Kaitlyn Mah – Page 3 – Where to, Gumshoe?

Vientiane (Day 118): The Sleepy Capital

June 26, 2016

After last night’s thunderstorms, the internet at the hotel was down. We don’t realize how reliant we were on WiFi until there wasn’t any available (we’re slightly addicted). We had to pay cash for the hotel because their credit card system naturally wasn’t working either. After we checked out, we were driven to the airport (free airport transfers are the best!).

The Luang Prabang Airport was very small – the domestic and international departures are together and there are only 5 check in counters. There’s no free WiFi available at the airport, although we did end up connecting to one (not an official airport WiFi) while at the check in area. Once we got to the gates, there was no more WiFi except if you were flying on Bangkok Airways. They have their own departure lounge for all their passengers. We walked around the lounge like stalkers trying to see if their WiFi password was written somewhere visible (I guess we are addicted), but no luck. While we watched people go into the Bangkok Airways lounge, we were reminded of how good that airline is from when we flew with them in 2013. Unfortunately, none of our flight routes have Bangkok Airways as an option this trip.

We finally boarded and I was pleasantly surprised to see the plane flying to Vientiane was a lot bigger than the one we flew from Hanoi (it was actually an Airbus!). The flight was quite full, mostly filled with locals and older western tourists. The majority of young backpackers would probably take the bus from Luang Prabang (7+ hour bus ride). The flight was only about 30 minutes, in which time they gave us a bottle of water and dried fruit chips. We landed in Vientiane and it looked like their domestic terminal needed a face lift. Apparently the U.S. government gave Laos money and cement to upgrade their airport but they used it on their “Arc de Triomphe” instead.

After we got our luggage, we went to the taxi counter inside the airport and paid a flat rate of $7 USD to get to our hotel. Having a flat rate into the city is so much better than having to bargain or worry about faulty taxi meters.

We arrived at our hotel, Le Luxe Boutique Hotel, which was located in the centre of town. The hotel was fairly new (or under new management) and was close to two expensive hotels, so I figured it was a good area to be in. Our standard double room was $60 CAD/night (down season has been good to us for cheaper rates in SE Asia). The only downside about booking the cheapest room is that there were no exterior windows. We have a window but it looks into the courtyard and we’re on the ground level so that window is basically always closed.

After settling in and doing a bit of research on what to have for lunch, we set out to find a burger joint called Ray’s Grille. It’s rated #2 on Trip Advisor and the most recent review was from a fellow Vancouverite who has been in SE Asia for 8 weeks. The reviews for the burgers were consistently good so we wanted to give a shot. We’ve only been in SE Asia for 3 weeks and we’re already craving a good burger.

Our first impressions of Vientiane was that it’s a very quiet and sleepy city. We’ve read Vientiane described as sleepy in Lonely Planet and that’s actually a very accurate way to describe the city. There aren’t many scooters or cars on the street (maybe because it’s also a Sunday afternoon) and things just seem very laid back. The tuk tuk drivers are all in groups just chilling and whisper “tuk tuk” as you walk by. Even scooters stopped for us to walk across the street!

When we arrived at Ray’s Grille, it was fairly late in the afternoon for lunch but it was still quite busy with 4-5 tables. The kitchen and grill are outside in front of the restaurant so we could see some of the action before going in. We both ordered bacon cheeseburgers (except I ordered the smaller version of it) with fries. As everything was freshly made to order, we waited anxiously as food for other tables passed by and it all looked so good. We got our platters and took our first few bites and agreed that the burgers were solid. Bun was good, patty was juicy, fries were perfectly cooked. No wonder so many people who crave non SE Asian food come here for a good burger.

After our satisfying lunch we walked towards Vientiane’s “Arc de Triomphe”, otherwise known as Patuxai. On one end of Avenue Lane Xang is the Presidential Palace and the other end of the avenue is the Patuxai. This wide boulevard lined with trees and European lamps looked very French. The street signs in Vientiane all are “rues” and the shape of the street signs reminded us of France.

Vientiane seemed a lot hotter than Luang Prabang, so our walk around the city today was pretty draining. We tried to seek refuge for a bit in a mall on Avenue Lane Xang but it turned out to be more of a mall with make shift stalls and no air conditioning. We didn’t stay there long. We made our way back to the hotel for the remainder of the late afternoon, or at least until the sun set. We stopped for some fruit shakes along the way – they’re the best!

After taking a break in our room for a couple of hours, we headed back out for dinner. There’s a night market along the river every day, and it’s only a couple of minutes away from our hotel. We both expected it to be very touristy and full of similar items that we saw in Luang Prabang but we couldn’t have been more wrong. The night market seemed like it was mainly for locals as it was filled with stalls of clothing, shoes, accessories, and counterfeit purses. There were only a few souvenir/Lao handcraft type stalls sprinkled amongst the rest. Lucky we ended up buying the blanket in Luang Prabang because we didn’t find one here. So in this way, the night market was a bit disappointing.

We walked along the food vendors that lined the street outside the actual night market and didn’t find anything we wanted to eat. There was more BBQ but I think we were thinking we’ve had too much of just meat for dinner. We continued along the road and saw some street side restaurants that looked promising. We sat down and ordered a pad thai, pork noodle soup, and a mango smoothie (all items were 15,000 VND = $2.38 CAD). The smoothie was in a larger cup and was the best mango smoothie we had all trip. I think we’ll be going back for more tomorrow.

We have our first full day in Vientiane tomorrow. There aren’t many “sights” to see in the city so I think the amount of time we have here is good enough. Vientiane has a very different feel from Luang Prabang but we’re still enjoying exploring a new city together.

Steps today: 15,000

Luang Prabang (Day 117): Almsgiving and Kuang Si Waterfalls

June 25, 2016

We set our alarms for 5am so we could catch the 5:30am shuttle into town to watch the Monk’s Almsgiving ritual. Unfortunately, when we went to the reception to ask for the shuttle, the guy said the driver is out taking another couple and we had missed it. That was a bit annoying since we got there right on time and it was so early! I’m not a morning person at all.

The guy told us in pretty broken English that there were monks on the street around the corner from us so we took a look since we were up already. Sure enough there was a large procession of monks walking down the street from our hotel! This was actually really cool to see because it was the same ritual in town but without all the tourists (Tim: participating inappropriately). Tim and I were the only non locals around (taking pictures from across the street and being respectful). People (mostly women and children) set up stools along the street where the monks would pass by and they would give the monks handfuls of sticky rice as they walked past. We watched for about half an hour until the last monk walked down the street and people began to clean up. It’s amazing to see such a traditional ritual in person and how each morning at 5:30am people wake up to give alms to the monks.

We have one last chance to go into town tomorrow to see the Almsgiving, but I think what we saw today was special. There are signs all around town about how to act during the rituals and how you shouldn’t try to touch a monk or take pictures while you give them food (why would people even try to do that?). I think if I saw tourists acting stupid it would annoy me. Laotian people are very polite and don’t seem to actively get upset if someone is breaking the rules, they just put signs up and hope people will follow them. Apparently it’s gotten so bad with some tourists that the government is considering ending the traditional ritual in the city centre. That would be a shame if they did that. I think they just need to rope off the area so people don’t go so close to the monks and not let tourists participate in the Almsgiving.

