TravelStream™ news feed for member laurenandy on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/laurenandy en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:19:33 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217759940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217759940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217759940/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:19:33 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived in Cambodia to an amazing hotel with the biggest room we'd ever seen.  The hotel is on the main street and right on the Tonle Sap river (connects the Mekong with the Tonle Sap Lake - largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia).  We walked around a bit to get our bearings (Andy is big into doing this during the day as opposed to nighttime).  Finally we got a decent wireless connection, so downloaded a bunch of Big Brother 10 shows and watched a couple with a bottle of wine.  For dinner, we decided to walk around and feel out the scene before we picked a spot.  We stopped at one outdoor bar because they had live music.  A bunch of beers, ten games of jenga and one order of springrolls later, we were still at the same place.  We decided to punt on dinner and ended the night playing jenga at this place with one trainee bartender/waitress. We ended the night around midnight, right after the kitchens had closed and now Andy was looking for the dinner we had skipped. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning by the way he ripped into the snickers from our minibar. Phnom Penh itself has a lot of beggars and people selling stuff on the street (mostly children or amputees).  It was tough to handle sometimes as they openly walk into restaurants, up to your table pleading to sell you something.  There were also multiple women begging on the sidewalks with very young children sleeping on the dirt next to them.  Cambodia has had extreme suffering in its very recent past, and still has a long way to go in building the infrastructure of the country.  Also, it seems to have altered people's mindsets to very much "live for the moment" as opposed to thinking too much of the future.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1218079680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1218079680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1218079680/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:17:27 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

String of early morning wake-up calls continues and arrives earlier...4:30am.  We decided to try to get to the famous Angkor Wat temples for sunrise and then tour them in the early morning, hoping to beat the daytime heat and crowds.  Although the sunrise didn't work out great because of some clouds, the rest of the plan did.  Not too hot and barely any tourists at all.   The temples themselves are truly awe-inspiring and definitely a highlight of the trip.  They were built in the 1100s, and are still in great condition (without relying too much on renovation or reconstruction).  The entire complex is huge and the details on the stone carvings around the walls of the entire temples are overwhelming.  We spent about 3 hours there, mostly by ourselves, our guide and a group of about 20 monkeys that roamed the temples. Back to the B&B for made-to-order breakfast, swim in the pool, and a nap, then back out to see Angkor Thom.  Angkor Thom was built slightly after Angkor Wat and is almost as impressive.  This temple has the most amazing carvings of Buddha's face.  The stones were stacked on top of each other and then all the faces were carved (remember, this is 900 years ago and was all done by hand.  After the temples, we stopped to feed some of the monkeys, which seems to always provide some unintentional humor.   For dinner, we took a 10 minute tuk-tuk ride into the heart of Siem Reap.  There is one main area that has most of the restaurants and bars clustered around it, so we just picked a place that looked pretty decent.  We had a good table outside, so stayed there to people watch, as well as spent the better part of 4 hours trying to upload a video for my Mom's birthday.  We ran into a couple from Ireland that had been traveling the world for 7 months together... and we thought we had a long trip!  After a fierce bidding war to reduce our tuk-tuk ride home from $2.50 to $2.00 we called it a night. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217993100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217993100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217993100/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:16:34 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

