Last leg of the trip!

My last leg of the trip was in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I only had one full day there, but it was very full and everything I did was fun. Many people had said HCMC was boring compared to Hanoi and less interesting culturally so that was a pleasant surprise.

Got in to HCMC June 1 early evening, after a night train back to Hanoi from Lao Cai, which arrived Hanoi at about 4:30 am, which was a little unsavory to say the least considering that there wasn't anywhere open for a good three and a half more hours. In HCMC, spent the first hour or so searching for a good guesthouse as the ones I saw were all more expensive than in Hanoi. Finally went to Lonely Planet recommended Hong Hoa, $17, but I probably could have gotten it for $15 -- forgot to bargain!! I bargained the first two places I went and got the price down a couple dollars but by the time I got to Hong Hoa I guess I was just ready to put my bag down and get some dinner. If I were to go back with a bigger budget/ less interest in finding good deals (ok, so it's unlikely) I'd probably stay at Saigon Comfort Hotel, which I bargained down to $20. Better decor, bigger and nicer, nicer bathroom. I'd recommend it even for people who are looking mainly for nice/comfort, as the location is great and the alley it's on has a lot of cute little restaurants and seems very local despite being a place where tourists stay. All the places I checked out were off the street Pham Ngu Lao. The place I finally decided on was in "mini hotel alley" which was super cute in terms of nearby restaurants and cafes.

First item on the full day in HCMC was another cooking class, but I forgot to bring my camera!! I went to the Vietnam Cookery Center, which was a little hard to find for my moto driver, even with their printed out directions. Was about $10 more expensive than the place I went in Hanoi, but I loved the one I did in Hanoi and wanted to do another one, so I just did it. It was much fancier than the one in Hanoi, which I didn't need, but the food was a little tastier too which was good. We made spring rolls again, but this time we used a new kind of wrapper that looks kid of like a net, that apparently will keep your spring rolls crispy for up to 6 hours.

This picture gives you an idea of what the wrapper looks like, though the spring rolls we made actually looked a lot better than this.


We ate ours wrapped in a piece of lettuce with some fresh noodles and mint leaves, then dipped in special garlic/ chili dipping sauce. It was delicious. A perfect lesson too in Vietnamese cooking as it was "balanced" in every way - salty, sweet and sour, crispy and soft, green and red, etc.

After the cooking class I went back to the hotel for a quick rest and some iced coffee. Vietnamese coffee is pretty much the strongest coffee you'll ever have, and they usually serve it with condensed milk, which i ask for on the side.

That is not a spoon coming out of the condensed milk!

I walked from my hotel to the War Remnants Museum, which was interesting. Outside the museum they have planes, tanks, guns and bombs used by the US military in the Vietnam War, and replicas of the "tiger cages" that Viet Cong prisoners were kept in. Lots of info on the prison for Viet Cong on Phu Quoc island that I had previously only heard of as an untouched paradise for beaching and relaxing, so that surprised me a bit. Inside they had smaller remants including bullets, bombs, grenades, and lots of pictures, with a large exhibit on the birth defects caused after the war by Agent Orange. Didn't take any pictures though.

Next I went to the local market in search of some of those spring roll wrappers, which was quite a challenge with no language ability, but I managed to find them eventually with use of pictures I'd taken on my phone and gesturing.

After that I went home for some spring roll hors deuvres (obssessed? yes) and a soda.

Was happy that most places throughout SE Asia have plain soda, one of my favorites. This cafe sold it with some lime and sugar for 15,000 dong (about 90 cents?). Didn't add the sugar of course but the lime idea was tasty.

Dinner was Indian food, which was pretty much my favorite food while I was in SE Asia.

Indian food for dinner

The next morning I caught a 6:15 AM flight out of HCMC headed back to the US. Cool thing was it was only the second day that Northwest was running this flight, and on the 757, which had about 35 rows in coach times 6 seats per row, there were only about ten passengers!

Unsure whether to be excited or grumpy at the idea of being on an empty plane at 6:15 am.

Missed connection in Detroit due to luggage taking forever to arrive, but made it home to Boston by 7, where Mum and Sis were waiting to pick me up!

Loved my trip and am already planning where to go when I go back! Potential places include:
Malaysia again - Perhentians and Malaysian Borneo. Indonesia - Sumatra, Bali, and Borneo. Back to Thailand for more Ko Phi Phi, check out Ko Lanta and stay at Bottle Beach on Ko Pha Ngon, go to Chiang Mai and do some trekking in Northern Thailand, do more exploring in Cambodia and some in Laos, and Phu Quoc island in southern Vietnam. Other suggestions?

