From Vietnam to Cambodia

Today is Thursday February 28, 2026.  We are in Siem Reap, Cambodia and have been here since February 16.

Leaving Vietnam was easy.  There were no flight delays, the check-in process was smooth as was the flight, and customs at the airport in Siem Reap was quick as well.

In addition to completing an online visa application for Cambodia, within three days of our arrival, we had to go online and complete an entry/declarations form.  At the completion of the online declarations, we were given a QR Code.  So when we went through customs, we showed them t paper copies of our visas (yes, in this digital age, we were required to have a paper copy of the visa they e-mailed us), they stamped our passport, and we were through.

Cambodia is my 54th country and Blaise's 55th.  He traveled to India a couple of times when working for Verizon and I have never been there. Yet. While there were also places he traveled in the air force that I had not been, since we have been married, we have visited those places together.

Since I last wrote, we have visited several places that warrant mentioning before I have some final thoughts on Vietnam and initial thoughts on Cambodia.

Vietnam - Halong and Lan Ha Bays

We started this 8-month-long trip with a rough itinerary that did not include Hanoi.  Blaise saw some videos and read about Halong Bay while we were on this trip and showed them to me.  As a result, we cut out a month in Thailand and went to Hanoi for a month specifically so we could do a 3-day/2 night cruise of Halong Bay.

After a bit more research, we discovered Halong Bay was more polluted and more crowded with boats than nearby Lan Ha Bay but with the same topography so we ended up taking a cruise that started in Halong Bay but spent it's time in Lan Ha Bay.

Lan Ha Bay

It was beautiful! There were still lots of boats and trash in the ocean that should not have been there, but it was still lovely.

Me on the Lan Ha Bay cruise with some of the other boats in the background

Unfortunately, during this time, I was not feeling well (fighting a cold - again) so on the middle day of the cruise, we opted to stay on the boat rather than take the provided excursion that included some kayaking, biking, and a trip to a village.  While we missed those activities,  I am glad we stayed on the boat.  First so I could recover a bit but also because the boat was still cruising through the bay and the views were amazing.  The day was so very quiet and peaceful.

There are dozens of cruise lines that do this type of cruise, but we chose Doria Cruises.  It was sold as a 5-star cruise, but I think it was more 4-star.  Absolutely nothing wrong with the cruise, the boat, the food, or the staff - every bit of it was great - just not 5-stars.

The first day we were on the boat, Blaise saw a guy with a Houston Astros cap and asked the guy if he was from Houston.  The guy said no, he was from the D/FW area.  Come to find out, the couple was from Grapevine.  What are the odds to be halfway around the world and run into someone who lives in the town next to yours?  They are a lovely couple, we enjoyed talking to them throughout the cruise, and we are still in touch.

I do have to mention the dinners.  The food was delicious but it was a 7-course dinner.  Neither one of us can eat that much food.  Some of the portions were smaller but by the time we got to course 5 or 6, we didn't know how we were going to finish the rest of it.  The first night, we skipped the dessert.  The second night, we just ate less of each course so we could see it through to the end.

Vietnam - Ninh Binh

Using the same local tour office from where we booked our Lan Ha Bay cruise, we booked a day trip to Ninh Binh.  I posted pictures of this on Facebook along with some commentary, so I won't say too much about it.

Ninh Binh is not any place we planned to go for the majority of the time we were in Hanoi, but someone on a Facebook group mentioned it.  Then we saw some pictures and booked it for 2 days after we returned from Lan Ha Bay and two days before we left Hanoi.

It was truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and the tour was one of the best we have had with one of the best tour guides we have ever had.  On this trip, we visited a temple, we took a boat ride, had a bike ride, and walked up 437 steps to the top of a mountain to see the view and another temple.  OK, Blaise walked up all 437 steps but my slow ass only made it 3/4 of the way up because I ran out of time.

The view from our rowboat ride.  Those are rice fields on the left.

Blaise was sore for a whole week after that trip.

The picture Blaise took after walking up 437 steps.  Love the mountain goat!

Hanoi, Vietnam - Temple of Literature

One of the last places we visited before we left Hanoi, was the Temple of Literature.  This was founded in 1070 by an emperor and is an historic Confucian temple.  It is also the site of Vietnam's first national university, founded in 1076.  The grounds were beautiful.  It is always amazing to visit sites that have been around for more than a thousand years!

