Jill and Bow's Travels

Arrived in India

We're now in India! The past couple of days have definitely been an adventure. We're sure there will be many more to come in the next few weeks.

We've only just arrived but so much has happened in the past couple of days. It all started in Bangkok on Sunday. We finally took off for our trip to India after six hours of delays, two free meals, and a few Indian budding friendships. We bought very cheap tickets with Bangladesh Airways (Binman), which meant stopping in Yangon, Mynamar (Burma), then overnight in Dhaka, Bangladesh, before flying to Delhi.

We finally landed in Dhaka around 1:30am. After waiting for everyone to collect their bags, give in their tickets and passports, they finally rounded us up to herd us into taxis, minibuses, and buses to take us to our free hotels for the night. By this time, we had made many Indian friends - Raaj, Bholan, Rouwat, and Preacher Teacher (never did catch his name but he was a teacher and a preacher). Our rooms were finally organized by 3am and we were off to bed. We had to giggle when one of our new friends gave us his room number and said "call me". Bow and I thought to ourselves "now at 3am?", we didn't quite get it because we all had to be up and out of there by 9am. Our new friends were all so friendly. We finally got to sleep after a call from the front desk asking us where we were from and one room-service call just to bring us water.

We were up and back on the bus by 9am to head to the airport. I was happy to get on a bus instead of the minibus because I thought it was safer after the fast drive the night before. Man was I wrong. The bus ride that morning was the craziest ride I have ever been on. Our driver managed to accelerate as fast as he could, ride the breaks, and lay on the horn all at the same time for the entire hour ride. It was incredible! But he got us to the airport just in time for our flight. The streets of Dhaka were a sight to see - jammed packed with rickshaw drivers, overcrowded buses, fast cars with a haze of polution hovering over everything.

The final icing on the cake was at the airport when they were distributing our passports back to us. It was a long and tedious process and there were a couple of fights that broke out with the passengers, which we really couldn't understand because it was in Hindi.

We arrived in Delhi around 1:30pm yesterday. Our friends, Raaj and Bholan, offered for us to go in their taxi on our way to Praharganj. On route, Raaj insisted that we go with him to his place and stay with him for a day, week or even a month. We decided to go with him for one night, especially since his wife and kids didn't know that we were coming.

We had the most amazing time with Raaj, his wife, and three kids. They welcomed us with open arms. We sat down and met his family before they all took us over to meet Bholan's entire family. Bholan lived in a flat with his wife and kids, his parents, and the families of his three brothers. They were so welcoming and excited to meet us. We weren't even there for 30 minutes and twice they brought us trays of drinks and nibblies. As we were walking away we quickly looked back to see his home from the outside and all four families were out on the balcony watching us walk off. It was quite the experience.

From there, they took us to the "pictures" (movies) because I had mentioned that I wanted to see a Bollywood movie while we were in India. The movie was in Hindi but it was easy to follow with the singing and dancing and love story, even though it was classified as a male action flick. Before going into the movies there was a marching band hanging around and we asked what they were doing. Not two seconds later, Raaj was over talking to them and 20 of them got up to start playing for us.

We saw almost everything in the streets - people, cars, trucks, packed buses, tuk tuks, rickshaws, ice cream vendors, cows everywhere, other animals, etc, etc, etc. We definitely stuck out in Raaj's area because they would never see tourists in that part of the city. It would be like us seeing tourists in Kanata or Orleans in Ottawa.

The night wasn't over when we came out of the movies at 9pm. From there, Raaj and Bholan took us to the Sikh temple that Bholan goes to twice a day. It was a beautful white temple packed with people. We had to take off our shoes, wash our feet, and put a piece of cloth on our heads before entering. We followed them around the temple, kneeling when they would, and meeting many of their friends along the way.

We took an auto rickshaw back to Raaj's place where his wife, Altamira, had made us a delicious dinner. We had a lot of fun with their family, looking at family albums, and reading English with the girls. Before bed, they ran out to get us some ice cream as one last treat to the day.

This morning the fun continued. Raaj and his family showed us their family business. We had more great talks and laughs over breakfast. He took us out for one last walk around the neighbourhood where we met many more of his friends. Never a dull moment in the streets. We came across a man drumming away beside a tall post with a young boy on top on his stomach spinning around. It was like a circus act in the middle of residential Delhi. They made a bit a money and then they were done for the day.

We said goodbye to Raaj and his family around noon. It was difficult to leave because we had so much fun with them but we didn't want to overstay our welcome and we also wanted to figure out our travels for the coming weeks. We hope to visit them again when we return to Delhi in a few weeks time. Their kindness continued as we left with them giving me beautiful material to make an Indian suit and they gave Bow long shorts from their shop. It was such an incredible experience staying with them - one of the many highlights of our trip.

We've now organized a driver for the next 14 days to take us around Rajasthan, which is known for its great history, beautiful forts and temples. It's a bit more expensive than the train, but it will allow us to see many of the smaller places and to stop and go whenever and wherever we want. Tomorrow we're going to see more of Delhi and hopefully meet up with Tati's friend, Shweta, before leaving with our driver on Thursday morning.

Until next time,
Jill

Northern Thailand!

The north of Thailand was just as exciting and adventurous as the sunny south. We did a full day Thai cooking course, went on a three day trek which included visiting local villages, treking into a waterfall, bamboo rafting, riding elephants and caving, and then relaxed and took in a few movies in Chiang Mai!

Our cooking course! We began our day with a 'class tour' to the local food market. Our guide Oil, pronounced 'oy', explained why and how we use each ingredient. Very interesting. Here are some scenes from the market.

Wok with the Geddoche's! Matching hat and apron, what a cute pair. We made our own green curry paste (that's what Jilly is pounding in the first pic.), then we made sweet and sour chicken, caramelized bananas, pad thai, spring rolls and finally, Tom Yum soup (hot and sour soup). Needless to say, we were quite full after leaving because you eat everything you make.

Our three day trek from Chiang Mai.

Day 1. Treking through a bamboo forest walking across a few of these bridges until we hit the waterfall! And then treked on to the village where we played soccer with the kids and then they sold us their wears. The kids love getting their picture taken, especially when you have a digital camera so they can see themselves. That's what they are doing 'en masse' with Mel in the middle, looking at themselves.

Day 2. More treking through the bush until we hit the river where we started our three hour bamboo rafting trip. Look at those rafts... safety first! haha but it was a lot of fun. Then into the second village where we played with the kids again (handing out candy and toys) and then more buying!

Day 3. (My Birthday!!) We started the day riding on Elephants. I sat on the neck while Jill and two others sat on a bench behind me. It was a lot of fun! Then we went caving and then headed back to Chiang Mai. To celebrate my birthday, 8 of us from our group met up for dinner and music in a local restaurant. It was a lot of fun!!

Sights around Chiang Mai. Some talented individuals that are 'one-man bands' and some of the markets.

Now we are off to India! We leave tomorrow but we have a stopover in Bangladesh for the night, but the airline picks up the tab for the hotel. Supposedly we aren't allowed to leave the hotel, don't know why, but if that's the case I'm sure we'll pass the time in the pool! So until we find internet in India, take care and we'll talk soon.

Bow.

Layouts of Laos!

The pictures of Laos are from the two towns we visited, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. Laos has much to offer and what we experienced are only a few of them...

The interesting bus ride we took from Vientiane to Vang Vieng.

A view of downtown Vang Vieng and Jilly at our restaurant watching movies.

Scenes from our caving trek!

Jilly and I in the rice fields.

Local life in and around Vang Vieng. Believe it or not, that's an old tractor engine that they have used for this contraption in the 2nd pic.

Children in Lao.

Luang Prabang

Jilly standing along side the Nam Khan river across from where our guesthouse was.

Sunsets from our view at the restaurant that looked over the Mekong river.

Sunset from on top of Mt. Phousi.

Interesting sights from Luang Prabang.

The night market.

Night food market... check out these scrumptious little morsels! yuck!

Boat trip to the caves, the paper-making/weaving village and the whisky making village. Jilly walking down with our guide to our boat, Jilly and I on the boat, where we stopped to refuel on the river, village people awaiting our arrival, the infamous bottles of 'snake wine', Jilly in the village, paper making, weaving and the result of the weaving!

Our trek into the beautiful waterfall, as well as the 'wildlife' we came across!

Squatter's Rights!! This is a typical toilet in both Africa and South East Asia! As you can see there is no flush... hence the hand held bucket on the left, that's how you flush by pouring water down the hole. (just a point of interest!)

'Sabai-dee' from Lovely Laos!

Unfortunately we didn't spend as much time in Laos as we initially intended because we extended our tour in Viet Nam. So we decided to concentrate on just two places and these two towns we visited, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, were awesome!

On the flight from Hanoi to Vientiane Jill and I made an executive decision to only spend a week in Laos so we could spend a week in northern Thailand before jumping on another plane to India on February 22nd. Once we arrived in Vientiane, we grabbed a cab to the bus station so we could catch the bus up to Vang Vieng. It cost us more for our three minute cab ride (53 000 kip) than it did for our five hour bus ride up to Vang Vieng (50 000 kip, $1 CDN = 8 000 kip). It wasn't because of our poor haggling ability, the prices for cabs from the airport were set. We have actually become very good 'bargainers' as many merchants along our path can attest to!

