Vietman: Ho Chi Minh City and Mui Ne

We spent very little time in Ho Chi Minh City.  We stopped for one night on our way to Mui Ne from Hanoi and one more before catching our flight to Singapore.  Despite the limited time in the city, there was still plenty of adventure.  When we arrived from Hanoi, we ran into some problems at the hotel we had booked for the night and decided to go somewhere else.  We walked around for about twenty minutes in the midday heat, passing only hotels that rented rooms by the hour, until we finally found somewhere satisfactory to stay.  By "satisfactory" I mean it did not appear to cater to prostitutes, had a shower, and a bed.  It did, however, stink of what we first thought was a lot air freshener combined with cigarette smoke.  The smell stayed strong all night and I was actually concerned it might make us sick.  It got into some of our clothes, but other than that, we survived.  After checking in to our "satisfactory" room, we took a taxi to a tour office to book bus tickets for the following day.  We quickly realized that our hotel was not in the tourist area, perhaps explaining the numerous "by the hour" hotels in the neighborhood.  The part of the city where the tour office was located had a nice park, plenty of shops and restaurants, and no obvious signs of "by the hour" hotels.  Obviously, we stayed in this area upon our return from Mui Ne.

Park in Ho Chi Minh City

Mui Ne is a beach resort town on the southeast coast, approximately five bus hours from Ho Chi Minh City.  We stayed at a small beach front hotel on the quieter end of the strip.  Though Mui Ne is a "beach town," in reality, the beach is quite small and the sand apparently migrates up and down the coast with the seasons, leaving many resorts (including ours) with only a concrete breakwater instead of a sandy beach.  This was not a problem for us at all since the pool was just beyond the breakwater.  We could sit by the pool on lounge chairs while still enjoying the sea breeze and sound of crashing waves.  There are a few "attractions" around Mui Ne, including sand dunes, a fishing village, and a stream, but since we came to Mui Ne to simply relax and recuperate, we decided to skip the tours.

View from our balcony

On the shore of the South China Sea

We spent a full two weeks in Mui Ne and fell into a nice routine of doing very little.  Each morning we had our breakfast at the hotel restaurant overlooking the South China Sea.  Breakfast was included with the cost of our $24 room with an ocean view.  The breakfast menu included beefsteak, instant noodles, Vietnamese bread (toast) with butter and jam or cheese, fried noodles, banana pancakes, and deep fried bananas. It probably goes without saying that our selections either included bread or bananas.  One morning Simon requested beefsteak to see what would happen but they said it was not available.  I think the server was quite surprised by the request.  After breakfast we headed to the pool to swim, read, listen to music, or just doze off.  The majority of the time, we were the only ones there.  We stayed outside until we had enough sun or wind.  (Mui Ne is well known for the high winds which kick off like clock work every afternoon).  We then relaxed in the air conditioned room until dinner time when we headed to the same restaurant every night. Three puppies, which we obviously nicknamed, sat by our feet while we ate (at least until they decided someone else's food smelled nicer.)  Our routine varied only with the occasional walk down the street to the bookstore, bank, or mini-mart.

Simon lounging in the pool

Me waiting for banana pancakes in the extremely busy hotel restaurant

Our breakfast view

Captain Underbite

Marley

Sleepy

Though we enjoyed our time in Mui Ne, we were both excited to move on to Australia.  Our two weeks of downtime gave us time to make some plans for the rest of "part one" of our trip (Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji), and to dream of western food.  I don't think either of us will be eating rice or stir fry for a while.

Vietnam: Hanoi and Cat Ba Island

We had twenty-two full days in Vietnam...the longest we have spent in any one country by far.  We spent our first two full days in Hanoi, taking on the incredible heat and humidity to see the sights.  We walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, which appeared to be a favorite spot for locals to sit in the shade and relax during the day or have a game of hacky sack in the evenings.  We also visited the Vietnam Military History Museum.  I would like to think that American museums are a bit more neutral on their descriptions of historical artifacts.  While some of it might be contributed to poor translations, the English descriptions of the majority of the exhibits emphasized the "heroic" Vietnamese and the "failures" of all of their "enemies."  Nevertheless, it was an interesting museum and interesting to see the Vietnamese take on things.

Military History Museum

Hoan Kiem Lake

After the museum, we carried on toward the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  The Mausoleum itself was closed, so we did not see "Uncle Ho" in the flesh, so to speak, but we were still able to visit Ho Chi Minh's Vestige, which includes the Presidential Palace, the House of 1954, the House on Stilts, gardens, a fishpond, and a collection of Ho Chi Minh's cars.  Just outside the Vestige, and behind the Mausoleum, we happened to catch the military marching in formation.  We did not know if this was a planned "changing of the guards" outside the Mausoleum or just some drills.  Either way, it was an unexpected bonus.  Our last sight of the day was the One Pillar Pagoda.  Completely exhausted from our day in the oppressive humidity of Hanoi we decided to take a taxi back to the Old Quarter, where we were staying, for an early dinner.  We ate at a rooftop restaurant overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake.  Pizza and dollar beers helped revive us.

