We arrived at Siem Reap airport at night. Our first impression was how nice the airport is. It is clear between the airport and the number of large 4- and 5-star hotels that a lot of investment has gone into this area. As this was the last destination on our trip, we stayed in a nicer hotel. The Prince d'Angkor. The hotel was great. One of the biggest pluses was the huge pool that seemed to be around 30 meters (100 feet) in length. We also had 3 movie channels, a comfortable bed and the nicest bathroom on our trip. It [View Full Entry]

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We had an uneventful flight from Hanoi to Hoi An. After the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, we were looking forward to a more relaxed town. We stayed at the Green Field Hotel, which we were quite happy with. The hotel had a pool and our room had movie channels and a balcony. Unfortunately, the hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the center of town. In 65 degree weather no problem. But not so fun when in the low 90s and humid. Shopping, shopping, shopping... We had been looking forward to Hoi An for some time because of all [View Full Entry]

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All I can say is thank goodness the Sapa area is beautiful because getting there sure wasn't fun. We were taking the overnight train for the 9 hour trip and after having good experiences on the Chinese overnight trains we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately our Chinese trains were in significantly better condition. Our compartment was seriously dirty (thank goodness for the sleep sacks, mom!), we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights off and the ride was noisy, bumpy and hot! Upon arrival at the town where we had to wait over an hour for a minibus to [View Full Entry]

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I know, not the most original title. We are now in the middle of our "tour" in Vietnam. It has been a cool experience. Hanoi Arrival We flew into Hanoi from Vientiane. The hostel we were staying at arranged for a cab to take us from the airport to the hostel. Going into Vietnam we had read about the abundance of scams, so were happy that at least we should get to the same hostel we wanted to go to. The taxi ride itself proved to be an adventure. The driver was listening to eurodance music with some of the most [View Full Entry]

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**Lots of Pics on today's blog!** We had a great time in Laos. Going into the country we were not sure what to expect. We knew that the country has great scenery (a positive), but wondered whether it might be similar to Myanmar (a negative) given how undeveloped it is. Overall, we found Laos much more comfortable to visit than Myanmar. Luang Prabang We flew into Luang Prabang which is a UNESCO world heritage town. As it was Laura's birthday, we splurged for some great accommodation at the Maison Souvannaphoun. It was a really nice place. Comfortable bed, nice bathroom, cable [View Full Entry]

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So we got to Chiang Mai after being on Koh Samui and I think we were both in a funk from having to leave island bliss. We just never quite got into the Chiang Mai scene. It was very peaceful but just not as pretty as we'd expected and very humid! But we did plan a fun activity...a one day cooking class where we made 5 different thai dishes, including one of our favorites, panang curry! It was incredible, although a fair amount of work grinding up the spices to make the curry paste with the mortar and pestle. At home [View Full Entry]

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Yep - we did it! At about 90 feet under we swam with (okay, watched) 6-foot long reef sharks. Very cool! It was our second "deep" dive of our advanced open water scuba course. To back up and give you the context: We arrived on Koh Tao (Turtle Island) on Thursday after two days on Koh Samui. Samui was fun although the beach at our hotel was a bit of a let down. It was very susceptible to tides so at low tide it was way out and filled with coral. We both cut ourselves when we tried to venture in. [View Full Entry]

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Arrival in Bangkok We arrived in Bangkok realizing (not surprisingly) how different it is than Myanmar. It was just exciting to be able to use an ATM and have a currency traded in world markets. (That being said, I'm glad I didn't have a lot of Thai baht in 1997...) Driving into Bangkok, we appreciated the large size of the city (6 million people). Not close to Beijing or Shanghai, but still quite big. And we got our first taste of Bangkok traffic which is quite awful. And we saw plenty of smog. We got settled in our hostel and set [View Full Entry]

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The long painful bus ride The taxi (a 1960 Zepher) picked us up at 4:45am and took us to the bus pickup. The bus came at 5:25, 25 minutes late. It was a small mini-bus. The fact that there are 24 seats in it is ridiculous. Our seats were right behind the driver. And these seats were small! Unfortunately for us, there was also some kind of compressor right in front of us and the engine was just below the floor. We started driving and it quickly became apparent how uncomfortable the ride was going to be. Not too long into [View Full Entry]

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On the way to Mandalay... With the Air Mandalay tickets we had purchased in KL before we got to Yangon we headed to the airport for the flight to Mandalay. We were a bit bummed that we were flying to Mandalay instead of Bagan or Inle Lake since we'd need to do an extra leg then between Mandalay and one of those places. The Yangon domestic departure area was like stepping back in time...no computers, big scales to weigh the luggage, no id check but at least easy to deal with. Once we boarded onto the plane we found out that [View Full Entry]

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