Joe and Sarah's Adventures

Photos: Islands of Thailand: Koh Tao, Koh Phangan, and Koh Samui

sglass — Fri, 31 May 2013 11:45:00 GMT

We decide to end our adventures by relaxing on the beach while island hopping off the coast of Thailand

Photos: Border Run to Burma

sglass — Thu, 30 May 2013 11:22:00 GMT

We head to the coastal Thai town of Rach Gia to make a 1 day cross-border trip into Myanmar for visa stamps

Photos: Bangkok, Thailand

sglass — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 10:05:00 GMT

One of the coolest cities in Asia!

Sukothai, Thailand

sglass — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:38:00 GMT

From Pai and Chiang Mai it was a relatively easy bus journey down to the ancient city of Sukothai in Central Thailand. There's not much to Sukothai besides ruins but they are well worth the trip! Sukothai is basically a later, mini-Angkor. As the Khmer empire was falling in the 13th century, this city emerged as the first independent Thai kingdom. Sukothai rulers captured or invited many of the Khmer artisans, craftsmen, and others, and brought them to Thailand to draw artistic and architectural inspiration from them. Therefore Sukothai (meaning "Rising Happiness") is seen as the birthplace of the Thai artistic tradition. What was originally a massive capital complex of temples and other buildings is now a sprawling historical park on the outskirts of the modern and rather dull town of "New Sukothai." We stayed in a little wooden bungalow in New Sukothai and took a shared taxi truck or sawngthaew out to the park. It was easy to remember where to catch the ride- the pickup point was right in front of the Poo Restaurant! We walked around the town itself in under 30 minutes and were not very impressed, although we did get a decent dinner at an outdoor fish market (we decided not to test out Poo Restaurant).

Sukothai- the birthplace of ancient Thai art

We spent an entire day at the Sukothai Historical Park and although we didn't get to see the museum, we made good use of our time and visited the majority of the park. The best way to get around is by bicycle, which you can rent for about $2 per person for the day. The weather was perfect for a leisurely bike ride around the ruins, and even after Angkor, stopping to explore all of the temples here was interesting and fun. The park is clearly a source of pride for Thailand and its perfectly manicured grounds and excellent English signage were proof of this. We also found out that in honor of the Queen's birthday they were having a big celebration and fireworks show there that evening, so this is clearly an important national monument. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and within the ruins of the old walls are the remains of 21 separate historical sites. There are 70 additional sites within a 5km radius, so it's easy to see why a bicycle is necessary. We knew we wouldn't have time for everything, and you have to pay separately for each section of the park you want to visit, so we decided to spend most of our time within the central complex where most of the best preserved ruins are and then swing out to a farther section if we had time.

Biking around Sukothai Historical Park

Joe and Sarah at Sukothai

The first and biggest temple we saw was Wat Mahathat, called the "crown jewel" of Sukothai and one of the best architectural examples of early Thai architecture. Standing among its columns felt like we were standing within an ancient greek or Roman temple-- we imagine this is what visiting the Parthenon must feel like, at least a little bit. Except here we were free to roam around whereever we want, touch whatever we want, etc. Plus there were giant Buddha statues, one as tall as 9 meters, standing amidst the columns. Even with other tourists around, it was a very peaceful and ancient-feeling place. Several other temples within the compound were situated on islands, or with big lotus-filled moats surrounding them and you had to cross little footbridges to reach them. The mix of water, trees, flowers, and these ancient temples rising up out of them was beautiful. One of the prettiest temples (in Sarah's opinion), Wat Si Sawai, was stylistically just like those of Angkor, with 3 towers or praang all intricately carved and beautifully preserved.

Joe at Wat Mahathat

The beautiful Wat Si Sawai

After visiting all of the temples within the main walls, we decided to get out a back exit and try to bike to some of the other sections of the park. This proved challenging, but we had a decent map in our Lonely Planet guidebook and were able to figure out our way. We biked north past grassy fields with cow herds grazing and every so often the remains of yet another temple or other ancient structure. They littered the countryside. We eventually came to one of our favorites: Wat Chang Lom which has 36 elephant sculptures (all restored) built into its walls, 9 facing each direction. We were the only ones here besides a herd of humpy-backed cows and we walked around admiring all the elephants and remarking on how they reminded us of those at the Elephant Terrace in Angkor Wat.

The Elephant Temple: Wat Chang Lom

Just us and the cows

Our last stop of the day was also our favorite. Several kilometers outside of the park is the temple Wat Si Chum. We had to pay an extra fee to go see it, and it was much more crowded than any of the other temples from earlier in the day, but it was pretty spectacular. Set quietly in a grove of trees, it's a large temple with tons of columns leading up to the actual altar or sanctuary space (again, it felt a bit like the Parthenon). But within that altar space is a massive statue of a seated Buddha with long, tapered fingers the size of a tall person. This Buddha, and specifically these fingers, are one of the most famously photographed sites in all of Thailand. Seeing them in person was pretty cool. The aura of peace and tranquility here, even though we had to share it with tons of other photograph-frenzied tourists, was unbroken.

Famous tapered fingers of the Buddha at Wat Si Chum

Joe being... Joe (no he didn't actually touch it)

Unfortunately we couldn't spend more than 1 full day in Sukothai since we were running low on our remaining days for our Thai visas and had to get moving down to Bangkok. However we are very glad we decided to stop here and we could have spent 2 or even 3 days exploring everything. After a full day of temple hopping we returned our bicycles and caught a ride back into town, grabbed some dinner, and watched the Queen's fireworks show while Joe attempted to fish off of a bridge in the middle of town. He didn't catch anything, but all in all it was a great day!

Joe fishing off a random bridge with a floating house and fireworks in the background

Photos: Sukothai, Thailand

sglass — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:21:00 GMT

The ancient first capital of Siam!

Chiang Mai and Pai, Thailand

sglass — Wed, 9 Jan 2013 21:32:00 GMT

After yet another harrowing and sleepless overnight busride, we arrived safe and sound in our first stop in Thailand- Chiang Mai! Rather, we arrived somewhere outside of Chiang Mai. We've started to become accustomed to one of the tourist traps of Southeast Asia: instead of placing bus stations in conveniently central or downtown areas, they are almost always located somewhere on the edge or miles outside of town. This means you have to catch a taxi, moto, or other form of separate transportation to actually get where you're trying to go. Which means great business for the swarms of moto drivers who know the bus schedules, know from one look that you are a tourist, and know that they can ask for two to ten times the normal price. Not so great for us. We even experienced what is apparently a very common racket in Asia-- the hotel or bus company that you previously stayed in or booked with will sell your names and arrival times to hotels or bus companies in the town you are heading to, meaning that when you arrive, some smiling person is waiting there with a sign with your name on it! You think, "Great! I have a ride". Then you realize, "Wait a second, how the heck does this strange person know who I am and that I'm coming here?!" They badger you and follow you and insist you ride with them. You tell them no no no, I don't need a ride. They say it's way too far for you to walk (which of course it probably is but we have no way of knowing because we have no idea where we are.) If it sounds stressful, that's because it is. You have no idea if that person is legitimately just trying to be friendly and offer you a decent price so they can get some business, or if they are trying to milk you for any spare money you have and are in league with some dishonest company or hotel that will badger you into paying way too much for a crappy room or ride around town.

Transportation woes in Southeast Asia- note the person actually in the moat to the left of the truck

Throughout the trip this happened at pretty much every city we came to, which, if you've been following this blog, you'll know is a lot. Many times we paid way too much to get where we needed to go. Many other times we refused rides and walked way farther than we should have with our heavy packs. (The worst example of this was when we first got to Phomn Penh late at night and instead of paying the $5 for the ride we walked about an hour not knowing if we were going the right way and sure we were going to get mugged.) This sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Why not just pay the $5 and be done with it? This is the constant balancing act you must do Asia with everything- deciding what something is worth and how much you're willing to pay. Had we known it would be a horrible 1 hour walk through scary parts of town in the dark beforehand, we probably would have just shelled out the $5 and been done with it. However as far as we knew, it was just a 5-10 minute walk away and this pushy person in front of us was trying to charge us 5 times what our guidebook said a ride should cost. Keeping everything in perspective and not getting stressed out or worked up over small amounts of money is essential in daily life as a tourist. However as budget-conscious backpackers we couldn't afford to just throw up our hands and pay whatever they asked every time either! While half of you wants to give the driver TEN dollars because he clearly needs it more than we do, the other half of you is indignant that someone is trying to blatantly rip you off just because they can. This daily battle was by far the hardest challenge of traveling through Asia.

Anyways! Back to Chiang Mai! We arrived, exhausted, around 6am and to avoid the moto driving swarms we walked over to a nearby... McDonald's! You can't imagine how excited we were to see a brand new, breakfast-serving McDonald's at this moment. We've been trying to stick to being as authentic as possible, at least when it comes to food, but we decided it would be ok, just this once! The contrast between Thailand and Laos/Cambodia is shocking as far as development goes. Paved roads, traffic signals, McDonalds, Starbucks... it immediately felt more comfortable but also lost a little bit of that exotic charm. Chiang Mai is the largest city in Northwestern Thailand and is considered the cultural capital of the country. It has a central "old city" surrounded by the remains of an old moat and medieval style wall built around 700 years ago. The moat and wall form a big square around the district. Within the walls, narrow little streets, steaming food carts, plenty of garden-filled guest houses, and more temples than you can count make you feel like you've left the city and entered an older world.

A restored section of the medieval wall surrounding Chiang Mai's Old City

After getting a hotel room, a nap, a shower, and our bearings, we set out to explore. We arrived on a Saturday, which we discovered was very lucky because every weekend Chiang Mai's old city is converted into one GIANT walking market. All of the main streets were converted, within hours, from bustling thoroughfares to stall-lined shopping bazaars. Since it is centrally located up in the highlands, Chiang Mai is an important center for arts, crafts, antiques and hill-tribe peoples selling cultural items. Fabrics, herbs, carvings, silverworks, paintings, musical instruments, paper, jewelry, dog outfits, and all of the usual kitchy tourist stuff are everywhere. Plus food stands galore! Everywhere we looked there were stalls selling some delicious-looking item that they'd cook or prepare for you right on the spot, from chocolate-dipped fruit, to fried cockroaches, to pad thai! And a million more things besides. We walked around snacking (not on the bugs) and looking at every booth. We watched one young man carve intricate designs into flip-flops, turning them into works of art. Another man was getting a very painful-looking bamboo tattoo right on the street in the middle of everything. We even got to watch a traditional music and dance performance on a makeshift stage that we discovered was part of a bigger cultural festival being put on in honor of the Queen's upcoming birthday! (more on the royal family below). We stopped at a pad thai vendor to have an actual sit-down meal on the sidewalk- our first pad thai in Thailand! It was amazing. And it cost $1 for a piled-up plate. Sarah almost cried with joy. We spent hours walking the market. The streets were packed with locals and tourists alike. It was one of the more enjoyable experiences of the trip and definitely one of the best markets, if not the best.

The packed Chiang Mai Saturday night walking market!

MOUNDS of delicious Pad Thai for $1!

