2 Months Gone

It dawned on Beau and I today that we have been traveling for exactly a month! I feels like so long ago we were preparing to set off on our journey.  It's been an amazing two months though and am excited to see what the future has in store for us.  I do think it'll be nice to take two weeks and relax in New Zealand without having to catch a sleeper bus! 

I do have a little Asia rant though, it has become apparent to me that my pet peeve is noisy eaters.  So often I find myself cringing because someone is eating like a cow.  Just chomping away with their mouths open, smacking their lips.  This isn't a trait of any particular social class, gender or age.  It also doesn't matter what they are eating, it could be soup or bread or something completely different.  Why has no one ever taught them to chew with their mouths closed!! It drives me nuts and it is gross to boot.  The main thing that sparked this little rant was on our bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh we had just gotten back on the bus after stopping for a pee brake and the Cambodian guy in the row next to me kept smacking is lips and making chewing noises.  He wasn't even eating anything!! I cringed every time.

Nov 18 - Sihanoukville

We had a fairly restless night due to our neighbours thinking they were motorbikes. They were making vrooming noises and security had to tell them to be quiet twice. We were taking it easy today after how busy our last 4 days have been. We stopped by EcoSea and picked up our temporary dive cards then we went to the beach. We spent the afternoon hanging out at a beach bar with $0.50 beers, wifi, and power. We updated our blog/website. We also talked a bunch with one of the guys working at the Bar. He was a very nice Khmer guy named Vida. We told him a bunch of stuff about Canada and explained some English words to him too. It was interesting talking to him. I had a dish called amok for lunch which is a delicious Cambodian coconut curry dish. We caught a bus to Siem Reap around 7 or 8 pm. We were on a sitting bus to Phnom Penh and then had to change buses for a sleeper bus to Siem Reap. The sleeper bus sucked; the seats were fixed and not reclined very much although they were wider than some, the bathroom was gross. It was dirty and you had to flush with a pail of water which took up the entire floor space so it would be very difficult to pee. Needless to say I hung on till we reached our destination.

Nov 19 – Siem Reap
We arrived in Siem Reap around 6 or 7 am. We had been promised a tuk tuk would be there to pick us up but there was not. We paid the $2 fair to take us into the city. Our tuk tuk driver took us to a hotel where we checked out their rooms. The rooms were nice but we wanted to do some comparison shopping. When we went to leave the guy dropped the price to $6 for a fan room so we took it. We then got to talking with our tuk tuk driver about trips to Angkor and we made a deal for 2 days for $25. We lazed away most of the day since we were so tired from our bus ride but it was nice to just read and nap. Late in the afternoon we explored some of the markets and then found a cheap restaurant to eat in. We called it a night pretty early since we were still kind of tired from the night before and we're getting picked up at 5am so we can see the sun rise over Angkor.

Now for some Non-Adventure

The past two days have been pretty sedate/boring.  We did a lot of traveling and waiting around to travel.  The past 3 nights have not had us sleeping in a proper bed or with a nice hot shower.  One of the best things about arriving in Hue today was having a hot shower, granted the pressure sucked, and a comfy nap in the nice bed.  Tomorrow should be much more interesting with a motorcycle tour of the area around Hue.  We are also contemplating riding between Hue and Hoi An!

Oct 20 – Hanoi for the Day

We arrived back in Hanoi without incident around 5 or 6 am. We trekked to the Backpackers Hostel and borrowed their internet. We may have also borrowed breakfast too! We killed a few hours updating and eating. We left our bags with their luggage storage and set off for the military museum. Unfortunately it closes for lunch between 11:30 and 1:00 we decided we were not meant to see this museum. We wandered by where Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is, he's in Russia getting a face lift currently. We also checked out the One Pillar Pagoda which was quite pretty. We found some lunch and then wandered over to the lake. We had been told about this ice cream place called Fanny's near the lake and they make all their own ice cream. We split a sundae that had green tea, chocolate, and coconut ice cream as well as well as coconut, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was delicious. Today was also Vietnamese Women's day and the owner of the restaurant was handing out roses to all the women. We headed back to the hostel to kill time before we had to catch our bus. Finally 5:30 rolled around and we headed to the bus. We had never been on a sleeper bus before and were not sure what to expect. It didn't really live up to any expectations. It was similar to a double decker Greyhound but your feet are underneath the bed/seat in front of you. It was not comfortable and there was no bathroom on board. I definitely prefer the train but this is much cheap so c'est la vie!

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

One Pillar Pagoda

Oct 21 – Hue

We arrived in Hue around 7am. I did not sleep well, I don't think anyone did! We were dropped off in front of the Hue Backpackers Hostel, same as where we stayed in Hanoi, but we wanted to look around a little since a double bed in a dorm was $9. There were all sorts of guys outside the bus trying to get you to go with them to see their hotel. We started talking to one pair and set off with them to check out their hotel which was $10 for a private room, it was only a block away. We arrived but they didn't have a room available yet for us to see, so they took us to another place which we had to wait while they cleaned the room before viewing. The room was okay but we thought we would keep looking. We checked two more places, the last one said rooms were $15, $18 and $25 but we could have one for $10 just not to tell anyone. The room was very nice, had the best beds too I think, although the water pressure left something to be desired. We got clean and had a nap. After napping we felt human again and we went looking for somewhere to eat. We found somewhere that was reasonable. Turns out many restaurants are coupled with tourist agencies. We talked to a guy that runs his own motorcycle tours and were very interested in a Hue tour as well as possibly a Hue to Hoi An ride. We walked down to the river front to discuss our options and budget. While there we were approached by a man selling scenic Vietnam paintings that he apparently did himself so we bought one since they seemed quite reasonable (turns out we could have paid a little less but 25 cents isn't a big deal). We walked to the market and picked up some fruit. We enjoyed some two for one beers at the Backpackers Hostel, just because we aren't staying there doesn't mean we can't take advantage of their deals. While there we ran into two guys we met in Beijing, sadly they were about to hop on a bus to Hanoi so we only talked with them briefly. We went back to see the motorcycle tour guy and booked for a Hue day trip tomorrow. We had a nice meal and headed back to the hotel for an early bed time.

The Market

Mmmm garlic