TravelStream™ news feed for member broncos on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/broncos en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:31:44 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1229151060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1229151060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1229151060/tpod.html Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:31:44 -0500 TRIP '08 (Three Vagabonds)

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Its time for our last blog entry as Vagabonds (well, at least together anyway). I'm going to start it off and hopefully conjol Evren and Russell to contribute too with some closing thoughts about the trip. Anyway, Ho Chi Minh City was our last stop with all three of us together and starting point for each of our new (but seperate) adventures in life. Ho Chi Minh had its fair share of ups and downs. One of the lows for me was seeing the War Reminants Museum. It took us forever to find (thank you creepy British guy), but it packed a wallup of solemness (errr, that was supposed to sound smart). The American War of Aggression (or Vietnam War) is one not to be forgotten (duh) by the Vietnamese. Nor were our transgressions against them. The museum was divided into some 8 odd sections among them: war crimes commited by Americans against Vietnamese, the effects of Agent Orange deployed by Americans, and Tortur and Prison treatment of Vietamese. Lets just say we don't come off favorably in their minds. I guess that happens when your nation kills over 200,000 people and bombs the crap out of SE Asia to the point that some of these nations (read Laos) are still trying to build up their infrastructure. I'll let Evren and Russell highlight the people we met here and get right to our last days. On December 14, 2008, Evren "I Gotta Get My Clothes" Ona*, left the 3 Vagabonds to return to America. And so, Russell "McDonald's" Kof# and Jon "I'm paying for this!" Geri$, set off for a few days along in the big city. Russell was in search of a motorbike he would use to drive around the Mekong Delta and then all the way back to Hanoi. Jon was in search of milk and tuna to take with him to the remote province of Ratanakiri in Cambodia. Both men accomplished their tasks. Russell almost bought a overpriced fake Chinese Honda from a small handed fiend called "Can't Remember His Name Rightnow" dude while Jon got ripped off by $20 buying a Cambodian Business Visa (I was and still am paying for that, dangit!). Well, enough of the dramatics. After we finished out our last days, Russell and I bid a hearty for well, knowing we might never see each other again. I was headed to Ratanakiri to volunteer for an anticipated couple of months teaching English/computer to indeginour youth while Russell was off on his own adventure back up Vietnam. As for the future of this blog, I will try to keep it going with my own adventures in Cambodia and Russell has promised to do the same. The map locations will be off most of the time, but no worries. We for sure somewhere in Asia. Thanks for everybody who has read and commented on our blog over the past 4+ months. It has been a great trip for me and I think we all really grew from it. Personally, I have an even greater appreciation for America and a greater respect for the many other cultures of this world. Perhaps my greatest memory will be of our meals together with the Italian family after a hard days work on the goat farm. Cheers and until next time...
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Nha Trang, Vietnam

After a nice time in Hoi An, we were ready for the long bus journey (ie 24 hours) to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh or whatever they call it now. But, after our first stop in Nha Trang, none of us were in the mood for hopping on another 12 hour bus so we decided to stay the night. Nha Trang proved to be a beautiful beach town not unlike anywhere you might find along the Californian coast. The day proved to windy to really enjoy the beach, but the weather was great otherwise (as it has been for our whole time in Vietnam) and we were able to enjoy a nice lunch of alligator (not that bad). Now it was on to our final city together.
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Hanoi, Vietnam

