First 2 weeks of our adventures

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SINGAPORE

Hi Everyone! Well we've been travelling for 15 days, and we've finally started our blog. We finally hit the Asian continent when we landed in Hong Kong, China, on October 2nd but just for a brief stopover before we actually arrived in our first destination, Singapore! The flights were okay, Shan and I slept most of the time thanks to Mom's sleepingpills prescription! The guy sitting beside us wondered what we were on! Shan and I were definitely exhausted after about 28 hours of travelling, but we were too excited to think of actually going to sleep! We stayed at the City Backpackers Hostel in Singapore and I got a taste of hostel life right away. We had a tiny windowless room with bunkbeds which was clean enough....but we were warned quickly by other travellers to beware of the cockroaches in our bathroom! The first night we found some Tiger Beers which they sell everywhere, and we walked down the street exploring the Singapore night life. It seems as though it was a city that never sleeps, but we later realized that's about every city that we've seen so far. People we out and about eating right on the sidewalks. Each street is lined with tons of little restaurants where you order your food and you eat on little plastic tables and chairs right on the streets. We mostly ate noodles/rices/meat in Singapore, didn't really venture into the seafood. Everytime I see the word Noodle, I would laugh and think of you Noodle. Instead of having lobster in the fishtanks, we tended to see lots of frogs crammed in together! Didn't really make us too hungry!

What we both noticed right away is the chaotic traffic. Everyone seems to own a motorbike, and the rules of the road don't really apply. People are driving like maniacs everywhere, and just weaved in and out around other motorbikes, bicycles, cars and pedestrians. To cross the road, you just have to walk around everyone and they will attempt to avoid you. Also, we have realized the purpose of the horn- to use it everyone 10 seconds to warn others of your whereabouts!

We had tons of fun in Singapore, and met some great friends from Sweden and Germany. We hung out with them the few days that we were there and we went out to party with them. Singapore was definitely hot, it was probably like 35 degrees everyday, so we were loading on the SPF 45! We spent one day on Sentosa Island (south of Singapore), which is basically like an amusement park. There was a little beach, and we were able to stand at the Southern most point of mainland Asia. We watched a random light show, with all of these Asian characters that had us in hystarics all night! We spent another day in little India, toured a Temple and walked around the markets. There was tons of great buys, too bad our bags are so small. Their food markets definitely had a pungeant smell- probably because of all of the live and dried seafood- from dried eel to jellyfish.

We used the metro in the city to get around, it was great, the city was definitely more developed that I naively thought. We went clubbing the last night to Clarke's Quay the last night to a bar called the Ministry of Sound. It was so much fun, but I only bought 2 drinks because beer was 15$ a bottle!

VIETNAM

Hanoi-
We flew into Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam on October 2nd. Well the traffic was definitely a million times more insane here! We thought out cabbie was insane who drove us to our hostel, but nope! You could tell right away, how much poverty is in Vietnam. Rundown places everywhere, people living under tarps, and people sitting eating on the streets surrounded by their children....then drive a few feet and gorgeous hotels line the streets. We stayed at an awesome hostel called City Backpackers, tucked down a little street (more like an alley) downtown. Our hostel was so clean, with 4 sets of bunkbeds. The bathroom was really clean and had a ligitimate shower. Lots of bathrooms here have the shower right in the bathroom. And we're lucky to have a toilet, since we've had to use a few squatters (basically a drain in the floor). The streets were alot more narrow and it doesn't matter which side of the road you drive on here (there's no markings), you just drive and honk. THere are 4 million motorbikes in Hanoi, more than the population! Also, we noticed that people seem to often where facemasks and sometimes gloves when they drive, either because they're sick or don't want to get sick..it's just a little intimidating when you see them...Shan and I were thinking of investing in some masks.

We found a couple of local motorbike taxi drivers to drive us around one day and we saw alot of the city. We saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, temple of Literature, alot of Buddhist shrines, and the B52 museau. It felt so wrong when our motorbike drivings took photos of us smiling while we're sitting on some tank. They also took us a site where a US B52 crashed in the middle of the city during the war. It was in a little pond, surrounded by houses. A man was even fishing there...just a constant reminder to the locals.