The bus ride up to Vang Vieng was beautiful. Mountains and rolling hills, lush vegetation and many unique sites were viewed from our 'local bus'. Honestly, everybody and their belongings were on this tour... there were three or four pallets (skids) in the aisles with things on them that we had to climb over to get to our seats. The last four rows of seats were piled high with all of our bags. Not to mention that the roof was fully strewn with stuff already. We didn't know what we were in for.

The bus got us there safe and sound and dropped us off along the highway with five other backpackers from England and Iceland. Between all of us we had no idea where we were going to stay nor which way to walk... it seemed we were in the middle of nowhere. A woman, Connie, who owns a local guesthouse approached us and from there we were all set. She ran (while being pregnant) back to get her van so we could all pile in. We drove along the highway for not even a minute and voila, there's the town filled with many restaurants, stores and guesthouses. We couldn't believe it.

We decided to stay for two nights and sign up for a full day trek the following morning, which entailed treking into two villages, seeing three caves (one by inner tube floating on water) and then floating down the river back to town on inner tubes while watching the sunset. We were pumped because the mountains that surrounded the town had a feel like Krabi in southern Thailand - a nature lovers paradise!

Once we had all that organized we decided where to eat by which movie was being shown. The local entertainment in the evenings for backpackers was heading out to a local restaurant, which showed 'pirated' DVDs while you ate dinner on elevated platforms, sitting on pillows! We decided on the one showing 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days', which came highly recommended by Jill and her sister, Amy, to quote both "A must see!". As far as romantic comedies go, I must admit it was pretty good. And the garlic bread was scrumptious, and the fruit shakes were to die for!!

The trek... we were in a group with four others and our guide, Ping. He had fairly good English and he knew a lot about the local area, not to mention that supposedly he had very 'funny stories' to tell us, as stated on the sign to lure us into booking the trip. It didn't take him long to show his sense of humour. He started cracking jokes pretty much the instant we got on our tuk tuk for our 16 km drive outside the town where we would begin our trek. He also shared his 'sticky rice' cakes which were quite greasy but very tasty! But as you all know, anything draped in grease has to taste good ;). We began our walk along a nice little stream with mountains in the back ground and rice fields on one side of the path. Many photo opts!

The first cave was quite big. It contained huge stalagmite and stalagtite formations as well as hidden 'rooms'. We spent about an hour in the first cave and this is where we began to hear the 'funny stories' that were promised. We sat for about five to 10 minutes with our flashlights turned off in total darkness while Ping told stories of past travellers and past events. Not quite as 'funny' as advertised but Jill and I still had some good chuckles between us anyways. We sat there until finally one of us said 'well, should we move on?', and I honestly think we may still be sitting there today if it wasn't mentioned.

The second cave we went to was definitely our highlight. We had to get on inner tubes and float into the mountain, which went on for at least 500 meters. We ate our picnic lunch of fried rice, cucumber and bananas beside the cave. The brave tried to eat the 'hot chili sauce' and the local rice wine, aagggh!

After lunch we visited a village and then saw the final cave. It was known as the 'elephant cave' because near the entrance the stalagmites and stalagtites had connected and it actually looked like an elephant. Each of the caves had at least one Buddha, which sometimes we wondered how they could have gotten them in there with their tight entrance ways.

We spent the rest of our afternoon floating down the river in town, past the beautiful limestone cliffs that the town is famous for. Inner tubing is probably the top thing to do in Vang Vieng because of the beautiful scenery, its so relaxing, and there are bars lining the river bank as you float into town, which were great spots to watch the sunset. It was very similar to what we did with Paul and Becky out in Penticton, BC. That night we chose a different restaurant showing the preferred movie of choice for us, and again the food was excellent.

Luang Prabang was our next destination and when we arrived we weren't disappointed. On our tuk tuk drive into the town we witnessed our first accident in south east asia, and believe me after being here for almost five weeks that's quite an accomplishment if you see the way they drive. No one was hurt - a motorcycle was cut off by a tuk tuk and he hit the ditch and was thrown from his bike.

Our guesthouse, Pathoumphone, was very quiet and cozy along the Nam Khan river, just before it joins the Mekong river. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants that overlooked the Mekong river to watch the sunset. The sunset was beautiful and the papaya salad with red sticky rice was incredible! Then we stumbled across the night market that ran for about four city blocks filled with linens and souvenirs of all kinds... two hours later we left and the wallet wasn't hit too hard but it was a lot of fun bargaining with them. The night 'food' market was very interesting. I got some stellar shots of the local cuisine that I didn't have the heart to stomach (pig heads), which I will get on the site soon!

Our second day we spent riding bicycles all over town visiting many of the local wats (temples). Luang Prabang was once the capital of a great Buddhist kingdom so there are temples absolutely everywhere across town. Now, where there are wats there are monks, and I must admit it was monk haven. They were everywhere! Any corner you walk around there were safron robes and shaved heads. Jill loved seeing them! Actually she was obsessed with them. Anytime we saw one she had to take a picture - it was almost getting out of hand. There were even some monks that had non-monk tendencies, whether it was smoking or surfing the Internet, we found it amusing to see them in a different light. They were absolutely everywhere we looked - on the back of tuk tuks, motorcycles, boats on the Mekong, everywhere!

