India

We arrived safe and sound in Delhi on June 25, 2014 and made our way by taxi to our hotel - Hotel The Royal Plaza. It is probably one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in. There was marble everywhere and they inspect every car that goes in/out of the hotel for bombs. Haha. They use a mirror to look under the car, then pop the trunk and sometimes the hood of the car also. It was crazy! I was actually shocked with how much security there was in India in general. We weren't meeting our friends Heather and Adam until June 26th when they arrived so we had our first day in India to ourselves. We hung out in the hotel for a little bit and then decided to go and explore the area we were staying in, which was called Connaught Place. Connaught Place is a huge round-about in the middle of New Delhi, with a few markets, parks and tons of restaurants and shops around it. We basically walked around the entire round-about before stopping at a little restaurant for dinner. We stumbled onto Gino's; an Indian restaurant owned by an Indian man who currently lived in Michigan. He was in Delhi visiting family and checking in on his restaurant so we had the chance to meet him after dinner. He was very nice and gave us his card and told us that if we had any issues while we were in India to call him. After dinner we continued our walk and we discovered quickly that India was very busy, very hot and very crowded.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then waited in our room to hear from Adam and Heather. It took them longer then expected to get to the hotel from the airport so we didn't meet up with them until early afternoon, but it was so nice to see friends. After a quick catch up in the lobby of their hotel, we made our way to find some lunch. We had originally decided to walk back to Connaught Place and grab some food but as we were walking there this gentleman stopped us and told us there was a protest going on and that we should avoid the area. He suggested we go to a street that had a bunch of restaurants on it near India Gate. He even got a tuk tuk for us and made sure the driver knew exactly where to take us. We thought he was so nice and thoughtful looking out for us. It took us a few days to realize but he was actually lying through his teeth and he had a scam going with the tuk tuk driver. We saw the whole thing in action a few days later. Again, someone stopped us and told us their was a protest. By now we didn't believe him so we declined his help and kept on walking. We then saw him get into the tuk tuk that was conveniently waiting by the side of the road and drive off together. But we totally fell for the scam the first time! Anyways, we had lunch at this suggested restaurant and then made our way back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. Once we felt a bit refreshed from our swim we walked back up to Connaught Place for dinner and had an awesome meal at a place recommended in the Lonely Planet, Pind Balluchi.

The Water Temple - one of the sites our tuk tuk driver brought us to

 

Adam wasn't feeling great the next day. He seemed to be developing a cold, so we decided to take it easy. We went to visit the Red Fort in Old Delhi, which was pretty awesome to see. Tons of history there, but so hot!! And we stupidly decided to make our way there at 11am so we were walking around outside when the sun was the highest in the sky. We quickly learned our lesson and agreed that the majority of our sightseeing would now be happening in the morning! We decided to walk through our first bazaar in Old Delhi after the Red Fort. It was so busy and there were so many people trying to sell you things; it was madness! We lasted about an hour walking around and then decided to have lunch. We ended up at a restaurant recommended to us by the taxi driver who dropped us off at the Red Fort - Punjabi By Nature. The food was awesome and it was so reasonably priced that we ended up there a few more times while we were in Delhi. We relaxed the rest of the day and treated ourselves to another swim in the hotel pool!

The four of us at the Red Fort

 

We were heading to Agra the next day and we were supposed to go by train, but there was a bit of a mix up between the train tickets and the train was going to be over 2 hours delayed so we ended up deciding to take a taxi to Agra instead. And, to be honest, with 4 of us in the taxi, it wasn't much more expensive then all of us on the train. But the time we spent at the train station was so interesting. There were hundreds of people coming and going constantly, everyone was staring at us white people, no one respects the 'line up' at the ticket window and they are constantly jumping in front of you and the people watching was amazing. At one point a drum band came into the station and into the ticket office and then pretty much turned around and left. It was hilarious. But it was so amazing to see how the women dress - so colourful!!

Our day in Agra basically consisted of the Taj Mahal. We hired a car and a tour guide that took us to the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was spectacular! First of all, it wasn't that busy and it wasn't that hot. But also the Taj is just so beautiful! We spent a few hours there just checking out the grounds and the mausoleum itself. Having the guide was awesome because he could tell us so much about the history behind it. I didn't want to leave - I just wanted to stare at it all day. Unfortunately Agra doesn't have much more to offer than the Taj Mahal so we took it easy the rest of the day and hung out at Adam and Heather's luxury hotel!

Early morning at the Taj Mahal

 

We left Agra the next day. Again, we meant to take the train, but it was full by the time we tried to book it so we ended up back in a taxi again. The drive from Agra to Jaipur was long, but it was neat to see some of the country. I think it was good that we had a sort of lazy day in the car because although Adam was feeling better by now, Heather had gotten his cold from him and wasn't feeling very good. We made it to Jaipur around 4pm and had a cooking class booked that night at 5pm. We quickly checked into our hotels and changed and then made our way to the Jaipur Cooking School for our cooking class with Chef Lokesh. It was such a fun night. Chef Lokesh taught us so much about Indian cooking and we got to make so many delicious dishes. Honestly, there was so much food! It probably could have a fed at least 10 people, but the 5 of us managed to put a pretty good dent in it!

