Hanoi
Our time in Vietnam was spent discovering the triple H’s: Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An (in that order) with an en route “one day only” special appearance in Da Nang and two days in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon (quadruple H?). The Hanoi Hilton (the REAL one) turned out to be quite a comfortable temporary abode, without any ghostly apparitions 
However, Will and I managed to pick up something on the plane so we weren’t feeling too great for the first couple of days in Hanoi.
On the first day there, Will stayed at the hotel to get some rest and I decided to spend the morning at the Women’s Museum (he was SO so disappointed not to go with me haha).Vietnam has a long history of war and this museum (as it was described in my travel book paragraph) was dedicated to the women who served in combat throughout Vietnamese history.
I don’t know what I was thinking.
Access Denied
If you’re wondering why there has been a lack of posts in the past two weeks, I am here to clarify the matter. Now you may have just thought we were lazy (and well, sometimes we are) but in this instance, shortly after our arrival in Vietnam I figured out that we were denied access to the wordpress site. At first I thought the internet was slow at the particular hotel we were in, and then I thought the site was down and then… EUREKA!! I remembered, we were in a communist country. I couldn’t get access into the site, the page wouldn’t even load. I don’t think they want people blogging over there, and maybe my “Hanoi Hilton” post didn’t help all that much?
But now that I’m in Japan on my magnificent 11 hour layover, I can leisurely blog. And that’s what I intend to do to kill some time- update the blog on our activities in my “pseudo motherland” (or I guess it would be better put, land of my mother. but we did meet a Swiss gentleman in the visa line in Laos. he asked where we were from…we exchanged plesantries and then names and he inquired to the “origin” of my name because I know telling him I’m American didn’t satisfy his ethnic query. when he found out the origin he responded with “oh! vietnamese, so you are technically in your homeland”…umm yea, when I’m in Laos, Vietnam it’s all the same thing especially when you’re American?) and finally close out on our lovely travel blog.
Here we go!
Hanoi Hilton
I’d like to write a special post today to thank my mom Teri “teddie” Ha. Thanks to her lovely American Express reward points, and patience to wait for hours on the phone with the Amex people to make the reservations, Will and I have gotten to spend a couple nights at the Hilton in Bangkok (which was QUITE nice, and QUITE fancy) and also more recently- the Hanoi Hilton. Thanks Mom.
Now after staying at the Bangkok Hilton I emailed my mom from Luang Prabang 4 days in advance to see if she had enough points for us to stay at the Hanoi Hilton and to give her enough time to call and make the reservations. Usually, she responds to me with lightening speed as she ordered me before I left “hey con, you better email me once a day. Ya I said ONCE A DAY, just so I know you’re alive“. I checked my email the next day and there was no response. So I sent her another daily email and also inquired about the Hanoi Hilton. I checked my email the next day and still no response. Finally on the third day (the day before we were supposed to arrive in Hanoi) I happened to catch my mom on google chat and our conversation went a little something like this:
Off the beaten path
Luang Prabang is considered the jewel of Laos by many (and I am in complete agreement. the city is incredibly charming, therapeutic even). It is adored by travel writers who dedicate pages and pages to the city sites and activities in travel books abound. And during our six days spent in the city we managed to visit ONE site mentioned in these books.
Yes, that’s right just one.
This ONE site that we visited happened to be the Phu Si Temple sitting at the top of a hill in the middle of the city. Which meant, we had to climb 300+ stairs to get there. We saved this activity until the end of the day so that we could catch the sunset (two for one kinda deal). After huffing and puffing in 90+ degree heat (alright, it may have been a while since I hit the gym too) we arrived at the summit to see a breathtaking view:
i lose things a lot
lets see…
my camera, which i just got for christmas (thanks alika), fell out of my pocket in a tuk-tuk in phnom penh. less than a week after i had taken my first picture with it.
my shades were forgotten in an internet cafe in phuket. next to the keyboard. they were the longest lasting pair of shades i’ve had since college — a record seven months. in the past 2 and a half years i’ve gone through a pair of dragons, electric, spy, hoven, fox, and arnette shades. unfortunate.
i also thought that i lost my pants last week. not while i was wearing them, but i couldn’t find them while packing last week. found them yesterday. turns out they were just wrapped inside my sweatshirt.
so yesterday, as we were walking down the street, i remarked to anh that “i seem to lose all of the most expensive stuff i brought with me,” to which i amended, “oh wait, i still have my ipod.”
now, i didn’t lose my ipod, but whilst my favorite apple product had the highest monetary value of anything remaining in my bag, i forgot to include those things that are, how-you-say, worth more than money. such as my passport.
when we purchased our tickets from luang prabang to hanoi yesterday, they asked for our passports. my favorite storage location — anh’s purse — came up empty in the search. un poco problemo.
