3YC's Adventures

Hoi An = paradise

3yc — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 20:27:00 GMT

Hoi An is an incredible place. First, there is the gorgeous beach. Second, the center of town is very picturesque--old, well-maintained buildings decorated with colorful silk lanterns are huddled down by the river. The streets are clean, no motorbikes at night, and the food is excellent. The hotels are all wonderful--no one here has any complaints, no matter their budget. Finally, there is the shopping. It's obscene. I was positively giddy during my first walk around town. You can have anything you want made at rock bottom prices. I think I will extend my stay here by a day or two. The more I hear about HCMC, the less time I want to spend there.

Yesterday I spent shopping at the tailors' and then wandering through some art galleries. I headed to a bar for happy hour when it started to rain, met a lovely french girl, Morgan, and then we went for dinner at a place where you could pick which tiger prawn you wanted for dinner!

Today I slept in a bit. My bed here was the first mattress I've slept on while on vacation that isn't ridiculously firm. Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk and a banana pancake to breakfast, then a short bike ride to the beach where I camped out with a couple of American girls under a huge thatched umbrella. Later in the day, I tried on my new clothes which needed a few final alterations, and then ordered a bit more. :) Dinner by the river and an early night for me--even though I was under the umbrella all day, the short bike ride and my couple of swims in the water were enough to give me a sunburn and I'm feeling a bit drained. Tomorrow will definitely be more of the same.

Hue

3yc — Sat, 1 Sep 2007 18:15:00 GMT

Hue was lovely once I was well enough to leave my hotel and see it! I spent my first two days here sick in bed--turns out I needed the cipro after all. The hotel staff were so sweet to me when I was sick, and the hotel is quite nice so I was very comfortable, albeit feverish.

Today I went on a half day motorbike tour of the area, organized through a cafe next door, Cafe on Thu Wheels ("Thu" is the owner). It was really fantastic, and I saw parts of Hue I never would have seen any other way. We left at 8:30 and drove on little streets through the local village. It is harvest season for rice here in Hue, so everyone was up early and working in the fields. In front of some of the houses on the concrete patios, they had laid out the rice to dry in the sun. We stopped at a japanese style covered bridge, which was a gift from one of the former queens to the people, built in 1776 and has never needed to be restored since! It is a pedestrian only bridge, and people from the fields rest there during the day in the shade. After checking out a local market there, we headed to Tu Hieu Pagoda, which is an active community of Mahayanna Buddhists. We arrived in time to watch them praying/chanting, and then also saw a novice monk, a boy of about 9, perform one of his chants in the bonsai garden with his tiny cup of rice and water.

Next we headed uphill to an old war bunker which gave us a good view of the surrounding mountains and the Perfume River, and our guide pointed out Hamburger Hill and an area where thousands of Vietnamese were buried alive, most of them civilians. From there we went to Tu Duc's Mausoleum, which is the most famous mausoleum of the former Hue rulers in the area. The mausoleum is a collection of lotus flower-filled ponds and ornately tiled buildings. There was even a structure to house a stone tablet of Tu Duc's "self-critical autobiography."

Along the road, there were many stands where people were making incense, and some of the sticks were out drying in the sun. Vietnamese people only buy the red incense sticks, but the stands are filled with a rainbow of colors for the tourists.

Finally we went to the Thien Mu Pagoda, one of the most famous pagodas in Vietnam. It was already famous in the country in the 1930s and 1940s, but in 1963, one of its monks, the Venerable Thich Quang Duc, drove his car to Saigon to protest the treatment of Buddhists in the country, and burnt himself in the street upon stepping out of his car. The car is on display in one of the buildings behind the pagoda.

Later in the afternoon, I took a bike across the river to the Citadel, the old walled city in Hue. The outer walls enclose a large area of busy streets, as well as the old Imperial City, with the Forbidden Purple City lying within. Many of the buildings are in good condition, and there are also some ruins in the back to climb around. Because I went there so late in the day, it was mostly free of tourists, so I enjoyed rambling about. The tourists who were there were dressing up in old fashioned clothes to get their pictures taken on imperial-style props.