Today, we headed out early (7:00am) for our six hour boat trip north to Siem Reap.  The boat looked like a speedboat, fast and long...it had one aisle running down the middle of it, with three seats on each side.  About 70% of the people sat on top of the boat (not the same as the deck) for the entire trip (we're not sure if this area was a cheaper ticket or they just wanted to be outside).  In Phnom Penh, the taxi trucks let people sit on the roof for about half the price of sitting inside the car (seriously)....it didn't seem like Lauren minded that much.  The ride itself up the Tonle Sap river, through the Tonle Sap lake, was really cool.  We alternated through village areas and huge areas of open water.  Whenever we would pass a house or village, kids would come running to the riverbank screaming and waving.  The boat itself was going pretty fast (about 50km/hr), which made it a little hard to manage moving around outside of the boat.  There was an 18-inch ledge running around the boat, but not railings. When we finally pulled into "port", it was a complete shitshow.  That is the only word to describe it...I think we got a picture that will do it some justice.  There are all sorts of drivers holding signs with people's names on them.  Then there are tons of tuk-tuk drivers fighting to get business, all the while there are fisherman selling their day's catch in the middle of this floating village where people are going about their daily lives (including raising crocodiles).  Luckily, we had a driver arranged to help navigate the area and get out of there in once piece with minimal effort.  We headed straight to the Journeys Within Bed and Breakfast.  Journeys Within is the travel company that we used to book almost all of our Southeast Asia travel.  They run a great operation and also have a sister company that is a non-profit which dedicates its effort to sustainable education in the areas where they provide tourist services (mostly Laos and Cambodia).  The B&B is like an oasis, manicured landscaping, free laundry, great salt water pool, large, clean rooms and the most helpful, polite, nice staff we have ever seen.  We had a lot of laundry and asked if it was too much trouble, and even asked about our dirty trekking sneakers.  The next day it was all done (and we found out afterwards, that it is all done by hand!) We had a dinner and cultural show pre-arranged.  Although this is probably not the PC thing to say, I have decided that I cannot stand these forced shows for tourists, where local people take ancient local customs to the extreme and turn it into a night of "traditional dance and food".  The show wasn't that long so this rant won't be either.  Home around 10pm to watch Good Morning Vietnam. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217906160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217906160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217906160/tpod.html Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:14:44 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today was a mostly somber day of understanding Cambodia's recent tragic history.  We started with a former schoolhouse that was turned into a prison/interrogation center when the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975.  The Section 21 prison (now the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum) is said to have housed over 16,000 prisoners at various times, with only 7 people surviving.  The photos and historical accounts are graphic and appalling.After the prison, we drove about 15 minutes to the "Killing Fields".  Essentially a mass grave (actually 126 mass graves are listed at this site), this ancient cemetery was used by the Khmer Rouge to systematically execute endless Cambodian (anyone who was educated or even remotely disagreed with the Khmer Rouge group).  The fields are still very raw, in the sense that there are human bones and skulls all over the place, and the victims' clothes still half-buried throughout the area.  The site has not been developed much for tourists, short of one large monument that houses thousands of skulls on display. After our somber morning, we had a lunch at a restaurant dedicated to employing street kids and help them get back on their feet in a productive manner.  The food was good and the service was really great, prompt and friendly.  After our lunch, we headed to a large market, called the "Russian Market" for reasons we are still unsure of....didn't look like too many Russians hanging around.  We wandered around aimlessly for a little bit, but there were some things we were looking for.  Andy was looking to replace his stock of t-shirts, buy some cheap DVDs (shocker) and replace his pair of sneakers that were basically destroyed from trekking.  I thought the whole thing was cramped, hot and sweaty, but Andy persevered and it ended up being a success...he got everything on his list, including the very "stylish sneakers" in the attached photo, against my strongest objections.  Matty, he almost bought you a pair of Vintage Air Jordans but decided you wouldn't wear them. The rest of the afternoon was interesting although slightly repetitive.  We visited the National museum, which had many great artifacts and our guide had a lot of information to provide.  Also, we visited the Royal Palace, which houses the king and his family.  Pretty impressive place, although similar to some other areas we have seen on the trip so not exactly overwhelming.   We had dinner reservations at The Foreign Correspondents Club, which is a hotel and restaurant which many journalists used as their base for reporting over the last 50 years, although not as much in recent years.  The dinner was good and since we were on the balcony, it was nice not to be interrupted by street vendors.  After dinner we went with "if it ain't broke, then don't try to fix it" decision....yes, back to the jenga bar...more live music in the back, jenga, pool, and sopranos on the TVs at the bar. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217671740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217671740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217671740/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:08:18 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Neither of us was too eager to get up and tackle a day of sightseeing today, so when our guide informed us that the plan was to drive 2 hours to a temple, where we would then watch an "interesting, yet brief" 15-minute ceremony, after which we would drive 2 hours back, we immediately pulled the plug on that part of the trip.  Since we were already up, we decided to rearrange our cooking class for today. We had the cooking school all to ourselves, which was definitely a treat.  We walked through some basic Vietnamese foods, common preparation techniques and instruments, and then jumped right in to some cooking.  The chef would basically tell us what to do, show us what to do, and then it was our job to follow along.  We both managed to whip together some pretty tasty dishes:

Vietnamese spring rollsTomato Soup with eggsCaramel pork in clay potSteamed riceTofu with eggs&nbsp;As is par for the course, Andy added too many hot peppers to his food and was literally dripping with sweat while he was eating it (although he still claims it was very good and "just had a little kick").&nbsp; Our chef gave us the recipes when we left, so for any brave souls who want to try some authentic Vietnamese food and see our new apartment, let us know.&nbsp;After lunch, we drove north to the city of Cu Chi, made famous by its Cu Chi tunnel system which was used very effectively by guerilla fighters supporting the VC during the Vietnam war.&nbsp; The tunnels themselves are crazy, neither of us could imagine running through these tunnels in total darkness during a war (although maybe necessity makes it a little easier to do.)&nbsp; Anyway, we both squeezed into some of the tunnels.&nbsp; Andy barely fit (look at the pictures, it looks like fitting 10 pounds of sausage into a 5 pound casing). Lauren made it in a little easier, but felt immediately claustrophobic.&nbsp; Andy braved the underground 30m crawl with a guide, while I stayed up top to make sure he came out the other end.&nbsp;At the end of the tunnels, they have setup a shooting range with all sorts of older classic weapons.&nbsp; We both chose the AK47 and fired off a bunch of rounds.&nbsp; Since it was Lauren's first time holding a gun, the AK47 was not exactly a kind introduction (her shoulder was a little sore later on), but what better way to have your first shot than in Vietnam with an AK47. &nbsp;&nbsp;At the end of our Cu Chi tunnel visit, we headed to one of the more unique aspects of our itinerary.&nbsp; We drove another 20 minutes to a small town to have dinner with a local man who fought for the Viet Cong in the war.&nbsp; Our guide had given us many assurances that the food was clean, Americans vs VCs allegiances was not something we needed to worry about, etc....but still a little weird.&nbsp;We got to his house and met the man, Mr. Kha, and some of his family members.&nbsp; At first it was a little awkward.&nbsp; We were unsure about how to start a conversation, and he also didn't speak any English.&nbsp; After some food and local rice wine, he warmed up to us and began sharing some stories.&nbsp; He helped build the original tunnels when he was only 14 with all of the other able-bodied villagers.&nbsp; Later on, he had no choice but to join in the resistance against America.&nbsp; He lost his right arm from an air attack, has a bullet fragment in his head, and is blind in his left eye.&nbsp; He was very interested in our lives, America, how much things cost (food, clothes), how many kids most families had, etc...&nbsp;For dinner, we were joined by his friend, who was a doctor in the war, his grandson, his son-in-law, and occasionally his wife.&nbsp; The amount of food we had was ridiculous and it is a sign of respect to eat a lot.&nbsp; Lauren and I both received the largest chicken leg, which had been boiled or something with a layer of skin thicker than we'd ever seen....it was disgusting, like literally gagging trying to eat it....it was hard to even get off the bone.&nbsp; However, the rest of the food was actually very good and we ate a lot of it.&nbsp; At the beginning of dinner, Mr. Kha brought out a large water bottle, that we both guessed was not filled with water, but.....ding, ding, ding....rice whiskey.&nbsp;He originally offered a toast to both of us, then to me, then back to Lauren, then to various other people....this stuff burns on the way down too. We make it through dinner and rice whiskey toasts until the son-in-law got home and they began anew.&nbsp; Our guide kept asking, "Mr. Kha wants to know if you are alright and one more is ok."&nbsp; So far we are both feeling ok, so I agree and that means that Lauren is along for the ride too, since it would be rude not to offer it to her, and then it would be rude for her not to accept.All in all, it turned out to be a very interesting fun night, with good food and drinks.&nbsp; The Vietnamese attitude towards the war and the US seems to be that the Vietnamese people just want peace and prosperity. Mr. Kha told us that right now his life is good because they have food on the table and clothes on their backs; however, for his grandchildren, all he wants is for them to have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">good food on the table, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">nice clothes on their backs.&nbsp;Fortunately, we had a driver to bring us back to our hotel, where we stayed in and watched The Killing Fields in preparation for our trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217585220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217585220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217585220/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:07:30 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)
