Hello everyone,
Anneke and I are now back in Thailand for about a week before we head off to Turkey. Since we've last updated we've done sooo much so instead of writing an incredably long email we thought we could make a list of everything we've done in the past week or so. If any of you wish for us to elaborate on any of the things we've done drop us an email.
In the past week or so we've...
-Been to Ha Long Bay and taken a 4 hour boat tour around it
-had an abundace of sea food
-met kyle weibe in hanoi
-tried a pipe that they have there called a yukai
-motor biked around hanoi
-visited the fine arts museum
-ate rooster testicles
-visited the dead preserved body of the vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh
-visited the prison where john mcain was taken taken prisoner in the Vietnam war
-seen a water puppet show
-had a mini LAN (local area network) party
-tried 17 cent beer (that was actually pretty tasty), which is the world cheapest beer
-went to a place called Ninh Binh where we paddled down a river with rice fields on either side and huge beautiful rock formations in the distance (known as tam coc)
-motor biked around tam coc and checked out the beautiful near by village (where we came two inches from hitting a chicken on the motor bike)
-went back to hanoi and flew to Bangkok
Now that we have a week in thailand we're planning to maybe go a few hours north and maybe spend a few days on the gulf of Thailand. We're currently staying on Khao San road, which we've discovered is super touristy. We discovered a McDonalds and I am seriously considering buying a samurai pork burger. So if you find yourself wanting to know more about any of the above drop Anneke or myself an email. We miss you all and hope to hear from you.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
In and Around Vietnam
Greetings!
Cory and I are currently in Hoi An, an ancient town off the coast of the South China Sea. Our time spent in Ho Chi Min City was very pleasant and we got our fair share of city life. During our stay we managed to visit the War Remnents Mueseum. It was a big eye opener and made for a depressing, yet learning experience. Apparently the 'Vietnam War' was one of the only wars that allowed freedom of press so there were many visual displays. We also had the chance to check out the 'Hong Kong' market which was a 4-story building with anything from food to house ware to clothing. Every square inch was jam-packed with goods and it became quite cholsterphobic! If Cory and I were big shoppers we would have spent more then 25 minutes in the building!
From Ho Chi Min City we decided to take a flight which we thought was going to Dha Nang, an hour away from Hoi An. After taking off, recieving a beverage and coming back down to land, our 35 minute flight landed us in a beach town called Nha Trang. It ended up being a 12 hour bus ride from Hoi An. Confused at how this happened, we quickly fell in love with this little town. Our hotel was literally a 2 minute walk from the 7km beach and art, palm trees, tiled-sidewalks and grass made up a beautiful boardwalk along the sand. Here we spent countlesss hours on the beach, played in the undertoe of the massive waves, enjoyed sea food and went snorkelling! For me it was my first time viewing the underwater world and it was abosolutely amazing!! There was so much colour and places to explore. Everywhere we swam there was either a neat fish to catch eye or a new arrangment of coral. Unfortunately it was the coldest it had been on our trip that day so it was easy to get goose bumps. For you Winnipegers the 'coldest' was mid twenties with wind and clouds.
After Nha Trang we caught a 12 hr night bus out to Hoi An. The excitment of this double decker 'bed bus' wore off quite quickly when we got the move on. Cory mentioned he caught air a couple times and the continious bumps served for a great headache. We arrived in Hoi An at 7:30am and after a quick bite to eat we biked around the town for an hour or so and had a very long nap.
When we caught up on sleep we had the chance to experience the beauty of Hoi An. The colours and buildings in this little town remind us a lot like the buildings in the countryside of Greece ( i know that niether of us have actually been to greece so technically it can't really remind us of it but you'd understand if you saw the buildings). Everything looks so artistic and its hard not to take a good picture. There are hundreds of little clothing shops that will custome-make anything you want and if we weren't budget travelling for another 2 and half months we definately would have taken advantage of this oppotunity (or at least I would have). We ended up purchasing custome made "adidas" high tops for about 35 dollars each. Exciting!
Today we are taking another night bus (we are hoping for a smoother ride) to Hanoi. In Northren Vietnam we are hoping to spend time in Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Sapa. We have decided that we aren't going to Laos because our time in Southeast Asia is running short. There are so many amazing places and to rush them wouldn't be fair. We feel that Vietnam deserves more time, and it also gives us and excuse to come back and visit Laos.
