TJ in Thailand?!?

finally getting SCUBA Open Water certified!!!

Kamala Beach, Phuket. Warm water, crystal clear sunny days, niiiiiice

view from our room, longtail boats are ready to take you wherever you'd like to go...unless you just wanna plop down on one of those chairs

Folks, how are we all doing? I hope well, though for most of you it's the middle of winter eh? Bummer. Although if you have been snowboarding lately, winter can't be that much of a bad thing. However, summer is always fun, and in this part of the world, it's summer A LOT! The last time the bad guy half of your favorite bargaining duo was around these parts, the tsunami was changing a lot of lives for the worse. 5 years later, you'd never know this devastating event took place. Every hotel, guesthouse and resort has been built back up, in fact, you'd never realize there was a worldwide recession taking place with all of the construction. On every oceanview hillside, there's a new 5 star resort being built complete with dramatic views, infinity edge pool and butler service. Amazing. However, deals abound b/c our PADI instructors were telling us that a lot of them are empty b/c tourism has started off really slow this high season. Hmmmm, here comes that recession talk again. In fact, one of the guys on our boat said he was staying at the Chedi, which is normally $500 a night, but he's paying $225...good deal. We're staying oceanfront for $30, which was supposed to be $60, but to each his own, we both seem happy with the deals we got.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself. In the bottom pic is the beach in front of the bungalow place we stayed in for the first two nights. Quiet, no one around at night, but a little too quiet. I mean, there wasn't a 7-11 for kilometers!!?!?? 7-11's btw, are the markets of the small beach towns. Don't pay $2 for a Chang on the beach, go to 7-11 and get one that's twice the size for a buck then saunter to the beach and enjoy yourself twice as much. Ok, enough about 7-11. Wait, one last thing, most of them DON'T have slurpee machines. Yes, when it's 30+C out with 90% humidity, a slurpee would really hit the spot, but didn't come across one until Ko Phan Ngan, bummer. ANYWAY, it was a great beach to hang out at, but we jumped in the bus and headed up to Kamala Beach, just north of TJ....I mean Patong Beach. Seriously folks, on the drive through Patong, we were both having flashbacks of the quiet city just south of San Diego. Bumping bass pouring out of trashy bars full of sunburned Euros...classic. We thanked our lucky stars that we weren't staying here and headed over the hill to quiet Kamala. Just around the corner was a dive shop so we signed up to get Open Water certified. This was a 3 day course including some time in the pool, and then 4 boat dives. We agree, if you don't SCUBA, you don't get it! Come on people, the earth is 70% water, go check it out! It's a great feeling to be 40' under water...and breathing. The visibility in the area was great (we think, though we have nothing to compare it to...besides snorkeling with leopard sharks in La Jolla or Mexico or the Carribean...wait, the Carribean was pretty clear...:) and there were scores of fish, or shall I say schools? Probably the coolest animal we saw over the 4 dives was an octopus. So interesting, when our instructor got close, it would retreat a bit back towards it's hole and change colors lightning fast. It would go from dark blue to white and back again in less than a second. Definitely a great defense mechanism. We dove just off the coast for the first two, then the next day we motored out to a rock island and then over to a wreck. Cuttlefish, lionfish, parrotfish, razorfish, barracuda, eels, porcupine fish...to many names to remember, but we'll attach photos off our dive CD later. All in all, this was definitely a trip highlight.
What is a trip lowlight is the tailor shops with pestering guys out front. I don't know how many times we have said no to a tailored suit or dress in the last few days. Thank god we already picked up a couple in Hoi An, Vietnam. Every day we walk down the street towards our dive shop, it's 5 No's and 4 "we already bought suits in Nam." One guy was impressed with the price I paid in Nam for my suit and said he couldn't beat that anyway...good to know though tough to believe as there's lots of competition.
Phuket is gorgeous and worth a visit, just avoid Patong, Kata and Karon beaches, unless you are into things like getting your hair braided (not an interest for this guy), henna tatoos and tours that you could do yourself with a moto and map.
Off on a bus and ferry across the pennisula to Ko Pha Ngan...
shakeNbake

"It's a holiday in Cambodia, don't forget to pack a wife!" -Dead Kennedys

elephants getting a break from taking tourists up hills...

we heard Indiana Jones was here yesterday.

when it's quiet, you try to imagine the jungle enveloping these temples all around you...the sounds are almost as entertaining as the sights....almost.

one head, two head, three head, four.

now that's a hallway.