Grounds of the Temple of Literature

Inside the Temple of Literature

One thing we did not do is visit the inside of Ho Chi Min's mausoleum. We saw the outside and had thought we would see the inside before we left but you have to have your shoulders and knees covered and when we thought to go, we were not dressed appropriately or it was after 11:30 AM, which is when it closed.  It was also closed on Mondays and Fridays.  Really the only reason we wanted to go inside and see him was morbid curiosity since he was preserved in some manner and on display.

Last Thoughts of Vietnam

We have been to many countries but none of them have changed our thoughts about the country and the people as much as our visit to Vietnam.  I went into the trip to Vietnam with thoughts of my father and how his time in Vietnam affected him and our family.  I am not saying I blamed the whole country of Vietnam but Vietnam has always been associated with negative things for me. It is not anymore.  We hope to return some day.

Natural Beauty

I think we just barely tapped the beauty of the Vietnamese countryside. Every time we left a city for the countryside, we were in awe.  We already have a list of places we want to visit should we be lucky enough to return (just not in the heat of the summer).

The People

Add to our change in view of the natural beauty of Vietnam, I have to mention the people.  What amazing and welcoming people.  I am not saying that the people in the other countries we have visited were not kind and helpful, but I cannot tell you how many people thanked us for visiting their country.  While we have not been shunned or experienced rude locals in other areas (except that woman in Japan who yelled at me in the market for touching a cantaloupe), in Vietnam, the people truly seemed to want us there.

For example, in Hanoi one day, we were sitting on a park bench by the lake in the Old Quarter.  An older man who was walking around the lake for exercise (not unlike us), walked by, stopped and asked us where we were from.  We said the USA (we learned if you said "the United States," or "the US" most people didn't understand that.  You had to say USA.)  When we said that, he lit up, sat down and started talking to us in broken English and through Google Translate.  We talked to him for about 20 minutes.  He told us his two, now adult, children had taught him "broken English" (his words) and started showing us all the pictures of him and his wife when they visited the US.  They had been to several places on the west coast, Florida, and "Chica Go."  It took us a few moments to figure out he was saying Chicago because he said it like 2 words - "chica" like you would say in Spanish and the word "go." He was so excited we were there and told us of all the places we needed to visit.  It was such a neat interaction.

The Negatives

While we love Vietnam, I was very careful about saying anything negative about Vietnam while there.  They are a communist country and while they DO have freedom of religion, there is no freedom of speech.

In many places, the propaganda is real and obvious.

In Hanoi, in particular, Ho Chi Min pictures are everywhere.  He is revered it seems, particularly in the northern parts of Vietnam.  I don't think that is the case in the southern parts.  I have to say, he looks like Colonel Sanders.  I felt like I should have ordered some chicken from him.

When visiting the museum at the Hanoi Hilton, the propaganda was obvious.  The USA was the evil aggressor and Ho Chi Min was just trying to free his people.  But you do have to understand he played a pivotal role in freeing Vietnam from French rule.  It was difficult at times to figure out what was true and what was not. Other times, it was obvious.

There were also lots of hammer and sickle flags interspersed with their national flag to remind you they were communist.  This one bothered me a bit.

We were also careful to use a VPN on our phones and laptop since there is a lot of surveillance there.  From time to time, we would get a message that our WiFi might be monitored.

But these things did not affect our day-to-day living and our interaction with the Vietnamese people.  These things were not enough to say I did not feel comfortable there and I would not return.

I'll say one last negative thing and be done with it - they do not handle trash in Vietnam like we do.  It gets piled up on curbs either just in bags or bins that are way too small for the amount of trash generated.  We found Da Nang to be dirtier than Hanoi but a friend I was talking to who is in this same area of the world said she found Hanoi to be dirtier than Da Nang.  If you look at some of our roads and highways in the D/FW area, is it really dirtier than in Vietnam?  In some places, no.

Someone just burning stuff on the street in Hanoi

Our bathroom in our Hanoi AirBnB. Note the lack of shower door or curtain. This is very common in this part of the world and very annoying.  You have to clean up water everywhere in the bathroom near the shower.

