I forgot about this one! I left Portland February 25, so March 25 I was… sailing the Whitsundays in Australia! At this point in my travels, it felt like I’d been out of the US for ages. So long in fact, that I’d started calling it “America” instead of “the US”…
I spent the night in Beijing, in a neighborhood close to the airport. It was funny being back in China. I wandered around the neighborhood and went to the grocery store to get snacks (and cucumber chips). After a day of exploring, I was back at the airport and on my flight home. Funny side note: 2 Chinese girls in the tea shop at the airport were laughing…
We took the bus over the dancing road to Battambang yesterday morning. I did a moto tour when we arrived. We drove into the rural areas of Battambang and saw rice paper being made as well as rice noodles. Battambang is a very typical Cambodian city. There’s very little tourism and a lot of poverty. So this is “real” Cambodia. The women who make the rice papers to…
This morning we woke up at 4am to go see the sunrise over Angkor Wat (the main Angkor temple). What an amazing experience. We bought coffee from one of the little entrepreneurial Cambodian boys who arrived shortly after us. After the sun came up, we toured the temple, before getting breakfast at a nearby cafe. By 11am I was templed out. I was beginning to feel like I…
Yesterday morning we flew to Siem Reap. We’ll be here for a few days to tour the Temples of Angkor. Siem Reap and the temples is the main tourist attraction in Cambodia, so there are tourists everywhere! I haven’t seen this many Westerners since I was on Khao San Road in Bangkok. In the afternoon, I had lunch at the Blue Pumpkin, got a massage, and then swam…
We took a public bus to the Cambodia border yesterday morning. We arrived in Phnom Penh (pronounced ‘panom pen’ ‘p’ as in ‘pup’ and then ‘pen’) in the afternoon. As soon as we crossed the border, the poverty of Cambodia versus Vietnam was very apparent. There are beggars everywhere. After arriving, we went to a cafe by the river and people watched, until an elephant walked by. Yes,…
We toured the Cu Chi Tunnels this morning. What a cool place! It was really amazing to see the tunnels and museum. The Vietcong were really creative. I can’t believe that people lived down then, for years. The VC were really determined. After seeing the tunnels, it makes you realize that we (the Americans) had no idea what we were getting into, or who we were dealing with.…
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) yesterday. HCMC seems to just be an “official” name in southern Vietnam. Ever since we went through the DMZ area, it’s been referred to as Saigon. So Saigon it is! It’s heading into rainy season here, so we did a cyclo tour of the city, through the rain. But that’s what my Columbia rain jacket (with duck bill hood) is…
Although I’ve been laughed at lately for this, there’s a reason I usually pack my bag the night before I have to leave early. Yesterday morning, it came in handy. I didn’t wake up to my alarm, and since I don’t have a roomie, I just kept sleeping! (I know, what a pain to have gotten stuck with my own room!) So I got ready in 15 minutes,…
Today we took a motorbike tour of the Hue countryside. We drove through little villages, past rivers and rice paddies, saw conical hats being made, incense making, and stopped at a nunnery for lunch. A vegetarian lunch I might add. After lunch we cruised on the perfume river (it sounds fun, but was actually the most boring part of the day), across to the Tien Mu Pagoda. It…
We arrived in Hue this morning. After checking in and showering, I headed out to find some lunch. I did a little wandering around and then decided it was way too hot to be outside. In the afternoon, we took a tour of the Citadel. It was really impressive. Hue is just south of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) from the Vietnam War (they call it the American War).…
I woke up at 5:15 this morning. I went up to the top deck, but the sun was already up! The sky was still pretty cool though. It was nice to have some morning quiet, since I haven’t been able to find that in Hanoi. After breakfast, the boat headed back to the docks. We were back in Hanoi by lunchtime. After lunch at a local cafe, I…