Thankful

We spent an intense three days visiting the War Remnatnts Museum and Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, and then the Killing fields and Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Cambodia. I can't find a gruesome enough word to discribe some of the images we witnessed during these 72 hours. My eyes sweltered with tears on countless occations as I saw the traps that ceased the lives of so many Americans in Vietnam, or seeing pictures and standing right next to some of the thousands of Vietnamese who are disfigured and handicap because of the toxic chemicals left behind from the war. It was extremely dishearting and frustrating to hear our tour guide talk about all the family members he lost during the Pol Pot Regime, or how difficult it was to see picture after picture of the some 10,000 Cambodians that we tourtured and killed at the Tuol Sleng Prison. There really was no better way to realize all the things I am thankful for than to come face to face with the images that you are so grateful aren't your own reality. I usually use Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on how thankful I am for the life and opportunities I have, but spending Thanksgiving in Southeast Asia, and becoming engulfed in the hardships and realities of some many of the citizens of these countries, truely brought a new meaning for how enternally grateful I am for all of the things in my life.

I am thankful for the fact that I have never had to worry about stepping on a landmine.


I am thankful that I've never had to worry about my family members or own children one day being affected by chemicals left behind from war.


I am thankful that I've never known what it is like to go to bed hungry.


I am thankful that my house is a solid stucture with air, heat, a western toliet, and hot water!


I am thankful that I haven't been desensitized to the horrorific images of war and genocide, and that they envok an emotion so strong in me that I will always believe that the loss of human life should be the last resort to solve conflict.


I am thankful that I have never lived under a Communist government.


I am thankful that I have the opportunity to get a college degree, and that I have access to endless amounts of informations.


I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to travel and explore this amazing world!


I am thankful for all of my interactions with foreigners that have given me new insight into many ideas, cultures, and religions.


I am thankful for my bestest friend in the whole wide world who has been there for me through every triump and failure, every issue big or small, and every tear and laugh for the past 14 years.


I am thankful that somehow she finds the patience and tolerance to put up with almost every second of everyday as we travel together through foreign land, half a world away from all that is familar.


I am thankful that I have an amazing network of family and friends to return home to!!!

Good Morning Vietnam!

As you know we are currently in Vietnam and slowly making our way down the coast...bus style! We started in the Hanoi which we have already touched base on. Since our last update taken two night buses and two day buses! All a little sketchy but we are still alive so no complaints on this end!
Ater Hanoi we headed to Hoi An which was give or take about about a 17 hours. Hoi An is a small city that is largely directed towards tourist with a french influence. The town is literally full of 200 tailor shops, and I would be lying if I said that we didn't take full advantage of that! Who can pass up tailored dress pants for $14? Not us that is for sure. We did however manage to leave with room still in our bags. Other than the shopping it rained for a majority of out time there. To say it rained is actually an understatement! The town is divided by the Thu Bon river and by the time we left the river had worked its way up about two block into the town. The locals didn't seem to be too bothered by it, as they all took out there long boats from storage and used it as a money making opportunity by hauling tourist around the streets by boats! I guess whatever works...

After Hoi An we had a little change of plans and headed to Nah Trang where we opted to live dorm style for a few days. This ended up being one of the best things we have done as we met 4 of the coolest people traveling through Vietnam. Our first day consisted of going to a "Hot Springs" with two of our roommate; Reece from Australia and Ryan from Oregan. We took a mud bath and got a real good laugh out of the older Russian ladies who seemed to be regulars. We then cleaned off by going through three different pools, all of which were about 100 degrees. We now know where they keep all the hot water in Southeast Asia! That night we went to the Sailing club where we had the honor of witnessing some of the popular dance moves of the older crowd. Needless to say we spent a majority of the night trying to perfect their moves as well as rolling on the floor laughing! All around a great time, and probably one of the best nights we have had so far!

The following day we took a day boat tour to visit the islands surrounding Nah Trang. In theory this would have been an awesome day but we got trapped in a mansoon. However, despite our initial feelings the day turned out to be a lot of fun. We went with the four people that we were staying with; Reece, Ryan, Charlotte, and Gavin. The tour consisted of dancing to a "boy band" on the tables. Shannon couldn't even stand up so you can imagine the amount of space we had while dancing. We also went snorkeling, swimming around a makeshift floating bar, to an aquarium, and hung out on the beach at another island!


After Nah Trang we got on a day bus and headed to Dalat, which is known as the Honeymoon spot of Vietnam. Luckily our new friend Ryan decided to tag along so Meghan and I didn't look like lovers as we visited places such as the "Valley of Love!" We only had one full day in Dalat so we decided to take a day tour around the town. We went to a waterfall were we got to ride on a "roller coaster" both ways instead of walking, went on a sky rail, along with some other events.

Our final stop in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh or Saigon. We went to the Cu Chi tunnels near Siagon. It was fascinating to see all the tunnels and war propaganda, but I can't even fathom how horrifying it must have been to have been apart of all of it. We just spent the day going through the tunnels and looking at how all the traps were engineered. It really is hard for us to grasp that this was all a reality for thousands of American soldiers.
Here are a few pictures to give you a taste of the crazy lifestyles that make up Hanoi and Saigon!

Old Lady Time in Laos!

Sabaidee! (That's hello in Lao)

On Monday we took a flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, Laos. When we got on the plane we realized that we had just joined up with tour of people all three times the age of us, and when we got off the plane the average age of the travelers around didn't change much. However, we decided to fully embrace this, and let our Grandma side shine through with pride this week. The hostel we stayed in for the first couple nights had a variety of nic nacs on display, a cute little canopy over our bed, and they even provided us with robes. Just darling!

Luang Prabang has an artsy feel, and there are adorable cafes all along the main tourist strips serving delicious food. We have eaten our pancakes, fruit, and granola everyday by the Mekong riverside. However, Laos is a third world country which was very apparent as soon as we left the tourist strip in town. The lives and the people living in the villages around town were far from glorious. There was a very enticing night market there every night that sold hand crafted items from the nearby villages, and the sandwiches that we couldn't live without were conveniently placed at the end of the road that the market was on. So, we may have visited here a few times, and picked up a few things. You just can't pass up $2 hand made scarfs, or feel bad about directly injecting money into their economy!!

We will just fill you on on the main activities we indulged in this week. We saw the famous Wat Xieng Thong Temple, along with another famous temple that we hiked to see, took a tuk tuk ride to the Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls (gorgeous!), took a 7 hour cooking class, went to the Royal Palace Museum, and went to a tradition Lao ballet. Yes, Meghan actually did some cooking and didn't light anything on fire! We made five traditional Lao dishes all together, and all but one of them turned out pretty good.We actually did meet a few people here close to our age that we took the cooking class with. There are a really fun group of guys from Arizona, Washington DC, and England. We have had some great conversations with them, and they even convinced us to break away from our grandma ways and go out a few nights.

We just arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam and before we posted this blog we thought we would fill you in on day 14 quick. We had big plans for this day, but factors in Asia tend to play a large role in screwing with your plans. There wasn't any power in Laos. So, we couldn't shower, take out money, or get food. We had just enough money to pay for our hotel room, and get a ride to the airport. However, we couldn't afford food and we were pretty dirty. So, when we arrived in Vietnam we weren't in the best of shape. Shannon's first description on Hanoi was, "It's like New York only on crack, with a million and one motor bikes." It's pretty crazy here, and overwhelming. We already booked a bus ticket out of here to a smaller town called Hoi An.

Hope all is well back home! We talk daily about how excited we are to get home and see all of you!

The Journey Begins...Southeast Asia in 45 Days!

On Nov. 3rd we began our journey of what we like to call 'Southeast Asia in 45 days.'

Day one went very smoothly. A couple of our friends dropped us off at the airport, and we had a hassle free flight to Bangkok. One down about nine more to go! Everything was going great until we got in a taxi and realized the driver didn't speak any English. However, through pointing and hand motions we were able to figure everything out. We stayed on the famous Khaosan Road, but the traffic in Bangkok is horrific and it took us over 90 minutes to get there.