We've heard that Winnipeg is warming up and were happy for you all back home! We miss you and love to hear from you!
Cory and I are currently in Hoi An, an ancient town off the coast of the South China Sea. Our time spent in Ho Chi Min City was very pleasant and we got our fair share of city life. During our stay we managed to visit the War Remnents Mueseum. It was a big eye opener and made for a depressing, yet learning experience. Apparently the 'Vietnam War' was one of the only wars that allowed freedom of press so there were many visual displays. We also had the chance to check out the 'Hong Kong' market which was a 4-story building with anything from food to house ware to clothing. Every square inch was jam-packed with goods and it became quite cholsterphobic! If Cory and I were big shoppers we would have spent more then 25 minutes in the building!
From Ho Chi Min City we decided to take a flight which we thought was going to Dha Nang, an hour away from Hoi An. After taking off, recieving a beverage and coming back down to land, our 35 minute flight landed us in a beach town called Nha Trang. It ended up being a 12 hour bus ride from Hoi An. Confused at how this happened, we quickly fell in love with this little town. Our hotel was literally a 2 minute walk from the 7km beach and art, palm trees, tiled-sidewalks and grass made up a beautiful boardwalk along the sand. Here we spent countlesss hours on the beach, played in the undertoe of the massive waves, enjoyed sea food and went snorkelling! For me it was my first time viewing the underwater world and it was abosolutely amazing!! There was so much colour and places to explore. Everywhere we swam there was either a neat fish to catch eye or a new arrangment of coral. Unfortunately it was the coldest it had been on our trip that day so it was easy to get goose bumps. For you Winnipegers the 'coldest' was mid twenties with wind and clouds.
After Nha Trang we caught a 12 hr night bus out to Hoi An. The excitment of this double decker 'bed bus' wore off quite quickly when we got the move on. Cory mentioned he caught air a couple times and the continious bumps served for a great headache. We arrived in Hoi An at 7:30am and after a quick bite to eat we biked around the town for an hour or so and had a very long nap.
When we caught up on sleep we had the chance to experience the beauty of Hoi An. The colours and buildings in this little town remind us a lot like the buildings in the countryside of Greece ( i know that niether of us have actually been to greece so technically it can't really remind us of it but you'd understand if you saw the buildings). Everything looks so artistic and its hard not to take a good picture. There are hundreds of little clothing shops that will custome-make anything you want and if we weren't budget travelling for another 2 and half months we definately would have taken advantage of this oppotunity (or at least I would have). We ended up purchasing custome made "adidas" high tops for about 35 dollars each. Exciting!
Today we are taking another night bus (we are hoping for a smoother ride) to Hanoi. In Northren Vietnam we are hoping to spend time in Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Sapa. We have decided that we aren't going to Laos because our time in Southeast Asia is running short. There are so many amazing places and to rush them wouldn't be fair. We feel that Vietnam deserves more time, and it also gives us and excuse to come back and visit Laos.
We've heard that Winnipeg is warming up and were happy for you all back home! We miss you and love to hear from you!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Greetings from Vietnam
Hello everyone,
We just arrived in Ho Chi Mihn city Vietnam about 3 hours ago. So there's not too much to say about Vietnam besides the fact that everything is alot more expensive here, and there's a whole less Kareoke music channels on T.V. We may not have much to say about our time so far in Vietnam, but we certainly can tell you lots about our last week in Cambodia.
