Marie and Matthew

Even though the previous day was dreary and rainy, our last day in Thailand dawned sunny and warm. After checking out of our hotel we made our way to the Grand Palace and the Golden Buddha, our last two stops before the airport. The Grand Palace was beautiful, with various buildings covered in gold or other gems. “Modest dress” was required, which meant no short sleeved or sleeveless tops for women, no skirts above the knee, and no shorts for anyone. As might be imagined, we were all a bit overheated as we walked through and admired the Palace craftsmanship. Thu and I each packed cardigans “just in case” and that turned out to be a good move – we were able to see the site as long as we wore our sweaters in the sweltering ... read more

Our journey back to Bangkok started early and involved many stops. The guides thought that if we made it a long day with plenty of mini-breaks it wouldn’t seem so long and maybe, perhaps, we would miss some of the horrendous Bangkok rush hour traffic. (That plan didn’t seem to work – or traffic at rush hour is even worse than I imagined; at 7PM it still took over 40 minutes to drive two kilometers.) Our first stop was at a large gemstone manufacturer. Of course photos were not allowed inside. Many thousands (or more?) of gemstones and jewelry pieces were on display. There were also many gem-encrusted statues (including a beautiful peacock) and “paintings” made with miniscule gem chips (I liked the one of the Taj Mahal – multiple thousands of dollars). Matthew and I ... read more

The hotel that we stayed in for our first night in Thailand was really nice. At least Matthew and I thought that it was really nice, clean, pretty. Thu and Micah were less impressed, although I have no idea why. True, the hot water function didn’t seem to work well (water was either frigid or boiling with little in-between and no warning of whether it would be one or the other), but to have a clean and well-appointed room in Southeast Asia seemed a bit of a luxury at this point. Too bad we were just there for a few brief hours before we hopped on the bus for our first full day in Thailand: a trip from Bangkok to Pattaya. Getting out of the parking lot at the hotel was a bit of a challenge. ... read more

For our last full day in this coastal area of Vietnam, we traveled outside Nha Trang to another beach and “resort.” Now, “resort” in this country has a much different meaning than what we are used to. In fact, I would call the “resort” that we went to today just a beach. Perhaps more of a Florida or California beach than something in the Pacific Northwest, but a beach nonetheless. Visitors pay for large beach umbrellas (something I first discovered in Florida), there are vendors selling fresh seafood (which you can choose and buy and then they will prepare it for you), there are placed to buy overpriced drinks, and there’s a restaurant nearby. Beach, right? Thu was sick the night before, most likely from heat stroke, and all of us had tender shoulders and faces, ... read more

The journey to Nha Trang, a city on Vietnam’s coastline, would be long, we were told, and so we had to set off in the tour van at 6AM. No one told us quite how long the trip would take, and so we were surprised to (eventually) discover that we would be in the van for eleven hours. What a trip! Not all of the travel time was due to the miles between Dong Nai and Nha Trang. In fact, I am not quite sure the actual distance that separates the two, and neither, it seems, is Google Maps. That is because we took the scenic route, a beautiful drive across miles and miles of countryside, on a relatively new road. We made several stops for food and restrooms and had to slow down several times ... read more