Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

We finished working at JungChul on February 28th, and flew to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on March 2nd.  We arrived late that night, and took a taxi to our hotel.  We couldn't see anything of the city that night, so when we woke up the next morning and headed out, it was a shock, in a good way.  It was hot and bright, with flowers and people and colors and smells everywhere.  Very different from Korea.  We were flying out of the city, so we walked back to the airport and caught our plane to Phu Quoc, an island off the south.  Phu Quoc is tropical and beautiful, with turquoise water and palm trees.  The first day we just stayed on the beach.  There are women who walk up and down the beach selling fruit, so we got some fresh mango cut up for us.  Then we watched the sun set on the beach, as the fishing boats were pulling out for the night.

The next day we rented motorbikes to go to a different beach on the island.  Where we picked up the motorbikes was a really narrow pathway, and we had to make an immediate 90 degree turn.  I should have just walked the bike, but I got cocky and tried to ride it, and crashed directly into the motorbike sign.  After that we got on a wide road, and rode for hours and I had no trouble at all.  However, I had broken one of the mirrors, so we stopped at a little shop on the side of the road and paid the guy $5 to fix it.  The beach we ended up at was really nice, and had even fewer people than the one from the day before.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch on the way back.  There were all locals there.  No menu, no pictures of food, and they didn't speak any English.  The woman made a drinking motion, and we said no, and made an eating motion, so she brought us two plates of pho.  It is very helpful to be a flexible eater when traveling, because we would be confined to places where the staff speaks English, and it feels more authentic to be able to eat where the locals do.  Vietnamese food is really good.  We got a lot of pho while we were there, which is broth with noodles, some meat, and some sort of vegetables and sprouts.  I think they use a lot of lemongrass and cilantro, and chilies.  Also, the coffee at the place we stayed on Phu Quoc was so good.  They brew small, concentrated amounts in these little tin cups, sort of like espresso.  But it's not as bitter as espresso; it's more nutty and smooth.  Then you can mix it with hot water or milk or ice, or whatever.  It's really good.

After Phu Quoc we flew to Can Tho.  (sidenote: we normally don't fly so much when we travel, but some of the flights were really cheap, and we are trying to make the most of our limited time.)  From the airport we had to get to our hotel.  Most everyone in Vietnam drives motorbikes, not cars, so for taxis you climb on the back of a guy's bike and hang on.  The streets are so crowded, and there is so much going on.  I wish I could have filmed it.

We had heard that in Vietnam when you want to cross a road there's never a break in traffic, so you just go.  We thought that couldn't possibly be right.  There are at least six motorbikes across at all times, and one of them will definitely hit us.  But we tried it, and it works.  If you just walk steadily across, no stopping, running, or panicking, they'll all go around you, like water.  It's a rush.

Can Tho is right on the Mekong River, and there are floating markets there.  Most people live in stilt houses along the river, and they go out every morning in their boats, selling their produce.  There are two markets that are accessible from the town, and one is less touristy than the other, so we went to that one.  It was interesting to see, and also beautiful to be on the river for sunrise.  Can Tho was a busy, chaotic city.  Our hotel was on the riverfront, and there was a park and walkway along the river.  In the evening we sat on a balcony outside and watched a lot of people and families playing in the park.  It was all locals, and I like being in places where most of the people you see are just living their own lives, and not doing anything for the benefit of tourists.

Before we left on this trip we had heard that they've been doing tourism in Vietnam longer than in Laos or Cambodia, and people selling things can be very aggressive.  We didn't find that was the case, at least for the first part of our time there.  The people were very friendly and welcoming and helpful.

From Can Tho we took a bus to Chau Doc and spent a night there.  The next morning we got on the boat to Cambodia.  For the portion of our trip on the Vietnamese side of the border we were on a slowboat that had a deck on top with lounge chairs, and comfortable tables and chairs down below.  It was the most pleasant way to travel I've ever experienced.  When we got to the border there were some Estonians in the group, and the guys working at the border had never heard of Estonia.  They had to pull up a map on their smartphones to show them it was a real country.

On the Cambodian side of the border we got in a fastboat that was much less enjoyable (but the entire trip would have taken about 19 hours if we had stayed on the slowboat, so I understand.)  We got into Phnom Penh that evening.  Phnom Penh had a lot of really beautiful parts to it.  I was surprised.  There were wide, tree-lined streets, and some beautiful buildings.  There were also some people and areas that looked very poor.  We were amazed at how many  Lexus cars we saw there.  We knew that Cambodia is very poor (the GDP per capital is $830 US dollars per year) and before we went we read that the UN tracks how transparent governments are, as a way to measure corruption, and Cambodia is something like 156 or 158 out of 180.  So we think that, while the majority of the citizens are quite poor, corruption is rampant and people are displaying their wealth with Lexuses.

