All dogs go to Heaven

Wow. I've been neglectful of this blog. I started this entry weeks ago, but I've only finally gotten my hands on a real computer to do this...

So, we've seen a lot since arriving back in Vietnam. We spent a few days in Hanoi. Chris caught a cold (probably catalyzed by the damp weather and poor hospitality of the North)... We decided that some mountain air might be in order. We'd heard such great things about the little town of SaPa in the mountains up by the Chinese border. We decided to take the luxury train (and it was nice... It's also the only real way to get there). There was some confusion with the tickets (hand written coupons instead of real tickets), but Chris was firm with the operator and made sure we got there ok.

We got to the Lao Cai train stop early in the morning and had to take a minibus from there up the rest of the way. The ride was pretty, but when we arrived in the town it was incredibly foggy. The minibus driver took us to a hotel where he gets commissions. We insisted he take us to the town square. After a bit of huffing, he brought us back. It was so foggy, we had no idea where our real hotel was. We wandered all over in the fog, but finally found it. There was a fire roaring in the lobby and they gave us some coffee and a hot breakfast.

SaPa is known for it's views, trekking and all the regular mountain stuff. At this point, Chris had a pretty bad cold. We didn't do any trekking, but we got around town a lot, periodically finding cafes with fireplaces. It was very foggy for our entire visit, except for a brief period one afternoon. We were having a beer out on a cliff-side patio (with yet another American guy Chris had picked up along the way) when the clouds swept up and out. It was spectacular. Suddenly, there were massive mountains looming right there, towering above us. In the fog, we'd have had no idea any of it was there. Within a few minutes, we were completely engulfed in the fogs again, which you can watch race through the valley and then up. You can actually see the houses below vanish one by one as the fog takes them. Spooky.



The views of the fog rolling back in

This incredible event was about all we appreciated in SaPa. Everyone is trying to sell moto rides, trekking tours and the Black Hmong women follow and harass you incessantly to buy their handicrafts. Apparently they didn't used to be so annoying... They were regular townspeople who ignored the tourists and sold their stuff at markets with the others from the area. The story is, that one woman, perhaps desperate, followed a tourist for so long that he paid her to leave. This was only a few years ago, but now there are dozens of them. They're persistent and sometimes kind of rude. The food in SaPa left a lot to be desired as well. It was hard to find Vietnamese food and the Western fare was mediocre and overpriced. Let's just say, we grew tired of the North fairly quickly. We were going to go to Halong Bay with the 1000's of limestone islands, but given the weather and our experiences with the people in the North, we chose to head South immediately.

We took our train back to Hanoi, went straight to the airport (where Chris was lightly kicked by a security guard for lying down after we found no free seats anywhere - don't worry man! We're leaving!) and went to Danang on the central coast. Danang is not a great spot for tourists, though its China Beach was a popular spot during the war (for those who like the smell of napalm in the morning). We took a car down to Hoi An. At this point we'd actually done plane, train and automobile within the last 18 hours and were pretty tired. We slept, then had dinner with Peter and Angie, some friends from Ottawa enjoying their last night in Hoi An. After our less than awesome time up North, it was so nice to see some familiar faces and have a nice exchange.

Hoi An is known for its beach, and its tailors. We spent most of our week there out at the beach between Chris's fittings at the tailor. The old town of Hoi An, which is away from the beach, is a real gem. It's a world heritage designated town and the buildings were beautiful. Outside the town, canals and little rivers run up to the sea, where cheap lounge chairs abound as does cheap beer. Given the slower pace of Hoi An, and the distance you need to cover between the old town and the beach, we chose to rent a little motorbike. Chris did the driving and he was really good. It was nice to have some freedom.


Fitting for a suit


The beach in Hoi An


My personal chauffeur

Almost everything about Hoi An was great. The people were kind, the weather was nice. We ate some nice food and found it easy to get around. Unfortunately, outside our hotel one night we witnessed the surprise bike-by killing of a dog. It was killed in 5 whacks with a big rod and slung over hte back of the bike, where the assailants took off. I still have knots in my stomach over that. I know they will eat dogs in Vietnam and we had noticed very few full grown dogs in the North, but it was such a drive-by nightmare what we saw! It could have been someone's pet. They like dogs here to keep as pets probably more than to eat. I don't think what we saw was very common (animal slaughters are usually less public), but it still shook me.

After Chris's clothes were finished (we'll see them in 3 months thanks to sea mail), we left Hoi An and headed further South along the coast. We took the train to Nha Trang, which is Vietnam's premier beach party town. We nearly missed our stop (the station signs don't indicate the town you're in), but the old man next to Chris, despite having no English, managed to communicate to us that we should get off.

