Reflections on India and a Summary

Considering how long it’s taken to write this post, you might have guessed that India was…let’s say…challenging. I had wanted to visit India for as long as I can remember, and I know that Frank had similar feelings, but it was definitely by far the most difficult place we’ve traveled. To be honest, I think we were both slightly traumatized from the experience. And this was after expecting the worst–it’s just so different to actually experience it. Rather than complaining, though, I want to try to concentrate on some of the more practical and positive details.

We started in Kolkata, mostly to visit the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, which was a good introduction, but also quite a different experience than the rest of our trip. From there, we traveled to Delhi to meet up with our parents. It was great to see them, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend spending as much time in Delhi as we did. After a couple days just the 5 of us, including a rickshaw food tour of Old Delhi, we were able to join our parents’ tour for a couple days in which we visited many sites including the Jama Masjid, Red Fort and the Gandhi Museum and Memorial.

After we said goodbye to our parents, we took a day trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. This was definitely our favorite spot that we visited. Rather than rushing around and trying to see all the sites in that area, we decided to just spend our 3-4 hours entirely at the Taj Mahal, and we were so glad we did. The building (and surrounding buildings) are incredibly beautiful, and the grounds compare. It’s large enough that we were able to find some seclusion away from the crowds (but it is also great for people watching), and I think it was the first time we’d experienced actual quiet since we’d arrived in India. For those who’ve never been, Indian drivers use horns constantly. I actually think if someone played that prank where the brake is connected to the horn, you’d hear it less than you do now. Hearing the horns incessantly, you just never feel completely calm or relaxed.

Our next stop was Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) where we’d signed up to take an Ayurveda course on cooking and nutrition. After meeting very few other travelers in India, we were excited to meet the other students. Little did we know that we were the only ones in the class. Once we realized that, we were excited to at least get to know the students in the yoga teacher training program. Unfortunately, only one of the 7 days did our lunch break line up with theirs. We thought we’d get to know them better, but it almost felt like the staff were purposefully keeping us separate…oh well.

Many of the Ayurveda courses you can find online are geared toward tourists and not necessarily authentic. I think we did manage to find an authentic course, for better or worse… This was a real, local Ayurveda center that was definitely not geared for tourists. Our teacher even left sometimes in the middle of our theory session (in which she basically just read from the book) to consult with patients, leaving us waiting sometimes up to 10 minutes. Our favorite part for sure was the practical session every afternoon in which our teacher and 2 assistants demonstrated the various food items and explained how they helped the body and for which body types. We loved learning to make and getting to try lots of different South Indian foods that we probably won’t see in the US (most Indian food in the US is from the North). We learned all sorts of soups, rice dishes, curries, dosas, snacks, desserts, drinks, etc. that we’re definitely going to make for our friends and family when we get back to the US.

While we were staying in Trivandrum, we did our best to see the local sites, but it seems to be a city that’s much better for living than for visiting. The best trip we took was to Kovalam Beach, about a 30 minute bus ride and seemingly a world away. We, having dressed modestly, were by far in the minority. I think it’s the first time we’d seen that much skin in public in quite a long time. Anyway, it’s a beautiful beach and made for a really nice afternoon visit.

After a week in Trivandrum, we took the train to Kochi. It was an ok experience, but again, even though there were some other travelers around, it’s just not set up for meeting people very easily. We wandered around a lot, visited some of the historic sites and went to the beach that would have been beautiful if not for the trash everywhere.

All in all, I just don’t think the overall culture or the structure of the cities was our favorite among the places we’ve visited. We both wanted so badly to like it there, and maybe if we’d spent more time in smaller places, we would have had a different experience, but even then, I’m really not sure how different our experience would have been. This trip gave us a good preview and next time we’ll find some more out of the way places to visit.

Cooking where no one cooks – Part 1

Where are we now?

We’ve now been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for just over a month this time around. It’s a haven for digital nomad expats–apparently, there are 40,000 expats living in Chiang Mai, and walking around town, I believe it. Living expenses are very low, internet is fast and widely available, and there’s lots of fun stuff going on all the time.

Yes, we cook

For those who may be unfamiliar, food in Thailand (especially street food) is cheap, convenient and delicious. So understandably, people we talk to are constantly amazed that we actually cook here (though, admittedly, most of the people we talk to are expats). They’re even more amazed that we cook daily, usually at least 2 meals every day. When you talk to expats who live here about getting a place with a kitchen, most will say “don’t bother.” But I say otherwise. If you’re planning to stay for any length of time, get a kitchen–even a little counter space and a sink is sufficient, as you really don’t need more than that, and electric appliances are very affordable. (More detail on that in the next post)

Here are my reasons.

