We spent a day and 1/2 in Sapa and then headed to a nearby village called Bac Ha, where there is a very popular weekend market. Bad Ha is a very small town of about 7,000, quiet during the week and only coming to life on the weekend when hordes of tourists cone to see the market.
Saturday evening we wandered around the town and met some very interesting people. We even ran into an old friend of Steph (of the French couple we were traveling with) who she hadn't seen or heard from in 7 years! Small world.
That night Jason and Fred wanted to catch a soccer games so we found the one little shop that had the game playing. We sat down with locals and watched the game. They were so excited that we all had something in common even though we couldn't speak the same language. The woman who ram the shop poured us all some tea and got out her English books to show us that she was trying to teach herself. We sat around and had an English/Vietnamese language exchange. They were such wonderful people and it was a gun and interesting evening.
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to see the market before the bus loads of tourists would arrive several hours later. The market is huge, taking up the entire dental area of the town. And this is a real mountain market by the way, not one just created for tourists to gawk at. The tribal people come in from all the surrounding villages and buy and sell food and supplies. There are stalls with fresh picked bananas and oranges, shovels and back hoes, woven dresses in the ethnic colors, etc. etc.
And of course one major supply that the villagers need to buy and sell is animals. This is where I had a hard time and even started to cry and had to leave the area. I understand that there are cultural differences and that people need to eat, but the way they treat the animals is just horrible. I saw three scrawny , weak looking dogs in a small cage on the back of a motorbike. I saw burlap bags rolling around on the ground, either with puppies or piglets inside. All of the animals, from horses and water buffalo to pigs and chickens, appeared malnourished and poorly treated. Our friend, Fred, even watched as a dog's throat was slit and the chopped up for food (yes, they eat dog in Vietnam, as well as horse).
It was all too much for me to handle. I am such an animal lover and can't bare to see them treated badly. It's something I had a hard time with the whole time I was in Vietnam. I saw puppies kicked so hard that that they were rolling on the floor crying. The thinnest kitten you can imagine chained up to a busy street corner on Hanoi, too scared to move.
Any way, moving along. Besides the mistreatment of the animals, the market was very interesting to see. It was unlike any market I've ever been to.
After our morning in the market, we parted ways with Fred and Steph, sure that we will meet again in another part of the world. That afternoon Jason and I wandered around some small villages around Bac Ha and saw the beautiful farmlands as well as the beautiful children.
The next day we just hung out around town before making the long trip back to Hanoi and then flying to Luang Prabang, Laos.
Mar 28, 2009
In the Land of a Million Elephants
One of the big tourist attractions in Luang Prabang is riding elephants. Being the animal lover that I am, there was no way I was going to miss this. We found great Eco-tour company called Elephant Village. About a 40 minute drive out of town they have a little camp with a few cabins and 8 elephants and their "mahouts" (elephant trainers). All of the elephants have been saved from the logging industry where they were severely mistreated (they even give them drugs to make them work harder!). Now they have an easy life with good treatment, plenty of food and the easy job of carrying around tourists for a couple hours a day and hanging out in the jungle the rest of the time. And many of the mahouts also used to work in the logging industry, so now they have better lives as well.
So anyway, we decided to do a one day tour with the elephants. We were picked up from our hotel in the morning and drove the 40 minutes along "Dancing Road" to get to the camp. We had time to walk around the camp and got to see some of the elephants hanging out eating pineapple plants. We rode 2 people + mahout to an elephant, alternating riding in the saddle that holds 2 and on the elephant's neck. Our elephant was the youngest of the 8, a 17 year old girl named Mae. We rode around for about an hour, up and down hills and wading through a shallow river. I couldn't have been happier to be riding the elephant, it was so much fun!
We rode back to the camp to have lunch and pick up more elephants... This was the fun part! This time we rode one person per elephant (with the mahout) without the saddle. I rode on the neck and the mahout rode farther back yelling commands. We ride back down to the river, but this time to a deeper area. The elephants went all the way under water and got completely wet- and got us completely wet, too! We stayed in the water for 30 minutes scrubbing our elephants and getting the nice and clean. It was such a fun experience and you could tell the elephants loved it too. My teenager, Mae, kept splashing her trunk up and down and splashing everyone. It was a great experience that I'll remember forever.
After the river, we took the elephants to where they would stay for the rest of the day in the jungle and we headed to a waterfall to do dome more swimming and relaxing.
All such a great day, my favorite on our trip so far.
So anyway, we decided to do a one day tour with the elephants. We were picked up from our hotel in the morning and drove the 40 minutes along "Dancing Road" to get to the camp. We had time to walk around the camp and got to see some of the elephants hanging out eating pineapple plants. We rode 2 people + mahout to an elephant, alternating riding in the saddle that holds 2 and on the elephant's neck. Our elephant was the youngest of the 8, a 17 year old girl named Mae. We rode around for about an hour, up and down hills and wading through a shallow river. I couldn't have been happier to be riding the elephant, it was so much fun!
We rode back to the camp to have lunch and pick up more elephants... This was the fun part! This time we rode one person per elephant (with the mahout) without the saddle. I rode on the neck and the mahout rode farther back yelling commands. We ride back down to the river, but this time to a deeper area. The elephants went all the way under water and got completely wet- and got us completely wet, too! We stayed in the water for 30 minutes scrubbing our elephants and getting the nice and clean. It was such a fun experience and you could tell the elephants loved it too. My teenager, Mae, kept splashing her trunk up and down and splashing everyone. It was a great experience that I'll remember forever.
After the river, we took the elephants to where they would stay for the rest of the day in the jungle and we headed to a waterfall to do dome more swimming and relaxing.
All such a great day, my favorite on our trip so far.
Luang Prabang
What an amazing, beautiful, relaxing place! Lonely Planet calls it "the most beautiful town in South East Asia", and I think they're probably right. It was so nice to come to a quiet relaxing place after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. Luang Prabang is a town of about 25,000 situated on a peninsula between the Mekong River (the biggest in SE Asia) and a lesser river. It is a tourist hot spot which is obvious by the massive amounts of brand new guesthouses and trendy restaurants. But more than that, Luang Prabang is also the capital of Buddhism in Laos, and it is nearly impossible to set foot outside without seeing an orange robe clad monk. There are dozens of temples, big and small, scattered throughout the little city. Its such a laid back and relaxing place where everyone goes to bed early. Even the bars close by 11 pm. We loved Luang Prabang so much we ended up staying for a full week when we only planned for a few days (we hear this happens to lots of travellers here).
We stayed in a beautiful little guesthouse right on the river for $14 a night. It was wonderful: beautiful tile floors, great hard wood ceilings, nicely decorated and with our own big balcony. A place like this would easily run at least $150 a night in the States.
When in Luang Prabang, we did a lot of relaxing and just exploring the city. In Lao culture, stress is a bad thing and should be avoided as much as possible. This seemed to be our theme as well. We wandered around some of the amazing wats (temples), rode bikes around the city, ate great food, explored the night market, etc.
We spent a day at the beautiful Kwang Si waterfall with the bluest water you've ever seen. There are 3 pools of water where you can jump off the small waterfall, swing from the rope swing and picnic around the water. At the top there is a 100 meter waterfall surrounded by lush green trees and plants. There was also a bear sanctuary there where rescued Asiatic black bears have a safe place to reside.
Another thing that I really liked about Luang Prabang is that there seem to me a lot of people who are trying to do some good for their community. Such as the Elephant Village (see other post), the Red Cross (I got a massage there and the money went to charity... win win situation!), the Free the Bears Sanctuary and many more organizations, including a few to help the children.
Jason and I spent two mornings volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, a group that promotes literacy throughout Laos. They publish books in both English and Lao for kids of all ages. They disperse books throughout the country and try to encourage tourists to buy books to hand out to kids rather than candy. It's a great organization, learn more about them here. So anyway, volunteers can go there from 9-11 every morning to help students practice their English. We had thought we would be working with little kids and were a little surprised when we were greeted by a bunch of college kids. It wasn't what we were expecting, but we still had a nice time helping them and hearing their stories and learning more about their culture. A lot of them were from poor farming towns and their parents had saved up all their money to send their son to college.
