Good morning, Vietnam!

And hello, Vietnam!  Yes, I've been planning to use that title since we added Hanoi to our travel itinerary.

Vietnam was a surprise to me.  I enjoyed the city and the people way more than I thought I would.  We only scheduled two full days here, and I think I would have liked to stay another day or two.

We arrived quite late on Sunday night, in the pouring rain.  I think there is a song in there somewhere.    Anyway, things didn't get rolling until Monday morning.  We woke up and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, then headed out to see the sites of the Old Quarter and the French Quarter.

We eventually found our way to the Hoa Lo prison, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton by captured American pilots during the Vietnam War.  The site is now a museum.

Unfortunately for us, many of the other museums and public buildings are closed on Mondays, so we weren't able to visit some other popular places.  However, the street food tour that we participated in more than made up for any disappointment we may have felt.

For me, the street food tour was my favorite activity.  Our guide, Lucky, was engaging and informative.  He led us on a three-hour walking tour of the city and showed us many things we would not have otherwise seen, and fed us food we may not have otherwise sampled.

We walked through the market where the locals purchase their food - many vendors selling everything from fruits to vegetables and raw meat, including live frogs.  Makes me appreciate Hy-Vee.

First on the menu was banh mi, followed by banh cuon (with fried worm finisher), then bun cha (my favorite).  For dessert we enjoyed fresh fruit with condensed milk and tapioca.  Finally, we enjoyed egg coffee for dessert.  I didn't particularly care for the rice paper wrapping on the banh cuon, but everything else was quite tasty - even the worm.

After our street food tour, we had just enough time to make it to the water puppet show.  Apparently, water puppet theater is a centuries-old tradition.  It was highly entertaining.  The puppeteers are waist-deep in water and hidden behind bamboo screens.  They control the puppets by manipulating long wooden poles.  It is accomapanied by live music.  We were fortunate to have seats in the front row.  They performed 14 or 15 distinct musical numbers.  

We spent a good chunk of Independence Day on a bus, traveling east to visit Halong Bay.  It was beautiful and the boat ride was nice, but I'm not sure it was worth 8 hours of travel time.  Perhaps if the weather had been better.....

In addition to boating around the Bay, we also walked through a cave.  I took a few photos, but due to the lighting, they didn't really turn out.  It was a cool cave, though, with giant stalacmites and stalactites.  Included with the tour package was dinner on the boat.  In an effort to add a chapter to my  Adventures in Eating series, I ate a whole baby squid.  I will never do that again.  Never.

That wraps up our time in Vietnam.  On to our last stop, Hong Kong!

A Quick Stop in Siem Reap

Friday, June 30, saw us traveling from KL to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  This city was one of my picks, as it is the gateway to the Angkor Archeological Complex.

We arrived and checked into our hotel, and then headed out to find a bite to eat and to get our bearings.  We found a pizza place nearby and had a slice, then walked to a nearby temple (Wat Preah Prohm Roth).  It was a serene spot, with a large central shrine with a statue of Buddha.  In an effort to be respectful to the man praying inside, I did not take any photographs inside the temple, but did grab a video (or two) of the area outside the shrine.

After wandering around the temple grounds, we were hot and our feet were tired, so we treated ourselves to a foot massage at the spa conveniently located cattycorner from our hotel.  Much to our surprise, a $6 foot massage entailed changing into special garments and went way beyond just rubbing our feet.   Get your mind out of the gutter - I only mean that they also massaged our arms, shoulders and backs.

Later that evening, we took a stroll to the night market, where we did a little shopping (have I mentioned that I hate shopping?) and found Pub Street - a very popular area for tourists.

Saturday morning arrived, and with it, our tour guide Joe.  We headed out to see the first of the four temple sites on our itinerary.  

Banteay Srei is the only temple in the complex made of pink sandstone.  It is intricately carved and quite lovely.

The next temple we visited was Ta Prohm.  It is known as the jungle temple or Tomb Raider temple, as it was used as a location in the film.  This temple has many trees growing into and around the temple buildings, giving it an eerie vibe.

The third temple was Bayon.  This temple has 37 standing towers, most sporting four carved faces.  In addition to the towers, the exterior walls contain real-life scenes from the war between the Khmer and the Cham.  The detail of the carvings is incredible.

Last but definitely not least, we visited Angkor Wat, the jewel in the crown of the temple complex.  The temple is huge and amazingly well-preserved.  The temple was originally dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu.  

I could say a lot more about the visit, but there are better resources if anyone is interested in learning more about the site.  I would recommend that you NOT visit during the summer, as the temperature was over 100 and quite humid.  

We could have spent several more days touring the many temples, but this vacation is planned down to the last minute, so we will say goodbye to Cambodia and pick up on Sunday in Hanoi.  Good bye, Cambodia!

Four Days in Kuala Lumpur

Okey, Dokey.  We have arrived in Ha Noi, Vietnam, and the internet connection is better so I was able to upload images and videos to the various cloud services so I can include them in blog posts.  I will backtrack to Kuala Lumpur and document our adventures there.

Our trip from Sanya to KL included automobiles, trains, planes, trains and automobiles.  It was an intricate dance to move from one mode of transportation to the another, but we persevered and got to our final destination in the late afternoon.  Our hotel was the historic Hotel Majestic, and it was beautiful.  We were also upgraded to a junior suite thanks to my Marriott Gold Elite status.

