Well, we made it to our last destination, Hanoi (well Hanoi and Halong Bay, lumping them into one post...). With only three days left on the trip this was unfortunately going to be a fairly brief stop... We arrived early afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Blue Paradise in the Old Quarter (as recommended by the agent at the Green Field in Hoi An...not sure if there was a sale on brightly coloured paint in Vietnam but it sure made the places easy to find...again probably from Space as well...). Anyway, dumped our packs and headed out to get our [View Full Entry]

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After a couple of fun-filled and hectic days in Ho Chi Minh it was time to move up the coast and relax for a few days, next stop Hoi An! Hopped a flight to Da Nang and our pickup was there to take us to our hotel, the obviously named Green Field (it is painted a shade of green I had never known existed, and it is probably visible from Space...haha...). With it being a pretty decent whirlwind trip to that point we had decided ahead of time to spend four solid days here, to relax and more importantly celebrate my [View Full Entry]

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We hopped the bus from Can Tho and made our way to one of my must-sees on this trip; Ho Chi Minh City! I was really excited to get exploring, so after finding our hotel in the Pham Ngu Lao area and dealing with a reservation mix-up we dumped our stuff and headed out into the fray... If I were to pick one word to describe this city it would be "insane"! The hustle and bustle, and especially the traffic/scooters are crazy...I loved it! The "official" crosswalks can be few and far between, so the only way to cross some of [View Full Entry]

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Well our time in Cambodia was sadly up but we were certainly excited about the next leg of the adventure: Vietnam. We bought our tickets for the 12pm fast boat from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, but with the help of the ticket guy we waited around for a mysterious “1pm” boat that wasn’t listed (the 12pm one was packed and quite small). Turns out this is the boat coming from Chau Doc and they were returning there the same day…so instead of being jammed into a four hour ride in a small boat we ended up being the only ones [View Full Entry]

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After a few days getting our legs under us in Phnom Penh we hopped a bus up to Siem Reap, launch point for Angkor Wat... This was one of Karen's must-sees on the trip, and after some research I too was keen on seeing the temples. What to say, amazing! After reading up and seeing the maps/layouts in the Lonely Planet guide I was still blown away by the size and number of temple sights, it's quite hard to explain the enormity of it all. Arrived in Siem Reap mid-day; we really only had a day and a half here so [View Full Entry]

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So the next adventure begins with 26 hours of travel, finally touching down in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the beginning of a three week trip that will cover Cambodia, Vietnam and my 40th birthday…haha! Arrived late and hopped a cab to our hotel downtown, a really cool oasis called the Blue Lime. Highly recommended; the place is beautiful, walking distance or short tuk-tuk ride to everything and the people are very friendly. Also arrived to a wonderful surprise; my friends Darryl and Sarah had called ahead and arranged to have cold beer waiting for us in our room along with [View Full Entry]

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Wanderlust was growing so we decided to do a weekend in New Orleans to bridge the gap between other adventures... Always wanted to visit here; the music, the food, the culture, and for the most part we weren't disappointed! Arrived around noon to a wonderful blast of heat and humidity (starting to get cold here in Canada) we made our way down to the French Quarter and our hotel, the Andrew Jackson. Perfectly situated on Royal St. in the heart of the Quarter, it was a great launch point for all the activities... First on the agenda, pint! Okay, we did [View Full Entry]

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Didn't get enough of the volcanoes in Nicaragua so we were off to El Castillo and the Arenal Volcano... Arranged a Jeep-Boat-Jeep transport (more of a Bus-Boat-Bus) to get us there, it's apparently a lot faster than trying just the roads. Basically a bus picked us up at our hotel in Santa Elena, and after about an hour trip we arrived at the Laguna de Arenal where our small ferry was waiting. It was a beautiful day, and the Laguna was amazing...it was about another hour on the water, and about twenty minutes in we rounded a point and there was [View Full Entry]

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Well, our time was up in Nicaragua, and while it had been a blast it was time to head to Costa Rica... First stop was hoping to be Monteverde; we had dropped the rental car off and were now on foot without really knowing how to get there. After a long and stinking hot 4 hour wait at the border (1 on the Nica side, 3 on the Costa) we boarded a bus to Liberia hoping to find a connection there. Fortunately along the way we met an American family who were spending a year in Nicaragua and visiting Liberia for [View Full Entry]

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After hanging out in Granada for a couple of days it was back in the Yaris and off to San Jorge, departure point for Isla de Ometepe... We were warned that the majority of the roads on the island were atrocious so we had mercy on the rental and left it on the mainland for a few days...again no real plans when we arrived at the ferry but the gal working the info booth quickly put together a package deal for a couple of days that included driver and 4x4, english speaking guide and accomodations at a little resort on the [View Full Entry]

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