We still try to embed the trip into our daily lives. Sometimes that means that we say sawadee ka or cook laap and sometimes it is revisiting our pictures or memoriabilia. We talk often of other trips we want to plan once we have a family.

We have settled back into the house we adore. We have dug more garden beds, gone on more local trips, taken on new projects and are raising a puppy, named Huda (our favourite Vietnamese Beer).

All in all, I would recommend a trip that blows your mind to anyone at any stage of your life. It expands you and your understanding of yourself in this world.

This blog has been standing still since June and I happened upon it today. I am thankful for the stories, pictures and memories that explode out of the computer.

5 months have gone by... remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We spent the last few days enjoying the sun and warm weather and peaceful sounds of the surf. Very relaxing and we started getting our heads around heading home. It was difiicult to prepare ourselves to get used to the feeling of not having sunscreen splashed on your person all day long.

Unfortunately, we did overdo the sun on the second last day so our tans look great but the last day needed to be spent indoors or in the shade most of the day. I also was a few days into an ear infection that was tolerable by day but painful by the evening. I perservered nonetheless, and checked out of our hotel on May 26.

Our trip to Koh Samui and Bangkok remained uneventful - a few more boats, taxis and airplanes but not much more of note . The last day in Bangkok was quite enjoyable as we spent the day, getting packed, doing some last minute shopping and going to see the newly released "Indiana Jones" movie. It was our best Bangkok experience to date!

We arrived home with no issue at Customs but Air Canada made us miss our connection to Calgary so we ended up getting a flight direct to Saskatoon from Vancouver. We moved into our new Guest House, my mother-in-law's! It is by far the best bed so far! We stayed up for several hours having homemade sandwiches and started regaling our stories. She has been the best landlady of our trip. We will definitely stay for a few days!

Since our return late the night of May 28, we have been reflecting on our enjoyable journey and taking in the sights (of Saskatoon) to see, in what sometimes feels like a "new country". We have been able to get used to small habits, noises and customs from SE Asia that we now have come to expect them as normal. The quiet line-ups at stores, lack of bartering for goods, no honking, and crossing the crosswalks are only some of the "foreign" behaviors we are struggling to get used to.

It does feel weird to be back at home and not have a place to live and change routines, to include looking after your own vehicle, bicycle, etc. without having to worry about "renting, hiring or arranging public transport". Also, the lack of store fronts advertising, money exchange, tours and not having to try ordering food in a foreign language. This western landscape seems a bit unfamiliar, yet deep down we know...it's where we are from.

We are happy to be home and recognize how lucky we have been to have had such a wonderful honeymoon and life changing experience. We are eager to meet up with all our friends and family but are also realizing that reality and getting back to a "new" normal life are all part of the next exciting installment of our journey.

We have thoroughly enjoyed writing these blogs and hope that you have enjoyed reading them as well. It was quite a delight to us while away from home to check our blog and emails to hear that people at home were living thier lives with lots of other exciting developments of their own. This helped us to realize how important others are to us. Thanks to everyone who read our entries and we look forward to visiting in person soon.

Latest Stop Happiness, Destination: Reality remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We are at Thong Nai Pan Beach on Koh Phagan Island. It is a gorgeous little oasis from the busy world of Thailand. In fact we are hear during "Low" season so it especially quiet with only maybe a dozen people on the beach each day! In fact, most days there are more dogs on the beach that people. One dog got so friendly with Ted that he tried to mark Ted as his by leaving a scent of him on Ted's towel!

Ted and I spend time reading, turning over and planning when to start spiking our drinks with Rum (cocktails at the bar are too expensive for us! - we still can't quite get used to "Western" prices!). We are also starting to reminisce about our best adventures, meals and modes of transport! (We've begun to run out of things to talk about!)

The big excitment was going diving yesterday but, alas, today we are resting and recovering from "doing" something yesterday! (I can hear your groans all the way from Canada).

So not much more to report on than we are counting down the days til we can see all of you!

Lazy days on the beach! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ted and I have learned long ago that we aren't 21 any more. We like a few beers and even some good music but we are not touring around South East Asia seeking out the best party, Dude! So we were a little shell shocked when we left the quaint town of Luang Prabang to enter into Fort Lauderdale during Spring Break. The whole town has boomed with this this influx of young backpackers. The town is really in a gorgeous area but the some of the charm is lost on this "tubing scene!". Most people are more interested in how they look than meeting a local or enjoying good food.

Now you may think I'm a bit of an old fuddy-duddy but Ted and I did part take in the "Tubing experience" we stood in line, got to the river and while everyone else from our Tuk Tuk jumped in the water we waited while we applied sunscreen! After the first few "Tube up" bars it settled down a bit and we found a great guy that was very "free" with the Lao-Laos whiskey! We had a few good beers that loosened us up before going to a few more bars on the way back into town. The day was really awesome and Ted and I had a good time (Especially Ted, as I was still recovering from the worst car sickness ever the day before).

We topped off the day with a great Laos supper and more Sticky rice. Laos food has been one of the great secrets about Laos. The food is wonderful and so fresh. I am personally addicted to having Laap Pa - Fish spicy salad and sticky rice!

We left Vang Vieng after only a day so that we could "Kayak to Vientiane". So yesterday we broke up another windy Laos trip with some kayaking down the Nam Lik. It wasn't enough time in the boat for us (or my stomach) but it was fun none the less.

We are now safely in Vientiane for a few days before we leave for the Thai Islands of Ko Samui and Ko Phagan! We only have 2 weeks left of our trip (we arrive home the night of May 28th) and are of mixed feelings about going home...happy to see everyone but we aren't quite ready to give up this golden honeymoon! Thank goodness we don't go back to work until September!!

Vang Vieng is over-run by potatoes! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As for us, we did not find out about the disaster until the morning we were heading out of Luang Prabang for a few days of moutain bike riding, learning to become a Mahout (elephant trainer) and kayaking. The ride out of Luang Prabang was a very nice following the Nam Khan river out to an elephant camp. We were able to get real mountain bikes in good shape so the low gears were much appreciated on the steep climbs.

We got there and were then taken across a river to an elephant refuge to spend some time observing the female elephants they have rescued from abuse and saved from hard work in the logging industry. They were outfitted with benches on their backs for tourists to ride on while the Mahout sits on their neck to control them. Jen and climbed aboard for what is normally about a 1 hour walk aroudn the reserve. After a few minutes, our mahout turned to us and asked who wants to drive. Ladies first! Jen climbed down and directed our elephant named Mae Kout through the jungle for awhile before letting me drive. After a few minutes of my driving, we started to decend a steep bank to the river to allow the animals to drink. There were a few other tourists riding other elephants but we were the only ones driving. Pretty exciting.

After the walk, we went for lunch while the elephants got ready to take back to the jungle for the night. We then climbed back on, just on the neck and rode with the mahout back to the jungle to let the elephants forage and eat their required diet of 250 kg of food a day! We then got to take the rest of the day off to relax and read in a remote lodge overlooking the river. This suited us just fine as we had an early morning the next day.

