Cambodia

Cambodia is country number 10 of the trip! We arrived in Siem Reap and thought the airport may have been a resort. We stealthily made our way to the front of everyone heading for the doors and filled out our visa forms with lightening speed and managed to be the first three visas issued. I suppose we've got some practice at this type of thing! 

Our hotel provided a free shuttle service from the airport, so we found the small man with my name on a plaque and made our way to....his tuk tuk??! This was going to be interesting.

This tuk tuk looks kind of massive, but I assure you it's not. I've got my hand here on Mo's pack which is outside the tuk tuk as well as my own on the tiny seat I am sharing with my pack! Sherrill's just happy as usual.

We stayed at Tanei Guesthouse, a 5 minute walk to pub street and the night markets. 

We had dinner at Angkor Famous, just off pub street.

The next day we took bikes out and rode to the market. Upon arrival at the market, we determined we were the only tourists. Slightly concerning or authentic experience?! We did have to basically ride on a Cambodian highway to get there and people don't understand one direction lanes here! I had Sherrill covering the front and Mo covering the back as I basically muttered obscenities about how I was sure I was going to die. (Not to worry, came out with only slight mental scarring.)

After the biking experience we took our places at the hotel pool. A nice small pool with a waterfall! It was HOT. I kind of felt like I was made of wax and when the sun hit me directly, I would immediately melt. 

Our tuk tuk driver, Sarath, took us to the temples for sunset.

We had dinner at the hotel that night as the next morning we were getting up at 430 to go see sunrise at Angkor Wat.

This all looks quite serene until you break away and go into the temple and you see this...

We then did the "small circle" and saw about seven other temples.

Again, we made our way to the pool in the afternoon to soak up some sun and cool off. 

We arranged with Sarath to visit a floating village the next day. It was about an hour drive in the tuk tuk.

We got back in the tuk tuk and about 10 minutes later Sarath looked at the tire on his scooter and said... "Oh my god". Mmmm flat tire. Again. This seems to be following us!

Sooo we walked. Sherrill walked with a broken toe, thanks to a run in with the corner of the bed the day before. Luckily there was a repair shop not too far and for the bargain of the century, two holes were patched for $1.

Sarath dropped us at Sister Srey Cafe and we had a great lunch. I had a great lentil burger which makes me think I could definitely do the vegetarian thing for at least a short time!

That night we said goodbye to Sherrill as she headed home with a ridiculously light pack and the next morning Mo and I headed for the airport ourselves for an epic journey to Perth.

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh is enormous. We could see this as we landed. We wanted to get to the hotel quickly to go out for Sherrill's birthday. The hotel had sent a taxi to pick us up because the hotel is "a bit hard to find". They weren't just kidding. It's down an alley with pretty much no signage. Clothes totally never getting there... 

Mo had met some people in Hoi An while standing in the flood waters who suggested we go to Bui Vien in Ho Chi Minh, so I did a bit of google mapping...things were looking up, a 4 minute walk! We got ready and in honor of Sherrill's birthday I put on big earrings and red lipstick. 

We had the only non-Vietnamese food since setting foot in Vietnam and headed to Universal, where they have live music.

We bought Sherrill a little present of a tower of Tiger.

 

The band was great and Sherrill even got to show off her skills with some Nicki Manaj..

This band even played our theme song when I requested it! Wake Me Up!

We ended the night with sweet buns! We've been on the lookout ever since we found them in the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai.

The next day we took some recovery time and tested the theory that pho is good after a night out. We also discovered a great little bakery. I had quite a tasty croissant, Mo had her favourite cheesy twist and Sherrill went for her signature cinnamon roll. We asked reception if any packages had arrived...of course not.

The next day we explored a bit and found a market, the opera house, the reunification palace, amongst other sights. Oddest find was about 5 minutes after telling Sherrill about mochi (my favourite Japanese dessert)... We found mochi in Vietnam?!? It was a tense 30 minute wait, but she enjoyed it. Not sure she will stick to the desserts you must wait a half hour to soften before eating!

We had more pho and stopped in a coffee shop for a bit, then headed back to the hotel to wait for our taxi. The lady at the front desk saw us come in and said...w"hat is your name?"

Could it be??? Some lingering birthday magic???

It was!!! Our clothes! Here's our surprised face.

So many thanks to Sherrill for her birthday negotiations through flood waters.

