Here we are...and now we are gone

Here we are in a cheap internet cafe in Koh Tao. We are leaving tomorrow to go back to Bangkok and then up to Chaing Mai. We thought we would post about Koh Tao before we left though because it is DEFINITELY worth mentioning. Here is a map of the gulf of Thailand so you can see exactly where we are:

We took a relatively uneventful bus ride from Phuket to Suratthani on Friday afternoon. We were to leave on an overnight boat from there at around 11pm. So first we walked around town. It was a pretty cool town beacause not many tourists make it there so there wasn't as much hassling. We found a really cool market. The best we have been to yet. I(Larissa), think it was so cool because it wasn't dependent on tourists. In fact, we were about the only white people there. It was such a cool market. It reminded me of a carnival. I wish the US would have markets like this. We have Farmers markets but those seem to have become something that only rich people can afford to go to on a regular basis. It really is too bad. Here is a picture of me wandering through the market:

We took the overnight boat because it was cheaper and we figured it would be a cool adventure. The boat was pretty cool. It was composed of a floor with mattresses. These mattresses had numbers above them and there was a corresponding number on your ticket. This is definately one of those times that I am glad to be traveling with someone. The mattresses had two numbers per mattress so if the boat was full and you were traveling by yourself, you would have to sleep in the same bed with a stranger. Here is me perched on our mattress:

I slept rather well actually. The only thing was bothersome was the little kid sleeping the next mattress over. He migrated and writhed in his sleep and smacked me in the face with his hand several times. When we woke up at the dock in the morning, we got off only to be immediately barraged with taxi drivers saying "Hello! Where you go? Taxi?" As I mentioned before, we find this quite annoying as we have to tell each and every driver "no" since they can't seem to hear us say no to the other drivers. We were very glad at that moment to know that our dive resort was going to meet us at the dock to take us and our bags to the resort. After coldly saying no to all the taxi drivers, we walked down the pier looking for our people. They never came. Jason went and bought a calling card and called them. They didn't answer. Finally, about 45 minutes after we arrived, Jason reached them on the phone. They said "oh, uh... just take a taxi and we will reimburse you" ARGH! So "tail between our legs" we had to approach a taxi driver we had refused before because "we already had a ride".

We arrived at our resort and the beach bungalow we had reserved had been filled by someone else, so the put us in a little room. Jason complained and so they kicked some guy out of his bungalow so we could have it. Jason insisted that they didn't have to do that! They said, "Oh he is happy, we moved him to an nice big air-conditioned room." Oh. This bungalow turned out to be not inside the resort grounds but down the road and around the corner. Definitely not on the beach. But very close to this internet cafe so we are happy. heh. Here is a picture of our little place:

After we got settled we immediately went off to explore the island. From our map, it looked like there is a trail that goes from one side of the island, over a mountain, to the other side. Off we went. Right as we reached the edge of town, a dog joined us. He seemed to think he was leading us. He would trot off ahead of us and then wait for us to catch up. He seemed to have hardly any trouble with the hike, while Jason and I quickly guzzled our water almost gone. Sometime on the other side of the mountain a bright green snake slithered across the road in front of us. Jason went running after it of course and I had to scream at him not to touch it. I let him take a picture though (but not too close). Not a great picture but anyway...

We also saw 4 monitor lizards and a sugar glider! That was pretty cool. We got the other side of the island HOT and exhausted and were greeted by our doggie friend. He went snorkeling with us for awhile. Here is a picture of swimming Fido:

We saw some cool things. Like some cuttlefish. Then we started our hike back. We noticed a trail on the map that would take us to "Two View". We assumed this was a lookout point so we checked our water supply (dangerously low) and decided to go for it!

It was an awfully long hike and we were weren't sure it was going to be worth it. We finally made it to the top after a couple of false views (we kept thinking "this is it??"). Here is the view from two views.

Pretty huh? I was completely done at this point and didn't even want to think about hiking all the way BACK. Jason on the other hand got this sickening second wind and announced that he was going to find the "third view". He launched into a spiel about how "the locals are the only ones who know about it!!" while marching through the underbrush. The view at the third views was a couple of trees. Very worth it.... Here is a picture of where we hiked, taken from the beach.

We got lost trying to get down the mountain. We were out of water and very tired and thirsty. Speaking of which, Larissa is tired and thirsty right now, so I (Jason) will take over the writing from here. Larissa had the brilliant idea of breaking open a coconut. Without any hesitation, we started investing the last of our energy into extracting any food or milk that we could from a coconut. It didn't take us more than a couple of minutes to crack it open, our Palau training coming in handy. Unfortunately, it was fairly old, and the milk had turned to a spongy paste. We were told in Palau that this was a delicacy, but neither of us has been able to develop a taste for it. Nonetheless, we were content eating the nut part. Eventually we found the right trail, and made it down the mountain. I thought that it was a great hiking experience. Dense jungle, no crowds (in fact, no other hikers), wildlife, nice views, cool water at the end, what could be better?

We got back to our bungalo having completely exhausted ourselves. I am always wary of these moments because we tend reward ourselves with an excess of cold sweets. No harm done this time though, I think we settled for a couple of fruit shakes at a little place down on the beach.

Koh Tao is our kind of place. It is layed back like you expect islands to be, but it is full of things to do. Diving is at the forefront of activities around here, and is essentially the reason that Koh Tao is on the tourist circuit in the first place. We read a bit about the history of this place. Only a decade ago there were virtually no accomodations available here, neither were there any dive operators on the island. Eventually, dive boats from the neighboring Ko Phangnan started exploring some sites around Koh Tao. These sites proved to be some of the best dives sights in the entire Gulf, so dive operations started to become established on the island. Along with this development came the bungalo craze. There aren't any high rise buildings here, but there are lots and lots of bungalos. We have found it quite charming. Because the quality of the diving, the inexpensive cost of living, and the relaxing atmosphere, Koh Tao has become the mecca for diver training in S.E. Asia.

There are a few restaurants around that show a few movies each night, free of charge. Both Larissa and I have taken quite a liking to this. I like it because I can take her out to a movie for free, and she likes it because I can take her out to a movie without complaining about the cost of the tickets. Last night we ordered a pizza, which was ready shortly after the movie began.

Yesterday we went out to Chumphon Pinnacle, the first dive site we would see in Ko Tao. The visibility was not great, but we did manage to see some cool stuff. Here is a Blue-Spotted Stingray: Here is the dive boat:
It is convenient to get to the dive sites around here. The boats leave right from the beach, and it is less than a forty minute boat ride to most sites. We did two dives yesterday, and three more today. Todays first dive was at Sail Rock, supposedly the Gulf's best dive site. Unfortunately for us, the visibility was really low today. We did see some good stuff though, like a few huge schools of Barraccuda, some of them around 6 feet long.

While we are very fond of this place, our time in Thailand is growing shorter, and we have a lot left to explore.

For now, its back to the bungalo. We'll leave you with a beautiful Sairee Beach Sunset.

Safe, Happy, But too Poor to Post

Hello faithful readers. We are safe and content on Koh Tao. It turns out that there is broadband internet access here. This is good for some, but not for us, as it is to expensive for our budget. There is one place offering reasonable prices, but their server went down today. We had planned a to make a grand post with lots of pretty pictures, quality humor, drama, and suspense. Hopefully we will be able to come through for you on that a little later. We also plan to get to some of your emails. Please cross your fingers that the inexpesive internet place opens again soon.