At 6:30 am, we were roused to hike into the jungle to get the elephants ready for the day. It was amazing to see how they had eaten a large area of jungle very clear overnight. They had also managed to their chains (only so they don't runoff in the night) all wrapped around trees, just like a cat or young pup might. The chains were very long and heavy so the Mahouts can't pull them clear around the trees. The elephants are so smart and strong, they effortlessly use their trunks to grab the chains and pull themsleves clear. If the chain gets stuck they even know how to hold the chain safely with their mouth, and wrap it extra tight with their runk to give it an extra yank to free themsleves. Very intelligent indeed!

Then Jen and I climbed aboard by ourselves and rode the elphants out of the jungle and down some very steep terrain. It would not have been so scary had the elephants not tried to stop on a very narrow, steep trail to turn around and grab trees that were as high as my head with their trunks to eat! It was amazing to see how these strong trees and branches are mastered by their strong trunks.

To head down to the river, the elephants had to head down some very tight stairs and then we were able to bathe them to get them cleaned up for the day. Sometimes, there is an oppotunity to brush their teeth too! Today, the elephants will have to do it later as there was an early group coming. We did see one though brushing her own teeth with a stick while the mahouts tied on her saddle/bench.

After spending alot of time riding, cleaning, and feeding the elephants, we had to say goodbye and headed back to Luang Prabang on a sit-on-top, tandem kayak. There were a quite a few rapids on the river but because it is the dry season, nothing too dangerous. We managed them all without capsizing once. We even had time for a cool dip in the river because it was very hot!

It was an awesome experience and were able to enjoy it and have developed a new fondness for elephants. There are still lots more things to see and do but we do hope to hear good news soon from our family and friends in Myanmar.

Horton hears a Mahout! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Gibbon Experience is a really cool program that happens in the forests between Huay Xai and Luang Namtha in Laos. The National Protection Area is an enmorous area that is inhabited by many villages and species of animals. The project was created in conjuction with local tribes to protect the forest, help pay for rangers to watch and protect the area (with AK-47 machine guns), increase awareness and decrease slash and burn farming. oh and also protect the rare Gibbon Monkey! This was definitely appealing to Ted and I...plus you can take zip lines through the canopy of the forest and stay overnight in a tree house!! This was definitely something we wanted to check out!

The experience is not for the faint of heart! There are limited amenities and lots of hiking but it is well worth it! The experience starts with a truck ride up the highway and then a 4X4 adventure into a small village to begin our hike. We were in a group of 8 people and we had two guides. This is low season and so it was easy to get a spot but apparently it's a lot harder during high season. We chose the Waterfall Experience...a bit more hiking but it included a waterfall - we are always suckers for a watering hole!

The trek was beautiful but hard. Lots of climbing and it is very hot and humid. In the truck we overheard that there are leeches on the trail this time of year. That freaked Ted and I out a bit but we are tough and decided just to wear our long pants. It was approximatey a 1/2 hour in before our guide pulled the first leech off his foot. I wasn't worried because he only had flip flops on (everyone in Asia wears flip flops to hike). I didn't think I would get a leech. Moments after that another girl on our trip screamed and started shaking her leg. She had a leech on her ankle. Her boyfriend struggled to pull it off while she was dancing all over the place. I'd like to say that the leeches were 8 feet long and had mouthes the size of humans, but they actuallly looked like earthworms! They were however, very ambitious and hungry. As you walked over them they would stand up to jump on you! I'm not kidding!!!! - they were out for blood! It wasn't long before Ted and I had leeches on us too!

It took an hour or so to hit our first zip line - a nice relief from leeches!! We zipped all the way to the treehouse! The lines were long and the views were spectacular! Absolutely amazing. The treehouse was really neat - two levels with a little cooking area and everything! And no leeches! Ted and I were especially excited because we reserved the "private tree house" for the night and were anxious to get over there. After a swim in the "waterfall" - more like some rapids into a pool (remember it is apparently dry season), we were escorted by our guides to our treehouse. The guides are funny - they are true Laotian - so easy going that they forgot to tell us most things! Ted and I zipped into our treehouse without really knowing when we would see everyone again!

The view was awesome and we savoured this alone time! We ate a great sticky rice dinner and spent most of our evening shoeing away cockroaches and other bugs! We fell asleep to the sound of rain!

It rained the next morning so Ted and I enjoyed a leisurely coffee and leftovers! We finally met up with everyone when we were called down for breakfast at 9:30 when the rain stopped. This began our 3 hour mud hike through the leech forest. The leeches were everywhere and so you were always foused on your feet and not stopping (as they were really fast when you weren't moving). We were pretty exhuasted by the time we got to the second Tree house. It was beautiful though and we had a great afternoon visiting, playing cards and zipping with everyone.

It rained again that night and so in the morning we plodded our way back to the village through a lot of mud. We were rewarded with a few awesome zips which lifted our wet spirits! We were done! Smelly, sticky and tired!

We must say this was an experience. ....no gibbons but lots of stories and some good leech welts!! (I found two on my upper thigh after several hours of them feasting!).

The long and short of it is....the forest and experience are super cool and if it was actually the "dry season" it would be really fun! but we enjoyed it and kept smiling and now I will always ask when I begin a trek "Are there leeches on the trail?"

Zippedy do da, zippedy day remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We jumped on a long boat for the 6 hour beautiful journey down the Nam Ou river! It was a photographer's delight. Little villages, fisherman and gold prospectors lined parts of the trip! We enjoyed the sprays of water and the great views. This country is very sparsely populated and so it really feels quiet and peaceful, just what we've been looking for!

We arrived last night in Luang Prabang. It is beautiful old town that is filled with temples and it lines the Mekong and another little river. We did a big search to find the "right" guest house - this town is a little over-run with travellers! We plan to hang out as most people do when they get here!!! We may stay for awhile and do some short trips - we'll keep you updated! Today we started some shopping but the most exciting thing we have found is some new flip flops for me - I made a big hole in the bottom of mine!

a bus, a trek, a bus, a boat and we arrive in Luang Prabang! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One of the best parts of the Cooking class was that it was taught in Air conditioning. Now, I have never been a fan of air conditioning in Saskatoon but I have quickly grown to love, seek and crave it in South East Asia. It is tooooo hot here! There is no reprieve! We even started to plan the last leg of our trip based around weather forecasts! If you don't have air con or a beach it really limits what you feel like doing all day! Thankfully in Chiang Mai we found an awesome pool (i wish i had goggles) not too far away. We are enjoying hanging out in this lovely little city. Biking all over the place to have mango soothies and picnics. We even found a shop with real cheese - making our sandwiches awesome!

We are heading north in a few days to see Gibbon monkeys! Ted and I will get to live in a tree house and move around by zip cord! After that we are counting down the trip as we will make it home by the end of May.

Master Chefs get ready to open restaurant... remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The last week in Myanmar was spent in Inle Lake and Yangon. The last few days that we were there, Thingyan, or Burmese New Year was starting. Thingyan is a large water festival where everyone splashes everyone to wash out the old year and start anew. The festival lasts for 5 days leading up to the Lunar New Year of April 17. We were lucky enough to get downtown with our cousins to the main opening ceremony in front of City Hall. There, we walked around the large main stage and around the VIP area directly in front of the stage. It was obvious that it was a special area as it was outlined by stands of barbed wire about 4 wide and 4 feet high. There were also many armed police men and security forces on the inside of the area to keep the peace as it were. It was obviously a serious gathering. The festivities began with some traditional dancing, singing, and ribbon cutting ceremony and of course the spraying down of many people with water hoses.