Nha Trang was ok, but my party days are long over. The beach was nice and we had a great view from our 11th floor balcony ($6ea/night). The activities around Nha Trang weren't really my sort of thing: miniputt, scuba, water park, kite surfing, etc. There are lots of Russians along the beaches in South Vietnam. They love kite-surfing and letting it all hang out, and there a lot of restaurants catered to Russians. What's Russian food? Potatoes, eggs, mayo, vodka?

I'm glad we stayed away from the hard core party scene, especially given the number of altercations we saw between foreigners and Vietnamese in that town. What they were all screaming and slapping eachother over, we weren't sure... hookers, taxi fares, drugs?


View from our room

We actually spent almost a week in Nha Trang. I'm not sure how. We did get a bit lazy and it was easy to kill time on the beach or around the town. A bit tired of the sun and the sand (I know... life sucks), we booked a bus to DaLat in the central highlands. The area around DaLat is the best wine, veggie, coffee and flower growing region of Vietnam. It was really really rainy while we were there but we had a nice time. We had wanted to rent a bike and see the outskirts and plantations, but the rain made that a less desirable undertaking.

We did manage to visit a place appropriately called Crazy House. It's a hotel of sorts, though visitors stream through to look at the creepy, stange architecture, which maybe makes the guests feel a bit like zoo animals. I thought the place was hilarious. It was so bizarre!


Crazy House


One of the guest rooms.


????

We wandered around DaLat when it wasn't raining too hard. We had some nice local foods and found a little live jazz bar to hang out at and drink DaLat wine. The first couple nights we had dinner with the hotel owner's sister and father, whose English is as limited as my Vietnamese. They made soups laced with coriander (I survived), rice, beef hot pot, dried shrimps soup (yuk), steamed veg and some little fried fish I can only hope didn't come from the garbage dump / fish pond behind the hotel. They seemed very displeased with my chopstick skills. They pointed and discussed it quite a bit, before I lost my chopstick privileges altogether. I'd been having some stomach upset, so after I had finished what little I wanted to eat, they presented me with a jar of jam and a spoon. Confused by this, I declined but they insisted, so I actually ATE some! but I don't know what the hell was going on.

We really liked it in DaLat, though we ran out of dry clothes quickly. The rain was too unpredicable to stay there too long, so yesterday we moved on to Mui Ne. It's only 3 hours from Saigon, still along the coast. It's a one road town, but the road is long. We're staying at the opposite end from the restaurants, and the hike down there actually takes and hour and a half. Our place is really nice though. We have a little bunglow with all the amenities and a pool and beachfront access. We'll rent a bike to get in and out of town.

Anyhow, all for now.

Bangkok and Chiang Mai

I should explain... Thailand wasn't part of our original plan, but the owner of Sweet Basil, Ana Thai and Sum Tom Thai is from Bangkok, and a frequent patron of the Black Cat, who insisted Chris must go there. Art arranged everything for us, and even though he didn't arrive to Bangkok until the 19th of Feb., he did make sure that his friends here in Thailand took care of us. It was beyond generous.

After a couple of days in Bangkok with Art's friends Tang and Vit, we moved on to Chiang Mai, which is the large Northern City in Thailand. We flew in and were picked up by the people of Insda Resort, just outside of the city. The resort was gorgeous, nestled in the Hills with a pool, private villas, and as it turns out, with just 2 visitors... us. The resort is in the final stages of its construction and we were lucky enough to be able to stay there while the finishing touches were being completed.


Sunrise from our balcony overlooking the hills


The pool view at Insda

The drive up was nice... calm, if you can believe it, and we almost considered renting some kind of transpo, but the roads are steep and curves are sharp. In the end, we didn't have to since someone from the resort was always willing to drive us wherever we wanted or needed to go.

They took us to all the sights. We went to the beautiful Royal Summer Palace (though the King is 91, ailing and has not visited in years). We went to the Golden Pagoda, a Hmong hilltribe village, some waterfalls, the highest peak in Thailand, more temples, a creepy cave with bats and bright green grasshoppers hiding in the stalactites... the list goes on.


Sari making in a White Karen Hill tribe village


Waterfalls on the way to the highest peak in Thailand


Orchids take the top, dangling from the trees upon the highest peak


Monks decending the steps from the twin Pagodas


Grasshoppers dangling from the crevices in the Taktan caves


Caves


These are the trees they dig from the forests and plant in urban landscapes. They are absolutely massive. I don't know how they do it...

When we weren't touring, we were lazing around by the pool or on our balcony. Chris helped them to develop a cocktail list (with a Thai twist of course), and we'll have yet to see if the Bloody Insda (a strange twist on the Canadian Caesar) becomes a favorite in Northern Thailand. We even did some Karaoke, though maybe we shouldn't have for the sake of all those around us...


