Halloween in Vietnam...

Last night we celebrated Halloween on the streets of Ho Chi Minh. We ran around the streets, drank White Russians, and danced until the early morning. My costume was last minute (picture). I put glow in the dark neon paint all over my body and wore a cape the whole night. I was basically an awesome superhero. It's about 6:30 pm here and we are taking a sleeper bus to Hoi An in central Vietnam. It's kind of a bummer because it stops in Nha Trang (the halfway point) for 8 hours, or basically the whole day until we catch the transfer bus tomorrow night. No worries though. Enjoying the ride. I've spent more time on buses this trip than my entire life combined.
We arrived in HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) a couple days ago after taking a bus 8 hours from Ha Tien. I've learned to enjoy the buses. A lot of the buses, especially the public buses are where you can experience the authenticity of Vietnam. Traveling on the public busses is an experience alone. The buses are worn down and everyone stares haha. Probably because most travelers take the nice buses lol.
Today was interesting. Woke up a bit later because I was out so late (or early) last night. Around early afternoon I walked to the Vietnam War Museum. It cost about $1 to enter. I'll attach pictures of the museum. I saw torture devices, war helicopters, tanks, all types of guns, and rooms filled with pictures of the war. There is definitely an opinion against the US inside the museum but what can you expect.
After being in Thailand for 3 weeks and Vietnam for some weeks I feel like I have a decent understanding on the countries and how the differ from each other. I liked Thailand overall a bit more than Vietnam so far but...I like the Vietnamese food a bit more than the Thai food.
On a side not congrats to the Giants for winning the series. I was envious of everyone celebrating in the city the night they won. I woke up at 7 am in my hotel room to watch the game live (picture). In forgot to say...on one of the bus rides I watched a movie called Into the Wild. Excellent movie. I won't explain the story but it didn't disappoint.
I'm really enjoying myself along this adventure/journey through south east Asia. I'm learning so much and meeting so many people. It's just what I wanted. I want to see more of the world before life starts passing me by. The bus will be here in one hour to pick us up so I'm going to get my stuff together. I love all my family and friends back home. Until next time...love

Mountain biking and chicken feet...

It's been a few days since my last post, so I want to update you on what's been going on here on Phu Quoc. I haven't been able to get online the past four days because the wifi went down. It's been killing me because I want to keep up with the World Series and see if the Giants are winning. Wooop Wooop I saw they're up 2 games!! I bet SF is out if control! There's been a lot of "beach bumming" it the past week. Not complaining. I love it here. My new nickname at the restaurant is "boiled eggs." You can laugh. I order two boiled eggs with my meal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soo I picked up a new nickname in Vietnam haha. The four of us went to dinner at a local restaurant a few nights back and met the owner. Her name is Michelle. She was overly nice to us and stayed open later (1 am) to drink with us. She opened a couple bottles if her house wine and we shared stories and talked for the night. Near the end of the night she asked us if we wanted to go mountain biking in the morning to a waterfall and have a BBQ there. Of course we said yes! She lent us bikes and the four of us, Michelle and her head chef (Danny) left around 9 am the next morning. We had each given Danny $5 to buy food from the market to BBQ. We rode about an hour through the city and a couple small villages to the waterfall. Danny started bbqing everything he bought from the market...chicken wings, scallops, ribs, vegetables, and chicken feet! I was hesitant to try the chicken feet (picture) at first but Danny insisted they were his favorite, so I tried it. Not too bad. I actually ate a couple more. On the ride home it started down pouring on us. We were soaked head to toe. Michelle took a picture if us for her guest book and we each wrote something in if thanking her for the awesome day.
I'm pretty sure we're leaving the island tomorrow. We're either going to travel up to northern Vietnam and visit places like Hanoi and Hoi An or we're going to jump over to Cambodia. We have 12 days left on our Vietnam visa's so we're leaning toward heading North. Might as well use those last days up on the visa. Either or, I'm still going to explore Cambodia and Laos. I can't wait for Cambodia. I've read so much about it and have talked to many people who say it was there favorite country. It's about 2 pm here and the sun is shining...about time to throw on the ol' board shorts and mess around in the ocean for a little. I forgot to mention this delicious Vietnamese dish called Pho (picture) that I've been having for dinner. It's made with rice noodles, chicken, and a few different spices. I'll try to make it when I'm back home. I love and miss all my family and friends back home. Until next time...love

The Island Life...

