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Pho, Sunrises, and New Year's in Vietnam...

Next on the list was Vietnam. I had initially wanted to go to the north parts of Vietnam and see Ha Long Bay and such, but it was looking as if it was currently rainy season so I didn't want us to press our luck and end up seeing everything I wanted to see for the first time in the rain. So, we decided to see the south with the intention of soon returning to Vietnam to see more.

We headed via bus from Cambodia to Vietnam from Phnom Penh. It was a longer bus ride, and even included a ferry. All in all, with the border crossing I think it took us about 7 hours to get to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). When we arrived we needed to find a hostel for the night so we headed off down the street from the bus stop. There were more than enough hostels and they were all reasonably priced. After we saw a couple of rooms we took the next one for fear of losing part of our exciting evening by hostel hopping with our packs.

We landed right near the busy area of HCMC where there happened to be a huge New Year's Festival with dancing and music. There was even live theatre in amazing gold and red costumes. This was the life.

We grabbed ourselves a couple of local beers and watched some of the entertainment. I even hopped right in to a dancing circle for a short bit after watching some traditional dancing. They sure know how to party in HCMC!

After this, we decided we were due for a nice large meal so we headed to a tiny little restaurant that served up everything imaginable. I grabbed a nice spicy noodle dish that was recommended to me by the wait staff.

(Usually you can tell wether or not to trust the recommendation of the staff. I have realized that when I have been traveling, more often than not they are very honest with what you should try not based on price. They want you to really enjoy the food they serve you in their country. It's not like in America always where they try to upsell...sometimes. You have to feel it out)

I decided I would head out the next morning and catch a bus to Mui Ne Beach alone and Gordon was going to stay in HCMC for another day or so. I was really looking forward to getting out of the city into a more rural area, with a beach.

The bus ride from HCMC to Mui Ne Beach was quoted at 4 hours but took 6. Times in SE Asia tend to be off so I would always add an extra 2 hours to any quote you get just in case. The cost was an awesome 6 dollars.

I was lucky because this bus was not very full and I was in a front seat so I had a nice view of the area. However, upon leaving the city I witnessed something very unexpected; intense road rage. A man cut off another man in his truck right in front of us. The man who was cut off then proceeds to get out of his car in standstill traffic and pull the man and his passenger from the car beating them with a lead pipe. Only when the traffic started to move did I see the man return to his truck. WOW. Both of the men who were beaten seemed to be okay and they drove off with blood covered faces. I never want to drive in Vietnam.

The countryside was beautiful and the rise and fall of the mountains was something straight out of a movie. We were nearing our approach to the beach and you could tell because the unmistakable smell of salt and fish lingered in the air. I had read somewhere that this town was famous for anchovy spring roll sauce and the town smelled of the small silver fish. They weren't joking!

The fishing boats at the harbor were so picturesque that I was blown away with their bright colors of blues, reds, and yellows. Some fishing boats looked like baskets with one person paddling. It was simply amazing. They had huge nets set up to catch the fish an old fashioned way and I was just blown away by how amazing and precise their technique was.

I arrived at the hotel and got settled in, laundry and such organized, then I went and got a motorbike and cruised around the town. I stopped at the harbor overlooking all of the hundreds of fishing boats for sunset. This is where I was greeted by the most amazing little girl I have ever met. She was selling shells and bracelets and couldn't have been older than about 9. I called her over to buy something from her and she happily ran over. She spoke wonderful English and was such a happy girl. I was amazed by her. She sat down next to me and told me I was really nice and she liked to talk to me so she was going to take a break. Then she grabbed her friends and brought them over to me as well as her mother. They all came and sat with me and we watched the beautiful sunset together. She gave me a shell and told me to remember her forever. I promised to come back the following day to see her again and headed back to the hotel for dinner and some sleep.

What an amazing day!

Cambodia... What an adventure...Day 1 of only 2 continued....

After the first day of potential deadly travel, we were so pleased to be relaxing in our hostel. We were slightly disgruntled at the fact that they did not have an alarm clock because we needed to be up to meet our Tuk-Tuk driver at 4:30 am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

We went through a struggle to find one but eventually we found an old school bell alarm clock. Needless to say, I woke up every 15 minutes in fear of waking up to the loud incessant ringing of bells on the clock.

We made our way downstairs to the many tuk-tuk drivers that awaited their passengers for the day but ours was nowhere to be seen. A small man came up to us and said he was the man from the night before, but it wasn't him. We went with him anyway because we figured a tuk-tuk driver is better than no driver and we later found out that he was someone who was outsourced by the man who drove us to the hostel the previous night.