Luang Prabang, what a wonderful place. I think it will probably stay as one of my top throughout the trip.
We stayed in a beautiful little guesthouse right on the river for $14 a night. It was wonderful: beautiful tile floors, great hard wood ceilings, nicely decorated and with our own big balcony. A place like this would easily run at least $150 a night in the States.
When in Luang Prabang, we did a lot of relaxing and just exploring the city. In Lao culture, stress is a bad thing and should be avoided as much as possible. This seemed to be our theme as well. We wandered around some of the amazing wats (temples), rode bikes around the city, ate great food, explored the night market, etc.
We spent a day at the beautiful Kwang Si waterfall with the bluest water you've ever seen. There are 3 pools of water where you can jump off the small waterfall, swing from the rope swing and picnic around the water. At the top there is a 100 meter waterfall surrounded by lush green trees and plants. There was also a bear sanctuary there where rescued Asiatic black bears have a safe place to reside.
Another thing that I really liked about Luang Prabang is that there seem to me a lot of people who are trying to do some good for their community. Such as the Elephant Village (see other post), the Red Cross (I got a massage there and the money went to charity... win win situation!), the Free the Bears Sanctuary and many more organizations, including a few to help the children.
Jason and I spent two mornings volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, a group that promotes literacy throughout Laos. They publish books in both English and Lao for kids of all ages. They disperse books throughout the country and try to encourage tourists to buy books to hand out to kids rather than candy. It's a great organization, learn more about them here. So anyway, volunteers can go there from 9-11 every morning to help students practice their English. We had thought we would be working with little kids and were a little surprised when we were greeted by a bunch of college kids. It wasn't what we were expecting, but we still had a nice time helping them and hearing their stories and learning more about their culture. A lot of them were from poor farming towns and their parents had saved up all their money to send their son to college.
Luang Prabang, what a wonderful place. I think it will probably stay as one of my top throughout the trip.
Mar 19, 2009
In the Highlands
The night train that Jason and I took along with Fred and Steph took us up to a small city in the north of Vietnam called Lao Cai, only 3 km from the Chinese border. We only stayed in Lao Cai long enough to find a mini bus to take us the other hour to Sapa. Sapa is a beautiful little mountain town that most tourists travel to to do some treking and see the indigenous people. And that's just what we did.
After quickly finding a place to stay (cheap! $6/night for the room. But you get what you pay for...) and a bite to eat, we headed out to do some treking around some nearby villages.
The landscape around Sapa is amazingly beautiful, it's east to see what draws so many tourists there. We slowly wandered through the green valley, through countless rice paddies, past grazing water buffalo and around feeding piglets and chicks. The local farmers and tribal people were incredibly friendly. The children watched us with curiousity and waved and yelled "hellogoodbye" until they could no longer see us.
After meandering around for about 4 hours we decided to make our way back toward Sapa. To get to the road that would lead us there, we had to cut back across the valley and up a mountain of about 500 meters. When we were almost to the top we came to a vertical dirt wall where farmers were digging out the mountainside. As we were about to climb up the footholes in the wall, we watched as a little boy of about 9 ran down the wall as fast as he could without missing a step. We slowly made our way up the wall as the locals all watched and laughed at how slowly and carefully we climbed.
We finally made it to the top and were lucky to get picked up by a tour van full of French tourists (who we would see many times again over our weekend) on theiir way back to town.
After quickly finding a place to stay (cheap! $6/night for the room. But you get what you pay for...) and a bite to eat, we headed out to do some treking around some nearby villages.
The landscape around Sapa is amazingly beautiful, it's east to see what draws so many tourists there. We slowly wandered through the green valley, through countless rice paddies, past grazing water buffalo and around feeding piglets and chicks. The local farmers and tribal people were incredibly friendly. The children watched us with curiousity and waved and yelled "hellogoodbye" until they could no longer see us.
After meandering around for about 4 hours we decided to make our way back toward Sapa. To get to the road that would lead us there, we had to cut back across the valley and up a mountain of about 500 meters. When we were almost to the top we came to a vertical dirt wall where farmers were digging out the mountainside. As we were about to climb up the footholes in the wall, we watched as a little boy of about 9 ran down the wall as fast as he could without missing a step. We slowly made our way up the wall as the locals all watched and laughed at how slowly and carefully we climbed.