It was raining heavily when we arrived, so we just called in an early night.  Shelley and Abbey especially enjoyed the luxurious robes.

On Tuesday, we saddled up the public transportation and hit the metro to take us to see the Petronius Twin Towers.  The metro was as crowded as I have ever experienced.

The towers are beautifully designed and are surrounded by several plazas.  

After visiting the Petronius towers, we grabbed a cab and headed for the KL Tower.  We took the trip to the sky deck, but didn't want to wait in line for a photo op in the glass box.

After the KL Tower visit, we headed back to the hotel for happy hour in the club lounge.  The Hotel Majestic boasts a lovely orchid conservatory on the property.

Later that evening, we visited Jalan Alor, which is the night market in KL.  It had many restaurants and food stands.  We settled on some traditional asian food and enjoyed some musical entertainment.

Wedneday was another day packed full of activities.  In the morning, we toured the National Museum and learned about the history of KL.  In the afternoon, we took a small group tour to the Batu Caves, a Hindu religious site.  It is still used for worship today.  The temple is marked by a large statue of Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of love and war.  The statue is 50 meters tall and covered in gold paint.

Climb the 272 steps and you can go inside the caves and explore.  There are many small shrines/altars inside.  And monkeys.  Lots of monkeys.

Of course, after climbing the 272 stairs up to the caves, you have to climb down the 272 stairs.

After the Batu Caves tour, we visited a fabric shop that make hand-drawn batik prints. One of the artists demonstrated how the silk is painted after the one-of-a-kind design is sketched onto the fabric with wax.  The wax keeps the colors from bleeding together.

After the fabric shop, we took a tour of Little India.  There we walked through flower stalls were the vendors were crafting beautiful necklaces and other ornamentations.  The smell was heavenly.

We also enjoyed "pull" tea.  This is tea that is mixed and cooled by pouring repeatedly from one cup to another.

That concluded the small group tour.  We returned to the hotel to rest and enjoy a little pool time.

While we were at the pool, we could hear the call to the faithful from the nearby National Mosque.  As I walked around the pool deck, the sound was echoing off the buildings.

After relaxing at the pool, we clean up and then went out for a nice dinner courtesy of Shelley's mom, Dee Ann.  

Thursday was our last full day in KL.  We decided to do the hop-on/hop-off tour to see all the sights we hadn't as yet seen.  These included the hibiscus and orchid gardens, the National Mosque and the central market.

After the long day of sight-seeing, we hit the night market again for dinner.  This concluded our stay in Kuala Lumpur.  On to Siem Riep on Friday!

The No Update Update

Sorry to disappoint all three of you faithful followers, but we've been having some internet connection issues in KL and Siem Reap, and I haven't been able to upload photos or videos to Google Photos and YouTube so I can include them in blog posts. I'm also typing this on my phone, which is not really conducive to providing a good narrative of our travels.

We are leaving for Hanoi later today and I hope to have better access so I can update you on our exciting adventures.  Please check back soon!

Sanyahhhhhhhhh - The Vacation from the Vacation

Shelley and I flew from Xian to Sanya on Friday.  This was to be the place for the big reunion with Abbey and the vacation from the vacation.  We had no plans other than to meet up with Abbey and enjoy some R&R prior to the whirlwind that will be the next two weeks.

Our plans hit a snag with a 4 hour flight delay.  It was especially challenging because we don't speak the language and the airline wasn't good at updating the flight boards.

Fortunately we were able to spend a good chunk of the wait time in the first class lounge.  Poor Shelley was on edge the whole time, as she was concerned our flight would end up being cancelled and Abbey would be stranded in Sanya waiting for us.

But all's well that ends well, and we arrived in Sanya shortly before midnight.  The mother and child reunion was made and we grabbed a taxi for the ride to the resort.

Taxis in China are relatively small, and now that we were a party of three, it took a special effort to fit our bags in the vehicle.

Fortunately, the straps held and we (and our bags) made it safely to the hotel.  It wasn't until Saturday morning that we were able to appreciate the room and the view.

After a leisurely breakfast, we hit the beach for some fun in the shade (it was HOT!).  Sanya reminded me very much of Maui.

Now that Abbey has joined us, I'm trying to be a little more daring on my food choices.  Baby steps at first, so I started with squid on a stick for lunch.  The flavor was good, but it was a little chewy for my liking.  

Upon returning to our room, we noticed that the hotel staff had decorated one of the beds with flower petals to wish Abbey a happy birthday.  They followed up that surprise with a special delivery of cake, also in celebration of Abbeys's birthday.  We aren't exactly sure how they knew it was her birthday, as neither Shelley nor I could recall mentioning it.

Later that evening, we went out to dinner and the wait staff surprised Abbey yet again with more cake and a delighful glass of limoncello.

Speaking of staff, everyone we interacted with seemed to be a Nepalese student on an internship.  They were helpful and pleasant, but perhaps just a bit too attentive.  I think this stemmed from 1) the fact that we were the only people on the beach between noon and 3 pm; 2) we were the only people dining in the restaurant at 9 pm; and 3) they wanted to practice their English.

After two days of doing nothing, we checked out of the Ritz and our adventure picks up in Kuala Lumpur.  More on that city in the next post.  Good night!