Nov 2007

Welp folks, I can definitely say I am kicking back! As I mentioned before, Thailand is all about the beaches, and we are all about taking advantage of that. After staying at our "posh" upgraded awesome resort, here is a pict of the pool and sea:

we totally feel spoiled. We did make it to Koh Samui for the day:

which was pretty chill and relaxing. Then came back to Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon Party, 11/24/07. There were a couple of pre-parties on the beach, this pict came out bad, but its basically 02348923049832 people dancing:

and that itself was SUPER fun. Then the full moon party itself was craaaazy! We danced the night away from 11:30pm till about 6:30 am. There were all sorts of music playing and it is such a fun atmosphere. EVERYONE is out to have a good time, and you can see that. Of course you see lots of craziness happening as well, but those are details I shouldn't share on this public site. Haha ha!

After the full moon party, we took a trecherous boat ride to Koh Tao. Yes, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to take a boat ride after a night of staying up and drinking and high tide due to the full moon, but what can you do? I somehow managed to not throw up, but I can't say the same for every 3rd person on the boat. Seriously, I've never seen a something so bad. You know its bad when the crew is walking around carrying plastic baggies to throw up in and kleenex. And this perfume (??) thing to put under your news thats supposed to help with nausea? Unfortunately, Char was one of those people, and yea... the poor thing, it really really sucked. Here's a pict of it, all those people that are leaning over are throwing up, ew!

We barely made it off the boat and were whisked to the nice Ban's resort:

where we have spend the last couple of days recovering on sleep and being hung over. Oh, guess what? It was the funniest thing. So here we are at the restaurant and they are playing this already made DVD player from the full-moon party the night before (so quick), and.... there we were! We saw ourselves dancing the night away! Glad I wore a red dress that was easy to spot and that Char had this cute hat on! Yea! So if you ever catch a video of the Full Moon party in Thailand in Nov, look for us! Or, since we both felt the need that we had to buy it, ask us to see it!

I went scuba diving the other day and that was pretty much the reason we came to Koh Tao, its supposed to have the best diving in all of Thailand. But of course, as luck would have it, its the start or finish (who knows?) of the monsoon season so the visibility was TOTAL crap. Its probably the worst diving I've done. But we still saw some cool things, big o turtles, trigger fish, bannerfish. Its no Great Barrier Reef, I'll tell ya! Sooo... thats about all that we've done during our stay in Thailand, beach hopped. And relaxed:

Now we are in Bangkok. I remember coming here a couple of years ago and not liking it... but now I do! The weather is beautiful, and its actually nice to be in a city. There is a ton to do in Bangkok - you can go blue in the face from looking at wats and temples. Or just hanging out. We actually met up with someone we met in Xi'an, China (LH, Tam!). Crazy to see him again and realize that its been 2 months since we last hung out and we have all sorts of fun stories to share. Ahhh... the beauty of traveling, always running into people!

Guess what? We saw Thai boxing! It was sooo fun! Its easy to get into it. I learned that Thai boxing is different than regular boxing because they can kick with their legs, so most of the time, the fighters are guarding their face (more than usual, I guess!) and their kidneys, ha ha!:

Here is a pict of the awesome and huge (45m!) reclining buddha and the grand palace:

All and all, we spent 2 full weeks in Thailand its amazing. I know I usually like to do a little recap, like I did China, and I wanted to do one of SE Asia, but its kinda more for more and I don't have too much time now. Out of the SE countries, I loooved all of them in their own way. Laos for the people and the atmosphere, Vietnam for the sites, Cambodia for the temples and the food, and Thailand for the beaches. Fun fun! Now we are off to Nepal and India for the next leg! Woo hoo!

p.s. I know, I know... I'm a little obsessed with sunsets!!!

By the way, HAPPY THANKSGIVING and happy 3-month travel anniversary to me! Its nice to be in Thailand, the land of great beaches for this special time of year. Actually, if it weren't for someone else who recognized our "American" accents and wished us a happy thanksgiving, we probably would have forgotten about it. Nevertheless, this is probably the most non-Thanksgiving I've ever had. I had rice with pineapple and cashews for dinner, and then we treated ourselves to pancakes for dessert. No turkey and mash potatoes for us! I hope others will eat extra on our behalf!

