Ha Long Bay

OK if you do not book a cruise through Hanoi to visit Ha Long Bay, you can buy cheap cruising  tickets at the tourist dock. Don't listen to anyone who tries to intercept you before the desk! There was literally a guy leaning on the counter telling us we had to buy a boat ticket separately through a private boat company. LIES! You can buy both the park pass and boat ticket through the government run front desk at the dock. Be sure to ask what is included because the answer is ONLY the boat ride itself! 

When we went, it was misty and quite freezing, but quite magical.

On our way to this city, I may or may not have had a horrific...accident...by the side of the road. Vietnamese food and bus rides will do it to you, but boy am I grateful I was able to take a step off the bus first!

Quaint floating village

Everyone washes their scooters. Hilarious

I have the best husband in the world. Sometimes he would carry my bag too. <3

A Visit to Uncle Ho

Since we were in Hanoi we could not pass up the chance to take advantage of what being in a communist country is all about, looking at the embalmed dead body of a revolutionary! So we started the day early because we heard that the line gets long really fast to see Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh, the people actually call him Uncle Ho.) The whole affair was quite a somber, there were guards dressed in white guarding Vietnam's most revered leader, no pictures, no water bottles, no smiling, no laughing, and no speaking.

Uncle Ho's mausoleum!

Our best communist faces for the affair

Hundreds of people constantly stream in

Good Morning Vietnam! On to Hanoi

We discovered that due to Laos' awesome infrastructure, a bus to Cambodia would take nearly 3 days. Yikes. A bus to Hanoi would take 36 hours, and every review online was ghastly. Usually, Austin and I are not frightened by reviewers who are made of weaker sauce that we, but this time we gave in and bought a flight! Shocking, I know. How lovely it was to be waited on hand and foot by Vietnam Airlines for 45 minutes! It is a pretty classy airline for the record.

There is a 40 cent bus that takes you from the airport to the old quarter, the area where all the hostels are. This bus would leave promptly at 10 p.m., and our flight landed at 9:15, leaving us no time to clear customs, get visas ($40 each), etc. We booked it! Anything to save a buck, right?

We easily found the $2 bus, but Austin was not satisfied. At 9:57, he was still running around the rainy parking lot, determined to find it. His efforts were rewarded! We grabbed nearby tourists and sprinted to the 40 cent bus, barely making it on before it rattled off. What a deal! The 40 minute ride was a blast chatting with an Australian family, and we got in trouble with the ticket collector guy for being too noisy. Please. Asians are just silent on transportation, and the bus was making more than enough noise to cover our giggles. It felt like first grade!

In comparison with the rest of SE Asia during this time of year, Hanoi is FREEZING. Rainy, misty, and cool, it was a nice switch, but trench foot developed quickly. We finally succumbed to buying real shoes, well fake Converse. Austin fought tooth and nail and got the guy down to $6 per pair. I was pleased, but Austin still says he knows the dude would have gone lower...hehe

It is easy to buy shoes in Hanoi but good luck buying socks! We went shoe store to shoe store only to find that the cheapest socks cost as much as our new shoes! Ya right! It took 36 hours to find some cheap socks. A favorite moment was when a lady tried to sell us a crappy pair of socks for $3, saying "But look! Made in Vietnam!" to which we replied, "EXACTLY! We'll give you 25 cents."


Hanoi is a beautiful city, at least the old quarter area. It has tons of french influence and is a real city, complete with KFC. There is a lake, French opera house, Gucci, cathedral, Vietnam war museums, and more. This city was one of Austin's favorites.

dirty feet, clean flight, rockin leg room!

Lake of the Restored Sword

France? No. Hanoi!

Amusing signs and propaganda at the Women's Museum

Propaganda posters! So good!

Freezing and cool buildings

Notre Dame de Vietnam

Our Vietnam cultural experience: the water puppet show! The puppeteers are behind the curtain, and the stage is flooded with water. The puppets act out traditional stories and are accompanied by musicians. They had some neat effects, fireworks, mist, etc., and video cameras constantly scanned the crowd. Creepy! A must-do for Vietnam, but not the most interesting thing ever.

The presidential palace! And no, there is no president. It is now called the "Palace of the People," no admittance.

SOOOO crowded. Large man.

The posh areas were in beautifully restored French-style buildings. Too bad we constantly looked like crap!