During the first major dance, it was easy to see the many uniformed security and police officers monitoring the crowd from inside the VIP area and all around the back of the sqaure. This large public gathering was not going to get out of control. As the festivities warmed up, I moved closer to the barricades and pulled out our small digital camera. I was able to hold it up above the crowd to get a few pictures of the crowd. Because I couldn't see exactly what I was shooting at, I tried several times. The sight of the ONLY camera in and above the crowd drew several glances from security and the public. It was obvious that no one else was taking photos in our area so I started to put the camera away and resume watching the show.

As the first few dance performances were over, the crowd started to depart en masse, away from the center of town and headed towards the buses to escape the large rush of people that would soon ensue. As we headed out, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a small group of security forces eyeing me up. Their eyes stared at me for sometime as we approached. I tried to look away but not before I noticed that they some were carrying rifles and all had batons and handguns. It was soon after we passed that I heard them yell something and they opened fire! The crowd around me, parted leaving me completely exposed and felt my skin turn icy cold with fear as I felt the first barrage pass very close by. The second officer registered a direct hit in my shoulder from slightly behind me but luckily all of this was just with their water pistols they were carrying. I turned, smiled and wished them a Happy New Year and they replied with another huge smile and a third barrage into crowd with water.

Pretty exciting festival huh?

The next few days it was impossibler to walk for more than about 5 minutes before you were ABSOLUTELY SOAKED to the skin from locals on the streetside throwing water or from one of the many trucks, or jeeps with at least about 15 or more people throwing water as they passed by. Yes jeeps with a driver sitting, about 9 people standing in the jeep and usually about 5 more hanging on while 3-4 people sat on the hood and all dancing as they cruised the streets of Yangon. Everyone wants to dance, sing and hug everyone and be sure that everyone is involved in the party. Offers of food, come join, and have a drink were everywhere. The main party area along Inya road was huge. It was almost a mile of temporary elevated stages along the side of the road playing loud, dance music, serving drinks and has 30-50 hoses for the patrons to spray down each other and the people walking or stuck in the inevitable traffic jam that follows. Everyone is in such good spirits it is quite the sight. Not only that, the temperature is about 38C so having cold water thrown on you feels really good.

We were sad to leave but our visa expired and so we are headed back in Thailand and going to Laos for a few weeks. We have some more places to see and places to go but Myanmar (Burma) is a huge highlight of the trip and would encourage anyone looking for a great adventure to consider it.

Other than the above brush with a public shooting, we are safe and sound.

Getting Shot At in Myanmar! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We just finished a week in the beautiful town of Pyin Oo Lwin in the hills outside of Mandalay. This was a very special stop for us as Ted's father, Don was born and raised here!

We wanted to share some of our most memorable stories from the little town...so here is our Top Ten most memorable stories and anecdotes (in no particular order!):

1. The Weather, Flowers and Strawberries - This is the reason that most locals come to spend their holidays in Pyin Oo Lwin (POL). It is at least 6 degrees cooler than the lowlands and the trees, flowers and forests are amazing! It also means that there are more hills and that was good for the cycling legs! The wild and wonderful strawberries are everywhere and are really good. I had a lot of trouble with transporting them as they were so delicate that every time I got them home they were juice! We had a great time visiting the Shan Market everyday to pick up all our favourite fruits (watermelon, papaya, oranges and apples are in season) and veggies (for our picnic!)

2. The People - It's a small town - what can I say? The people were always very curious about us but as soon as we smiled they did too! We especially enjoyed our "haunts" - the places in our "neighbourhood" that we frequented (ie., tea shop, beer stand and all of the shops and houses we walked by each day). We met many colourful characters including the gentleman who now owns the old Fisher house, the boys that always served us wonderful samosas and tea in the morning and a golfer named Joseph. He met us on our walk home one day and visited with us while he was heading to the golf course. We saw him several times after and he invited us to his house. One day we met him again and he took us to his house to visit his family! It was a delightful visit and his children and grandchildren loved our digital camera. We also met a friendly guy who saw that we were lost when we were heading to a hillside pagoda. He told us it was on his way and he rode with us - visiting the whole time! He was 66 years old and still rides a bike everyday!

3. Tea Shops, samosas and sweets - We found a little tea shop in the middle of town and that became one of our favourite haunts. They would always bring out a plate of samosas and that hooked us in! The young boys thought we were funny and were very good humoured. Many times we thought we were asking for regular Myanmar tea and instead we got tea with condensed milk. We tried so hard to learn how to say it properly but to no avail we always got tea with milk (not that we were complaining - it was awesome!). Burfi and indian sweet meats are tops here too!

4. Restaurants and bills - This was by far one of the most bewildering things that we have encountered in Burma. Most restaurants (food centres, tea shops etc) do not have prices on their english menus. Most of the time locals don't use a menu so I guess the menus are for foreigners. The funny part is that we decided awhile ago to not ask the price of an item because many times were were pleasantly surprised at how little it cost. However, the interesting part is that the price of the bill seems to vary significantly! We ate at a great little Indian restaurant and when we asked for the bill, we watched the whole family (staff) confer for many minutes trying to figure out how much to charge us! Sometimes were were pleasantly surprised and sometimes we were stunned! One time the bill came back reading: "lunch = 3600" - that is it - no breakdown or anything. Can't really barter with that can you? We finally agreed that if the restaurant had a door and a menu that had many pages, we should ask the prices!

5. 43 Beers - We took a share taxi to Pyin Oo Lwin on Ted's Birthday (March 29th) and we shared it with a couple from Ireland. When we got to town we met up with them in the market and we decided to go for an afternoon beer. We found a Beer Station that had draft Myanmar Beer (only 0.50$) and we started to visit and drink. We hadn't drunk with the Irish yet and found them to be good and eager drinkers! The boys at the Beer station were a bit stunned by the request for "four more" all of the time. Finally we realized that we should eat something as we had been sitting, drinking beer and eating lehpet (a snack) for 6 hours! When the tab came it said that we had 43 beers! We couldn't argue with them (none of us could count at that point) so we thanked them! We stumbled through town looking for food and singing happy birthday to Ted.

6. The Gaaris - How could any list of memorable things about Pyin Oo Lwin without mentioning the horse drawn carriages that are all over town. This was an awesome way to get off your feet for awhile and watch the world go by!

7. The Kandawgi Gardens - Another must see in this town. The gardens are famous and are just out of town. We had heard that the entrance fee was $2 (as quoted in the Lonely Planet) but we have learned that inflation and other things have drastically changed prices since that book was published. Instead it was $5 per foreigner plus $1 for your camera! That pretty much blew our budget - so it was a good thing we brought our own picnic lunch into the park! Don't get me wrong, we loved the park and especially loved the swans, takins and all of the incredible flora! We took a small break at a bench along a path in the swamp garden and a family walked by. The man stopped and asked us if he "could snap our picture"! We laughed, wondering what he and his family thought of us sitting in a swamp! Welcome Canadian swamp people!

