Hanoi

So... we've had some amazing times. Amazing times that I think should be read on Albert's blog (http://albertandsoutheastasia.blogspot.com) lol.

I will say no more. :)

We took an overnight train to Hoi An, Vietnam.

Welcome to Vietnam!

As I write, I sit in an internet cafe in Hoi An, Vietnam. This city is incredibly beautiful. You can feel the history, the love and the pain that was once here and still remains.

The city before this was Hanoi, the intoxicating capital of Vietnam, If I had to describe it in few words, I would say: fast, hot, sticky, drunken and full of life. When we arrived, it was late and we were tired... We had just met up with Noelle(finally!) and now we just wanted to find a place to shower, to eat and to chill. We found the Backpackers Hostel and it was full of foreigners... everyone was from all over the world except for some of the workers who were actually vietnamese. We checked in, thinking that this was the most touristy place we could ever stay, but thankful that we could just breathe for one second... because the plane ride from Vientiene to Hanoi had me praying to GOD, the entire time!!

Hanoi was crazy, crazy, crazy! I had a love/hate relationship with it. We had our first meal at some random restaurant, and had some pho. It was good. but I'm thinking the chicken could have been cardboard... it just didn't taste right!! LOL

We set out for our first day and it was tiresome... those stories are to come!

slow boat to LUANG PRUBANG, Laos

the journey was EPIC! We took a slow boat (was supposed to carry ~100 people...carried about 150) from the great city of Chiang Khong to Luang Prubang. This voyage was a two day trip down the Mekong River... completely crazy! We met some amazing folks and actually made friends whom I think we'll see sometime in our future trips. Asiya and Ali from Canada, Joanne and John from Canada/ New Zealand, Justin and Malvina from Ireland.... the list goes on. We were the "cool kids" on the boat... and, of course, everyone wanted to hang out with us. LOL

We finally got to our destination and LP was a great city with obvious french influence, great Laos massages, good food, and great bars! The rain was serious... nothing like I've seen in Cali!

Back to the beach!

The top photo (just me) was on our way to Phuket... getting ready to the islands! The bottom photo is while riding a boat into Maya Cove. The landscape behind Albert and I was all around us... complete paradise. These beaches were the ones that were used in the film "The Beach". The BOMB dot COM.

Royal Agricultural Project

This was in the hills, northeast of the city of Pai. We came upon beautiful gardens and flower patches that were breathtaking. As we were walking through, we came across some younger monks who spoke great English. They let us take a picture with them. :)

In Chiang Mai, a few days ago, we went to The Tribal Museum where we learned about the Kings "Royal Agricultural Project" which was put into place to support education and balance with planting goods and selling them. The project has created a multitude of jobs and opportunities for the hill tribe community and has also created an alternative to the 'slash and burn" practice of using the land and moving on. This project has also helped the community people make a living on growing fruits and vegetables, rather than Opium. It was absolutely incredible.

A little homesick...

I've been gone for about 2 weeks now, and I think I'm a little homesick! LOL

PAI... the hippie town

Pai was cool because it was full of backpackers, folks with dreds, herbal anecdotes and lots of music! We rented a motorbike (which, btw, is the BEST way to travel in an unfamiliar town in Southeast Asia) and traveld through the town as well as the countryside. Pai is known for it's beautiful waterfalls, hot springs, elephant camps and amazing nice people. I experienced all of these and much more. The second night we came across a pretty typical Thai restaurant but they had an incredible band playing that pulled all of us in (me, Alby, Charles and Joanna). I got lost in the jazz/ rock tunes and dinner was delicious.

Overall, Pai was a great place. The guesthouse we stayed in had its own pool and the bathrooms were beautiful! (if you haven't been to SE Asia, you may not know what I mean) I'd love to go there again...

Chiang MAI!

Now, we;ve arrived to Northen Thailand. It's amazingly beautiful up here too... I think that's the theme of Thailand :) Coco, Albert and I spent a full day wandering the city on motorbikes, which we rented for about 3 dollars (100baht) for the entire day. Instantly, ALbert and Coco were naturals, but I decided to stick to riding with Albert. We saw beautiful Wats (Temples) and had crazy conversation with some monks. One Ex-monk who still spends a lot of time at the temple agreed to teaching us a meditation... but it never happened, because we didn't have enough time...

We continued to explore all there is that Chiang Mai offers, but we decided to keep going... We hit the outskirts of Chiang Mai (attempting to find another Wat... without success) but we did find this beautiful jungle like temple area. Right then, we heard an orchestra of chanting and walked towards it. There was a building filled with monks chanting in perfect unison-- prayers that seriously put me into a trance. As we were sitting there, we saw a monk walk by and Albert started to talk to him. The monk as "photo? tiger?" and pointed at us. We think he was trying to ask if we had taken photos with the tigers... we instantly said "really? tigers?!?" Then he proceeded to "take us to the tigers".

