it's a dong-eat-dong world...

The final chapter of my Asian Adventure…. 

So I’d decided that two and a half months of working in Vietnam and Cambodia wasn’t enough, and I needed to do some traveling afterwards to get a truly well-rounded view of the countries.  Luckily, I have a travel buddy who was very excited to come and meet me to cruise around SE Asia together.
 

"Fish pedicures" in Siem Reap

 

Brendan and I traveled for 3 weeks through both Cambodia and Vietnam.  We were able to meet up with some of my co-workers from Vietnam along the way, which was wonderful!  I wanted to be sure that Brendan got as much of an authentic experience as possible, and when he arrived he was very excited to eat lots and lots of local food.  However, having really explored the range of local foods myself every meal for the previous 10 weeks, I was not ashamed to say, “Oh that’s cute, but I need pizza.”

Here are some pictures from our travels.  I hope they make you want to go to Cambodia and Vietnam, because everyone really should!!!  It is so affordable and we saw so much, but never felt rushed for time to enjoy ourselves in each place.

We started in Cambodia in the capital, Phnom Penh, and made our way to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor Wat.

Do one or the other, but NEVER both.

temple heads

angry temple heads

Floating village outside Siem Reap

 

Then we spent a day in Saigon and flew to these beautiful secluded islands off the coast called the Con Dao Islands.  They looked like the islands from Jurassic Park, rising straight up out of the water.  We rode motorbikes all over the island and ended up on these gorgeous secluded white sand beaches with not a soul in sight.

We made our way to Hoi An, which is a town heavily influenced by the Chinese and known for its tailors who make every kind of clothing imaginable, hand-tailored for about $30 a piece. (I stocked up!)  Hoi An is near Danang on the famous “China Beach” were US soldiers went for R & R during the Vietnam war.  There was a full moon festival occurring at the time and children dressed up like Chinese dragons, dancing for everyone in the streets and asking for money.

Children's festival - dragons!

temple on top of Marble Mountain

I know it's hard to tell which is the authentic angry temple guardian.

Hoi An - land of colorful lanterns!

bags.  big bags.  angry flight attendant.

After Hoi An we flew to Hanoi and spent a few days taking in the northern culture -- so different from the south.  We happened to be there right before the 1000 year birthday of Hanoi, but sadly missed the festivities by one day!

Morning aerobics!  shirts off, old dudes.

Bun cha - street food w/ my friend Khanh from the Vietnam program

an offering of beer to the gods...they won't miss one tiny little beer...

 

We took a bus/van/boat/bus to our own private boat cruise on Halong Bay, where we spent 2 nights gliding through these massive rock formations on an eco-friendly, solar powered wooden ship.  Just us and our cook and the captain.  Totally ridiculous and awesome.  We kayaked through caves and biked to a small village, and spent the afternoons on the deck enjoying tiger beers and swimming off the side of the boat.

our "junk"

biking to a tiny village that was blasting karaoke when we pulled up at 9am!

our "back-up" captain.  surely just as capable.

From Halong Bay we headed by boat/bus/van to an overnight train that took us to the mountain town of Sapa, where the H’Mong tribes live.  We spent 2 days trekking through the rice paddies on the mountainside and meeting local people, buying crafts from women that literally followed us around for hours at time to try to get us to buy something.  (One of the grabby ones almost got a punch in the face.)  This region is right near the border of China and is incredibly different from the rest of Vietnam… extremely worth the 12 hour overnight train ride!

Rice paddies along all the mountains

Red Dzao H'mong tribe

Black H'mong tribe...stalking the westerners!

 

Back to Hanoi for a night, to enjoy one last Bia Hoi.  Bia Hoi is the local beer that you can only get at certain places, and mostly on the sidewalks from a keg and a local guy just sitting outside with a bunch of mugs.  A Bia Hoi will set you back 4000 dong, and though you might say –

“What!  Nobody walks around with that kind of dong in their pocket!”

When you learn that 4000 dong = 20 cents, you understand that it’s truly a dong-eat-dong world out there, and the Bia Hoi is king.

20 cents!  how about another...and another...

 

And……I’m out!  Of Asia, that is.  And on to the next adventure……

APT