It was a little overwhelming at the start with people constantly coming up to you and wanting to sell you anything from fruit, food, flowers, candy, toothpicks, nicknacks...but we realized how to dodge them. Everywhere people are walking around with bamboo hats on carrying a long branch with two baskets on either end. It's very interesting to be throw right into their culture and seeing a little bit how others live.
We met a good group of people at our hostel and partied with them at a bar called Funky Monkey. The hostel was awesome for organizing things, we had a bbq on the balcony one night, and Jack Johnson was playing!

We ate out everywhere there, mostly at the little restaurants right on the street...and did even eat 'street meat', we just tried to imagine it really was chicken!


Halong Bay-
Organized through our hostel, we took a 2 night/3 day tour to Halong Bay with a group of people. It was breathtaking and amazing. It's a Bay with 1000's of little rock islands, we felt like we were in a movie. We sailed on an old ship with three levels- the bottom had our bedrooms, each with a bathroom, the middle level was the small dining room, and the top deck had chairs and lounging areas. We went with a group of about 25, and we cruised through the islands, went kayaking through caves, and swam off of the boat. We were fed like kings, we had amazing seafood at every meal. The first night, we were all up until about 4 or 5 partying, listening to music on the deck and late night swimming. The next day half of the group rock climbed (Shan was one of the brave ones), and I opted for more kayaking and beaching. The second night we stayed on an Island called Catba Island, and went out to a couple of local bars.

HoiAn-
We arrived in HoiAn via an overnight sleeper bus, which has apparent "beds", but they were definitely made for midgets. My legs couldn't extend and I was crippled by the end of it...wish I had more sleeping pills now! We drove though the mountains to get to HoiAn, so it was a cool site with the ocean in the background. We stayed in a 14$ a night hotel called Hoi Au, and the second day we finally experienced torential rain! There doesn't seem to be sewers, so water just spews down the streets with the water getting pretty deep at times. Rats seem to frequent the streets at night, so we tend to walk out of the shadows! On the rainy day we explored the town, found $5 a night hotel (realized later if was so cheap because of the ants), then we walked into town and got $4 pedicures! HoiAn is know for its custom tailormade clothing. Shan and I both got leather sandals made (a little Jesus-y, but nice), and 3 silk and satin dresses for cheap. The town is alot cleaner with shops lining every street and a fruit/clothes/jewelery market right in the middle.

The third day we finally made it to the beach. It was a little overcast but we didn't care. We rented bicycles to get there and then just dusted on the beach. The sand was pretty white, we still had people come up to harass us to buy stuff, and we swam in the South China Sea. It was sooo rough but fun to swim, and so warm! We partied with the group that we met from Halong Bay, because they were similarly heading South, and we went out to a bar called King Kong. It was pretty dusty, with graffitti everywhere, and a pool table in the middle of the room. But most importantly, free rum and cokes for one hour!

Danang-
We spent a couple of days in Danang (even though its about an hour North of HoiAn), but its known for its gorgeous beaches. We baked in the sun yesterday, and yes I did get a slight burn, but its because of my horrible application of sunscreen. You can see exactly where I missed! China Beach was the most gorgeous beach, with white sand going on for miles. The ocean was still warm and the waves weren't as strong here. It was a ghost town though and Shan and I basically had the beach to ourselves.

So far we have been having an amazing first 2 weeks. We've met tons of great people, mostly from Europe and made lots of new friends. Every city is a new adventure and I look forward to the next to come. The people here, although they harass you to buy stuff, you realize that this is their income, and they are generally really friendly. We're getting a true taste of the Vietnamese culture and everyone is really happy when we say that we're from Canada. Most ask "Vancouver?". The food is amazing, although we're getting a little sick of eating Pho for breaky. Really missing my usual Starbucks (Noodle only you know it).

Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone. SHan and I had chickenfried rice and egg rolls for dinner that night, and we did a toast to our families. Wish we could be there with everyone, it was a little sad. I will keep up with my blog regularly now, I just needed to find time to start it. We're heading South now to Nha Trang and Mui Ne, which are the beachy towns of Vietnam.

Cheers, XOXOX
Jaclyn

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Photos

Sentosa Island-
we finally dipped our feet in the Ocean!

little India
Singapore