Elephant Riding and River Rafting

After spending a few days biking and going to many temples in Chang Mai, in Northern Thailand we took a bus to a little town called Pai. We are loving it here! There are dozens of activities to choose from, trekking, biking, elephant riding, rafting, and of coarse lots of sight seeing. We are going elephant riding this afternoon and then on a 2 day rafting trip tomorrow morning. We are staying in a little bungalow on the river, it is amazing and only $20, it looks like a 4 star resort. The town itself is fabulous! Small bars line the streets and backpackers come together to share stories and advice about their own trips. We'll let you know how the elephant riding and rafting turns out....!

Cheers, M & L

سخققغ فعقثىي فخ ىثص مشىلعشلث

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Our trip to the Mekong Delta was fantastic. It was a nice change to have an organized trip guide us around and we were able to sit back and relax. It can get stressful making all those decisions and trying to figure out how to get to your next location. We went to the floating market where the locals buy and sell all their goods which was the highlight of the trip. بي

Pics from the past

Our massive shopping bags full of hand made clothes.
Happy Father's Day to our wonderful padres back home... we're thinking of you :)

What a sunset!
The most beautiful beach in Hoi An wher
Meg trying to act like a local and sell fruit on the beach! Those baskets are a lot heavier than they look...!


Here are some pictures from a few of our previous locations.... Some of the beach in Hoi An, some in Nah Trang, and of the beautiful scenery we have encountered along the way. We are having an amazing time, and never want to come home!

Overnight bus and trip planning

We are made it to Ho Chi Min City on yet again another overnight bus. The seats are tiny and so uncomfortable but the journey was managable. Yesterday we spent the planning the next leg of our trip. We are leaving today on a 2 day tour through the Mekong Delta, it includes seeing a floating market, biking and staying in a small village. It is with up to 20 people so we are hoping there are some younger ones...... Last night we went to a tradiational Vitenamese restaurant, not a tourist in the entire place. The guy at our hotel reccomended it and wrote down what to order. It very tasty, a boiling pot of shrimp, beef, pork, mushrooms, onions, rice noodles and broth (some other unidentifiable objects as well). It was delicious as most of the traditional food is, fresh spring rolls, chicken with lemongrass, tofu with tomatos those are some of our favorites. Last night we stayed in a hotel that was $20 US dollars, this is almost a little on the expensive side but we have learned that a lot of them that are less than that are not very clean..... we decided we can afford the extra $10 for a nicely cleaned room. We will upload some pictures when we get back from the Mekong Delta. Then we are off to Northern Thailand, a little change in plans but this route is a cheaper option. Much love,
L and M
(p.s spell check is once again not working.......)

Hoi An and Nha Trang

We are now leaving the small beach city of Nha Trang. We originally weren't going to go here but we met some guys in Hoi An that told us it was a must see. We enjoyed the beach, it was nice to relax for the day and not worry about sight seeing and traveling to our next destination.
Hoi An, our previous location is known for their silk and hand tailored clothing. Let's just say Meg and I took advantage of the hand-made clothing...... 2 large boxes later that will be arriving in 3 months (sent by sea mail) we will have our winter coats, dresses, and blouses, work pants (hopefully I have a job by then). We are off on an overnight bus (quite the experience) to Ho Chi Min city where we will plan the next leg of our trip. We are thinking a bike trip in the Mekong Delta..... this trip is flying by. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Cheers,
M and L

Up in the Mountains - Bac Ha and Sapa

For the last four days we have been exploring the minority village people of the mountain towns. Interacting with them has taught us a lot about culture and simple lifestyle here. From treks to markets we have really enjoyed our time here.

We got to Bac Ha by an overnight train which was quite the experience. Our cabin was a nice sleeper with 2 bunk beds. Luckily we got the 2 bottom bunks...... at first we thought maybe we would have the cabin to ourselves, as the train was about leave a family of 4, 2 small children and their parents hopped in the bunks above us. Just to give you a visual, these are tiny beds that the average persons feet would hang off. Then to add to the excitement, the Vietnamese man got up to get out of the cabin and the door wouldn't open. He tugged for a few minutes then we both gave it a shot and the thing wouldn't budge. Another quick visual.... family of four, Meg and I, fast spoken Vietnamese, the guy pounding on the door and paniced faces. After the captain of the train and several others came to the rescue the door was finally pried open. We were now on our way. Luckily Ambien came to the rescue for the remained of the ride and we were both knocked out within a half hour.