So after a day in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, which is what the Gov wants you to call it, we realized we should have stayed longer. From what we saw, it looks like a booming city and it's the economic center of Vietnam with most of the manufacturing centers here. Briana quickly took advantage of the locally manufactured products that happened to fall off the line and snatched up a few purses for pennies on the dollar. I play the bad guy role in our bargaining duo ($10!!?!? no no no, we can only pay $2, etc), so we worked our scheme down to a few bucks per Vuitton item, nice one. Watch out fashionistas of Sydney, Briana's comin' fully loaded! After shopping a bit, we headed over to a massage spot and happily paid $8 for an hour. At this point in the trip, it's becoming a bit of a joke for the 100lb SE Asian ladies to try to lift and stretch a 200lbs American beast. However, it does feel great when they stand on your back and pop each vertebrae with their toes! This place in Saigon was great, and filled with a bunch of local business men who looked like they pop in every day or so...must be nice as massages where we're from go for $80/hr.

Video below is off the two of us crossing the street in Saigon, Hanoi was nothing, it seems like there's 10x as many motos...

After a debacle at the Saigon airport, we got to Siem Reap, the town just outside of Angkor Wat, Thursday night, Jan. 15th, 2009. Talk about booming, we hired a couple of moto taxis and on the way into town, there was 4 star after 4 star hotel lining the road! Crazy, but good knowledge for those of our older listeners who may not exactly be backpacking;). After a few stops at guesthouses we knew about which were full, our guys took us to a brand new one that just opened up, $9/night got us a nice A/C room with friendly staff (which is something you always have to find out about when first checking in b/c they can help you book things and give you local knowledge)...sweet! The next day we headed out to see the Wats in all their glory...really impressive. Looking at the pictures at dinner, we realized that the immenseness and beauty of these temples really have to be seen firsthand. One of the first westerners who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world." I think it's what Rome or Greece would look like, if all of their monuments weren't actually ruins...hopefully that helps...but I guess it only does if you have been to either of those countries eh? Another little fact, a team of researchers recently figured out that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world potentially supporting 1M people. The closest rival Tikal, the largest Mayan city in their hayday, was only 150 sq km...wow.

The second day in our efforts to try to get a taste for this 3000 square kilometer site (with over 1000 temples some dating back to 800AD) started out at a hike to a waterfall out in the jungle. Then we sped off (literally sped, check the video below) back to some of the outer temples. Quite a bit quieter, some even serene without the rest of the tourists, it was a good day. Sunny and hot as usual, but we found some respite in the shade of the temples. We walked back through a section that was being repaired, but not at the time, to sit for awhile and enjoy the sounds of the jungle which comes up to the very edge of most all sites. No monkeys nor tigers nor snakes appeared for us, but you could try to imagine yourself back 1200 years both fearing and adoring the jungle. One thing I still don't understand is how they let you walk all over the temples. This no doubt arises from growing up in America where everything is roped off and kept as look-but-don't-touch. On the one hand, it's great to be able to explore the temples, but on the other, you feel like you're reaching across and touching the Mona Lisa through the plate glass. This city has been around for over a thousand years, but with the hundreds of thousands of visitors it gets per year, one wonders how much longer it can keep up. There is one change, you can no longer climb to the top of one of the main temples, Angkor Wat. This is kind of a bummer b/c watching the sun rise or set over the temples and jungle is breathtaking...but I understand why they no longer allow it. I mean, someone could fall down those very steep stairs, break a leg and sue someone...which reminds me of somewhere...

shakeNbake

PS-some guy's cell just rang next to me and it's ring goes, "(siren sound) warning.....warning.....it's the wife!" classic.

Brangelina makes an appearance in Dalat, Vietnam

industrial sewing machine cranking out designs on silk, can't you see the pattern?;)

over the hills and through the woods...