After our eventful morning, we went back to sleep for a couple more hours then went for breakfast. Today there wasn’t any hot foods and no eggs were available. It seemed like there was no chef in the kitchen today, which was fine. I think since it’s down season, there’s less than 20 people staying in our hotel as it seems fairly dead. We ate some fruits and then made our way into town. We were planning on finding a tuk tuk to take us to Kuang Si Falls.

We had to cross the Old Bridge again. I know in my last post I said I wouldn’t cross it again but I did. I didn’t want to pay 5,000 LAK to go over the Bamboo Bridge so I sucked it up and crossed it. As we were crossing, a bunch of young boys happily passed by us. It helped seeing that they weren’t scared at all.

As we walked towards the city centre, we came across tuk tuks along the way all asking if we wanted to go to Kuang Si (of course today we did!). We asked how much and bargained them down to 150,000 LAK = $24 CAD which is the going rate for a private ride there and back (with a 2.5 hour visit). We got into the tuk tuk and made our way to Kuang Si, which was about 40 minutes from the city.

Once we arrived at the falls, we had about 2.5 hours before we had to come back to the tuk tuk. The entrance fee was 20,000 LAK = $3.18 CAD pp. On the trail to the falls, there’s an Asiatic bear rescue area that houses about 10 bears that have been rescued in Laos. Unfortunately, bears are killed in Laos for their bile which is a key ingredient in a lot of traditional medicine, so organizations like this are trying to save them. The bears were cute and different from the bears we have in North America.

We started at the base of the falls, which is where you can go swimming. 95% of people swimming were all tourists. There were a lot of locals at the falls too since it was Saturday, but they were all there for picnicking. We didn’t bring our swimsuits with us because I read there are a lot of leeches in the water and that freaked me out. I just wanted to dip my feet in the water. The water was pretty cold but felt so good at the same time since I was sweating like crazy. The path way up to the falls was also very muddy and slippery so dipping my feet into the water was more to clean my flip flops off.

The falls themselves were very beautiful. My favourite area was half way up the mountain before we got to the main falls. There were smaller pools that feed into each other and I thought it was so beautiful. It also helped that this area was not a swimming area.

Behind the main falls, there were stairs that went up to the fall’s origin basin. At first we weren’t going to go up because we were wearing flip flops and the path wasn’t very easy to climb – it was fairly steep and muddy. Since we still had about an hour and a half, we decided to do it. We hiked up for about 30 minutes and got to the top. There was only a view of the mountain ranges and not of the waterfall, which was pretty disappointing. I knew going back down would be more challenging since it was so slippery. Sure enough, I fell and slide down a portion of a hill. Luckily I didn’t twist my ankle and it was just a straight slide down on my bum. Thank goodness for the fresh water, I cleaned my legs and feet off on the way down.

Kuang Si Falls is one of the main attractions when visiting Luang Prabang and I can see why. You can easily spend a whole afternoon there hanging out in the water. The water did look very inviting, especially after our hike up and down the mountain. We went back to our tuk tuk driver and headed back into town.

For lunch we found a place on the main street that was pretty well priced. Tim wanted to try Laotian kao soy because it was his favourite dish while we were in Thailand so he wanted to compare the two. I ordered fried noodles with chicken and vegetables. Both dishes were good. My noodles were noodles that I’ve never had before. They were really wide and flat pieces of rice noodle with scrambled eggs inside. It was Laos homestyle cooking and each of our dishes were only 15,000 LAK = $2.38 CAD each.

After lunch, while walking down the street, we saw store vendors all getting ice cream from a lady pushing her cart down the street. We went to see what she had to offer and it looked really good. It was a “Laos Sundae” with scoops of taro and coconut ice cream, tapioca, coconut meat, and some jelly. It was really delicious and was perfect for a hot afternoon, and it was only 5,000 LAK = $0.80 CAD.

After lunch we walked back to our hotel (over the Old Bridge!!). We wanted to go back, clean up a bit, and book our hotel in Vientiane. The internet at this hotel was pretty bad, so it had been hard to research much or keep up with blog posts. We spent about half an hour booking the hotel and then rushing out to catch the 5pm shuttle into town since I didn’t want to cross the Old Bridge again.

When we got back into town, we walked down the a French bakery that was supposed to have the best croissants in town. The bakery was called Le Banneton and has a lot of delicious looking pastries, quiches, and crepes. I found out after that there’s also a location in Vientiane and it’s supposed to be the best French bakery in Laos. I got a plain croissant to go for 9,000 LAK = $1.45 CAD.

We went back to our smoothie lady from yesterday and we each got a smoothie (lemon and mango) and sat down for a bit. Same routine as yesterday. I sat and watched people eat at the satay stall. Since we wanted to catch the 7pm shuttle back to the hotel, we only had about an hour before we had to go back to the pick up area.

We walked down the block towards the night market again and looked to buy a Lao blanket. Some of the stalls had signs and stickers on their blankets and scarves that said they were hand made in Luang Prabang, which worked on us. Seeing how Laotians are, I wouldn’t think they would actually put that sign up unless it were true, which is why only some stalls had them. Laos has numerous ethnic groups and you can see it in the merchandise that is sold.

After we got the blanket we wanted, we headed down to the BBQ stall we went to yesterday for dinner. We ordered a pork belly, chicken skin, and chicken thigh. Our dinner with two drinks came out to be 49,000 LAK = $7.80 CAD. We really enjoyed eating Lao BBQ, maybe we’ll find some in Vientiane.

We walked through the market again and then took the free shuttle back to the hotel for an early night. Lucky we went back when we did because it started to pour really hard and we heard some pretty serious thunder. Later on in the evening as we were watching TV, we heard a really loud crack and all of a sudden the power went out. Less than a second later, the loudest thunder we’d ever heard shook the entire room. It was very dramatic. I’ve never been so close to lightning before. Within a few minutes the power went back on, but the internet stopped working (Tim: And was still down throughout the resort when we checked out and left the next day).

We’ll be flying to Vientiane tomorrow to explore another Lao city. Hopefully their internet will be better so we can start booking more hotels for upcoming cities.

Steps today: 20,000

Luang Prabang (Day 116): Loving Laos

June 24, 2016

We woke up this morning well rested and ready to explore the city. We got ready and went for breakfast at the hotel restaurant just in time before breakfast ended. We finally got to see the hotel grounds in the daylight – it’s quite nice! The restaurant has a nice view of the river (although the river isn’t very clean) and the surrounding areas.

For breakfast, I had some fruit, a croissant, and they made me scrambled eggs. The selection for breakfast was pretty good and everything looked very cleanly prepared. As we were eating, it started to pour really hard for a good half hour. Even the construction workers nearby took cover. We even had to move further away from the edge of the patio because the wind was blowing the rain sideways. We stayed at the restaurant for almost an hour waiting the rain out.

