Hanoi 02/08 – 02/10

We arrived in Hanoi early in the morning, exhausted after waking at 4 am for our “budget” flight out of Singapore. We had no idea where our hotel was, forgot to exchange or take money out at the airport, but knew to take the $2 minibus into the Old Quarter so that is where we ended up in a sleepy daze. The minivan was packed and the man behind us sniffled and snorted the whole way and it was really, really gross. We had to pay with US money and were pleasantly surprised that we were given the correct change in Vietnamese dong. After reading travel guides, we were expecting to be ripped off and attacked by touts. Vietnam isn't as horrible as the guides make it out to be. Yes, there are some not too persistent touts, but they are few and far between. It is, however, true that prices are higher for tourists than for locals and even though everything is still super cheap, that part is pretty annoying.

Peter buys fruit amongst the chaos of motorbike traffic.

Old Quarter market street.

There are motorbikes everywhere.  They drive super slow but
are constantly beeping.  To cross the street you have to walk
very slowly so that oncoming bike traffic can swerve around you.  

Our first day we took it easy and explored the Old Quarter. We ended up getting some local Bia Hoi, freshly brewed local beer, which costs about $0.25 a glass, and hung out drinking and people watching on a popular corner. We copied a local man buying soup from a lady. Everywhere in Hanoi there are women walking around with baskets ready to produce a tasty meal – soup, omelettes, fried meat on a stick, etc – they have their own tiny stools, utensils, cooking supplies, and ovens. The soup we got was full of noodles, green vegetables, and tiny snails which was both kind of gross and very tasty. Everyone here seems to be eating tiny snails.  We noticed that when the locals paid for their soup the lady would hide the payment process behind her traditional Vietnamese so that we wouldn't see how much the soup actually cost. Ours was definitely more expensive.

Peter is happy with his Bia Hoi.

Grumpy local man with the soup lady.

Snail soup on a tiny stool.  All streetside restaurants and cafes
have tiny chairs and stools.... its like eating in kindergarten.

Because we were lazy and didn't want to get out of bed early, we missed seeing Ho Chi Minh's preserved body. The mausoleum is open only in the mornings. But, we did explore most of the other sights. Hanoi seems quite small coming from Singapore and everything is within walking distance so we covered most of the central city in one day. Other than that, we ate a bunch of delicious food. One time I ordered some spring rolls from a street vendor and got the most delicious fried squid I have ever tasted. We also had cha ca and bun cha which I had never heard of before. Apparently, these are two traditional and very delicious Vietnamese dishes. 

I love the graceful roofs on traditional Vietnamese architecture.

More graceful roofs.

A homeless person in front of the mausoleum.

Cha Ca at Cha Ca La Vong.  Cha Ca is fish fried
tableside in greasy oil.  You add it, along with
greens and peanuts to noodles.  Cha Ca La Vong is
a famous Hanoi restaurant that only serves this one dish.

Bun Cha - different types of fried pork which you also add to
noodles along with greens and other unrecognizable vegetables. 

Omelette lady.

Vietnamese coffee tastes like dark chocolate.

Two things really stood out for me about Hanoi. One is that although you can really see the communist presence in the city, you really don't feel it. There are oppressive looking monuments, dour officials, and red flags everywhere. But, the mood of the city is lively. The locals seem to spend a lot of time hanging out at restaurants eating, drinking and smoking. Also, although it may be a poor country, everything, from basic provisions to iphones, is readily available and the cost of living seems very low. The other is that the people are very loud and quite cheeky. They yell instead of talking. Also, one time when Peter was paying for some fruit he gave the woman a 10,000 dong bill instead of a 100,000 dong. She seemed to get upset, started yelling and ranting. But, then she smiled and went on her way. It seems that this is just their way and once you figure this out about the locals, they can be very fun to converse with.

Everywhere in Hanoi, but especially around the lake, people
seem to be taking posed wedding pictures.

Not sure what is going on here.  Women dressed in traditional
dresses take photos of another woman picking up leaves?

Also, weather in Hanoi is perfect.  We are glad to have waited the cold spell out.

Singapore 02/05 – 02/07

The two main activities in Singapore seem to be shopping and eating. Unfortunately, we arrived to the city right after the Chinese New Year and many places, such as the hawker centers (food markets) we were so excited to try, were closed. Who would have known? But, we were not deterred and explored a huge portion of the city-state by MRT and walked miles and miles every day until our calves ached.

Dramatic skies and new construction at Marina Bay.

Singapore's back side.

Singapore is a lot like a US city except a bit cleaner and more future forward. Everything costs about the same as in Chicago. The roads are huge and in great shape. There are no crowds. It is super clean due to strict litter laws. There are plenty of beaches and even some tropical rainforests. The public transportation system is quite sophisticated and seems to link pretty much everything together. Also, there are shopping malls literally everywhere in the city center. Like the US and fortunately for us, shopping malls do not acknowledge holidays. To enter or exit an MRT station, you go through a shopping mall. Orchard street, kind of like Magnificent Mile on steroids, is not a street with shops but a street with shopping malls. One high rise mall is next to another high rise mall and this goes on for miles. I counted about six Prada stores just in one small area. Same for Channel, Adidas, Nike...and so on. One day we basically spent all day shopping without actually buying anything. We found one mall that seemed to be all entertainment based with movie theaters, karaoke bars, gaming rooms with computers, gaming rooms with video games, and gaming rooms packed with just those machines where you put money in and steer some contraption to retrieve a trinket or a teddy bear.

Kachong - tasty shaved ice treat with sweet,
colorful syrup, corn, and colorful noodles underneath.

Mmmm....tasty pork soup with homemade noodles.

Dim Sum lady at the mall?  Now that is a mall I can shop at.

These fish were on display at a riverside restaurant.
They are meant to be consumed.

These are the largest crabs I have ever seen.
They are literally about the size of my head and are to be consumed
in the famous Singaporean dish "Chili Crabs" which is basically
crab with hot chili sauce.

Waiting for the train at the MRT.

The best mall had to be the new one at Marina Bay which had live performances, a skating rink where children were ice skating on plastic ice (it was pretty slow going), and waterways with boat rides. Peter suggested that we go to the food court since we were hungry and I was horrified at the thought of eating Subway or Burger King in Singapore of all places. But, turns out that the food courts in the shopping malls are basically cleaner versions of hawker centers and have a great variety of delicious food. So we ended up spending a lot of time eating in the malls.

Aerial performance at the mall.

Trinket/Teddy Bear arcade.

Today we are off to Hanoi. Not sure if this is a good idea. A chilly and foggy 19 degrees (Celsius), it may be a bit cold for us as we have gotten pretty used to something more around 29 – 31 degrees. I don't even want to think about the bitter cold that is awaiting us in Chicago. Also, it's a bit out of the way now that we have gotten all the way down to Singapore and are thinking of moving on to Java and Bali for the final leg of our trip. But, we already have visas, so we figured why not and when will we have another chance to go? I booked us a ticket on Tiger Airways, the super budget Singaporean airline. But, upon arrival at the airport we found out that I booked the ticket for the wrong day! The day was actually correct, but I was about a month ahead.  My brain must have gotten fried in the tropical heat because I checked the date several times while booking. We had to pay a hefty fee to change the ticket and I am not even going to tell you what it was because it makes me want to throw up. Sometimes a simple, small mistake could cost you dearly.

Locals enjoying the seaside on our last day.

Krabi 02/01 – 02/04

It seems like every place we visit in Thailand is more beautiful than the last. We just spent three days in Krabi and that was definitely not enough. There are so many beautiful beaches, cliffs, and caves to explore here that you can spend at least a month just in this one area. We got ourselves another scooter and visited several beaches near our home base in Aonang Beach. Some were full of people, others completely deserted. The landscape is amazing. There are many rocky islands off the coast, some are very close and when the tide is low, you can walk right up to them.

We went on a jungle hike we discovered on our scooter in a secluded area. There were no other people on our hike which led to a mountain top with excellent views of the area.  Although there may have been no people, but we could tell that we were definitely not alone. There were all sorts of strange sounds in the jungle that we had never heard before. One was like a saw but must have been coming from an insect. There were also geckos, giant ants and butterflies. Thankfully we didn't run into anything scarier than the ants. The trees were enormous and vines snaked all over everything. There was also a bamboo grove and even a change in ecosystems halfway up the mountain.

A view like out of some storybook.

I also finally broke down and decided we should go on an elephant ride. I have been on the fence with this because I read that sometimes elephants are not treated very well, but we had driven by this one place a few times and it was small, seemed to have a family of elephants and looked like it might be ok. The ride was pretty scary and I kept screaming because it felt like the seat on top of the elephant would just slide right off. These animals are huge and you rock back and forth in your little seat. The elephant trainer kept making fun of me, mimicking my screams, but he did get me to ride sitting on the elephants neck which was pretty cool.

