Everywhere you go in Asia you see people wearing tubing shirts for Vang Vieng. It seemed it was a must stop on our stay in Laos.
The day after Thanksgiving we boarded to bus for Vang Vieng and 5 hours later were here. Vang Vieng was very small and so we hadn't done much research on where to stay. Doug really wanted to stay on the water, so I sat down at a restaurant with our bags while Doug scoured for a room. I ordered a watermelon shake and waited. After about 15 minutes he came back to announce he didn't like anything in one direction so he was going in a different direction. After 10 minutes I was starving and ordered a chicken sandwich and ate half of it - saving the other half for him. Another 15 minutes later I ate the other half. 10 more minutes and I was convinced that he had met someone and was out a bar having drinks while I waited here with all our stuff. Finally, after a small eternity, he returned triumphant.
"I have found the perfect room!" he announced. "It's a bungalow right on the water with a little porch. If I had come 2 minutes later we would have never gotten it and it's $12 for the night. Do you know how hard this is to find?"
I laughed as clearly he had worked very hard to find this place. Doug is a very funny shopper - he has two modes of shopping. Mode one (which is most of the time his mode) - buy the first thing that looks at all fine. Mode two - have a very specific vision and look at every possible option looking to find the very perfect vision which is probably almost impossible to find. I'm always down for shopping, but even I get a bit tired when Doug goes into mode two. It was clear he was in mode two when looking for our room.
Our room was great and in a perfect location - so it was well worth the diligent search. We dropped our stuff and set out to get Doug some lunch and explore Vang Vieng. The main attraction here is tubing so we agreed to check it out the next day.
The late night scene is all about Bucket Bar, which is conveniently located directly next to our hotel. Our first night we headed over there to find that the guy to girl ratio here is about 3 to 1. This made for a very intriguing evening as several guys saw no problem strolling right up to me while I was clearly talking to Doug. I guess they felt that if I was only talking to one other guy, their odds were better than most of the rest of the females. My favorite was the guy who walked up to me, announced he was going to go use the toilet and would be right back. Umm, OK. Doug's favorite was the guy who whacked him in the face with his shirt and then proceeded to sit right in the middle of us.
After a leisurely breakfast we got ready and headed over to the tube place around noon. There must be some sort of deal with the town/government as there is only one place you can get a tube from. If you go between 12:15 and 1:30 the long is quite long - although very short any other time of day. We diligently waited in line, payed our 115,00 kip a person (55,000 for tube rental plus a 60,000 deposit) and boarded the tuk tuk which took us to the starting point.
The way tubing works is that there are bars all along the river and you get in the tube, tube a little, stop at a bar, tube a little more, stop at a bar, etc. We had known this, but where quite taken aback to discover the first bar is all of maybe 25 meters from the starting point. The bars are all crowded together, so all in all between the first bar and the last bar is about 150 meters of tubing, if that. Most of the bars have zip lines - and I got my nerve up to go on the zip line at the second bar. The last bar is the most fun as it also has a water slide. I went down the water slide twice before the sun set and it was way too cold to be in the water.
They have quite a good racket going because from the last bar to the ending point is another 40 minutes of tubing - which given that most people stay until after sunset - would be pitch black and very very cold. No worries - you can pay another 10,000 a person to have a tuk-tuk drive you back. And they pretty much guarantee you get back after 6, so you loose 20,000 kip from your deposit and end up spending 75,000 kip on the tub - which is about $9.
When we got back we were starving - so we hit up the sandwich place for two chicken sandwiches on our way back to our room. The sandwich carts station themselves right outside where the tuk tuk drops you off, as clearly they know their market. This was Doug's second chicken sandwich of the day. We realized the key was still up at the hotel lobby so Doug went back up for two more chicken sandwiches and the key. After we finished them we were still hungry so I headed back up the hill for another chicken sandwich and pancake - bringing Doug's total to 3 and a half chicken sandwiches for the day and me to two and a half. They are the best deal in Vang Vieng at only 10,000 kip a sandwich (slightly over a dollar).
The next morning Doug and I agreed - the tube is useless. You could have hired a tuk tuk to take you down to the start, but Doug and I walked. This was the way better option. It's really easy to walk from bar to bar and you don't have to deal with the hassle of returning the tube at the end of the day.
After two days of tubing Doug and I had felt sufficiently experienced - lightweights compared to the average tuber. We had met a group of guys who were on their 30th day in a row!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our first night in Vientiane was very exciting. I had read in the Lonely Planet guide that there was a bowling alley in Vientiane and I was anxious to get my bowling on. This is not to say that I'm at all good at bowling (any score over 40 is pretty great for me) or that I really like bowling - it was just really exciting to have an entirely new activity - with the bonus of the fact that it would give Doug and I something new to talk about.
Well, bowling was a blast. We bowled a set of 4 games - the best set of mine where I got a magnificent 98! Plus we had almost 3 hours of entertainment without starring at each other trying to come up with something new to talk about. This is one of the biggest issues we face. We you spend all day every day with someone for over two months, the sources of conversation tend to run dry - so it's always a bonus if we have something to distract us and to talk about.
The next day given that we are rather Watted out from Angkor and that there isn't that much else to do in Vientiane, we opted in for our favorite activity - Motorbiking! There was supposed to be a sculpture garden about 25 km outside of the city with some guy's collection of Buddhas amongst other random sculptures and it sounded like a great day trip.
We hopped on the motorbike and headed off. Vientiane and it's surroundings - like pretty much every city we've been to so far - has no real map. This makes it rather difficult to go see things outside the city. We knew the garden was along the Mekong so we tried to follow it up the river to the best of our abilities and hoped we would make it there. We got rather off track from the highway and motorbiked through some random paths and small towns. We did our best to follow the river, but we had gone far more than 25 km and still found nothing. Eventually we made it back to the highway and went by a "cultural center" and decided to stop. The price was right (5000 kip) and we thought we had made it to the right place.
The cultural center was, to say the least, very very odd. We walked in and there were some random animal sculptures and then we came to about 5 dinosaur sculptures - including one dinosaur eating another dinosaur. We walked along further and then came to a random Buddha display which was adjacent to some live monkeys in an outdoor cage with some birds in a cage not too far away. As we walked around further there were more religious oriented sculptures which were really quite bizarre.
We sat and chilled by the river for a bit before heading back on the motorbike and back to town. As we followed the highway back it became clear that we had gone out of the way and hadn't made it to the Buddah garden, but were content with our sightseeing nonetheless. We stopped off at the public pool on the way back which was totally empty so we were able to get a great workout in. I even gave Doug some drills to work on his freestyle -which is coming along nicely.
The next day was Thanksgiving and we decided to take it slowly. During breakfast I noticed that one of the hotels was having a Thanksgiving meal special. Thanksgiving is a big holiday in my family and this would be my first year spending it without them so I was anxious to try to create our own Thanksgiving feast.
After a lovely one hour Lao massage ($8!), I headed over to the hotel to see what the deal was with Thanksgiving. For $35 you could have the fixed price Thanksgiving dinner - Salad, turkey (virtually impossible to find in Asia), chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables with a glass of red wine and pumpkin pie for dessert. While I knew this would be no Landsman prepared feast and no Grandma Mary pie :( - it could be a potential substitute. However $35 was going to be a tough sell on Doug. Given that we had collectively spent under $20 on dinner the night before - $70 on dinner for two plus tax, tip, etc was rather outrageous.
I came back to our room to discover Doug lounging on the balcony. "I have to tell you something that's going to make you poop your pants," I informed him. "Thanksgiving dinner is thirty-five dollars a person."
He looked back at me and tried to judge how important this one was to me. "I'm on the fence too," I explained. "It's a lot of money for dinner for something that's going to end up being disappointing."
He took the opening and agreed heartily - we could have the most amazing dinner every for half that. It would be silly to waste $70 on a lame dinner.
So we spent Thanksgiving playing Gin on the balcony. While overall I lost 4 sets to 2 - I won the two most critical sets. The first set for who had to go down and buy bus tickets and the 3rd set for who had to go down and get dinner. Doug came back with samosas, naan, and vegetarian tikka malasa plus a bottle of red wine. We laughed at how we had Indian for Thanksgiving and for only $20 total!
Well, bowling was a blast. We bowled a set of 4 games - the best set of mine where I got a magnificent 98! Plus we had almost 3 hours of entertainment without starring at each other trying to come up with something new to talk about. This is one of the biggest issues we face. We you spend all day every day with someone for over two months, the sources of conversation tend to run dry - so it's always a bonus if we have something to distract us and to talk about.
The next day given that we are rather Watted out from Angkor and that there isn't that much else to do in Vientiane, we opted in for our favorite activity - Motorbiking! There was supposed to be a sculpture garden about 25 km outside of the city with some guy's collection of Buddhas amongst other random sculptures and it sounded like a great day trip.
