Hoi An, Vietnam

 Hoi An was a picture perfect postcard. It was everything you would expect an UNESCO World Heritage, small Asian town would be. It is set a few kilometers east of the ocean and is surrounded by rice fields. All the homes and shops are old protected buildings and the river separates the town with old bridges and gas lamps. It was quite peaceful and beautiful. It also was a complete change of pace to the busy HCMC.

Hoi An became one of my favorite cities I've visited whilst travelling. Hoi An was just what everyone needed after a few days of waking up early and site seeing. Just being in Hoi An was sightseeing as the entire Old Quarter is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The first day we went to Reaching Out, which is a coffee and tea house in the Old Quarter that is run by deaf Vietnamese. It is a place that employs the hearing impaired and is a way for them to work and have a good quality of life. Needless to say the place was peaceful, but we also were served traditional coffee and cookies. It was super relaxing.

our coffee tasting

The food in Hoi An was also excellent. We went to so many different restaurants to try many different types of food. Everything was excellent and my friends, who are not vegetarian, loved everything they ordered as well. In Hoi An we found beer for 4000 VND which was only $0.18/glass!!! At night we would spend most of our time bar hopping asking for “fresh beer” which is the equivalent to a home brew. It was great!

roof top dining

One day we rented bikes and rode to the beach through the paddy and rice fields. It really was so beautiful we had to get off our bikes a few times to take photographs, which of course won’t even be able to depict correctly how amazing it was. The ocean was not the prettiest, but it was still fun jumping in the waves and sleeping on the beach. Again, the theme of Hoi An, was that it was so peaceful! The beach had hardly anyone around except the four of us; it was great.

on the way to the beach

Ironically, the one night out we had in Vietnam was little Hoi An. We found some random bar to play pool in and they let my husband dj for the night; his dream came true! It was hilarious as an old couple clearly lived upstairs and let their son have a bar down stairs as we saw his parents come up and down a few times! Later in the night someone on a motorbike told us that there was a club in Hoi An, so the four of us hopped onto motorbike taxis and away we went! Well, it probably was the deadest club we had ever seen. As it was near 3 am we didn't feel guilty leaving after a few drinks, as what did we expect in a sleepy town?

DJ Vision !

So basically, Hoi An has everything you would want while travelling to Asia. Beautiful scenery, a beach, cheap beer, world renown food, and if you want to go out you can! It really was a beautiful place and one of my favorite places I've been to on my travels. 

having fun in town !

Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta & the Cu Chi Tunnels, 12 April – 16 April 2014

amazing dinner with friends !

Ho Chi Minh City was nuts! It definitely was a lot more urban and modern than Cambodia; a wake up call! The sheer amount of motorbikes was amazing and crossing the street was like playing Frogger. I thought that Kuala Lumpur had busy streets, HCMC was worse and I loved it! HCMC was great due to the fact that one of my best friends, Joe, and his girlfriend were flying out from England to do the next 2 weeks of Vietnam with us. I also had a reunion with my friend Crystal who has been living there for almost 5 years. My opinion of HCMC may be biased due to the fact that I enjoyed my company so much as well.

in front of the Notre Dame-Esque Cathedral

try to cross the road

First off, the food in Vietnam was excellent. I definitely have put on some weight in these past two weeks. Luckily, Crystal gave us some recommendations and even took us out to dinner one night. We tried a little bit of everything and it was delicious. I would say the main reason to go to HCMC would be to get involved with the culture and immerse yourself in the food. The sites here are okay and you can walk around the city in a day, but the best thing (for me) was the food and watching people try to cross the road or the street with the motorbike traffic.

Vietnamese coffee on the side of the road

The War Remnants Museum also has a lot of information on the horrors of the Vietnam War and has an amazing galley of Lifetime Photographs as well as Vietnamese Journalist’s photos from the war. It is pretty graphic, but extremely informative. It is interesting to see what really happened in Vietnam. The truth is in the photographs and what is taught in the schools in the U.S. isn't entirely accurate. What happened during the Vietnam War was absolutely dreadful and absolutely a waste of time as the U.S. left anyways, the North won, and what was left were innocent people whose lives were destroyed or taken from them and a country that was left in ruin. It is amazing how modern Vietnam is and how far it has come since the unnecessary destruction from the war.  Anyone visiting HCMC needs to go to the War Remnants Museum to see some insight to what the country has been through.

at the war museum

After a day of site seeing, we did a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, these were the tunnels that were constructed for the war. I’ll be honest, for something that could have been so informative, it really was just a tour to get us to buy stuff. The tunnels were impressive and so tiny I couldn't do the small part the tourists were allowed in due to claustrophobia (didn't realize I had it). Also, seeing the ways the fighters attacked intruders was pretty gruesome, but like I said it was done badly and they lead you to a gift shop. They also take you to where you can shoot guns; handguns to AK 47s. On the way to and from the tunnels you stop at another gift shop and “bathroom break”. Organized tourism in the South of Vietnam was very much lacking. Things could have been so great, but were disrupted by the fact they wanted you to buy stuff.