8. Our Hotel - We splurged and stayed at the wonderful Royal Parkview Hotel. We had great service and we were glad to get our daily delivery of fruit and complimentary water! It took us several days to realize that all we have to do is ask and they will help! For instance, one morning we were having our "American Breakfast" - white toast and eggs and wishing that we could have something more regional. All of a sudden the table next to us received Mohinga! We were stunned. We asked the front desk if there was the possibility to have that and she said yes, and produced a long menu of local Burmese and Indian favourites. She told us that we just have to order the night before! The same thing happened shortly after when we were getting ready to watch the movie "Poseiden" (It gets very dark - and sometimes no power and most places close early in Burma so we watch movies before bed) and the channel goes blank (this frequently happens - channels change a lot!) so we call reception and they say "of course, we'll get it back for you!" - Burma is truly fascinating and mind-boggling!

9. Tofu! - Yes, tofu made the list! You might wonder why - it's a funny story! Ted's dad, Don has heard about the wonderful Shan Tofu of Pyin Oo Lwin. He wanted us to find it and learn how to make it. He gave us instructions to visit a local restaurant to learn the secrets of the Tofu business so that we could return to Canada and turn it into a million dollar empire! It's a good idea but that restaurant doesn't serve or make tofu! We did manage to find a Tofu Maker (through our hotel). He spent an hour with us showing us how to make dried strips of Shan Tofu (made of yellow beans or lentils). It was fascinating and a lot of fun....we didn't try as we were scared to wreck some of this delicate tofu!

10. Cycling - No Top ten is complete without our favourite mode of transportation! Pyin Oo Lwin is very spread out so the best way to see it is on bike. We rented "staff" bikes at our hotel almost every day. The bikes were always of varying degrees of "working". We biked down to the Pwe Kauk Falls one day and Ted had to use his "Flintstone" breaks to make it down safely. At the end of the very steep doiwnhill, he used a Runaway Lane into someone's yard a few feet before running into the Ticket Desk barricade at the entrance of the falls! One another occasion, Ted rode a bike where he continually bumped his knees on the handle bars!

So there we go! The Top Ten! We loved our trip to Pyin Oo Lwin and continually are learning more about the country, bartering and ourselves! Sorry to all of you who we would love to email but we are having a lot of problems with our Yahoo! Tomorrow we are off to Inle Lake! - should be a blast!

Our Top Ten from Pyin Oo Lwin remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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With slightly more self-control, I stayed to only 2 chapatis and Jen had 1. We were getting up very early the next day to ride to the Mandalay Hill that rises NE of town right out of the plains, so we packed up some dal and 2 more chapatis to go. We are probably going to go there for supper again tonight, and likely when we pass through again. A good enough reason to come to Mandalay...for sure!

But there are many more. Today for example, armed with our trusty, and not very rusty, push bikes, complete with fenders, we rode out to Mandalay Hill at 6 am to watch the sunrise. We were able to get there just before sunrise and watch it come up as we climbed the many stairs on foot. At the top we rested and soaked in the beautiful view. After that we decided to head down to the ferry that would take us up and across the Ayerawaddy River to Mingun. A village that has several old temples and what would have been the world's largest Pagoda but it remains unfinished. The world's largest (90 tons) intact, ringing bell is also there. We decided to take some back roads along Mandalay's streets and found ourselves bumping along the alleyways and side streets of the port and sawmill district. The smell of teakwood dust in the air was actually quite nice. We did receive many quizzical looks as I think this was not "typically" part of the tourist route. We looked quizzically back though as we were pretty lost a few times. We got to the Jetty with lots of time to spare so the boat captain pointed us to a tea shop across the street.

At the shop, we created quite a stir as the young boy who came to take our order did not speak english and he was very excited to try to decipher our hand gestures and english. He called to the shop owner who understood we wanted 2 cups of tea only. A few minutes later, a plate of samosas arrived. Yep, that's exactly what we thought. Our burmese/english and hand gestures are getting worse. But it turns out these are put out each morning to the customers and you pay for what you eat. The tea showed up a few minutes later. We were able to understand the price so for us, it was a huge victory! As we left they all were giggling at our "cei zu be" and "mingalahba"'s.

While waiting for the boat to be ready, we watched as the very busy river port was alive and bustling with trishaw drivers, loaders, goats, and pretty much everything else you would imagine. There are many "rustic" trucks in Myanmar and they still have a hand crank start and huge open flywheel on the other side. The trucks are able to haul quite a lot but don't appear to have much for a braking system. One fellow had sand on the back and it was so heavy that he could not get up the little hill to the street on the first try. To keep him from rolling down the hill, a young boy runs beside him to throw rocks under the back wheel to hold him in place! After he went up, a man with hand pulled rickshaw came down the hill hanging on for dear life as his massive load of 45 gallon drum barrels tried to push him into the river. Pretty exciting to watch over tea!

We got to Mingun with little effort and were instantly greeted by many vendors trying to get us to pay for them to guide us, tell us which shop was theirs or buy one of the many souvenirs we had already seen elsewhere. They must have been to Vietnam for training because they used every trick in the book. Ask questions about you to build a relationship, send their really cute kids to visit with you while you walk and failing that, pretty much follow you till you bought something. It was here we decided to take the 174 steps and free scramble to the top of the Mingun Paya ruins to escape. It was very peaceful. In light of this new found peace and quiet, we sought out further refuge from vendors. So we went walking through their village which is off the tourist track then stopped for tea at a small local shop at the village edge.

After the hubbub of the vendors died down, we headed back out onto the road where Jen said, " We should take a Ox cart ride back to the boat". I couldn't have been more suprised to hear those words come out of my wife's mouth. Animals in a harness, made to do work for humans, and us riding not moving under our own power. I could not believe it. It was a lovely, bumpy ride that was made to feel very authentic as the ox pooped as they walk only inches from the edge of the cart. Thank goodness for the clever design.

After seeing the rest of the sights we went for a beer at a small restaurant overlooking the river. Three young boys greeted us upon our arrival and promptly made their way to clean up a chair for us. After we sat, one of them who spoke very good english got us a beer and the Lonely Planet phrasebook ( which has had very few phrases correct when I use them) actually had one right for once. The boy saw that we wanted peanuts too and he understood! Two language barriers broken in one day. Definitely time to quit while we were ahead. The boys, Toos, his cousin Cho Cho, and friend Kyaw Zin, all started talking to us and were quickly telling us stories. How at 12 years old, they were going to Mandalay University to study engineering. It was fun so they laughed at our burmese and visited with them back and forth for quite some time. At one point, they came back with a cigarette and offered it to us. This wasn't the first time we were offered cigarettes by kids while eating in Mandalay! We also had a small lunch before leaving. At the end of it all, we could not help but pay the exorbitant price they charged us because it had been so entertaining. We were also likely the only customers that day as ours was the last boat to leave the shore.

All that before 1 pm today. Following this hectic schedule, we are heading for home or a beer station before returning to have chapatis again tonight for supper. If you weren't sure, Mandalay is a very cool place.

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Our day books are very full with social engagements and therefore we haven't had much time to email! Let me give the run down!

First of all, Ted and I love the beautiful parks and the city of Rangoon...it was great to get out of the Backpacker world of Bangkok! Yangon (Rangoon) has a lot of the old British architecture and the parks are immaculately maintained. As is the Shwe Dagon Pagoda (the most famous Rangoon landmark)...We are just a short walk to the Pagoda!

The first day, Diana and Megan (Ted's second cousins) picked us up from the airport and helped us with some organizational things (ie., you can't change money at a bank , you must go to a Money Changer and they only deal in currency as high as 1000 kyats = $1 US....It was very interesting!). They took us on a brief tour and out for lunch! They are wonderful ladies and they were so excited to see Ted and meet more family! Diana works as a Travel Agent and Megan is a lawyer.