Other types of "food" for sale at the Night Market

As mentioned, Chiang Mai is also one of the temple capitals of Thailand, most located in this old city center. Many are historicly significant, and show off a distinctive Northern Thai architecture or blend of Thai, Burmese, and Yunnanese influences from the mix of peoples who traditionally lived in this area. Highlights include a temple from 1345 that houses the city's most revered Buddha image (Wat Phra Singh), another that is constructed entirely out of teak beams and panels so big that trees large enough to make them haven't been around for centuries (Wat Phan Tao), and a final one that is actually a chedi or stupa-like structure that dates to 1441 but was partially destroyed in either the 16th or the 18th century by either an earthquake or cannon fire (Wat Chedi Luang). What's most interesting is the fact that no one seems to know which it was!? Either way it is huge and very impressive-looking despite being partially crumbled. Some temples are attached to monasteries so orange-robed monks walk around quietly contemplating the meaning of life or whatever it is that Buddhist monks contemplate. At another, we were accosted by a whole class of school children in their adorable matching uniforms, asking us questions from little worksheets and writing down our answers for their English class homework assignment.

A glittering temple in Chiang Mai's old city

Wat Chedi Luang- partially destroyed but no one knows how!

We are sad to admit that we got a little templed-out after a couple of days. We did a nice little self-walking tour that stopped at most of the significant or beautiful ones, but there were just too many to keep straight! (Similar to churches and cathedrals in Europe). Not that they weren't fascinating, we just couldn't cram them all in! To take a break from temple-hopping we went out of the center of town to a movie theater and saw the new Batman movie! It was very exciting to be in a country where we could actually go see an English movie in a real theater again. The popcorn was different (sweeter) but otherwise a pretty similar experience to American movie-going, besides the much cheaper ticket price. Also, we got our first taste of the significant role the Thai royal family and mainly, the King, play here: after the previews but before the movie began, a song (the "King's Anthem") began blasting and everyone in the theater stood up. Taking our cue, we stood as well and watched a long video montage of the King played on the screen. Picture after picture of him smiling, looking regal, leading parades of elephants, holding happy babies... that sort of thing. No one spoke or moved until the end of the video, we all sat down, and the movie began. Later we heard stories of Thais and even tourists/foreigners being arrested for not standing during this video- Thailand basically has a zero tolerance policy for any disrespect of the King or royal family. Anyone heard saying something negative, even in jest, about the King can be arrested or detained, including tourists. It is illegal to step on Thai money because the king's image is on all coins and paper bills. Many people wear yellow on Mondays because that's the day of the week the king was born and yellow is the color for Monday and the monarchy. The King, (His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej) has been on the throne for over 60 years and is currently the longest-reigning monarch worldwide. The Thai people appear to adore him and he actually has a good track record of reigning in corruption, restraining excess, and helping the people (well, most of them, hill-tribe people to the north and Muslims to the far south who are ethnic minorities are often brutally surpressed or excluded). The delicate balance of monarchy and democracy has had its hard times, most recently in 2008 when mass protests actually shut down the Bangkok airport for an extended period, but overall things seem to be working for now. The king is getting older, however, and his son does not enjoy the popular support his father has, so the future of the royal family and Thailand's government may be very different very soon.

An example of the constant reminders of the Thai King & Queen

A cultural performance in honor of the Queen's birthday!

After a few days in Chiang Mai, we hopped on a bus for a four hour ride up to the tiny mountain town of Pai. Again, lots of motion sickness and terrifying curves on this trip, but we made it in one piece, and Pai is so small that the van dropped us right in the center of town! Pai started as a sleepy little hole-in-the-wall hippie commune and honestly hasn't changed too much. It's so calm that even the dogs and cats nap in the middle of the streets, not moving even when the occasional moto zooms by. It has about 3,500 residents, mostly in the tourist business, and is very close to the border with Myanmar (Burma). The town itself is only a few streets and can be explored in a matter of minutes, but it is the surrounding area and activities that draw visitors. It is set in a gorgeous mountain valley, with terraced rice paddies, elephant paths through jungled hills, a lazy river, and little enclaves of traditional houses for farmers and their home-stay guests. Trekking, rafting, elephant rides, fishing, hot spring soaking, massages, yoga, and Thai boxing are all available here. We stayed in a quaint wooden bungalow set in a flowing garden along the river in the "center" of town for about $15/night. Besides a nasty run-in with a very loud, very large gecko one night, it was extremely peaceful and quiet. Even the gecko encounter wasn't too bad- it broke through our thatched roof, apparently while being chased by something trying to eat it, waking us up and terrifying us momentarily, but Joe was able to eventually shoo it out an open window with a broom while Sarah cowered under the mosquito netting and took pictures. We were only scared because it was a foot long and we didn't know what it was or if it was poisonous- we looked it up the next day and saw that it was a completely harmless gecko, just very large. Phew.

Sleepy little Pai

Midnight Gecko Attack! You can't tell by the pic, but it's HUGE!

We decided to try for another exciting elephant experience since Thailand and especially Pai is so well known for them. We had everything arranged, paid our money and met our ride the next morning to drive us out to the elephant camp. Our day-long trip was to include an elephant ride down to the river where we would bathe them and ride them around the water, then go for a bamboo rafting ride for an hour or two, have lunch, then ride back to the camp where hot springs awaited for a soak before heading home. Upon arriving at the camp we were informed we couldn't do any of this becuase suddenly the river was too flooded and dangerous. Granted, it had been pouring here everyday (we are definitely in the middle of the wet season now), but unsurprisingly everyone failed to mention this when we booked this package and paid extra money for all of this. They told us instead we could ride the elephants around on land for a little while and they'd still let us have some lunch and sit in the hot springs if we wanted. The company offered a huge variety of packages, some of which were very basic like what they were offering us now, but obviously half or one-third the price of what we'd paid. We said thanks, but that's not at all what we wanted so we'll just take a refund. They said no refunds. We said yes refunds. They said no. We said yes and said someone should have told us when we paid all of this extra money that nothing we were paying for was possible. They said no again and that their manager forbid them from giving refunds. This went on for over an hour, all the while everyone was smiling and being as polite as possible. To lose your temper, show frustration or annoyance, raise your voice, or anything of the sort in Thailand (and all of Southeast Asia) means you lose face and therefore, lose the arguement. Sarah is NOT good at this. Joe is VERY good at this. Sarah had to actually walk away from the conversation and go play with a nearby elephant to stop trembling with rage. Joe sat and smiled and waited until the woman made the necessary phone calls and agreed to refund our money. We rode back to Pai and to the office, where we spent another 20 minutes "arguing" (read: politely smiling and insisting for our refund) with the woman at the office, who tried to say she'd only give us half back. After she saw we were keeping our cool and couldn't be dissuaded, she tried to argue that we should at least pay for our ride to and from the elephant farm. Normally this would have cost about $5 and she was asking for about $15. Sigh. Joe told her if she gave us all our money back he would go outside and pay the driver the appropriate amount for the trip. After another 5 minutes we wore her down and got our money back. Joe was true to his word and paid the driver about $10 "for her trouble" and we hightailed it out of there. So several hours and $10 later, we hadn't done anything but argue with people. Very disappointing, and a perfect example of the daily challenges we described in detail above.

The flooded river at Pai

To turn lemons into the proverbial lemonade, what we did the rest of the day almost completely made up for our disastrous morning. Joe decided he'd like to try to go fishing so we stopped at a store to buy a little hand-held fishing spool and some hooks, then walked to our hotel to ask if we could buy some raw chicken for bait. The look the hotel attendant gave us at our strange request was unforgettable. I'm sure she thought she misunderstood us, and asked several more times what exactly it was we wanted. Joe showed her his fishing reel and explained he needed raw chicken for bait. As soon as she understood, she burst out laughing, as did another staff member nearby, and smiling, she headed off to the kitchen to grab Joe a baggie full of chicken. She didn't even charge us for it, she was so amused. In the rain, we set off in the direction of the river, but it was a raging, churning, brown torrent of logs and mud, and the current was so strong there was no possible way to fish in it. Of course we never could have rafted or rode elephants in this maelstrom! So we moved on farther out of town along a road that eventually turned into a lane that eventually turned into a muddy cow path. We saw a sign that said "waterfall" so we decided to hike to it and try to find a little pond or something along the way. This turned out to be one of the best experiences of the whole trip! Maybe because it was completely impromptu. We hiked along the muddy little path carved with ruts from motorbikes and hoofprints, past bright green rice paddies, wildflower-filled cow pastures, tumbling haystacks, traditional little houses, babbling irrigation ditches, etc. Several times we had to stray from the path to avoid cows themselves, lying in the middle of it and thereby completely blocking it. As we walked and talked, the sun came out for the first time since coming to Thailand and the colors and fresh smells were even more amplified. It was breathtaking.

Views from our hike

We watched as two adorable old ladies fishing in their little family pond caught a big fat fish and they beamed as we clapped and congratulated them- they were very excited to have two foreign admirers of their fishing skills and Joe became very enthusiastic about finding our own spot to fish (we felt it would be inappropriate to ask them to let us fish in their pond since they were clearly fishing for their dinner and it was their private property). We came to the woods at the base of the mountains, saw another waterfall sign, and started hiking in. About 20 minutes into the woods, the path just ended and we came upon a run-down, abandoned looking little bar instead of a waterfall. Sarah was sure it was going to be a secret hideaway/meeting spot for drug dealers and that we'd get murdered just like in the Leo DiCaprio move "The Beach". (Pai has a bit of a reputation for drug culture to complement the hippies). Joe said Sarah was being stupid and against her wishes, hopped over the locked fence to walk up to the bar and check it out. Turns out, Joe was right this time (it doesn't happen often)- it was just a bar, no drug dealers in sight. Just a kid who seemed very surprised to see anyone in the off-season and his dog with three adorable puppies. The kid offered us cold beers and we played with the puppies while talking to him about Pai and his life here. He suggested we try fishing in a nearby pond, so we paid for our beers, ordered 2 more to go, and headed down to lazily fish and enjoy the quiet of the woods.

The "bar" outside of Pai where we had a few beers and played with puppies!

Joe unfortunately had no luck with his chicken bait, but he enjoyed himself. We searched around and waded up the river a little ways, but never did find the waterfall! We were told by several different groups of tourists later that it was pretty much impossible to find (none of them had made it either) so no one knows if it actually exists or not. After a long afternoon we headed back to Pai, arriving just before dark, but just after it started pouring again, ate a delicious Thai dinner, and headed to bed. The whole experience was calming after such a stressful morning, and being totally improvised made it all the more fun. We would have missed all of this if we had gone on our elephant ride so it turned out to be for the best! And that is the fun part of backpacking SE Asia-- you never know what is going to happen to you, but if you go with the flow and look on the bright side, you will unexpectedly be rewarded with memories that will last a lifetime.

Joe with his bag of chicken enjoying our unplanned hike!

Photos: Chiang Mai and Pai, Thailand

sglass — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 16:04:00 GMT

Our first stops in northern Thailand!

Vang Vieng and Vientiane, Laos

sglass — Sat, 1 Dec 2012 19:26:00 GMT

After such a wonderful time in Luang Prabang, we were excited to explore some other cities in Laos. Namely, Vang Vieng and the capital, Vientiane. Turns out Laos is a bit of a mixed bag. In contrast to picture-perfect Luang Prabang (LP), which feels like a forgotten fairy tale land of elephants, waterfalls, and markets, both Vang Vieng and Vientiane are a little lacklustre. Not that they aren't beautiful as well, it's just that it was hard for the others to live up to our now very high standards.