About a week and a half ago we started to Volunteer at an organization called Save Children in Asia organization (S.C.A.O.). We quickly fell in love with the place. The main centre is a simple khmer home, but just a little bit bigger. Just down the road is another property where they have the classroom and another building where the older boys sleep. Once we moved into the centre we quickly became part of the family. Every day when we were done teaching our class we would come back to the centre and play with the kids for a while. The kind people at the centre even let us borrow their motor bike. so sometimes we would take that in to phnom penh to run errands. We were even lucky enough to go to the Dentist with some of the kids. For all of them it was their first time, which was pretty interesting. Every night after the kids had gone to bed anneke and I would have Coffee with a guy from Israel named Niv who also volunteered at the centre. It was definetly something that anneke and I both looked forward to at the end of the day. Every night we'de discuss world issues and talk about all of the differences between our countries. We also became very close with the kids. The only problem was the alot of them had trouble saying our names, so they ended up just calling us "teacha". Around the middle of last week I was sitting in the classroom with one of the older boys and we ended up talking about highschool and things like that. In the middle of the convorsation he mentioned how lucky I was that after high school I could just save up money and go traveling. For him he would have to work for a few years just to make the six hour bus ride to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. After the convorsation an idea sparked in my head. I got the idea to get some money together and take the seven oldest kids to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. I talked it over with Anneke and she said that it would be a good idea. So I talked to the director and he agreed. After talking to a couple other volunteers a 61 year old woman from Holand named Gerda and a 24 year old woman named natalie from Korea decided to come along aswell. The four of us volunteers all chipped in some money for the trip. Both mine and Anneke's parents made a donation as well to help us along. We were very excited how things came together. Since Anneke and I had both been to Siem Reap before we arranged the bus and guest house and all of those other details and three days later us four volunteers and the 7 kids all were on our way to Siem Reap. We had an amazing time with them. We learned the best way to travel is with a group of locals from the country side. When they buy things its aways half the price that the foriegners pay. The entire time we were with them they would either be climbing up trees and getting some weird fruits for us to eat or even just picking up seeds off the ground and getting us to try them. The trip also gave us a chance to get to know them better as people and find out how smart and talented they are. They all loved Angkor Wat and watching the look on their faces when they saw Angkor Wat for the first time made the whole trip worth it for anneke and I. When we got back to Phnom Pehn it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, but we knew we had to move on. This was certainly an experience that we'll always remember.
We just arrived in Ho Chi Mihn city Vietnam about 3 hours ago. So there's not too much to say about Vietnam besides the fact that everything is alot more expensive here, and there's a whole less Kareoke music channels on T.V. We may not have much to say about our time so far in Vietnam, but we certainly can tell you lots about our last week in Cambodia.
About a week and a half ago we started to Volunteer at an organization called Save Children in Asia organization (S.C.A.O.). We quickly fell in love with the place. The main centre is a simple khmer home, but just a little bit bigger. Just down the road is another property where they have the classroom and another building where the older boys sleep. Once we moved into the centre we quickly became part of the family. Every day when we were done teaching our class we would come back to the centre and play with the kids for a while. The kind people at the centre even let us borrow their motor bike. so sometimes we would take that in to phnom penh to run errands. We were even lucky enough to go to the Dentist with some of the kids. For all of them it was their first time, which was pretty interesting. Every night after the kids had gone to bed anneke and I would have Coffee with a guy from Israel named Niv who also volunteered at the centre. It was definetly something that anneke and I both looked forward to at the end of the day. Every night we'de discuss world issues and talk about all of the differences between our countries. We also became very close with the kids. The only problem was the alot of them had trouble saying our names, so they ended up just calling us "teacha". Around the middle of last week I was sitting in the classroom with one of the older boys and we ended up talking about highschool and things like that. In the middle of the convorsation he mentioned how lucky I was that after high school I could just save up money and go traveling. For him he would have to work for a few years just to make the six hour bus ride to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. After the convorsation an idea sparked in my head. I got the idea to get some money together and take the seven oldest kids to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. I talked it over with Anneke and she said that it would be a good idea. So I talked to the director and he agreed. After talking to a couple other volunteers a 61 year old woman from Holand named Gerda and a 24 year old woman named natalie from Korea decided to come along aswell. The four of us volunteers all chipped in some money for the trip. Both mine and Anneke's parents made a donation as well to help us along. We were very excited how things came together. Since Anneke and I had both been to Siem Reap before we arranged the bus and guest house and all of those other details and three days later us four volunteers and the 7 kids all were on our way to Siem Reap. We had an amazing time with them. We learned the best way to travel is with a group of locals from the country side. When they buy things its aways half the price that the foriegners pay. The entire time we were with them they would either be climbing up trees and getting some weird fruits for us to eat or even just picking up seeds off the ground and getting us to try them. The trip also gave us a chance to get to know them better as people and find out how smart and talented they are. They all loved Angkor Wat and watching the look on their faces when they saw Angkor Wat for the first time made the whole trip worth it for anneke and I. When we got back to Phnom Pehn it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, but we knew we had to move on. This was certainly an experience that we'll always remember.
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