Mike and Michele’s Global Wanderings

Hi there…Michele here…still in Vietnam and behind on the blogs. The internet cafes in Vietnam are some of the worst we have experienced and a couple times we’ve not even been able to log into our blog site or even hotmail (and forget about uploading photos!) I will probably go back and insert photos once we find an internet cafe where I can upload them. [Note: Yep, I went back and inserted photos into the Vietnam blogs on Feb. 6th] Right now we are in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam. Vietnam is a long thin country which makes travel pretty easy – you either start in the North (Hanoi) and make your way south (Saigon) or you start in the south and make your way north. As you can see below, we started in the north. Our schedule in Vietnam has been:

VIETNAM
1/10: Hanoi
1/11: Hanoi
1/12: Hanoi
1/13: Halong Bay
1/14: Cat Ba Island
1/15: Hanoi
1/16: Hue
1/17: Hue
1/18: Hue
1/19: Hoi An
1/20: Hoi An
1/21: Hoi An
1/22: Saigon
1/23: Saigon
Future:
1/24: Mui Ne
1/25: Mui Ne
1/26: Mui Ne

CAMBODIA
1/27: Phnom Penh
1/28: Phnom Penh
1/29: Phnom Penh
1/30: Phnom Penh
1/31: Siem Reap
2/1: Siem Reap
2/2: Siem Reap
2/3: Siem Reap
2/4: Siem Reap

THAILAND
2/5: Bangkok
2/5: Bangkok
2/6 to ??? Southern Thailand (not sure where yet)

You know, looking at that schedule makes us seem so organized!

So, about Hue, Vietnam…

We got to Hue by taking an overnight train from Hanoi. Some of the scenary was really beautiful – which of course is one advantage of taking a train over flying. Here is a picture from the train window:

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Hi,

Michele here…back in busy, bustling, horn honking, Hanoi.

We just returned from our 3 day, 2 night excursion to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island. In the last blog I mentioned that I was worried about this excursion because it was incredibly cheap. It wasn’t a total disaster but it had its moments. We were picked up at 7:30am in a mini-bus as promised and we did drive to Halong City where we boarded a boat. The boat was pretty run down compared to some of the others we saw, but again, the tour was cheap so we knew this might be an issue. The lunch on board was fine – not awful, but nothing spectacular either (but there really wasn’t enough food and the beer costs well over a dollar which is about 2.5 times what we would buy it for in the store). We got a laught out of the fact that the rules for the boat staff were printed in English (which I’m pretty certain no staff person could read) and one of them was “Staff may not drink alcohol while working”. This was funny because the captain was drinking beer the entire boat trip.

On the positive side, the scenary was pretty spectacular (even though it was cloudy every day). The many small limestone islands jutting out of the water were beautiful and the water was a gorgeous blueish-green. Some of the tiny islands had holes in them that you could paddle through if you were in a kayak or small boat and many of the islands had very unique shapes (for example, one looked like a tall, skinny pencil). Here is a picture of one of the small inlets in Halong Bay:

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Hello from Vietnam!

Michele here…right now it’s 9:00pm in Hanoi, Vietnam (while it’s 9:00am U.S. East coast time, 6:00am West coast time). We had an easy 50 minute flight from Vientiene, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday, January 10th. Since we have been here we’ve talked to other backpackers who took the 30 hour-long bus ride (waiting at the Vietnam border for 6 hours) and let’s just say, we’re glad we flew. It also gave us great peace of mind to have a free airport pickup from our mini-hotel. I’ll explain what a mini-hotel is later but first – the story of our exciting ride from the airport into Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The car had 5 people in it. Our driver plus Mike and I and a couple from Belgium. Mike was sitting in the right front seat of the car and I was sitting in the rear right seat. We were all chatting away when all of a sudden, BANG! The sound was extremely loud, ear piercing in fact. Someone said, “Oh my God!” I thought a bullet had hit the car or the windshield where Mike was sitting. I looked at Mike and like everyone else, he was just saying, “What the…?!” so he didn’t appear hurt. I saw that the window by Mike and the window by me were both damaged and Mike said he could see in the rear view mirror that the car door was damaged. Once we realized everyone was o.k., we all sort of laughed and said, “Welcome to Vietnam!” When we arrived at the mini-hotel, none of us could really figure out what had hit the car. At first it looked like some sort of explosive because there was a kind of powder on the windows and both right side doors but upon closer look we saw the windows were more damaged than that, as if they had been side swiped by something. Another guess was that someone threw a large rock at the car since the side of Mike’s door was dented but Mike explained that he could tell by the marks on the windows that a large rock being thrown from the side of the road could not have made those scratches. In the end, none of us could figure out what had hit the car but the impact was extremely loud and it was quite alarming at the time.

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Saa Baa Dee!

It was difficult to leave our favorite town, Vang Vieng but we can’t stay in one place forever.

So, we took a bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiene (the capital of Laos) yesterday (about 4 hours). An interesting thing about the bus “station” in Vang Vieng is that it is an old air strip used by the U.S. during the Vietnam war. It is just a huge dirt and gravel strip of land that serves no purpose other than the place where all the buses leave from.

