Hanoi, Vietnam

Landed in Hanoi this morning! first impressions:
-people do actually wear those cool cone hats here!
-only saw 3 motorbike accidents in our first 2 hours in Vietnam! (thats actually amazing considering the traffic etiquette)

seriously, the traffic is unbelievable! to cross the street you're suppose to walk directly into oncoming traffic and let the hundreds of motorbikes swerve around you. its really scary at first but i'm loving the adrenaline rush now lol

a random coincidence: Joey was talking about how hard is must be for a blind person to get around in Hanoi, and about 10 minutes later we witness a parked motorbike crashing to the floor, glass coke bottles breaking that were attached to the back, and a man with a white stick being directed away from the scene!
we also stumbled upon a live concert on the street this evening which was pretty cool, traditional vietnamese song and dance.

Day 2: Took a row boat ride down a river to some temples in caves, very scenic and cool.

Day 3: Welcomed Holly to Hanoi who zipped through Laos to meet up with us. That night we went to one of the infamous street corner "Bia Hoi" (draft beer) places which are just a family run beer garden on the street basically with each beer being 1500 Dong! thats about 11 cents Canadian. Needless to say it was a very fun night and got some really great insight into Vietnamese culture from an american guy Josh from Wisconsin who married a Hamong woman here (minority group) and has been living in Vietnam for 4 years.

Day 4-5: Did an amazing overnight boat trip through Halong bay, so picturesque! To sum up Vietnam so far with ABC i'd say; Amazing, Beatiful, and Corrupt. hehe wow, for one, our hotel charged us a "government tax" which we found out doesn't exist and is a fairly common practice with hotels here. our cleaning lady the other day also noted we'd taken 3 bottles of water from our room's bar fridge and told us she was going to replenish them and for us to pay her directly half price for them and not tell the front desk! lol many people in the tourism industry here seem to be obsessed with money alot more so than the surrounding countries we've visited but yes thats quite the generalisation. we've had some really cool tour guides though that were incredibly easy to relate to and talk with. we're gonna be sleeping on buses the next 3 nights woo! stay tuned
Pics

Bangkok again

Its wierd how such a foreign place can feel so familiar. but thats what i felt when we rolled onto kao san road (the backpacker strip) yesterday in our taxi pumping the celine dion tunes. We haven't done much here but sort out our flights and visas for Vietnam, and also, a little partying. i love the huge melting pot that Kao San road is. Last night we hung out with a 32 year old Finnish guy married to a Cambodian woman. they run a chinese food catering service back in finland. also hung out with simon from sweden, matt from australia and and a few other randoms. Pics

Koh Phangnan, Thailand

From Singapore we arrived on the party island of koh phangnan via koh Samui. i love how a taxi on the island is just anyone with a vehicle and some spare time to drive you somewhere. the ferry ride over was pretty crazy because we picked up a stranded fisherman who'd been out at sea for the past 20 hours by himself with no supplies because his motor had broke. Over the course of our visit we stayed at 2 different beach bungalow style accomodations right on the beach, it was really picturesque, had it not always been overcast or raining! seriously, for 2 days it was torrential downpour, flooding the roads and everything. was quite the experience though and we still had fun, especially the night of the half moon party. there wasn't a huge turnout but we met tons of people and ran around and danced in the pouring rain. Joey chris and I are now in Bangkok planning our trip to Vietnam. Island pics

Back in Singapore

Wow, 10 months have come and gone in Australia and for whatever reason i stopped keeping this online blog and for whatever reason i've decided to start it up again for the next month of travelling in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam on the way back home to Vancouver.

The past year has been amazing, so many experiences had, knowledge gained, new friends made while contact kept with old ones through email and long distance phone; it all just feels so surreal. but i feel good, have had a great year and am really looking forward to returning home as well as our next month of travelling in Asia.

Tonight we fly to Koh Samui on our way to Koh Phangnan, Thailand, a small beautiful island, for the half moon party Nov. 24th. I will begin posting pictures and such as they come in.