Sao Paolo

Hear so many things of this place and despite having been here before for LP years ago, i don't really recall much of it, or really spent time to enjoy it.  Getting here earlier than work mates allowed for time to scope places and get a feel for the place.

Staying
George V casa Branca in Jardins. Apartment building turn hotel. Great service and location with blocks of shops, cafes, restaurants and safe walking.  booked through Expedia, I think $250 a night (inc breakfast). On a high floor, room 901, with balcony, one bedroom, two loos, kichenette. Couldn't ask for more.

Eats

• Santo Grao: Oscar Freire in jardins. great vibe, coffee place  but also full menu of praca do dia, salads and snacks. Filet and duchess potatoes (53R), glass of Argie pinot 18R, so not cheap either.
• Deleiite Gourmet: coffee/chocolate cake shop on Oscar Freire, 125. Small coffee 6R, nice front deck to sit on.
• Lebanese place in ground floor level of apartment building so set back from sidewalk on R Lorena (@ Rocha Azevedo). fouldammas and a kibe 21R. Very nice, did the trick for a take away eat in the room.
• Shintori, Alameda Campinas, just down from Ave paulista. Japanese 'house" with large garden. had the shabu shabu and it was good. Nice sake cocktails too. Spendy.
• Bar des arts-in Itaim Bibi neighborhood by the river. Gorgeous gardens and grounds with several buildings housing tables and a large green house annex where the generous and amazing lunch buffet is set up. Apparently it is being torn down to make way for a huge office building, so go there quick!
• Jardieneira Grill, ave dos bandeirantes, 1001, Vila Olimpia. The mecca to meat and all things grilled, buffet. Amazing spread, come hungry. Good caipirnhas, good meat, good cold buffet.
• Capim Santo, Roha Azevedo & Itu, outdoor garden and tables, rustic and beautfiully prpared Brazilian food from the other provinces and coast. 
• La Figuera, haddock Lobo & estados unidos, massive fig tree around which sit the tables as well as in surrounding buildings. Expensive, but lovely place and food is good.
• Chop Opcao-off ave paulista & Caneca. OUtdoor beer garden. Food typical mediocre bar food.
• Corner of Lorena and campinas is a great neighborhood restauramt with a massive outdoor area, serving a fab Salad Nicoise and draft beers
• All up Campinas to Ave Paulista from Lorena has lots of lovely looking restaurants.

Shopping

• Oscar Freire has a lot of shops and boutiques. some with more dolled up shop girls than customers. one  place i loved was Vista Sao Paolo (Rua Augusto, 2800) where the designer gets photo images and screen prints them on great cut T-shirts and dresses. He was having a 40% sale so a 68R shirt was $40.
• in the business lowerl levels shops of the Lorena and campinas apartment building, where there is also a great restaurant (lonchenete) and draft beer spot is a lady who sells hawaianas and bejewels the soles for an extra few bucks. Nice lady and store and cheaper than other shops for the flip flops.

Neighborhoods
Hotel assured me walking during the day is safe, so i wended through Primavera to Itaim Bibi, Tabapua street where I had lunch at a 2.99R a 100kg food place along with the other office workers. then up Faria Lima, to Europe and walked all up (saw the Electrolux boutique!) back to jardins on Augusta Street.

kampot

one of my fave spots in entire trip. Chill slow moving river town. Small so easy to navigate and walk around just exploring.

Stayed
Le soleil d'or. booked on booking.com...$45 a night breakfast included and served at La Java Bleue a half block away. nice sidewalk seating and sheltered by potted plants, run by french couple, Louise, the hubby a nutty gregarious guy who just loves cooking and the romance of the sounds of the fisherman's boat engines as they come in from the night of fishing at 6 am.

we stayed in top floor room-huge, two beds and private bath..very nice. comfy, fridge.

Le java Bleue
owned by French couple of Soleil D'or. FABULOUS meal of fish Lousie bought that day and hrew his whole self into cooking (en papillotte with garlic, clams, shrimps etc). Beautiful presentatin and passion. best meal of trip.

