Hoosier44

Even though we are back home I wanted to finish up the last few entries from our travels. We spent the last 10 nights in 10 different locations so access to the internet and time to work were at a premium. Thanks for following along on this journey. After Halong Bay we headed back to Hanoi for a few hours before catching a flight to DaNang. By the time we arrived at our hotel and made arrangements for the following day, there wasn't any time left to explore DaNang. We caught a sleeper bus to Hue early Thursday morning for the three hour trip north to the city of Hue. The sleeper bus was a great way to travel. For less than $5 each we had comfortable reclining seats and a great view of the countryside. ... read more

Chiang Mai was a bit disappointing for us overall. We both had such high expectations and it didn't quite live up to them. It is a charming city and once again the people were very friendly. The Old City is surrounded by a moat and an expansive brick wall. Much of the original wall remains intact and there were a few temples inside but most of the Old City looked like the rest of the city. There were some really great markets we walked through each day. One was a flower market with 40+ stalls selling all sorts of flowers and arrangements. There was a problem with the original trek that we booked and we had to go a day later than planned. That left us with a free day to explore the city. Our guesthouse ... read more

Wednesday morning we had a few hours to see some final sights in Phnom Penh. Our first visit was to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. There aren't many pictures to share as the inside of the temples were off limit to cameras. The architecture was stunning and we saw an impressive collection of gold and silver statues, mainly of Buddha. The floor in the Silver Pagoda was cover with silver tiles. The bus ride to Siem Reap was uneventful, long but rather comfortable. We found our lodging and had a decent night's rest at the Golden Mango. Our travel from the bus stop to the hotel gave us our first taste of the extreme poverty outside the tourist areas of the country. Enormous piles of garbage were pushed into the center of the street. Many ... read more