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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Today was our Saigon City tour.&nbsp; We started at the War Remnants Museum, which was very interesting with tons of great pictures that capture a lot of different aspects of the war.&nbsp; We saw some other medium interesting sites in the city: Notre Dame Cathedral built by the French during their occupation, the Reunification palace which is where VC tanks rolled in when Saigon fell to the Communists, and the Post Office.&nbsp; Apparently the main Saigon Post Office is an attraction in itself because of the beautiful architecture used by the French.&nbsp;Once we returned to the hotel, we were happy to find out that our request to switch rooms could be accommodated.&nbsp; Our prior room was the room right next to the elevator and stairs on Floor 11.&nbsp; In order to get to breakfast every morning, guests have to take the elevator to floor 11, get off and then take the stairs to floor 12.&nbsp; Needless to say that after one morning of people constantly getting off, talking, etc...beginning at 6:00am, we realized this was not going to work.&nbsp;After getting settled in our new room, we experienced our first monsoon, or very close to it.&nbsp; In about 2 hours, Saigon must have received over 12 inches of rain.&nbsp; Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.&nbsp; The winds were not very strong, but the rain was unrelenting.&nbsp; The view from our room was ok, but we decided to brave the elements and get a first-hand look.&nbsp; We have some great pictures and video that do a better job capturing the scene, but I will try anyway.&nbsp; The sky is full of dark, brooding clouds and rain is coming down in hard sheets.&nbsp; The streets are completely filled with water and traffic is half driving, half walking their motorbikes.&nbsp; Our hotel has a makeshift wall at the entrance (made of cardboard) and a pump (although I can't figure out what this actually accomplished for the life of me).&nbsp; We headed out in about 12 inches of dark water and tried not to roll our ankles given that we couldn't really see what we were walking on.&nbsp; After 30 minutes, we were thoroughly soaked, had seen our fair share of "did you see that" moments, and had a lot of laughs.&nbsp; The combination of uneven surfaces on the street disguised by an even water level on top made for high entertainment.&nbsp; We must have stayed at one corner for about 20 minutes watching people fly over their motorbikes after hitting this one pothole, which was disguised by the water (it didn't appear that anyone was really injured).&nbsp; We stopped a local bar on a main street for a couple "Tigers" (Vietnamese beer), so that we could still watch the storm unfold.&nbsp;After another hour, as quickly as it began, it stopped.&nbsp; Another 45 minutes later and all of the water in the streets was gone.&nbsp; We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up quickly and headed to a small, cheap Mexican restaurant that we heard good things about...definitely not disappointed....total dinner cost, $14.&nbsp;After dinner, we went directly to Seventeen Saloon, which our guide had told us about.&nbsp; Apparently, American Western themed bars are very big in Vietnam and Seventeen Saloon had everything you could think of if you were trying to deck out a western themed bar.&nbsp; I think we were the only non-Vietnamese people there, other than one guy who is there every night (according to our waitress).&nbsp; The place was expensive compared to other bars in the area, but definitely worth it.&nbsp; We had a private waitress for the entire evening and a great table to see the main act....by far the highlight of Saigon was this Filipino cover band playing on stage.&nbsp; Not only were they unbelievable performers (with no discernible accent), their play list was awesome. It included (yes, we wrote them down on the back of a coaster):
"Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston"Black Betty" by Ram Jam"Come on Feel the Noise" by Quiet Riot"You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi"You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC"Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns n' Roses"I Love Rock n' Roll" by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts"I Want to Break Free" by Queen"18 and Life" by Skid Row"Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar"Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence"Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed"Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the MachineLauren's request for Sweet Caroline did not make the cut&nbsp;Apparently, Lauren thought this was also a Karoake bar, because at one point, she was singing along so loud, that not only did the people next to us move seats, but after another group sat down, they also got up and moved seats.&nbsp; We left Seventeen around midnight and stopped at one more place on the way home....this was more of a tourist place, and although we are not sure what exactly they were enforcing, there were a lot of police outside mostly harassing Vietnamese people.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217498700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217498700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217498700/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:06:46 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)