Warning sign on the cigarettes in Hanoi

Cambodia

The sole reason for coming to Cambodia for us is to see Angkor Wat. It is a place I have wanted to see for a very long time - as a adult.  Blaise saw a picture in a text book at 10-years-old and knew he wanted to see it even then. So for us, it is like visiting the Sistine Chapel or the Louvre.

Health Struggles

We were here for over a week before we made it to Angkor Wat. Blaise and I have been struggling on and off with colds. It has felt like we are trading it back and forth.  While we hoped to see more than just Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it may be all we see.  We have really spent this time trying to get well. In hindsight, we probably should have waited a few more days to see Angkor Wat, but we really didn't want to wait until the last minute.

Today is Thursday and we went to Angkor Wat on Tuesday.  When we went, it wasn't the best experience for Blaise since he has been struggling with his ears and balance.  He couldn't hear well at all because his ear was plugged up.  Like when you get off an airplane and your ears won't pop.

Yesterday, he finally went to the doctor.  There is a clinic about 2 blocks from our hotel.  The ear that he is having the problem with had to have a bunch of wax removed but the good news is he does not have an ear infection.  The bad news is his ear has not popped, even now.

The doctor's visit cost $4.50.  That is it.  We just paid out-of-pocket.  Before you wonder, yes we have health insurance.  But when the out-of-pocket price is only $4.50, it is not worth the hassle of dealing with the insurance.

We decided to continue to take it easy while we are here.  Neither of us are 100%.  We are both still coughing and I get tired easily. Neither one of has ever been sick as often as we have on this trip.  And no, other than the flu I got in Bangkok and the food poisoning I got in Da Nang, we aren't miserable in-bed sick.  It is cold-like symptoms for which we are getting drugs from the pharmacies for but we can never get completely well.  I don't know about Cambodia, but in Vietnam the pharmacists and can write prescriptions like doctors.

I wonder if we are being exposed to different and new germs our bodies don't have immunity against.  Who knows.

The good news is that anything we see above and beyond Angkor Wat is a bonus.  Having been here 10 days, there are new things I want to see but if we don't, then that will have to be fine.

Angkor Wat

We booked a sunrise small group (15 or fewer people) tour with GetYourGuide.  We have had really good luck with GetYourGuide so we went with it.

It is interesting - here and in Vietnam, we didn't have to go to a specific meeting point for our tours.  They pick us up right in front of our accommodations.

We were picked up in front of our hotel right at 4:30 AM.  Starting this early was worth it: 1) to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat; and 2) to avoid the heat of the day. 

While the sunrise was not as spectacular as you see in pictures, it was certainly a beautiful site to see and a great experience.  There were hundreds there to watch the sunrise.

We visited 4 Wats that day (Wat means temple):  Angkor Wat, the temple from the movie Tomb Raider (the 2008 movie with Angelina Jolie), a temple in disrepair that has not been restored, and the second largest temple in the area.  There are over 1,000 temples in the Siem Reap area.

Angkor Wat

However bad it is, here is us inside Angkor Wat in front of one of the baths. There were four baths representing the four elements: air, earth, water, fire.  I don't remember which one this is.

Sunrise

A building inside Angkor Wat

A ceiling inside one of the buildings in Angkor Wat

The outside wall of Angkor Wat

The head of this Buddha was cut off by Pol Pot during the Khmer Rouge era (1975-1979).  Many heads in many temples are missing at the hand of Pol Pot since he did not want anyone practicing any religion. Unfortunately, this is not nearly the worst thing he did.

Ta Prohm Temple (Tomb Raider Temple)

The tree seeds would drop on the moss on the temple and the trees grew from the moss - not on the ground next to the temple but ON the temple itself

This temple was built for a king's mother.  The holes in the walls used to hold gems (diamonds, rubies, sapphires) and gold.  Through the years they were stolen.

Ta Nei Temple

One of the more than a thousand temples in the Siem Reap region.  This one has not been restored in any way.

Bayon Temple

Second largest temple in the region.  If you look closely, you can tell it is in the process of being restored.

There is a great mixture of Hindu and Buddhism in these temples.  The people in this area started out Hindu but over time and as the result of kings converting from Hindu to Buddhist, the Hindu temples were converted to Buddhist temples.

Our tour guide, who preferred to be called Mr. T, was a great wealth of information, not only about the temples we visited, but also about Cambodian customs, Cambodian history, and information about the Hindu and Buddhist religions.

