Hanoi and Halong Bay

Thursday we flew from Luang Prabang, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam. Much cooler temps awaited us as well as a light sprinkle, quite a change from the 95 degree heat in Laos. We found a great little hotel right next to the St. Joseph's Cathedral, where by the way, there was a five day long funeral ceremony for the just deceased Bishop of Vietnam. So the roads were total chaos, and from our room we could hear all the singing and eulogies piped out from loudspeakers on the streets. It was quite a scene. We were lucky with our hotel, the owner was Australian and he was able to book us our two day cruise on Halong Bay, as well as the train trip to Sapa. Both trips I had left open.
So the next day at 8am we were already picked up for the 3hr. drive to the Bay, where we boarded a nice old wooden Junk and settled into quite a nice state room. We set off into the Bay, which is part of the Tonkin Sea. It is about 606 suare miles and consists of more then 700 islands, mostly uninhabited. We sailed amongst the steep lime stone outcroppings, called Karsts, which was quite stunning. There are dozens of these cruise junks doing the same thing, but the bay being so big, that you never felt crowded. We also stopped at some huge caves as well as went from some sea kayaking, which we enjoyed a lot. Another scrumptious seafood dinner followed on deck as well as a refresing swimm off the ankered boat. We were only 15 passengers, and met some really nice fellow travelers. The next morning we leasurely sailed back to port and got off at noon.
That same night we took a night train ( 9 hrs. ) up to Sapa in the hill tribe country near the Chinese border. More about that next time!

Luang Prabang, Laos

We spent three great days in this beautiful northern Lao town, which is also Unesco Heritage town and has quite a quaint flair about it,not having seen so far in SEAsia.
The highlight was a trip to Kuang Se waterfalls, a series of cascades with turquoise blue swimming holes at the bottom and watching Tony swinging on a rope and juming in the water.
The other fun thing was an elephant ride in the nearby remote woods. The town itself had beautiful temples,one of the oldest one in Laos. We also witnessed the daily early morning parade of the monks, collecting their alms (people line up on the side of the street, giving the monks food). It is quite a sight, hundreds of monks in their pumpkin color robes.
Thursday morning we were off on a flight to Hanoi for our last leg of the journey.

Our hotel in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, Laos

A 4 hr. bus ride in a supposedly air conditioned bus, that was about 100 degrees, we arrived in Vang Vieng, a rather nontraditional Lao town, very hippyish, but a fantastic setting. We have a lovely room with an unbelievable view of these jagged mountains. This morning, after a very stormy night, our first rain and thunderstorms this trip, we set off for a 14 miles mountain bike ride through a beautiful valley to some remotes caves. There also happened to be a wonderful cool lagoon at the bottom, where we took a welcome swim after the big hike up to the caves. It's a very picturesque setting here and the river is clean and invites for swims.
Tomorrow we head off to Luang Prabang, another 6-7 hr. mountainous bus ride, but should be very scenic.

Laos

We spent another busy day at the magnificent Angkor Wat temples, this time on regular, non-motorized bikes, peddling about 15 miles in 94 degree heat. It was fun, but very tiring and I had a bout with the runs, so that was a challenge.
Today we flew to Vientiane, Laos, a 3 hr. flight. There is a beautiful monument, like the "Arc de Triomph" in Paris, built during the French ocupation. Already we noticed the change, a lot cleaner and dryer air, but still very hot. We're only hear for a night, the off to VienVang. a 3hr. bus windy bus ride along the river. It will be very mountainous. a big change from the flat lands so far.

Oh, a bunch of the pix that I thought were lost after I posted them, ended up on our old blog: www.longsouthamerica.blogspot.com in case you are interested. There may be some duplicate.

Angkor Wat temples

This was our first full day at Angkor and what a day it was. We were blown away by this expansive complex of ancient temples and buildings dating back to the 9th century with the most intricate stone carvings depicting battles as well as the history of the Siam kings of the Angkor period. The site is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and many countries contribute to it's restoration and upkeep. It took us all day to cover about a fourth of the site, each building-ruin more interesting then the other. Just an amazing and totally mind boggling place. Definitely more then we expected. I will post some pictures to proof it.

