SwiftRambles

Sharing the sidewalk with motorcycles - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Note: We have arrived safely at home but we are going to finish up our blog!  Keep reading to catch up on Vietnam...

After Can Tho, we headed to the largest city in South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon before and during the war).  HCMC was the first nice, modern city we experienced in Vietnam. We arrived and stayed at the California Guesthouse (of course!).  It had a California State flag above the door and it definitely reminded us of home. I think the owner was from California, but oddly enough we didn't see him or anyone else staying at the guesthouse. It seemed a little odd, maybe they were on vacation or something, but our room had A/C and a fridge and had a nice view of the neighborhood (we were on the top floor again, this time 6 flights up).

In Ho Chi Minh City we didn't do much besides try different Vietnamese foods. Some our favorites included: Pho Bo (beef noodle soup), Bao Xeo (rice flour pancake), Vietnamese sandwich (baguette with different meat cold cuts, veggies, and chilies), and spring rolls. But all in all, we were not terribly impressed with Vietnamese food as a whole. We thought we would be, and we couldn't really put our finger on what was not quite right. We may have been eating at the wrong places. All we kept thinking was, man wasn't the food in Thailand awesome?

Purple soup, yum!

Eating Pho at the same place Clinton did...

Mekong, Soul of a River - Can Tho, Vietnam

In 2009, Amber and I somehow found a television series on PBS called "Mekong, Soul of a River". The show traced the length of the Mekong river from the origin in Tibet all the way to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The imagery and stories of the lives that live off the river inspired us (well maybe it was just me) to become enamored with the Mekong. We saw the Mekong in its glory in Cambodia, but the Delta was where most of Vietnam lived and we would be able to see how locals used the river.

After sleepy Phu Quoc, we were surprised at how built up Can Tho was. There were many high rise buildings, tons of traffic, and the place felt a little grimy. Our room at a guesthouse was on the top floor and we had to hike 5 stories to get there ("Inca Trail, here we come!" we would mutter as we took a break half way up). The main attraction in Can Tho is to see the floating markets and so we arranged for a guide to pick us up at 5:45am the next morning. The markets start early on the Mekong...

We got up and to my surprise our guide was bright-eyed and waiting for us ready to go. After getting a Vietnamese coffee to go, we got into our guide's little boat and proceeded down the river.

Our early morning paid off because the sunrise views were spectacular:

My Anthony Bourdain Moment - Rach Gia, Vietnam

Amber and I really enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain's TV show "No Reservations".  In his show he travels and tries to get to know a culture mostly through its food.  I have read almost all of his books and I admire his mantra of eating locally and trying to be a traveller and not a tourist.  I guess I look up to him. 

In his show, he undoubtedly seems to be in a random restaurant that is not listed in any guidebook and he enjoys an amazing meal with locals who are friendly and inviting.  In Rach Gia, waitng for our bus to Can Tho, I felt like I had an Anthony Bourdain moment.  Amber and I walked away from the bus station and picked a local restaurant that had the most locals in it.  We got to our table and next to us a group of 5 men nodded hello to us and we said hello back to them.  We waited to be served, but no one came, so we went to the where the food was prepared and just started pointing at different foods that looked good.  Amber got tofu, mystery meat, and vegetables and I got a pork-like meat with the skin still on.  They brought over our dishes with rice and "fix-ins" and we ate heartily. 

One great leap of faith was trying the iced tea that locals drinks at all the meals.  Because of stomach bugs we got in Thailand, we had been a little skittish on adventurous eating and drinking.  If ice is made with local tap water, then you are going to get just as sick as drinking the water from the tap.  But we decided to give the iced tea a try and we were rewarded because it was DELICIOUS.  Best part, they kept refilling our glasses!  Throughout Vietnam afterward we seeked out the tea with every meal - super cheap and super tasty! 

During our meal, one man from the group next to us, motioned to me that he was toasting us before drinking a shot of liquor.  I said thank you and went back to eating.  Then, I was called to and the gentleman motioned for me to drink a shot.  Now at this point, I DID have reservations.  The stupid guidebooks warn of never taking drinks from strangers because you could be drugged and then robbed.  I decided to shut that paranoid part of my brain up and said Okay, I'll do one.  Down the hatch it went, much to the delight of our new friends at the other table.  I still have no idea what kind of liquor it was.  At this point I realized that our comrades were on their second bottle of the liquour.  We kept eating and then a bowl of soup was brought to our table that was filled with green veggies.  Then another new friend from the tipsy table brought us some roasted peanuts to share - they actually tasted great in our rice.  A new drinker showed up and he offered me another shot.  I of course didn't want to be rude and I didn't want these Vietnamese to think that Americans can't drink.  So down the hatch it went.  Then, the guy who offered us peanuts gave us some of their fish dish to share.  And sure enough, another shot of the mystery liquor came my way and down the hatch it went.  Though we didn't speak each other's language, drinking liquor together at 11 am in the morning bonded two foreign cultures together.

We unfortunately had a bus to catch so we concluded our meal and I shook hands all around.  I went to pay the bill and it came to roughly $1.50.  Not bad for the food, bottomless teas, and a friendly atmosphere.  It was upon leaving I remarked to Amber that I felt like Anthony Bourdain, but at least we didn't have a camera crew following us around. 

-Tom

Introduction to the Vietnam Rainy Season - Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

After getting bamboozled, we finally made it to Phu Quoc Island. To get to the island, we took a ferry named:

The seas were treacherous and thankfully the Supderdong was up to the task. It was a little disconcerting when the attentive staff handed out little barf bags at the beginning of the trip. But we made the trip without incident. Things were looking up. Except, that when you looked up you would get a faceful of rain.

7 Signs We Are Ready To Head Home

[NOTE: We are behind on our blog!  We are currently in Indonesia, two countries ahead of where we are on our blog.  We are trying to catch up, but we haven't been staying in wi-fi enabled accommodations which has made it tough.  Bear with us and thanks for reading!]

We have thoroughly enjoyed our travels this year. We have seen amazing parts of the world and experienced once in a lifetime events. But, we have to be honest in that we are beginning to pine for the comforts of home and seeing our friends and family.

Therefore, we penned the following signs we know we are ready to head home:

1. We feel like we suffer from temple fatigue (and waterfall-phobia, mountain-itis, and museum diarrhea)

Temples start looking the same, waterfalls not as spectacular, peaks not as high, and you feel like just running through museums to get the gist of them rather than reading every plaque. This is partly due to seeing some "top" sights, that seeing lesser instances of the same sights is not as exhilarating. For example: not much can compare to Angkor's Temples, the breath-taking scenery of Patagonia, the immense waterfalls at Iguazu, and the giant solid gold Buddha statue in Bangkok. I think we now look for more out of the way places to visit, unique sights, adventurous food, and try to get to know a culture better (see Operation: Give Cambodia a Chance).  I for one feel like chilling on the beach more than climbing another mountain at this point (much to Amber's delight!). Thankfully beaches and sunsets are still exciting to us so we plan to chill on Bali for the last part of our trip.

2. McDonalds is starting to look good

Amber and I have stayed away from McDonalds for quite a few years now (Amber stopped eating there after seeing Super Size Me 6 years ago, and I have broken down only a couple of times over the past couple of years). But, after eating so many foreign foods, a simple, recognizable cheeseburger sounds like a treat. We have not eaten at a McDonalds on our trip (so far), but I sure have been tempted. We have stopped by a couple to see what foreign McDonalds look like and serve. Here is a picture of Ronald in Bangkok:

Bad Morning Vietnam! - Ha Tien, Vietnam

We were looking forward to Vietnam: land of friendly people, delectable food, beautiful landscapes, and women with the funny cone hats.  We organized an early morning tuk-tuk to the Vietnam border and on our ride we were treated with serene views of the Cambodian country side.  Amber had her camera out and it was nice way to say good-bye to Cambodia. 

Then, before we got to the border, we stopped to change drivers.  It was all downhill here. 

Operation: Give Cambodia A Chance - Kampong Cham, Cambodia

After feeling that Phnom Penh was out to get us, our initial thoughts were to just high-tail it out of Cambodia to Vietnam.  But, Amber and I both agreed that we were likely missing out on seeing what Cambodia is really like.  We stayed in touristy Siem Reap and the tourist section of Phnom Penh and these places hopefully were not what the country was about.  Therefore we launched Operation: Give Cambodia A Chance.  We decided to venture to a less visited town and see what it had to offer.  Our guidebook mentioned a city called Kampong Cham that was on the Mekong River, less developed for tourism, and only 3 hours away from Phnom Penh.  We then booked our bus there and tried to find accommodation once we arrived.

Getting Pickpocketed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We needed a Vietnam visa so we headed to Phnom Penh to get one.  We haven't heard the ravest reviews of Cambodia's capital as it has the reputation for being a dirty, crime-ridden, chaotic place, but since we had no choice we had to head there.

We got off the bus and were immediately surrounded by touts offering moto and tuk tuk rides to our hotel.  Since we were only 2 blocks away we wanted to walk but it was tough telling this crowd that!  When we arrived at our hotel and Tom went to empty his pockets, his heart sank when he realized his little camera was missing.  After an exhaustive search, we realized it must have been pick-pocketed while Tom was surrounded by the touts when getting off the bus.  We had been lucky so far on this trip in this aspect and we were disillusioned and disappointed in our fellow man to be a victim of a crime.  Not having the little camera has really taken away from the spontaneity of the photos on this trip because toting my big camera around can be a bit of a drag.  On the bright side, we did recently download the pictures from the camera so we didn't lose any memories, which of course are irreplaceable!

Where Silk Comes From - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Looking in our guidebook, I idly mentioned to Tom that I would be interested in visiting a silk farm to see where silk comes from, but I also told him I didn't expect him to be interested in it as well. Tom just grunted so I took that as disinterest. However, a couple of days later, Tom confessed to me that he wanted to visit the silk farm too as he has always wondered how silk was made but he didn't want to admit it!  So since we were templed out and on the same page, we decided to take an afternoon and visit a local silk farm. 

First of all, I learned silk worms are not actually worms but caterpillars.  The farm we visited grows mulberry leaves to feed the caterpillars for the few weeks they are alive before they start weaving their cocoon.

When the caterpillar is ready to make its cocoon they are moved to baskets. These cocoons are yellow because of the type of mulberry leaves they eat but usually the cocoons are white.

Temple-itis Part 2, Angkor Temples - Siem Reap, Cambodia

After our long, hot day seeing Angkor Wat and Bayon temples, the next day, we decided to take a tuk tuk tour of the temples.  You can get a tuk tuk and driver from sunrise to sunset for $10 -  a pretty good deal!Much is said about seeing the sunrise from various locations around the complex and we decided to see it at from an ancient platform built next to a small lake.  When our hotel told us we'd have to be ready at 4:45 am in order to see the sunrise on time, we had a few second thoughts!  However, we decided to buck up and do it - after all, how many times would we be able to to see the sunrise from an ancient place in Cambodia?  But when we struggled awake the next morning and noticed the RAIN we were sorely disappointed.  Tom wanted to go back to bed but feeling bad our tuk tuk driver was up we decided to move forward.  But it was probably the most underwhelming sunrise you can imagine: