Good Morning Vietnam!

Or afternoon rather. We arrived in Vietnam on Feb 20 on a bright sunny afternoon maybe about 2 or 3ish, but just a quick recap of the time between our last blog till now. We spent about five days in Siem Reap(this little town had some coloniale style buildings and a bit of French flare), where we spent a large chunk of our time seeing the Angkor Temples. Our first full day in Siem Reap was Megan's Birthday so we celebrated by going for an hour back massage, lounging at the Blue Pumpkin cafe, and eating a delicious Cambodian BBQ dinner which got us all limbered up and ready for going to see the temples the next day. The ruins were really incredible and the architecture of the temples is quite complex. We bought a three day pass which was definitely needed in order to see everything! Since the temples are located out of the city and in the jungle we decided to bike the first day and watch the sunset at the Pre Rup Temple. As we were riding back towards town the sky was a vibrant pink/red that made the trees look like they were on fire. On the second day we tuktuk'd about 30+ Km out to the famous Tomb Raider Temple, our driver was really nice and took us where ever we wanted including a buffet dinner in the evening where there was traditional Apsara dancing! The third day we decided to bike again, this time leaving early in the morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately it had rained during the night and the sky was grey in the morning. No sun in the sky anywhere! By the end of our three day Angkor excursion we were pretty templed out. So we made our way back to Phnom Pehn for two days to get our Vietnam Visas which almost brings us up to date!

Our first stop in Vietnam was Saigon. To describe this city, it is a city of motorbikes, tall narrow buildings, for some reason Italian cuisine, and art studios full of reproduction paintings of famous artists. This was also where we first tasted Vietnamese coffee. Probably the most delicious coffee EVER! When we first arrived we headed towards an alley full of guesthouses where we were ushered here and there to a few different places. We decided to stay at Ti Ti guesthouse which had a litter of 10 day old puppies, and free internet which was the selling feature. Our room was located five floors up some really narrow steep stairs. We met up with Kait (from home) and went to see the Independence Palace, the Remenants War Museum and then in the evening we watched Slumdog Millionaire in a local cafe. Great movie by the way. The following day we went to see the Cu Chi tunnels which were used during the Vietnam War. Our visit in Saigon was a short one and soon we were off to Mui Ne, a little fishing town. For those who have money to burn in Mui Ne, you will find them Kite or wind surfing off of the beach. For humble travellers like ourselves, we spent a lot of time chilling at Joe's Cafe. We also did a half day tour to see the sand dunes and the Red Canyon. We left Mui Ne this morning on a tiny bus where there wasn't enough leg room and drove up and up a steep road full of massive pot holes. There were large green valleys and some wild fires. We arrived in the hilly town of Da Lat around noon and made some arrangements for a day motorcycle tour with Easy-Riders to see Elephant Waterfall, a Silk making factory, a wine making factory, Bamboo Village and some other countryside farms which is our plan for tomorrow!

BAM

Cambodia

Sooooo we've been up to quite a bit since we last blogged...haven't used the internet much in the last week or so. To catch you all up we left Koh Tao on Feb 3rd (maybe) and travelled 28 hours by boat and bus and bus and personel car to Sihanoukville Cambodia. Crossed the border at Koh Kong and had no problems. We arrived pretty late in S'ville so stayed at Chiva's Shack. Its name describes exactly what it is, but we had met and travelled with a German girl who had stayed there before so it worked for the night. The next day we had breakfast on the beach and got a big Cambodian welcome from about 8-10 ladies trying to sell bracelets, fruit, massages and any other product or service you might need. Once in Cambodia this form of hospitality DOES NOT STOP:) We met up with Arainn's dad in S'ville which was a nice surprise and after changing to a slightly more comfortable hotel hung out on the beach for a few days. One of the days we rented scooters and road out to Ream National Park, where they have a "waterfall". Its a river that flows down hill...there arn't many mountains in Cambodia. We took a boat tour out to a few islands where we were able to snorkle and chill out on some really nice beaches...however they don't compare to the beaches of Thailand.

After S'ville we caught a bus to Phnom Pehn (PP) where we stayed at Arainn's dad's apartment. He was able to show us around and take us to some places tourists don't usually go including Oudong Mountain. There is a huge pagoda there with 100 monks and 300 donchi (nuns or people in service of the monks) all learning meditation. We gave an offering to a few monks and they gave us a blessing....twice because during their first attempt they were laughing pretty hard...shy about having 3 western girls in front of them is what we were told. It was pretty cool. We also went to S-21 or Toul Slang which is the prison in PP where hundreds of people were tortured for information during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and then the killing fields where they were taken to be "destroyed". The numbers vary but its estimated that up to 3 million people were killed over about 4 years.

Now we are in Siem Reap and will be visiting Angkor Wat and celebrating Megan's birthday.

Tata for now.

BAM

An underwater week in Koh Tao

About a week ago we stopped in Koh Tao, we were just going to spend a day and almost a whole week later we are still here! We met an Aussie on the ferry over to the island who was planning on doing his Open Water PADI at Ban's Diving Resort which sounded like such a good idea that Arainn and Breanna decided to do theirs too! The course was short with four dives, two a day in different locations off the coast of Koh Tao. Really amazing corals and fish... blow fish, eels, butterfly fish, nemo. During Arainn and Breanna's course, Megan did some fun dives with another dive company down the street, Phoenix Divers. This company was also offering an ocean clean-up free dive which the three of us decided to do. SO MUCH FUN! The clean-up dive was like a hunt to find all the garbage that had been dumped in the ocean. Which brings us to just yesterday when the three of us decided to stay on Koh Tao for a couple more days to do our Advanced Open Water PADI. Yesterday was the first day of our Advanced and we did three dives, a deep water where we dive down to 30m, a navigation dive where we have to use a compass and computer to navigate through the water and monitor our time underwater, and a night dive which was really neat. At night we use torches to see. There were sting rays, a hermit crab and a whole lot of sleeping fish! During our night dive we turned off our torches and swam in the dark. oooh spooky! Actually it was super cool because all of the plankton glows in the dark and as you swim its all around you and you can see everyone in the water! Today is our last full day in Koh Tao, we will be finishing off our course with two dives, a fish identification, and a multi-level dive and then a party to celebrate! Tomorrow we are planning to make our way back to Bangkok and then take a bus to Cambodia woo hoo! And the adventure continues...

BAM