Finally, the rain eased up so we put on our rain jackets and took out our umbrellas and set out to the old part of town. The hotel is located right beside the “Old Bridge” in Luang Prabang, so we decided to cross it since we saw some people crossing it earlier. When we began to walk on the bridge, we noticed that a lot of the planks were loose and not very stable. The bridge was about 150m long and pretty high up from the river. I’m not normally afraid of heights, but this bridge really freaked me out. I don’t think we’ll be crossing that bridge again.

Once we made it to the other side safely, we made our way towards the city centre. Luang Prabang is definitely more laid back than Vietnam. There are way less scooters, you can cross the street without worrying about getting hit, and it just felt a lot more peaceful. We passed by a tourist centre, so we stopped by and came across a poster of the “do’s and don’ts in Laos”. Basically, Laotians are very conservative, reserved, and non-confrontational.

Our first stop for the day was to climb up Phusi Mountain. It’s about 300 steps up a mountain and has beautiful views of Luang Prabang. By this time the rain had stopped, so it was perfect timing to begin our mini hike. There’s an entrance fee of 20,000 LAK = $3.18 CAD. Along the way to the top of the mountain were a bunch of Buddhist shrines and statues which were interesting. We spent a good chunk of time at the summit taking pictures and admiring Luang Prabang and all the greenery.

We eventually made our way down the mountain towards the Luang Prabang National Museum. It was lunch time so they were closed until 2pm. We decided to have lunch and visit the museum afterwards. We walked down towards the Mekong River to check out what restaurant options we had. Tim read that restaurants along the Mekong are cheaper than the ones you’ll find on the “main street” (Sakkhaline Road).

There are many restaurants all along the river and they all looked very similar so we just picked one. We grabbed a table under an umbrella and enjoyed the views of the Mekong (although it looks quite dirty)(Tim: more muddy than dirty) and the sporadic cool breezes. Tim ordered a Lao coconut based noodle soup and I ordered morning glory with tofu and steamed rice. The food prices in Laos are about 20% more expensive than Vietnam.

As we were sitting waiting for our food, we looked around and didn’t see a kitchen. We realized that all the restaurants along the water have kitchens across the street. The food came and we both enjoyed our meals very much. Tim’s soup noodles were quite tasty and I was pretty happy with my simple lunch. The smoothies were good, very reminiscent of all the smoothies we had in Thailand.

After lunch we continued to walk along the river and ended up at a Buddhist temple named Wat Xieng Thong and took a look around. It cost 20,000 LAK = $3.18 CAD pp entrance fee to get in. The temples were nice. They have their own unique style to them compared to the ones in Thailand. There were a lot of broken glass murals which I thought were very cool. As with most Buddhist temples, you cannot show your knees or bare shoulders. Since we knew we were visiting temples today and the museum (which enforces a dress code), I wore my Lululemon outfit and Tim wore his convertible pants.

We made our way back to Luang Prabang National Museum and had about an hour and a half before it closed for the day at 4pm. Entrance to the museum was 30,000 LAK = $4.77 CAD pp. To walk around the grounds of the museum is free as they only check your ticket when you enter the actual museum (which used to be the royal family’s residence). There’s another Buddhist temple at the entrance of the museum grounds which houses Luang Prabang’s golden Buddha.

Before entering the museum, you have to check in all your bags and cameras (no photography is allowed). If you’re wearing shorts, you have to rent a sarong for 5,000 KIP before entering. The residence was nice, but it wasn’t as extensive or informational as I thought it would be. The last King of Laos was a sturdy looking guy. A very North American built body as opposed to other Asian kings. There was a picture of him with Ho Chi Minh in Saigon dancing with Vietnamese dancers. We didn’t see any pictures in Vietnam of Ho Chi Minh having fun like that. Maybe that’s why we couldn’t take any pictures. Behind the former palace is a garage of the king’s former cars and pictures of all his drivers. More than half the cars there were gifts from the U.S. government in the 1960’s.

After the museum closed we walked down the main street and found a street side restaurant that served fruit smoothies for 10,000 LAK = $1.60 CAD (which is the going rate in Luang Prabang). We stayed there and hung out for a while. Tim also tried the local beer, “Beer Lao”, which he said wasn’t bad. He had a 650 ml bottle to himself for 12,000 LAK = $1.90 CAD. While sitting there I was watching a street vendor set up her satay grilling station as locals came up and snacked on some street meat. While observing the vendors from all around and the locals that ate at her stall, I could sense that Luang Prabang is a very tightly knit community.

While taking a break, Tim looked up a massage parlour that had good reviews online. After walking around the main street, there were quite a few massage parlours to pick from, so looking up reviews helped.

We went to a place called Hibiscus which offered an assortment of massages, body scrubs, manicures, and pedicures. We read that Lao massages are about pressure points and are not very relaxing, so I decided to do an aromatherapy massage (more relaxing and less painful since my pain tolerance is low) and Tim tried the Lao massage. Once we decided on the type of massage, the receptionist asked if we wanted to take a shower first – I guess we looked pretty sweaty and gross. We took quick showers and changed into the massage wear and headed into the massage room. An hour goes by so quickly when you’re getting a massage, but when you’re giving a massage 5 minutes feels like forever!

After we done our massage, we both felt super relaxed. Our favourite part of Thailand was being able to get a Thai massage for $6 CAD for an hour. The prices for massages here are slightly more. Tim’s Lao massage was 60,000 LAK = $9.55 CAD (which is average for Luang Prabang) and my aromatherapy massage was 110,000 LAK = $17.50 CAD. These prices included tip and tax and were for 60 minute massages.

It was shortly after 6pm when we finished our massages which was perfect because we wanted to cross the Bamboo Bridge after 6pm, so we didn’t have to pay 5,000 LAK each. The Bamboo Bridge isn’t as scary to cross as the Old Bridge since it’s so low. There are some parts of the bridge that definitely feel a lot more secure than others though. We walked back and forth on the bridge and took a bunch of pictures.

For dinner, we decided to check out the night market which goes on every night at the far end of the main street near the post office. Most vendors were done setting up their stalls and we walked through to see what they had. There isn’t much food at the night market – mainly fruit smoothies, crepes, and some desserts. Walking through the night market was nice. It was a lot different than walking through a market in Vietnam. No one hassled you or grabbed you to come to their stall, they all just said “Sabaidee” – which is hello/welcome in Lao. Unlike Vietnamese markets, there were no fake bags or clothing. Everything was very Laotian looking and the quality of the goods sold seemed better (the backpacker pants here were a lot thicker and better quality than the ones we bought in Hoi An).

Towards the end of the night market, we went into an alley that seemed to be where a lot of people were going for food. We walked down the narrow alley and found a lot of stalls with BBQed meats and an assortment of other dishes. Many locals were getting dinner to go, so this intrigued us. There was also a stall that advertised themselves as a buffet, handing people large bowls for them to fill up. There were no locals at that stall, just western backpackers – so we stayed clear.

