The Final Countdown

Upon our arrival to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, it became real.  We had 3 more nights and then we were starting a dreadful journey back home.  We both had pretty bad colds so we were knocked out the first day in Bangkok and took it easy.  We spent the next 3 days shopping, eating at our favorite establishments, and doing very little sightseeing, because, after all there isn't much to see in Bangkok!  At 10 PM on the 17th, we hopped into a taxi and headed for the airport.  We had slept only a few hours the night before, and we were going on a 22 hour journey through Shnghai and then to LAX.  In total, since we do not sleep on airplanes, we were up for 42 hours with a couple of 2 hour naps when our bodies would allow it.  It was the worst travel day I have ever had in my life, and the jet lag when we got home was not much better.  It has been 3 days and last night we were able to sleep 8 hours, which was amazing.  Anywho, here are some of the highlights from the end of our trip.

The first night in Bangkok we went to the Soi 38 night market, infamous for it's quality street food.  It was a little disappointing however after travelling and eating our way through SE Asia

My favorite dish on Soi 38, Egg Noodles and Fried Pork with Morning Glory

This is the best Pad Thai I have ever eaten, and we got it from Thip Samai in Bangkok.  This restaurant is a staple in Bangkok and only serves different types of Pad Thai.  

Khao San Road.  If you ever travel through SE Asia you will inevitably end up here at some point. 

After resting from our colds we decided to go out to Khao San...This is a typical Bar in SE Asia

Some American friends we met up with our last couple of nights in Bangkok.  Here we are enjoying our last bucket before getting a Taxi to the airport. 

Fried Insects!! I have eaten most of these, including the Water Bugs from the Chao Praya river (see last blog post).

Even on our last flight to LAX the learning did not stop.  This Chinese couple from Shanghai had never been on an airplane before.  We had to teach them how to put the seats back, and use the headphones.  They loved us, and showed us a video of their daughters wedding in China on a knock off iPad.  They did not speak a lick of English but somehow we interacted for a couple of hours and realized that they were going to LA to their daughters second wedding celebration.  Their daughter had moved to LA and married an American, and their kids paid for their trip to LA, which included a trip to San Diego and Las Vegas.  They couldn't have been more excited. 

We arrived at LAX at 9 AM, had been up for 40 hours, and we were exhausted.  We had seen the sun rise and set...TWICE.  We went home and napped for a few hours, and then the culture shock hit.  We both have had similar thoughts over the last few days.  We couldn't help but think that everything looked so clean, that it was strange people traveled in their cars alone.  We saw trucks, with one person in them.  WHAT?  You could easily fit 20-30 people in the bed and give them a ride, what's your problem?  When we get up it is weird to imagine that we can not just walk outside to a street stall and get a bowl of soup.  It is weird to be back, to think that the trip we planned for for 3 years is over.  We will just have to see how we adjust over the next few weeks or so. 

Playing with and Eating Exotic Animals in Chiang Mai

HOLA AMIGOS!  QUE PASA!?  Ok, so we got to Chiang Mai, and Sarah was very excited to play with animals.  She had heard all sorts of things and was ready for a shenanigan party!  Sillyness ensued.  We are in Bangkok now, just about 24 hours from departure so I will spare little time writing this blog.

We got to play with baby tigers, only 3 months old!  They told us to be careful, sometimes they bite. 

My little buddy

Our Family!!!! 

Then we went to a snake show...scawwieeessss!!! 

Then the guy in the snake show put a snake on Sarah

That night we went out to enjoy the nightlife of Chiang Mai, and were invited into Thuan's birthday party.  No we did not know her or any of the old scallywags that hung out at this joint. But, nevertheless, as usual in SEA, it turned into a very entertaining night. 

At the party I was offered some quality steamed insect (I am not sure if this is a cockroach, if someone can clarify that would be helpful).  It was crunchy and salty, and gave me a semi allergic reaction.

The next day we went trekking in the mountains.  It included a butterfly farm, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, lunch, zip lining and rappelling, a visit to a local village, waterfall swimming and white water rafting.  All for $30.

I decided I would get on the elephant bare back and try to ride it.  It was absolutely terrifying, these animals are huge.

Safety First!!!!!!!

That night we decided to go out and try to find some actual tourists to hang out with, and we succeeded.  We ended up with some Canadian and English folk that took us out into the wee hours of the morning.  We ended up meeting up with our friend from Laos, and this chap is quite the character, it was a great night! 

The following day we went to a cooking class, and this is the local market that we shopped at to get our goods.

Watch out Gordon Ramsey...this is NO Hells Kitchen!

Dragon fruit...tastes similar to Kiwi

Second time making spring rolls, we are getting pretty good at this

I know it sounds impressive, and it took a lot of work, but we made our own curry paste.


My green curry, made with 21 chilis.

