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| The Victory Star |
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| Enjoying our balcony |
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| Picture by Adam |
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| Picture courtesy of Adam |
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Last hurrah in Halong Bay
The final leg of our trip brings us back to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and then to the famed Halong Bay (one of the 7th wonders of the world according to a source on wikipedia and definitely a proud Unesco site). We took the 4 hour bus ride, which should have only been 1.5 hours, but due to the poor road conditions and lack of traffic rules, it becomes a haul. We arrived to find our boat, among 100's of white ships of various sizes, to be a modern, luxury cruising ship. The "Victory Star" for $160 per person for 1 night, had the best hot shower I could have ever asked for, as well as other amenities, (although none left the impression like that shower did); such as cold towels handed to each passenger boarding, 7 course meals, our own private balcony off of our room, squid fishing at night, cooking classes, kayak trips and a guided tour through a floating village. This was the real vacation for me and I luxuriated in it. Halong Bay in itself is a beautiful site to behold, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
The last hours in lovely Cambodia
After our busy day touring Angkor Wat, we spent the rest the next day walking around the lovely city of Siem Reap. It was still very hot and humid, but the scenery distracted us from this discomfort. We walked along the banks of the river and went to into the most interesting boutique shops (I should mention, US dollars was the preferred currency in Siem Reap, this surprised us, but we were told that tourists get ripped off if they use the Cambodian Riel due to the poor exchange rates on the street). We also visited the post office and the museum of Angkor Wat (interesting historical background especially after just visiting the temples the day before). Afterwards we went to a Cambodian restaurant suggested by our much lauded guesthouse called "The Khmer Kitchen". I had a delicious meal of stir fried fish, vegetables and rice, while Adam had a very spicy looking curry. I only wish asian food tasted that good here in this country! Cambodia offered us some of the best food from the trip, very tasty with interesting flavors, although keeping with SE Asian tradition, every dish was very light, yet filling. At the end of our day after dozing on the rooftop lounge watching the sunset, we packed up our Tuk-Tuk and headed for the airport.
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| Cashew Nut rooftop lounge view |
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| Sunset view |
Angkor Wat Museum, I'm 3rd from the left.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Khmer country
Next stop was one of the 7 wonders of the world (although by now, I believe it's more than 7 and I just Wikipedia'd it and it wasn't even on any of the updated lists... So forget it : ). Anyway, this was an introduction to my post about visiting Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to Angkor Wat. We arrived by plane and our hotel sent us our very own tuk-tuk driver holding a sign with my name on it waiting as we departed the airport. I absolutely love that! I wish everytime I arrived at a destination someone would be standing there holding a sign welcoming me with a free ride and a smile. We then tuk-tukked to our lovely guesthouse "The Cashew nut" in downtown Siem Reap and received the best reception we had ever received in SE Asia. He offered us everything we needed and things we didn't even think we needed. So in the check-in process, we gave them our dirty laundry for quick turn around service, we ordered fast, cheap and good room service (we were pretty hungry), was given a full list of restaurant recommendations, temple recommendations and what order to see them in, postcards and stamps, free bottled water, wifi password and yes, the most important, a working hot water heater! 
Apsaras: today Thai dancers base their movements and costumes on these wall carvings 
Facts about Angkor wat; 6. Siem Reap means the "defeat of the Siamese" which today are know as the Thai people. 
The next morning we awoke at 4am for our sunrise walking and biking tour around Angkor Wat with grasshopper tours again (see Bangkok post).
Angkor wat at sunrise
Left side; original pathway, right side; French restoration
Rear view of the main temple
Guards at Angkor Thom
The bayon, my favorite temple
Tomb raider temple
Adam's shot of sunrise over Angkor wat
Famous wall art of Angkor wat
Beautiful colors of Angkor wat
We are supposed to be kissing his cheeks!
After a 12 hour day which included hot, humid temple visiting and muddy and slightly dangerous off road biking we ate our first proper Cambodian food and loved it! We were done and was glad to return to the cashew nut for a rest.
1. It was built in 1113 by the Khmer king who at that time practiced Hinduism.
2. Later when the kingdom religion switched to Buddhism, the temple remained intact out of respect to the previous king and the Hindu religion. (Imagine that)
3. The Angkor Wat temple itself was built in 35 years.
4. In 2010, Angkor wat had 2.7 million visitors, in 2011, 3.5 million and for 2013, they are estimating 4 million visitors.
5. It costs $20 per person to see the temples for 1 day and $40 for a three day pass. Our bike ride...
Don't reject the crooked road and don't take the straight one, instead take the one traveled by the ancestors.
– Cambodian Proverb
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Royal ceremony, or not.
Our final day in Bangkok led us to the grand palace and the home of the emerald Buddha (who is actually jade). We had been pre-warned about scams aimed at tourists in Thailand and finally in Bangkok we were thought to be perfect marks. In venturing towards the grand palace, one man told us it doesn't open until 2pm (it was 10:30am) due to a "royal ceremony". They say this in hopes you'll get into their tuk-tuk so they can tour you around the rest of Bangkok until the tourist site "opens". We luckily ignored him and moved on. A couple of blocks later, another man mentioned that my Keene sandals were not allowed in the palace property since they showed my feet skin. This is complete bullshit too since all temples/wats in SE Asia that we visited required that you remove your shoes before entering. Luckily, we ignored them and made our way to the former palace of the Thai kings.