So we entered Hanoi extremely ready to experience a new country. Being treated like a dollar sign in China had its toll on all of us. We are also looking forward to some new food. One can only eat fried rice so much. So from Hong Kong we hoped on a bus to take us to immigration (we had to leave Hong Kong and enter  mainland China again before continuing to Hanoi, don't ask me why). From the Hong Kong/China border we headed to Nanning. Thankfully, Nanning only proved as a stopover (we had not heard great things about the city) as we were able to hop on a bus headed for Hanoi within 30 minutes of stopping there. This was our introduction to sleeper buses. Now just because the name includes "sleeper" does not mean you will be getting any. In fact, it was pretty hard to as the journey to Hanoi must of included some of the roughest terrain we had yet to encounter. Evren was catching so much air that he was executing some gnarly leg grabs in the back of the bus. But after a rough ride, we made it to Vietnam and caught another short bus to Hanoi. We once again lucky to find a friend on the bus who worked for the very hostel we planned on staying at. Exhausted we settled for another, cheaper hotel her family owned and did our usual refueling routine of eating, Internet and then napping for the next 5 hours. Side note, I think as long as napping does not equal a full nights sleep (i.e. 8 hours) it is a nap and can be classified as such. Just wanted to clarify that we weren't sleeping all day. As for Hanoi, we were treated to a wonderfully helpful staff at the Blue Sky Hotel who arranged our onward transportation, as well as helped us with our Vietnamese (thank you is pronounced very similar to come on in English. It is also fun to yell "Come on!" at somebody after they hand you a plate of food. Is that my steak? Come On!). Anyway, Hanoi offered beautiful lakes and thousands of motorbikes jetting around them. To say Vietnam has a lot of motorbikes is like saying Yoa Ming is tall. Doesn't really do either of them justice. We also were able to take a 2-day, 1 night trip through the World Heritage UNESCO, Gold-Star rated, et. al. Halong Bay. We didn't have the best weather, but it was great to see none the less and we did meet some interesting people including an Australian couple that (the guy at least) new something about Denver Nuggets basketball. This is stuff you need to know. So all told, we liked Vietnam better than China after only a few days. I don't really know why, but that's the way it is sometimes. Maybe we will figure it out by the end of the trip. On to Hoi An.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1228832220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1228832220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1228832220/tpod.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:21:24 -0500 TRIP '08 (Three Vagabonds)

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Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An was great for the following reasons. The bus ride there (another sleeper) was our best one yet and one we actually got some sleep on. Russell and I rented motorbikes and we had an awesome time nearly killing ourselves (just kidding mom and dad) and seeing the beaches and another nearby city. Actually, this deserves further explanation. We started by taking our bikes to get gas. Russell made it first as I was too busy orienting myself with a motorbike for the first time and running over some Canadian tourists. The funny thing was, they didn't yell at me for nearly killing them or anything or ask if I was mentally stable after nearly killing myself, they asked where the center of town was instead. And how much the bike was to rent. And if it was an automatic. I found the whole exchange very interesting for whatever reason. Well, our bikes full of gas, we were ready to hit the ground running and tackle a country like we never had before. We eventually met some local Vietnamese girls (Russell is such a sucker) and followed them to a local tourist site called Marble Mountain. They just so happened to have a store near by where they took our helmets and stored our bikes while we explored the mountain, free of charge, or so we thought (well, not really, but we were hopeful anyway). After getting a good view off the top of the mountain and seeing another cave (I'm done for my life on caves I think), we went back to get our bikes. They were still there, but the girls were no longer smiling but very stern about us buying something from there store. After feeling pressure from the girls and Russell (that's right Russ, it's all your fault) I bought an overpriced candle holder or something or rather. Angry I fell for such a ruse, I rejected offer to treat them to ice cream once I got the OK from Russ. We bolted out of there, while one of the girls yelled after us "why you so cheap?"to which I replied, "because I just spent X amount of dollars on a crappy candle holder I just bought from you!" We then made our way to a beach for some lunch (maybe that happened before, its all a blur sometimes) where we were charged for a soccer ball we played with on the beach while our food was cooking. Thankfully, we were able to eliminate this from the bill after Russell gave the classic "you are charging me for what?" face which also is very similar to the George Bush thinking too hard face. We then explored another city and ascended another mountain (this time on our bikes) to to watch the sun go down. We ended the day by some how maneuvering through traffic and avoiding large trucks in the dark. Good times. And a great way to spend our time in Hoi An.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227618840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227618840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227618840/tpod.html Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:33:28 -0500 TRIP '08 (Three Vagabonds)

