Adventures in Vietnam

The Land of the Ascending Dragon

We spent 27 days in Vietnam, January 4th to January 30th. We were a bit nervous about Vietnam because we had heard so many mixed reviews from other travelers. It turns out that we love Vietnam! It has made its way onto our favorites list. We loved the diversity of flavors, experiences, and climates as we traveled from south to north. It made every location a little special. Our top favorites were some of the smaller towns: Hoi An, Tam Coc, and Sapa. It might also be a favorite because we got to spend ten days with Lindsey’s parents traveling in luxury. It was nice to follow a different tourist path for a while. We knew that we would be staying at nicer hotels, but we didn’t realize that would also mean that they recommended different restaurants and activities. It was a fun change and we relished in the new experiences of traveling in style. 

1. Go

Transportation in Vietnam is a pretty mixed bag. It’s a lot busier than neighboring Cambodia and much faster. Considering that Vietnam has about 90 million people, it makes sense that the roads would be busy. We found the public transportation to be decent and easy enough to find. We really loved being able to travel by train, but wish the tracks were a little smoother so we could sleep soundly.

Vietnam – Train to Sapa

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City – Train from HCMC to Danang

Vietnam – Hue – Overnight train

Total traveling distances:

• Bus – 1080 km
• Train – 2029 km
• Taxi – 240 km
• Boat – 50 km
• Foot – 314,000 steps

2. See

Vietnam has a large variety of things to see an do, from war tourism to cities to natural beauty, there’s something for everyone.

Favorite Museums:

• Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi – This museum focuses on the minority tribes in Vietnam. The displays were a refreshing and engaging mix of artifacts, photos, videos, and life size scenes. They even had reconstructed tradition homes to explore.

Vietnam – Hanoi – Museum of Ethnology

Vietnam – Hanoi – Museum of Ethnology

Favorite Outdoors:

• Halong Bay – Easily one of the most beautiful and strange places on earth.
• Ninh Binh – Described as the “Halong Bay on land” this place is also beautiful and strange.
• Sapa – What can we say, we just love the mountains and crisp air.

Vietnam – Halong Bay

Vietnam – Trang An Grottos

Vietnam – Sapa – Hiking through the terrances

Favorite Cities:

• Hoi An – Ok, this is more of a town than a city, but it is beyond charming. During the day, the tiny alleys fill with tailor shops, and at night it lights up with lanterns and floating candles. 

Vietnam – Hoi An – Japanese Covered Bridge

3. Eat

Fresh and delicious! Vietnam cuisine has as much variety as the climate and weather. From the comforting hot soups for breakfast to fresh salads and large amounts of vermicelli, we just couldn’t get enough. Like Taiwan, each region has a specialty. Locals were quick to tell us what dish they made better than anyone else. Simple dishes like pho and spring rolls varied drastically from one area to another. We could make an incredibly long list, but we will stick to our top five foods.

Favorite Foods:

• Bun Cha – This is Lindsey’s new obsession. You get a big plate of vermicelli, grilled pork, herbs, spring rolls, and fish sauce. Then you get to mix them together and enjoy!
• Pho – This simple, comforting staple turned into our comfort food.
• Green Papaya Salad – Fresh and light and perfect during hot weather. There are also versions made with green mango and banana flower that are just as tasty.
• Squid Cake – This is a Halong Bay specialty and they claim that no one else makes it like they do. We didn’t get to test this claim since we only ate it in Halong Bay, but they made a delicious version. It’s a breaded, deep fried “cake” made of squid and possibly something else.
• The Green Tangerine – Ok, this is a restaurant and not a dish, but wow! Everything we had there was outstanding and unique.

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City – First Pho!

Vietnam – Hoi An – Fruits of our labor during the cooking class

Vietnam – Hanoi – Green Tangerine – Ying Yang soup, candy shaped pasta, fish and apple tart, and pork ribs

Vietnam – Hoi An – BBQ

4. Drink

In case you missed it, we love Vietnam’s coffee. It is really, really strong (too strong for Lindsey in the north). Usually it’s served with sweetened condensed milk, but we have it black since we can’t have dairy.

Favorite Drinks:

• Coffee – Strong enough to make you question your purpose in life.