Things We Learned from Our Angkor Wat Guide

We learned from Mr. T that Buddhism is not really a religion - it is a philosophy and a way of life.  Also that there is no such thing as prayer and offerings in Buddhism.  While Cambodia is 90% Buddhist, you will see alters at nearly every establishment with offerings and we did actually see someone praying at one once.  Apparently this is a holdover from Hindu times in Cambodia.  It is not a Buddhist thing.  We saw these same things - alters and offerings - everywhere in Thailand so I wonder if that is a holdover from when they were Hindu also.

Other things we learned from Mr. T:

1.    The prayer bow that we saw in Thailand (called the Wai in Thailand) is integral to the traditional Khmer greeting in Cambodia.  (Khmer is an ancient kingdom of Southeast Asia and is the ethnic origin of the people of Cambodia.)  It is called the Sampeah here. There are 5 levels to the Sampeah:

    a.    Chest level is for peers, friends, and people of the same age;

    b.    Mouth level is for older people, bosses, and those of a higher social status;

    c.    Nose level is for parents, grandparents, and teachers;

    d.    Eyebrow level is for kings and monks; and

    e.    Forehead level is used to pray to God, the Buddha, or someone or something sacred.

2.    The people in southern Vietnam are Khmer and not Vietnamese.  According to Mr. T, Cambodia aligned themselves with Ho Chi Min because he promised to return southern Vietnam to Cambodia but he died before that happened.

3.    The Cambodians are thankful for the French because they freed them from Thailand. 

4.    Before they restored Angkor Wat, it was surrounded by land mines.

5.    There are still land mines in Cambodia, particularly by borders and they have trained rats to find the land mines.  This I had heard before.

6.    The tourists in the Siem Reap area have dropped from about 8,000 a day to approximately 3,000 a day due to the ongoing conflict at the Thai border, even though, that conflict is far from here and a cease fire has been in place since late December.  Think about how the lack of tourists are affecting the income of the people here.

7.    Siem Reap means Thai Defeated since they defeated Thailand (at some point).

I am sure he told us more things but they are just not coming to mind at the moment.

Life in Cambodia

Weather

First and foremost, Cambodia is HOT.  It is much hotter here than Hanoi.  Mid 90s for the high here with 70+% humidity.  Hanoi's highs while we were there were in the mid 70s for the most part.  A day or two we had a high of 78 and every 5-6 days, the high temps would drop into the 60s.  If you go outside midday here, you will sweat. And quickly.

Money

The money situation here is weird.  Cambodia's currency is the riel (pronounced ree al, like the name Al for Albert).  There are 4,000 riels for one dollar. There are no coins but there are 100 and 500 riel bills. That means a 100 riel bill is worth 2.5 cents and the 500 bill is only worth 13 cents.  

You cannot get Cambodian riels outside of Cambodia and you cannot exchange their riels for any other currency once you leave Cambodia.  Why?  I googled it for me and for you.  Cambodia's currency is a "closed currency" with no demand or liquidity in international foreign exchange markets.

The dominant currency here?  The US Dollar.  Our tour guide, Mr. T, said it is the US Dollar because after the Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979, the US came in and helped them establish a new government.  I am not sure how true that is.

That means wherever you go, you will see prices primarily in US Dollars.  You can pay with dollars or riels.  If you pay with dollars and get change, you will get change in riels or a mix of riels and dollars.  It gets very confusing.  Most places have calculators.  Bigger places, like grocery stores will give you what you owe in dollars and riels and tell you what your change is in both.  It is very confusing.  Since we have been here 10 days, it is not as bad as it was for the first few days.  Coming to the realization that the 1000 riel bill is a quarter and the 100 bill is worth next to nothing was a huge help to me.

Cleanliness

They keep the tourist areas very clean but once you get beyond there, it gets dirtier.

Prostitution

Prostitution is not legal here but it is quietly tolerated, particularly in the tourist areas, and as a result, human trafficking is a huge problem.  We have seen a great deal of it and Blaise even had a girl smile at him last night whose smile disappeared rather quickly when she saw me.  I say girl because she looked extremely young.  The whole thing is deeply disturbing to me since I know these girls are likely being trafficked and exploited.

Our Hotel

Our hotel is quite nice.  Four star I would say.