We hopped on the motorbike and headed off. Vientiane and it's surroundings - like pretty much every city we've been to so far - has no real map. This makes it rather difficult to go see things outside the city. We knew the garden was along the Mekong so we tried to follow it up the river to the best of our abilities and hoped we would make it there. We got rather off track from the highway and motorbiked through some random paths and small towns. We did our best to follow the river, but we had gone far more than 25 km and still found nothing. Eventually we made it back to the highway and went by a "cultural center" and decided to stop. The price was right (5000 kip) and we thought we had made it to the right place.
The cultural center was, to say the least, very very odd. We walked in and there were some random animal sculptures and then we came to about 5 dinosaur sculptures - including one dinosaur eating another dinosaur. We walked along further and then came to a random Buddha display which was adjacent to some live monkeys in an outdoor cage with some birds in a cage not too far away. As we walked around further there were more religious oriented sculptures which were really quite bizarre.
We sat and chilled by the river for a bit before heading back on the motorbike and back to town. As we followed the highway back it became clear that we had gone out of the way and hadn't made it to the Buddah garden, but were content with our sightseeing nonetheless. We stopped off at the public pool on the way back which was totally empty so we were able to get a great workout in. I even gave Doug some drills to work on his freestyle -which is coming along nicely.
The next day was Thanksgiving and we decided to take it slowly. During breakfast I noticed that one of the hotels was having a Thanksgiving meal special. Thanksgiving is a big holiday in my family and this would be my first year spending it without them so I was anxious to try to create our own Thanksgiving feast.
After a lovely one hour Lao massage ($8!), I headed over to the hotel to see what the deal was with Thanksgiving. For $35 you could have the fixed price Thanksgiving dinner - Salad, turkey (virtually impossible to find in Asia), chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables with a glass of red wine and pumpkin pie for dessert. While I knew this would be no Landsman prepared feast and no Grandma Mary pie :( - it could be a potential substitute. However $35 was going to be a tough sell on Doug. Given that we had collectively spent under $20 on dinner the night before - $70 on dinner for two plus tax, tip, etc was rather outrageous.
I came back to our room to discover Doug lounging on the balcony. "I have to tell you something that's going to make you poop your pants," I informed him. "Thanksgiving dinner is thirty-five dollars a person."
He looked back at me and tried to judge how important this one was to me. "I'm on the fence too," I explained. "It's a lot of money for dinner for something that's going to end up being disappointing."
He took the opening and agreed heartily - we could have the most amazing dinner every for half that. It would be silly to waste $70 on a lame dinner.
So we spent Thanksgiving playing Gin on the balcony. While overall I lost 4 sets to 2 - I won the two most critical sets. The first set for who had to go down and buy bus tickets and the 3rd set for who had to go down and get dinner. Doug came back with samosas, naan, and vegetarian tikka malasa plus a bottle of red wine. We laughed at how we had Indian for Thanksgiving and for only $20 total!
Land Of Jars
The general MO for our trip has been that I spend some time reading on whatever country we're going to, mark in the guidebook all of the things I want to do (post-it notes being preferred, but now that we've run out of them I dog ear the pages) and then Doug looks it over and picks the subset that he is also interested in. This works out pretty well as Doug saves me from some very idiotic ideas I have about what will be "fun" and on occasion will give in if there is something I really want to do. Unless he REALLY doesn't want to it, in which case he will keep reading about it until he finds a very valid reason for not doing it.
The first time this happened was when I wanted to go to a rather out of the way cave in Vietnam. Due to the constant rain everywhere in Vietnam we skipped over several post-it noted places. But this one cave sounded very cool and I really wanted to go. It was rather far out of our way, but Doug had already vetoed so many other things that he knew he was in a tough position to veto this one. He picked up the lonely planet and started reading on it - then looked up at me with a huge smirk. "Lonely Planet says this is the wettest place in Vietnam" he triumphantly announced! I gave in, it would be silly to go to the wettest place in Vietnam in the middle of unexpected flooding everywhere in the country.
So when I had dogearred the Plain of Jars - Doug found himself in a similar situation. The Plain of Jars is a bunch of huge very old jars that no one knows where they came from or exactly what they were used for and somehow I had gotten it into my head that this was a must-see in Laos.
"What are we going to do at this Land of Jars?" Doug ask me.
"I dunno, see them, everybody does it. This is why people come to Laos. It's very famous!" I tried to explain.
Then I saw the smirk. "This torturous 9 hour bus ride . . ." Doug began to read to me. I immediately relented. There is, as far as I'm concerned, nothing that is worth a 9 hour bus ride. Much less one that Lonely Planet describes as torturous.
Every since then Doug has been somewhat fascinated by the Land of Jars (really Plain of Jars, but he has changed it to Land of Jars). The more we discuss it the more we wonder who does go there? We did meet one Canadian couple who said they were going to go but ran out of time - but other than that the few others I've polled haven't even heard of it.
As far as I can tell there is only one way to get there which is this 9 hour horrid bus ride. Then the only thing to do there is see these huge jars and then you have to take the same 9 hour horrid bus ride back to Vientiane.
Doug has come up with a few songs related to it which he sings frequently - one being L-A-N D-O-F J-Aaaaa-R-S (sung to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song) and another one sung to the Land Down Under Song (It starts with "I come from the land of jars yeah") and the newly coined "99 unsoiled jars in the land, 99 unsoiled jars, take a piss, cross one off the list, 98 unsoiled jars in the land". These nicely replace our previous favorite hits "The Dong Song" (Dong being Vietnam's currency and sung by Doug EVERYTIME we paid for something in Vietnam) and the classic "I Kissed A Snail".
The first time this happened was when I wanted to go to a rather out of the way cave in Vietnam. Due to the constant rain everywhere in Vietnam we skipped over several post-it noted places. But this one cave sounded very cool and I really wanted to go. It was rather far out of our way, but Doug had already vetoed so many other things that he knew he was in a tough position to veto this one. He picked up the lonely planet and started reading on it - then looked up at me with a huge smirk. "Lonely Planet says this is the wettest place in Vietnam" he triumphantly announced! I gave in, it would be silly to go to the wettest place in Vietnam in the middle of unexpected flooding everywhere in the country.
So when I had dogearred the Plain of Jars - Doug found himself in a similar situation. The Plain of Jars is a bunch of huge very old jars that no one knows where they came from or exactly what they were used for and somehow I had gotten it into my head that this was a must-see in Laos.
"What are we going to do at this Land of Jars?" Doug ask me.
"I dunno, see them, everybody does it. This is why people come to Laos. It's very famous!" I tried to explain.
Then I saw the smirk. "This torturous 9 hour bus ride . . ." Doug began to read to me. I immediately relented. There is, as far as I'm concerned, nothing that is worth a 9 hour bus ride. Much less one that Lonely Planet describes as torturous.
Every since then Doug has been somewhat fascinated by the Land of Jars (really Plain of Jars, but he has changed it to Land of Jars). The more we discuss it the more we wonder who does go there? We did meet one Canadian couple who said they were going to go but ran out of time - but other than that the few others I've polled haven't even heard of it.
As far as I can tell there is only one way to get there which is this 9 hour horrid bus ride. Then the only thing to do there is see these huge jars and then you have to take the same 9 hour horrid bus ride back to Vientiane.
Doug has come up with a few songs related to it which he sings frequently - one being L-A-N D-O-F J-Aaaaa-R-S (sung to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song) and another one sung to the Land Down Under Song (It starts with "I come from the land of jars yeah") and the newly coined "99 unsoiled jars in the land, 99 unsoiled jars, take a piss, cross one off the list, 98 unsoiled jars in the land". These nicely replace our previous favorite hits "The Dong Song" (Dong being Vietnam's currency and sung by Doug EVERYTIME we paid for something in Vietnam) and the classic "I Kissed A Snail".
Auto-Pilot How I Love Thee So
When going from Siem Reap to Vientiane you have two options. You can either spend two days on the bus and going via Thailand or you can spend around $160 to take a flight that involves a brief layover in Pakse. The thing is $160 is really a lot of money - especially when you're unemployed. But the real thing is that there is no way I could ever spend 2 days straight on the bus. So Lao airlines it was!
We boarded the plane and were able to spread out a bit and each got our own row. It was a small plane - some where around 20ish rows with sets of two seats on either side. There were two guys (early 20s) who were traveling together who were still drunk from the night before and were hilarious. My favorite move was when one of them had to sneeze and purposefully did in the other guy's lap. "Dude, how mad would you be at me if I just did that?" I asked Doug. We agreed - it would be grounds for the ending of a friendship.
As we took off, it was a bit bumpy but certainly nothing I hadn't experienced before. However, it was not long before it became quite clear that the plane was not flying on Auto-Pilot. Perhaps the gene I am most gratefully to my father for is my infinitely solid stomach - but after an hour and a half when we landed in Pakse, Doug and I both clamored off the plane a little greener than when we started. We had a small respite of 40 minutes when we got to Pakse and got our Laos visas and then it was same same from Pakse to Vientiane.
We took a $6 cab from the airport to "downtown" Vientiane and started to look for a hotel. We started with the one right across from us, which had room only for one night, and then headed to the hotel next door. I went up to see the room while Doug stayed downstairs with our stuff. The man took me upstairs and I took a quick look inside - 2 beds, air conditioning, and hot water in the showers seemed fine. But the best part was we had a balcony. The way the balcony is set up you actually share it with the whole floor, but our room was right on, which allows us to sit on the balcony with the window open and easily get stuff out of the room. We had a similar set up in Cat Ba and it was ideal. We'll take it!
After dropping our stuff in the room, we headed out. There isn't really too much to Vientiane, so it didn't take long to get a feel for the city. We decided to check out some of the eco-trekking options and quickly realized that the better place for it was north of the country, so we decided to pass it that for now. We headed back to the room to bust open the Lonely Planet and see what there was to do.
We boarded the plane and were able to spread out a bit and each got our own row. It was a small plane - some where around 20ish rows with sets of two seats on either side. There were two guys (early 20s) who were traveling together who were still drunk from the night before and were hilarious. My favorite move was when one of them had to sneeze and purposefully did in the other guy's lap. "Dude, how mad would you be at me if I just did that?" I asked Doug. We agreed - it would be grounds for the ending of a friendship.
As we took off, it was a bit bumpy but certainly nothing I hadn't experienced before. However, it was not long before it became quite clear that the plane was not flying on Auto-Pilot. Perhaps the gene I am most gratefully to my father for is my infinitely solid stomach - but after an hour and a half when we landed in Pakse, Doug and I both clamored off the plane a little greener than when we started. We had a small respite of 40 minutes when we got to Pakse and got our Laos visas and then it was same same from Pakse to Vientiane.
We took a $6 cab from the airport to "downtown" Vientiane and started to look for a hotel. We started with the one right across from us, which had room only for one night, and then headed to the hotel next door. I went up to see the room while Doug stayed downstairs with our stuff. The man took me upstairs and I took a quick look inside - 2 beds, air conditioning, and hot water in the showers seemed fine. But the best part was we had a balcony. The way the balcony is set up you actually share it with the whole floor, but our room was right on, which allows us to sit on the balcony with the window open and easily get stuff out of the room. We had a similar set up in Cat Ba and it was ideal. We'll take it!
After dropping our stuff in the room, we headed out. There isn't really too much to Vientiane, so it didn't take long to get a feel for the city. We decided to check out some of the eco-trekking options and quickly realized that the better place for it was north of the country, so we decided to pass it that for now. We headed back to the room to bust open the Lonely Planet and see what there was to do.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Running Amok
It is never fun getting on the bus, particularly for any trip that exceeds four hours. Even the most comfortable of buses gets very old very fast. We wanted to go to Siem Reap from Saigon which is two six hour bus rides. We opted to do the first bide ride and then spend the night in Phnom Penh and then get up the next morning and do the second ride. I would highly recommend doing this and having a break between bus rides as it's really nice to have a moment to regroup. I also got up early and headed over to one of the swankier hotels and went for a swim before getting on the bus, which made the ride slightly more tolerable.
We arrived rather late in the day to Siem Reap (which is where you stay to see Angkor Wat) to discover our hotel was full and they put us into another hotel near by. We walked around the corner toward town and had dinner at a Cambodian restaurant. I had the chicken amok which is a local specialty and delicious. It's a peanut/coconut milk based curry with chicken and vegetables. A must try if you find yourself in Cambodia.
We headed over to the Angkor What? bar which is on Pub street - a pedestrian only area. Doug contently watched the soccer on T.V. while I was more intrigued by what was going on at the pool table. Particularly the variety of flirting and rebuffing of the players. We later ran into a group of people we had met in Hoi An and joined them at the table.
The next day we woke up, breakfasted, switched to a new hotel, and hit up Angkor. Angkor was a civilization built by the Khmer empire during the 8th to 13th centuries (I think) and it is amazing how enormous it is. The biggest Wat is Angkor Wat which was built in dedicated to the god Vishnu (also referred fondly by us as "our Bishnu"). There is also Angkor Thom which is the city with several other temples and ruins to see. I would highly recommend exploring it by bicycle - which is what did. It's a huge area to cover and it's very easy to bike out and around. It's amazing to see all the detail that went into building Angkor and imagining the billions of man hours and money that went into it's construction. We also enjoyed watching the groups of Korean tourists walk around in their bright red vests - they seem to always travel in groups of at least 45.
That night we were exhausted and had an early evening. The next day we relaxed in Siem Reap at the Prince D'Angkor hotel. For $8 a person we could use their pool and gym. The pool is big enough to swim laps in and there was at most 2 or 3 other people in the pool at any given time.
I was in the mood for Mexican so we headed to Viva (not really worth it) and then again over to Angkor What? Doug played a couple of games of pool with some guys at the pool table and then when they left, he gave me a lesson and I practiced some. A couple came over and wanted to play - so Doug and I were teamed up against them. Now if you know me at all you know that this is not my game. Doug, however, is quite good, so in the few cases we've had to play against another couple, as long as both of the other two players aren't super good Doug can more than make up for my deficiencies. Not so this game - I will simply tell you that I got two balls in and Doug only got one in. It was mind boggling. I have never seen him play so bad.
Once the game finally ended we went outside and realized it was totallly worth it. Clearly 32 (the god I've taken on in my time in Asia - there are so many gods here, so I've chosen 32 as someone who's probably important enough to be able to help me out if I need it, but not so important he has other things to do) knew what he was doing as it was way funnier to be outside.
There is no way that this will come across nearly as funny as it was - but I will just say that we had seen a guy at dinner that I had nicknamed Viggo, due to his slight resemblance to Viggo Mortenson, who was now dancing with anything and everything (mainly himself) plus a Mullet Man. The best part of Mullet Man was that he was talking to this girl and these two drunk girls tried to surreptitiously take their picture with him, but given that they were drunk it ended up being quite the debacle.
It was a hilarious last night in Cambodia before we headed into Lao.
We arrived rather late in the day to Siem Reap (which is where you stay to see Angkor Wat) to discover our hotel was full and they put us into another hotel near by. We walked around the corner toward town and had dinner at a Cambodian restaurant. I had the chicken amok which is a local specialty and delicious. It's a peanut/coconut milk based curry with chicken and vegetables. A must try if you find yourself in Cambodia.
We headed over to the Angkor What? bar which is on Pub street - a pedestrian only area. Doug contently watched the soccer on T.V. while I was more intrigued by what was going on at the pool table. Particularly the variety of flirting and rebuffing of the players. We later ran into a group of people we had met in Hoi An and joined them at the table.
The next day we woke up, breakfasted, switched to a new hotel, and hit up Angkor. Angkor was a civilization built by the Khmer empire during the 8th to 13th centuries (I think) and it is amazing how enormous it is. The biggest Wat is Angkor Wat which was built in dedicated to the god Vishnu (also referred fondly by us as "our Bishnu"). There is also Angkor Thom which is the city with several other temples and ruins to see. I would highly recommend exploring it by bicycle - which is what did. It's a huge area to cover and it's very easy to bike out and around. It's amazing to see all the detail that went into building Angkor and imagining the billions of man hours and money that went into it's construction. We also enjoyed watching the groups of Korean tourists walk around in their bright red vests - they seem to always travel in groups of at least 45.
That night we were exhausted and had an early evening. The next day we relaxed in Siem Reap at the Prince D'Angkor hotel. For $8 a person we could use their pool and gym. The pool is big enough to swim laps in and there was at most 2 or 3 other people in the pool at any given time.
I was in the mood for Mexican so we headed to Viva (not really worth it) and then again over to Angkor What? Doug played a couple of games of pool with some guys at the pool table and then when they left, he gave me a lesson and I practiced some. A couple came over and wanted to play - so Doug and I were teamed up against them. Now if you know me at all you know that this is not my game. Doug, however, is quite good, so in the few cases we've had to play against another couple, as long as both of the other two players aren't super good Doug can more than make up for my deficiencies. Not so this game - I will simply tell you that I got two balls in and Doug only got one in. It was mind boggling. I have never seen him play so bad.
Once the game finally ended we went outside and realized it was totallly worth it. Clearly 32 (the god I've taken on in my time in Asia - there are so many gods here, so I've chosen 32 as someone who's probably important enough to be able to help me out if I need it, but not so important he has other things to do) knew what he was doing as it was way funnier to be outside.
There is no way that this will come across nearly as funny as it was - but I will just say that we had seen a guy at dinner that I had nicknamed Viggo, due to his slight resemblance to Viggo Mortenson, who was now dancing with anything and everything (mainly himself) plus a Mullet Man. The best part of Mullet Man was that he was talking to this girl and these two drunk girls tried to surreptitiously take their picture with him, but given that they were drunk it ended up being quite the debacle.