And look! It fits! The jacket fits too...well, it fits my body. Not sure how I'm going to fit that onto my pack...

Unfortunately Mo wasn't as lucky and her stuff doesn't really fit so well. Well, at least we got them!

That's it for Vietnam, now we're off to Siem Reap.

Hoi An

Fail. Yes, fail. Most people love Hoi An, but that was not my experience.

Getting on the train was great with the super helpful bellman (from Hanoi). 

We had a pretty quiet car-mate from 11pm-4am. Then she left and was replaced by a young Vietnamese mother and her two kids. TWO! They actually weren't that bad. The baby just liked to say the same thing over and over again and then the small girl was a vomiter...we found that out about 3 minutes before we got off the train..when we were alone in the car with the kid. We took that as our cue to leave.

Here's Sherrill checking out the scenery on the ride (before the puking).

It was raining when we got to Da Nang an hour late at 2pm, so we got to use our rain covers for the first time. The shuttle picked us up from the train station and delivered us to the hotel. The Sunshine Hotel...pretty ironic as it didn't stop raining pretty much the entire time we were there.

This was the time we had three permanent beds - so that was nice...but there were quite a few ants in the room. The air con was not too helpful either with regulating the temperature. 

We ventured out the 20 minute walk in the rain to the old town. We found a restaurant called Trip Nguyen. It was a new restaurant and the food was decent. Actually they had a really nice banana pancake with chocolate. We asked the host, Sean, if he knew of any good tailors and he said, yes and the his mom's shop was next door. He delivered us next door and Mo and I opted to get 2 items made each. After much thought and consideration, Sherrill decided to pass. Sean's sister measured us, we paid, and the next day at 4pm our clothes would be done. 

We went to a bar and got pretty gross Sam Miguels. How do you mess that up? We then opted for cocktails..nope, bad decision, even more gross. At least they had free foosball. Slightly defeated, we walked home, in the rain.

The next day Mo and I had booked a food tour. This was like the end all be all food tour..thing I was perhaps most excited about. We got up at 6am to do our squats/abs/arms/plank challenge and be ready for our 7.25 pick up. Sat in the lobby as it poured outside. 7.25....7.35....7.40....7.45. Check my email...7.22: booking cancelled...tasting room flooded. BUST!!! I went back down to breakfast with Sherrill since we weren't supposed to eat before the tour. I did very much enjoy the fried tofu. I spent the rest of the day pretty much doing nothing as it poured outside. The girls got massages at the hotel and I did have cao lau noodles that were tasty at the hotel for lunch.

After the rain subsided in the evening, we ventured out to find our clothes and get dinner at the white sail (where the food tour guide recommended in his emai)l. We made it about 4 blocks from the tailor. Flooded. Bust...not so bad...let's try tomorrow. So we make it to the restaurant and try to order the recommended dishes. Tamarind crab. Out. Prawns. Out. BUST!!! We did manage to order the stuffed squid and aubergine dishes. I taste the squid...hmmm...prawn shell?? Spit that out. Mo tastes the squid... Plastic???! So we talk to the waitress and do a bit of googling and figure out they've just not cleaned the squid properly and it's a strip of cartilage..GROSS!!

Again a little more defeated, return to the hotel hoping the waters would recede the next day before we have to leave.

We woke up the next day -- Sherrill's birthday!!!! It wasn't raining! We had breakfast and hopped on the free bikes from the hotel rather than the 20 minute walk. We make it about 2 blocks from the tailor... Still flooded. Try again from several angles, nothing is working. Once again defeated... Back to the hotel. Now trying everything we tried before....email, phone calls, even to the restaurant next door...nothing worked. We checked out of the hotel at 11:45 and rode back to the scene. Still flooded. Sherrill and Mo decided to brave the waters, but only Sherrill made it all the way. I stayed behind with my lack of skill/confidence biking through flood waters and my ipad in my purse.

Sherrill did some negotiating and although they wouldn't give us our money back...they would send the clothes to our hotel in Ho Chi Minh. The pieces had been cut, but were at a different location.. Right. Scam city. With 10 minutes until our taxi, we raced back to the hotel, foregoing the much coveted banh mi. 

Check out the Ho Chi Minh post for the ending... I know you'll be waiting on the edge of you seats.

So I'm going to try to keep the complaining posts to just this one, since I am still amazingly grateful to be on this journey.. And let's face it, it has rained maybe 4 days in 2+months...that's a pretty good record.