Sapa Trip

Am currently in Lao Cai in northern Vietnam, about three kilometers from the Chinese border, the Red River, which we went to see. Smelled like I remember. Just got back from a two day trek in the rice paddy/ terraces of Sapa and a day to the Bac Ha market in the other direction. The trek was one of the all time highlights of my trip thus far due to beautiful scenery, interesting people and ways of life, and animals galore!! It was raining while we were trekking, which was great, and it got pretty cold at night - I slept with two shirts, pj pants and a thick blanket which was a nice change after the intense heat pretty much everywhere else. Saw so many cool and new things and felt somewhat like a pioneer even though there were plenty of other tourists there (didn't see them for the most part as our guide took us on a road less traveled. Nice.)

Going to go right into pictures as I could write all day about the things I saw there.

Rice is pretty much the main crop grown here, followed by corn. The rice growing process is super labor intensive already but add to that the steepness of the mountains and the less suitable climate than elsewhere (according to our guide, Sapa gets one crop a year while southern Vietnam around Saigon gets three) and you your work cut out for you. The people there use buffalo to help them plant and dig the terrace paddies.

Once they are big enough, rice seedlings are pulled up and transplanted to another paddy where they are more spread out.

Seedlings tied to a pole for carrying. That hill was steep!!

The area we were hiking was home to a minority group called the Black Hmong, who use indigo to dye their clothes a very dark blue (I guess) making them look almost black. The vast majority wear this traditional dress.

Black Hmong traditional clothes drying by the path

Indigo dye for making traditional clothes

On our way we passed by a very small village school where this boy and his friends were playing with their pet birds. He keeps his in this can with a little moss at the bottom!

This little girl came up to check us out while we were sitting outside in the evening with her little brother on her back. She was very cute at first and just hanging out but later came back and tried to sell us stuff. Less cute

Some piglets in the village where we stayed. Assuming they are... Vietnamese potbellied pigs! We will soon be acquiring one at home!!

After the trek I spent the night in Sapa town, which is a very cool place and reminded me a lot of Yangshuo, China, but less crowded and a little more relaxing. Today we went to the market at Bac Ha village where another minority group, the Flower Hmong, come to stock up on weekly supplies. You can tell why these people are called the Flower Hmong versus Black Hmong...

Flower Hmong woman selling some piglets!

Thread for making the traditional Flower Hmong clothes

"Charlotte, take us home with you!!!"

Hopping the night train back to Hanoi in about an hour and a half. Tomorrow catching a plane to Saigon!

Hello motorbike!!

Just got back yesterday from a trip to Halong Bay, of the northern coast of Vietnam, where I spent one night on a boat and one on a hotel in Cat Ba town. Spotty internet there, so today, back in Hanoi, will be my first good chance to update blog since getting to Vietnam.

My first full day in Vietnam consisted mainly of wandering around the old quarter of Hanoi. I went first to check out the leftovers of what American POWs used to call the Hanoi Hilton, known to the Vietnamese as Hoa Lo ("fiery furnace"/ "Hell's hole") Prison. Apparently this was where John McCain was tortured, leaving him unable to raise his arms above his shoulders. It was originally built by the French in 1886.

Outside the prison

... Inside the walls

From there I found my way to Hoan Kiem Lake, which means "Lake of the Restored Sword". Wikipedia's explanation: According to the legend, emperor Le Loi handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will which brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) in the lake and hence gave it its present name (the lake was formerly known as "Luc Thuy" meaning "Green Water"). Lake was pretty, but my main interest was in seeing the preserved remains of one of the giant soft shelled turtles that supposedly still live in the lake.

Pagoda dedicated to turtle god

Tortilious Maximus

The next day I hopped a bus to Halong City for my cruise of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island, the only inhabited island in the bay. Experienced beautiful scenery and some quality beach and boat time!

Don't mind if I do!

Halong Bay

Cat Ba Island:

Someone's peanuts drying...

Chicken invasion!!!

Cat Co 2 beach, around 3 pm

Same beach, one hour later! Guessing the beach is the place to be after school or work. Sounds reasonable.

Lampost, Cat Ba style

Today, back in Hanoi, I had my first cooking class of the trip. Wanted to do one in Thailand or Malaysia so I could learn how to make curry, but today I got to learn how to make spring rolls among other things so I'm satisfied. Might take another one in Saigon.

Frying up some spring rolls

"Royal Rice" - steamed rice with layers of veggie and tofu

The chef prepares sweet and sour tofu

Tonight I'm hopping a night train up to Sapa, a mountainous region in the north, where I'll do some trekking and check out the local market Sunday!

Spent two nights in Bangkok which was fun. Stayed near Khao San road, the backpacker touristy area, which was pretty fun/funny in and of itself. Quite the scene. Much cheaper than the other parts of Thailand I'd been in, which I liked. Other Bangkok highlights included taking the river taxi:

View from river taxi. Tug pulling barge train! And lotus forest floating down the river.

