Well after two months of traveling, I believe we are finally getting the hang of things. We are able to make decisions a lot faster, which if you didn't know is a big improvement for us since we both can be very indecisive. Generally I am getting used to the fact that I can't always be comfortable, either in terms of the weather or our sleeping accommodation or even what reaction my body is having at any given point. So in this regard I am learning that no matter what to try and make the best of it, even though at times this is extremely challenging (the heat can really add an extra layer of difficulty especially when you are carrying a large backpack and you have no clue where you are going). I had my biggest challenge as we just entered Laos and we arrived in Luang Prabang, which is a very adorable little town and a UNESCO world heritage site, we arrived late into town and had trouble finding a room for over an hour (where it was hot and my backpack was getting heavier every minute) and of course I started to freak out since I like to have a plan when we arrive at a new place but luckily Jason kept his cool and we found a room. Also my perspective of this quaint french styled town was severely altered since I had an allergic reaction to my anti-malaria pills and broke out into hives for about a week. I tried to enjoy the sights and generally be a tourist, but it was hot and I was very itchy, so I opted to take benadryl and slept through a day. It was this moment and many others, where I become so grateful for good health. Sometimes it is very difficult to look at the poverty here and how it affects peoples health, especially children, and not feel guilty about how good we have it. It made me re-think my outlook on my own health when surrounded by so many others who suffer with no ability (or money) to be able to fix their pains. This trip has really been teaching me to be more grateful of all the simple things that make life wonderful (especially good health), and I think we easily forget that in our busy lives.
Another fact we have had to learn though our own experiences and talking with others, is that you truly can not see it all. There is always going to be something that you missed because of one reason or another, but everyone gets a very unique experience because of this. However, the freedom that this traveling has brought is amazing. We are able to make decisions on a whim where we will travel next, a good example is on our overnight bus from Laos to Vietnam we were planning to start our Vietnam travel in the middle and work our way south. But everyone on the bus was headed north to Hanoi and we decided on the bus, why not only in Vietnam once. The promise of Halong bay was a definite cause to do so, because from all the pictures it looked amazing, so we paid a little more and it took about 6 hours longer. We arrived in a small town (Ninh Binh) about 2 hours south of Vietnam's capital (Hanoi) and did some sight seeing outside of town, which was a great way to start our travel in Vietnam since the town was very manageable and the limestone karsts were breathtaking.
Through our travels, we have decided that big cities are not so fun, you only really need a day or two to see some sights and plan your next course of action. They trend to be more expensive for everything and generally the people seem more rude, and of course you are solicited to buy something a lot more. But they do offer good museums and a wider variety of food, which sometimes is a must since you can only eat noodles and rice for so long.
Since we only stayed in Laos for about 12 days and visited three cities, I can't say a whole lot about their culture. But they did have amazing french bread, and overall some of the most beautiful landscapes with huge hills and large karsts covered in greenery, and of course the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. We also traveled this country during Chinese new year, and there were a lot of Chinese on vacation here which made things a little more difficult for us, such as the Vietnamese embassy being closed for a whole week, hotels being full, and no motobikes available to rent. For Vietnam, it is necessary to arrange your visa beforehand and you need exact dates for when you plan to enter also it is the most expensive ($60).
Overall Vietnam has been a great visit and we had some of the best experiences so far on our travels here. We stayed for over three weeks and we had quite the range in weather as well. When we arrived in the north it was actually a bit cold, and in the Hanoi we visited a good amount of museums. We also spent a good amount of time shopping around for a Halong Bay tour and an open bus ticket. The open bus ticket allows you to take a sleeping bus to certain cities for a set price, and you only need to confirm one day beforehand to travel onward, in our case south (we decided on 4 cities which would end in Saigon). We have learned that when you make these big purchases on arranged travel trips that a good amount of shopping around is necessary since you can be easily ripped off. Halong Bay was so amazing and many of the pictures we took could not capture the true beauty of this place. We decided on 3 days and 2 nights with one night on Cat Ba Island, which was definitely a great tour for around $100 (including rooms, food, and tour guides). It was also the first time that I ate fish since coming to Asia, and it wasn't that bad. But after talking to some locals who were originally from other European nations and seeing where the fish comes from (HUGE fish farms that are fed I do not know what), I will never eat fish in Asia again.