We ended up trying some BBQed meat at one of the stalls, we picked pork belly (10,000 LAK = $1.60 CAD), chicken skin (10,000 LAK = $1.60 CAD), and chicken wings (20,000 LAK = $3.18 CAD). We ordered and grabbed a seat at the table across from the stall. The lady re-grilled the meat, cut it up, and served the meat on a banana leaf with a sweet chili sauce. The meat was very well seasoned and tasty. We were both very pleased with our dinner find. Lucky I had my vegetables at lunch!

After dinner we made our way back to the hotel. The shuttle bus wouldn’t be coming until 9pm and we had a pretty long day so we wanted to go back and rest. I didn’t want to walk over the Old Bridge again so we went back to the Bamboo Bridge (which was lit) and walked over that. Once we got to the other side, we walked through a residential neighbourhood and eventually back to our hotel. Luang Prabang feels like a very safe city.

It’s only our first full day here and we’re both really loving Luang Prabang. Laos is often a country that most people skip over when visiting SE Asia (I’m guilty of thinking of skipping it as well) but I’m really glad we came here. We have 3 nights here, and it’s probably not enough. I love the small town, laid back vibe of the city, and I love how people are friendly and not overbearing. It’s also so quiet here which has been nice. One major difference between Laos and Vietnam is drivers don’t honk! Even if there’s someone in their way, they just patiently wait until they move.

Steps today: 22,000

Hanoi/Luang Prabang (Day 115): Vietnam Doesn’t Want us to Leave!

June 23, 2016

Today we were flying to Luang Prabang, Laos at 6:50pm, so we had a pretty full day in Hanoi before we had to go to the airport. We had a leisurely and large breakfast upstairs. I ordered Vietnamese fried rice and it was a lot larger than I expected, so that was basically our early lunch.

After breakfast we went back to our room and started to book flights and some hotels for our last 3 weeks on the road. We’ll be going to Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Phu Quoc before making our way back to Saigon (then home!). We’ve booked all our flights until KL, we’ll do the rest in the next couple of days.

Since we didn’t have to leave for the airport until later in the afternoon, we asked for a late check out and we didn’t head out into town until 1pm. I think if we asked for even later they probably would’ve given it to us. The staff at the hotel was really accommodating!

We finally checked out and headed out for lunch. We hadn’t eaten any food in Hanoi that we really wanted to have again, so it made deciding what to eat for lunch a bit challenging. Tim is always down for eating more banh mi so we decided to try to find a new place.

We walked through the old town and close to Hoan Kiem lake to see what we could find. We found a Banh Mi shop called, Banh Mi Pho Cho. It looked promising. We ordered two sandwiches and took a seat. I ordered a roasted pork sandwich and Tim had the classic deli meats and pate banh mi. Both our sandwiches were pretty mediocre. I can see now why Banh Mi 25 is supposedly the best banh mi in Hanoi, there isn’t that much competition for good banh mi in Hanoi’s old town.

We walked through old town and decided to go to Cong Caphe to escape the heat for a bit. We are usually indoors during mid-afternoon so it was especially draining being in the sun during mid-day. We wanted to go to Cong Caphe since we weren’t going to be having it again (unless Saigon has one, but we may not have time to go). We ordered a coconut coffee and a frozen lemonade (the exact order we had the first time we went). Both were delicious as usual and we got to spend some time watching over Hanoi’s hectic streets.

We walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, which was nice because it was mostly shaded by all the trees. After we made a loop around the lake, we made our way back to the hotel to cool down a bit before the car took us to the airport. The hotel manager and staff were nice and gave us cold towels (seeing how much we were sweating) and cold juice while we waited for our car. The manager also gave us a Vietnamese lacquered plate as a souvenir – that was really nice of him. Then about 5 minutes later he asked us if we would write a review on Trip Advisor for them. I was going to write one for them any way, but for a small business, I can see how good reviews on Trip Advisor are basically their life blood if they’re in the tourism industry. I told him that’s how I found this hotel, through Trip Advisor, so obviously I was going to pay it forward.

Right at 4:30pm, our car came to pick us up and we said bye to all the staff at the hotel. It took about half an hour to get from Old Town to the airport. There’s a lot of traffic trying to get out of the city, but once you get on the highway it’s smooth sailing.

We arrived at the international terminal and it was a lot nicer than Hanoi’s domestic terminal – mainly because it’s newer. The airport was pretty dead. There were a few flights leaving for Seoul, Taipei, and Hong Kong. The Lao Airline counter was not busy at all. It seems like the majority of the passengers on this flight to Luang Prabang are westerners and only about 10% Laotian.

Once we got through security and Vietnamese exiting customs, we walked around the departures terminal and ended up getting Popeye’s for late lunch/early dinner. The international terminal prices are all in USD and are a lot more expensive than the domestic terminal.

As we neared our boarding time, we weren’t boarding and I knew our flight was going to be delayed. Sure enough, we heard an announcement saying that our flight was delayed from 6:50pm to 7:10pm. Then 7:10pm quickly came and went and we still hadn’t boarded. Another announcement came on saying that the flight has been delayed to 8:40pm due to technical issues. They gave us a small sandwich and some water, which was probably what we should’ve eaten on board as our dinner. We finally boarded close to 9pm.

The plane was pretty small. It’s the type of plane you would fly from Vancouver to Seattle (Tim: Actually, it was an ATR 72 and I think it’s bigger than any plane I’ve been on from Vancouver to Seattle). The flight time to Luang Prabang is only an hour and a half (thankfully). When we arrived at the airport, we were the only flight that was there. It seemed like the only people working at the airport were the customs officers.

Laos requires a visa upon arrival so we tried to walk faster than the majority of the plane since we knew that 90% of the plane would need a visa. Depending on what country you’re from, you have to pay any where between $30 USD – $42 USD for the visa. Lucky for us, Canada is the only country that is $42! Even Afghanistan is $40 USD. Most other western countries are $30 USD. There was a big chart at the visa line with a list of all countries and their prices. Since we landed after normal work hours, it was an extra $1 USD to process. We had passport pictures printed at Costco before we left for the Laotian and Cambodian visas, but had we known that it would only cost an extra $1 USD for them to just photocopy a picture for you, we may have considered that.

After the visa line we took our passports to the customs line. They were having technical difficulties with their computers so we had to wait longer in that line. Finally, we got through, grabbed our bags and the hotel car was waiting for us outside. Lucky our hotel had free airport transfer because there were no cabs or tuk tuks around at all.

We’re staying at “Le Bel Air Boutique Resort“, which is about 5km away from the airport. We couldn’t see much in the dark but Luang Prabang seemed very quaint and quiet as there weren’t many scooters or cars on the street at night. The hotel looked very Thai or I guess very Laotian. The reception and restaurant area are all open air and each room is in its own villa area. We were brought to our room and were pretty surprised at how nice and large the room was. We’re lucky it’s down season because they had a “stay 3 nights, pay for 2” promotion, so we’re paying $60 CAD/night. Hotels in Laos aren’t as cheap as Vietnam.

After a really long day, we washed up and went to bed. Both really looking forward to exploring the city more tomorrow!

