Thailand
Our trip started out here and ended here. We couchsurfed with an Adventist living in Bangkok. He and his roommate took us to an incredibly friendly Filipino church in Bangkok. We ended up meeting a Canadian, the only other white person in the church. He was familiar with Minot and Metigoshe. He had invited us to some ice-skating when we rolled back into town, but unfortunately, Zach was sick.
Cambodia
First stop...Siem Reap. Ahh....I do believe this was my favorite place on our trip. Nice hotel, check...friendly tuk tuk driver, check....bargaining and cheap prices, check....visiting Angkor Wat from sun up to sunset, check....free breakfast, check....visiting a silk farm and eating mullberries, check....good finds for food, check....what more could I need?
Phnom Penh on the other hand wasn't so special, but I can't complain about a hotel room costing $3 per person each night. The room actually exceeded my expectations, but I don't think I could have had much lower expectations. Within the first 20 min. of arriving in our room, Zach was already lounging on the bed. I wanted to show him something on the map. I was simply going to kneel down on the bed, but to my surprise I fell flat on my face. That $3-a-night-bed was the softest bed on our whole trip, and dare I say, softer than our bed in Taiwan.
In Phnom Penh we spent a decent amount of time learning about the rule of the Khmer Rouge. It was especially interesting to me since I had started reading "First They Killed My Father" before leaving on our trip. This true story is written from the viewpoint of a 5 year old Cambodian girl who survives the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Excellent book. It made Cambodia much more interesting as we traveled through. I realized that some of the faces I was greeting on the streets had either suffered at the hand of the Khmer Rouge or had lost loved ones to them.
Vietnam
Something about Vietnam has always captivated me. It may be the pointed hats admist numerous rice paddies, the beautiful outfits worn by the women everywhere, the delicious food, the egg shell handicraft.... I was eager to return again to Vietnam. We spent a good portion of our time in Saigon, but never happy being in a city, we made it a point to take as many day trips out of Saigon as possible. Our first day trip consisted of visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels. We both enjoyed getting separated from our group and exploring the tunnels by ourselves.
The next trip out of Saigon was set for Nha Trang, a 9-10 hr bus ride away. I had heard of sleeper buses online before leaving, and I thought they were the coolest thing. We left Saigon on Christmas Eve fully intending to get out of the city for Sabbath/Christmas and being able to spend the day on a beach. Unfortunately, about 2-3 hours down the road our bus broke down. They flagged a couple buses down, but they only let the Vietnamese on those. So, we were stuck waiting from midnight to 6:30 am. Finally, they flagged down a little market van that stopped everywhere! Eye Yi Yi....It was the longest 10 hour trip. Eventually we arrived in Nha Trang shortly before sunset. Our dreams of spending Sabbath and Christmas day on the beach were gone. Instead we arrived completely sore, exhausted from no sleep, and starving. What a day, what a day.... We'll never book with the T.M. Brothers Cafe again, that's for sure. Because we spent most of Sabbath in a rickety old van, we only had about 24 hours in Nha Trang until we took the train back to Saigon. That train was wonderful. We went to sleep and awoke in Saigon. Now, if only our bus trip had been this good.
Nha Trang was a nice beach town. We went snorkeling and experienced our first mud baths. Unfortunately, it was a cold/windy day and both the ocean was cold to snorkel in and the mud was also cold. We kept trying to fit our entire bodies under the mud to keep out of the cool wind, but unbeknownst to me, you float in mud. The mud bath didn't last too long, but the hot mineral springs next to the mud baths were awesome.
Back to Saigon...We spent another day traveling along the Mekong Delta. I really enjoyed seeing how rice paper was made. They also showed us how coconut candy was made. They made it just like Grandma's caramels only they also put coconut in it. It sure made me miss eating carmels at the farm. For some odd reason, at each place we stopped at along the delta, people had caged snakes-huge ones. I was constantly running by the cages hoping not to catch a glimpse. Eeek...I just didn't understand the need for having them around.
Thailand
Back in Bangkok again. One of my favorite days on our trip was visiting the Safari Open Zoo in Kanchanaburi. We got to pet and feed a baby tiger and a baby leopard. Equally as cool was feeding the giraffes. Those giraffes snuck their necks into our shuttle bus like crazy. There was no place you could hide all the carrots we were saving for the zebras. We were also on this bus with crazy Europeans, and these girls were freaking out when the giraffes were surrounding them. Also, equally as fun to watch.
Bangkok ended with a couple highs and lows. We found the Dairy Queen and A&Ws that we had been craving. The low...Zach got sick for the last 2 days on the trip and into the first week of teaching. I had been praying that his fever would subside for the trip back, and God answered our prayers. Once we arrived home, his fever returned.
We really enjoyed our trip. God blessed us enormously. I had been praying for some opportunities to witness. We met a homesick Wisconsin in the middle of Khao San Road in Bangkok. We helped encourage him for a couple hours before parting ways. We also met an Irishman on one of our tours, and he ended up on our horrible bus ride to Nha Trang. We were able to have some good chats with him.
