Vietnam - Good Morning, Vietnam!

Vietnam is a country who has preserved it's culture. Hanoi is full of charm and is not dependent on tourism as much as other places that we've visited. It is home to 3.5 million people and I think that they all must own a motorbike! There is one intersection where 5 streets come together at once and there is not a single traffic light! We managed to find a bar on the 3rd floor of a building and watched the traffic for hours. It's quite comical!! There are people on foot, bicycle, motorbike, taxi and tour bus. There are no cross walks so people just walk clear across the intersection with no worry. We didn't see a single accident. Now I understand why there is such a stereotype about bad Asian drivers, it's just a completely different mindset!! Alex calls it controlled chaos!

We've also enjoyed our morning Vietnamese coffee and street food. There are little restaurants that set up on the street every evening. The food is delicious and less than $1 per meal.

There is a lake in the center of the city and in the mornings there are thousands of people (old and young) practicing tai chi and playing chess. Hanoi is exactly what we were expecting our of southeast Asia!!

We just got back from a wonderful 3 day/2 night boat trip in Ha Long Bay. It was absolutely beautiful, no doubt the most breathtaking place I've ever seen. There are over 2,000 islands in the bay that are jetting straight out of the water. We spent one night on a junk, kayaked around and listened to unique birds, trekked in the national park and stayed one night on Cat Ba Island. We wished that we could have stayed another night but today was a national holiday (Vietnam unification day)and all of the buses were full.

Every restaurant on the island had fresh salt water tanks with huge crab, clams, fish and lobster. We saw fishermen with nets full of seafood coming directly to the restaurants. Now THAT'S fresh!!!

We are now headed northwest to the mountainous region of Sapa. We will trek for 3 days and visit several hill tribes with traditional dress and trades. We've really enjoyed Vietnam so far and have had a lovely time.

We'll post more pictures soon! We love you all and look forward to your comments.

Love, Loranda and Alex

Cambodia - Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

It's amazing how much difference a border line makes! We are in the quaint touristy part of Siem Reap however the countryside is a sight to be seen. Cambodia is much poorer than what we were familiar with. The road from the Thai border is a 3 hour bumpy ride with most of driver's attention spent diverting pot-holes and cattle.

Angkor Wat is spectacular! We purchased a 24 hour ticket and saw the sun set the first evening and then woke up at 5 a.m. to see the sun rise the next morning over the east temples. We greatly enjoyed the day and were thankful to beat the heat for much of it. The temples are just incredible- some were built as early as 809 AD and were still standing strong today. We took 376 pictures so it's obvious that we were quite impressed!! The complex is enormous, we hired a tuk-tuk driver to cart us around from one temple to another.

The people here are very talkative and enjoy practicing English. We spoke with one waiter who informed us that a month's wage is only $45US. Unbelievable! There are children at every street corner begging for us to buy bracelets or give them money or a cold drink and men with their limbs missing from the mines. It's really taken a toll on us but we realize that we just can't help everyone.

All of the guesthouses are located near the old French Market area and there is a road full of western style restaurants and pubs. We haven't been very impressed by the cuisine however. We did venture into "Vive," a Mexican joint but were sadly disappointed....(what could we expect?)We are dreaming of a big ole' Margarita at Cantina Laredo! We tried dinning at a traditional local's hangout but were not greeted with a welcome reception. Past the point of being able to turn around, we noticed that the floor was literally covered in trash. It is customary to dump everything on the floor (including leftovers) and clean up at the end of the evening. We were uncomfortable with the uncleanliness and just ordered a canned coke. The cats were well feed though....

Yesterday we took a boat ride out to Tonle Lake to visit a floating village. The houses are built on bamboo stilts that are 10 meters high. The lake water is a mucky brown, completely filled with trash and waste. People were in the water waist high with fishing nets. There was a school, library, barber shop, TV repairman, etc. all on the water! We stopped at a crocodile farm and snapped a picture of a 5 year old girl with a 6 foot snake wrapped around her neck. It was quite an experience! Back on land, our driver recommend a local restaurant so we stopped in for a traditional Khmer meal and pitcher of iced Angkor beer. We had a much better time since we were in the company of Mee, a local.

We are headed to Hanoi, Vietnam from here and are ready to be near the coast again. The sun beats directly down here.

Love and miss you all,
Loranda and Alex