Military Drills

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

House on Stilts (HCM's residence from May 1958 to August 1969)

One Pillar Pagoda

On our second day in Hanoi we decided to visit the Dong Xuan Market.  It turned out to consist of piles and piles of toys, clothes, and household items that you might find at a 99 cent store.  We did not spend much time there.  We wandered around a bit more and on the way back to our hotel came across JOMA, a bakery/cafe which quickly became our favorite place to eat in Hanoi.  JOMA clearly caters to Westerners and serves bagels, waffles, and sandwiches.  Most of all, we loved the baked goods - the brownies, lemon bars, and chocolate cake were delicious.  That evening, we attended a water puppet show, which was my favorite part of our Hanoi visit.  It is exactly what it sounds like...a puppet show performed over water.  This is a north Vietnamese tradition that started as a form of entertainment when the rice fields were flooded.  Even though we could not understand any of the dialogue, the orchestra was great and the puppets themselves were entertaining.

Walking around the Old Quarter

Water Puppet Show

After two days in Hanoi we took a bus and a ferry to arrive at Cat Ba Island.  We had not planned on going to Cat Ba, but really wanted to get out of the city.  It was excruciatingly hot in Hanoi (in case I haven't mentioned it yet) and we found the city pretty unpleasant to walk around in.  Most people are on motorbikes and treat pedestrians like they are invisible.  Crossing the street is like playing a game of Frogger.  It's difficult to walk on many of the sidewalks in the Old Quarter because they're all full of either parked motorbikes or small plastic tables and chairs where people eat the street food.  You're not really safe on the sidewalk anyway.  The only time a motorbike actually came into contact with me was on a sidewalk.  So, we began to look around for somewhere nearby on the coast to visit.

Motorbikes in Hanoi (This was taken early in the day - it gets MUCH busier.)

We had looked into taking a three day tour from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay but heard mixed reviews and decided instead to just relax on Cat Ba Island, which is the largest and only inhabited island in Ha Long Bay.  Cat Ba was just what we needed.  It was quiet, with little traffic, and cooler due to the sea breeze.  As a bonus, it was also cheaper than Hanoi.  We ended up with a room with a view of the harbor for only $7 per night.  Beers were 75 cents and full meals were only a few dollars.  A ten minute walk from the hotel took us to a beach that was virtually deserted most of the time.

View from our hotel window

Cat Co 2 Beach

We spent one day exploring the island on rented motorbikes.  We hiked to a few caves, including one used as a hospital during the "American War", and generally just enjoyed the scenery.  Much to our hotel owner's disappointment, we never did take a boat cruise through Ha Long Bay.

Our powerful motorbike

Britainy and I exploring the Hospital Cave

Climbing the stairs to the Hospital Cave

Simon, Britainy, and I outside the Hospital Cave

We spent one more night in Hanoi (in a mosquito infested room) before flying back to Ho Chi Minh City.  One more night in Hanoi meant two more meals at JOMA our favorite cafe/bakery (dinner and breakfast before catching our flight).  We were all ready to move on.  Upon arrival in HCMC, we said farewell to Britainy and prepared for our next adventure.

Cambodia: Siem Reap, Angkor, Phnom Penh

To get to Siem Reap from Koh Chang, we traveled for about 12 hours, using six different forms of transportation - mini bus, ferry, walking, shuttle bus, tour bus, and tuk-tuk.  Our experience crossing the border was interesting.  The tour company we were with was supposed to see us all the way from Koh Chang to Siem Reap.  When we approached the border we conveniently took a lunch break at a restaurant.  The tour operater came around to each table asking for passports and money to pay for the Cambodian visa.  They were kindly going to get our visas for us while we had lunch and in doing so we would get to go through the "fast" line at the crossing.  The only problem is that they were charging us twice what the visa actually cost and we later learned that a "fast" line does not exist.  When we said we wouldn't pay it, the tour operator's immediate response was that it was fine if we wanted to go get our visas ourselves but he couldn't guarantee the bus would wait for us on the other side...the bus we had already paid for.  Eventually we agreed to pay more than actual cost of the visa but less than initially demanded.  He made us promise not to tell any of the other passengers and within minutes we were asked to get back on the minibus to go to the border.  They claimed we wouldn't all fit in one bus (a bus the same size as the one we had just come in) and everybody else was still eating lunch (also not true).  The three of us loaded up and began the very long process ("fast" line indeed!) of walking across the Cambodian border.  We never saw our fellow passengers again.