Karaoke at Insda

After 6 nights and a truly memorable stay in Northern Thailand, we took the overnight train back to Bangkok. I really liked it, though Chris's opinion is somewhat different. We went 2nd class with no A/C, which was a bit hot, but I was just happy to lie down. Chris didn't sleep very well, and the train could have been better set up, but it's over now so I won't dwell upon it.

We got back to Bangkok and returned to meet Vit and Tang in the Chinese Business area we had stayed before, but they were called away on business. We stayed a night in that neighborhood. It's very modern, very organized, (yet eerily filled with massive massage parlors). It is a neighborhood meant really for people who know Bangkok and Thai, not poor low-budget tourists. We decided to spend a couple nights in the backpacker ghetto of Khao San road. We found a hostel with a pool and a sprawling terrace restaurant. You'd hardly know you were in the old part of busy Bangkok tucked away in there, though the pool are had a slightly pungeant sewage odor.


The hostel on Khao San Rd.

That night in Khao San, we met up with Vince Wienecke (another Gleber)who had been traveling Thailand for a month. We went out with him and it was nice to see a familiar face.

We went back to the original neighborhood when Art arrived in Bangkok to meet up with him there. We were taken out for wonderful meals and really shown around the town. We used the super efficient and magnificantly clean Bangkok subway system, and on our last night took a boat tour dinner around the old city. The guide was Thai, but Art, and Tang helped with the important translations.


Incredible bridge in North Bangkok

Thailand was a more expensive for the day to day items than Vietnam/Cambodia, though the convenience (Hello 7-11... how I've missed you!), organization and surprising calm of Bangkok make it worth it. Thailand is also stricter than it's poorer neighbors. It has very modern anti-smoking laws and controls alcohol sales at very strange times of day.

We also found there were fewer beggars and hawkers in Thailand... maybe it was the company we kept or the places we went, but it seemed that not everyone was looking to get your tourist $$. Even cabs wouldn't pick us up at times because it would take too long to get there.

All in all, our trip to Thailand was worth it beyond what I could have imagined. We didn't have the normal Thai experience that travelers on our budget would have. We saw and did so much more than we could have on our own. We saw things that aren't in the tour books and it was a really memorable experience.


Thanks Art!

Anyway, beep beep beep... we're back in Vietnam, where the traffic is insane again. It's cooler here in Hanoi (about 20C) which seems great to you polar bears at home, but it's very damp, which keeps you colder. It's nice to be back on our pre-planned trip, and out of the heat.

Hanoi is a nice city. It's busy, but not like Saigon. It's easier to navigate and people seem a little more private here, though tourists are harassed a bit. The men who fix shoes on the street seem absolutely incenced by the small rip in my heel and I've had my feet frantically poked at and even grabbed. I don't even know how they can all spot it! I can't way it's the friendliest place I've ever been to, but our hotel staff are helpful and we've gotten around a lot in just a couple days.

We're heading on the good overnight train to Sapa near the Chinese border tonight for a few days in the hills. Hopefully the weather will clear, as it is supposed to have magnificent vistas. Anyway, this was along post, so I'll end it here and update more as it happens...

Late news on Cambodia

So finally... a post about Cambodia. We spent almost a week there, and it's been a week since we left so I'm sorry I hadn't posted sooner. Wifi is everywhere, so real computers are a bit harder to come by, and as much as it's really handy to use Chris's iPhone for certain things, I hate writing out long text on it. I know I'm so behind the times!

Anyhow, we spent 3 full days temple-going over the course of one week to Angkor. The town of Siem Reap outside Angkor can't really be described as Cambodia - It's jam packed with tourists and really catered to Western needs and wants. We ate a lot of Western food, and some Khmer food, but really didn't get in to the culinary delights of Cambodia as you may in other parts of the country. But the town was fun and easy and much less chaotic than Saigon.


Chris gets a million little kisses from a million little fishes at fish massage in Siem Reap

The temples were quite fascinating. We built ourselves up over the 3 days, starting with the smaller and older ones, and moving on to the newer and more impressive ones. The temples are quite spread out... very few are within walking distance of each other. We took the same Tuk-Tuk driver all 3 days. His English was limited... he'd barely gone to school as at the age of 14 he began fighting the Khmer Rouge. He wasgood though and detoured to places which weren't on our list so we could see more.

Cambodian people were very friendly. Despite their recent history, they have a wonderful sense of humor with both the tourists and each other. It's a very laid back place. It's somewhat behind the times and lacks some important infrastructure, but I suppose that's what makes it charming.

Here are some of the pictures from our touring (I have hundreds of pics, but here's a little taste).


Parkour! (Not really though...)


Ta Prohm temple - one of my favorites.


One of the older and taller temples


Cambodia's crowning glory: Angkor Wat at sun-up.