While visiting one of the oldest wats in the city we met a man who offered to take us by boat up river to the Pak Ou caves and then back down river to the Khouang Sy waterfall. The trip also included a stop in three of the local craft villages, which were known for making 'Lao Whisky', paper making, weaving and pottery. We negotiated a price and then made arrangements for the next day.

For sunset that night, we climbed up to Mount Phousi, which is a leisurely climb up 329 steps, not too high. It's nestled in the middle of the town and we pretty much shared it with the rest of the tourists in town. Jill met a fellow Ottawan, Regis, and they had quite a long chat while I was snapping way too many shots of another sunset that I really shouldn't have (but it's a digital, so I can erase them right...). The funniest part of their discussion was when Regis found out that Jill and I were heading to India in a week or so. He described his experience of being in India like "being on an acid trip, it's nothing you can imagine, you just have to experience it for yourself". Jill couldn't contain her chuckles. Personally I don't know what to think about going to India, because everyone you talk to says something different... we'll soon see how we do and we'll try best to describe our time.

We woke up quite early to meet our guide for our 'all-day boat tour'. On our way to eat breakfast we happened to come upon a huge long line of monks carrying their food pots for the local women to put their daily rice into. These women were sitting along the streets dishing out rice for the monks to eat with their fish. It was unbelievable to see this line of safron as far as the eye could see, even the pictures really don't do it justice.

Our trip to the caves was interesting but not very exciting. It was basically a lower and upper cave which were holes in the side of the mountain containing Buddha shrines... not really worth the two hour boat ride up stream. The two villages we visited were worth it but they were pretty much a river side market that awaited boat loads of tourists, but still interesting. The waterfall on the other hand... WOW! It was the most beautiful waterfall both of us had ever seen. It was tiered in 10 different levels and we just kept walking through lush bush and little bridges seeing numerous pools of crystal clear water. Once we got to the biggest fall it was breathtaking, but you have to really experience it first hand to capture it's true beauty! We then went back to one of the pools and swam in the very cool water where I swung off a vine over the blue lagoon sytle pool of water. We couldn't believe that we had the entire pool to ourselves.

We had an unexpected highlight at the waterfall that we didn't know about. We were enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of the walk up to the waterfall when all of a sudden Jilly stopped dead in her tracks. I asked her 'wassup' when she pointed and I followed her transfixed stare to a tiger! I kid you not, we both were kind of awestruck and scared out of our wits until we realized that it was in a cage, whew! We laughed but here was this beautiful tiger staring at us and on the other side of the path was a cage that contained black bears. We can now include tigers and bears to the list of wildlife we have seen on this journey, and wait til you see the pics!

Once we returned back to town we ate dinner at the same place we ate the first night because the food was so tasty and so inexpensive. Then we decided to try a Lao massage and we didn't regret our choice. It was well worth the $3 each we spent! Afterwards we returned to the local market to see if we could spend the last of the kip on items that we thought we might want to add to our collection. We weren't disappointed with our last minute purchases and I was even surprised that Jill hadn't spent the wad of kip I had handed to her! Though I think I out spent Jilly this evening! Another box will be sent home once we enter Thailand again.... let's leave it at that!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'll sign off now and try and find a computer with a CD rom so I can upload the pics of northern Viet Nam and Laos for you. But it may not be for another week because once we entered our guest house here in Chiang Mai we have already planned our next week... A Thai cooking class all day tomorrow, a three day trek that includes treking into villages, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, and caving after that and then a trip up to Pai for a couple of days that came highly recommended by Collie and echoed by the woman working here at our guest house. We can't wait!

Til next time...
Bow.

Pics from northern Vietnam!

The following pics entail our shopping spree in Hoi An, our quick visit to Hanoi and our amazing trek up in Sapa and into the minority villages!

Ready for our entry back into the real world now that we have some more formal clothes to wear! Jill is modelling her tailor made shoes as I am trying my best at looking dapper in my new duds!

Some interesting sites in Hoi An! Biking around the town we never knew what we would run into.... a Japanese covered bridge, local fishermen, farmers, boats in the harbour and in the last pic, what do you think of that name for a restaurant?? haha

Scenes from Hanoi. The typical busy streets, Jilly and I on our cyclo ride and other typical views we saw while on our cyclo tour.

Shots from the water puppet show.

The town of Sapa.

These are some typical pics of what we saw along our trek. As you can see from some of the photos the weather didn't cooperate, but we still had a great time!

This was where we stopped for lunch. As you can see it was quite cold and the girls were all over Jilly. The last photo is Sins, our guide, smoking tobacco from their traditional pipe/bong.