It was a hilarious last night in Cambodia before we headed into Lao.
Nothing Lasts Forever In The Cold November Rain
Our last day in Saigon was quite lovely. We had a leisurely morning of checking out the Hindu temple and strolling through some markets and then threw on our bathing suits. Doug had found an Olympic size pool that we could go to and swim laps. We swam for almost an hour and a half and it felt great to get a good workout in. It costs less than a dollar to go to the pool, so I would highly recommend it if you're in Saigon.
On our way back we stopped for our favorite treat - coffee da (iced coffee). The iced coffee in Saigon is AMAZING! I should first explaining that it is really really hot in Saigon - D.C. in August sweat the second you walk out the door hot - so when you've been aside for a while you are in desperate need of something cooling. There are little shops along the street that only serve coffee or tea based drinks - and the iced coffee comes with an awesome bonus - unlimited iced tea. Pretty much all beverages in Vietnam come with a lot of sugar. The coffee is uber strong and very sweet - which makes it very refreshing after walking around. However, the free iced tea you get is unsweetened so it makes the perfect counterpart to the iced coffee. Plus you can sit there for as long as you want and all the little street vendors with their carts of food roll by and the noshes just come to you. It's a delightful way to spend an hour or two relaxing and watching Saigon roll by.
That evening we met up with Tony, who was someone Doug had met on his previous trip to Saigon. Tony took us down the street to the Seventeenth Street Salon. We got some drafts and Tony ordered us the most amazing food plate ever - white mango, watermelon, crab apples, other apple/pair type fruit, were just a few of the delights on the plate. There was also a cover band that was the best we had in Asia so far.
And then during the second set the guy who'd been mostly doing some backup and playing cowbell (yes, cowbell!) in the back steps forward. Axl was in the house and was belting out the oh so appropriate Welcome to the Jungle. I loved every minute of it and happily sang along. After he finished I yelled for more Axl, but that was all we got of him for the set. During the break I told Doug how I'd love to hear November Rain. He laughed as we agreed that no one every played that.
Well, third set belonged to me. Axl made an outfit change and looked more bad ass then ever. The first few cords of the opening song broke out - could it be? And it was! November Rain! We couldn't believe it. Arms raised to the sky, I belted my heart out. They played some other favorites (although not GNR) and he would find audience members who would sing along with the chorus. It was hilarious and a total blast.
But the delights were not over - as Paradise City came on and Axl came running up to the balcony to find me! I rocked my heart out (and didn't break any glass!). But nothing lasts forever in the cold November rain and Doug and I were off to Cambodia the next day and some drier climates.
On our way back we stopped for our favorite treat - coffee da (iced coffee). The iced coffee in Saigon is AMAZING! I should first explaining that it is really really hot in Saigon - D.C. in August sweat the second you walk out the door hot - so when you've been aside for a while you are in desperate need of something cooling. There are little shops along the street that only serve coffee or tea based drinks - and the iced coffee comes with an awesome bonus - unlimited iced tea. Pretty much all beverages in Vietnam come with a lot of sugar. The coffee is uber strong and very sweet - which makes it very refreshing after walking around. However, the free iced tea you get is unsweetened so it makes the perfect counterpart to the iced coffee. Plus you can sit there for as long as you want and all the little street vendors with their carts of food roll by and the noshes just come to you. It's a delightful way to spend an hour or two relaxing and watching Saigon roll by.
That evening we met up with Tony, who was someone Doug had met on his previous trip to Saigon. Tony took us down the street to the Seventeenth Street Salon. We got some drafts and Tony ordered us the most amazing food plate ever - white mango, watermelon, crab apples, other apple/pair type fruit, were just a few of the delights on the plate. There was also a cover band that was the best we had in Asia so far.
And then during the second set the guy who'd been mostly doing some backup and playing cowbell (yes, cowbell!) in the back steps forward. Axl was in the house and was belting out the oh so appropriate Welcome to the Jungle. I loved every minute of it and happily sang along. After he finished I yelled for more Axl, but that was all we got of him for the set. During the break I told Doug how I'd love to hear November Rain. He laughed as we agreed that no one every played that.
Well, third set belonged to me. Axl made an outfit change and looked more bad ass then ever. The first few cords of the opening song broke out - could it be? And it was! November Rain! We couldn't believe it. Arms raised to the sky, I belted my heart out. They played some other favorites (although not GNR) and he would find audience members who would sing along with the chorus. It was hilarious and a total blast.
But the delights were not over - as Paradise City came on and Axl came running up to the balcony to find me! I rocked my heart out (and didn't break any glass!). But nothing lasts forever in the cold November rain and Doug and I were off to Cambodia the next day and some drier climates.
Shoes glorious shoes
Hoi An is adorable and I was immediately enchanted by it. The streets are lined with shops that tailor make clothing and shoes for you. You choose the color and style and come back at 11 am the next morning and your new coat/suit/pants/shoe etc are ready for you. I was dazzled by all there was to buy and really wanted one of everything, but my lack of employment held me to one pair of shoes and one coat - both fabulous!
Somewhat bedraggled from our bus trip from Hue, we settled into our hotel and decided to book a group trip to My Son for the next morning. Our alarm went off at 7:15 am so we could get up for the tour. I looked over at Doug - "Do you really want to do this?". He looked back at me and rolled over. That evening we had been out at the main bar in Hoi An and had met a variety of people and ended up staying up rather late. Neither of us was in any mood to go be a part of an hour long bus ride and group tour. Gladly forsaking our 6 dollars a person for a couple extra hours of sleep I called the front desk to inform them we would not be on the tour.
Around 11:30 we finally rolled out of bed to discover it was sunny out! We gave a battle cry of Hue! and headed to get some breakfast. We looked at the book and determined My Son would be reasonable motorbiking distance and for $5 we were on our way. Let me tell you that this is the WAY better way to see My Son. All of the tours go in the morning, so if you go on your own in the afternoon you basically have the place to yourself. Plus, neither Doug nor I are really one for ruins so after about 30 minutes of walking around and a somewhat scandalous picture of Doug grabbing an idol's tush (although he pointed out we do not know for a fact it was an idol) - we were back on the motorbike and back to Hoi An.
Our last day in Hoi An was spent attempting to lay out at the beach. For $2 you can rent a bicycle and head to the beach. The day was rather overcast, but we threw on our bathing suits and made the most of it until the rain came.
Hoi An was great and we both agreed we could have spent far more time there if it wasn't so overcast. Next we were on the Saigon!
Somewhat bedraggled from our bus trip from Hue, we settled into our hotel and decided to book a group trip to My Son for the next morning. Our alarm went off at 7:15 am so we could get up for the tour. I looked over at Doug - "Do you really want to do this?". He looked back at me and rolled over. That evening we had been out at the main bar in Hoi An and had met a variety of people and ended up staying up rather late. Neither of us was in any mood to go be a part of an hour long bus ride and group tour. Gladly forsaking our 6 dollars a person for a couple extra hours of sleep I called the front desk to inform them we would not be on the tour.
Around 11:30 we finally rolled out of bed to discover it was sunny out! We gave a battle cry of Hue! and headed to get some breakfast. We looked at the book and determined My Son would be reasonable motorbiking distance and for $5 we were on our way. Let me tell you that this is the WAY better way to see My Son. All of the tours go in the morning, so if you go on your own in the afternoon you basically have the place to yourself. Plus, neither Doug nor I are really one for ruins so after about 30 minutes of walking around and a somewhat scandalous picture of Doug grabbing an idol's tush (although he pointed out we do not know for a fact it was an idol) - we were back on the motorbike and back to Hoi An.
Our last day in Hoi An was spent attempting to lay out at the beach. For $2 you can rent a bicycle and head to the beach. The day was rather overcast, but we threw on our bathing suits and made the most of it until the rain came.
Hoi An was great and we both agreed we could have spent far more time there if it wasn't so overcast. Next we were on the Saigon!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Today was amazing!
I am behind and I owe you a detailed view into our time in Hue and Hoi An. But first I must extoll the virtues of one Douglas Jordan Bell (Vietnamese name Mr. Jordan) and the gloriousness of today.
We came to Saigon after giving up on the rest of Vietnam as being too rainy and discovered it was actually quite nice here. We had done some motorbike sight seeing in Hue and Hoi An (Doug driving, me not shifting my weight around unexpectantly) and I was eager to continue our self-guided tour. The Cu Chi tunnels were about 25 miles outside of Saigon and seemed the ideal day trip.
I shared my thoughts with Doug on our way here. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "Do you have any idea what it's like driving around Saigon?".
But we got here and the glorious weather and seemingly easy route out of the city won him over. He woke up this morning and agreed - the Cu Chi tunnels it was.