Steph making some naan with Chef Lokesh overseeing

 

The next day was July 1 - Canada Day! I even wore my Canada sunglasses that my mom sent me away with almost 10 months earlier to celebrate! In the Lonely Planet book we had, had outlined a 3 hour walking tour of Jaipur that hit a lot of the major sites so we decided to do that for the day. Our first stop was Iswari Minar Swarga Sal, which is a tower in the middle of the city that has a spectacular view from the top. Then we made our way to the Tripolia Gate and the City Palace. The City Palace was beautiful and I think my favourite was the Peacock Gates inside. They had 4 different doors leading to this courtyard, each decorated in a peacock theme and dedicated to a different season (Summer, Spring, Winter and Monsoon). From there we made our way to Jantar Mantar which is an an observatory that is full of tons of different astrological devices. We hired a guide for the tour and I am so glad that we did because we would not have known what one thing was without him. We finished our walking tour off at the Temple of the Wind and then hopped in a tuk tuk to take us to the Water Temple just outside of the city centre. We also got to see some camels along the way. We were going to make our way back to the Johari Bazaar but instead stumbled upon a jewellery store near the Water Temple and spent some time browsing and shopping in there. That night we took a taxi to another temple - I'm honestly not sure what the name of the temple even was because everyone called it the Monkey Temple. There were hundreds of monkeys there, it was crazy! We spent a couple of hours just walking up to the temple and watching the monkeys. We even saw a monkey steal a pair of shoes from someone who was inside the temple...little buggers!

Us in front of the Spring Peacock Gate

 

That was all the time we had in Jaipur, which was a shame because we all really liked the city. But we had to make our way back to Delhi the next day because our time in India was almost up. On our way back to Delhi we stopped off at the Amber Fort, which was absolutely stunning. We had an awesome tour of the fort and spent a couple of hours there. The detail, the architecture and the history was just amazing. It was probably one of the highlights of our trip to India. Then we hopped back in our taxi and made our way back to Delhi. I am pretty sure we also saw the first of the monsoon rains to hit India. It was raining so hard and the winds were just crazy. It sure was a sight to see. And most people told us that that was nothing compared to what they would get in the next couple of months.

On our last day in Delhi we basically just shopped till we dropped. Adam and Heather needed to get some souvenirs for family and friends and I just like to shop so off we went. We had a lot of time to kill that day because we didn't have to get to the airport until 11pm for our 2am flights. So, we walked around Connaught Place, shopped, had a leisurely lunch and dinner and hung out at the hotel before making our way to the airport. Then it was bye bye India and hello Canada - that is after almost 24 hours in transit. We arrived home in Toronto on July 4, 2014 and were greeted by our parents - they actually clapped and cheered.

It is hard to believe that our travels are over. We have had a year full of the most amazing experiences. We have challenged ourselves and grown so much individually, as well as as a couple. I look back on the experiences
that we have had over the year and I smile. I cannot believe it is over already, but I am excited to see what the future has in store for us in TO. Thank you to everyone who has read and followed along with our blog. It was been a really amazing experience writing it. I can't wait to share even more stories and photos with you all when we see you next.

Thanks for reading

xoxo

The south of Thailand

Thailand #2

On Monday, June 16 we flew from Chiang Mai down to Krabi. We spent the night in Krabi Town, which turned out to be a dump... sort of. It was just a city, without much to do and it was kind of boring. Plus it rained most of the day. So, luckily we had only planned to stay there for a night and then take the early ferry over to Koh Phi Phi. We spent 2 nights on Koh Phi Phi and had a really nice time there. On the first day we took a walk around the main part of the island for a couple of hours exploring, then hit the beach for a little bit. But, man was it HOT! We probably only lasted an hour and a half before we had to retreat to the A/C in our room. Then we went out for dinner that night and people watched for a while - there sure were a lot of drunk young people there. I guess Koh Phi Phi is known as a huge party island, so there were tons of people watching to do.

On our second day on the island we decided to take a walk over to a more quiet, beautiful, less busy part, Long Beach. The beach here was so beautiful. The sand was white, the water was crystal blue and there was barely anyone there..it was heaven. We spent pretty much the whole day there and then made our way back to the main part of the island. We went out for dinner and then made our way to one of the many fire shows that the island has to offer. It is outrageous some of the things people do with fire. There was even a boy who was probably 7 or 8 years old twirling fire. It was crazy! But they sure do put on a good show. There was even a part with audience participation and Dave and I got involved. We limbo'd under a stick on fire and then I jumped rope while it was on fire...it was crazy but I was a little bit tipsy so I was up for it. We decided to keep the party going that night and had a few buckets. And apparently I decided to try and keep up with Dave, which was definitely not a good idea! Needless to say I was not feeling so good the next day.

A couple of youngsters spinning fire

Luckily, the next day was a lazy transit day. We hung out on Phi Phi for most of the day and then made our way by boat from the island back to the mainland, but to an area you can only reach by boat, Railay. We spent 3 nights in Railay and it was spectacular. It was this little town with these huge limestone cliffs pretty much surrounding the entire area except for a few beaches dotted along the coast. And we found the most amazing place to stay on agoda.com - it wasn't very expensive and it had an infinity pool and an awesome restaurant. And we stayed in this beautiful little bungalow. It was awesome!