Some pics from some of the local minority homes we visited. They hang corn from their rafters to dry, Jilly bought some pillow cases, Sins showing us the barrel of indigo they use to dye their materials, cute little boys playing, local woman working on her crafts, Jilly buying a little purse and girls from one of the poorer villages.

Our first experience with a "Homestay", meaning on one of our nights on our trek we stayed in the home of a local minority family. What an interesting experience as you will see from the photos below! As you can see, the little girl was full of energy! Not a bad spread considering they only had two small fires to cook all of those dishes! The women are making sticky rice while Jilly is warming her toes after she washed her feet, exactly what I am doing in the next pic! Sleeping arrangements were surprisingly warm and then Jilly sitting down to breakfast, fried rice and bananas.

Scenes from the market! Most of these people are the women that sold us things, but the beautiful little girl with Jill was a real help! Yes those are scorpions in the wine bottles! They also sell snake wine all over south east Asia and there is an actual snake in the bottle, yuck!

The many terraced rice fields that decorate the mountain sides of Sapa and the surrounding area!

Some wonderful scenes from the streets in Sapa.

Just before we left Sapa the sun decided to peak it's nose through... well it tried anyways, as you can see from the pics.

Minority villages and much more!

We are now up in northern Vietnam in a mountain town called Sapa. We went on a two day trek visiting 5 minority villages and we had an incredible time! The pics will soon follow...

Alright, Jilly left off in Hoi An, so Sapa will have to wait for now...

We left Hoi An on the bus at 8 am and got into Hue around 1:30. We decided to just walk around the town for a few hours and then catch the overnight bus to Hanoi at 6 pm. We weren't looking forward to it but we just couldn't wait to get to Hanoi and then up to Sapa. We got into Hanoi at 9:30 the following morning and by 10:30 we decided to take the overnight train up to Sapa that night. We spoke with the travel agent in our hotel and it sounded so good that we just couldn't put it off any longer. So we got freshened up in the hotel and got ready to see the sites and sounds of Hanoi.

Not twenty steps out of our hotel we decide to take a 'cyclo' around the old city. We spoke to our 'cyclo' driver and thought that we had come up with an agreed upon price and amount of time we would be on it... but yet after another communication break down we found ourselves in another district of the city once our hour was finished. We thought, oh well, we'll be back soon maybe we're getting a little extra. Well, after another hour and a half we finally got back to our starting point and had to rediscuss what amount would be paid. All in all, we ended up seeing more of the city for more money. Oh well, it still left us a little time to walk in and amongst the little shops and markets before we had to go and catch our Water Puppet show in a local theatre!

The water puppet show is world reknowned and came highly recommended by Fiona! It was fantastic! We were about 7 rows from the front and it was quite a unique show. There was a live mini-orchestra off to the side of the stage while the puppets would move in synch with the music! It was like nothing we have ever seen, we loved it!

We got picked up at our hotel for our overnight train ride and got on the train quite early. We had a sleeper car and were both on the two bottom bunks so we played some two handed euchre while we waited. Once the train started moving we were surprised to find out we got a free bottle of water and a loaf of bread! Wow, we felt like we were in jail, bread and water to eat in our four by six cell! The bunks were very comfortable and we ended up having a great sleep!

Once we exited the train in Lao Cai we had to catch a bus to Sapa. The cold air hit us like we were back in Canada. Believe it or not the temperature was only +4 and we were not quite ready for the sudden drop in temperature. Hanoi was about fifteen degrees colder than in Hoi An and now Sapa was even five to ten degrees colder than Hanoi. There we were in our room with no heater layering on the clothes. Thankfully we kept our long underwear with us and other warm clothes! I know most of you feel no pity towards us, considering we missed your -30 degree weather, but when the temp. drops over twenty degrees overnight, you really feel the difference and our bodies weren't used to it. But we layered up and a couple of hours later we began our two day trek into minority villages!

We met our guide Sins (pronounced Sing) while eating breakfast. He seemed very friendly and his english was quite good. We began our trek and it didn't take long until the camera was out. The sites were quite unique; there were buffalo on the path, pigs everywhere, minority people dressed in their ethnic garb and terraced rice fields as far as the eye could see! Unbelievable. Unfortunately though, like previously mentioned, the weather was quite dull and the pics are ok, but they don't do much justice towards what the area and people would have looked like if there was sunshine.

The first village we walked through, Sins took us inside one of the locals houses and it was very neat. They had two kitchens, one to cook their food and another to cook the food for the pigs. They had corn all tied up in the rafters, meat was hung from the roof and they were showing us all of their crafts that they would like to sell; bracelets, blankets, pillow cases, shirts, ethnic clothing, etc... He also showed us the huge barrel of indigo that they use to dye their material. It was quite fascinating!

