January 28th 2009
Today we woke up to another cold and windy morning for the voyage back to Ha Noi. Fast forward a bus ride, boat ride another bus ride, another obligatory souvenir shop stop and we're back in Ha Noi. On our drive back we saw on the back of a motorcycle a 4x2x2 mesh covered box full of chickens...live chickens sticking their heads out of the box and clucking. It was classic. We decided to meet up with Jenny & Yen, 2 Brisbane sisters who we met on out tour, for dinner. After a sketchy cab ride, just close your eyes and hope for the best, we arrived at Quan An Ngon, the restaurant we were to meet at. Unfortunately, it was closed due to TET.... like everything else. So we called Jenny and decided to meet at another location. Here is where we got our first taste of walking the streets of Ha Noi for the first time. It is crazy...so crazy in fact we saw a scooter accident occur right in front of us. This guy slipped on the wet pavement and landed on his face. I think he was ok, but a couple people rushed over to him, lifted him and his bike up, threw him on the back of it and then drove off. I'm not sure if they were being kind and helping him or taking him to a back alley to finish him off and take his scooter, but I am going to assume the first. :) After that excited we met the sisters at a restaurant called Lotus Life. The setting of the restaurant looked like a Vegas lounge, complete w/ a loud, terrible pianist and violinist overplaying random pop songs. The food was mediocre but we had a great time chatting with the ladies. They were raised in Brisbane but their parents are both from Saigon. After dinner we said goodbye to the Vang Sisters and took a cab back to the hotel and passed out.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
SE Asia Day 4
January 27th 2009
u may have noticed that i have stopped using caps in my entries..truth is the shift key on this computer sticks so it's easier not to.
woke up today at 7:30 for another random meal on the boat. it's a little warmer this morning so we took the opportunity to take some photos from the awesome top deck, that looks like it would be a great place to hang out on a warmer day. we cruised the bay a little longer and then docked at cat ba island. this is the largest of the islands in ha long bay and has an actual town where we will be staying the night. after disembarking we got onto another mini-bus and drove 20 minutes to the other side of the island where we got on a little boat that took us through a channel between some rice fields. then we pulled up to a beach and trekked about 15 minutes through said rice fields to another cave. the journey itself was pretty awesome. we didn't see any other tourists and going through all the little villages was fascinating. so before going into the caves ha tells us that only 4 other tour groups are allowed to visit this cave and that no one else can visit it. which makes sense since we didn't see anyone else the entire time were were there. the cave is so remote that our boat driver actually had to use a hand generator to start up the electricity for the lights in the cave. the cave is called Tom Coc and contains similar formations as hang sung sot. however this one has hidden caves that you have to shimmy through 1.5 ft wide, mud covered, holes to get to. yeah for jen, unfortunately kevin and i could not fit in them. we did however hike up a different path. it was awesome and the lights actually end so we were basically climbing in a cave with the light of our tour guide's cell phone.
after leaving the tunnel, we make the awesome walk back to the boat. we had lunch at a local place that had a deck that sat over a fish pond. The food was ok, fried, but afterwards we enjoyed jasmin tea and chocolates in the owners home, which seems fairly common here in vietnam. after lunch we got back on the bus and headed to cat ba town for the night. the best way to describe cat ba town is, i think, a cross between Nice, France and Mexico. the "tube" architecture with it's numerous story, yet only 10 ft wide buildings, one next to the other looks like the shops on the beachfront in Nice. the street vendors, cheap food and many hotels remind me of the puerto vallerta beachfront. at night the city lights up like vegas with blinking lights on the awnings and buildings. our hotel, Sunrise resort, sits on a hill above the city with a private beach. it is beautiful and very fancy. it has a nice pool and beach area that would be hopping, i'm sure, if it was about 10 degrees warmer. we checked in and enjoyed some ginger tea, the favorite in veitnam, and some teriyaki jerkied eal...uh huh...it was interesting. after taking in the view, we walked to town on a cliffside path from the hotel that provided stunning views of the bay. we grabbed some vietnamese coffee(french press and condensed milk) and some tiger beer in town and connected with some new friends from our tour. with us there were 11 of us, a couple from melbourne, a couple from brisbane, sisters from brisbane and two friends from germany. we all decided to meet up for dinner later that night at the green mango, recommended by ha. it was overpriced but still cheap by normal standards and gave us a chance to chat with some other people. after dinner we headed back to our hotel and went to sleep with the sound of the ocean on the beach in the background.