We spent our first night exploring the island - Railay East, Railay West and Phra Nang Beach. We also discovered that there were a ton of monkeys in the area. We were walking down this one path and I guess someone had just been feeding them because there was close to a hundred monkeys running on the roof tops and the wires. I was a bit terrified of them - afraid they would try and steal our sunglasses, etc. but they really could have cared less about us. We finished the day off watching the sunset on Railay West before making it an early night. On our next day we spent most of the day at Phra Nang Beach. It was a beautiful beach. A cave at one end and beautiful sand and water. We spent the rest of the day at the infinity pool at our hotel. We went out for dinner that night and i'm not sure if it was something that I ate or if I got a bit of a virus, but I felt terrible that night. I honestly spent the entire night trying not to throw up. It was not fun. And I was definitely not looking forward to getting on a boat the next day and heading back to Krabi. I was feeling a little better by the next afternoon, so the boat ride wasn't too bad, but it took a few days before I was feeling back to normal.

The view of Railay from a lookout on the island

 

From Krabi we flew back up to Bangkok for 2 nights before we had to say goodbye to Thailand and goodbye to SE Asia. We didn't do much while in Bangkok. Dave started feeling sick our first night there. Sort of the same symptoms I had while we were in Railay, so I guess it was probably a virus. But he wasn't feeling great pretty much the whole time we were in Bangkok so we made it a low key couple of days. We did a little bit of shopping and bought a few souvenirs and another triangle pillow to send home. But other then that we kept it pretty low key.

We left Thailand on June 25 and made our way to New Delhi, India to meet up with some familiar faces. We had an amazing time exploring Thailand and SE Asia. We ate our faces off and got to see so many beautiful sights. It was such an great few months, but we were excited to see India and start making the long journey back to Toronto.

Thanks for reading

xoxo

Thailand

We flew from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Thailand on June 6, 2014. We weren't really sure where we were going to start but after we had heard about the coup that had happened a few weeks earlier, we knew we did not want to go to Bangkok. So, we flew immediately to the north of Thailand, to Chiang Mai. Neither of us have ever been to the north of Thailand and we were both really excited to see what it had to offer.

We were only meant to spend 3 nights in Chiang Mai initially, but we really loved the place. By the end of our time in the north we had stayed 7 nights in Chiang Mai. On our first night there we thought we would play it low key since Dave's back was still bothering him, but then we heard about a Muay Thai boxing fight going on and Dave quickly felt much better. Haha. So off we went with a few other people from our hostel to see a few hours of Muay Thai. I was not prepared for how intense it was actually going to be. There were 5 rounds of fights. The first 2 were female fights - one was a beginner fight, which wasn't too bad, but the second one was a legit fight and one girl pretty much kicked the crap out of the other one. Then there were 3 male fights and 2 of them finished in a knockout! It was so brutal watching it, but sort of like a car crash - you don't want to look but you can't take your eyes off of it. The final fight finished in a decision, but it was as vicious as the knockout fights. Needless to say, I don't really ever need to watch another night of Muay Thai boxing.

In our first full day in Chiang Mai we decided to explore the city and go on a little 'temple tour'. There are so many of them in the city alone so we had the woman from our hostel tell a few good ones to go to. It ended up being a pretty long afternoon of walking around, but we got a good sense of the city and we were able to check out some beautiful temples. I still can't get over how much colour and detail some people put into their architecture. We had heard that one of the most beautiful temples is located up on a mountain just outside of the city, so we hopped into a taxi and made our way up for sunset. That was probably the best idea we've ever had. To see the temple in the daylight is awesome, but to see it in the dark all lit up was breathtaking. It was so beautiful to see, not only the temple, but the city all lit up in the dark.

The Mountain Temple at night

On our second full day we decided to take a Thai cooking class. Again, the woman who ran our hostel (Stella) recommended one and she was right on the mark. We took a class through the Thai Secret Cooking School. A Thai woman has opened her own cooking school at her house after having worked for other companies for years. We ended up being the only 2 who signed up for the class that day so we basically had a private cooking lesson from a Thai chef. It was awesome and so delicious. We each got to make 4 different dishes, so we learned how to make 8 dishes total and the the cook books are so cute - they have our pictures on them! Little touches like that will definitely make her business a success.

Cooking up some shrimp

 

The next day was a bit of a lazy day. We walked around the city again and checked out a few other areas we hadn't already seen. We also stumbled upon this little restaurant that probably has the best smoothie I have ever had in my entire life! It tasted exactly like a piece of apple pie - it was amazing. Then it started to rain so we decided to try a Thai massage to pass an hour. It was hilarious. We were in the same room together and it was amazing to see this little Thai woman sit on top of Dave and try to put him into these pretzel positions and basically just kick the crap out of him. My arm was hurting me so they took it easy on me and I actually had a nice massage, but seeing Dave with this Thai woman on top of him jumping on him was amazing! After our massages we were walking back to our hostel when we ran into an English couple (Ash and Daniella) that we had met in Koh Rong Samloem. We stopped and chatted with them for a little while and exchanged contact info because we will probably run into them again in Thailand. That night we went to the Sunday Walking Market in Chiang Mai. They close down one of the main streets in the city and hundreds of stalls pop up out of nowhere. It is the biggest market I have ever seen. We spent 2 hours walking around and only saw about a quarter of it.

