Update from Vietnam

Our view across the river while on a coffee break from cruising on the motorbikes.

This, I believe, needs no explanation.

Nice old ruins.

I decided to create a photo series of walls in SE Asia.

When we say, 'ok that's enough' they are just getting started.

80 degree water.

Pool or ocean?

We can eat this every day.

$5 a day.

Bow to her greatness.

Just another day.

Some Images

We have returned to Vietnam and we wanted to share a few images from this amazing place. Yures ou can click on the pictures to make them bigger then click the 'back' button to return to the post.

This flag was flying in the front of our boat in Ha Long Bay.

The sunset that followed. A few minutes later we jumped the 20 feet to the incredibly warm water, barely missing the jellyfish that stung our new friend.

Uwey wandering through a huge cave on one of the thousands of islands in the bay.

This woman passed along the river while we were eating lunch. I snapped this through the wall of our balcony.

Our hotel has free bikes for us to use. We took them through town and out to the beach.

Every month on the full moon they turn off the lights of the old town in Hoi An and light thousands of lanterns.

More to come.

The Slow Boat

It was interesting getting here, that's for sure. A rough first impression of what has turned out to be a truly wonderful country so far. We debated the method we should take to get into Laos and decided on the 'slow boat' over the faster bus option. The noat ride included our transport to the border from Chiang Rai, Thailand and two days on a boat along the Mekong, stopping for the night roughly half way through. . The pictures of the boat showed happy travelers, seated comfortably taking in the view of the river. We bit and shelled out about forty-five dollars each. The next morning the van came on time and we piled in along with seven others. The road was windy and I think a bit a bit dangerous. Nonetheless, we arrived at the border without incident. We were pushed through the border alongside many others and had our visas processed quickly. The weather was warm but not hot as we had clearly climbed along the road.

We were advised to buy food in the small town as it would be cheaper than on the boat so we grabbed a few sandwiches and moved along to meet up with rest of the group. We arrived at the small office to find a scene of mild chaos. True - almost verbatim - to the scam Uwey had read about the night before, the organizer, 'for our benefit', warned of horrors on the river. Due to the rainy season, two-day delays could be expected. Mosquitos would ravish our bodies and the boat may go down. According to the screaming man the bus was the best option and despite being the cheaper choice from Chiang Rai, we could board for a mere 500 baht or about 17 U.S. dollars more. He would not only pocket that fee but hold on to the difference in fare. Uwey, armed with her prior knowledge informed the group of the scam. In likely the most satisfying move of the trip, one after another of our counterparts either refused the bus or cancelled their booking. The angry, yelling man informed us that our fate was in our hands and stormed away in disgust.

We made our way to the pier, united and admittedly a bit rightious. What we found was the last departing boat full and roughly 20 of us on shore. Freshly banded we stood our ground. We were not getting on a packed boat to sit on the floor and that was that. We knew their game and we were on to them. We stood in an act of defiance, a powerful voice of foreigners with foreign money, a gesture about as worthless as the Lao Kip (about 8,000 to 1 U.S. Dollar). I believe that it truly was the last boat of the day and when faced with the prospect of spending the night in the town that had only offered deception and frustration, we boarded.

It was fortunate that we listened to the other advice we had found online and had purchased cushions for the long trip. Without them we would have spent eight hours sitting on the hard wooden floors of the boat. We took turns spreading out the pads and sleeping and we mercifully ariived in a small village around dusk. We secured a very cheap room and spent our evening at the only bar in town talking with new friends.

Uwey had doubted herself and had felt bad about warning of the scam when it's heeds had seemed to materialized but when we arrived at the dock the next morning we found a boat with comfortable seats to spare and we spent the next many hours in relative luxury. The previous day was just one of those times when passage through a third-world country lacks organization and the notion of Western fairness. The girl next to me of unknown European descent had said it perfectly as she turned to her partner, "We lost.".

Whatever we lost on our first day of travel in Laos we have made up for tenfold in this amazing town I am writing from. We are in Luang Prabang, a world heritage city with French colonial architecture bordering its lazy, winding streets. It is a narrow finger on the confluence of the Mekong and some other river and its easy, slow pace works perfectly with the countless orange-robed monks wandering its streets. A six to eight hour bus ride looms before the next town but for now we are happy to rent bikes for one to two dollars a day and explore this unexpected gem. A lightning storm has just passed by as I write and it is now time to meet Uwey and Danny at the hip-hop show across the tiny peninsula. You win some and you lose some.

