Hanoi, Vietnam

After a pleasant 2 hour early morning flight, we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam yesterday. It was an unusual experience for us to depart Koh San Rd. at 4 am. Usually we’re not even back to our guesthouse by that time! With no beer goggles on, the streets were less impressive with rats, trash, and drunken backpackers.

Once we arrived at our hotel, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, we slept the afternoon away. To make up for spending the afternoon in bed, we walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake and saw a Vietnamese water puppetry show.

Today we walked around the Old Quarter, a charming and aesthetically pleasing neighborhood - minus the lack of pedestrian crossings! While crossing the street, one must proceed slowly as traffic swerves to maneuver around you. We visited the Ngoc Son Temple, located on an island in the lake. The temple is home to the embalmed remains of a giant tortoise. We toured the Memorial House, a restored Chinese-style merchant’s home, where we purchased souvenirs made out of ox bones. Lastly, we visited the Hoa Lo Prison museum, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by US POW’s (including Senator John McCain) during the Vietnam War.

Hanoi has an old school  charm. Old women sell baguettes at most street corners. There are coffee houses everywhere, where men of every age convene to drink. Women in straw, pointed hats sell flowers from their bicycles. Old men, wearing beret's or pageboy hats, sit in public parks and play a Vietnamese version of checkers

Southeast Asia seems to be in a cold spell at the moment, so I purchased a jacket; my first time wearing one in a year! The Vietnamese are more urban and stylish in black leather coats, skinny jeans, and trench coats. We don't miss the polkadots, bows, and mismatched clothing!

So far, Vietnam has not been as tranquil as Thailand, there's more aggression here (i.e. yelling taxi drivers). We’ve encountered the efficiency and fast maneuvering of the Vietnamese. For example, while paying our taxi driver in front of a hotel, our bags were carried inside the hotel before we even had a chance to exit the cab and before even agreeing to stay a night!  In the morning we’re taking an early train up to Sapa, a former French hill station, located only 38 km from China.

P.s. Now in beautiful Sapa, high in the mountains. And despite the freezing temperatures (I bought an even warmer jacket and socks, Randi's wearing 2 jackets), we love it up here. The French architecture is charming and the Vienamese hill tribes are in colorful, traditional clothing.  It's a bit like an otherworldly village from a fairytale :)

~ Stacy

Highlights from Chiang Rai, Thailand:

- At the city’s night market, while purchasing matching necklaces, the ground started shaking from underneath us! Initially, Bridge thought it was a train and I thought it was construction. However, as the shaking continued, and Randi led us onto the street, we realized we were all experiencing our first earthquake! When a large flock of disrupted birds flew overhead in a rush, it definitely got our hearts racing! We, also, experienced a few aftershocks; early the next morning Bridge and I even awoke to another one.

- A lovely 3 hour long-tail boat ride along the Mekong River

- Having to close and lock the door at our guesthouse with a bungee chord

- Goodbyes with Bridge... the worst thing about traveling and living abroad :(

~ Stacy

A Slice of Pai and Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Pai - After a great time in Chiang Mai we continued to head north, first stopping in Pai. Though it is only a short distance from Chiang Mai, it is nestled in the mountains, we experienced a total of 762 curves along the way. When we arrived we found a charming guesthouse, Breeze of Pai, and got settled in our cozy bungalow. The first day was spent exploring the city. Pai is very charming, with numerous little restaurants and shops. After doing some shopping at the local night market we finished off the evening with a bottle of Hong Tong in the room. On our second day we soon realized that most of the attractions were a bit of a drive, our best option was to rent scooters. Now Bridgette is a very experienced driver having had her own scooter for the past year; as for Stacy and I neither of us had ever driven one before. As we have said before we are trying to conquer some fears on this journey and seeing as I was scared to even ride a regular bicycle this was something I should try. So Bridgette went ahead and rented one for me to practice on and her being the great teacher she is I got to an “okay” comfort level on the first day. After some practice we decided to head to Fluid – an outdoor pool. After experiencing the coldest weather ever in Thailand during the past few days the sunshine and heat were welcomed with open arms. So we spent most of the afternoon at the pool and Bridgette did a quick scope out of the roads to see what I would be up against. After doing about 10km she determined I would be fine. So the next day after a little more practice in actual traffic I went ahead and rented my own scooter. We decided to head to Lod Cave about 45Km outside Pai. The beginning of our journey was easy enough but as we got further and further outside of the city it became very clear we would have to drive though some mountains to reach the cave. So on my first time driving I took the curves in stride with only some minor freaking out on my part. It was definitely good practice  We took a short break at a lookout point before heading on to the cave. It was a beautiful view of Pai and very impressive how far we had already driven. We finally made it to the cave and decided to book a tour considering how far we had come. We booked a guide complete with lantern and were lead to the mouth of the cave which we entered by bamboo raft. We then took a tour of the cave – about a 1km walk. We saw some cool stalactites, stalagmites, and a very old image etched on one of the walls. We were also taken to some coffins and were given each a coin by our very friendly guide to pay respect to the dead. Our last part of the tour consisted of floating under a couple hundred bats swarming the mouth of the cave. All in all it was a pretty cool thing to see but considering we didn’t want to being driving the extremely sharp curves in the ever darkening sky we made our way back into town. The next morning was our last day in Pai before heading on to Mae Hong Son. We all really enjoyed Pai and its beautiful charm.