Bayon temple of Angkor Thom (the best one, I think).

The temples were packed with tourists of course. It's not that there isn't a lot to do in Cambodia, but without the temples, it's hard to know what the tourist industry would be in Cambodia. It's their proudest achievement and Angkor is breathtaking. The tour groups got to be a bit much however. There were bus loads of Japanese, Korean and Russian tour groups who clogged up the main arteries of some temples, dulling the experience a bit, but we learned to get out really early to beat the buses and the heat.

I can't say that I'll ever go back to Cambodia. The temples were nice, but I feel they will only get worse. There are major reconstructions going on, which in a sense is great, but it means that the old stones get replaced with new (and very different looking ones), the carvings become replicates of the originals, and the area loses it's appeal. Part of the beauty is the crumbling, steep and wild nature as it has eroded over centuries. It also doesn't help that many temples are covered in graffiti-style markings. Why anyone feels the right to carve his or her name on such a beautiful sacred place is beyond me. I don't care that Kevin or Chin or Linda was there in 2006 - it's a disgrace.

Anyhow, after our week there, we'd had our fill. We decided to book a bus to Bangkok to meet up with some friends of friends of Chris's in Thailand. The food in Siem Reap was sometimes of questionable digestive value, so we tried to book a bus with a bathroom, just in case. We were assured the bus had a bathroom. The shuttle would pick us up at the guesthouse and ferry us to the luxury bus which would take us to Thailand. Sounded great.

The rickety shuttle showed up late, and wasn't really a shuttle, but the bus! But once you've packed and checked out, it's hard to back out (plus getting your money back can be a hassle). The bus took us near the border, where a man came on board, took our tickets, slapped a plain white sticker on our shirts and pointed us toward the border. So we walked. We waited in lines, walked some more, got some stamps, walked some more, got more stamps and waited on the other side for someone to tell us what the hell was going on. A man came, told us to follow him and we did. A converted pick-up truck with row-seating in the back came along so we climbed in and held on tight. We drove for about 30mins to a quiet, shaded restaurant in God-Knows-Where Thailand, and waited for a couple hours. A shuttle finally showed up. They said Bangkok, so we said hell ya. It was cramped, the A/C didn't work (nor did the windows open) and when we finally made it to Bangkok, we felt like dirtbags.

However, aside from that bus trip, our Thai experience has been wonderful. We've been put up by some lovely people and we've been far from the dirty backpacker trail since our arrival. We've eaten delicious foods (yes... I ate duck tongue, jellyfish, and all kinds of other weird stuff I'd have never tried if I knew what I was eating). We've stayed in gorgeous hotels and resorts and been on very personalized tours. I will write more about it when we are finished here in Thailand next week.

Saigon to Cambodia

We finally arrived in Saigon late on Friday night. Our hotel was easy enough to find, though down a narrow alley. Saigon is a beautiful city. As Tet begins tomorrow, the city was in preparation for the biggest celebration of the year. Flower markets were popping up just about everywhere, while trucks with crews of men worked to put up lights, streamers and flags along all the city's major scenic streets. It's a very clean city and people take a lot of pride in that.


Flower market by our hotel

The motorbike-crazed culture took a bit of adjusting. Apparently, the best way to cross the street is simply to put your head down and walk at a steady pace. Traffic here is organic, and never stops. Like a well organized ant colony, everyone works their way around everyone else, with seemingly little effort, though I find it a bit unnerving. Failing the guts to cross at times, a kind Vietnamese will take us across with them.

We walked around a lot, visiting the zoo and botanical gardens (Bonsai and Orchid heaven... though the zoo should be shut down). We visited the Jade Emperor Pagoda and walked all around the French quarter. It is very hot though and by about 11am it is hard to be outside walking for long. We take frequent afternoon breaks. The food is good and fresh. The coffee is wonderfully strong and the beers are generally cheap.

World's saddest Orangutan


Strange Topiary

In general, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was a pleasant place, though the seedy side did seep through. From blatant prostitution provided for the Western male tourist to the occasional scam (first one's free, second costs 3X the price; an intricate billing system that makes your head spin so you just put down cash and say f%#* it)... Then again, we're less than a week in and have a lot to learn still so sometimes we will be taken.



Ho Chi Minh City streets

We left Vietnam yesterday, after only 4 days, to avoid Tet where prices soar and transport becomes scarce over the Holiday. We arrived in Cambodia and took the bus straight across to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat, which we will begin touring tomorrow. Cambodia is a bit more decrepit that Vietnam. The roads are noticeably more crumbling, garbage disposal borders on the Indian system (toss anywhere or burn), and the people seem more impoverished, but we still have much to see.

I'll post more interesting pictures once we see the temples of Angkor...