Three Hours Underwater

I am writing from a new internet cafe, at least new to us. We have been using one that is near our hotel. It offers competetive prices, and a nice atmosphere, but we have grown tired of passing the massage parlor on the way. Without fail, a tall, broad-shouldered Man-Woman repeats in a raspy voice "You want masaaaaaaggge"? It does not speak well of the kind of place this is, that a massage parlour would put that kind of person out on the street as its saleswomanman.

Today we got to go scuba diving. We were picked up right on time at our hotel by the dive company's pickup truck loaded with bench seats. We were transferred to Chalong Bay, where we were shown to the boat. It was the most beautiful boat in sight, and we felt fortunate to board it. The tour guide gave us a good description of the boat so that we could make full use of it. On front half of the upper deck of the boat were placed several foam mats. Larissa immediately set off to find some lost sleep. In fact, she used more than one mat for awhile. Maybe she was just saving one for me.

It was a very comfortable one and a half hour ride out to the first of three dive sites. Anenome Reef was the first place we stopped. It is a pinnacle that rises from about 65ft. up to within a few feet of the surface of the water. After being briefed about the dive site, we entered the water to find that the site had been aptly named. Everything in sight was covered with various colored anenomes, waving in the slightly surging current. We enjoyed circling around the pinnacle a couple of times.

Once reboarding the boat, we were met with fresh fruit and drinks. The surface interval was well spent eating, drinking, and napping. It wasn't long until we were ready for the next dive site, Shark Point. While shark point was given its name because of the leopard sharks found around the site's two pinnacles, the tour guide warned us that it is now often referred to as "No Sharks Point." I guess the likelihood of shark sightings here has gone down in recent years. While we did not see a leopard shark, it turned out to be a great dive. Among the dives highlight sightings was an Ornate Ghost Pipefish.

After a very nice vegetarian lunch, identifying some of the fish we saw in our book, and another short nap, we jumped in the water at the day's third dive site, Koh Doc Mai. Koh Doc Mai is an island (Koh means island) that is somewhere between the Phi Phi islands and Phuket. The dive site just looks like the island, upside down, and covered with corals instead of trees.


The site had quite good visibility, and the colors were stunning. Sorry, I forgot to bring any underwater pictures, or pictures of the boat. We'll see if I can post them at a later date.

Today was a great day. Larissa is feeling very comfortable with diving now. She says that she is enjoying the scenery much more than she is worrying about potential dive equipment failure or being eaten by unknown creatures. We are glad to be headed for the relaxed Koh Tao. Koh Tao looks to be a place small enough for us to explore without relying on too many taxis, and the dive site are only a small ride off shore. We leave Phuket tomorrow. If all goes well, we will be on Koh Tao the next day. There is internet access there, but we doubt that it the connection is very fast. We'll probably be able to post from there, but I wouldn't count on getting many pictures. We have arranged for a beach bungalo, conveniently priced at a %50 discount for divers, which brings it down to around $5 per night.

While we are excited to explore a new island, we are going to miss our wonderful room. We are going to go back and watch some TV over a ramen and bread dinner. We miss you all.

Hello, you are fat....

Oddly Jason and I are sick of people yelling hello to us. Shop owners will yell "hello" to get your attention so you will come in their shop. Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers will even yell across the road "Hello! Taxi?" Taxi drivers sit around on the street next to their cars about every two feet, so you can imagine that we are SICK of the words hello, taxi, and tuk-tuk. I personally am also sick of people thinking I am a big fattie.

In Vietnam, I asked Jason's favorite tailor, Yen, to make me some courderoy pants. I wanted them to have buckly type things in the front but she immediately resisited. "No, too busy. That is only for people with small bellies. Too much in front. You have to have a small stomach to have buckles." Blushing a bit, I said I wanted them anyway but she insisted that my stomach was too big. Even though she took my measurments, the first time I tried the pants on, I could fit a bowling ball down the front of them. She must not have trusted her measurements to be correct for such a giant. Luckily she fixed them up for me after I had a good time telling her that they were way to big!

Today, Jason and I went to book our scuba diving trip for tomorrow and the lady was getting our sizes for our BCDs (those vest things that you wear while diving). She eyed Jason and said, "Probably a medium because you are slender" After staring at my scuba card for a long while to make sure it wasn't fake, she looked at me and guffawed "You are bigger than Jason!! We can probably squeeze you into a medium! HA HA HA!!" She said it so nonchalantly, like it wasn't untactful at all.

Don't worry, I don't need reassurance that I am slender. Although, Jason and I were just talking about how much less healthfully we are eating here in Thailand than we did in Vietnam. We are in a more expensive part of Thailand. So we don't go out to eat very much (no Phad Thai booths). Luckily, our great room has a partial kitchen. It has a microwave, a sink and a toaster. Unfortunately, the local "supermarket (read: minimart)" is woefully undertstocked and we can't buy much more than ramen and bread. I made ramen and it was so spicey that even Jason said it was inedible. The next time I made it, I used only a quarter of the spice packet and it still nearly killed us. Cheese here is expensive but Jason and I have been living off of it. We get the processed kind (the cheapest) and microwave little grilled cheese sandwhiches for ourselves. We are on our third cheese packet and 5th loaf of bread. Wow. Today Jason bought me some Nutella (bless his heart) and made me nutella/banana toast! yum yum.

So who knows, maybe sometime soon, their "hello, you are fat" comments will have more merit.

We Went Phi Phi

We are especially glad to be able to make a post this afternoon. The reason that we are glad to be posting has to do with our being unsure whether or not we would have cash anymore. Unfortunately, our ATM card stopped working. We don't know when it stopped working, we've only used in once in Thailand, the first day we were here. We have been conserving cash as much as possible until we could get things figured out. I (Jason) emailed Wells Fargo yesterday to see what the issue might be. Fortunately, they have replied quickly with good news. Apparently some terminals associated with Cirrus, Pulse, and Plus are experiencing some problems. Wells Fargo has agreed for us to use the card for cash advances as needed, free of charge. This is a huge load off our shoulders.

Yesterday booked tickets for today's tour of the Phi Phi and Khai islands. The tour agent was quite a salesman. We must have a cheap look about us, because he bargained himself down %50 from the published tour price in about a minute and a half. While his offer was the best price we had found, it made us suspicious of the quality of the tour we would get. We decided to risk it since he would accept a credit card for payment.

This morning we were picked up at our hotel, right on time. So far, so good. It was nice to be able to describe our place of residence for once. Usually, when someone asks where we are staying, we shrugg our shoulders "Well, it is very small, I am not sure of its' name, it is on a back alley near here."

We were transferred to Chalong Bay, where we were to board our boat. We were happy to see that the boat was as described. The ride out to Phi Phi Ley, the first of the two Phi Phi islands we were to visit, took about an hour and a half. The seas were rough. While I find all the bouncing about rather painful, Larissa seems to delight in it. We were sitting in the front of the boat, along with four other people. Most of us were groaning in discomfort, but Larissa was having a giggling fit. I was glad that she was content.