Steps today: 11,000

Halong Bay/Hanoi (Day 114): Back to Reality

June 22, 2016

It was our last morning on the boat and we were making our way back to the mainland. No one wanted to do tai chi in the morning so we got to sleep in a bit and have breakfast a tad later than yesterday. Breakfast was the same as yesterday except we also had some fried noodles which were really good. We wouldn’t be eating until we got back to Hanoi so we knew to eat a bit more.

After breakfast and chatting to the Aussies for a while, we all headed back to our rooms to pack up. Our two nights here flew by! We had a great time on the cruise and were really happy we opted for a smaller ship. Everything was very personable and we got to meet a lovely family along the way. The cruise was my favourite part of Vietnam so far.

When we got to shore, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and went into our separate shuttles back to Hanoi. We didn’t book or pay for a private car but our shuttle bus ended up being private (lucky us)!

We got back to our hotel in Hanoi (same hotel as before) at around 2pm. We checked in and then headed down the street for lunch. Tim wanted a banh mi that wasn’t Banh Mi 25. We walked two blocks down from our hotel and found a place that served banh mi but it seemed more like a meat shop. We ordered a pate and ham & pate banh mi. It was basically just the meat in the baguette – no veggies and no frills. They weren’t cheap either, it was 45,000 VND each = $2.58 (okay, it’s not that expensive, but expensive for Vietnam). The meat was actually refrigerated like a deli (which was good) and very good. I just wished they had pickled vegetables in it – would’ve been perfect. Tim really liked the pate, said it was the best one yet in Vietnam.

After lunch we grabbed an egg coffee (Hanoi speciality) at a nearby cafe. We sat and enjoyed our first one. It was like a thick egg nog with espresso. It was tasty and was the first hot coffee I’ve had in Vietnam.

We went back to the hotel, caught up on our blog, and chilled out for a bit. We’re leaving for Laos tomorrow and are running low on our sunscreen supply so our errand for today was to get more sunscreen and mosquito repellent. There aren’t many London Drug type stores at all in Vietnam so we knew it would be a bit difficult to find sunscreen and mosquito repellent. I saw a pharmacy earlier in the day so we went there but they basically only have prescriptions and nothing else. We continued on and went back to the supermarket by Hoan Kiem Lake and ended up finding everything we needed on their 2nd level. The sunscreen selection is pretty small. The options are expensive and the bottles are small. We bought the biggest bottle they had (70g) and the only mosquito spray they had. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.

For our last dinner in Hanoi, we decided to go for Pho since we hadn’t had it yet here. We decided to try Pho 10, which was across the street from our lunch banh mi restaurant. Pho 10 is a no frills pho restaurant with disinterested staff and service. Pho was good though. The beef I had was pretty tender.

As much as we’re both enjoying all the food we’ve been eating in Asia, it’s also reconfirmed what we already know – Vancouver’s Asian food is really good. I don’t think we’ve had something in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Vietnam that I thought blew our minds and was way better than at home. The main difference is the food in Asia is cheaper (sometimes a lot cheaper).

After dinner, we went to a smoothie place down the street from our hotel that we passed by each day. We ordered smoothies (sinh to) and sat under the fans for a bit. The family who ran the smoothie shop was eating dinner while we were there. I would be happy to go again tomorrow before we leave for Laos.

Steps today: 5,500

Halong Bay (Day 113): Activity Day

June 21, 2016

Our first night on the boat was very comfortable. We both slept in and didn’t make it to 6:30am tai chi. We got changed and went up to the dining room for breakfast. We got there after the Aussies and saw their table full of food… too much food. We sat down and Chris asked us what kind of eggs we wanted. They brought out eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants, and 6 slices of bread! I hope they didn’t waste all the food they prepared for us, we barely made a dent in it.

After breakfast, we had some free time before going to see a Halong Bay fishing village. Tim and I went up to the roof deck to lie around and read until it got too hot, and then we took refuge in our air conditioned room. Here are some of the beautiful sights we saw today. We didn’t get bored of the scenery.

We arrived at the fishing village and went on a row boat to see where the fishermen and their families live. The end destination of the row boat was a fishing museum. The museum showed the history of the people living in the area and how they survived.

After the fishing village we went back to the boat to rest for a bit before lunch was served. Lunch was another large meal, but it was good because we would be kayaking and climbing up 400 steps in the afternoon. We had about 2 hours to digest before we made it to the next stop. Tim stayed inside to read and I attempted to do some sun tanning on the roof. I lasted for like 5 minutes before going back downstairs. The plastic from the chairs smelt like it was literally burning and the sun was scorching. I quickly went back downstairs.

Kayaking was fun. We had double kayaks and we went under a cave into an enclosed area. We saw a lot of jellyfish around and I wanted to touch them with the paddle… It’s not safe to swim in deep waters right now because it’s jellyfish season and you could see them all around. I’ve never seen so many jellyfish in the wild before, so it was neat. After going through the enclosed area we went out into the open water and paddled around before going back to the boat.

I was in charge of the GoPro while Tim paddled. He said it was easier if he did it. — I was in charge of the GoPro while Tim paddled. He said it was easier if he did it himself and I didn’t argue.

Once we were all in the boat, we headed to the hill we were going to climb to get nice views of the bay and go swimming. When we arrived to the beach area, it was so packed with people who were on day boat tours. The beach looked pretty dirty and not that inviting. I think it’s basically the only beachy area in Halong Bay – likely man made for tourists. We started to climb the 400 stairs up to the top of the hill. We took breaks every 100 steps – Pippa was counting. The views from the top were really nice. We only brought our GoPro up so the pictures weren’t as great as we would’ve hoped for. Climbing back down the steps was more dangerous than going up. The stairs are pretty uneven and we were wearing flip flops, so we were being careful not to twist an ankle.

The view of Halong Bay after walking up 400 steps

Tim swimming in the slightly dirty water

When we got to the beach, I walked into the water and it was pretty warm – probably about 25 degrees. Tim and Pippa went right into the water while I watched. The beach wasn’t nearly as crowded as it was earlier which was good. Tim was sure not to stick his head into the water as it looked pretty dirty. After about 30 minutes or so hanging out we headed out of the water and back to the boat.

We washed up and went upstairs to the roof to see the last sunset. The roof deck is so much nicer at night. Tim and I got a drink and lay around relaxing upstairs. The Aussies joined us and we waited for dinner. Before our dinner tonight, the chef was going to show us now to make spring rolls. We all got to make spring rolls and he deep fried a combination of ones he made before and the ones we rolled ourselves for our appetizer.

Dinner tonight was served family style. Again, it was a lot of food that we didn’t come close to finishing. Everything was delicious and I enjoyed the chef’s cooking on the cruise. It was basically like home cooking, but plated nicely.

After dinner, Tim and I spent the evening laying on the chairs on the roof looking at the stars. It was still quite warm out but there was a nice refreshing breeze. I really enjoyed our time on the cruise and staring up at the stars from the boat was pretty magical.

We went back to our room and watched some TV that Tim had on his tablet and went to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be our last morning on the boat and then we’ll be heading back to Hanoi for the night.

Steps today: 2,000 (Tim: Again, seems low, likely because we were on a boat).

