Vientiane, Laos

We caught a flight out of Siem Reap to Vientiane (capital of Laos). There was 4 of us on the plane...never seen that before. Made it safely to Vientiane..people are always concerned about the safety of Lao Airlines, but seemed ok for us. We spent 3 nights here, and really didn’t do too much! We would have liked to spend more time in Laos, and had planned on it, but we didn't think we'd spend so long in Vietnam, so had to cut Laos down to only the few days. Maybe another time we'll see the rest of the country....
Vientiane is very French-influenced. Lots of cafes and French restaraunts, and the people are very laid back. Was quite the change from Vietnam and Cambodia where someone was constantly trying to sell you something. We pretty much went from cafe to coffee shop to restaraunt to pub...all day. Oh and got a Traditional Lao massage in between. We did end up going bowling too...(there’s pretty much nothing else to do...), where I waxed Kyle both games! Guess I have a natural talent for bowling!

As of now, we are back in Thailand in Chiang Mai...doing lots! Next post will be more interesting....

We posted more pictures : http://picasaweb.google.com/kyle.houston

Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Siem Reap & Temples of Angkor)

Phnom Penh

We originally didn’t plan on going to Phnom Penh – we had wanted to go directly to Siem Reap to check out Angkor Wat, directly from Saigon. But flights were very expensive, so we decided to bus it from Saigon. It was supposed to be a 6hr ride to Phnom Penh....for us, it was 12! It turned out we were travelling on the last day of the Cambodian New Year, so we hit a point where we moved about 4 km in about 4 hours (and we complain about Calgary rush hour??!). The reason for the backup was a ferry that crosses the Mekong River. It is about a 2 minute ferry ride, but only about 6 cars can fit at once and there’s only 5 ferries going back and forth. So, the trip was painful...
When we finally made it to Phnom Penh, we only had half a day to see some sites. We went to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. This was a very disturbing place. We had known very little about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia before coming here, but now understand how difficult of a past Cambodians have had. Essentially, a group called the Khmer Rouge (led by Pol Pot)took over the country and planned a massive genocide of anyone who refused to follow their regime to create an agrarian society (ie. If you were a doctor, teacher, or any intellectual). Well, 2 million people fit this mould, and were all killed between 1975-1978, which ended up being ¼ of the Cambodian population. A lot of people were forced to kill others, just to stay alive themselves. We also learned that people that killed during the Regime of the Khmer Rouge are still living amongst all other Cambodians today (could even be our tuk tuk driver).
After the Killing Fields we went to Tuong Sel Museum. This was also a disturbing place where the Khmer Rouge kept and tortured people before being sent off to the Killing Fields to be executed, if they didn’t die from torture here.
Overall, we were glad we made the trip to Phnom Penh – made us understand a lot about Cambodia’s history, and again, makes us appreciate our lives.

Siem Reap & Temples of Angkor

Took a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap (actually was 6 hours this time!) We were amazed at the amount of littering and garbage we saw along the way. You’ll see in our pictures...We also happened to find entertainment along the way. Found some local kids at a bus stop restaraunt with a pet goat....the pictures will explain the rest...Kyle’s work, not mine.
We got in to Siem Reap in the evening, so didn’t do too much, just checked into hotel and crashed. We got up early the next morning (5AM) to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Was quite the view and worth the early morning wake up. After went to our favourite one the temples of Bayon, which is about 57 faces built all over the temple looking every which way...was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the morning touring around about 10 different temples, all of which are from the 10th – 12th century. Really impressive and so unbelievable to see in person...can’t even capture how cool they were on camera. The only thing was it was REALLY hot out. I think it was 37 above, with no cloud, no breeze. Just HOT. So we were burnt out by about noon and went back to hotel to cool off and nap, then went back out for sunset. The next day, we pretty much did the same thing, but mentioned to the tuk tuk driver something about a cooler full of cold beer for the days journey, and he came through for us. That night we ended up meeting up with a couple we met in Halong Bay in Vietnam. Was good to catch up with them and share stories about where we’d been over some beers.

Next, we were off to Laos....