Phi Phi Ley is known for Maya Bay, which is now often referred to as "The Beach," after the movie of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio made the place famous. The Beach was our first stop. It was almost as beautiful as it was in the movie, but far more crowded. The actual beach is a bit right of this shot. I avoided pictures of the actual beach because it was so littered with boats and people. We enjoyed the sights for awhile, and then went to a different bay for some snorkeling.

We didn't have high hopes for the quality of the snorkeling here. While the bay was beautiful, it was crowded with other boats.
We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the water. While some of the coral was damaged, large areas were virtually covered in different colored anenomes. We saw a baby sea snake and some false clown anenome fish, among many other colorful fishies.

This snorkeling session was really good for my health. As all of you have been made aware, I have been a bit sick in recent days. Well, I am happy to report that I am now coughing and sniffling very rarely, and can breathe easily through my nose. Before this special snorkel I could not have made the same claims. Anyway, I have given myself the all-clear for scuba diving on Thursday.

We left Phi Phi Ley to make the short trip to Phi Phi Don. We first stopped at a place called Monkey Beach. I didn't know anything about this place, but Larissa told me that there were monkeys there. I suppose I should have assumed as much. Sure enough, we could see monkeys scurrying around even before we made it all the way to shore. Larissa gave me a little talk before we made it to shore: "Jason, the monkeys here bite sometimes, they can have rabies, so be careful." We were surprised at how tame the monkeys were. They were happy to receive hand-fed bananas. You can tell that they have been fed a little bit too much though, because most of the time they took one bite of each banana, and threw the rest aside. Here is Larissa with one of them,
and here is one that is too polite to throw away any of his food.

After playing with the monkeys while managing not to contract rabies, we made our way to the water for some more snorkeling. You may have noticed that we really like the water. Larissa wasn't quite as ready to leave the monkeys as me though. She seemed a bit taken back "You like fish more than monkeys don't you?" Yeah, I guess I do. We saw some Clown Anenome Fish. They are different from the False Clown Anenome fish in that they have black lines outlining their stripes.
We took a short boat ride to a second beach on Phi Phi Don. Upon arrival on the beach, we were shown to a beautiful deck on a small cliff overlooking the water. We were delighted to see a full buffet spread before us. The buffet was a mix between Thai and Italian food, we decided to eat both. Keep in mind that we still didn't know whether we would be able to get cash when we got back, so we were intent on filling up as much as possible. I was doing my best to get Larissa to gorge herself to the max, just in case I couldn't be a good provider tonight.

Then we were off to Khai Island. Khai Island is very small, about a kilometer in circumference. We enjoyed snorkeling around its' perimeter. We found some cool caves,


and came across an adult sea snake. We also managed to find a field of jellyfish. Fortunately their tentacles did not seem to be poisonous. All in all, we were very happy with our tour. It was even better than described.

Sitting Around on Patong Beach

We really have just been chilling. Not really on the beach much but in our wonderful room with the great view and air conditioning. Poor Jason is still feeling sick and he is hoping he will be well enough to go scuba diving while we are here. He was remarking that out of all the places to be sick, this is the best place since he wouldn't have wanted to spend that much time in our other hotel rooms.
We don't have to much to talk about. We have been able to watch Fox News a bit and it is nice to be able to know what is happening in the world. Actually it isn't very nice to know. All the rioting about cartoons, bird flu scares and landslides don't make for happy viewing. Butwhen we get sick of the news, we turn over to the olympics. But we have yet to see any events where the United States has won anything. Plus there is no handy dandy box that gives you a running update on how many medals the US has. It just isn't as fun when you don't get to cheer for your country. we also look out the window at our beautiful view a lot. Here is the sunset we saw last night.


We have been buying some fruit here though it is dissapointingly expensive. This is Mangosteen and we bought it on our dear friend Danelle's suggestion.

Here is my thumbnail making the initial incision:


It doesn't turn out as well when I try to open it. The lady who opened one for us to try at the fruit stand made it look SO easy! SHe just broke it right open.
Here I finally get it open to display the yummy fruit inside. You only eat the white part:
I know it looks like a nut but it is not crunchy at all. It has the consistancy of a grape mixed with a necterine. It tastes like that too I think. Anyway, it is pretty good. Thanks for the suggestion Danelle.
Tomorrow we might be going on a tour of Phi Phi island (pronounced peepee, I giggle everytime) where part of the movie "The Beach" was filmed. We will make sure to take lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure and we promise to have a good post up about it.
Thank you for all your comments! We miss you all!

Hello from Phuket

We spent the day before yesterday in Bangkok, trying to work out some travel plans. As we have mentioned in previous posts, we have been exploring different places to replace Madagascar on our itinerary. Some kind and resourceful friends have been working on our going to South Africa and Lesotho. Things are looking promising there, so we set out to change our tickets before we left Bangkok. We took a taxi to the Delta Airlines ticket office in Bangkok, but found the building to be vacant. Luckily there was a nice travel agent nearby who gave us directions to office's new location. We expected that making any changes to the tickets would require a lot of time. Agents are not used to seeing itineraries this complex. The last time we changed our tickets, it took a team of agents about two days to get things worked out.
We were sad to find out that there were no flights leaving out of Bangkok on route to S. Africa. We tried all sorts of different airlines and routings, to no avail. Luckily, the agent was willing to explore options with us. She suggested that we could fly out of Singapore, through Paris on our way to Johannesburg. She mentioned that we should be able to fly from Bangkok to Singapore for $25 each or so. Just before we had to leave to catch our bus to Phuket, our new tickets were finished. We were very appreciative of the ticket agent's efforts, and were well aware of the rules she had to break to make things happen. Here I am with our new tickets, and new friend.

We will be leaving Singapore on the 15th of March, Arriving in Johannesburg on the 17th of March. We are looking at taking a train from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Singapore. This would give us the opportunity to stop in Malaysia for a day or two before spending a couple of days in Singapore.