The next day we went to their house for lunch and met their older brother Robin. They spent the entire morning making us some of the best food ever! (Shrimp curry, mutton curry, pennywort salad and many others... before serving great banana pudding and congyabaung - a great glutinous rice dish). We had a great time sharing pictures and stories! The meal was typical Burmese (I think we were there for 4 hours!). That evening we went out with our friend, Kya Kya's sister and husband (Melody and Than Tun) and had more wonderful food!!

The following day was tonnes of fun as Diana took us on a tour of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. We made offerings to the Buddha (there is a Buddha that you pray to for the day of the week you were born). We also laid gold leaf on a Buddha. We were really excited to go to the Astrologer that Diana has visited. She was amazingly accurate and gave Ted and me wonderful fortunes. Apparently, we are a very lucky couple (because we were born on Wednesday (Jen) and Monday (Ted)). She told us many interesting things! She also gave us new Burmese names that mean that we will grow and become famous!

That afternoon we located an old school friend of Ted's dad, Don. Percy and Don grew up together in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin). We met him and he treated us to an afternoon of Kachin beer, great Dagon beer and many funny stories. We spent several hours becoming slightly tipsy in his living room! He and his son, Kim took us for lunch and by the end of the day we were exhausted!!

Friday, The full moon holiday, was low key as Ted and I went to a lake and had a picnic! We had another great walk and spent the evening with Melody, Than Tun and Daw Kyi Kyi. We had an amazing meal of many of our favourite foods!

We are so lucky to be in Burma. It does feel like you step back in time. Monks line the streets, everyone wears longyi and people first stare at us and then smile! We are definitely off the beaten track. We are really excited to go back to Diana and Melody's tomorrow for Mo Hinga (one of my favourite meals).

Signing off for now....Aye Chan Myint (Jen) and Hein Tet Zaw (Ted)!

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The next day we decided that the best way to beat the heat is to ride bikes and find museums that were cool. We were both really interested in the Burma-Thai Bridge that the POWs built during WWII so we headed to that museum first. The museum was impressive and we really began to understand how atrocious the situation was. The POWs were building a railway with an impossible schedule, in impossible terrain with horrible conditions. In fact, the workers in the most dire circumstances were the Burmese, Malay and Thai workers who were promised contracts and improved working conditions. The cemetary adjacent to the museum was very well kept and many POWs from Britain, Australia and the Netherlands were buried there.

We took our pedal bikes (they don't move very fast but they are sure better than walking) across the river into the country side to visit the Chong Kai Cemetary. We had our PB and banana sandwiches (we finally found wholewheat bread!) and picnic along the river. We were finally entertained by a group of Asian tourists as they cruised by on a Karaoke Barge! We took that as a cue to get going.

We finished the day at the JEATH War Museum. An interesting collection that Monks put together. The museum covered everything from prehistoric Thailand to Miss. Thailand costumes! We felt like that was full day!

The next day we spent on a tour. We are somewhat opposed to tours but decided that it may be the best way to see several things out of town in a short period of time. The other travellers were Kiwis living in Australia and were great to hang out with. We stopped at Erawan Lake National Park. We had until 11:30 to see the falls and swim. The hike to the falls involved 7 different levels ending at 2200m high. We kept hiking as the park wasn't very busy and we thought we could find a pool that was empty (our philosophy is to get away from Tourists - even though we recognize we may actually be one of them!). We ended up swimming at a few levels. The pools are filled with fish and they are definitely hungry as little and big fish (piranha - as Ted, the fisherman, believes them to be) started biting at our bodies. Some of the fish were at least 12 inches long! We decided there were just love bites and tried to igore them. We knew we were tough and couldn't be scared off by fish.

We felt the pressure to get going so we descended and half way home we were thrilled to see monkeys on the path! We took a few pictures and the whole family came out to play on the handrail. We knew that the monkeys were proned to steal things but we didn't have any food so we made an attempt to get past them. Ted was first. He looked the monkeys in the eye, and all of the sudden he had one on his arm and two nipping at his ankles! I freaked out (as did the Kiwis behind us) and ran up as two monkeys were biting at my ankles! We narrowly escaped them and survived intact! It was a close call but once again defended ourselves against these vicious beasts!

We spent the night hanging out with the Kiwi couple, Jamie and Hannah.

We were really excited to head out the next day as we rented a motor bike and packed another picnic and headed back to Erawan Lake. We really wanted to hang out without time restraints. Ted has become a very proficient driver! We had a blast that day...no monkey encounters but the fish still thought we were yummy. We had an awesome picnic and decided to visit an Elephant Refuge Park on the way home. We did meet some Elephants but disappeared before the big Bus Tour arrived.

We really enjoyed our trip out to Kanchanaburi! We also found out that our Burma Visas arrived in Bangkok so we headed home the next day (Sunday March 16th) to pick them up and enjoy St. Patty's day in Bangkok at the carnival (Khao San Road)!

Fast moving monkeys and man eating fish remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally, without much further delay we got to the airport and boarded our lovely 747 back to Thailand. It was also nice to be on Air France as we finally felt able to understand a the flight staff's language completely rather than just the usual words we can pick out like "two", "chicken", "please", "excuse me", "thank you".

With one last adventure, were out and we are stuck with the memory that it rains in Vietnam.

Farewell Vietnam remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We were so proud of ourselves for finding a way to get back to Saigon in one day by buying two tickets from this Travel Agent on the island. We were less impressesd when we got off the ferry. We were told that we would have transportation to the bus. However, when we got off the ferry we met a couple from Sweden who also had the same tickets we did. Apparently, the "private" bus company pays motorcycle taxi guys to transport us to a back alley! We didn't even have time to think and collect our thoughts before we were manhandled into a mini-bus - into the back seat where four of us sat (with our feet on top of our backpacks) with limited air conditioning and Vietnamese music for 6 hours! The driver thankfully turned off the music when we asked as the speakers were next to our ears! I'm not sure how familiar you are with Vietnamese music but it is best appreciated when the volume is low and in small doses! Needless to say, it is always benefical to see what you are buying before you pay!

We actually did have a nice end to our Phu Quoc trip - we went Scuba diving on Thursday. We did two good dives - the visability was limited but we did see some jelly fish and an eel and some other lovely fish! We celebrated with a hot pot that night at our funny little resort!

Today is a new day and Ted and I are ready to get back to Thailand! We have had a blast in Vietnam but the amount of motorcycles is beyond me! Today we went and had fresh bread (and our first bagel) at a nice little coffee shop with a mango shake and Vietnmese drip coffee. We headed to search out a massage school. The massage therapists are all blind! It was fun! The sweet girl that did my massage was only 17 years old! We are going to search out one more good restaurant before heading to the airport!

Tam Biet!

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We tried to go in the ocean but the wind was very strong and cool. We went for a several km long walk on a very rugged trail around the island. It took us to a very beautiful lookout, a small local fishermen hammock rest stop and someone's front yard complete with puppies barking and chasing at our heels! Very diverse terrain. There was also lots of beutiful butterflies along the route too.

That night, after supper, we finally got Jen playing pool! We drank a few beers and I played our guides till they went to bed then Jen and I played 2 games! And she said she hates pool.