Phu Quoc is different. I've never been to Cancun, the Caribbean, or any other family vacation spot but I know this place is different. There aren't any rich families with bratty kids running around. The water is warm and the people here are friendly. Im staying in a beach front bungalow for $7 a night (picture). The island is only about 10 miles from the border of Cambodia.
Last night we walked to a fresh fish market. They had all types of fish. Barracuda, red snapper, tuna, crab, lobster, snail, and a bunch more I can't remember (picture). I had tuna. They cut it right off the fish and threw it on the bbq for me. It was one of the best dinners I've had so far. The days are warm here (about 88 degrees) and time slows down. It's relaxing. Just what I needed, some time off the backpacker trail. It was about a 3 hour boat ride from Rach Gia, Vietnam to the island.
Our last night in Rach Gia was special. We were walking around the streets looking for a place to sit down and have a drink but most places were closed. We finally found a food stall serving beer. We sat at a small table with some local Vietnamese guys about are age. They liked us and called some of their friends who came and joined us (picture). It happened to be one if their birthdays so we all sang (sung?? Idk) happy birthday to him. It was a fun night. We left around 1 am and headed back to our place for bed. Most of the communication between us was done through reading body language. It's challenging and funny. A lot of times we would look at each other and have no idea what the other person was trying to say. Quite the experience.
Some people outside my family have told me they've read my blogs...that's awesome. I never know if anyone reads them. My time so far in Southeast Asia has been rewarding. I've met people from all over the world, Spain, Germany, Australia, Italy, England, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Korea, and probably more. It's almost 3 pm here and the volleyball nets are calling for me. Some of the pictures are from Rach Gia and some are from Phu Quoc. I love and miss all my friends and family back home. Until next time...love

First days in Vietnam...

This is the first time I've had internet in a few days...I'm at a cafe in a city called Can Tho in southern Vietnam waiting for a bus to a city called Rach Gia.
It's been an interesting time in Vietnam. Flew into Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon) a few days ago. We took a taxi to a backpacker area and found a cool little place to stay the night (picture). We went out that night into the city for a few beers and had a good time. Very few Vietnamese people speak English...far fewer than Thai's. Saigon is huge (about 8 million people). It's kind of smelly too and there are zero cars there. Only motorbikes...thousands of them everywhere (picture). The next morning we decided to head out of the big city. We picked a place in the Mekong Delta (very southern part of Vietnam) called Vinh Long. Right off the bus a nice Vietnamese lady maybe 30 years old asked us if we wanted to do a home stay with her family. We looked at some pictures she had with her and went for it lol. We took a ferry across the river and her husband picked us up on a motorbike. They took us to the floating market the next morning and made an awesome family style dinner for us. We stayed there for 2 days and now we're on our way to a city called Rach Gia. The Norwegian girls are on their way over to meet us there. I'm excited to meet back up with them.
The public transportation here is crazy and it seems like there are no rules of the road. I didn't have a culture shock in Thailand but I for sure had one in Vietnam lol. It's 4 pm here and we have to catch our bus! I love and miss everyone Back home. P.S. Go Giants!!! Until next time...love

A piece of Pai...