The six-hour journey from LP down to Vang Vieng (VV) was a perfect example of the blend of good and bad we experienced in Laos. While the country has come a long way in recent years as far as developing roads and other projects, they still have a long way to go. We were lucky to be in a decent van, not too over-crowded and with a bit of air conditioning. Our driver blasted Lady Gaga and Backstreet Boys as he raced around hairpin curves and incessantly honked at oncoming vehicles, people, cows, dogs, and whatever else was in the road. The word "road" is used loosely here, because in most places it was just a muddy one-lane strip that wound its way up around mountains and down into valleys. We were rocked, bumped, jolted and ___. Every time we came to a narrow curve with no way to see what was coming towards us from the other side (which was quite often) the driver would just lay on the horn. Instead of slowing down, he'd swing us over the dividing line (if there was one) into the oncoming lane. I lost count of the number of times we came within inches of a head-on collision. It was not the most pleasant of rides, to say the least. Almost everyone in the van suffered from motion sickness. The driver wasn't phased one bit. As we mentioned, though, there was a good side to this ordeal. The view. As we zoomed through the jungle-covered mountainous terrain we took in a landscape that looked like something out of The Lost World. It was just like what we'd seen in Vietnam, but even higher, greener, and covered in mist. Here and there we'd pass little villages of no more than a dozen or so wooden houses- mostly in the style of the Hmong people who live in the highlands. People would quickly get out of the road and stare as the van raced past. Unfortunately it was hard to capture any good video or pictures of this journey, but it was still a memorable one.

Passing a hill tribe village in Laos

When we pulled into Vang Vieng (VV) it was already dark. We were left to find a hostel on foot, in the dark, which we managed to do after a couple of tries. VV used to be a forgotten, out-of-the-way backpackers' haven. Not anymore. Today it is the "Las Vegas" of Laos, but instead of flashing neon lights and massive hotels/casinos in a desert, it's comprised of tiny wooden hostels and muddy lanes along a muddy, winding river. About 25,000 locals inhabit VV, and most are in the tourism business, running the numerous hostels and bar-restaurants along the main strip. Every bar serves "American" or "European" breakfast all day, in addition to numerous other Western food options, with some menus reaching 30 pages or more! Almost all of the bars were set up in the traditional style of raised platforms onto which you climb after removing your shoes, and then scoot around to sit or lounge on large cushions around a low central table. On top of all this, EVERY bar, with the exception of one, played non-stop episode of Friends. All day, everyday. (The one that didn't play Friends played Family Guy instead). The lounging, TV, and junk food came in handy for those visitors who partook of the town's most famous activity and an international tourist draw: tubing.

Vang Vieng, Laos

For those of you who have never been tubing it is pretty straightforward: you float down a river in an inner tube. On a hot sunny day with lots of friends this can be enjoyable. However if this doesn't sound like an activity that you would travel to a mountainous jungle on the other end of the world to partake in, that is because it isn't for most normal people. Which is why Vang Vieng doesn't offer just any tubing; it's more like super tubing. Imagine this scene: At the end of the main street is a storage facility stacked high with tubes. You fill out a form (read: sign your life away), they hand you a tube, scrunch you with as many other people as possible into the back of a tuk-tuk (in Laos the "tuk-tuks" are more like mini pickup trucks with benches down the sides so you ride sideways and face the opposite row in the back), and drive you several miles out of town to a designated spot on the river's edge (the Nam Song river to be exact). Then you are off! Floating and splashing down the river in your tube with trees and birds all around and mountains rising out of nowhere in the distance. This serene experience last for about 5 seconds. After that, you are accosted by shouts and waving arms of men along the bank, standing on a dock that leads to their river-front bar. You wave back at them and smile, thinking, "Wow, those guys are friendly", and suddenly you see them swinging some sort of object by a rope around their heads, lasso-style. You wonder, "What on earth are they doing?" and before you finish that thought, they've launched this object straight at you, with the attached rope trailing behind, one end still in their hands. It hits you on the head or in the stomach, or it splashes into the water right next to you- their aim is incredible- and you realize it is a 2-liter plastic soda bottle, filled with a little bit of water for added weight. The men on the dock are screaming at you and still waving, so you grab hold of the bottle and link arms or legs with the rest of your group (forming a tube chain of sorts) and within seconds you are pulled, against the current, straight up to the dock of the bar. The men now laugh, pat you on the back and point you towards the bar before they turn around and start waving/yelling wildly at the next set of tubers floating their way. The bar is blasting dance/pop music, young drunk Westerners in bikinis and signature Vang Vieng neon tank tops (sold in all the stores in town) are dancing and playing Beer Pong, and some friendly employee of the bar decides you are his or her new best friend and gives you free shots and shows you which are the best drink specials. Without fail they are the "Buckets." These are, literally, buckets that they fill with ice, your choice of alcohol (usually vodka, whiskey or rum) and your choice of mixer (coke, sprite, red bull, or OJ). These buckets cost about $2 and are the equivalent of about 4 drinks in the United States. Yikes.

Nam Song River, Laos

Repeat the scene we've just described about 15 times. That's approximately how many bars lie along the tubing route and each was a variation on this theme. Men pull you in from the river, people sell you cheap drinks or just give them to you if you look like you can handle it, and everyone dances and has an awesome time. At the end of the day, you float back into town, drop off your tube, and go get dinner at one of the Friends bars. In a perfect world, that's all there is. That was pretty much the time the three of us had (Joe, Sarah & Sam)- no, we did not stop at all of the bars as many were closed due to it being the off-season. It was grey and rainy and the water was cold, but that didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits and we were out all afternoon. However, there is a darker side to tubing in Vang Vieng. Namely, when you combine copious amounts of alcohol (or drugs) with a fast-moving and unpredictable river, accidents are bound to happen (and do). Since it was the rainy season the river was a churning, muddy, raging mess. A journey that would normally take a few hours to complete now took 30 minutes- you are zooming with the current! Getting pulled against this current via coarse rope into the bars is agony on the hands. And submerged boulders, tree branches, and other unseen obstacles are now potentially deadly. Many of the bars are famous for their various rope swings, zip-lines, or towers from which revellers can jump into the water, however these were all closed because of the high water. As one bartender explained, all of the boulders and things that one can normally see when the water is low are now submerged so you could zip-line yourself straight into one. We decided not to point out that the dry season sounds just as dangerous because yes, you can see the boulders, but now the rest of the water is low! Even so, we watched as one young girl decided she was going to swing in anyways- no one stopped her, or even really noticed. She didn't appear to have hit any boulders (thank goodness) but she was quickly swept, tubeless, down the river and out of sight. The party continued. On average one tourist per month dies here while tubing or from drugs. This has attracted the attention of plenty of authorities, but so far the Lao government hasn't made any major moves to put an end to it and the tourists keep coming so the locals keep it up. After we left Laos we heard of a major raid on the town and the tubing, so maybe things will change in the near future. For now, those who don't mind having some drinks amidst swarms of raging teenagers can actually have an enjoyable time- just be prepared to pay for all that cheap liquor with your hangover the next morning. That's where the breakfast food and Friends come in handy.

From Vang Vieng we continued on south to the capital of Laos: Vientiane. To be honest, this town was a little lacklustre compared to the natural beauty of Luang Prabang and then VV, however it had a few perks. It was a bit of a catch-up-on-sleep and slow-down-on-life kind of place. The people were friendly enough, and the city still had the no-hurry, no-worry pace of life that the smaller towns displayed. We stayed in a nice, cheap, centrally-located hotel and spent a lot of time here just relaxing, watching the London Olympics on TV, and eating French food in the many restaurants and sidewalk cafes. To top it off we finally found a bar that served legitimate "Western" drinks without charging more for them than they do in the States. We also fit in a bit of sight-seeing, visiting both day and night markets, as well as some of the bigger monuments in town. The first, the Patuxai or Victory Monument, appears to be a crude replica of the Arc de Triomphe. It was built in 1969 with cement donated by the United States for the construction of an airport. Instead, they built this massive arch to commemorate Lao who died in prerevolutionary wars and for about $1 you can climb up to the top for a view of the town (not much to see, to be honest).

Laos' Arc de Triomphe

View from the Arch

We also visited Lao's national symbol: the golden Pha That Luang or Great Sacred Stupa. It is the most important national monument in Laos, appearing on their national seal and money. Apparently it was started in the 3rd century BC to enclose a piece of the Buddha's breastbone. Construction resumed in the 1500s and several temples were built around the stupa, one of which is the residence of the Supreme Patriarch of Lao Buddhism. We walked around the stupa quietly, trying to stay out of the hot sun, and after about 20 minutes we moved on-- there was not much else to see. We visited one of the nearby temples and watched some monks play frisbee with an old metal plate. The rest of the monks seemed to be setting up and decorating for an upcoming festival because they were hanging brightly-colored cloths and little garlands everywhere, but they did not speak much English so we moved on once more.

National Symbol of Laos

After seeing the sites and relaxing a bit more, it was time to say good-bye to Sam and go our separate way. He was continuing on to southern Laos and down into Cambodia. We were headed across the border to Thailand to see what new and exciting adventures it had to offer! More on that next!

Photos: Vang Vieng and Vientiane, Laos

sglass — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:34:00 GMT

We visit the tubing capital of SE Asia, and then the actual capital of Laos

Luang Prabang, Laos

sglass — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:45:00 GMT

Welcome to Laos! The Land of a Thousand Elephants!

Making new friends in Laos!

Here's a little background for those of you who (like us before this trip) know nothing about Laos.
1. Laos is the only land-locked country in Southeast Asia, with Vietnam to the East, China and Myanmar to the North, Thailand to the West, and Cambodia to the South.
2. Laos has about 7 million people, most of whom live in extreme poverty-- it is one of the world's 20 poorest nations.
3. One of the reasons Laos is so poor is because of all of the Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs) still littering the country. Laos was declared a neutral country in 1954 but the United States conducted a "secret war" there, sending multitudes of CIA operatives to train local Hmong hill tribes who were familiar with jungle survival as anti-communist fighters. This was because the Viet Cong were funneling their supply routes (Ho Chi Minh Trail) through the mountains of Laos in an attempt to skirt around U.S. and South Vietnamese troops in Vietnam. From 1965 to 1973, the U.S. carpet-bombed northeastern Laos nonstop- an estimated plane-load of bombs was dropped every 8 minutes, one-third of which did not explode. Laos is the most-bombed country in history! After the war, all of the rebuilding and aid efforts were focused on Vietnam, since that's where the "real" war was... Laos was forgotten, underwent a civil war, and emerged as a communist nation that brutally surpressed all of those hill tribe peoples who had aided the U.S. Today eco-tourism and development projects are spreading like wildfire, thanks in large part to funding by the Chinese who are keen to reap Laos's plentiful natural resources like timber. However before any land can be developed it has to be cleared of all of those unexploded bombs, a slow and unfortunately often deadly process. Give it 10 more years and the Laos we experienced on this trip will be a thing of the past... for better or for worse.

Remnants of Laos' turbulent past... at a bar in Luang Prabang

This being our first time in Laos, we were not sure what to expect. In Hanoi we debated whether or not to fly or take the bus to Luang Prabang (the biggest city in Northern Laos). The bus was the cheaper option, but that's because it takes 30+ hours. Yes, that's right... the bus can take DAYS. And that's if nothing goes wrong. According to just about every tourist blog we read, something always goes wrong. Even our guidebook advised against it. The nicest thing they had to say was that the buses are "ancient and seemingly made of wet cardboard." Combine that with unpaved, winding mountain roads and psycho drivers... well, we decided against it. And while Laos Airlines doesn't have the best safety record out there, a short and sweet 2 hour flight in a rickety plane was still preferable. We landed in Luang Prabang's new airport, safe and sound, paid our entrance fees, and had the friendliest cab driver ever take us to a cute little hotel within walking distance of the market area or Old Quarter. After a good night's sleep on what was the softest mattress of the entire trip, we were ready to explore!

The type of landscape we'd be driving through in Northern Laos

Spoiler Alert... Luang Prabang was our FAVORITE town of our whole trip! Not that there aren't plenty of awesome experiences still to come, but there was just something in the air here. It was a perfect storm of beauty, culture, nature, food, and friendliness. We wanted to stay here forever. We might move here permanently someday. But for now, we will just have to be content with remembering it as the most peaceful, beautiful, surreal place on the trip. Not to quote our Lonely Planet guidebook too much, but this gives you a good idea of this town:

"There are places that linger in the imagination long after you visit them. Mekong-bordered Luang Prabang, with its Unesco-protected peninsula of gleaming wat (temples) and crumbling French villas is such a place. This once-inaccessible Shangri La is an absolute must for its Buddhist architecture, the tangerine stream of monks taking alms at 6:00am, and its vast array of shopping and cuisine. Between eating your way through a global smorgasbord of Scandinavian cafes, French cuisine, and authentic Lao, you can ride elephants, take a cooking course, visit waterfalls, or just hire a bicycle and pedal your way around what may be the most beguiling ancient city in Southeast Asia." Intrigued? We were too.

Luang Prabang Charm-- are we still in Asia!?

With the exception of the cooking course, we did just about everything that the guidebook listed. We explored the Old Quarter of the city on foot, walking around countless ancient temples full of brightly-robed monks of all ages. There were more monks in this town than tourists! One of the things Luang Prabang is most famous for is the daily alms collection mentioned in the quote above. Every morning at 6am the monks line the streets and proceed single-file past the locals, who sit with their feet pointing behind them (as one is always supposed to do when in a Buddhist temple or, apparently, when giving alms). The monks collect a little ball of rice from each villager in metal pots they wear around their necks and they live entirely off of these daily offerings. We saw this taking place in a few other towns, but nothing to this extent! In this way Luang Prabang still provides a daily demonstration of an ancient tradition that is being upheld by a seemingly dwindling number of people.

Daily procession of monks collecting alms

One of the most famous temples, Wat Phu Si, is located on the top of a 100 meter-high hill in the center of town. We climbed what felt like endless stairs to get up to the golden spire at the top, and were rewarded with a breath-taking view of the town below, nestled between two rivers and surrounded by mountains. It almost looks like a town you'd find in the Swiss alps (thanks to the mix of French and Lao architecture left over from colonial times). The hill was covered with golden Buddha statues in different positions (each signify a different moment in his life/journey to enlightenment). There was also a supposed footprint left by Buddha in a small enclosed building, although the size of it meant Buddha would be as big as King Kong. As we took in the views of the landscape below and climbed up and down this trail we were greatful for being up in the mountains where it was cooler and cloudy. This trek would have been brutal on a hot sunny day.

Luang Prabang from Wat Phu Si... beautiful no?

The Climb up to Wat Phu Si

We also toured the Royal Palace Museum- built in 1904 for the Lao King, Sisavangvong. He died in 1959 and his son's reign was short-lived: the Communist revolution in 1975 overthrew the monarchy and he and his family were exiled to the nearby caves of Vieng Xai. The palace was converted into a museum and the throne room, or Golden Hall, is one of the most interesting and beautiful rooms we've ever seen. Unfortunately no photography allowed :-( It was decorated with hundreds of thousands (millions?) of brightly colored glass pieces to form one massive mosaic. The whole room sparkled. Gold objects were everywhere, including a golden throne. Someone snuck a picture and posted it online here. They had many works of art and royal treasures on display throughout the palace, including a room dedicated to all of the gifts given to the king by other countries. The gift from the United States? A moon rock on a plaque given by JFK! Cool.

The Royal Palace Museum in Luang Prabang

Besides temples and the museum, we took part in some of the local nightlife. This includes drinking the national beer, Beer Lao, while sitting in sidewalk cafes or in one of the many family-run bars that line the riverbank. It also includes checking out the incredible local night market, known as the Hmong Night Market. Every night, the main street in LP is closed to traffic, hundreds of tents are strung up, and local villagers and hill tribe people from the surrounding area sell their crafts and goods. Ambling through the night market, ducking under the flaps of tents, and observing all of the beautiful objects for sale (some authentic, some not) was one of the best parts of our visit. Occasionally we'd barter for and/or buy something as well. They sold everything from silver to textiles to meat on a stick. The latter happened to be our favorite food while we were in Laos-- pretty much any type of meat you can imagine can be found, in one form or another, on a stick. We happend upon a lively food alley, just off the main market, where we indulged in a buffet-style meal of mixed dishes that was so cheap and delicious that we thought we might never leave. We also got several chances to sample the traditional national Lao dish: laap. Hard to describe it, but it's basically a spicy salad of minced meat mixed with spices, lime juice, mint, rice, and usually some veggies thrown in there. We got it several different times/places in Laos and it was always a little bit different.

Meat on a stick! Our favorite!

Food!

As if the charming town of LP was not enough, it is also a major attraction because of the surrounding province's wealth of natural beauty, wildlife, and easy-to-reach hill tribe villages. Eco-trips are all the rage, and during the day the main street in town is over-flowing with tour companies touting their adventure treks and authentic experiences. It is really hard over here to tell when something is a scam, versus when it is actually helping people, and we have learned that becoming educated on the difference is fundamental to responsible tourism in countries such as this. The same goes for "eco-friendly" or "green" tourism. Everyone claims to do it, but whether or not that is the reality is often hard or impossible to tell. In cases like this you just have to go with word of mouth from locals, experienced tourists, or the guidebooks. We were not always the greenest of visitors, but we did make an effort.

For our first excursion, out to the Tat Kuang Si National Forest, we chose to go on a tour offered by our hotel. They promised us it would only be about 5 people and we would have plenty of time to see all the sites. Wrong. Our van kept picking more and more tourists up until there were no seats left. After about a 30-40 minute drive, we reached the park, got past the entrance gate, and our driver recieved a call on his cell phone. Apparently two more people had decided last-minute to book the trip (even though we'd already gotten there). So he turned around, drove us the 30-40 minutes BACK to LP, picked up 2 girls who had to squeeze in on top of us since there were no more seats available in the van, and then we drove 30-40 minutes AGAIN to the park. Lame. This meant that by the time we got there we only had 3 hours to explore the whole park. This might sound like a lot of time. However, not only is the park home to both a bear and a tiger rescue center, but it also has one of the area's most beautiful waterfalls, the Kuang Si Waterfall. Getting to the base of the waterfall requires a little bit of a trek, and climbing up to the top requires a LOT of trekking. Like, both hands gripping exposed tree roots as we scramble up a steep muddy cliff kind of trekking. Not to mention that the trail leading up to the waterfall runs along cascading pools of water flowing through the jungle in which you can swim and rope swing to your heart's content. So no, 3 hours was not enough time.

Happy Rescued Bear in the Kuang Si National Forest

Swimming hole! Look closely at the main branch of this tree and you'll see boards forming steps to get out to a rope swing.

We sadly did not get a chance to swim or see the tigers, but we did enjoy watching the rescued Asiatic black bears run around. We also made the slippery and muddy climb up to the top of the waterfall- one of the greatest feats of the trip! Once we reached the top, we spent about 20 minutes searching through jungle for the fall itself-- it was nowhere to be found! Other tourists climbed back down without finding it and told us not to bother, but we were determined. After removing our shoes and wading through water containing God-knows-what kind of bacteria and leeches and other creatures, we found it! A rush of water streaming over the side of a cliff, with nothing but a rickety little wooden fence for you to hold on to in order to not get swept over the side. Of course Joe walked right out to it and after a little hesitation, Sarah joined. Leaning out over the fence staring straight down from the top of this massive waterfall was exhilirating!

Joe wading out to the top of the waterfall, which falls down hundreds of meters just beyond that little fence. Sarah ditched the camera and joined him out there after taking this picture.

The barefoot journey back down the mountain-side was also exhilirating, but in a less fun and more we-are-super-late-because-this-climb-took-us-longer-than-we'd-planned sort of way. We ended up being about 30 minutes late back to our van, but we figured the driver owed us at least that much time for his earlier trick anyways. On the trip back we stopped at a very touristy and kind of depressing hill-tribe village on the way home. The van pulled up to a cement path that looped through the village and back out again. The driver said "10 minutes" and waved us out of the van. Children lined the path singing a well-rehearsed song about us "buying something" as they displayed their little collections of hand-made bracelets made from neon string that is probably from China. The whole thing felt very fake and uncomfortable. So this trip was a bit of a mixed bag.

The Kuang Si Waterfall from the bottom: you can't even see up to the top... it keeps going

For our second excursion, we decided to go with a well-established tour company that was recommended in our guidebook as being less money-hungry and truly ethical, called White Elephant Adventures. For around $50 each, we booked a full day tour that included pick up and the drive out of town to a river, a morning hike through jungle and rice paddies up to a legit hill tribe village, kayaking, and a visit to the Tad-Se Waterfall, where we could swim, ride elephants and/or do a jungle zipline through the canopy for an additional charge. All of which was led by a local Hmong guide. Now this was more like it. We had a group of only 10, made up of friendly Europeans and Australians. We drove quite a ways out of town in a bouncy little tuk-tuk before we had to take a little local ferry across the flooded river. This being the rainy season, the water was moving so fast that the boatmen didn't have to paddle or steer or anything- they just strung a line across the river from one bank to another, then tied the boat via a second line to a sort of pulley wheel attached to the first. We pushed off from the bank and swung out into the current, still connected to the main line. The momentum just slid us across the river-- kind of like a zipline but via the water instead of the air. Hard to describe, but a fascinatingly simple way to beat the current and ferry people across the flooded river.

Our river transport: it took them 3 trips to get our whole group across.

For all of your sakes, we will not go into the pages' worth of detail that we could when describing the secluded hill tribe village, treking and kayaking through some of the most beautiful scenery we've ever witnessed, swimming in the aqua pools of the Tad-Se Waterfall, or best of all, riding elephants into a waterfall to bathe them. We'll let our pictures talk for us. We will just say that this day was one of the most amazing of our lives. Just like the wonderful excursion we went on through the Phong Nha Farmstay in Vietnam (see our earlier blog post), this trip was a perfect combination of history, authentic local culture, nature, friendship, and adventure. Did we mention we got to bathe elephants in a waterfall? Sarah compares the experience to feeling like a 5 year old again... truly. For 30 minutes we had the feeling of complete and utter joy- nothing in our busy lives back in DC can quite compare. These were ex-logging elephants who have been rescued and socialized and they seemed to be having just as much fun as we were!

