Vietnam = CARELESS!!!!

For those of you that know me (Patrick), I often use the phrase, "that was careless". Historically I use this phrase to describe other people's actions as I'm Mr. Perfect who does no wrong :) Well payback is a real bummer...I, Patrick Wille, left the family camera on Vietnam Airlines flight #762, seat 25A (Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong) on 12/30/08. That's right, I tucked it in the seat back pocket in front of me and didn't realize it until we were about to leave the airport. Unfortunately, after filing an official claim with the airline and calling several times, we decided to let it go and attempt to move on with life. The camera is easy to replace as we are now in Hong Kong; however, we lost every single picture from Vietnam. To my lovely wife...I'm so sorry!

With that, I took luxury in exploring the world wide web to see if I could piece together our great time in Vietnam using other people's photos. Whenever applicable, replace the perfect strangers in the photos below with thoughts of Claudia and myself.


We arrived into Hanoi, Vietnam after midnight and quickly realized that we had entered a new/different world. Our driver that drove us to our hotel, Hanoi Elegance 2, pictured above, (highly recommended if you're ever in Hanoi), honked his horn every 500 meters. At what you ask...we had no freakin' clue. We were certain that there was something wrong with him. Turns out honking your horn is like checking your mirrors in the states, the more often the better...safety first, peace and quiet second. With motorbikes being a real status symbol, every Vietnamese citizen has one, probably two, so the roads are full of them.
In order: motorbikes honk at pedestrians, cars honk at motorbikes, trucks honk at cars, and just in case there's nothing around to honk at, honk just because!

During our first full day in Hanoi, we walked around and took in most of the sites. Most interesting was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh himself is resting. He's been dead for almost 30 years and looks like he's taking a nap. Unfortunately, they guard him like Fort Knox so we were only able to take pictures outside.

We also went to the famous Hoa Lo Prison, a.k.a Hanoi Hilton where Mr. McCain was held prisoner during the "American War". They have his flight suit and parachute on display. His plane went down in the lake picture above.

According to tripadivsor.com, the #1 thing to do in Hanoi is to visit Halong Bay...hmm, that's strange, Halong Bay is 3.5 hours drive outside of Hanoi. We had heard many great things about it so we boarded a bus and made the journey. We opted for the traditional "junk boat" overnight experience. Junk definitely not referring to the condition of the boat, as our boat was top notch. We were joined by 8 other people that only added to the great time. The tour included kayaking in and around the limestone cliffs, and a tour of a wonderful cave system. Many of us found it funny/sad that they tried to enhance the cave by adding colored lights. We celebrated Christmas Eve over dinner with a great family we met on this tour. A quick shout out to Ed, Brenda, Rebekah, and Daniel...hope to see you guys sometime in the near future.

After Hanoi, we headed south to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). A slightly more modern city than Hanoi with even more motorbikes and horns. Our first night in town we met up with an old friend from New York who is now working in HCMC. He took us to a great club not in any tour books that had really fun live music...basically a "sing a long" to 80's rock music. The next day we took a 2 hour bus tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The maze of tunnels, about 450km worth, were built and used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. We found it amazing how anyone could spend any length of time in these tunnels as they were extremely small. During the tour they also allowed us to fire AK-47 and M-60 machine guns. Talk about power and an adrenaline rush!

The following day we took an overnight tour of the Mekong River Delta. A totally different side of Vietnam that we found to be very interesting. Our tour included multiple boat rides and about 6 hours of bike riding over 2 days. It was great to ride through different villages and to see many smiling faces. Just about every child we came across was eager to yell "hello" and give us a warm wave.
The overnight portion of the tour had our group of 10 stay with a family that lived in the delta. The conditions were pretty primitive, including bug nets around our beds and outdoor toilets. Overall a great time and a highlight of our trip through Vietnam.

Cambodia...Wat?

Cambodia was full of temple time and "ummm hmmm"s directed towards our guides. We arrived in the evening and headed out to the center of Siem Reap for food. The motorbikes were in full force, as was the dust they all kicked up. "That's why everyone is carrying a scarf and covering their face." As we were wandering down the main street (Pub St.), we noticed there were no lights on and everyone was using candles. We thought, "Was this normal in Cambodia?" "Were they trying to conserve energy?" But halfway through dinner, the lights magically appeared and we said goodbye to the romantic candlelight. After dinner we went to another night market and found some great art.

The next day, Friday, we did our first Wat tour starting with Angkor Wat. Very impressive and our guide had lots of information, although we only grasped about 10% because of his accent. Our tuk tuk drove us to Bayon (spelling?), the temple with the faces, and Pro Tahm, the temple with trees growing all over it. It was truly incredible...maybe the 8th wonder of the world.

Saturday we went on another tour of the outlying areas and temples. It was fascinating to see some local Cambodian families go about their normal lives, in addition to some great Wats and the landmine museum. There were some great photo opportunities which Patrick seized.

That night we went to dinner and tried a 4 hand massage. It was the worst. To date Phuket had the best value and quality of massage. But this one was amusing...the girls found Patrick's beard and underware hysterical.

Sunday morning we rose at 4:30 a.m. to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. It wasn't as magical as I had anticipated, but beautiful all the same. Then we napped and went exploring Siem Reap in the daytime. In one of the markets, we spied some girls doing their toes over the meat they were selling. "Would you like a side of cuticle with your pig intestines, sir?" Crazy!

We got a tuk tuk to take us back to Angkor Wat before heading to the airport because the afternoon light was perfect for some more pictures. By the way, Siem Reap's airport is beautiful.

Chiang Mai-Night Markets, Elephant Taming and Thai "Cooking"

(Tuk tuks in Chiang Mai...you could fall out the back if you're not careful)

Northern Thailand is a much calmer kind of Thailand, but not boring. Our days were still jammed with exploration. We found ourseleves at a temple on the first day...Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Temple. Pretty much your average temple with lots of steps to the top.This one did seem more religious and calm then others we've seen.

That night we went to the night markets, ate some delicious (and cheap) Thai food, and found a $7 shirt for me.
Tuesday morning we ventured off to Patara Elephant Farm. It is an elephant reserve where we were able to care for and ride our very own elephants. It was so cool. My elephant's name was Boon Pak and Patrick's was Ma Mai (he thinks). We checked their poop and bathed them. Then we learned how to get on them and went for a trek through the forrest to a waterfall. My elephant took me for a swim in the waterfall and then we had a picnic lunch on our banana leaf tablecloth. Patrick's elephant was pregnant and kind of moody so he was almost "bucked" off a few times. We loved it...poop and all!

Wednesday, we took a Thai cooking class. We went to the market and then to the organic farm where they grew most of what we were cooking. Patrick followed directions perfectly and did a great job on his meal. I missed a few minor details, but managed to fumble my way through and made the best soup we have ever had. Patricks dessert of sticky, sweet rice and mango was absolute heaven. We left with a cook book in hand and can't wait to make some Thai food in our new home.

Random story from Chiang Mai: That night, despite our fullness, we went to a Mexican restaurant (Patrick insists on trying Mexican food in every country even though I warn it will never be as good as he hopes). It was actually pretty good and then we had a drink at the bar across the street. After spending 10 minutes trying to figure out how to flush the toilet, the bar owner showed me that you use a pot and fill it with water and pour it down the toilet. Thank goodness for modern plumbing.