Dave making friends at the Sunday Walking Market

 

Our next was a pretty cool day - we went to The Elephant Retirement Park. In Thailand there are a ton of places were you can go to see elephants for the day. A lot of them involve you riding them and some of the conditions they live in are terrible. Dave and I talked about it before booking an elephant adventure. We both agreed that we didn't care if we got to ride an elephant or not, but we just wanted the conditions that they live in to be safe and healthy for them. After talking to Stella again we decided to go with a new company - the Elephant Retirement Park. They just opened in February of 2014 so they're still a pretty small company, but we had an amazing day. They have 5 elephants right now - 2 female elephants came from work camps where they were used for logging, but recently the Thai government has made it illegal to use elephants for logging work. The third female elephant was purchased from another elephant camp in the city that didn't treat their elephants very well - using hooks on them and making them do tricks for tourists and other things like that. What they didn't know at the time of purchasing these 3 female elephants is that they were all pregnant. So they now have a 7 month old male baby elephant and a 2 month old female baby elephant, and one more is still pregnant - due in November. It was such an amazing experience to be able to interact directly with the elephants, while letting them hang out in their own natural habitat. We had a chance to feed them, take a mud bath with them and then wash them. It also included tons of time to just hang out and watch/play with the elephants, as well as a delicious lunch. All in all, it was an awesome day and I really appreciate what the company is trying to do for the elephants. We ended up meeting up with Daniella and Ash for dinner that night. We really got along well with them so it was nice to spend a bit of time just chatting and hanging out with them.

After giving momma a nice mud bath

 

After our elephant day we made our way by mini-bus from Chiang Mai to another town close by, Pai. We were warned by many travelers about the road to Pai - apparently it is very windy and the drivers sometimes go really fast and often people get car sick. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating, but it definitely was a windy road! We stayed in Pai for 3 nights in a 4 bed dorm and we lucked out with our roommates. We had 2 other Canadians from Calgary staying with us, Chase and Kelsea. They were awesome! They had both just finished their undergrads in Calgary and were travelling together for a few months before starting work. We got along really well with them and spent most of our time in Pai with them.

On our first night in Pai Dave and I went out for dinner and ran into Ash and Daniella again. We went for a few drinks with them and then called it a night. The next day the six of us (Daniella, Ash, Kelsea, Chase Dave and I) rented scooters for the day to tour around and see the sights. I was totally against the whole renting a scooter thing, but everyone else was doing it, the roads weren't very busy and all the attractions were a few kilometers out of town so it just made the most sense. All in all we had a great day. I survived without any scratches or bruises, but I had definitely had enough of the motorbike by the end of the day. But it was an awesome day. We went to a canyon close by, then stopped off at a hilarious roadside stop dedicated to strawberries...totally random and hilarious. From there we made our way to a couple of waterfalls and then back to Pai, just as the rain started. We had a great time cruising around and seeing the beautiful scenery that Pai had to offer. After the rain stopped we decided to check out the nightly market that took over the main street. We did a little shopping around and ate our faces off before having a few drinks. We got a message from Daniella that she and Ash were at a local jazz club. We made our way but I guess we were a little too slow because apparently Ash was up on stage with the band playing the guitar and we missed it. But we did have a chance to have a few drinks with them before calling it a night.

The random strawberry rest stop

 

Our last full day in Pai was a lazy day. We went out for breakfast to this amazing little restaurant called Boomalicious (I'm pretty sure we ate there 3 days in a row actually), then we spent the afternoon teaching Chase and Kelsea how to play Euchre. We played for a few hours then went back to the night market for dinner. There were so many stalls with so much delicious food. I had a burrito, corn on the cob, and a Nutella pancake...not very Thai, but delicious none the less. After dinner Kelsea told us secretly that Chase was apparently a really good singer, and we knew by now that Ash was a good guitar player, so it then became our goal to try and get them to have a little jam session that night. We were successful and it was so amazing! Chase had this amazing, soulful voice and Ash could pretty much play anything on the guitar - and if he didn't know the song, he only had to hear a few seconds of it before he could pick it up and play it. It was just amazing to see the two of them go at it. Oh, and if you want to hear Chase at work then you can check out his youtube channel: Iamchaseharvey. Such an awesome night with some pretty cool people!

We left Pai the next day and made our way back to Chiang Mai for 2 nights before flying down to the south of Thailand. On our last night in Chiang Mai we hit up the Saturday night walking market with Chase and Kelsea then had to say goodbye to our Canadian companions. They were making their way to Laos the next day and we were headed to the south. We absolutely loved the north of Thailand and were sad to leave, but excited to hit the beaches of the south.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Cambodia

After a very long and boring 'tour' from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh we finally arrived on the afternoon of May 27. We left Chau Doc (a little border town in Vietnam) that morning and the tour took us to a fishing village and a Champa village. After a couple hours we got on the boat that took us to the Cambodian border crossing. We had to wait there for another couple of hours while they processed everyone's visas. But, finally, we all had our visas and our passports and we were successfully into Cambodia. Then we took a hilarious mini-bus ride from the border to Phnom Penh. Some of the roads seemed like little dirt alleyways and some had some massive bumps and potholes in them. It made for a very bumpy ride! But, we were happy to make it to Phnom Penh safe and sound. We checked into our guest house, had some dinner and did a little tour around the town before turning in for the night.