Thinking back on our trip, I realized that we traveled almost every possible way: train, bus, tuk tuk, taxi, ferry, plane, motortaxi, motorcycle, boat, car,mini-van, mrt, bicycle... Now, my mind is already debating where to head next....We'll let you know when we decide.
Cambodia
First stop...Siem Reap. Ahh....I do believe this was my favorite place on our trip. Nice hotel, check...friendly tuk tuk driver, check....bargaining and cheap prices, check....visiting Angkor Wat from sun up to sunset, check....free breakfast, check....visiting a silk farm and eating mullberries, check....good finds for food, check....what more could I need?
Phnom Penh on the other hand wasn't so special, but I can't complain about a hotel room costing $3 per person each night. The room actually exceeded my expectations, but I don't think I could have had much lower expectations. Within the first 20 min. of arriving in our room, Zach was already lounging on the bed. I wanted to show him something on the map. I was simply going to kneel down on the bed, but to my surprise I fell flat on my face. That $3-a-night-bed was the softest bed on our whole trip, and dare I say, softer than our bed in Taiwan.
In Phnom Penh we spent a decent amount of time learning about the rule of the Khmer Rouge. It was especially interesting to me since I had started reading "First They Killed My Father" before leaving on our trip. This true story is written from the viewpoint of a 5 year old Cambodian girl who survives the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Excellent book. It made Cambodia much more interesting as we traveled through. I realized that some of the faces I was greeting on the streets had either suffered at the hand of the Khmer Rouge or had lost loved ones to them.Vietnam
Something about Vietnam has always captivated me. It may be the pointed hats admist numerous rice paddies, the beautiful outfits worn by the women everywhere, the delicious food, the egg shell handicraft.... I was eager to return again to Vietnam. We spent a good portion of our time in Saigon, but never happy being in a city, we made it a point to take as many day trips out of Saigon as possible. Our first day trip consisted of visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels. We both enjoyed getting separated from our group and exploring the tunnels by ourselves. The next trip out of Saigon was set for Nha Trang, a 9-10 hr bus ride away. I had heard of sleeper buses online before leaving, and I thought they were the coolest thing. We left Saigon on Christmas Eve fully intending to get out of the city for Sabbath/Christmas and being able to spend the day on a beach. Unfortunately, about 2-3 hours down the road our bus broke down. They flagged a couple buses down, but they only let the Vietnamese on those. So, we were stuck waiting from midnight to 6:30 am. Finally, they flagged down a little market van that stopped everywhere! Eye Yi Yi....It was the longest 10 hour trip. Eventually we arrived in Nha Trang shortly before sunset. Our dreams of spending Sabbath and Christmas day on the beach were gone. Instead we arrived completely sore, exhausted from no sleep, and starving. What a day, what a day.... We'll never book with the T.M. Brothers Cafe again, that's for sure. Because we spent most of Sabbath in a rickety old van, we only had about 24 hours in Nha Trang until we took the train back to Saigon. That train was wonderful. We went to sleep and awoke in Saigon. Now, if only our bus trip had been this good.
Nha Trang was a nice beach town. We went snorkeling and experienced our first mud baths. Unfortunately, it was a cold/windy day and both the ocean was cold to snorkel in and the mud was also cold. We kept trying to fit our entire bodies under the mud to keep out of the cool wind, but unbeknownst to me, you float in mud. The mud bath didn't last too long, but the hot mineral springs next to the mud baths were awesome. | |||
| A Vietnamese lady making rice paper |
Thailand
Back in Bangkok again. One of my favorite days on our trip was visiting the Safari Open Zoo in Kanchanaburi. We got to pet and feed a baby tiger and a baby leopard. Equally as cool was feeding the giraffes. Those giraffes snuck their necks into our shuttle bus like crazy. There was no place you could hide all the carrots we were saving for the zebras. We were also on this bus with crazy Europeans, and these girls were freaking out when the giraffes were surrounding them. Also, equally as fun to watch.Bangkok ended with a couple highs and lows. We found the Dairy Queen and A&Ws that we had been craving. The low...Zach got sick for the last 2 days on the trip and into the first week of teaching. I had been praying that his fever would subside for the trip back, and God answered our prayers. Once we arrived home, his fever returned.
We really enjoyed our trip. God blessed us enormously. I had been praying for some opportunities to witness. We met a homesick Wisconsin in the middle of Khao San Road in Bangkok. We helped encourage him for a couple hours before parting ways. We also met an Irishman on one of our tours, and he ended up on our horrible bus ride to Nha Trang. We were able to have some good chats with him.Thinking back on our trip, I realized that we traveled almost every possible way: train, bus, tuk tuk, taxi, ferry, plane, motortaxi, motorcycle, boat, car,mini-van, mrt, bicycle... Now, my mind is already debating where to head next....We'll let you know when we decide.