Finally on our last day in Chiang Mai, we decided to do Mahout training.  Mahout training is a class where you learn how to command an elehphant and ride it bareback.  It was a wonderful day filled with trekking through the jungle on top of an elephant.  Yes, I know I look like a terrorist in these photos. 

Sarah's elephant is happy!

The elephant would "kiss us" and this is Sarah's reaction to the kiss. 

Bathing our elephants after a long day.  They would squirt you with water from their trunks.  

Trekking through the jungle on our little buddy.  Sarah switched with me and was the commander after this.

On our last night in Chiang Mai, we treated ourselves to a nice sit down dinner, consisting of Sangsom Whiskey and a 6 course meal.  It was a splurge at $15, but we fit it into our budget.  It was a suggestion by a Thai we had met.  They specifically served Northern Thai cuisine, and it was honestly the best Thai food I have ever eaten in my life.

Sampler Appetizer which included fried pork, chinese sausage, pork rinds, pork based curry soup, a tomato beef dipping sauce, and a green chile dipping sauce. 

Minced pork salad was out of this world good. 

This was a curry based noodle dish that I can say was the best Thai Curry I have ever had. 

And for dessert you ask? Pig Brain! Yes, it was tasty in flavor, but a little chewy 

The One Where They Went Tubing

After an uneventful, although quite nice flight on Lao Airlines from Hanoi to Vientiane, we were officially in Laos. We only stayed one night in Vientiane, the country's capital, because, to be honest, it was kind of a crappy stop over city. So, the next day we were off to Vang Vieng, the city we came to Laos to see. Vang Vieng definitely did not disappoint. A backpackers heaven nestled in the mountains of Laos, surrounded by limestone mountains, countless caves, and the one reason any backpacker comes to Laos...TUBING.

Another lovely view from our guesthouse balcony.

Vang Vieng is definitely not an authentic Laos town, in fact, it was built solely for tourists. Essentially, the town consists of guesthouses and a ton of restaurants with the same menu (all Western food) that constantly played episodes of Family Guy or Friends. I was in love! You could sit at a bar/restaurant and watch Friends all day if your heart desired. I was tempted, but there was other things we came to Vang Vieng to do, and watching countless episodes of Friends was, unfortunately, not one of them. The best part about the food in Vang Vieng was the numerous street stalls that all sold the same things for very cheap. We had a chicken sandwich daily which ran us $1.25.

$1.25 Chicken Sandwich, enough for us to split.

The first day we rented a motorbike and went caving. Laos has the worst infrastructure of any country in SE Asia, so there are hardly any paved roads. That didn't stop us from embarking on the sketchiest motorbike tour we have done, and some good ol' caving.

All of the bridges and ladders are made of Bamboo. And yes, you drive across this one.

We later found out that we were scammed, and while we thought we were caving the popular tourist cave with the blue lagoon, we were on some random people's property in a cave that was really not fit for people in flip flops to be traversing them. Nonetheless, we made it through the day unscathed.

Another bridge made of Bamboo

Caving, pitch dark without the headlamps

Again, all of the ladders made with Bamboo

The next day we decided to finally go tubing. Now, tubing in VV is not like tubing in the states, where you float lazily down a river. No, tubing in VV goes something like this: 1) Grab a tube, take a tuk-tuk 3 km up river, jump out of tuk-tuk where 2 men are standing there pouring shots of whiskey in your mouth. 2) Walk across a rickety bamboo bridge and enter the first bar, more free shots of whiskey, buckets, beer pong, volleyball, and frisbee drinking games commence. 3) Finally hop into your tube and go about 100 meters before another bar throws a rope out for you and pulls you into their bar. This goes on all day, except, the bars that are later down the river have awesome things to do like zip lines, water slides, trapezees, and high dives. Seriously, hands down the most crazy thing I have ever seen, and definitely worth the trip to Laos.

Floating from bar to bar down the river

One of the bars, equipped with a high dive board (again, made of bamboo) that I jumped off of!

Super slides at almost every bar

The day after tubing, we woke up to a powerless town with, of course, no working ATM's. Thankfully, we had just barely enough money to catch a bus to Luang Prabang. Then began what would be known as the bus ride from hell. Tired from tubing, we set out on what was supposed to be a 5-6 hour bus ride which eventually turned into a grueling 9 hour mountain trek.

On the bus, Ben clearly not happy.

We ran into numerous obstacles, including a mudslide, which caused only a 30 minute hold up as they cleared the road. Felt very safe traveling these roads after seeing this.

Luang Prabang is another UNESCO heritage site. There was not a whole lot to do in LPB, so we spent our days relaxing near the Mekong River at Utopia (thanks for the tip, Breeves and Brooke).

Utopia, a relaxing place overlooking the Mekong River where you can sit and read, do yoga, play board games and join volleyball tournaments

Ben relaxing at Utopia

Laos was bombed incredibly heavily during the Vietnam War, and the reason their infrastructure is still so bad today is more than 30% of the 1.6 million tons of bomb the US dropped on Laos did not explode, so people today are still dying from unexploded bombs. To bring attention to this, everywhere in Laos is decorated with the US bombs that they have found.