Pai is beautiful. We took a mini bus up here a few days ago...3 hour drive. It took about 5 hours because of a land slide that blocked the road. We got here around 10 pm and walked around to find a guesthouse. The small town has a population of 2,000 and is full of friendly Thai's. It's been on the rise as a place for backpackers to visit lately because of its super laid back life style. The night market is pleasant and the street food is even better. They have a few reggae bars that I've enjoyed as well. We decided to rent motorbikes yesterday and took them for a ride through the mountains to a canyon (picture) and a waterfall. We rode again today and it started raining a bit...I ate it on my bike coming down a hill around a turn. Thank god I'm alight. Scratched up both knees, elbows, and hands and my shoulder is a little sore but I'm lucky nothing else happened. I put it away for the rest of the day and have been relaxing the past couple hours. No worries though. It's almost midnight here and I'm about to pass out. I love and miss you all. Until next time...love

Jungle animals...

It's been a couple days since I last posted but I've got some time by myself to sit back and think about all I've done/seen in the last few days. After I fully recovered from being sick I walked around Chaing Mai to see some of the beautiful temples here (pictures). It took about 4 hours to see the ones I had my eyes on. I have a weird fascination with the monks haha. I love watching them and try to get close to them whenever they are around. On a more exciting note, the next day I went to the Tiger Kingdom. It was quite the experience. I was under the assumption the tigers were drugged for people to get near them...but they aren't. They are fed regularly and are never on the prowl looking for food. There were options of seeing the small, medium, and large tigers. Of course I went big. I was a bit nervous walking into the cage. It had 3 full grown tigers (2 brothers and a sister). I sat next to one of the males (Jo Jo was his name) and had to fully comprehend what was happening for a second. The worker told me I could lay on him haha so I did. I lifted his tale and back leg too. They are well trained cats. I said hi to the other male and female too. I saw them jump on each other in their pool and play around for a bit when I was still in the cage. It was unreal!
After the tigers, we drove to see monkeys and snakes. The snakes were scary. The workers put a couple big boas on my neck and I let them slide all over me. They were heavy snakes. After looking at them we sat down for a little show. The workers brought out some poisonous snakes and saved the king cobra for last (picture). The worker played around with them and kissed the king cobra on the head...a bite from one of those and your dead in 30 minutes. Yikes! He asked for a volunteer to touch one on the head so I stood up and did it. I was under the impression the venom had been taken out..I was wrong. He let the cobra bite into a plastic cup covered in saran wrap and it's venom came shooting out. After the snakes I went back to the guest house and relaxed for the night.
Yesterday and today was another adventure. Alec, the girls, and myself went a little ways out of Chaing Mai for some elephant riding, trekking, and white water rafting. We trekked for about 2 hours to our huts and fed, washed, and rode the elephants. Standing next to the elephants was humbling to say the least. We ate dinner around a fire with our guide and some of the "jungle boys" who live there. They played the guitar and talked with Alec and I for a few hours. The language barrier was pretty funny but we all had some good laughs. We trekked a more difficult path this morning to a waterfall and swimming hole and finally made it to the river for some rafting. It was a blast. Half way through we jumped on some bamboo rafts and finished up. It's been a different experience than Bangkok but I have enjoyed every second of it. Chaing Mai runs at a slower pace and the people are always friendly.
I can't forget to mention we went to a Muay Thai fight on Monday night that was a bunch of fun. Thai's are very passionate about their sport. We saw 7 fights (6 male and 1 female). The beginning fights were youngsters, maybe 13 or 14 years old and the last couple fights were professional fighters.
Tomorrow morning we are taking a bus to a place called Pai where a lot of back packers meet up and then we plan on taking a short bus ride (3 hours) to Chaing Rai. My time in Thailand has been going by quickly...we fly to Vietnam on the 13th. On a side note I'm really into this book right now called "A long way gone." I won't get into details but it's about a boy who lived in Sierra Leone and was caught by rebels and forced to kill and use machine guns at the age of 13. True story and he is the author of the book. I love and miss everyone at home. P.s. I ate grasshoppers ; ) Until next time...love