PDXwanderer

My experience in Halong Bay was pretty surreal. I look back and think that if a hidden camera show popped out at the end, I wouldn't have been surprised. I hope I can give you all a picture of what it was like...so here it goes. Sorry if this one is longer. I arrived in Hanoi in the evening and went right to the backpacker area and quickly found a $8 room. I went to reception to book a Halong Bay tour which was the primary reason I made the effort to come to Hanoi. She tells me I'm very lucky because she has one spot on a special VIP tour. The warning bells should of gone off, but I didn't care, I just wanted to get there and see it. I paid my $30 and ... read more

Mui Ne turned out to be a wonderful relief from HCMC. It's a pretty small town that only has one road that follows the 22km beach front. The group consisted of Mark (28, NZ born but living in Sydney) & Miika (30 Finnish environmental engineer living in Helsinki). We stayed in a first place we saw which was a 2bed/2bath bungalow right on the beach for $50. We spent two nights here doing a lot of nothing. We took a 1/2 day tour to some sand dunes, fishing village and other local attractions. We went sand boarding and I ended up with half the dunes in my eyes which I can still feel after 4 days. At every sight these kind little children would play the role as guide and show us the sight and chat ... read more

The tour of Cambodia would be wrapping up soon and our final stop was in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We only had 1.5 days in the capital before we had to get to Vietnam. Day 1 was mainly markets. I visited a store I first saw in Siem Reap that employs people disabled by polio and landmines to create handicrafts out of many recycled materials. I picked up a few more things for friends/family back home. We got to see the workshop which was in full force to fill a 10,000 item order shipping to the US. We randomly met some Australians whose dad was from Oregon and she came from Salem only 2 weeks ago...very small world. The next day we'd be doing a full tour of Khmer Rouge related sites. Stop one ... read more

Takeo would be the home of our one night family homestay. A family from Takeo has agreed to host tour groups and show them what day to day Cambodian life. The house had three separate structures, two for guests and one for them. 8 family members from 3 generations were living together and working the surrounding rice fields. Hosting the tours also brought in a fair chunk of change. We learned that the average government salary (teacher, police officer, etc) is only $35 a month and it costs a family of 4 $150/month to get buy. That is one major reason why the education system is horrible and cops take bribes, I don't blame them. I'm sure this family was on the better side of things financially. We basically just hung out around the house all ... read more

I was very much looking forward to getting out of Thailand and entering Cambodia. I've heard nothing but amazing things regarding the country and its people. We were off at 7am for the 8 hour trip to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat. At the meeting the night before, I was introduced to everyone. B some random chance, the group was 9 men & 3 women. 2 of those women were there with their boyfriend/husband. The group was from all over with the countries of England, Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Denmark. Outside of the couples, we were all solo travelers. Somehow all of my tours have been male dominated. Midway through the journey we would be crossing the Cambodian border as Poi Pet. I assumed the border crossing would be a mess, but it went ... read more