We had paid "VIP Bus" tickets to take us from Bangkok to Phuket. After all of the scams we have had to endure around here, we were skeptical that a VIP bus would actually show up to pick us up. Fortunately, at around 7:15, we boarded a bus similar to the one in the brochures. It was a beautiful bus. Two floors, complete with a TV, bathroom, and huge windows. We were content, feeling as if our money had been well spent. It was about an eleven hour ride from Bangkok to Surat Thani, where we were to stop. The ride went by fairly quickly, even though the road was really bumpy. Larissa slept more than I did. In the wee hours of the morning, I was thinking back to the claims of the brochure and tour agent "80% reclining seats." I thought about how that would be calculated. I assumed that an 80% reclined seat must be one that is reclined 80% of the radial distance from a seat that is completely upright, to a seat that is completely horizontal. Thus, the seat wound have to be at an angle of 18 degrees from horizontal. While these seats did recline more than most, I was convinced that it was not to 80%. I new that I could figure out the exact percentage, but thought I'd better wait until morning. As it turns out, I never got the chance to gather this important information.
When we arrived in Surat Thani, we were told that it would be about an hour until another bus arrived to take us on to Phuket. An hour later, it was not a bus that came to pick us up, but a pickup truck. With 13 tourists in the back of the truck, we took about a 20 minute ride to our next stop, where a real bus was to meet us. About a thirty minutes later, a minibus far too small to accomodate all of us showed up. They put as much of the luggage as possible in the back of the van, and the rest was strapped on top. Even though we were frustrated, we were being calm and patient, keeping sight of the possibiblity of our arriving in Phuket soon.
About 2 hours later, the transmission went out on the van. The driver recruited a couple of mechanics, or at least people dressed like mechanics to come assess the situation. I guess the driver had friends in the area, as it wasn't long until a pickup truck showed up to take us to a restaurant. Here is Larissa, still smiling, and the only girl who sat in back. For some reason, they figured that a restaurant would be all that was needed to keep us content. What about getting to Phuket? I thought. I had gotten sick the day before, and by this point I didn't have a voice. I probably would have complained more, but I could only produce raspy whispers. The pickup truck ride was enjoyable, but terrifying. One guy almost fell of as the irresposible driver took a corner to fast.
We waited at the restaurant for about an hour, until an even smaller minivan showed up. This one had no roof rack, so we were required to hold our luggage on our laps. No one complained. After a few cramped, hot, and sweaty hours, we arrived on the island of Phuket. The driver told us that we would be stopping at the tour agency so that they could figure out which buses to put people on to get them to our final destination. After our patience had been tested all day, we were in no mood for what was to come. A friendly tour agent invited us to sit down, asking us where we would like to go. Larissa said that we were headed to Patong Beach. He proceeded to try to sell us a hotel, and a bus ticket to get there. I was furious. After all of this, there was no apology, but an attempt to get more money out of us. We had actually paid for a bus to take us all the way to Phuket, but we were instead taken to a travel agency, far enough from town so that we had to rely on their transporation. I have scarcely ever been more frustrated. All I could do was whisper in Larissa's ear what I wanted to be said. We were not the only ones that were angry, actually a mini riot broke out among our group of travellers. We convinced the agency to drop us off at the bus station, so that we could arrange transportation from there.

Eventually, we got to Patong beach. Some kind and generous friends had arranged for us to use their timeshare here. We were lucky that something became available, as this is Thailand's tourism high season. The hotel is the tallest building in Phuket. We are enjoying our corner room on the 7th floor. It has floor to ceiling windows, and two balconies. The view of the Andaman Sea is beautiful. This is a definite upgrade from what we have gotten used to the past few weeks. We have a mini kitchen, a separate living room, and Satellite TV complete with the FoxNews channel. Larissa was thrilled to be able to dry her hair for only the second time since leaving home. "Jason look, I am pretty," she said as she pranced into the living room.

There is a lot to do here, but things are expensive, so we will probably just do a lot of chillin' on the beach. We do plan to go scuba diving at least one day, but we are hoping to do some research into the best dive sites before we go out. We will be here until the 24th, at which point we plan to go to Ko Tao. Ko Tao is a small island in the gulf of Thailand. In order to get there, we will need to take a bus from here to Surat Thani, and then a boat ride to Ko Samui, and then another boat from Ko Samui to Ko Tao. Ko Tao is known for its' proximity to some great dive sites.

Fresh Start

After failing as travellers yesterday, we had a couple of main goals for today. First, we wanted to see a few of Bangkoks main tourist attractions, rather than back alley wats, tailor shops, and gem stores. Second, we wanted to get a feel for a few more modes of public transportation. We would not take the easy route and just take a taxi to wherever we wanted to go.

After getting our $.50 breakfast, we headed to a convenience store. . . Okay, we headed to 7/11. . . to get a bus route map. With two thailand guidebooks, and a tourist map, we still felt that we needed another map. All of our maps were, and still are, insufficient in one way or another. Unfortunately, the bus route map would not break this trend. Even though it claimed to be "updated for 2006," it did not include bus stops for skytrain terminals that were built a few years ago. Larissa mentioned in an earlier post that we managed to trade a book on Madagascar for one on Thailand. I don't think she mentioned; however, that our new Lonely Planet Thailand is a photocopied version of the original. It is a beautiful book to look at, the cover is indistinguishable from the original, and photographs within are in high gloss color. After only a cursory perusal, we decided that it would be a good plan to get the book, despite our supporting an illegal practice. Well, don't you worry, we have paid the price. It turns out that while pictures and text come through brilliantly in the copy, the maps are basically useless. You know how you can usually read a description of a restaurant or hotel, and then reference it by number on the map? Well, we can see the numbers on the map, and some road names, but none of the roads are actually visible. Anyway, lets just say that our information gathering is not very efficient at the moment. We try the best we can to combine several sources in such a way so that we can figure out how to get from point A to point B, and whether point B is worth going to in the first place. We decided to make an attempt to take a bus to Wat Pho, which is famous for a gigantic "reclining buddha." As far as we could tell, there were several buses that could take us there. There are several classes of bus service around here. The main difference between the lines are the age of the fleet, and whether the buses had air-conditioning or not. We found that a nice airconditioned did the route that we would be interested in, so we sat down to wait for its arrival. It arrived quite quickly, but never stopped. After watching a few go by, it didn't look like any of them were going to stop. We weren't sure if maybe we were supposed to flag them down or something. After a few sheepish, noncommittal scratch-your-head type waives we decided to broaden our search to include any bus willing to stop, that may be on route to Wat Pho. Just then, an old rickety bus pulled up showing a number of interest. We jumped on in a hurry, the bus never actually stopping. We got about 50ft. before Larissa made a lunge toward the door to jump off the while it was moving. She had realized that she had left her backpack on the bench where we were waiting. Luckily, she thought better of jumping off the bus at speed. Even so, we couldn't get the driver to stop, so we were fortunate that traffic slowed the bus just enough for us to bail, and run back to get the bag. Again, feeling defeated, we sat down on the bench and waited for the next bus. It was not long until a similar bus came along, and slowed just enough for us to get on. $.20 later, and another moving bus exit later, we found ourselves at Wat Pho.

The Wat is beautiful. It is certainly a bigger, more ornate structure than those we were brought to yesterday. We have noticed that the Buddhists are good at making their places of worship very beautiful, without using expensive materials. A closer look at glistening pillars of gold and diamonds reveals broken glass and gold paint. After taking off our shoes, and entering, we were taken back at the size of the buddha. I forget the exact dimensions, but I would guess that sleeping buddha is around 200 feet long. He fills up the entire temple, as there is only a narrow walkway around the perimeter.

From there we walked to the Grand Palace. We had fun playing games with some Tuk-Tuk drivers on the way. Oh, the Grand Palace is closed today? Really, you can take us around the city for 10baht? What a deal. Say, do you suppose you could take us to a tailor shop, and maybe a gem store, and a few no-name wats? Just as the drivers got really excited, we relished in the moment where we dashed their con-artist hopes. Anyway, the Grand Palace shares a compound with the wat of the emerald buddha, and a museum of Thai royal regalia and coins. This is apparently one of the must-see attractions of Bangkok. Unfortunately, the admission fee cost more than our lodging. After some debate over whether we should fork out the cash, Larissa had some feelings regret surface over not taking advantage of similar situations in the past. She reminded me that the whole time she was in Florence, she did not go to the top of the tower next to the duomo (I forget its' name). Nor did she ascend the Eiffel Tower during her time in Paris. She had more examples, but I stopped her short in order to go get our admission tickets. The Palace was truly grand, and the grounds around it beautiful and well manicured. Unfortunately, I did not get a good grasp on the history of the place, so I'll have to leave in dark a bit. While in the coin museum, we were informed of some of the history of the emerald buddha. The things that stand out in my mind is that he is not actually emerald, and the fact that the king changes his clothes in a ceremony commencing the start of each new season. Right now the little green guy is wearing his rainy season outfit which is covered by his winter season cloak. The emerald buddha sits high in a nice Wat within the compound. Picture taking is not allowed in this particular wat. I set the camera on the ground and blindly snapped a few anyway. I'll have to check and see if any are worth posting. Anyway, sorry I am not being more descriptive of what we saw. I will say, in my defense, that it has been a really long day, and I am writing despite my bedtime passing hours ago.