On our first full day in Phnom Penh we hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us around to some of the main tourist attractions. We started at the Tuol Sleng S-21 Genocide Museum. This used to be a high school that was converted into an interrogation/holding prison during the time of the Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge regime. Thousands of people were sent to S-21 to get interrogated and tortured, often for things that they didn't do. From S-21, most of the inmates were then taken to The Killing Fields - and you can imagine from the name what happened there. Since the time of the Khmer Rouge, S-21 has been turned into the Genocide Museum with photos, documents, personal stories from survivors and actual memorabilia from that time. It is just heartbreaking and totally eye opening to spend some time there and read the accounts as you look at the photos.

From the museum we went to The Killing Fields. This area used to be a fruit orchard before it was used by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to dispose of thousands of bodies. Since Cambodia's liberation by the Vietnamese, they have found multiple mass graves in this area. Some have been dug up and analyzed, while others have been left untouched so the victims can rest in peace. They have an audio tour that you can do, which is narrated by a man who lived through the Khmer Rouge regime. It is absolutely heartbreaking and totally sickening to spend some time here. The stories that you hear and the sights that you see are just terrible. It is amazing that something like this could happen in our lifetime, and so much of the world had no idea it was even going on. During the tour we actually learned that even after Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese and Pol Pot escaped from Cambodia, the UN still believed that the main governing body in the country was the Khmer Rouge and they were still giving them money - nobody had any idea of the devastation that was occurring in Cambodia. So sad, but so eye opening. I am really happy that Dave and I got to go and learn a little more about this.

The stupa at the Killing Fields honouring those massacred

After this very heavy and educational morning, we spent the afternoon relaxing and wandering the Russian Market. We both did a little shopping before heading back towards our guesthouse for dinner. We had some dinner and drinks at a rooftop restaurant by the river - it was a nice relaxing evening after a very eye-opening day.

Our second day in Phnom Penh was spent checking out the Royal Palace and the National Museum. The architecture in Cambodia is just amazing! It is so intricate and detailed and the colours are just beautiful. But man, do they ever love gold! We also got to see a Buddha statue carved out of a huge chunk of emerald. It was so beautiful! We also spent a bit of time at the Central Market in Phnom Penh. It was a bigger and more spread out market than the Russian Market, but sold pretty similar stuff.

The Royal Palace

 

That night Dave went to the park that is beside the Mekong River to have a workout. The park gets very busy at night as it is much cooler once the sun goes down. There were all kinds of people taking part in the free nightly Zumba class, many others getting in a workout of their own, or playing with their kids. Dave set up the TRX on a jungle gym and was the center of attention. It was hilarious. All kinds of men and young boys had to give it a try and soon there were about 10 people all doing the same workout. Who knows, maybe in a few years they will be selling knockoff TRXs at the Russian market.

The next day we packed up and took a bus down to the south of Cambodia. Through our travels we have heard people rave of the islands off the south coast, so we thought we would go check them out. We stayed one night in a town called Sihanoukville. Some people didn't like Sihanoukville, but Dave and I did. It's a nice beach town with really good and cheap food. But from there we took a boat over to one of the southern islands called Koh Rung Samloem. It was described to us as a pretty rustic place with beautiful beaches and very few amenities. That is pretty much exactly what it was! It was a beautiful little island, with a really pretty beach. We stayed in a little beachside bungalow, which was pretty cute. But it was definitely rustic! Haha. It usually took over an hour to get any food that you ordered and often times they didn't have many of the items on the menu. Also, it wasn't a surprise to find ants in your food or flies constantly circling you while you tried to eat. There were a few people at our resort that were so unhappy that they cut trips short and headed back to Sihanoukville early. We enjoyed our one night on the island, but didn't really feel the need to stay much longer. It also didn't help that it rained for a good part of the time we were on the island - not much to do when it was raining. But the highlihgt of the our trip to Koh Rong Samloem happened late that night. One of the Americans we met on the island had heard that you could swim at night with glow plankton. He decided to go try it out and quickly came back to get the rest of us to join in. It was so cool!! Whenever the plankton were stimulated they lit up, so swimming through the water was such an amazing experience. Your hands, legs and arms were glowing! It was one of the coolest things I've done this year!

Our little beachside bungalow

 

We took the boat back to Sihanoukville the next day and stayed there for one more night before making our way back to Phnom Penh and up to Siem Reap. And if I thought the bus from the border of Camobodia to Phnom Penh was bad - I was seriosuly mistaken. The bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was pretty much under construction for the entire 6 hour trip, which made for a VERY bumpy ride. I think i even caught air once or twice. We met an American on the bus, Steven, and just basically laughed the entire way because of how ridiculous the trip was!