We finally made it to the top and were lucky to get picked up by a tour van full of French tourists (who we would see many times again over our weekend) on theiir way back to town.
Mar 17, 2009
On the Night Train
Steph, Fred and Jason in our little room on the hard bunksFrom Hanoi, Jason and I, along with two new friends, a French couple, Fred and Steph, took the train to the small mountain town of Sapa. Most tourists book the train through a tour agency and travel in the special tourist cars. No, we decided, we weren't going to do that. We'd book our own tickets and ride with the locals for less than half the price. There are many different classes of tickets and we wanted the soft sleeper- the best- for our 9 hour overnight journey. Unfortunately all the soft sleepers were already sold, so we had to settle for the hard sleeper- the second best.
I thought it would be okay. In China we had taken the soft sleeper, which was clean, comfortable, and quiet. We heard the hard sleeper was basically the same thing there, just as comfortable. We found out the hard way that that is not the case in Vietnam.
At the train station we made our way to our dirty old train car and found our little compartment which the four of us would share with two more locals. It was not clean. It was not comfortable. And it was definitely not quiet. To sleep on, we had rock solid linolium bunks covered by a thin bamboo mat. All night long people shouted in the hallways, which didn't really matter because the roar of the train through the open window was already loud enough.
And I'm not even going to talk about the condition of the bathroom.
The four of us stayed up for a while sitting on the bottom bunks playing cards so that we would hopefully be so tired we would just crash. And it worked, except for the fact that we all woke up everytime the train made a stop- about every 10 km.
Thanks, but we're taking the tourist train on the way back.
I thought it would be okay. In China we had taken the soft sleeper, which was clean, comfortable, and quiet. We heard the hard sleeper was basically the same thing there, just as comfortable. We found out the hard way that that is not the case in Vietnam.
At the train station we made our way to our dirty old train car and found our little compartment which the four of us would share with two more locals. It was not clean. It was not comfortable. And it was definitely not quiet. To sleep on, we had rock solid linolium bunks covered by a thin bamboo mat. All night long people shouted in the hallways, which didn't really matter because the roar of the train through the open window was already loud enough.
And I'm not even going to talk about the condition of the bathroom.
The four of us stayed up for a while sitting on the bottom bunks playing cards so that we would hopefully be so tired we would just crash. And it worked, except for the fact that we all woke up everytime the train made a stop- about every 10 km.
Thanks, but we're taking the tourist train on the way back.
Mar 11, 2009
Halong Bay Tour
As I said in my last post, we spent a lot of time trying to find a good tour agency for Halong Bay. Well after all of that, the tour we chose ended up getting canceled the night before we were supposed to leave. They claimed engine failure in the boat but who knows what really happened. So we rushed out that evening (after a long day of walking all around Hanoi) and found a new agency- ODC Tours. The one we decided on ended up being great, so it all worked out in the end.
Monday morning we were wisked off from our hotel bright and early to make the 4 hour drive to Halong. Once at the harbor we boarded our "junk" which was to be our home for the next couple of days. The boat was 3 stories with rooms on the bottom, dining area in the middle and a sun deck on top. Everything was really very nice. We met the 9 other people who were joining us on our tour- all Germans, all nice people. They served us an amazing lunch on board with just about every kind of seafood you can imagine. Jason and I both agreed these would probably be the fanciest meals of our whole vacation.
After cruising around the beautiful islands for a couple hours we arrived at our first stop: Amazing Cave. The cave is massive and definitely lived up to it's name. There were 3 rooms, each bigger than the last. Although a lot of the cave has been ruined since the French explorers found it in 1906, there were still some huge, incredible stlagtites/mites to be seen.
After the cave we made our way to a nearby island (Dao Ti Top) which we were able to climb to the top of to get some amazing views of the bay. After that, it was another wonderful dinner and more relaxing on the boat.