Upon getting off the bus in Vientiene, we saw the Mekong River behind us and some guest houses in front of us. We walked across the street and got a room. That’s the easy transportation-to-guest house transition we’ve ever had. We arrived about 2:30pm so we got some lunch and then headed to see a couple of the city’s sites (a famous wat built in 1818 and a victory gate sort-of-thing that was built in 1969 with cement donated by the U.S., meant for the construction of a new airport). We went back to our room pretty early and were glued to BBC. We really like it when we have a TV (with international channels) in our room because we get caught up on all the international news. We also spent some time planning where we’ll go and what we’ll do in Vietnam, as this is our next country and it is fast approaching.

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Mike reports–

Having decided to stay an extra day in Vang Vieng, we got up early this morning to get our breakfast and purchase another bus ticket to Vientiane (since we were forefitting the ticket for today’s bus). On the 2km walk back from town to our Bungalow, we met a man standing with his tractor-hybred tuk tuk underneath a sign advertising Pou Kham Cave and indicating the same cave was 6km away. Since we had decided to stay an extra day in Vang Vieng because we wanted to go caving, we asked the driver how much. He explained in very broken English that he would drive us to the cave, wait for us and bring us back for $2/person or 20,000kip. We were really just trying to do some preliminary research about the costs of hiring a tuk tuk but the driver got so excited about the prospect of our business we ended up trying to explain to him we needed to go back to our room for 30 minutes first. This was a real struggle. After we walked away with the understanding he might be waiting for us to go back to our room before taking the trip to the cave, he came running after us to try to sell us again. I tried to break it down to the most fundamental English and i think i got the idea across because he smiled and said OK. As he began walking back towards his tuk tuk, we hurried along to our room. Thirty minutes later, we were walking back up the hill towards the main road in this town where our driver was expected to be waiting. We were pleased to see he was. Read the rest of this entry »

Saa-baa-dee! (Loa greeting)

Michele here on Saturday, January 7th. We have really enjoyed Vang Vieng. We both agree it’s our favorite town/village thus far on the trip. It has everything a traveller would want: very cheap, extreme natural beauty, movies in every bar at night, a river that supports kayaking and tubing, huge cliffs and caving opportunities, lots of bars along the river front, no beggers, no sales pressure, and a lot of excellent food. We had not planned to stay this long but we love it here. The river provides plenty of recreational opportunities as do the many caves in the area. [Note: See the next blog on details about our caving activities.]

Upon first getting into Vang Vieng, you are met with the following image:
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Hello from Laos!

Michele here…typing this for the second time. (I lost this blog the first time I typed it.)

We arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos from Chiang Mai, Thailand (via Bangkok) on December 30th. We didn’t get much sleep the night before our flight because we met some other travelers and had a few beers with them (staying out later than we should have). I thought this was why I wasn’t feeling so great when we arrived at the airport. Our plan was to fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok then Bangkok to Luang Prabang, Laos. The first flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was fine but I still felt bad. I had an upset stomach that didn’t seem to be going away. In the Bangkok airport, I ate some french fries but that was it for the day. Then things got ugly. I was feeling more than a bit bad on the flight from Bangkok to Luang Prabang and ended up vomitting on the airplane. (Have you ever known anyone to use those air sickness bags? Well, you do now!) When we landed I just couldn’t wait until to get through passport control, catch a tuk-tuk, and get to the guest house where we had reservations. So, we get to the guest house and they had given our room away – something about the guy who made the reservation wasn’t there and they didn’t know and blah, blah, blah. So, we go to a few other guest houses and they are all full. Sigh. We finally find a place, and although $15/night seems high, we take it.

The remainder of the day (and night) I am in the bathroom throwing up. God, this really sucks. When I’m not throwing up, I feel like I want to and am totally nauseous. Plus I am achey and have a fever. So, the next two days I stay in bed. Mike goes out and scouts out the town.

At 11:45pm on December 31st, I ask Mike if he will go out with me so I can see what’s happening for New Year’s. Mike had described all the lights and balloons that were put up for the New Year and I was anxious to see the big celebration. We walked along the streets and at midnight, instead of a big count down by everyone, nothing happens. The restaurants and bars are still buzzing with people but no one seems to notice that midnight on December 31st has come and gone. Weird.

The next day I felt good enough to walk around. This town is really beautiful. It sits on the Mekong River and the surounding environment is green, green, green. Here is a picture I took with some kids playing on a sand bar. You can see the green fields on the other side of the river.
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Hi Holidayers! Michele here….

For the past 5 days, we have been in a small town in northwestern Thailand named Pai, not too far from the Myanmar (Burma) border. We didn’t actually plan to stay here this long but a couple of things happened that extended our stay. We arrived in Pai on December 24th and immediately went to a guesthouse recommended by a woman in our Chiang Mai cooking class – good thing because we later learned there is a serious shortage of accomodations in Pai. In fact, we actually paid to keep our room while we were treking in the mountains (see story below) for fear we wouldn’t find a place when we got back. We are very fortunate since the room is reasonably priced ($7.25), clean, and had a bathroom.