Three Sisters bakery-owner was an orphan when younger and learned brownie baking and apple pie baking from a USA woman at her orphange. today shes married and has a bakery and proceeds go to orphanage where her husband works. On same street half a block from Le java Bleue.

drinks-lots of laid back and small bars along the promenade. we liked wunder Bar because it was quiet but wit a nice buzz. The rusty keyhole was the poplar place.

on other side of the salt workers monument there is a small street with guest houses (magic Sponge) and restaurants. we ate at kampot GH restaurant which was on second level of a bamboo house. Nice guys, good food and decent prices (5-7 each)

Do:

walk. walk to market and across the bridge to the other side which has a peppercorn farm shop and dryign location, wats and relaxed neighborhood.
watch the boats coem in after a night of fishign on the river bank by the old governor's residecne and post offcie. Very special and unique sites an sounds of kampt. one day word will get out such that this daily delivery of fish will be a top tourist attraction...pity
market-where the Muslim women sell the fish you cans see the fishermen bring earleir that morning on the river bank
Kep: tuk tuk to kep  $12, about 30 km along coast. we asked him to go to Kep, wait till we had lunch and also go through the islam areas.  Very nice guy and well put together. Stopped to buy face masks because of very dusty road to Kep, which was a noted and nice touch.
Crab market. lots to choose from but we settled on Srey Phan overlooking crab nets, crabs sold at market price. had them with the faous kampot pepper sauce ($5) which was divine. Grilled shrimp ($4) and two large beers ($4). Bliss lunch. lovely.

getting there-Ibis bus company, $8 each between PP and Kampot. fast, airconditioned with one bathroom stop, a small water and free wi-fi on bus. Great service.

Phnom Penh

First night stayed at Indochine 2 on 110 street (or thereabouts). very simple spartan in the thick of the busy dense streets of backpackers, prostitutes, tuk-tuks, bars= noise. $30 the night.

second stint was at Kabiki, 264 street, former residence of president's wife, and on same road as prime minsitr residence. and ot showed, the street had a barrier to it and guards where only hotel guests and security were allowed. $80 a night, great breakfast served poolside in a very densely treed garden. rooms fabuluosly comfy though bathrooms could do with an update for the price; little things like soap dish by sink, modern sinks and countertops. neighborhood quiet and safe and easy to walk to Royal palace, river front and sihanouk ave. I'd stay here again.

other noted places to stay were south of sihanouk in streets behind Ngon inclusing Hotel Nine, Skyline, willow,

also between the 51-57 ave and 278, 294 and Samdach Louis streets loads of cafes, restaurants and hotels, nail spas

Tips & Toes 

#17 Beo, Street 278, Phnom Penh 12302, Cambodia

+855 92 148 033 

to do's

• walk the streets and explore all the markets from Rusian to central to the open air veggie/food market near Indochine on about 136 streets.
• tual Sleng prison
• Killing fields-from Tual Sleng was about $14 return. negotiate hard.  dont miss this paert of tragic history.
• neighborhood south of sihanouk and west of pasteur streets very posh and lots of embassies and servcied business apartments, cafes, leafy streets etc.

eat

• friends n stuff-well known ple, on 13th and 172 street. good cause, inconsistent service depending on stage of training, bit overpriced, bt knwoing it helps train otherwide street kids, you dont mind s much
• ngon restaurant on 60 Sihanouk. SUPERB-fresh food, open air, great servcie, clean, fab decor and vibe. Locals (with some scratch) and great location.  $10 per eprson with beer roughly. Ate here two days running it was so good. they also have places in Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi
• bakery-fab cakes and coffee and outdoor front garden area. on 240 at 19th, perhaps called Chocolate? 
• The Vegetarian on 19 Ave and 264 street. simple fare, nice walled in outdoor eating area, cheap, clean. By kabiki hotel.
• Watch the rich kids hangout and buy coffee that is overpriced by wetsern standards, let alone Cambodia...Costa on 57 and 288 street area. aswell as swanky looking Brown Coffee and bakery by the English school.

No. 13, St. 57, corner of Rue Oknha Chrun Youhak (St. 294), 12302 Phnom Penh

transport

• to Kampot-Ibis bus $8. Hostels sell tickets but also at main station on 106 by Psar ratrey one block form river.  In Kampot it is behind the gast station where the pineapple statue is.
• to airport-tuk tuk was $6-8 dependign on how you negotiate. can w are told is about $20-25

Siem Reap-meh

Flew in on Lao Airlines from LP..about $145 each with a stop in Pakse.