1.  It’s also inexpensive to buy and cook food at home

Even the Western-style grocery stores by us (Rimping and Tops) are cheap if you’re careful about what you buy. Interestingly, both Tops and Rimping are inside shopping malls, one very modern, and the other…well, let’s just say its heyday has passed. You can find basically any food item you could want from the Western world, but much of that category tends to be pretty expensive, so we’ve tried to stick mostly to what the locals might buy there.

But even better–there are tons of local markets all around. These markets can either be pop-up style like farmers’ markets back home, or they can be more established in an open-air, warehouse sort of building. The latter type might require a bit more courage, and ideally, an orientation from a local. You can find everything from a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, to recently butchered meats, freshly made curry paste, coconut milk squeezed while you wait, flowers and candles for visiting temples, and much more. They’re great places to find just about anything you’d want, inexpensively.

Admittedly, we haven’t taken advantage of local markets as much as we’d like to, but we’re going to start. This morning we tried one that’s more of the farmers’ market kind, at Baan Kang Wat, and maybe it’s just getting started, but it was rather small. We did find some delicious jam and a woman who sells hummus, but sadly she ran out by the time we got there. Frank did get a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, and we shared some nice local kombucha. But just remember, don’t shake your kombucha. I turned it upside down a couple times just to try to mix it and managed to explode it somewhat. Oh well!

 

2.  You can control what goes into it

Since it seems like all the other expats eat out for every meal, I’ve heard complaints that restaurants use MSG, too much oil, and often that vegan/vegetarian food is not actually vegan/vegetarian. The reason for that last complaint is one that I’ve personally experienced. Many Thai cooks don’t realize that fish sauce and oyster sauce aren’t vegetarian by many people’s standards. They just think of the meat itself and not the sauces. Interestingly, though, sometimes if you order your meal vegetarian, they do often ask if you want egg. Coming from the US as a vegetarian, it’s interesting that here they would be more careful about eggs than about fish sauce or oyster sauce.

3.  You’re probably tired of eating out for every meal

As much as we love restaurants, after 4 months of travel through Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, eating almost every single meal out, we were really getting tired of it. We absolutely love waking up, making some oatmeal, cutting up a bunch of fruit, making some tea, and relaxedly eating at home. This takes us maybe 5 minutes even when we’re not rushing. In the past, breakfast involved getting up and dressed, going out and often having to settle for something we didn’t actually want. If we were lucky we could find some kind of yogurt/fruit/muesli bowl, but that wasn’t always an option. Traditional Asian breakfasts are rarely vegetarian, and the “Western” alternative was often expensive and included some kind of unknown sausage, oily eggs and a couple pieces of white toast.

4.  It’s fun to use ingredients that you don’t have at home

Bird’s eye chilies, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, kaffir lime leaves, Thai ginseng, passion fruit, star fruit, soursop, dragonfruit, many varieties of bananas, longan, rambutan, mangosteen, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. You may be lucky enough to have an Asian market at home, but odds are, these ingredients will never be as fresh or as cheap as they are here. And do we really want to support the importing of foods from all the way across the globe? So use them now while they’re local.

5.  You can practice new skills

How many of us have a souvenir cookbook from a cooking class that’s just been sitting on a shelf? Use it! Another side benefit is that getting used to cooking in a tiny space will make anything back home seem luxurious.

In part 2, we’ll get down to the practical stuff.

 

Some more photos from Baan Kang Wat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from a market we visited in Bangkok in June

Chiang Mai Highlights: Round 2!

Let’s see, what else have we done so far in Chiang Mai…

Muay Thai fights!

We went with a couple people from Lantern House Backpackers, along with discounted tickets; thus, we learned a great deal about teaching English in South Korea from a pleasant Canadian fellow while watching people beat each other up!

Who, you might ask, were beating each other up on a raised platform amidst multiple cheap bars and cheap tables with cheap seats? Well, there were several rounds of slight and yet very hard hitting teenagers, for one. Now we can conclusively say we’ve seen one teenager knock another one out cold. There were also the more main-event, more professional seeming older fighters, of course, which were interesting, but not as interesting as the two female fights. One was between two Thai women, and was one of the more technically impressive fights Frank had seen in a while (at least since seeing Ronda Rousey do her thing only days before, anyway). The other was between a Thai woman and an American woman, and it was a complete throw-down. Muay Thai fighters aren’t exactly known for bobbing and weaving, either, and these women lived up to that reputation and took it on the chin in a battle of attrition that went the distance.