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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We had a half day in Halong Bay today to do a little more sightseeing (hiked up to the top of one island so that we could see all of the other rock formations in the bay), but we also got some very heavy rains, so everyone was ready to pack up and move on to the adventure.&nbsp; I think the staff was ready to get us off too, because they served us breakfast at 8:00am and then lunch at 10:30am.&nbsp; We drove back to the Hanoi airport to say goodbye to Ha and head down South to Saigon (now know as Ho Chi Minh City).&nbsp; All our flights in Southeast Asia have been painless, as was this one.&nbsp; Lauren has a blue pillow for flights (one of those things that feels almost like a beanbag), and had it in her lap while she was reading.&nbsp; There was a 100lb, 6-year old Vietnamese boy sitting next to her and he seemed very interested in the pillow.&nbsp; He went from discreetly poking the pillow, to openly poking it, to grabbing it and squeezing it, to then poking Lauren's arm.&nbsp; This went on for almost the entire 2-hour flight.&nbsp; Finally, Lauren had to say no when he "asked" if he could have her headphones.&nbsp;&nbsp; I got roped into watching "Baby Mama" with Lauren, and although it doesn't fit the mold of watching movies related to the countries we're visiting, Lauren thought it was pretty entertaining.&nbsp; &nbsp;Our hotel in Saigon is right in the middle of the city, so we immediately noticed all of the motorbikes whipping around.&nbsp; I think our guide told us that there are 9 million people in Saigon and almost 4 million motorbikes.&nbsp; It is insane watching people drive around. At almost every country on our trip, people have immediately associated American food with KFC, and there are a lot of KFCs around compared to other western chains.&nbsp; Since we were both tired and had a little travel fatigue, I went out to get some takeout from a KFC down the street from the hotel.&nbsp; (Neither one of us could remember the last time, we had KFC).&nbsp; Anyway, a 30-year old western man walking around downtown Saigon by himself, at night, invites a lot of attention from certain types of people plying their trade.&nbsp; I was quickly and often approached by people offering "sexy massage", and had 2 ladyboys try to get me to join them on their motorbike....umm, I'll pass....and run home now.&nbsp; Later on, I learned how different it feels to be walking around alone vs with your wife....at least until we got back to Bangkok (see later entry).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217242620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217242620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217242620/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:05:31 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)
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Sapa, Vietnam

Our overnight train ride was largely uneventful and actually pretty comfortable; definitely better than the overnight bus ride.&nbsp; We had a shared cabin with 2 sets of bunk beds.&nbsp; Luckily, we ended up with two very cool girls about our age from Canada.&nbsp; They were clean, quiet and funny, so it worked out perfectly.&nbsp; Unfortunately, the train made a decent number of stops, the AC stopped working 20 minutes into the trip, and the security guard was smoking outside of our room.&nbsp; I watched Superbad on my laptop and Lauren read a little bit.&nbsp; &nbsp;We were abruptly woken up at 4:30am by several loud knocks on the cabin door, about 1 hour from our final destination, to disembark the train.&nbsp; Due to heavy rains, a mountain had fallen down, had covered part of the track and made it impassable.&nbsp; Most passengers took shuttle buses to the final train station, where they would then meet or arrange transportation to Sapa.&nbsp; However, sensing that we were real men of the people, our guide arranged for our driver to pick us up at this spot, so we could avoid the shuttle bus with everyone else.&nbsp; Also, since they lock the bathrooms on the train a kilometer before reaching the train station (probably b/c waste matter empties right onto the tracks) and we had no prior warning of reaching our stop, both of us had to use the facilities pretty badly.&nbsp; Our driver tried to get a shop to open up for us, but everyone was asleep.&nbsp; So we started the trip and once on a secluded rode, the driver embarrassingly asked us if we minded using a bush - hey, when in Vietnam... &nbsp;Our ride to Sapa was prolonged by the heavy rains and took about 3 hours at a snail's pace....very nice scenery, but tough riding on your tailbone.&nbsp; After getting to our hotel, we punted on some morning activity and told our guide we needed a nap.