Anyhoo, to back track our a little, from Cambodia we bused it, actually took a personal taxi (long story) to Bangkok where we caught a flight to Phuket. After less than a 24-hour stop over there, we took a ferry to the great Phi Phi island. That is where The Beach is filmed and is frequently named one of the best beaches in the world. When I came here a few years ago, we took a day trip to the Phi Phi islands and I remember it being wonderful, crystal clear blue water and white fine sand. So needless to say, we were pretty excited to lay back and have some beach time after all our travels. We spoke too soon. According to our guide book, there was this super cute little beach resort that had nice bamboo huts and bungalows, and was given a "thumbs up" by the guidebook. So we got dropped off there by the water taxi (the only ones to get dropped off there so that should have been a hint) to find a deserted and desolate tiny tiny beach that was totally under construction. What the? We asked the price and found it waaaay overpriced and over our budget. D'oh! So the reception was kind enough to tell us to take a "5-min" walk over a hill to get to Long Beach, where there were plenty of budget hotels. No problem, we thought. So with our bags and everything we started the slow climb..... up and over this jungle area. Seriously, it was a jungle. There was no route just a walked-on mud path that was barely wide enough to fit ourselves. Not only was it hot and extremely humid out, but we literally were walking through this jungle that had steep, slippery inclines and declines that we practically had to slide down. It was trecherous! People were hardly climbing up and were looking at us with disbelief that we were doing this 'trek' with all our bags. We emerged from the path dripping with sweat, covered in mosquito bites, and just gross. Then of course there are no roads or sidewalks, so we had to trudge through sand from place to place to finds things not available or waaay too expensive. We finally found one and not caring that it was smelly and musty, it was close to the beach. We practically threw our bags down, changed, and did a Baywatch enterance into the clearn, warm waters. Niiiiiice! There we watched the sunset and finally could settle. What a journey! Was it worth it? OF COURSE! The beach was fantastic, soooo pretty:

Then started our 1st few days of real 'vacation' from beginning this journey. Our decisions soon came to: should we have a pineapple shake or mango shake?

Should we have a sunset massage or dusk massage? (we settled for the dusk by the beach):

How can you beat that? And some good eats!

Soo.... that was pretty much 2 full days on Phi Phi!!! Laying out, catching some rays, and relaxing. No worrying about anything. Next stop is Koh Phangan where we are now. Another day's journey, another adventure with our accomodations. In Koh Phi Phi... it was kinda gross. Centipedes and strange bugs about, water in our room from the non-insulated walls, blah! So when we got to Koh Phangan and got ourselves to even a worse place, this one covered with ants, an outside "bathroom" area (no sink, just a basin, I could go on and on), we almost had had it. We slept there, but, as is becoming routine, I had all these bad dreams about bugs and ants and stuff. Daaaaaaamn it. Sooo..... as luck would have it (it is Thanksgiving, huh?), we found a sweeeeeeeeet accomodation just down the beach from where we originally were staying. Of course, we decided to splurge for it, but its worth every penny. Guess what? It has toilet paper! A garbage! Tiled floors! A separate shower area from the bathroom (in Asia they are mostly an all in one, so you pretty much are sitting on the toilet while showering). All these MAJOR luxuries we haven't had. And, yes we are paying a LOT, there is even a computer with internet, a TV, and a fridge in our room. And did I mention the spectacular view from our private balcony?

We can't get enough of it! Soooo... life is good! In all honesty, we had to do this. I don't think I could take yet another couple of days, or week, of really bad accomodations. So here we are! Another few days here while we party at the infamous full-moon party!

Angkor What? (thats a name of a restaurant here, which we thought was funny). Then of course I began to say "Angkor Vat?" as my mom would say (she's Russian and usually says VAT instead of "what?").

In the same caliber as the Pyramids (check! Been there done that), Machu Piccu (Hmm... maybe next year) and the Taj Mahal (in a couple of weeks!!) is the world famous Temple of Angkor - the single largest religous site in the world! Located in Siem Riep, the temples of Angkor are spread over more than 40 miles and were built between the 8th and 13th centuries. Its HUGE and you can see everything from single tower's made of bricks to amazing stone temple complexes. The main Khmer temple is the infamous Angkor Wat (literally translated as "sacred" or "capital city.)" You know when you hear soooo much about something and you get there and are like "hmmm.... its okay." Well, here it was everything we heard about, and more! After 2 days of visiting temples, Angkor Wat, with its lotus shaped towers is by far the most impressive and the most beautiful temple. Pictures don't do it justice, but here it is:

Like I said, its huge and this is just 1 pict of 29034820394823094823094823094 that I took that depicts it more. Its about 4 miles long and has many bas-relief carvings that depicts stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historical wars of Suryavarman II. Suryavaran II constructed it in early to mid 12th century in a form of a massive 'temple-mountain' dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu. Sooo... to say again, it is amazing, even more amazing is the water that surrounds the comples, moat, which was purposely built to represent the edge of the universe (or something like that). Its hard to keep track of all these beliefs and significance of things. I won't bore you (or I'll try not to!!) with details about all the Temples, but they are all very unique and different. Besides Angkor Wat, the next most amazing temple is Angkor Thom ("thom"means 'big'). Its a huge complex (trust me, it was seriously 90+ degrees out and we were baking as we were walking around. Seriously, baking and melting) and is a 3KM walled royal city and was the last capital of the Angkorian empire. Enclosed in the city is Bayon, the state-temple that is called one of the greatest of Angkor's temples (I believe it!). It has 5 entrances (gates) to the city, one for each cardinal point and each gate has 4 giant faces. There is this cool elephant terrace (protecting the temple) on the south gate. The Bayon was built by Jayavarman VII between 1181 and 1220. The Buddha faces are the best part - they are all smiling down on you!! Every detail of the face supposed to mean something, but eh, who can keep track of that?

Sooo.... once again, to try and not bore you with details, the other temples we saw were Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean, Preah Khan (known as sacred sword with some amazing carvings), Ta Prohm (also known as jungle temple with these cool trees that are inter-mingled with the temple):

with which we saw the most amazing sunsets at Prasat Kravan and Pre-Rup (this is Pre-Rup):

The restoration process is huge and there are still a lot of temples in ruins, but overall it is sooooo incredibly amazing.

So what do you do in Cambodia, or Siem Riep, besides go to Temples? Well, we went to Tonle Sap Lake, one of Earth's most interesting natural phenomena because each year during Cambodia's rainy seaon, the Mekong River actually backflows into the "Great Lake"" via the Tonle Sap River. So from the dry season to the rain season, the surface area of the lake expands 4X!! Crazy! So the cool thing about the lake is that you get to see the floating villages of Chong Kneas to see the life and homes of Cambodians:

Its kinda sad because they are sooo super poor. Not just in this village, but everywhere in Cambodia. Here is some other facts about Cambodia besides because one of the poorest Asian countries). The Communist regime of Khmer rouge years lasted for many years and were super brutal with radical programs like isolating the country from foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals, and factories, abolishing banking, financing and currency, outlawing religions (FYI, now its officially Buddhism), and relocating people for forced labor = labor camps (12 hours of non-stop work with hardly any rest or food). During this time there were massive deaths, executions, work exhaustion, illness and starvation. Many still refer to it as "darkness" years. Then in the mid-70's, the Khmer rouge takes over again and basically orders hundreds of thousands of educated and middle-classes to be tortured and executed. Others starved to death or died from disease or exhaustion. During this time the death toll, mind you, this is within 3 years, is estimated to be almost 2 million.):

-Almost 50% of Cambodia's population is under 18 years of age
-Avg life expectancy is 57 years old
-About 90% of Cambodia's people are ethnic Khmers practicing Buddhism, with the remaining being Vietnamese and Chinese and very remote tribes.
-Its estimated that 1/3 of Cambodia's population lives on less than $1 dollar per day.
-Unlike the other SE Asia countries we have been to, Cambodia does not have a booming economy.
-The unoffical currency is the dollar, but I would say its the official currency because we have hardly seen the riel. We even went to the ATM and got US dollars! Its kinda weird!!
-In the mid-1960's, Cambodia allowed Northern Vietnamese guerrillas to set up bases in Cambodia to continue their attack against the US-backed government in South Vietnam. So in turn, the US began a secret bombing campaign against North Vietnam on Cambodian soil. Then later in the 70's the Vietnamese invade Cambodia, and their war-torn years continue. How many years of guerrilla warfare can one country endure? I read it somewhere (can't remember where now, but it stands out in my head) that there are still thousands of landmines that are still out there from the war and close to a hundred people die each month by accidently coming across it. Its crazy. So we were heavily warned to not go off the beaten path because it is a serious and grave danger.

Cambodia has been really eye-opening. One, to the sad poverty of the people (it always sad to see such young children begging), but also to learn about their (unfortunate) history and more about Buddhism philosophy, such as "live in moderation in all facets of life; material objects stand in the way of greater happiness." Hmm.... once again, as I have realized from traveling, do we really need all those pairs of shoes that we have, or the other countless material things we have?

Remind me, I'll probably need it when we get to Thailand and clothes are less than $5!

