On Dec 2 we traveled from Chaing Rai in Thailand to Huay Xai in Laos. The Mekong River is the border and there is no bridge so after we left Thailand we took a motorized canoe across the river to Laos. Getting the visa for Laos took about 45 minutes but was uneventful. Interestingly, the prices for the Laos visas were posted and payable in US dollars only. Our plan at that time was to take a two day boat trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. A man right outside of the Immigration office offered to sell us boat tickets to Luang Prabang for 270,000 kip (270KK = $34). Just a few feet up the street we were offered the same trip at a travel agency for 250KK. Once on the main drag we found ... read more

Phnom Penh We took a boat on the Mekong River from the Vietnamese border town of Chau Doc to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. The scenery along the way was beautiful…lots of stilt houses and many types of boats ranging from one person dugouts to 60 foot boats that looked like small ocean liners. At one point it started raining and ended up raining so hard that the captain slowed the boat down and one of the crew members had to put on rain gear and go sit on the bow to watch for boat traffic. We pulled into Phnom Penh on schedule and into a large festival called the Water Festival which celebrates the end of the rainy season. This is the same festival that turned deadly a few days later when the crowds ... read more

Hanoi Hanoi is a bustling city with streams of motorbikes like a US city would have lines of cars. Crossing the street here is very different from the US. You just start walking from the sidewalk when you see a small gap in traffic and everyone steers around you. Also we observed how the sidewalks are used for an extension of a business’s workspace or as a parking lot for motor bikes. Pedestrians do not have a high priority when it comes to sidewalk access. Unfortunately we were there on a Monday so all of the museums were closed. We also ran out of time so did not see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum; I would have liked to compare it to Mao’s. However, we did see several interesting sights. First up was a url= http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Vietnam/Thu_Do_Ha_Noi/Hanoi-1481679/Things_To_Do-Hanoi-Water_puppet_show-BR-1.htmlwater puppet ... read more

Tiger Leaping Gorge Tiger Leaping Gorge is well known for its scenic beauty and was what originally drew us to Yunnan Province so we were excited about the opportunity to walk it. TLG was carved by the Yangzi River. On one side are steep slopes rising 1500 feet above the river but the other side is sheer cliffs rising 12,000 feet above the river to snow-capped peaks reminiscent of the Maroon Bells in Colorado. The journey is a one to three day walk along small roads and well defined trails with guest houses every couple of hours for eating and sleeping. In our first experience with Chinese long distance buses, we bought tickets from LiJiang to Qiaotou (pronounced chow-tow). We were prepared in case no English was spoken but they spoke enough to make it easy. ... read more

After a relaxing weekend spent with my cousin and her family, we headed for Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong was right next to China, it was made a British Colony as part of the treaty that ended the Opium Wars in 1898. The British were given a 99 year lease and built a flourishing colony in the heart of Asia. In 1997, the lease expired and Hong Kong reverted to China. I am uncertain how it is governed, but from our POV Hong Kong is still very much a separate country from China. We had to go through immigration, we need a separate entry on our Chinese visa, they have a separate currency and the newspapers are not censored. Everything is more western because of the British heritage. The trains even say “Mind the Gap”, ... read more