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Trang, Thailand (Post #92)

March 3rd, 2006

Hi there…Michele here…typing this from a small village in Malaysia (I’ve given up on ever being caught up on the blogs.) This blog is about our last stop in Thailand. On February 19th, we traveled by mini-van from Phuket (island) to Trang, Thailand. The driver was driving like a mad man going, what seemed like 100 mph, and servering in and out of traffic. Mike and I have figured out that the best way to deal with these situations is simply not look out the window. However, a woman in the back of the mini-van was completely freaking out. She was crying and screaming and yelling things in German. Her friend was trying to calm her down but nothing seemed to help. She was completely hysterical and eventually her friend told the driver to stop the mini-van. We were in the middle of no where and the two women got off. The friend of the crying woman told the driver that he was driving out of control and the crying woman was afraid she was going to die. The driver’s excuse was that he was late and “big trouble for me” if he didn’t get people to certain places in time. Stopping to let the woman off made us even more late of course and away we went like Mr. Toad’s Wild ride in Disneyland. Five hours later we arrived at our destination, Trang, Thailand.

Trang is a small town with few tourists. When we got off the mini-van and looked around all the signs and shops were written in Thai and the Thai language doesn’t use roman characters. Hmm…what to do….we found a travel agency and asked about staying at one of the beaches about 30 minutes from Trang. The lady had some photos of places to stay and we paid for one night on one of the more secluded beaches. We arrived at Sin Chai Resort on Hat Yao (Yao Beach) to find what we now consider our worst accomodation ever. The problem was that: a) we had already paid for it and b) there were only two places to stay on Yao Beach. Our first room had lizard poop all over the bed and an ant hill built on top of one of the electrical boxes with many ants living there. There was no ceiling to the bathroom. Instead there was some type of black net thing with many creatures and dirt stuck in it. The wood that the hut was made out of was rotting away, the pillow cases and cover sheet on the bed were stained and there was a think layer of dust everywhere. We decided we didn’t have much choice other than to stick it out for the night. We went to some nearby beaches that were empty and quite lovely. Here is a picture of one of those beaches (This one is technically part of Hat Yao beach.):

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Phuket Island, Thailand (Post #91)

February 20th, 2006

Whew! Michele here…I am finally caught up on the blogs!  Yeah! Today is Saturday, February 18th and we are currently on Phuket island in southern Thailand. We arrived here on Monday, February 13th with the hopes of seeing Dr. Luba Matic, the dive doctor Mike had talked to while we were on Ko Tao. We were also considering seeing a cardiologist so that Mike could get his heart examined.  Upon landing at the airport we had two plans in mind depending on what the doctor(s) told Mike. 

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Ko Tao and Ko Samui, Thailand: A Saga (Post #90)

February 20th, 2006

Hi…Michele here…

In the last blog I wrote about going to our tuk-tuk driver’s house (actually a hut) in Siem Reap, Cambodia to have dinner. I talked about how we drank from dirty glasses, how everyone ate off the same plate, how the meat was from the market (where it probably hung from a wooden cart all day or for several days) and how the guy serving the beer was using his bare hands to put ice in our glasses.  (This is potentially a problem because there is no running water and certainly no toilet paper used in the village.)  

The morning after this dinner, we flew to Bangkok, Thailand.  We stayed there for two days…..which brings me to the end of the last blog (#89) where I wrote, “On February 7th we flew from Bangkok, Thailand to Ko Samui, Thailand (an island off the east coast of Thailand).  From Ko Samui, we took a ferry to Ko Tao (another island) where things did not go as planned.  Read the next blog for more on that.” 

This is that blog.

While in Bangkok, I developed a fever.  In addition to that, to put it bluntly, the toilet was my new best friend.  I figured this wasn’t a big problem and that it would eventually go away after a day or two.  By the time we got to Ko Tao, I was having terrible pains in my abdoman.  It felt like someone was digging their fingernails into my intestines.  Meanwhile…

Mike and I had gone to the small island of Ko Tao in the Gulf of Thailand for one reason – to take a scuba diving course and get our PADI Open Water dive certification.  Ko Tao has beautiful beaches with crystal clear water, some of the best diving in Thailand, and it is one of the cheapest places in the world to get an Open Water dive certification.  For $230 each, we were going to stay 5 nights at the dive resort and take the 4 day dive course (that included 4 dives). Here are a few pictures of Ko Tao:

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Siem Reap, Cambodia (Post #89)

February 6th, 2006

Michele here…

We took a 6 hour bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, Cambodia on January 31st.  The main reason for visiting the small town of Siem Reap is to see the nearby temples of Angkor Wat.  Upon exiting the bus, we took a tuk tuk around to a couple of guest houses and eventually settled on one.  We stayed 5 nights in Siem Reap and spent 3 full days visiting temples. The first day we were there we just walked around the town and went to the market.  The little downtown area of Siem Reap is full of funky bars and restaurants that you might find in New York or even Washington, D.C.  When we were eating dinner the first night we made a comment to each other about how strange it was that we were in the middle of Cambodia, eating at an inexpensive restaurant that had the most luxurious decor. 

The second day in town we set out to find a Mr. Sa Voeun. We received a recommendation (from a young couple we met in Vietnam) to use him as a tuk tuk driver to see the temples.  We walked for almost 30 minutes in the heat and humidity to get to the guesthouse where we heard he hangs out to get business.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t there. The guesthouse called him and we were to come back later at night to meet him. O.k., fine, we went back that night, met him, talked with him about the temples we wanted to see, and how much it would cost to hire him for 3 days.  We agreed on $10 for the first day, $25 for the second day (since we wanted to see far away temples), and $10 the third day.  This is actually a very good price.  Over the next three days (Feb 2, 3, and 4th) we saw 26 temples.  Some temples are quite small and some are very large.  The largest temple is the famous, Angkor Wat.  Here is a picture:

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Phenom Penh, Cambodia (Post #88)

February 6th, 2006

Michele here writing about Phenom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

After arriving by bus in Phenom Penh (pronounced “penom pen”) at night, we decided to have a tuk tuk driver take us to the riverfront. We read in the guidebook that there were some mid range places there but when we got there, many of them were booked.  We ended up taking a river view room that was really out of our budget at $35. It turns out that the river front area is the one of the nicest parts of Phenom Pehn. Many European, Australian, even American people live and frequent the restaurants and bars in this area. I got up at 5:30 the next morning and took this picture of the sunrise from our roof top balcony. 

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Crossing the border from Vietnam to Cambodia (Post #87)

February 6th, 2006

Crossing the border from Vietnam to Cambodia on Friday, January 27th was quite an adventure (yea, yea, I know I’m behind on the blogs…someday I’ll catch up). The adventure started out when we went downstairs to meet the travel agent who told us the night before that: a) it was o.k. to leave to walk to catch the bus at 8:20a or 8:30a even though our bus tickets showed the bus left at 8:15a and b) she would walk with us to show us where we were supposed to catch the bus.  We were downstairs at about 8:10 and asked for the travel agent who regularly works in the lobby.  Well, she wasn’t there.  We told the receptionist that we were supposed to catch the bus to Cambodia.  She looked at our tickets and said something like, “Oh, you need to leave right away, the bus is leaving now!”  We told her we didn’t know where to go.  She said that we need to go around the corner to another travel agency.  O.k., fine, we knew where that was.  We run there and find the bus is already full.  This looked grim because everyone’s luggage was loaded in the back and in the aisles and there was no place for anything else anywhere.  For a split second we felt a wave of panic but then we saw a lot of other people standing around with backpacks. We heard a lady tell the crowd of travelers that another bus was coming to pick people up to go to Cambodia. Whew! That was a relief!

Shortly after taking off on this – in theory – 6 hour bus journey, the air conditioner stops working. It is very hot and humid and Mike and I, along with everyone else on the bus, begin sweating to death. We get to the border at about 11:00am along with 3 other huge bus loads of people.  Our bus is the last to arrive so we end up in the back of a very long line that extends out the back of the Vietnam border control building.  We couldn’t figure out why the line was moving so slow.  Usually exiting a country is fast and easy.  The passport control people normally just look at your entry date, put a stamp in your passport and that’s it.  We know it didn’t help that each time a Vietnamese or Cambodian person or group appeared they got expidited to the front of the line.  It also didn’t help that there were several lines initially but as time wore on, the number of lines decreased until there was only one line and one man stamping passports. This aspect was particularly frustrating because we were so close to the front of our line when we saw “our guy” get up, walk out the door, and ride off on his motorcycle.  We figured he was going to another building to get more supplies or something since he didn’t say anything to anyone.  In fact, we all just remained standing in line while we watched the other line moving forward.  Finally, the one man that is working stands up, looks over at our line, and says, “Move here!”  pointing to his line. Turns out we had been standing in our line for no reason since the man who left on the motorcycle was never coming back.  We all moved over to the back of the one remaining line.  When it was all said and done, we ended up standing in line for over 3 hours in order to exit Vietnam. Next we had to enter Cambodia…

