jenniferp

Hey all, well Danielle and I survived a week on Ko Pha Ngan (and the Full Moon Party). What did we do for a week? Pretty much a whole lotta nothing! We stayed in the "party town" on the island, Hat Rin, athough it was pretty tame for the first five nights. We sunbathed, shopped, read the final Harry Potter, and watched a lot of movies that they play at restaurants/bars here. Oh, we did go on a boat tour one day, where we went snorkeling and went to some other beaches and a waterfall. I do have to say that the beaches on this island are definitely not as nice as Ko Phi Phi (although still nice). Danielle did go scuba diving one day, and took massage school, so really it was mostly me ... read more

Okay, so although it is tiring writing these, I'm still trying to keep up! Most recently we spent 5 days in Luang Prabang, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which meant that there were lots of visitors and everything had jacked up prices. The town is really pretty, with great French Colonial architecture everywhere, as well as lots and lots of Buddhist wats, some of which are as old as the year 1500. The food continued to be good, and we spent some time walking around town, looking at the Mekong River which runs next to it, and visiting the temples. One day we went on a kayaking trip, which was really fun. We went up river (to a different river) and paddled downriver. Supposedly it was "whitewater" kayaking, but there were only short ... read more

Well, we flew from Hanoi to Vientiane, the capital of Laos the other day, and so far I gotta say, I love this country! Immediately, several things were apparant: first, the quiet. No horn honking!! After two weeks in Vietnam, where I probably sustained hearing loss due to the constant horns (I'm not kidding, literally every moto just drives down the street honking, just to let everyone know they are there). After two days in Vientiane, we never heard a horn honk! The next thing I noticed is how clean it is. One tends to think of Laos as on the par monetarily with Cambodia (or at least I did/do), but everything here is so much cleaner. Even the poor parts where people live in shacks, quite clean, even the marketplace, very clean! Another thing ... read more

Finally I have had a good - or should I say great - experience in Vietnam. We just got back from a trip to Halong Bay that was 2-nites/3 days. We took the "deluxe" tour (everything except drinks was included for $85) which ended up being great, so I have no complaints. Halong Bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin in the way north of Vietnam. It was by far the most scenic thing, most fun thing we've done so far in Vietnam, and I think I'd even say it was one of the better mini-tours I've ever done anywhere. We first took a bus with our group to Halong City, which was about a 3 hour ride. There were 16 of us in all, and luckily everyone was cool. We were the only Americans, ... read more

Hi everyone, well our ridiculously fast-paced tour of Vietnam continues! Most recently we spend two days in Hoi An, which has been my favorite Vietnamese city so far - mainly because it consists of amazing shopping! Also it is really picturesque. The town is much smaller than the places we've been, and thus much quieter (e.g. way less horn honking). There are still lots of motorbikes but more regular bikes in the mix. There is an "old town" section which consists of lots of really old and quaint buildings. Many have Chinese architecture/decoration because I guess way back in the day there were Chinese people in this particular city. All the buildings are two stories high, lots of flowers and it's all very lovely. But the best part of this place is the tailors! Literally ... read more