The next morning we went over to Cat Ba Island, the only island of the 3000 islands that is inhabited. There is a town on Cat Ba, but we went to another side of the island where we were able to hike to a small farming village if about 200 people. It was really interesting to see their simple way of life, even though they still had satellites beaming TV signals into their one room houses. But the village, and the farm land and the surrounding jungle were all beautiful and we enjoyed a nice lunch here before walking back to the boat. In the afternoon, we kayaked around; in and out of small bays, through arches and around coral reefs. All beatiful.
That night we stayed in a hotel in the small town on Cat Ba. Being that it's off season everything in the town was deserted, including the 3 small beaches. After a night in the hotel we made the long journey back to Hanoi- 4 hours on the boat and 4 hours on the bus! But it was a great experience and we saw some beatiful things. The limestone islands covered in foliage that jut straight out of the water are a sight to be seen. Can't wait till I can post photos!
Tomorrow, off to the mountains of Sapa for several days of treking and visiting mountain tribes...
Monday morning we were wisked off from our hotel bright and early to make the 4 hour drive to Halong. Once at the harbor we boarded our "junk" which was to be our home for the next couple of days. The boat was 3 stories with rooms on the bottom, dining area in the middle and a sun deck on top. Everything was really very nice. We met the 9 other people who were joining us on our tour- all Germans, all nice people. They served us an amazing lunch on board with just about every kind of seafood you can imagine. Jason and I both agreed these would probably be the fanciest meals of our whole vacation.
After cruising around the beautiful islands for a couple hours we arrived at our first stop: Amazing Cave. The cave is massive and definitely lived up to it's name. There were 3 rooms, each bigger than the last. Although a lot of the cave has been ruined since the French explorers found it in 1906, there were still some huge, incredible stlagtites/mites to be seen.
After the cave we made our way to a nearby island (Dao Ti Top) which we were able to climb to the top of to get some amazing views of the bay. After that, it was another wonderful dinner and more relaxing on the boat.
The next morning we went over to Cat Ba Island, the only island of the 3000 islands that is inhabited. There is a town on Cat Ba, but we went to another side of the island where we were able to hike to a small farming village if about 200 people. It was really interesting to see their simple way of life, even though they still had satellites beaming TV signals into their one room houses. But the village, and the farm land and the surrounding jungle were all beautiful and we enjoyed a nice lunch here before walking back to the boat. In the afternoon, we kayaked around; in and out of small bays, through arches and around coral reefs. All beatiful.
That night we stayed in a hotel in the small town on Cat Ba. Being that it's off season everything in the town was deserted, including the 3 small beaches. After a night in the hotel we made the long journey back to Hanoi- 4 hours on the boat and 4 hours on the bus! But it was a great experience and we saw some beatiful things. The limestone islands covered in foliage that jut straight out of the water are a sight to be seen. Can't wait till I can post photos!
Tomorrow, off to the mountains of Sapa for several days of treking and visiting mountain tribes...
Mar 7, 2009
Hanoi!
Well. we have been in Hanoi for 3 days now, this is the morning of our 4th day. Things have been good so far, although we haven't done a ton of stuff. Our first day and 1/2 we spent just trying to figure out travel plans. One of the big things we had to organize was our trip to Halong Bay. There are hundreds of tour agencies around Hanoi that offer trips to Halong. Each trip sounds almost exactly the same, it's so hard to know which tour to go on. And the problem is that if you end up with the wrong agency you can get completely scammed. For a 3 day/2 night Halong Bay cruise, you can expect to pay anywhere between about $30 and $200. Yeah, big range. That is for different class levels (budget, midrange and luxury) as well as for different tour operators. After a good solid day of research, we ended up going with a company that seems reliable and paid $100 for a midrange tour. So we'll see how it turns out! We've also been booking other things, like train tickets to Sapa in the very north and plane tickets to Laos. It all takes forever, but at least we have it all done now.
The only real touring we have done so far was yesterday. We took a day trip to the Purfume Pagoda, about 2 hours south of Hanoi. We took a bus down to a little river hopped on a little metal row boat with the 5 other people in our group. A very strong, very little old lady proceeded to row us down the river for about an hour, not stopping once! I was really pretty impressed. I don't think a lot of big strong men could even do that...