Early tomorrow morning I am taking the bus south to Hoi An, which is about 4 hours from here. I think there are a few scenic stops along the way so it shouldn't be too bad of a ride down there.

Ha Long Bay

3yc — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:40:00 GMT

The best way to describe Ha Long Bay is that it looks like those islands in Goonies. It's an archipeligo of over 1,000 limestone islands, and some kind of descending dragon was involved in creating them. I took a three day tour there a few days ago with some other tourists from Italy, France, Ireland, and also 5 NYU law grads. They bused us up there (about 3 hours), of course, stopping along the way at an overpriced souvenir shop. We arrived at Haiphong city to board our boat, where we were to spend the first night. The scenery from the boat was absolutely gorgeous. We spent about an hour or so getting into the bay amidst the limestone islands, and then we headed to Titop Island to a small beach for some swimming. Next we headed to Hang Sung Sot, which was an enormous cave, and afterwards anchored in a nearby bay, where about 30 other boats similar to ours were moored. We had some time to swim around the boat and were allowed to jump off of the top of the boat, which was a lot of fun, and then we had dinner, and then drinks in the moonlight on top of the boat while we played "actionary" (which is really just charades). We slept overnight in cabins on the boat, and the next day we headed off further into the bay. We met up with a smaller boat than ours and switched over to it, and it took us to an area near Monkey Island where we kayaked for a few hours. Unfortunately we couldn't take cameras with us because they would have gotten wet, but we were able to kayak into a completely enclosed lagoon, accessed only by going through a limestone arch. By the time we left the lagoon, the tide had risen and there was only about 4 feet of clearance space left--when the tide rises completely in the afternoon, the lagoon is inaccessible. Next we headed over to Monkey Beach, where all the monkeys were hiding in the jungle so we just swam for a bit, and then we headed over to another small island beach for lunch. After lunch, we took our boat over to Viet Hai Harbour on Cat Ba Island for some mountain biking. The ride was quite difficult and we had to stop several times, but we made our way through rice paddies and a couple of small villages, and then went back the way we came. It was one of those things that was more fun once it was over! Next we headed to Ben Beo harbor on Cat Ba Island, which is the main harbor there. Ca Ba is the largest of the islands in Ha Long Bay, and actually comprises over 300 small islands in addition to the main one. We stayed in the "best" hotel on Cat Ba Island, which our guide proudly told us was run by the government. That night after dinner, our guide took us to a local Bia Hoi where we drank many pitchers for free, and then we went on to another place for some incredible karyoke. Our last day was really all travel--a few hours back on the boat to Haiphong, then lunch, then the bus trip back.

arrived in Chiang Mai

3yc — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:07:00 GMT

Lisa, Kate, and I have arrived in Chiang Mai. So far all we have done is shop. There is an enormous night bazaar here that we checked out last night and are going back to tonight. Today we went a silver factory, an umbrella painting factory, and a silk weaving factory.

Tomorrow I am going on a three day trek with a group to one of the nearby national parks. I'll write more when I get back!

Kata Beach

3yc — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:17:00 GMT

We've spent several days in Phuket laying on the beach. The beach is gorgeous but the ripcurrent is intense.

We rent beach chairs/umbrellas for $3 a day from Robo, a small Thai man who has a crush on Kate. Whenever she is not at the beach, Robo asks us when she is coming back. He had me deliver her a handwritten note, and has expressed a desire to "take care of our dinner." He loves Kate.

Karen and I took a surfing lesson a couple of days ago. I took another one today. Despite the hours of effort I've put into it, I suck. The ocean is winning and at the end of the day I come home feeling beat up.

The highlight of the beach is definitely Jon, the thai woman who does our nails and gives us massages. We have all gotten fancy mani/pedis from her with fantastic nail designs.

NY Times article

3yc — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:44:00 GMT

If I happen to see this, I will definitely snap a picture!

Our day at sea

3yc — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 20:00:00 GMT

Today we went on a snorkelling adventure to the Phi Phi Islands. It started with a rough boat ride for about an hour. The front of the speedboat was like riding a roller coaster, while in the back of the boat, everyone got drenched while watching the Korean families get seasick one at a time. We all took plenty of Dramamine and were fine, although wet and a bit bruised from all of the bumps.