&nbsp; &nbsp;Fully refreshed from our nap, we spent the afternoon hiking on a mountain just outside of town to get a great view of the town, the larger valley in which it sits and Mount Fancipang (we suitably nicknamed it Mt. Fancy Pants - Ha, our guide, thought this was hysterical).&nbsp; We hit up the local market.&nbsp; In most towns, there seems to be a local market consisting largely of food and clothes, where locals shop; and the tourist market, where there are trinkets, souvenirs and the local beer printed on t-shirts.&nbsp; The local market had some very interesting meat displays, and Lauren was fortunate enough to get fully outfitted in the local hill tribe's traditional garb.&nbsp; Although we didn't buy any of the clothes, it was a great picture and Ha also thought it was one of the funniest things he'd ever seen.&nbsp; By now, we are starting to get Ha to loosen up, realize that he's actually pretty funny, can share in the occasional wise crack, and is one of the biggest flirts we'd ever met.&nbsp; Everywhere we went he got what he wanted from the local ladies by flirting with them - he didn't have much game though, especially with the wedding ring.&nbsp; &nbsp;We stopped at a local restaurant and sat at an outside table to do some notetaking, planning, etc...we stayed here for a couple hours before dinner and were relentlessly solicited by the local hill tribes to buy their goods...easily the most persistent and aggressive salespeople we have encountered on the entire trip, and ranging in ages from 5 to 80 probably.&nbsp; People would literally come up and grab you if you ignored them.&nbsp; Remember, this is also while we are sitting in a restaurant that has a railing between the tables and street.&nbsp; At one point, Andy started to try to sell the one item we had already purchased to anyone who approached.&nbsp; This really confused people, but seemed to work and they would get frustrated and walk away.&nbsp; We never ended up selling it, but didn't end up buying anything else either.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217412180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217412180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217412180/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:04:26 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)
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Halong Bay, Vietnam

We had an early arrival after the overnight train (around 5:00am), so we decided to check out the flower market, which begins around 4:00am every day.&nbsp; We saw lots of beautiful flowers, and Lauren got to practice being a delivery girl as well.&nbsp; After the flower market, we walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake in downtown Hanoi to get a glimpse of many, many different types of morning exercise, from Tai Chi to Weightlifting to Badminton.&nbsp;Lauren joined in one aerobics class that had at least 100 people involved on the sidewalks and park area.&nbsp; At one point we stumbled upon an outdoor weightlifting area...it was pretty bare bones in terms of the facilities, but as close to muscle beach as you will find in Vietnam.&nbsp; As we were walking past, one of the locals told our guide that he wanted to see me lift some of the weights...umm, sure, ok.....it was pretty light, so not that difficult*&nbsp;&nbsp; There is a small crowd watching at this point, and one of them grabs me by the arm and drags me across the street to another bench.&nbsp; He then proceeds to put every weight they have there on the bar at once, and wants to see if I can lift it.&nbsp; There is no turning back at this point and they actually didn't have that many weights, so luckily I was able to pull it off.&nbsp; Some of the locals seemed to get much enjoyment out of this, as did I, although my arms were actually very sore the next day....definitely time to hit the gym again when we get home.&nbsp;After our tour of the morning exercise circuit, we stopped at some hole in the wall for a Vietnamese breakfast, which is noodle soup.&nbsp; Asian people don't eat breakfast as we think of it (no eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, nothing...basically just noodle soup, which is actually very good.)&nbsp; Now that we were revitalized, we drove 3 hours to Halong Bay for a 2-day boat trip.&nbsp; Our guide, Ha, found out that he was going to be accompanying us on the boat trip at the very last minute and was literally jumping up and down he was so excited.&nbsp; We had a great day of cruising in the Bay, snorkeling, kayaking through caves and getting to know the other people on boat.&nbsp; There was a mix of people from Netherlands, France, Spain and one Catholic priest from Australia.&nbsp; Overall, a very easy-going group.&nbsp;The kayaking was very cool.&nbsp; Because it was low tide, we were able to kayak under a rock opening about 50 feet long and into this really cool lagoon...just had to make sure we were out before the tide came in....also, we stopped at this huge cave, about 40 feet high in places and 300 feet wide.&nbsp;At the end of the day, we enjoyed swimming, cocktail hour, more swimming, some reading, dinner, consisting of fresh fish, and then "fishing" off the boat, which was basically just feeding the fish.&nbsp; Halong Bay is very beautiful and apparently in the running for one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world....although, it was slightly disappointing too...maybe just too many boats or something, but it didn't have the wow factor that we expected....also, maybe just getting a little travel fatigue.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217329200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217329200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laurenandy/1/1217329200/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:34:36 -0400 Our Travel Blog (...because we couldn't really think of anything else creative to call it)