Wall murals in the grand palace 
Hot, humid, sweaty
Changing of the guard
After the palace, we visited the textile museum with an exhibition honoring the queen of Thailand, Queen Sirikit exhibiting all of her fashions over the years. She did relief work in the villages by re-introducing craftwork production and the gift shop was filled with their impressive products. It was an impressive museum and with that we left Bangkok and headed for Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
36 hours in Bangkok
Bangkok was first introduced to us by tuk-tuk with an AM tour around the major tourist sites. We visited the the Golden Mount, Indian and Thai food market, flower markets and the famous reclining Buddha at Wat pho. It was so very humid, but besides dealing with the incessant crowds, it was enjoyable.
The reclining Buddha at Wat pho
Wat pho at night
The golden mount
Food market in Bangkok
That night, after a delicious dinner at the famed "chomp" around the corner from our hotel we joined a night bike tour of Bangkok. I had read about this tour on a travel blogger's site; alexinwanderland.com and saw the rave reviews on tripadvisor. Both sources were right! It was the best part of Bangkok for both Adam and I. We took a ride through the nearly empty streets, on ferry across the river, in back alleys and near waterside shacks on stilts. We were allowed entrance into the closed wats, giving us access to usually packed temples which were beautiful all lit up in the night.
Wat arun
24 hour flower market on night bike tour
Adam's late night snack
Yes, he ate a scorpion and a couple of crickets with soy sauce for a snack after our bike ride. I made him eat them outside of our hotel room.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Burning through baht
Our final day in Chiang Mai was filled with a visit to Doi Suthep, a mountain with a very famous wat believed to contain a bone from buddha's body carried there by a white elephant. This is the place this white elephant chose to die. We climbed the 300+steps and took in the view. 
Saw a lot of Buddhas for sale and watched some Thai musicians perform.
We then wandered through the city until our evening flight to Bangkok. We arrived at the capital city by 8pm, walked to the other side of the enormous airport to board an express sky train which dropped us at an airtrain station in the middle of Bangkok. Our taxi driver refused to take us to our hotel because he couldn't figure out where it was (or he couldn't read Latin letters since the address was written in English). I encouraged (forced) him to confer with the taxi organizing policeman (maybe he was a regular man, but he was dressed in uniform). After much Thai discussion he agreed, although halfway there using Adam's GPS, we realized he had no idea where to take us. We directed him ourselves and got to our hotel just past 10:30pm. We were pretty exhausted, so the small confines of our room and lack of hot water in our shower didn't bother us, yet. The next morning, the hotel staff came into our room to "fix" the hot water and started laughing at us realizing that we had been turning the faucet to the red when obviously, you must turn it towards the blue to get hot water. Of course. Now, as we have been heading south it has been becoming warmer and more humid, so after sweating from every pore all day, who really needs a hot shower anyway?
All of our luggage and our legs on the sky train to downtown Bangkok
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand
One of the most memorable experiences of this trip was our day at the Elephant Nature park located one hour north of Chiang Mai. I had read rave reviews about this elephant experience and wanting the most humane way to see elephants we chose this highly touted center. The owner, Lek, a Thai woman, is now famous for her efforts to save elephants from exploitation and hardship by bringing them to her jungle sanctuary. Here, they don't have to carry people on their backs in howdahs or perform for audiences, they only have to walk around, eat melons and bananas from our hands, allow us to bathe them in the river and pose next with them for pictures. The option to ride on a elephant's back is very popular among tourists in Laos and Thailand and many people that we met had done just that, but it is actually dangerous and painful for an elephant to carry anything on that part of their back. There is a correct way to sit atop an elephant by placing yourself at their neck, this is how mahouts sit without harming the elephant. (A mahout is an elephant's protector, trainer, leader and trusty companion.) We learned a whole lot about elephant life, how they mate, their friendships with each other and how sweet baby elephants can be!
Enjoy the pictures below and check out Lek's impressive work on her website www.elephantnaturepark.org.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Chiang Mai, northern Thailand delight
After leaving Laos, we came to the artistic, quirky 2nd largest city in Thailand, Chiang Mai. We arrived October 23rd and took to the streets after the daily rain shower. We had some pad thai, visited a couple of wats and walked to the famed night market bazaar. After walking amongst what felt like thousands of food stalls, kitschy touristy wares, Mac cosmetic booths and pedicure stations with people submerging their feet in tanks of water with dead skin-eating fish, we had had our fill and headed back to our "stylish" guesthouse. The name of our guesthouse was "yindee stylish house". There wasn't much styling going on there, but at least their hot water heater worked, so they can call themselves whatever they want.
The next morning, we awoke to stormy skies (which definitely cut back on the heat) and headed to the edge of the walled city of Chiang Mai for a Thai yoga massage for two! This was an incredible experience, our masseuses were excellent and that $9 (250 baht) was the best money spent for an hour massage. In a Thai yoga loosened haze, we then stumbled upon a terra cotta garden with authentic pieces of exquisite art strewn about a walled, moss covered courtyard. We were the only ones there, except for a few restorers, and gorged ourselves on taking pictures with our cameras (this place was so impressive- we revisited it again 2 days later!) 
Wat chedi luang, Chiang Mai
Making a wish on a prayer banner
Thai yoga massage
Terra cotta garden
Delicious pad thai
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