Elephant Falls (just don't mind the trash you see at the top of the river, the locs haven't learned proper waste disposal yet...and the river seems like a good option?)

Tiger Falls (the dogs here were finally friendly, but then chased us for a few hundred meters when we left on the moto)

Phew, it's been awhile, I know you all have been missing the Bill Bryson-esque writing talent (pick up his book "In a Sunburned Country" for some insight into where we'll be shortly), welcome back.

So comedy insued the day we had planned to leave the coast and head up to the mountains of Southern Nam. All seemed easy enough, well, easy enough when in Nam, we had spoken on the phone with Sinh Cafe (they do open buses in Nam) back in Nha Trang, they told our hotel to have a taxi drop us off at some bus stop in town where they'd pick us up. We didn't know which bus stop, but those that were speaking Vietnamese seemed to be on the same page. The taxi, after taking us the long way, dropped us at this bus stop outside of town on the highway. We were told earlier that the bus would show up around 10am, so we thought we'd grab a seat at the cafe to get out of the sun. Again, we were reminded how far off the tourist trail we were...while we sat and drank some water, the locals all sauntered over to check out the aliens...at least that what we felt like! We had about 30 Vietnamese folks about 5 feet away from our table just staring. Staring like we were naked, or had just parked our spaceship across the street, or I don't what, but it was pretty uncomfortable. We waved and tried to act normal, hopefully our water drinking skills were up to par! I had to get this on film, so I calmly (so as not to disturb the locals) got up and walked towards the back of the cafe with the Nikon. When I turned around and raised the camera, the locs all started giggling and scattered. It was a classic scene, but I think you just had to be there. After all the commotion, we realized that it had been awhile, and no Sinh Cafe bus had shown up. So we walked out to the edge of the highway to wait there and avoid the prying eyes. A minibus drove up with a Dalat sign in the window, so we decided to jump on and get on the road. However, a few hundred meters down the road, after some back and forth broken english/vietnamese we realized that this wasn't our bus and we should probably get off before it's too late. They coasted to a rolling stop, we hopped out and looked ahead at the hot, dusty walk back to the bus station. Just ahead was a houseish looking building, so I popped in and hand signalled to ask if I could use their phone. I did, and got ahold of the bus driver who said he'd be there in 10. Cool. I thanked them for the phone, gave them 4000 dong for the call ($.20), and we walked back. Bus came, we got on, cranked the A/C and headed towards the highlands. About 200 bumps and 400 curves in the road later, we arrived in Dalat. Gorgeous, reminded us both of Tahoe in the summer. Crisp air, waterfalls, lakes, windy single-lane roads, clear-cutting, and....wait, did I say clear-cutting?!? Oh yeah, they are tearing up the mountian sides in Dalat faster than those in the Amazon. When we moto'd that evening to check out the aforementioned, we had to stop and gaze at the post clear-cut, terraced hill side farms. I mean, the produce is fresh and excellent in the restaurants of Dalat, but it comes at a price! Hopefully the government will step in soon and start teaching sustainable agriculture. This was justifiably Briana's favorite place in Nam, as the food was great(sorry trees), waterfalls amazing, and country road motoing outstanding.

shakeNbake

domino update

just a quick domino update....
after 2, best 2 out of 3 matches.......
it's Christian 2 Briana 0
game score is at 4-2, so it's been close, but Christian still dominates!!!!!!!;)
shakeNbake

