all day and just seemed like a normal island day in Laos.
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