u may have noticed that i have stopped using caps in my entries..truth is the shift key on this computer sticks so it's easier not to.
woke up today at 7:30 for another random meal on the boat. it's a little warmer this morning so we took the opportunity to take some photos from the awesome top deck, that looks like it would be a great place to hang out on a warmer day. we cruised the bay a little longer and then docked at cat ba island. this is the largest of the islands in ha long bay and has an actual town where we will be staying the night. after disembarking we got onto another mini-bus and drove 20 minutes to the other side of the island where we got on a little boat that took us through a channel between some rice fields. then we pulled up to a beach and trekked about 15 minutes through said rice fields to another cave. the journey itself was pretty awesome. we didn't see any other tourists and going through all the little villages was fascinating. so before going into the caves ha tells us that only 4 other tour groups are allowed to visit this cave and that no one else can visit it. which makes sense since we didn't see anyone else the entire time were were there. the cave is so remote that our boat driver actually had to use a hand generator to start up the electricity for the lights in the cave. the cave is called Tom Coc and contains similar formations as hang sung sot. however this one has hidden caves that you have to shimmy through 1.5 ft wide, mud covered, holes to get to. yeah for jen, unfortunately kevin and i could not fit in them. we did however hike up a different path. it was awesome and the lights actually end so we were basically climbing in a cave with the light of our tour guide's cell phone.
after leaving the tunnel, we make the awesome walk back to the boat. we had lunch at a local place that had a deck that sat over a fish pond. The food was ok, fried, but afterwards we enjoyed jasmin tea and chocolates in the owners home, which seems fairly common here in vietnam. after lunch we got back on the bus and headed to cat ba town for the night. the best way to describe cat ba town is, i think, a cross between Nice, France and Mexico. the "tube" architecture with it's numerous story, yet only 10 ft wide buildings, one next to the other looks like the shops on the beachfront in Nice. the street vendors, cheap food and many hotels remind me of the puerto vallerta beachfront. at night the city lights up like vegas with blinking lights on the awnings and buildings. our hotel, Sunrise resort, sits on a hill above the city with a private beach. it is beautiful and very fancy. it has a nice pool and beach area that would be hopping, i'm sure, if it was about 10 degrees warmer. we checked in and enjoyed some ginger tea, the favorite in veitnam, and some teriyaki jerkied eal...uh huh...it was interesting. after taking in the view, we walked to town on a cliffside path from the hotel that provided stunning views of the bay. we grabbed some vietnamese coffee(french press and condensed milk) and some tiger beer in town and connected with some new friends from our tour. with us there were 11 of us, a couple from melbourne, a couple from brisbane, sisters from brisbane and two friends from germany. we all decided to meet up for dinner later that night at the green mango, recommended by ha. it was overpriced but still cheap by normal standards and gave us a chance to chat with some other people. after dinner we headed back to our hotel and went to sleep with the sound of the ocean on the beach in the background.
