TravelingTs

Before leaving Siam Reap we asked the hotel we were staying at in HCMC to book a Mekong Delta tour for us for the next day. When we arrived at the hotel the desk person said there was one tour available and it would be all day and cost $8 per person. We also got our room which was quite a bit lower in the building (not recommended by our travel guides) and rested up for the fun to come. We got up in the morning, had our breakfast (egg scramble), and then loaded the bus for our tour. Well, actually it was loading the bus to get some gas, and then consolidate all of the tourists at the tour office to be loaded on different buses going here and there and everywhere. Then we were ... read more

Well, we arrived late into Hanoi last night and were warmly received at our hotel, Hanoi Elegance 4. They are a chain of four boutique hotels and we now know why they are ranked so high on TripAdvisor...they are awesome. They pay attention to every detail and have impeccable service! Today was the first day we got to sleep in for a while as we didn't have a very busy day ahead of us. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went for a walk across town to pick up our train tickets to Sapa. It was a pleasant walk across the city as we passed by Hoan Kiem Lake, the Opera House, and the French Quarter. We then walked through the Old Quarter that was really neat. Every street is dedicated to ... read more

Today we saw what everyone comes to Siem Reap to see...Angkor Wat. We were picked up by Sam this morning and while we were headed to Angkor Wat, we witnessed the solar eclipse that everyone has been talking about. We arrived at Angkor Wat and realized why Sam showed us the other smaller temples yesterday, they don't compare to this one. The craftsmanship, size, grandeur, and intricate detail is amazing. You can see why it took 40 years to "finish" this masterpiece. Unlike all of the other temples it's main entrance is to the West which has historians guessing at why the King chose to do this. Speaking of the King, we saw a movie or music video shoot in progress at the front of the temple with a young Cambodian dressed in full King garb ... read more

Wow! We are in Vietnam! We got in last night and upon leaving the airport, bartered our way into a taxi. The streets of Ho Chi Minh are quite chaotic with few traffic lights and millions of "motor bikes" or scooters on the roads. Chance and I thought we might hit or be hit by motor bikes or cars the whole way into town...one car actually clipped the driver's mirror of our taxi and bent their own mirror back. Of the 8 million residents living in Ho Chi, 4 million ride motor bikes and they go cruise the boulevards on Saturday and Sunday evenings. ... read more

We arrived safely early Friday morning to Hong Kong and were driven to my brother, Matt's place. We took a nap and then headed up Victoria Peak for lunch at Victoria Lookout where Matt's friends, Lindsay and Holly, met up with us. It was a nice get away from the stagnant hot and humid air of the city below. We can see why the British colonists made their homes on the Peak. It was a "spectacular day" in the words of my brother, so we took a walk along a little path to perhaps one of the best views of the harbor and city below. It was amazingly clear and we could see for miles. We did the touristy thing and took the funicular tram down the Peak, where we suspect we lost one of our ... read more