Vietnam Pictures (Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa)

This has been our favorite leg of the trip thus far. Everything that has not gone our way leading up to to these moments, which tends to happen on trips sometimes whether it's money, food, or transportation issues, it all stopped mattering once we went to Vietnam.

Our favorite part of our trip has been the 3 day, 2 night tour through Halong Bay. The first night we stayed on a junk boat and just relaxed while we sailed over night to Halong Bay to kayak and swim with our cool and very fun tour guide name Canh. While sailing there the first day we stopped at a really interesting floating fishing village with hundreds of people living and working on floating structures. 

A floating school right next to where we stopped and got to walk around on the floating village to look at some fish and mussel farming areas and learn about their culture.

Our junk boat that we slept on the first and second night from which we jumped off and swam from numerous times. We had fresh seafood meals the whole time!

 

Joe and one of the tour guides from Handspan jumping off our junk boat.

Jeff and Jeff, two guys we spent the whole Halong Bay trip with and bunked with on the train to Sapa. Two fun spirited guys, we all had a blast.

All five of us kayaking in a "secret" lagoon!

Canh, the best tour guide at Handspan!! He was a great guide and told us some really funny stories and took us kayaking through a 100+ meter, pitch black cave which we had to use flashlights to navigate through. It was the scariest and most adventurous thing Joe and I have ever done...we thought camping was pretty extreme before this trip.

Joe scavenging for our next meal on our break from kayaking on a private beach ;)

 

We spent the third night at a 5 star resort called Sunrise Resort on Cat Ba Island. It was very nice and we got a great deal with our package through Handspan because it was all inclusive!

On the beach at the resort, we weren't there for five minutes and were already playing in the waves and splashing around like little kids.

 

The waves the following day were a lot larger and dangerous, we attempted swimming in these and were scared away. 

Saying goodbye to the Jeffs as we went our separate ways in Sapa, they were heading for a two night home stay with a family in a tribal village, we were off to Topas Eco Lodge for some relaxation.

 

View of the mountains in the town of Sapa right before our voyage up to Topas Eco Lodge.

Some local village girls I met while walking around taking photos. They all have handmade goods that they tried to sell me and wore the same clothing representing their tribe.

Me clenching onto Joe for dear life on our scary drive on dirt roads up the mountains to Topas Eco Lodge. Picture this: A very bumpy and rocky one lane dirt road, a crazy driver, several mini streams flowing down mountain that we had to cross through, no guard rail, and a couple thousand meters of elevation looking down in to the river basin from the road. I was a tad scared that we were going to go rolling down and was very sweaty by the time we arrived.

Joe outside our bungalow at the Eco Lodge.

The bungalows were eco-friendly hence the name Eco Lodge run on solar operated heat and electricity.

Inside our bungalow, it was so comfy with little slippers for us to wear and a great view out at the mountains!

Joe hanging with the kitty in the lodge where we played many rounds of cards mainly gin and and go fish, and Banana Grams (if you don't know google it because it's the best game ever created) while sipping hot cocoa. It could get pretty chilly up there at times, it gave us a feel for being at home or at the cabin or something.

The cute little puppy who would just roam around and chew on dry leaves all day.

Good view of the rice terraces, it was hard to take a good picture of them with all the fog on the last day.

 

A roaming water buffalo sighting right on our patio of our bungalow. Pretty nice.

Joe getting chased by fruit basket lady in Hanoi. We had realized by this point that they were all involved in a large mafia scam against tourists, but when we first arrived we were basically robbed by them. What they do is come up to you and put the fruit basket holders on both of your shoulders and pin a pointed sun hat on your head (they obviously look for couples because hey, how funny would that be to the other partner!) SO THEN the partner who is not being bombarded by fruit baskets and a hat proceeds to laugh and giggle and whip the camera out like its nobody's business and snap a photo and the same thing is then done to them. Consequently after all the fun and games are over and the laughter subsides, they expect you to pay them for the photo you took on your camera...and they then shove bags of warm cut up fruit in your hands that you did not ask for and expect you to pay them. Then you start feeling resentment of all things and pay them what they want...against your will because they get extremely upset and throw fits if you tell them no. We never let it happen again, but it was a hard lesson to learn. Looking back you can recognize them so easily because they dress similar and all have big baskets of bananas and pineapple waiting to pin their next victims. There are worse crimes in the world I guess...

 

A photo hanging on the wall at Hoa Lo Prison which was run and built by the French and was also where John McCain was held prisoner during the Vietnam war.

Joe in front of a big bolted door at Hoa Lo Prison.

Statue reenactments of prisoners at Hoa Lo. 