The next day, we boarded the boat at 10 am to head into Nha Trang to catch an afternoon flight to Saigon. On the bus ride to Nha Trang, we drove over some of the road we biked and the saddle sores ached just remembering the original journey. After a brief lunch in Nha Trang, we took the 45 min ride outside of town to the Nha Trang Airport which is located at the old Air Force Base used by the US in the Vietnam war. Very small airport but big huge runway and field area. Our flight to Saigon was very full and we were boarding a twin engined turbo-prop plane when we noticed a few mechanics staring at the large cargo bay door at the front of the plane. It looked like they were trying to close it and were examining the latch. We also noticed that a few tires looked very low and we joked about lending them our bike pump. It was at this time we all discussed the sketchy flight record of Vietnam Airlines. We boarded and before long, were taxiing down the runway. The plane climbed and I was catching a great view of the old airbase when the plane very suddenly dropped nose first and plunged at least 100 feet before recovering much lower in the sky. The cabin pressure had changed noticeably and there was also an odd burning smell entering the cabin. Shortly thereafter, the plane slowed down and was doing a really steep bank when the pilot came on saying there were "Technical difficulties and we had to go back to the airport. Sorry" We landed safely and were quite eager to get off the plane. As we disembarked, a crew was examining the large cargo bay door again. The announcement should of been more accurate like" Ladies and Gentlemen, the big huge door on the side of the plane popped open in mid-air and we are all very lucky to be alive. Have a nice day." The confusion of the english speaking passengers who could not understand the vietnamese instructions made the situation seem even more panicky as we slowly found out through word of mouth (no announcement) that the flight was cancelled and we would have to leave the next morning.

We boarded a city bus and and Adam, our tour leader, took us to a nicer hotel than where the airline put you up and we got back to the airport the next morning before the big rush. Once through security, we noticed that the plane with the door issue was the only one on the tarmac. We discussed quite seriously renting a car. Then, a newer Airbus A320 jet pulled up and we breathed a sigh of relief. We boarded the plane, taxied out to the end of the runway about to take-off when the pilots said, "We have to return to the airport we are having technical difficulties. Our apologies" We couldn't believe it. When we came back to a stop, the pilot said "We are checking out a hot brake indicator. We will check it out and might only be a few minutes delay." True to his word about 5 mins later"The good news is that the brakes are okay but we need a qaulified engineer to sign off that it was inspected before leaving. We require a fax from Hanoi and that could be 2 hours maybe more. Please wait in the airport". (Jen here: We all tried to convince Ted that he should offer his services as a "qualified engineer" but he said that "Agro" was not the same as "aero"!). So here we were again in Nha Trang airport, deboarded from 2 planes in less than 24 hours! After about an hour or so, the fax came through and we were on our way!

We arrived in Saigon and it is definitely the more "Western" city in Vietnam as it looks very commercial. Lots of new shops, signs, fancy clothiers, etc. In the afternoon, we were trying to book another flight on Vietnam Airlines (we thought about cancelling though) to Phu Quoc, an island SW of Vietnam, but found that flights were booked up until March 21. So we had to take the bus/ferry option b/c we needed to get away from the mass of motorbikes and honking horns. It was also very expensive in Saigon.

The next day, the bus ride took us from Saigon bus depot down a secondary highway for about 6 hours to the town of Rach Gia. Along the way there were a few close calls when the driver passed and lots of honking but the closest call was during some road construction. Our bus and another bus were trying to crowd each other off the temporary, one-lane bridge over top a swamp/river crossing in the Mekong Delta. Our driver was literally sitting out his window and screaming at the other driver in Vietnamese and gesticulating wildly. Had it not been for the fact that the other bus was so close, that the driver could not open his door, it would likely have come to fisticuffs or pushing the other bus right over and off the road. The buses actually smacked mirrors. As the bus went by us, the passengers in the other bus looked helplessly out their windows into our faces only inches away separated by 2 panes of glass and looking equally terrified of rolling over as we were. Again, luckily the buses passed without further incident.

The ferry ride to the island was much quieter and uneventful. Yesterday, we rented a motorbike from our hotel and took off to explore the island. We ventured to the market in town to get some picnic stuff before heading out to a beach. To explain, by motorbike, I mean a city scooter type of bike with street tires. As we headed out of town the road turned to gravel but no big deal as it was very wide. As we got further away, ther road got narrower, more cows wandered down the path, and parts of the road were littered with large rocks and potholes. We tried a few sideroads to a beach and found the resorts and beaches not ideal so we went in search of the large public beach up the road indicated on the map. The road became narrower, involved many narrow bridge crossings, then deteriorated into a single track, goat path through a swampland covered in deep puddles, small concrete culverts and lots of other lost tourists who had various issues controlling their bikes. After sometime, we were quite obviously NOT at the beach and the road signs were of no use as our Vietnamese is not that good. We headed back to town where we walked into the fanciest resort in town, sat on their beach and had a picnic with our food. On the way out, we waved and smiled at the staff before heading out with our bike loaded down, like a local, with groceries and beer to take back to our hotel.

We leave for Saigon on the 7th or March and say farwell to Vietnam on Saturday. We will be in Bangkok till March 18 when we leave for Myanmar. Not sure what internet will be like while in Myanmar but will try to keep the world posted. If you don't hear from us until April all is ok.

Salt water, Saddle sores, and near death experiences! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hoi-An - Tam Ky: We left Hoi An on a ferry and after we got off we were on a new off-road route (i'm really glad I didn't send over my road bike). It had started to rain again and because the bus had to take the overland route we completely lost Bing (our bus driver). We kept asking locals for directions but they thought we wanted to go the very noisy Hwy #1 so we ended up on some really muddy routes. We even went over this little bamboo bridge in between rice paddies on a route no one had been on before!

Our bikes aren't equiped with fenders (or mudguards in Australian) so you can imagine that we were pretty funny, with our skunk strips over our helmets, to the locals (who all have fenders on their bikes!). We finally met up with Bing but we had a long way to go on our short 52 km ride! IT POURED and all we could do was laugh until we had to stop for our picnic lunch!!! Yeah, we ended up eating baquettes on the bus while every school child in this little town practiced their english on us!!! It was funny...we rode for another hour or so but decided, with what turned out to be only about 5 more km to go, we were just "not having fun" anymore!! We got into Tam Ky drenched and everything we had was covered in mud!!

Tam Ky - Quang Ngai: This was supposed to be a good long day (89km) and of course it started in the RAIN again! We headed off on the notorious Hwy #1...it is noisy and rather dangerous as every animal and mode of transportation rides it too! It was nice to get off the Hwy #1 and have a bit of a break at the pink wedding chapel restaurant. It actually stopped raining so we took off our ponchos very excited. By the time we finished our Vietnamese coffee (cafe sua) it had started to rain again. At least we were on the secondary roads again. We had a big bowl of soup for lunch and finished off our ride to the My Lai Massacre site and then arrived into Quang Ngai...a funny town - we stayed at the Petro Hotel (yes it is owned by a gas company!). Again...we did laundry!!!

Quang Ngai - Quy Nhon: (67km). We left predicting rain but when we started riding we actually saw sun (the first time in Vietnam!). It was an awesome day of heat and beautiful back roads. We were along the coast and saw lots of friendly children (this was now the norm - "hello, hello, hello"). We did a lot of hills that day but it was fun. Ted's legs were tired that day but once he got on the dirt road...he got his mojo going and he was on fire all the way into town. We had an awesome meal of pizza and beer to top off our first day of sun!!!