He drove us to the Entrance to Angkor Wat where we bought a one day pass to the complex which included all of the temples for $20. this is quite expensive for Cambodia but I bet the upkeep for a complex of this size costs much money so I didn't feel so horrible paying it.

***Side note; Everything in Cambodia is in American Dollars. You can pay in it, get most change in it, and having their money is a waste of time. You constantly have to ask, no, no, How much in Riet is it? Plus, once you change money to Cambodian money you can't change back! IF YOU GO PLEASE GET AMERICAN DOLLARS! (even though their money is pretty. You will get some back in change at some point...so keep that for a souvenir).

We went into Angkor Wat past all of the street vendors aggressively trying to sell you french bread or coffee for breakfast. There is no fresh milk in Cambodia so unless you like your coffee black, I suggest you stay away from anything with milk for you will def. get condensed or sweet condensed milk. However, at 5 am you don't really want anything but a nap!

We found our space and waited patiently for the sun to rise. When we were waiting, we noticed that we understood some of the tour groups coming in. They were all Japanese! Hooray! It was strange that we felt more comfortable knowing that there were Japanese people around.

When the sun started to rise we could see the temple in the distance. It was beautiful and we moved around so we could get it at many different angles with the morning sun.

Throughout the day we progressed through many of the temples and the tuk-tuk driver took us to his favorite ones. We even went to one that had GIANT trees growing up through it. It reminded me of something out of the movie Jumanji with Robin Williams, while some of the other temples were straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It was very hot, so after half of the day had gone we decided to go back to the hotel and then venture on to the local market to get some things for friends in Japan and at home.

Upon our arrival at our hostel, out tuk-tuk driver demanded his fare of $10, but to our dismay, it was $10 per person. We had clearly negotiated with the other man that the fare would be $10 for the two of us for the day, but this man said he was to collect more at a per person rate. To avoid tension he called his boss to double-check. He then proceeded to hand the phone to Gordon, who then handed it to me. I got into a yelling match on the phone with the man which lasted all of 10 minutes. It was not so much the money, but more of the principle that he was overcharging us and thought we were just dumb tourists. I finally told him we were paying him only 15 dollars and hung up on him with threats of the police visiting our hostel, which they never did.

We then proceeded to the market for some shopping, food, and FINALLY some relaxation!

Cambodia... What an adventure...Day 1 of only 2....

Let me just preface this post with some important information. If you don't know any of the history of the country of Cambodia, please research it prior to visiting it. It is a beautiful country that has endured so much heartache and hardships. It provided me with some of the worst and also most eye-opening experiences of my life. Everyone NEEDS to see and experience something like this.

We were heading from Koh Chang island to Siem Reap and we knew that this travel day was going to be a long one. We had the long bus ride followed by a border crossing on foot, followed by a 2-2 1/2 hour taxi ride to the city. We hopped in a taxi from our hotel which turned out to be a van. The van was a 15 passenger van and by the time we hit the ferry boat port we were filled to capacity of people that were headed for Cambodia also. We figured that this would be how we would be traveling for the next 6 hours. When we arrived at the port we all emptied out our things and we were trying to figure out which bus we were transferring to. There were many buses lined up and they were all headed to Siem Reap. We were slightly concerned about this trip due to a bunch of horror stories we had heard about scams from these places.

We were directed by a man who claimed to be the owner of the company we held tickets to, to his 15 passenger van. It was unmarked and untagged with anything from the company. He loaded up our bags and we got in. We started to pull away and only then did we realized that no one else would be coming with us. This created a little bit of panic in my heart at first because we had just been in a large group of people that all held the same tickets as us but none of them got in the van and we were off alone. The driver didn't speak a word to us and def. didn't speak English. It was at this point that we started to come to terms with the fact that we might be killed.

We knew approximately how long this van ride should be, but we weren't sure of it as the times can vary a lot. Much of the road was gravel and we crossed through many security checkpoints with military holding guns.

We quietly started to plan how we would get away if we realized we were going to be attacked. About three hours into the ride I had come to terms with the possibility of us being kidnapped. I was thinking about what we would do to try to stay alive and stay together if something happened. There were no other tour buses in sight for hours and every sign that said border crossing to Cambodia we seemed to turn away from.