A small water drain which prisoners escaped from regularly at Hoa Lo. 

The be-header at Hoa Lo

 

 A couple of cool statues in the park on our last walk around the lake in Hanoi.

Muay Thai Kick Boxing Match and Paragon Movie Theater

Sorry for the delay in posts, we have been experiencing choppy internet connections with an abundance of photos to upload each day. I will try my hardest to give this last couple of weeks we have experienced the justice it deserves, but some experiences we have are just not possible to put into words.
My inspiration at the moment: watching 'Man Vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel 
Muay Thai Kick Boxing Match

 One night we decided to take in some Muay Thai Kick Boxing at the Lumphini Stadium. We were sold two ringside tickets which was pretty nice once we got in and realized if we purchased 2nd or 3rd class tickets we would have been escorted into a pool of screaming men betting on the best match up, not our best bet (no pun intended). We arrived during the 3rd match up where some tiny light weights were dueling. After being escorted in by a women in a red boxing jacket we sat down and had the regular adjustment phase that we go through each time we arrive at a new place. First thing I noticed was an abundance of people in the 'pit' which seems to me the best way to describe hundreds of loud screaming men raising their arms to place their bet on the next round of each match. The next thing I realized is that these young boys boxing have no gear on besides their shorts and gloves and are literally kicking and punching at the head and legs. It looked a lot like regular boxing but knees to the stomach and straight leg kicks to the head, neck, and legs were fair game. Noticeably each time one opponent would make a series of kicks to the stomach the whole crowd would scream very loud and it almost felt as though they were counting how many kicks in a row one boxer could get. I had an epiphany while watching about Billy Blanks TaeBo. The kicks they were making were very similar to the kicks in the Billy Blanks workout tape which I used to practice regularly. I am not certain this was his inspiration but it just felt like it could be.
The lighting was horrible in the place so a decent photo was hard to take, but this was taken before the match of the 'big dogs' who were the last match up which basically is the reason everyone comes to watch. It ended very fast with a knock out by the man in the pink shorts. Another similar but longer match actually lead to one of the boxers being knocked unconscious because he was kicked directly in the head and was down instantly; he consequently lost that match. The stretcher came out very quickly and you would not believe how loud people were screaming when that happened...we were scared for the guy! There was ceremonial music playing the whole time with loud drums and plenty of beer spread throughout the whole place. We had a good time.

They were very respectful of the other opponent and would do this really interesting dance/stretching routine around the ring stopping at each corner to either pray or use it to stretch their legs out. During warm ups they wore these cloth braided rings on their heads with very sophisticated robes and lays of fresh flowers around their necks; they were already dripping with sweat. After each round large human sized cake pans were thrown into their corners of the ring for the boxers to stand in and sit on stools. This was the best part to watch because they would just get ravished with water by their coaches and trainers while getting a pep talk and their muscles rubbed.

 

One of the boxers was really interesting to watch because he was so tall for his weight class and had a definite disadvantage to his opponent who was much shorter than him who could knee him very easily in his stomach. This boxer did a great job at blocking regardless and barely ever took his eyes off his coach. All of the boxers were disciplined like I have never seen, but with this boxer it showed crystal clear. I have no idea how he was able to concentrate on boxing while looking directly at his coach almost the whole time.

Paragon Cineplex 
 Our last day in Bangkok was spent doing one of our favorite pass times which is watching movies! We went and saw The Box at the Paragon Cineplex which is much different from any movie theater you have every experienced. We got a couples seat in an Nokia Ultra Screen; movie watching at its finest. The photos should take care of this.

 

 Yeah, it was definitely a good day at the movies! We didn't realize we were suppose to kick back at the martini bar before the show and got strange looks when we bought our popcorn before going into the movie walking in there like two witty kids like we normally do but little did we know we were supposed to order it from a lady once we sat down and cozied up in our silk blankets and pillows. We had no complaints. At the beginning of the movie they had a 5 minute tribute video to the king which actually brought me to tears, they music just got me. Joe was laughing at me.

More posts to come, posting from beautiful SaPa, Vietnam right now trying to recap our last couple weeks of events! For now take a look at some final days from Bangkok:

Photos from Final Days in Bangkok: 

On the roof top of the hotel trying out our mini tripod for the camera

Victory Monument 

 

Joe in front of a cool fountain on our walk to Dusit Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

We spent hours with the elephants feeding them grass and watching them. They are beautiful creatures and are so people friendly. The one below stepped over the cage it was in and it scared us because he was coming right for us and was kind of going fast but he proceed to follow his trainer (lady in red) and she just started laughing like it was no big deal. I tapped her on her shoulder about him getting out, she then fed him milk through a bottle with a long straw. It was adorable.