Pai is a small town that is lined with internet cafes, guesthouses, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and clothing stores (where hilltribe people from the north sell their handicrafts). The town sits at the base of some beautiful hills covered with vegetation and it is also along a river. Here is a picture of me standing on a bridge at the edge of the town (yes, it was cloudy and rained a lot in Pai):
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Hello from Northern Thailand where it is now 10:00pm and a beautiful 65 degrees (sorry – just had to tell you all that!)

We took a 1 hour flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on December 21st (Wed). We immediately checked into what is now our new record for the lowest cost accomodation. We are staying in a guesthouse for $6.25/night and we have our own bathroom with hot water, towels, and toilet paper. What a deal! We immediately started walking around the Old City with the goal of visiting a few wats (Buddist temples). The Old City, where we are staying, is roughly one square mile and it is still bound by the old city wall and a moat. On our way to the wats we saw many monks as this is a place monks come to study. The photo below shows two monks inside one of the Buddist temples we visited.
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Hey Holiday People,

Michele here…Today is December 21 and guess what? I am 40 years old today! Yep, hard to believe considering I usually act 26, but it’s true. For my birthday I asked Mike for a cup of black filtered coffee (not instant). The United States is a coffee drinking nation but much of the rest of the world drinks tea and that’s what I’ve been drinking for the last couple of months. So, while I was in the shower this morning, Mike went out and got me a cup of black coffee. Awww…isn’t he sweet?! He’s the best!

Since the last blog (which admitedly was a while ago)….

We were in Bangkok, Thailand for 4 days and are now in 430 miles north of Bangkok in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

I don’t know what happened in Bangkok (perhaps we hit “the wall”) but we did very little sight seeing. For the most part we slept, figured out what we are doing the next 3 months, made travel arrangements, and ran errands. It all started on Saturday, December 17th when we arrived in Bangkok at 6:30am. Yes, we took another one of those sleepless overnight flights. Plus, we had to move our watches ahead by 2.5 hours so we lost those hours too. Now, we are 12 hours ahead of East coast time and 15 hours ahead of West coast time. When we checked into our very cool hostel (Suk 11) we immediately went to sleep. We had both been sick with sinus problems and it appeared I also had some type of eye infection in both eyes (glassy, red, and lots of gunk coming out at the corners – I’m sure you needed to know that much detail!) Anyway, we eventually got up but I just stayed in bed until the next morning on Sunday, December 18th. At least Mike left the room to get something to eat.

On Sunday, we did manage to take the sky tram (exactly like the Washington DC metro except elevated) to the Nam Chao Phraya river and catch an express boat (public transportation boat) up to Chinatown. We wandered around there and checked out some of the markets. Bangkok is very much like New York City or Washington, DC. There are a lot of neon lights, department stores, and Westerners (people from North America and Europe). Mike and I are a minority couple. We are two Caucasians, which is a rare sight. Another rare sight is a couple in which both people are from Thailand. Most couples we see are made up of a Caucasion man and a Thai woman (or girl) – and there are a lot of these couples. There appears to be many Thai women who are looking for uh…let’s just call them…”dates” (at least in the area where we are staying, which is the business district – Marriott Hotel, etc.) There are also men passing out flyers (only to Mike) with naked women on them advertising massages (and I think you know the type I mean). I don’t know why there is a need to advertise this since every other store is a massage parlor. About half are the regular kind and the other half are the “naughty” kind. There are also several clinics in the area (one next door to our hostel) that test for STDs and HIV.

Over the course of the next several days, Mike and I figured out a plan for traveling around northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and then down to southern Thailand. (Yea, I know it would have been good to have figured this out before we got here but we have really been on the go the past month.) It took many hours of research (e.g., reading guidebooks and looking on the Internet) to figure out which cities we wanted to go to and how we would travel between them. Meanwhile, we did figure out that we needed to obtain a visa for Laos and Vietnam before we got to the borders. We went through a travel agent and paid a bit extra for expedited visas for both of these countries (note that we can get the Cambodia visa at the border). We also made arrangements to fly to Chiang Mai (which is where we are now) . In addition to doing these things, we were still feeling somewhat sick and slept more than usual. We also did mundane but necessary chores such as buy vitamins, toothpaste, etc., hand wash clothes (a common errand when traveling), buy and sell used books, and send stuff back to the U.S. Oh, and we had to move because our hostel was fully booked for weeks and we ended up extending our stay in Bangkok to get the visas.

We did manage to get out yesterday and spent some time wandering around the grounds of Wat Po (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). This is Bangkok’s largest wat (temple) and it contains a 150-foot gold sculpture of Buddha reclining. The head of Budda (which is shown in a photo below) is approximately 10-12 feet. After we visited Wat Po we went to an interesting place for dinner called Cabbages & Condoms. There was a lovely Christmas tree made out of condoms in the area where you are greeted by the restaurant staff. The proceeds from the meals go to the country’s family planning program and instead of dinner mints at the end of our meal, we got…yes, you guessed it – condoms!

A few photos:
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