The journey to Luang Prabang
I’d like you all to meet Jim:
“Jim” the tangerine and I got very well acquainted with each other on our 6 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang as I had him practically stuffed up my nose for the entire ride.
Unfortunately, I get incredibly car sick quite easily and lucky for me, the 6 hour bus ride we had today was loaded with fun-filled exciting twists and turns through the mountains of Laos. We went about 45 minutes before making a pit stop on the side of the road at a restaurant/food stand. Most of the passengers were wondering- why the heck are we stopping already, when we’ve got 5 more hours to go?
But oh what a lucky stop it was for me.
a quiet float down the river
i thought that’s what we were signing up for yesterday. 40,000 kip got us both a giant inner tube and a ride in a tuk-tuk to the starting point 5 km away.
in our lonely planet guide it says something like, “the journey takes about 2 hours or more depending on how often you stop at the small bars set up along the way down.”
what does that mean to you?
when i hear small bar, i think foodstand-esque. somebody selling drinks out of a cooler. you float down the river, grab a drink from a vendor, and pick up a little buzz on the mekong.
the image in my head was all wrong.
Boop!
Boop to all your faces from Laos
Hello hello everyone, once again please forgive the delay in posts. We were making our way through the Thai Islands (or at least 3 of them) and we’re currently in Vientiane, Laos and heading to Vang Vieng tomorrow morning.
Prior to coming to Laos we heard rave reviews about the country and I have to say, I must agree. Thailand was great but there were so many tourists (just like us) everywhere especially in the islands. And while that’s all fine and dandy, it’s a bit umm, what’s the word- artificial at times. But Laos- there’s just a really laid back and chill vibe here and it’s very enamoring. The people are super friendly and the food has been pretty tasty (but we’ve come across good food everywhere we’ve gone, I’ll dedicate a post to food in the near future).
Today we went motor biking to the “Buddha Park” (and yes, it’s a park full of, Buddhas: reclining buddhas, headless buddhas, only the head of a buddha- but it was a giant head that you could walk around in, fighting buddhas, buddhas carrying dead bodies, buddha & his ladies, lady buddhas…this could go on for a while. but in the buddha park, there were a couple buddhist monks, surprise surprise. one named Keo happened to befriend us and invited us to his temple, but I digress) 24 km outside of the city. Motor bikes/ mopeds are a primary means of transportation in Southeast Asia. People do it everyday, all the time, no big deal.
But-
It was my first time driving one (on a previous trip to Vietnam with my mom I DESPERATELY wanted to ride around on a moped and my mom sent out the executive order to all my cousins forbidding me to drive a motor bike- and any accomplices of mine would experience the wrath of Teri Ha and trust me that’s a scary threat. So I didn’t get to drive. And for the record I was 21. Love ya Ted) and it was oh so much fun. Maybe not as fun for my passenger in the back (Will) especially when I was ripping through the potholes (some were puddles) on the dirt road and he kept screaming:
“Babe! Go AROUND the holes!”
But it was exhilarating for me anyways. I think we’re going to rent motor bikes in the next city we go to, and who knows maybe on the next trip I’ll get to wheel my mom around town on a moped.
moon
that was the name of our elephant. at least i heard “moon”, and that’s what we proceeded to call her the entire time. she never actually responded to us when we called out, but i know deep down she heard us.
we went a trekkin today. moon was our trusty pachyderm-steed up a well worn path en-route to a waterfall. and all at the age of 42. i think that’s pretty old for an elephant, but i really have no idea. i would look it up, but the local internet costs 2 baht per minute (about $4 an hour), so this blog is being typed off-line.
here she is:
moon was the leader of our elephant train — she being the oldest and all — Read the rest of this entry »
Pictures, Part Deux
Since we’ve been WIFI-less for the past few days we haven’t been able to add any pictures to the blog (as you may or may not have noticed). So this is for all my visually stimulated friends and family who have been writing me emails something along these lines:
“Hey your blog stories are nice, but where are the pictures?”
So here you go-
The view from our hotel room in Bangkok, the Chao Phrya River.
