Our friends hosted a going away party for Ashley, Andrew, Rob and I on that last Saturday. After a few hours of sleep Ash and I boarded the bus to the airport. By 3am we were in the blazing humidity of Ho Chi Minh City, even at night. With nowhere to stay he took us to his friends upscale motel. The following day we hiked the entire district one for a hostel, had a little boy carry both our backpacks and snuggled up to catch up on sleep. The next two days were blackened by a desperate search for banks who would exchange our Korean won for Vietnamese Dong. They didn’t even know what the won was. After asking our hostel staff, they advised that we exchange it black market style. I hopped on the back of one of many motorbikes, came to a jewelry store, and walked to the back. Among the high-pitched voices, smoke, and hustling ladies was a man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, counting and calculating with pen and paper. In the end we got our money and enjoyed the next three days. We went to the Mekong Delta, explored the streets of “Saigon”, shopped a bit and enjoyed local pagodas and restaurants.
Our next adventure was to Bangkok, Thailand. It was just a night and day stop over, which we spent mostly in a hospital. Ashley’s face went numb on our flight, but it turned out just fine. That afternoon, we hiked a couple giant pagodas and took a boat ride around the fishing areas. We had an overnight train out that night to Vientianne, Laos. Although it was a little more complicated than that, we made it mid-afternoon to the capitol city. We chatted with our fellow English speaking train riders, found ourselves a hotel for the night and enjoyed some soccer over amazing Vietnamese food (probably my favorite of all the countries). The next morning, Ash and I took a tiny packed van to the mountainous region of Vang Vieng, Laos. It was the most gorgeous of landscapes – towering mountains over a flowing river with modest homes, kind people and children everywhere. We spent two wild days there on the river and at our “resort”. The ride back was even more treacherous than our arrival.We had exhausted four major cities in less than two weeks. We were able to spend one more full day in Bangkok. We chose to take a Tuk Tuk to all the major sights.
Once again we were on the overnight, this time to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We met up with a couple of friends from Vientianne, had breakfast and then headed out for the day. The owner of the French restaurant (their influences are all over Southeast Asia) arranged a driver for us. He took us to Tiger Kingdom, where we laid with the giant, but gentle beasts. Then we saw the monkey show at Monkey School, where we had them in our laps, ripping our hair in nibbling food from our fingers. The most thrilling of the tours was at the snake charming show. We got to hold king cobras and pythons, even had them thrown at us. Quite thrilling! The day ended at the top of the tallest temple in Thailand. We were all templed out by this time. After a quiet dinner with a local man, we retired to bed early.
The next morning started early with a two-day trek into the mountains. Two other actual couple joined us. We rode in an open back truck up the mountains, then hiked through the villages, and into the jungle. There we waited for our next ride – the elephants. There were three of them with one baby who was terrible shy, but even more adorable. The guides even encouraged us to RIDE the elephant, as in I sat behind it’s ears on its head :D That evening we met the elephants at a waterfall where we bathed them and rode them through the water – mine tossed me off, gently and slowly of course. We were fed awesome vegetable dishes on rice, all cooked in bamboo… my favorite! In the morning, we hiked some more, five hours more. Then it was back to the “city” again.
We were blessed enough to be traveling during the Full Moon season, so everyone in Thailand celebrates with extravagant parades, lighting ceremonies, markets and parties. We participated in the first three, then got Mexican food. With a successful evening at the amazing night market, we were happy to leave the following day, feeling as though we exhausted yet another city. Our next destination was achieved via airplane.
Phuket, in the south of Thailand is every bit as beautiful as has been described. I have never seen whiter, cleaner beaches with bluer warmer water, all with a mountainous background. After weeks of backpacking and “roughing it“, we were pleased to soak in all the amenities of our resort – down to the room service and bath towels. We had breakfast there ever morning, dinner every night and only wandered when our bodies had burned from the low and hot sun.
Our beach just so happened to have the World Women’s Volleyball tournament happening on it, so as we read we got to hear the pump up music blaring from the stadium. We even watched a match. Other than that, we spent our time reading, relaxing, swimming, talking and reflecting on what an amazing three weeks it had been. The last day in Phuket, we chose to get some mani/pedi’s and massages. Now I can’t say that I have never had them done, although the many was the worst ever… it was fun to be pampered.
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