Quy Nhon - Tuy Hoa: (100km - our longest!). This is also the hilliest day of the ride. It started off with wind (but no rain!). We headed into the hills and did about 10 hills before reaching our first rest stop. The hills were 500m-1km on average (8-10% grade). Ted realized that he is a downhilling specialist. Whereas, I realized I love uphills! It was a super fun day of hard riding. But we had a fast little group and arrived in Tuy Hoa way ahead of schedule. We had to ride around the parking lot for .3km to ensure that we made exactly 100km! Andrea, Ted and I (our whole group minus our guides) went strolling for afternoon beers to celebrate!!! Only one more hard day ahead (but Adam -our guide promised it was short).

Tuy Hoa - Whale Island: (64km) The last day! We were hoping that it would be a breeze (and it was literally as the wind was howling outside of our funny little government hotel!). Shortly after leaving we ascended another hill and then it wasn't long before we hit our second longest hill of the whole ride (4km at around 8-10%). The hill became even more difficult because our gears and cables were so mucky that we didn't really have all of our gears (at least we had the granny gears). It also started to rain. By the time we were at the top it was pouring again, windy and there was tonnes of traffic. Ted started descending and he got some dirt in his eye so he was even more cautious. We got to the bottom and a rest stop just in time for a "cyclone" to hit the top (trees were sideways). We waited it out with another cafe sua and then headed up our last hill and off the Hwy #1 to the pennisula. We were heading to the ferry to go to Whale Island. It continued to rain and so we ended up at this island paradise in wind and rain! We toasted the ended of riding at this lovely private island and enjoyed reading and doing more laundry!

What a blast! This bike trip was awesome. We enjoyed it so much. Definitely recommend Grasshopperadventures to anyone interested in an interesting and beautiful way of seeing Vietnam!!!

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Luckily there was only the odd motorbike otherwise so the horns and traffic were lighter than normal. When I finally got to the top of the pass, our group had made some great friends at the top.

We sat down to have coffee with them when we noticed our table was covered with trinkets. The sale was on, and now that they befriended us, "You don't forget me! Buy bracelet!" it was hard to extricate ourselves without buying something. We quickly picked the least offensive pieces and headed down the otherside. Sloppy road and all.

We carried on down through Danang, stopped for lunch at Goa's Place at CHina Beach and had some awesome build-your-own spring rolls. The owner showed us, by saying in his best surfer voice, "Check it out man!" It was like having lunch wirth Cheech and Chong. We then finished off the day with a ride down a secondary highway to Hoi An.

With about 10 km to go, Jen riding first and me close behind with Adam and Andrea and the bus following. Out of nowhere I hear a guy right beside me laughing and I thought it was Adam trying to ride to close but in an instant I realized a man on a motorcycle swerved from 2 lanes over right in to me and ran me into the curb! Luckily, the road was quite flat and were only doing about 25-30 km/h. It turns out he was trying to change his glove on while driving, it got stuck and lost control while fighting to get it off.

As for me, I stood up quite quickly and the locals surrounded me. My right leg was badly scraped (road rash) and a large swelling was starting below my right knee. Adam treated my wounds and we got up to ride into town. I shook the man's hand before he left ( we waited for him to go before we go started). It was quite painful but rode the last 10-12 kms in town to the hotel. I was very angry with the guy at first but nothing really could be done about it.

The best part is that Huyen, our local guide (obviously trained with an older version of First Aid) continually poked the swelling in my leg soon after the accident. I was able to move my foot, toes, etc, and nothing was broken. Although the bulge in my leg was not supposed to be there, it deserved more poking until Jen and I told him to stop. He means well. It barely drizzled most of that day and we had the next day off in Hoi An.

Yesterday, we left Hoi An in the gray overcast skies and rain. It rained all day as we meandered on very muddy, dirty roads till we realized we were lost. Once we caught up with the bus, we got back on track and carried onto more dirty roads for about 60 km before we and our bikes were so soaked and dirty that we could not shift gears so we had to board the bus for the last few km into town.

Today, it rained all day again but we had more pavement so we rode all 83 km except for a really bad section of road that would have done the bikes in again and cost the rest of the day.

Everyday we hope for rain and our laundry to come back dry (or at all) before we leave in the AM. Maybe tomorrow!

Still smiling and riding!

Running into locals....and rain. remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So that has been our day today. We have been on our bikes since Monday. The first two days were short...just 30 km or so around the towns of Hanoi (countryside) and outside Hue (to see a tomb of Tu Duc, former King, and to the Citadel). The riding was fun but wet as it has been raining at least part of the day everyday since Sunday! We bought new ponchos (to decrease the skunk marks up our rears!) and we were good to go. Unfortunately neither of us really packed riding gear for this weather and so we have been layering! It is unusually cold in Vietnam (in fact livestock and people are dying due to the cold).

The first real day of riding saw us go 79km from Hue to Lang Co. We stayed of the #1 highway as much as we could and traveled through little towns where the children would run out of their houses or schools to say "hello". People were surprised to crazy foreigners riding fancy bikes in their streets! The day was good with only a few harder climbs. We were quite speedy as we arrived in town earlier than expected (Huyen, our local guide spent most of the day in the bus b/c he thought we were "too fast"). Since we are a pretty small group the pace is pretty even.

So I think that I will defer to Ted for the rest of the trip details! Hopefully it will stop raining soon!!!!

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We met up withour tour group last night over a Hanoi Beer (very good I must say). After being in 2 larger tour groups in the last month we were concerned about the large number of people and what that will be like on bicycles. It was no need to worry as the group is Jen, me, Andrea (a nice lady from Melbourne, Australia) and our leader Adam. 4 people total plus our local vietnamese guides.

Today, we got on bikes and rode around 4 villages around Hanoi, away from the honking and insane traffic. We crossed the Red River by ferry and rode on the narrow levees through rice fields. It was an awesome 27 km ride and it was great to see local agricultural practices up close. Followed by another great meal above a travel agency to warm up afterwards.

Because there have been some "train broken" issues, we are flying to Hue instead of taking the overnight, Reunification Express. The group is of mixed opinion on experiencing the train (possibly sleeping on a noisy, cold train) vs. flying and staying in another heated hotel. Guess we'll see.

Also had the good fortune to run into my old friend Rocky Boyko and Kurt Gibb for a beer in Hanoi. Rocky lives in Regina and happend to be in the neighborhood. It was cool to run into someone from home so far away.

Should have more pics up in a few days as there is no working USB port here today. "USB broken" issues are common here.

Hope the deep freeze at home relents soon!

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It was cold in hanoi and even colder on Halong Bay. We boarded a junk and Jen tried to sunbathe but with cloudcover and clothes, we decided to retire indoors. The food was awesome and we had a couple of Tiger beers with a guy from Germany and his 2 friends from Spain. We enjoyed their company then we got off the boat to explore some exciting caves for about an hour before getting an opportunity to do some sea kayaking around the rocky islands. That was awesome to get out and do some activity and warm up! After the paddle, supper was served on the boad and Jen and I were given a beautiful stateroom in the all-teakwood vessel. Our room had a heater and private bathroom. We retired early as it was our first oppportunity to get warm in days.