Mui Ne & Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Mui Ne

When we got to Mui Ne, we were looking forward to seeing a nice beach again. Wasn’t the case here, beach was not that nice, so we ended up finding a hotel with a pool, where we spent most of our 4 days here.
We ended up meeting a few other couples, some Germans and Brits, so decided to go with them to rent a scooter for the day and check out the sand dunes that are famous in Mui Ne. We ended up going to the white dunes (there’s red ones also), which turned out to be really cool. The dunes were massive, and in our Vietnam travels have seen a lot of dry hot deserts throughout the country, never would have known it. You could rent a plastic sheet from a kid and slide down about 110-120 feet slide, and really steep. We found the best way to slide down was on our stomachs, problem was we’d end up with a mouthful of sand by the time we got to the bottom. Was worth it though!
We also thought it would be a good idea to try and get a round of golf in. We always talked about doing it in Asia, and looked up the course in Mui Ne. It seemed really nice, not too difficult or anything, and not a bad price. So we showed up at about 2pm thinking it would be cool enough out. There was no one else on the course so we got on right away. They also provided us with our own personal caddies (2 vietnamese girls). Didn’t mind, they were nice and helpful, but kept us honest with our scores...which was a bad thing!(I think Kyle’s caddie got extremely tired of raking all the sand traps the whole round!!!) I think Kyle and I both golfed the worst we have...EVER. We only did 9 holes and that was MORE than enough. It turned out to be a very tough course, and realllly HOT. I don’t think either of us have sweated that much since we’ve been in SE Asia. Oh well, we can say we golfed seaside in Vietnam at least. Our scores will never be shared!

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

We had talked to other travellers who had been to Saigon, and almost all of them recommended a short visit. So we ended up only staying 2 nights there, and spent 1 day hitting the sites. We went to the Cu Chi Tunnels just outside of the city. This is how the Viet Cong hid from the US bombing during the Vietnam war. Was crazy to see how they had miles of underground tunnel systems – the tunnels were very small, the only way we actually were able to crawl through them was because they had been made bigger after the war, for tourists to be able to fit through. We also saw all the “booby traps” set up by the Vietnamese and were able to fire a gun at the shooting range. Kyle chose the M16 – was very loud! Funny to see a video on how the US tried everything to get into these tunnels, but could not for the life of them figure it out during the war.
After the Cu Chi Tunnels, we went to the War Remnants Museum. Was very shocking and disturbing. We read about the effects of the Agent Orange (apparently the most toxic chemical to that date) sprayed by the US during the war, and saw how it is still affecting people today. The chemical totally deforms people from birth in ways you can’t imagine. We saw a lot of shocking photography of the war, a lot of it was disturbing, but at the same time it opened our eyes and made us realize how lucky we are to live in such a safe and peaceful country.

Ninh Binh, Hoi An to Nha Trang (bike trip)

Ninh Binh

Decided to head to Ninh Binh for 1 night, a cool place with national parks. It is referred to as the Halong Bay of the rice paddies. Huge limestone cliffs rising up out of rice paddies. We went on a river boat tour for 2 hours through the cliffs and some caves for about $2. Next day we went to a national park, Cuc Phuong National Park. We heard they had a endangered primate center, so paid the $40 to get there with a private car, mostly to see the monkeys. When we got there, driver dropped us off at the other end of the park, and told us to do a 2 hour hike to go see a thousand year old tree. After arguing to try and get him to take us to the monkeys, and him not understanding, it was pointless and we decided to do the hike anyways. Turned out to be nice scenery, but just hot and sweaty with lots of stairs. After the hike, we finally got to the monkey center....tour ended up being about 5 min, we were expecting at least 30, and we only saw about 4 kinds of monkeys....oh well, still a decent day.

Hoi An

Hoi An is a small, touristy beach town, with about 500 tailor shops! This is supposed to be the best place in Asia to get a suit made. So, we ended up visiting our tailors everyday for the 4 days we were here. If you know how picky Kyle can be, you can just imagine how much bickering was going on between him and three nice (sometimes pushy) Vietnamese ladies. It was amazing how quick they can turn out a suit (we got sized up at 7 at night, suit ready to try on by 11am the next morning). They normally can get a suit finalized in about 2 days, for Kyle....4, and he still wants changes done when we get home, haha. I guess he gave up with the bantering, they were happy to see us leave i think. In the end, we spent so much money on a few suits and shirts that the owner had her neices (all the tailors) take us out for dinner. Seemed like a fun time, until we saw the raw, or really undercooked buffalo (with about half an inch of thick, chewy skin...YUM) Was still a fun time, they were genuinely nice ladies.