Khaosan Road is a very popular destination for backpackers and the atmosphere is a little crazy. The street is glowing with neon lights, load music booms from the nearby restaurants, and there are cheap "designer" clothes being sold everywhere you look. The first night we were so overwhelmed that we ended up falling asleep rather early. On day two we went and toured some temples around the city. I am pretty sure that we had pretty confused looks on our faces when we started the day, but a local man immediately asked us where we were going, told us some of the best temples to see, and the price we should pay for a tuk tuk. The temples were gorgeous, but I am positive that by the time we leave Asia we will have had more than our fill of Buddhas.

We also took a long boat ride that skimmed the murky gray water. A lot of the local houses were along the river, and it was eye opening to see the living conditions for these people. Lets just say it made us think of our $10 a night hostels look like five star hotels. Later that evening we met a group of English people and spent the rest of the night hanging out with them. It was fun, but we were more than happy to have only been apart of the chaos on Khaosan Road for a couple days.

On Wednesday we took the over night train to Chiang Mai... a famous city in northern Thailand. The train ride was 17 hours! Thank goodness we opted for the sleeper! Some memorable things about the train ride would be when we realized that not only did you have to squat to use the bathroom, but that you simply just went on the train tracks outside! Of course this was an absolutely horrifying realization for the both of us. However, we really enjoyed being woken up in the morning by a Thai man peaking his head into our cubby, "Morning, fresh squeezed orange juice for you?" By the time we arrived in Chiang Mai we were obviously in desperate need of a shower, and found a wonderful guesthouse called Julies for $8 a night. We booked a trek for Friday and Saturday, and hit the hay early on Thursday.

Oh the adventure we had on day 4 and 5. There were 12 of us on the trek. Two nurses from England, a couple from the Netherlands, a couple from Canada, two Americans who had been working in Sudan the past two years, a half American/Swiss women, our guide and the two of us. As you can imagine this was quite an interesting group of people. Luckily we all got along great! We started the adventure by riding on elephants.

We found it very entertaining, but at the same time we felt very guilty for contributing to keeping these animals in captivity for our pleasure. Our elephant was not particularly happy about giving us a ride either. After elephant riding we started the trek into the mountains. Oh man was this tough. In the beginning we were like "sure no problem, we live by national parks we can handle this." Yeah right we were eating our words about half way up when we were huffing and puffing, dripping with sweat, and our legs were shaking.

We really shouldn't complain though, because the higher up we got the more gorgeous the views became. The pictures really don't do it justice. After about a four hour steep climb up we reached the Shan Village. Ironic...yes we thought so as well. We spent the night here out in the middle of the jungle in a bamboo bungalow.

The tribe made us a delicious dinner... chicken curry. It was difficult for us to spend quality time with the locals being that we can't communicate, but we had a great time getting to know the group we were with and our guide. It wasn't the best night of sleep being that we were pretty much sleeping on the floor, with dirty blankets, terrified to go to the bathroom, and the animals starting going crazy at about 3 am, but hey it's all part of the experience.

The next morning we are all ready to go because we were thinking it was going to be a piece of cake, the hard part was making it to the top. What a joke that turned out to be. We spent about two hours slipping down the mountain laughing at each other as our legs were shaking like jello.

To conclude our final day of trekking we went whitewater rafting and bamboo rafting. Needless to say we were a little scared going into the whitewater rafting. The first thing they told us was "you have to have good teamwork or you WILL tip over!" If that wasn't enough to make us want to turn around and climb the mountain again we then walk over to where we are suppose to be starting. When we get there we see a raft full of people completely submerged in water. Apparently they didn't have good teamwork. Despite our initial thoughts we did make it out alive and continues onto the bamboo rafting. Turns out you really shouldn't have more than two people on a bamboo raft. We spent about 20 minutes floating down a river that literally looks like chocolate milk and the raft served more of a submarine purpose than actual raft.

We wanted to add a few extra pictures because there are some signs in Asia that are far too good not to take a picture of....

We also wanted you to see how protective we are being over our passports...yes that is correct Shannon has been caught wearing them under her shirt a few times, and Michelle you thought that passport holder would never be used!