Greetings from Nimh Binh,
Since we last posted we've traveled from Chiang Mai to Laos and now we're in Vietnam. We've had some wonderful experiences eating delicious foods, yoga classes, day trips on motorbikes, and meeting some really beautiful people. After we got back from Myanmar we stopped in Chiang Mai and didn't do much. Which is to say we relaxed, ate clean and spent our time reading and working out. It was really nice to get into a groove after the whirlwind that was Burma and before we took off to our next destination. We felt really comfortable in Chiang Mai, which is an incredible feeling for weary travelers.
We took a nominally more expensive flight from Chiang Mai to Vientienne the capital of Laos. It saved us about a day on the bus for only twice the price. It was an interesting way of traveling through as we landed in a Thai town just south of the border then took a bus to the friendship bridge where we took another bus across the bridge and finally a taxi from there to our hotel. Lots of waiting in lines, herding around and pomp to get to our hotel. It was nice not having to do that after 24hours on a bus.
Vientienne isn't the most beautiful city, but we really enjoyed a French bakery which had an amazing almond cream filled pastry we went back for a few times. We also grabbed a couple of bikes one day and braved the traffic and run down roads to a women's vocational center where we tye dyed silk scarves and talked with women there who were learning to preserve local customs of weaving and textile work. We also made our way to the COPE rehabilitation center where victims of US bombings went to get physical therapy and fitted for prosthetics. It's shocking to see that since the US dropped its last bombs in the area during the Vietnam war over 20,000 people have become casualties to bombs undetonated in the countryside. A great number of those victims are children as they are unaware of the danger and many of the carpet bomb canisters are the size of small balls much like those kids use to play hack-e-sack with. Much of the countryside is still riddled with these devices and just this summer 5 people were killed when a young girl brought one of these homes with her to play with. Unbelievable.
We then traveled north to Viangvienn which is a really strange place, to say the least. It's a small town on a lazy river with these beautiful limestone mountains surrounding a patchwork of rice paddies. It gained international notoriety as a hotspot for young party goers about 10 years ago until the government acquiesced to international pressure after a string of alcohol-related deaths due to a combination of water, beer, and Aussies. The countryside was incredible, but the town was not our speed to put it politely.
We quickly decided to get out of dodge and moved further north to Luang Phabong. This place is also a traveler hotspot, but popular for more subdued circumstances. It has some beautiful French architecture and some great food and interesting markets and traditions. We really enjoyed exploring the city and took a boat ride down the Mekong. Unfortunately, we had to drop our passports off at the Vietnamese embassy when we first arrived so we were unable to rent motorbikes. There are some awesome waterfalls there and some beautiful countryside which we couldn't really explore past a bus ride to a waterfall and natural area. We weren't there long before we jumped on a plane to Hanoi, again saving about a day and some sleep for taking a flight instead of a bus.
I'll leave it there for a bit before we update the travel part again. It's been an interesting process, to say the least getting in a rhythm bouncing from one place to the next. We've kind of got a sort of schedule down where we:
Since we last posted we've traveled from Chiang Mai to Laos and now we're in Vietnam. We've had some wonderful experiences eating delicious foods, yoga classes, day trips on motorbikes, and meeting some really beautiful people. After we got back from Myanmar we stopped in Chiang Mai and didn't do much. Which is to say we relaxed, ate clean and spent our time reading and working out. It was really nice to get into a groove after the whirlwind that was Burma and before we took off to our next destination. We felt really comfortable in Chiang Mai, which is an incredible feeling for weary travelers.
We took a nominally more expensive flight from Chiang Mai to Vientienne the capital of Laos. It saved us about a day on the bus for only twice the price. It was an interesting way of traveling through as we landed in a Thai town just south of the border then took a bus to the friendship bridge where we took another bus across the bridge and finally a taxi from there to our hotel. Lots of waiting in lines, herding around and pomp to get to our hotel. It was nice not having to do that after 24hours on a bus.