Halong Bay (Day 112): Bhaya Cruise

June 20, 2016

This morning we were going to be picked up shortly after 8:00am for our two night cruise in Halong Bay. We woke up a bit earlier to pack up, had breakfast, and checked out. We were both looking forward to getting out of the city and just relaxing.

We were picked up in a nice “van limo” filled with five British girls. The ride to the port was about 3.5 hours long… a pretty long ride. Luckily, there was pretty good WiFi in the van and the seats were very comfortable. When we got to the dock, we realized not all vans are the same – definitely lucked out! There was a 20 minute break about an hour in to the ride. It seemed like the same rest stop was used by all the other cruise companies. It was full of souvenirs and over priced snacks – luckily we had our goodies from Hanoi.

We finally arrived at the Bhaya Cruise terminal where we were greeted with iced tea and checked in by our cruise director, Chris (actual name is Tuan), who is a 24 year old Vietnamese guy with really good English. We waited about 30 minutes before we were boarded on to our boat. There were a lot of people in the waiting area. Lots of Vietnamese and Aussie tourists. We were happy that we decided to go for the “premium” (smaller) boat instead of the cruise with 20 cabins. Our only other cruise mates were a nice family of three from Melbourne. I was really happy they were our cruise mates!

Chris took us to our boat and showed us our rooms. The boat we were on only had 4 cabins for guests. Since there were only 5 of us, there were only 7 crew members (apparently there are usually 8). All the rooms on this boat had balconies and were on the same side of the boat. We had the room closest to the front of the boat and our new Aussie friends were in the room beside us. The room was quite nice, bigger than some hotel rooms we’ve stayed in on this trip.

After we got settled in, we headed to the dining room for lunch. We were served a wonderful and very filling 5 course meal. After we had lunch, it was clear that we were going to be treated and fed quite well on this cruise. I was also slightly relieved because we went higher end on this cruise to make sure we didn’t have a horrible experience out at sea (which is probably one of my fears – being at sea on a dirty boat, with bad food, with no escape). The regular price for this cruise is $319 USD per person, but we waited to book under 1 week so we got 20% off – $255 USD. The price for a 1 night cruise on Bhaya was more expensive per night than the 2 nighters, so we opted for the longer cruise. The itinerary for the 1 night and 2 night cruises are the same but the difference is that we get to have more free/relaxation time.

After lunch we went up to the roof and took lots of pictures while admiring the beautiful bay!

Our only activity for the afternoon was to visit a cave in Halong Bay. When we walked in, we thought it was a pretty narrow cave but as we kept walking we were pretty shocked at how big the cave was. There were a bunch of uplights inside to show off the various stalagmites and stalactites. It was nice inside and it almost felt like being on a set in a movie. Unlike in New Zealand, people were free to touch the rocks as they pleased.

After our little excursion, we headed back to the boat and went to a pearl farm. The guide there showed us how they farm pearls. They seed oysters with small beads made of oyster shell and implant those beads into other oysters along with a small piece of harvested oyster membrane. Whatever colour the interior of the shell was from the oyster whose membrane they harvested, is the colour of the pearl that will form. I wear pearls everyday and I actually had no idea that pearls were farmed in that way. Chris told us that the Vietnamese pearl farmers went to Japan to learn from them (probably at Mikimoto’s pearl farm). As expected, they had a show room at the end of our tour for us to browse and buy jewelry. No one from our boat bought anything. The ladies did give Pippa (the 6 year old on our boat) a ring for free though.

When we arrived back on the boat, we had free time before dinner. We spent a lot of our time on the roof deck admiring the scenery and trying to catch a sunset. It was really nice having so few of us on board, it felt like we chartered our own boat and the roof was basically ours. Most of the time, it was only Tim and I up there (especially during the day time). Chris came by to talk to us before dinner. He just started working for Bhaya about a year ago after graduating from tourism university. He said he learned English in school but improved it mostly from watching American TV shows and interacting with people on the cruise.

Dinner was served at 7:30pm in the kitchen and we were in for another wonderful 5 course dinner. We got to know the Melbourne family pretty well since we were the only ones on the boat. They were in Vietnam for the first time and were spending about 2 weeks here. We talked about our Australia portion of the trip and they told us how they were just in Vancouver visiting family – it was nice to talk about home. Before going on the boat, we knew our boat would be small so we were pretty lucky we were paired up with some great people.

After dinner, Chris gave us the option to go squid fishing. Tim, Pippa, and the Dad went to go try catching some squid. But Chris warned us that it wasn’t really high season for squid so it would probably be a challenge. It was cool, however, to actually see some squid and lots of jellyfish in the water. But unfortunately, no one caught anything.

As you probably could guess, there was no internet on the boat. At first I was a bit annoyed that there was no WiFi because I thought there was supposed to be. But at the same time it was nice to disconnect for a bit.

Steps today: 4,000 (Tim: though I think the apps I use for tracking steps had trouble when we were on the boat).

Hanoi (Day 110): French Quarter, Doner Kebabs, and Highway 4

June 18, 2016

This morning, we were woken up by loud speakers blaring Vietnamese music outside. I checked the time and it was only 6:30am! The music went on for a while and then some repetitious ads came on after. We hadn’t heard these scooter loud speaker ads since we were in Saigon. We slept a bit more then headed upstairs for breakfast.

Breakfast was served on the top floor of the hotel and the breakfast room only has 4 tables. They had some food set out as a buffet so we grabbed plates and chose a few things. When we sat down we noticed there was a breakfast menu with western and Vietnamese choices. The lady came by and asked us which dish we wanted for breakfast. I was surprised they had a la carte choices for us as well. I ordered beef pho and Tim ordered French Toast with honey. Both dishes were pretty good, but the pho was better than the French Toast (naturally).

After breakfast we went back to our room and FaceTimed with my family as they were singing happy birthday to Nate. We’ll be home in exactly one month!

We got changed and made our way towards the French Quarter. We walked along the Hoan Kiem lake, which was nice and shaded and lined with large trees. The streets in the French Quarter are nice and clean. The sidewalks are wide and easy to walk on vs. the the non-existent sidewalks in the Old Quarter. There’s fancy hotels, luxury stores, and the Hanoi Opera House.

We found the ice cream place, called Kem Trang Tien, that Tim found while looking online. The store was quite large with different areas: one for single sales and one for bulk sales. The ice cream is served in popsicle form and we had to figure out what flavours they had. We were standing there for a while trying to Google translate flavours and decipher what the pictures were on the packaging. We ended up ordering a coconut (7,000 VND = $0.40 CAD) and a sticky rice (8,000 VND = $0.46 CAD) ice cream. Both were really good and quite refreshing!

We walked back towards our hotel area and passed by a Cha Time (bubble tea chain) on the way back. We went inside and the air conditioning was too good to leave. We shared a roasted milk tea with pearls (49,000 VND = $2.80 CAD). Cha Time had free WiFi so we did a bit of research on what we wanted to have for lunch.

In Saigon and now in Hanoi, we noticed that there were “doner banh mi” stalls around the city. We both really like doners and shawarma so we were pretty excited to see what a doner banh mi would be like. We looked up a place and then made our way there after finishing our bubble tea.