First we stopped in an idyllic cove surrounded by cliffs on all sides. The water was a gorgeous blue green, and we stopped to swim in the cove for a few minutes. Next we headed to Gibbon Beach on a nearby island to feed the monkeys. When the boat reached the beach, the monkeys all ran over and we fed them bits of bananas. It was definitely strange to be on a tiny beach full of people and a few monkeys to feed them, but got only weirder when people started giving the monkeys bottles of Pepsi. Yes, Pepsi. When I mentioned my shock at this to our tour guide, he said "Yes, we give them Pepsi because when we give them beer, they fight."

Next, we went snorkelling for about an hour. We saw a ton of sea urchins in different colors, as well as other types of marine animals that I can't name, and it was great to see them in action in the ocean instead of in an aquarium.

After snorkelling, we headed to another part of the island for a delicious lunch over looking the sea and then had a few minutes to relax on the beach. The sand on the Phi Phi islands is incredible-it's very fine and soft. After lunch, we got back on the boat for a rough ride back to Egg Island, a tiny day-trip island, for more snorkelling and beach time. The snorkelling was not as good there since the water was a bit cloudy, but I did get to see some different types of coral there which was treat.

After Egg Island, we headed back to Phuket, and took the shuttle van home. Even driving on the streets here is an adventure because of the apparent lack of traffic laws. Coconuts from god knows where ended up on the road in front of us, and we ended up hitting one. Of course our driver didn't stop, but kept on with his cell phone conversation, and we were happy to get back safely to our hotel.

hey lady!

3yc — Sat, 4 Aug 2007 16:56:00 GMT

hey lady! 10 bracelet for one dollah! you buy from me, okay? you buy when you come back, okay?

we are in cambodia and the internet is sllllooooooowwwwww. so you will all have to wait for a couple days until we are back in thailand and get to the next internet cafe to hear about angkor wat and how we are constantly harassed by children.

Let's get some shoes!

3yc — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 20:05:00 GMT

Today we collectively bought 4 pairs of shoes. They are all really cute and very cheap! We went to this huge shopping mall for a few hours today. They had this amazing food court at the top. It was more like a gourmet cafeteria with bars for different types of food: thai, indian, italian, chinese, japanese, seafood, etc. It was delicious. The food here is awesome.

We have figured out our intinerary a bit more today. Tomorrow we are flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia, and we'll be there until the 5th. Then we are going to Phuket for a week, until the 12th, and then onto Chiang Mai.

Lisa wants you to know that the flight sucked for her because the guy next to her molested her. But the rest of us were fine. She also has pockets in her dress today and Kate has antagonized her about them all day.

Bangkok--Days 1 & 2

3yc — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 02:11:00 GMT

Hello!

We are all here in Bangkok. The flight here was actually not so bad.

Yesterday we went to the big temples in Bangkok: The Grand Palace, The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was amazing. Everything was gold or made of reflective tiles in a thousand colors. Some are intricate designs made of ceramic tile. None of us had ever seen anything like it. The DC monuments look so bland in comparison.

At Wat Pho, there is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, which is a massive gold buddha. They also have a massage school there which is the home of Thai Massage. We stopped in for 30 minute massages which cost 320 baht with tip, which is only $10!! We are planning on going for 60 minutes massages today.

We climbed the super steep steps at Wat Arun to get a great view of the city from the top of the temple. Bangkok is huge--there is no way to see all of it. At least the skytrain, subway, and express boats on the river make it easy to get around.

For dinner we went to Cabbages and Condoms, which is well-known here for its work raising funds for the country's family planning program. The food was delicious! I had chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves and some kind of anceint thai appetizer which was fried coconut, shallots, ginger, lime, peppers with sauce, and also wrapped in some kind of leaves.

After dinner, we headed to a local hookah bar. While we were relaxing on the patio, we saw an elephant go down the street! (Kate: "Cathlin, is that an elephant?" Cathlin: "Yes, it is.")

We've been enjoying breakfast the past two mornings at a local place, the Kiwi cafe, obviously run by a Kiwi. Free internet with the purchase of coffee.

Today we are going on a shopping expedition and trying to sort out our trip to Cambodia.