Baja #2....a short 10000 miles east of CA

welcome back, it's 3 posts at a time these days...
so, on our trusty new rental moto, which was manual this time, but no worries, the man in this duo manned up and dominated that manual, we headed towards Ca Na beach...just 30km south. 30km doesn't sound far, but when you can only go 50km/h on the moto (yeah, we're bad-ass and did 60+/-), it takes awhile. in such small towns, directions aren't that difficult, head mostly south, you'll get close to wear you're going. so with no wrong turns, we were in Ca Na quickly. The terrian in southern coastal vietnam is very very bajaesque...short hills, lots of dirt, tons of boulders large and small...and coastline galore. now if there were pointbreaks around every turn, vietnam would be a cool surf destination! but there isn't, so we found an isolated, granite boulder covered beach to lounge on, and kicked back for awhile. not too long tho, as the man was ready again to mount his two wheeled pony and head back on the open road. now that we're experienced vietnam moto heads, 5 ton buses passing us 4' to our left is nothing, nor is going 4 wide on main street phan rang! at the stoplights, we no longer get passed up as everyone punches it for the green, we're rocking from first to second with the best of them! on the way back from ca na beach, we thought it would be fun to try to find these cham towers that the bible (Lonely Planet - Vietnam) said that half the fun is trying to find them. sure enough, only one wrong turn, and 10km off the highway later, we arrived! they were gorgeous, lonely at the top of a hill. some kids were playing soccer in the parking lot and all said, "hello! what is your name?" we later learned, when different kids at the top of the hill asked the same question, that this must be what they teach around here in english 101. good on them though, they all spoke those 5 words perfectly. after some fun with cool local kids and cham towers, we bolted back trying to beat the sunset back to phan rang. after feeling like celebrities for the last 24 hours (i thought due to our gorgeous looks, but briana thinks it's b/c we're white and not 5'0";) it continued when we moto'd back into downtown phan rang looking for something other than vietnamese for dinner. when we stopped at a market to ask the bible for directions, we were surrounded by more "hello, what is your name?" which was great, until some old guy came over and wanted to repeatedly shake our hands. hey, i'll shake most folks hands once or twice, but 4 times? come on, that's just creepy! no western food to be found, we're back at Thai Binh resort with some Saigon bia. all the best readers, love you long time!
shakeNbake

Off the tourist trail

Enough enough enough of the Hanoi-Hue-Hoi An-Nha Trang-Mui Ne-Saigon tourist trail! We had no idea it would be this bad. It became ever so clear when we met the same Dutch couple from the night train again on the streets of Hoi An. Whether you are going north-south or south-north...there's quite a few people on your same tour. So from Nha Trang, we got on a bus headed south for Mui Ne, except we organized a drop off for just ourselves in Phan Rang. As we got off the bus in this "obscure" location, another traveller leaned over and asked, "why here? what's going on in phan rang?" well, we can't give up all our secrets (or else the phan rang area will be overrun eh?), so we ran off the bus, hopped on some moto taxi's and...after some confusion as to what we pay for where we're headed...we got through that it was Ninh Chu beach for $5. What we arrived to was 10km of white sand....and not another whitey for 100miles! Sweet! Although the first resort we checked was too pricey for these backpackers (25-50 bucks, ouch!;), a resort just down the same beach was only asking $15-25/bungalow...sold! We have been here for 2 nights now, getting tired of their restaurant...but not of their smiles and friendly attitude! Ahh, so nice to have some locals that aren't jaded by the traveller. After a day of laying on the beach, we took another moto out today and headed south along this empty coastline...
shakeNbake