The stall we went to didn’t have a name but it’s outside a Vietnamese bakery. When we got there, there were locals waiting for their doners, which is a good sign! He ran out of baguettes on the order before us so started to use the flat french bread for our sandwiches. After he made the sandwiches he would put them in a panini press contraption to toast the sandwich before he served it to us. It did truly taste like a mixture of a banh mi and a doner. It was interesting and tasty but it wasn’t my favourite. I’m glad we tried it though, I think there could be some improvements to it to make it taste even better.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and stayed in for the rest of the afternoon to get out of the heat. We finally booked some of our Laos portion of the trip!

For dinner we went to a restaurant called “Highway 4”, which is a trendy Vietnamese restaurant in town. There are a few locations in Hanoi but we went to one that was closest to our hotel. We walked to the restaurant and got seated right away. We ordered two drinks, morning glory vegetables, chicken wings, pho cuon with beef, and crab spring rolls (362,000 VND = $21 CAD). The food was good but not worth the prices. I was comparing it to Morning Glory and we both agreed our dinner in Hoi An was a lot better and the service was better too. On our bill they charged us for two cold towels for 2,000 VND each. We told them we didn’t get cold towels and they said the napkins were it, but we argued saying those aren’t cold towels so they took it off the bill. Always good to double check your bills here!

After dinner as we walked back to the hotel, it started to get really windy. I knew it was going to start to rain so we began walking faster and faster. Sure enough, the rain started to come down really hard.

When we got back to the hotel, we watched the fourth installment of the O.J. Simpson documentary. This one was pretty graphic and frustrating to watch. Even though we all know the outcome of the trial, it was frustrating to see how the trial was handled and how dumb the jury was.

Steps today: 12,000

Hanoi (Day 109): Hello from the Capital!

June 17, 2016

We set our alarms for 6am, so we could have a quick breakfast at the hotel before we made our way to the airport for our 8:10 flight to Hanoi. I read a lot of good reviews about the hotel’s breakfast buffet so I was looking forward to trying it, even if it was a quick breakfast.

Breakfast at the Orange Hotel was served on the top floor (seems pretty common for hotels here to have their restaurants on the top level). We’re not early birds so we were quite surprised at how many people were there for breakfast at 6:30am. The breakfast spread was pretty impressive and nicely laid out. As we were leaving they were bringing out more food and even some crepes!

We took a cab to the airport and it cost 61,000 VND = $3.50 CAD (15,000 VND of that was the ticket it costs for cars to go into the airport area). When we got to the Vietnam Airlines check in counter, there was quite a long line, but it went quickly. I was a bit nervous because we were cutting it pretty close, but when I saw people were still checking in for 7:45am flights it made me feel better. There’s not much in the Da Nang domestic terminal. Some souvenir shops and a “Calvin Klein Nike” store. I’ve never seen fake stores at airports before!

We went to our gate and had to take a shuttle from the gate to the plane. The flight to Hanoi was a larger plane (Tim: A330) than what we took to Danang and it was quite full. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:10am, but we didn’t leave until around 8:40am. The flight to Hanoi was only an hour, so we landed at the scheduled time.

While sitting on the plane, we were surrounded by a couple of men who had to clear the phlegm in their throats every 5 minutes (it seemed). It wasn’t a very pleasant environment. I’m looking forward to being back home in a month.

We arrived in Hanoi and it was overcast and only 29°C (we haven’t been below 30°C in a while). Once we got our luggage, the hotel driver was waiting for us at arrivals. Hanoi’s international airport is about a 30 minute drive from Hanoi’s Old Quarter/City Centre. The highway into the city seemed newly paved and there wasn’t much traffic. It was only until we got close to the city’s core that Hanoi seemed more like any other city in Vietnam. The Old Quarter’s streets had a more small town feeling to them than the streets in Saigon.

When the car got close to our hotel, three hotel staff members came out and greeted us and took our bags. The hotel’s entrance was in a small alley so cars can’t go through. We’re staying at the Golden Moon Suites & Travel Hotel for $31 CAD/night. They gave us welcome drinks, a cold towel, and bananas. Since we got in so early and check in time wasn’t supposed to be until 2pm, they said our room probably wouldn’t be ready until 1pm. We said that was fine and asked for the WiFi password and sat on the couch for a bit before we headed out for lunch. I guess since we were sitting there for a while regrouping, the manager said they actually have a room ready for us now.

The room was clean and nice enough for the price (also includes breakfast this time). The only complaint is that the internet is a bit inconsistent – which makes streaming or FaceTiming choppy. We dropped off our bags, changed, and headed out for lunch.

For lunch we walked to a restaurant, called Xôi Yến, in the Old Quarter that is well known for their sticky rice (Tim’s friend Michael recommended it and Bourdain ate here too). When we arrived at Xôi Yến, we saw there was a Cong Caphe across the street. This was the second location we’ve seen in Hanoi so far, so if we’re craving the coconut coffee, we have options!

At Xoi Yen, you pick the type of sticky rice and you can choose to add toppings to it, such as: chicken, pork, deli meat, eggs, the list goes on. We both ordered a bowl of the sticky rice with “fried shallots and fat”. I ordered grilled pork (char siu) and Tim ordered the boiled shredded chicken. The bowls came compactly filled with sticky rice, a layer of mung bean paste (that we thought tasted like a layer of baked yams), and fried shallots. The rice and toppings were tasty, but I didn’t ration my meat well with the rice so I had almost half my rice left without any toppings. If you know me, I only really eat my rice if it has something to go with it. It’s very filling lunch and I didn’t finish my rice and Tim was too full to eat mine. I would go back to try other toppings but I wasn’t that biggest fan.

After lunch, we grabbed a quick snack to bring back to the hotel for later at Circle K and walked back to the hotel. I had a pretty bad headache and the sun was at its peak for the day, so we went back to our room and rested. I ended up taking a nap and felt a lot better in the late afternoon.

For dinner, we had a few options in mind but wanted to just find something fairly close by. I looked up some options on Trip Advisor and found a banh mi stall, Banh Mi 25, that was very well reviewed by the majority. The pictures made the stall seem very trendy – they even had branded stickers for their paper wrapping. When we got there, the crowd was mainly caucasian tourists, which was expected since it seemed the stall catered to tourists as their menu was in English. The prices were fair, so we decided to give it a shot (ranged from 15,000 VND to 25,000 VND). Tim ordered a pate banh mi (he wanted ham as well but they were out since it was the end of the day) and I ordered the grilled pork with pate. The girls working were nice and friendly and we grabbed a seat and waited for our banh mi.

When we took our first few bites, we both looked at each other and recalled one of the negative reviews from a guy from Seattle saying that there’s not much flavour in the meat or the vegetables (not pickled enough). We agreed that there wasn’t much going on in this banh mi besides the bread being good. They had hot sauce on the table and we both added a lot to get more flavour out of the sandwich. It was the most underwhelming banh mi we’ve had so far in Vietnam. I guess it gets pretty good reviews because it’s like banh mi for beginners, since the environment is very friendly and comfortable (everyone was very nice!).

We headed back towards the hotel and bought some lychees from a lady on the street for our dessert. There was a lady ahead of us on a scooter who bought 1kg for 50,000 VND = $2.88 CAD and we bought 25,000 VND = $1.44 CAD worth. They were delicious and sweet (lychee is one of my favourite fruits), we put them in the fridge before we dug into them.

We had another chill night, watching part 3 of the OJ Simpson documentary and then got to FaceTime Nate for his birthday! It’s funny, he doesn’t even know it’s his birthday. Can’t wait to celebrate with him again when we’re back home!

Steps today: 8,500

Hoi An/Da Nang (Day 108): Tailored Out

June 16, 2016

This morning we had a few errands to run before heading back to Da Nang. We had to go back to Peace Tailors for a last fitting at 11am and we wanted to buy some more “backpacker pants/shorts”. It wasn’t a smart idea to have a Vietnamese iced coffee at dinner last night – I couldn’t fall asleep for a while. Then I kept getting freaked out by all the noises I heard outside, so it wasn’t a very restful night. We checked out of the hotel and left our bags in the lobby while we went back to the Ancient Town.

On our walk back to the hotel yesterday, we met a lady, “Mrs. Ha”, who has a drink stall along the riverside close to our hotel. We bought drinks from her and she asked if we needed a ride to the airport tomorrow. We told her we were just staying in Da Nang for the night and she said she can arrange a driver to take us there for 250,000 VND = $14.57 CAD (45 minute ride). She showed us her appointment book and she basically seems to service a good chunk of guests from our hotel and the other neighbouring hotels in the area. We knew this was a pretty fair price since our hotel charged $19 USD for a ride to Da Nang. We walked past her this morning and arranged a ride with her driver to pick us up at 1pm to take us to Da Nang. At first I was a bit skeptical but she seemed trustworthy. To be sure, I Googled her and found other people saying how they used her for airport transfers and were very happy with her.

Our first stop was to get a banh mi for brunch. We ordered one grilled pork and one BBQed pork. We realize that depending on who makes it, they basically just put whatever they want in it. Either way, the banh mi is delicious. I really liked the grilled pork and their pate. I think the pate juice and their chilli sauce make the biggest difference and my grilled pork banh mi is my favourite so far on this trip.

We made our way to Peace Tailors. It seems like every day in Hoi An was similar. Walk around the Ancient Town, get a banh mi, and stop by Peace Tailors. When we got to the tailors, we went upstairs to try on our clothes. Tim’s suit jacket still needed a bit of work so the lady (Sony) called the tailor to come to the store right away to fix it. She told us it would take 30 minutes – we later found out that meant 30 minutes for the tailor to come to the store, pick up the jacket, fix it, and bring it back. Luckily, they fixed Tim’s jacket and we were on our way.

It’s an experience in itself to get clothing made in Hoi An, so I’m glad we did it. Are they amazingly made and super cheap? Not really. They’re okay. We’re both satisfied with what we got but I probably wouldn’t do it again, unless I needed bridesmaid dresses made. They basically have all different style of maxi dresses (like the J.Crew bridesmaid line that I had) there.

I found that having to go to the tailors every day (multiple times a day) made our time in Hoi An only about getting clothing made, which kind of took away from our overall time there (Tim: I always assumed that was the main reason for coming to Hoi An). It was basically what we (or at least I) thought of all the time. Like yesterday night, they told us to come back an hour later for our last fitting so we had dinner first. Our nicer dinner at Morning Glory should have been relaxing but I was more preoccupied about making sure we got back to the tailors before they closed for the night (Tim: me, not so much). So we basically ate quickly and left, even though it’s a restaurant you should just relax and enjoy your time in. Also, trying on the clothes when we’re both sweaty, red faced, and hair all disheveled doesn’t make us feel very attractive in the outfits (which is why the pictures we took won’t be posted here). We’ll probably be wearing the dress and suit to a wedding this summer. Any how, I’m a bit relieved it’s over and we can move on.

Before we left Ancient Town, we headed to the store where we got Nate’s “backpacker pants” from. We grabbed a couple of shorts and pants (for lounging). Pants were only 60,000 VND = $3.50 CAD and shorts were only 20,000 VND = $1.16 CAD. We made our way back to the hotel by 1pm, although we were dripping in sweat when Mrs. Ha greeted us.

She walked with us to our hotel as her driver was parked off to the side. We thanked her for her help and were on our way. She said she just got back from helping some Americans staying at a hotel order four suits at tailor near by.

The drive back to Da Nang was a bit slower than the one we had to Hoi An. The driver wasn’t as crazy of a driver as the hotel driver was. We made it to our hotel in the city, Orange Hotel.

We booked Orange Hotel ($52 CAD/night) on Expedia as it was highly rated on Trip Advisor. We actually wanted to book it for the first couple of days but the price went up quite a bit so we went to Hadana. It actually worked out well because we got to stay in two different areas of Da Nang (both sides of the river). As with all other Vietnamese hotels, they served us a welcome drink and gave us ice cold towels. The staff were warm and welcoming and even had their screen changed to say “Welcome Timothy Young-yi Chueh”. They thought Tim was Vietnamese because he said “cam on” (thank you in Vietnamese) to the bell hop who took our bags in. He explained he wasn’t Vietnamese and he only knows how to say thank you. The lady then also asked us if we are only staying for one night. Before I could answer, Tim started saying “dac biet” (which means special). Then he realized her question and laughed. He thought she asked if he could only say one word, so then he told her the other word he could say in Vietnamese. She didn’t get the misunderstanding so I think she thinks Tim is weird.

We were shown our room and it was nice and clean. We have a “windowless” room (cheapest room), but it’s okay, there’s still some natural light coming in from a narrow window at the top of the wall. We settled in, did laundry, and then headed out for an early dinner.

The hotel suggested a Da Nang style noodle called, ba mua, so we went to a restaurant about a block away. I ordered the ba mua and Tim ordered the dac biet (his go to). The dishes were a dry thick rice noodle with an assortment of meat and seafood in a chilli sauce. As usual, they serve a plate of fresh greens and herbs for you to mix in with the noodles. The noodles were good but not our favourite. We both kept reminiscing about the cao lau from yesterday.

After the noodles, we quickly walked through the Han Market, which has an assortment of produce, dried goods, clothes, and souvenirs. We didn’t linger too long since we weren’t planning on buying anything and we got the gist of the market. Ladies in the market were also very aggressive so we didn’t really want to be in that environment.

We planned on going back to Cong Caphe to have a drink and relax for the rest of the afternoon. The cafe was a lot busier today than it was when we came a few days ago. We sat on the second floor at the counter overlooking the river again. We both ordered a coconut drink – one with coffee and a cocoa one. The coffee one is still the best.

We’re taking tonight pretty easy. We have to start planning the rest of our SE Asia portion of our trip. We have everything booked until we get to Hanoi, but then it’s a fairly blank slate. Looking forward to exploring Hanoi tomorrow!

Steps today: 12,000