Vietnam

I want to start out by saying that everyone in Vietnam has been SO nice & very interested in who we are & where we're going - so many know English, at least in the more developed, tourist areas. Andrew says he feels like Brad Pitt with all the people commenting & stares he gets. He does stand out, being at least a foot taller than everyone - I'm even tall, but I stand out cause I wear tank tops & everyone here covers any exposed skin, head to toe. 

Once we hit Ho Chi Minh/Saigon after our 10-hour overnight bus from Cambodia, we immediately grabbed an 8-hour train to Nha Trang wasting no time at all to get to the beach! We got in around 1am - we both slept our best night's sleep on the train & the [nicer] hotel we splurged on. We were up with the sun & set out to explore Nha Trang. After some much needed breakfast, we went down for a dip in the very warm water. We grabbed some lunch, then rented lounge chairs with umbrellas on the beach for $1 each for the day! We bought some cold ones from the market down the street & had a very 'tough' day reading, relaxing & swimming!

The next morning we got up for a boat tour around the neighboring islands - we were the only white people on the tour, which was actually pretty awesome. We snorkeled, ate authentic Vietnamese food, drank homemade wine at the floating bar, jumped off the roof of the boat, relaxed, Andrew sang karaoke, we got way too much sun, and enjoyed every penny of the $7 tour! 

We had planned to spend our last day in Nha Trang renting a motorbike, touring the outskirts & grabbing a train north that night, but after a long talk with the shop owner next door to our hotel, we decided a 3-day motorcycle tour through the central highlands of Vietnam was a better choice. So we immediately packed our bags & 'hit the road, Jack' with our Easyrider guides: Chanh & Teo. These guys have been friends & 'Easyriders', as they call it, for 10+ years. We quickly discovered that this is THE way to see the real Vietnam countryside. We had a laundry list of things to see & do with the short time allotted, but we got it done: saw rice paper being made, drank banana wine, celebrated Teo's forgotten birthday, visited the Honeymoon City [Dalat], swam in waterfalls, visited a silk worm farm & factory, coffee plantations, flower farms, drank rice wine, saw huge mosaic pagodas, rode & fed elephants, karaoked, rode through a huge lightning & thunder storm, held a 3.5 meter long python, drank scorpion wine, enjoyed truly authentic Vietnamese food, harvested rice with some locals, ate farm-fresh fruits right off of the trees at the dozens of farms we stopped at, and much, much more - all with our new friends Chanh & Teo. They made the experience of being out on the open road that much better - they know so much about their country & care so much, it would not have been the same without them! On top of it all, they're freaking hilarious!

The last couple days have been full of travel, trying to get to Hanoi for our flight back to Bangkok. Our motorbike guides dropped us at a bus station for our 12 hour bus ride to Danang, followed by an almost 20 hour train ride to Hanoi. We rolled in around 3:30am a day later looking for a place to stay. With no luck, we crashed in the dining room of a hostel waiting for someone to open so we could shower the last 32 hours of travel away. We finally found an available hostel & immediately booked our tour to Halong Bay. Another 3.5 hour bus ride out to Halong Bay was worth it! There are more than 3,000 islands that sit in the bay & are more than stunning! We kayaked around some of the islands & toured the inside of some caverns. The vistas were beautiful & the weather was perfect - no rain! 

Vietnam is an amazing country that we are glad to have explored. Though our time was short, we think we got a good feel of the cities, beaches, small villages & countrysides. We can't wait to come back! 

Now, off to Bali, Indonesia for a week! 

Train essentials: water, books, beer, instant noodles!

Andrew scouring the markets for some fresh fruit. 

Fresh cut pineapple & mango - perfect afternoon beach snack. 

Singing Hotel California for the boat tour. 

Relaxing on our island tour. 

Helping make some rice paper. 

Easyrider!!!! 

Enjoying the amazing views!

Gigantic mosaic pagoda. 

Teo cooking our yummy dinner. 

Silk worms!!

Coffee plantations for days!

Makeshift long house in a small village in Dak Lak. 

Andrew getting down & dirty. 

Teaching Chanh & Teo a game over some rice wine & BBQ pork. 

Getting up close with our new friend. 

Smile!

Another friend we met along the way!

And another! We've had a lot of scorpion out here!

Dragonfruit fresh off the tree. 

Cooling off in a waterfall. 

Our last meal with Chanh & Teo! Pho everyday!!!

Sleeper train to Hanoi. 

Halong Bay tour. 

Some of the 3,000 islands that sit in the bay!

From inside the Dong Thein Cung caves. 

More vistas! Gorgeous weather!!

The street our hotel was on in Hanoi. 

Cambodia

Hello from Cambodia! 

We started our 'holiday in Cambodia' with a very hot walk across the border. Surprisingly there were a lot of other tourists crossing as well. That made it a little easier to know where to go after each checkpoint. We then caught a 3 hour minibus to Siem Reap, home of the largest religious site in the world: Angkor Wat. What an amazing sight! Right up there with Machu Picchu. We enjoyed a full day of temples & tropical downpours. We also got some very picturesque views of the lush countryside on our way to a heart-wrenching museum that told the story of a young boy that set land mines in the Cambodian Civil War with the Khmer Rouge. Now, as a man, he has made it his life's work to make Cambodia & many other countries, landmine-free. He travels the world de-mining villages & also houses & aides victims of land mines. His story is a good one & his cause is incredibly inspiring. You can check it out here: www.CambodianSelfHelpDemining.org. 