As we traveled south, the weather got a little worse and it rained for a few days which was nice since we had been used to the heat for so long. At this point I was eating at least one bowl of pho (noodle soup) a day. We also learned from a local that pho is usually a morning meal; however, after traveling through these countries I still can't understand their preferences for breakfast which includes rice porridge, noodle soup, fried rice, and even the occasional BBQ. When we reached Hoi An, which I think is so much more beautiful than Luang Prabang, the weather started to get a lot better and we experienced the sun for the first time in Vietnam and even our first beach for the first time in almost two months. Hoi An is such a nice little town, a bit pricey since it is a UNESCO world heritage site, with beautiful lanterns that light up the town at night. But it is mostly known for its tailors that are extremely cheap where you can get almost anything custom made for you, from leather shoes, shorts, dresses, and full on suits for men. The beach experience was great except it goes against one of the most valuable lessons here as tourists: that if you are in one place for too long you will most certainly attract people to sell you anything. Even if you are standing on a street corner deciding where to go, someone will come up to you and try and sell you something and it usually starts like "Hello my friend, where you from?" and goes from there.
We headed south to the popular beach resort town, Nha Trang where we ended up staying for 8 days. We decided to learn to scuba and again spent our first day shopping around to get the best price, and eventually found a great place for only $250 each and it would take 3 full days with 4 dives included. What a great experience, and we had so much fun!! We are already planning places to go based off their scuba potential. This beach town is also a very common place for Russians, and they were everywhere and even restaurants had menus all in Russian. We had some of the best food here, we ate at a Texas BBQ restaurant about 4 times and then at this amazing Indian restaurant about 4 times as well (best Indian food I have ever had). The city is also known for its drinking environment as well, but another lesson I have reaffirmed while traveling is that I can not have cheap alcohol (beer, wine, spirts, you name it) since I am allergic/intolerant. I am a top self girl, and my favorite is a good tequila and the best they have in most places is Jose Cuervo...But I can't complain too much since it has saved us a lot of money, and we have met many other travelers who mention that alcohol consumption used up as much as 1/3 of their budget, which I would much rather save for more scuba!
When we reached Saigon after, hopefully, our last sleeper bus it was about 7am, and we checked into our hotel which was the best $11 dollars per night ever with the most comfortable bed and pillows along with AC it was hard to leave the room the first day. But again we had to do some more shopping of travel tours since we wanted to check out the Mekong Delta before entering Cambodia. We realized that most of the tours were a rip off and decided to check it out on our own. But since we only wanted to stay in Vietnam's largest city for only one more day, we opted for a one day city tour. After our tour I decided that I would get myself a needed haircut and color (recommended by many travel websites as a great city to do so) only costing $35!! And it turned out just how I asked, which is great no matter what country you are in.
One of the most memorable museums we visited was in Saigon, it is the War Remnants museum (the Vietnam War museum). There were moments when I almost wanted to cry at the photos, or even felt nausea at others in regards to Agent Orange. But overall it was well done museum; they had a section just to remember all the photographers who gave their lives to depict the tragedies. They also had another section about how Americans protested and lost their lives to try and stop this terrible war. It really was hard to look at some of the old photos and think about all the human loss and pain for a reason that is still hard to understand. It is interesting how communism is still a part of SE Asia, but at the same time how we also saw some familiar brands for the first time in Saigon, including Starbucks, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and numerous clothing brand names at a large and expensive mall. There is also definitely some censorship in terms of television and even Facebook, but I think almost everyone has learned how to get around the facebook problem.
This is our first full day in Cambodia, and I am looking forward to Angkor Wat a lot! It is strange since everything is quoted in US dollars and even the ATMs give you US dollars. But so far it seems similar and different from its surrounding neighbors. One of the interesting parts of our journey to Cambodia was two stops along the delta, the first was a fish farm, where they keep over 120,000 fish in an small area and feed them food that looks and smells like cat food. We were told that over 700 fish farms exist just in the delta alone, and I was convinced never to eat any fish in Asia again. The second stop was a Cham, who are Muslim immigrants from Malaysia, village where they receive free public school, are subject to arranged marriage and they speak and trade with Vietnamese. But after visiting these sights, I began to wonder again what these people must think of us white people coming with our cameras and money. These villagers are just going about their daily lives and we look at them as a tourist attraction. Then the village children were selling small pastries asking for money so they could go to school or learn English, even though our guide just told us otherwise. This has happened so many times through out our trip it has gotten easier to say no, but it always makes me feel uneasy thinking about the childhood they will have compared to my own.