One of the mahouts (elephant trainer/rider) showing off! (Yes, he just jumped off that elephant's head). You can barely see Sarah and Sam's elephant- they kept diving underwater!

Frolicking with elephants in the Tad-Se waterfall- Sarah is behind Joe's brother Sam (plaid shirt). Our elephants liked each other.

Swimming holes and water slides abound at the Tad-Se waterfall!

So to wrap it up, Luang Prabang. Go there. If there is one place we'd recommend above all others in Southeast Asia, this is it. And as Laos develops and more and more tourists flood the region, it won't stay this perfect for long. We will never forget our all-too-brief time here. The locals are welcoming, friendly, laid-back, and just plain happy. It would definitely do us all good to take a page out of their book.

Two cuties in the Hmong Village

Photos: Luang Prabang, Laos

sglass — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:01:00 GMT

Our first stop in Laos is also one of the highlights of our trip!

Photos: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

sglass — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:48:00 GMT

One of the most beautiful places on Earth

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

sglass — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:26:00 GMT

After meeting up with Sam and our friend Patrick whom we'd met at the Phong Nha Farmstay, we travelled with a guided group tour from Hanoi to the coast to spend a weekend exploring the spectacular Ha Long Bay! This is considered one of the must-sees of any trip to Vietnam. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and widely acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Words cannot describe it, and pictures sadly cannot do it justice, but we will still attempt to *briefly* tell you the highlights.

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay is off the north-eastern coast of Vietnam and takes about 3 hours to reach by car. If you are rich enough you can charter your own cruises around the bay, going where you want and staying as long as you want/can afford to. However, if you're a budget-conscious backpacker (like us) you book a 3-day, 2-night tour through one of the many hostels in Hanoi. The quality and price of these vary greatly and scams abound, so it is difficult to decide who to book through and you never know what you are going to get... you just have to ask around, pick one, and hope for the best. We booked through Sam's hostel, which seemed reputable enough and fit our budget and schedule needs nicely. We left Friday morning and were on our boat sailing through the karst mountains by late afternoon. This is like something out of a fairy tale. Or a Lord of the Rings movie. The jungle-covered mountains rise straight out of the sparkling blue water surrounding us on all sides. Vinh Ha Long or "Descending Dragon Bay" and there are several different legends describing the formation of the bay, including one that says all of the thousands of islands are the tail of a giant dragon whose body forms part of Vietnam, Laos, and up into China.

After sailing around a bit, we stopped on an island in Cat Ba National Park that has a famous cave, which we got to go explore. It was a bit packed with tourists, and again had all of the crazy colored lights that made the place feel like more of a nightclub than a national park, but it was still cool to visit. (Literally, it was HOT out and going inside the cave felt great!) We also went kayaking off the boat- this was one of the coolest kayak experiences ever! We paddled up to the mountains and found one with an opening. We went through it and everything suddenly opened up to the sky again. We were inside a cove, surrounded by mountain on all sides, just floating in a secret pool of water- it was beautiful! We could have stayed out all day.

Cave light

We also visited a floating village of houses built upon rafts. Living here were people who fish in the bay for their livelihoods and sell what they can to the swarms of tourists who stop by during their tours. The rafts have spaces in the floors that are open into the water and these are lined with nets, which hold the fish they catch and keep them alive until they can be sold. The tour boat companies have some agreement with these floating fishing villages that makes them a regular stop on most boat cruises- hopefully this works out beneficially to both parties. It is hard to believe people get to live in such a beautiful place as this.

Floating Village

Our boat was 3 stories high, with the galley and a hallway of cabins on the bottom floor, the dining room, bar, outdoor lounge, and two larger cabins on the 2nd floor, and a sun deck on the 3rd. Joe and I were given one of the 2nd floor cabins, complete with our own bathroom and shower, and a large window for watching the views. We hardly spent any time in there though, besides sleeping. As the sun set on the first night we all took advantage of the warm water by jumping in for a dip... from the top floor! This was quite the drop! Sarah was the only girl to jump from the top, a fact of which she is proud. Several other boats "parked" around ours so as the sun set through the mountains you could hear the happy yells as people jumped off their respective boats. Apparently this is one of the 'must do' experiences of any trip to Ha Long Bay. It was beautiful.

Swimming!

On our second day, we travelled first to another island in the national park for a "moderate" hike. Now, we are not sure who in Vietnam is responsible for determining the difficulty level for the various hikes throughout the parks, but whoever it is, they got it wrong. This was no moderate undertaking. Innocently, we set off on the path in flip flops and with backpacks containing our laptop and other not-so-lightweight valuables. At first the climb was simply difficult. In 95 degree heat anyone doing a steep trail will get tired and dehydrated. After the first hour, we were pretty bushed. After the second, the real challenge began. Sweat poured out of us, completely changing the shade of our shirts. We slipped and slid in our flip-flops. We'd finished the last of our water what felt like ages before. And by now we were full-on rock climbing. Hands and feet gripping the sides of the cliff where any wrong move would send us hurtling down into jungle-covered chasms. At one particularly nasty point, other climbers were backed up in a gridlock because it was so difficult to get through. The rusted remnants of an old safety rail dangled precariously over the edge, and a young girl who clearly had also not known what she was in for was crying as her parents tried to coax her down. It is safe to say that it was a miracle we made it up to the top of the mountain, where we found an old rickety TV tower that threatened to topple over at any second. Our success was short-lived. It was so hot and sunny and we were so horribly dehydrated that after resting for about 10 minutes we decided to try to somehow find our way back down. The best part of the climb was the lady selling ice cream bars and water at the bottom.

Sweaty and exhuasted, but we made it to the top!

Following our "death march" as Sarah called it, we got to relax again on the boat as it took us to a private resort on Monkey Island, so-called because of the troop of "wild" monkeys that live on one of its beaches. We were assigned bungalows, right on a tiny little beach, and left to our devices to pass away the rest of the afternoon. The only downside was that as it was a remote island, air-conditioning was rationed (just like on Phu Quoc) so while we could take cold showers, we could not enjoy any AC until after 9pm. We were so exhausted from our hike that, instead of enjoying more kayaking or trekking off to visit the monkeys, we all fell asleep! Woke up just in time for an enormous fresh seafood buffet for dinner that made the day's excursions well worth it. Unfortunately this was the last we got to enjoy of Ha Long Bay, as our guide informed us that we would be checking out by 7am the next morning to head straight back to Hanoi! So much for the full "3 days" that was advertised. More like 1 and a half. No one in our group of around 25 was pleased about this, but there was also not much we could do since everyone pre-pays and they were our ride home. So after a brief night's sleep, we groggily woke up, had breakfast, and boarded our boat for the 3 hour journey back to shore and then the additional 3 hour ride home.

Brothers chilling on the porch of our private bungalow on Monkey Island

View of a boat like ours

Altogether, the "false advertising" and hooligans we had on our boat (didn't mention them, but there was a group of about 6 boys from Holland who thought they had signed up for a booze cruise and were pretty obnoxious, disrespectful, and drunk the entire time), were not enough to dampen the natural beauty of this place. If we could have done this on our own, without booking a big tour and without having to follow a strict schedule of planned activities, well, that would have been a million times better. It would also cost a heck of a lot more. Yes, Ha Long Bay is over-touristed. But yes, there is a reason for it and we tried to make the most of our chance to be here. While Sarah swam around in the warm, turquoise water, and Joe sat with his feet dangling over the back of the boat, smoking a cigar, fishing with a little hand reel, and talking with the Vietnamese crew, few things felt more peaceful or simple. We would have liked to stay here for weeks instead of just days, but we are definitely fortunate and thankful we got to visit this place at all.

Joe enjoying himself

Hanoi, Vietnam

sglass — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 06:27:00 GMT

Welcome to Hanoi! As the capital of Vietnam, this city is rich with history, culture, attractions and has an overall great atmosphere. We took an 8-hour overnight bus from Phong Nha Farmstay and rolled into the massive, exhaust-filled bus station around 7am. While Vietnam's roads are decades ahead of Cambodia's, this was still by no means an enjoyable experience. But that's the nature of travelling on the cheap!

After finding a centrally-located hotel and dropping off our bags with the front desk, we set off to explore. We decided to stay in the historic Old Quarter of the city- a sprawling tangle of back alleys, pop-up markets, specialty shops, and crumbling buildings. Dating to the 13th century, this is the oldest part of town and has been a central economic center for just as long. Specialized trade guilds were located along each street, which are still named for their crafts, so there is Cloth Street, Tinsmith Street, Fish Street, Leather Street, Hemp/Rope Street, Coffin Street, etc. Apparently Vietnamese residents say the Quarter has changed very little since the early 20th century, besides the constant cacophany of modern traffic added to the already boisterous mix. Just like the mazes of Venice or Montmartre, visitors are told to just wander the streets and let yourself get lost in the madness to truly appreciate the hectic beauty of this neighborhood.

Not only are the daily sights, sounds, and smells amplified here, but the tastes as well! We sampled delicious noodles, meats, and who knows what at countless street food stalls. One woman beckoned us in and with a big smile but without a word placed two steaming bowls of her speciality noodle dish in front of us (like many little shops, one special dish was the only thing she served- no need to order!). It was unbelievably good and we were completely full by the bottom of the bowl. When we had finished she presented us with the bill- $3. Heaven!

Our Vietnamese grandma who insisted on feeding us!

We also discovered one of the coolest little coffee shops in the city (thanks to a mention in our Lonely Planet guide!) Completely hidden from the outside world, it can only be reached by going through a random tailor shop. In the back is a door to a long, dark passageway. We followed the passage until we reached a beautiful little courtyard full of plants, fountains, and statues- like something out of The Secret Garden! A young girl stood at the back of the courtyard, beside a staircase. She held a coffee menu, we pointed to what we wanted, and then she beckoned us to go up the stairs. We climbed two stories and came to a spiral staircase... up we went until, out of breath, we reached the rooftop of this crumbling building and what should we see, but a dozen or so rickety tables overlooking all of Hanoi's Old Quarter and the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake. What a magical place! We had coffee up here twice, including their specialty of coffee with a beaten egg on top, and felt like we were on top of the world.

The secret passage to the rooftop coffee shop

Loving the views from the secret rooftop coffee shop

Perhaps the other best part of the Old Quarter is the nightlife! And no, we don't mean bars and clubs like one finds in the States. Hanoi is all about the street scene. In the evening the sidewalks transform into makeshift watering holes. Out of nowhere, a door opens or a food cart rolls up, newly-brewed kegs of Bia Hoi, or "Fresh Beer," are produced, and thousands of colorful mini plastic chairs are set out. The streets swarm with locals and tourists alike, sitting with their knees almost up to their chests on these tiny seats, all enjoying a cold brew for the bargain price of 25 cents per glass. The proprietors of these sidewalk bars seem to violate the laws of physics by creating space for new seats/customers where before there was none. Several times as we'd hesitate near a place that looked invitingly rowdy but overly crowded we'd be approached with big smiles and cries of "Beer here!" "Yes! Come sit!" and before we knew it we'd be rubbing elbows with the rest of the crowd in little chairs produced out of thin air. Often these sidewalk bars just spill out into the street itself to accomodate everyone, making for a thrilling-but-disconcerting experience of having all of the zooming motorbikes streaming right past your head. If one bar ran out of beer, everyone would just move over about 10 feet to the next one! This went on all night until nothing but drops were left in that day's kegs. Repeat that every night and you get the picture- what a fun place! You just had to be careful to watch your intake since it's easy to get out of control at 25 cents a glass.

Enjoying Hanoi Street Food/Beer

Just south of the Old Quarter is the Hoan Kiem Lake, and it is said that the Quarter resembles a tree sprouting from the cool waters of the lake. The lake plays an important role in the city's legendary history- it's name means "Lake of the Returned Sword." There is a Vietnamese legend that the great Emporer Le Loi went to the lake to pray for help defeating the Chinese, who had invaded and occupied Vietnam for 1,000 years. A giant tortoise emerged and presented a magical sword to the emporer, with which he led his armies to victory and expelled the Chinese. Afterwards the Emporer came back to the lake and threw the sword back in, as it had served its purpose. It is said that ever since the sword has been guarded by the tortoises of the lake, and in fact there is a species of giant tortoise UNIQUE to this little lake that lives here! Sadly, due to the fact that the lake is in the middle of a massive metropolis and people poached these tortoises, there is only one still alive today. There is a little pagoda dedicated to the tortoises on a small island within the lake, as well as a large temple set in the middle of the lake. Named the Ngoc Son Temple ("Jade Mountain Temple"), it is dedicated to Tran Hung Dao, a Vietnamese hero who defeated a force of 300,000 invading Monguls sent by Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. The temple is said to date to the 14th century and is connected to the shore by The Huc Bridge, which translates to "Flood of Morning Sunlight". The most interesting thing about the temple is actually the stuffed giant tortoise on display in one of its back rooms!

Hello giant Hoan Kiem Lake tortoise!

Other sites we caught in Hanoi were the National Museum of Vietnamese History which is full of art and artifacts respresenting the full spectrum of Vietnam's turbulent history, as well as the Ho Chi Minh government/residential complex. This is where "Uncle Ho" (First President and founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) resided and where the Northern Vietnamese government was based after the revolution from the French (the seeds of which were sewn by the guild workers of the Old Quarter). It would be a peaceful place to visit, if not for the endless crowds and lines and jostling and security. Still, it is a must-see for anyone new to Hanoi. It consists of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh Museum, One Pillar Pagoda, and Ho Chi Minh's Residence compound, since he refused to live in the massive French-built palace. The Vietnamese government reviews and censors blogs written about the country, even after travellers are already back from their journeys, so we will suffice it to say that it was all very impressive and patriotic. It felt similar to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. After extensive security and dress code checkpoints, we were allowed to shuffle in line through the Mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh's preserved body lies in state. Then we shuffled in line past his house. Then we observed the presidential palace from afar (it was not open to the public).

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Finally the museum-- what a place! Built in 1990, it's a beautiful modern building with two big floors of exhibits. However, stepping into those exhibits felt like falling through the Looking Glass into Willy Wonka's version of Oz. See the photos for examples. We could not make head nor tale of what the message was really about, and from our observations, neither could the Vietnamese visitors. Sarah's best guess is that several different curators/artists interpreted significant events in Ho Chi Minh's life and/or in the 20th century and then created their own artistic interpretation to symbolically represent them and thereby show the modern history of Vietnam. Confused? Yeah, us too. It was definitely interesting from a Museum Studies point of view!

The beautiful but confusing Ho Chi Minh Museum

A final highlight was the traditional show we caught at Hanoi's water puppet theater. Quite the unique experience! Traditional singers and musicians perform while the puppeteers uphold this ancient artistic tradition. The art of water puppetry originated in villages and rice paddies that would flood during the wet season and over the centuries turned into a form of high performance art. The puppeteers stand behind screens and operate the puppets via long underwater poles so that it appears they are just floating unassisted on the water. They performed about a dozen traditional song routines with different puppets for each- one was about a fisherman and tricky fish, one about collecting coconuts, one about planting and harvesting rice, etc. Even though nothing was translated into English, it was great fun to watch!

Water Puppet Show

After several happy days in Hanoi we met up with Sam (Joe's brother) again to travel together to our next spectacular destination: Ha Long Bay! Coming soon!

Photos: Hanoi, Vietnam

sglass — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:04:00 GMT

Living the easy life in the capital city of Vietnam

Phong Nha Farmstay, Vietnam

sglass — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 09:52:00 GMT

Immediately after one of the lowest points of our trip, we had one of the highest. While Sarah was sick, we'd discussed where to move on from Hue and we came across a small mention in our Lonely Planet Vietnam guidebook. It highlighted a place called the Phong Nha Farmstay and said if you can get there, it's well worth the trip. It was about 200 km or 3 hours north of Hue and located just outside a remote village called Cu Nam. This part of Vietnam is still wild... jungle-covered limestone mountains, or karsts, jut out of valleys where rural villagers farm rice. It's also where Vietnam is the skinniest- the distance between the South China Sea in the East and Laos in the West is only about 50km. The problem was, we had no idea how to get there. Trains only ran up the main North-South line along the coast and the next-closest city we'd be able to stop at, Dong Hoi, was still a 30 minute drive away from the Farmstay. Plus we doubted they would have any available rooms/beds at such short notice. Deciding we should at least give it a try, Joe got an internet connection and Skyped them. A quick-talking Vietnamese woman picked up the phone. Joe mentioned our interest in visiting and asked if they'd be able to help us out. She thought for a moment, and then asked if we could be ready within 45 minutes. It just so happened that she had one room left for that night, plus a driver with a van already in Hue picking up 2 other people to drive them out. For a small fee we could get in on it! We frantically packed our bags, checked out of our hotel, and within an hour of our reading about the Farmstay we were on our way to it!

View from our drive as we head north to Phong Nha Farmstay from Hue- those mountains form Vietnam's western border with Laos

Phong Nha Farmstay was unequivocally one of the best experiences of Vietnam, and of our entire trip. It is owned by Ben, an Australian expat who moved up to Vietnam after working construction down under, and Bich (pronounced "Bick"), his Vietnamese wife who grew up in the Cu Nam village. She was the spunky little lady we'd talked to on the phone. They have a 2 year old son, Michael, who is about as cute as they come, and a lot of the daily chores, babysitting, cooking, etc. is done by Bich's extended family, who are all around and helping run the business. Bich's mother was especially interesting (more on her later). The Farmstay itself consists of a "great room" with big wooden beams, very "mountain lodge" in style, but with open, airy doors. This is the social gathering spot and it has it all: bar, pool table, television, big comfy couches, tables with internet connections, books to borrow, etc. This is also where you order your food- since we're so remote there's nowhere else to eat! Luckily the food was delicious! There is a porch that wraps almost all the way around the building, with comfortable chairs and hammocks for lounging in. Ten private rooms lined the porch and were air-conditioned and very comfortable. There's also a separate house next door, where they've set up a 10-bed dorm room for those travelers who just need a bed with a fan. There was even a pool behind the house with a little volleyball net set up for cooling down after a day's adventures, and a punching bag hanging up-- we guess for those guests who like to punch things. Best of all, however, was the location. This place is built on a small hill raised up from a little road that leads to the village. From the porch we had views of the surrounding valley full of rice paddies in which farmers worked daily. Each night they'd herd their cattle back up the little road, going right by us. Beyond the rice paddies were the beautiful mountain peaks of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, the reason Central Vietnam is even on the map. Watching the sunset while swinging in hammocks on the porch, sipping delicious fresh fruit shakes and listening to cowbells clunking as the farmers made their way home for the evening... well you get the picture.

Farmers leading their cows home at sunset

Sunset from the porch of Phong Nha Farmstay

Equally amazing was the story of how this Farmstay came about- Ben and Bich have both travelled and worked in the tourism industry before, and they got this idea to build their ideal backpacker's destination. What better spot than on the edge of one of Vietnam's most beautiful parks (soon to be one of it's most touristed as well- it's only a matter of time). Since it was near Bich's hometown, they had a lot of local connections so they could skip many of the regular headaches that come with trying to set up an expat business in Vietnam. They had almost completed construction and were ready to open their doors to their first visitors when one of the worst flooding seasons in Vietnam's history hit the region. Their brand new building, which was on the highest point for miles around, was flooded up to its second floor. The local villages were devastated, crops wiped out, and Ben & Bich's savings, which they had completely invested in this venture, were gone. Not to mention that Michael, their son, was born the same week as the flood! Ordinary people would have given up. Ben and Bich tried again. They borrowed enough money to rebuild and in December, 2010 were able to open to the public. Now they see their Farmstay as a way to boost the local economy, teach outsiders about the local history, culture, and people of Central Vietnam, and to set an example for others in the area who are trying to build up their own tourism businesses. As Ben explained to us, the way they see it, if they help their "competition" get a leg up now, thereby establishing a strong and responsible tourism base in this region, in the long-term it will benefit everybody. They are incredibly invested in the local people and in introducing the wonders of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park to the outside world.

Phong Nha Farmstay (stolen from their website)

Speaking of those wonders... why do we keep saying this place is so great? Well, National Geographic already did a special on it in 2011, so something must be up. Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is one of the pristine wilderness sites left in Vietnam, and lies on one of the 2 largest limestone regions in the world. Thanks to all that limestone, the region is full of caves- over 300 have been discovered so far- and it gets even better: in 2009 the world's largest cave was discovered here! It's called Hang Son Doong Cave and is only just beginning to be explored. The British team mentioned in the NatGeo article in 2011 was the first! According to NatGeo, you could fit an entire New York City block of 40-story buildings in the main cavern of this cave. So, it's big. It's also not open to the public yet. Darn. Luckily that's not the only awesome cave in the park. Hang Ke Ry Cave is the world's longest river cave. Paradise Cave, which opened to the public in December 2011, is the world's longest dry cave. Phong Nha Cave, the second-most popular domestic tourist attraction in Vietnam, is "lit up like a psychadelic rock concert" and was the site of some intense military action during the War (more on that later too). And those are just the tip of the iceberg! With so much amazing stuff happening undergound, one might forget about everything up above. Not likely! The park is sprawling with awesome jungle scenery over these rock formations. Rivers with rapids and crystal clear streams full of limestone boulders run through the trees. It's full of plants and animals that are unique to this region and we learned it has the highest diversity of primates in South East Asia! This includes a rare Black Langur monkey that can only be found on a certain mountain within the park, and, as our guide told us, someone had even recently spotted a tiger here! Seeing a tiger in the wild is pretty much unheard of these days, so this was a big deal.