Oh, here is a beautiful sunset we saw of Angkor wat and then another temple:

Darn it, now I can't get that song out of my head.

Anyway, I guess I can't be in Vietnam without mentioning war. Vietnam is the most bombed country in the world. In the world! Its hard to believe, but after re-learning about the Chinese 1000+ year invasions, the French 80+ years, and US 10+ years, we thought it was necessary to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of tunnels that was used by the Vietcong during the American War. This system has been used by the Vietnam for centuries (I guess you learn after awhile) and were a key part of guerilla warfare during the Vietnam war and played a major role in defeating American soldiers. It stretches for hundreds of miles and the tunnels were dug from clay by local people. Its pretty complex and the maps look crazy. The cool thing is that it had living spaces, kitchens, clinics, even a 'honeymoon'' room (one night only). So for the Vietcong, it was good escape from bombings, hiding from the enemy, and to do surprise attacks. Everything was pretty unbiased, until we saw this really old school video that talked about the "ruthless Americans"" attacking the "gentle Vietnamese." It was almost amusing, the propoganda of the video.

But part of the tour was to actually go through the tunnels, and mind you, it was pretty clever for the Vietnamese to use the one thing that most Americans don't have - their super small physique and frame. I don't think I could have fit in there:

They made the tunnels so tight and narrow, that most americans couldn't squeeze through them. But you ask, how could they survive in their, and what about flooding the tunnels or throwing gas/fire down there? Well, they designed air holes for fresh air and also for smoke to get out and also a pseudo underwater system that if attempted to be flooded, the water would go directly to the river (there was also a river entrance). And of course clay doesn't burn or melt or dissolve or anything, so that solved that problem. Hence, covered all bases. And it worked! We walked through it, well, half bent over and waddling more like it,

it was sooo hot and muggy!! When I surfaced, I was practically gasping for air. Okay, thats an exaggeration, but I can ONLY imagine how people lived there for months at a time! Crazy! So besides the tunnels, we learned about the ingenious booby traps and other clever designs (tunnel entrances) to deter the "ruthless Americans." Óverall, some of it was cheesy with mannequins writing letters to their moms and polishing their shoes, but I thought they did a pretty good job of re-creating it. It was also good to learn about it from their perspective - nostly unbiased, except the video.

On a side note, there is absolutely NO friction towards us being Americans (which some random people warned us about). Since Vietnam opened itself to tourism in the early 90's and President Clinton visited it in 1996, they like Americans because Americans ='s $$, and tourism is becoming a thriving industry here and helping their economy. I asked our guide about the opinions Vietnamese have towards Americans and he said that they have really tried hard to put their war torn history behind them and have moved on. I can see that. When we went out to dinner with Char's friends 2nd cousins friends (phew!) they said they were a new generation and want to nove on from the past. The guide also said, and I heard this from someone else, that there is more friction between Northern Vietnam (the "communist republic") and Southern Vietnam, the anti-communist and Catholic region (2nd largest Catholic population second to Phillipines) then towards any other country. Interesting. That was the whole trigger of the war, and as the guide reiterated that there will always be problems but but are looking in the future. And once again, that Vietnam is a nation, not a war. Then our tour guide from today, when we said we were Americans, shook my hand and grinned and went on to talk about how he was an English translator during the war. So as always, there will always be harsh feelings somewhere, but its a friendly nation trying to get back on its feet. And tourism is helping that tremendously, so everyone is everyone's friend. Woo hoo!

Ho Chi Minh City is mostly referred to as Saigon, and it is a pretty busy city with lots to see and do (but not as chaotic and congested as Hanoi, the capital). Once again, the influence of the French is here with colonial style buildings and baguettes. We did a pow wow and pretty much saw all the sites in one day: the general post office that is one of the most attractive buildings in the city because it really resembles a train station is ornately designed (designed by a french architect), the Notre Dame Cathedral - always interesting to see a basilica-style cathedral in Asia, Reunification Hall, City Hall, Municipal Theater, and lots of 5 star hotels. Oh, and this amazing Jade Emperor Pagoda with the traditional roof green stacked ceramic tiles and cool sanctuaries.

Today we went along the river Mekong Delta. The famous Mekong River is the 3rd (4th?) largest river in the world and runs all the way from India, through China, and all throughout SE Asia. Its mega, as I like to say and we took a nice river boat cruise through it and saw some traditional floating houses, markets, and fishing boats bobbing along. It was super murky (probably because of the most recent floods), so no swimming. Hhaha! But it was a nice sunny day so we were happy. We went to some homemade coconut candy shops (delish!) and road bikes through the villages, which was cool. The Mekong Delta is definitely famous for its ethnic diversity and I can see that. Here is me with the traditional Vietnamese cone hat on the Mekong Delta:

So now I can check off yet another "1,000 Things to See Before you Die." Yea!

