It was late yesterday…a nice long sleep-in was in order. Around 11am, we actually left the guesthouse in search of breakfast. Since it was so late already, we had the vague plan of making this breakfast more of a brunch and save on lunch. Arriving at Angel’s Secret, they had an extensive brunch menu and thus, brunch it was. Amazing brunch to be honest. We had everything from a big tea pot with apricot cookies to a French chocolate croissant, muesli with fresh fruit and yogurt to a big hearty egg sandwich. So yummy!
However, I didn’t feel too well today. Nothing serious, just likely that I caught Flo’s runny nose. So back to bed for more sleep and some home-y you tube shows.
In the evening, a big traveler’s meeting happened. Leonie, Peter and Chantal were still in town who we wanted to meet anyway and Chantal met more overlanders at her hostel who were happy to meet up, too. In the end, there were nine of us: Pia, Pascal, Frederic, Raphael, Chantal, Peter, Leonie, Flo and I. Quite the big gathering actually. First, I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for it but in the end, I was super happy that I went even if I left early to go back to bed. It was a nice meeting and our last chance to see off Amsterdam to Anywhere who will be leaving for Myanmar tomorrow.
Nina was especially pleased with the homemade cookies
Epic food hipster shot – it was tasty, too.
Flo is leaning out of the frame in the bottom left …
The guest house’s dog took a liking to Flo…but well enough behaved to not follow into the room 🙂
We got annoyed with ourselves this morning for failing at breakfast. Or maybe it was just that yesterday’s one was so good that it was impossible to live up to it. The cute little community run cafe we wanted to go to had moved out of town a while back and we were a bit headless in finding another place to go. It was pre-coffee time, after all. So we ended up in the cafe of the resident fancy hotel, paying almost NZ prices while getting airport quality food, 🙁
Nonetheless, the day came into its own from here. The main goal was to cross the empty wasteland that is the central Mekong lowland. 300 km of the main highway following the path of the Mekong until Thakhek, where we would stay for the night to leave on another loop off the main road to explore the central east.
These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded
The ride was pleasantly uneventful, we found nice lunch and once again arrived at our guesthouse in the early afternoon. We went with the nr. 1 recommendation from the lonely planet a bit out of town. They had a room, albeit a rustic and simple affair with bare concrete floor and a bed which’s springs were covered by not much more than a layer of rice paper (or that is how it felt like). The whole place was packed with high energy, mostly culturally insensitive 20something backpackers. Then again, they have a bonfire every night. 🙂
Dinner in town was a bit of a disaster – but we used that opportunity to have a good talk about changing our food strategy. I am pretty sure we got it back on track with that.
We thought to finish a quick blog post before hitting the bed that night. I had a beer and we popped down in the common area. By chance I had overheard a young German couple talking about going to Cambodia some time later and used my chance to get rid of our last remaining Cambodian Riel. We got talking over that and soon it was clear that we would once again not manage to catch up on the blog. Tabea and Nils were great company and we spend the rest of the night talking about life, travel and the world.
The guest house’s dog took a liking to Flo…but well enough behaved to not follow into the room 🙂
The dog was still nosy enough to sniff on the superglue, nearly getting it on the nose!
The headquarter of the Chinese Society in Pakse. Still with New Years’ decoration
Rocinante hit 60.000km! In the middle of nowhere in Laos 🙂
These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded
A little stop during a long day of riding
Flo had no choice in the matter…we just got a whole tray full of veggies and two plates with rice. Very good though
Having booked a second night in the budget room and one instead of two nights at the fancy place, our plans crumbled slightly. Since we spent a bit of money on the fancy room, we wanted to get some use out of it and enjoy the amenities. Thus, we would go to the temples in the morning, check out at lunch time and then spend the afternoon lounging and relaxing.
Good plan. Until we decided that it would also make sense to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat today instead of tomorrow so that we could sleep in in our fancy room. This meant that the alarm clock went off at 5am. So freaking early. I mean, we don’t sleep in too much but with the sun rising at 6.30am, there is no reason to get up before 7am. Now there was, though.
Just enough light – and no muppet in the way
We rode Rocinante into the temple complex where we joined the long throng of tuk-tuks all moving towards Angkor Wat. It was going to be crowded. All the “perfect” spots by the pond were already taken. They are “perfect” because Angkor Wat is mirrored in the water if it’s a still enough day without too many clouds. We sat down on the grass a bit away from the pond but ended up moving around quite a bit while the sun was rising. It gets light so quickly before you can actually see the sun. We took some very pretty pictures but with the crowd, it didn’t feel like a special sunrise at all.