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Hong Kong, China

So after over a month in mainland China, it was time for something different. As most of you will know, Hong Kong was a British protectorate for over 100 years and the influence is still felt everywhere (even after it moved backed under Chinese control in 1997, although as an autonomous area). For one, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. I can say wrong because the whole world (and all of China) drives on the right side of the road. It gets annoying and deadly to cross traffic and have to look both ways multiple times forgetting where cars are coming from. Ok, that's all for now. Hong Kong is an amazing city. Built across multiple islands, Hong Kong is home to over 7 million people and it sure feels like it. We were all making New York comparisons the whole time we were there. The amount of people on the streets, even at 2 in the morning is astounding. This also makes for an expensive city compared to all of the rest of Asia (still doesn't come close to Iceland, did we mention how expensive that country was...well, before it went bankrupt). What this means practically is that we were paying more than we were used to to stay in a cramped apartment in a huge complex. It also meant we were staying in the heart of the city within walking distance of what seemed like most of the 200 McDonald locations. This was not a good thing. Hong Kong's main attractions, I suppose, would be the impressive views of the city you get during the day (from Victoria's Peak) and at night during the city light show (sounds cool, wasn't really). Hong Kong is also where we faced another major crisis. While we were sleeping (literally) protestors shut down Bangkok's major airports (where we had booked a ticket for within the next few days). We were thus forced to play wait and see. So we waited and saw that the airport was no where near reopening and we worked on a plan B. Plan B turned out working our way by bus to Vietnam and claiming a credit for our cancelled flight. It worked out great, or at least I think, but you will have to read the forthcoming blog on Vietnam to see why.
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Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang, China

Having arrived overnight on our first sleeper bus, we were to Yang Shou. We began by orienting ourselves with our new surroundings. If you have ever been to a beach front town in California, you get the same feel with Yang Shou, just substitute a beach with a riverfront. Our first night of exploring the town we were treated to fireworks for what seems like the 10th time on this trip. We also were treated for an over-exorbanence of white people or whities as we have grown to affectionately call them on this trip. For such a seemingly small Chinese town, Yang Shou was sure popular. We could see why. Sitting in a valley surrounded by some impressive looking hills (we can't call them mountains as that would offend every Coloradoan) and positioned next to a winding river, Yang Shou was the definition of picturesque. We enjoyed a river cruise, drank many an Oreo shake, and even climbed a hill or two before heading out of town.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227194520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227194520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1227194520/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:21:08 -0500 TRIP '08 (Three Vagabonds)

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Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang, China

Guilin offered us our first chance at nice weather (sun and warmth) in over a month. We were excited. Mostly because my Northface coat was developing a thin layer of dirt and Russell and Ev hadn't shaved in awhile (I don't shave and I think my hair grows back into my face, its weird). We found our hostel after making our way through an onslaught of hawkers. One guy even yelled to us from a passing bus. Apparently he would have stopped had we agreed to buy what he was selling. Our hostel, right off the bat, gave us some interesting characters. I can't do the impersonation justice in writing, but the hostel receptionist seemed to not be able to hear herself when she spoke English. It was like she had to yell at you for you to understand her. It was more hilarious than annoying. Our roommate on the other hand, now he was annoying. We immediately collapsed on our beds when we entered the room, but that didn't stop Goo (from Shanghai) from talking to us. He even announced, when we were all but asleep that he was hungry and going to get food. Great Goo, go for it, I thought. Guilin also offered some great scenery at a local park with beautiful mountains, caves and pandas to see. Oh yeah, did I mention they had pandas, because they did. I am still trying to convince Russell they are real and not simply men in panda suits, but check the photos to see for yourself. Guilin was a great little town (little for China at over 300,000 people) and gave us a better glimpse of some Chinese than the bigger cities. It also gave me a taste of real sweet and sour pork and lets just say I prefer Panda Express. By a lot. I also prefer even warmer weather, so further south we go!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1226675640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1226675640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/broncos/1/1226675640/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:32:04 -0500 TRIP '08 (Three Vagabonds)