Hungry Hungry Hippos.

 

Chao for now!

Temples and Lumphini Park

The last week has sort of flew by with jet lag, heat, and misc. adjustments but we are now finally starting to feel in tune with our senses here. The dizzy spells are gone, our tummies are adjusting, and the heat doesn't seem to be getting to us the same as it used to. We no longer even acknowledge tuk-tuk drivers but still have the tendency to fall for masked scams from nice people who prance up to us on the street. Unfortunately we can't rid ourselves of our tendency to look like tourists with our stylish side bags and maps pouring out of every pocket...

Like for instance today on our way to a Hindu Temple, a really nice older lady came up to us and said "you speak English?!" and we replied "yeah!" because no one has asked us that yet. She offered to take our photo which was nice but proceeded on with the same old schpeel that we have been getting from numerous other nicely dressed folks on the street since we got here. She told me I had beautiful blue eyes and told Joe that he was so lucky to have me, which was nice, but that's when I began to tune her out. It's not that it gets us angry it can just get us off track for a while because there is always a 'holiday' or something we haven't been told about. As we have come to notice Thais are very persistent and will do or say anything to make a sale. This tactic is not a common part of the culture I was raised on so it's really interesting to see and hear the different techniques. It does outline their hard work ethic though. We have become such Bangkok Buffs that we now make fun of other tourists that are getting sold to.

We have been mainly walking and taking the Sky Train pretty much everywhere we go now. We seem to still be making our regular coffee stops as we would back home, pathetic... I know but I got a iced mocha for 20 baht yesterday which was substantially cheaper than at Starbucks today for 370 baht for two which were both comparable in flavor. A few recaps of what we have been doing should make this post enjoyable. I will include a few photos, do not mind the poor quality of Blog Spot uploads, if I would have known this I would have just stuck to Facebook albums, oh well we are making do!

After comparing 'Old Bangkok' to 'New Bangkok' we realized that the 'Old Bangkok' was a more accurate ethnic snap shot of the working class Thai lifestyle and we began to appreciate it more. All the same vendors line the streets each morning selling food and trinkets with their stray animals pets roaming close by. The food at the stands consists of lots of spicy chicken on sticks and various Thai dishes with fresh vegetables and noodles. We have seen adequate amounts different curries and fruits and have tried fresh papaya and mango along with several fresh oranges, apples, and dragon fruit. The Nonthanburi morning market was our favorite place for encountering street sold food and we arrived around 7 am to get there before everything closed. This market was captivating mainly because of the scorpions, snakes, frogs, turtles, and pig heads for sale.

We have visited quite a few stops along the Choa Phrya Express Boat and each one seems to be a portal to major fishing villages which is why people sell lots of seafood very close by and right out in the open hence them being freshly caught and ready to be eaten. At one stop on the river there were two vendors selling bags of old bread to feed the fish and pigeons. The fish would just flock to the bread in the water, strange...I didn't know fish liked bread, but it was disgusting how crammed they were in the river. I have never seen so many fat fish flapping around for bread in my life. The bread feeding days for pigeons are over, they were a minor attraction at this stop and it was 20 baht well spent for cheap entertainment.

Lumphini Park was a great change of pace from the rustle and bustle that any city seems to have. It was peaceful with large lizards floating about in the water and slithering up the grass for a snack of mud and flies.  We spent a great deal of time here taking random photos and Joe even found a friend. It was a 'mutual respect' friend; no talking needed to understand that these two just understood each other.

Joe's friend was doing cool tricks on his bike, not the best snap shot but our videos did him justice.

This one is not even close to the biggest one we saw. One was even stuck in a water drain, too much scraps from people in the park must have fattened him up. 

I was intrigued by this large leaf, so used to maple and oak leaves.

The rest of our photos in the park were of this nature, including one montage of each of us sitting in different chairs trying to reenact Where's Waldo. Not the best photographers in the world.

Just a few express boat stops away from our hotel we attempted a Lonely Planet Buddhist Temple walking tour on yet another 90 degree day which started and ended at this same place, The Grand Palace. It ended up being quite short due to the heat but full of serenity and beauty mainly because of the charming bells ringing constantly around the Temple of the Buddah and also because the Grand Palace is one of the largest temples in Bangkok holding so much history within it. Every square inch of this place was embedded in gold and color and the workmanship of every piece was quite astonishing.

We also visited a Hindu Temple which was a lot smaller, but still very peaceful inside with interesting ceremonial music playing while the Hindus worshiped.