From the palace, we walked to the Chao Phraya river where we planned to experience another mode of public transportation in Bangkok, the riverboat. After narrowly avoiding a couple more scams, we made it on a boat headed for the skytrain station. The boat was way overfilled. Larissa reminded me a couple of times that were it to capsize, we would all be dead for sure. Even so, it was a nice, cheap way to make it accross town. Larissa was excited to make it to the Skytrain station. As she probably mentioned in the previous post, we are staying in the cheapest part of Bangkok at the moment, where the predominating commerce involves bootlegged cd's, cheap trinkets, and yes, prostitution. Before I move on, I would like to mention that it is disturbing to see how prevalent sex tourism is around here. We have seen many an old-white man with a young scantily clad thai girl. Quite sad. Anyway, as much as Larissa excels at roughing it, she likes to make it to the ritzy part of town once in awhile. She requested that we make our first stop Siam square, apparently one of bankok's best shopping areas. After leaving the skytrain (a pleasant ride at a reasonable price), we first happened upon a beautiful bakery. We had many choices before us, but were able to settle on one peach mousse, and one chocolate-banana mousse, both of which we shared. From there we bumped into the nicest grocery store eithier of us had ever seen. While you can get anything there that you can get in America, the store also offered a vast selection of asian foods, and an incredible produce section. We saw apples that could serve a family of four, and starfruits that looked like NFL regulation footballs (slight exaggeration). Even though we looked like the grungy backpackers that we are, we were treated like valuable customers. Much of the fruit was available for sampling. There was also a booth where all sorts of fresh juices were being made. We tried passionfruit, tamarind (sp?), and flower. Yes, flower. Flower juice tastes like the smell of nice-smelling floweres. Then we bumped into a gelateria. I got the passionfruit of course, and Larissa got the cookies and cream. I was disappointed that she got such a common flavor, but I was glad to take a few bites of hers here and there as it reminded me of how good my gelato tasted. The prices around this part of Bangkok are quite high in comparison to other areas. The grocery store was more expensive by a good margin than stores in America. We spent the rest of the afternoon experiencing Bankok's upper-end shopping, without actually buying anything.

We then took the skytrain to a terminal close to a restaurant we wanted to try. We got off the train, and started looking for "The Atlanta" a small budget hotel famous for the wit and character of its' ownere. As usual, we walked around for a long time before finding the place. I still blame the bad maps for our navigation problems.

The Atlanta was to be our second dose of culture today. As we entered the unmarked door, we were impresed with the 50's era decor and nice layout. We were shown to a nice booth, and then were handed a very unique menu. The cover read "Please do not remove this menu, as it is only 1 of 3 in existence." It turns out that the Atlanta menus are famous due to the witty and comprehensive writing style of the owner. The menu is written in a form resembling an academic paper, complete with references and footnotes. The early editions of the menu were often stolen, and used in Thai restaurants around the world. Anyway, it took us about 20 minuttes to read through the menu before actually starting to decide we wanted to order. The menu boasts that the Atlanta has the largest Thai vegetarian selction in the world, over 100 items. These are not just thai dishes with the meat omitted, they are Thai dishes with meat substitutes. Primary among the substitutes used are tofu and quorm. I did not know what quorm was, but I have learned that it is a meat substitute mad from "mushrooms and other edible fungi." The chefs at the Atlanta can make quorm to match the texture of squid, beef, pork, chicken, fish, or just about any other kind of meat. My dish included fried duck. It was delicous. Apparently each night at the Atlanta, guests are invited to watch a movie in the lobby. Larissa was excited about this opportunity, but we decided to duck out early in order to make it home at a semi-reasonable hour.

After another skytrain trip and a short taxi ride, we arrived home with our two main objectives accomplished. Tommorrow morning we are headed to the airport to see if we can get our tickets changed. Then, in the evening we will start our bus jouney to Phuket. We are on a slow internet connection right now. Sorry no pictures.

We are Siamese if you please

Don't worry, we got here safely. We have just been wearing ourselves out and it has been hard to get up the strength to get to the internet cafe. After you hear everything we have to write, you may understand us feeling overwhelmed.

First of all, we are staying in the backpacker district of Bangkok. We have a room at a very clean guesthouse. It costs us only $6 and it is quite fine with us as we don't go there much. The bathrooms are shared and we decided against airconditioning because we usually get too cold in the middle of the night if the AC is on. We have two fans that blow on us all night and they are quite sufficient. The backpacker road Th Khoa San. This road is pretty fun. You walk out into what seems like a carnival every morning. There is music in the streets and tons of street vendors selling vegetarian Phad Thai for about 30 cents a portion. They make it right in front of you and it is quite good. And it fills you up. Jason and I have made a habit of eating phad thai in the morning and phad thai at night. For the last two days we have skipped lunch because we have been too busy running around. So we have been eating quite cheaply. We hear that the traffic here is HORRENDOUS but we have found it quite civilized compared to Vietnam. It is even tame compared to come US cities I have been in. The taxis here are metered and quite cheap. It is nice to ride in them because they are airconditioned.

When we were in Vietnam, a nice Australian couple told us that when we went to Thailand, the people were a lot nicer and they wouldn't try to rip us off here. After yesterday and today, we realize that the Thai's will try to rip you off; just in a more sophisticated manner.

We woke up yesterday morning with the plan of walking around the district where our hotel is and seeing the sites. "The sites" were basically a whole bunch of wats (temples). At least we assume there are temples around, we never really made it to our walking sightseeing tour. We were about a block away when a man approached us to see if we wanted to take a tuk-tuk ride. Tuk-tuk are three-wheeled mini trucks as you can see in the picture below.

The man pulle dout a map and showed us the cool places we could go. A place where elephants play soccer, the grand palace, thai boxing place, a monkey farm, etc. Well sounded nice but we said no thanks. Then he told us it would only cost us 10 baht each. 40 baht equals a dollar so you can imagine our surprise when we heard this. He said we could ride around for as long as we wanted and it would only cost us 10 baht each. "You see, the government is doing a sepcial promotion where they pay for our gas if we take tourists out. That is why we can only charge 10 baht!" I (Larissa) had read in our guidebook to be wary of people who claim they can take you on a tuk-tuk ride for cheap. They warned that the drivers would take us to places where he might be able to get commisions off of us. Like if he took us to a certain tailor shop, he would get part of whatever we spent there. I mentioned this to Jason and he said he didn't care how many places the driver took us to, its not like we were going to buy anything. "He isn't going to get more than 20 baht from me." I thought that was a pretty good point. We are in charge of ourselves and we didn't have to buy anything if we didn't want to. We figured he could take us to some cool sights and then take us to his tailor shops in between and we could humor him by looking around but not buying anything. Our first stop was at a giant golden Buddha. So far so good!
The driver was very nice and urged us to spend as long as we wanted taking pictures and such. Our next stop was a very beautiful but small wat next to a school. Here is picture of the inside.