We walked outside and down the street and got a motorbike. Driving in Saigon is crazy - no one actually stops and all traffic is predicated on the assumption that you will keep moving in the direction you're going. It requires nerves of steel both on the driver and the riders part. You are not allowed to make any sudden moves or noises, Doug warned me as I boarded the bike.
And we did great. Aside from a brief moment where it appeared Doug may lose a leg, I successfully navigated us out of the city and Doug did an amazing job driving. Despite the fact that all the Vietnamese we talked encouraged us to get a driver instead of doing it ourselves, it was really quite easy to get to the Cu Chi tunnels and the directions were rather well marked.
We got there, bought our tickets, and walked through a tunnel into the visitor area. We were quickly hustled by a tour guide to discover that you get a (if you don't go with a tour group) basically personal tour of the tunnel system. It was us, a Finnish guy, and his driver on our tour group.
The Cu Chi tunnels are absolutly fascinating and a must see if you find yourself in Saigon. They were dug by the Viet Cong starting in 1948 when they were at war with the French and used during the American (know to us as Vietnam) war. The Viet Cong were truley ingenious and it was amazing to see the different kinds of booby traps they set up as well as the intricacies with which they dug their tunnels and set everything up. Being there, seeing what the jungle was like and what the Americans were up against, was very eye opening for both us. I can't even begin to explain it other than you really really have to go there.
After our tour, we boarded to motorbike and headed back home. Doug enjoys the surprise extra excursion and as we got back in the city he gave me a city tour of the Rex hotel and city hall. What luck! A tour guide that spoke fluent English!
Upon arrival at our hotel we were exhausted. It was unbearably hot out and we had spent all day in the heat. We took a moment to recuperate and then headed out for dinner.
And then Doug had the best surprise of all - "What do you think of eating at the swanky looking Italian restaurant across the street?" he innocently asked. Ummmm - a cheese plate and a nice bottle of red wine? When would I say no to that.
Well I won't bore you with the details, but needless to say, the cheese plate and red wine were FABULOUS! It was the perfect end to a fabulous day of motorbiking.
We came to Saigon after giving up on the rest of Vietnam as being too rainy and discovered it was actually quite nice here. We had done some motorbike sight seeing in Hue and Hoi An (Doug driving, me not shifting my weight around unexpectantly) and I was eager to continue our self-guided tour. The Cu Chi tunnels were about 25 miles outside of Saigon and seemed the ideal day trip.
I shared my thoughts with Doug on our way here. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "Do you have any idea what it's like driving around Saigon?".
But we got here and the glorious weather and seemingly easy route out of the city won him over. He woke up this morning and agreed - the Cu Chi tunnels it was.
We walked outside and down the street and got a motorbike. Driving in Saigon is crazy - no one actually stops and all traffic is predicated on the assumption that you will keep moving in the direction you're going. It requires nerves of steel both on the driver and the riders part. You are not allowed to make any sudden moves or noises, Doug warned me as I boarded the bike.
And we did great. Aside from a brief moment where it appeared Doug may lose a leg, I successfully navigated us out of the city and Doug did an amazing job driving. Despite the fact that all the Vietnamese we talked encouraged us to get a driver instead of doing it ourselves, it was really quite easy to get to the Cu Chi tunnels and the directions were rather well marked.
We got there, bought our tickets, and walked through a tunnel into the visitor area. We were quickly hustled by a tour guide to discover that you get a (if you don't go with a tour group) basically personal tour of the tunnel system. It was us, a Finnish guy, and his driver on our tour group.
The Cu Chi tunnels are absolutly fascinating and a must see if you find yourself in Saigon. They were dug by the Viet Cong starting in 1948 when they were at war with the French and used during the American (know to us as Vietnam) war. The Viet Cong were truley ingenious and it was amazing to see the different kinds of booby traps they set up as well as the intricacies with which they dug their tunnels and set everything up. Being there, seeing what the jungle was like and what the Americans were up against, was very eye opening for both us. I can't even begin to explain it other than you really really have to go there.
After our tour, we boarded to motorbike and headed back home. Doug enjoys the surprise extra excursion and as we got back in the city he gave me a city tour of the Rex hotel and city hall. What luck! A tour guide that spoke fluent English!
Upon arrival at our hotel we were exhausted. It was unbearably hot out and we had spent all day in the heat. We took a moment to recuperate and then headed out for dinner.
And then Doug had the best surprise of all - "What do you think of eating at the swanky looking Italian restaurant across the street?" he innocently asked. Ummmm - a cheese plate and a nice bottle of red wine? When would I say no to that.
Well I won't bore you with the details, but needless to say, the cheese plate and red wine were FABULOUS! It was the perfect end to a fabulous day of motorbiking.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Hue!
Hue (pronounced technically who-aye but pronounced by us hugh-AYE) has been our battle cry for days. We arrived in Hue filled with hope and excitement - a new part of Vietnam, a series of post-it note tags in the guidebook, and some beautiful looking beaches.
But Doug and I had learned nothing from arriving in Hanoi, so we were again surprised to arrive in Hue to find in raining. Once we arrived at the hotel, we checked the weather to discover it is raining everywhere in Vietnam. We take a few moments to review the post-its in the guidebook and quickly reduce our itinerary of what we're thinking of doing in Vietnam.
Hue has a lot of history to it, so I put on my raincoat and Doug grabs his umbrella and we walk over to the Citadel. After going a bit stir crazy in Hanoi it feels good to get out and it was actually not raining too hard.
On our way to the Citadel we stop by an exhibit of some army tanks captured from the enemy army during the American War. While Doug found the tanks intriguing, I found it more interesting that this was the first time I had seen in print something that referred to the US as the enemy.
We walked on to the Citadel which, I'm going to be honest, is rather unimpressive. It seems they have great plans to put up a lot of impressive things there but for now they are all plastic replicas so it ends up looking very very cheesy. We had a good time playing around with the plastic structures and then made friends with the snail down by the river. Doug had a great time making out with it and putting it on his face and letting it crawl around while I bravely held it on my hand for about 30 seconds.
We woke up the next morning and it was almost sunny, so we decided to hop on a motorbike and visit the tombs. Of course, about five minutes into our ride it started pouring - but we continued on. There are no really good maps of Hue, so with a few false moves we finally found Khai Dinh's tomb - which turned out to be well worth it. Both Doug and I are a little historically sighted out, but the tomb was amazing. It took 20 years to build and was started before the emporer died. It's a huge structure with many different statues, and the building inside is intricately decorated with mosiacs of dragons. It was breath taking and well worth the trip out.
After Khai Dinh we had to hurry back for our bus to Hoi An.
But Doug and I had learned nothing from arriving in Hanoi, so we were again surprised to arrive in Hue to find in raining. Once we arrived at the hotel, we checked the weather to discover it is raining everywhere in Vietnam. We take a few moments to review the post-its in the guidebook and quickly reduce our itinerary of what we're thinking of doing in Vietnam.
Hue has a lot of history to it, so I put on my raincoat and Doug grabs his umbrella and we walk over to the Citadel. After going a bit stir crazy in Hanoi it feels good to get out and it was actually not raining too hard.
On our way to the Citadel we stop by an exhibit of some army tanks captured from the enemy army during the American War. While Doug found the tanks intriguing, I found it more interesting that this was the first time I had seen in print something that referred to the US as the enemy.
We walked on to the Citadel which, I'm going to be honest, is rather unimpressive. It seems they have great plans to put up a lot of impressive things there but for now they are all plastic replicas so it ends up looking very very cheesy. We had a good time playing around with the plastic structures and then made friends with the snail down by the river. Doug had a great time making out with it and putting it on his face and letting it crawl around while I bravely held it on my hand for about 30 seconds.
We woke up the next morning and it was almost sunny, so we decided to hop on a motorbike and visit the tombs. Of course, about five minutes into our ride it started pouring - but we continued on. There are no really good maps of Hue, so with a few false moves we finally found Khai Dinh's tomb - which turned out to be well worth it. Both Doug and I are a little historically sighted out, but the tomb was amazing. It took 20 years to build and was started before the emporer died. It's a huge structure with many different statues, and the building inside is intricately decorated with mosiacs of dragons. It was breath taking and well worth the trip out.
After Khai Dinh we had to hurry back for our bus to Hoi An.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Back in Hanoi
Originally when we left Cat Ba we had discussed heading straight from the bus station in Hanoi to the train station and taking the 12 hour train to Phong Nha Cave. But when the bus arrived in Hanoi we needed drinks. Many of them. Made of very strong liquor. There would be absolutly no more public transportation that day.
The thing about the Asian bus is that you buy your ticket and you board the bus - which is fabulous. But if the bus is not 100% completely full, the bus will drive around town and pick up people until it is full. And each of the people it picks up are never going to the final destination, so then they all get dropped off along the way. So when we boarded the bus from Hai Phong and it was close to empty we spent 45 minutes driving around, never getting out of first gear, picking people up. And then along the way we dropped them all off, and sometimes picked up more people.