Throughout Vietnam there were many tourist attractions to go see a remote village/ do a homestay with these families, but I just have no interest to take part in this tourist niche. While on our small boat toward the Cambodian border, there were many people out for a swim or on their fishing boats, while many of the passengers including myself took pictures. Sometimes when I take pictures in those situations I can almost feel the people looking back "what is so interesting that you need to take a picture of it?" and I feel rude for looking at their life through my lens. I know that I came to this part of the world to learn more about their lives and see how things are, but I am only an outsider looking inside and I wish I could talk to many of these people in the photos and get a real understanding. I am beginning to really believe that teaching English to these people will truly improve lives, almost more than just giving money to them. It is hard to know as a tourist here if we are doing more harm than good, but I am trying my best to keep my eyes and heart open.
Another fact we have had to learn though our own experiences and talking with others, is that you truly can not see it all. There is always going to be something that you missed because of one reason or another, but everyone gets a very unique experience because of this. However, the freedom that this traveling has brought is amazing. We are able to make decisions on a whim where we will travel next, a good example is on our overnight bus from Laos to Vietnam we were planning to start our Vietnam travel in the middle and work our way south. But everyone on the bus was headed north to Hanoi and we decided on the bus, why not only in Vietnam once. The promise of Halong bay was a definite cause to do so, because from all the pictures it looked amazing, so we paid a little more and it took about 6 hours longer. We arrived in a small town (Ninh Binh) about 2 hours south of Vietnam's capital (Hanoi) and did some sight seeing outside of town, which was a great way to start our travel in Vietnam since the town was very manageable and the limestone karsts were breathtaking.
Through our travels, we have decided that big cities are not so fun, you only really need a day or two to see some sights and plan your next course of action. They trend to be more expensive for everything and generally the people seem more rude, and of course you are solicited to buy something a lot more. But they do offer good museums and a wider variety of food, which sometimes is a must since you can only eat noodles and rice for so long.
Since we only stayed in Laos for about 12 days and visited three cities, I can't say a whole lot about their culture. But they did have amazing french bread, and overall some of the most beautiful landscapes with huge hills and large karsts covered in greenery, and of course the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. We also traveled this country during Chinese new year, and there were a lot of Chinese on vacation here which made things a little more difficult for us, such as the Vietnamese embassy being closed for a whole week, hotels being full, and no motobikes available to rent. For Vietnam, it is necessary to arrange your visa beforehand and you need exact dates for when you plan to enter also it is the most expensive ($60).
Overall Vietnam has been a great visit and we had some of the best experiences so far on our travels here. We stayed for over three weeks and we had quite the range in weather as well. When we arrived in the north it was actually a bit cold, and in the Hanoi we visited a good amount of museums. We also spent a good amount of time shopping around for a Halong Bay tour and an open bus ticket. The open bus ticket allows you to take a sleeping bus to certain cities for a set price, and you only need to confirm one day beforehand to travel onward, in our case south (we decided on 4 cities which would end in Saigon). We have learned that when you make these big purchases on arranged travel trips that a good amount of shopping around is necessary since you can be easily ripped off. Halong Bay was so amazing and many of the pictures we took could not capture the true beauty of this place. We decided on 3 days and 2 nights with one night on Cat Ba Island, which was definitely a great tour for around $100 (including rooms, food, and tour guides). It was also the first time that I ate fish since coming to Asia, and it wasn't that bad. But after talking to some locals who were originally from other European nations and seeing where the fish comes from (HUGE fish farms that are fed I do not know what), I will never eat fish in Asia again.
As we traveled south, the weather got a little worse and it rained for a few days which was nice since we had been used to the heat for so long. At this point I was eating at least one bowl of pho (noodle soup) a day. We also learned from a local that pho is usually a morning meal; however, after traveling through these countries I still can't understand their preferences for breakfast which includes rice porridge, noodle soup, fried rice, and even the occasional BBQ. When we reached Hoi An, which I think is so much more beautiful than Luang Prabang, the weather started to get a lot better and we experienced the sun for the first time in Vietnam and even our first beach for the first time in almost two months. Hoi An is such a nice little town, a bit pricey since it is a UNESCO world heritage site, with beautiful lanterns that light up the town at night. But it is mostly known for its tailors that are extremely cheap where you can get almost anything custom made for you, from leather shoes, shorts, dresses, and full on suits for men. The beach experience was great except it goes against one of the most valuable lessons here as tourists: that if you are in one place for too long you will most certainly attract people to sell you anything. Even if you are standing on a street corner deciding where to go, someone will come up to you and try and sell you something and it usually starts like "Hello my friend, where you from?" and goes from there.