Jungle covered karst mountains of Phong Nha-Ke Bang

As if natural beauty, awesome exploring, and experiencing local culture first-hand wasn't enough, the Farmstay also prides itself on providing visitors with extensive local history lessons. Ben and his Australian buddy, Dave, lead their tour groups through the park in their fully restored American-issued military jeep, left behind from the War. Both of them have extensive knowledge of how the War impacted the region. Not to mention Bich, who grew up here and whose family and friends all experienced it first-hand. Her mother, who we mentioned earlier, was a nurse and a soldier for the Viet Cong. She received many medals for her bravery and was injured during one guerilla mission-- she still has shrapnel in her leg today. Her stern little face lights up with a smile when she talks to you and these days she welcomes Americans to the Farmstay with open arms. Ben has worked out some sort of deal with the Vietnamese military (best to not ask too many questions about this) where they actually let him take groups into the park. Otherwise we've heard it's very hard for foreigners to get in- often they will be turned away at the guarded checkpoints at the Park's entrances. We're not sure why the secrecy but we heard it has something to do with the fact that the Park is controlled by too many different entities- the military, local government, and Vietnam's version of the National Park Service are all kind of splitting responsibility but it's unclear who is in charge of what or whose policies stand. Luckily this has had the side effect of keeping it pristine and closed off (so far) to too much development.

Riding along the Ho Chi Minh Trail Highway in the back of a Vietnam military jeep!

Lonely stretch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail- today called Victory Highway

Regardless, we got in and got to drive along a remote stretch of the Victory Highway (Ho Chi Minh Trail) that runs straight through the park and is normally closed to the public. Since we are just north of the DMZ line, and at Vietnam's skinniest point, this region saw intense bombing. This is where the Vietnamese Army started spilling over into Laos to try to avoid detection by running their supply trails through the mountains across the border. As we drove along the Trail, stopping at numerous points for history lessons, we spotted caves that had been used for hospitals, bomb shelters, and supply/ammunition depots. One cave has been converted into a memorial, called the 8 Ladies Cave, because during an American bombing raid 8 local women and 5 Viet Cong soldiers took shelter there- the cave took a direct hit and the mouth caved in. By the time local villagers could uncover the rubble, 9 days later, they had all died. We also saw lots of perfectly round ponds in the middle of rice paddies or other fields. Dave pointed one out and explained that these were bomb craters left over from the war-- they would fill up with water and then the local farmers had a free pond on their land! We heard stories of downed helicopters nearby, of one local grandmother who has made it her life's work to go out in the fields with a metal detector and clear the land of mines and other unexploded ordinance (Dave said she's very cranky... understandably), of another local villager who shot an American pilot after his jet crashed on her farm. Seeing as how we are American, this whole experience was an intense conflict of emotions- more so than anywhere else we visited in Vietnam. Meeting and talking to people who experienced the war first-hand, who fought against and killed Americans, and who were very proud they had done so, was a bit of a wake up call. Mixed emotions of guilt, shame, indignance, and patriotism were hard to shake, even while we were out exploring caves and jungle. At the end of the day though, it was pretty clear that the past is the past, people just want to live their lives and raise their children (or grandchildren) in peace, and this family and others we met were happy to call their former enemies their friends. Perhaps it helped that they won.

Our awesome guide, Dave, giving us a history lesson

When we weren't learning about the fascinating war history, we were exploring! Our first group trip took us in the jeep up through the mountains along the HCM trail as we've already described where we learned all of these fun facts! This included a stop at the Highway 20 War Martyrs Temple- one of the most sacred and important war memorial sites in Vietnam. Then we hiked up to the secret little mouth of Paradise Cave- the 2nd biggest cave in the park now that the Hang Son Doong cave has been discovered. Even Paradise cave was only found in 2005 and as we mentioned, only opened in 2011. It has been developed for tourism by a private development company, and we have to say-- they've done a great job. Little golf carts take you up a path to the hiking trail. There are the usual annoying tourist gift shop/snack bars nearby, but the cave itself is thankfully free of anything commercial. Just a very eco-friendly wooden staircase and walking path to keep tourists from scrambling all over everything, and soft lighting that complements the cave itself. Descending into the main cavern was breath-taking! Pictures don't do it justice, but give a slight sense of the scale of this place. Again, it is the longest dry cave in Asia, and maybe even the world! Without proper guides, tourists are only allowed to venture about 1km into it.

Just one tiny section of Paradise Cave- this place was massive

After about an hour of exploring we headed back down the mountain, grabbed a yummy group lunch, and then Ben and Dave took us to the Nouc Mooc Eco Trail where we crossed bamboo bridges over rushing rapids until we reached a waterfall tumbling down into the fast-flowing water. Climbing out on boulders we jumped into the frigid water and swam around, fighting the current. It was a glorious way to cool off.

Our eco-trail hike to our swimming hole

After our swim and a short hike back to the cars, they took us over to the Son Chay River where we donned headlamps and life jackets, grabbed kayaks, and set off! After a short trip down river, mostly letting the current carry us, we reached the mouth of another newly opened cave (August 2011): Dark Cave. Yes it is just how it sounds. Our guides (who hadn't told us any of this beforehand-- we were just going with the flow) said, "leave your kayaks and anything you don't want to get wet here." This inclded shoes, clothes, cameras... everything. We switched on our headlamps and gingerly (b/c we were barefoot) started walking into the pitch black cave. Once we'd gone maybe 50 meters the floor stopped- nothing but darkness and water greeted us. Confused, we stopped and looked around with our headlamps. Then our guide said, "Well go on then! I told you you're going to get wet!" With that he walked forward into the water. Reluctantly our group stood there, wondering if he was crazy. Then one by one we started to get into the water. Freezing is not a strong enough word to describe it. When it was too deep to stand we started swimming- doggie paddling our way through complete blackness not knowing what was above or below us. Except for the bats we could hear squeaking and fluttering around high above our heads. Our life jackets kept us afloat and our headlamps, which we were strictly instructed not to get wet, gave off little beams of light here and there that hardly dented the darkness. At one point, we swam under an overhanging wall that left us barely enough room for our heads to stay above water! After about 20-30 minutes of swimming (felt like much longer) we finally came to a little rocky shore. We groped our way up in the darkness and got a little lecture about the diversity of species in the park, and within these caves themselves. Apparently in this cave alone, cut off as it is from the outside world, seperate species of white scorpions, snails, and other white cave creatures have been discovered by scientists. Very cool, but knowing there were scorpions in here didn't make us too keen to get back in the water and swim out again. We had no choice, however, and before long we were back outside letting our eyes adjust to the light before hopping back in our kayaks and paddling back to the cars. We headed home for dinner, stopping to watch the sunset over a particularly beautiful valley. What a day!

Sunset over Central Vietnam

On our second excursion we took a bike ride (guided by a few of Bich's little relatives- 2 boys around ages 10 and 12) along a dirt path leading through rice paddies and villages of wooden huts, and around sleepy cows and muddy buffalo. We even witnessed some local neighborhood drama as our two little leaders got into a scuffle with some of the village boys after one of them attempted to hit us with rocks as we biked by! (Why the village boys were throwing rocks at the tourists on bicycles we never really found out, but we guessed it is probably a fun game for little pre-teen boys). The bike ride took us to the village of Son Trach with little dragon boats to take us along the Son River and into the Phong Nha Cave.

Entrance to Phong Nha Cave

We heard that this cave used to be called "Dragon's Teeth" cave because of the massive stalctites that hung down from it's opening. During the war, Americans discovered this cave was being used as a crucial supply depot and hideout for Vietnamese troops. After months of attempts at striking against them (and getting shot down), one jet finally landed a direct hit with a missle in the center of the cave's mouth-- effectively blowing up all of those stalactites, but doing nothing to phase all of the inhabitants hiding deep inside. Stalactites or not, boating down the river through the mountains and then into the dark mouth of this cave looming ahead of us was wonderful! The boat cut its engines and our driver grabbed a long pole with which to push and steer the boat through the darkness of the cave. After about 20 minutes inside we reached a sandy bank leading up into a huge cavern. This cave was all lit up with crazy colored lights and FULL of Asian tourists. They were smoking, littering, talking loudly and all the girls were in heels!? Oh well. The best part of this cave was the ancient Cham hieroglyphics painted on a rock at the very back of the passage- tourists are only allowed to venture in about 1km of the cave but the ancient writings were just visible beyond. Very cool. We climbed back down and walked along an unmarked but well-trodden passage through crazy rock formations, all lit up with these crazy lights until we reached the mouth of the cave. There was a temple just outside the entrance, a little climb up the hill and a boat dock further down the river where we could catch our little boat back to the town. After a fun family-style group lunch at a restaurant Ben & Bich recommended, our group biked back to the Farmstay to have some cold beers, swim in the pool, and relax.

Psychadelic lighting in the Phong Nha Cave

If any of you have read this far, you'll know why we had such a great time here. We HIGHLY recommend the Farmstay for anyone ever traveling to Vietnam. It should be right up there on your list with the other big tourist attractions. Its repuatation is already spreading quickly and it will not remain this quiet haven for long. Soon this area will be bursting with Western tourists and accomodations (and all of the other effects of development that come with them) so we count ourselves among the lucky ones that we got to experience this wonderful place now. To Ben and Bich, their family, and Dave- thank you!

Photos: Phong Nha Farmstay, Vietnam

sglass — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:16:00 GMT

Caves, cows, and culture in rural Vietnam at the Phong Nha Ke-Bang National Park

Hue, Vietnam

sglass — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:08:00 GMT

After a wonderful week in Hoi An, we headed up to the nearby port city of Da Nang to catch a train further north to the ancient capital city of Hue (pronounced "Hway"). The views from the train were unbelievable- this is said to be the most beautiful train ride in all of Vietnam, and it certainly lived up to the hype. We hugged the coastline, darting in and out of tunnels blasted through the rocks high above the sea below. Unfortunately these views were the only good part of this train experience. We'd gotten to the train station about an hour early, just to be safe, where we discovered the train was running late. It was a HOT day out and the train station was not air-conditioned and packed full of people and luggage. There was nowhere to sit, only candy and cookies to eat, and nothing was in English so we had no way of knowing which was our train or when it was coming. This meant we couldn't leave the station for fear of missing our train. It ended up being over 3 hours late (so we sat in this oppressive heat with no food and little water for over 4 hours). When we got on the train, things weren't much better. Although we'd paid extra for the "1st class air conditioned" car there was definitely no air at all. People packed even the aisles, fanning themselves with whatever they could find and the sun streamed in through the windows. The train sat on the platform for another 45 minutes before even moving, and then it only went about 100 feet before stopping and sitting for another hour. It was like being stuck in a hot metal sardine can. We'd run out of water by this time and just sat there, helplessly drenched in sweat, trying not to pass out. It had taken us 5 hours to get 100 feet outside of town... and this entire train ride was only supposed to take 2 hours total!

The only good part of the train ride: Views of the Vietnamese coastline

Understandably, we were not in the best of moods when we finally pulled into the Hue train station. To top it off, we had no map of Hue, and therefore no way of knowing where on earth we were in relation to the city or any hotels! (This happened to us a LOT on this trip, but we weren't usually so miserable as we were now). We were immediately surrounded by taxi drivers shouting "Where you want to go!?" at us as we exited the station, and for anyone that has ever experienced this type of salesmanship... well it is a bit stressful and off-putting. We have also gotten more used to this approach, but for now we were tired, sweaty, overwhelmed, and Sarah was feeling faint. However the desire to not be "taken" by a local driver was still driving us so we found a map and decided it didn't look like too far of a walk to the backpackers district of the city. We were wrong. After about 45 minutes of walking with our giant packs on our backs (very full now thanks to all those clothes we'd picked up in Hoi An) we almost gave up and hailed a cab. Luckily though, we looked ahead and saw the street we had been looking for was dead ahead. We made it into the nearest bar, collapsed at a table and ordered the biggest bottled waters they had. We'd made it to Hue, but this was just the start of our troubles here.

