Vietnam - Nha Trang

Nha Trang is Vietnam's biggest beach resort town. The beach here is pretty and goes on for miles (Vietnam has over 3450 km of coastline), but having been recently spoiled by Thailand's perfect beaches, we were complaining how the white sand here is not quite soft enough and the water is not quite turquoise enough. We are greedy.

We took a boat tour of nearby small islands, complete with karaoke performances from the crew and other tourists, both domestic and foreign.

Fellow tourists Vietnamese grannies - they loved the karaoke performances at first but fell asleep around song fifteen (two American boys singing Coldplay):

Snack time:

My proud moment as the first person at the floating bar:

Continuing his adventures in personal grooming, Bill tried to get a hair cut at this place:

The sign said 'Barber Shop', the panel outside listed hair cut, shampoo, etc. in English and there were high chairs inside with mirrors. However, we found out through sign language of sort, that the service this place provides is of the kind that would only be legal in the state of Nevada in the US.

Vietnam - Mui Ne

It used to be that we would check into a nice hotel only when we were in the throes of collapse or divorce due to travel fatigue. Well, no more. With less than three weeks left on the trip, we checked into a resort hotel in the beach town of Mui Ne because we have a credit card.

Vietnam is a good deal - this ocean view beach bungalow was a third of what it would have cost in the US:

I know it makes a much better blog if we trek through the jungle and almost die from dengue fever, but the only story I have is how we declined the turndown service. Boo.

This is Bill on the backpacker bus, featuring reclining bunk-bed like seats:

These large basket looking things are actually fishing boats!:

(We haven't been responding to comments because blogspot.com may be blocked in Vietnam. We can post entries, which is on blogger.com, but can't read the posts on blogspot.)

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City

We met up with our law school friend Bao in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and he graciously showed us around the city. Vietnam is soaring economically along with China, and there were nice restaurants, cafes and stores abound, but all still comparatively cheap. It was like for me how it was for Bill in Buenos Aires - endless great food to be had at good prices:
This is at one of the street restaurants that open up only at night. The restaurant may be on the street, but it has uniformed waitresses and water tanks filled with live fishes:

We ordered the fish hot pot (lau). The fish, picked out from the water tank only seconds ago, twitched a bit despite being cut in half. Now, that's FRESH!:

The fish is put in the pot with vegetables and boiled right on the table:
I forgot what these fruits were called, but I have never seen them before and it's eaten with salt & chilly:

We even had the infamous durian, which is banned from many hotels due to its smell - it smelled and tasted like sour milk:

I think Bao took us to at least ten different cafes and clubs in two days (thanks Bao!):

Outdoor terrace cafes that blasted techno music were very popular:

If you haven't already guessed from my obsession with the 55SF sun block, it is considered more beautiful to have pale skin in Asia. (Something about not looking like a peasant.) But the ladies here go to extreme lengths not to expose their skin to the sun, donning a scarf around the face like a bank robber with even gloves in the scorching hot weather!:

Cambodia - Phnom Penh

I have been very good about dressing modestly on this trip, but the only clean clothes I had on the day of our visit to the Royal Palace was a pair of long pants and a choice between a long sleeve top or a tank top. It was really hot and humid in Phnom Penh, so I chose the tank top, but draped a scarf over my shoulders for extra coverage. We proceeded to the Royal Palace. Next to the ticket office, along with the 'no smoking' sign and 'dress modestly' sign, was a picture of a woman with a scarf draped over her, with a big red X running across it. I guess I wasn't the only one that tried to get away with the tank top + scarf combination. I had to buy and wear the 'I am a culturally insensitive tourist' T-shirt sold for $1 next to the ticket office. Sort of like Hester in the Scarlet Letter:
Wat Phnom:
From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime took over the country, killing over one million Cambodians. This is the Tuol Sleng Museum, the former site of Khmer Rouge's Security Prison 21 (S-21), the largest center of detention and torture. Actually, only Bill went - I wasn't sure if I could stomach the gruesome details:

We were reading through a tourist brochure when we came across an ad for a North Korean restaurant - we had to check it out. The waitresses that worked there were definitely North Koreans (I can tell from their accent). The restaurant had a thirty minute music show, starring none other than the very waitresses that just served us food! We called them Super Waitresses, because not only were they extremely attentive and polite servers, they could sing, dance, play a musical instrument (violin, key board, traditional Korean harp, electric guitar and...castanets) and speak multiple languages:

This is Malis, the nicest restaurant for Cambodian cuisine according to our hotel guy:

Cambodia - Siem Reap & the Angkor temples

Rather than taking a grueling twelve hour bus ride from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia, we flew. Now that there is only one month left on the trip, we are 'backpackers' in name only. We refuse to eat street food, sleep in unpleasant hotel rooms or take painfully long bus rides. Absolutely no street cred whatsoever.

The temples and palaces of Angkor era, built from the 9th century to the 14th century, are located around Siem Reap. For the first time on this trip, we bought a multi-day entrance ticket. We proudly 'did' Machu-Picchu and Petra each in one day, but there are over 100 Angkor monuments around here.

Angkor Wat:

Bayon temple with 200 carved faces. This was my favorite:

At least a third of tourists here seem to be Korean tour groups. Here are my peeps at Ta Phrom, where Tomb Raider was filmed:

We hired a tuk-tuk for two days to take us around the sights. The driver, Mr. Sotheb Ban, was not impressed with our lazy itinerary of the first day, and took us on the 'grand tour' of his own the second day. Towards the end of the second day, we didn't even get out of the tuk-tuk and took pictures as we drove by.

Gas station for motorcycles - the plastic bottles on the stand are filled with petroleum. Bill claims he will buy a scooter and use it to commute to work when we get back to the US to be more environmentally friendly:

Thailand - Chiang-Mai

Chiang-Mai is a laid-back city in northern Thailand. Being the second largest city in Thailand with a temple in what seems like every corner, it feels 'authentic', but has enough tourists and expats so that it's a convenient place for foreigners. Even the Thai movies at the movie theater have English subtitles. We watched one. It was terrible, but Bill was happy to sit in a movie theater eating pop corn and I could pretend that we were doing something 'cultural'. Definitely a win-win situation.

Thailand in general has been a very easy place to travel - clean, cheap with friendly people. Even the touts here actually go away if you say "no, thank you." Amazing. Yesterday, we flagged down a tuk-tuk and asked the driver how much the ride would be. There was a silent moment while the driver thought about how much he should charge us. Bill, impatient, yelled out "60 baht!" exactly at the same time the driver said "40." We all looked at each other, laughed and settled on 50. Nice work, Bill.

This is Wat Phra That Doi Suthep:

Sunday street market:

Bill couldn't help himself and ordered nachos at a restaurant. It was terrible:

Incidentally, the Thai food we had in Mexico was terrible too.

I wish they would decide on the presidential candidate already so we can stop watching CNN and go back to sightseeing. This is me watching the news and moisturizing: