Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

We arrived in darkness at the Old Quarter of Hanoi, amid the sights, smells, and energy of the busy streets.  We settled into our hotel for a day of exploring around the city, where we visited some of the more impressive sites such as the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (they’ve kept him embalmed here despite his wishes to be cremated…an eerie scene),  the Temple of Literature, the American War museum, and Hoa Lo Prison (otherwise known as the Hanoi Hilton of the Vietnam War).  It was interesting to see the Vietnamese interpretation of the conflict, painted by Vietnamese historians as “The Great Victory”; not surprisingly there are always two sides to every story. 

We left the noise of Hanoi and headed for the peace and calm of Ha Long Bay, a newly chosen UNESCO World Heritage Site along the eastern coast of Vietnam.  The jade waters of the bay are dotted with over 2000 tiny limestone islands as well as one relatively large one, Cat Ba island, which contains a stunning national park.  We spent one night floating on a junk boat in the middle of the bay, as well as two nights in the staggering beauty of Cat Ba. 

Luang Prabang: Spirituality Up Close

We arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, late on Wednesday night to what we thought was a strange and sleepy town.  Our drive from the airport left us anxiously seeking out our guest house in the hopes that it wasn’t too rough, even for the likes of us, because the unusual empty feeling the streets gave us seemed a bit unnerving.  We soon discovered, however, that not only was our room magnificently large by Asian standards (and only $12 a night!) but the desolation of the nearby streets was because most of the locals were spending their evening packed in tightly under lighted tents along a strip of road in the middle of town, trying to make an honest living at the Hmong Night Market.  While this bazaar of local goods bustles with energy, it ends peacefully at 11:30pm when the government curfew is enforced.  While we both enjoyed the sights, Nick hurried through as he was constantly bending down to avoid and/or bumping his head on the ridiculously short tent roofs.

The next morning we bargained for a guide book and had some breakfast from a delightful French woman, giving us the energy we needed for our walking tour of Luang Prabang.  The city sits at the intersection of the Me Kong and Nam Khan rivers, which weave their muddy way through the forest and provide the local villages with a connection to this main settlement.  We toured through the swelteringly hot and humid day around the Royal Palace as well as plenty of  temples, and the pictures are posted here!  

Luang Prabang, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has well preserved buildings but its deeply spiritual culture, which has withstood the test of time and permeates through the city’s identity, was one of the most apparent features of our visit.  One of the most pure examples of traditional Lao culture is the Almsgiving Ceremony, in which all the local monks make a walking trip through town to accept donations of sticky rice from Laotians and tourists alike.  The monks are only allowed to eat that which is given to them, and thus this daily ritual is of great importance for their subsistence.  We arose at dawn to take part in the ceremony, buying sticky rice from a vendor down the street, and then waited outside our hotel (with our extremely helpful night guard friend) for the monks to arrive.  They came in small lines of 5-10, sometimes stopping to chant prayers of thanks and other times continuing silently on their way.  We just about scalded our fingertips off on the piping hot sticky rice, and it was certainly an early wake up, but becoming a part of Lao culture for the morning was well worth the pains of getting there.

Later we traveled to Kuang Si Falls, about 32 km outside of Chiang Mai.  Sorry parents, motorbike was the only way to get there!  We wore helmets, we swear.   What awaited us after our journey were tiers of statuesque limestone formations peeking through the dense  jungle, with water gushing forth violently from the largest of the falls.  While there were several swimming areas (and several “do not swimming areas”) we opted for the hike up the mountainside to where the falls begin their…fall.  Take a look!

From here it’s on to Hanoi!

Chiang Mai Photos

Without further ado, here are the photos we took in Chiang Mai!

Chaang means Elephant in Thai

Yesterday Nick and I drove with a group out to Baan Chang Elephant Park to the Northwest of Chiang Mai for our day of elephant riding.  We spent the morning learning about the elephants and making friends with them by feeding them bananas and sugarcane, which of course was awesome.  Trunks are so cool.  We had to learn to command the elephants using Thai words, so for all who are curious:

 

Song Kha!  --> Lift leg up (to help you get on)

Suung! –>Lift leg higher!

Pai! –> Go forward

Toi! –>Back up

PePe!  --> Turn (either direction, you kick with your feet and use this hooky thing to move their heads where you want to go.

How! –>  Stop!

 

We broke for a quick and delicious Thai lunch with our guides and the other people in our group, who were a bunch of Dutch and English tourists, then we were assigned an elephant for our hour and a half ride through the jungle.  Nick and I (and a small dutch boy named Fabio, for a brief period) got Kham-Ben, the largest bull elephant in the group.  It was definitely a must-do experience, and despite the dorkiness of our outfits, we felt so incredibly cool sitting on top of a such a mammoth animal.  They are so gentle and have unique personalities all their own…Kham-Ben happened to be a huge pig who mostly liked to stop and eat entire palm trees, but he would listen intently to our Mahout (elephant whisperer, essentially).  We still don’t know what his name was, but he was awesome and we took about 10 pictures with him.  Check out the album!

Today, we fly off to Luang Prabang, Laos!  Catch you later!

Chiang Mai---no pictures yet :(

We're experiencing technical difficulties...my camera and windows 7 aren't very good friends. A card reader will soon remedy the situation, but for now I'll just have to be more vivid in my descriptions.

I arrived in Bangkok after about 25 hours of travel to one of the most beautiful airports I've ever seen. BKK Suvarnabhumi is ENORMOUS, with sweeping curves and orchid gardens aplenty. I met up with Nick, my partner in crime, who had procured a driver and took us back to our hotel in the Pratunam section of town. Though Pratunam is known for its shopping (apparently?) what we found most exciting about our first day in Bangkok was the food. I had the joy of being jet lagged, so I took a little walk around the streets in the early morning to get my bearings and explore. Misha and Tina, this post is for you. You would absolutely have a heart attack at all the delicious looking food the street vendors are painstakingly preparing in the morning hours. The smells, the tastes of Bangkok make it a worthwhile stop no matter how long the stay. Unfortunately, ours was only for one day, but we'll be back on the 25th!

In the evening we traveled on to Chiang Mai, which both Nick and I decided is like the Boise of Thailand. The people are frightfully nice, you feel extremely safe, it's pretty clean as far as larger Asian cities go, and it has all kinds of neat little coffee shops, bookstores, etc because it is home to Chiang Mai University, Thailand's biggest college. We started out the next morning with a little more walking around the city, then decided right away that it would be good to head to some of the more remote temples in the hillsides around the city in order to get a vantage point and explore some Thai culture. We made our way to Doi Suthep, about 45 minutes up a windy mountain road to the northwest of Chiang Mai.

Along the way, there were a number of interesting stops such as shrines dedicated to the royal family, scenic lookouts, and waterfalls. We ended up pulling off at some of these sites, but we spent the longest hiking around the waterfalls and exploring the pools and slides nature had carved into the hilly landscape. Pictures will come soon! It was absolutely beautiful, and we almost lost track of time, arriving at Doi Suthep a little before sunset. I think it was actually for the best, however, as the temple was almost completely empty save for the monks, who had started their evening prayer services, and some cute dogs picking up the scraps which tourists and worshipers alike had left behind. Thai religious buildings and art use a staggering amount of gold leaf, so all of our shots glimmer despite the impending darkness. As night began to fall, we coasted back down the mountain and went out for mexican food, which wasn't actually too bad. We have hit Chiang Mai in the peak of avocado season, apparently.

The next day we spent exploring the temples within Chiang Mai proper and setting up today's excursion, which will be a day spent with elephants in the jungles north of Chiang Mai. It should prove to be quite the adventure, as we get to "own" our own elephant for the day, feeding and bathing it while trying to understand more about these gentle giants. We're about to set off for said adventure, so I'll post (hopefully with pictures of pachyderms aplenty) later today!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hello family and friends! This is the story of our three week excursion in Southeast Asia. The trip begins in Bangkok, then continues north to Chiang Mai, the oldest city in Thailand and the old capital of the north kingdom. You'll see the rest as it comes :) We'll be snapping pictures and collecting our thoughts throughout, so stay tuned!