Squeezed into the mini-bus with luggage about to crush me

Crossing the border into Cambodia

Our main purpose in traveling to Siem Reap was to visit Angkor Wat.  After our very long day of travel, we decided to take one day to rest up before going to Angkor, which we knew would be another long day.  We had a nice time wandering around the city of Siem Reap, visiting the markets as well as a monastery that we just happened to stumble upon.  We had lunch on Pub Street and then walked back to the hotel for some relief from the heat.  When it cooled off a bit (it was never really "cool" out), Si and I went out for a walk around the French Quarter.  There wasn't much to see in there, but we continued on and found ourselves in the Royal Gardens.  As we walked through the park, we passed a buddhist temple full of people making offerings.  Others were selling flowers and incense.  A bucket full of turtles sat on the walkway.  I'm still not sure what their purpose was.  Large bats screeched and hung in one particular tree.  We took all of this in with some lively music playing near the temple.  It was a very festive atmosphere.  A bit later, Britainy joined us and we did some more shopping at the Night Market.  The vendors were all very eager to get our attention and eventually we hardly responded to the cries of, "Hey Lady, You buy something?"

Simon and I at Preah Prohm Rath Monastery

Pub Street

Royal Gardens

Night Market

We spent Easter Sunday touring the wondrous temples of Angkor.  Angkor Wat is the largest and most famous.  Built in the 12th century, it was first a Hindu temple and later Buddhist, as it remains today.  Throughout the day, our tuk-tuk driver took us from temple to temple within the park.  Though we did not see them all, we did see the highlights.  We had some serene moments sitting in in the large, stone temple doorways looking out over the tree-covered hillsides, after climbing a ridiculous amount of steep, decaying stairs.

The backside of Angkor Wat

Simon climbing the stairs of Ta Keo

Ta Keo

Britainy and I - touring by tuk-tuk

Bayon Temple

Monk on his cell phone at Angkor Wat

The Elephant Terrace

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

The shops that surrounded almost every temple took away from the atmosphere a bit, but we couldn't help being amused by some of the selling tactics.  One girl of about eight tried and tried to get us to buy magnets from her.  When I told her that I really don't need one she said, "No.  You don't need one.  You need two!"  Another kid was so persistent that she followed me from the tuk-tuk to the entrance of the temple and promised she would remember me when I came out.  Sure enough, as soon as we started back to the tuk-tuk, she started demanding I buy something.  Other comments by the locals were just comical.  One woman asked where we came from and Simon responded by telling her we came from the tuk-tuk.  Realizing he was joking, I guess the woman thought she'd joke as well and said, "No, I think you come from your mother!"  While we tried to relax by a lake, three children were relentless with their insistence that we buy various trinkets.  We told them we had no money and a girl of about three responded, "no money, no honey."

Souvenir Shops

The day after visiting Angkor, we packed up and moved on.  A seven hour bus journey (complete with bathroom breaks on the side of the road) took us to Phnom Penh.  The hotel we had booked claimed not to have our reservation because they don't have a computer.  I still don't know why a hotel that takes online reservations would not make sure they have access to a computer.  We ended up in another hotel down the street.  In the morning, our first stop was the Vietnam Embassy.  The main reason we went to Phnom Penh was to get our visas for Vietnam.  We were told that we could have our visas in 45 minutes so we left and booked our travel to Hanoi for the next day.  When we returned, the man at the embassy told us we could not have the visas until the next morning and claimed to have never said 45 minutes (even though all three of us heard it.)  This led to us scrambling for a good part of the day to figure out how we would be able to pick up our visas and catch a bus to Ho Chi Minh City in time for the flight to Hanoi we had already booked.  It eventually all worked out but not without some major stress.  While in Phnom Penh, we finally gave in and went to KFC for lunch.  It was as unsatisfying in Cambodia as it is in California.

Shop on the road to Phnom Penh

House on stilts on the road to Phnom Penh

Koh Chang, Thailand

To get to Koh Chang, an island just off the coast, we went back to the airport and booked a bus.  Online and at the bus ticket counter, it said the first bus left at 7:30 am.  We woke up early and arrived a little after 7 so that we could catch the first bus.  After buying our tickets, we were informed that we would be on a 10:00 bus.  The man at the ticket counter claimed the 7:30 was full, but we thought it was a bit suspicious that there were not any passengers milling about.  We waited at the airport until 10:00 when we were taken out to the bus parking area.  We walked past several large, spacious tour buses to arrive at a small mini-bus.  I thought there was no way everybody would fit in, but with a little squishing we did.  Nobody was happy with the situation, but at that point, there's not a lot you can do.  Britainy had the pleasure of sitting in a fold down seat next to the driver.  I was next to her in the front passenger seat.  We traded for about the last hour of the four hour drive and I found that the booster seat, as we were calling it, was extremely uncomfortable.  The mini bus drove us directly on to the ferry, which took an hour, but was a welcome break from the road.  On the other side, we piled back into the bus, but our journey was brief.  It was not long before they stopped at their own tour office and then squeezed us onto a songthaew (basically a small pick-up truck with two bench seats in the bed.)  It was a tight fit with 7 passengers and all of our luggage.  After a short ride, we were dropped off in White Sand Beach.