A Nice Change

I am sitting poolside in the heart of Chiang Mai. Yesterday, we woke up in Bangkok. The difference is bigger than the one-hour, very turbulent flight would suggest. Chiang Mai has a beach-town feel and a nice, slow pace. Bangkok pulsed like the ten million person city that it is. We were all ready for the change.

We have heard the advice that for the most part a city is a city and that most of the real exploration lies outside of their limits. This has been true in some ways and false in others. It is foolish to say that Saigon and Singapore are anything alike. Saigon has its third-world feel and character while Singapore's futuristic nature and impeccable streets have a vibe all their own. But they are both crowded and busy and move with the speed and anonymity of a metropolis.

Aiding my overall desire for a change was our last night in Bangkok where I got desperately lost only ten minutes from our room. It took me three hours, four taxi drivers and countless tut tuts to find my way, all the while being grabbed by transexual prostitutes.

So now I sit, very much not lost and feel the tension ease. Uwey is lying by the pool reading her kindle and Danny is dozing next to me. Half a dozen travelers blanket the poolside. There is an energy here, an open and hopeful wind that dries my skin and beckons another dip in the pool.

The Places We Find Ourselves

There is nothing like this particular point in a trip. Jason, if you are there, we have talked about it countless times. It's the moment when the end is so far it is totally out of sight and the beginning is so close you can remember the events of each day. When you think back only one week it seems like three and five months to the future appears impossibly open. The promise of a pefect trip is still up for grabs.
At home with the foreign, small differences have become pedestrian and I dream of telling stories of the extraordinary. The act of traveling, of course, is often occupied by the newly mundane, when the romanticism of a new text on the ads has run its course and we have adjusted. But this state too is to be celebrated, if not as a testament to the human condition then as a triumph over it.

We have been led by the hand until now-a blessing and a curse- a fine introduction and an easy transition to be sure but the time has finally come for the true exploration we had in mind. Early this afternoon we said our goodbyes to the family, a bittersweet moment, and took a taxi to the first hotel we arranged on our own.

As I sit at this cafe I am still wrapping my head around the fact that our trip has truly and undeniably begun in earnest. This is the type of freedom that makes my head dizzy. All of our planning and saving has brought us to this moment in Bangkok, a city we leave tomorrow. From here on out our pace will be self-determined and our route our own, No matter what happens in the next five-plus months it will be our making and I have no doubt that what we will make will be beautiful.

A Few More Pictures

Still having difficulty finding time to write anything substantial. You may find this hard to believe considereing we are still in the first month of what really amounts to a six month vacation. We have been moving at a ridiculous pace though, having been afixed to a few tours. It turns out that the people here want the absolute most for their money so any tour that they sign up for must squeeze the most out of every day. We have been waking before 7 am each day and hitting sites until dark. Those of you that know our travel habits may find this difficult to understand, but this has all been a paid-for tour with family. We never even had Singapore on our radar yet we spent a few days there with the group, a real bonus.
 I have a feeling that the style in which we have been rolling will be in direct contradiction to that that we find ourselves in once we separate from the family. I have to admit that while tours may not be my method of choice we have been treated to some great sites we would have missed anew d the convenience cannot be overstated. I am ready to go out on our own but will miss a part of this easy life. When waking up as early as you would have for work is your biggest problem, it's safe to say that life is pretty good.
We are in Pattaya, Thailand at the moment but heading to Bangkok at 7am tomorrow morning. After a few days there, we will be on our own. The trip will take a turn there though the direction cannot be clear. Like this trip in general we will just have to see how it plays out.

A few more pictures:

A tour-mate parasailing mere minutes before she puked in a bag on a boat.

Temple in Singapore.

Guess which ones are transexuals.

If you said all of them, you are correct.



Animal shows seem to be a lot of what the tourist industry in Thailand is about. At least these animals aren't trying to seduce 60 year-old white men.

 Random burnt building in Malaysia.

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A Few Visual Highlights

In lieu of a written account - which we haven't had much time to put together- here are a few visual highlights of our trip thus far.

We have spent a good amount of time at the villages of Uwey's grandmothers. Each is roughly an hour from Saigon.

We took a trip to the Mekong River and delta. We had an amazing few days on the water exploring.

A few days ago we boarded a flight for Kuala Lumpur, where I am writing from now. We stopped at a beautiful Hindu temple tucked into large, limestone caverns.

Hope to update soon with more detailed accounts.