Anyway, the view along the river was incredible. We were surrounded by bell shaped lush, green mountains on all sides. (And did I mention how green everything is here? All the farm land and the mountains are the most beautiful vibrant shade of green. It's amazing.) As we rowed down the river, we were followed by dozens of boats (mostly filled with locals) all going to the same place as us. Finally, we got to the docking station, where hundreds of other boats were already waiting. We were told that the pagoda would be crowded at this time of year (after the Lunar New Year thousands of buddhists come to the pagoda), but I don't think anything could have really prepared us for what we were about to see. The little walking streets were PACKED with people. And all of the streets were lined with restaurants and little shops, trying to sell anything and everything. All of that was okay, but what was really annoying about it was that almost every shop was either blarring music or a tv or had someone yelling over a microphone. It wasn't quite the peaceful buddhist retreat I imagined.
So we sat down at a restaurant to eat some lunch. All of the restaurants have various kinds of animals hanging in front of their store, ready to chop off a piece of meat to serve to you. They don't use refridgerators, so all of the meat just sits out. For someone who already doesn't eat red meat and pork, it made me not want to eat any meat at all. So I had a delicious lunch of rice, cooked cabbage and a little bit of tofu.
After that, we opted to take the new cable car up to the top, where we were greeted with a crowd of people even bigger than we had seen at the base. We made our way through to the cave at the top. You could tell it was once a beautiful cave with amazing stalagtites and such, but now most have been broken off and everything is covered in hand grease, so it no longer grows. There were a couple little shrines in the large cave, but it really wasn't too impressive or worth visiting overall.
We hiked back down the mountain (about 40 minutes down, all on stairs and surrounded by the shops with the loudspeakers) and at the bottom found the nice little pagoda. There were very few people around the temples and it was actually possible to find some peace and quite. The only nice part.
After all of that, we went back the way we came, with the same little old lady rowing us all the way back up the river.
So for today, we are going to wander a little more around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The weather here is really cool, around the 60s, and it's always completely overcast. And it's actually been raining a little bit this morning (did I tell you this is the dry season?). We wanted to eat like the locals do here, but so far we've just been eating in the touristy restaurants that are just filled with other Westerners. There aren't really any local restaurants, just little street corners set up to sell food. We would try to eat there, but there are a few problems: 1) We're afraid of getting sick from unrefriderated meat, 2) They don't serve things that I eat and 3) They are just as expensive as the tourist restaurants (for foreigners at least, I doubt the locals pay that much). So the tourist restaurants it is. Oh and my favorite thing here so far is Bia Hoi: beer corner. Locals set up a keg and a few little plastic chairs and you can hang out and grab a beer for 3,000 dong, which is equal to about 15 cents. Good deal!
The only real touring we have done so far was yesterday. We took a day trip to the Purfume Pagoda, about 2 hours south of Hanoi. We took a bus down to a little river hopped on a little metal row boat with the 5 other people in our group. A very strong, very little old lady proceeded to row us down the river for about an hour, not stopping once! I was really pretty impressed. I don't think a lot of big strong men could even do that...
Anyway, the view along the river was incredible. We were surrounded by bell shaped lush, green mountains on all sides. (And did I mention how green everything is here? All the farm land and the mountains are the most beautiful vibrant shade of green. It's amazing.) As we rowed down the river, we were followed by dozens of boats (mostly filled with locals) all going to the same place as us. Finally, we got to the docking station, where hundreds of other boats were already waiting. We were told that the pagoda would be crowded at this time of year (after the Lunar New Year thousands of buddhists come to the pagoda), but I don't think anything could have really prepared us for what we were about to see. The little walking streets were PACKED with people. And all of the streets were lined with restaurants and little shops, trying to sell anything and everything. All of that was okay, but what was really annoying about it was that almost every shop was either blarring music or a tv or had someone yelling over a microphone. It wasn't quite the peaceful buddhist retreat I imagined.
So we sat down at a restaurant to eat some lunch. All of the restaurants have various kinds of animals hanging in front of their store, ready to chop off a piece of meat to serve to you. They don't use refridgerators, so all of the meat just sits out. For someone who already doesn't eat red meat and pork, it made me not want to eat any meat at all. So I had a delicious lunch of rice, cooked cabbage and a little bit of tofu.