We went to Bac Ha specifically on Sunday because there is a large market in which all the locals come to buy there goods for the week. Everyone is dressed in their traditional village dresses. The market was filled with vegetables, fruits, freshly slaughtered meats, fabrics, hand-made clothing, and more..... It was so colorful and interesting. We stayed the night there and had a great time without glimpse of another tourist.

We moved onward to Sapa taking the local bus. We had an interesting time communicating with the driver but made it eventually. Sapa is another fairly small mountainous town. It is know for the trekking through the villages. We did day trek over a mountain and through a small village. We interacted with the local, one woman in particular that was making thread from hemp. It was a great hike and a fabulous workout, not to mention the outstanding views. We are tired of typing so we our signing out.

M and L

Lauren being the ultimate light-weight traveler, reading all her books on the Kindle! This is also our sleep nest for the evening.

Tip: if you are a traveler, hostels are just as expensive as double rooms with a private bath in a nice hotel. It's a great place to meet other travelers and get info, but stay elsewhere.

Halong Bay Extravaganza

Ha Long Bay was amazing... the views and the scenery were absolutely unbelievable. We arrived with a group of 30 and got on this great boat. There were lawn chairs on the top deck and then a dinning room in the middle and rooms on the bottom floor. We were with all young people from our The Backpacker's Hostel so to say the least we drank a little too much rice wine. We did a lot of jumping off the boat, late night swimming (aka skinny dipping with florescent jelly fish) and had a goood time. When we arrived at our first destination we all got onto kayaks and headed out to this cave. Lauren and I were a little special in the kayaks, we couldn't quite keep it straight... With Lauren being left handed, and Meg having shoulder surgery our left side was a little too dominate. We were fun to watch because we zig-zagged through of our new friends creating a mini game of bumper boats. After a few hours we were very very tired so we headed back to the boat. The next day we woke up and were on the move again, we were off to meet yet another small transfer boat that took us out to this private island. The hostel had bought a white sand beach and had set up a little place to eat and some wooden crates to sleep on, quite rugged, not the same as the luxury camping we are used to. We did some tubing which the British call "dounuting or biscuting" and lots of swimming... It was also about 100 degrees so trying to fall asleep and not get eaten alive my mosquitos was quite a task but we rose to the occasion and embraced it. We created a little sleeping area with a mosquiton net, some rope and lots of bug spray.... lets just say we were ready to leave when dawn came.. After a good swim to wash the sweat off, and tipping over our passed out trip leader off a floating dounut, we were headed back to Hanoi to catch our overnight train to Sapa!!

"Weight"

Hanoi is the city with a million moto bikes, it is amazing to see families of 4 on one bike and a guy carrying anything from food to sell in the market to cement blocks, or even an occasional cow. One thing we have noticed is that everyone here is so tiny, average weight about 100lbs. We first encountered this when we were going to get a bowl of traditional rice noodle soup on the street, the chair, made for a small toodler looked daunting. Lauren decided her 140 lbs frame (yes I just publically announced my weight, it's sheer muscule anyway) thought the chair was going to buckle. Out of embarassment we proceeded to a sturdier location, an airconditioned, spring roll abundant restaurant. The food here is fabulous as many of you know, it's so fresh. We spent the day walking around and at one point took a bicicyle ride, we were not pedaling, throught the small streets. After a day we feel acquainted with this city. Each street seems to sell different items, we encountered Budda street, toy street, spice street, lamp street ect. literally 50 different stores selling the same thing. Tomorrow we are off to Ha Long Bay with about 30 others from our hostel. We will be kayaking, swimming, and treking for 2 days.
Signing Out,
M and L
P.S. Spell Check isn't working, sorry for our poor spelling
Pictures to come.......

WE Made IT!!!!

After 3 plane rides, long layovers, and 28 hours of travel we finally made it! We arrived in Hanoi and luckly had a young man waiting for us ready to take us for our Hostel (we were just hoping this wasn't going to be a scene from "Taken.") But we arrived safely at our Hostel (The Backpackers Hostel) and tried to adjust to the time change... it's 5:56 am and we have been up for 2 hours (this is a first).

We are off to plan our first week of adventures - A trek and boat ride to Ha Long Bay and then up to Sapa... We love your e-mails and thoughts, so keep us posted.

Signing Out- M & L

Our First Blog

We head out in only a few days and will begin our journey in Hanoi, a town in Northern Vietnam.  We have put together an assortment of what we call "travel" clothes, quick drying, breathable fabrics.  Many of you might not know, we are going during rainy season and the average temperatures are 95 degrees.  Sounds fun doesn't it...... well we can hardly wait! Please follow us on this adventure and give us any feedback if you have traveled to any of these countries.  Talk soon.... 

Signing out,

M and L