The only real problem is the loud speaker at the mosque behind the hotel.  It is Ramadan so the chanting happens over the loud speaker several times every day. NO! I am not complaining about the religion or that it is Ramadan. Everyone should have the freedom to worship. I believe that as strongly as I believe in the freedom of speech. I just don't understand the loud speaker in a country that is less than 1% Muslim.  The good news is they are usually done by about 8 PM.  And we are not waking up at 5 AM every morning when the chanting starts.  We must be getting used to it a bit.

AND this is WAY better than the karaoke we have experienced at other places.  This part of the world REALLY REALLY loves karaoke.  As loud as you can make it.  It happens everywhere including outside in primarily residential areas.

The People

The people here are kind and helpful, similar to the Vietnamese.

Final Thoughts

We leave Monday for Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, another hot location.  I think I got spoiled by the cooler weather at our last few stops.  We will be in KL for a month and then head again to cooler weather to see the cherry blossoms in Japan.  Although all of it is not yet booked, we plan on staying there a week and then we head to South Korea until a day before or a few days before our cruise leaves out of Tokyo.

 

Life in Hanoi

It is a dreary, rainy, and slightly chilled Sunday in Hanoi.  We went out for breakfast and coffee earlier, but decided to stay in while the rain falls.  We thought about walking around in our rain ponchos but the traffic here is so crazy, it seemed a bit too much to deal with.

Our time in Hanoi is coming to a close - we leave for Cambodia in 8 days.

Overview of Hanoi

In our first few days in Hanoi, we were skeptical whether or not we were going to like it here.  You have to really hunt for a quiet place here.  The traffic is crazy.  Crossing the street is crazy.  Lots of horn honking. If you want to take a leisurely walk, you are going to have to walk through 10-15 minutes of crazy to get to a place where you can relax and not worry about bumping into people or being run over by a motorcycle.  We have found it is quite common here for motorcycles to get tired of the traffic on the street and simply drive on the sidewalk.  Unlike other places we have been, you can actually find wide sidewalks where there are no motorcycles parked or businesses spilling out on to the walkway.  The dodging things can get tiresome.

But most of that stuff we have gotten used to and actually like it here despite the poor air quality we have had the past week.

Tuesday, we are getting out of the hustle and bustle and taking a 2 night cruise in Lan Ha Bay.  You may or may not remember that originally we were not going to come to Hanoi but we saw a place called Halong Bay that looked beautiful so we decided we wanted to see it.  As a result, we modified our itinerary and made a month in Hanoi happen - mostly to do that cruise.

Then we started researching and found that Halong Bay is overcrowded with tourist boats and the water is not so clear (it’s a bit polluted - shocking).  We learned that you can get the same views with fewer tourists and more beautiful water in Lan Ha Bay.  As a result, that is where we are going.

It is about a 3-hour drive from here. We leave Tuesday morning and will get back Thursday afternoon.  We decided to splurge and selected the 5-star option for our cruise.  We shall see if it really is 5-star.

We booked this through one of the many local tourist shops in town.  We did some online research and started to get very overwhelmed with the options and trying to figure out exactly what company to go with.  That is why we stopped in the one of the local places.  The lady was very helpful giving us all the information and cost for each option and let us choose what we wanted without an annoying attempt to up-sell us.  It ended up being cheaper than what we found online for a 5-star experience.

We were so happy with our experience with her, we went back and booked a day-trip to Ninh Binh which is supposed to be a beautiful location in the mountains.

One last thing to note about Vietnam in general - they erect and open businesses and buildings at a speed I did not think possible. Our thought on this after much discussion is they don't have the licensing and inspections we have.

This building near our AirBnB was a complete wreck of a construction zone when we got here three weeks ago and two days ago, it was this and fully open for business.  We went there yesterday - it was lovely.  If someone had told me it would be done and open before we left, I would have called you a liar!

Cost in Hanoi

While Hanoi is certainly more expensive than Da Nang, Vietnam, it is in no way "expensive." We spend about $8 - $10 for 2 coffees and one breakfast in the morning (Blaise doesn't eat breakfast, unless it is part of mine that I did not finish). We can get yummy coffee drinks anywhere for a total of $4 for the both of us. Dinner for both of us without drinks is usually $10-$12 and add another $4-$7 per mixed drink or wine.

We spent about $870 on our AirBnB in the heart of Hanoi's Old Quarter (prime tourist area) and that includes weekly apartment cleaning and laundry service.