Tonight we went for a Khmer food dinner in town, where part of the buffet menu was a faboulous show of local Aspara folk dances. What a treat (food and dance, all for $12. )

Just made it back to our out of town (dirt road) little inn, after hitting the night market for a few souvenirs). Our tuck-tuck driver waited for us on each stop and was quite happy by the time for our last ride, we think he got a little high on something waiting for us, so our little buggy just flew over the pot holes and he was laughing and talking to us in some funny language! Anyway, we got home safe!!

Angkor Wat

Left Phnom Penh this morning after touring the Royal Palace, a campus like an ostentatious jewel in the crown of Cambodia's monarchy. It is humongous, with several temples and palaces as well as the Throne Hall, the site of the king's coronation, also there is a a silver pagoda, a temple where the floor is made up of solid blocks of sliver weighing a mere 6 tons.
Tuol Sleng was a museum too gruesome for me to see, but Tony did go, they showed graphic pictures of the Khmer Rouge atrocities.
After a short flight to Siem Reap we now are ready for the next two days to visit the majestic Angkor Watt temples, a major world heritage site. Can't wait.
(I am having trouble downloading pix, so please be patient) Right now I am fending off mosquitos and frogs around the computer station!! I think I call it quits!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Chau Doc was a quaint border town a bustling downtown center. Our hotel was the best deal yet, $13 a night for an air conditioned room overlooking the busy market. The friendliest staff ever which really helped. They organized a private boat ride for us to the floating markets as well as to a floating fishing village nearby. All so fascinating, so many impressions of these people making their living off the river. They row standing in little dug out wooden boats, lots of them full of veggies and fruit. The river is like their street, lots of traffic, but all going smoothly. You never hear shouting or angry voices. So the next day we were off on a boat up the Mekong across the border into Cambodia. We got our visa river side at the customs, then it was a 6 hr. boat ride to Phnom Penh. Interesting scenery along the way, mostly agriculture (rice). We got a Tuck Tuck (taxi) ride to our little guesthouse, which we like alot, especially since it comes with a pool. It's in the 90's, very hot and humid. We met up with Stephen (our former s0n-in-law) who moved to Phnom Penh a couple of month ago with his wife Rachel, who works here as a lawyer. He is showing us around, which is wonderful, to get an inside scoop on the town. The people here are mostly Khmer and there is a lot of history, and mostly not good (Khmer Rouge) Almost the whole population was killed or driven out of the city during their regime and lots of the beautiful French colonial buildings were destroyed. Their are beautiful temples though, and the Royal Palace where the new King lives. We will go see some of that today. The food here is a bit different from Vietnam, but also very delicious. Lots of poverty in Cambodia, more so then Vietnam, but here in the city things are booming. Lots of construction and jobs available for professional people.
Got to go, computer time is up.

Can Tho Mekong Delta

After a short 30 min flight and 2.5 hr. crazy bus ride, we ended up in Can Tho, the capitol of the Mekong Delta. A bustling river town where we enjoyed a fascinating early morning boat ride to the floating markets of Cai Rang. It was a sight for the eyes, so many boats, selling so many different vegetable and fruit and just watching the whole chaos was so much fun. Very colorful. The people live on the boats too, so you could see how they go about their lives on the river.

Also, we had the best food yet since we arrived in Vietnam. For $10 we both had a 5 course meal with the freshest fish, veggies and desert, unbelievable. Don't really know what we ate, but it was out of this world. My favorite things were the pumpkin blossom fritters!

We also went to a waterpark with crocodiles and tropical gardens. A very interesting Khmer temple where we got to talk to the "head" monk, rounded out the day. Plus a sauna and a massage for Tony at the hotel. Not bad!! Now we're waiting for the bus to move on the Chau Doc, the border town with Cambodia (3 hrs. ride) .