A US bomb in the bathroom at Utopia

Food Crawling - Hanoi, Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi excited about what was to come. This was one of the cities I was most excited to visit in all of SE Asia, and I was ready to take it by the horns. Unfortunately, as we traveled up Vietnam, we noticed that the further North we got the more scams we encountered. People were trying to rip you off at every turn, from doubled cab fares, incorrect weighing of the laundry, to "accidentally" giving you incorrect change. We were getting a little tired of it and Hanoi, we had read, was the worst.

The most Northern city and the capital of Vietnam, a communist country with a bloody past with Westerners, Hanoi was wrought with scammers. I have very mixed feelings about my time in Hanoi, and even Vietnam. If the attitude towards Westerners was better, I would come back. Unfortunately for them, since tourism is about the only hope they have of a better lifestyle, I will not be returning to Vietnam, simply because the people are the worst I have met anywhere in the world.

We had read so much about the scams that we were able to protect ourselves from most. But on the train while having some beers with fellow Dutchmen (one of whom repeatedly told Sarah she did not pronounce her last name right), the waiter gave us incorrect change claiming that we owed him for an additional round that we had previously paid for. There was simply nothing we could do.

But Hanoi lived up to my expectations, despite the constant scam attempts. We had some of the best street food in all of SE Asia in Hanoi, and you can get anything there, i mean ANYTHING, from dog to still beating cobra heart. Plus, the constant buzz of motorbikes keeps the city alive at a pace similar to NYC. The Bia Hoi's are plentiful, serving up beers for 5,000 dong (25 cents), it's a deal you can't get anywhere else in the world. An even better deal was free Carlsberg draft beer all night for a bar's opening night.

Typical Old Quarter, Hanoi street. Very narrow with tons of motorbikes.

So many Motorbikes!

These are the kinds of things that happen while traveling. We were going to "take it easy" that night, until we stumbled upon this sign. We couldn't believe it, but we drank here for FREE all night. Carlsberg draft, Tiger, anything you wanted, for free...unprecedented in my life.

The first night and next day we decided we would dedicate our time to discovering the city by foot, and trying as many street food vendors as possible. That day we tried about 6 different dishes, including our Thanksgiving dinner of fried pork and fries!

We typically start our day with a bowl of Pho Bo (pronounced Pha Bo), which is a typical morning dish of beef noodle soup. This is one of our favorite soups in Vietnam.

Having my breakfast Pho Bo...and yes, I was tired in this picture.

I am not really a fan of fish, but I had a feeling that this restaurant did it right.

The grilled fish, it was a REALLY expensive meal for us at $7.50 each, but well worth the splurge.

Next, we visited a pagoda and bridge in the middle of Ho Kiem Lake.

We were accosted by literally 25 young Vietnamese and Chinese girls who were fascinated by our white skin. We had a photo shoot for the next 30 minutes.

We continued our food crawl with a bowl of Bun Cha. A sweet, broth based BBQ pork noodle dish, specific to Hanoi.

Next up was dinner, of Bun Bo Nam Bo, a beef based noodle dish without broth. This is the Bun Bo Nam Bo lady.

This was one of our favorites and we got it another 3-4 times in Hanoi.

And finally, the rats of the sky, PIGEON. It was very chewy and tough, not our favorite dish thus far.

The next few days we spent exploring Hanoi by foot. For such a fast paced city, filled with the buzzing of motorbikes, you take each day particularly slow. A Vietnamese coffee on the sidewalk can eat a whole hour out of your day. It was very nice to be able to spend a week in the capital of Vietnam. One night we went to a water puppet show, which was a very strange experience.

The spitting dragons

We took a day trip to Halong Bay, supposed to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. The problem is, that after seeing all of the rest of SE Asia, it pales in comparison. Nonetheless, it was beautiful.

Caves with florescent lights which made the experience feel like Disneyland. We were NOT impressed.

Finally, it was on to the Bia Hoi, Vietnam's famous fresh beer. For only 25c a glass it is one of the best things in Vietnam. The small red and blue chairs spill out onto the streets, vendors come by to sell you anything from donuts to nail clippers, and you just sit and watch Hanoi fly by.

We met up with our Canadian and English friends again in Hanoi and had a blast.

Around the corner from the Bia Hoi is the bathroom. There are 3 holes in the ground built on the back of an old mans house. He sits in his doorway, demanding 2000 Dong from you every time you walk by. He became known as the "Bathroom Nazi."

Upon returning home from the Bia Hoi quite late, we found our security guards (aka the hotel staff) asleep on the ground. I think this is where they live, and if you look at the handles of the door, they are secured shut by a sturdy broomstick.