There are five different minority people that live near Sapa and we were able to meet three of them; Hmong, Dzay and Red Zao. Sins told us that most of the minority people had come from China over a 1000 years ago and they love living in the mountains. They must be acclimatized to the weather because they are quite scantily clad. Some were in bare feet wearing sandals, meanwhile we had thick socks and our boots on.

After the first village we visited a hydroelectric power station that was built by the French in 1902. Sapa is a former French hill station that is situated in the hills near the Chinese border. Its high elevation of 1600 meters creates its cool climate and hence, became a summer retreat for the French who built villas there.

The land was quite mountainous so our trek was tiring, but atleast it kept us warm. By the time lunch came we were ready for a break. Sins had brought lunch with him in his back pack and we ate while sitting around hot coals trying to keep warm as our sweat began to evaporate. We met a few people while warming up and Jill was having fun being hounded by the local girls and women to buy more goods. Yes, she crumbled once again, but the souvenirs are really beautiful.

That night we stayed with a local family in one of the villages and what a neat experience that was! In this house there were four generations. They were sooo nice and we just watched them cook dinner over the fire while we warmed our toes. What a spread they made... garlic french fries as an appetizer along with a traditional 'sticky rice cake' (hard to describe but quite tasty). Then they made fried tofu with tomato, fried morning glory, a noodle dish, rice, home made spring rolls and fish. It must have taken almost two hours to cook but they were very efficient, considering they only had to fires to work with. We also tried the local 'rice wine' and I must admit, I was not a fan.

After dinner we just sat around the fire trying to keep warm and the young girl kept us entertained. She was shy at first, but just like any other 4 year old, once they feel comfortable look out. Before I knew it she was all over Jilly and I. We got some fun pics! Then we washed our face and feet (like the rest of the family) from water that was heated by the fire before we went to bed. What an experience this home stay was.

We hit the hay around 9:30 and were wondering how we were going to be able to sleep without freezing to death... but once we went upstairs we took three blankets which were quite thick and mixed in with our body heat we were able to keep warm and have a great sleep. We woke up to realize that half the village was waiting outside to show us more of their crafts. Breakfast consisted of vegetable fried rice and believe it or not it was quite good considering it was the first thing we ate. That is their typical breakfast, rice or noodles.

We began our trek to two more villages but in the meantime we walked through a bamboo forest, stopped at a waterfall and walked across a ratten bridge. The views were terrific but considering it rained throughout the night and most of the previous day the trail was quite muddy. Sins turned out to be a very informative guide telling us about local customs, language, nature so we knew we were in good hands. Well, as it turns out, Jill took that literally because the path/trail was so muddy and slippery, Sins had to hold on to Jill's hand while we walked down some of the more steep slopes. It was quite funny to watch and it wasn't long before Jilly found herself sliding down the hill, with Sins in toe and then finally having her first spill of the day. She was quite dirty but being Jill, took it all in stride and had a good belly laugh at herself. Like I said before, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it was quite foggy and misty for most of the two days. But we aren't complaining because we still had a fantastic time! We actually never saw the sun until the third day when we were leaving Sapa to go back to Hanoi. Sun or no sun, it was quite a beautiful area.
Once we returned to our hotel we couldn't wait for a nice hot shower and a heater. Even in the restaurant the temp. must have been +6 at the most because even the waiters wore their leather coats with big sweaters underneath. Jill would choose our table depending on where the closest heater was.

The third day of our tour allowed us to explore the village of Sapa itself. We slept in, had a late breakfast then bundled up for a walk around the town. We ended up spending the next few hours at the local market buying more and more goods for the house we will own eventually. We met so many minority people while we were bartering but this one little girl was quite a little treasure. She would help us negotiate with other women, she told us about her life and then she also sold us a few items as well as giving us a little gift. She was sooo sweet. After lunch, we went for a walk just outside of Sapa and there was a break in the clouds and the sun seeped through for the first time. We could finally see the surrounding mountains and the terraced fields. What a site once the fog lifted. Wow, it was breathtaking!

We caught the overnight train back to Hanoi and then at 10 am we were catching our flight to Laos! To leave on Monday we had to travel via Air Laos and to be honest we weren't all that excited. Here is what we read from our 'travel bible' stating, "the US State Department has issued a warning about Laos Aviation's safety record, especially over mountainour areas". But don't fret, I am writing this posting in Luang Prabang, Lao, we made it in one piece!

To summarize our time in Vietnam, it was awesome! As you have read, Vietnam is very diverse in what it has to offer and Jilly and I would highly recommend anyone to travel to Vietnam! We hope Laos offers us a similar experience!

Til next time,
Bow.

PS. the pics will be coming soon... so stay tuned!

Vietnam Pics!!

The following photos are of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon), the Mekong Delta, Nha Trang and Hoi An. Vietnam is quite the diverse country,as you will soon see for yourself!