The kids were at recess and were running laps around the wat. They cried out to us "Hello!!" as they ran past. Jason and I couldn't imagine, we were sweating from just sitting there. We couldn't imagine running in that heat. We went inside the wat and met a very friendly man. He told us that he was a history teacher at the school. He asked if we took a bus to the wat and we told him that we took a tuk-tuk. "Oh, a tuk-tuk! you can get them cheaper today! The government is doing a promotion for three months where they get their gas paid for. This is the last day, so tomorrow you probably will have to pay more but today you can get them for real cheap." That put our mind at ease. He went on to tell us how the goverment is trying to lure tourists back to the area after the tsunami by giving free gasa to the tuk-tuk drivers. We asked what some good sights to see are and he told us about the grand palace. He said that it is better to go there in the afternoon since the monks take a break to pray and the place would be closed for a couple hours around noon. Another good place would be top 10 collection. He said they are the best tailors around and they will make you a real nice suit out of cashmere for only around $250. We thought that was a lot of money since we only paid 50 in Vietnam. He said they probably weren't real cashmere. We agreed. We asked him what a good bus service was since we had heard reports of some tourists being drugged and robbed on some bus lines. He told us to make sure to go to TAT. They are the government travel agency so they have buses that you can be sure are safe. You also get what you pay for which, as we learned in Vietnam, you have to worry about sometimes. We thanked him for his kindness and went off to find our tuk-tuk.
He told us he was taking us to top 10 collection. "Oh they must be good if everyone knows about them" we thought. We went in and broswed around and left. Ha, we thought. He thought he could get a commission. Off we went to TAT travel. We bought two bus tickets to phuket. We talked to a very nice but unhelpful person who sold us the tickets. They were a little more expensive than other places we saw but we had decided it would be worth the money to have peace of mind.
After that he took us to another nice wat. This was also next to a school. After we came out, our tuk-tuk driver looked somewhat ill and told us he was going to use the toilet. we sat in our tuk-tuk to wait. Two tourists were sitting near another tuk-tuk next to us and they struck up a conversation with us. One guy was from Malaysia but lived in Canada and the other guy was from England. They told us some of the cool places they saw and told us we should check them out. Then the guy from Canada told us about how he comes every time he visits here, he buys a couple blue saphire pieces of jewelry and takes them home and sells them to jewelry stores for 100% profit. 80% of all blue sapphires come from thailand so we could get a good price. He said he could give us the name of quality shop since a lot of them had worthless jewelry. We wrote down the name of the place he gave us and he gave us his email address just in case we weren't sure where the best places to sell the jewels were. He also said that they give you a %20 discount if you pay with cash. You know in cartoons where you can tell the character is motivated by the money because dollars signs go cha-ching in their eyes? Well, if you had looked closely enough, you would have seen the dollar signs in our eyes. Jason has always been interested in reselling objects for more money and he is very good at it. We asked the driver to take us there and we sat back thinking about the money we could make. We got to the store in to find a beautiful place with rows upon rows of jewelry. Everything was beautiful. The saleslady was really nice and showed us everything. The prices seemed steep but I have never shopped for real jewelry so I wasn't sure what a good price would be. Since Jason and I are cautious people, we asked for their business card and told them we would think about it. The saleslady said that they were only open to the public for another hour, usually they only sold their wholesale goods to exporters but today they had opened it up to the public. Plus today was the only day we would get a discount. Jason and I were sold enough on the idea that we had almost planned on going to find out a way to get that much cash and come back a day or two later after researching things more. At this point though, we figured we wouldn't have enough time to make an informed decision so we took her business card and left thinking we its too bad but I guess we wouldn't be buying any jewels.

The driver took us to another small but beautiful wat. We walked into the compound, not sure where exactly to go when a man sitting on a park bench told us that the wat was closed for about 10 minutes more so the monks could pray. We sat down on a bench near him and read our guidebook while we waited. He started talking to us and told us about some cool places to go. After a while, he asked us if we had been to buy any jewelry yet. We said we had gone but we hadn't ended up buying any. He asked us why not? We could sell it in America for a good profit. He showed us a reciept showing us that he had just bought some gems. He had bought them from them same store as we had just been to. He said we should go back to the store because it was going to close soon and this is the only day it is open for tourists. This sounded remarkably like what the saleslady had said and suddenly, like a bolt of lightening, we got suspicious. We opened the guidbook and read a section all about gem scams. It said there were tons of very skilled con artrists that will try to lure you into a nearby gem store to buy some gems to sell in your country. Things began to click into place. Those tourists were fake tourists and con artists. The history teacher, everyone had just been trying to set us up to buy the next thing. Everything we had been through and every person we had met had been gearing us up for the biggest con of all; buying fake gems. They almost got us...... More later.

Waiting...

Well we just got done with our 11th flight of the trip and we are waiting in Seoul, South Korea to take our 12th flight. Our flights have taken us from Redmond-Seattle-Honolulu-Nagoya-Guam-Yap-Palau-Guam-Tokyo-Seoul-Ho Chi Minh City-Seoul. Tonight we are off to Bangkok!
This airport is great because the chairs have no armrests so you can find a back of three chairs and lay down for a nap. Which is just what Jason and I did for the first 3 hours here in Seoul. We are here for 13 hours so it isn't too long for a nap I suppose. Seoul is pretty expenisve so we are planning to spend our time in the airport.

Thank you for your comments on the last post. They were so nice to see that I almost don't want to take back my takers comment but Jason said that it sounded like one of those kids in second grade that try to make you feel sorry for them so you will be their friend. Ouch. So to our faithful readers, thank you for reading and comment when you feel like it. Talk to you soon!

Goodbye Vietnam!

Tonight we are leaving Vietnam. Next stop: Thailand. We had a good stay here in Vietnam. We got ripped off countless times, and the people took our money with huge grins on their faces but we still had an excellent time. Jason and I want to come back here every so often. Sooooo, goodbye Vietnam!

Right before we came here to the internet cafe, Jason and I bought two hammocks for $2.50 each, exchanged one of our Madagascar books for a Thailand travel guide, and went and got some passionfruit sundaes. Here is a picture of Jason enjoying his.

Here is a close up of the sundae.

If you look right below the whipped cream, you will see little black ants in the passionfruit pulp. We took this picture and then Jason noticed sopping ants dragging their bodies out of the jelly like substance just to curl up and die on the glass rim. In some moods this would be entertaining, but tonight we decided it wasn't worth watching and exchanged our sundaes for good ol' soft serve with oreo crumbles. yum.

To our parents, thank you for commenting on our blog. To the rest of you, take take take that's all you know how to do!! Please comment and let us know that the hours we spend are not in vain. :]

We'll see you in Thailand (well, I guess you will see us actually.....)!

Mekong Delta

We got up early today in order to prepare for our trip to the Mekong delta. The dirty clothes that we had paid to have cleaned were still not done. Larissa spent about half an hour trying to figure out where the clothes were. Finally, they were returned to us, half of them still wet. By that time, we were in a rush to catch the bus. Even still, Larissa found time to get some clean clothes on while I started taking our bags downstairs. I am wearing the same clothes as yesterday. I don't think that they were clean yesterday either. Easy to lose track of that sort of thing.