Charlie Don't Surf

After finding the beach in Hoi An, we had a hunger, so it was a good thing we were headed south towards Nha Trang. However, Nha Trang turned out to be a bit more like Cabo than we wanted...big resorts, big crowd, big Miss Universe Paegant? Wait a second, this Cabo copy just got a bit better!;) So we checked in to Phu Quy, which had some rude ladies working the desk, don't stay there, and they told us that the competition was this weekend. Pretty random to have that going for Nha Trang, what else did it have to offer? Turns out, it offered us the first time to rent motos! Those are always fun, and the first afternoon we headed north towards a waterfall and maybe some islands. With no map, we weren't quite sure if we had gone too far or came up short, but alas, after coming around a what may have been our last turn going north, there they were...two big dragons motioning us to come to their port, board their boats, and head to the islands! Our destination, Monkey Island, to go see the famous Vietnamese Palm Trees. They are supposed to be able to withstand 80mph typhoons, 30' high waves and......ok ok, yes, we went there to go see the monkeys...had you goin though? Being that we had our own transportation and weren't part of a god awful tour, we showed up when there was no one there, peeeerrrrrfect...or so we thought. Literally, there were no other tours around when we showed up on the island at 330pm, so the 150 monkeys had us all to themselves! This, we realized after 5 minutes, wasn't that cool...these guys expect treats...and we weren't rich in that respect. It's an odd feeling, walking down a trail, seeing 1 monkey and smiling, then 4, then 12, then...crap Bri, start backpedaling! We weren't too worried until 1 monkey stopped in front of me, bared his teeth, and I noticed a 4" x 1" cut going down his back. Hmmmm, so either this guy is a bad boy that got whipped after a bad performance during a show for tourists, or he's the man on this island and earned those cuts on the dark, back alleys of Monkey Island. either way, not good for a couple of lonely tourists. We left unscathed, but with some great pics...which are to be uploaded later b/c it seems like very few computers like my SD-USB card converter. That night on the nightly hunt for food (we're both tired of eating out), we found a great vietnamese place...we knew it was great the only way tourists figure things like this out...it was crowded with vietnamese! Everyone was very friendly, and through more hand gesturing, we ordered what looked good around us....excellent. The next day, I wanted to go down south to this beach I had read about that may have some surf. we rented another moto, and headed south on 1A to Bai Dai beach. Looked like it could come through with some beachbreak, and a lefthand point to the north, with another lefthand point around the corner (ManaMana beach club at the Lousiane Brewhouse in NT rents a few beatup boards) but the 35mph winds had other plans. Nonetheless, we found a little spot to read our books and enjoy some time away from the crowds of Nha Trang. Spotting what looked like restaurants down the way, we headed over hoping for some fresh out of the ocean seafood. We ended up having some scallops and squid BBQ'd for us on a little homemade weber on our table...delish! Just enough spice (finally, as most of the food we've had thus far has been weak in this dept), fresh, and friendly. After gorging on a kilo of each (+ beers for about $10, nice;), which was more than we could eat, we moto'd back to find the Miss World gig in full swing. Russia won, and, dont' worry boys, I'll post pics when I can;).
The next day we hopped on a Sinh Cafe bus headed south....
shakeNbake

Hue to Hoi An

ahhhhh night trains. at this point, i'm pretty sure they are all the same. such a blast rocking and rolling, back and forth, side to side, clickity clack. who doesn't love stopping for some unknown reason in pitch black middle of the night scary timbuktu, only to slowing start moving forward again at a snail's pace...was there an ox on the tracks? was the conductor texting?(bad joke, sorry) are we being boarded by gypsys? at least the door locked on our 4 berth cabin! what we couldn't lock out was the bugs though. just as briana is commenting on how this is her first night train and do we all think there are bed bugs in these lovely foam cushions (yes, we paid the extra 5 bucks for soft sleepers as 11 hrs on hard plastic didn't sound fun)...a lovely little critter starts climbing his way up the wall from her bunk towards mine, classic timing little guy! both girls cringe, and we all guzzle a little more wine. the other half of the we is mischa and mariel, a dutch couple on a similar tour of nam. we tried to teach mischa dominoes, which he picked up quickly, simple game, while mariel was sucked in by super mario bros on my new nintendo ds. good times were had while we gamed, chatted and compared halong bay tour stories.
hue was a good 3 day stop. there's a great citadel encompassing the old city with a moat and 25' high wall. we also, reluctantly, jumped on a tour out to the former demilitarized zone north of hue. i had hoped to rent a moto and do it ourselves, but there was some rain, and a moto didn't look fun. best part of the tour was the tunnels...they claimed some locals lived down there for 6 years...6 YEARS! i guess we loaded that part of the coast with bombs hoping to flush them out, but only one "drilling bomb" hit the tunnel area...and sure enough, it was a dud and didn't explode. so the other team used the hole it drilled 30' down into their tunnels as another air duct and kept on keepin on. after the tunnels, the tour was supposed to continue on, but we had had enuff and ditched it with a canadian and jumped on a local bus back to hue. we jump in, pay a copule bucks and take our seats. however, briana decided to sit in the 2nd row, not the back row, and she was promptly told that those seats were for vietnamvietnamvietnam!! defiant, she told the lady that she can sit wherever she wants, and vietnam can sit there if they'd like. so i coaxed bri back to the 3rd row with us, and it's good she relented as we picked up another vietnamese every few k. the 6 seats in front of us (small bus) ending up holding 10 people, and i'm pretty sure bri wouldn't have enjoyed that...although i'm sure her seatmate would have!
the next morning we jumped on a bus, had a pitstop next to a lake, watched some fishing, and arrived in hoi an 4 hrs later. what a great town. it's well known on the trail south that this is where you go to get some tailored clothes on the cheap. briana was well prepared and arrived into town with 3 magazine pages with pictures of dresses she wanted for 80% off US list. all in all, we had 1 suit, 1 dress shirt, 2 ties, 1 wool winter coat, 1 cordaroy jacket, 3 dresses, 2 pairs of pj's, and 1 purse made for us. it took 3 visits back to the tailor to get everything snug, but in the end we left happy campers. i'll let you all have a guess at what we paid...post away and a 12er of Boag's is on me when you come visit us in Oz! oh yeah, and they haggle here, finally, so i also picked up a few lacoste shirts for next to nothing. jealous? it's only a 15hr flight away...
shakeNbake.