Our visit to the Cu Chi tunnels... as you can see, a big strapping lad standing at 5" 10' like myself found the tunnels quite small! Imagine the Viet Cong living in these tunnel systems for years...

This is what we mean by riding on a 'cyclo'! Jilly and I had to both fit on Tom's cyclo! Another seat would have been nice.

The streets of HCMC... quite the traffic!

Mekong Delta tour.

The beach in Nha Trang.

Our day tour via motorcycle in and around Nha Trang with Sy and Long!

Unique things you see while travelling in Vietnam...

Weaving.

It seems everywhere you turn you find hammocks hanging around. This one was inside a restaurant.

You never know what the locals will be pushing or pulling... it's always something different.

Hoi An.

Our excursion to one of the many local tailors where Jill took step-by-step photos of our experience. She is starting to lose it, but the clothes turned out to be quite terrific. Jilly looks very professional in her business suits, not to mention a huge turn on, rrrrrrrrrrr!

There are still more photos to come on Hoi An, but they aren't uploaded yet. So stay tuned....

Same, Same, But Different

We are now in beautiful Vietnam. The main slogan the locals use is "same, same, but different". Most tourists do the southeast asia loop, so when the locals are trying to sell day trips, motorbike rides, or souvenirs, that is their favourite line.

We've been in Vietnam for over a week now. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, which most people still call Saigon, and spent two days exploring the sights around the city. We spent a morning at the Cu Chi Tunnels. This huge network of underground passageways stretched from Cu Chi (just outside of Saigon) to Cambodia was used for the Viet Cong to surprise American forces. The area around the tunnels is one of the most bombed pieces of real estate on earth. The tunnels were so narrow making it difficult, or impossible for big American soldiers to make their way very far into the system. We were able to crawl through some of the narrow tunnels - you wouldn't have wanted to be claustrophobic. After the tunnels, we explored the war remnants museum, which was fascinating to learn more about the Vietnam war, but also very harsh at the same time.

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is a city of eight million people and at least one million motorbikes. And we thought we saw a lot of motorbikes in Cambodia! We spent some time wandering the streets just watching the flow of the city. We would come to a major intersection without lights and not know really how to get across. We just did what others told us - walk slowly across the street and the motorbikes just avoid you. Wild! We did get caught up in the thick of traffic when we took a cyclo home from the market. A cyclo is an old style bike with a seat on the front for the passenger. Yes, note "seat", we both had to sit on the same seat, but I guess that's nothing because entire families use this form of transportation to lug them and their groceries home.

From HCMC we headed south to the Mekong Delta for three days. We were with a small group of 12, exploring cities, towns, and villages, which all live on the river system. The Mekong river starts in China and goes through Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and ends in a delta in Vietnam before flowing into the South China Sea. The Mekong Delta is made up of a system of rivers and canals making it a great spot to explore. We did just that for three days in a variety of different boats - small, big, fast, slow, motorized, and paddle.

It was a very relaxing three days. It was the perfect type of tour because there were a lot of different stops along our journey but they were all short and sweet. Over the three days we learned how popped rice (similar to rice krispies), rice, rice paper, rice noodles, coconut candy, and incense were made. We watched the locals bargain for their groceries in the floating market. There would be boats that only sold pineapples or pumpkins and others with a variety of fruit and vegetables. We also had time to explore onland by bicycle and foot. The scenery was how you would expect Vietnam to look like - images of rice fields, houseboats, floating markets, Vietnamese hats everywhere, and river banks dotted with stilted wooden houses.

We had a great time with the other people on our boat. We met three really nice Canadian girls who are all teaching in Hong Kong - Christina, Stacey, and Kelly. We also met another couple from England who have been travelling around the world for the year, Chris and Sarah. They were also travelling with her twin sister, Sharon, for the past three months. And I thought Bow was brave to live with the Meloche sisters for a few months, this guy was travelling with twin sisters for four months. Chris and Sarah gave us some great travel tips on places to hit in Vietnam and some of the other countries we're heading to.

From there, we headed up the coast to Nha Trang, which is known for its beach. Although the beach was beautiful, we decided to explore the area with some locals on their motorbikes. Travelling seems so easy in southeast asia because buses drop you off at the door of guesthouses/hotels, these hotels all have booking agents inside, and if that doesn't suit, well you will likely be approached by a local wanting to take you to all the sights in the area. Usually when someone approaches us to give us a motorbike ride we always just say "no thanks", but this time we chatted with this guy, Sy, who approached us a bit longer than usual, which led him to pulling out his photo album to sell us his special tour. The sights looked great and the price was right so we agreed to go with him and his friend, Long, the following day.