I guess we missed the bus, because we were lead away from the hotel in search of it. It is not a big deal to miss a bus around here, because they circle around the city until they are filled. We were lead to a different bus terminal, in fron of An Phu tours. This greatly concerned us. An Phu was resposible for our not-so-enjoyable trip from Hoi An to Saigon a couple of days ago. We were relieved when we were picked up by a TNK tours bus. Then, we were annoyed when we saw a bus that said "An Phu and TNK Tours." It is hard to figure out who is who. We used to think that there were a bunch of competing tour agencies around here, now it seems more like it is just one big company. Oh well, we got the big beautiful bus this time.



Off to the Mekong Delta we went. For a little background, the Mekong is Asia's third largest river. It originates on the Tibetan Plateau, and flows over 4000km, through China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia before reaching southern Vietnam. Their are around eight main branches of the river covering a large area of fertile farmland. The Delta is resposible for a large percentage of Vietnam's food production.

About an hour's drive from Saigon brought us to the river town of My Tho. There we boarded a motor boat and took a short ride to a fruit market. Here is a big basket of dragonfruit, accompanied by a young saleswoman. Here is what dragonfruit look like inside. We bought a few oranges to hold us over until lunch. After the market we re-boarded the boat and headed for Turtle island. We hiked along a nice grove of fruit trees and pineapple plants to the other side of the island, where lunch was to be served. We were given some ramen noodles and vegetables with some sort of meat on top. The woman who served us said that Larissa's food was vegetarian, but mine was not, though we could not discern the difference between the two. I asked to have mine exchanged for something vegetarian. The fake meat around here sure looks real. Hmmm.... It was a good lunch nonetheless, and it was topped off by a nice fruit selection at the end: pineapple, dragonfruit, jackfruit, and a fruit that I call the armpit fruit (we dont know the name of it, but due to its' taste and smell, armpit fruit is as good of name as any) which we did not eat. We did not intend to eat much fruit while in Vietnam, especially fruit of questionable origin. The fact that we haven't had any bowel troubles as of yet has made us a little under cautious I think.

The boat picked us up on the other side of the island. We were then dropped off on Unicorn Island. There we got to taste coconut candy, and view the process of its' production. Larissa helped out by stirring the boiling coconut milk for awhile.

The locals seemed to enjoy this. I think they were laughing at how easy it was to get tourists to do their work for them. The coconut candy was very good, even though neither of us are big coconut fans.

Then Larissa held a big snake for awhile, after which we enjoyed a nice cup of tea with locally harvested honey and lemons. Then we were transferred to small row boats, four people per boat. Two women in the usual conical hats rowed us through a maze of small channels.
This was probably the highlight of the day. When we got out into the open again, the big boat was waiting to take us back to the bus. On the way back to the bus, we were shown some floating villages. On some of the houses, you can see a chicken-wire enclosure between the floor of the house and the water. It turns out that many of these houses have catfish pens underneath them. Our guide told us that when the catfish reach a kilogram or so, they are sold off.

From My Tho, it was a three-hour ride to the Delta's biggest city (pop. 60,000), Can Tho, where we are now. Along the way we got to see Vietnam's largest and apparently most beautiful bridge. It was paid for by the Australians. I'd be interested to find out more about that relationship. We took a ferry from the town of Ben Tre to Can Tho. We checked in to our hotel a couple of hours ago. We have a pretty nice room, especially considering that its' price is included in the $15 tour fee. We made our way down to the riverfront for some food. The tour claimed that meals are included, so apparently dinner is not a meal. We ordered a large pizza and two sides of rice. When the food came out, it looked like we had ordered a small pizza and two large orders of rice.

We are not exactly sure what is on tap for tomorrow. All that we know is that we have to be downstairs for breakfast at 6:30, and that we will be visiting a couple of floating markets before making the return trip to Saigon.

Fried Snail with Lemon Grass

We wanted to add a few things, now that we have completed the activities of the evening. We found a restaurant, called the Bohdi tree, in the same alley as the California Burrito. The Bohdi tree, as we understood from our guidebook, is known for its' vegetarian selections. When we were seated, we were impressed with the prices, and the selection. We noticed some very interesting selections in the vegetarian menu, like braised ham, baked squid, and fried snails with Lemon Grass. Each of these entrees were less than a dollar. To be safe, I ordered a vegetarian burrito, and Larissa ordered macaroni and cheese, but we also got the fried snails. We had to see what a vegetarian snail looked like.
We chuckled as they brought out the macaroni and cheese.

It was your regular pasta with tomato sauce, but I guess the slice of cheese on top qualified it as macaroni and cheese. My burrito looked fine, but wasn't all that tasty. The snails looked disturbingly similar to snails, just without heads.

I asked the waitress if they were for sure vegetarian. She said yes, but I don't think she understood the question. Then Larissa tried asking what they were made out of, the waitress answered our repeated questioning with "made from vegetables."
Larissa tried one first. I think she ate its' tail. She said it was too spicy, and tasted too much of lemon grass. Then I took a shot at it.

I thought it had the right amount of spice, but the texture was a lot like you would expect a snail's to be like.
I finished about half the plate. The snails didn't taste good, but they didn't taste bad either. I have know idea how they made the little guys. I am not entirely convinced that they weren't actually snails.

On an unrelated note, some of you have been requesting pictures of us in our new clothes. We would be happy to post some, but it might be more of a hassle then it is worth. You see, part of the service of getting tailored clothes in Hoi An, is that they fold them incredibly neatly, and seal each item in its' own plastic wrapper. Neither of us are very good at folding, so we are afraid of doing anything with the clothes, the suits in particular. We do have a picture of Larissa in her suit, taken during the first fitting. We'll try and post it soon. Also, if you look to the picture (in the post previous to this one) of Larissa standing in the midst of traffic, you will see that she is in a new pair of pants. That's the best we can do for now.

Patience Marathon

We are once again reporting to you from Saigon. We feel glad to be able to do so, as it was a real challenge to get back here. I (Jason) think we mentioned before that we were unable to get a train ticket from Da Nang (near Hoi An) to Saigon. Plane tickets did happen to become available, but we could not justify their cost. During the Tet holidays, everyone around here does a lot of travelling, and it shows. Anyway, we were able to get a bus ticket, though we were horrified at the schedule. It was to leave at 6:00pm, and arrive the next day at 3:00pm. We were assured; however, that this was one of the fastest buses, a direct trip to Saigon, that would forgo the usual layover in Nha Trang.

Before our bus was to leave, we wanted to do a few more things in Hoi An. First, we took a boat trip ($2, private boat, 1.5 hours) down a river, the name of which I cannot remember. The boat driver took this picture of us sitting in the front of the boat.

There were boats of all shapes and sizes carrying all sorts of exotic loads. We enjoyed watching some people fish for awhile.

After I snapped a few photos; however, they came over our boat for some money. So, I paid about $.50 for the photo shoot.

On our way back to our hotel we grabbed some baguettes and pastries in case times got rough on our bus ride. We also stopped by to pick up Larissa's custom made $12 shoes. She is happy with them. They are red and white of course.