5. Sleep

We were really pleased with all our accommodations in Vietnam. The hotels and guesthouses we stayed in were all clean with incredibly friendly staff. Once we met up with Lindsey’s parents, things got a bit nicer. We stayed in some pretty great rooms with some coma-inducing, soft beds.

Favorite Sleeps:

• Victoria Resort, Sapa – Perched on the hill side above town and reminiscent of a mountain lodge, this place had great food, great views, and great ambiance.
• Paradise Cruise, Halong Bay – Our room was tiny, but gorgeous. We even had a balcony!

Vietnam – Halong Bay – Our ship

6. Move

The cooler temperatures in central and northern Vietnam made being active much easier. We were able to bike, walk, hike, and swim!

Favorite walking/running/biking/kayaking spots:

• Hoi An – Nice biking through the rice paddies.
• Tam Coc – Even more biking through rice paddies and through the hills. Also, lots of hiking to the top of karsts for the view.
• Halong Bay – Cold but spectacular kayaking. The equipment could have been better… packing tape held our paddles together.
• Sapa – The cool, crisp air made hiking and running very enjoyable.

Vietnam – Hoi An

Vietnam – Hang Mua

Vietnam – Halong Bay

Vietnam – Sapa – Hiking through the terrances

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Vietnam (pre-Chadwick adventure) was $71.51. We were surprised it was so low. We felt like we were living it up and spending lots of dough even before we met up with the ‘rents. Vietnam had everything that we wanted in our price range.

We heard lots of people say that the Vietnamese were unfriendly, but we did not find this to be the case. All our hotel staff and guides were incredibly friendly. Some restaurant or food stall workers were short with us, but we didn’t think it was rudeness. Maybe it’s all those years we spent in New York, so it didn’t bother us! At the nicer restaurants we went to with Lindsey’s parents, the staff was very friendly and accommodating. It was only at quick-bites establishments that we experienced the shortness and usually just when they were very busy.

Check out all our photos from Vietnam on Flickr and our post, Colors of Vietnam.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Vietnam:

• Week 32 – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Week 33 – Hoi An and Hue, Vietnam
• Week 34 – Ninh Binh, Hanoi, and Halong Bay, Vietnam
• Week 35 – Hanoi and Sapa, Vietnam

Adventures in Cambodia

One Month Is Way Too Long

We spent 28 days in Cambodia, December 7th to January 3rd, and thought it was entirely too much time. Originally, we loved Cambodia despite the food poisoning Lindsey got on our third day. We loved Siem Reap, the Angkor Temples, and Battambang. Things took a bit of a turn in Phnom Penh. We couldn’t seem to escape the loud thumping music and sex tourism during both our stays in Phnom Penh and especially our time on Koh Rong. We budgeted a month in Cambodia because we thought it would be quiet, rural travel. We were disappointed to find that Cambodia is firmly on the backpacker trail filled with twenty-somethings looking to party on the cheap. They are easy to identify because they blatantly ignore local customs by wearing skimpy clothing and usually have bandages covering new tattoos or motorbike crash injuries (no license required). The more we tried to avoid the backpacker scene, the more we couldn’t get away from it. However, on a positive note, the Cambodian people are some of the friendliest locals we have encountered anywhere. 

1. Go

Transportation in Cambodia is a hot mess. We can easily say that it was never boring and kept us on our toes. They usually drive on the right, but only if it’s convenient. There are sometimes road signs, which are universally ignored. There are trucks loaded way too high, mopeds with a family of four, and tuk tuks vying for road space. The only thing that keeps all this from being terrifying is the slow speed that most vehicles travel (at least in towns). Tuk tuks are common in Cambodia for both tourists and locals. We did several tuk tuk tours which are some of our favorite memories from all of Cambodia.

Cambodia – Siem Reap – View from the tuk tuk

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Our wonderful tuk tuk driver!

Cambodia – Battambang – View from the tuk tuk

We had the pleasure/misfortune of taking several boat rides. The first was a four hour ride that turned into eight brutally hot hours from Siem Reap to Battambang. Then some ferry rides and transfers to and from Koh Rong. These were some of the sketchiest boats we have ever been in. The ferry was fine, but the seas were so rough, we named it the “Barf Boat.” The transfer boats were not only questionably safe, they were often overfilled.