The next day we got dropped off at Cat Ba Island National Park and rode some touring bikes and did a short trek through the jungle. It was really cool to walk and see some caves similar to those that the Vietnamese used to fight the USA in the war. Our guide also shared some knowledge of bombings in the bay and his village during the war to make it seem a bit more real. After the brief on land adventure, we got back on the boat. They served lunch on the little boat then took us to this small 100 foot wide stretch of beach to "look for monkeys sometime here" the guide said. We got off to the beach surrounded by over 100 foot high cliffs on 3 sides and water on the 4th. The boat pulled about 150 feet from shore where it sat for about 50 mins while they did dishes and Jen and I sat on a rock. The view was gorgeous.

And we were happy.

The weather was cool, breezy and cloudy when we saw the wild monkey.

We were surprised to see this kind of wildlife here.

After we quietly and awkwardly boarded the boat with our brave european companion, we headed to the main port to spend a night in a more luxurious hotel with heat. We spent the rest of the day and night in the room getting warm again and me getting over my stomach flu issues.

On the boat ride home, we saw more beautiful islands and got back to a much warmer Hanoi.

We returned to our hotel in Hanoi where we were told there were no other rooms so he was sending us some where else. 2 guys on motorbikes showed up, we threw on our big packs, small packs and grocery bags, jumped on the bag and they rode us through the busy, cramped, noisy, streets of Hanoi like a couple of locals. It was fun and the hotel was actually in a better location than the last. We also paid 3$ more for heat. Totally worth it.

Ha Long Bay and back again remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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When we arrived on Sat. we struggled to find something open for lunch - we almost ate at the street vendors but since Ted and I were both getting over the stomach troubles and it would be our first meal in Vietnam we decided something a little less exotic may be slightly smarter. We had our first amazing cup of Vietnamese Coffee at a little cafe on Hoan Kiem Lake.

This city is noisy, fast paced and very chilly! It is really cool though. There are millions of motocylces, vespas and such whizzing around. Everyone honks to tell others to get out of the way. The town really celebrates the new year so there are a lot of red flags up and stores closed or only selling "New Years" gift baskets. We spent Sat and Sun. wandering around, drinking coffee and admiring the colonial buildings. oh, and cuddling to stay warm at night! We stayed in a little guest house that was facing the alley (no good window seals) with no heat! Every morning around 5 am you can here the old ladies chopping vegetables in the alley outside our window. We are staying in the Old Quater. A lively part of town. It is fairly easy to navigate. There aren't as many services (ie., convenience stores, internet places etc) but you can definitly feel the "socialist", french feel to this place. It certainly is "cool"! We haven't found any yoghurt but I guess if that is our biggest problem we are in good shape!

We've also had a bit of a Visa problem. We only have a 15 day visa. So we had to hand in our passports to the Guest House guys to get an Visa extension (b/c we could only get special 15 day passports in Bangkok - due to New Years). But here we find out that we need an entirely new visa and they say it takes five days! We are a bit skeptical but I guess we'll have to trust them. We have spent a lot of money to stay here - it better be worth it!

On Monday we headed up to Halong Bay for 3 days - We'll put pictures up tomorrow and update that component of the trip!

Holy Hanoi...it's cold! remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Jen here...i've been under the weather since Monday. I've had some type of flu so needless to say, the smells in the markets and alleys has made me a bit quesy! Ted is now starting to feel the same way so we have been taking it easy. I hope you have enjoyed some of our pictures from our Mae Sot trip. It was a real highlight of our trip. It was hard to leave to come back to Bangkok as it is a large and challenging city to be in. Last night we went for another Thai massage while it poured outside. On Wed. we were told that our Vietnam Visa would be ready this am but when we checked in with the travel agent he told us noon. so without anything to do this am we took a taxi down to the MBK. A gigantic 7 storey mall. We wandered around the Tesco and got some "high fiber" stuff and then headed back to the mall to shop. Neither of us were really in the "mood" so it was a short trip. We headed back home to hang out by the pool at our guesthouse and stay in the shade today! Looking forward to Hanoi and meeting up with our Cycling group on the 17th! Not much more to report here!

tummy troubles remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Talk to you again soon.

Friends from Mae Sot remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I apologize if I duplicate some of Jen's last entry but it has been awhile since we got to this. We have safely arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday enroute to Hanoi via Bangkok over the next few days. It marks the end of what was a beautiful and moving experience.

We have spent the last week and a half working with the Global Neighbors group from Prince Albert to build a school in a migrant village, supply 90 desks for children, teach and play with the migrant kids in some of the schools and get to know some of the most wonderful people in the world. The main orphanage and school (Hsa Thoo Lei) in Mae Sot is comprised of mostly illegal Karen refugees from Burma. There are many Burmese, Mon, Kachin, and other groups at the school and other villages in the Mae Sot area. The hardship that the children endure is not limited to only Karen people.

The kids and people there are such great hosts. They took our group through their school and spent alot of time looking after aall of us. Some were very brave to stand up in front of their peers and canadian guests and tell stories of losing their parents, homes, or siblings in the their journey to get to where they are know. They also hosted a beautiful barbecue on Monday night as a farewell, where the many excellent singers and performers got up and delivered excellent performances. The most moving moments were the ones where Jen and I spent visiting and playing with Eh Tah Tow, Look Htee Kheh, and her younger brother Hsa Law Tae Htoo. After visiting with them, each of them ran up to their room and gave us some of their favorite toys and pictures as gifts. It was an example of their incredible generosity. We are honored that kids with so little would offer so much to us, for the little work and time we were able to spend with them. It was wonderful. I also liked them because they appeared to enjoy my pretty rough magic tricks I tried on them.

We were also able to meet up with some of the administators and teachers in the school who were able to act as translators, guides, and friends to the group. We have photos of a few of them.

Hayso, an excellent guide through the Mae La Refugee camp and I believe is an excellent soccer player, and Karen language teacher.

Hong Sar, shown here with an australian volunteer Meghan, is an administrator at Hsa Htoo Lei and was able to spend some time with us showing us Mae Sot on bicycle, and correcting my faulty Burmese. He has a great sense of humor and is an amazing photographer. He showed us some of his work and it was very moving.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Mae Sot and will probably add some more experiences to the blog in the next few days of getting back to normal after our busy 2 weeks.

Jen is also not feeling well today. This is day 3 of some kind of stomach flu that comes and goes and got worse yesterday by the rough and windy road between Mae Sot and Chiang Mai.

Another incident of note is that yesterday, after Dave, our tour leader, checked us all out of the hotel after paying in cash (typical in Thailand more than Credit Cards) got a phone call from the hotel saying that they had not fully paid the bill. Dave gave them his credit card number for the balance outstanding and offered to pay the remainder when he returns in another week with another group of 17 to stay there for 2 weeks. We drove for a about half an hour and then were pulled over at a check stop by the military. Apprently, the hotel put an APB out on the vans and couldn't leave until the front desk clerk from the hotel drove out to meet us at the check stop and pick up the diffence in cash. Apprently cards weren't good enough. It was a misunderstanding and Dave paid the fellow but it was an unexpected delay for all of us in the group.

Stay warm to those back home and stay cool to everyone else in warmer climes.

Ted

Sad to leave Mae Sot remains copyright of the author jented, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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