How We Spend Our Days On The Road

Since we are here for a month, we don’t have to rush around and see everything.  There are some days we identify something we want to see that morning and go.  Other days, we wander around and see what we can find.  And other days, we go to the lake in the Old Quarter, walk a few laps around, and watch the locals take their Tet pictures in traditional clothing.

A street we walk down nearly every day.  The people along this street sell produce and a variety of meat.  The woman in the green, walked from right next to our AirBnB to deliver a tray of food to someone working on this street.

Some of the meat sold on the same street.  If you zoom into the meat on the table at the top of the picture, you will see chicken with black feet sticking straight up.

Same street. That guy sits there every single day making whatever paste that is.  Some people simply pull up on their motorbike and pick up food on this street, never getting off the bike.

Yesterday, we wandered around and found the monument for where John McCain was shot down.  The monument was originally erected in 1967 but rehabbed several times since then.  That is one of those places we would have never set out to go see because you really aren’t going to find it as a tourist destination on any list.  And there really isn’t much to see, but it is interesting. Those are the things you are going to find when you are just walking around.  If we had an itinerary every day, we would have never seen it.

Monument of where John McCain was shot down

Information in English about the McCain monument

Same for the opera house we found the day before.  We went walking by the lake and decided to go down a street we had never been down and there it was - the beautiful opera house with a lovely cafe’ we stopped at for coffee.

Hanoi Opera House

Cafe' at the Opera House

Because we stay in one place for so long, we like to get a lay of the land, do some research and then book tours once we are at the location.  I don’t think we have booked any excursion prior to arrival at a location since we have been gone.

We are still walking a ton.  On low days (1-3 times a month), we are only walking about 3 miles.  The most we have walked in one day is 9 1/2 miles.  My pedometer app says we average 5.6 miles a day.

Neither one of us are sure how much weight we have lost at this point since the pharmacies here often have scales but when you ask about them they are "broken."  We have a pharmacy near our AirBnB with a scale.  Blaise would go there and weigh but one day, the scale was partially hidden behind something and yesterday they told us, it is broken.  We don't believe that to be true but the bottom line is they REALLY don't want randos walking in weighing themselves.  I believe I have lost over 30 pounds and Blaise has lost over 20, maybe 25.  I am eating what I want but we are walking so much and I am eating less in general so I guess that is why the weight is coming off.

Coffee

Vietnam has set a new bar for coffee culture!  Their coffee game is even stronger than Italy.  When we started looking into it, we discovered Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world, behind Brazil.  I would have never guessed they were 1 and 2 in coffee exports.

I am not a huge coffee drinker.  I don’t like coffee that much.  I would never drink it black and I never drink it at home but there is something about being on the road…  I DO drink coffee when we travel.

And Vietnam has the best coffee drinks from coconut coffee to egg coffee to salted coffee.  They like putting sweetened condensed milk in their coffee and that is delicious too.

I think the United States has really missed out by not embracing condensed milk.  There is so much you can do with it and it really is tasty, in small amounts!

I am going to miss the coffee drinks when we leave Vietnam!

What Do We Do Other Than Be Tourists

When we are not exploring the city or taking a tour of someplace, I read and we watch streaming.  We only watch one streaming show a day so we are really not watching much TV, although I still watch my Food Network shows. I find them comforting.

Since we have been gone we have watched all seasons of The Diplomat (Blaise had not seen the first two seasons), the latest season of Man on the Inside, and several Korean dramas:  King the Land, Beyond the Bar, and we just finished Extraordinary Attorney Woo. I guess we are gearing up for our visit to South Korea.

When watching King the Land, I discovered the two main characters were in separate KPop groups.  Then I went down the KPop bunny trail and now I am a fan of KPop.  Whoda thunk?

I also read a great deal.  In 2025 I read 73 books.  In case you need/want something good to read, here are some of my favorite books in the past year:  Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance (Espach), The Stationery Shop (Kamali), The Widows of Champagne (Ryan), Where the Rivers Merge (Monroe - the first in a series but the next book is not yet out), One Golden Summer (Fortune), Recursion (Crouch), and The Partisan (Worrall).

So far I have read 5 books this year and I am currently reading The Phoenix Pencil Company.

If you have read or watched something you have really enjoyed, let me know. I am always looking for something new to watch or read. (But we only have Netflix, Prime, and Philo for streaming.)

Nipah Virus

We have no concerns with the Nipah virus and have not been affected.  It is not here and not easily transferable between humans.  I did find out from the woman at our regular breakfast/coffee spot that their numbers are down because Vietnam is turning away travelers from India at the airport as a result of the Nipah virus.

Trip Status

We are more than halfway through this trip.  We left on the cruise from L.A. to Tokyo on September 24.  Our cruise from Tokyo to Alaska leaves May 9 and is 12 nights.  How did we get nearly 5 months into this trip already?  We are only 3 months from hopping on a boat back to the U.S.  Time has flown by!

Thus far, we have been to 2 countries we had never been to before: Thailand and Vietnam.

Although we had changed planes in Japan before this trip, this is the first opportunity we have had to spend time in Japan.  When we count the countries we have been to, Blaise counted Japan before this trip but I did not.  My thought is you don’t count a country unless you have spent some time exploring it.

But Japan IS a bit different because before this trip we actually changed airports to change planes, which by the way is so common in Tokyo, they have a whole well-oiled system for busing between the airports. I still don't think it counts.

In this trip, we will add three more countries to the list of countries we have visited:  Cambodia, Malaysia, and South Korea, bringing my count of countries visited to 56 and Blaise’s to 57 (he’s been to India and I have not).

Likely the next time you will hear from me, I will be in Cambodia where we will knock out one of our bucket list items - Angkor Wat.

We have three more bucket list items to mark off before we make it back to Texas:  the DMZ in Korea, cherry blossoms in Japan, and Mt. McKinley/Denali (whatever we are calling it these days).  Isn’t that a variety?!

Blaise LOVES these little trucks!

Hello Hanoi, Vietnam!

On Friday, January 16, we loaded up our stuff and flew from Da Nang to Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Trip

The trip to get to Hanoi was rather uneventful.  The flight left about 10:15 in the morning and arrived in Hanoi just before noon.  We took a Grab (Asia's version of Uber/Lyft) from our AirBnB to the airport in Da Nang.  We got to the airport around 7 AM or so and had to wait until 8 AM to check our bags since check-in was not yet open for our flight.

Even though our luggage is carry-on size, we check it because we are both above the weight limit for carry-on luggage.  The good news is the cost of checking a bag is usually around $15 in this part of the world.

We flew Vietnam Airlines, a first for us.  We were in line to check our bags before they opened for service.  There were many of us already waiting.  When it was time for them to begin service, the airline employees walked in front of the counter and bowed to us simultaneously.  Then they went around the counter and began helping us.  I thought that was a nice touch. It reminded me of when we flew JAL (Japan Airlines) and the ground crew bowed to the plane as we pushed out of the gate to leave.  So polite.  I am a fan of the bowing.

Our Accommodations

Our AirBnB is in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, selected specifically to be in the heart of the action.  While the area is touristy, it feels like it has maintained some of its authenticity in that it appears many locals are in this area are simply living their lives. For example, many of the locals come out and buy their meat and produce right on the street.  You can find a touristy restaurant right next to someone selling whole chickens (with the feet on!). Also, there is a small lake in the heart of the Old Quarter and every day we have been there (it is a lovely place to walk), there are locals dressed in traditional clothing taking pictures for Tet, their lunar new year coming up February 17. It is nice that it is not mostly tourists in the old part of town.

The lake in the Old Quarter - if you zoom in, you can see the young girls in traditional clothing preparing to take pictures right next to the lake.

Our AirBnB comes with weekly house cleaning and laundry service at no additional cost.  That is a handy thing to have.  We are not staying in a particularly upscale place.  But it's not a dump either.

Hanoi

We have been in Hanoi ten days now. How do I describe Hanoi? "Frenetic" is the best word I can come up with.  The streets are absolutely the craziest I have seen.  Blaise has heard that Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon) is Hanoi on steroids and that is surprising to me.

Crossing the street here is an art in and of itself.  Most of the time, you just have to step out into the street with faith that you will get across safely.  That's a hard place to get to in your head!  There are definitely more motorcycles than cars and no one is really going very fast.  And as the pedestrian, you never look any of the riders/drivers in the eye.  They WILL slow down for you and let you cross but it is a game of Frogger, as it was in Da Nang - only crazier.