Vientienne isn't the most beautiful city, but we really enjoyed a French bakery which had an amazing almond cream filled pastry we went back for a few times. We also grabbed a couple of bikes one day and braved the traffic and run down roads to a women's vocational center where we tye dyed silk scarves and talked with women there who were learning to preserve local customs of weaving and textile work. We also made our way to the COPE rehabilitation center where victims of US bombings went to get physical therapy and fitted for prosthetics. It's shocking to see that since the US dropped its last bombs in the area during the Vietnam war over 20,000 people have become casualties to bombs undetonated in the countryside. A great number of those victims are children as they are unaware of the danger and many of the carpet bomb canisters are the size of small balls much like those kids use to play hack-e-sack with. Much of the countryside is still riddled with these devices and just this summer 5 people were killed when a young girl brought one of these homes with her to play with. Unbelievable.
We then traveled north to Viangvienn which is a really strange place, to say the least. It's a small town on a lazy river with these beautiful limestone mountains surrounding a patchwork of rice paddies. It gained international notoriety as a hotspot for young party goers about 10 years ago until the government acquiesced to international pressure after a string of alcohol-related deaths due to a combination of water, beer, and Aussies. The countryside was incredible, but the town was not our speed to put it politely.
We quickly decided to get out of dodge and moved further north to Luang Phabong. This place is also a traveler hotspot, but popular for more subdued circumstances. It has some beautiful French architecture and some great food and interesting markets and traditions. We really enjoyed exploring the city and took a boat ride down the Mekong. Unfortunately, we had to drop our passports off at the Vietnamese embassy when we first arrived so we were unable to rent motorbikes. There are some awesome waterfalls there and some beautiful countryside which we couldn't really explore past a bus ride to a waterfall and natural area. We weren't there long before we jumped on a plane to Hanoi, again saving about a day and some sleep for taking a flight instead of a bus.
I'll leave it there for a bit before we update the travel part again. It's been an interesting process, to say the least getting in a rhythm bouncing from one place to the next. We've kind of got a sort of schedule down where we:
- Recon: Search online or get advice from friends and other travelers about what cities/places to visit.
- Book Ride: Most likely via hotel host or online, but usually the host sets that up for you. Which took a little while to trust to be the cheapest option rather than booking online. We try to travel during the day because neither of us sleeps well during transport, so saving $ by traveling during the day usually leads to a long daytime nap of recovery after arrival.
- Find accommodation: We've really found that for our needs/preferences like AC, cleanliness, facilities, security, location, and price the Agoda website has been the best and most consistent in this region. And we really like getting outside of the city or town so we've been looking more for accommodation in the countryside lately. If we really like a place like Chiang Mai, the farm outside of Pai or Cat Ba Island we might book a few more days.
- Attractions: Then we get on Trip Advisor, or see what others have done in the area to figure out what to do when we get there. Depending on cost we try to get out of the city via motorbike and do one "tour "per location. We tend to lean toward more active pursuits like climbing or hiking, but sometimes the countryside isn't accessible and dictates our activities more than we'd like.
- Food: This can be a bit tricky as Abby is a vegetarian and I've been leaning more towards that practice as we've been privy to the treatment of animals out here and sanitation practices of meats before consuming isn't always the most appetizing. The locals, on the other hand, find most animals very appetizing. It's been illuminating.So we've been using Google searches and trip advisor for this as well.
- Drink: Coffee and tea are usually really good, but you have to be specific about holding the sugar. A lot of the places have drinking water jugs that they let us fill water bottles which is great when we can get it. A few spots have decent fruit smoothies, but most add sugar and milk.
- Fitness: A lot of the fun outdoor activities are the biggest expenditures. We've been climbing, hiking, biking, and took a few yoga classes. But we mostly try to do some things in the room or around the neighborhood which can be tricky. It seems like running is more or less safe from place to place, but when there are a lot of stray dogs it can deter us from getting out as much as we like.
- Recovery: Something that's been really interesting about traveling is just taking days off to relax and recover. Whether it's from a lack of sleep, overscheduling a stay, or from doing an all-day activity there are a lot of times Abby and I find ourselves relaxing watching Netflix, reading or just hanging out talking. It can be a strange feeling when you're in a place that you could conceivably never return we end up just hanging out around the hotel/hostel/homestay.
- Repeat
Hope you're well, love and miss you!
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