Thrifty folk suffer in Hanoi

welcome back, it's a big night for your long lost blogger as there's a lot to say and it's been a far too long.
after halong bay, it was back to Hanoi for a day before catching the night train to hue. one of the things that we will never forget is the bargaining (or lack thereof) in that city. we'd be walking around the markets, both indoor and out, admiring the fake lacoste, polo, nike, adidas, the aforementioned diesel, etc...laughing about how that jacket would cost $80 back in the states, and it must go for $8 here since it's made my 8 year olds down the street:(...when i saw one i wanted(thanks kids!;). i sauntered over, never seeming really that interested, playing the game i have played before, it all coming back too fast. for those who are smiling, no, this is not how i act when i cruise up the cash register at vons with a handful of coupons ready to take them for an extra 20 bucks...i act way cooler! so i look at this one and that one, both sides having a laugh when nothing fits (not many 6'4" kids around here!), when i ask how much for the one i really liked, and miraculously it fit...mostly. i pretended to be agast when she told me $20 (350000 dong) , no no no, i can only pay $5 i say...expecting the 5 minute negotiation to start. and to my surprise, she didn't say a word and just pulled it out of my hands and walked away!!! wtf!? hmm, maybe she already has the nicest moto on the block i thought? maybe it's a bit too soon for americans to be visiting vietnam? where did i go wrong? but alas, it became ever more clear as we walked down the street and we received the same reply to whatever we were trying to bargain for...that calculator is $5? how 'bout $2? walk away. those tights are $5? how about $2? walk away. hmmm, either they don't have the best business sense (come on! we all know you got it for $3-5, so charge me double, make money, and maybe the next guy will pay triple!), or the gray hairs on the big tour buses taking photos through the window at only the most touristy of spots are paying list price and ruining it for all of us backpackers (young and old, by the way).
ahhhh, oh well, we passed on everything but the tights (broke her down to $3) and told ourselves we'll stick to our guns and hopefully our luck will get better as we move south...
shakeNbake

Halong Bay 12/31/08

enough of the city, show us some nature! we decided to head to the water as being born and raised close to it, we missed the ocean sights, sounds, and smells. we purchased a two day trip which included 5 meals, a RT 300km bus ride (flat tire at highway speeds was no charge;), an overnight on an 8 cabin junk, cave tour, kayaking, and pure comedy for briana and i when I cracked a funny joke to break the ice on the bus and not a one frenchie laughed...an uptight bit those frenchies...all for $100 total. not bad, but we could've gone lower as there was a $60 option...but who knows how sketchy the dinner was on those boats. luckily there were others on the boat with a sense of humor, phillip and sunna from germany, crazy celia from the uk, and a couple of finns who we hope call us when they arrive in sydney from perth on their drive "the long way 'round" as it's called down unda. our night on the boat was actually NYE for us, you all are 15hrs behind, so we celebrated with...drumroll please, Hanoi Vodka and Fanta! ahhhh yes, the head was pounding the next morning. though we missed all our listeners that night, we reminisced, and hoped you all were too.
on the way back to Hanoi, we realized how little we liked packaged tours, no matter how small, and decided to try to figure out how to avoid them going forward. however, halong bay is impossible to do by yourself, so we went for it and had a fun 30 hour tour.
shakeNbake.