This is where the story gets really interesting... After following this monk for 15 minutes into this jungle like monastery, we came to a place where ... cows were chilling out. LOL... he thought that the cows were called tigers in English! But the story gets better... we were all deeply amused by this, as we also saw magnificent deer with extremely larger antlers (Bambi's father)... we asked the monk if we could take pictures with him, and he agreed. Then he asked if Albert could take pictures of him with Coco and me. He held on to us tight, and I was thinking "this monk is pretty friendly..." After that, he told Albert to take more pictures of the deer ( a distraction maybe?" and directly afterwards asked Coco to take a picture of me and him. He put his arm around my waste, and then he sniffed my forehead!! TWICE!?! Actually.... I'm not sure if he sniffed or kissed... but Coco saw my eyes pop outta my head... I was ready to go...

Needless to say, I'll never think of monks the same...

haha.

As the evening came, we became hungry for something other than Thai food (the Thai food is delicious... but sometimes you just want something a little familiar)... we found this excellent Italian restaurant and seriously... it was the best Italian food I'd had (hands down) in a very long time. The pasta was homemade, and the place was full of Italians... it wasn't one of those places where Thai's were making foreign foods... lol.

Coco, ALbert and I were stuffed... in a good way. Then we had to make the decision... Muay Thai boxing? or shopping at the night bazaar? The boxing won...

That story will come later...

ThE KaSBah!!!

The Kasbah is on Ton Sai... it serves food, drinks and offers a ambience of relaxation. They play music, they have a slack line (tight rope thingy) that you can attempt to walk across... but it's only really fun if ur a little inebriated... and lots of people to sit and talk to (mostly backpackers). It was me, Albert, Coco, Irene and Pavel... and we had a great time! I had the Blue Tornado... I think... but this was after Albert bought this bottle of Rum and challlenged Coco and I to continue drinking it... so, by this time, I was feeling sleepy (which means I was a bit drunk).

It was fun, I walked to tight rope (with help from Albert) and then we walked back to our rooms and slept it all off...

GOOD TIMES!!!

Southern Thailand... continued...

After exploring the beauty of the sand, water and people... we decided to find the rock climbing area! The beaches of Railei were supposed to have deep water solo climbing, which meant that you could climb without ropes... but if you fell, you'd fall into water...

We didn't find any cool place to do that, but Albert met some guys from Singapore who are actual members of their school's climbing team... they instantly became Albert's new best friends!! That meant that Coco and I could explore the less active things to do on the island... like SHOPPING! The shopping is so cheap... I've already collected things to bring back to home...

The next day, our neighbors who were staying in the bungalow next to ours found out about a place called the Lagoon... which took a hike to get to, but was supposed to be dreamy. So we all agreed to go and it was the work out of my life! Up through the jungle, down red rock and mud, through sticks and leaves and gigantic trees (some points were really slippery)... we finally arrived, and were very disappointed. ;( The Lagoon had water that was kinda green... kinda dirty... and kindy scary... LOL But then we continued to walk around it and we found a corner of it that gave a completely different feel. After exploring and taking tons of pictures, we left and continued back to the shore. That night we went straight to sleep! We were all exhausted...

Kho Phi Phi Lei

Now, I've left the beauty of Southern Thailand... but let me tell you about that experience.

We arrived to Phuket and had to hustle some Thai's to actually get onto a ferry which would take us to the island of Kho Phi Phi. Finally, we settled for a price of 100 baht each (which translates to about 3 dollars each). Albert is the KING of bargaining... you should really see him in action, it's hilarious. If Coco or me think the deal is pretty worthwhile, 5 seconds later, you'll here Albert say 'no, no, no... too much!' LOL

Eventually, we got to the island, and it was incredibly gorgeous... even though I've lived by the beach my entire life, I've never experienced a beach with WHITE sand and clear water... it was like heaven! This makes me want to become a professional diver, so I can swim with the fishies (I don't mean the mafia use of that phrase...lol).

As soon as we settled, we decided to get a longboat guy to take us to the coves to experience the beauty in all its totality. If you're still wondering where I am EXACTLY... have you ever seen the movie 'The Beach' which stars Leonardo Dicaprio? Well... those are the beaches in which we are exploring... don't be too jealous. :)

Anyway, we found a young boat man who was amazingly sweet and up for anything we asked. We paid him 1250 baht for 4 hours on the long boat (that's a great deal). He took us out, we saw Maya Cove, the Monkey beach --those monkeys are EVIL!- and...my personal favorite... we went snorkeling!!

I've never gone snorkeling in my entire life, I'm not a big water person, but anyone who is blown away at this view is also forced to explore the ocean waters as well. Even though I was motivated, I was still a bit nervous. So, I said 'Give me a life vest... lets do it' I slowly climbed the ladder into the warm water and it was done! I was in! The next battle was conquering the actual snorkeling device. After a few trys and Alberts directions from afar, I finally taught myself how to breathe through the tube, and enjoy the millions (literally) of fish that were swimming alll around me... I think I saw Nemo, Dory and the other one too.

So far so good!

I'm in Hong Kong

so... this is a completely different world and I think I'm in love! Sadly, I won't be here for very long, because Chalbaka must catch our flight to Thailand in a couple of hours, but this airport is humongous and it has every single store you can think of!!

Off we go...

The Night before...

As I sit in front of this computer screen, I can't help but feel anxious, nervous, adventurous and crazy! I am getting ready for the trip of a lifetime... first Bangkok, then maybe Anchor Watt, a little bit of beach and a little bit of sand and then, who knows?!?! In less then 8 hours, I'll be flying high and watching clouds stroll by...

I'm ready!