We headed south to the popular beach resort town, Nha Trang where we ended up staying for 8 days. We decided to learn to scuba and again spent our first day shopping around to get the best price, and eventually found a great place for only $250 each and it would take 3 full days with 4 dives included. What a great experience, and we had so much fun!! We are already planning places to go based off their scuba potential. This beach town is also a very common place for Russians, and they were everywhere and even restaurants had menus all in Russian. We had some of the best food here, we ate at a Texas BBQ restaurant about 4 times and then at this amazing Indian restaurant about 4 times as well (best Indian food I have ever had). The city is also known for its drinking environment as well, but another lesson I have reaffirmed while traveling is that I can not have cheap alcohol (beer, wine, spirts, you name it) since I am allergic/intolerant. I am a top self girl, and my favorite is a good tequila and the best they have in most places is Jose Cuervo...But I can't complain too much since it has saved us a lot of money, and we have met many other travelers who mention that alcohol consumption used up as much as 1/3 of their budget, which I would much rather save for more scuba!
When we reached Saigon after, hopefully, our last sleeper bus it was about 7am, and we checked into our hotel which was the best $11 dollars per night ever with the most comfortable bed and pillows along with AC it was hard to leave the room the first day. But again we had to do some more shopping of travel tours since we wanted to check out the Mekong Delta before entering Cambodia. We realized that most of the tours were a rip off and decided to check it out on our own. But since we only wanted to stay in Vietnam's largest city for only one more day, we opted for a one day city tour. After our tour I decided that I would get myself a needed haircut and color (recommended by many travel websites as a great city to do so) only costing $35!! And it turned out just how I asked, which is great no matter what country you are in.
One of the most memorable museums we visited was in Saigon, it is the War Remnants museum (the Vietnam War museum). There were moments when I almost wanted to cry at the photos, or even felt nausea at others in regards to Agent Orange. But overall it was well done museum; they had a section just to remember all the photographers who gave their lives to depict the tragedies. They also had another section about how Americans protested and lost their lives to try and stop this terrible war. It really was hard to look at some of the old photos and think about all the human loss and pain for a reason that is still hard to understand. It is interesting how communism is still a part of SE Asia, but at the same time how we also saw some familiar brands for the first time in Saigon, including Starbucks, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and numerous clothing brand names at a large and expensive mall. There is also definitely some censorship in terms of television and even Facebook, but I think almost everyone has learned how to get around the facebook problem.
This is our first full day in Cambodia, and I am looking forward to Angkor Wat a lot! It is strange since everything is quoted in US dollars and even the ATMs give you US dollars. But so far it seems similar and different from its surrounding neighbors. One of the interesting parts of our journey to Cambodia was two stops along the delta, the first was a fish farm, where they keep over 120,000 fish in an small area and feed them food that looks and smells like cat food. We were told that over 700 fish farms exist just in the delta alone, and I was convinced never to eat any fish in Asia again. The second stop was a Cham, who are Muslim immigrants from Malaysia, village where they receive free public school, are subject to arranged marriage and they speak and trade with Vietnamese. But after visiting these sights, I began to wonder again what these people must think of us white people coming with our cameras and money. These villagers are just going about their daily lives and we look at them as a tourist attraction. Then the village children were selling small pastries asking for money so they could go to school or learn English, even though our guide just told us otherwise. This has happened so many times through out our trip it has gotten easier to say no, but it always makes me feel uneasy thinking about the childhood they will have compared to my own.
Throughout Vietnam there were many tourist attractions to go see a remote village/ do a homestay with these families, but I just have no interest to take part in this tourist niche. While on our small boat toward the Cambodian border, there were many people out for a swim or on their fishing boats, while many of the passengers including myself took pictures. Sometimes when I take pictures in those situations I can almost feel the people looking back "what is so interesting that you need to take a picture of it?" and I feel rude for looking at their life through my lens. I know that I came to this part of the world to learn more about their lives and see how things are, but I am only an outsider looking inside and I wish I could talk to many of these people in the photos and get a real understanding. I am beginning to really believe that teaching English to these people will truly improve lives, almost more than just giving money to them. It is hard to know as a tourist here if we are doing more harm than good, but I am trying my best to keep my eyes and heart open.