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Day 143 – 144: Siem Reap Part 1 (Angkor Temples) Cambodia
The main reason for coming to Cambodia was to see Angkor Wat, one of Brigitte’s top 5 must see places in the world. Angkor Wat is just a few miles away from the city of Siem Reap, the launch pad for most visitors to the great temples and naturally our next destination. The bus to Siem Reap (from Phnom Penh), tore through the Cambodian countryside and saw us there within 6 hours.
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Day 139 – 142: Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
The bus ride to Phnom Penh (from Ho Chi Minh City), lasted around 6 hours. It consisted of two stops, one at the Vietnamese/Cambodian border (where we got our visas on arrival), and another in a small Cambodian town. Overall it wasn’t bad at all.
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Day 136 – 138: Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
Our arrival in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), was pleasantly greeted by sunny weather (something we hadn’t seen in days). The largest city in Vietnam (and former capital of The Republic of Vietnam), is home to about 9 million inhabitants. Seeing the city from the airplane painted a clear picture of this massive urban jungle. Side note, apparently there are 4 million motorbikes in the city which make traffic a legendary nightmare.
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Day 132 -134: Hoi An (Vietnam)
The 16-hour overnight train ride to Da Nang (en route to Hoi An), was not bad. We managed to get a few hours of sleep so we were ready to face our first day in the historic city. Hoi An first popped on our radar several weeks ago as a result of meeting a lovely lady in Turkey. She had visited Vietnam a few times in the recent past and spoke very passionately about the country and of course Hoi An.
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Day 129 – 131: Hanoi (Vietnam)
The next stop on our trip was Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital and home to 6.5 million people. As the plane descended upon the sprawling city an un-erasable grayish haze appeared beneath the clouds. And so the rainy season had finally caught up with us – it rained with purpose during our first night.
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Day 124 – 128: Luang Prabang (Laos)
The flight to Laos‘ Luang Prabang (from Chiang Mai), was a brief hour of floating above puffy white clouds. From 17,000 feet (we flew on a propeller plane), the green mountainous landscape and brown Mekong River severing through was something we couldn’t stop staring at. The landlocked nation was very new to us in every sense. Also unknown were a couple of interesting things about Laos. 1: subjectively, it’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth and 2: factually, it’s been ruled by the communist party since the 1970s and was also the most bombed place on Earth (by who? the US). But no time to dig into a…
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Day 122 – 124: Chiang Mai (Thailand)
Our next stop in Thailand was the northern city of Chiang Mai. The cultural and historic city was loaded with temples, coffee shops and bike/motorbike rental places. Its favorable proximity to the mountains also made it ideal for outdoor adventures.
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Day 119 – 120: Bangkok Part 2 (Thailand)
Our last two days in Bangkok saw us cover much of the city in our quest for more sight-seeing. Home to about 8 million people the city stretches over a vast area with considerable walking distances between various points of interest.
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Day 117 – 118: Bangkok (Thailand)
It was a long ride from Turkey to Thailand but after 2 flights and 15 hours we landed at Bangkok International Airport. We planned on 5 days & 4 nights in the Thai capital and our hotel was smack in the middle of Khao San Road, a vibrant part of the city catering to tourists and backpackers alike. Coming to Bangkok was special for Brigitte; she lived here for 4 of her childhood years and this was her first time back in 27 years.