Hanoi is also very clearly more French influenced than Da Nang.  There are some parts of Hanoi where you might think you are in Paris and not Vietnam.

Shockingly, it is cleaner than Da Nang.

The people in Hanoi are just as lovely as the people in Da Nang but there is not as much "we are glad you are here" statements.  Actually, we have had none of that.  That is probably because we are in an area where foreigners are plentiful.

If you go to the little lake in the Old Quarter, there are people, mostly children, that ask you to talk to them in English so they can practice.  Last Sunday, we had a father come up with three girls and ask if they could practice their English.  It was 2 sisters and a cousin; the youngest and most animated being 5 years old. Yesterday (also Sunday) we talked to twin boys, age 10.  They were quite the nose pickers and booger eaters. After that, I was not so keen on talking to the children anymore - I really didn't want to watch them pick their noses again.  I am sure I will do it again, once I work past my issues with that.

The lake in the Old Quarter - this is a temple on a little island in the lake.

The Buses

We have taken the buses several times already.  They are clean, although not as spotless as the buses in Da Nang but are much more used than those in Da Nang.  The most we have paid for a one-way trip is 12,000 dong each, which is about 46 cents.

A few days ago, we were on a bus with the craziest bus drive we have experienced anywhere in the world.  I think his goal was to drive his route the fastest he possibly could.  He did not stop at every stop like the other bus drivers we have had in Hanoi.  The doors to the bus would open and close only fast enough to let someone on or off and he would be driving off as the doors were closing.  And he was a horn honker.  I would not have wanted to be a motorcycle in front of him.  He would lay on the horn until whomever was in front of him had moved out of his way. I have never had a more horn-hocking bus driver than this guy.  He kinda scared me.  At one point, the driver turned around and said something to Blaise in me in Vietnamese but we had no idea what he was saying. He was looking right at us so we knew he was talking to us but we had no clue.  If it wasn't "hello" or "thank you" in Vietnamese, we wouldn't know what was said.

We still like taking the bus; it gives us a chance to experience the lives of the locals. We are obviously not locals, but we like to live like a local as much as possible.

Activities While Here

We have seen the mausoleum of Ho Chi Min, train street, and wandered extensively in the Old Quarter.

On Thursday, we are going to see a water puppet show.  This is supposed to be a cultural show native to this area.  I am not sure what other parts of the world have water puppets.  I am looking forward to it.

The water puppet theater. This is right next to the lake in the Old Quarter.  On the left is a vertical set of windows with a puppet in each window.  There are a couple water puppet theaters but my research says this is supposed to be the best.

Our other plan (which we have not yet booked) is a 2 night cruise in Lan Ho Bay.  We were originally going to do Halong Bay, but our understanding is that Halong Bay is too overrun by tourist boats. Lan Ho Bay is supposed to be a quieter, more natural experience.

We are tossing around some other ideas.  We will be here until February 16, a rather unfortunate day to leave since Tet is February 17.

Next Locations

On February 16, we leave for Cambodia to check off a bucket list item - Angkor Wat.  We will be there for 2 weeks and until just the other day, that is all we had booked out.

Now we have booked our flight from Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur on March 2.  We will stay in an AirBnB there (already booked) until March 30.

The rest of the trip is not booked so it is subject to change but as of right now the plan is to go to Osaka, Japan to see the cherry blossoms.  We will stay there about a week and then head to South Korea, where we will stay until just a day or two before we catch our cruise to Alaska.

I can't believe we are already looking at nailing down the last month of our trip. It seems like just yesterday we got on Ovation of the Seas to begin this adventure.

Added Benefit of Trip

One of the great benefits of this trip is getting healthier.  We are walking anywhere between 4 and 9 miles a day.  Some days it is a little less than 4 miles but only a handful of days in a month.

We are also eating less (not snacking much at all) and healthier.

I didn't weigh myself until 6 or 7 weeks into this trip but since I have been weighing myself, I have lost 28 pounds.  This is the first time in I don't know how long, I have been able to lose weight without some sort of medical intervention.

I can tell my stamina has increased - I can walk much farther these days without a break.  Since the weather at our last few locations has been rather mild, it will be interesting to see once we hit places like Cambodia and Kuala Lumpur, if I will be able to handle the heat better. Fingers crossed!

Let me know if you have any questions about Vietnam.  I am happy to answer them.