Didn't do too much else in Hoi An, but layed on the beach and by the pool at our cheap, but nice hotel.

Motorcycle Diaries (4 day tour through Central Highlands - Hoi An to Nha Trang)

From Hoi An, we decided to look into an "Easy Rider". A guy we met in Thailand told us about this motorcycle tour and a good guide, so we thought it would be a good way to get to Nha Trang - better than the buses.

We called Mr. Dung, and he was at our hotel in Hoi An the next day, giving us a sales pitch. We were hesitant at first due to the price, was a little out of our budget, but decided we wouldn't get to do something like this again, so agreed to it.

Next morning he picked us up, packed up all our bags for us, and we were off. I was on the back of Mr. Dung's bike, Kyle was driving his own chopper, and probably the stupidest helmet in all of Asia. It was about a 750km trip that went straight West towards Laos border, then south through the highland mountains, then back East and down the coast. All areas were virtually untouched by tourism. We definately got some second looks by the locals, but the kids were always so excited when we waved at them. Kyle had quite the time trying to maneuvre through some of the towns with traffic circles and busy intersections (few close calls with other vehicles, dogs, etc and a few stalls at red lights)

It turned out to be the experience of a lifetime. We saw so many things. Here's most of it: rice paddies, Cham ruins, war memorials, pineapple farms, cinnamon trees, pepper farms, mushroom farms, flat tires, tea & coffee plantations, incense operation, smuggled wood carvings, waterfalls, orphanages, tribe and village people, hundreds of smiling kids waving at us (they rarely see foreigners), Vietnam war veterans & landmarks, huge python, scorpions, and a monkey. We also sampled some "real Vietnamese food", including deer, porcupine & ostrich.

In the end, the trip was worth every dollar, and we became good friends with our tour guide, who treated us like family and always made sure we were safe and comfortable, even though it was hard to understand his english sometimes. We learned to nod and agree with him...:)

Nha Trang

Arrived in Nha Trang...not what we were expecting. Busy beach city, lots of development and beach vendors constantly trying to sell you something on the beach, even when we say no, they still stand there until you are on the verge of telling them to F-off, haha. I guess everyone is trying to make a buck though...

Since we became good friends with Mr. Dung, he invited us over to his house for a seafood BBQ and to meet his family. He has such a beautiful family, 3 cute kids and a really nice wife. We wanted to be good dinner guests, so Kyle picked up some beer (20 - 450ml bottles for $7) Good deal! So hung out, laughed with his 3 year old son who tried drinking some of the beer, and ended up drinking cigarette butts! Was a good night - BBQs here are definately a LOT smaller than ours back home.

Next night, Mr. Dung fullfilled Kyle's Vietnamese quest for eating SNAKE! He came to pick us up with his whole family, who came to watch the big white guy choke down some snake...Apparently his kids love eating it! Turns out when you go to eat snake in Vietnam (and especially if you're a foreigner), you get a whole lot more than what you'd expect... So it started with watching the cook scoop about 10 snakes out of a crate outside the restaraunt, then we sat in the back of the restaraunt and watched as the cook: cut snakes' heads off with scissors, (heads still moving after severed from body for about 5 min), cut their stomachs open and pulled out beating hearts, pulled out 10 baby snakes from 1 pregnant snake (a nice surprise, even for the cook) squeezed blood from snakes into bottle of vodka, squeezed kidney juice into a different bottle of vodka. So quite an appetizing ordeal....

Next, we were told to sit down, and wait for snakes to be cooked. First dish that comes out, 7 little beating snake hearts on a tray. Kyle orders BIG beer, then him & Mr. Dung take a shot of snake blood vodka, with beating heart in it. Managed to keep it down and was a bit shaky for a while after. Next was snake rolls (crushed up snake, including bones wrapped in banana leaves). Then, snake burger patties! YAY! Not quite like the burgers back home....Finally...snake soup! Oh, and more shots of kidney juice in vodka. By this time, we had had enough snake (mostly Kyle eating), we decided to leave. Next day, we headed on a bus to Mui Ne. Had to wake up at 6:30...not feeling so good, and still not feeling so good (snake karma). But at least we have a good story! :)

Now we are in Mui Ne, the last week has been an unforgettable adventure!