The other thing about Asian driving is that honking is very important and very loud. Nobody looks in their mirrors as it's assumed that if someone is behind you they will honk to let you know. And if they want to pass, they will honk to let you know they want to pass. And then you can honk back to let them know it's safe to pass.
So after six hours of honking, lots of time in first gear, and tons of traffic, we were in no shape to do anything but have a drink. We were both lucky to have made it off the bus with our eyeballs intact.
After I took a moment outside the bus station, we got in a taxi and took it back to our Hanoi hotel. Just as we were picking up our bags out of the taxi, I looked at Doug.
"I don't have our passports," I told him. He looked back at me. We both took a moment.
In order to check into any hotel in Vietnam you have to have your passport. In fact, you give it to the hotel and they keep it until you check out. And when I checked out of Cat Ba, I had forgotten to ask for them back. This was bad. Very very bad.
Since we were right in front of the hotel, we decided to go in and see what we could do.
And they were fabulous! No problem, they told us. We could stay. They even had our room from before available. We were back in 203!
Miraculously, Doug pulled out the business card from the hotel we stayed at in Cat Ba Town. They would call the hotel in the morning and talk to them. It was possible for them to send our passports back on the bus - which meant one of us wouldn't have to go back for them.
Very relieved and very much in need of a drink - we headed to the bar.
I will not go into the details of the next four days, but I will simply say it took a few days for our passports to make it on the bus. And those days were very very trying. We did our best to take it in stride and keep our sprits up.
Of all cities to be stuck in, Hanoi is one of the best. It had stopped raining and was a little cool, which made it very pleasant to be outside. We went for numerous walks around the lake, back to our friend the beer corner, and we discovered a great Jazz club at the end of the block. But really we just wanted to go somewhere new.
We decided to forget Phong Nha Cave as we read that it could be closed in October and November due to rain and there has been a lot of rain in Vietnam. This allowed us to head straight to Hue, in Central Vietnam - which is a one hour plane ride instead of a 12 hour bus ride.
The thing about the Asian bus is that you buy your ticket and you board the bus - which is fabulous. But if the bus is not 100% completely full, the bus will drive around town and pick up people until it is full. And each of the people it picks up are never going to the final destination, so then they all get dropped off along the way. So when we boarded the bus from Hai Phong and it was close to empty we spent 45 minutes driving around, never getting out of first gear, picking people up. And then along the way we dropped them all off, and sometimes picked up more people.
The other thing about Asian driving is that honking is very important and very loud. Nobody looks in their mirrors as it's assumed that if someone is behind you they will honk to let you know. And if they want to pass, they will honk to let you know they want to pass. And then you can honk back to let them know it's safe to pass.
So after six hours of honking, lots of time in first gear, and tons of traffic, we were in no shape to do anything but have a drink. We were both lucky to have made it off the bus with our eyeballs intact.
After I took a moment outside the bus station, we got in a taxi and took it back to our Hanoi hotel. Just as we were picking up our bags out of the taxi, I looked at Doug.
"I don't have our passports," I told him. He looked back at me. We both took a moment.
In order to check into any hotel in Vietnam you have to have your passport. In fact, you give it to the hotel and they keep it until you check out. And when I checked out of Cat Ba, I had forgotten to ask for them back. This was bad. Very very bad.
Since we were right in front of the hotel, we decided to go in and see what we could do.
And they were fabulous! No problem, they told us. We could stay. They even had our room from before available. We were back in 203!
Miraculously, Doug pulled out the business card from the hotel we stayed at in Cat Ba Town. They would call the hotel in the morning and talk to them. It was possible for them to send our passports back on the bus - which meant one of us wouldn't have to go back for them.
Very relieved and very much in need of a drink - we headed to the bar.
I will not go into the details of the next four days, but I will simply say it took a few days for our passports to make it on the bus. And those days were very very trying. We did our best to take it in stride and keep our sprits up.
Of all cities to be stuck in, Hanoi is one of the best. It had stopped raining and was a little cool, which made it very pleasant to be outside. We went for numerous walks around the lake, back to our friend the beer corner, and we discovered a great Jazz club at the end of the block. But really we just wanted to go somewhere new.
We decided to forget Phong Nha Cave as we read that it could be closed in October and November due to rain and there has been a lot of rain in Vietnam. This allowed us to head straight to Hue, in Central Vietnam - which is a one hour plane ride instead of a 12 hour bus ride.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Rocking the Cat Ba
After an organized tour to the Perfumed Pagoda involving set free time and a man who just could not keep his shirt on, Doug and I opted to head to Cat Ba Island on our own. Everything we read recommended against it, except for one web site, which told us it was not that big a deal.
And for the record, it was really not a big deal. We had read to go with the Hoang Long bus company and we planned to show up at the bus station and buy our ticket. However, when we got to the bus station that morning, one of us fell pray to marketing (Doug) and we got on the Hai Phong bus and figured we could make it to Cat Ba from there. And you can - it's just about $10 extra to do it. On the way back we booked straight with the company and it was 160,000 dong or about $10.
Upon arrival in Cat Ba, I was taken in. We found a hotel with a patio over looking the harbor. I felt my Zen coming back - it was so great to be right on the water.
The next day we hopped aboard a boat to cruise Halong Bay and had a lovely day out on the water. We went kayaking, I went swimming, and there were only 5 other people on the boat including a young french boy and his parents. His parents had quite a time trying to keep him from falling over board and he loved to try talking to Doug, even though Doug speaks no French.
While I loved Cat Ba, Doug find it a bit tacky and touristy (which is fair), and the next day we decided to skip over the national park and head back to Hanoi.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Oh Hanoi
I arrived in Hanoi teary eyed from leaving Kathmandu. It was time to embark on a new country of adventures.
And Hanoi started off with a bang! Our first morning here, I walked out the front door and legs a flair, I opted to take the stairs with my butt instead of my feet. The weather was dreary and everything was wet.
It's Monday night in America and Doug is jonesing to watch the Redskins game. While there is plenty of futbol on TV, we are both really missing a good American football game. Given that it's Tuesday morning, we consider this our best bet and head over to the Hilton's sports bar with high hopes. We get there to find the sports bar will not be open until 4.
Hopes dashed, I cautiously slip slided my way around town where we headed over to check out Hoan Kiem Lake and the Jade Mountain Temple. After the requesite glamour shots were taken, we decide to head back to the hotel and figure out our plan for Hanoi and Northern Vietnam.
While we entered this city with hearts betrothed to Nepal, Hanoi has won us over. We're staying in the Old Quarter with each street known for the particular item it sells. I find it kind of amazing that this is a profitable way to do business (after all you're surrounded by your competition), but I also see that if you need something made out of sheet metal, well then you're going to go to sheet metal streets. My favorite is fruit cup street - where you can get a delicious fruit cup of watermelon, mango, dragon fruit, and lychee. The city is small and very walkable, although hardly any of the streets actually go straight and they change their name frequently, which makes them somewhat challenging to navigate.
As per the general South East Asia MO, the streets are filled with motorbikes. There are very few crosswalk lights, so you have to learn to slowly make your way into traffic and trust that the motorbikes will navigate around you. It was very intimidating at first, and Doug would always take to my left, but after a day or so I was soldiering out onto the streets alone.
The other best find here is the block with beer places on each corner. Drafts are 40 cents and you can make a dinner out of the different small plates. It allowed us to try goat, rabbit, squid, and tofu on our second night. We also got duck sausage because I ordered what the guy next to us was having (thinking it was french bread) - luckily it turned out to be delicious! Last night I got a bit carried away and ordered a hot pot and a grilled chicken dish, when really a hot pot is dinner enough alone. It's fun trying to match the english to the vietnamese menu and hoping you get the right stuff - as well as pointing to the ground at the discarded peanut shells to indicate you'd like peanuts.
Yesterday we took a group tour to the Perfume Pagoda. Group tours are not my favorite way to travel, but given that it is almost impossible at this time of year to get to the Perfume Pagoda any other way, we sucked it up and payed our $21.
Today we each enjoyed free time in the morning and I opted to spend mine spurring the Vietnamese economy. The souvenir shopping is very easy, as there is one block where it's all concentrated and I could go from store to store checking out the wears. After lugging my newly aquired goods back to the hotel, I went for an $11 massage - which was fabulous!
This afternoon we donned our tourist apperal and hit up the temple of literature and then I went on to the One Pillar pagoda and ho Chi Minh Mausoleum while Doug went shoe shopping.
Tomorrow we're off to Hulong Bay . . .
And Hanoi started off with a bang! Our first morning here, I walked out the front door and legs a flair, I opted to take the stairs with my butt instead of my feet. The weather was dreary and everything was wet.