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Vietnam Pictures! (Post #86)

February 6th, 2006

Michele here…and today is February 6th – exactly 8 months since we boarded the plane in Baltimore for our around-the-world trip.

After spending 10 days in Cambodia, we are now back in Thailand. Today, Mike and I spent many hours uploading photos. The good news is that you can see all my award-winning photos (he he) in the Vietnam blogs. The blogs listed below now have photos incorporated into the reports:

Post #80 – Hanoi, Vietnam
Post #81 – Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
Post #82 – Hue, Vietnam
Post #83 – Hoi An, Vietnam
Post #84 – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam
Post #85 – Mui Ne, Vietnam

Enjoy!

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Mui Ne, Vietnam (Post #85)

January 30th, 2006

Michele here (with later minor editing by Mike)…it’s January 30th and we are in Cambodia…

I have not been able to attach any photos because the internet connections in both Vietnam and Cambodia are incredibly slow. If nothing else, we are scheduled to be back in Bangkok within a week and I know of a fast connection in an internet cafe there. So, for now…only boring ol’ worlds. [Note: it’s now Feb 6th and I am in the internet cafe that I just mentioned so photos are now inserted into Vietnam blogs.]

As I mentioned in the last blog we took a 7:00pm bus from Saigon to Mui Ne, Vietnam. Mui Ne is a beach town and we had big plans to hang out at the beach and beach bars, you know, sort of relax for a few days. But nooooooooooo!

The first thing that happened was that instead of being a 3 hour bus ride (as mentioned in the guidebook), it turned out to be a 6 hour bus ride, meaning we rolled into town at 1:00am. We had reservations to stay somewhere associated with our original bus company. However, our tickets were sold or transfered or something and we ended up going with a different bus company. When we arrived in Mui Ne we were dropped off at a completely different guesthouse than where we originally had reservations but whatever…it was late and we didn’t care. We took the first room we saw for $10. Although it was a bit far from the center of town, the guesthouse was right on the beach. The problem was that this beach is known for being incredibly windy and the waves are very loud. Loud crashes can be heard all day and all night so, you really need to put in earplugs when you go to sleep at night. The other problem, we later discovered, were some giant roaches. In Asia, all the roaches are giant so this is not unusual, but I really hate seeing them in our room – and I especially disliked seeing one in our bed! Eeeeek!

The next morning Mike woke up with a fever. He stayed in bed the rest of the day while I explored the town center (about 30 minutes walk away) and got information on kite surfing, sand sleding, and jeep tours of the sand dunes. Although the kite surfing looked like a lot of fun, it was really expensive – something like $350 for a 5 hour lesson. O.k., that was definitely out. However, it was fun to watch the people being pulled on a surf boards by small parachute-looking things. Here’s a picture:

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam (Post #84)

January 30th, 2006

Hi! Michele here on Jan 30th….(in Cambodia now but catching up on Vietnam blogs)

We were pleased that everything went smoothly getting from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). On Jan 22nd, we took a 45 min taxi ride from Hoi An to Danang Airport then flew to Saigon and took a taxi into downtown Saigon. We had a business card of a hotel in “backpacker land” in Saigon that someone gave us so we just went there to see if they had a room. For $15, we got a great room on the top floor overlooking a busy street below. (See photo below.) The room included free breakfast and free dinner (dinner = fried spring rolls and noodle soup).

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Hoi An, Vietnam (Post #83)

January 24th, 2006

Michele here…trying to catch up on the blogs…

We rode a bus for a little over 3 hours from Hue to Hoi An. We read in the guidebook that this bus trip had some fantastic scenary and, when awake, we certainly agreed. I took this photo during one of the bus stops:

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