Feb. 10 Phu Quoc Island

We are enjoying our laid-back time on this lovely island with it's beautiful beaches and great weather. Our bungalow is perfect, minus the hard mattress, but that seams to be the custom here. The Vietnamese people are super nice, all so small in stature, the women especially, so tiny and gracefull and very hard working. Yesterday at sunset we treated ourselves to a very expensive spa treatment, which consisted of a one hour full body massage right on the beach under an almond tree. This wonderful experience set us back a mere 4 dollars each!!! (I think I will have another one today!)
For our meals we either eat at our Sea Star hotel or just walk up the beach to any other little place that has tables out on the beach. There is lots of good seafood, like squid, prongs and local fish. The only trouble we have is with ordering, it's mostly hit and miss, as few waiters really understand what you are saying! But you really can't go wrong with anything.
Tomorrow we have to leave this great spot and move on the the Mekong Delta which we very much look forward to.

reunification palace

Arrived in beautiful Phu Quoc Island today, ready for some quiet beach time. Our second day in Saigon was spent on a very exhausting tour to the Cao Dai temple, a wild 3.5 hr. drive outside of town, fighting thousands of motorbikes along the way (there are 6 million of them in this city. We were lucky to observe an actual ceremony in this beautiful temple, where there are many religions allowed, from buddhism, chrisianity etc.
Then we went off to the Cu Chi tunnels, who were used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. It was all pretty unnerving and their was some implied political propaganda, which made us feel a bit uncomfortable. Anyway the whole trip took11 hrs. and we were glad to get back and out of this crazy traffic.
Today then we took a short flight to Phu Quoc island, the biggest island of the western coast of Vietnam and the seashore it's quite beautiful. We have a neat little bungalow right on the beach and it feels so good to relax a bit and enjoy the laid back atmosphere. The food has been great so far, lots of delicious Pho (noodle soups), as well as good cheap seafood. The weather has been rather warm and a bit humid, usually in the upper 80"s but no rain.
The people here are very friendly and accommodating, but the language is another story. There is not one word I understand, but we get by. People try and speak English, but they are still hard to understand.
Hopefully I can download some pictures here tomorrow.

Arrived in Saigon

After a long, but relatively comfortable 12 hr. flight from LA we arrived in Seoul, Korea where we connected to another 4 hr. flight to Saigon. We were met by a driver from our hotel and were more then happy to get some sleep. Couldn't help but wake up early (6:30am) as our internal clocks were totally screwed up. After a hearty breakfast with all kinds of local fruit, we set out to sightsee by 9 am. Jetlag never entered the picture all day. It's 6pm now and after trotting around Saigon most of the day, we still have a dinner boat ride on the agenda. Our first impression of this city is totally crazy. We have never seen so many motor bikes (tuk-tuks) like here, it is wild, millions of them, not many cars! They drive like crazy and the hard thing for pedestrians is trying to cross the road!! I was so scared to get run over. So what we have seen is the famous Saigon Post Office, like no other you have ever seen, the Reunification Palace and the very interesting but disturbing Vietnam War Museum. We also saw a couple of Pagodas, where people go and light incense and prey. We had our first Vietnames noodle soup lunch, which was delicious and I was forced to use chop sticks, as there were no forks! The people are very friendly, but not many speak enlish and oh, we did hire a bike taxi, where the guy peddles you in your comfy seat, but it was really scary with all the motor bikes flying by you left and right. There are no traffic cops and people haul everything on these little scooters, even their babies!

Well, we're off to find the boat on the river with the food on it!

Itineray for Feb. 3 - March 4, 2009

Our trip will start in Atlanta to Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam. Phu Quoc Island is next, then on through the Mekong Delta (Can Tho and Chau Doc, across into Cambodia.
Phonm Penh, then on to Siem Reap for the Angkor Wat temples, followed by a flight to Vientiane, Laos, bus ride to Vang Vieng and on to Luang Prabang. Flight to Hanoi, with side trip to Sapa (hill tribes) and a two day cruise on Halong Bay. Flying back home from Hanoi on March 4th.