Hotel
pre-booked on Agoda.com, Villa Siem Reap, away from the busy noise of the Pub street triangle, on Taphul Street off sam dech tep Rd a block away from the park Hyatt being built.  Great location. Included breakfast and $30 a night. Lovely friendly staff.

Angkor wat
Took a hotel arranged tuk tuk. Whole day was $15 for the short route. Mistake was to ask driver to take us to a lunch place as he ended up taking us to a place where he most likely got commisison, and it was the most expensive meal in Cambodia for us (OK, still only $25), but word of warning, donlt ask to be taken somewhere if you want an authentic place.

entry fee: $20 for a day pass. Keep pass with you at all times. onme day pass was enough for us frankly.

Food
Khemer kitchen-open facing restaurant along the Street 9 side of the psar. Shrimp pancake and stir fry veggies and a few beers about $10 or less.
cant recall name, but on Sivatha road one block south of the intersection of the Park Hyatt. Open facing restaurant with massive grill outside and lovely dining area both outside and 'covered'. (Blue wave?)  Clean, good quality and not too bad in price about $10 per head.
supermarket in a mall where Pizza company and ice cream parlor. get any pepepr or spcies here as they are nicely packaged and much cheaper than the psar here or anywhere else kin cambodia we found.

Transport
bus to phnoem penh was a 10 seater mini-van (VIP?) where an office is locagted kin same block as the nice grill restaurant. per person $8-10???  About 6 or so per day. 4hrs.

Luang Prabang-sublime

Truly a magical "city", very tranquil and relaxed place that sits atop two rivers that converge.  The bus station is on the east side of the Nam Khan river by the airport. tuk tuk cost about 10,000 kip each.

We stayed at the wonderful Apsara on Kingkitsarath Road which is on the peninsula part and overlooked the Nam Khan river. Booked through Booking.com and paid about $80 a night for a fab room (room #8) that had a private balcony overlooking the road and river, form where we sat and drank beers and watched monks and people stroll by. One of the more expensive places we stayed, but it was holidays and peak travel time, and a hotel that would cost easily 4180 or so a night, it was a good deal in my view.  Note, no TV in case it matters and wi-fi spotty. I had to go to the main hotel building to get faster wi-fi (free).  Lovely breakfast included which we ate on the main building verandah.

Meals

• Night market: buffet style stalls set up in an alley at the night market. Chocka and all seem to be vegetarian with a few meat BBQ stands that are a separate charge to the otherwise, pile your plate as high as you can for $K10,000.
• no shortage of Chinese and lao places that cooked in open air kitchens overlooking the sidewalk.
• dinner at Apsara hotel in patio section across the street right overlooking river. delicious cold mushroom salad with cilantro, mint and spring onion. Delicious.  With beers (several) abotu $30 for two.
• Coffee at Mekong riverview hotel cafe across the street from their hotel and also overlooking the convergence of the river. Nice place to stop and have a breather

To do

• WALK!!!! Go down all laneways and streets. lots to see and absorb. the temples of course,  but meandering through streets off the main peninsula part is also a must. of note to us was the streets that led to the Chao Anouvong monument and the UXO missile museum ( Bhounkhong street). The hotel de la paix used to be an old prison and is now a luxury hotel. so lux they don't even bother putting the hotel name out front; out curiosity of this high walled space and open gate drew us in.
• Alms giving: overrated and wrought with appalling tourist behaviours shoving into the flow of the monks to take a flash photo or pretend it is a meaningful gesture to them to give alms, when really, its a lame attempt to have a 'local' namaste experience. I had strong feelings about what a Disney tragedy it all is. Food vendors would be better positioned to sell coffee at 5am rather than low quality insulting rice packets.
• we kept walking down the side roads to the Craft Center and the main market which sits about 2m west of the main drag.
• cross the Mekong river on the car 'ferry' and walk through the little village on the bank of the Mekong where there are more temples and brick path, that eventually peters out to a track to quite temples. i see this side of the river getting more traction for hotels and hostels being touted as the "quiet' side as Luang Prabang gets more popular and crowded.