Later that night, after finding and checking into a cheap little hotel (at least it had aircon!) Joe was ready to go out and explore the town. Sarah wasn't feeling so well after such a trying day, so she decided to stay in and rest. By the time Joe returned later that night, Sarah was worse. Much worse. She had a fever and chills, was sore, stiff, and weak all over, and was having a lot of pain and trouble breathing... not good. We spent the next 4 days in that cramped little hotel room while Sarah fought off this flu bug. (We decided later it was a flu bug but at the time we were very worried it was meningitis). She was too weak to get out of bed so Joe went out each day to buy water and food to bring back to her. He found a pharmacy and brought her medicine as well. When her fever spiked to 103, we debated cashing in on our traveller's insurance to have her taken to a hospital in Bangkok (there were none recommended for foreigners in this part of Vietnam). We agreed if she was still sick the next day we would do this. Thankfully, she woke up feeling better and the worst was past. Looking back, we've decided that an experience like this can make or break a couple. Being cramped up together in a tiny little hotel room for 5 days while one person is sick and cranky and the other is worried and cranky is not something everyone can handle. However we made it through! Sarah is still thankful for all of Joe's help and care, and Joe is thankful that we'll hopefully never go through something like this again!

Just some of the waters Sarah drank while sick-- each of these is twice the size of a normal water bottle.

We had only planned to spend 2-3 days total in Hue. We were now on day 5. We hadn't seen a single thing here and Sarah was still very weak. However we decided to try to make the best of it by visiting the #1 tourist site in town- the ancient citadel. We definitely took taxis this time. As we drove through the city we saw that it is very pretty, if not quite as charming as Hoi An. The Perfume River runs through the town and they have a beautiful park-lined riverfront. As the capital of the Nguyen dynasty from 1802-1945, Hue was a major cultural, economic, and political center for Vietnam. After 1945 Vietnam splintered and new capitals were established- in Ha Noi for the North, and Saigon for the South. Unfortunately, Hue was the site of major action during the Vietnam War (or "War of American Aggression" as they call it here). Because of its central location just south of the Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ), it was a central focus point during the 1968 Tet Offensive and is known for both the Battle of Hue and the Massacre at Hue. The city was basically bombed to smithereens, including the citadel and all of the ancient buildings within it, which were located right at the center of town. After the war, Hue's historic buildings and sites were neglected by the Communist government because they were seen as "relics from the feudal regime" and not worth saving. Today the Vietnamese have a slightly different view and many of the city's historical areas are being restored. We saw a lot of workers on the grounds of the Citadel and a lot of construction. It was still very hot out so Sarah had to take frequent water/rest breaks and we didn't tour as much of the grounds as we would have liked. However, to be honest, there still isn't much to see besides the foundations of what used to be buildings before they were destroyed. It would be like walking around Beijing's Forbidden City, except without any buildings, just open fields.

Joe in front of the Hue Citadel entrance

We did manage to squeeze in one more site after the Citadel-- the famous Thien Mu pagoda. Hue is known for its beautiful pagodas and temples lining the Perfume River and this is one of the more famous/beautiful ones. It's set atop a quiet hillside with pine trees and gardens and a Buddhist temple. It was very tranquil. The pagoda was founded in 1601 and the central octagonal tower was built in 1844. This tower is considered Hue's unofficial city symbol. Around the tower are an 8 foot high stone stele on the back of a giant marble turtle carved in 1715 and a giant bronze bell that weights almost 6,000 pounds! Apparently when it rings people can hear it up to 6 miles away.

The tower of the Thien Mu Pagoda

Photos: Hue, Vietnam

sglass — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:25:00 GMT

An ancient capital city of Vietnam

Hoi An, Vietnam

sglass — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:07:00 GMT

Hoi An! One of the highlights of the trip so far, Hoi An is a beautiful city where the majority of the buildings age from 150 to 300 years old. Hoi An was once considered to be the best trading port in all of Southeast Asia. The city was founded in the 16^th century but rose to prominence as a powerful and exclusive trading center between China, India, Japan and Europe. Chinese merchant families settled here and built great homes, temples, and communal halls out of teak wood, many of which are still around today. Hoi An’s importance fell during the 19^th century because its river mouth silted up and Da Nang (a nearby town) became the new center of trade. This meant it remained forgotten and untouched by Vietnam’s turbulent history over the next 200 years and luckily both sides agreed to avoid bombing it during the latest war.

Beautiful Ancient Town, Hoi An

Today most of the city center or Ancient Town has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site and therefore gets extra money to keep the historic buildings looking, well, historic. The extra money comes in handy during the rainy season when it’s not uncommon for the city to get flooded by around 10 feet of water. Surviving these floods is a point of pride for the city. They mark the height of the water levels each year on the walls of their homes with chalk the same way we keep track of growing kids. Between the floods and wars that Vietnam has suffered, it’s truly impressive how much of the city is still in pristine condition. The town also attracts tourists for its local crafts, delicious food, and nearby beaches.

Flood levels marked in an Ancient House

Since much of the Ancient Town has remained relatively unchanged for generations, you feel like you’ve traveled back in time as you’re walking through it. It was a wonderful place for Joe to celebrate his 28^th birthday! Not as old as the city, but still a feat we’re sure many back home thought unlikely. For the occasion, Sarah booked us into the Ancient House Hotel and Spa to experience a little bit of Asia’s luxurious side. This place had it all! Upon our arrival they gave us fresh juice, fresh fruit in the room, and cool towels to refresh ourselves from the heat. We walked around and took in the grounds. The hotel has a beautiful pool, five star eats, wild orchids everywhere, full spa and salon, and even had a little gym. Once we let slip we were here to celebrate a birthday Joe even got flowers, a sweet coconut dessert wrapped in grape leaves, and a card! Not too shabby.

Joe turns 28!

Besides the old world charm that oozes out from every historic house or shop, Hoi An is known for its tailors. The vast majority of the shops are dedicated to making everything from shoes and accessories to three piece suits and wedding dresses. You can take in a fashion magazine or show them a website and within days they will make you an exact replica. If you’ve ever seen a child’s face the first time they see Disney World, or watched a person being told they won the lottery on TV, then you have a good idea of how Sarah reacted to more than 300 custom clothing stores within a 2 mile radius. It was clear that this was going to be a fun place to stay early on, so we set out to find a tailor to our liking. We tried a big fancy store first, but we had read ahead and knew the prices that they were quoting us were well above the norm even for a high quality establishment. We kindly told the store manager that we were going to shop around and that we would get back to him. He quickly cut his price by a third. We still decided it was best to shop around before committing and so we set out again.

Tailor shops like these were everywhere!

The second place we tried was a little shop on one of the main stretches in Ancient Town. Sarah saw a summer dress she liked in the window so we decided to give it a try. After taking Sarah’s measurements, the shop owner told us that the dress would be ready the next day for fitting! Sooooo fast! We spent the rest of the day sight-seeing and sampling the local fresh beer for 25 cents a glass. One of our stops was in a very nice Australian-owned pub in the city center. It was here we found out the great secret of Hoi An. A bar owner from another part of town was there drinking with his Vietnamese wife who grew up here and she told us that basically all the stores in town just take your orders. Then, with a few exceptions, regardless of the store or price you pay, most of the orders go to the same 20 families to be made. So it doesn’t matter what you pay, you’re probably going to get the same quality workmanship. The real difference is in the quality of the materials you choose. With this information in tow, we decided that first thing the next morning we would check out the tailors in the Hoi An Cloth Market (straight to the source!).

Joe enjoying a Vietnamese cigar while helping Sarah decide on dresses!

The Cloth Market has the look of a large flea market, but inside it’s nothing but bolts of cloth piled from floor to ceiling for as far as you can see and hidden among them are tailors ready to shape it to your liking for about half the price those in the stores were offering. As we wondered around, a bit overwhelmed (and very hot—no air-conditioning here like in the fancy stores), we met My. She ran stall number 25 and though there were plenty of ladies attempting to attract our business, she was the one we went with. Joe ordered a suit and Sarah ordered another dress. Once again she took our measurements and told us to come back the next morning. Then Sarah went to the store where she’d ordered her first dress to get fitted, had minor alterations made, and was able to pick it up later that same day. The next morning we compared the two dresses: one from a more expensive store and the other from My in Stall 25… My had the higher quality work! That was enough to convince us… we spent the next three days organizing our sight-seeing schedule around fittings and placing new orders with My. By the end of the week, we realized Sarah now had 6 new dresses, a blazer, and a suit with both skirt and pants while Joe had three full suits and three dress shirts. Yikes! We were extremely happy with the final price and we even had enough extra bank to buy Joe a fall coat and Sarah one more dress! Overall it was a very fun experience, My was great to work with, and we have lots of great new clothes!

Hoi An Cloth Market

Besides the crazy temptation to buy every tailored clothing article in sight, we actually did get a lot more out of Hoi An than just clothes. The best way to get around town is by bicycle, and practically every hotel rents them out for a dollar or two per day. We explored the gorgeous historic riverfront area, visited the famous Old Japanese Bridge that has a Buddhist temple built into its side, and bought a day pass to explore many of the Ancient Town’s museums, ancient houses, and temples. We visited several craft workshops to witness the masters at work- carving stone or wood, making paper lanterns, or firing ceramics. We attended a performance at a cultural center where traditional Vietnamese arts such as music, dance, and singing were displayed. We even found time to escape out to the nearby Cua Dai Beach outside of the city to spend the 4^th of July relaxing and just enjoying the sunshine.

Old Japanese Bridge

Traditional Vietnamese Dance & Music

Out of a wonderful week, perhaps the highlight was our being there to witness a monthly festival: the Hoi An Lantern Festival. On the 14^th day of each lunar month the residents of Ancient Town turn off their lights, televisions, radios, neon lights, and even the street lights, and instead the whole town is hung with colorful paper lanterns. Even motorbikes and cars are banned on these nights. The result is fantastic. Everyone gathers at the river where the lights are reflected in the water. Everywhere you go there are people selling little paper lanterns in the shape of lotus flowers with candles inside. You take them to the river, light the candle, say a prayer or make a wish (whatever your fancy) and set it afloat on the water. These floating flowers sparkled by the hundreds!

Hundreds of paper lanterns floating on the water

All along the river little old ladies set up their makeshift stoves to grill up snacks and sweets. Street performers come out to perform traditional Vietnamese music, dance, plays, and songs. The craftsmen leave their workshops open for everyone to come in and see them at work. There are carnival games set up in the streets. It is like being at a historic and culturally-focused Vietnamese fair mixed in with a fairy tale. It was amazing. We loved Hoi An. We would live here except Sarah would spend all her money on clothes. So we had to move on…