our country tis of thee

last week we ditched our packs and rented motorbikes and biked all around the blovean plateau

!

and we didnt crash. well not really. and no one got hurt. actually, thats a lie. more on that later

BUT
first we spent the night in a place called tadlo that was complete travel-fantasy perfect: a small town, surrounded by waterfalls with thatched-wall bungalows and hammocks and a lot of livestock.
we wandered, hiked, climbed down a broken 20foot bamboo ladder and stumbled on a huge waterfall, tucked away surrounded by jungle-forest-perfection. jumping in screaming "we are the luckiest girrrrllls i cant believe this is reallllllllll this is utopiaaaaaa," we did what any four 20-something, free-spirited girls would do: we took our clothes off, went skinnydipping.

this was a great idea...until (as emily climbed on a bunch of rocks to get to her stuff) , our bungalow-mate wandered up to our same "deserted" waterfall.
failblog. so we all laughed hysterically and he eventually got the hint, and disappeared back into the bush.
crisis averted.
then we look up.
and see a village, ages 5-80, gathered on the top of the waterfall to stare at the buttnaked whiteskinned farangs...
FAILBLOG.


((also, somewhere in this tadlo trip, emily acquired a cold, emily got a sicknasty gangrenous-looking spider bite, and jaki sprained her ankle. like in a major way. but fear not moms, the spider bite has gone down, emilys taking zicam, and i guess we'll take jaki to the doctor if the massive yellow-purple bruising and inability to walk doesnt go away?))

we also spent the 4th of july on the plateau, in a town called pakxong. we tried to celebrate 'merica but had some pretty poor substitutes. it was too high an altitude for watermelon, theyre not really into fireworks, and baked goods or barbeques aint happening.
so we drank beerlao, lit a white glow stick, ate pineapple and marble-cake-from-a-bag, and made an american flag on an old bus ticket.

now, after a 18-hour travel disaster, we're in cambodia, at angkor wat.
lets just say when you read in lonely planet that a border is corrupt, and it will be scammy and a total pain in the ass and you will be miserable---theyre not lying. take their word for it.

also angkor wats the most beautiful thing either of us has ever seen.
love you all; think/talk/want to talk/dream of you all the time.