We pulled off the side of the road for gasoline and I had to use the bathroom. Now, bathrooms in these countries are very different than other bathrooms. Here there is no real plumbing. You use a bucket of water to force the water down through the pipes after you go to the bathroom. Since there is no plumbing, there is also no toilet paper. You will find a small hose next to the toilet sometimes to clean yourself off with. Very interesting experience. Well, at this point I had gotten used to the situation with the restrooms, and I was eased into it because Japan has squatter toilets. However, upon entering this outdoor restroom I wanted to be sick. There was a poster that was displaying, in Thai writing, what I presume would happen to you if you sat on the toilet seat and contracted the flesh eating bacteria that thrived in these countries. The very sight of the photos was enough to make anyone cringe. I wanted to ask where we were but no one spoke English.

We pulled back onto the road and actually backtracked from where we were coming from. This made us even more nervous because the opposite direction showed more signs for Cambodia.

We assumed we were goners...

Suddenly we entered a town with a GIANT garbage dump and we pulled up to a shop where there were other backpackers. We WERE THERE! Safe and sound.

That was truly the most frightening 6.5 hours in a van ever.

We got our visas and our escort to cross the border. His name was July.

After downing some freshly prepared Pad Thai we headed on foot for the border. The border town was crowded and dirty, as was expected and felt much like crossing into Mexico. There were many casinos and shops.

We went through customs and immigration where posters about reporting child exploitation were plastered on the walls. It is a shame how many people take advantage of this orphaned poor children. I couldn't believe the number of posters and billboards all over the country about reporting anything you see that is suspicious.

We made it safely to our Taxi with the help of our guide and rode the two hours into Siem Reap with our new friends who worked in Bangkok and Sri Lanka. We arrived in Siem Reap and headed into town with a Tuk Tuk to find a hostel. We took a room at the first place he took us to (which we are sure he made a commission on because the room was rather pricey). At 20$ for the night we settled and he agreed to drive us around the next day all day for 10$. We agreed and said we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat in the morning. He agreed to meet us at 4:30am.

We went into the town that night and had a bite to eat. We were bombarded by small children in the restaurant who wanted to sell us everything from postcards, to bootleged novels, and more. They were smart too. One boy was able to rattle off all the stats about England right down to Government leaders, population, and location. It was amazing, but obviously a part of the plan to ooo and aaaa prospective buyers. I wonder who taught him all of that and why. It broke my heart.

We went back to rest for the night because the stress of the travel and the interrupted dinner were enough to wear anyone down. Plus we knew that judging by what we had already experienced so far in Cambodia, that we were in for one hell of an adventure the following day.

Christmas in Paradise

Upon waking on Christmas morning the sun was shining and it was a far cry from the normal 4:30 or 5:00 am wake up call that families have. There was no tree, no presents to open, just sun and sand.

We had big plans. Elephant trekking was supposed to be a sure fire good way to spend our Christmas and we opted for the special package to not only ride the elephants, but to also swim with them.

We were very excited and we hurried down to breakfast at the hotel restaurant but realized we were a little too early so we walked down by the rocks and climbed to the top to get a nice view of the cove. The tiny wood ladders were slightly scary to climb but once reaching the top the view was amazing! We were able to watch the sun as it continued to rise into the sky.

When the time was right we headed to the open air restaurant, which had an amazing view of the water. The breakfast was tasty. It combined Thai and western styles and the variety in everything down to fresh tropical fruit was amazing. But most importantly, the deep dark flavor of the fresh cup of coffee was heavenly.

We headed to the front desk near the Christmas tree and waited for our ride to arrive to take us to the elephant farm.

When we arrived at the farm we saw all of the elephants eating sugar cane and palm leaves. The conditions were nice and we were told that this place takes care of the animals and it is a certified animal preservation camp. We loaded up on the elephant right away and took off for the jungle.

The man who was 'driving' the elephant sat on the elephants neck and we sat in a seat rigged up on the elephant's back. Our elephant's name was Nam Than and he was 37 years old. He was very friendly and the man from the camp treated him well. We were trekking through the trees taking occasional breaks for him to have a snack of leaves or other nearby foliage.

To my surprise, the driver hopped off about 20 minutes into our 2 hour adventure. He directed Gordon to the elephant's neck and let him drive. He instructed him to steer the elephant with his feet by jiggling the ears with our foot on the left or right to turn each way.