On our first full day in Siem Reap we tried to make the most of it. We started at 4:30 in the morning for a sunrise at Angkor Wat. We made it to the temple just in time and got to watch the sunrise pretty much right behind it. It was beautiful! Then we spent the next 6 hours touring a ton of other temples. We spent a good hour walking around Angkor Wat before making our way through the south gate of Angkor Thom to Bayon. From there we went to the Terrace of the Elephants and finished the day off at Ta Prohm. It is so unbelievable that most of these temples were built over 800 years ago and are still in pretty amazing condition. Each one has it's own personality sort of. For instance, Bayon was made up of thousands of faces smiling in every direction and Ta Prohm has almost been destroyed by trees and tree roots growing on and through the walls of the temples. It's pretty spectacular! We were home from our tour by lunch time, but it sure felt like we had spent the entire day out and about. We had some lunch and then a much needed nap before exploring the night market in Siem Reap.
Ou last day in Cambodia turned into a pretty lazy one. We had stayed out a little late the night before so we slept in. After brunch and a little walk around town we went back to the hotel so Dave could go to the gym. Unfortunately he managed to tweak his back a little at the gym and was home in pain pretty soon after he left. We pumped him full of Advil and just rested/layed around the hotel the rest of the day to see if the pain and spasm would settle a little before our travel day to Thailand the next day.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

 

Overall, we had an amazing experience in Cambodia. The people were always smiling and I really liked that about them. The country is so beautiful, but with such a tragic history. I am happy we were able to learn a little more about Cambodia and the world while we were there. We had a great time.

Thanks for reading
xoxo

The end of Vietnam

I was right - we loved Hoi An!! It is so beautiful, especially at night when all the restaurants and shops have lanterns lit up along the river and throughout the town. Also, they close down the streets to pedestrians and bicycles only, so you're not worried you're going to get hit by a car or motorbike. We spent 4 days in Hoi An because we liked it so much. The main thing to do there is get clothes tailored. In this tiny town there are over 400 tailor shops. We walked down one street and counted 16 tailor shops in a row. It's insane! But we got caught up in it and had some things made. Dave had some suits made for work and I had a couple of coats made. We were very happy with the results!

We also went on a tour to the My Son Champa temples, did some other shopping, eating, strolling and took part in a Vietnamese cooking class. The cooking class was probably my favourite part. The food was amazing and the women running the class were so sweet. They even let us take a break from cooking and let us ride a water buffalo with a local farmer. Incredible! On our last night there Dave also got involved in a local game that the kids play in the street. You have a pile of cards that you are trying to hit by throwing your sandal at them. It was really cute watching him play with the kids. All in all, we had an amazing time in Hoi An.

Steph riding a water buffalo  

 

My Son Champa temples

We left Hoi An on an overnight train...remember, no more overnight buses for us! The train was definitely better than the bus, but still mayhem. It was over an hour late to get to Hoi An to start. Then we were in a 4 person sleeper, or at least, what was supposed to be a 4 person sleeper. At one point there were 6 of us in there - one woman had her child on her bed with her and another woman was sleeping on the floor! Some people got off and after a while we even had one of the train workers sleeping in one of our beds. It was hilarious. But, to be expected by now!

The train took us to a town called Nha Trang, or, should I say Little Russia. Honestly, I think there were more Russians than Vietnamese in the town. It is known as a party, beach town so we only stayed for one night. We spent the day at the beach relaxing and then had some dinner before we stumbled upon a microbrewery right on the beach. Obviously we had to go for a drink - Dave has been craving beer with a bit more flavour. The beer wasn't that great, but it was better than what we had been drinking.

The next morning we started a long day of bus travel, making our way down to Ho Chi Minh City. We thought it was supposed to be a 3 hour bus ride, with a 2 hour stop in Mui Ne, then a 5 hour bus from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh. We thought wrong. The first bus took over 5 hours to get to Mui Ne. We had enough time to grab a quick bite for lunch before hopping back on the bus for another 6.5 hours to Ho Chi Minh. It was a long and boring day, but it got us down to Ho Chi Minh safe and sound.

We spent 3 nights in Ho Chi Minh. Our hotel had a great location and we were about 5 steps away from all the restaurants, bars and shops. On our first day we took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Dave was really excited to see them. It was a pretty sweet tour. They take you to the town of Cu Chi and tell you all about the war and the tunnels; how long it took to make them, how they used them, the different tactics to protect them. You see some old war remnants, like uniforms, bomb shells, weapons and even an old USA tank that was bombed in 1970 and is still in the same spot. Then they actually let you go into the tunnels. They have widened them a little since the war for tourists and have added lights inside as well, but it was pretty crazy to actually walk through these tiny tunnels.

Dave entering an orienteering tunnel

The next day we made our way over to the War Remnants Museum, which has a ton of information about the Vietnam War. Why it started, what happened, tons of photos and first account photos from the war, especially on the Agent Orange that was used. They also had a big section on all the anti-war protests that were happening all over the world. It was very informative and I think we both learned a lot. That night we went to the night market and did some gift buying before heading back towards our hotel for a drink. In Hanoi, people sit on little plastic stools for drinks, but in Ho Chi Minh, they basically just sit right on the sidewalk. So, obviously, we had to try. We had a beer and sat on the sidewalk of a very busy intersection and just watched the mayhem. There were very young children trying to get you to buy gum from them, there was another kid blowing fire balls, there were kids coming home from prom, there were a million motorbikes driving by...it was so entertaining!