Next our goal was to get our visas for Vietnam in Cambodia's capital. We set out on a 6 hour overnight bus ride & have now been in Phnom Penh for 2 days - which means very chaotic, very hot & very dirty. Don't get us wrong, this city has a lot to offer including incredible history lessons at the Killing Fields from the Khmer Rouge takeover back in the 70's, the King's palace, huge markets, cheap beer, amazing street food... the list goes on. But we are tired of the city [Bangkok > Siem Reap > Phnom Penh] & ready for the beaches of Vietnam. 

In the end, we enjoyed Cambodia. Unfortunately we don't think we saw enough to give it a a thumbs up or down but we know we would love the countryside if we had more time to spend - what we did see was beautiful. In the tourist areas it was easy to get around, language-wise. Everyone involved in the tourist industry is either fluent or knows basic English - same goes for Thailand. Once you get off the beaten track is when it gets hard: a lot of charrades & pointing at maps! Traffic in Southeast Asia is pretty crazy in the large cities. You can drive on the wrong side of the road, ride a motorcycle without a helmet, fit 1 or 5 people on a motorcycle, ride with your infant child on your motorcycle, turn whenever you want through oncoming traffic... the list goes on & you just have to get used to it. It's actually kind of fun as a tourist but it would be insane as everyday life. 

Tonight we take an 8 hour overnight bus to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam. Instead of staying another day in HCMC, we plan to take the train straight to Nha Trang - google it & you'll see why we're in such a rush to get there! 

Hopefully by the time you've read this we've made it to Vietnam safe & sound with a cold one in hand on the beach! ;-)

Crossing the border: Thailand to Cambodia. 

Breakfast for 50 cents!

Entrance at Angkor Wat. 

Soaking it all in!

Fruits at the market in downtown Phnom Penh. 

Remembering the victims of the Killing Fields. 

Dinner & drinks with new friends!

Noodle soup is where it's at!! 

Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived at the Khao San Palace Inn in Bangkok around 1pm with a slap in the face with some very humid heat. We immediately made our way to grab some Chang beer. We met a young English girl, Hanna, traveling with her dad. Just so happens she used to live & work in Thailand & still has many friends in the area. After a couple beers & a long cat nap, we met up with Hanna & her friends. They showed us an amazing time, not letting us pay for one drink! They serve some pretty potent drinks in buckets, as in the sand toy. We were out until 5am talking, dancing & drinking!

Friday we took to the streets & hopped on the Skytrain; we explored the gigantic Chatuchak Market that sold everything imaginable at incredibly cheap prices, had our first tuk-tuk ride, enjoyed pad Thai for breakfast, extremely spicy Thai soup for lunch, fresh coconut milk & mango, we had traditional Thai desserts in Sukhumvit & ended the day with yet another much needed nap. We woke up at 10pm, found a taxi for our flight the next morning, ate some street food & watched the whole city get crazy again.

We are waiting for our taxi as I type this at 4am on Sunday morning. We are on our way to Hanoi, which is in Northern Vietnam. We're excited for to enjoy some of the exotic Southeast Asian beaches you dream about.

  **I wrote this early this morning BEFORE we found out that you needed a visa to fly to Vietnam. Unfortunately the research I did before we left did not indicate the need for one. It takes two days to get a visa to Vietnam & they are closed on Sunday, so we had to miss our flight & we are now on a bus to Cambodia. We will apply for the visa tomorrow in Cambodia's capital & plan on doing the trip the other way around now - south to north. **

All in all, we enjoyed Bangkok & are taking some of the calmness of the Thai people with us. Their language is basically impossible to read, though the symbols are beautiful.

 ...Until next time

Taking off at LAX.

Fresh coconut milk for $40 Baht (30 Baht = $1)

Spicy Thai soup - I've never sweated so much from eating!

Excited to shop at the Chatuchak Market in downtown Bangkok.

Relaxing in Chatuchak Park.

Khao San Road - Where our hotel was located.

Waiting for our airport taxi at 345am - zzzZZzzzzz

Part II: Southeast Asia

We leave in less than 2 weeks for our next adventure: Southeast Asia!! We are beyond excited & ready to scratch that ever-itchy travel itch! Our itinerary starts in Bangkok, Thailand... Unless you count the layovers in Tokyo, Japan & Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From Bangkok we will fly up to Hanoi, Vietnam. We plan on traveling down the coast of Vietnam by train stopping in small villages & gorgeous beaches along the way. Our last stop in Vietnam should be Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. We plan on making our way to Laos for some fun in the sun & continue to Cambodia to explore some temples. Bangkok is the ultimate destination as we have a flight down to Bali, Indonesia. We all know what Andrew will be doing for the 7 days in Bali. And me? Well I'm sure I will be able to keep busy with yoga, beaches! & shopping! 

We've had to plan a lot more for this trip than we did for anything in South America because of the 'short' time we have over there, but a lot of things will still be wherever the wind takes us!

Please follow us on our adventure. We will post as much as possible, but we will also be on the road a lot for the first 2 weeks. 

Love you all! 

*this is also a test post from my blogger app on my iPhone!