And coming across an elephant in the middle of the road. I fed him some sugarcane for a dollar. The owners were poking him with a spike though, and he would give a little squeak when they did which I didn't like.

I looked up and there was an elephant!! He was so cute and kept trying to grab things with his trunk

Bussed it from Bangkok to Siem Reap to check out the Angkor temples. Thailand-Cambodia border scene was CRAZY madness with "service fees" and all sorts of mayhem getting a taxi.

Angkor temples were very cool. All respects to Angkor Wat but I liked Ta Prohm the most. Much less restoration has been done there so it's still covered with vegetation looks really wild. I kept having images of the party the monkeys must have had before people started clearing it up again.

King of the Swingers

Angkor Wat in the early AM

Bayon

Bayon

Bayon

Ta Prohm

Would like to go back with my anthropology buff Mum!

Did not realize how poor Cambodia would be, and how far behind all the other Asian countries I've visited in terms of development. Went to a city called Battambang, supposedly Cambodia's biggest behind Phnom Penh, to get my Vietnam visa, and decided to buy my plane ticket to Vietnam while I was there, which took about three hours of running around between printing, making copies of passport etc and faxing as it seemed there weren't any shops that offered more than one of these services at once. Finally finished the process this morning. Whew!

Next stop Hanoi!!

Vote!!

Finishing up my time in Thailand. Should I now go to Cambodia or Laos?

Factors:
Not enough time for both, want to be able to spend fairly good time wherever I go
Flight is June 3 out of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam

Thoughts and ideas?

While the rest of Phuket was not unexciting, since I'm pretty behind in my blog I'm going to skip over it.

Cool architecture in Phuket

Decide to go to Ko Phangan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. So that involves crossing the country, kind of (getting from the west coast to the east coast :) ) and taking a ferry to the islands. I didn't want to spend the whole day traveling, so decided to take the night ferry despite new bedbug paranoia. Didn't know how to get a reliable time table of buses and ferry scehdules since everything seems to run on a different schedule in the off season, and in a moment of weakness decided to just book the trip through one of the travel agents near the bus station. I get on my overpriced minibus at 5 and the driver drives like a maniac to Surat Thani, the town I'm supposed to catch the ferry from, and drops me off with a giggle nowhere near the pier. There I'm met by some other guy, who tells me that the ferry is not running tonight due to the monsoon and that I'll have to pay another 750 baht for another ferry ticket for tomorrow (because I'd lost the original ticket - oops) despite the fact that the initial bus-ferry combo ticket was only 700 baht. SCAM!!!!!!! Having read about this exact scam in my guidebook, I walk out unamused and hop a tuktuk to the pier. Of course the ferry is there and waiting for our scheduled 11 pm departure, and I climb aboard.

The trip is very nice as the air is cool, there's a nice cross breeze, and no bed bugs to speak of.

Fill next morning finding a place to stay and conducting some minor island exploration. In the afternoon go to Sunrise Beach for a swim, the site of the island's famous "full moon parties". Far out. Rent motorbike for tomorrow's use and head to bed early so I can get a full day of action in before it's on to Bangkok.

Day 14.

Early morning up and at 'em so I can be sure to get to Bottle Beach, supposed to be the most beautiful beach on the island, on the other side of the island and back in time for the ferry.

Map of Koh Phangon. Notice how there is but a dotted line instead of an actual road getting to Bottle Beach

I'm staying at Hat Rin Nai in the southeastern corner of the island.

Fueling up the bike pretrip

Gas comes in bottles

Rebel without a cause

I start out on the road and am pretty much a grinning fool for the first several hours on the bike, zipping around and catching lots of awesome views. Maybe feeling pretty cool too.

Cool old wat on the way. Didn't get much info on it as all signage was in Thai

First stop is Ban Thong Nai Pan, which I was hoping was Bottle Beach, but alas it was not. Got some great views anyway.

Ban Thong Nai Pan

View off the northeast side

It was really hot

You might think about coming down this on your bike, but I advise against

Ride back and forth by the road turning off to Bottle Beach about 5 times before I meet Pedro at a roadside stand where we had both stopped to ask for directions. Pedro and I set off on the quest for Bottle Beach together.

Three or so dead ends and several hours later we finally make it to the right road. Very excited to make it to the beach finally but I have to turn around after a quick drink in order to catch my ferry. Was pouring rain on Bottle Beach when I got there, but could tell it was a beautiful beach with a cool crowd, and would recommend anyone who goes to Phangon to check it out

Is it this road? Pedro and I park our bikes and hike in

Or this road? Park and hike #2

Finally found it at the end of the third road

Make it back to get my ferry with time to spare and order up some delicious noodles and spring roll, enjoy with a coke before hopping on the ferry off island.

Dinner



Wet clothes hanging off bag akimbo

Fishing boats heading out for evening catch

Close up. Lieutenant Dan!