I continued to ride on the top in the seat, which made me feel like some sort of old school princess. However, this feeling didn't last long and of course I wanted to be the driver! I was jealous! I convinced Gordon to switch with me and I drove him onto the road and down to the river. The water levels were low because apparently there had been little rain in Thailand last year. Due to the exposed tubes I am pretty sure that water is being pumped upstream to fill the watering hole where the elephants swim. We got to the water and hopped off onto a platform. After taking off clothes and getting the carriage off the elephant's back we hopped into the water and went for a swim!

The elephants were very happy to be in the water and they were splashing and playing. We were instructed to stand up on them and when we did our elephant threw Gordon into the water. Over and over again, repeatedly the elephant threw Gordon off each time but loved to have me on him. We were friends!

After the swim we loaded back up and headed back to the camp. Upon our arrival we met with a woman from America that volunteers there three months a year every year. She explained to us about the camp and all the good they do. They also told us that there were small charms for sale that are made of the tusks of elephants that had died of disease or natural causes that the money would be used to help the elephants.

It seemed very legit compared to many other elephant places that we checked out. I am def. glad that this is what we chose.

For our christmas dinner, we decided to have food outside at the hotel. The setting was very special and perfect for christmas. We headed over to the BBQ and selected the fresh seafood we wanted for our meal. We chose a lot of GIANT prawns and some other meat.

The meal was scrumptious. After, we headed upstairs to our room to rest up for the next day of travel. We were heading to Cambodia the next day!

On to Heaven... Koh Chang

Sorry for the delay... finished up my contract this week at work and came down with Swine Flu or some strange strain of it. All is well though, no need to worry as I have caught up on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

So.. we awoke on day 2 of the epic journey in Bangkok. We knew we needed to catch a bus to Koh Chang Island and we knew it was going to be leaving pretty early. Somehow we managed to sleep even though the parties in the street went on until 3 am and we awoke at 6. I was pumped for our journey to begin. We headed downstairs to eat some breakfast and, to my surprise, we were greeted by a western style breakfast! My mouth was instantly watering at the tropical fruits and eggs along side bacon and sausages.

We happily scarfed down some grub and headed to the bus station to try to get on our bus.

The air was so smoggy in Bangkok and visibility was down to three or four blocks on this day. Just walking with our packs was taking my breath away. It was a very weird sensation that I had not really experienced up to this point.

We got our ticket and waited for the bus to arrive. While we were waiting, I was sitting next to a western man, he was with his Thai girlfriend and he was talking to her as if she were nothing and had no value. It was very distressing to hear one person talk down to another person like that who had done absolutely nothing wrong. As the bus approached I was excited to get on board and to avoid that situation. To my dissatisfaction, the couple ended up being on the bus in the seats next to us, all the way to Koh Chang, for 5 hours.

Haha. Oh well, I suppose. It was interesting to hear them interact and I am pretty sure she wasn't listening to him much anyway. We caught eyes a few times and her eyes smiled at me so I know she was okay. It wasn't the same as many sad eyes I have seen from women while I have been traveling. So I guess she was happy, or happy enough.

When we arrived at the ferry port we were so happy to get off our first of many long long bus rides. We purchased our tickets, boarded the boat, and headed on to the ferry. First things first, we stopped in the small ferry shop and got a beer to kick off the trip. Singha and Chang beer to be more accurate, as sampling the local brews is essential on any travel (as long as it isn't tap...be careful of the water). ;)

When the ferry arrived at Koh Chang island we got off and were greeted by many 'taxis'. These taxis were made by pick up trucks and all of the bags were shoved on top of the rack on top of the truck. There were close to 15 people already aboard, but when they found out the hotel we were going to they decided to squeeze us in too. The ride was $4 per person, which means the the taxi drivers were making a lot of dough . There were monkeys on the sides of the road and the truck had trouble changing into gear as we went up and down the steep mountains of Koh Chang. When the beach finally appeared it was like a tropical paradise. The town was small, but there was more than enough choices and things for us to do and places to eat.

We finally pulled close to our resort and we were let off on the main road and directed down a small tropical path that would reach out hotel. We slumped on our packs and headed out on the trail. We made it down past some beach bungalows and over a small bridge, and then it appeared. It was beautiful and I immediately knew that even though we were far away from the rest of town, that we were at an amazing secluded resort for Christmas.

The room was up on a mountainside and was a cute bungalow with a porch. The resort was the Chai Chet Resort. My main goal was to have a horizon pool at some point during this trip. I had never swam in one and this resort had a beautiful one that looked right into the sea. It was complete with elephants that spat water out of the elephant's noses.