There were a couple unexpected things, also: one was a strange little interlude wherein a group of teenage fighters (and one very obese teen) tied on blindfolds, and then play-fought while completely blind. Or maybe actually fought, in moments? It was both comical and wince-inducing to see them stumbling around. Or another way to look at it:

As amusing as that was, however, the real highlight was an a choreographed exhibition of krabi krabong, the traditional Thai weapons-based martial art. Thus: two guys acting out a pretty solid-fight scene with two swords each, including moments both comic and skillful.

Yoga and Meditation Retreats!

Which were actually quite a contrast from each other. Both were affordable, one remarkably so, and the other especially so because we caught an early-bird price at the beginning of the month we were here, but other than that, they were almost on either end of a spectrum.

The first was a Buddhist meditation retreat through Wat Suan Dok, a large and beautiful temple on the west side of the old city. They have a “monk chat” program that encourages people to come and, as the name suggests, chat with the monks to learn about their lifestyle and for the monks to practice English. Tangenting from this is the meditation retreat we attended, which is a silent couple of days at the International Meditation Center a good bit outside of Chiang Mai. We learned – and practiced for pretty solid amounts of time – concentration, walking, and Vipassana meditations. We also learned a great deal about the life of Buddhist monks in Thailand during a question and answer session towards the end of the retreat. Unfortunately, some rather strident people took it upon themselves to use that time to challenge the monk’s beliefs about diet and women, which he handled well enough that it wasn’t nearly as awkward as it could have been. Luckily, Bonnie came to his rescue and stood up for him, to the audible agreement of several other people in the crowd.

At that retreat we also got to practice some qi gong, a Chinese exercise similar in some ways to kung fu, thanks to Dr. Anchalee Gibbins. Bonnie and I even made a special trip later on to see her perform tai chi for the queen’s birthday!

The second retreat was through Tantra Yoga Chiang Mai. It was at a similar meditation center, though this one was an ashram built to more Hindu specifications, and was beautiful in its symbolic architecture. Here we learned about several topics over five days, including tantric philosophy, lucid dreaming, and tantric meditation. Incidentally, contrary to pop culture (and to our simultaneous appreciation and disappointment), “tantric” doesn’t necessarily mean “sex.” We were happily occupied with what there was, in any case, even with waking up at 4am for meditation and yoga to enhance our chances of lucid dreaming. It also helped that there was delicious and creative vegetarian food for every meal!

Also, some movies.

They’re cheap, come with assigned seats, and are a perfect break when we’re tired of walking in the heat. And so, we saw:

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – BOMP. BOMP. BOMP BOMP BOMP. BOMP. BOMP BOMP BOMP.

Inside Out – Based in part on the work of one of our idols, Dr. Paul Ekman, this movie is like a really engaging, narrative manual of emotions and psychology. Which makes it sound a little dry (it’s not), and is actually one of our favorite movies now.

Fantastic Four – Fantastic Four….is not so much one of our favorite movies now. From the director of Chronicle, which was great, there’s a similar moody, dark-science, pensive atmosphere to this one, which really fits the material. But, yeah, like everyone and their mother has said, with anything more than a surface inspection, it’s really just not good.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – No, we didn’t see it twice, it’s just the theme song is really catchy. And it’s basically another Mission Impossible movie, and hence, a little formulaic, but you know what you’re getting into – and, it has a strong, eminently capable female character for once. Winning!

We also learned stuff.

Frank took an art class at NoiNa Art Studio, specifically, drawing with pencil – it was an almost silent experience, but filled with learning and a great time perhaps because of that.

Bonnie spent the day at Thai Farm Cooking School. The school picked up Bonnie and the other 9 students in the morning, and the first stop was at a beautiful local market where she learned about the various ingredients. They then drove to the farm and took a short tour of the various plants. Apparently, they grow all of their own herbs (cilantro, green onion, lemongrass, etc.), galangal, kaffir lime, etc. organically. The setup was such that each student had his own preparation and cooking space, one thing that we haven’t had in our cooking classes up until now. So it was great to actually do all of the cooking independently after the demonstration from the wonderful teacher, Garnet. Step by step, she learned to make curry paste from scratch, soups, curries, stir-fries, spring rolls and desserts and then received a beautiful, full-color recipe book at the end. Bonnie had read in another blog that it was actually a good idea to take a class in which they also make meat (of course with vegetarian options)–that way it’s easy to know which items usually include fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc. This class was great in this way because the vegetarian alternatives were automatically given for every dish.