Some of the remaining American artillery

 

Sadly, that was our last night in Ho Chi Minh and the next morning we started a tour that would take us to Cambodia. The tour was through the Mekong Delta, up the Mekong river and to Cambodia. It was a 2 day, 1 night tour, including staying in a border town called Chau Doc at a floating hotel on the Mekong River. Overall, the tour was disappointing, but it was nice to see a little more of the countryside before leaving Vietnam. We took a boat tour on the Mekong River and saw a small floating village, where people trade fruits and vegetables from their boats. It also took us to this other small village where they make this delicious coconut candy. From there we drove for a while and even ended up at a random crocodile farm. The best part was probably the hotel right on the river. The second day we took a boat to a Champa village, then made our way to the Cambodian border to get our visas. Once in Cambodia we basically took a bus right to Phnom Penh.

Vietnam definitely had its ups and downs for us. We loved experiencing the culture and learning more about the history and the people. Now we are off to new adventures in Cambodia!
 

At the start of our cooking class

Thanks for reading

xo

Who wants to go to the hospital?!

We took the overnight bus from Hanoi to Dong Hoi because we wanted to take a tour to the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park. In 2011 the National Park opened to tourists because a series of amazing caves were found there. Our day tour took us to two of the caves. The first was Phong Nha cave, which is the cave with the longest underground river in the world. It was so amazing - we got to take a boat into the first kilometer of the cave. After lunch we went to Paradise Cave - the largest dry cave in Asia. Again, it was so spectacular to see the stalagmites and stalactites and all the different colours.

Not many colours in this picture, but we like it

 

By the end of the day I started feeling sick and had a fever that night. I woke up in the middle of the night with a rash on parts of my body. I figured it was a heat rash from being outside most of the day and then having a fever, so I took a cold shower, some Tylenol and went back to bed. The next day the rash was still there and it was getting a bit worse so I tried an OTC antihistamine with no real luck and still had a fever on our trip from Dong Hoi to Hue. That night the rash got even worse and I was starting to get really stressed out so the next morning when I was covered in red I decided I may want to go to the hospital. The OTC meds weren't doing anything and I was still feverish and lightheaded, so off we went to the hospital in Hue. Can you say terrifying! No one spoke English and no one was willing to help us find where we needed to go. We tried asking a nurse where the emergency department was and she said something in Vietnamese and just laughed at us, as did all the men sitting around us at the time. Dave eventually left me in a chair because I was feeling very faint and found the emerg dept. Once in emerg it was a better experience. They had a good doctor who spoke pretty good English and everyone was nice. Plus it was inside and air conditioned, unlike the rest of the hospital, which had open shutters and fans everywhere. It wasn't the cleanest of environments. I actually watched someone get off the bed that they then asked me to sit on, without changing the sheet or cleaning it. And I did not see one person wash their hands the whole day we were there. They did open instruments from packages and wear gloves, so I guess that is good. We spent about 8 hours there, while they gave me an IV and some stronger meds. They did some blood work and an abdominal ultrasound, which didn't show much. So, I was diagnosed with a reaction...to what? Who knows. The more research we did on the internet, the more I think it was a post viral rash, but it could have been an allergic reaction for all I know.

I felt pretty good leaving the hospital - the rash was almost gone and they had given me some meds to take for the next 5 days. Unfortunately, by the next morning the rash had returned and was way more itchy than before. I took the meds they prescribed, but they didn't do anything. Luckily, the doctor I had at the hospital had given me his email in case I needed anything. I emailed him immediately and he got back to me pretty quick with some other drugs I could try. That is one good thing about Vietnam - you can walk into any pharmacy and ask for any medication and they will hand it over to you. So, Dave went to the pharmacy to pick up the rest of the meds, while I tried to relax and stay calm. Then Dave went on a crazy hunt around Hue to find aloe or baking soda, oatmeal or calamine lotion - anything to try and reduce the itching. He was awesome and managed to find some aloe vera gel. That, cold showers, ice and about 6 different pills finally calmed the rash down again.

By the next day I was still breaking out in hives, but not as much. Dave went on a tour of the Citadel and other Vietnam war memorials around Hue while I spent the day in the hotel. Heat seemed to increase the hives, so I didn't dare go out in the 40 degree weather. But, Dave really liked the tour and learned a lot about the war, and about Vietnam. We ended up spending 5 days in Hue, when we were only going to spend 2. It took almost 10 days of meds before the rash went away completely. I am still not sure what happened, but I am happy it has stopped!

A pagoda in Hue

We were eager to leave Hue and continue our way down to Hoi An. I really liked this town the last time I was in Vietnam, so I knew we would have a good time there.

Thanks for reading

xo

Good Morning Vietnam!

Cliché title, I know...but come on!

We arrived in Hanoi from Bali after a really long day of travelling. We took 3 flights, totalling 15 hours of travel, but we made it safe and sound. It was the first and second time either of us have ever had our names on a sign at the airport! The first time was at the Singapore airport - our connection was a little tight, so they had someone meet us at our arrival gate with our names on a sign and helped take us to our connecting flight. The second was at the Hanoi airport. We had arranged for our hostel to pick us up and they were there waiting. We felt so important!