Udomxai

I don't think even pictures would have prepared us for this stunning bus ride from Luang Namtha to Udomxai!  only 180 odd kilometres that took 6 hours to cover because of the amazing altitude and curved roads the poor struggling bus took. Spectacular vistas peppered with traditional stilt housevillages and the color of their woven fabrics. the 40,000Kip was worth very penny and every hour, even when the bus had to stop to get repaired!  magic.

Udomxai is a cross roads of trade between laos, vietnam and china. Lots of mandarin heard, written and spoken. the market was chocka with plastic and other mass wares from China too. not much to see here but pleasant for an overnighter.  the market is actually pretty lively and vibrant-we saw more unidentified charred critters on skewers for sale.  i also found a stall that sold lovely Lao rice baskets for 10,000K, turns out the cheapest I was able to find in the country as clearly other tourists found them as endearing as me in other towns and they were 40,000 and up!

Lots of hostels, but we went for the Villa Keoseumsack which wasnt far from the bus station (we wanted to get the 8am bus to Luang Prabang) and clean, central etc. on the Main road along the stairs/footpath that climbs up to the main temple.  Rooms large, clean, fridge, back newer  building. Cost 60,000K???

Food picking seemed slim; a lot of Chinese places, so we opted for a Lao place near the hotel, worked by two very petulant daughters who clearly wold much rather be somewhere else! Food OK, beer cheap.

Bus tricks

the 8 am bus to Luang Prabang is a popular one with the tourists, so need to get there early to lock in a ticket then get on bus to stake a seat, as the locals do the same and start piling bags of rice and their other stuff. the ticket stand opens at 7am, so get ready to queue.  if with another person, divide and conquer for one to get the tickets and the other to get breakfast. i went to the Siso bakery   next to the roundabout up near the bus station selling good egg baguette sandwiches and coffee. the coffee ladies at the bus station are also good too.  It's another fab bus trip with lots to see on both sides of the bus so make sure your camera battery is charged and get a window seat!

Mekong, me coming!

The bus from the central bus station in Chiang Rai to the border town of Chiang Khong on the Mekong river is easy and straightforward.  They usually leave from bay #4 or 7 and have many peppered throughout the day. When we were there in Jan 2, no advance ticket purchase was available, you had to buy on the day.



Keep in mind the border closes in the late afternoon, so allow for a bus of about 2-2.5 hours, a tuk tuk from the bus station in the town to the actual border post a few kilometres away, exit border processing, small long boat to cross, and then Laos Huay Xai border process.  Longer if you dont have a passport photo! We got the 8 am bus and cleared all of the above by 11-ish. there was a noon bus to Luang Namtha (6 hours), so we had plenty of time to get another tuk tuk from Huay Xai boat area to the bus station about 10 kilometres away.

The bus ticket was 55,000 kip (approx $8). Nice thing about "communism' is that prices are all posted, so risk of being cheated in fares.  Note the bus station for Luang namtha is also about 10km away from the actual town. the tuk tuk from the stain is pretty standard at about 5,000kip.



Phou-lu III (or is it II?) Bungalows

From the bus station/tuk tuk drop off, turn right to the main road and walk a 50yrd slight incline to the main drag where there are many hostels.  I caught wind of bungalows about an 8 minute walk away from the main area and night market towards the river and thankfully too far for most backpackers to want to walk to.



This place was a gem of a find!  http://www.phou-lu-bungalows.com/. we paid $20 for a gorgeous, clean, simple entire bungalow with own front porch, fridge, and breakfast included. the family that run this are very savvy with tourism, self taught entrepreneurs. i wish them all the success they deserve, and only hope it doesn't get overrun by backpackers or travelers.

Luang Namtha is a great place to get introduced to Lao life and people. A very chill town with a growing outdoor hiking and adventure hub, I expect it will change quickly.   Ambling around is easy in the grid system of the streets. the night market had great roast duck (15,000kip) and som  tam salads (10,000K), and the morning market on the other side (about 10 blocks away) is well worth the wander. Lucky me, they speak a lot of Mandarin here, so it was easy to get by.  i spotted a few mini-buses that connected Luang Namtha with village sin China, so one to remember as a possible route to southern china from this part of Laos.

I'd go back to Luang Namtha and stay longer for some hill tribe homestay hikes.  One spot that seemed to be doing good things with training the locals and offering good experiences (and coffee) is the Forest Retreat on the main road. they make a solid cup of coffee (Kiwi style!)