We were worried all day that we were going to be on a cramped and stinky bus for 21 hrs. So, as we sat in the lobby of our hotel, each time a overfilled bus came by we crossed our fingers that it was not ours. Then, a big beautifl bus with hardly a soul on it showed up. We were told that this was the bus to Saigon, so we grabbed our stuff and tried to get on. Just then, the girl at the front desk, who sold us our ticket, came running up to us. She said that this was not our bus, and that our bus was "right over here." Behind the big beautiful empty bus, was a small ugly bus with all but one seat taken. I quickly started objecting. The girl was obviously concerned with our dissatisfaction, and started spouting off to the driver. She assured us that while this was a smaller bus, we wouldn't want to go on the large bus because it was to take a layover in Nha Trang, and thus it would take a lot longer to get to Saigon. Everyone seemed eager to accomodate us on this little bus, just as the big beautiful bus drove off. With shifting of luggage, a seat barely wide enough for two undernourished children was revealed in the back of the bus. At least we can sit together, we thought. As we were seated on the bus, the girl assured us that it would only be 12 hours to Nha Trang, where some of the passengers would be dropped off. With that, we drove off. "Whait a second," I thought, "Nha Trang?" I hoped that her mention of Nha Trang meant that we were just passing through, very quickly, as we had passed up the big beautiful bus to avoid a layover there.

I thought it a good idea to make friends with the people that were sitting inches in front of us. They were a young couple, students from Saigon. The girl translated the driver's updates for us. We would stop in Nha Trang for two hours, then switch to a big bus before heading to Saigon.

We listened to audiobooks for awhile, and then tried to fall asleep. We found out that when you are fearing for your life, it is really hard to sleep. Several times, during the night, as we had near misses with huge honking vehicles, I considered begging the driver to let us off the bus. It was truly a scary ride. I could not believe all of the traffic that were on the roads in the middle of the night. The especially terrifying part of the trip was a mountain pass. We were somewhat delerious at this point, due to lack of sleep, but it seemed like every couple of miles the paved road would give way to a narrow section of dirt and gravel road guarded only by the mountain on one side, and a deep dark abyss on the other.

We arrived in Nha Trang early, about 4:00am. We slept on the bus for ahwhile until we were told to get off and wait inside the tour agency's office. It was raining hard (as it had been most of the night) so we didn't walk around much. First we were told that we would be leaving at 6:00am. When it was about 6:30, they told us that we would be leaving by 7:00. We finally got on the bus around 8:15, and then proceeded to circle the city for an hour while they tried to fill up every last seat on the bus.

We were frustrated on this ride with the all to frequent and lengthy snack and bathroom breaks. Then, when we were just outside of Saigon, we got a flat tire. Luckily, we were in an area loaded with tire stores when it happened. Actually, we may have been driving with a flat tire for quite awhile. They didn't tend to keep us informed very well. In fact, we didn't even know we had stopped to fix a flat tire until the driver got out of the bus an ran accross the street to talk to a tire salesman. He ran back and forth across the street for about 15 minutes, between two tire vendors, probably until he got the best deal. Then, he got one of the passengers to front the cash to pay for the tire.

This ride was a lot less stressful than the first. We enjoyed a few episodes of Lost and got through the first thirty-some chapters of The Da Vinci Code audiobook. So, with that for entertainment, and a nap here and there, the trip from Nha Trang to Saigon went faster than it otherwise would have.

Arrival in Saigon, 6:30pm. There are tons of hotels and guesthouses in the backpacker's district of Saigon, where we were dropped. We toured 6 or 7 of them before settling on one for $9/night. We settled half because we thought it was a nice room, and half because we were hot, sweaty, tired, and sick of bargaining.

We got cleaned up and headed out on the town. For dinner, we stopped at a place called Margherita. Larissa got some pasta while I got some burritos. Very good. Then we went out for ice cream. Larissa got what they call a honeybee. It was a dish with coconut, avacado, and strawberry ice cream. Lariss says it looked more llike a caterpillar. I got the passionfruit sundae. It was basically a bowl full of fresh passionfruit pulp with a scoop of lemon ice cream in the middle. The passionfruit beat the socks off the honeybee.

Okay, I need to move on. Today we got up with the intention to go to the Ben Than market. We visited it once before, but activity was slow due to the holidays. After about a twenty minute walk, we arrived at the market to find it bustling. You can buy just about anything there, from clothes, to jewelry, to handicrafts, to fruit,

to pigs feet,
to live catfish (some baby ones pictured in the tray),to cow tongues,etc. etc. etc. It is a real eye-opening experience best undertaken with closed nostrils. The smell, especially in the meat market can dissolve even the most hearty appetite.

We came away from the market with a couple of avacados and some lychees, assuming that we would feel like eating later on.

On the way back to the hotel, we happened accross a back-alley with a nice looking restaurant by the name of California Burrito. The sign made claims to "true vegetarian food," with no MSG. We both got vegetarian burritos, which were quite good and interesting. They contained, along with the usual suspects (beans and rice) broccoli, cauliflower, and tofu. While in the restaurant, we noticed a sign advertising a sister restaurant called California Pizza. Marking its' location on our map, we decided to take a walking tour there in the afternoon. First, we had to return to the hotel to take care of some things.

With no clean clothes left, we arranged to have some laundry done, which cost around $.50 per kilogram. Then we arranged a tour of the Mekong Delta, which will take up our last two days in Vietnam. We don't know how good the tour will be, but it seems like a bargain at $15, supposedly including meals, hotel, boat and bus rides.

Now for the walking tour. Saigon is a bustling city, with more mopeds and motorcycles than I knew could exist in one place. There are few crosswalks, so to cross the street you just kind of start walking, and watch the motorcycles weave around you. Here is Larissa in the midst of them, while on her concrete island of safety.

In a way, we came to find out, Saigon has a defined commercial arrangement. It seemed that all of the stores selling electronics were on one street, while stores selling such things as antiques, motorcylcles, clothing, or souveniers were restricted to their own respective streets. We are not sure whether this is a result of zoning, or what. We noticed the same sort of thing in Hoi Ann. Store after store advertising custom tailored clothes. Surely someone would want to put a convenience store in the midst of them, but no. If someone is making money selling something, I guess his neighbor decides to do the same thing next door. It is good for the consumer though. Once you decide what you want, you can have an entire street of vendors competing for your business. Sometimes you can just sit back while they do the bargaining for you.

We ended up walking all over the city, but still full from our burritos, we never stopped at California pizza. We stopped by the river for awhile, and then dropped by a bakery where we purchased a nice long baguette.

Back at our hotel, we made a lunch of bread, avacados and lychees. Here is Larissa making lunch on the bed.

We had never tried lychees before. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, they are round and colored like a strawberry, but covered in soft spines. Once peeled, a greyish ball is revealed, with the look and feel of an eyeball. I think they taste like a mix between a pear and a grape. Good.

This is the fastest internet connection that we have found yet. Also, it is the only one that has allowed us to view our blog. I think Larissa replied to some of your comments. Thanks for letting us know that you are reading! Perhaps we will be able to come here again and make a post after the trip to the Mekong, and before heading to Thailand. Our tour leaves at 8:00am tomorrow, and gets back the next afternoon. That night our flight leaves for Bangkok.

Tonight we are going to eat out, again. All of this eating out has not even come close to getting old yet. I think we might just stop by and get another passionfruit sundae.