I was a little nervous to go back to Vietnam, because I remember it as being nothing but mayhem, but I know Dave was excited to see the country and learn more about the war history especially. We arrived around 7pm, dropped our stuff off at the hostel and then made our way into the city for the first time. We only almost died 3 or 4 times, which is good considering no one obeys any rules of the road and you feel like you could get hit by a car or motorbike at any second. But, dinner was amazing and we quickly settled into keeping our heads on a swivel to avoid bikes and cars coming right at us. We were feeling pretty exhausted though, so we went back to the hostel to get some shut eye.

Just a regular old intersection

Our first full day in Vietnam was jam-packed. In the morning, we made our way to the lake and the temple to check them out. Then we did some organizing for the rest of our time in Vietnam. We booked a boat trip to Halong Bay and our bus ticket that ended up taking us down to Ho Chi Minh city for the next 2.5 weeks. Then we had some yummy lunch and decided to try and brave a local market. I cannot get over how people do not care about personal space here! Things were jammed everywhere and it was so crowded! We did a little looking around and priced out a few things so we were ready to barter with people in the next few days of shopping! That night we headed to the water puppet show in town. The show was really good - so colourful, funny and entertaining. I think it has improved since I saw it 7 years ago! After the show we went to grab some dinner and then decided to have a drink. In Hanoi it is very common to sit on the sidewalk on a children's plastic stool and drink beer, so, when in Rome...or Hanoi...grab a plastic stool and a 50 cent draft beer and enjoy the craziness. By the end of the night they kept adding and adding people to sidewalk that some people ended up sitting in the street with cars and motor bikes driving right beside them. It was hilarious to watch and we were happy we had arrived a little earlier.

Our view from the street

Unfortunately, the next 2 days weren't the best. Dave woke up with a fever in the middle of the second night in Hanoi and wasn't feeling good for 2 days. We kept him pumped full of fluids and Tylenol and he started to feel better, just weak and tired. I was able to go back to all of the places we booked our trips and postpone them for a day. We ended up staying in Hanoi for an extra day or two to make sure Dave was feeling better.

On our last day in Hanoi Dave was feeling up to a little bit of sightseeing, so we made our way to the Temple of Literature. That pretty much wiped him out though, so we just took it easy for the rest of the day in anticipation for our trip to Halong Bay the next morning.

Luckily, Dave was much better the next morning. He had way more energy and we was actually hungry again! So, off we went on our 2 day, 1 night boat tour of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a beautiful area of Vietnam, where 1969 limestone islands appear out of the water. It really is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, it is also a really busy, touristy place now too. On our first day we drove out to Halong Bay and got settled on the boat before lunch. After lunch we started our sail through the islands. We stopped off at the Sung Sot cave, which is pretty beautiful! We managed to arrive just as about 15 other boats did, though, so there were line ups to get in and out of the cave. It kind of took away from the beauty of the place, but it was still really neat to see. After the cave we got to go to the beach and have a swim, which was awesome because it was so hot out. Then it was time for kayaking in and around some of the islands before dinner and relaxing on the boat that night.

The next day we were up early for breakfast and got to relax on the boat while we made our way back to the port. All in all, Halong Bay is beautiful, but with the number of tourists, and the amount of garbage in the water and the poor condition of the boats, leaking oil and fuel into the water, it may not be beautiful for long. We had a good trip, but we were very aware of the environmental issues that will soon be facing the area if something isn't done soon.

A few of the islands in Halong Bay

 

From Halong Bay we made our way back to Hanoi just in time to shower and have dinner before getting on an overnight bus down to our next stop, Dong Hoi. Neither of us ever wants to take another overnight bus if we don't have to after that experience. I actually didn't think it was going to be that bad because the overnight buses are actually sleeper buses and everyone gets their own little bed that reclines to an almost flat position. A huge improvement from sitting in a seat, like I did the last time I was in Vietnam. But, since we're in Asia, I should have expected some sort of mayhem would be involved. So, a bus showed up and said it was going past Dong Hoi to Hue. I got on the bus and saved a seat for Dave, while he put our bags under the bus. But, then they wouldn't let him on the bus. They said it was full, but I already had a seat for him. They still wouldn't let him on, and they wouldn't let me off and a very nice American couple got involved to try and help, which only made things more hectic. Then another woman couldn't find a seat and they almost made her sleep on a mat on the floor, so she was upset and yelling at them. They finally let Dave on so we got settled in our seats, then they proceeded to tell us that they were no longer going to Dong Hoi and we had to get off and another bus would be there in 10 minutes. Mayhem. So off we got and we waited and waited. Almost an hour later another bus showed up but it was going north to Sapa. So we kept waiting. But then they told us to get on the bus to Sapa because it would drive us to another bus that was going south to Dong Hoi. So, on we got and squeezed into the aisles with our big bags. And once we got to the other bus the only seats left were the front two, which had way less leg room than the rest of the seats. Not the most comfortable ride of my life! And the bus driver was really mean and kept the music blaring for the first few hours, even though people were asking him to turn it down as they were trying to catch a little bit of sleep. He was also smoking inside the bus, which stunk! But we made it to Dong Hoi safe and sound the next morning and vowed never to take another overnight bus again!

Thanks for reading

xo