It's Monday night in America and Doug is jonesing to watch the Redskins game. While there is plenty of futbol on TV, we are both really missing a good American football game. Given that it's Tuesday morning, we consider this our best bet and head over to the Hilton's sports bar with high hopes. We get there to find the sports bar will not be open until 4.
Hopes dashed, I cautiously slip slided my way around town where we headed over to check out Hoan Kiem Lake and the Jade Mountain Temple. After the requesite glamour shots were taken, we decide to head back to the hotel and figure out our plan for Hanoi and Northern Vietnam.
While we entered this city with hearts betrothed to Nepal, Hanoi has won us over. We're staying in the Old Quarter with each street known for the particular item it sells. I find it kind of amazing that this is a profitable way to do business (after all you're surrounded by your competition), but I also see that if you need something made out of sheet metal, well then you're going to go to sheet metal streets. My favorite is fruit cup street - where you can get a delicious fruit cup of watermelon, mango, dragon fruit, and lychee. The city is small and very walkable, although hardly any of the streets actually go straight and they change their name frequently, which makes them somewhat challenging to navigate.
As per the general South East Asia MO, the streets are filled with motorbikes. There are very few crosswalk lights, so you have to learn to slowly make your way into traffic and trust that the motorbikes will navigate around you. It was very intimidating at first, and Doug would always take to my left, but after a day or so I was soldiering out onto the streets alone.
The other best find here is the block with beer places on each corner. Drafts are 40 cents and you can make a dinner out of the different small plates. It allowed us to try goat, rabbit, squid, and tofu on our second night. We also got duck sausage because I ordered what the guy next to us was having (thinking it was french bread) - luckily it turned out to be delicious! Last night I got a bit carried away and ordered a hot pot and a grilled chicken dish, when really a hot pot is dinner enough alone. It's fun trying to match the english to the vietnamese menu and hoping you get the right stuff - as well as pointing to the ground at the discarded peanut shells to indicate you'd like peanuts.
Yesterday we took a group tour to the Perfume Pagoda. Group tours are not my favorite way to travel, but given that it is almost impossible at this time of year to get to the Perfume Pagoda any other way, we sucked it up and payed our $21.
Today we each enjoyed free time in the morning and I opted to spend mine spurring the Vietnamese economy. The souvenir shopping is very easy, as there is one block where it's all concentrated and I could go from store to store checking out the wears. After lugging my newly aquired goods back to the hotel, I went for an $11 massage - which was fabulous!
This afternoon we donned our tourist apperal and hit up the temple of literature and then I went on to the One Pillar pagoda and ho Chi Minh Mausoleum while Doug went shoe shopping.
Tomorrow we're off to Hulong Bay . . .
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The word of the day is "yay!"
What a fabulous morning!
Doug and I woke up this morning in Hanoi and turned on BBC news. Only two states had been called . . . We knew it was going to be an intense morning.
We had some breakfast and headed back to the room to watch the results. It was looking good for Obama, but there were still many states still to come in.
For those of you who have not watched the BBC news, I would highly recommend it. The moderator was hilarious and many of those they interview had very strongly expressed opinions. Our favorite was Gore Vidal who told BBC "is it OK to talk about the facts of life? Because I know the BBC viewers like to know the facts of life." And then he proceeded to explain how the Republican party in the US was nothing like the Republican party in England.
And then, finally, it became true! Obama was our president elect! We did dances, there was a hug or two, and one of us may have screamed a little! Woot Woot!
We watched through McCain's concession speech in our room and then headed to the bar in hopes of finding more Americans. As it was, we were the only people in the bar for most of the time and we had a drink to celebrate Obama's victory while we watched his acceptance speech.
It was very interesting, as both Doug and I noted, we were instantly proud to be Americans again! Woooooooooot! YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!
Doug and I woke up this morning in Hanoi and turned on BBC news. Only two states had been called . . . We knew it was going to be an intense morning.
We had some breakfast and headed back to the room to watch the results. It was looking good for Obama, but there were still many states still to come in.
For those of you who have not watched the BBC news, I would highly recommend it. The moderator was hilarious and many of those they interview had very strongly expressed opinions. Our favorite was Gore Vidal who told BBC "is it OK to talk about the facts of life? Because I know the BBC viewers like to know the facts of life." And then he proceeded to explain how the Republican party in the US was nothing like the Republican party in England.
And then, finally, it became true! Obama was our president elect! We did dances, there was a hug or two, and one of us may have screamed a little! Woot Woot!
We watched through McCain's concession speech in our room and then headed to the bar in hopes of finding more Americans. As it was, we were the only people in the bar for most of the time and we had a drink to celebrate Obama's victory while we watched his acceptance speech.
It was very interesting, as both Doug and I noted, we were instantly proud to be Americans again! Woooooooooot! YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!
Last Days in Kathmandu
After a long bus ride from Chitwan, I arrived bleary eyed back in Kathmandu and ready for a night at Bishnu's. Bishnu is already off trekking again, so I'll be spending the evening with his family.
I find the closest place advertising telephone service and ask them to call Bishnu's wife, Surita, and let her know I'm ready to be picked up! 10 minutes later Surita, Bipasa (Bishnu's 5 year old daughter), Babu (Bishnu's 1.5 year old son), and a cousin who is about 12 pick me up and we are walking back to their apartment. Luckily, language is not an issue in a game of tag, and I spend most of the rest of the afternoon on their balcolny with the kids chasing them around.
Once the sun sets we head inside and I get out my camera to take pictures of the children. Bipasa is delighted and takes matters into her own hands. She hasn't quite got the idea of aim and ends up taking many out of focus close ups of things in the apartment. However, the real excitment was discovering Baba was in my camera. After reviewing pictures of themselves, we went back a little further and I showed them pictures of Bishnu during our trip.
Surita prepared another fabulous meal of dahl bhat and then Bipasa wowed me with reading and spelling in english.
The next morning Surita's uncle picked me up and walked me to where my hotel for the night would be. Luckily our room was ready and I dropped off my stuff and headed out go shopping while I waited for Doug's return.
Later in the afternoon I walked into our hotel to find Doug sauntering down the stairs. He was alive! He was in one piece! And he was leaving me to go back mountain biking the next day . . .
No worries, there was still more shopping to be done and some sights to be seen. I hit up Dunbar Square and the Mokey Temple while Doug spent a last day getting his ya ya's out.
We had a hilarious evening which I'm going to steal from Doug:
I signed up for a 9 day trip around the Kathmandu valley, which left me one full day in Kathmandu before flying out. After finishing that circuit I immediately decided to fill my last day with one more day of riding, which turned out to be one of my favorites though I crashed several times and my guide broke his rim. It was a tough trail...
One of the many incredible things about Nepal is how we got to connect personally with our guides. In fact my mtb guide was actually a mechanic who got pulled to take me out, all the other guides being booked. It turned out great for both of us and we ended up becoming quite good friends.
A little bit about my mechanic/guide, Subas. Subas is formerly a pro rider before he smashed his ankle in what must have been a horrific crash. The injury set him out of competition but in no way prevented him from kicking my ass. Subas's experience in the guiding department is fairly limited. This is evidenced by the intoned coarseness of certain statements that he intended to say with a light-hearted friendliness. I was quite caught of guard the first few times he firmly told me to "Go to your room" or asked "What are you doing?" It took a bit for us to warm up to each other but we got there.
We finished the formal tour Nov 1 and Subas takes me to his home in Kathmandu so I can meet his mother and brothers. I take this as quite an honor. We then hop across the street to local hole in the wall (and I say this almost literally) to share a few last rounds of "hard drinks" (Napali home brew). At this point it becomes clear that I've had quite an effect on Subas and he's going to miss me - he tells me this repeatedly - so we arrange to go riding one more day, my last in Kathmandu. This of course is much to Erin's chagrin as we had quite a day of shopping and errands planned. Missing out on such activities is heartbreaking to me as well. But alas, Subas and I go riding, somehow make it through some of the more difficult trail I've ever riden and back to KTM. Back to the "bar" across from his place, more hard drinks and reminiscing, and it's almost 5 - i was sposed to meet Erin at the hotel around 2. Whoops.
I find Erin and magnificently she's not pissed though she does have quite an agenda remaining for me. First task is to deliver photos to our trekking guide. By now Bishnu's off on another trek and we're faced with navigating our own way through the maze of a KTM neighborhood and finding the house we visited two weeks ago for dinner. Dinner at Bishnu's is a whole other story... Through many a back alley and quizzicle look we somehow achieve this goal and drop the gifts.
