Sorry about the time.... As you may be aware, it has been a while since we last published a post. We have been busy doing some travelling and finding the time to post has been hard. So here is what we have done over the past 12 or so days..... We crossed the border of Cambodia the day the protests trying to force the prime minister of Thailand to quit started. We arrived in Bangkok in search of our next destination and adventure. After finding out that people, mainly those who work in the tourist hospitality business, don't like tourists and [View Full Entry]

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All templed out!!! Well we arrived in Siem reap on schedule from Phnom Penh and set forth looking for our next adventure. Siem Reap is a built up tourist destination as everyone who visits Cambodia is here for Angkor Wat and the amazing temples located just outside Siem Reap. Needless to say, you can get whatever you want here. There is a ton of people (tourists) around doing the exact same thing as you. Tuk-tuk drivers constantly bombarding you with their services, as they want to drive you around Angkor Wat for a few days. This is where they make their [View Full Entry]

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Where are we? So, here we were about to depart Saigon and all I (Dan) could think is....what is Cambodia going to be like? To be honest.....It's great. The people are very friendly, the Khmer food has been excellent and the weather was better. It was a bit of a weird border crossing as we had to pay a bribe of 1$, as we both were not in possesion of our International Travellers Vacination certificate. This was a bit of a farce, so they make you pay the money to the guy, who inevitably pockets it. Oh well! Bus trip was [View Full Entry]

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Time to buy an umbrella We spent just over two days here and it rained for about 75% of the time. The sky would just open up and let everyone have it! Flooded streets everywhere and horrible smells wafting through the air. We still enjoyed our time here in Saigon. We visited the war museum (previously called "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes"), Reunification Palace and the legendary market (crowded, pushy and way overpriced). For instance we were searching for a tshirt for me (Dan) and were quoted the initial price (250,000VND) which was about a 900% mark up designed [View Full Entry]

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On a bike for 4 days=sore bum! Well we decided to hire a couple drivers from "easy rider bike tours", we weren't really sure what to expect or how we would like it. We enjoyed it very much. The trip gets you to places that you would not see at the usual bus stops and tourists hubs. We got to see how the local agriculture works, village workshops in action and coffee everywhere! We started out from Dalat with our two guides (Wing and Son) going Northwest and stopping along the way every 30-40 minutes to see something interesting and meet [View Full Entry]

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Not sweating for once!!! we arrived in Dalat after a long pain in the a** bus ride from Nha Trang. The open bus tour is a real scam (at least to us). It took seven hours to drive around 215 kms and stopped numerous times to get our money at obvious cash sharing places. We did the thing we always do, and gave them nothing out of spight!!! We arrived in Dalat to a great change of pace and temperature. It is very comfortable here regarding the heat, although we had rain almost the entire second day. Of course, the rain [View Full Entry]

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Beach Bums Everywhere! Dan and I spent 2 full days in Nha Trang. We spent the whole first day at the beach - it was beautiful. We hummed and complained about having to spend 25,000 VND to rent beach chairs under umbrellas...but then when we checked ourselves and realized that this was only $1.50, we gave in. The South China sea was so warm and the weather was perfect! The second day in Nha Trang we rented a moto and toured about. We went to the Po Nagar Cham towers, dating back to the 7th century, and to the Long Son [View Full Entry]

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Today we are finally writing in real time (August 8) instead of trying to catch up. We have been having quite a few problems accessing this blog site (and internet sites in general....) which is why we always publish several blogs at once. After Quang Ngai, we spent two days in Quy Nhon. There is a nice beach there but it was pretty rainy while we were there. We did not really do much. We ate some great seafood (really fresh grilled squid) and watched way too much HBO. We also went to a supermarket. This was an interesting experience....people thought [View Full Entry]

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Remembering My Lai It took some real determination on our part, but Dan and I finally made it to the memorial at Son My. We took the train to Quang Ngai and stayed overnight and then drove out to the memorial site with two other travellers from Belgium. There really are not many tourists here, Son My is the only reason anyone stops - and it seems that few do. Only 4 of us got off the train in Quang Ngai, and it was really refreshing to not be hassled for once. Instead people stop and stare at you (well especially [View Full Entry]

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Learning to hold on tight We could grow to really like this. We spent 2 nights in Hue in a fantastic little hotel for only $9/night. Hue is the old Imperial capital of Vietnam, so tourists come here to see the imperial city and citadel as well as several royal tombs around town. We spent the day on a moto with drivers touring around the sites but actually found these imperial sites a little disappointing. Many of them were severely damaged/destroyed during either the French-Viet Minh war or the American Tet Offensive in 1968. This area of the country saw some [View Full Entry]

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