And another temple

This one was the famous Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (usually known as Wat Doi Suthep, but that’s just the name of the mountain). Unfortunately, it was a bit more of a tourist trap than we’d expected, considering that’s about 30 minutes up a steep windy road, but we still enjoyed it. The views were certainly spectacular. Bonnie noted that you can’t actually see your surroundings while you’re in the temple itself, only while you’re in the outer courtyards. Frank suggested that maybe it’s on purpose, and they wouldn’t want worshipers to be distracted by the views. Walking the many steps leading up to the temple compound is apparently supposed to be meditative–and maybe it is to some extent–but the bottom of the steps is covered with vendors selling everything from fruit to clothing and other souvenirs.

And another museum

We visited the Art in Paradise illusion art museum. We weren’t quite sure what it was, as guidebooks don’t really give you a very good idea, but all the reviews on Trip Advisor were great. The walls are covered with paintings that made to look like they’re popping out from the wall. Some pieces work better than others, but overall it’s a fun experience. Oftentimes there was a sticker on the floor telling the photographer where to stand for an optimal photo, so that was helpful. We did think that the 300 Baht ticket price was a bit steep though.

Sapa! Sa…Pa? Hm…

Okay we should talk a little linguistics. Namely, in how Vietnamese is often considered to be a monosyllabic language, implying that every word in the language is one syllable. That’s patently not true, as Bonnie pointed out within seconds of looking at signs around when I mentioned the idea, but nonetheless, almost all of the language’s words are disyllabic at most. Why bring this up? Well, it’s led to us questioning exactly how to write out the names of many places we’ve been. Many two-word names have gotten mashed together over the years – Dalat (Da Lat), Saigon (Sai Gon), Hanoi (Ha Noi) and so on, we’re guessing because it’s just a little bit easier for people – Western or Asian – to deal with. And so: Sapa!

Or, Sa Pa. Formerly known as Chapa, mysteriously. Maybe also Cha Pa?

Sapa is both the name of a district and its capital, about five hours from Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. Ha Noi. Anyway, we’ve stuck exclusively to the city, but there are many treks (the international word for hiking, as we’ve learned) to be done in the surrounding mountains, and several minority villages to visit in the same.

And speaking of the latter, we were swarmed as soon as we got off the bus by a crowd of grinning women in elaborately embroidered and brightly colored traditional dress. It wasn’t any less annoying than the motorcycle taxi touts in the cities, but at least they were prettier in several ways. One can theoretically let one of the local ladies take over, and even stay with them in a village house, but we weren’t really feeling that option for a few reasons – sadly, one reason was that we didn’t know how to tell who was just trying to sell us trinkets and who could actually offer an interesting homestay experience. That, and we’ve also done a good amount of the rural living in Thailand. Luckily, Sapa itself had plenty for us to see and do.

Like stare, and stare, and stare at the view.

It seemed like almost every last cafe and restaurant has views over the valleys and mist-covered mountains that are so vast as to almost be vertigo-inspiring. Each time we saw the verdant expanse over forests and rice terraces, we had to take a few moments just for our minds to wrap around what a big expanse of air we were looking across, and the constantly changing clouds and rain made each glimpse quite different from the next. We haven’t found a better way to enjoy a cup of coffee (especially rich Vietnamese style with a French drip filter, or phin, and velvety condensed milk) than from these balconies.

Of course, with clouds and mists comes almost constant rain. For the record, Frank is very, very glad Bonnie convinced him to pack a rain jacket. Secondly, Columbia’s Arcadia jacket has worked fantastically in that regard, even in this slippery, muddy, soaking environment. Everything ends up smelling just the tiniest bit damp in the town, but we’ll take that one hundred percent over the dorm room we initially ended up with. If any young English or German backpackers ever read this blog post, we’re just saying: smelling like a high school locker room and soaking yourself in Axe bodyspray are not going to help you hook up with anyone. And strangely, the hostel staff wouldn’t unlock the door to the outside–some explanation about plans to build dividers between balconies…

We’ve also eaten food, besides all the coffee.