This gives us confidence. Specifically, it gives me enough confidence that I could find my way back trough another series of hidden streets to Subas's house to honor an invitation I had breezily dismissed earlier. So we re-up at the photo shop (I want to get printouts from biking and pics of the family who runs the bar across from Subas's that I had snapped earlier) and set out again. It's after dark by now and a strange time for white people to leave the safe haven of our tourist ghetto. We are undeterred. As are the opportunistic rikshaw drivers eager to take us back to Thamel. A left at this street, a right, another left ... OOH! there's the temple, we're on the right track ... right, left again, were we sposed to turn there? ... I'm not sure ... oh, this isn't right, lets turn around ... okay, turn here ... this isn't quite right, but I know where we are ... After 30 minutes and to the amuzement of many Nepali locals I hear the Black Saboth echoing from Subas' workshop. He's shocked to see me, overwhelmed by the gift of photos and, having nothing else, gives me his hat. This is the hat he's worn everyday since we met. Anyone who wears hats can appreciate the power of this gesture. Quite humbled, I suggest we go across for more hard drinks.
Don't forget that Erin is tagging along now. Through all the other time I've spent with Subas, it was just the two of us. Not that Erin's not welcome, it's just that she's not a man, which in Nepal kinda means that she's not welcome. Especially in the hole in the wall bar, far outside the tourist area, that caters to locals housing dirt cheap glasses of moonshine. Ever the gentleman, Subas makes her feel at home - as much as he can. The other clientelle - though well-mannered - do not bother to hide their astonishment. This is quite unorthodox after all, having a women -> wearing a skirt no less! - hanging out in their space and *drinking*! Nepali women would never dream of such a thing. Unlike men, drinking is not healthy for them. It required my personal (and addamment) endorsement for her to be approved seconds.
The evening continues, we drink, we laugh, Subas invites us to his home for dinner. This is an offer you do not decline. Actually, my mistake. Subas did not offer us dinner. He asked: "will you come to my home for dahl baht?" An aside about dahl baht - the staple of a Nepali diet. Literally it means "lentils and rice" but a meal of dahl baht usually includes a veggy curry and some sort of meat. Lentils are served as soup which Nepalis pour over the rice and chow with their hand. (Only the right one. The left is reserved for cleaning themselves - traditional style). As it so happened, Erin and I had resolved to try eating with our hand once before leaving. When Subas asked if we needed spoons (somewhat dissaprovingly) the perfect opportunity was presented. We dug in.
Seating was traditional: the three of us (Erin, Subas and I) on mats lining the far side of the kitchen. His sister's wife served us and mom indulged her curiosity. It's one thing to eat finger foods with your hand and quite another to negotiate soupy rice. And while I was certainly no pro, Erin was a disaster. Several attempted bites resulted in much rice dribble and now the mother is in histerics. She choked out something in Nepali and had to leave the room. Loosely translated she said: "What the hell is she doing?!?" Erin did get better from there.
We fought our way through the rest of dinner and returned to the hole accross the street. Subas and friend presented thin ivory scarves to wish us safe travels in a small cermony. Erin and I beeming gleefully - it's been quite an evening for us. A couple drinks later and there are four uniformed police officers standing in this tiny space looking at us and talking to Subas. As they leave, Subas announces: "Finish your drinks" in that curt way of his. It's time to go. The message from the police is clear: "What are white people doing outside of Thamel after dark? This is not right. They cannot be here. And a woman?!? Drinking! > Maybe in Thamel but ... Oh no, this behavior is entirely unnacceptable. There are children around! Get them back to Thamel at once." And off to Thamel we went, decorated in scarves and escorted by the police. The escorts peeled off and the touts reappeared. We were home. If only for one more night.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Oh deer!
After rafting, our guide hailed down a Nepal Oil truck and loaded me on for Chitwan. On the way, I had a nice chat with a tenth grader who was going to boarding school in Kathmandu and was heading home for festival.
The Nepal Oil truck dropped me off at the entrance to Chitwan where I was greeted by someone from the lodge and brought over to the lodge. It was right on the river with the park across the street and it was beautiful.
Most people only stay a night or two in Chitwan, so the activities are designed to be jammed into a day and a half. I started that day with the Elephant Breeding Center where I was astonished to learn that a mommy elephant is prego for 22 to 24 months. Yikes!
The next day I did an elephant safari, where we got to see - and let me tell you this was very exciting - A LOT of deer. We also saw two one horned rhinos which I guess is a big deal because they only exist in Nepal and India.
That afternoon we did a canoe ride where we saw some crocodiles and a jungle walk where we saw some monkeys.
And with four days left in Chitwan, I had pretty much done all of the activities available! So I became the unofficial greeter. It worked out pretty well as I could easily spot those traveling alone or those who's native language was English. At one of the meals I would saunter up to them and ask if I could sit down. I would then tell them about the activities offered, the animals they could expect to see, how things worked at the hotel, etc. I really enjoyed it and it worked out great, because just about when we ran out of things to talk about, they would leave Chitwan and a new person for me to talk to would show up.
While I found the wildlife very underwhelming at Chitwan (I think after a safari in Tansania, it's pretty hard to get me stoked on some wild deer), I did find it a great place to relax and heal. Day 2 I found my new best friend, the hammock, and him and I spent a lot of QT together.
I did opt to do a side trip to twenty thousand lakes, which turned out to be a blast. As the only person from our lodge going, I got a personal tour from one of the guides, Roger. I hoped on the motorbike with Roger, and we made a few stops before hitting up the lake. The first stop was at his first sister's house. She is a subsitance farmer in Chitwan, so it was great to be able to see her farm. She gave me some home grown bananas and some home made Water Buffalo curd - which tasted somewhere between cottage cheese and yogurt.
Next stop was his other sister's house where I watched them harvest rice. They basically beat the rice stalks on a table to get the rice to fall out - it looked really strenouous.
After our house calls, it was finally on to twenty thousand lakes where we saw . . . MORE DEER!
On the way home we had the quite the adventure as we got a flat tire on the motor bike in the middle of no where and had to walk several kilometers to the nearest village. Some of the women of the village then hustled up the bike mechanic, who had already left for the day, who came and fixed our bike.
After the flat tire was fixed, we drove into town and sat and had a beer before returning to the lodge. While Roger went off to get more cell phone minutes, four young kids came and sat down across from me and just stared at me. After a few minutes I said hello to them and they started to giggle - the white woman talks! I started to take their picture, which they loved and the posed in funny ways so I would take more - adorable!
After 5 days in Chitwan, it was finally time to head back to Kathmandu.
The Nepal Oil truck dropped me off at the entrance to Chitwan where I was greeted by someone from the lodge and brought over to the lodge. It was right on the river with the park across the street and it was beautiful.
Most people only stay a night or two in Chitwan, so the activities are designed to be jammed into a day and a half. I started that day with the Elephant Breeding Center where I was astonished to learn that a mommy elephant is prego for 22 to 24 months. Yikes!
The next day I did an elephant safari, where we got to see - and let me tell you this was very exciting - A LOT of deer. We also saw two one horned rhinos which I guess is a big deal because they only exist in Nepal and India.
That afternoon we did a canoe ride where we saw some crocodiles and a jungle walk where we saw some monkeys.
And with four days left in Chitwan, I had pretty much done all of the activities available! So I became the unofficial greeter. It worked out pretty well as I could easily spot those traveling alone or those who's native language was English. At one of the meals I would saunter up to them and ask if I could sit down. I would then tell them about the activities offered, the animals they could expect to see, how things worked at the hotel, etc. I really enjoyed it and it worked out great, because just about when we ran out of things to talk about, they would leave Chitwan and a new person for me to talk to would show up.
While I found the wildlife very underwhelming at Chitwan (I think after a safari in Tansania, it's pretty hard to get me stoked on some wild deer), I did find it a great place to relax and heal. Day 2 I found my new best friend, the hammock, and him and I spent a lot of QT together.
I did opt to do a side trip to twenty thousand lakes, which turned out to be a blast. As the only person from our lodge going, I got a personal tour from one of the guides, Roger. I hoped on the motorbike with Roger, and we made a few stops before hitting up the lake. The first stop was at his first sister's house. She is a subsitance farmer in Chitwan, so it was great to be able to see her farm. She gave me some home grown bananas and some home made Water Buffalo curd - which tasted somewhere between cottage cheese and yogurt.
Next stop was his other sister's house where I watched them harvest rice. They basically beat the rice stalks on a table to get the rice to fall out - it looked really strenouous.
After our house calls, it was finally on to twenty thousand lakes where we saw . . . MORE DEER!
On the way home we had the quite the adventure as we got a flat tire on the motor bike in the middle of no where and had to walk several kilometers to the nearest village. Some of the women of the village then hustled up the bike mechanic, who had already left for the day, who came and fixed our bike.
After the flat tire was fixed, we drove into town and sat and had a beer before returning to the lodge. While Roger went off to get more cell phone minutes, four young kids came and sat down across from me and just stared at me. After a few minutes I said hello to them and they started to giggle - the white woman talks! I started to take their picture, which they loved and the posed in funny ways so I would take more - adorable!
After 5 days in Chitwan, it was finally time to head back to Kathmandu.
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