SE Asia Day 3
January 26th 2009
Yes that's right, not 25th, we have lost a whole day getting over here and boy are we feeling it this morning. Hopefully we'll make it through the day! This morning we woke up early and enjoyed a very tasty breakfast at the hotel before being picked up by our guide, Ha, for our tour of Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island. The journey began on a bus with 15 other tourists and a 3 hour ride to Halong City. Our driver, Wong, was insane. I would have passed out for exhaustion but I was so scared we were going to run into something or someone on the drive that I couldn't. i swear Wong only drives in the middle of the road.... half way through the drive he pulled into a giant tourist gift shop on the side of the road and we were all forced to get off and look around. everything is completely overpriced but everyone from the other 15 buses that have parked there seem to be buying things left and right. i think we'll pass for now. then back on the bus to halong bay city. this city was created just as a tourist spot to stop before getting on a boat to the bay. it doesn't have much culture but has an atm and cheap water...just what we needed. after more chaos, we all get on our junk boat. it is called the phoenix halong cruiser and is pretty nice. jen and kevin are sharing a cabin and i am taking the other one. i should mention at this point that it is freezing! We're talking 50 degrees and raining. i didn't expect this and brought no coat, one pair of pants and 2 sweatshirts. guess those will have to last a few days..going out on the open sea in this weather will be interesting. oh well, you're only in vietnam once and the bay really is gorgeous. halong bay is an area east of ha noi on the gulf of tonkin. it's basically a channel of water that runs through jagged limestone islands. the area has numerous floating fishing villages and is usually full of tourists on junk boats made for cruising the gulf. however due to the weather and the Tet holiday, the channel is not very crowded so that worked out for us. So back to the story, we shuffled on to the boat and we're off on the cruise. We had a tasty, yet random, lunch on the boat. The dining room of the boat is also the main viewing area inside the boat. It is all cherry wood and mimics a white tablecloth dining room, to the best ability possible in vietnam. the rooms are also all cherry and each has it's own en suite bathroom. all and all it's pretty luxurious for vietnam. after lunch we make our way to the hag sung sot caves...probably the most famous in ha long bay. the caves are located within one of the islands and were created naturally due to erosion with water and minerals. the caves are huge caverns with stalactites and stalagmites all over the place. the cave is huge and the formations are beautiful but it is filled with tourists. i think the best part of the caves is the views it gives u of the bay from the entrance and exit on the side of a hill. after finishing at the caves we headed back to the boat for a nap....jet lag sucks....then woke up for dinner and a night cruise thru the bay. After dinner, at 8pm, all we wanted to do was sleep but we forced ourselves to stay up for one more beer and then passed out around 8:30. something about being that jet lagged and a beer makes everything anyone says funny, so we had a great time.....that's what she said.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
SE Asia Days 1-2
**Note while I have many skills one of my weakest is spelling and the spell checker is not working on this computer so my apologize for bad grammar.
On my journey to Southeast Asia, I am writing this journal in a moleskin notebook. While many greats such as Ernest Hemmingway & Vincent Van Gogh have used similar moleskin notebooks to record their great works that lead them to infamy, I hope it at least inspires me to write every day on my trip. History shows I tend to detail the first few days of any great adventure I take and then I lose interest quickly.
So here goes.....
So here goes.....
January 24th 2009 & January 25th 2009
We left at the obscene hour of 5:30 this morning from Denver. After picking up Kevin and some terrible coffee....can't wait for Vietnamese Coffee....we were off on our trip. Here is the cliff note version of the next 28 hrs. 2 hrs to LA, 4 hrs at the cesspool that is LAX, 13 more hours to Seoul, sprint to connection, meet up with Jen, observe snow storm in Seoul, 5 more hours to Hanoi. We've arrived! 11:00pm on the 25th. Wow! If it wasn't for Ambien I don't know how I'd have made it.
I'd arranged for a pick-up from our hotel..so as we left customs a nice driver from our hotel, Iane, was there to take us to the hotel. Leaving the airport the roads looked deserted and the buildings very basic. However this changed quickly. As we got closer to the Old Quarter the traffic started to thicken. We had arrived at the beginning of the TET Holiday, which means everyone is out in the streets celebrating. In actuality it was just after midnight on the equivalent of New Year's Eve. What this meant was thousands of people walking, biking and motorcycling in the streets. It was so crazy! Hundreds of scooters everywhere, dodging in and out of traffic. Families of 4 on a mini-scooter cutting in front of an oncoming bus. It is wild. There are no lights or stop signs and everyone just goes. To add to what only looked like the riots of Boulder, it's tradition to burn paper money on Tet to honor your ancestors, so there were little bonfires every few yards on the street. So Crazy! As we moved forward every street became more narrow and crowded and the chaos increased until we reached our hotel, Hanoi Elegance. The hotel is very nice. It is a little boutique hotel on Ma May street in the Old Quarter. The hotel is modern and clean and the staff is very helpful and speak English very well. As we walked into the hotel Danny and Charlotte were waiting to meet us with Tet balloons! It was great to see them. They had been waiting a while since our flight was so late but hey...it's ok to make Danny wait for me on once ;) After hellos, we checked in to our room. It has a great balcony with a view to the street below. The old quarter we are staying in is also called the 36 streets. When the quarter was established in 1010, there were...you guess it...36 streets in the quarter. Each of them was named for the product that was made on that street. To date, the stores on each of the streets sell products based on their street name. For example, Hang Duang translated to "Sugar Street" has great bakeries and pastries shops.