Bye Vietnam! Cambodia, here we come!!

Okay ladies, time to shop till you drop!

Hoi'an, in the central part of Vietnam is known for shopping. Not just any kind of shopping, but tailored shopping. You can get anything personally made - suits, blouses, skirts, dresses, you name it. We even met someone that lost a swimsuit and had himself a tailored swimsuit made. Nice. So yes, Char and I went a little crazy. We came into Hoi'an knowing about the tailored clothes and decided we wanted a suit for interviews to come, and maybe a dress pant for work. For me, 3 coats, a suit with skirt, pants, a dress, and 3 blouses later, I was still itching for more. But Char held me back (I had to hold her back also) and we stopped. Yes, these are bargain prices and its all handmade and tailored to you, but it adds up. I gotta say, its hard to walk away sometimes because you keep finding things that you like. But alas, we survived

What to do besides shop and getting fitted? Hoi'an happens to be another UNESCO World Heritage Site (which seems like every town we go to these days). Its definitely historic and because of the location by the Thu Bon River, it served as a trading port to traders from Europe, China, and Japan. So you get everything from Japanese style bridges,

to Chinese pagoda's (I think I've shown enough of those), to unique long, narrow tube houses. It definitely has a historic feel to it and is a lot smaller and more chill than Hanoi. You can actually cross the street and not almost get killed. There is also the Central market, a hectic and frantic market that sells all kind of food and clothes (of course):

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Unfortunately, right before we came here, there was massive rain in the central region and flooding. We were worried before coming here and were in fact greeted with drenching rain, but it has since cleared up. Unforunately, here is what we say when we went by the riverfront to grab something to eat:

Which is too bad because I hear the riverfront has some great restaurants. But all things considered, the flooding has definitely caused some destruction and lost buisiness

Soo... not much else to report from our end! Just lots of shopping! Shopping! And more shopping!

Oh, and obviously we weren't going to carry all this stuff home, so as I was packaging up stuff to ship, I decided to send this also. He'll arrive in 3-4 months by seamail:

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So after Hoian we took an overnight bus to Nha Trang, this beach town that we had been looking forward to seeing since we entered Vietnam. We arrived to a beautiful sunny day. Happily, yet still groggy from not sleeping from the 12 hour bus ride, we took a nice walk by the beach and soaked in the fresh air and listened to the waves crash. It was soooooooooooooooooooooo nice and we were super excited that it was sunny. And of course happy to be by the beach. I don't know what it is, just being by the water makes me feel sooo relaxed and happy. Being that we don't have beach towels, we decided to lounge around and read on the rooftop of our hotel instead. It was soo relaxing and chill. Finally! Then, we had heard about the Thap Ba Hot Springs where there are tubs of warm mud and mineral baths. How could we not go to that after our stressful time in Hoi'an having clothes tailored and being re-fitted a thousand times over? We tend to find lots of excuses to treat ourselves and do the "well, we deserve it." ha ha!

It was everything we thought it was going to be and more! In an organized fashion, we showered in hot mineral water and then went to these mud tubs, which are full of sodium silicate chloride, which is supposed to help the good 'ol joints and stuff. We hung out there, rubbed mud over our bodies, and enjoyed the nice sunny day. Its kinda cool hanging out in the mud, I tell ya! Then we shuttled to a shower to clean ourselves from the mud (and umm... the mud was kind of hard to get all out!), then another shower to get to these hot spring little tubs. We soaked in there for awhile and just relaxed. It was soo nice!! Finally, we were shuttled in a large hot pool area to finish off our afternoon of beauty treatment.

Here's me maxin' and relaxin' in the mud:

We were sooo relaxed after that that we had a quick bite to eat, and then napped and watched a movie ("the Rock" was on. It was pretty good!). And finished off the evening with a delicious seafood dinner by the beach. It was perfect weather, comfortable in tank tops and a slight breeze from the sea. Ahhh... we told ourselves, "this is the life!"

But then of course today woke up to cloudiness and showers. Hmm... I knew we spoke to soon! So besides beach there is not much else in Nha Trang so we literally lounged around today going from cafe's to restaurants, checking the internet, and are about to take another overnight but to Ho Chi Minh City, otherwise known as Saigon. At least I can say we are rested!!!!