Underexposure ftw …
When the crowds started to disperse, we sat down at the pond, having a quick breakfast of Nutella toasts. Because sunrise and probably also sunset are such a thing, many kids were running around trying to sell you postcards or magnets. They were all incredibly cute but I got upset when tourists asked them for a picture and then paid them a dollar for it. All you accomplish with that behaviour is that these kids will continue to work there instead of going to school. There are actually signs posted at the temples with “Don’t give money or candy to children, it encourages them not to attend school” and some people still do it. /rant
Ta Keo was the next temple on our list. It’s a pyramid with many, very steep steps and it is currently under heavy reconstruction. Still, we saw only a handful of other people there so early in the morning. Very peaceful.
In a way, Ta Prohm is more impressive than the cleared temples. Nature’s power over man is awe inspiring.
The so-called “Lara Croft” temple Ta Prohm was the next in line. This temple is mostly a ruin as trees have wreaked havoc with the walls and roofs. Being famous for featuring in a Lara Croft movie, it is picturesquely broken to our eyes. There are efforts to reconstruct a couple of areas. Here, we only managed to be half an hour earlier than the tourist buses.
Being really tired and also hungry again already, we decided to visit Sra Srang and then call it a day with the temple visits. Sra Srang is not actually a temple but a huge basin that was built as the royal bathing pond. The stairs with the guarding lions is still standing but access to the pond is off limits except for the fishermen.
Back at the hostel, we were still in time for a late breakfast so our hunger was taken care of. Afterwards, I still got to nap for an hour before we had to pack and check out at noon. Our fancy accommodation turned out to be fancy indeed. Though we had to leave the budget hostel at noon, check in in the new place was at 2pm. Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived at 12.20pm. We were seated in the lounge on a couch, had wet towels brought for refreshment as well as a lime drink and banana chips. Good signs, huh?
Flo is sceptic…
About half an hour later, we were shown to our room which was HUGE and lovely and the staff had scattered flowers on the bed and there were swans made out of the towels and the phrase “Florian Bocher we <3 u” was spelled out on the bed…I LOVED it.
Still being tired but also being hot from the motorcycle ride, we jumped in the pool (extra pool towels ftw) before having a second nap in the plushy, comfy bed. At around 3pm, I dragged Flo along to another “dining for a cause” café, this time specializing in cupcakes while supporting Cambodian women in their vocational training. Check out the Blossom Café if you are in Siem Reap!
Uber-rich chocolate cupcake and lime splash
I couldn’t really decide what I wanted because there were so many flavours. In the end, I went with peppermint tea and a chocolate hazelnut cake pop while Flo ordered an uber-rich chocolate cupcake for me. He got a lime splash and a raspberry lemon one to his coffee. Very decadent, I know, but so worth it. 🙂
The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on the comfortable furniture, reading, browsing the net or watching something. For dinner, we walked to the Peace café, another vegetarian restaurant, but it had moved so we ended up in the vegetarian restaurant across the road before heading “home” to watch a movie on the flat screen tv. It was almost like the shortest holiday in history.
Just enough light – and no muppet in the way
actually, the photos look better than the real thing this time
half an hour to go
There are about 10 rows of people in front of me
A normal high season crowd
Child labour is an all too common sight – and the whities are clueless …
Underexposure ftw …
The sun coming up on our way out
Sunrise over the gods churning the ocean of milk at the south gate of Angkor Thom
First stop, the unfinished Ta Keo temple
Up to the second level …
almost at the top … these steps are steep!
Top of the Ta Keo Temple
brief rest at the top for research.
Also known as the Tomb Raider temple.
Here and there, bits of plaster have been preserved.
about half the corridors have been preserver or reconstructed here.
angkor wat looked similar when it was “rediscovered”
Still, beautiful morning light
In a way, Ta Prohm is more impressive than the cleared temples. Nature’s power over man is awe inspiring.
All around, trees and roots hugging the stonework.
All this is already a manicured state.
almost every stone seems to be slightly shifted in some way
The inner gate from the east
never underestimate druid spells …
The so called Tomb Raider Tree had some prominent screen time.
Detail of Ta Prohm’s western gate tower
Lion guarding the stairs leading into the royal pond
Looking out over the massive basin
Everything past the lions is off limits at the moment
We had a very comfortable start into the day after a very comfortable night. Leaving Victor Habor, we took a couple of roads that Geoff had suggested and ended the ride in Hahndorf for lunch. Hahndorf is a German-founded little town that has a high kitsch factor today. Flo found it very cringeworthy but still enjoyed some Leberkäs’ in the Kaffeehaus.
Then, it was time for my treat. I realized yesterday already that Adelaide has a Haigh’s chocolate factory. Today, we went there, took part in the free tour and bought chocolates. J The founder Haigh learned his chocolate craft in Switzerland with Lindt and it is a real chocolatier. Everything is still handmade.
The teddy bears with the tin suitcases did grab my fancy
The tour was great and quite informative. I am really happy that more and more people realize that chocolate is like coffee: Different origins produce different flavours.