We spent seven days in the small town of White Sand Beach and I would have been happy to spend more.  Each morning we walked across the street to the beach and sat ourselves down for the whole day. Vendors selling various crafts, fried bananas, and beach toys made themselves known but were not too aggressive.  As the sun went down, the restaurants lining the beach pulled out their folding tables and plastic chairs.  We were able to sample pad thai, spring rolls, and fried rice from several of the restaurants, though our favorite was called Bam Boo.  We appreciated the English translations on the menus but were also highly amused when things like "Buddy Mary," "Rice Pounding," or "Shirm with rice" appeared.

We had thought about renting motorbikes to  explore other parts of the island, or maybe joining an elephant trekking tour, but the weather convinced us to stay on the beach.  Thunderstorms were in the forecast nearly everyday and we did get to experience a few downpours.  Luckily, it never lasted too long.  Even though it kept us from venturing elsewhere on the island (the last thing we wanted was to be caught in a downpour on motorbikes on poorly kept steep roads), the weather did not interfere much with our beach time.  Britainy and I did manage to find time for a fish spa.  Hundreds of little fish nibbled away at our feet, supposedly eating any dead skin.  It was strange, but my feet did feel softer afterwards.

We spent our evenings walking down the beach, listening to live music (which unfortunately was across the street from our hotel so we had to listen whether we wanted to or not), playing pool at the western themed Buffalo Bills Steakhouse, and indulging in a few fried banana pancakes from the street vendors.

Approaching Koh Chang by ferry

White Sand Beach

Nightly fire throwing show

Fried Pancake Street Vendor

White Sand Beach Sunset

Enjoying a Chang Beer on the beach

Fish spa

One Day in Bangkok

        We spent just one full day in Bangkok.  We arrived late, so we got ourselves checked in and bought some snacks at the "family mart" across the street for dinner.  At that point, we thought we might stay two days in Bangkok, but before booking extra nights at the hotel, we decided to see what day one was like.  In the morning we went to the Grand Palace, which is actually a large complex full of temples, shrines, and palaces.  The Grand Palace has a dress code which prohibits shorts, short pants, short skirts, tank tops, or see through shirts...yes, see through shirts are actually on their list of prohibited clothes.  I put my serong on around my shorts.  For some reason, the wrap Britainy brought to cover her shoulders was deemed not good enough so she had to rent a shirt to wear over her tank top.  Ladies' shirts were gone so she selected a nice blue short-sleeved man's shirt.  We called it her "prison blues."  We were all looking good as we entered the Grand Palace.
       After a few hours there we decided to go hide from the sun for a while in a restaurant.  We walked to Khao San Road, where backpackers tend to gather due to the numerous cheap hotels and guesthouses.  The short street is lined with shops selling handcrafts, clothes, and pirated dvds, as well as pubs and bars.  There, we selected a restaurant that looked somewhat busy and I had my first Pad Thai of many while in Thailand.
      When we were a bit more rested, we walked back through the city, past the Grand Palace to visit Wat Pho, an important Buddhist temple complex.  We saw the "Reclining Buddha" which is quite impressive due to its enormous size.  We viewed a few other sites before the heat and humidity had finally taken its toll on us and we decided to head back to the hotel.  Little did we know that would be an adventure in itself.
       We found a taxi that would take us back to the metro station for the taxi fare that we had requested, as long as we agreed to go to his friend's shop on the way.  We climbed in and set off.  Two hours later...two hours(!) we had only gone a few miles and had not even made it to the shop.  I thought traffic in L.A. was bad.  Its nothing compared to Bangkok.  We simply didn't move.  Finally, we got out of the taxi and walked.  If we had waited any longer, it would have gotten dark before we found our way back to the hotel.  It took us about an hour to make our way back to the metro station.  After a long, hot, sticky day in Bangkok, we all agreed that the next day we should head to the beach instead of having a second day in the city.

Grand Palace

Britainy and I in Palace-approved attire

Mural at the Grand Palace

Simon and I at the Grand Palace

More Grand Palace Views

Khao San Road

Reclining Buddha

Remember - the pickpockets are not Thai

Wat Pho