We relaxed by the pool and then headed to the main road to get a bite to eat and stop in the local market to check out the goods. Everything was incredibly cheap. However, during this trip I learned that Money is relative. That is the number one way to travel. Not think about your money in terms of exchange rate, however, think of it as it is in the country that you are in.

We went to a small roadside stand to grab a bite to eat and were immediately greeted by two wonderful women who ran the humble establishment with 5 outdoor tables. They recommended we try the PadThai and a traditional green curry. We went for both along with two beers. They asked us about spice level and in our best Thai/English we asked for average spice but not high. They laughed at us as they cooked us up some fresh food in the kitchen and added spices. The aroma of delicious thai food filled the area. We were served fresh plates of amazing piping hot food and we ate to our hearts content. The women chatted with us in limited English about our trip and we went on our way with their well wishes.

We rented motor bikes, and explored the island before booking a reservation to ride elephants in the jungle the following Christmas day. We chose a place that was known for preserving and protecting elephants so we knew that the treatment of the elephants was humane and safe. We didn't want to let a place that hurt elephants profit off of their actions, so we thought this was the best bet. In the past, we had read and heard horror stories about seeing elephants being beaten while riding them, and we knew that was the last thing we wanted to experience.

After a delicious dinner at a local eatery we were off to bed for a fun filled Christmas day.

Vacation... Taking SE Asia By Storm!

As you were previously informed by yours truly, I went on a long backpacking adventure over my Christmas/New Year's break! The list of countries included Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Needless to say, this trip has its ups and downs, its excitement and its dull moments, and of course sheer and utter terror at times. In the following blogs I am going to attempt to fill you in on as many of the small details of my LONG 13 day vacation as I can. Keep an eye out for these because they will be published daily for the next week or so until I get everything out.

The first day of the trip we were lucky because Kansai was unusually warm for this time of year which allowed us to leave our coats and home and not freeze on the way to the airport. You see, where we were going was about 4 times warmer than where we were coming from and no one wants to backpack with a puffy coat.

We arrived at the airport and boarded our first flight to Seoul, Korea. To our surprise we were fed a meal on this short 1.25 hour flight. This was so shocking because in the US we are lucky to get peanuts (or pretzels because some people are so nervous about the peanut allergy) on a short flight, let alone actual food. After this we had a short layover in the airport where we proceeded to find a row of empty seats so we could relax before boarding out 6 hour flight to Bangkok.

This is when I noticed something interesting. In Korea, at the Seoul airport, they have many small shops/booths set up that are Korean "Cultural Experience Centers". There you can do a Korean craft, see women in traditional Korean dress, and listen to classic Korean music with original instruments. Now what I find truly strange and a little distressing about this situation is where the location is. It is a wonderful idea, but what is the world coming to if we have to force people to learn about a culture at an airport? It felt so forced in the center of such a busy travel hub and even though people were enjoying this experience during their wait to board, it was just something to fill their time. I wonder if they will even remember what they saw in Korea when they arrive home.

When we landed in Bangkok it was 9;30pm. We were lucky because a friend of ours from Japan was going to be in Bangkok the following night for a week and he booked his hotel an extra night early for us to stay there for free. It was a nice place, called the Grand President, right in the middle of the busy night district. We threw our bags down and headed to the street to explore even though we knew that we had to get up very early to catch a bus to our next destination.

Upon reaching the street, we noticed there was a surprisingly large amount of westerners that had chosen to spend their holiday vacations in Thailand. We were suddenly surrounded by English, and the cat calls of prostitutes, both men and women, tuk-tuk drivers looking for gullible new passengers, women wanting you to sample the world famous Thai Massage, and street vendors looking to sell you a variety of crispy creepy crawlies.

We walked along the main road looking for a place to grab a bite to eat. The roads were lined with street vendors all looking to sell you knock off designer products, lighters, handicrafts, and even pornography (which is illegal in Thailand).

We finally found a small place with very good prices that looked like a nice place to stop. We sat down and ordered our drinks. For the first time in about a year I had a Diet Coke. In Japan we have Coke Zero, but everyone knows that Coke Zero does not taste the same as Diet. I was very happy about this and ordered it alongside an order of Thai Fried Rice. My travel partner opted for the green curry, which even looked too spicy to eat, and judging by the beads of sweat that formed on his brow as he ate, the spice was at maximum heat.

After our meal we headed back to get some rest, we knew we had a big day the next day, but not before stopping into a local 7-11 to check out the Thai selection!