The best example of which was a Hmong cooking class, scheduled after enjoying dinner at the delicious and utterly classy restaurant Hill Station, which features both local and traditional recipes and ingredients. Following Bonnie’s clever budget-saving idea of alternating who takes the cooking classes, Frank took on this one. He had the pleasure of working with Sai, a tiny Hmong woman who had learned cooking from her mother and who came to town specifically to teach the class. She was pretty in a quiet way, with a reluctant but bright smile and patient, measured kind of movement that was at once confident, gentle, and precise. She also was only a little taller than Frank’s waistline.

After a quick run to the nearby market to pick up buffalo and exactly half of a chicken, we settled down to business chopping, mixing, and cutting. Sai had a great way of teaching, with enough ingredients that Frank could simply mimic everything she did and thus needed minimal instruction that limited language overlap might hinder. The menu for the feast that resulted included:

• smoked buffalo with local pickled vegetables: this was actually similar to carne seca in preparation, with reconstituted dried meat, but a totally different flavor
• homemade tofu served two ways: unique to our experience, the tofu was almost in a masa-like texture, and one way was cooked with mysterious fragrant leaves mixed in
• chicken with wild ginger: perfectly fried chicken, with ginger made into something approximating french fries that burn
• ash-baked trout wrapped in banana leaf: perhaps the least flavorful of the bunch, but that’s only in relative terms; it was more subtle, instead
• and instead of traditional Hmong black pudding, Sai was kind enough to substitute banana flower salad for Bonnie – it’s a lot like pad thai in flavor, but completely vegan…and made of a giant purple flower!

The cooking class also came with a flight of local rice wines, which are a far cry from any sake we’ve ever had – they are throat-burningly, tear-inducingly high proof. The same went for the corn wines, only more so – they were basically moonshine. The plum-infused iteration at least had some plum wine kind of flavor, but plum wine that had been mixed with paint thinner kind of flavor, sooo….well, the Hmong apparently know what they’re about with their booze. Bonnie was lucky enough to join Frank for the meal once the class was finished.

Cat Cat Village

Rather than try our luck with a homestay, we decided to visit a Hmong minority village on our own. Cat Cat Village happens to be within walking distance of our hostel, so we took a trip down there. After walking down the windy town road for about 15 minutes, it becomes less developed, more gravelly and more muddy. It’s obvious that they’re improving the road, but it’s a slow process because the work is done completely by hand. Many motorbikes did brave the rough road, so we had to dodge them quite often, but we were still glad to be on foot.

It was interesting to see some examples of traditional houses and the way that they use rainwater to grind the rice, but we’re guessing that this one is a fairly touristy version of a traditional minority town. We did get to experience what it must be like to live and work on such a slope in this climate–it rained for much of the time while we were exploring, and to get anywhere requires walking up and down slippery stone steps.

All along the way are individuals trying to sell their crafts, many of which all look the same after awhile. We were lucky enough to come upon Hieu Stone and spoke to the owner for a few minutes. His stonework pieces are quite incredible, and we almost bought several but then realized just how expensive they would be to ship home. Someday!

Looking back a bit – Central Vietnam

Our unplanned trip to Vietnam has been a bit of a whirlwind. Looking back there are probably a few things we would have liked to research a bit more if we’d planned ahead, but all in all, it’s been an interesting and rewarding experience. We stopped at a few places in central Vietnam that didn’t seem to need their own blog entries, so he we go!

Mui Ne

The trip to Mui Ne gave us our first taste of an overnight sleeper bus. We actually arrived at our destination around 1 AM, so we didn’t have the full experience of sleeping through the night on one; we did have the empty, dark ghost-town experience of Mui Ne in the middle of the night, though. Although we’d heard some nice things about the beaches here, we actually wound up spending most of our time at our resort’s pool. I think maybe we were just spoiled by Thailand’s beaches, and besides, it felt nice to be a little pampered. We’d somehow been upgraded for free from the “Budget” hotel to the “Bliss” resort.

Mui Ne is known for its sand dunes, so we did make the effort to do a sunrise visit to the dunes on our final day there. The first stop was at the white dunes, which would have been great, except our experience was mostly overwhelmed by the sound and smell of ATVs going by. We decided to see it on foot, so that did allow us to have a bit of a more serene experience, as ATVs couldn’t quite make it up the the highest points.

The next stop was to the red sand dunes. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like ATVs were allowed here, but we wound up spending quite a bit of time trying to avoid the people bothering us to buy slides. Again, we managed to find a relatively nice spot to sit and enjoy the scenery.