Our last day we took a boat over to a few of the more secluded beaches, ones you can't get to by car. These were, of course, packed with tourists and expensive resorts, but we found one beach with a very nice hippie vibe where you can sleep near the beach in basic shacks with rock climbers and beach bums for company. We explored some caves and watched as the climbers attempted to tackle the jagged cliffs. We wished we could stay longer. I could lay around on the sand and watch while Peter could rock climb. I guess we can do that next time. Adding it on the “to do” list for next year.

Rock climbers practice climbing and laying around in the sand.

I made my own sad attempt, but didn't get very far.
I think my bony arms are not suited for this activity.

Our plan was to head next to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, but because we have gotten so lazy we failed to book one of the many, many cheap flights to KL. We barely even made it onto a flight to Singapore. Our flight leaves at 10:30 pm and our entry permit expires at midnight tonight. If we left any later we would have been jailed. Just kidding. They make you pay a fine for overstaying by a day or two. The point is, though, that we have stayed way too long in the islands. We have heard that this happens quite often. I, for one, can stay here forever. I can live in a shack on the beach and have a pet monkey.

My future home.

Ko Phi Phi (aka Pee Pee Island) 01/29 – 01/31

We managed to get a very cheap boat ticket to Ko Phi Phi which included a bus transfer and wondered what the catch would be. We arrived by minivan to the pier and the boat looked ok. Only after some time, as we waited and waited to get going, did we see that they were packing the boat in like it was the last boat to ever depart for the island. They packed people in like sardines in a can. We had to sit on deck as there were no seats available inside. It was definitely over capacity. But, good news was that we didn't sink. We did go through a tiny storm and everyone on the deck huddled together in the tiny space that offered some cover.

We've arrived.  Hurry, everyone get your camera out!

Our cheap boat ride.

The ride was worth it though. Ko Phi Phi is amazingly beautiful. It's really an archipelago with a tiny mainland, Ko Phi Phi Don, where there are shops and guesthouses. The other islands are uninhabited. There is no motorized traffic on the Ko Phi Phi Don. There really wouldn't be anywhere to go. There is only a small living/eating area and the rest of the island is impassible unless you can hike and climb through towering cliffs. At the bay areas of the islands, there are small patches of beach. It's the most beautiful island I have ever been to (besides Maui, but I was there when I was 16, a very impressionable age). The waters are crystal clear, some of the beaches have coral where you can swim with fish right up at the shore with limestone mountains soaring overhead. There are other sights as well. Seems the island is a huge party place for the college crowd. Which means buckets of booze (literally) and all night parties, screaming girls and drunken waving around of lit cigarettes as well as meatheads displaying their muscle toned bodies.

The village on Ko Phi Phi Don.

Buckets of Booze.

Our first night on the island, we headed out for a night on the town, thinking we could keep up with the kids. We went to a bar where there was to be more Muay Thai boxing. They were advertising free buckets of booze for anyone who would volunteer to fight in the ring. I, jokingly, said to Peter that he should go fight so that we could get a bucket. I really was kidding! But, he took me up and got his butt kicked just a little bit. Most people fighting had no idea how to fight, much less throw a punch. It was all in good fun. But, Peter was paired up with some guy with Muay Thai boxing experience. Peter still did great. He lost, but he got some mean punches and kicks in. The crowd cheered him on and he even made some fans. And, besides a fat lip and some bruises, he didn't hurt anything too bad.

The following day, though, he was not really up for exploring the islands. So, I had to abandon him after our hike to the viewpoint and went on a snorkeling tour of the islands. I visited several other islands in the archipelago including one with the famous Maya beach, where they filmed “The Beach”. During the boat ride we visited Monkey Beach and one of the monkeys got so excited that he swam up to our boat like he was on a mission, jumped in, stole someone's bag of potato chips and popped it open with a big pop. He sat there until he ate all the chips and was scared away by our boat captain. The next day Peter felt much better so I made him go kayaking. My reasoning was that he could relax and lick his wounds while I rowed, but turns out I suck at kayaking. Who would have thought? Peter ended up doing most of the rowing while I helped by veering us off course. Wouldn't want to make things too easy on him.

The captain from my snorkeling trip.

Perfect area for snorkeling.

Monkey Beach

Viking Cave on one of the islands.

Cliff Diving.  I'm the one making the splash.

Potato Chip Monkey