The next day we took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.  Siem Reap is the town closest to Angkor Wat.  We rented bikes to get to Angkor Wat, and spent the better part of a day there.  It's...it's hard to explain here what Angkor Wat is.  It's the largest religious monument in the world.  It's like a city of old temples and monuments.  It's impossible to explain.  Just look at pictures.

One funny story: while we were walking around at Angkor Wat a guy asked Brady to take a picture.  He was Asian, but not Cambodian; I don't know what he was.  Brady thought he meant take a picture of him and his friends, but no, he got his friend to take a picture of him with Brady.  I don't know if it's the beard, or what, but we were at one of the seven wonders of the world and this guy wanted a picture of Brady.

After Siem Reap we went to Kratie.  Kratie wasn't high on my list of places I wanted to visit, but it broke up the trip from Siem Reap to Laos, so we decided to spend a couple nights there.  I ended up really liking it.  Kratie is right on the Mekong River (as are most towns in this area of the world) and its claim to fame is freshwater dolphins.  We rented a motorbike and drove to the place where you can see the dolphins.  We went out in a boat for an hour to watch them.  We were wondering, before we went, if they would prolong the trip if we didn't see any dolphins, but we didn't need to worry about that.  We saw a few within two minutes of turning the boat motor off, then they were bobbing up consistently, every couple minutes, for the whole time.  It turns out, it's really hard to capture a photo of a dolphin.  We set the camera to take eight frames in one second, but even like that, we'd heard the gasp of air, aim the camera, focus, and by the time we pushed the button they were gone.  We probably took 300 pictures of water and six of dolphins.  It was good to just watch them being dolphins, though.

After the dolphins we drove another kilometer down the road, to a swimming place.  This wasn't in any of our guidebooks, but a French guy we met at a restaurant told us about it.  It's at a place where the river gets narrow, and there are some very small rapids.  They built decks with thatched roofs over them, and hammocks.  We rented an area of the platform for about $1.25, and had it to ourselves all afternoon.  There was another deck that was jam-packed with locals. We walked around there to see, but we got a lot of stares and didn't want to spend all our time there.  We only saw three or four tourists there all day.  We were playing in the water around our platform with some of the local kids, splashing them and sharing our lunch with them (they kept asking, "for me some?")

Later on that day we went back to town, then we took a ferry across the river to a small island and rented bikes to cruise around.  We didn't make it around the whole island; we were low on time and energy at that point.  The people there were so friendly.  Every single child would come running to the bike path to wave and say hello.  I know that they're trying to boost tourism there, so maybe they encourage the kids to do it, but some of the kids were these little naked two-year-olds, and I think that coming from them it's sincere.  I really like that place.

We left the next day for Laos.  We've been in Laos now for about a week, and are heading back to Vietnam tomorrow.  I'll write more later because I'm tired of writing now, and I heard that this town has good chocolate croissants that I need to find.  

Jeju-do: Part Two (long overdue)

I did Jeju-do Part One three months ago, and now I'm supposed to do Part Two.

Our second day in Jeju-do we took a ferry to a smaller island, called Udo.  It's supposed to be named for the Korean word for cow, because the island is shaped like a cow.  We rented bikes and rode around the island. We stopped for lunch on the beach, and saw the Biggest Jellyfish Ever.  I didn't even know jellyfish got so big.  It was dead, on the beach.

We rode our bikes around these small streets and houses.  The vast majority of people in Korea live in apartments in cities, and they're very homogeneous looking.  They look like what I would imagine Soviet Russia housing to look like.  So I like seeing more traditional housing.  One of the distinctive things about Jeju-do is rock walls they build with volcano rocks to protect houses from the weather.  

On Udo we also saw an empanada stand, which was unexpected.  We stopped there to get an empanada and talk to the woman who owned the place.  She was from Chile, and the other woman working there were Korean, so we had a jumbled conversation of English, Korean, and Spanish.  

When we came back from Udo we saw some women divers.  Jeju-do is famous for these women who dive for shellfish.  It's an old tradition, that has, somewhat predictably, been dying out.  

That night we camped on the beach.  We were planning to climb up Sunrise Peak at sunrise the next morning, so we didn't bother with the tent, and just rolled out our sleeping bags and slept in the glow of the lights from Asia's largest aquarium, with a view of Sunrise Peak in the distance.  

We woke up early the next morning to hike Sunrise Peak.  I thought that maybe the view would be foggy and not that great, but the mist burned off and it was a really lovely sunrise that we shared with about 300 Koreans.  

After sunrise we went for a walk in a chestnut forest, then we went to Manjanggul Cave, which is a UNESCO world heritage site.  The cave was formed from a lava flow, and it's so big inside it looks like a subway tunnel.  This picture shows one of the giant stalagmites in it.  

That night we headed back to the city, returned the rental car, and stayed in the same hotel that we did the first night.  We flew out the next morning.  It was a really nice, relaxing trip, and we got to see a lot of things.