We arrived in Luang Prabang after an 8 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng. We were planning to meet up with our Italian friend Gio in the city since he had already found accommodation. Unfortunately, when we arrived at his guesthouse, it was full. So we quickly found another place and settled in to Luang Prabang. We had heard amazing things about this city and I am not quite sure it ever lived up to its expectations, but we did enjoy it. Luang Prabang is a quiet town, where all businesses legally close at 11:30pm. However, the party must continue somewhere because every night tuk tuk drivers would whisper "Tuk tuk? Opium? Bowling? Marijuana?" Hmm... That was an interesting combination. Our first full day in Luang Prabang we spent heading out to Tat Kuang Si waterfall ... read more

Most people visiting Cambodia come to Siem Reap because it is the gateway city for the famous temples of Angkor. This is exactly why we found ourselves in this small, but bustling town. We arrived into town late afternoon and immediately were again bombarded by what seemed like a million tuk tuk drivers wanting to take us into town. We bargained two down and off we went. Since it had just rained the ride was interesting. It was like 4WD tuk tuk style, as our driver drove us through puddles and bumps on the dirt road to town. Quite exciting that's for sure! After arriving we knew we had to figure out how to get to the temples the next day and we knew it was going to be a long day. Kevin only had one ... read more

After our week of Vietnam beaches it was time to head back to the city. Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. No one really calls it HCMC, only government officials so I prefer Saigon anyways! Saigon is just as crazy as we heard it was going to be. There were millions of motorbikes everywhere just waiting to run you over! At least by now, we were used to the motos and therefore were able to just walk and hope they didn't hit us. We arrived at 6am after an overnight bus and found a hotel that would give us a double room (one for Jeff and I and one for Chris and the Irish man, Kevin) for $14/room including breakfast and dinner! Not a bad deal- but our room wouldn't be ready till 8am. So we ... read more

After another long bus ride we finally arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. The border crossing from China was not as bad as I expected it to be, but they did only have one person working the window with bus loads of people trying to get in. All the Chinese tourists were pushing in front of us and attempting to get their passports up to the front so they could get through first. The only problem is- we were all on the same bus so they were waiting either way! We decided not to push and sit back quietly and wait our turn. Of course this meant we were the last people back on the bus, but at least we got a chuckle about having to make everyone wait for us. I guess we figured that Vietnam was ... read more

Lhasa-Shangri-la-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Lijiang The past few days have flown by as we are realizing we want to head on and see the rest of Asia. After Lhasa we flew to Shangri-la, this supposedly magical city near the Tibetan border. We arrived at the airport expecting to see many taxis or buses to take us into town, but instead the airport was desolate. We had met a young Tibetan man in the airport in Lhasa and luckily he was heading to Shangri-la as well. He offered to have his friend give us a ride into town and drop us off at a hostel he recommended. So we checked into our hostel (bathrooms outside with small walls between stall and no doors) and decided to walk around the city. The main attraction of Shangri-la is the Tibetan temple, ... read more