After that, we opted to take the new cable car up to the top, where we were greeted with a crowd of people even bigger than we had seen at the base. We made our way through to the cave at the top. You could tell it was once a beautiful cave with amazing stalagtites and such, but now most have been broken off and everything is covered in hand grease, so it no longer grows. There were a couple little shrines in the large cave, but it really wasn't too impressive or worth visiting overall.
We hiked back down the mountain (about 40 minutes down, all on stairs and surrounded by the shops with the loudspeakers) and at the bottom found the nice little pagoda. There were very few people around the temples and it was actually possible to find some peace and quite. The only nice part.
After all of that, we went back the way we came, with the same little old lady rowing us all the way back up the river.
So for today, we are going to wander a little more around the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The weather here is really cool, around the 60s, and it's always completely overcast. And it's actually been raining a little bit this morning (did I tell you this is the dry season?). We wanted to eat like the locals do here, but so far we've just been eating in the touristy restaurants that are just filled with other Westerners. There aren't really any local restaurants, just little street corners set up to sell food. We would try to eat there, but there are a few problems: 1) We're afraid of getting sick from unrefriderated meat, 2) They don't serve things that I eat and 3) They are just as expensive as the tourist restaurants (for foreigners at least, I doubt the locals pay that much). So the tourist restaurants it is. Oh and my favorite thing here so far is Bia Hoi: beer corner. Locals set up a keg and a few little plastic chairs and you can hang out and grab a beer for 3,000 dong, which is equal to about 15 cents. Good deal!
Mar 5, 2009
And We're Off!
Well, this is it. I can't believe were actually on our way. We've been planning this trip since we came to Korea a year ago, hard to believe it's actually happening now.
These last few days have been insanely busy. We knew we had a lot to do but had no idea it would take us so long to do it all. It's a good thing we waited 5 days after we finised work. Let me tell you, preparing for a vacation involving 6 countries, moving out of your apartment, moving out of the country AND leaving your job all at the same time is a LOT of work!
I've started calling our trip 'Jason and Elena's Big Adventure' because that's just what it's going to be. Neither of us have ever been on the road for this long of a time period before- 12 weeks! It should be interesting to see how we do with it. I know it will be amazing, just hope we don't have too many hiccups along the way.
I am writing this on the plane from Seoul to Hanoi on my handy dandy ipod. The laptop is stating with a friend in Korea so my iPod will be like an extension of me while were on the road. I don't know what I would do without this little thing!
Well time to get some rest.
Five hours to Vietnam.....
These last few days have been insanely busy. We knew we had a lot to do but had no idea it would take us so long to do it all. It's a good thing we waited 5 days after we finised work. Let me tell you, preparing for a vacation involving 6 countries, moving out of your apartment, moving out of the country AND leaving your job all at the same time is a LOT of work!
I've started calling our trip 'Jason and Elena's Big Adventure' because that's just what it's going to be. Neither of us have ever been on the road for this long of a time period before- 12 weeks! It should be interesting to see how we do with it. I know it will be amazing, just hope we don't have too many hiccups along the way.
I am writing this on the plane from Seoul to Hanoi on my handy dandy ipod. The laptop is stating with a friend in Korea so my iPod will be like an extension of me while were on the road. I don't know what I would do without this little thing!
Well time to get some rest.
Five hours to Vietnam.....
Mar 1, 2009
It's Really Over...
I can't believe I'm done! It's been a whole year in Korea and my, how the time has flown. It's been a great experience and I can't believe it's over already.
Saying goodbye to my kindergartners was so hard.... well, for me at least. They didn't really seem to realize what was going on. They know that I'm going back to America, but I don't think they understood that when I said bye to them after their graduation ceremony on Wednesday that that was the last time I would ever see them. Actually, about half of then didn't even say bye to me. I was a little disappointed that the parents (who know that I'm leaving) wouldn't have their kids come up and say bye and thank you or anything. Oh well, I know they'll miss me and they'll remember me years from now. And I'll always remember them as well.
Ahh, another chapter is finished.
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