Our fancy hotel room, complete with dripping mold! Don't worry. It was the cheapest. hehe

Malaysia and Singapore Videos

Strolling Round a Hindu Temple

Scootin' Round Singapore!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Bali Videos!

Macau (sp?) monkeys are MONSTERS! We learned early that some species of monkeys are more akin to rats than magical Abu-like creatures.

Monkey's in the Monkey Sanctuary in Ubud, Bali

Strolling through the rice fields of Bali

Balinese Dancing - Not Austin's Favorite Cultural Experience

Biking in Vieng Vang and the Blue Lagoon

Vang Vieng truly has magnificent mountains! I call them Suessian mountains: they are cliffs with funny round tops. Covered in bright green and pop out of nowhere! They totally belong in a Dr. Suess book.

 

(This is the view from the cheapo restaurant where we frequently ate. Awesome.)

Nestled in the suessian mountains are dramatic limestone caves, dusty villages, and natural mineral springs. Since we were still recovering from our rollercoaster of a drive to this city, we decided to take transportation into our own hands and cycle a 28 km loop which gave great views and easy access to caves.

It sounds like a great idea, huh. Well, that's what we (austin, Steph, and Germans) thought too...

The views were truly magnificent and the villages quaint. Little kids loooove to stare at Austin's beard and practice their English greetings, so they would run after our bikes or stop dead in the road and stare. The kiddos are one of my favorite things about south east Asia, and they are everywhere! At all hours!!

So the problem with our adventure was the duration and terrain. No hills, just a road full or rocks! Not gravel, not sand, large pebbles and small boulders that keep your bum off your seat until you develop blisters or loose your footing, then they abuse the undercarriage of your chassis relentlessly and ceaselessly for 15 more km. This leaves you, ok it was me, crying by the side of the road. I couldn't sit normal for two days!! Never do the full cycling adventure. Just take bikes to the blue lagoon and cave, the highlight of vieng Vang.

The mineral-filled water is deep aqua and freezing! This is mecca for the dude-bros and backpackers but is still worth going to. Austin and Philipp jumped into the lagoon from high trees and swung in from rope swings. I "iced' in the arctic waters.

We expected the cave at such a touristy location to be lame. However, this one delivered! Too cheap to rent the 'mandatory' flashlights, Austin and I just stayed real close to our pals while exploring the cave. Almost a really stupid idea: it was full of chasms, drops, low hanging formations, and worst of all, gargantuan spiders!!

Philipp was the worst person to entrust with the flashlight. He'd scuttle off to some corner and leave the three of us clinging to a dripping stalactite. In our flip flops, per usual!

The cave was enormous, and we spent over an hour exploring its depths. Honestly, I was just trying to avoid the inevitable bike ride back! Oh the horror.

Capitalists v . Communists Part 2, Transport

Much in laos does not make sense to our western minds; above all,fixed prices, shotty construction methods, and overpriced,inefficient transportation.

After the waterfall,we booked a bus for Vang Vieng, a southern granola city. The man quoted us $15 per person. "What?! Ubsurd!" Austin replied, " it is only 200 km (120 miles)! And how on earth is that supposed to take 5 hours on Laos' national highway?!"

Well, the next morning we found out just how great laos' national highway is. We were crammed into a 15 passenger Toyota Siena van (or its imaginable equivalent). We were of the thought that this would be yet another boring bus ride through some lovely verge, but reality, and serious nausea, soon hit!

In short, it was a 5 hour rollercoaster. Our driver, clearly a former formula 1 driver, managed to squeal the tires on every curve, quite the feat considering they were constant. Leftttt squeallll right squealllll left squealllllll. Constant pot holes. Dodging chickens. Passing trucks on blind curves.

We had a brief ten minute reprieve when the driver pulled over to pee. Many of our fellow torturees took this opportunity to puke. But seriously. Steph nearly joined them, surviving the ride solely through her yoga oogi breath, for which Austin loves to tease her about.

The coaster finally came to an end when the driver pulled off the road at a random location and told everyone to get out. No clear town in site. We demanded he take us to where we paid him to take us. With an Asian giggle we have learned to despise, he ran off, leaving his queasy passengers to the wolves, aka tuk tuk drivers.

Thank heavens for our tablet and map- we saw the town was only 1 km away, and, to top it off, the driver had driven though the city to take us to this viper pit of tuk tuk drivers.

Shady business Laos. You couldn't pay me enough to take that bus again.

Score: Laos 1, us 1