Mae Hong Son - On this leg of the journey we decided to travel by local bus. This added about 2 hours to the journey as the drive there is even curvier than the one to Pai. It was awesome to take a slow drive through the mountains and experience the beauty of the north. Once in town we were a little unsure as to what we had arrived in. On the surface it seemed like a boring little town with not much to do. Originally we had planned to stop at a Monastery and do a meditation retreat for three days but unfortunately missed our stop and so we ended up in the actual city. Now being an experienced driver we rented scooters again and headed to a spa for a mud facial. We were slightly disappointed with the experience considering it only lasted 15 min and we had to wash the mud off our selves! We then headed back to town and did some walking around; we finished the night off with massages. So instead of improving our minds we spent quality time keeping our bodies young and beautiful. The next morning we got up bright and early hoping to catch a morning bus back to Chiang Mai, the only way to get to Chiang Rai is by leaving from Chiang Mai.

~ Randi

Chiang Mai Trek - Thailand

Bridge, Randi, and I arrived in Chiang Mai a few days ago. While waiting for Kate and Bri to join, we visited the Sunday Night Market, got lost, saw some movies, danced to some reggae, and bought matching trekking shoes for only 350 baht. Bored of cities, we (Bridge, Randi, Kate, Bri, and I) decided to escape into the jungle for a few days, so we booked a 3 day trek. Note: It rained all 3 days.

Day 1: We visited an orchid and butterfly farm. Then, we hiked to an elephant training camp in the hills. We embarked on an hour long elephant trek up a muddy mountain. The elephants were not willing participants, so there were a few divergences from the muddy trail. In order to safely stay on the elephant, we held firmly to our metal seat. Back at camp, we spent the evening huddled around a picnic table in an attempt to escape the cold rain. We slept in a straw mountainside hut.

Day 2: We awoke to a beautiful view of the valley and watched as the elephants bathed in the pool. Then we began the rigorous part of the journey: a 3 hour muddy, rainy, and slippery trek up a mountain. Our guide, Yui, made us all bamboo walking sticks, which helped significantly! There was a lot of sliding backwards, a few falls (Randi suffered the most scratches), and some fear and anxiety (Did I mention that I’m afraid of heights?!). Our new Canadian friends, Bryden and Mike made it to the top first. I pulled in last, followed by our friendly and helpful guide. We settled in atop the hillside village. Due to the rain and cold, we spent the next 8 hours around the campfire. We listened to Mike and Bryden play the guitar, had some Chang, and played some drinking games. We were, also, entertained by the state of our guide. Turns out, many people trek into the mountains for the opium. Us gals politely declined.

Day 3: After a cold nite, we set back down the slippery mountain. There were less falls than expected! We gained a great appreciation for our bamboo walking sticks. At the bottom, we visited a beautiful waterfall. The boys braved the freezing weather and took a quick dive in. Next, we went white water and bamboo rafting. Despite the freezing air, water, and rain, we all had a blast! Lastly, we visited a Karen long-neck tribal village. This was actually our least favorite part of the trek as it was more like a zoo display than a depiction of village life.

Overall, we all had an amazing time in the jungle! We conquered some fears, enjoyed the company of friends, experienced village life, saw breathtaking views, and had a lot of laughs. That night, after receiving messages, all 7 of us and our friend, Andrew, went out to some bars

Yesterday we rented motos, experienced some very windy roads, and visited the Golden Temple atop the hillside. Some of us are quite sore and walking rather stiffly. There aren’t mountains like that back in Michigan!!

~ Stacy

Temples Temples Temples - Ayutthaya, Thailand

To jump start our two month cross-country travels we (Stacy, Bridgette, and I) began our journey in Northern Thailand.  After an "exhausting" 2 hour train ride north we arrived in Ayutthaya.  This is the original capital of Thailand.   Not knowing what to expect we began our day with a three hour tour of all the old temples.  Learning half-way into our journey that we could have easily seen all the city had to offer in 2 hours, instead of two days.  Making the best of it we took the necessary tourist pictures at each temple and finished the afternoon at a local pool.  The pool being designed in Thai fashion was outdoors with a tarp covering at least ¾th of the pool, to protect against the “deadly tan”.  After chilling in our hotel for a couple hours, the need to explore the two local night markets peeked our interest.  Not really knowing where we were heading we jumped in a tuk-tuk for a mere 20 Baht and got a ride around the block to a deserted street.  You would think by this point we would have figured out a way to not be swindled, but alas it seems we are always going to be walking targets.  Finding no night market in sight we returned to our hotel once again and watched a movie.  The next day we had a few hours to kill before our train for Chaing Mai.  Stacy expressed interest in traveling to the Old Portuguese settlement.  We bartered for a two hour ride in hopes of also visiting the Japanese and Chinese settlements as well.  When we arrived at our first stop we were presented with an open crypt and that was about it!  So after a couple photos we inquired as to our next stop.  We were faced with “Sorry too far!!!”  Why our tuk-tuk driver thought we would want to spend 2 hours at one place was beyond us, but making the best of the situation we moved on to check out 2 other temples.  At this point we had seen almost all the temples in Ayutthaya.  For the rest of the day we did what we always do with an hour or two to spare, we got massages!  We then boarded our night train and got all comfy in our cozy beds for our 13 hour trip up to beautiful Chaing Mai.  

~  Randi