Also, an important footnote. Since Dubai, almost all of the photos on the blog have been courtesy of Mo. So if you're giving her a hard time for not doing a blog you can apologise :) -- she is just being efficient. Our blogs would say the same things and have the same photos. What would the point of that be?! 

Ha Long Bay

We ended up booking on V'spirit cruises after there were not so many options open. The typhoon saw 2 days of tours cancelled, so the at before we left was the first day tours resumed. Ha long bay is now one of the new 7 natural wonders.

A 3.5 our drive in a bus not made for Western rear ends took us to the boarding point for our cruise. We got on a small tender boat that delivered us to the bigger boat, with 13 cabins! We had lunch when we boarded. There was so much food. Crab, squid, salad, rice, curry, fish..and I'm probably forgetting some courses! 

We headed to a large cave called hang sung sot.

After the cave we went to a beach where we could hike up and get a good view of the bay. Unfortunately, it was quickly getting dark, so we hauled it up the hill in our flip flops, took a quick photo and ran back down in the dark.

We had dinner back on the boat, again so many courses, the coolest were the prawns they cooked in the dining room with just a bowl and lid, hot rocks, vodka and water. Mo is determined to use this method to impress dinner guests in the future.

After dinner we played a game with wooden pieces that you had to arrange in various shapes. Of course our table won and got free beers. I must find this game.

We went to bed fairly early to be up for 6:30 tai chi class, breakfast, and kayaking. We had second breakfast (or lunch) at 11 as we cruised back to the harbour. 

I think the ride back to Hanoi was slightly more eventful than the cruise.

First, we had a flat tire...or just some problem with the tire, but we were on the car repair street and pulled in... Then we had to go to another place because the first couldn't successfully get the tire off.  Here Sherrill and I are passing the hour we had to wait.

Shortly after we left, the driver hit a huge dip and I hit my head on the light on the ceiling. I now have a great goose egg on my head. The driver bought me a green bean cake to make up for my injury.

Currently, we are about 15 kilometres from Hanoi broken down on the side of the road again with a blown out tire.

Note about 20 minutes later it was dark, and their hazard was a tree branch thrown in the road. Mo took it upon herself to turn our hazard lights on! Good job! We were about to call taxis when a large tour bus pulled over and a few of us ran to get on it! Thanks to this company..,name tbd..we are back at our favourite Meracus hotel until our train in a few hours!

Hanoi

After much thought and research on Typhoon Haiyan, we did end up making it to Hanoi as planned. Very lucky! I would have been pretty sad to miss the country that inspired the trip for me! We flew in the evening the typhoon hit Hanoi...it was dry!

Mo spotted a sign at the airport we've never actually seen written out before..

We made our way to the Meracus Hotel after a tense wait for Mo's bag. I think mine came out 20 minutes before hers! Later we would come to the conclusion that the Meracus may possibly be the best hotel ever!

They put us in the "family room" that resembled the honeymoon suite...

The next morning we had the best breakfast at the hotel. Bun Cha was my favourite at breakfast, but there was a huge spread of everything you could imagine. We booked our boat to Ha Long Bay and our train tickets to Da Nang and set out in the city. 

Crossing the street is crazy! There were even instructions from the hotel.

1. Be relaxed and self confident

2. Look two ways or make eye contact with drivers

3. Walk slowly with purpose

4. Never step back 

Following these instructions, Mo navigated us through the old quarter. 

Here, I have confidently crossed the street, leaving Mo and Sherrill behind.

We stopped for a pork bun and I ticked off one of my 30 before 30 items- eat street food in Vietnam! 

We also discovered that each street sells only one thing... We found coffee street, the hotel was on shoe street, there was a wrapping paper street, and a red and gold shiny things street! We found Pho 10 and stopped in for lunch.

Here I am, very excited for my first pho in vietnam.

It was reeeeeally good. And that red paste made it very spicy!

Later we headed out for coffee and banh mi. My caphe sua da was amazing! The banh mi was just ok. Will be on the hunt for better ones!

We stopped for some Hanoi beers at a cafe and sat mesmerised by the crazy traffic..

That night we went out for dinner - I was in search of more bun cha. We had to go to to places! We ended up at New Day restaurant and my bun cha took so long it was free! But it was tasty, so that's all that matters!

After another breakfast at the Meracus where they made us special amazing coffees, we checked out and were picked up for our Ha Long junk boat cruise.