It's so funny because here in Vietnam when locals approach us for any reason we always get the exact same questions. "Where are you from?", ""Are you from Vancouver or Toronto?", "When did you arrive here?", "How old are you?", "What hotel are you staying at?" and then "Do you want to buy a boat ride .... motorcycle ride ... bicycle rental ... tailor made clothes?". The Vietnamese are incredibly friendly people so the odd time, they just want to approach you to ask you these questions without selling you anything.

The day of the motorbike ride around Nha Trang was a real treat, especially since we weren't expecting much. They drove us 35 kms outside of town through a very scenic mountain area to a remote water fall, where no western tourists had found yet. We had a very refreshing swim before heading back closer to town to check out a huge white budda, reclining budda, and other temples. The highlight of our day was a trip to the spa. When Sy was selling us the trip he told us that we could go to some "mud baths". We were a bit shocked when we pulled up to a beautful spa of mineral baths. We spent over two and a half hours there soaking in mud minerals, a hot mineral bath, hot pools and then we finished it off with a massage and a lemon grass steam bath.

We are now in Hoi An, which is the clothing capital of Vietnam. It's a very old city with a lot of character and a small city feel. The streets are lined with very cute shops, restaurants, and tailors. It also has a river running through town with a very active fishing community.

We arrived yesterday morning on the overnight bus. After checking into our hotel and resting for a while, we headed to a tailor that a couple on the Mekong Delta tour had recommended. We went in not really knowing what we wanted. They sat us down with fivecatalogs of clothing to choose from. It took about an hour to narrow down what we wanted and then another hour to choose our fabrics. It was such a hoot - even Bow loved it. They measured us up and off we went at 1pm. By 7pm, they had us back for a fitting, which we thought was incredible since we ordered about 10 items each. We had a great time at the fitting and we loved the clothes so much we ordered a few more pieces. The prices were unbeatable, for example, Bow got a tailor made suit for $25 US.

Today we picked up our clothes, sent a box home, did some other errands before renting bikes to see the sights around town. We ran into some people we had met along our travels - Susanne who we spent some time with at Angkor, another Canadian guy we met at the spa, and another girl we were on the bus with coming into Vietnam. Tonight we went to a Vietnamese cooking course at a restaurant in town. It was just the two of us but we learned how to make marinated mackerel in banana leaves, veggie spring rolls, and squid salad. The food was delicious and it was very entertaining.

Vietnam is a wonderful place and the best thing is that it's so cheap to travel here. We're travelling up north to Hanoi and our hop-on-hop-off bus ticket from HCMC was only $23 US each, which also included a free nights stay at a three star here in Hoi Ann. It would take 44 hrs on the train to make the journey, so the price is really right. Hotel rooms range from $7 US to $13 US per night for a really nice place. A meal is around $5 - $10 Cdn for the two of us. Some hotels even include breakfast and dinner in their rate. Our three day Mekong Delta trip, including nice hotels and all boat rides was only $25 US each. Internet service ranges from 30 to 60 cents an hour. Our cooking course was only $5 Cdn each, which was dinner and entertainment. To get clothes made, shirts were $6 US, pants $8 US, suits $25 US, dresses $8 US, and custom made shoes were $6 US.

Until next time!
Jill

Highlights from Zambia!!

You won't believe the shots we got while on our Christmas day game drive in South Luanga as well as our 'rhino walk' near Victoria Falls! Sorry about the shots at Vic. falls, the weather was dreadful and the camera broke!

Before getting to our destination, we stopped to buy some groceries... Just when we thought we would find it hard to 'get in the mood' about Christmas, this is what Jilly came across in the grocery store!

The truck we took to the bridge for Christmas carolling, as well as the game drives! On the bridge singing x-mas carols with other Mzungu and the locals!

Our midnight mass on Christmas eve! What a wonderful experience.

South Luanga National Park

Our Christmas morning game drive!! Some of the animals you have already seen on our past drives, some you have not....

Zebra Gazelles Warthogs

Lots of Elephants!! (the last one shows the elephant charging at us! We got between her and her little one)

Leopard!!

And the last of the Big 5... buffalo! Plus a puff adder snake on our night game drive! (sorry Beckster)

Christmas day dinner!

Our trip to the Conservation Wild Life camp/education centre. As you can see, it was difficult for us to find our way, especially if you look at the sign closely. And yes, that is a baby warthog in my lap! They also had a pet vervet monkey.

Victoria Falls area.

On our 'rhino walk' we saw lots more than just rhino... As you can see what got up close and personal with the rhino, and do you notice that one of the rhino's has 5 legs?!?

And some giraffe and dung beetle... first you see them on top of a pile of dung (either elephant or hippo) and then they role it up into a ball and then push it with their back legs while walking on their front legs! It was amazing to see!!

Our house boat for New Year's!!

A village walk on one of the islands when we were floating around the Zambezi!

Victoria Falls! (In the last photo, I am standing on the top of the falls, on the other side of the gorge)