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Beijing, China

So at long last we reached the capital of China. Much has been said and written about this city so I will spare most of the boring details outside of what you can see in our pictures. For one, Bejing has an amazing metro line, better than anything we have encountered on our trip. It is also brand new (finished just before the Olympics) so this is probably the reason why. It took us everywhere we needed to go for less than a $1 each time. Better than anything we saw in Europe by far. Bejing was also not as polluted as we might have expected. Better than any other Chinese city so far. Another result of the Olympics is my guess. The Olympics also gave Bejing and overabundance of Olympic crap. From t-shirts, to hats and the stupid mascots of the games which I guess are supposed to resemble pandas. And the Bejing locals are more than eager to hawk these cheap items to you. In fact, I think if any of us hear a "Hello, hello, look inside" one more time, we will throw ourselves off the Great Wall! From what we have experienced so far (and if you have seen this blog, that you know we love to make gross generalizations), the Chinese English skills are severly lacking almost any country we have been in, despite what you may have heard. You ask any question and your response is likely to be "hello." Its like someone told them hello is interchangeable for thank you, please, how are you, ad infidum. I can't get over it. Bejing in late November is also surprisingly cold. And windy. We experienced this the best when we took a day long tour of the Great Wall 3 hours outside of Bejing. It was awesome. One of the best things we have seen so far. We even had a 100 year old guide (ok, maybe she was younger, but she looked old). We also discovered what it was like to have your cheeks frozen off. Good times. Beijing also offered us some of our best food (Peking Duck anyone) as well as a host of interesting characters. Our favorite was our 4th roomate, Camia. Another interesting Frenchman, Camia was in our hostel for over 3 weeks looking for a job after having worked for sometime in Taiwan. Russell asked him what was new one day and Camia flately responded, in a French acent mind you, "Nothing, it's China." What a guy. Well, we also wasted a few days in Beijing getting our Vietnamese visa which proved to be a waste (we are really not good at getting visas). But more on that later in the blog (yes, I am writing from the Future!).
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Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

We arrived in Xi'an to find a city shrowded in pollution (or fog as one of our tour guides claimed). Anyway, despite the poor air quality, we managed to find our way to our (well the taxi driver was) to our hostel after we got in late from Lanzhou. We were greeted by a friendly staff who spoke good English and showed us to our rooms. This had to be one of the nicer ascetically pleasing hostels we have stayed in. With multiple floors all filled with various Chinese art, there was no doubt where we were. We woke up the next morning reading to tackle this historical city, the capital of over 10 ancient Chinese dynasties. Well, Evren and Russ were ready to do some tackling. I was ready to call in the medical team. But, I managed to survive long enough to enjoy our tour of the Terracota Warriors. We have seen many different "tourist" sites on this trip, but this had to be one of the most impressive. And even more surprising, the Chinese have only uncovered roughly 10% of this ancient burial ground of the first Chinese emperor. I asked why, and our tour guide explained that there is thick walls of mercury surrounding the actual tomb and the Chinese along with experts from around the world have yet to figure out a way to penitrate it safely. Apparently dynamite isn't an option. We spent the rest of our time in Xi'an touring the local McDonalds (yes we can!), seeing Asia's biggest light and fountain show (not as cool as we would have hoped) and looking at Pagodas (here a Pagoda, there a Pagoda, everywhere a Pagoda). Suffice it to say, Xi'an has its fair share of sites and we really only brushed the surface. Perhaps we will journey back again, as long as we are guaranteed to see the sun. One final note from our time in Xi'an. Despite what you may of heard, Evren and I were thouroughly able to dominate a Chinese girl in ping pong. We hope to take our new found confidence to the 2012 Olympics.
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Naryn, Kyrgyzstan

Well, sorry for the delay in this specific post (err, if you count a month as a delay). The lack of photos for Kyrgzstan is also my fault as I somehow lost all those I took in Bishkek and beyond. Russell has some and should be posting soon. Anyway, our last stop in Kyrgzstan was the small border town of Nayrn. It was similar to Bishkek, but at a much smaller scale and completely without Russians (at least that we saw). It also lacked an ATM which proved to be one of our more harrowing trip moments. We needed to pay for our transport across the Kyrgz border and for our taxi into China, but do to some severe oversight by all of us, we arrived in Nayrn lacking sufficient cash. We could barely even pay for our guesthouse. So, after we spent a day searching for an ATM (we found none) and looking into Western Union (worst feeling ever), we stumbled upon a bank that while lacking an ATM offered to give us cash in exchange for cleaning dishes. Actually, they took our cards and gave us cash. So, basically it was a patch-work ATM. We were saved. We decided to celebrate our small victory by watching the movie The Game out our guesthouse (starring the underrated Michael Douglas and overrated Sean Penn) followed by a night with some nice Peace Corp girls we met. All and all, for a small border town, Naryn proved to be an eventful place.
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