Cambodia – Tonle Sap Lake

Cambodia – Koh Rong – boat transfer in rough seas (not the “Barf Boat”)

Total traveling distances:

• Plane – 400 km
• Minibus – 740 km
• Boat – 160 km
• Tuk Tuk – 192 km
• Foot – 267,000 steps

2. See

People typically come to Cambodia for one reason – the Angkor temples – and they are outstanding. Aside from that, the only thing we really thought was worthwhile was the S21 Museum and Killing Fieilds documenting the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, but were charmed by the city of Battambang.

Favorite Sights:

• Angkor Temples – How can you not love this place? We were worried about battling the crowds, but we only found it to be a problem twice: first at Ankor Wat during sunrise and then at the Tomb Raider temple. We found lots of temples with very few people. It was simply magical.

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Preah Ko

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Ta Prohm

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Chau Say Tevoda

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Angkor Thom

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Angkor Thom – The Faces of Bayon

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Pat exploring Preah Khan

Favorite Museums:

• S21 – This former school was turned into a prison and torture center during the Khmer Rouge regime. It is now a museum documenting the atrocities committed during their reign.
• Killing Fields – This is one of many killing fields littering Cambodia. It was the final resting place for thousands of Cambodian people killed by the Khmer Rouge for being a threat (including teachers, lawyers, doctors, and their families).

Cambodia – Phnom Penh – S21

Cambodia – Phnom Penh – Killing Fields

Favorite Surprise:

• Battambang – This is a dusty, small town (actually, Cambodia’s second largest) that is still on the tourist path, but skipped over by most people. We stayed in a weird business hotel and did a tuk tuk tour of all the sights in one day. The town pretty much shut down around 8pm, which we really appreciated. None of the sights were all that impressive, but we were charmed by our tuk tuk guide and felt like we got to see the real Cambodia for the first time.

Cambodia – Battambang – Our driver/guide with his six month old son

Cambodia – Battambang – The Bamboo Train

Cambodia – Battambang

Cambodia – Battambang

Cambodia – Battambang – Phnom Samplou

Cambodia – Battambang – Phnom Samplou bat cave exodus

3. Eat

Meh. Although food was easy to find, it felt very contrived and sterilized. Every restaurant served the exact same thing. They all had Khmer curry on the menu on one page, then hamburgers and pizza on the next page. All the street stalls were selling banana and chocolate pancakes. We did not see locals eating at the majority of the restaurants we visited, except for Battambang.

Favorite Foods:

• Amok – We tried this mild Khmer curry multiple times and liked it every time. It’s traditionally made with fish and wrapped in banana leaves.

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Lunch!

4. Drink

We happened to be in Cambodia during Christmas and New Years, but there wasn’t much variety in the drink selection. All the cocktails were ones you would expect at a resort in Florida and the beers were generic light lagers that were refreshing in the heat, but not terribly interesting. There were lots of stands selling fruit smoothies and juices, but after watching the ice being transported, we had some serious food safety concerns. We did have a few juices and smoothies, but only at cleaner establishments.

Favorite Drinks:

• Hot Toddy – Pat came down with a nasty cold during our week on Koh Rong. We taught the bartender how to make a hot toddy (hot drinks aren’t all the popular when it’s 95 out).
• Fresh Fruit Juice – Delicious and served everywhere. Unfortunately, we only enjoyed them a few times after seeing the questionable cleanliness of most places serving them.

5. Sleep

We had very mixed experiences with our hotels/hostels/campsites in Cambodia. It was one of those countries where we had to make an effort to escape the partying backpackers, but didn’t always succeed. Regardless of the quality of the establishment, the staff were always beyond friendly.

Favorite Sleeps:

• Villa Medamrei, Siem Reap – Our first nights were spent in this lovely, quiet place tucked away.

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Villa Medamrei

6. Move

Continuing with the hot and humid countries has made working out difficult. Cambodia was not an easy country to walk or run in. We struggled even walking a few blocks since there are rarely sidewalks which means we would have to walk in the street with traffic. Pat found a few running routes along rivers, but they tended to be smelly from all the trash and had inconsistent quality. The only place we were able to walk at length was in and around the Angkor temples.

Favorite walking spot:

• Angkor Temples – We spent three days wandering these gems. Many were not crowded at all and allowed us to wander and climb at our leisure. We had some very high steps count during our touring days.