We ended up buying some hazelnut wafer bars for me, chili and lime dark chocolate seconds for Flo and a bag full of “chocolate nibbles”. Since it is a factory, they sell a small amount of seconds which are products that are totally fine but don’t look quite up to scratch. The bag of chocolate nibbles is filled of chocolate covered nuts, fruit and liquorice. Just a bag full of surprises. 🙂
After the factory visit we drove up to the summit of Mount Lofty to look down at the city of Adelaide. We were lucky that the clouds were high enough for us to have a view, as the view down onto the plains and the city were pretty spectacular.
Our camp for the night at Barossa Backpackers
Next, we drove on through windy back roads into the Barossa Valley. Flo’s favourite Australian wine “Chocolate Box” is made here. It is a big wine region producing about 40% of Australian wine. Got some information about the vineyards and the wine tours for tomorrow from the tourist information and then tried to find a camping spot.
We had read that the Barossa Backpacker also offers campsites but this is only true in summer. A room was too pricey for us and we were just about to leave when the guy at the reception was really interested in our travels and very helpful as well. He called his boss to see if we could be the exemption and still camp and it actually worked out! We are allowed to camp here for a very good price as well. 🙂
View at Victor Harbor from above
Kaffeehaus
Picturesque front
Flo is thrilled by the things in the window
Sheep made from metal
All of Haigh’s products look very nice and quite retro
Chocolates!!!!!!!!!!!
The teddy bears with the tin suitcases did grab my fancy
Flo, for scale, looking down towards Adelaide from Mount Lofty summit
Looking down on the Adelaide CBD from Mount Lofty summit
The “Barossa” sign of the tourist information at night
We decided to hit the cinema to finally watch “Inside Out” which we had missed out on in Wellington. I loved it. Such a good and sad movie.
During our wait for the movie to start, Flo discovered the arcade of the movie theatre and although we didn’t waste any cash, we did wander around for a while.
After the film, we had lunch at a lovely cafe and realized that we had not taken the camera into town so there are almost no pictures. Which is a shame because after lunch, we had ice cream at Giapo. They do haute ice cream in home-made flavours and use decorations on the cone as well. I had two scoops (chocolate and afghan cookie) which was then dipped in white chocolate and had cornflakes sticking to it as well as a whole afghan cookie. It was amazing but also way too much. Flo also struggled with his two scoops so at the end, we both had to admit defeat after 85% of the whole thing.
We also continue to work on preparations for Australia. Since we have quite some time in Melbourne while waiting on the bike to arrive, we now successfully lined up a new rear tire as well as most of the touratech gear. We also exchanged some money already.
In the evening, our friends had a lovely combined dinner and then a round of “Lords of Waterdeep”. It is a fun boardgame and not nearly as complicated as all the parts make it look like. I think Flo will purchase it when we have a home again. 🙂
The day started with a lovely Nutella toast and tea breakfast before we got into our “getting things done” mode. Ruth and Damien were amazing hosts, driving me around Auckland to pick up our camping gear from Linda and Denis who were kind enough to take it down to Auckland from Cape Reinga.
Flo took the bike, bought a big army bag so we could properly store our gear in the crate and then drove to the airport where Rocinante had a date to be crated. We met up again at the airport (Ruth and Damien were still driving me around) and cleaned all our gear for the biosecurity check in Australia. The tent gave us the most work; especially the footprint had seen some wet and muddy conditions in the last two weeks.
But we finished cleaning, packed the bags for the crate and the bag for staying in Auckland and got driven to Nick’s, Sophie’s and Dan’s place where we can stay for the next little while.
Thank you so much, Ruth and Damien, for everything you did. We hope to repay you some day in Frankfurt for your kindness. 🙂
We are mildly ashamed for going to Burgerfuel over more foodhipster place
Entering Nick’s place, we suddenly became tourists in a city again. The bike was not available as a mode of transport, most of our biking cloths stayed with the crate as well. Instead, we met Mash, a good friend, on his holiday back home in NZ and went to Kelly Tarlton’s which is an underwater and arctic animals place. Given how long the way to the counter was they must usually have quite the crowd coming in but we had almost no one in front of us. There were line of penguin foot marks outside, showing the way, but they were quite far apart as well. Flo managed a jump from one set of prints to the next and was declared part penguin because of it. 🙂
Interesting talk during the feed
We rushed to the stingray enclosure to be there for the feeding and the talk. Stingrays are surprisingly cool and big. Of course, we also looked at the penguins and sharks. A rotating tube was the thing that tickled our fancy the most: It screws so much with your head that you cannot walk straight through it. Everyone wobbled through as if drunk which was hilarious.
Afterwards, Nick took us to Milse which is exactly my kind of place. They have so many awesome sweet things there! We were too early for the dinner menu (which apparently is also just desserts) but I still found so much to try!
To round up the evening, we ordered pizza and watched a movie.
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