Anyway, We chatted with Danny and Charlotte in their room on the 7th floor with the sound of Tet Fireworks in the background. Before we knew it, 3am had come so we called it a night.
We left at the obscene hour of 5:30 this morning from Denver. After picking up Kevin and some terrible coffee....can't wait for Vietnamese Coffee....we were off on our trip. Here is the cliff note version of the next 28 hrs. 2 hrs to LA, 4 hrs at the cesspool that is LAX, 13 more hours to Seoul, sprint to connection, meet up with Jen, observe snow storm in Seoul, 5 more hours to Hanoi. We've arrived! 11:00pm on the 25th. Wow! If it wasn't for Ambien I don't know how I'd have made it.
I'd arranged for a pick-up from our hotel..so as we left customs a nice driver from our hotel, Iane, was there to take us to the hotel. Leaving the airport the roads looked deserted and the buildings very basic. However this changed quickly. As we got closer to the Old Quarter the traffic started to thicken. We had arrived at the beginning of the TET Holiday, which means everyone is out in the streets celebrating. In actuality it was just after midnight on the equivalent of New Year's Eve. What this meant was thousands of people walking, biking and motorcycling in the streets. It was so crazy! Hundreds of scooters everywhere, dodging in and out of traffic. Families of 4 on a mini-scooter cutting in front of an oncoming bus. It is wild. There are no lights or stop signs and everyone just goes. To add to what only looked like the riots of Boulder, it's tradition to burn paper money on Tet to honor your ancestors, so there were little bonfires every few yards on the street. So Crazy! As we moved forward every street became more narrow and crowded and the chaos increased until we reached our hotel, Hanoi Elegance. The hotel is very nice. It is a little boutique hotel on Ma May street in the Old Quarter. The hotel is modern and clean and the staff is very helpful and speak English very well. As we walked into the hotel Danny and Charlotte were waiting to meet us with Tet balloons! It was great to see them. They had been waiting a while since our flight was so late but hey...it's ok to make Danny wait for me on once ;) After hellos, we checked in to our room. It has a great balcony with a view to the street below. The old quarter we are staying in is also called the 36 streets. When the quarter was established in 1010, there were...you guess it...36 streets in the quarter. Each of them was named for the product that was made on that street. To date, the stores on each of the streets sell products based on their street name. For example, Hang Duang translated to "Sugar Street" has great bakeries and pastries shops.
Anyway, We chatted with Danny and Charlotte in their room on the 7th floor with the sound of Tet Fireworks in the background. Before we knew it, 3am had come so we called it a night.
Friday, January 23, 2009
A Shitter for the Ages Part 3
Here is the final result...not bad for my first big project huh?
At least it doesn't look like a bathroom out of the Bates Motel anymore.
At least it doesn't look like a bathroom out of the Bates Motel anymore.
A Shitter for the Ages Part 2
Okay Okay....I was slacking at writing. Anyway here is part two
So first was the fun part....Demo! Here's what I did.
-Ripped out the tile around the sink
-Ripped out the sink
-Ripped out the vanity
-Ripped out the jail house light
-Ripped out the built-in Medicine Cabinet
-Ripped out the toilet
-Ripped out the towel racks (2)
Then I hit a wall...plumbing. How can people handle it. I seriously have never screamed at an inanimate object as much as I yelled at those pipes. I finally had to break down and call a plumber. $300....37 minutes. Guess I now understand how people handle it.
Anyway, after that I learned to patch drywall...that was fun! Here's a picture of my handiwork.
Then I tiled the floor and the wall. That was fun!
After that installed the new sink, light, medicine cabinet, toilet, towel racks and painted.
So first was the fun part....Demo! Here's what I did.
-Ripped out the tile around the sink
-Ripped out the sink
-Ripped out the vanity
-Ripped out the jail house light
-Ripped out the built-in Medicine Cabinet
-Ripped out the toilet
-Ripped out the towel racks (2)
Then I hit a wall...plumbing. How can people handle it. I seriously have never screamed at an inanimate object as much as I yelled at those pipes. I finally had to break down and call a plumber. $300....37 minutes. Guess I now understand how people handle it.
Anyway, after that I learned to patch drywall...that was fun! Here's a picture of my handiwork.
Then I tiled the floor and the wall. That was fun!
After that installed the new sink, light, medicine cabinet, toilet, towel racks and painted.
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