Next stop was to a local fishing village, which actually seemed pretty authentic (the smell of all the fish, squid and shellfish under the hot sun was certainly authentic enough). Local fisherman would transport the fish from the larger boats to shore with what looked like huge plastic bowls. Some looked like huge baskets, so we imagined that that’s what they must have used in the past.

The last stop was a place called Fairy Spring. The guidebook was correct in that in the first bit of walking along the silty stream, the whole thing feels pretty crappy, touristy and is full of trash. You also first pass a large fish sauce making facility, and oof can you smell it! But then fortunately, after about 15 minutes of walking, you end up a bit further away from the road, and it’s actually quite pretty. If we’d had even more time to explore, I’m sure it would be been even better.

Hoi An (quick stop in Nha Trang)

The first leg of our journey from Dalat was in a medium sized bus, but the driver apparently thought it was a racecar. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, green, impressive mountain landscapes and…sheer dropoffs. Let’s just say, we both put our shoes on, ya know…just in case. Through talking to some other travelers at the rest stop, we’re all pretty sure that our drivers were racing each other. Anyway, we made it through in one piece and had a few hours in Nha Trang until our next bus. Fortunately, we found a great restaurant for dinner, Cafe des Amis.

We spent the entire night on the bus this time, which was a pretty decent experience. The moon was mostly full, so we had some amazing views of the moonlight reflecting on the water. The whole affair, though, definitely did make us appreciate US highways. The entire drive was only about 500 km (about 300 miles), but the journey takes 12 hours. Much of the highway seemed to either be under construction or just dirt and gravel, though the bumps didn’t seem to hinder the epic, ripsaw snoring resounding from one large individual at the back of the bus.

We arrived in Hoi An, and after a bit of rest, we rented bicycles to see the town and surrounding beaches. It’s a nice area and relatively calm and quiet. Hoi An is mostly known for its clothing and tailor shops, and apparently you can buy handmade bespoke clothing very inexpensively and receive it in just a couple days. Sadly, we don’t have any room for extra clothing, but it’s on our list for the next visit. I bet you could get an entire custom made wardrobe, including the cost of flights, hotels and food, for less than a store-bought wardrobe would cost you in the US. And you’d be giving the money directly to the people who make the clothing. Just sayin’

Hoi An also had a nice selection of vegetarian restaurants, including one in which I took a cooking class. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to accurately replicate the dishes, but it was definitely a fun and delicious experience! It was also attended by an adorable British Indian kid and his parents, who for some reason had already eaten dinner…why? With 4 dishes to myself, I knew I needed assistance. Frank joined me, and I was able to offer samples to a nice Scottish couple who walked in at the perfect moment.

One highlight of the experience in Hoi An was just walking around the ancient city. Most of the storefronts are mostly taken up by modern-day sellers of trinkets and touristy items, but there are still some seemingly authentic historic buildings to see. The overall structures still have an air of olden days about them, at least. The thriving nightlife was fun for one night and wasn’t too overwhelming, especially with periodic electricity blackouts of parts of the neighborhood.

Hue

To get to Hue we rented motorbikes and drove ourselves there. The company actually delivered our bags for us! The trip certainly made for some amazing scenery! One highlight of our experience in Hue was the place we stayed, Hue Happy Homestay. The family who runs it is just so sweet, and their son is almost exactly Ronen’s age! The other was a restaurant, Shiva Shakti, run by a young, handsome Nepalese gentleman, that had some of the best Indian food we’d had.

Phong Nha

This national park is somewhat newly available to tourists, so it’s just much easier to see with a tour. We stayed only one night but got to see Phong Nha Cave and some of the surrounding area. It’s a huge river cave that was used in the Vietnam war as a hidden Viet Cong base during the Vietnam War, though we were cringing at the way the locals were touching everything and even sitting on cave formations – apparently the local standards aren’t up to Arizona snuff regarding spelunking and cave health.

From there, we took a pretty uncomfortable overnight bus to Hanoi. We’d booked in advance, but I guess people here don’t tend to pay attention to assigned seats, and because of where we were staying, we were the last to board the bus, which had come all the way from Hue. Anyway, it meant a 12-hour ride in the coffin-section of a sleeper bus (a cubby at the very back of the bus, on top of the engine, with three pseudobeds that we had to snuggle up in with a pleasant German fellow, and the top of the cubby only inches from our faces. That made for some weird dreams…but on to the north!