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Sapa, Vietnam

Today is our trekking day in Sapa, and, having not forgotten our prior trekking experience in Laos, we begin with a little trepidation.&nbsp; In order for us to even begin our trek into the hillside, where many local tribes live, we must get pre-approval from a government checkpoint.&nbsp; All visitors are strictly monitored by the government so that they do not spread different political ideas to the villagers.&nbsp;Our trek took us through some stunning scenery and interesting local villages, and was even with heavy rains at certain points, and was far less strenuous than our Laos experience.&nbsp; Once we made it into the village area, we were immediately picked up by two local women.&nbsp; They walked with us for a long time, asking probing questions about our family, age, education, how many kids we wanted, etc...they had remarkable English for having no formal training (it is all learned from conversations with tourists).&nbsp; They were very friendly (even carrying an umbrella over Andy's head and helping Lauren across a river), and it did not go unsaid that they wanted us to buy stuff from them.&nbsp; We pleasantly resisted and they continued to follow/walk with us.&nbsp; Our guide told us that a common tactic is for villagers to get tacit agreement for a later purchase, by harassing you and ending with "you buy later when we get to village, ok?" And, if you do not say "no", they assume yes and then get very confrontational if you do not buy later on, calling you dishonest and a liar, etc...we witnessed this in the town.&nbsp;We stopped in one village for lunch at a local home, where homestays are arranged.&nbsp; Homestays allow tourists to spend a night in a village with minimal accommodation.&nbsp; The house was clean, albeit it had very minimal amenities. Our lunch was stir-fry noodles and vegetables and great.&nbsp; The lunch break is also the final selling opportunity for the two women who had latched on to us...after talking to our guide, he said it was unnecessary to buy anything from them, but to tip them would be nice.&nbsp; We gave them a tip, and they quickly grew enraged because clearly it wasn't enough.&nbsp; Arguments ranged from "please buy from us for food" to the fact that they had walked with us a long way, which then made us good friends, and that we should want to make our good friends happy, and they would only be happy if we purchased a large item from them.&nbsp; This lasted for about 15 minutes before they left in disgust.&nbsp; After finishing our trek, we waltzed into the nicest looking hotel in town and found their free internet for guests.&nbsp; We stayed there for a while before heading to the Lo Cai train station for our overnight train back to Sapa.&nbsp; Lo Cai was the original destination of our first train, and apparently the mud from the fallen mountain had been removed enough from the tracks so that the train could make the full trip.&nbsp; We had an interesting 2 hr drive to the station with our driver, guide and the guide's friend who had a huge cake for his wife's birthday.&nbsp; Our guide tried very hard to get him to open the cake, even saying that it was Lauren's birthday as well and that he was being rude by not sharing.&nbsp; We had a pretty good time teasing him about the cake... Along the ride was some of the most beautiful scenery.&nbsp; Ok, we keep saying that, but it just gets better and better.&nbsp; The trip took us through some windy narrow roads through the mountains, but sure enough, there were villagers, water buffalo and goats hanging out on the sides going on about their normal day.&nbsp; &nbsp;Upon arrival in Lo Cai, we stopped to see the Chinese border, grab dinner and then board the train.&nbsp; There's a bridge that connects the two countries and some Lao people will just go across the bridge to China to work.&nbsp; At dinner, Lauren was convinced by a guy to have her sneakers washed.&nbsp; It seemed like a good idea and efficient use of time while waiting for the train (we didn't entirely think this one through:&nbsp; wet sneakers + tight plastic bag + overnight train = horrific smell).&nbsp; We were praying to have the same two Canadian girls for the trip back to Hanoi, and......perfect...same roommates!&nbsp; Our guide's seatmates on the trip up included a crying baby and a man who was on and off his cell the entire trip.&nbsp; The trains are all government controlled, although some tour companies buy specific cars, renovate them, and then sell seats at higher prices.&nbsp; However, the government still assigns all seats so they keep foreigners with other foreigners and Vietnamese with other Vietnamese.&nbsp; We watched Gladiator on train and tried to sleep.
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