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Lindsey on Pre Rup

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Angkor Thom – Pat climbing into the Library of Bayon

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Lindsey on the boardwalk to Neak Poan

Cambodia – Siem Reap – Angkor Thom – Bayon

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Cambodia was $72.76.  We were surprised it wasn’t cheaper. Everything we read before said that everything from food to lodging would be cheap. We paid a little more for hotels sometimes in an effort to avoid the party crowd. 

Our biggest surprise overall was the friendliness of the locals, and not just towards us, towards each other. They were very physical with each other in a playful way – like teenagers flirting. It was not uncommon to see grown men putting each other in headlocks or chasing girls with something gross in hand. At one restaurant we visited, they kept closing the refrigerator door while someone else was trying to get stuff out. The trapped worker would then chase the other trying to kick them, all with huge grins and fits of laughter. It was refreshing to see people unabashedly having fun.

Check out all our photos from Cambodia on Flickr and our post, Colors of Cambodia.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Cambodia:

• Week 28 – Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Week 29 – Siem Reap, Battambang, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Week 30 – Phnom Penh and Koh Rong, Cambodia
• Week 31 – Koh (W)Rong and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Adventures in Taiwan

Everything we want in a Travel Destination

We spent 27 days in Taiwan, October 21st to November 16th and loved it. Taiwan was not originally on our Round the World Route, but after the earthquake in Nepal, we started looking for another destination to visit in the fall. I read somewhere that the food was good and one of our regular spots in Albany was a Taiwanese noodle shop, so the seed was planted. Even after we bought at tickets we didn’t really know what we were getting into, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve made on this trip. Taiwan stands out as one of our top destinations on our ever-growing list of countries.

Adventures in New Zealand

A Whirlwind Adventure

We spent 30 days in New Zealand, September 21st to October 20th. Now, 30 days sounds like a long time, especially for such a tiny country, but it wasn’t nearly enough. We would have been more comfortable with six weeks and would have preferred two months. Before arriving, we decided that more than a month would be too tough on the budget, so we would stick to that.  In the end, it was still the right decision, but we will need to take another trip to New Zealand in the future.

To get an idea of the size and population density of New Zealand, I’m going to steal a line from Nadine, whom we visited in Wellington: New Zealand is the population of Brooklyn, NY spread out over land the size of California. That’s 4.5 million people and 1.5 million of them live in Auckland, leaving the rest of the country sparsely populated. As a result, there aren’t many roads outside the big cities with more than two lanes (one each direction). They felt like side roads or scenic routes instead main roads. They also have lots of one lane bridges, so you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge first.

In some ways our time in New Zealand was easier than other countries. For one, it’s the only English speaking country that we plan to visit, so we took full advantage by renting the van. However, roadtripping is a completely different kind of travel than backpacking and it took us awhile to get our wheels under us. We didn’t plan ahead for New Zealand nearly as much as we had planned for other countries (presumably because we thought it would be so much easier to travel through). Due to that lack of planning, we had to plan on a daily basis and ended up trying to see too much. We should have planned ahead, so we could narrow down our itinerary. We felt pressured to reach a new location every day, but also were hesitant to stop too much along the way for fear that we wouldn’t get a campsite, or couldn’t get to our next location.

Other than driving on the left, our time in New Zealand felt a bit like a road trip in the Pacific Northwest: English speaking, beautiful scenery, good food, and good beer. All in all, we really loved New Zealand and can’t wait to go back.

Week 16 – Adventures in Tahiti

Another Week, Another Paradise!

It’s Tahiti and it’s exactly what you’d expect: beautiful blue lagoons, steep green mountains, sea life… you know, typical paradise. We took advantage of said paradise and did next to nothing for the week. Other than renting a car for the day, we just relaxed.

An interesting note: Tahiti was not in our original planned route, that is, until we added Easter Island. You see, there are only two flight destinations from Easter Island: Santiago and Tahiti. We weren’t too keen on backtracking to Santiago, and after doing some research, we found that flying from Santiago to Easter Island to Tahiti was virtually the same price as a roundtrip ticket from Santiago to Easter Island. Flights from Tahiti to New Zealand are relatively cheap while flights from Santiago to New Zealand are quite expensive. So, it made sense to go through Tahiti. We figured we should stop and check it out for a few days, just for fun. 🙂