Lushious

Well I've certainly had a change in lifestyle after the last blog update. We've since rendezvoused with my Aunt Judy and Uncle Larry who've flown to Thailand to join their nephews and Trevor. We gave them a brief tour of Bangkok (seeing as how we've spent like two weeks total in the 'City of Angels' ) and quickly booked into a very nice resort in Hua Hin, which is located down the coast on the Gulf of Thailand. It was nice to be back in Thailand after spending a few months jumping around Indochina, and especially nice to be staying on a beautiful beach drenched in sun. We got to play some more volleyball and even swim in the fancy pool at the hotel! We took it pretty easy for the first day, picked up some ... read more

At last update we had arrived in Vang Vieng, did one day of tubing, and had a bus ticket booked south. Unfortunately, due to the sheer awesomeness of the tubing lifestyle, instead we were "forced" to cancel and postpone our bus ticket and hit the river for a couple more days. We were able to meet up with Chantel and Patrick, whom we'd seen down in Vientiane a week or so earlier. The few days on the river were a blast of course, we partook in the regular activities of floating aimlessly, flying off the trapeze rope swing, playing volleyball and enjoying Beer Laos, or "river juice" as we like to refer to it. Somehow we managed to wake up and not go tubing, and actually get on a bus and leave one of the most ... read more

Holy Hanoi! We arrived in the early morning from our overnight bus ride (during which I didn’t sleep for a minute) and quickly searched Hanoi for Trevor, whom we hadn’t seen in a few weeks. His hotel wasn’t hard to find and we woke him up from his post-China recuperation sleep. After some catching up and a change to a new hotel (with mini fridge private bathroom) we hit the town in an effort to celebrate Trevor’s belated birthday. Not too long later we were in the full swing of the night and trying to party hard with our reunited group. Unfortunately as per communist rule there is a moderately strict curfew for all establishments, especially those selling alcohol. At 11pm the night was still young and luckily we found a rooftop bar that was more ... read more

* note * Be sure to check out my previous blog , the e-mail update wasn’t sent out because the website is messed up. So after plenty of touring around South Vietnam, we decided to begin our trek along the coast towards the capital city of Hanoi. Our first stop was Mui Ne, a cool, laid back beach town about 6 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. The bus ride was easy going, we met lots of other travelers and even some whom we’d met before. It’s interesting because people seem to be doing the same “circuit” through Indochina so we’re running into quite a few familiar faces. We quickly booked ourselves into the basic bungalow, with which we’ve become so familiar. Right on the beach, we were able to enjoy some water time and ... read more

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is as busy as any other Southeast Asian city I've visited, with the addition of more drivers.I can now officially say that the drivers here are crazy! There are millions of motorbikes in this town and they crawl through the streets in swarms, though I’ve yet to see an accident of any kind. They’re extremely efficient and smart drivers, and although they’re system seems totally out of control, it flows like clockwork. I’m not sure if I could handle driving over here though… We found a nice hotel with 2 cheap rooms (We’re still traveling with Erin and Koren) and had a few lazy days exploring the sights and enjoying the unique Vietnamese culture. We started by making a trip to the grocery store where we found the cheapest liquor ever. ... read more