Cu Chi Tunnels

life on the Mekong

We also did a tour to the Mekong Delta (you cannot really get to these places without buying tickets from a tour agency) and the same thing happened. We went to the Mekong river and a boat took us from island to island which was essentially tourist gift shop to tourist gift shop. It was quite humorous and worth it as we got to have traditional Vietnamese coffee (sooo tasty and strong!) and watch some coconut candy being made. We also got on a traditional boat of the Mekong, but of course we did it and had to tip. It was a weird experience, but what can you do? At least we saw the Mekong!

The highlight of our time in the South was definitely the food and the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City. It was awesome. You wake up and play real life Frogger or sit in a cafe sipping Vietnamese coffee and watching the crazy traffic. Next, you go see some sites, then head to a roof top restaurant for some amazing food and great beer with friends. What more could you ask for?

the markets

just your typical electric wires on the street

EVERYONE has a scooter

Phnom Penh – Cambodia, 3 April – 6 April 2014

heading from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh on the Mekong Express, took 7 hours!

the palace

along the waterfront

 At first impression, Phnom Penh was kind of a dirty city with not a lot going on. However, if you look deeper into its history, it becomes quite a remarkable place. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed Siem Reap much more, but Phnom Penh is still worth a visit.

at Wat Phnom

getting dressed up at Wat Phnom

We saw almost all the sites of the city in one day, we went to the Wat (Temple) on top of the hill, walked along the water front, went to the Grand Palace, and saw the National Museum. The most interesting place we went to in the city was the S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison. It is now called the Genocide Museum. It used to be a high school, but in the 1970s during the Khmer Rouge’s rule, it became a torture prison camp. It was absolutely awful.

The next day we hired a Tuk Tuk to take us an hour outside of the city to head to the Killing Fields, to continue the story of the S-21 prisoners. Most prisoners, after being almost beaten and tortured to death, were sent to the Killing Fields to be terminated. It is unfathomable the horrors that happened here, let alone to think they happened only 30-40 years ago completely unnoticed by the world makes it even worse.

One site that particularly stood out was the killing tree. Khmer Rouge soldiers would take babies from their mothers, grab their feet and smash the bodies against this tree before throwing the body in the grave. A famous Khmer quote was, “in order to get rid of the tree, one must cut the roots”. The large memorial in the middle of the field was filled with skulls of the remains found. The Cambodian people say that they keep places like the S-21 Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields open to the public is to remember what happened here. People must remember their history in order to prevent it from happening again.

My time in Cambodia has definitely been an eye opening and educational experience. Even though I didn’t enjoy the city of Phnom Penh itself, it is essential to go to see the real conditions locals live in and to see the history they come from. The city is interesting in the fact that the government officials drive around in Lexus’s and Bentley’s, while most of the population is still in poverty. Cambodia has come a long way from the horrible rule of the Khmer Rouge, but it still has a long way to go. 

Siem Reap, Cambodia _ 29 March - 3 April 2014

Siem Reap is the kind of place that reminds you why you go backpacking; to see the world. It is not nearly as developed as chaotic Kuala Lumpur or touristy like the backpacker party epicenters of Thailand. It is simply just Siem Reap, home to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. The pace here is slow (probably due to the 38 C/104 F weather) and everything seems to just be a little behind.

super sweaty from hiking around in the heat !

The sunsets and the sunrises at the famous Angkor Wat are truly inspiring with the colors of reds and oranges. I was fortunate enough to spend my 26^th birthday in Siem Reap. We woke up at 4am to head to Angkor Wat and watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful. This temple is thousands of years old and to be there in 2014 on my 26^th birthday made me realize how lucky I was. I couldn't ask for a better present to myself than to just be there. The Angkor Wat temples are a UNESCO world heritage site and were constructed between the 9^th and 15^th centuries. The famous ones are Bayon and also Ta Prohm, where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed.

celebrating my birthday watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat

What really stood out to me was the spirit and kindness of the Khmer people. It was not too long ago that war ravaged the country under the hands of the Khmer Rouge. It wasn't until the late 1990s that the country was able to start to rebuild from the destruction of the wars. However, even though the war is over and Cambodia can start to flourish, the people are effected everyday by old landmines and UXO’s.

Children who are not even old enough to remember the war are still injured due to the undetected landmines. It truly is so sad. Yet, Khmer hospitality and kindness is mind blowing. Most people in the country are old enough to remember the war, but still have such an unbreakable spirit.

Meas and I ! Meas took us everywhere in his Tuk Tuk

We went to the landmine museum, which also is a home to children who were injured due to landmines or UXO’s & it is an NGO. We learned so much on how this is still affecting the country. (Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos still are facing this problem). The head of the Landmine Museum and School, Aki Ra, was a child soldier himself. Now his goal is to clear Cambodia of all remaining landmines. In 2010 he was named as a CNN hero for his work and was awarded in the top 10. He and his team have estimated that they have cleared 50,000 mines or so, but the government still believes that there are still 3 million to 5 million mines still undiscovered. That is how severe this problem is.

It is truly inspiring to know what the people have gone through, yet they are so welcoming. Just walking down Pub Street or the Night Markets, everyone is smiling and saying hello wanting to practice their English or sell you something. It was an eye opening experience. Siem Reap was a cute little town filled with history. I couldn't ask for a more inspirational place to be during my birthday and to remind me why I travel.

sunset at Angkor Wat

night market